Prairie Peasant

Coiled Mats Progression, Step 3

2012-02-13T13:14:00.000-06:00

After mastering circles, ovals and coasters, I decided the next step would be to add another dimension to my coiled mats. I went UP with them, and made bowls or baskets!

It's quite exciting to see a three dimensional object emerge on my sewing machine from the very flat materials that I start with. There is so much potential with this, I need a few more hours in each day!

Rainbows are a wonderful way to use up loads of fabric scraps, and they turn out so beautifully! While I would love to make this bowl available in my shop, my kids have begged for this one to stay at home. So until I have the chance to make another soon, I must give in to my children for a change!

Choose Your Rebound Journal

2012-02-11T11:56:00.001-06:00

I have completed numerous journals that customers chose from the many vintage books I have listed in my shop. Since I can't make these fast enough to list them all in my shop at once, I try to give people the chance to find the right book to have made into a new journal. They are listed in my shop (section: Rebound Journals) so you can choose which book you would like for a journal. Turn around time is about 1 week (plus shipping time). Here's how a few of them turned out:

Andersen's Fairy Tales from 1956:

I was really pleased with the black and white harlequin paper to wrap the signatures paired with the pink thread! It matched perfectly!

I still have Aesop's fables and both English and German versions of Grimm's fairy tales available.

A French Reader from 1903:

I used a Victorian style paper for the endpapers and to wrap each signature.

L'art de conjuguer (French verb conjugation guide) from 1966. This book is still being used in Canadian schools today. I tried to convince my daughter that she should use this vintage copy, but she insisted on the newer copy with 16000 verbs (and was probably better off)!

Since this journal was heading off to France, I used maps for the endpapers.

I still have the Spanish and Latin books available.

Coiled Mats Progression, Step 2

2012-02-07T22:13:00.000-06:00

The next step in my progression with coiled mats was to go smaller, with coasters:

Random fabrics for Prism coasters

They look like they'd be more efficient to make 'cause they're smaller, but the starting of each one takes the most time. You just get into the groove and it's time to end off! Still, fun to make, and a quicker project (if you just need one!).

A lively underwater fabric made these colourful coasters

Coiled Mats Progression, Step 1

2012-02-06T15:16:00.000-06:00

I've been really enjoying busting my stash of fabric scraps to make these coiled mats. I have a tendency to jump in over my head when I'm learning something new, rather than starting with simple and progressing. With the coiled mats, I've been making an effort to become proficient at one stage before moving on to another.

I started with the basic circle. These have been very well received online on Etsy and locally as well. I can't seem to keep any rainbows or green ones in stock!

I could probably just make rainbows and green mats all day, and they'd get snapped up! But no, I want to progress, and so I tried ovals next. They're a little trickier to get started and the ones I've made are about twice the size of the circles, so they take me twice as long to make.

I think I'm pretty good at these now too! What do you think I tried next?

Where In the World have all my Journals gone?

2012-02-05T15:59:00.000-06:00

When I feel I need a little pick-me-up, it's nice to review what I've accomplished since opening up my Etsy shop(s) almost 4 years ago. One way of doing this is with the Map feature on Flickr.

Maps are not only one of my favourite materials to use in my journals, they are also great to use to track where I've sent my items.

When photos are uploaded on Flickr, you can click the "Organize & Create" tab at the top to access more features. Then click on the "Map" tab and you can drag your photos on to the map. Probably most Flickr users use it to show where the photos were taken, but I use it to show where the items in the photos were sent.

I'm not the most faithful at uploading photos to Flickr, but looking at the map helps motivate me to do it more often. It's so amazing that items that these two hands have made have travelled all around the world to be in someone else's two hands!

I think I've sent something to about 8/13 Canadian provinces and territories, to 40/50 US states including Alaska and Hawaii, to several European countries, to Australia and New Zealand and parts of Asia. I haven't sent anything directly to Africa or South America, but I know my journals have traveled there! If I could make a second map on Flickr, I'd make one for all the travel journals I've made, and which maps were used!

Weekend Worktable

2012-02-03T19:44:00.000-06:00

I've been busy this week, sewing journals and sewing coiled mats, and finally had some time today to take some photos of these new items, plus a few others I made a while back.

Now comes the hard part: editing the photos and getting these items listed in my Etsy shops. This alone is a good reason to stop making one-of-a-kind items, and make only items that can be relisted as they sell! But I like making original items too much to go that route! So I must put up with these time consuming aspects as part of the plan....

Quilt Progress

2012-01-30T11:22:00.000-06:00

Well I didn't go to the quilting retreat this past weekend, but I have been doing some quilting. I made progress on the Disappearing Nine Patch Quilt for my youngest daughter.

After cutting all the nine patch blocks into quarters, they were all laid out on the living room floor. C wanted a totally random arrangement, so daughter S helped us out looking for unacceptable arrangements of colour and patterns. It was tough, but being random also means it's also never going to be "perfect."

I think this was the final arrangement, agreed upon by all the consultants. If the two kids agree, I know it's a good place to stop! Next we had to label all the blocks by row and block number, so I wouldn't mix them up when stitching them together.

I've sewn the blocks in each row together and my next step is to sew all the rows together to complete the quilt top. Stay tuned!

Nancy Drew Books

2012-01-27T19:10:00.002-06:00

Here are some Nancy Drew books I made a little while back, on special request for a customer:

Did you know that the first author wanted to create a character who was not "namby-pamby?" When (if ever) have you heard the term "namby-pamby" used?

On my Worktable

2012-01-24T19:55:00.003-06:00

As I mentioned in my last post, I've got several custom orders on the go right now. Two travel journals are complete and waiting for a local buyer to pick them up later this week. For three others, I've been gluing covers and cutting large papers down for the pages.....

...and I'm really loving my new teflon Folding T-Rib that I received for Christmas. It's great for folding heavier pages and signatures like I'm using here.

Tonight I'm starting (and finishing if I'm lucky!) sewing these books together. They're coming together nicely. I'm also liking the feel of my new teflon bone folder for burnishing the signatures as I sew. I've never used teflon tools before, but I like the weight and feel, plus they don't mark your paper like real bone can. What's your favourite tool in your toolbox?

Sidetracked!

2012-01-21T13:22:00.001-06:00

I have custom orders for 6 journals on the go right now but I got sidetracked one day this week to make 2 quilt blocks for a worthy cause. Stephanie from my quilting group is making 3 quilts for the family of a relative who have experienced too much tragedy recently. Hopefully the quilts will warm their hearts as well as their bodies.

Stephanie has already completed one quilt top. Using black and white fabrics with one accent colour fabric makes a beautiful colour scheme, don't you agree? She asked for volunteers to make 2 blocks with another colour to help her out. My fabric was pink, and here are my finished blocks:

Now back to those journals!

Frosty Morning

2012-01-19T21:12:00.000-06:00

It's rather chilly here in Manitoba this week, with wind chill warnings to scare even the bravest inside. But there is beauty in the every day things, and this is what my front window looked like this morning before sunrise.

The patterns in the frost are so intricate and amazing, just like individual snowflakes. Isn't it beautiful?

Baby Rag Quilt

2012-01-18T21:41:00.000-06:00

My quilt group met on Monday, and finally I had something to add to the pile of baby quilts we are making this year. It was a very simple rag quilt, but it's the very first one I've ever made, and it's done, so I'm satisfied.

