No Crapting But Quelle Surprise, Some Cool Buys

Okay, so I didn't do any crapting today. Not even sewing a line around my "in-process" needleholder. Quelle surprise! And I have no idea if that quelle is correct or not but it is the perfect segue to a purchase I made today:

Cute, huh? The Eiffel Tower! Yeah! It's Mark Miller fabrics and I picked it up at The City Quilter. Of course, a search on the old internet revealed that "quelle surprise" it comes in other colors!!!

I will have to have a big think about the other colors but I couldn't pass this up as I'm off to Paris on Thursday night.

I made a few other purchases at The City Quilter:

The green color of Rhapsody by Rosemarie Lavin for Windham Fabrics. Now I just have to get the black and quelle surprise, I have it on order!

And last but not least in the purchases department:

Two fat quarters - Michael Miller Fabrics "Fairy Frost". They're shiny and pretty. Why they practically twinkle!

After leaving The City Quilter, I walked down to the Antique Garage which is a flea market held every Saturday and Sunday in a garage in Chelsea. This is the first time I've ever gone but it certainly won't be my last.

I bought this cool Stereo image, which I thought might be perfect for a needleholder:

"No, Donald, I never would have thought it of you." Here's the back of the card:

About a French cook! Very racy and keeping with my unintended but happily found French theme - Paris trip, Eiffel Tower fabric and one more French purchase:

An old envelope from Paris addressed to someone in New York. Here's a better look:

I have a story to tell about the envelope purchases but as the boys are starting to get loud in the other room I will save it for another day. I bought these envelopes with the intention of making a mixed-media collage from the Sealed with a Stitch by Viv Sliwka article in Cloth Paper Scissors.

Here's my last purchase, three little junk bags of beads, buttons and other nonsense:

When I have time, I will open the bags and take pictures so the two of you who are reading my blog (and I thank you so much!) can see the goodies as well. Quelle surpise!

Crapt Project #1

So, while I’m currently working on lots of projects, there are two at the top of the rotation that need closure. Well, they’re all in need of closure but these two are desperate.

Crapt Project #1 comes from the March/April 2009 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors and is ‘recycled circles’ by Jane Lafazio. Ms. Lafazio’s completed work is a delightful mixed media piece of cloth and paper with circles and quarter circles. It incorporates beads and various colored threads. Wunderbar!

This is mine:


Not so wunderbar! It is, mind you, not completed. I've more threads to add and I'd like to add more beads as well. But I don't think anything can help it. I'm considering adding more gesso because Ms. Lafazio's piece had a milky look and I liked that.

One of the instructions/suggestions was to cut out circles and lay them down, gesso over them and then remove the circles so you'd have spots that were non-milky. Well, I tried that and it didn't work. Don't know why, but that's crapting for you.

I really enjoyed sewing on paper. The paper used per her instructions was 140-lb watercolor paper and though I was frightened at first as it seemed pretty thick, I had no problem using the machine on it. What I did have a problem with was sewing a nice circle. I couldn't do it. While Ms. Lafazio has oddly shaped, cool circles, I have shapes that don't have a name, kind of oval, kind of circle. A ovcle? The picture below is not great quality but you can get a sense of all the badly formed circles I made. On the bright side, you can also see all the perfectly formed ovcles:

So, I will be working on this, completing it and giving further updates. I'd love suggestions on how you think it could be made to look semi-crapt as opposed to official genuine crapt.

Tomorrow, Crapt Project #2 and then on to the actual real-time crapting!