Jewelry Roll For Traveling

 This was my bigger project on Sunday for Bag It (Elm Street Quilts).
It's ginormous.

It folds up nicely though.

I did some patchwork on the front of the linen. This is where I was bogging down earlier. The fabrics I was choosing weren't giving the effect I was after and the trouble was - I didn't know the effect I was after.

I auditioned several fabrics knowing I wanted a background where jewelry didn't get camouflaged. I wanted the outer to look like you'd want to put it in your luggage. I finally settled on linen for the outer with some scrappy patchwork dressing it  down  up  . I wanted each zipper to be a different color for easier organizing.

Sunday - I sewed this up and discovered it has a double layer of batting which makes it even more ginormous than just the size. I don't wear chunky jewelry. I wear small stuff and when I am traveling, I am attempting to carry less.  After finishing it, and writing this blog post, this is going straight to the etsy shop as a sample sale item.

 You can see some of my extensive collection of airplane jewelry swimming in this jewelry roll.

One of my favorite pieces, a bracelet of  airplanes with tow bars pulling them.

 You can use the ties to hang it vertically from a hotel hanger to see at a glance what you remembered to bring with you on your trip.

"I flew with Cap'n Mac" ( A doctor who gives biplane rides in the summer on the West Coast)

 I haven't pressed this, nor do I care. I was done even before I put the binding on.
I used this tutorial and, if, I were to make this again, I would size it down 50%. It's finished measurement is around 21" long x 12" wide. I lost some height by thinking my vinyl was going to be too long and I wanted the symmetry (same distance) from pocket to pocket.  In other words, I had a sewing panic attack.

I like the concept of a jewelry roll but I don't need one this big. If the idea is to separate your pieces to avoid entanglements, then this was a fail. Mostly because I am not a chunky jewelry wearing person. My little pieces are lonely.

I like my fabric choices though; the pins and earrings show up well on this turquoise fabric. The linen shows up as more elegant, the patchwork brings it down to my level.

I wish I had changed threads in my machine or even hand-sewn colored lines on the outer linen. I did four quilting lines in gold and they do not show up. They would look more awesome in heavier thread  - sashiko stitching across in orange and turquoise colors.

I used some pre-made vintage binding because I was already reading the signs on the wall on this project and it's sewn nicely but not neatly.


Although, one could use this to store electronic devices and all their assorted cords....

Dragonflies

It was a dark and dreary night day.

All of my photos had to be taken under the Ott light.
I finished these hot pads for the bazaar (and etsy).

 I hope you can see some of the luminosity of the paint. I picked up the dragonfly stencil here and the paint here. This fabric is a tad rough so the paint wanted to catch on the surface. When I have stenciled on a smoother fabric the blue-green variations are more pronounced. You have to plan ahead as the paint needs to dry 24 hours before you heat set it with the iron.

Of course that means I have some spare stenciled dragonflies that will show up in other projects.

Our mailboxes are at the end of our private road about a half-mile away. This automatically enters you into the miler's club if you complete one circuit. I usually walk at least two in the early morning but as it was raining and blowing yesterday I copped out. I did not want to go to work start my day with rain-frizzed hair. Instead I walked down to get the mail in the rain and blustery wind later on in the afternoon. Which worked out because one of my neighbors was outside in her garage  painting pvc pipe to create a cold frame for one of her garden beds. A glass of wine later, we drove her car to my house and conducted a bamboo raid on my nearby neighbor's house which recently sold. She had a clumping variety of bamboo in her front side bed which was being overgrown by lanky rhododendrons. I say, "had", because now most of it is in my yard and that of the drinking wine neighbor's yard.

Arriving home, feeling tired (wine?), I caught up on some blog reading. I follow SewMamaSew this time of year because they put together an enticing list of very distracting handmade projects.
As usual, Kathy got immediately distracted with these.

Rather addicting, you are basically 'knitting' on your fingers. These are the two-fingered bracelets. The four-fingers created a huge mess coming out behind my fingers. I don't think I was managing to get it tight enough. V and Co. has a charming video so you, too, can cut into your knit stash and make cute bracelets.
You can also cut the 1" strips from old t-shirts, there-by bringing your latent re-purposing talents to all the people on your gift list.

Dragonfly Earrings

Here on Etsy.