Day 9: Work Through the Distractions

Today I feel like a squirrel. I am down in Hoarder Central (my basement studio) and there are so many distractions down here. I can't stop digging around and thinking of new ideas.
The first inspiration: a pair of jeans and a painted velvet rose pin.

I'm thinking a shabby pillow, maybe working in some embroidery on the denim.

For some reason, these jeans give me Mom Butt. I always keep old jeans. Denim makes fabulous quilts and accent pieces in almost any project. It also looks beautiful with black or brightly colored embroidery floss.

I made this rose from an piece of brown velvet on the back of an old needlework pillow. I cut the velvet into petal shapes and painted them with red acrylic paint. Once they dried, I glued them together to make a rose. The rose has been waiting for a job for quite some time now. Today could be the day.

The crunchy texture adds to the rustic look of the rose. It needs to go on something rather shabby.

After cutting the denim into strips, I start stitching it together in a log cabin style.

And then I get distracted... I am not feeling this Country Western direction anyway.


So I will stitch a dog shape into gray wool felt.

Looks too much like a coyote. The felt is not stiff enough. Will look like a wad of dryer lint got stuck to my coat. Moving on...

Maybe I could do something with this wool cardigan. It used to fit, but I put it into the dryer. It is now waiting to be crafted into something else. But what? Pin cushions? Wooly creatures? Accents on a scarf?

Don't you love the buttons?!

Ok, nothing is coming to me. Moving on.

These black wool pants have been speaking to me for months.

I bought these for my husband, but they never fit right. I now wonder if I didn't buy them just for the fabric. Perhaps I knew they wouldn't fit and would end up in my fabric collection. It was only a matter of time.

I see hot pink thread on this gorgeous chalkboard black.

I am thinking scarf, so I cut one pant leg into 4 inch strips.

I sew each piece together and top stitch all the edges with the hot pink thread. Then I will add some geometric shapes. Very 80's, neon, Tron-inspired. I make the whole thing into a giant loop that I can wrap around my neck about 4 times. It is looking beautiful! I think I might even wear it to the kids' Holiday performance tomorrow at school. I'll take a pic of the finished piece and will post. I look too scary for photography at this juncture.

Squirrelly finally found her nut.