Butterflies!

 My butterfly collection began over two years ago with these butterflies:

This is a small portion of the many colorful butterflies made by my dear friend Carol C in New York.  She made them for the centerpieces of a luncheon that I was hosting (when two special people were celebrating a momentous life marker).  Carol could not travel to celebrate with us in person, so she made these lovely butterflies to decorate each table at our kiddush luncheon.

Why butterflies?  Because we were planning to donate these butterflies (the ones above and the others below) to the Houston Holocaust Museum.  The museum is collecting over one-and-a-half million butterflies for an exhibit in memory of the many children who perished during the Holocaust (click here for more details on the Museum's Butterfly Project).

These butterflies were made the day of my sons' B'nai Mitzvot; made by their friends who came to witness as they chanted from the Torah and shared their insights into the Torah portion of the week.  As the luncheon was taking place, guests were invited to make a butterfly or two to be given to the Holocaust Museum.

Other friends heard of my butterfly collecting and asked to be included too, so I delayed turning in the B'nai Mitzvah butterflies to allow time to gather more ... and more ... and more.

My quilting and fiber art friends made fiber butterflies: some quilted, others embroidered and each one unique and special.  Each is a gift from the heart ....

My friend Sheryl L made five butterfly garlands with her daughters to add to my collection.   I love that her garlands are ready to be displayed!

Tissue paper can be used in a variety of ways to make and/or decorate butterflies.  This collaged collection is made in honor of my recent Toddler classes and Kindergarten classes.  In another class, we dyed coffee filters then gathered with a pipe-cleaner into a butterfly shape (see below).

This is my full butterfly collection, shortly before I bundled it all together and delivered it to the Houston Holocaust Museum last week. While it seems like a lot, remembering that I collected them from many places, people, students and friends alike, this is a teeny tiny portion of the over 1,500,000 children who perished in the Holocaust.

If you wish to add to the butterfly collection - you may send (or deliver) your own group of unique butterflies to the Houston Holocaust Museum.

The current deadline for submission is June 30, 2013.  

The final exhibit promises to be amazing, moving, one-of-a-kind -- just like each of these butterflies -- and just like each of the children lost to the horror of the Holocaust. 

Shalom - a w.i.p.

Shabbat Shalom

Today I am featuring a developing "w.i.p." (work in progress) and since it is Shabbat, this seemed like a great choice.

This piece, Shalom, began in a teacher workshop last spring held at the Jewish Community Center.  We started by drawing our own designs (or tracing a provided pattern) .  I enlarged one of the patterns given to create this simple Jerusalem-esque look, then added the Hebrew lettering for Shalom.

After tracing/drawing with Sharpies onto a cotton base (no cautious sketch-in-pencil-first approach today), we painted with watercolor (yes, classic elementary-school-type water color) to enhance our simple line drawings.  (Sadly, I did not think to photograph these earlier stages).  The watercolors are gorgeous, but will not be permanent (add a little water, and the color bleeds a little more, repeatedly - see the blue-ish windows?).

At home, I added more color using crayons (yes, classic Crayola coloring crayons) which will be more permanent than the watercolor, especially after heat setting the crayons.

I also melted crayons directly into the design on the cloth with the assistance of a coffee-mug-warming-plate placed underneath the fabric.

I finished by watercolor-ing the sky, aiming for a sunset/sunrise feel.  Can you see the images of a few stars sprinkled across the sky?  I'm not sure that they are very visible - but that is much like actual stars seen at dusk - they slowly emerge as the sky deepens and darkens into night.

Shalom is now a "wip" as I ponder what to do next to this piece.  more color? deeper color? add borders? quilt the size that it is? how to quilt it? add beading? or embroidery? or a little of both?  hmmm .... do you have any suggestions/ideas?

More TAST

Two more stitches from my TAST progress ...