I used a grey and pink homespun flannel paired with a cute baby print flannel that was in a basket of fabric from my mother-in-law. My mother-in-law loved children so I think she would approve of her fabric going into a quilt to be donated to a family in need.

And other baby quilt completions:

Brenda made this from some string pieced cut-offs from a previous project--just added a border and it was perfect for a baby size.

This was also Brenda's handiwork. She did some lovely machine quilting on the white squares.

Coiled Mats

2012-01-17T19:14:00.000-06:00

I told you yesterday that I would show you today what I've been making with all my fabric scraps, and here they are:

More coiled mats for my PrairieThreads Etsy shop! With the scraps sorted by colour, it's much easier to pick a mix of greens or reds or even a rainbow to make these coiled mats. You never know how they will turn out, but I haven't been disappointed yet! What do you like to make with scraps?

More Clean Up

2012-01-16T23:00:00.000-06:00

You may have noticed that I try to not throw anything away--it's both being frugal and trying to be kind to this earth. Fabric scraps are no exception to this rule. I had a big plastic bin under my sewing table that I threw any small scraps into. With the addition of a pile of scraps from a friend, it looked like this:

Very messy and difficult to sort through. I organized them all into colour groups (it wasn't as daunting as I thought it would be) and they now look like this:

Not the greatest photo, but you get the idea. Tomorrow I'll show you what I've been using these for!

Weekend Worktable

2012-01-14T07:30:00.000-06:00

I'm getting back in the swing of things with making more books. I'm working on some new Rebound Journals, so there will be lots of cutting and gluing and folding this weekend.

Studio Clean-up

2012-01-13T13:32:00.000-06:00

I had lofty goals of reorganizing everything in my studio during my week of holidays last week, and cleaning up a lot of the bins and boxes of mysterious supplies I'm ~~hoarding~~ gathering for future projects. Well, that didn't happen, at least not in ways that would be visible to a visitor to my studio! But here's one improvement I've made recently:

This corner had stacked wooden crates for shelving, staggered to give a few extra inches of usable space on each shelf. It was filled with tins of sewing supplies, some books and other random supplies. My books were in 4 spots around my studio. That has now been replaced with this:

Thanks to a coworker who had some bookshelves that were no longer needed! Isn't that a big improvement? Now all my books are together! So maybe I can't do my whole studio all at once, but I can do it in baby steps...

Quilts: Past & Present

2012-01-10T19:43:00.000-06:00

Yesterday my friend Heather joined me in visiting a quilt exhibition titled "Quilts: Past & Present" at the Buhler Gallery at the St. Boniface Hospital. This exhibition included both historic quilts from the Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library's collection and quilts made by Manitoba artist, Heather Lair. Both were well worth the view. Of the historical quilts, my favourites were a crazy quilt made by Sarah P. Hamm in 1882 and a log cabin quilt made with narrow strips of wool and silk fabrics. A closer look at the crazy quilt revealed very fine embroidery stitches and a lovely scalloped border. I would have loved to have taken many close-up photos of the crazy quilt for inspiration of my own, but alas, the gallery did not allow cameras.


Silk Road Treasures by Heather Lair, used with permission

Heather Lair is an award-winning quilter from Gimli, Manitoba, and upon viewing her work, it is easy to see why. She skillfully blends traditional and modern styles and techniques in her work. The fabrics she uses are a mix of commercial and hand-painted fabrics, as well as a mix of types of fabrics, such as silk and wool. She has been a full-time quilter for over 30 years and teaches classes in quilting and sewing. I know I'll be watching for news of a local class.

Imagination Beach by Heather Lair, used with permission

The landscapes she paints with fabric are quite lovely on their own, but framed with a mix of traditional and non-traditional quilting styles, they are quite stunning! The painted sky on "Imagination Beach" (shown above) was so beautiful and evocative!

Queen Guinevere Star by Heather Lair, used with permission

The photo above does not do justice to the beautiful regal colours used in this full size bed quilt.

Fossil Hunting by Heather Lair, used with permission

I really liked these landscapes, painted with strips of fabric with raw edges snipped and fraying to add texture. They really came alive for me.

You can see more of Heather Lair's work on her website or Etsy shop. The exhibition is on until January 22, so do stop by if you are in Winnipeg!

New Quilt's Inspiration

2012-01-09T21:31:00.001-06:00

Here is a picture of the disappearing nine patch quilt by audreypawdrey that was the inspiration for my quilt for C (see the previous post).

photo source, used with permission

Isn't it fantastic? For mine, the squares are twice the size, but I think the scrappy effect will be just as nice!

New Quilt

2012-01-05T15:05:00.000-06:00

I'm working on a new quilt for my youngest daughter C. She wants more of a scrappy look, so we browsed online looking for inspiration, and came across this quilt by audreypawdrey. We decided to use this disappearing nine patch design for our inspiration, but instead of making tiny 2.5" squares, we would start with 4.5" squares.

C helped choose all the fabrics, both from my stash, and those offered by members of my quilting group (thanks guys!). After cutting all the 4.5" squares (38 black and more than 304 random fabrics), I put her to work laying out the blocks.

Our guidelines were simple: a block with black background in the centre, and there had to be some contrast between the corner blocks and the in-between blocks.

Sewing the nine patch blocks together was relatively simple. Here are the finished blocks in random arrangement:

The next step is to chop all those blocks through the middle both ways, like this:

And this is where I'm at today. After all the blocks are cut, we'll randomly rearrange them to be sewn back together (that's why it's called a disappearing nine patch!).

Custom Order

2012-01-04T20:23:00.002-06:00

I completed an unusual and challenging custom order before Christmas. The customer wanted to print the contents of a traveller's blog and have it handbound into a gift book for the blog's writer. Once I made sure the customer knew about the commercial services available for this very thing, and she expressed her firm desire to still have it handbound, we proceeded to iron out all the details of the order.

She had the blog printed out on a lovely slightly textured paper (8.5 x 11") and sent it to me (I blurred the text in the photo here to maintain the customer's privacy). Because it was printed on single sheets, I decided a hardcover Japanese/stab binding would be a good option. The blog writer was traveling around New Zealand, so maps of the area were used for the covers. I hinged both the front and the back covers--I thought it would be easier to read this way. I made some coordinating cotton bookcloth and added a thin satin ribbon for embellishment.

This was the biggest stab binding I've ever done, so I measured everything several times and made sure all the layers were clamped really well before I drilled the holes for sewing. Once I got to the sewing, I was so relieved that everything was working out--the sewing was the easiest part of the order! I used waxed linen thread in a tortoise shell pattern. I was very pleased with how the finished book turned out and mailed it off to the customer.

Thankfully she was as pleased with the result as I was, and left me this very kind and generous feedback on Etsy:
ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! STUNNING! Laura created a wonderful book, her choice of covers and inside paper were lovely! The craftsmanship is fantastic, especially her attention to detail with the ribbon on the cover. This exceeded my expectations! This is truly a wonderful keepsake my daughter will treasure.

