ANOTHER NEW FOCUS

I decided at the age of 67 that I would finally try my life-long desire: painting -- art-type painting. Acrylics. So far on wood.  Coastal birds have been my focus.  Happy with what I've done so far. Here's a few.

CHANGE OF FOCUS

I'm doing very little sewing these days. No bags. Just a few pillows with a coastal vibe.

I am on to a new adventure. Furniture refinish-refurbish-rebuild-newbuild. Exciting. Been doing this for about a year and a half now, but sadly have not been writing about it, except on Facebook.

Here's some of my favorites.

BAGS AND MORE

Still working hard in the Studio.  I'm on fire!

First a little opera bag, Just Enuf, in a blue on blue stripe upholstery fabric. 

Next some travel tissue holders. Made some out of cottony fabrics and then, after one of those light-bulb moments, from t-shirts with lettering. So fun.

I had some wonderful fabric with boots printed on it that I used with some denim to make a large bag. I call it Boot Scootin'. It, of course, has roomy pockets inside. 

I found a really pretty jacket at a church garage sale last weekend, fully embroidered denim with an embroidered trim. It became a really cute bag.

I've purchased three vintage double knits. Really wild prints. I mean, wild. I bought them to make some funky, retro bags. Made my first one, complete with tassel fringe and a big denim bow. Can you say Boho Retro.

UNLEASHED

Still busy in the studio. My new bag is called "Unleashed".  It's a maroon bag with colorful stripes of gold, hot pink and green. These stripes are made from webbing.  Webbing that was originally pet leashes, hence the name. They had printing on one side which didn't show from the other, so I used them to jazz up my bag. I sewed two of them together to make the strap.  Clever, yes? Yes.  Waste not, want not, and I want not to waste.

CHRISTMAS PREP

I've been busy, busy, busy. First, busy getting my latest handbags listed in my Artfire shop. It's a time-consuming chore. Pictures to take. Descriptions to write. Then putting it all together in the shop listings.  Done, done, and done.

Also, busy getting ready for Christmas art fair season. My first show is St Christopher on October 19. Then November 16 in Friendswood in the park. And I'm awaiting news from Mary Queen in Friendswood. Application and check are in. Now just to wait and see if the committee chooses me to join them this year.

My latest creations, Christmas gift bags. Green canvas bags with Christmas appliques, some including a little burlap.

Speaking of burlap, I've also created a few burlap gift bags with appliques.









But my favorite is a burlap gift bag I made and adorned with lace and a few other pretties. Mixed media, romantic.

BUSINESS ROMANCE

The hits just keep coming. I'm still creating here in Oak Cloister Studio and my latest creation took on a surprising twist in the process.  I made a basic ploomer (bloomers + purse = ploomer). I used a pair of slacks from a man's suit.  Once I sewed up the basic ploomer from the slacks, it was blah. I tried using a tie as a belt with a decorative flair, but it didn't do anything for me. So I said, "What if ...  So many things happen when I get into What-If mode. So many happy things. So, I What-Iffed my way to some gorgeous crocheted lace. Beyond gorgeous. It's stunning. I rescued it from a linen piece that was beyond repair, horribly stained. The crochet trim was, however, in wonderful shape.  And here's the result. I even constructed a little flower to top it all off. I'm loving it.

STILL ROLLING ALONG

I'm still creating. Tried something really different this time. Mixed media of sorts. Man's suit coat + decorative handkerchief + another man's suit + thread painting + raw edges + geometric = the new bag.










Of course it includes lots of pockets on the inside. Also, a wide tab Velcro closure.

JACKET UPCYCLE PART 2

Remember the bag from yesterday, navy and white check, quilted, made from a homemade jacket? Today I made another bag from it, from the back of the jacket.

As before, I requilted the fabric. This time I opted to decorate it myself with lacy flowers and red buttons, both of which (I must confess) came from my recent trash-pickin' adventure. I lined it in red and used a red print for the pockets. Inserted a zipper closure. I'm happy with the finished product.

