Month: June 2025

Progressing

by CZeitler

I love how my Fey piece is turning out. The wings are tulle, the crown is made from beads that the person is for had purchased. I think I’ll add some red thread to the other side to signify their pain and death, then bind it.

You’re getting to know me and side-quests, these keyrings are my current side quest. They are faux cork with specialty ribbons as the loop. I love how they have turned out. At present they are being glued together then I’ll top stitch around the sides. I’m going to see if my sister wants one of the sparkly rainbow ones, or if I’ll put them all on my shop.

I am finishing up the three memorial pieces, rinsed off the top stabilizer this morning so I’m waiting for the other two to dry so I can do the fold over binding. I’m also using a tiny bit of fabric glue to ensure that the stitches on back will not destabilize, then I’ll whip stitch a couple of jump rings so that they can be used as wall hangings.

I am going to be seeing a lot of my family on Tuesday that I have not seen in years, if not decades. I have no idea how this is going to go. One of my relatives has offered me a place to sleep on the way there if I want to start out Monday night. Another has offered that I can stay with her and her daughters so I don’t have to leave immediately after on Tuesday. So I think I will head out early Tuesday morning the way I originally planned but then stay with my Cousin, I let her know I have to head out at 6am, so that should be okay.

I also randomly decided that I was going to sew a mask and a reversible hat for myself. I purchased nose pieces for masks when they were on clearance, so think that will be good for me this summer. The hat is more because I realized that with my thin hair my scalp can get sunburned easily and I need to prevent that.

I only have two more flowers and two more branches to hand sew before I can start embroidering the commissioned quilt again. All in all I have had a very productive week so far. I’m proud that I have gotten quite a bit of the items that I wanted to do complete. There are other things that I really do need to get working on, putting things onto my Etsy site, seeing about getting a couple of quick makes to set up an in person craft booth sometimes this summer, and so much more. At present the weather is going to be really hot and then thunderstorms so I don’t think I’ll be doing too much outside…though I did finally get my lawn back under control.

Things could be so much worse, I have no real room to complain. Given that until next time I hope that you Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Side-Questing

by CZeitler

The world is full of amazing opportunities for crafts and self expression. Sometimes there are so many opportunities I start five things at once…okay, often I start five things at once. I have made some progress on my aunt’s quilt, right now I am using clear thread to ensure that her applique is solid on the first set of flowers. I think that the center looks good, I’ll see if I can ask my cousin when I see her at the Funeral.

I am trying to find a pattern with Celtic meaning and a lovely phrase to commemorate my Uncle that passed, I’ll make three (one for each of his kids and one for his widow…maybe one for his ex?). Mostly that is adding the elements for the design and getting them stitched out.

My library is kicking off their summer reading program in two weeks and I found out last week that we will be having ‘spirit days’ that week. I will not be at work for two of them, however I will be at the library to volunteer at a booth for one of the guilds I belong to. This means that I need at least ideas, if not projects, for each of the other five days. One of them is for a piece of art or inspiration by an artist. I am currently working on an applique design for a t-shirt I purchased. Hopefully that turns out.

I am still low-key working on my Fey piece, it is currently percolating in the back of my mind as I sort through my fabrics, tulle, lace, etc.

There have been some great sales on embroidery patterns, I sort of need to lay off of purchasing those until I have made some products and sales.

In addition to all of that I have started playing around with Notion as a way to keep my projects organized and my inventory/purchases recorded. All of this is on top of my work stuff, a class I’m teaching this weekend, the funeral, and preparing for summer reading. I’ve bitten off a lot to chew, I hope I can keep up with it.

I did take time one morning before work for an artists date to the beach. Even though it means waking up super early I love going to the beach for sunrise, I got a great photo of the moon before it set.

Remember to live life A Little More Abstract!

Messing With a New (to me) Technique

by CZeitler

For a couple of years now I have been seeing layered paper creations, the layers add depth and the paper makes them easy to cut out using something like a Cricut. Then, right before H&H Americas I saw that Snuggly Monkey was selling patterns for felt creations, some where animals with beautiful layers, while others were Hobbit Doors. I fell in love and picked up two patterns and some felt. I was lucky enough to encounter more felt when I stopped at a JoAnns on my way to H&H. I tried to cut one set out, and found the pieces small and fiddly. This is entirely a me thing, with my larger fingers I’m not great at tiny detail work. I hope to get back to it in the near future. This did get me wondering how people managed to create the separate layers however. I could see creating several copies of an image, getting an Xacto knife to cut out different elements for the layers and working with them from there hoping that you did it correctly and things would work together. Then a colleague of mine decided that they were going to go through our filing cabinet of older office supplies and dropped off some Carbon Paper to see if I can do anything with them.

I believe that I wrote earlier about making some reverse applique work and an art quilt, I plan on using some inspiration images to get different elements to create a whole. Well as I was looking for inspiration, something struck me. I can use a printout of an inspiration image and then use the carbon paper and a mechanical pencil, without lead, to trace the elements I would like in each layer. This also allows me to embellish them and make notes to myself. I did find out that the carbon does not rub off of fabric, so the Fey image I traced on white quilting cotton is not going anywhere, but I can use that to my advantage to make sure it is completely covered. Fortunately, the carbon does not ‘bleed’ through the weave either. I realize that this is just the very first step on my journey with these new creations, however I am very excited to see where it might go. Hopefully I can create a small sample soon. If I plan on doing this out of quilting cotton I will need to make sure that I properly applique the edges.

