Sue Bleiweiss

A book review

A lot of you probably know that I do a book review column in each issue of Fibre&Stitch but I thought that occasionally from time to time it would be nice to post a review here on my blog as well.  I've been getting a lot of books to review over the last several months and when this one came across my path I wanted to share it all with you because I know that a lot of you are interested in needle felting. 

Needle Felting Magic
Easy Machine Techniques and Projects
By Margo Duke
ISBN 9781564778123

I’ve lost track of how many new needle-felting books have come out in the last year but this one really stands out among them.  The first thing that tipped me off that there was some new and fun things inside its pages was the cover.   A beautiful mix of textures and color and I hadn’t even opened the book yet!   Margo does a nice job of walking the beginner needle felter through the basics but even an experienced felter will find plenty to be inspired by in these pages.   The book opens with a review of materials and includes a needle felting machine comparison chart.   There are five projects to get you started ranging from a bag, journal cover and scarf to a very new and unique way to display photographs.  My personal favorite is the fluff and fancy pin.  I can see making a lot of these to embellish everything from bags and hats to scarves and sweaters.  All of the projects are easy to understand with clearly written instructions and diagrams.   Although this book is only 32 pages there’s plenty in here to be inspired by. 

Fabric folders

I wanted to start off with some small projects with the new sewing machine just to get used to the way it sews.  So I began this morning by finishing off a few postcards:


These are up for trading if anyone is interested.   Just drop me an email with your address.

Once the postcards were done I decided to move onto another project.  The other day I was in the store and I saw these very  folders that were done in a very pretty printed paper.  Well I went to buy them and good grief they were expensive.  So I started thinking about how I could make my own and personalize them to the contents they would hold. 

The one on the left is done with fabric strips and is to store all of the dogs records and papers in and the one on the right is a layered surface done with torn pages from a cooking magazine and I'll use that one for all the recipes that I tear out of magazines and usually just stuff into a back of a cookbook.  The insides of these also have a pocket:

Both of these are lined with cotton fabric.

Then I started thinking about the coupons that I carry in my wallet.  Some are for the grocery store and some are for places like the craft store and fabrics store.  So I made up a wallet sized version to hold those:

and on the inside:

and the back:

I am really having fun working with my new sewing machine!

Santa came early

to the Bleiweiss house this year...

After 3 hours in the sewing machine store this afternoon we walked out with a Janome 6600P and oooh boy are we having fun with this!   For right now it has to sit on top of the sewing table until hubby can make a template and put an opening in the table so that the machine will sit flush with the table top.  Luckily it came with this huge extension table so for now that works great.  I am loving this machine, it sews like a dream.  And it's arrival was timely because yesterday's mail brought some new Lonni Rossi fabrics:

and some other new fabrics:

Don't you just love that map fabric?  I'm very drawn to with working with maps lately so if anybody out there has a good source for old map books, papers or fabric let me know.

In other news:  check out Virginia Spiegel's latest blog post to find out how you can win a free issue of Fibre&Stitch for you or to give as a gift!  More details on that here too.

a little something for me

I have admired Elis Cooke's work for quite some time now.  Her gift for combining color and texture fascinates and inspires me.  So I recently treated myself and purchased one of her journals from her etsy shop:

I can't even tell you how gorgeous this thing is in person.  This photo does not do it justice at all.   It's so beautifully done it's an absolute pleasure to hold this in my hand.  And the best part is that the inside pages are all replaceable so I don't have to stop using it after I filled the pages.   If you're looking for a way to treat yourself or someone else,  go pop over to her etsy store and buy one of her journals, you'll love it.   Elis is going to have an article in an upcoming issue of Fibre&Stitch (issue 5) and I'm just thrilled about it.

