Needle books and Sachets, playing with lace!

I had to spend a few days in my studio. Been so busy remodeling our shop Boulder Creek Antiques & Art, my creative muse was getting grouchy!

So, here's what I've made this week....
I was so inspired by the gals at PIECEMAKERS, in Costa Mesa! Heather showed me so many interesting embroidery stitches and techniques. Often, she'd open her beautiful needle keeper. I was so impressed I had to make a few of my own.  Of course, all of these are for sale in my Etsy Shop.

 You are drooling over LOTS of vintage laces! The stone angel is from a photo I took at Holy Cross Cemetery near San Francisco.

 The little lace square is perfect for a pocket.

 These two pocket are the centerfold of the book, made from a beautiful vintage lace doily.

 A wide handmade lace makes this pocket.

 This is a simpler book, adorned with two beautiful plum colored flowers. I loved making these flowers! They are so delicate yet abundant! Layers of vintage laces and gauze under this vintage photo printed on twill.

 A wide piece of hand dyed green lace form the pockets in the center of this needle book.

 I love the beaded fringe!

 The silk embroidered flower on the front of this needle keeper came from an amazing piece of rescued designer fabric I picked up from FABMO.http://www.fabmo.org/fabmo/Home.html Check them out! Such a fabulous concept to upcycle and rescue beautiful textiles!

 The lace is all handmade... just delicate and beautiful!

 The lacy pocket on the right is an exquisite fine piece of lace. I have maybe a yard of it, so I use it sparingly. But it seemed perfect for here.

 Another stone angel graces the centerfold pockets made from a Victorian lace collar! Under the felt on the right side you can see a peek of some satin designer fabrics, also from FABMO.

Now, these four items are all lovely lavender sachets. Each one is a mini-collage of laces, flowers, and ribbons. I love playing with silks and satins to make flowers! Cut up doilies, vintage buttons, and more and more laces!

 I'm going to sell these in my store, Boulder Creek Antiques and Art... but I'm willing to sell them here if you're interested. Just let me know which one you want. They are all $16 each.

 Sweet blessings, from my Creative Muse, to yours. xoxo

Four more pages...

Ah... I had most of yesterday in my sewing studio, tucked under the protection of my giant Redwoods! Didn't have a clue what I was going to create... then my supplies started jumping into my hands saying 'pick me' - 'use me' - and - 'I'll be perfect there!"

So here are the four new pages.
The sweet image was printed on silk. The fabrics are from vintage dresses, and the little crochet pocket... well, I think it was to put on the bottom of a glass? This is what popped off my shelf and said 'use me, I'll be perfect here'.

 This page I created to be placed opposite of the above page. Originally, this needle point was to be incorporated into one of my gypsy purses.... but it really looks great here.

 I love the way the silk took my inkjet color on  Mother Mary. I rediscovered several purple-ish dresses in a drawer... Handy scissors and here we go.

 More fabric from the purple-ish dresses.... the pocket here is actually a purple tulle over an orange silk, embroidered with sequins and a metallic thread. Made for a nice pocket.

 These two little treasure bags I made on Sunday. Used vintage doilies and trims. So much fun. I'm not having much luck selling things on my etsy site... but they are for sale if anyone is interested. ($20 each)

Sunday's stitching...

You'll love this eye-candy because it was so much fun to embellish. These are the first two pages I completed yesterday while watching the 49ers with my hubby. (They won!) I'm not sure if I truly want to say 'completed' because I hold the right to add more if I'm inspired.  Let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions!
  Remember this page? I used a few new flower embellishments, but everything else is vintage... the pink flowers came from the seamstress estate, dating 1919! The abalone buttons from my stash. The ribbons are all bias tape ribbons, also from the 1919 estate.

 Even though it's lowly bias tape, I love the silky look. I just gathered and puckered, tacked it down, then added the buttons.

 Here's a great closeup of the 1919 flower mixed with the newer vintage looking flowers.

 You haven't seen this page yet. I just assembled it yesterday. I had never used these stitches on my Janome machine! I love, love, love them!  This is several layers of both vintage and newer fabrics. I love the heart stitches!

 At the bottom of this picture you can see the precious lace pockets. I've had about a yard of this lace trim in my stash for years.... never wanting to cut into it.  But I think it makes for a lovely pocket!

 And these little lovebirds have also been in my treasures box for a few years, just waiting for the right place to call home. I think they are happy nested in the pink silk ribbon. (The pin on the back was broken, that's how it made its way into the treasure box.)

I actually worked on one more insert, but wont show you until it's more fully embellished.
Happy Monday and Sweet Stitching!
Chris

On a roll with two more insert pages....

Seems like I just can't wait to get into my sewing studio and assemble these foundational inserts for my fabric & lace CQ prayer book. It seems to be taking on a life of it's own as I play with the book, inserts, and embellishments.
This is my forth block or insert (I need 15) made yesterday. You can't see the deep velvet colors, but the foundation is crazy quilted around the message. This is one of the pocket pages, the pocket being the folded crochet doily on the bottom 1/3. All the lace on this piece is vintage! Just waiting now for it's embellishments.

 Now, this insert is a slightly different style, using layers of vintage fabrics from several dresses. There's an oversize piece of tulle that I plan to fold back onto itself, embellishing with silk flowers. I think I'll try to use only the vintage silk ribbons and flowers from my stash I mentioned in a previous post. I'm thinking that on some pages, I want to stay true to pure vintage. I love this angel picture. She's stitched onto a piece of upholstery fabric, which is a pocket as well. This book will have many, many pockets to tuck in prayers and wishes.