The Stem Stitch and the French Knot are both featured in my little flower sampler above.  Both stitches are familiar ones, ones I learned as a young Girl Scout fascinated with embroidery, tying knots.  Note: as a Girl Scout, I also loved camping and earning badges!  Be sure to look at the Pin Tangle website for more fabulously inspirational stitchery.


Click here for the original post on Pin Tangle about the Stem stitch, the 15th stitch; and click here for the post about the French knot, the 16th stitch
.

Take a Stitch Tuesday is an annual challenge hosted by Sharon B from her website Pin Tangle. Click here (for the beginning of the 2012 TAST Challenge).   Join in anytime for a year of fun stitching ....or follow the many participants (found in the comment section in each challenge post) to see where our Tuesday Stitchings have taken us....

OR

   

You can follow me on my blog.

Click TAST to see all of my stitch samplers.

If you enjoy embroidery, or wish to learn more about many stitches (from the history to a step-by-step how-to) be sure to peruse Sharon B's Stitch Dictionary.

Satin stitch

I must confess - the satin stitch is not one of my favorite stitches to stitch, as I feel that a machine can embroider this stitch so much prettier (in my humble opinion) than I can.  Of course it could be that the satin stitch works better on fabrics not as loosely woven as the linen in my sample below.

I had fun designing and stitching my little kitty, then played around with filling in the background with geometric patterns.  This is the 14th stitch featured in Take a Stitch Tuesday and you can click here for the original post.


Take a Stitch Tuesday is an annual challenge hosted by Sharon B from her website Pin Tangle. Click here (for the beginning of the 2012 TAST Challenge).   Join in anytime for a year of fun stitching ....or follow the many participants (found in the comment section in each challenge post) to see where our Tuesday Stitchings have taken us....

OR

   

You can follow me on my blog.

Click TAST to see all of my stitch samplers.

If you enjoy embroidery, or wish to learn more about many stitches (from the history to a step-by-step how-to) be sure to peruse Sharon B's Stitch Dictionary.

One new seat cushion

I cannot believe how easy it is to recover a chair.  Well, perhaps I mean to re-cover a seat cushion.  This is how I did it in a few easy steps ....

First, start with one sad chair sorely in need of a new seat cover (see the rip in the floral print revealing a peek-a-boo hint of an older seat cover underneath the floral?)

With one screwdriver and a little torque energy, remove the four screws that hold the seat in place.  This is easiest if you turn the chair upside down, though an enterprising person can possibly accomplish this by working from underneath the chair.

Voila!  One naked chair. 

If you wish to strip and re-stain, or even just to sand and paint the chair - this is a good time to do that.  I elected to continue recovering the seat (as the chair is used daily by my high-school-er while he studies).

I added a 2" cushion (to increase the comfort level of many hours of sitting).  One minor complication: the cushion, a square shape, does not match the seat which is a trapezoid shape.  Fortunately, I remember a little bit of Geometry, particularly some facts about trapezoids (I am a former Geometry teacher).  This is what I did:

Using scissors, cut or trim two small triangles off each of the lower two corners of the foam cushion (starting about 1" - 1.5" inches from the corner, angling to the midpoint of the side).  Flip these triangles and place along the upper two corners (matching the squared corners and flat sides). Like magic, the square is now a trapezoid!

 

Note the older seat covering as seen in the earlier peek-a-boo.  I decided to leave it in place.

The next step is to fasten the fabric to the wood seat base, wrapping and securing the foam cushion in the process.  Here goes ...

• Lay the new seat fabric right-side facing down (wrong-side up).  You can use most any fabric.  I chose a heavy-weight denim for durability (and I like the color blue).  
• Place your cushion on top of the fabric, remembering to add the extra triangle corners (I used a piece of tape to help hold the triangles in place).  
• Put the old seat base face down (or seat down) on top of this stack.  
• Using a staple gun, wrap the fabric around one edge at a time, pulling taut.  I used my weight (by kneeling on the seat base) to help compress the cushion and get a snugger fit.  
• Staple the 2 angled sides first, then the 2 parallel sides - tuck the corners in neatly - trim excess fabric as needed). 

