Sewing

Finding My Way

~ Patty Radish ~ 10 Comments

There have been so many life changes over the last few years, and I have to admit not all of them have been welcome. But that’s the way of the world, right? As I have been navigating the ups and downs, some things have had to fall to the wayside, due to time, but mostly due to energy required. I feel as if I have been spending most of my time figuring out what is worth my energy lately…so here I am back on my blog. (this poor blog has been very neglected and taken for granted)

I needed some time to reevaluate how and why to stay on social media. But when it comes down to it, I’m the boss here on my little blog, and all I really want is to keep in touch with you…my friends! So, I thought a bit of a catch up was in order…

I am proud and happy to say that I have been making time to read an actual book or two. I love the quiet of not having someone’s voice in my ears (audio books). This is a small thing, but I have noticed my level of nervous energy has dropped quite a bit since I have been intentional about what I let grab my attention, if that makes sense.

I have also kept my promise to myself that I would work on decluttering and decorating our house. We still have so much more to do, but we’re slowly checking things off the list.

We have also been doing a bit of landscaping. I left my gardening days behind me for now, it’s way too hot here in central Washington to get out and garden in the summer. Raised beds may be in our future, but I’m taking a break for now.

This is what I have been spending the bulk of my creativity on over the last couple years. I’ve pieced about 7 or 8 quilt tops. This year I have hand quilted 5 of them. I love sitting in front of a YouTube video and stitching away. The goal was to use up fabric I have had for decades, then what do I do? Yep, I BUY MORE FABRIC! Oh well, the one thing my husband will never complain about is more quilts. He keeps saying “Let’s keep that one too” Lol!

The blanket at the top was made from small bits of cotton yarn I had tied together to make cotton coasters for the “home decor” shop I had for a minute. This was another thing I have worked on to downsize my obligations, closing shops.

I keep hoping that downsizing my projects and obligations will free up some energy, but I think I’m spending all that ‘extra’ energy on the downsizing! I’m still waiting for that energy boost to kick in.

Another thing I want to get back into is Happy Mail. I still have a lot of paper crafting supplies, but not a lot of desire to art journal right now. So some friends may be receiving a card or two soon. I’ve already made up my “Send List”. Feel free to email me if you want a Happy Mail Card at some point at: eclecticartjournals@gmail.com

This is a project I’m working on to use up some embroideries I made way back when my children were little. I’m hand stitching them onto cotton pillowcases. I just wanted some decorative pillows on our guest bed and thought these would work. I’d like to write a blog post of the process, if you’re interested please let me know in the comments. 🙂

And now to this!

One of the unwelcome changes over the last few years was losing our little angel Lily. I struggled over the years as to whether bringing another dog into our home was a good fit. So, after all the family visits were over in the last few months, I gave myself some time to consider it…turns out it took 2 days! My plan was to start dipping my toe in the water so to speak. I knew I wanted a shelter dog, so I drove over without any expectations. They brought out a couple of candidates, I even took one for a walk. I have to admit I was little disappointed because I didn’t think I was going to be that particular, but they just didn’t “fit”.

I told them I didn’t really want a puppy, but after they spoke to me for a while they asked if I would be open to see one more. Then they brought out this little bundle of energy…it was love at first site (at least for me) She kept looking at me like who is this strange person? She was looking at the attendants with absolute love and excitement, then gave me “Who’s that strange lady?” vibes. All I said is “Wrap her up, I’ll take her!” Because she was a bit skittish around me, they wondered if it was going to be a good match. I told them my last dog (Lily) barked at me non stop for 40 minutes when I met her (which is why she needed to be re-homed), and she got over it.

Long story longer, she’s perfect! Her name is Mattie (hubby’s idea which I loved!) She’s 6 months old, give or take, and she absolutely loves my husband! She is a Min Pin mix, like my last 2 dogs, so her energy and temperament is a perfect fit for us. We love her so much! Getting a dog isn’t about reclaiming my old life, I had to be absolutely sure that wasn’t my motivation before adopting her.

Neither is this blog for that matter. I didn’t want to come back on here for any other reason than to have a way to touch base with friends that have been supporting me for almost 16 years. This is where I started, actually on my old blogspot blog, but this is where I feel most comfortable social media wise, and I miss my friends.

I’m slowly feeling my way around paper crafting again and have joined the iHanna PCS (twice accidentally!) and will be making 20 postcards I hope to share here soon. I’d like to share my process here, so let me know if you’re interested in seeing that.

Until next time

Thank you for stopping by,

Hugs,

~Patty

Stitched Art Journal

~ Patty Radish ~ 12 Comments

The other night I was feeling creative, but wasn’t in the mood to get out paper, small bits, and glue. I wanted to do some stitching, but that quilted runner in the corner just wasn’t speaking to me. So…

…I got out my stitchery journal suitcase. It’s been a looooong time since this has seen the light of day!

WARNING!  This is a pretty long (but hopefully fun) blog post, so grab a snack…or a pillow!

