How to "Tie" Up a Plant

Thursday I had some time to work on a project and wanted to do an easy macrame plant hanger for this window in our bathroom. 

As I dug out some left over rope from a previous project, I saw all the ties I had just laundered that I had brought back from my Mom's.  She had made us all small tie quilts and had oodles of ties left over.  My one sister and I divided them up.

It was one of those wonderful moments of "I bet this will work!!"  And, it did. :)

I was amazed at how much I enjoyed working with the ties.  I pressed them and then they were really resilient to being tied, untied, and tied again as I figured out how I wanted to make the hanger.

I debated quite awhile how to do the loop at the top and when I just did an overhand knot only pulling the loop partly through, I realized that was perfect.  The ends of the ties hanging and flopping like ties looks really cool.

I gathered the bottom and wrapped another piece of a tie around it so it looks like...a tied tie!!

I was craving some green...you can tell it's spring time!  But, can you see the little snow skiers on the red tie??

The gist of how to make one yourself:

►6 men's ties: preferably not super wide ones at the bottom, the longer the better

►Gather them at the bottom and tie with twine or string.

►Divide the six ties into 3 groups of two and tie square knots, adjusting as needed to make them even

►Regroup the ties into three new groups of two, and again tie a square knot adjusting to make them even.

►Place your chosen pot in the hanger you've created and adjust again as necessary.  You may find you have to retie and lower or raise the knots.  Don't worry the ties stay nice and it doesn't take long.

►Once the pot fits to your liking, gather all six ties together again and make a overhand knot but stop short of pulling the loop all the way through.  TIGHTEN so it doesn't slip, adjusting to let the ties end flop as you like.  Again, make sure it's SUPER TIGHT so your plant doesn't end up on the floor.

►Make a "bead" out of a piece of another tie, (basically hand stitch a strip of tie) and slip it up from the bottom to neatly cover the string/twine you used to tie the ties up at the bottom.

It may seem strange that we divided up my Mom's belongings so quickly after she passed away, but she was in assisted living at the nursing home and her apartment had to be emptied. She had already given up her home about 6 months ago.  We had to take care of things right away while all of us kids were there.

106 Vintage Part 2

Well, so much for posting "next week" as I said in my last post!  I think May happened.  I know it's a full time of year for everyone.

Anyway, here you go!  Pictures from Cammie Methany's wonderful shop 106 Vintage.  Her summer market is this weekend: June 4th & 5th.  Maybe you can go?!

mid century

 industrial 

They've started making more items out of reclaimed wood and this bar is one of them. 

Create your own message!

~ little treasures ~

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I could hang out here. 

the old made new 

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not quite half of the shop from the back

Oh, "Hello Bonnie!"

You can see pictures from my visit last year here. 

If you're local, you could plan a road trip!

Happy June!!

Bicycles at 106 Vintage

What is it about bicycles?  So many people just love them including me!

I rode mine quite a bit as a kid into town, but I wasn't especially fond of the bike itself. In fact I thought it was the ugliest brown I'd seen. I had bought it sight unseen from someone who had won it.  It was a 10 speed and I longed for a 10 speed.  The price was great since they had won it.  When my Dad brought it home after I'd paid for it...my heart sank. I never thought to ask the details because I knew what 10 speeds looked like. Of course my Dad never thought to tell me the details because he knew what bikes looked like and this was a bike.  I had pictured the curved handle bars known then as "boys handle bars" on a bright and sleek looking 10 speed bike.  The one Dad brought to me was brown (really? they make brown bikes?! 12 year old Jill thought) with "girl" handle bars (they make 10 speeds with lame handle bars?!)

So it goes.  Ride it or walk; I was out my money either way.

I've been to visit Cammie at 106 Vintage again in Coleridge, Nebraska and loved her big window display!

I edited them the way my mind sees them... seeing the shapes and the nostalgia...

I remember learning to ride on my big sister's white bike.

Do you have bicycle memories?  Good or bad?

You'll find bikes in my tank garden, but one is almost completely obscured now by a honey suckle vine.

