Cynthia Shaffer

Free Motion Stitching, Free Hand Applique and a Little Bonny Bird

Stitchy, stitchy goodness ...It's all I want to do these days! I love to free motion stitch ... ok, not that perfect type stitching where you have to follow a pattern and all but that freehand type of machine embroidery, where you let down your hair and let loose!

About a week ago I joined a friend of mine, Tracy Schultz and off we went to LA to take a class at French General.

 

Mandy Patullo was teaching here in the states for the first time ... The Bonny Birds! What a treat and what a delight to hear her story, inspirations and to learn a bit about her finger turn applique process while creating a bonny bird on an antique quilt square. 

Here's how my bird started out ... didn't finish the bird that night cauase of course I started chatting with some of the gals including French General owner Kaari Meng ... only to find out that she's working with the same editor I'm working with at Sterling Publishing in NY ... Small, small crafty world! 

So I pulled out my Boony Bird last night and I just started adding bits of fabric here and there to make a wing and an eye.

Added a little chain stitch around the eye and popped in a little button, right there in the middle!

Nexted I added a few French knots to the under belly and the wing, oh and embroidered a couple of bird feet as well.

The little tail was missing something so I grabbed some gold metalic thread and added a few sparkly feathers to the end.

And then the most fun part of this whole project ... a little free motion stitched tree with branch for the little bonny bird to perch on! 

At this point I walked away from him for a few hours ... went to a football game then came back and without even thinking, I started painting the tree teal! I was moving so fast here that I didn't even have a water bowl around so I was using my ice tea to water down my paints and to clean my brushes! 

 Truth be told ... this is not the first time nor the last time I'll be using my tea as water ... gives it all a little antiqued look, don't you think?

I love the teal painted tree!

And branches!

Filled in a few little dots with red paint and set it all aside to dry.

At this point I'm not sure where this quilt panel will end up ... I may mount it to watercolor paper or even stitch it to this tote to carry my knitting supplies back and forth from my knitting group! 

Stay tuned ... More stitchy, stitchy goodness to come ... for sure!

Japanese Candy Wrapper Collage : Tutorial

My Husband just called to inform that he will be traveling in the upcoming months ... It's Japan again ... my favorite place!

He travels there often and always returns home with some very interesting candy for my kids. We never know what it will be and I have to tell you, I have only actually tried a few of the 'sweets' he has brought back.

Why you might ask ... well here's why ... I learned early on in his traveling days that a lot of the Japanese candies are made from bean paste ... and I love beans, but here's where I have an issue ... I can not wrap my brain around the idea that beans are a sweet treat. To me the are salty, savory and are often slathered with onions and cilantro. So ... do you understand my problem?

Here's a funny story ... so my mother had a Japanese foreign exchange student named Yoshiko come to live her for a year. We introduced her to all of our favorite foods, including refried beans ... she tried them and nearly spit them out on her plate ... she could not wrap her brain around the idea that they were not sweet! 

Japanese Candy Collage and Doodles

The wrapping and presentation is a feast for my eyes ... I love all the color and love the attention to details.

Japanese Candy Wrapper Collage:

 Unwrap and flatten colorful candy wrappers ... feed the candy to your children!

Cut out random shapes and swirls from the wrappers.

Using a glue stick, randomly adhere the pieces to a panel of watercolor paper.

Free motion stitch the wrappers in place and then onto the card in swirls and loop patterns.

Add some color with watercolor pencils and doodle shapes with a black marker.

Here's to Japanese candy, happy and safe travels for my husband and crafting and doodling!

Paper Towel Art : : It's all about the details.

Just playing and exploring here.

Trying some new techniques here.

Remembering just how much I love to sew.

Machine stitching, hand sewing and couching ... I love it all.

I love the small little details ...

I love to move fast while I'm creating, not thinking much, just doing ...

Just doing and remembering ... remembering just how much I love to craft and create!

Want to know more about these inky paper towels? Check out this earlier post HERE!

Scrappy Wool Scarf : : Tutorial

The weather has definitely taken a turn around here and in fact it is down right cold out, all the time it seems ... well, not Minnesota cold, but cold for California. And, when the wind picks up a bit, and I'm outside watching a baseball game ... a wool scarf is about the only thing that really warms me up to the core.

Here's what I did to make this quick scrappy scarf:

• First I gathered a couple of wool sweaters in coordinating colors. I found these 2 sweaters at my local thrift store, and the pink one had been felted, just slightly.
• Next, I dusted off my serger and then just dove right in and serged the bottom rib, cutting off about 1/4 inch as I went.
• To make the knit ruffle, all you have to do is pull or stretch the sweater as it is going under the machine foot. If you want the serged stitch to be dense than shorten up the stitch length on the machine.

