Picking my color palette

Now that I have the mechanics of making the flowers pretty well sorted in my mind I want to concentrate some now on colors.  I said last post that I wanted muted colors...This palette on the right  is one of the palettes that comes up when I put "Victorian color palette" in Google. It is basically what I want but some blues and more variety in value.

This palette is getting there.  It has some more intense values and a bluish gray/green.

I love it when color palettes come with a picture.  It give you a much better idea how these colors work together.

This one has more colors in it but somehow doesn't give me any inspiration. They just don't seem to work together for me.









I eventually settled on this palette.  It basically only has 4 colors - red, yellow, green and blue.  But there is a wide variety of values in each color going from dark to light.
I will print this (probably several copies) and keep them near my work to use as a guide when I am choosing or dying materials.

 I did run across a few palettes that I added to my color file for future possibilities.  I find that using a color palette as a guide opens up new color combinations for me and also serves a guide for adding just that extra color that brings other colors to life.

I would have NEVER thought of using orange, red, pink and lime green but it works and I might try it someday.

I love all the pastel shades of turquoise and pink but doubt I would have thought to add the brilliant cerise which just makes all the other colors pop.













I love this palette.  It is in my comfort zone completely.  This palette and the water lily before it are from one of my most favorite color sites....  Design  Seeds.  They have a daily blog with new palettes every day and you can type in anything... autumn, spring, floral, seaside, carnival etc. and a palette comes up.  A great site for inspiration.

My very least favorite palette is jewel tones.  I have only used it once as the challenge option when I made my vest and this was as far out of the box I could get. Although I am happy with the vest but I will   never use this palette again. The colors were too bright and intense and actually made me uncomfortable when working on it even though  I did add black to temper the brightness of it.  I certainly stand out in a crowd when wearing it.

The CQ BoHo bag begins

Keep in mind that the inspiration for this bag is the spider belt buckle and a round robin block I did for Janet Popish years ago....








I did go over the pattern for the  bag and it states quite categorically that it must be assembled in a precise order.  Well since I have to embellish parts before the assembling, that caution has gone to the winds already. 

I have lots and lots of decisions to make before I start  but since the bag will be covered with flowers and foliage I guess that is as good a place to begin as any.  Keeping in mind my vision problems and frustration level, I am using larger materials throughout including a lot of heavier green pearl cotton that has always been too heavy for anything else.

1. I have decided to do mostly fabric and ribbon flowers....and a little  ribbon embroidery.. I want to do flowers similar to vintage millinery flowers.  Flowers that look like they have gotten wet and been run over by a truck.  In fact I might spray them with water and put them in my antique book press.

2.  I want them to be muted and vintage looking.  No bright colors.  This brings me to the fact to achieve this they will mostly have to be hand dyed or antiqued. And I plan to paint some of them with alcohol inks  after they're sewn

3.  In a perfect world I would use real silk but in my less than perfect world it will mostly be rayon ribbon and whatever works.  I am going to get out of my comfort zone on materials.

4.  I do want a very dense covering of flowers... not quite this dense because I want to showcase  the spider webs...

And I want the piece to have a sense of movement with an art deco influence -lots of flowing foliage,



5.  Since it is difficult working with a larger piece under the magnifying glass, I will be working some smaller floral groupings on buckram  and adding them to the body of the bag.


6. I want to also include vintage laces when possible.  I like the use of lace with the flowers on this bag.

 7.  Some bling, beads or buttons will be included.

8.  I have a big supply of Kreinik threads that I hope to find a use for... I can definitely envision them as floral centers.. And cording...I have  a  drawer of fabulous unused cording.









In the past I have always  added a new skill I want to learn to each project and this project will be no difference.   There is a whole world of off-the-wall fabric and ribbon flowers that I have never tried.

I have this book by Christen Brown which has 132  ribbon flowers.  I plan to try as many as I can...

Now next come the spider decisions.....

My incredible portable/foldable craft table

 Back in July I blogged in detail about my search for parts to build myself a portable foldable work table. .   I began to think about a portable work surface and my dream list was:

1. Low - no more than 24" tall and preferably 22"
2. I must be able to get my legs beneath it.
3. It must have wheels or be light enough to easily move from spot to spot.
4.  It would be even nicer if it folded up and stored or taken in the car...

