Memory pillows

Okay, maybe this isn't the best title for this post... The pillows aren't made of memory foam but from old, favorite t-shirts of my friend's son. He is back from college and having to downsize his clothes. I needed some rags so she brought me some of his discards. I thought I would make him a quilt of his favorite t-shirts from the pile. Alas, he liked plain, un-logo-ed t-shirts...I found these 2 with nice logos from vacation trips to Hawaii. I could tell the Longboard Surf Club was a favorite from the frayed neck. With only 2 t-shirts to work with, I decided to make pillows instead. The t-shirts were boys medium in size so I had to add some fabric to the top of the white pillow to keep the logo centered on the pillow. The black pillow was a wife-beater t-shirt so I sewed a scrap in the spaces where the armholes were to make a 12 by 16 inch square. I cut the t-shirt apart at the sides and used the back to make a the flap since it had a finished t-shirt edge and I don't do zippered closures. I also sewed a 12 by 16 inch scrap piece of cotton batting to the wrong side of the front piece to give it a little more body and to help center the design on the pillow. Then, stitched around the logo, assembled the pieces (make sure the back is in the right order when turned inside out), trimmed the edges down and zig-zagged the cut edges. I slipped in the pillow form,straightened out the back and fussed it about to get it set right. Hope he likes them!

Hana Fukin Sashiko

Wanting to do something productive while wasting watching the TV at night, I decided that sashiko, a Japanese embroidery might be the ticket.  In the days before TV watching, well, folks used to be productive.  Men might carve wooden toys, spoons or bowls.  Women would sew or knit.  So, they would have to pay attention to what they were doing.  For me apparently, knitting and crocheting aren't mindless.  I have to concentrate.  That means I have to choose what to concentrate on.  But sashiko doesn't take much thought to do, once you put the pattern on your fabric.  Now, I am one of those people who is reluctant to throw something away, if it has faithfully performed its duty with style and maybe, is just a little worn out through use.  Hence, these lovely cotton dish cloths.  They were too thin to keep on using and people kept buying me new kitchen towels since I wouldn't quit using them.  And, it seems, well, silly so to buy throw away dusting cloths from the store.  So, I learned about hana fukin, Japanese kitchen cloths.  In the Japanese way of extreme thriftiness called shimatsu, items are reused, when no longer serving their original purpose.  In this instance, I folded the cloths in half, doubling their thickness and sewed them together.  Then, using a tin top, I traced intersecting semi circles to make these flowers.  Sewing the sashiko design went pretty fast.  Once again, my dishcloths have been recycled into pretty dust cloths.

My Mom used to be constantly in search of the most worn out t-shirts and pajamas because they made the softest dust cloths and wouldn't scratch the furniture.  I never understood why she prized her soft dust rags.  (Okay, she is the only person I ever knew who was obsessed with dusting).  She didn't sew her rags into hana fukin and I have never seen them in the houses of my Japanese aunts and uncles.  But, my grandmother died when my Mom and aunts were very young, so maybe this cultural practice wasn't passed down to them.  Sometimes, it is unspoken why people do the things they do.  (Another story is when my Mom would plant potatoes in the garden each year taking up the place where I wanted to grow tomatoes).  They just do things and we don't know why.  So, I think I will make more hana fukin.

Alphonse Mucha - Recylced

I didn't know what to expect when I found myself in Prague on my last, (oh, too long ago) vacation.  Since, I had changed my vacation plans at the last moment, I really didn't have a clue about the city, where I was going to stay or what the exchange rate for their currency was.  All I had was my Rick Steves guidebook to go on.  But, the travel bureau sent me to a lovely hotel in the Jewish section of town.  (This I didn't know, although I walked by a pretty old synagogue from the train station on my the to my hotel.)

So, on my wanderings about Prague's old town center, a sign invited me to a combination Dali/Mucha museum and I decided to go and check out the works of the Spanish painter Salvadore Dali since I hadn't a clue about this guy Alphonse Mucha.  I could tell the Czechs had a pretty fervent emotion about him and so very rightly so as I came to agree. And the two ladies in front of me said his name with such a whispered reverence my interest was peaked because they were Spaniards.  After, viewing said museum, I checked out my guidebook again, and found yet another museum dedicated to Alphonse Mucha.  Then, I fell for him and his artwork (although, as the father of Art Nouveau, I just didn't know his name and that that he was pretty much it).  Much to my chagrin, I didn't purchase any prints from the gift store (I've lugged a cardboard tube around on vacation before and wasn't doing that again).  So, I  bought smaller items easier to transport like some very lovely bookmarks for gifts.  Then, I bought a couple of calendars because for some reason, I was compelled to by my very soul and I thought they would fit in my suitcase without too much damage, as I still had many cities to go.