• Then, I just started cutting out panels from the 2 sweaters. Each panel measured about 8 inches wide and as long as I could possibly get. I even opened up the sleeve and found a nice long 8 inch wide piece there too.

• After I had several segments cut, I lined up the pieces the way I wanted them and then started serging the seams together. Note: If you look really close at the above photo, you can see that I have serged the brown piece to a non-ruffled pink piece, then placed a ruffled pink piece overlapping that seam but meeting at the top of that non-ruffled piece. 
• Now seam the 2 or actually 3 pink pieces wrong sides together.

• Piece the scarf together until you have about 70 inches total in length.

Ok so, as you can see these are pretty darn cute and so simple to make and makes really cute Christmas gifts! Needless to say, the cost was minimal as well ... let's see, I think each sweater was $1.90 and I still have lots of the brown sweater left to make a second one in a different color way ... 

Enjoy and Stay Warm!

 

Tin Can Caddy :: Tutorial

Before I start working on  really big projects, I take the time to clean and organize my studio. Here's a tin can caddy that I just finished to help me organized my daily go-to art supplies. 

And on a lazy susan...Oh my, it doesn't get any better.

Here's a photo of the caddy super loaded up, with all my stuff. This caddy can hold tons!

And I love having the outer cans up off the ground/lazy susan because as you can see it leaves me a bit of space for my favorite ink pads and spools of thread.

Tutorial:

Collect or gather 8 or so small to medium size tin cans and 1 large coffee can. 

Measure the height and circumference of all the outer cans and cut coordinating fabric to these dimensions. Next, slather a coat of Mod Podge to the outside and wrap and adhere the fabric to the cans.

Then put a coat of Mod Podge on the outside of the can. Set aside to dry. Paint the coffee can with gesso and sand lightly. Some of my cans had rust on the inside, so I sponged on some gesso there as well.

  

Arrange the small cans around the coffee can (looks super cute like this, but I knew I needed to have the cans up off the ground).

 

Mark the inside of the coffee can, where you want the small cans to hang.

Using an awl and a hammer, punch 2 holes in the smaller cans, close to the top rim.

And then punch the coordinating holes in the coffee can.

Next, thread a small length of wire, from the inside of the small cans, then into the coordinating hole of the coffee can.

And with pliers, twist the wire on the inside to secure the small cans.

And ... you're done. 

Hint: I did place 2 small tin cans, on wooden blocks, in the coffee can to raise the scissors and screw divers up and within reach!

Happy organizing!

 

Tutorial : : Painted Treat Tins

Oh so pretty. The perfect tin to load up with Corry bars and deliver to friends and family.

Batch #3 is ready to go!

 

So easy and so sweet...transform random tins into handmade holiday gifts.

What to do...Gather random tins and lightly sand. YES ... Sand the tin lightly with sandpaper! This will allow the paint to stick really good!

Spray the tins with several light coats of Krylon indoor/outdoor paint (Here's a link on Amazon to buy this exact color spray paint)... while the top is still on!!! YES, YES, YES ... with the lid on! Here's the deal here ... I know there have been a few comments on the lid sticking ... the lid will not stick if you spray the tin with several LIGHT coats of paints. And yes, you will see a lip of the original tin color when you take the lid off. It's just gunna be that way. If you spray the bottom separately from the lid, chances are the lid will not fit back on the bottom AND the fumes from the paint will linger in the tin and make it unsafe for food! So, YES ... spray paint the tin with the lid on the bottom.

Give a few pages of old book text, a wash of gesso. There have been a few questions about gesso and what it is .... So this is what I know about gesso ... According to Wikipedia "Modern "acrylic gesso" is a widely used ground^[5] that is a combination of calcium carbonate with an acrylic polymer medium latex, a pigment and other chemicals that ensure flexibility, and increase archival life." So I use it here to just give the old paper a washed and white weathered look. I also like the tooth that it give the paper, which allows the stamped ink to stick.

Stamp words on the text and tear out. Punch snowfakes out from the gessoed text and glue onto the tin tops using just white glue. Here's a link on Amazon to a Letter and Number Roller Stamp ... Similar to the one I have, but not exact. The one I have was discontinued years ago.)

Load your tins up with Corry bars, or your family's favorite treat, and tie up the tin with a little hemp.

Peace, Blessings and Grace...

I hope I have answered all the questions that readers have had about this project! I apologize for being so vague ... I think I was in a hurry way back when and didn't realize then that this project would go viral and be so well loved! 

Best,

Cynthia