Rag quilt shopping bag

 My community museum was doing workshops, and they advertised a rag quilt bag class. I could not attend, but asked if I could get a kit to try it at home. Luckily, there were a few materials left over from the class, and I got them! I used this opportunity to not only make a rag quilt bag, but make it reversible and embroidered too. It is important when learning a new craft to make it even more complicated. Go big or go home. 

Laying out the fabric squares and making a plan.

A lot of the squares are from my mom's fabric box. One square is from a co-worker that gave me some of her fabric. The ragging is quite interesting and I recommend you try it for a different look and feel.

The bag straps were just laying round and were perfect for this project.

Here is the reversible side, without the rag part.

The finished bag:

Just love it!

Memorial Embroidery and pillow case

When a person passes early because of cancer, it is important to remember and have something of theirs around.  In order to give my neices something to have of their mothers, I had originally thought of making a quilt of some of her clothes. But there wasn't enough. Through looking online, I thought of making a needle book with her clothes, but then I found this embroidery image that depicts 2 females from the back view, with the title sisters. You use embroidery floss to make the hair and clothes. So I practiced to get it right and picked the clothes that would look good.

I watched a lot of embroidery videos and decided to paint arms with fabric paint. The frames will be embroidery hoops. 

I tried to make the hair look like hers and her daughters, it was not easy, but thankfully I practised first.

Using one of her shirts for a dress for her. The top is embroidery floss.

It is hanging over the hoop on purpose.

I went with the title I am with you always. The angel wings are from one of her bras.  My neice's dress is also a shirt of her mother's.

The blue top is made with fabric paint, and a piece of bra material.

The finished piece.

Here is the message I wrote on the back.

The second one I did also was with her clothes and embroidery floss. It really helps to paint the arms and neck with fabric paint.

The finished piece.

Here is the message I put on the back.

This one I made for myself. I chose a hairstyle for her from her childhood, and my hairstyle is typical to how I tie back my hair. 

The title was hard to do and I had to learn a lot of different embroidery stitches and then decide on one I liked. My dress was material from one of my prom dresses that my mother made, and there was leftover material in her fabric box for me to use.

 

My Aunt had recently given me some craft rings and I so wanted her to have a halo. I cut the ring, painted it metallic gold, and glued it to the fabric.

I hope this inspires you to use material like this to make a memorial piece for your loved one.

For her son, I made a pillow cover in the rag quilt style, with the back of some pajama pants.

I personalized it for him.

Added an embroidery patch.

Pajama pants I used for the back of the pillow cover.

Memory Shadow box in honour of my father

 My dad died of Covid 19 complications in Oct of 2022. He was a mason, and his career was an integral part of his life. I wanted to have something all of us siblings would cherish. So I made 3 of them! I wanted to use shadow boxes that I already had, or make the shadowbox. 

 I made this one for my brother. I used the base of an old dollhouse to make the shadow box. The dollhouse was free, and home made. The wood base was wood that had a router lines to make to look like large bricks.

 I glued it to a base, and painted it with paint, sand, and glue mixture.

Then I started trying out lots of layout configurations.

Deciding is the hardest part.

The base is covered in blue material. The items are tied down withfishing line.

The finished shadow box.

My shadow box is an old serving tray.

The base was sanded to make it more level.

I lined it with a piece of foam board.

 I covered it with this rubber sheet of a mini brick wall.

Trying out various layouts.

The finished shadowbox.

The first one I made was for my sister. 

The final layout.

A few ornaments I wood burned and painted to remember my dad.

Vampire Hunter's Kit in miniature

 I joined a miniature exchange this year with the theme of haunted Halloween. One of the items I made was a vampire hunter's kit. First I wanted to make all of the items to see what size I should make the box, but then I went into my wood stash and found these pieces of wood with a design on them. So they were perfect for the top lid. Since I had to make 2 for the exchange, and I had two of the panels, my mind was made up. They originally came from Michaels and were the top of trinket boxes. The sides of the panel were trimmed so the box wasn't too oversized.

 The lid was made with coffee stir sticks cut to make a box with the designed panel. Wood glue was used and the lego blocks keep it square.

Cutting out the bottom piece of the trunk.

