Lettergirl

Fabric + starch = instant wall decor.

Recently I revisited a technique I used in college to decorate my dorm room walls:  letters cut out of fabric and adhered to the wall with liquid fabric starch.  Want to freshen up your wall?  You can peel these letters off, wash the wall, and start over with a new quotation:  no need to repaint...easy peasy!

First you cut out your letters.  I like to use batik fabrics because the weave is nice and tight.  I also cut my letters freehand; I don't mind the imperfections.  If you're not up to that, you could stencil letters to the shiny side of freezer paper using a nice dark pen (like a Sharpie). Iron the shiny side onto the back of your fabric, cut out the letters (the pen should show through enough for cutting), then peel off the freezer paper.  The freezer paper also keeps the fabric stiff for cutting, but watch when you're peeling so you don't get too many frayed ends.

Dip your letters in a shallow bowl of liquid starch.  I did this entire quotation with less than a half cup of starch.

You don't want too much extra starch on your fabric or it will drip onto the wall.

Press your letter against your (clean) wall.  I like to do one word at a time, stand back & make sure it looks straight/even, and peel the letters off if necessary.  You can reapply them without adding more starch if you do it quickly. 

Once I'm sure I like the placement, I blot the letters with a paper towel to catch any extra starch that could drip on the wall.

Ta da!  Now why did it take me 25 years to remember this idea?

Lettergirl Pillows at Spoonflower.

I finally have a few photos of the pillows I stitched up from my custom fabric at Spoonflower. 

The fabric is called Four Love Pillows and when you buy a yard (starting at $17.50) you'll get four different pillow fronts, with four of my favorite quotes.  You can also buy just a fat quarter and get only the green pillow shown here.

Before I stitched the pillows together, I added some embroidery:  this one has a simple running stitch inside the border.  And the one below has little seed beeds stitched into the scallops:

I'd love to see what you can do with the Four Love Pillows fabric!

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Now for sale at Spoonflower.

A new hobby.

First I wanted to.  Then I didn't want to.  But I never forgot about it either.  A trip to Lila & Claudine's was all the inspiration I needed to make up my mind: it's time to learn to knit.

The yarn that tipped the scales is this alpaca-mohair blend in shades of green, blue and grey.  It's super uneven, to hide any beginner flaws, and I really wanted something that would feel amazing every time I touched it.

I'm on the six-month plan for this scarf.  No rush, lots of other irons in the fire.  I'm appreciating a project that is completely unrelated to my creative "work" and a change of pace from the other ways I use my hands.  (Although with the way it's snowing today, I may just have to hurry a bit.)

Obi.

When I dressed Purnah for my open house last fall, she looked like she wanted a little something more.  So I started pinning scraps of red fabric on her, vaguely inspired by a Japanese obi (literally, sash). 

All the fabric pieces are leftovers from my mentor-protege experience in 2011-2012.  Many are hand-dyed, one is painted with dye, and another is screenprinted. 

This weekend I finally took the scraps and ironed them onto some reasonably stiff interfacing.  Then I machine-sewed the edges, adding scraps of knit for the ties. 

Now the sash is sitting in my sewing basket, which I keep near the couch for family movies (about the only time I sit still).  Two episodes of Downton = detail quilting on my obi.  Can't wait till it's washed and all roughed up.

Getting organized with Circa notebooks.

Yes, I know it's already ten days into the new year.  I'm deep in production mode for post-holiday stamp orders and the first Quote of the Month is already in the mail, but my left brain has really been clamoring for attention:  plan, organize, get my mental house in order so I have the freedom to be creative.  Welcome to my new organizing obsession:  the Circa notebook.

Circa notebooks have these sturdy little disks that allow you to customize the guts of each notebook.  And how I love to customize.

For about a year and a half now, I've been doing a brain purge at the start of each month (or, ideally, near the end of the previous month).  I write down every little thing I can think of that I need or want to accomplish during the month.  I'd been using random spiral notebooks for this task until I discovered the Circa.  Now I have my very own blank sheet of paper alongside a page that lets me sort out everything into manageable tasks.

This way I also have a sense of the big picture.  When I start categorizing all those to-dos, I can shift what's needed to another month (because I have another blank sheet of paper for the next month all ready to go...yay!).  

Between the monthly summaries I've made a two-page spread for each week:

I've actually only made the first three months of the year so far, as I know I'll want to make a few adjustments.  I'm also trying to encourage myself to record my business mileage as it happens, not days (or weeks, or months) later.  If it makes me happy, I'll use it, right?

I've also got sections in the back of this notebook for big picture planning (the whole dang year) and miscellaneous notes.

And, because I had so much fun putting this notebook together, I made a couple more.  One for the notes I'm always gathering at Magic Wand Collective events, and one for new product ideas (trust me, I need a whole notebook for that).  

If you like this notebook and you haven't subscribed to my newsletter yet, better get on it.  There'll be a related free treat in the next issue!