Featured Artist Love Laurie

This week I have decided to write a blog featuring a wonderful artist who does pincushions. I came upon these fantastic creations as I was looking around Etsy. For those of you who are not familiar with Etsy it is a web site where you can offer you hand made items for sale. You can imagine the talent that you can see! The artist that I am going to be introducing you to is Love Laurie. This Boston Massachusetts based artist has a fantastic store that if you don't sew already you will be inspired to do so by the time you check out. These original designs are creative and whimsical.Laurie states in her bio. that she gets her best ideas at night while her husband and children lay sleeping. Indeed her creations looks like they stepped right out of a sewing dream! With bright colors and cleaver ways in which to incorporate sewing tools Laurie blends her creative talent with practical solutions to the tools of sewing. Laurie has her own view on what makes a perfect pincushion

1. Large - room for lots and lots of pins
2. Heavy - so it doesn't move or tip over
3. Not too deep - so needles don't get buried inside
4. Lots of sections - for sorting different types of pins
and needles
5. Stuffed with materials that will sharpen,clean, shine
and condition your pins.

Years ago when they made the tomato pincushions that little strawberry that hung off the side was filled with what they called emery or black sand. A few quick stabs and your pen would be right as rain. Some of the wonderful pin cushions that are being designed like our featured artist Love Laurie, are including it in the main cushion so that it adds weight and stays put as you sew.. It will also keep the needles from going to far down in the cushion. You would not want to pick up the cushion and look for your favorite applique or quilting needle only to discover that it had slipped down in the cushion never to be seen again. As for the little strawberry that used to hold the emery sand she has filled it with lanolin rich wool to condition your pins and needles and help them to glide in and out of your fabric like butter.
Sections are added to her cushions to keep things in the proper order. So many needles look alike and who wants to waist time to seek out that favorite one. I don't know about anyone else but I have precious time to sew much less to try and look for a needle. These pincushions are wider and flatter so there is lots of surface for your needles and pins.

But lets face it, everyone likes something that is unique, so in our quest to make, or purchase the perfect pincushion this artist is on the top of my list this month!
Her attention to detail and the extras that she adds to make her work quality as well as ornamental is what made this artist stand out. The items that I chose to display here reminded so much of the Queen of Harts from the treasured children's story Alice in Wonderland. The colors and the use of felt make this not only eye candy but a joy to feel and hold with the different textures. The artist seems to have peeked into the dreams of every quilter and seamstress and captured our harts desire in pincushions.

Each little cushion come with a personal touch from the sweet little sayings to the custom care in hand or machine stitching each item never gluing.
Weather you purchase one or several for your self or as a gift I am sure you will enjoy these for years to come.

Check out some of these other products offer by Love Laurie

This sweet Tea Pot ripper and Tea Cup Threader a must have for any sewing basket and what a gift for any occasion! And Love Laurie do custom request. Want a different color then just send her a message via her Etsy store and she will try to meet your desire. What more could you ask for!






There are some fabulous products offered here and all with the utmost thought and care just click on to any of these images and be transported into a whimsical sewing notion store!

All photos in this blog entry are the property of Love Laurie and may not be used with out the express permission of the artist.

