The Talking Potholder

"Ouch, This is hot!" said the talking potholder, when she used it to take nice cinnamon bread out of the oven, so it could be drizzled with orange glaze and a handful of chopped almonds.  But really, the Talking Potholder didn't mind too very much, because after all, being a potholder was the only life it had ever known.

Stripey Potholder with Pink

Stripey Potholder with Pink Thingy

Potholder of the Day Club here, delivering your Potholder Eye Candy for Tuesday November 23rd.  For a week now, I've been featuring my hand-dyed funky potholders.  These are little utilitarian jewels of art, ready to take a center stage in your kitchen.  Or, if you kitchen doesn't have a stage in it, then I guess you could hang one of these on the Spoon Drawer Handle.

One-eyed Panther Butterfly Lemon Berry Potholder

I guess this potholder sorta looked like a face, so I added an eye.  The berry-colored fuschia is hand-dyed fabric, and the whole shebang is lined with not only nice cotton but alsy a heat resistant barrier.  You cannot tell it, but it is oversized for easy cookie retrieval.  A potholder in the series called:  Potholder Series.

The Potholder Series: Moccasin Nose

The silliest potholder you've ever seen is this "Moccasin Nose" potholder, made of hand-dyed fabric (by me) and then sillied-up with a reproduction Depression-Era flour sack print. So atypical that Google will have a hard time figuring out what advertisements to put on the page with depression-era moccasins, noses and hand dyed fabrics.  The Potholder Series continues, so stay tuned for tomorrow's mystery.

Color Burst Paris, a Funky Potholder

Today's wee little piece of fun artisan potholder is called Color Burst Paris.  Or, if you wish, Colorburst Paris.  The Paris print at lower left is a reproduction fabric from the Drepression Era.  And that gorgeous piece of color in the middle is one of my hand-dyed pieces.  These are for sale at my Etsy store, so stock up in time for The Cooking Season.

Blue Pool Potholder

Today's delicious lil artsy potholder looks like a black and white striped air mattress on a cool pool.  Visit my Etsy store:  Island Retreat to see more.

Berry Leopard Curl Potholder

The Potholder Series

Someone has asked to see my potholders.  Many are online at my etsy shop.  For the next few days, the daily blog will be simply Potholder of the Day. 

Steam Punk Quilt Top

Today's post is a fun quilt top that I made in late October.  I found steam punk image fabric and designed the remainder of the quilt around these nice pieces with themes of time and travel.

I was attending the Governor's Water Conference and took my sewing machine, so I would have something to do in the evenings.  When I travel without Dennis I miss him, so quilting is something I can do while I am alone.

This fun quilt is just a top thus far, and can be made up with any solid or print backing in Standard, Queen or King for $400.00 complete.  It can be custom quilted with names, initials, secret messages and the like, in any color(s) of thread.

Riley White Painting - Jingle Dancer

Riley White Jingle Dancer

Today's post is just a memoire.  It is of a treasured painting that hangs on my office wall.  Here I have taken a digital picture of it, and cropped away the frame.  You can see it is slightly distorted because it was photographed at an angle.  I did not remove it from the wall to snap a pic.

It is special for a couple of reasons.  I just like it.  Riley White was my father in law and I keep this painting for my son Justin, so he'll have one of his grandfather's artworks.  I also like the colors and the iconic historical angles... which to me are evocative of the 1930's and 1940's public art industrial movement paintings.

Riley White was a contemporary (age mate is perhaps a better term) of Woody Crumbo and the Kiowa Five.  One or more of his works are at the Museum at Bacone.  He was a prolific painter and his works are still found from place to place.  I think this one was either purchased at Cherokee Gift Shop or gifted from a co-worker, Mrs. Louise Covey aka Louise Ballard.  She taught Home Economics at Sequoyah High School and in the very early 1960s my mother was her intern teacher at Sequoyah High School in Home Ec.  Riley taught Arts and Crafts at Sequoyah High School and many gifted artists still living were his students.