Putting on sides of the trunk and keeping it square with lego blocks.

The deeper bottom was made with scrap wood, in the same manner as the top.

Making sure the lid and bottom are the same size. Some sanding was done as the bottom was a few millimeters too big.

Taping up the boxes to align the hinges.

Hand drilling the screw holes.

Screwing in the screws with E6000

The hinges were nerve wracking. After all this work, it could be ruined with the wood splitting. I pre-drilled holes and when putiing in the screws, used E6000 glue. It did not split the wood! Yay!

The trunk needs to be lined so the items can be displayed and attached. This is not a regular tool box, after all! Using some thin red fabric glued to a piece of cardstock that is slightly smaller than the inside of the box. 

Used fabric glue sparingly to attach fabric to cardstock.

Luckily, I had already designed a luggage lock and leather straps for my Harry Potter trunks. They were cut out with brown cardstock on my Silhouette Cameo. After glueing the layers together, a brown marker was used to colour the white edges of the cardstock. The leather handles were made by glueing the strap templates to the back of some faux leather, and cut them out. It glued easily with wood glue to the sides of the trunk bottom.

Thin amount of wood glue to attach a cardstock strip on top of the leather strap.

The kit: What to include? These are the items I thought were essential.

Holy water

Crucifix

rosary

Bible

stakes and mallet

axe (for beheading)

hand mirror

candle

Vampire guide book

garlic

Always open for new techniques, I watched a lot of youtube videos. 

With the axe, I settled for hand carving the handle with basswood. I designed a handle on my silhouette and cut out the template with cardtock. I glued it onto a piece of basswood, and started carving and sanding It was then coloured lightly with a wood marker and lightly varnished. 

Love this metal file from my Grandfather's estate.

The axe blade was made with aluminum foil from a lasagna tray, and glueing it with E6000. Again, I designed a cardstock template.

The crucifix was a jewelry pendant, all that had to be done was cut off the ring on top and sanding it smooth.

The candle was a tiny wire dipped in wax. 

The quide was printed from an image from online, and made into a booklet.

The bible was also printed from an image online, thanks to Pixiedustdolls.com. Thank you, they were perfect!

The stakes were made from skewers, widdling them and sanding them so they weren't all uniform.

The mallet was made with a small dowel and a skewer. The dowel was cut and a hole drilled. The skewer was then glued securely with wood glue. It was sanded a bit, and scratched to age it up. I also put a little of dark brown marker on parts of it, and quickly wiped off the excess. Hopefully it looks like a used mallet.

The Holy water containers were found in my jewelry collection. Just had to remove the charm ring, sand it and paint it. 

The hand mirror was put together with a miniature butter knife for the handle, some cute 1/24 scale platters I had mistakenly purchased from Aliexpress, and some mirror paper. Sometimes these mistakes in scale can work to your advantage, as it did this time! After sanding the metal parts to help  with adhesion, it was glued with E6000. I did have to cut and sand the edge of the butter knife to fit on the back of the mirror.

Three finished hand mirrors.

The rosary was a bit harder as I wanted to make it more authentic, However, not all miniatures can be made with all the detail of the lifesize item. The beads were hand picked (beads often are not of uniform size), choosing the smallest ones. After every 5 beads, I put in a tiny link from a necklace.The crucifix pendant was a cardstock design from my silhouette cameo, inserted in a jump ring and glued together. A dark brown marker is used to colour the edges, Hopefully it looks like a wooden cross. This rosary neclkace took a lot of time, and after assembling one, I broke the string and had to start over! Unfortunetly the beads were lost in the carpet. 

The cardstock template squeezed into the jump ring, folded and glued to itself.

Making the garlic was actually quite easy. I did watch a few youtube videos to get some tips. My clay was a bit too grey so I had to put a few layers of white paint after baking the clay.

Adding a bit of brown paint to the bottom of the garlic bulbs.

Finished garlic bulbs

It took some time to work out a layout that was pleasing. The I attached the items with a ribbon sewing the ribbon to the inlay.

Back of the inlay. The needle can go right through the fabric and cardstock.

A coffee stir stick was used to keep the Bible and rosary extra secure. 

The finished piece!

Really pleased how this turned out, and will have to make one for myself!