Slow Stitching - No. 018 - Pocket & Visible Mending

It's week 18 in the K3N Cloth Tales slow stitch challenge.

The prompt was pocket and visible mending.

Today, we take pockets for granted and in general I need at least one in every garment.  Such, was not the case for women in the 1600-1700s. Was it because they were considered to own little so they did not have to carry anything?I would think at least a hanky.

 This is why tie on pockets were created to wear under your dress. It was accessed through a slit in the skirt. These were precious. I chose blue fabric for my Mom and added a piece of Dad's blue plaid shirt. The bit of yellow is the nod to visible stitching. The tiny heart is for my Mom. Kathryn did an eyelet so I did one to try it out. The pin is there to hold my 3 things to the right in my pocket.  I created little tags from fabric and permanent markers. A fishing rod for my Dad, a seed packet for my Mom because she would be all in by now and the 50th is to remember my 50th high school graduation this year with white and green - our school colors..

Fairy Light Memento

After Mom's Funeral in April and the internment of both Mom and Dad I felt a need to have a memento to remind me of their love, commitment and my gratitude for having them in my life for over 60 years.

I love glass and have enjoyed looking at vintage, crystal and depression glass on several You Tube channels. 

I decided that I wanted a Fairy Light as my memento.  I could light it when I wanted comfort and a tangible reminder of them.  The vintage ones are hard to find and very expensive. Contemporary examples are more reasonably price.  One of them is by Fifth Avenue Crystal and those still were running about $100 on line which I was not prepared to do the online thing. I could not find anything in my area on Kijiji so I put out the word what I was looking for as most folks did not know.

About mid May I got a call from one of my sisters that she had found a Fifth Avenue one for $30.00 on Facebook. I said YES!  She was kind enough to pick it for me.  Towards the end of May I was able to collect it from her house but with the craziness going at my house it stayed in the box for a while longer.

I did start my plans for how I wanted to decorate it and light it.

This some pictures from on line because I did not take pics of mine before I started.

As you can see the base where the tealight would sit is not flat so I needed something to fill in that space and allow my tealight to sit nicely and safely.  I looked at several ideas for something small and clear like vase filler or seed beads.  Vase filler was going to be way more than I needed and clear sead beads with out silver lining were not available.  Durign the few days I spent with my sister in late June we visited a Dollarama and I found these.

These clear plastic diamonds were small enough to fill in the space, they were clear and the price was right.

Once I was home, I poured the bag of the smallest diamonds in the base and then set the clear plastic tealight holder on top.

It was perfect. They filled the cavity below the tealight exactly the way I needed.

The bottom right hand photo is seeing the candle wax completely melted in the clear plastic tealight holder and you can see the diamonds below.

There is the risk of spilling the diamonds out of the base as they are just sitting there but that is okay.

I knew I wanted green and blue glass beads so the light would go through them.  Dad's favorite shirts which Mom made for him were forest green and Mom's favorite color was blue.  Not cobalt but a true blue.

The Fairy Light offered 2 places to put some sort of decoration.  The indent on the shade and the one just above the base.

Here's my first attempt with EBeads on the base.  It's hard to tell in this photo but we received a small locket at the funeral.  We cleared Mom's stuff at Easter and we had slated her clothes to be donated. When the time came my sister could not send Mom's favorite dress to the thrift store and she decided to make it into mememtos for the kids and grandkids.  She put a small piece in the lockets for the boys and the girls received a scarf from the fabric.

The locket is still a memento from both Mom and Dad.

During this time my mind was working on what to buy for beads.  I did enjoy the Fairy Light a few times lit late at night.  

As you can see in the above photo only the shade is lit with the tealight at the top of the base.  I made the decision a few years ago to limit my use of real candles and switched to wax for scent.  I do have a few real tealight candles because sometimes in photography nothing but a real flame will do.

The thought crossed my mind that if I could find a light which the Fairy Light could be placed on then it would not be fire and the base would be lit as well.  