Making Flat Trim

Flat Trim is a dressy, crisp 3-D insert that will give your quilt some interest.  It looks hard to do but it is easy.  See my hand under this striped piece?  There is also a flat trip piece on the other side of the turquoise strip which can be lifted up.  It is as easy as Prairie Points, only easier.  Here's how:

1.  Get a length of fabric and square it up by doing this:  Snip and rip off the selvedge.  Now go to the fold and snip it about an inch from the edge.  Rip.  This should peel off any bad angles.  You can always do it again if you can't rip all the way to the end.  Tip:  Always rip fast and hard with plenty of Oomph.  This will prevent warping the weave.

2.  What Size?   Whatever size you want your trim to be, double that and add the width of your seam.  So, if you want a 2 inch trimpiece, make each strip 4 inches wide plus as wide as the seam will be.

3.  Measure, Rip.  Measure your distance at the fold.  Snip in an inch.  Measure your distance at the fold.  Snip in an inch.  Repeat.  I just save the last strip in my 'bone pile' as it may be crooked, yet I have it if I am running shy.

4.  Seam Them.  Gather up all those strips and sew seam, sew seam, sew seam.  I don't even bother to cut the thread each time.  I cut all threads after I've sewn the seams.  See?  That's how they do it in the factories, so they don't spend so much time.

5.  Fold and Iron.  Or Not.  I am not much of an ironer.  So, I just foldover the OUTSIDE showing, and zigzag down the whole long snakey trim piece, at the edge.  Just like store-bought!

6.  Now you're ready to sew your trim to the border.  You can either take a minute to actually sew it on before sandwiching the seam, or try to hold it all together.  Tip:  If you are just sewing some lightweight piees together, skip sewing down the trim as a first step and go straight to the sandwiching.  But if you are working with 2 pieces of vastly different weights (ie, a big quilt top you have fabricated already), then sewing the trim as a first step will give you a neater outcome.

Thereya Go!  These flat trim pieces are so tailored and smart-looking for a custom artisan look.  And they are easy enough to make, that they're great even for a beginner's quilt.

How To Make Prairie Points

Prairie Points are these showy little triangles peeping out of the seam on a quilt.  You'll find them most often along the edges of quilts.  Unliked scalloped edges, these are easy to make.  Here's how:

Select your fabric.  A dramatic contrast or stark stripes might give your project some punch.  If you choose something that 'matches' too closely, your prairie points may seem like a lot of work for very little visual impact.  (Here, I've used birch tree trunks, with batiks and a festive print.)  You can buy and yard and go back if you need more. 

Snip and rip off the selvedge piece with the fabric's name on it.  Now rip a straight line...  You do this by finding the fold of the fabric, and snipping about an inch in from the edge.  You will rip it from the middle to the edges in both directions at once.  Now you have a true straight line.

Cut Strips... Using a tape measure or the ruler on a cutting board, snip in about an inch on the fold, every 4 inches.  When you get to the last one, it might not be square if the fabric was not cut precisely, so I always throw the last piece into the 'bone pile' in my sewing room floor.  You will have it there if you need it, and if not you may use it later for potholders or pillowcases.

Make the Strips Square... Lay your strip longwise and make a snip every four inches, then rip each into a 4 inch square.  Tip:  If you are precise, lay 2 or 3 strips atop each other and cut multiples all the way thru instead of ripping. 

Stack and Fold... Stack them up on your ironing board.  Get one.  Fold into a triangle.  Fold into a triangle again.  Iron.  Stack 'em in a finished pile.  Repeat till all are done.  Tip:  If you use a stripe, you *might* prefer to fold them with the fold going the same direction.  If you're making horizontals and you get a vertical, turn it over.  Its magic!

Zigzag them Down... Sew these down onto your sashing or border strip using a zigzag stitch.  You'll hide that when you sew the quilt top seam.

Finish and Admire... Now lay your border strip under the quilt top.  Eleanor Burns, author of Quilt In A Day Series, gives this tip and it makes your project move more smoothly in the machine.  Quilt your regular size of seam.