You can't see it fully, nor get the effect of the layers of laces and tulle dripping off the end of the page. I love the way it looks when I lay it in the book against the deeper colored pages.

New Prayer Book... Work in Progress

This idea has been floating around my mind for a while now, ever since my 'Votes for Women' fabric/lace book. This time, I wanted to create a finer book, without all the raw edges. After making 20 purses, I'm partial to finished seams. So I created the cover and three signatures for my new book.
I chose deep, saturated colors for the foundation pages. The cover is just a beautiful upholstery fabric my granddaughter found for free at a garage sale! 

 You can barely see (above) the lace on the ends. It's beautiful hand made lace I took from two vintage Irish tea towels.
This view is of the top of the book... no raw edges!

 Inside the front cover showing the first signature. I had just enough of this fabric to create the signature. 15" by 19" gave me my roughly 6x8" book.

 This is funny.... the second signature is a beautiful soft forest green fabric I cut from a home-made runner bought at a garage sale a few months ago for $1. From that runner, I've made a purse, Christmas stocking, and now another signature for my book.... for ONE DOLLAR! (It sure doesn't look forest green in this picture!)

 I chose the third signature fabric just because I like it. The flower looks so nice here, but of course, it will be covered by the lacey pages. It's kind of the way I feel about the insides of my bags, I want things to be as lovely on the inside as the outside. It's all about intention.

 So, there will be 15 (!!!) inserts! Here is the first basic layout. I will be finishing off, embellishing with silk ribbon flowers, vintage jewelry, and what ever inspires me. What you are seeing is only the foundation. Oh... don't you love the squiggly stitches? First time I've used that stitch on my fabulous workhorse Janome sewing machine!

 This book will be filled with beautiful laces, stitches, embellishments, and many, many pockets to hold prayer cards and wishes.  I found an amazing Etsy seller, Green Valley Studios. I spent hours yesterday morning just looking at all of her lovely digital art. Her amazing deal, I bought TEN digital sheets for just $20. They are going to work great on my pocket pages. Do check her out!
'Hope' is the first pocket page I created. I'm imagining some silk embroidered flowers across the doily that is draped over the top. The lace sticking out of the right side is a coffee-dyed Venise lace collar.

 The third insert page is an inspiration page, showing my favorite holy card image from my youth. I always felt the presence of my Guardian Angel (still do!), so she had to come next. I want a number of crazy quilted pages, so here's the first. It's fun to work small, with scraps I'd thrown into my bin. I mounted the little CQ onto a partial vintage hanky with beautiful crochet trim. The bottom is from a vintage tea towel. And to finish the top and right sides I've over-stitched a beautiful vintage crochet lace. The lacy thing on the left is another coffee stained lace applique. This too, awaits embellishments.

Thanks for looking at my WIP! I welcome any suggestions!
Sweetest Blessings

A New Look, plus this week's work

So, I'm going for a new look here. Something softer that blends with the cloth side of me. Please tell me if you like it? Any suggestions?

In the mean time, here is the work I completed this week. Been a busy girl, with many hours lost in the wonderland of fabrics, laces, ribbons and buttons. I'd love to hear your comments. Oh, and if you are interested in purchasing any of these creations, please email me!

First, here are a few Composition Journals that I covered in the paste papers I made last fall. I love the colors. And I love paste paper! I'm selling these in my shop (Boulder Creek Antiques & Art) for $12 each.

Now, here is my Lace Album.... finally completed. I'm really happy with it... but of course, now I know how I'd do things different. It's a lovely book. I've already put it into my shop, and will probably list it on Ebay and Etsy. I'll create live links when I do. And, you're always welcome to email me directly.

So here it is.....
This is the front cover. I printed the images on muslin using the freezer paper technique. Much more economical than paying $10 for three sheets of printer fabric! All the laces you see are vintage, sewn onto upholstery fabric pages.

Here are some pictures of the inside pages. I embellished with a few vintage pins, buttons, and flowers I made from vintage satin.

You can see a few little pockets here and there... perfect to tuck in a little note or something.

 This page, on the right used several vintage hankies to create three individual tuck spots.

 I'm proud of the page on the left here. I created my own fabric by first using Photoshop and some vintage postcard images. I printed the image on fabric, then cut them and quilted them into a deep pocket page. The flower is another of the satin flowers I made. After cutting a number of circles, I singed the edges which made them curl, sewed a button in the center... tadaa, a rosette.

 This vintage, hand crochet doily made a beautiful back cover. It feels so great in my hands.

On a roll this week. I created another Composition Journal Wrap with vintage lace and fabrics. It started with a vintage hanky on top of a rectangular doily that just fit the 7x9 size journal. Then lots and lots of lace and another satin flower. (I listed this for $22, do you think that's too much?)

 Here's a pocket inside the front cover, perfect to keep your pen in.

 And, I just couldn't leave the back cover alone.... so I stitched row after row of different lace trims.

Yes, there's more!!! I just can't keep out of the laces! I had lots of bits and pieces left, so I stitched together some sweet little hang tags. (I put these in the shop for $4.50 each.)

Well, that's enough for one week. I just loved playing with all the fibers!
 PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENTS! Thank you and SWEET BLESSINGS!