 A page I finished quite a while ago, but didn’t share here. I made a lot of copies of old photos onto fabric I’m happy to say, because I’m not sure my new printer will cooperate with fabric. Snippits of worn out stitched thrifty finds are perfect for these fabric journals.

This project is humming right along because I have so many embellishments from other projects I’m repurposing. I do that with my paper art journals too, I love having a stash of ready made decorating bits. The bird is clearly impressed!

Using up an orange lace flower from another project. I’m not sure what I’ll do when I run out of leftover embellishments! (actually, yes I do.)

This little Raggedy Anne has been looking for the right home for years. This is definitely her new forever home.

Are you still hanging in there?

Haven’t lost you yet I hope!

A piece of painted canvas fabric and a hand made fabric button. I’m slightly addicted to making fabric buttons. I even have a Wilhold button making kit now, I’ll share more about in another post.

I have a lot of those travel thread pieces left from my mom’s sewing stash. this is a perfect project to use those up in.

You never know what you’ll find floating around in that old suitcase of mine!

At last, the final photo. Thought I would show you a bit of the planning stage of my next page spread.

Truth be told, I wanted to share about this journal because I know that there are a lot of people that love shopping the sewing and crafting sections of thrift stores as much as I do, and we all need a little inspiration for some fun ways to use them up.

Also, I’ve been thinking about putting some “sewing notion” ephemera packs into my shoppe some day and thought I’d throw out some feelers.

If you made it to the end of this post without needing a nap, I thank you.

Please let me know in comments if you would like to see more posts of my stitchery journals, your feedback is always appreciated!

As always,

Thanks for stopping in,

Have a wonderful weekend,

~Patty

Sewing My Little Heart Out

~ Patty Radish ~ 6 Comments

This year is all about getting our house in order. I had the same intention last year, and I was really quite successful, but there is still so much to be done!

I love having handwork to do in the evening in front of T.V. or listening to an audio book (and ticking WIP’s off my list, win!) so hand quilting small projects is perfect.

img_6144Here are my latest creations. The two at the top were put together and quilted before the Holidays, but needed binding. The runner on the bottom was pinned, but needed the fabric pieces stitched on, then bound.

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You may be wondering why I need so many runners…

Full Disclosure:

I really dislike dusting! Every once in a while, I will take a few runners and throw them in the wash. Or, if they are in a hard to remove kind of place, under a T.V. and such, I will just use a vacuum attachment on them. I don’t know, they just seem to make the furniture look cosy, and I love making them.

img_6151I had originally made this one for my bedroom, but I really, really disliked it there. So now I have one less runner to make for my sewing room. 🙂

img_6152Just so you know, this and the previous runner, were made out of blocks from quilts I had started many moons ago, and had never finished. It’s such a huge relief to use things up and move on!  This one is going into my sewing room too. I have about 8 runners to make for my sewing room alone, but I definitely have all the fabric I need.

Yay for using up supplies!

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This runner is for our dining room table. It’s made by stitching fabric pieces onto linen with vintage wool thread. I wanted to use thick colored thread on this because I wanted the option of flipping it to give my table a more neutral look.

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Here is the wool thread I used. I found several spools of this gorgeousness at the thrift store a few years ago, Love! You can find some on Etsy and Ebay too.

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One of the reasons why I’ve made getting our house in order this year, and last, is because we will be selling this house in a few years, and I want to be ready to de-personalize and neutralize our decor. As you well know by now, I love color, so this is an easy fix!

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This is what it looks like on our table, just the pop of color it needed. I’ll be starting the placemats this week, I’ve chosen a leafy, vintage-y fabric for them, and muslin for the backside. I’m not sure If I will be doing any hand stitching on them yet, we’ll have to see.

In between stitching my heart out, I have been busy with working in my faith devotionals from last year, planning out my year with Lara Casey’s “Goal Setting Planner“, and I signed up for Ali Edwards “One Little Word“, mine is “GRACE”. I will be talking a little more about those things as soon as I’m a bit more organized. I fell off the “No spend” wagon, but hope to jump back on asap! 🙂

So, until next time,

Thank you so much for stopping by,

~Patty

Something Olde, Something New…

~ Patty Radish ~ 2 Comments

Last night I got an itch to finally turn some of the small notebooks I have been holding onto for years…and years… into mini art journals. I got out my glue stick and went to town glueing the pages together for strength.

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Once that was done, I thought it was time to try a project I’ve been stewing over for the past few months…

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…making a kind of Fauxdori cover to hold them in!!

 And because I’ll be embellishing the cover, I machine quilted it. Love!

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This took about an hour to make, and the notebooks fit in it beautifully!

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I will be more than happy to share how I made these in another post, I’ll need one for my Moleskines.

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There’s  nothing like mooching around your own stash of supplies to making something special for yourself. Well, back to my Christmas gift makings.

Thanks so much for stopping by,

Have a great day,

~Patty