I love these!  This is my first quilt with Prairie Points and they're so easy plus fancy.  When you quilt your top, you may wish to seam along whichever side you wish in order to lay them up toward the top of the bed, or down toward the edge of the quilt.

Tuscan Memories

Here's a sassy bright big quilt top that I made to match those new plaster and glaze terra cotta walls.  And its easy.  Pick out 9 pieces of fabric that pick up the colors in your room. 

Tip:  Shop some place like a quilt fabric store, so you'll get square cuts.  Often the bargain and discount stores are rushed or don't have employees trained to cut fabric on a square 90-degree angle.  Why does that matter?  You'll want to rip some strips, and you will lose the use of a lot more than just an inch if the cut is off.

Get a half-yard of fabric from each bolt, and get thread. 

At home, snip the selvedge and strip that off of each piece.  Now go in about an inch from the edge of fabric, and snip it at the fold so you can rip right down the edge to give yourself a true and straight ripline.  Measure four inches in, and snip/rip again.  Measure four inches and snip/rip again.  Do this till the last one... it might not be square.  Start yourself a "bone pile" in the corner of the floor in case you do need part or all of it later.

Repeat this step for all 9.  You'll end up with a bunch of piles of strips, so sit down at the machine and randomly seam them together, about as long (or about as wide) as you want your middle "bricks" to be.

Do you want bricks going across?  Or down?  Choose your direction and start sewing the strips together.  You'll end up with a rectangle about the size of the middle 'brickey' part of this quilt.  If your edges are not square, trim those neat.

Now go back to the store.  Pick 4 contrasty colors.  I got 3 yards, 2 yards, 1 yard and 1 yard, but that's too much.  Why did do that?  Because 3 yards is longer than any quilt stirp and saves me from having to seam the longest pieces.  Call it lazy.  Or call it 'adding to my stash of fabric.'  You never know when you'll want to make matching pillow cases.

There are 2 tricky advanced techniques on this otherwise super quick and supersimple quilt....
1.  Prairie Points
2.  Flat Folded Trim
You can skip these if it is your first quilt, or read tomorrow's blog for more "how to."

Have I given you enough basics to set yourself free to just start sewing pieces together till its big and beautiful?  That is how I quilt... with little regard for standard sizing.  I want a quilt big enough to cover the edges when we are snuggled in on a cold winter day.  I want a quilt that is not so very long that its weight would pull or work its way to the foot of the bed if we're underneath it.

These are basic instructions for a quilt top in a day or two.  More later on the details, such as batting, backing, binding, etc.

Making Do

Plaster and Glaze Wall Treatment

Since 2005, we've lived in this small country cottage in rural Adair County, Oklahoma just outside town from the county seat of Stilwell.  Stilwell has under 5,000 residents.  Our bedroom walls were done in 1970s wood veneer panelling of fine quality.  But there is something about those panelling stripes that made us feel like we were sleeping in pinstriped pajamas.

Last week with the help of a friend, Dave Holbrook, we plastered over the panelling with plaster-looking texture, and primed it with a pinkish terra cotta colored paint.  We added a dark green glaze to knock down the starkness.

This photo shows one of the finished walls.  It was taken under incandescent light, and has an amber tint to the photo which is actually more salmon or peach in color.

I was happy to 'make do' with new texture and color rather than moving to a bigger newer house.  We paid off our mortgage this Spring and do not have a hefty mortgage payment burdening us during these uncertain times.  Sometimes little pleasures are the best.



The Art of Cherokee Living

The Art of Cherokee Living

I didn't ask his name.  As we played a gig on the Cherokee Courthouse Square last Saturday, this Stickball Stick maker unloaded his table and set up to demonstrate the art of taking a wooden branch and turning it into stickball sticks.  You can see from his powerful forearms that making sticks is not something one can do without physical conditioning.  It must also take learning, and listening to the wood-- the nature of the grain and its features.  As we sat and listened to Barbara McAllister and to the Cherokee Childrens' Choir, we watched him work.  With his bare hands, he bent and shaped the wooden frame to curve.  He used his thumbs and the strength of his fingers to teach the wood to fold over all the way against itself.  He used a baseball bat to formulate a uniform shape on the racket.  And that is why all stick ball sticks are about the size of a bat on the racket. 