I probably could have stapled closer to the edge and/or trimmed more of the denim off -- but I didn't.  

Now place the newly covered seat cushion onto the chair and invert the entire assemblage onto another chair so that you can replace the four screws that secure the cushioned seat to the frame of the chair.

Success!  Task complete! 

 One chair is finished - but I have a few more to go ....


Perhaps next time I will use quilts for the new seat cushions - or needlepoint something - or - paint the chairs before re-covering the seats - or - .... The possibilities are endless.


      A list of supplies used:

•   a chair in need of a new seat covering
•   sturdy fabric to use (check that it is 2" - 3" wider on all four sides of the seat base)
•   a foam cushion (I used a 2" x 14" x 14" size)
•   a flat head screwdriver (or Phillips head, depends one your chair's screws)
•   a pair of scissors (to cut fabric and  foam cushion)
•   a staple gun and staples
•   a second chair to flip the project chair onto when removing and replacing the seat.

My Sampler-on-a-Roll

Here is the start of my "sampler-on-a-roll" where I am showcasing the many stitch samplers made for the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge which Sharon B is running on her Pintangle website.  The idea of putting all my TAST pieces into one long roll is totally inspired (or out-right copied) from Sharon's own For the Love of Stitching Band Sampler.

My sampler is just beginning.  It currently measures 5 1/2" wide by 42 1/2" long (or 14 cm by 108 cm).  At the moment it is mostly comprised of the stitches featured in the 2012 Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge, with an additional favorite quote by Albert Einstein (about Knowledge and Imagination).

I think my sampler-on-a-roll has too many empty spaces (or too much un-embroidered areas) - so I may try to embroider more densely as I work on "growing my sampler-on-a-roll". 

The original For the Love of Stitching band sampler was started by SharonB in January 2009.  It now measures over 96 feet (and still growing).  Below is a sneak peek at her work of wonder!

Click here to learn more about this lengthy and luxurious band sampler.  It is the inspiration for the start of my own which I've yet to name.  I really like the name Sharon gave hers, so I am pondering whether to do the ultimate copying and name my sampler-on-a-roll after her band sampler - "For the Love of Stitching". (Isn't that the sincerest form of flattery?)



Take a Stitch Tuesday is an annual challenge hosted by Sharon B from her website Pin Tangle. Click here (for the beginning of the 2012 TAST Challenge).   Join in anytime for a year of fun stitching ....or follow the many participants (found in the comment section in each challenge post) to see where our Tuesday Stitchings have taken us....

OR

   

You can follow me on my blog.

Click TAST to see all of my stitch samplers.

If you enjoy embroidery, or wish to learn more about many stitches (from the history to a step-by-step how-to) be sure to peruse Sharon B's Stitch Dictionary.

Barred Chain

This sampler shows two stitches: the Barred Chain and the Alternating Barred Chain.  It is in the family of the Chain Stitch, but it has a much spikier appearance.  It is a fun pair of stitches to learn.  I am happy to add both to my stitch repertoire, as it is the first time I have ever heard of these two stitches, and the first time I have ever stitched their pattern.  It is a relatively easy stitch to learn.

This is the twelfth stitch featured in this year's Take a Stitch Tuesday series.  Click here to see the original "assignment" of the stitch.

Take a Stitch Tuesday is an annual challenge hosted by Sharon B from her website Pin Tangle. Click here (for the beginning of the 2012 TAST Challenge).   Join in anytime for a year of fun stitching ....or follow the many participants (found in the comment section in each challenge post) to see where our Tuesday Stitchings have taken us....

OR

   

You can follow me on my blog.

Click TAST to see all of my stitch samplers.

If you enjoy embroidery, or wish to learn more about many stitches (from the history to a step-by-step how-to) be sure to peruse Sharon B's Stitch Dictionary.