Today here in my part of the world it's Thanksgiving.  I have a  very long list of things to be thankful for and on the list is all of you who take time out of your days to stop by here and visit.  For those of you who leave comments you should know that I appreciate them very much and for those of you who just pop in quick and don't say much, I'm grateful that you stopped by :)

Whether or not you celebrating Thanksgiving I wish you peace and good health and that all of your days throughout the year are filled with love and laughter.

playing with paint

These arrived in yesterdays mail...

Some new Stewart Gill paints and rubber stamps.  I am really enjoying working with these paints!  I managed to get a few paper surfaces painted up this morning...

and...

and a couple of fabric surfaces too:

and one more...

Not sure what the next step is for these surfaces.  I think I will definitely add some stitching to the fabric ones.  The nice thing about these paints is that even though they are quite thick they really don't change the hand of the fabric.  And I notice that they seem to dry very quickly. 

Next up on my list of things to do is some holiday baking!  I'm spending the day in the kitchen tomorrow baking up a storm, one of my favorite ways to spend the day. 

For a friend

My very dear friend Susan really liked what I did with my denim jacket and asked me if I would embellish hers too.  Easier said than done because Susan's color preferences are completely the opposite of mine.  I lean towards turquoise, magenta and purples and Susan gravitates towards rich browns, bronze, maroons and greens.  So I created surface after surface after surface over the last week until I got one that I thought she would like.  I ended up creating 5 surfaces in all until I got to the one that I ended up using for the jacket. 

and the back:

It's hard to see from these terrible photos but the surface is built on a coppery colored silk dupioni with some hand dyed blue denim colored cheesecloth along with some novelty yarn that was a combination of a blue eyelash yarn wrapped with a shiny copper metallic and just for a little extra sparkle I threw in some Sizzle thread.  Here's a close up of what the surface actually looks like:

There's actually quite a bit of sparkle and glimmer in this surface although you'd never know it from this photo!

So now that the jacket is off my to do list what's on my list for this week?  Well Friday the UPS man dropped off a box of new things to play with.  Some liquid watercolors:

and some fun metal to experiment with:

I have no idea what I'm going to do with this metal but I couldn't resist all those fun colors.  I first heard about this stuff from Teresa when I met up with her in Houston.  Teresa by the way is going to have an article in issue 4 of Fibre&Stitch.  I had the pleasure of seeing her work up close in person and I was so impressed I asked her if she would write an article on some of her techniques.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend, I'm off to the studio!

is it

a quilted & beaded red leather box...

or is it a brown paper bag in disguise?  This box measures 4"x6" x 3" high.

Working my way through the "to do" list

Most of you know that we add a new free project or two to the Fibre&Stitch website each month.  Yesterday I worked on getting the step out photos done for these two...

The mini wrapfolio:

This is the project that I taught in a couple of my Houston classes.

and the basic box:

and now that I've gotten these two things off my "have to do" list I can work on something on my "want to do" list! 

only a couple more weeks...

until issue 2 of Fibre&Stitch becomes available!  It's even bigger than issue 1 if you can believe it and packed with lots of great techniques and projects. 

This issue's cover image is from Mags article on creating Mini Byobu (artistic folding screens).  Gorgeous isn't it?!  You'll find a link to the table of contents for this issue on the front page of the Fibre&Stitch website right underneath the image of the cover. 

Guest authors for this issue include the fabulously talented Carol Clasper,  Marie Johansen,  Sara Lechner, Gina Ferrari, Terry White & Linda F.  My thanks go out to all of these incredibly gifted artists for their contributions to this issue.  This issue will be available on 11/28/07. 

A new journal

My local library had a $1 book sale a few weeks ago and I was lucky enough to come across a book of old maps.  Some of the pages were torn and had ratty edges which made it perfect for tearing up and using in a collage so I made up a layered Mistyfuse surface with some of the pages and turned it into a travel journal and some postcards....

Some of the images came from one of those Memories of a Lifetime clip art books that I printed out on regular paper and aged with some walnut ink.  The postage stamps came from my very generous friend Mags because she knows how much I love to include postage stamps in some of my surfaces.

Have a great weekend everyone!