Custom Orders

2011-12-30T20:39:00.000-06:00

I created a number of custom orders in the months and weeks prior to Christmas, and interestingly the orders began again on Boxing Day as soon as I reopened my shop after being closed for a few days over Christmas. Here are a few of the Travel Journals that I made on special request:

Hawaii

Leeds, Yorkshire, with a button closure as requested.

Inside back cover of Leeds Travel Journal.
The buyer requested an envelope inside the back cover to hold little mementos.


Sri Lanka and Australia


Thailand and Australia

Germany and Czechoslovakia

Zambia

First page of Zambia. The buyer sent me a personalized page to include in the journal, with photos of the traveller's family who will miss her when she is away.

I think it's amazing that I have never yet had to turn down an order because I couldn't find a suitable map for the buyer! The atlases I use have a variety of styles of maps, so there is usually something to please everybody. Many of the orders are for use on a personal trip or for special gifts for traveller friends.

If you are interested in a Travel Journal with a specific location, send me a message and I'll do my best to help you out!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-06:00

And of course, the quilt is now complete!

I hope seasoned quilters will be forgiving as they look at this image. I could have done a much better job with the machine quilting, and I realize the little sashing squares are skewed. More important than the technical details of this quilt is the joy that it brings to my family as we celebrate the season of advent, of waiting and anticipation, until the waiting is over. Merry Christmas one and all!

Advent Day 24

2011-12-24T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 23

2011-12-23T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 22

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 21

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 20

2011-12-20T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 19

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 18

2011-12-18T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 17

2011-12-17T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 16

2011-12-16T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 15

2011-12-15T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 14

2011-12-14T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 13

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 12

2011-12-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 11

2011-12-11T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 10

2011-12-10T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 9

2011-12-09T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 8

2011-12-08T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 7

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 6

2011-12-06T06:00:00.000-06:00

Happy St. Nicholas Day! Today is the day some people open gifts in an effort to keep consumerism from hijacking the true meaning of Christmas.

For those who have been wondering, I did use a pattern for this Advent Quilt. I bought it at a local quilt shop in Winnipeg, but you can order it online here. There were a few blocks that I didn't want to use, so I found other designs in books or modified the design in the pattern a little.

Advent Day 5

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 4

2011-12-04T06:00:00.000-06:00

Advent Day 3

2011-12-03T06:00:00.000-06:00

In an effort to stay calm amongst the frenzied hustle and bustle of this holiday season, I am trying to quiet my life in the ways that I can, including with this blog. Here is the third advent quilt square I have chosen (they can be placed in any order, except for #25). I will continue posting one picture for each day of advent. Enjoy. Be at peace. Count your blessings.

Advent Day 1 and 2

2011-12-02T17:00:00.001-06:00

One of our family traditions for advent is to hang the Advent Quilt up on December 1, and each day one of the girls adds another little quilt square to it until it is complete on December 25. So for the next 24 days, I'm going to be hanging my advent quilt squares here on my blog, one a day, until they are all up.

I'm off to a late start, so I have to post two today.

Each square is a miniature quilt by itself, about 10 cm or 4" in size, made by paper piecing. They each have some little embellishment of embroidering or beading and they were very fun to make!

Do you have any traditions for Advent?

Volkswagen Beetle Envelopes

2011-12-01T21:25:00.001-06:00

I think a Volkswagen Beetle would be so much fun to drive.

They have such a unique design that you can't help but smile when you see one.

Volkswagen Beetle Car Envelopes are available in my etsy shop.

More Baby Quilts

2011-11-28T06:30:00.000-06:00

Here are two more baby quilts I missed in my post yesterday:

Another lovely flannel quilt, this one by Karen.

And a strip pieced quilt by Karen, lovely soft colours with a splash of bold colour! This one reminds me very much of my (unfinished) strip pieced quilt.

Year of the Baby Quilt Progress

2011-11-27T16:06:00.001-06:00

This year has been designated the Year of the Baby Quilt for my quilting group, as one of our members is having a baby! We have all agreed to make at least one baby/child quilt over the year, to give away to a local charity.

At this past week's quilt group several members had finished baby/children's quilts for Show and Tell (alas, not I!). So without further ado, here they are:

I really like the way Anne mixed the funky bright fabrics with the traditional neutrals in this one. And the lime green border is fabulous!

Another one of Anne's. If you look closely you can see that each of the 4 blocks is made up of four split 9 patch blocks with red centres. Nice bold colours!

Audrey makes good use of her flannel fabrics with these strip pieced blocks.

Bold and busy but beautiful! Another one by Audrey.

And I think this one was also by Audrey. She puts me to shame!

Cheryl's very pink quilt has a wild pink and purple fleece backing.

And a simple panel quilt by Cheryl. At an earlier meeting, someone had given away 3 panels to anyone who would use them for a baby quilt, so here is the first finished one.

Perhaps at the next meeting I'll have something to show....

Goodbye Ruth

2011-11-23T21:41:00.001-06:00

Today we said goodbye and buried my mother-in-law Ruth. Ruth was 82 when she passed away on November 18. Although she had not been well in her later years, she spent many years before this loving and caring for many many children, including her own five, then many foster children, followed by the numerous children she cared for in her home day care. When she could no longer care for children, she began collecting and caring for dolls.

Not only did she maintain her own collection, she also nurtured well loved dolls back to life that had been donated to the MCC thrift shops, carefully washing their hair and knitting or crocheting new dresses for them. These dolls were then returned to the MCC thrift shops only to find love with another child somewhere.

Ruth is now in the arms of her Maker. We will miss her dearly.

Craft Fair Wrap Up

2011-11-21T18:15:00.001-06:00

I survived my first craft fair! Here's me behind my table just before the sale began:

The Creative Collections Craft Fair was in one gym of the Crescentwood Community Centre (apparently they have used both in previous years). It was a pretty cold and dull setting, about as much atmosphere as a gym can provide. The arrow below is pointing to the back of my table.

The day started off slow, but picked up after about an hour and a half. I did make some good sales, but I'm not sure that the crowd that attended was the right crowd for me. I invited a lot of friends, and I'm so grateful that many of them came and showed their support to me! I'm guessing that about 75% of my sales came from my friends who attended. From the general public I had only a few very interested customers who stayed awhile and made some wonderful purchases. However, in general the interest from the public was less than ideal. My best sellers were my Rebound Journals, my paint chip notepads and my fabric coiled mats.

I was also very happy to finally meet a few more Winnipeg Etsy Street Team (WEST) members, who allowed me to take photos of their tables. Here's Tawny from TawnyBee,, she has a fabulous sign for her table was very resourceful in the equipment to display her hanging items at the table!

And Nancy from NancyBlokland Pottery. The basic black table coverings allow her beautiful pottery to really shine!

Sharon from Monkey Business Card Company had a great way of displaying all those colourful sock monkeys in tiers but I'm not sure what she used.

And Serena from Heavens Earth steals her bathroom mirror to set off her art pendants on her table!

There were a few more WEST'ers there, some I met and some I missed, but I didn't get any other photos. I hope others had a good day!

Craft Fair Table Mock-up

2011-11-19T12:26:00.001-06:00

It's still a work in progress; I've got a few more signs up with prices, baskets filled and spare boxes removed, but this is basically what my table will look like at the craft fair tomorrow.

