Many people are really into decorating their houses for Halloween with creepy graveyard scenes and Zombie figures. We are not those people, but I do put a few Halloween decorations out and here they are.

The witch is holding a spider which is hard to see in the photo. In the past, she would hold a wooden skeleton named Mr. Bones. Unfortunately Mr. Bones is in need of some restoration.  Hopefully, he will resurface next year.

Have a fun day!
​Cynthia

When my children were little we always did a lot of decorating for various holidays, including Halloween.  Mostly, I would make things or use the kids artwork that they created in school.

​While I don't do that much decorating any more, I still like to bring out a few seasonal items.  Here are two pillow shams I made for Halloween. 

Since I like to repurpose things, both these pillow shams were made from remnants and bits of things I already had.  By making them as shams to fit over standard size throw pillows, I don't end up with a ton of pillows to store.

Have a fun day!
​Cynthia

When I was a child I loved Halloween. It was a holiday where you could let your imagination run wild and dress up to be anything you wanted. Not only that you could go out in your costume, knock on people's doors and they would give you candy!  Imagine that!  For us this was huge.  We didn't get candy as readily as kids seem to today.  We would go out Trick or Treating for hours. Often we would have to stop back home to unload our sacks so we could get more.  

Things are different today, at least where I live.  We get hardly any kids coming Trick or Treating.  Why that is I'm not sure.  A lot of towns now sponsor events and parades usually before Halloween.  Maybe parents are afraid to let there kids go out.  Or maybe it is just to old fashioned a thing, replaced by more scripted events.  Who can say.

I for one, however, still love Halloween. I still buy lots of candy in the hopes the "Halloweenies" will come. ​Usually way to much, which we end up eating ourselves. But hey, what's Halloween without to much candy?  

Have a fun day!
​Cynthia

When I do a street fair or craft show, I put out a little notebook for people to sign up for my mailing list.  Recently, I did a show with my friend Eda of Two Sweet Mamas and it was a little windy.  The pages of the book kept flipping over and the pen would go rolling around and fall off the table.  Eda came up with an ingenious solution.

We used a binder clip to keep the pages from flipping up and it also worked as a pen holder!

Have a fun day!
​Cynthia

This past Saturday I was at the Craft Show at Oktoberfest in Demarast, NJ. The event which marked it's 34th year is sponsored by the Demarest Nature Center Association. While there wasn't a lot of beer-drinking going on, there was a lot food, music, fun and of course crafts.  

It was a beautiful day and there were lots of interesting crafts there.

Itoko Kobayashi of The Space Waraku was thee with her creative Origami paper art.

Jennifer Lefleur of JLynnL was there with her original crochet designs.

Gail Rutigliano of Mud Lily Designs was there with her beautiful jewelry and buttons.

All in all, a fun time was had by all and a good cause was benefited.

Have a fun day!
​Cynthia

Gathering is a common technique in clothing construction.  It is used to create a fullness as in a skirt or top,  or ruffles.  It is also useful in art quilting and other decorative sewing projects to create texture.  

I came across some samples I did for the City and Guilds course  and though I would share them with you,

Gathering done by hand uses running stitch.  Lines of stitches are sewn, then the thread is pulled to bring in the fabric.  The length of the stitch will effect the size and look of the gathers.  Large stitches will create bigger, looser looking gathers while smaller stitches  create a tighter look.

In this sample, lines of running stitch were sewn back and forth across a printed fabric.  When the thread was pulled the fabric bunched together creating a textured surface. The details of the print were obscured resulting in more concentrated areas of color.

​Gathered cloth can also be used as the basis for other art techniques such as rubbings.

In this sample, individual lines of stitches were sewn across the fabric. The gathering lines are far apart.  The bottom picture shows a rubbing done  of the sample.  Vertically the rubbing could simulate tree bark or wood.  Horizontally it could simulate a mountainous landscape or a stormy sea.

In this sample, the gathered lines are much closer together creating a firmer fabric.  The resulting rubbing has a denser look and could simulate a stone surface, a desolate landscape or flowing water.

Have a fun day!
​Cynthia

I realized that it has been a while since I have done a post about sewing.  I recently came across a project I had done back in my art quilting days that I want to share with you today.  

I spent a lot of time experimenting with different fabric manipulation techniques.  As a result I ended up with a lot of usually smallish pieces of unusual fabrics.  What to do with them?

One project I came up with was to create a concertina book, which is a type of folded book. Each of the three center panels have a different sample and I even put descriptions on the fist page of each side of how I did them. Good thing because I never would have remembered.  

Here are close ups of the  first side (top picture) of the book:

​
​Tiny fabric pieces were layered between two pieces of tulle then machine stitched.

Here are close ups of the second side (bottom picture) of the book:

​Net tubes were stuffed with chenille yarn.  These were then braided together with ribbon and fabric strips. Then the braids were joined with a sewing machine.

​Fabric pieces were layered between two sheets of water soluble stabilizer then machine stitched and the stabilizer removed

Have a fun day!
​Cynthia