I sewed together all the pieces, adding a ton of welting on all of her curves. This added a new level of frustration, but anyone who knows me can understand my fierceness when taking on challenges. The tuck in fabric was WAY to bunchy and I stewed over this for at least a month.

Finally, I bit the bullet and spent the entire day resewing the tuck in areas to reduce the bulk. I’m sure I did this process at least 4-5 times, trimming and replacing the slipcover on Marilyn each time, until the fit was nice and tight and sleek.

Now Marilyn (Monroe), who got her name because of her curvy silhouette, is in the house … the office. She’s updated and marvelous, and displays all her curves with a fit-like-a-glove slipcover. No sloppy, loose, tent dress for her! All I have to do now is add a little bling by way of pillows in dreamy blue/green/gray fabrics.

I guess that diamonds (in the rough) are really a girl’s best friend after all! I love my shapey wing chair!

use your imagination here

For Mother’s Day, my lovely daughter gave me a wonderful gift.  We spent an  evening  together at a studio painting  a picture of the flatirons.  Now, I’ve never painted anything on canvas before, so this was a brand new experience for me.

As a child, I loved those paint-by-number paint sets I seemed to get at Christmas time.  I painted plenty of horses in a meadow and other things I can’t remember,  on velvet … but never on canvas.

The owner of the studio’s daughter, was a girl I recognized as one of my kindergarten students more than twenty years ago.  She immediately recognized me as her kindergarten teacher and was amazed that I remembered her and her name.  It would of been fun if she was the instructor for the evening, but she wasn’t.

I consider myself to be a very creative person … you know, the artsy/craftsy kind.  The other thing about me is that I’m a perfectionist, so I knew this may pose a bit of a challenge in the two hour period.

Everything was going smoothly until the teacher shouted out that it was time for us to finish up and go, since he was closing.  I still had to finish my path, more green shrubs, and all of the flowers!  This is when I went from “Oh, this is so cool, working at my turtle pace,” to …  “Oh my god!  I need to rush and splat down the paint so I can walk out with a finished product!”

My daughter’s painting was gorgeous!  It showed the carved edge of the flatiron mountains, and the delicate petals of all her dainty meadow flowers.   None of which I was able to achieve.  As a matter of fact, I admire these very mountains right outside my window every day, and yet I completely froze and forgot what they actually looked like!

My painting is more like a Monet, meant to be admired from afar.  It’s grown on me, and I actually love it!

All in all, it was a very good experience for me since it took me out of my comfort zone.  Best of all, was the time I was able to spend with my amazing daughter.

My painting will be proudly hung in my sewing/craft studio at home.  A reminder that everything doesn’t have to be perfect in order to be enjoyed.

Thanks, and I love you Diane!

Yup … this is just one example of the crafts I indulge in when I should be finishing the million other, half-started projects I have going.

I absolutely love this scrappy USA map! I’ve been wanting to do something with a map of America that shows all the states we have traveled. Thanks to Pinterest, I was able to make my very own version for my office that has way more character than a plain old printed map.  The process was tedious, but it was a blast finding just the right fabric for each state.  Of course, I love the CU buffalo.

I’m so scrappy-happy with the fantastic result!

Now it’s back to the challenging slip cover I’m working on for a wing chair that is going into the office as well. Aaarggh! I’m so close to having the perfect pattern made, but I’m sure I’ll distract myself with yet another “quick” project instead. The unfinished wing chair has been sitting smack dab in the middle of my sewing room since February … yes, I said February!

happy crafting everyone

Amen, sista!

Anyway … my youngest son told me about a hat he’s been wanting.  It’s fashioned to look like the Colorado flag and was very expensive.

” Hmm… ,” I said.  “I can make this for you!”  …  and so I did!  My daughter saw it and put in her own order.  She received this:

this beanie is for my daughter, another one with ear flaps is for my son

I hope to be making more of these and selling them.   Are you interested?

Just email me if so.

go creativity!

p.s.  It’s because of this type of May Colorado weather that we can still wear these beanies in spring.

May dusting of snow

love that blue

Hope you’re staying warm by the fire!

This denim and flannel rag quilt was made by re-using my family’s old worn denim jeans.  (Go green)!  It took 262 squares of fabric, and a million (or more) 1/4 inch snips to create.  It is earth and doggy friendly, and is oversized to cloak my son and his family while snuggling up on the couch.

I’ve been wanting to make these coffee cozies for a long time, so I designed and made my son and his girlfriend 4 different ones to protect their hands from the steamy coffee and hot tea they so enjoy at the local coffee shops.

coffee cozies

Since my dad is always freezing, I knit him a pair of fingerless gloves in a washable wool, so that he can still have warm hands while doing the mountains of paperwork he always seems to have.

hand knit fingerless mitts

My daughter has carried the little wallet I gave her years ago, and unfortunately is getting a little tattered.  She was disappointed to  learn that the company no longer makes this little compact size anymore.  This of course became one of my challenges, so I made her several different ones that very closely mimic her old original one.  They are small enough to fit into your pocket, and hold your keys, money license and credit cards.  Very efficient indeed!  After several trial and error attempts on this one, I think I finally made the perfect product.

efficient little wallet

If  it’s made of fabric … I can design, or duplicate most things.  It’s taken me a lifetime to reach this level of creativity.  Hmmm so what am I waiting for?