It has worked out even better that I ever hoped.  I can easily move it from room to room or to whatever window has the best view or light or into another room with the TV and I have even taken it out on the deck on nice days.

I can pull it right onto my lap and get over my magnifier and have room under the glass  to work...  I just love  it.

I decided on this little lamp from Amazon for only $25.  It clips right onto the bread board and is incredibly flexible.  I roll it right up and stick it in my tote.








Here is a detailed photo with the list of items  used to build it..

And if I have to store it, I can remove the bread board and it folds up.















After I got the initial idea I started searching both the house and barn for parts.  After considering many tables with castors I finally decided on using a walker.  It was foldable, lightweight, and had wheels.  I had several in the barn. 

But this was the oldest grungiest one that I found.  It was literally buried in the very back of a horse stall... I knew it might be just what I was looking for... Even with the casters adjusted to the lowest point, it would not sit level.... but I could fix that.

So I went in search for something to use as a work surface and settled on either the orange thing or the cutting board.  The orange thing just wouldn't work but the cutting board had possibilities and I loved the little groove around the edge.  The metal tub tray may work as a shelf....maybe.

I first had to cut off the tubing on the back casters to get them low enough and   that went   well....except I wish I could have gotten them a little lower.  The whole thing was so filthy that I took it into the shower   and gave it a good scrubbing with a brillo pad.

Here it is all shining and clean.  It has casters and folds.  I could even take it in the car...actually even on a plane if I put the bread board in my suitcase and used the walker.....
..........And in an emergency I could still use it as a walker to get around.

My easiest fancy dessert!!!

 

Sometimes I plan to write an update on a post only to learn I never blogged about it in the first place.  Such is the case with "cornetti de crema"  I would swear I had blogged all about this culinary learning experience but on searching the blog have decided I never wrote about it at all... 

Years and years ago I picked up this little raggedy box of vintage "cream horn moulds" and they had been sitting unused in my basket  of really cool cookie cutters which are also unused.  But last spring I decided I was going to either learn how to use these or get rid of them.

The first time was a disaster and out of 18 little pastries I think only two were recognizable.  I buried them in pastry cream and berries and vowed to keep trying.

Now they are my favorite go-to fancy dessert and are a breeze to make.  Let me tell you my secrets.

First always have sheets of puff pastry in the freezer.

The first time I did these I cut all the little long strips individually.  Now I use a pasta cutter and I can whip the out in seconds.  Works great.

Next I tried to wrap the strips around the molds and the strips twist and stretch and are a mess.
The trick is not the touch the strip after it is attached at the tip.  The trick is to just let it hang and rotate the mold until the strip of pastry is wrapped around the mold.  This is a VERY BIG tip.....

The next tip is once the mold is wrapped is to give it a little roll with some pressure so all the strips are secured to each other.

The last tip is not to try to remove the mold too soon.  Once baked let them cool with the mold inside..  If you try to remove the mold when they are too warm they will crumble.


Mine are still not perfect but I can whip them out in minutes because I keep puff pastry on hand and when done not have a dirty dish in the kitchen.  You can fill them with anything... I prefer filling them with pastry cream, dusting with powdered sugar, add a few berries and WOW!! But you can also fill them with whipped cream or pie filling or whatever you have in your pantry.  These are for a dinner tomorrow.

I just found a site that had them filled with smoked salmon mousse for an appetizer.  Now you know I have to try that.

Progress on glass cases

I have all the cutting done for 6 more eye glass cases and sides are sewn.  Now all I have to do is attach the lining and the rest is hand work....what I call "fiddle work"- something mindless I can do while watching TV.  These are going to be gorgeous.  I found at least 8-10 more suitable blocks if I want to make more.






Because of all the embellishment they were

tricky to cut and difficult to cut around a pinned pattern so I laid the embellished block on a towel and traced the pattern on the back.  It was much more accurate.  I also basted all the seams by hand to be sure no beads, etc. were going to be caught in my machine sewing.  All went well.  Amazing there were very few beads to remove....less than a dozen total.

The pattern for my spider bag came and I was amazed at all the pattern pieces.  I think I would be wise to spend some time reading the instructions before I start and also organize the pieces...  This is not a quicky project...and I didn't really want it to be.  This one has been so long incubating that I want to savor it for a good while...