Focus! Finishing Projects

My goodness this year is flying by!  At the beginning of each year I, like many of you, decide I am going to accomplish certain things, change some of my ways and enjoy many opportunities.  As I sit here today I realize it has been another 'oops' year.  I meant to finish this before I started that, I was going to (fill in the blank) take that class, get together with this old friend, spend more time...  Well, here it is the end of September and I find myself surrounded by more projects than I started with last January.  My inspirational word this year was "explore".  I have already chosen a new word for next year and my next year needs to start right now.  My new word is "focus".

Explore was actually a good choice for me.  In the photo above I explored more stitch combinations and also using complimentary colors for a project.  The heart was stitched and now I am looking into what to do with it.  I dug out some trims as shown.  I took the project to the fabric store also and found this purple denim that seemed to go color wise and also contrasted texturally.  I'm probably going to end up making a pillow.  What are your thoughts?

Above is a rack with jars that I purchased at a garage sale and cleaned up and painted.  I am trying different ideas for embellishing them.  I actually really like them used as a small photo display with just a touch of lace.  I also considering finding some cork stoppers for them rather than the wood lids they have now.  I can probably find another use for the lids later on.  See!  See how one project turns into more than one!

Remember my CQJP 2012?  I have been searching for the right lace to put between the blocks and finally ended up buying white lace and dyeing it.  It didn't turn out exactly the color I intended, but close enough I am putting this off no longer.

I am in the process of hand-stitching the lace in place.  I am stitching down the center of each row and will probably go back and tack the edges of each section after this.  I am working on it a little each day.  I have the backing and binding for the hanger already cut and ready to go as well as a rod to hang it on.  Focus Connie, focus!

Above are two necklaces I recently (almost) completed.  I am reinforcing the threads in the first one and need to purchase a clasp for the lower one in order to have them completed.

In the meantime, I have the tote, insulator, old brush and scrolls found in dad's tool shed and some lace pulling at me to make them pretty and functional again.  FOCUS!  Can you see why I've decided to start using next year's word now?  I admire anyone who can start and finish a project or two before moving on to the next.  Those people do exist don't they?  Please tell me it is possible.

Question about Tea Staining Lace and My April CQJP 2013...finally!

First of all, Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mother's out there!  We will be having our two mothers and our daughter with her family here for dinner later this afternoon.  Our son and his wife will be leaving for a trip to Italy shortly.  It will be their first trip to Europe and I am very excited and happy for them...and a little jealous~lol.

I have actually had these blocks for April completed for awhile but haven't had a chance to get them photographed, set up and converted to JPEGs.  I am enjoying this journey so much.  It has been a real challenge to come up with new stitch variations/combos but somehow I have been able to so far.  I thought I might be bored creating such similar blocks, but I am actually getting hooked on them.  I may have to eventually experiment with color variations for something different...maybe.  

Now, I have a question for those who dye fibers/fabrics...

I have been trying to finish up my CQJP for 2012, but have had issues with finding the right lace to go around the blocks.  I originally had my lace picked out but didn't buy it because I wanted to wait until my blocks were completed.  Of course, the store quit carrying said lace and I wasn't able to find it anywhere.  I finally found some similar but only in white but 100% cotton.  I tried to tea stain it yesterday along with a couple of doilies.  You guessed it.  I ended up with three different shade variations.  A doily came out exactly the color I wanted, but the lace trim came out too gray rather than a warm ecru.  

My question:  Do any of you know of a product for tea staining cotton to a warmer shade or know how I can fix my lace?

Project Repaired and Fabric Dye Experiment/BooBoo

I have been determined to finish up some of my lingering projects and get them out of the way before I move on.  Somehow I went backwards this weekend.  I was so determined!  It wasn't all bad, but it seemed that everything I attempted on Saturday wasn't going as anticipated.

I did manage to repair this beaded amulet bag necklace.  It was my early morning project.  The strap had broken and as you probably know, the beads spread everywhere when that happens.  It was several years back, so I was hoping I had recovered all the beads at the time.  

The strap is made up of three strands and portions of two of them had broken.  This was made before Fireline was invented, or at least before I had heard of it.  The long black beads (bugle beads) had rubbed on the threads I presume and worn through the threads.  I first reinforced the unbroken strand and then did the same with the remaining strands adding in the missing sections as needed.

Of course I was a few beads short but fortunately had some replacements in my studio.  One UFO down and I am too embarrassed to tell you how many remain.  I will tell you I have about four necklaces I made but just never added the closures.  Why do I do that!  (Please don't analyze me, that is rhetorical ~ lol).

I was next determined to 'antique' the white lace I purchased to finish up my CQJP 2012.  I had some Rit dye waiting to be used.  I've never used Rit before this but had purchased chocolate brown, pink and green for when I was in the mood.  Of course I didn't want it to go to waste so I through in some doilies and a couple of other pieces of trim.

This ended up being a new project in the making.  The trim actually ended up a dark chocolate almost immediately so I ran to my room and grabbed a stained and dingy (white) top I had in my closet and through it into the vat.  I now have a new project to work on :-(

Here are my 'brown' dyeing results.  I want to use the laces to dress up the V-neckline of the t-shirt type top.  The color you see on the lace is some fiber I had and am thinking about incorporating into the mix.

It was interesting to see how the dye took on the various trims.  The eyelet trim above really surprised me as did the two doilies immediately below.  The doilies were exactly the same but one dyed darker than the other.

The pieces all coordinate nicely and it is a nice color, but the lace won't work on the project I had intended to use it on, so it will probably ended up on this shirt.  As you can see below, the white thread on the t-shirt didn't take the dye so the lace trim will cover that nicely.  For now I will set this aside while I work on (or mess up) some of my other UFOs.

I forgot to mention I was also working on another project.  

I decided to base paint this teapot white.  Note to self:  always clean the pieces with vinegar to remove oils and dirt.  I tend to just dig right in to a project...I'm bad.  Long story short...I sprayed it with paint which didn't go on too smoothly and it was older spray paint which seemed to easily get runs.  Discouraging, but I'll figure something out.

Can't wait to see what today brings.  The genealogy is going great though, except that I am spending hours on it and not getting to my usual blog visits and I apologize for that.  I thank you for taking the time and leaving such nice comments when you visit my blog.  I really love hearing from you and keeping in touch.