You can find pictures from our last visit to 106  Vintage here.  I'll be posting more pictures from our recent visit next week.  Cammie has the best displays!  So much to admire!!

  

A Scrappy Wreath

Yesterday, I was working on another Scrappy Cake and was a bit stymied as to how to finish the top.

I had a foam wreath laying in the sewing room thinking that I wanted to make a scrappy wreath with it. No shortage of vintage fabric scraps here!

Now seemed like a good time to proceed and let my "cake" bake a little longer so to speak.

A doily tied in the middle made a perfect bow!

This was a winner of a project and very easy!  This wreath has Liberty of London fabric vibe, but these are all vintage scraps bought from auctions and garage sales!  

One for the Records

After I halted my sorting the other day to make this wreath, I didn't get back to too much sorting. I ended up digging into my stash of old records.

I just leaned them on the mantle for now since it is still empty....

I used more of the piano forte music I used in the wreath, but added a layer of matte medium first so it had some strength. Then I could fold and bend the petals I cut from it.  The fabric part of the flower is the lining from a vintage tie and has the brand name, "witty brothers" on it. :)

On this one, I left the petals flat using matte medium and mod podge.

On this one and the other pink backed one, I started with a coat of gesso and then used the same soft pastels I used on the clay projects to color them in.  I fixed the pastels with a spray coat of finish afterwards.  See the little textured piece of red paper in the center? That is a piece of hand made paper my 4h club made for Christmas ornaments about 14 years ago! I still have the bag of paper ornaments.  I need to get that project going again with my current club.

I wasn't sure if this one would work out or not, but it did!  I'm really happy with it too!  I used mod podge to adhere strips of vintage fabric that I cut randomly into wedges and fitted them as I went along cutting the excess from either end as I glued them down.

I still have to decide how to put a hanger on them or find a proper easel to old them.  But, for now I think I'll continue to experiment with more. Lots of ideas for them rolling around in my head.

Two of the records are the old 78 for phonographs so are thicker than the vinyl we played as kids. And two (pictured above) are Edison records, really old ones!!  And, really thick!  They have a nice heft and feel to them.  The box full of them is so heavy! 

I certainly won't be upcycling all of the records, I have to keep some for our phonograph!

Sheet Music Wreath

So, yesterday, I went to the store room determined to clean and organize it.  Oh look, I made a wreath instead!  When I dug out the boxes of music...I decided to seize the moment.

There are so many tutorials and different ways to do this out there on the internet, you can cruise around to find what works for you.  Without any how-to pictures I'll tell you how mine came together.

►Cut a piece of cardboard for the backing (I  used the pizza box holding the left over pizza in the fridge that I had eaten for lunch, one week old as Thursday is our "pizza day"  which is today again, yay!)

►Punch two holes for a hanger.

►Roll the sheets of music and using a low temp glue gun, use a dab of glue to hold close.  I used two books of pianoforte music.  It is the most glorious looking music out there and fairly sturdy pages.  Except that they are so old they are a bit fragile.  I am a little sad that I used these books, but they have been in storage for probably 15 years and there isn't much of a market for them as sheet music is everywhere.  At least they are being enjoyed again!

►Position the rolls to your liking on the cardboard backing and glue lightly.  When you are happy with it, go back and add more glue.  I really thought the low temp glue gun worked well.  

►Add a cord hanger to the punched holes.

►Audition doilies and medallions (how about a big broach?) for the center embellishment.  I had this heart (from my clay project) laying on the sewing room table while I was making this and there you go...found a home for it!

►Again using the low temp glue gun tack the doilies and center embellishment down.

►Before I started I measured the space where I was going to hang this so I knew if I should trim down the music sheets or not. 

So why didn't I take it down to take pictures of it??  I still have a store room to clean!

I am really happy with the layered doilies in the center!  I appreciate the woman (unknown to me) who perfectly blocked and starched the really fine one in the back because it was like that when I bought it years ago.

Did you notice we haven't decorated the mantle since putting the Christmas decorations away?!  So it goes.

Happy Pizza Day!  

(I think it's Tombstone for us tonight.)