ON A ROLL

Voila! Another bag. I'm on fire.

I saw a jacket, homemade. And that's a compliment to its creator. Very well constructed. Beautiful workmanship.  With some really cool flowers on it. I originally planned to remove the flowers and use them on something else, but they were constructed on the garment itself. Not constructed and added to it. So, I used the front of the jacket to make my bag.  I had to do a little requilting on it as it was quilted to the batting with no backing.  I didn't want to run it through my machine that way, fearing the batting would catch in the feed dogs, so I added a backing and requilted it. It took a little bit of time, but I figure it prevented a lot of aggravation, so all's well.

I lined it with a floral print with four roomy pockets. Gotta have those pockets. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

UNO, DOS, TRES

Been busy again. Have completed three bags.

First: another Zippidy Doo Da bag, this time using pastel colored zippers. I have to admit that this is my favorite. It's time consuming to  make, but so worth it. It's really a fun, good-looking bag. Lots of pockets inside.



Next, my go at a little romance. I used vintage doilies, lace and button, along with a flower I made from a man's suit coat. I then built around the motif to make the bag a reasonable size. I do believe I have succeeded in the romance department with this one, plus it's practical with four roomy pockets inside. Gotta love it. Here's a close-up of the insert.



Finally a quickie tote. I found a wonderful table runner that begged to go home with me and morph into a Yayamade bag. I had to do it. It was only a dollar. It's a basic lined tote with a hint of patriotism, only with a pink tinge. Pink, white and blue. How fun is that!

SALVAGING SELVAGE

Front

I've been saving my selvages for sometime now, intent on creating a bag from them. I finally did it last week. Opted for a simple tote bag. Turned out well, for my first shot at selvage-fabric-making. It's time consuming, building the selvage fabric, but I have to admit that it was fun to do.

Back

I've seen lots of things made from selvage on the internet. They look a lot more uniform. Probably because they use the same type of fabric for their quilting fabrics, so their selvages are similar. Since I use so many different types of fabrics, mostly rescued from local thrift shops, my selvages were all over the place in terms of style, width, and what was printed on them. Also, since I use smaller pieces in my bag designs, I had to piece some selvages together to make them long enough, and selvages from different sides of the fabric don't always match in width, or is that depth.

Anyway, I pushed on and am happy with the results. Here's pics of front and back. The lining is from the same striped fabric as the tote's bottom and handles.

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! AND OOPS!

It's here! The August edition of GREENCRAFT MAGAZINE, it's here. The one that my VesTote was to be featured in, in the Gallery section.  I've been so excited about this. I came home yesterday whispering, "Let it be here. Let it be here." And, lo and behold, it was.

I flipped to the back of the magazine for the gallery section, starting from the back. And turned page after page until, there it was. On the FIRST page of the Gallery section. FIRST page. A FULL page. FULL page. The photo is fantastic. The write-up mine, what I sent in, but in third person.  Yaaaaaay! And then . . .

Murphy's Law strikes again.  For the contact info it says,

KC Miller * Fort Collins, CO

Email: cheryl@croppingcooks.com

Website: croppingcooks.com

From huge excitement to huge disappointment in milliseconds. I knew any chance of getting anyone to my Artfire shop from seeing my VesTote in the magazine is all but nil. And, of course, I'd told everyone I knew about it, so embarrassed, too.

But the good news -- well, the next good news, because making the magazine in the first place and getting a full page and the first page of the Gallery section was pretty good news -- I'll get another go at it because -- drum roll, please --

My Tee Leaves (bookmarks) will be in the From the Bin section of the November issue of GREENCRAFT MAGAZINE.  Keep your fingers crossed. Say prayers. That this time it'll all be correct.

