Monday, September 19, 2011

Special NameTape























The logo mentioned in the previous post is one I have used for my art business.

I still use that metal dye to mark my artwork.

So when I began to make ethnic clothing some years ago, I ordered a custom "name tape" to sew inside as a label.

The company that made this tape is still in business and can be found on:

Friday, September 16, 2011

Badges? Badges? We don't need no.......


Delving into my sewing drawer the other day, I unearthed this little badge/bag.

It is about 4 inches long, 3 inches wide and has a long with a long, closed loop attached.

Why would you make that, you ask?
At one time I belonged to a quilt group that was just forming and we had no official name tags or badges.

And, being tired of writing my name on a paper badge and slapping it on my shoulder,

And because I always had trouble locating my embroidery scissors, I made this small permanent badge.

I could put my little scissors into it, just loop over my head and march off to the meetings.

The fabric is a delicious scrap of some kind of miraculous canvas. I have no clue where it came from, being the fabric hoarder that I am, but it is not all cotton.

It must be some kind of commercial grade poly blend. But whatever it is, I sure wish I could get my hands on more. It goes into the washer and comes out looking exactly the same.

The inner lining is another scrap of decorator fabric from a sample tablet I scrounged from somewhere. (I have boxes of this stuff.) It makes a very nice surprise when you lift the fold-over.

The strapping and trim is made from yet another scrap of felty-fake-leather-y fabric.
And the knot for the loop is made by taking a bit of this, making it into a tape and then tying it into a monkey's fist knot.

The logo on the front is made with Coats & Clark cotton embroidery thread over a free-hand pencil copy of my logo.

Previously, I used this logo for a metal dye and stamp made to mark my art books and books I want to keep in my collection.
Later on, the metal dye became a stamp for my clay pottery.

I still use it at times on my clay art, but only on pieces that have a flat bottom.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Progress.....


The old kitchen was charming, but old, decrepit and worn out.

The drawers were the old style--wood sliding on wood--and every time I pulled one out, I was making sawdust in the bottom of the cabinet or into the drawer beneath.
















When they were taken out and the wall boards removed, we found there was no insulation whatsoever between the interior walls and the shiplap or wooden walls behind the studs.

The roof was the same, except there had been a flat ceiling before and a modicum of insulation blown in there.

Above all that, a beautiful ceiling had been hiding.

I wish we could leave it like this, but insulation is needed. So the ceiling will be brought to code by adding more rafters and laying in batts of insulation.

Instead of a flat, low ceiling, we now have a lofty, airy one! Yea