The brainstorming began.  I have an etched crystal block which has a LED light in the base which lights it up. Okay, that one has several colors of lights that rotate through - red, green, yellow and blue I think.  Well I knew I did not want colored lights. Now, I want a white LED light round base.  I put that into Google and stuff came up. They do sell LED light bases for crystal and glass figurines, etched glass items, and gemstones etc.  Again, none easily available in retail stores in my area. But I persisted!  Eventually, I found round puck light which can be placed under your upper cabinets.  They are battery operated and light when you press the center of the puck. I brought a tracing of the Fairy Light base with me to make sure that it would stand safely on this puck. I was a the big orange store which on line indicated there was 16 in stock.  After asking several customer service reps for assistance I received what I needed. A couple of guys checked the inventory and sure enough there was supposed to be some in stock.  A sharped eyed young man said there the right number on that box way up there! Up they went and brought down the box, I check the diameter against my tracing and walked out of there with 3 for less that $20 and the AAA batteries were included.

This is starting to fall into place.  Beads are next.

I decided that Michaels would by my starting place for beads.  The day I was there the shelves were mostly empty.  Supply chain issues? I don't know. I found some green faceted beads in the size that would work but no blue ones.  Another girl in the aisle said she was going to visit a Michaels in a city south of ours as there were fewer customers there and hoped the selection would be better.  After giving that some thought I decided to follow here lead.  Into the car and headed south on the big highway.

Sure enough, there was the same green ones in the the 4 different sizes and cobalt blue ones in the 8mm size which were on sale! One of the green strings was 8mm. Perfect.  They were faceted.

I used strong beading cord left over from my Christmas tree project. 

I placed the green and blue glass faceted beads alternating the colors until I had enough to go around the shoulder of the shade.  I tied my knot then added a few more for dangles.  I added an EBead and a silver crimp bead at the end to keep the beads in place.

 

I chose to use silver lined EBeads for the string of beads on the base of the Fairy Light. Again, I chose deep green and cobalt blue for color. I tied the cord tight with 3 knots.

I added the hinged locket on the string and let it sit over the knots.  That worked out really nice.

One of my sisters had the lockets in her stash of craft stuff and brought them with her.  It was great to be able to have something from that day.

As you can see it is hinged so I may put a bit of Mom's dress in it.

I

I am so happy with how this project turned out. It took almost 3 months for all the pieces to come together but it is so gorgeous.  I will enjoy it for years to come.

I love you Mom and Dad!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

The temperatures have improved a lot.  It means the snow is melting and freezing at night into ice.  

It means the highways improved enough for me to travel to see Mom and Dad since I did not see them for Christmas.

Mom is settling in to her room at the lodge since her move in late December.

Living with a bunch of people takes some adjustment and getting the food she needs requires that she just keep asking.  Talking to the nutritionist last week has helped a lot.

Most residents has something they like hanging on their door at the lodge.  Mom indicated she would like something as well.  She had found a couple of photos she liked but had nothing to support them.

I found a metal plaque with a wire hanging in my stash.   I spray painted it gold because Mom does not like brown which was it's original color. 

I brought some card stock, the paper cutter and some adhesive so we could put something together for her.

She chose this Goldfinch photo which I trimmed to the width of the plaque.  I trimmed the green card stock to be the size of the plaque.  We adhered the picture to the green then pinned that to the plaque so it can easily be changed when she would like something different.  She is happy with her choice.

Dad cannot participate in his pre-fall activities which included making rosaries and doing puzzles.  He right arm is healed but very weak.  They are working with exercises to make that better.

To keep boredom at bay I decided to make him a Picture Book.  Mom suggested nature photos and family pics in a fairly large size.  The family photos I kept the people to about three per photo and got them printed to 8.5 x 11.  Easy to recognize the faces.

I include 14 nature photographs from my collection.  I put the color copies in page protectors in a .5 binder.  This is light enough for him to handle himself and allows any of us to switch up the photos to keep it interesting.

I hope that it motivates him to use him right arm and lets him know he is not forgotten.

Here are photos of a Lesser Yellow Legs water fowl bird and a dragonfly.

I finished this book as week - Rutland Place by Anne Perry.

The time in which the story takes place is Victorian era in England.  Charlotte Pitt is a bit of a problem solver along with her police officer husband Thomas.  Her mother lives in the housing complex of Rutland Place which holds residences of the well to do.  

Her mother has lost a locket or has she just misplaced it?  Servants are the first to be suspected then eliminated. Neighbors as well have had items go missing.  A mystery for sure so Charlotte is asked to investigate discreetly because calling the police would not look good in the neighbourhood. 