To cover my bases, I emailed cheryl@croppingcooks.com and bcc'd the editor at the magazine so she'd know what happened. I explained to Cheryl (whose article and creations are awesome, by the way) what had happened and asked that if she gets any inquiries about the VesTote (which the magazine hyphenated, BTW), if she would forward them to me. She agreed, saying she would be happy to help out a fellow Miller. Her name is Cheryl Miller. Miller. Now I kind of understand how it happened. I figure that someone queried Miller when filling in contact info, and hers came up before mine.  Drat.

Anyway, it's in there. It's beautiful. It's a full page. It's the first page of the Gallery section and it did refer in the body of the write-up that "she decided to offer them for sale at her website, yayamade."  So, hopefully if anyone is interested, they'll go to yayamade.com on which I have given the link to my shop at yayamade.artfire.com.  We'll see.

TOTE IT

As promised, however delayed it may be, I'm posting pics of my latest totes. Made from tee shirts -- or t-shirts, if you prefer -- they're part of the Tote-A-Tee line. I had tons of tee shirts pigeon holed and finally got tired of looking at them. I culled least favorites out and redonated them to St Chris Thrift, and made up the rest. I went mostly for basic totes, fully lined, but no pockets. Did a couple of my favorites with pockets inside.

Here's a couple of my all-time favorite. I mean, who doesn't love Blue Bell Ice Cream? These two have pockets inside. The "Cranky" one also has a velcro tab closure.




Next are some Southern Belle cuties. You know exactly what "Bless Your Heart" means, don't you?

 Then, there are the school themed ones. And, no, I don't favor any of these. They just became available to me and I thought someone might actually buy them.



I also have a couple of miscellaneous, like Inks Lake State Park. They're kind of fun, too. The Texans one ought to sell right away since the Texans are so hot now. I have to admit that the Reese's one is my favorite. It, too, has inside pockets and tie closures.




 I've taken the pics and am writing the descriptions so I can post them onto Artfire. And, of course, they'll be available for sale at my booths this year. First show is at St Christopher Church in League City on October 19. I'll also be doing the Art Fair in Friendswood on November 16, and the AVA showin Dickinson on December 7. Don't know if I will fit any more into my schedule. We'll see.

On Fire Again

Have I ever been busy? Yes, I have.

Been making totes, totes, totes. Had a pile of tees and decided to do traditional totes. Couple of them came out a bit more than a plain tote, but mostly totes. And they look awesome.

Have more to sew. Pics soon.

MORE IN THE STORE

Wow! I'm on fire.  I finished several more VesTotes last night and photographed them this morning and posted them on Artfire. My store is bursting at the seams. Here's the link to my Artfire shop again:  http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/studio/yayamade

And here's pics of a couple of my Favs.


I'm also having a great time with Amazine. I downloaded the "make it a story" button (works kind of like the "pin it" button from Pinterest) and I can add all kinds of stuff to my own magazine. It's pretty cool.  I can also add items from my store and Amazine adds a "shop it" button.  Here's the link: http://yayamade.amazine.com/

Three, Two, One, Blast Off!

It's done. I launched both Milk Money and Tee Leaves on Artfire today. Quite a job, getting them all listed.

Milk Money is the little coin purse I designed using the spout of a juice/milk carton and fabric. I think it's quite ingenious, if I do say so myself. And I do.  I launched some made from animal prints, most of which were from a fabric I lovingly call pleather, a plastic leather-looking fabric. The other is a knit fabric, pink leopard print. Yowsa!

The newer ones are from fabric and include lettering to spell out fun words like Cash Cow, Mad Money, Glad Money, Champ Change. Yes, I know it's supposed to be Chump Change. But that sounds so negative, so I changed it.  Here's a couple of the Milk Money Coin Purses. You can see and purchase them at www.yayamade.artfire.com.


Also, launched today are my bookmarks that I call Tee Leaves, as they're made from tee shirts. And just like the lettering on the Milk Money Coin Purses, it too is from tee shirts. I've spelled out words representing differing reading genre like Fiction, Romance, Fiction and the like. They're quite fun and, I think, a very smart use of tee shirts. I do so love upcycling!

 Aren't they fun!

Colorful.

No two are alike.

These, too, can be found, viewed, and PURCHASED at www.yayamade.artfire.com

WHEW!

What a busy day. Woke at 4:00 am. Usually rise at 5:00, but had an idea pop in my head and my brain wouldn't turn off, so I just got up and headed for the Studio. Did a little creating; nothing at all to do with the idea that woke me, but still a good one.

Walked 6 miles. Then vacuumed the house, washed Mollie, demildewed the outdoor furniture (scrub, scrub, scrub), recovered three of Mollie's beds, and deconstructed some tees. It's sure getting sleepy here.

Sadly, I've got no pics of Mollie getting her bath, but here are pics of her showing off her newly recovered pillows. And also a shot of the flower I purchased in Bastrop. It is so cute. It's made from spoons.

LAUNCHING SOON

I've been working hard lately and will soon be  launching -- well, relaunching, actually - Milk Money, the little coin purse I designed, one of my favorite upcycle designs.  The proceeds from the sale of Milk Money will be donated to the Episcopal Relief & Development to purchase a cow for a family in a Third World nation so they will have milk to drink and sell to support themselves. (I've purchased two shares of a cow so far.)  I'm busy sewing lots of them. And they're so fun. I'll be adding them to my Artfire store soon along with my Tee Leaves, the bookmarks I upcycle from tee shirts.  Stay tuned.

STUDIO BEFORE AND AFTER

It's been a while now since I've made the changes, but I wanted to show some before-and-after shots of my Studio. 

On one wall I had a hodge-podge of storage that served its purpose but wasn't particularly attractive. It consisted of half of a bookshelf, rolling drawer thingys, filing cabinets and an old desk.  I had only half a bookcase as I broke the full bookcase when I foolishly tried to scoot it over without emptying it first. (Geez. I know better.) 

While out thrifting one day, I stumbled onto a cabinet that was 8' long, white, someone's DIY -- and a very good one at that. I bought it, called MHSNL who has a pickup and he graciously agreed to haul it home for me. I cleared out the hodge-podge and installed my new cabinet and added the half bookcase and a little cabinet and scooted the file cabinets to the end. Turns out that having only half of the book worked out just fine; the full bookcase would have been too tall. Here's the work in progress and the finished project. Pretty outstanding, I must say. All white and coordinated-looking.

On the adjoining and opposite walls, were my sewing desks. Yes, desks. Vintage desks that I was going to paint white so all of my studio furniture would coordinate. But instead I got a brainstorm -- more like a brain hurricane -- and got my DIY on. I'm soooooooo proud of my handiwork. I combined four 6-cube cabinets, two 20"x 6' tops, four 2x4s (to raise the table tops up to the correct height.  Here's the before and afters.

In the middle of the room is my worktable. It began as one of those trifold-on-metal-frame-on-rollers deals from Hancocks and I've had it for years. But I wasn't able to store much beneath it and that was a huge waste of space underneath. So I purchased three little bookcases, put casters on them and attached the table top to one of the bookcases. It works the same, hinged with two drop leafs. I have so much storage. Another KC DIY that I'm very proud of.  I have a pic from the internet for the before shot.

My next DIY? To paint the dresser that I bought at an estate sale. It's a wonderful dresser. The doors hide lots of sewing and crafting supplies. The drawers are all graduated heights. The first is perfect for cutting tools. I have my patterns in the second. The third holds lots of goodies, too. I will be painting it white, of course. Then my studio will be super coordinated. Here's the before. The after will be a while coming as I'm finishing up a coffee table I've been working on and have a hutch to refinish next. Then the studio dresser will be tackled.

"Coordinated" seems to be my Word of the Day.