Bohemian blanket for baby

I made this little blanket yesterday for a friend's baby boy.  I wanted something a bit unusual, so I mixed batiks and chevron patterns to make a bohemian style blanket.

I got the idea from the book,"Sew What You Love" by Tanya
Whelan. Lots of cute beginner sewing projects.

I made a hexagon template six inches across, each side being 2.5 inches long. After cutting approximately 30 hexagons, I cut notches in each corner. It will go a lot faster if you layer the fabrics, and then cut out the pattern.

 Now sew the hexagons together, right side to right side.

After trimming the duvet to a rectangle, I sewed the right side of the hexagons to some soft minky fabric leaving a 10" gap to pull the fabric through. 

 

Then I topstiched and voila, a sweet little blankie for the stroller and crib.

Cute as a button.  I've recently added these two adorable signs to my shop.  I think they would be perfect in the kitchen or anywhere that good manners are needed. Get them at my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/MonthofMayllc

Natural Fiber Rugs


I'm having a love affair with seagrass right now, a seagrass rug to be specific.  Natural rugs have have been making a resurgence.  I love them for their classic looks and modern simplicity, and the fact that work with virtually any color scheme and style preference.  

These natural rugs have been championed by environmentalists because of their renewable resource status. Although wool rugs can also be considered a renewable resource, the resources required to feed a sheep to produce wool is far greater than the resources required to grow natural fibers.  Natural fibers used for rug and carpet production are: wool, silk, sisal, hemp, jute, bamboo, seagrass and cotton.

 



Moroccan Dhurrie rug from Overstock.com



 

Sisal, hemp, jute, bamboo and seagrass are used mainly for rugs and area rugs, usually in a flat-weave. 

 

Hemp Rug from Overstock.com

 

Sisal is stronger than hemp and jute, with the last being not well suited for high traffic areas. These plant fibers are naturally anti-static and flame-resistant. They are also good thermal and acoustic insulators. You can find a 5'x8' rug for less than $150 on Overstock.com and Wayfair.com and that sounds like a good deal to me! 



 





 

 

 

 

Lookin Good!

I've been painting EVERYTHING in my house lately.  For example,  I bought these two stools from T.J. Maxx a few weeks ago.  They were red when I bought them, but I knew I was going to paint them a blue green.  They came out okay, but looked dull and flat. 




So I mixed some acrylic paint, a bit of burnt umber with raw sienna and lots of titian buff, then thinned it with some water, and played around with it.




 
This mixture gave the stools a glazed, aged look.  Or as my six year old son said,"They look old now."  






I love me some kuba cloth.

Recently I've rediscovered this amazing fabric.  Here's a little info on how it's made:

The process of making Kuba cloth is extremely time consuming and may take several days to form a simple placemat size piece. The men first gather the leaves of the raffia tree and then dye it using mud, indigo, or substances from the camwood tree. They then rub the raffia fibers in their hands to soften it and make it easier for weaving. After they've completed the base cloth the women embroider it. They do this by pulling a few threads of the raffia fibers, inserting them into a needle running the needle through the cloth until the fibers show up on the opposite end. They then take a knife and cut off the top of the fibers, leaving only a little bit showing. Doing this hundreds of times forms a design. The designs are seldom planned out ahead of time, and most of the embroidery is done by memory.

The Kuba people, who developed this and many other fabrics were very resistant to using European cloth; and for many years seldom used machine made fabrics. When researching this and other cloths that the Kuba people developed, it is not hard to understand why they resisted the change so much. Each fabric, each pattern, and each design in traditional Kuba fabrics has great meaning. On the basis of what a person wore; you could interpret much about them. Social status age, marital status, and a person's character were just a few of the things a piece of cloth symbolized to these people.

Welcome

Hi, my name is Tracey.  I'm making my surroundings beautiful one day at a time.  I hope you'll join me in me in my hunt, and get inspired along the way.