When a friend and neighbor is found dead then the police are officially involved.  Thomas interviews, asks uncomfortable questions, and tracks down leads. Charlotte has her opinions about things as well. 

The ending was not what I was expecting at all but the secrets where unearthed.  It was interesting to read a story from the point of view of the privileged members of society during that time.  I think I prefer to have stories from the downstairs group of people.

I am working on de-cluttering and cleaning areas in my place so everything has a home.

I have a running list of things that I have gone missing - it is a mystery that I can lose track of stuff in such a small place.

I tackled the die cutting area last week because I generally leave scraps and bits sitting on the left hand side of the big shot until it is stacked and I cannot see bottom.  I had "lost" one of  my square thinlits and I am glad to say that it has returned to it's mates in their appropriate package.

This is the cushions on my sofa/couch/chesterfield.  I bought it secondhand from my sister in 2008 I think.  The cushion covers are wearing so I need to do something to extend it's life.

I decided to buy microfiber fabric in a deep dark teal color which works well with the pattern on the couch.  In this picture it is just tucked in but I will be making one large cushion cover with 3 pockets with a fold over closure.

I was very happy to find such a great match to background color of the couch.

I bought myself a new phone system with a built in answering machine to replace the one I bought in 2002 when I got layed off work and would be needing a reliable machine during my job search.

I was glad to find this system includes a cordless unit as well.  It will be helpful when I need to get something while I am on the phone.  I will be able to move around without saying "Please hold on!".

When I decided it turned out it was on sale as well so I was very happy with it.

I recently finished this book - The Map of Salt and Stars
by Zeyn Joukhadar.   I really enjoyed this book and it was really easy to read.

It follows 2 young ladies who lived years apart. Nour lives in New York with her parents and sisters when her father passes away. Her mother, a map maker, decides to move them back to Syria. Things don't go well and they embark on very long journey.

Rawiya 800 years earlier leaves her mother and aims to be apprenticed as a map maker but must disguise herself to get the position. 

Their stories are connected. Nour and her family come to be where Rawiya was living so much earlier.  Amazing to live in a country and area with so much history.   I would highly recommend this book.

The theme for Flickr Macro Mondays was Currency.  This is one of the shots I took for the challenge.   This is a coin from Thailand.  I have no idea when I got it.

You can check out my Flickr Photostream (SMDPics) to check out the one I submitted.

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday#165 and Mersad who host Through My Lens # 323

Have a great week!

I Love You Card

I made a card for my Dad who is in hospital and not doing well.

He is too sick to have the surgery he needs to fix his arm which was broken in a fall very early morning Friday.

I just wanted to let him know that I love him and whatever happens all will be well.

We have started the process of him moving from the apartment to a place with more care.

He is in his early 90s and has survived many health issues.

I pray that God blesses him today and that he knows how much we all love him.

I watercolored the heart, ran a line of gold metallic ink around it and spattered it with the 3 colors I used - Nick Bantock - Vermilion, Rose Madder and Plum.  Added a gold ribbon wrapped around the card front and tape to the inside. Mounted the heart to a brown card A7 base with 3D foam tape. 

Card - Father's Day photo

I made this card for my Dad. I started with a photo I took last summer at the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough. This is a reconstruction of a workshop of a man who made canoes.  It reminded me very much of my Dad's workshop.  I mounted the photo onto a mustard piece of card stock.  I stamped the greeting with my small Close to my Heart acrylic alphabet in Chocolate Chip.  I added three mustard brads below to anchor the top element.  I will spend Sunday with my Dad!

Card Club - May - Father's Day

Father's Day is soon! Are you sending yours a card? I am.
On this card I used a leaf image I designed myself several years ago when I was screen printing on cardstock. Now the color printer can do the same effect with less mess. The cardstock is Always Artichoke from Stampin Up! I'm finding I am using that color a lot lately. The acetate greeting allowed my girls to add the greeting or not. The scrapbook paper was very versatile allowing quite a few color options for accent and card.

Card for DAD - denim pocket

Perfect card for Dad. The pocket is a Sizzix die which I cut from denim scrapbook paper. The checkered background paper matched very well. The trick is to make sure that you only glue the edge of the pocket so that the tag can be inserted. Glue the little red DAD tag between the pocket and the decorative background. Insert the brads on each corner. The tag can be used to add a special greeting to that great guy.