A vist with the past

Being someone who loves twitter I have discovered a very interesting person! Someone who gives Tuesdays a little spice and encourages me to do what I loved as a child and as an adult... to pretend. I shall introduce this person in a bit but for now there is another thing that you must know about me and that is that I love the past I love the Victorian era. And given the chance to visit it in a time machine I would flip that switch in a hart beat. There would probably be more places in time that I would take a weekend jaunt to, but to see the clothes and the homes and to have a wonderful cup of tea with all the adornments of high tea in the country that invented it well.... lets go. Now yes, I know that most of my ideas are based on a totally romantic view of the era and put back in at time (one without proper public toilets) I probably could only stand it for a short time before I realized that the Internet was down and that even the good old boy from Verizon could not make the connection (incidentally I am with AT&T and have just gotten an iphone so I surely could not be away from precious (aka iphone) for very long at any rate) But I digress the person of whom inspired this little trip into time Dr. Wendell A. Howe .
So come if you will, for a bit of time digression, to seek out a fantastic artist as well as a visionary. Miss Beatrix Potter . The time that I will be visiting in her life will be in her 40's since we should be about the same age. She will have moved to her beloved country side and have already published several of her children's books. This fantastic country side is called the Lake District , located in Scotland. I am sure if I look hard enough I will see little Peter Rabbit scampering under the shrubs. In Beatrix Potters life she saw the need to preserve the "Country" way of life. She saw some of the lands that are now in trusted to the National Trust disappearing. Thanks to her you can visit this lovely country side in the Lake District with out a time machine. So here is to an Artist who's love of what she did enabled her to purchase and set aside this fantastic country side for us to see and be inspired also. Thank you.
For my visit today I will be going to look over her shoulder so to speak and watch a master at work. See how she uses her brush and admire her color pallet. I hope that during this trip she will indulge me in a reading of one of her beloved books. So much more than meets the eye in this fantastic person. But I will have to watch my self as women where not encouraged to be educated and in Beatrix Potter's case her own parents discouraged it and appointing her their housekeeper! She keep a journal that was in secret code from 15 to past 20 that was not decoded until 20 years past her death! I also want to hear of her thoughts on the symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae as she was respected as an expert mycologist, however in 1897 her paper on the germination of spores had to be presented to the Linnean Society by her Uncle Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, as wemon were barred from attending meetings. I must say here that they latter issued an apology to her. Even the Royal Society refused to publish technical papers she authored.
But I am sure I will be able to talk in confidence with her on these issues as well as our love for the Uncle Remus Stories. Stories that I recite on a regular basis to my children! It will be exciting to relate to someone my childhood memories of these inspirational tails. It was exciting to learn that she too smuggled in little animals to her home as so did I and my Mother. Visitors that touched our lives. Why I remember a set of baby squirrels that we raised that we could call up by scratching our hands on the tree bark. Oh and there was the possum that road to the post office in my Mother hair. Such times. I was so lucky to see a world that most others have to be taught to see and appreciate.
But I must leave now or I will not get to visit long since this only last for one day. I hope that if you did not know very much about this artist you now know that she was more than just that and that perhaps you will look into this life and be inspired. Thanks for dropping by!

Pins and Needles

Fantastic Sewing Buddies

Sewing is wonderful and a great way to keep your mind off of things that would tend to be over whelming. With my oldest son getting ready to leave the U.S. and deploy to Iraq for his second tour of duty sewing has become a great way to feel like I am moving forward and accomplishing something. I have started to make pin cushions they are quick and easy and before you know it your finished. I am getting together a few of them to offer here and on my Etsy. shop.
These little tightly filled pincushions are fantastic to put with the latest hand sewn quilt squares or in your basket of sewing. I can't tell you how important they really are. I usually take my sewing down to the family room and then sit and watch TV with the rest of the brude. I have gotten in the habit of not taking any pincushion and this time when I pick up my sewing I got a pin stuck in my thumb for the trouble. Just a little effort on my part to collect the proper tools of sewing and I could have avoided the human pincushion issue. Looking at these little things I suddenly thought wow what great little gifts these would be placed in a basket with jars of home made jam and bread. How fantastic to give as gifts to neighbors and to fellow sewing friends. With the way that the economy has reached and touched each of us gifts like those I have just mentioned would be welcomed. Not only are these types of gifts easy to make and inexpensive done with scraps of material readily available to any sewing enthusiast or quilter but the fact that you thought enough of the person to give something handmade well, I for one would welcome gifts like that.