It seems a bit busy to me--I don't know if there is too much out. It's hard to tell in my basement vs. in the large hall with other crafters. Is it a good idea to mix the paper and fabric products? This isn't even everything--extra stock will be under the table until other items sell! This is going to be a huge learning experience for me, and I'll just go with the flow. I don't want to be too much of a perfectionist with my first show even though I'm sure there are things I could do better.

And if you are in Winnipeg, please stop by:

Eco Business Card Tutorial

2011-11-13T07:00:00.000-06:00

In an effort to keep my business green, I make my own business cards. The focus of my business is products that use recycled materials, so it seemed only natural that my business cards should be recycled as well. Here's how I do it.

Find cardstock weight paper that is blank on one side. Here I'm using twin pocket folders from conferences, paper samples from a printer and covers of sketchpads. Most of these take the ink quite well--I've only used a couple of papers that didn't print well.

Cut these papers to a size that will go through your printer. I've cut mine 8-1/2 x 11 inches.

Design your cards on your computer. I use Photoshop for this, and make my business cards to fit 12 on a page, with a border to trim off on all sides. Print them with your home computer printer, making sure you feed the paper through to print on the blank side. I use the economy setting on my inkjet printer, and that is a fine enough quality for me.

Here are the printed sheets ready to cut.

For trimming, I trim 1/4" off on all sides, then cut the cards apart. My finished cards are 2 x 3-1/2".

I cut the long length first and then the short length.

I love the laser guide on my paper trimmer.

At this point, my PrairiePeasant cards are done.

And the backs:

But I add one more step for my PrairieThreads business cards:

Using a string piecing technique, I stitch little scraps of fabric on one side of the cards.

Snip the threads joining the cards.

And these are done too!

Paths to Peace

2011-11-11T10:03:00.001-06:00

To remember is to work for Peace.

Image source

BEST Book Swap

2011-11-10T21:58:00.001-06:00

The Bookbinding Etsy Street Team just completed another book swap. This time we had 9 participants but no set theme. To see all the books, you can go to the BEST blog and read the posts after this one.

The book I received from Elina of Veterok proves how books are very tactile objects.
Here's what Elina says about her book:
This was my first time participating in the book swap. Since it's October, I decided to make a classic hardcover sketchbook with a bit of seasonal creepy twist. The book is sized 15.5 x 11 cm (approximately postcard size), with pages of cream coloured Canson Mi-Teintes drawing paper. The headbands are sewn with black and ivory white buttonhole silk on a leather core. For the cover, I used two vintage portraits that I was gifted with a couple of years ago. The portraits are glued and then sewn on the bookcloth which I have dyed in shades of rusty orange and turned upside down to reveal the crumpled texture of the backing paper. I couldn't resist doing some additional smudging with ink.

This design is much like the ones that I sell in my Etsy shop, and I hope PrairiePeasant will find it useful, either as a sketchbook or as a journal for daily activities and observations.

I particularly like the texture and colours of the dyed and reversed bookcloth.

And here's the book I sent to Camille:

I was inspired by the beautiful colours of fall for this book swap. My book is a fabric softcover book made from cotton quilting fabric interfaced for stiffness. The inside is filled with lovely handmade paper with grass trimmings in it, made by a local Winnipeg paper company called Botanical Paperworks. This book is bound with cotton embroidery floss in a longstitch binding and fastened with a wooden button.

To see the fabric softcover journals currently available for sale in my Etsy shop, click here.

Travel Journals

2011-11-07T15:30:00.000-06:00

Remember that stack of map covers and pages? They are all bound and ready to set sail in this vintage suitcase to the craft show--now less than 2 weeks to go!

I picked up this vintage suitcase at a garage sale down my street a few years ago. A very sweet deal, and now a new life for it. These travel journals won't be listed in my shop before the sale. To see those currently for sale in my shop, click here.

Paint Chip Notepads Complete

2011-11-05T15:19:00.000-05:00

I finished my very large batch of recycled paint chip notepads. I'll take these to the craft sale, but I'm also listing them in my PrairiePeasant Etsy shop.

These mini notebooks are 100% recycled, with paper off-cuts from larger books for the pages, and bits of leftover linen thread to stitch them together. To see all the small notebook listings in my shop, click here.

Adding Height to My Display (Tutorial)

2011-11-04T19:47:00.001-05:00

Since this is my first craft sale coming up, and I don't know yet if it's something I'll do again, I don't want to invest a lot of money in equipment for my display. So I'm trying to scrounge and use the resources I have available to make things work. One thing I want to avoid is the flat table display. It's rather boring to see a booth that just has items laid out flat on the table. So to add interest and height, here's one thing I've come up with (by the way, my tablecloth is the same dark green fabric):

And here's how I did it:

Start with a wooden crate (you could also use a rubber bin or a sturdy cardboard box). This one was my daughter's, painted to match her room, but she doesn't want it any more.

Cut a piece of fabric large enough to drape over the crate on all sides, with a little extra to tuck over the edges. I bought forest green sheeting fabric (wide as queen size bed!) to make my tablecloth and more.

Flip the crate and fabric over, tuck the fabric nicely at the corners of the crate, then tape the extra fabric on the inside. Flip it back over, and it's ready to help improve your display. And a bonus is that I can haul some books in the crate to the sale.

Sign for Craft Sale

2011-11-03T21:09:00.000-05:00

I have a list a mile long of things I need to do to prepare for the Craft Sale coming up. One very important item was to make some kind of sign with my PrairiePeasant name on it. After much deliberation, I decided to go for an inexpensive fabric table cloth idea, draped over the table in the centre. I don't have to worry about hanging it up, pinning it, or anything like that. Once it is laid on the table, that's it! Very practical I think.

I printed out some large letters on my computer and used them as a template to cut fabric and fusible web for the letters. After playing around with the placement, I ironed them in place, hemmed the fabric and I was done! I have a mock table display set up in my basement so I can try to work out all the details of the display before the show. I must thank Erica of Parkside Harmony for that great idea!

Fabric Journals Complete

2011-11-01T22:10:00.000-05:00

Done! I finished the fabric softcover journals for which I showed you the covers a few days ago (here). Here's a little peek at how they turned out:

I'm quite pleased with the finished product, and they feel very nice in the hand. I'm hoping to take more pictures of these individually soon and I'm trying to decide whether to list these in my PrairiePeasant Etsy Shop before the craft sale. I'm a little hesitant to take the off-white one to the show--how do you ensure something like that stays in pristine condition with handling by the public? In the meantime, if you'd like to check out the fabric softcover journals I do have for sale in my shop, you can click here.

Just Off my Needles

2011-10-30T15:40:00.000-05:00

As the cold is setting in in Manitoba, my eldest daughter is very happy that I finished knitting her some mittens today. I did volunteer to make them, although I think she keeps a list of ways to keep from spending her clothing allowance on necessities like mitts, and "have mom make them" would near the top of the list!

She wanted an all-over cable pattern and a colour that would go with both her brown parka and red fall jacket. I used this All-Over-Cable-Mittens pattern from Kari's Crafts, which I found through Ravelry. I used some brown acrylic yarn that I had in my stash, knitting 2 strands together to get the right gauge.