Cherokee Syllabary Cherry Silk Scarf

Here's an interesting new design.  I made this silk scarf using syllables from the Cherokee language.  I won a benefit auction for a used working Nacho Cheese heater, and converted it to a soy wax heater.  I keep the was there all of the time, and when I am planning to do soy wax resist batiking, I flip the switch.  Like a double-boiler the water heats the wax to a low melt, and I don't have to fiddle with the dangerous microwave in my utility room-slash-art studio.  I rarely work in reds, but was making a peppermint swirl tiedye tee for a custom order and had prepared the soy wax resist lettering in advance.  This is made using analine dyes of 3 blended shades of red, so it has shading and is not just a solid vat red.

Most of the clothes in stores is made from cloth which was vat-dyed.   The cloth goes thru a batch of dye and is highly agitated (although not mad ) in order to achieve a consistent monotone of color.  If you've a friend who tells the same joke over and over, you can appreciate how I feel about solid monotone colors.  It is just boring.  It is done because vat dyeing looks better when fabric is dyed before the clothing is constructed.  Or, only after clothing is constructed does nonvat dyeing "look right."  Basically, its easy, quick and cheap to vat dye... if you're doing millions of, ie, yards.

Much more time-consuming and thus expensive is anything ombred (ohm-burred) where the colors shift like watercolor, or tied and dyed as in tiedye and mudme.  This scarf was time-consuming because of making each syllable and its pronunciation.  (Not all Cherokee Syllables are there.  My chart shows 13 rows of 6 columns and some columns have 2 syllables as in Ga Ka and Dla Tla.).  The dyeing itself was rather simple compared to some dyes I use which are prepared with exotic stuff like inner bark, heartwood, fungus, bugs and the like.

This sweet cherry scarf is being listed at Island Retreat on etsy.  You will find a link on the right, perhaps to this very scarf if it is listed.

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Tribute to Robert Frost

Tribute to Robert Frost

I spent many hours on this gorgeous steampunk mirror frame.  It started out as a tacky junk store find, all tired and icky.  But I gave it a new perspective, new paint, and encrusted it with a wealth of interesting texture bits-- copper enamel beads and keys, stamped brass and... yes, a reptile eye.  It is a masculine piece.  The bottom part is a mirror, but I happened to angle it to capture some chandalier danglies and lace curtains that were just hanging in the background.  The more you look at it, the more you see.

The Steampunk Desk Accessory

Steampunk Desktop Card & Letter Organizer

I love to find old abandoned wooden things in the thrift stores with good sturdy bones, so I can give new life to something that might otherwise have gone unappreciated.  When I found this neat old letter and business card holder, how could I resist punking it all up with femo beads and watch parts, twisted wire and copper edging?  This lil sweetie is shown featuring my business card which says on one side, "Make Bad Problems Go Away."  (I am an attorney).  This desk piece will be available at my Island Retreat etsy store in a few days.  If you'd like to visit there, click on one of the pictures under the Island Retreat Widget and you'll be swhisked away to my lil store.

Steampunk Desk Organizer

Its Mardi Gras!

Mardi Gras Picture Frame

It is always Mardi Gras at Fluffy's Compleat Boutique.  I made this fun happy picture frame using stuff from my Mr. Collage kit and flowers for my mother.  Its a stand-up fabric covered commercial frame, recycled to make a nice 4x6 inch tribute to someone who graduated or somebody's birthday, or for a child.  Don't let little kids eat the parts, though.  This frame is going to be listed for sale at etsy.  Click one of the pictures on the Island Retreat widget at the righthand side of my blog to explore this and other items in the housewares and art end of things.