So, after the year was up, I couldn't part with the calendar and decided to have some of the pages matted and framed for my niece's birthday.  She picked the gypsy for her gypsy soul.

And, the harvest girl holding grapes because, that is what she does.

And, this giclee poster is for me, purchased post trip, in a lovely, thrift store frame.  I looked everywhere for ages for a frame to go with it until I found this one.  She hangs in the living room, but it is too dark in there for a good photo.  Until my niece picks up her frames, I am going to enjoy looking at them in there, too.  Maybe she won't like my matte choices?  Maybe, the frames are too big for her apartment and she won't want them.  Maybe I need to go back to Prague and buy another calendar?  Yes?  No?

My Obsession

Okay, I tried to take a better photo of my adorable little zinnias.  They are the "Cut and Come Again" variety.  I love them for their beautiful shades of color.  I like to cut them when they haven't fully opened.  So you can still see the little, petals still partially formed.

I have a favorite style of vase that I try to find at thrift stores and yard sales because they are perfect for these small flowers.  But, sometimes when I am stripping the leaves, I yank the heads off or there isn't enough stem for this vase.  So, I found some smaller "vases".  I have a pressed glass toothpick holder for these really short zinnias.  It would make me sad to throw a flower away because it is length disadvantaged.

 

Then, I found some old, cut crystal glasses at the thrift store for 29 cents.  I paid a dollar for the cut, champagne glasses.  Yes, all these glasses are all different.  I am sure 60 years ago or so, they were part of a set now reduced to a single.  But, alone they make the most beautiful, mini vases for these mini flowers.  Wouldn't these be the most adorable individual arrangements at a dinner party?  You don't need many flowers to make the arrangement and it just takes a few small fronds of fern to back it.

 

This is a shot glass from San Diego with wild animals on it and the word Africa.  So, I put these hot orange and yellow zinnias in it.

 

I don't really like orange flowers.  But, I think I can live with these.

I like big zinnias, too!

Finished magnets

These are the finished magnets. I think they turned out quite nice considering they are photos from a date book glued onto magnets that came with the phone book.

This is a magnet that I made from a panforte wrapper. Panforte is the Italian version of fruitcake. The wrapper was so pretty but I didn't really have any purpose for it before it got a second life as a frig magnet.

Recycled goods

Last year, I received a beautiful, spiral bound datebook about my favorite love, Italy. The datebook was made of a wonderfully thick cardstock and although, it was lovely, I had my regular, monthly datebook in which I scribble all of the things I am supposed to do and things I have done. Still, I kept the Italy calendar on my desk, opened to the nearest photo page, so when I glanced over, I would see the photo and smile. So, as the year comes to a close, I hated the thought of throwing the datebook away but didn't really want to store last year's calendar for an indefinite amount of time. (Yes, I am one of the millions of viewers who have made A&E's TV show, Hoarders, a hit.) After all, I have my own photos of Italy neatly stored on digital media or in albums. So, I leafed through the calendar, tearing out my favorite photographs thinking that I would make a collage or maybe just put them up on my bulletin board with a stickpin holding them in place.

But then, I found these gentlmen stuck on the refrigerator. They were lovely 4 inch by 4 inch advertising refrigerator magnets that came with last year's phone book.

Last year, I made a bunch of these smaller refrigerator magnets from scrapbooking materials. But the photos from the calendar were much larger and I didn't think that the scale would work for the size of the magnet.

So, I took a piece of scrap paper, put the magnet on the paper and used a exacto blade to cut the area of the magnet from the paper. I could then move this template around the photo to choose what portion of the photo to use for the refrigerator magnet. I guess the size works.

Unfortunately, I have to choose between these two possibilities for this photo of St. Peter's Basilica.

As much as I love the dome, the one below is the one I decided on.

So, carefully mark the limits of the photo from the template and cut it down to size ( I prefer to use a large paper cutter rather than scissors or, ack!, my rotary cutter). You may want to leave the photo just a bit bigger than the magnet and trim off any excess photo after gluing. If you cut your photo short, no problem! Just trim the magnet down. Lay down some newspaper to protect your work surface and spray adhesive on the non-magnetized side of the magnet and press the cut out photo on it. If you get any air between the photo and magnet, try to smoothe them out. Trim any excess photo and voila! Beautiful refrigerator magnets from Italy! (Photos tomorrow!)