Sneak Peek--Fabric Journal Covers

2011-10-28T17:16:00.000-05:00

With the fabric selections I showed you last weekend, I finished eight new covers for journals. Here's a glimpse at the fronts:

And the backs:

I hope to get most of these done this weekend and quell the feeling that time seems to be racing by without a lot getting accomplished. One journal is already completed and on its way in the mail as part of the Bookbinding Etsy Team's current swap. I'll show finished pics of that one at a later date.

Morning Fog

2011-10-27T18:35:00.000-05:00

I am grateful to live so close to my workplace that I can easily walk there and back each day. Some days I wish it was a longer walk! This morning we had an incredibly heavy fog in the city, and it was so beautiful. I left a little earlier this morning, camera in hand, to try to capture the moment. It's difficult to take pictures in this lack of light, but these shots will give you an idea of what it was like.

You can't see anything here beyond the street lights.

There are some high rise apartment buildings in this picture. Really. There are.

So peaceful.

Quilting Group

2011-10-26T22:18:00.000-05:00

My quilting group met this past Monday, and while I hadn't made anything to show and tell, others had. This is our Year of the Baby Quilt, in honour of Stephanie in our group. Stephanie is likely the only member of our group who will have another baby (due after Christmas). In honour of this momentous occasion, we are all making at least one baby quilt to donate to charity.

AnneF has made blocks using patterns from some of our previous challenges. The photo doesn't show her lovely machine quilted flowers.

Bonnie has made this twin size quilt which would fit so well into a seaside home.

The back is pieced, and you might be able to see her free motion wave pattern in the machine quilting.

Heather is making a Split Rail Fence baby quilt with a cowboy fabric for the backing.

With her leftover scraps, Heather pieced together this little doll quilt.

Unrelated to babies, Cheryl is piecing this quilt kit for Heather. Aren't the colours gorgeous?

Weekend Worktable

2011-10-23T21:02:00.000-05:00

The weekend is almost over, but I'll show you what I've been working on this weekend.

I'm continuing to build up my stock, particularly books, for the craft show in November. I've been matching fabrics with this lovely handmade paper from Botanical Paperworks to make some new softcover journals. I've got a real variety of papers here, and so it was fitting to choose a wide variety of fabrics to go with them. They are going to be amazing when they are done! Matching the buttons and thread is the next step.

Feeling Like Christmas

2011-10-17T16:01:00.000-05:00

It's starting to feel like Christmas already. The weather has turned colder and stores are filling their shelves with Christmas merchandise now that Canadian Thanksgiving has passed. Personally, I've just begun my Christmas shopping, and will likely spend time shopping on Etsy this year. I've been stocking my PrairieThreads Etsy shop with loads of fun mini stockings.

This year I've been making them in longer lengths, in addition to my original "regular" length stockings.

There are modern funky stockings.

Pastel baby stockings.

Traditional Christmas colours.

And much more! To see all of my listed stockings, click on the Mini Stockings section in my PrairieThreads Etsy shop. If you don't see one you like, send me a message--I have more that aren't listed yet!

Weekend Worktable

2011-10-15T18:57:00.000-05:00

Little by little I'm getting ready for the craft sale next month. I thought it would be a good idea to have some little notebooks available for stocking stuffers, so I'm recycling a contractor's paint chip fan into mini paint chip notebooks. They are 100% recycled, as I'm using paper off-cuts from larger books for the pages, and bits of leftover linen thread to stitch them together. I would love to be the person with the job of naming all the colours--then I could say things like "tangerine dream" and "cayman lagoon" and "mystical grape" all day and get paid for it!

I'll probably put some of these in my Etsy shop soon too, but if you'd like some now, just send me an email (by clicking on the link to my profile) or a contact me through my PrairiePeasant Etsy shop.

Cartonnage Day 2

2011-10-07T10:35:00.000-05:00

Sue's sample box

On the second day of the class, we had a choice of what to do first: make a rectangular box with a hinged lid or a hexagonal box with lid. The class chose the rectangular box because some thought it would be easier because of the 90° corners! (Little did we know...)

We started with an open rectangular container, gluing and taping all the joints/edges.

After choosing from the wonderful marbled papers available, we then covered the box. One of the benefits of attending workshops is that you learn lots of little tricks to make your work better--like how to get nice corners when you are gluing. (Now if only someone can tell me how to keep my fingers clean and not get any glue marks on my box!)

Next was the wrap around lid. This was covered as one continuous piece with hinges, so our measurements and spacing had to be just right!

And here is my finished box, with the two pieces of the clasp sliding together as you close the box:

By the time we finished the box with the hinged lid, it was getting late in the afternoon. We had time for Sue to demonstrate the construction of the hexagonal box, but not enough time to make one ourselves. Based on Sue's demo, it looks a lot easier than the first box, so I think it will be doable at home sometime.

Thank you Sue for travelling from Minneapolis to Winnipeg to teach our group! It was a wonderful way to spend the weekend!

Cartonnage Day 1

2011-10-04T21:24:00.000-05:00

I was fortunate this past weekend to be able to spend two days learning Cartonnage with visiting artist Sue Bjerke from Minneapolis. Sue is an instructor at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and teaches a number of book structures as well as cartonnage. In addition, she operates a small edition printing bindery and has many years experience teaching woodcarving, a skill she uses in her historic bindings.

Here is Sue's class description:
Modern cartonnage grows out of the long standing French tradition of making and covering small utility containers with various decorative materials. In these classes, we’ll review the essential elements of making unique containers from book board or mat board, then covering these structures with decorative papers. Students will learn the basics of design and construction using various boards, as well as the ins and outs of measuring, cutting, and applying decorative papers. Each project makes a unique container and is great to use or for gifts.

On the first day, we made two unique containers or open dishes using matt board. Sue wanted us to know that lovely and sturdy containers can be made from readily accessible matt board. The above one is my irregular rectangular container, and below are the finished works of all the class (and a couple of Sue's samples):

We had this wonderful selection of marbled papers to choose from for our pieces:

One thing that is different about cartonnage and other box making, is that you use paper tape to reinforce your corners and seams. Under the decorative paper, it is not visible in the finished work.

The second project we worked on was this hexagonal container:

It looks more complicated than it is! With a little geometry, we learned how to draft a template any size for this. Here are a few of the other students' pieces (mine is above):

Following the same principles, we can now move on to try squares or triangles like these (but we didn't have time in class for this):

At the same time, there was a marbling workshop going on with visiting instructor, Minnesotan Steve Pittelkow. It was a hard decision to choose which workshop to attend, and I would have loved to do both! I have dabbled in marbling before, and never had a class in cartonnage, so in the end that won out. Here are some of the students marbled papers from the marbling class:

Stay tuned for Day2!

Mini Mittens

2011-09-30T12:59:00.000-05:00

I've been knitting up a storm this fall, filling my PrairieThreads Etsy Shop with loads of miniature knit ornaments. This year I've added mini mitts to my product line. Aren't they fun?

You can hang them on a tree, use them for stocking stuffers, dress up a favourite doll for winter, or surprise a special someone with little treat. And the best part is that they are using up little scraps of yarn too small for any other project, that would otherwise get thrown away!

Custom Order

2011-09-28T06:20:00.000-05:00

Here's a journal I made for a custom order a little while ago. The request was for a vintage book with a religious theme. This book was quite unique and had hundreds of Bible lesson outlines to teach boys and girls to memorize scripture. The book was kind of gimmicky in a 1960's way, but I loved the cover.