Jams and Jellies
Out side of the studio I have started to get cooking literally by fixing some jams for this winter. When we had returned home to the Mountains and found my home literally over grown I also found that the black berry's had started to take over on one side of the house. With out having the hart to remove them completely I started to trim them and wait for the fruit to come. It came and came in the bunches. I picked and picked and then finally made some jam the other day. (I have posted some snaps of the jams on my Photo Blog you may want to subscribe to that to see just what comes out of a day) When through making the jam which was soooo easy I might add I poured 1/8" wax to seal it and then when cooled I poured another 1/8" and tipped the jar to make sure the edges sealed up. There is a fantastic web site that will give you everything that you need to know for an easy project that can double as a fun time in the kitchen with the kids and as gift giving for Birthdays or Christmas that is coming up. I think that this project took me about 1 hour to do. So the next time you have some black berry bushes in your yard you may want to think twice about removing them. But remember also that when you see those special deals on fruit at Wal-Mart or Sams you may want to purchase a little extra to make into jams and jellies. You can store them and then you will never be caught with out a special gift.


Brown Irish Soda Bread! This is another great gift and easy to make! Think of this bread as one of the best ones to pop into your mouth with loads of butter. Great with soups and fatntastic alone as well this makes a good filler gift. By that I mean you can place this in your basket of goodies to give your host or hostess or a welcome to your new home or for any day that you want to turn into a special rememberance. Coupled with some Irish butter (avilable now at most grocers) with a jar of Jam from your summer harvest this will make a great gift. Hope that you have enjoyed my little bits of thought this week !

Diving into Art

My No. One Son has been home this past month and we all have enjoyed his stay. Every day has been great. We have worked in the yard this trip. Probably more than we would have liked to but we have gotten some planting and weeding done. He has purchased some border plants and some accent plants for use to take care of while he is in Iraq so we will have a memory of all our good times here during his stay and he can follow via web the gardens progress and feel apart of its daily progress. Needless to say his stay is moving towards the end and with that is the knowledge that he will be being deploying to Iraq on August 15. That little bit of knowledge, is like a rat gnawing in my hart and mind. Now with these tears of not being able to see him for another 15 mo. it will also awaken the creative side of my soul. So crank up the rock and roll and let it flow.

Right before he came I managed to get this cute tea cozy done. I had some of this red ticking and could just see the end result in my mind. By the way you can download this great little Tea Pot Applique (just follow this blog and you will be able to get some more applique design to use as they become available weekly. It's a win win.) I will also be offering patterns for sale that I have designed. Hopefully you will like some or all of them. Since I work with graphics I have decided to incorporate that in my quilting and make them available to you my followers.
On this project I did it old school. I pined the little tea pot applique to the fabric and turned the sides under 1/8 of inch all round. I would recommend that you use some of freezer paper and leave 1/8 inch overlap of the fabric when cutting the applique. Spray some starch in a bottle cap and then dab on the edges with a small brush. You can then use a small hand held iron paddle to fold over the edges for a smooth applique finish around the edges. You can use a clear thread or matching thread for your material. Coming up from the bottom with the applique pinned or glued on your background material grab a very small amount of your applique material on the very edge and securing on to your background material. Always run your needle just under the edge of your applique design when securing the applique down, so as not to see the thread. Or you can use your sewing machine with a blind stitch. I love working with my hands so I use the hand version of applique.
You will notice that I have added some wording above that say "Tea Pot" . I have also Feel free to do what ever you like or use the applique design on your next quilt nothing says that you have to do what I have done, just let your imagination run wild. I added some scraps for the border. I had a square that was not exactly square so I cut it up and used it for the binding. It added a great country feel to it.
For some interest on the back of the Tea Cozy I did some machine quilting (different from the hand quilting that I always do but due to the fact that this was Ticking it was a heavy fabric and would have made the hand quilting harder and awkward so I use the method of machine quilting so as not to look messy. Country is one thing messy is another.

Thanks for visiting my blog and I hope that you enjoy your "Tea Pot"

The Tea Pot and Applique is a Jeweled Frog Creation Copyright Jeweled Frog Studio All rights reserved. Contents on this blog can not be duplicated and redistributed with out permission.