Happy New Year!

A week ago, I went to a homemade, local craft/art fair downtown.   As always, I went home not only inspired, but with oodles of cool crafting ideas to do myself.

At one booth, there was this lovely young woman selling very unique items using gorgeous textiles (fabrics … you know).  The one item that caught my eye was the slouchy hand-knit hat she was wearing, not selling.  Since she was not a knitter, she paid a friend to make it for her.  I thought that hat looked familiar … it was a pattern that I had, and was put in my queue  to knit sometime later after the holidays.  SCORE!

After the craft fair, I drove directly to the yarn store (cuz that’s how I roll) to get some yarn to make me the slouchy hat.  This is what it looks like.  The twisted cables are super interesting, and look much more difficult than they were to knit.  In two short nights, I had a new hat!

convergence of cables

See what I mean about taking crafty diversions to make a few things for me?  Sometimes I think that I’m an ADD crafter/ knitter/ seamstress.  Oh well, I get lots of sh*t done!

Yummy!

P.S.  Once again, lame-o on the ridiculous date stamp!  I think I’ve solved that little problem for future photos.

P.P.S.  Because this hat sits back a bit on the head, my bangs are left untouched.  This is a good thing, because I don’t want to have squashed down bangs like Moe of the “Three Stooges” (been there, done that)!

Two such items (ahem) were these basket liners in decorator weight, linen toile print fabric.  Now that’s a mouthful to say!   This project allowed me to join two things I heart … organization and fabric.  It was a complete transformation.  Woo hoo!

From drab:

plain jane

To Fab! :  (uptown Julie Brown)

I bought one of these plain, ordinary baskets for a kiss and a promise.  The other one was not so cheap.  It didn’t take all that long to take measurements and construct custom-made, beautiful fabric liners.

You may think that I made these in green and red for the holidays, but you’re wrong.  This sage-like green and cranberry red are two of the warm and cool colors that can be found on the main level of my house. I love that these pretty baskets can organize and even make unsightly items look better. There are many other baskets I’m going to line, and they are just one more thing added onto my “after Christmas to-do list” (which is longer than Santa’s scrolled list).

How do you keep your  junk things organized?

Peace

P.S.  Lame-o on the date stamp on the red basket.  Ooops!

Ever since I was in kindergarten, I’ve loved the smell of a box of new, fresh, Crayola crayons.  I could hardly wait to open a new box and create free- form designs that I could color creatively.  Of course there were also color books that I enjoyed.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to make crayon rolls.  When I accepted an opportunity to be a vendor at a craft show, I quickly went to work making a handful of these beauties with a more sophisticated, but fun, pallet of fabrics.

My thought is that parents could use these as stocking stuffers for their children.  Having a personal set of crayons in a pretty little holder is by far better for children who use crayons to color at restaurants, appointments etc.  There aren’t those pesty communal germs (crayons in other kids’ mouths, nose …) to worry about as a parent, and your child can enjoy their very own artist gems.

for the budding artists

When not in use, the crayons are simply rolled up and tied.  Easy peasy!

They look so pretty displayed in a muslin lined basket.  Since I have some extras on my hand right now, and if you’re interested … just let me know.

crayons and other goodies

My fist attempt at this Thorpe hat was much too big for my daughter, who is an avid snow rider (boarder).  She really appreciates the hand knit woolens I’ve been sending her way lately.  I guess she’s finally grown up to appreciate how amazing hand-knits can be.

Making a hat for someone who isn’t around to continually try it on is sometimes like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  You just keep knitting, and ripping it out, until the next time she can come home to try on her hat to assure the fit is perfect.

Unfortunately, I knit this hat up entirely the first time, only to be unraveled and knit again two more times.  Yes, I know that this process is labor intensive, but although the measurements said the size would be exact, it turned out to be much, much, too big, … think Papa Bear size.

Papa Bear size hat ... much too big!

The second time I knit this, I only got several inches into the hat before I realized that the size was going to be just a bit too big too,  due to the stretchy yarn … think Mama Bear size, so I had to rip this out.

Mama Bear size hat ... a little bit too big!

The third time is always a charm, (so they say)!  This attempt was the  Baby Bear size ( you get the idea) with a perfect fit … although my daughter is not a baby anymore.

Baby Bear size hat ... a perfect fit!

She shreds up the snowy mountains on her snowboard, because gurlz rule!

So this hat is for D-Spin, my fierce snow rider, who always needs to sport a cool hat after a long day on the slopes.

Stay toasty warm honey!

P.S.  Be safe!