The journal was to be used as a farewell gift for a well loved colleague of the customer, and I made little accordion folded pockets out of the original pages throughout the journal for all the coworkers to write notes of well wishes to insert in the pockets.

Never Give Up

2011-09-26T14:54:00.000-05:00

I made this custom order back in May. The customer wanted a large rebound journal to use as a wedding photo album as their wedding was very vintage in theme. After determining her needs, and what I could offer, this is what I came up with:

A large book, approximately 29 x 20 cm in size, on a nature theme with simple but elegant illustrations on the front cover.

Coptic bound, and for such large books, I like to have a lot of pairs of stitching to keep it very sturdy. The last thing you want to worry about when viewing treasured photos, is a loose binding.

The endpapers are hand-marbled (by me!) and matched the colours quite well. A light japanese paper with gold threads for the fly leaf adds a touch of elegance.

While this book was made in May, and was sent to New Zealand promptly, it seems to have had its own travel plans, and finally arrived at its destination last week. This is the first time in my 3 years of selling on Etsy that I have had an incident with package delivery. Hopefully it will be more than another 3 before another issue comes up. Thank you Therese for being patient and for always being kind and understanding in our many emails! I hope it was worth the wait!

Quilt Group is Back in Action

2011-09-24T19:48:00.001-05:00

After a break over the summer, my quilt group is back in action. Since one of our group members is expecting a baby and we all feel the excitement, we decided our challenge for this year will be to each make a baby quilt to donate to a worthy cause. More on that in upcoming months.

We had a little time of Show-and-Tell at our meeting this week, on the baby theme, I'll start with some baby quilts a couple of people are working on.

Anne is making this quilt with donated fabrics for a charitable organization. I love the mix of very busy fabrics with the bold solids. Bound to make a child smile when it is done.

Brenda is trying to whittle down her scraps with this one.

And for older children:

Karen is making this one for her middle son. Here's an example where panel printed fabrics can be cut up and combined with other fabrics so effectively. I think some of these fabrics glow in the dark as well.

Karen (we have two Karens in our group) is making this flying geese quilt for her daughter. Did you notice that some of the geese are flying against the stream?

A detail of Karen's lovely hand quilting, "love Mom."

Audrey is making this t-shirt quilt for her athletic daughter-in-law from lots of her sporting t's. She discovered by accident that the sashing fabric glows in the dark when she shut off the lights in her sewing room.

Brenda made this t-shirt quilt as a commission.

We all have unfinished projects stashed away. Heather decided she was never going to make this kit, so she gave it to Cheryl who is almost finished with it!

Books in Progress

2011-09-22T15:54:00.000-05:00

While I've been escaping to quilt shows, what I've been escaping from is this:

Cutting and gluing over 20 sets of covers for new travel journals...

...and this:

Cutting and folding pages for same travel journals...

...and some of this:

Cutting, scoring, folding, and adhering loads of map envelopes.

Why am I so busy? I've signed up to do my very first craft show this fall! I've always been reluctant to do this, because I have a day job, a family, and loads of other excuses! Sometimes it's hard to make enough stock to fill my Etsy shops, let alone a table at a show. But this year I decided to take the plunge with a local community centre show. So now I'm trying to accumulate enough product and plan my display--I may be calling on you for help and advice as I go along!

More Quilt Show Inspiration

2011-09-20T20:34:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more photos of my favourites from the Pine Ridge Quilt Show that I went to last Friday.

These colours just pop! Don't they look like they are exploding?

Yellow and black and white--a very striking colour combination.

I love the depth/dimensionality of this one. The contrast between the lights and darks is lovely, with no medium values at all.

From a distance, it looks like stained glass.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for Autumn Leaves.

Quilt Show Inspiration

2011-09-17T13:40:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I was lucky enough to while away a few hours at the Pine Ridge Quilt Show by the Pine Ridge Quilters. It's so rejuvenating to step away from life's everyday demands and just enjoy and be inspired by the work of others. My apologies that I don't have the names of individual quilts and quiltmakers to share with you. Here are some of the quilts that inspired me:

The fabrics and gradations are beautiful, the red and black are wonderful contrasting accents, and the background fabrics are many different off-whites. Very dimensional!


This was a gorgeous quilt from fabric scraps. If you look closely (see photo below), you will see fabric with writing from the instructions from fabric panels and such.

The little stars within some of the larger stars made me smile (see closeup in photo below).

I don't normally go for safari prints, but this quilt is a lovely example of effective use of them.

Bold and bright colours. The square blocks were made then slashed, mixed up and reassembled.

As with the safari prints, I was surprised that these food prints look really good in this quilt. A perfect quilt for picnics and to use as a tablecloth!

Fun and funky colours mixed with traditional quilt block patterns.

Guest placemats

2011-09-12T10:15:00.000-05:00

After making 4 placemats for the family (which you can see here and here and here), which we use every day, it was suggested by this same family that I make more placemats for when we have company (most often a friend or two of the kids). I caved, and here are the first two placemats for guests:

fronts

backs

They're all made from fabrics I already had. The strip piecing is an easy and fun way to make a simple quilt design. And here's the rainbow of placemats we have on our table:

The kids say there is still room in the rainbow for a lighter/brighter green, and a dark blue, and a pink, and......

Apple Harvest

2011-09-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

It's that time of year again! The apples were starting to fall from the tree, so that's my cue that it's time to pick this year's crop.

We gave our tree a good pruning last spring, so the harvest wasn't as bountiful as last year, but I think the quality will be better. For some reason, after a few weeks in storage, last year's crop turned mushy (in previous years we've been able to store them for months!).

Home grown apples are not perfect in shape, sometimes there are a few worms, sometimes birds have reached them before you, but once in awhile you pick the perfect apple. Not a blemish, and absolutely delicious!

Here's our harvest this year, soon to be turned into juice and pie filling! What are your favourite apple recipes? I'd love it if you would share them with me!

With the season, come the wasps too! Our trap is so busy--we empty it every day right now! Homemade apple juice really attracts them...

Choose Your Rebound Journal

2011-09-07T10:31:00.003-05:00

I seem to collect used books faster than I can make them into journals. Without intending to shop for books, I often come home with a few books from thrift shops or garage sales each time I go out! To help people find the perfect book, I've been listing them in my shop (section: Rebound Journals) so you can choose which book you would like for a journal. Turn around time is about 1 week (plus shipping time). I thought I'd show you how a couple of them turned out:

Trixie Belden books

Completed Trixie Belden journal. Feedback: "Fantastic book! I love it, and the friend I bought it for was totally thrilled. :) Thank you so much for being so fast, communicative, and for delivering a high quality product."

Adventure Books for Boys (or girls!)


Completed Swiss Family Robinson journal. Feedback: "great!"

Gifts

2011-09-05T19:43:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of rebound journals I made for gifts this summer.

The first was for my friend Michelle, who is planning a special trip for a significant birthday next year.

The second was for my friend Dori, who had that milestone birthday this year!

I used the colour plates to wrap each signature in the book.

I was also able to make a card for her from the illustrated dust jacket.

