I heart the Edmonton Reuse Centre

Just wanted to rave a bit more about the reuse centre. I went today and scored 4 ani difranco cd's, a vintage stamped embroidery linen, some blank linen for embroidery or cross-stitch (they had a whole barrel of linen and canvas pieces), 5 unopened craft kits to make a suncatcher with DS, some ribbon embroidery and luggage tags, along with some other little frames for kitschy cross-stitch, vintage stencils and some old Halloween materials (in big brown envelope, original price 35c.



So yeah, not really contributing to any downsizing efforts of mine but it is pretty dandy to take in stuff I won't use and get stuff I want to use in return.. all for 2$ a load, no matter how much you take. I bought a membership today (20$ for the year).

-A

Crankypants Magnets

My new thing is making cranky little cross-stitches for magnets.



-A

Blackbird Pie

Now I've done it. Introducing:



Blackbird Pie

-A

A few goodies

A bib and 2 hair elastics (the beaded fabric flowers) and an Anpanman sunhat and onesie. The sunhat material and patch for the onesie are from my brother and sister-in-law's trip to Japan.



-A

Works in Progress

Works in progress:
Mosaic and tile side table
Sunhat
Embroidery project

What's been holding up the posts:
It's summer and we are outside more
Doing home reno stuff instead
Decided to make a craft-supply filled closet into an emergency closet, which required a weeklong craft room clean.

Other stuff for readers to check out instead:
Edmonton's Reuse Centre. This place is cool. There are buckets of yarn, fabric, egg cartons and all kinds of things and you can take a bagful or a carful for only 2$. Guess who's getting a membership? I also unloaded things like sewing thread bobbins, old CDs and baby food jars.
Weeds. My new favourite show. Smart and funny. Third season starts next month.
The Dragonmobile on Craftster.
The Harry Potter Challenge on Instructables.

-A

Book Cover

I purchased a copy of The Chrysalids at the thrift store. I love this book and have read it a number of times but didn't have my own copy. I didn't like the cover but some fabric and a hot glue gun fixed that.

Before: looks like someone designed this cover to make it look more adventurous or appeal to people who read The Hardy Boys. What are those things in the forest behind him? The villagers? They look like evil goblins.




After: A nice striped flannel cover from fabric Melissa gave me.




Okay and I just have to show off my other find- a Harry Potter pop-up book! I love pop-up books and this one is lots of fun. If you pull the tabs the streetlights go on and off and McGonagall transfigures. I had to restrain myself from putting an exclamation mark after that last sentence.



-A

Kitchen Chairs

Another reason the posts have been slower on the site is I have been doing some home reno stuff and not all of it is crafty. This one counts though! I reupholstered my dining room chairs. This was my first time reupholstering and I did new foam and fabric and used a staple gun, oooh. I'd never used one before.

Before



After



I used a ReadyMade magazine tutorial from a copy the lovely Hilary sent me. Hilary blogs on Mom's Tinfoil Hat and Foodie Loves Picky. I listed to a mix cd from Jupitermama while doing this project and Jupiter may have the distinction of being one of the only people I know without their own website or blog. I have the distinction of writing really long sentences like the one above.

-A

Wedding Gift

I wanted to do something traditional for my friends' wedding gift and decided on embroidered pillowcases. They turned out nicely but I completely underestimated the time this project would take (hence the lack of posts the past few weeks). This project represents Seasons One and Two of Weeds, and almost the entire audiobook of Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers.



Stitches used: split, satin and backstitch.



Hmm.. no wrapping paper, tied with a ribbon and something embroidered inside? I wonder who this is from?!?



-A