Until Next Time Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Memorial Project

by CZeitler

Due to my Irish heritage I have always been drawn in by the idea and images of they Fey, or Fair Folk. At H&H Americas I expressed an idea that had been percolating in the back of my mind for quite some time, a multi-media textile art piece that features a dark Fey. I bought some silk fabric samples and spun some black silk thread.

Two weeks ago I received a call from my cousin. (Since I’m not using names and my Dad had 10 siblings this is a bit confusing, the two cousins are not from the same immediate family, their Mothers are Sisters to my Dad who is not with us.) She told me that our other cousins daughter, who was living with her parents, had decided to take her own life. This was devastating. I did not have the opportunity to get to know her much in life, we had only seen each other a few times and she was not outwardly expressive…I would say shy except that I think that this was a conditioned response to years of mental abuse. My Aunt was the one to find her. This was horrible, my cousin called me and I told her that I could be there 6 hours from then. She called on Sunday and I cancelled the spinning class I was supposed to teach and arrived Thursday for the Saturday funeral.

It was both horrible and lovely. I had a chance to see family I had not in a while, I helped create 4 posters…okay I cut some of the white off of the edges of printed pictures, and generally we kept busy. I was an ear for my cousin, a shoulder for her daughters, and a buffer for her mom and dad. My other cousin, the father, had been in town all week. He was mourning in his own way…not talking with anyone, communicating through text and his girlfriend, hanging up on my cousin…you know. She finally told him to ‘Grow up’ and then the whole family was dis-invited from the funeral. Her sister managed to smooth things over to the point that my cousin was the only one not invited, so I stayed with her and her husband, daughters, and a couple of other family members that decided to stay. I spent Sunday with my cousin and headed back that night, which was hard for her older daughter who had been sullen all day. I had to explain that my social battery was drained (I had just been to see them 4 weeks ago then H&H, then COVID, now this) and that I did not want to subject them to the bad mood I could feel coming on. I drove home, taking two breaks to nap for 2 hours at a time, arriving home at 5 am after leaving at 8:30pm.

Last night I had inspiration, that will be explained in a post that is coming out later this week (I superseded it with this post for reasons I will explain soon), and began on a sample or small scale version of my Fey.

The young lady that decided her life was not worth living had a small collection of beads, she enjoyed arts and crafts, that my cousin gifted me. I decided to incorporate those into this memorial project, you can see one bead and sequin where their eye is going to be. I was pleased to get a start on this project, I had all sorts of ideas running through my head, I planned on spending this weekend, after work, between machine embroidering on my (other) aunt’s quilt, draping different fabrics and exploring what colors and textures I want to bring to this piece.

This morning as I was washing up and getting dressed for work I received a phone call. I did not have the number saved, that has been rectified, however I knew that I had family in that area so I picked up. It was my Aunt whose quilt I am working on…one of her brothers (my uncle) passed away last night. I think I was in shock and forgot to ask if there was anything I could do. Admittedly I was not very close to my Uncle, however I loved him and I love his 2 children, my cousins. I cannot cancel another class for the same guild. My finances are stretched thin, so I think a card is going to be all that I can send, maybe a memorial mini quilt or something…Oh, I’ll embroider some good Irish sayings on a piece for each, they might like that.

What keeps running through my mind is that these things come in threes. I know it is an old superstition, however, that does not make it wrong. I am waiting to talk with my sister so we can figure out what to do. Into every life a little rain must fall, rest in the loving embrace of the family that came before you.

Life Life a Little More Abstract.

Summer (Crafting) Challenges

by CZeitler

Each summer seems to go by faster and faster as they years progress. This year I am going to focus on making sure that I have Fun and accomplish some of my crafty tasks that I would like to do. Part of having fun is making sure that I go on what Julia Cameron calls ‘Artist Dates’ each week. Yesterday I went to the beach to collect pretty rocks. I discovered that my water shoes rub on my bunions, it’s still foot numbingly cold in the water, and that I really enjoy listening to the waves crash against the shore. I am considering making some kind of quilt to memorialize this summer of adventure (hopefully). If you are looking for some kind of a challenge this summer there are plenty of opportunities.

I am not sponsored by any of these organizations, however these are a few that I have discovered.

Tour De Fleece is going to occur this July while the Tour De France is happening. The facebook group can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/447931545237090/ and there are plenty of fiber sellers that can provide you with their kits if you google Tour De Fleece. I know this as a spinning event, however you could easily do any kind of fiber craft.

Similar to this a Sewist found out about Tour De Fleece and decided that they wanted to do a Tour De Fabric: https://www.quiltnlearn.com/quiltalongs

If you don’t like those parameters there always seem to be various Crochet alongs, knit alongs, quilt alongs, sew alongs, etc. Perhaps you want to go to X number of retreats this summer (1 is a number), or you want to challenge yourself to creating/finishing a piece this summer. Whatever your challenge I hope that you are able to make progress toward getting it done.

As a ‘Photo Tax’ I have made progress…okay I started…quilting a quilt top for a family member. She made the top and asked me to do the quilting. I almost have the center motif done, hopefully she likes it when I am done.

Live Life a Little more Abstract