All in a Day's Work

2011-09-02T22:02:00.000-05:00

It seems that summer is over, and the fall harvest time is now! The tomatoes are ripe for the picking, and this year is the best harvest we have ever seen, with the juiciest, most delicious tomatoes we have ever grown. So today I donned my apron and made a double batch of Salsa.

Doesn't it look good?

Believe it or not, I am still making items for my shops! It's just with vacation time and summer schedules, I don't have much time to take photos and update my shops.....hope to soon!

Vacation

2011-08-10T13:57:00.000-05:00

We've just returned from a week in Québec City. We spent most of our time in the old city, or Vieux-Québec, which with its historic architecture, has an old world charm. As we walked everywhere, up hills and down, up stairs and down, I found myself taking pictures of many doorways/entrances, which I found incredibly beautiful. Wouldn't you love to enter your home through one of these each day? Somehow the style would not fit with my suburban bungalow though. Well, I can always dream....

Old Projects

2011-07-24T15:42:00.000-05:00

I'm taking some time this summer to catch up on a few older projects. Last week I was finishing up a few more blocks on my quilting group challenge from (eek!) 2 years ago. Here's a quick re-cap: if you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember that each member of my quilting group bought one metre of fabric and placed it in a large pizza sized box. The boxes were passed around each month, with each person in the group making one block using the original fabric and any of their own fabrics as well. At the end of the year, we revealed all the blocks to the original owner, who then finished them off in whatever way they chose.

These were my 8 blocks from the first challenge. Not enough yet for the size of quilt I wanted to make...

In the second year, we each chose a different challenge block each month, and each member in the group had to make two blocks in the specified pattern and colours. After making the required blocks, I also used some of my fabric from the first challenge to make additional blocks with the patterns from the second challenge, with a few variations. Still not quite enough...

This past week I made 4 more blocks of varied designs, and finally I think I have enough blocks! It's quite wild and non-traditional, but I do like it!

Because the blocks and fabrics are so busy, I'm going to add sashing and cornerstones between the blocks in solid colours. Here I've auditioned a very dark teal for the sashing strips and a medium yellow for the squares. I don't think these little pieces of fabric will be enough, so I'll have to buy more before I can continue....

East meets West

2011-07-18T13:43:00.000-05:00

Here's a custom travel journal just completed and on its way to its new owner:

The customer wanted a colourful map of Canada, but with the west coast on the front cover. I'm quite pleased with how east meets west on the spine. I found this map in this wee Rand McNally Current Events World Atlas from 1952.

Because it's so small (really just a booklet), I treasure each map that I'm able to use from it, and hope the recipient will enjoy it just as much! On a whim, I googled this atlas, and it is available on Amazon, but I didn't pay the same price (in fact I'm sure this one was free--a previous owner had penciled in routes on some pages)!

Surprise Finish

2011-07-06T15:55:00.000-05:00

Voting ended yesterday for the Handmadeology Handmade Top10 lists and I was so surprised to see my Piecing the Harvest Softcover Journal ended in first place for the EcoEtsy Team list! I'm thrilled to be in such wonderful company here in this list. Thanks to everyone who voted so generously!

Blogging Slowdown

2011-07-04T20:08:00.000-05:00

Summer's here and I expect I will be spending less time here in the virtual world, and more time in my real world, tending to my garden:

and with this one whose sister is busy with other summer plans of her own:

Hope you are enjoying the summer (and winter down under!) wherever you are and whatever you are up to!

:)

Happy Canada Day!

2011-07-01T08:59:00.001-05:00

'Canadian, Please' by PrairiePeasant

Inspired by my favourite "how to be Canadian" Song & video produced byJulia Bentley & Andrew Gunadie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWQf13B8epw&feature=related

ARTWORK. Welcome to... apfelstrudel $25.00	Silhouette Beaver B... touchthedutch $18.00	Primitive Ibis degagnon $25.00	Vintage Book Page C... 1001treasures $10.00
Manitoba Dockside 8... alexandluke $20.00	Macro photo: Red Ma... coffeego $20.00	Sheltered - Art pri... shirae $40.00	SALE Canada Day Yar... HeartfeltYarnW... $33.00
Oh Canada red and w... FrostandFete $8.00	8 x 10 Fine Art Gic... BlueTrike $20.00	Ambulance Earrings,... cindylouwho2 $13.00	Wool Felted Canada ... EvesLittleEart... $24.00
Misty Cove - Fine A... GCorless $12.00	ursa cub RoyalMint $32.00	The Dawn Of Hope ChiliThom $250.00	Bonne Fete Habsgirl22 $3.50

Treasury tool by Red Row Studio.

Milestones

2011-06-28T19:17:00.000-05:00

With all the good news yesterday, I passed 1000 hearts in my PrairiePeasant Etsy shop! Thanks so much--it feels wonderful to have so many people like things that I make here in my humble studio! Cheers to you all!

Featured on the Selvage Blog! (Oh, and the Etsy Front Page!)

2011-06-27T07:43:00.003-05:00

I'm featured today over on the Selvage Blog! To any new visitors who are stopping by from the Selvage Blog, Welcome Here!

If you haven't ever visited Karen Griska's blog, stop on by--she features artists from around the world and their creations with selvages (quilts, bags, even a dress!), loads of interesting quilting posts, including tutorials, and lots more not related to quilting. Here's an example of a Red Zinger Quilt made with selvages made by Karen:

And she's the author of Quilts from the Selvage Edge:

Thanks so much for the feature, Karen!

And in other good news, I was featured on the Etsy Front Page today!

Garage Sale Score!

2011-06-26T21:57:00.000-05:00

While on a lovely bike ride with DH today, we decided to stop at a garage sale even though we didn't have any money along, nor the means to carry much with us. Soon DH found some tools he thought he would like, so I started to look seriously through the box of fabric for sale. The homeowner was gracious enough to set aside our finds while we biked home and DH went back with a vehicle and money.

Here's what I found:

About 2 metres of red wool fabric for $1.00 and 1 metre of a funky black and white heavier cotton for $0.50! Score! Now I need to decide if I should felt the wool before using it, or use as is....

Large Fabric Covered Journals

2011-06-25T11:51:00.000-05:00

A recent addition to my PrairiePeasant Etsy shop is larger fabric covered journals. I was inspired the need to make a journal for a silent auction donation and by some Asian inspired fabrics I've been hoarding, including these gorgeous fabrics brought from Japan, a birthday gift last year from my friend Erin:

and these lovelies, a gift from my friend Heather:

and a few others that I purchased at a quilt show a few years ago (with the intention of using them for books, not quilts!):

I decided to make larger, more substantial books, so these ones measure 23 x 15 cm (9 x 6”). I used one of two types of speckled/flecked office paper for the pages, and bound them with a longstitch binding. Here's the first one I made for the donation to the silent auction, and it has now gone to a good home!

I usually have design advice from my kids and husband on pairing inside and outside fabrics to the thread colours and the vintage buttons. These journals are available in my Etsy shop here:

Birthday Wishes from Google!

2011-06-19T15:14:00.000-05:00

A day early, this was on my screen yesterday, but I'm still touched!

Mini Travel Journal

2011-06-13T21:34:00.000-05:00

My travel journals continue to be one of my best selling items in my PrairiePeasant shop, and I do quite a few custom orders for them. As an extra touch, I was recently asked to do one with a ribbon closure to be used for a wedding trip to Costa Rica.

