Spring

As I am sure so many of you are, I am still absorbing the history that was made yesterday with the inauguration of our new President Obama! I am so thankful for the hope he has brought to our nation which is so sorely needed right now.

Our part of the country is cold, just as it was yesterday in D.C. I have been working on Valentine cards for the etsy shop, but today I needed a breath of Spring. Here are a couple of pics of a floral card I did. I like it, so I will expand on the idea. At least so far, I am not thinking of adding any verses, so the cards can be used for any occasion.

Sewing Caddy

A couple of decades ago, I received this sewing caddy. I have used this continuously since then. It is so handy when I do hand sewing while sitting on the sofa. Funny how you can see something every day and not think about it, but I just recently noticed that it was very old, very country, and very mauve! Why not make something a little more modern?

Here is the more modern version I came up with using some of my hand printed fabrics. I will be listing several today on Etsy.

Looking Better

I printed some squares where there were blank rows yesterday. I think it looks better now.

More Testing

Here are some samples printed with a potato block in a herringbone-type pattern. I think the first sample has too much space between the rows, and the second sample overlaps too much. I may try printing a row of some small block in the space between the rows on the first sample. Not sure how to make the second sample work better, but we'll see. I'm learning as I go along.

Testing

Testing on paper. I like the way it looks, but when I tried printing on fabric, the ink wasn't printing as clearly - I need to work with this. I tried scuffing up the surface of the lino block, but still wasn't quite getting the results I wanted.

And practicing some more. Same deal with printing on paper vs. fabric. I know I should somehow cut away the background so the ridges from carving don't show, but I kind of like the texture it adds on the fabric.