Black Arts and Crafts

Up next, a little something I whipped out for an XXXmas present last year....behold the world's first and only (to my knowledge) BLACK METAL PENCIL HOLDERRRRR!

To make it, I used a cardboard snack tin as empty as our bleak existence itself. I took scraps of sufficiently grim and nihilistic fabric, and cut them out into rectangular shapes using a rotary cutter and ruler. I measured the dimensions needed to wrap around the tin, and arranged them on top of fusible webbing in the most depressing configuration. Then I tacked them into place with the iron (using a Teflon cover sheet to protect it.)
After trimming the big rectangle of fused scraps to size, I attached it to the tin by fusing it down with an iron as hot as the flames of burning hellfire. Then I decorated it by gluing on various 3-dimensional collage objects whilst contemplating the futility of it all.

At last, my quick and easy no-sew gift project was ready to hold the implements of doom, when they are not being used to write curses and morbid song lyrics! These make a great gift for everyone on your unholyday list!

Needle de los Muertos

A while back I found some great Dia de los Muertos fabric online, and HAD to get some even though I didn't have any immediate plans for it. (I'm sure that's never happened to any of you....right??)
Recently I've been doing more embroidery and hand sewing projects, and got sick of digging around for the right size needle. Then it hit me: these Muertos loteria "cards" are a good size to fit on the cover of a needle book!
I whipped out a few by using the escape hatch technique (similar to how I made the band patch xmas ornaments), using some batting scraps and sacred heart fabric for the lining. Then I fused the loteria cards over the turning slit, and sewed the felt pages in down the center. Voila! I think they turned out pretty cool :)
There are a few in my etsy if you need one.

don't throw that away!

I never get rid of any fabric scraps, as it's in my nature to be  cheap  cost-efficient. Odd cutting leftovers can be used to piece a back on smaller quilts. Even tiny bits of an inch or two can be put to good use: ones with nice patterns can be fused to make quilted postcards or mug rugs, like the Asian ones I made below. (fused bindings too!) Less-attractive or damaged scraps, including batting, become stuffing for pet beds I make for charity- more on that later!

This post is linked to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday