11/25/2017

Defeated but flexible!!


DH left for Israel early Thanksgiving morning and I headed out to spend the morning in the barn.  It was one of those rare winter days when the sun is shining and no wind.  The sun heats up this big room in a jiffy and I went through a lot of bins pulling fabric and trims for the spider bag.

He was hardly down the road and I set up two tables in the living room.  One with all the small projects I want to work on while he is gone and this includes Madi's guest book, the giant green capris, the eyeglass cases, and a green necklace. Another table has all the spider bag materials. No cooking.... just going from project to project as the spirit moves me and eating turkey and dressing for breakfast on a paper plate.



Today I was going to actually start on the bag and I did.  I spent the ENTIRE morning cutting out all the pieces for the bag plus the lining, fleece lining, and the interfacings.  But try as I might I couldn't figure out a stress-free way to partially assemble it and embellish it.
Since this was to be a "no stress" winter project I finally gave up.  I put all the pieces in a bag and will finish it later for another project.  I don't even want to look at it now.....for months.
So defeated but flexible, I decided to just do a ordinary tote-like pattern for the spider bag  and luckily I had enough crushed velvet to do it.  I want to get all the vines on the bag before webs and flowers so step one was to sketch out the vine patterns on freezer paper.  This was all free hand and really loose.

Then I roughly repeated these vines to the back of the velvet (with fusible tricot).  If it were critical I could have transferred it with some transfer paper but since it was so rough and loose I just did it freehand.  Then I did a running stitch on the lines.





When I turned it over I had my vine pattern on the black velvet without any markings on the velvet.  Over the years I have worked many project designs from the back like this.  Especially if it is white, textured or dark material.  The spots you see are light reflections on the velvet.  It is going to be impossible to photograph.  I will work the vines in silk ribbon.  Then I will add the webs and   will add the flowers and leaves the last thing before I assemble the bag.


Again my friend Shirlee surprised me with a special package in the mail..  It was all this silk ribbon that she said she would never use...  What a treasure.  I have it all sorted by color and size and can hardly wait to use it.  This whole project is like a sweet treat and I will stretch it out and savor every step.

Another project that just slipped in my agenda unbidden yesterday  is this necklace.  I never wore it because I never had earrings and decided to make some and one thing led to another and it got a complete makeover.  I may still never wear it but if I do I now have earrings.

The winner of the bag pattern is Cyra in New Zealand... Send me you address Cyra to olderrose@yahoo.com and I will pop it in the mail...

3 comments:

Marilyn said...

It sounds like you had a wonderful day. I particularly like your breakfast choice. I like the transformed necklace - it will be fun to wear if you ever have the occasion. I do envy you your alone time - right now I have my son and the 2 grands, his friend and her 2 dogs visiting for the weekend. Love having them but I will be exhausted by the time they leave

Sarah Aldrich said...

Stuffing for breakfast is one of the best things about Thanksgiving!!! I envy you this time alone that you have to work on what you want. I know my time will come, but my store is so busy in December that I barely have time to sit and see. One of my goals for today is to get some simple projects prepped so that I can easily pick something up when I have time. The CQ project I am working on right now is quite large and seems to take more energy than I have right now.. Enjoy tour projects. PS I would totally wear that necklace. If you won't use it you can always send it my way! I so look forward to your blog! It's always a treat when you show up in my feed!

Magpie's Mumblings said...

Congrats to Cyra! Regarding the dilemma of creating the pieces for your bag - I've made a couple of the patterns from Studio Kat and did crazy quilt them - I just made sure to keep any beads and such well back from the seam allowances. It took a wee bit of fiddling but it went together easily enough that I made several more for gifts.

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