And to try something different, I made another one, but in a smaller landscape format. So as to not obscure the island, I put the ribbon through in the opposite way. I like this size, and think I might make more of these soon.

This one is available here in my Etsy shop.

Music Journal

2011-06-10T15:43:00.000-05:00

This journal was one of my "Choose Your Rebound Journal" books, where you get to choose the book you'd like me to make into a journal. I used music pages from the book for the endpapers and there was an inscription on the front flyleaf from 1922, so I added that as well.

New! Coiled Mats!

2011-06-06T21:13:00.000-05:00

You could stay I've become addicted. Once you make one of these coiled mats, you'll want to make another, and another, and well, you get the idea.

So I've been digging into my scrap bin and slicing up found fabrics, then wrapping and stitching, and wrapping and stitching some more. They are a wonderful way to use up lots of scraps and even the ugly pile. Yes, even the uglies look great when they are used in this way.

They are so much fun, and each one I make is my new favourite! Opinion is mixed in my household as to which looks better--even colour tones throughout, or rainbow splashes of bright colour. What do you think?

I've made a few for my PrairieThreads Etsy shop and I even made one for a gift using the selvage edges of fabric. If you look close in the photo below, you can see the colour dots and writing from the selvage edges.

You can use them under a hot dish, as a mug rug, with a flower arrangement, under a plant, for teacher or hostess gifts, as a hat (my daughter's idea!) and much more!

To see all the coiled mats currently available for purchase, click here.

Bound by Nature

2011-06-03T13:20:00.001-05:00

Bound by Nature is a group exhibition inspired by nature, landscape and books, curated by artist Deborah Danelley. It is currently on display at the Mennonite Heritage Centre Gallery in Winnipeg, and well worth the visit.

From Deborah's exhibition statement: "Because of our diminishing use of the book as a tactile, hand held instrument of communication, as well as our increasing detachment from our natural environment, I felt a strong desire to create “something” where both of these issues would be a focus of consideration and an opportunity to reconnect. I quickly found that I was not alone in this interest. The exhibition will display diverse styles, a multiplicity of techniques and a variety of materials which should provide something of interest for all viewers."

It includes works by several Manitoba artists and a few out of province artists as well.

Here are some of my favourite pieces from the exhibition:


Agatha Doerksen, Just hold me close, wool, paper, mixed media

Ann Stinner, Lambdance, Coptic binding with pop-ups, watercolour, acrylic inks and gesso on St. Armand paper; hand-painted Japanese foredge paper; felted hand-knitted covers; metal and linen embellishments.

Deborah Danelley, Meditations on Landscape I, collage - altered book parts.

Erwin Huebner, The Oocyte Cantata in 12 Movements, Mixed media (Quail eggs, Japanese and rice papers, black walnut wood).


Lorraine Douglas, Sea, Tunnel book

Nicole Coulson, Emerald-forest, Painted paper, thread, beads, pearls, fabric, found materials on handmade paper.

These pieces are only a very small sampling of the exhibition. There is a wide variety of techniques and materials in the pieces on display, and I have no doubt that anyone who goes will be glad they did!

In conjunction with the exhibition there will be one more free artist-guided tour at the gallery on Saturday June 11th from 1-2pm. The exhibit will continue until June 18.

Meet Tawny Bee!

2011-05-29T18:28:00.000-05:00

The TransCanada Etsy Team has begun a blog series featuring our hardworking and creative members! Learn about their lives, their creative processes, how they wound up selling on Etsy, and more.

The first in the series is Tawny Bee from Winnipeg (yay Winnipeg!). Tawny describes herself as "a mommy who loves to sew, sing, do the hokie pokie, dance, do terrible impressions of semi-famous people, and share my craft with the world!" Her shop on Etsy specializes in Accessories for Children, various geekery and mama products.

To read more about Tawny and her creative process, click over to the TransCanada Etsy Team Blog. Tawny will also be posting some of her tutorials for fun projects to sew there.

To see all of Tawny's fabulous creations visit Tawnybee.etsy.com and from now until June 9th, use the coupon code: TCETFEATURE2011 for a 10% discount of your purchase.

Don't forget to check out Tawny's blog, Facebook, and Twitter too:
Blog: http://tawnykw.blogspot.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/tawnykw
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Winnipeg-MB/Tawny-Bee

BEST Book Swap

2011-05-26T18:17:00.000-05:00

The theme from our most recent Bookbinding Team swap was "fits in an envelope." The idea was to focus on smaller books that could be sent letter-rate in the post instead of parcel rate.

I received this beautiful notebook from Cindy, of UsefulBooks. Here's what Cindy says about this book:
In the process of playing around with paint and Kraft paper a couple of years ago, I developed a cover material that I use to make soft cover books. It's flexible, strong and wonderfully textured, resembling leather but cruelty free. I knew that Laura of Prairie Peasant, a fellow EcoEtsy member, would enjoy this little double pamphlet book made from a piece of this material and scraps of paper from larger projects.

The covers do feel amazingly tough, and not too visible in the photos is some very lovely subtle stamping on the covers as well. Thanks so much Cindy!

And above is the book I sent to Katie. I was inspired by the freshness of spring, with birds all around and spring buds opening up, for the star (or lotus) book that I made for this swap. On the covers I used my own handmade paper, which has daffodil petals in it. The ribbon I used to wrap around the book for closure reminded me of a birdsnest.

With Mother's Day approaching as I was making this book, it seemed fitting to use illustrated pages from an old reader about a story of a clever mother bird protecting her children (from a snake) for the pages. All the pages have sweet images of the mama bird and her young ones.

To see all of the books in the swap, please see the Bookbinding team blog here.

Shirt Refashion

2011-05-16T07:40:00.001-05:00

Here's a quick refashion I did for daughter C this weekend. She gets hand-me-downs from her older sister, but they are not always to her taste and style. She didn't like wearing this green shirt as it was wider in the neck on her small frame so she asked if it could be made into a skirt.

before shirt on daughter S

I cut off the bodice above the band, folded it over to make a casing, inserted an elastic, and Voila! It's now a skirt, perfect with her new leggings! Daughter is happy with the restyled garment and mom is happy daughter is wearing it in one form or another.

after skirt on daughter C

Weekend Worktable

2011-05-14T17:15:00.000-05:00

Something of a different nature on my to-do list this weekend. I've been wanting an outdoor clothesline for sometime, and recently discovered a retractable clothesline. Easy to install, my dh was kind enough to get it installed today between our house and our huge willow tree in the back yard. It can't hold a lot of weight, so I won't be able to hang out duvets or small rugs, but for now it will do the trick.

Yay for fresh air-dried clothes and less energy use with the dryer!

Custom Orders

2011-05-10T19:43:00.000-05:00

I was very pleased that Katie liked her custom order Wuthering Heights journal so much that she asked me to make two more for her!

This one was also a White's Fine Edition, which, if you are not familiar with them, you should take a look. They give me faith that the paper book is still appreciated by many, and will not be saying goodbye anytime soon. This Jane Eyre edition was illustrated by Swedish artist Petra Börner.

The other journal was made from a Dr. Seuss book, 10 Apples Up On Top. It was a fun book to make for the buyer's nephew. I used a variety of colourful and scrappy pages to make it fun to use.