I Am So Sewing

After much hemming (pun intended) and hawing I have one of my mother's old Bernina sewing machines working.

I found a ruin of an old crazy quilt at an estate sale and am working on replacing all the rotten silk pieces.
It's more of a project than I intended, the more I repair the more that falls apart.

Quilting is a certain kind of fun.

Rescuing and repairing old ones it far more interesting to me than making them from scratch.
I don't really understand going to the store and buying fabric, cutting it up and putting it back together.
I like to thrift my fabrics - isn't the whole point of quilting making something from nothing?
I don't know, but I do like rescuing things.

So Many Buttons...

In an attempt to make a dent in my dish of short rods I went on a button making binge.

These, and many more, are all up in my etsy 'Belvedere' shoppe.

In case you're a flameworker and wonder how I make them...
they're worked off mandrel and I use a tool called a 'Handy Andy' to make the holes.

The holes are flame polished so that they're super smooth and will never, ever cut your thread or yarn.

Baked

The summer doldrums.
I am a slug, a mess of creative inactivity.

But I did bake something, a fresh blueberry breakfast cake

Grape Jam

Beads right?
Nope.
It's been way too hot to torch.

Instead of working with the flame I have been painting.
Which is also slow going because my studio is sweltering hot.

You maybe asking "why is she painting it in the frame?"
Because I bought the frame at a yard sale for $10 with a painting already in it, and I could NOT get the canvas out of the frame. The frame was intricately built around the canvas by some mad genius. So rather than just chuck it I decided to paint right over the painting that was already in there. Sorry (not sorry) previous painter.

Miss Dog America

Kiki P. Oodle in repose. Let sleeping dogs lie, in a pile of pillows.

Poodle + Odalisque = Poodalisque.

Warm Outta The Oven

Some earring pairs, a button cab, a nice two hole heart button, some end-of-the-mandrel pendants, etc...

Back To Buttons

I'm selling my buttons in a new shop.
It's called "Little Button," how perfect is that?
(in case you're a Rochesterian, it's on South Ave. in the heart of the south wedge shopping district)

Carding my buttons is something new.
It takes some extra time to get them on there but I like the presentation.