I had planned on sharing my finished mosaic art garden border today but the weather conspired against me. I had the border almost finished on Tuesday. Probably about four more feet to complete when I stopped for the day. Wednesday was supposed to be another lovely day with rain moving in during the afternoon, but we woke to rain beating down on the house. So much for finishing that project!
My sewing machine is getting a well-deserved spring maintenance break so I don’t have any new sewing projects to share, either.
So I thought I’d make something for the grandkids that’s a little different. And really easy. Have you seen tangrams? I first read about them on one of the many DIY blogs I visit.
I did a google search for tangrams and downloaded the pattern. It’s just seven geometric shapes and used as a math teaching aid for children.
I then cut the pieces out of fabric and stuck them on adhesive magnets. So easy! You could use pretty cardstock but I have many more scraps of fabric than paper!
Then you can create all these clever shapes. There are a lot of templates of tangram figures out there on the web. This one is just a small sample to get you started. Some of them show which piece fits where.
After you get the hang of it, you can just create your own shapes. It’s kind of addictive.
Bunny tangram
Cat
Dog
Think the grandkids will like creating these next time they visit. And it might keep them busy for a couple minutes while I squeeze in a nap!
I started a mosaic art border along one of gardens a few years ago. I had taken a mosaics class that used stained glass. I even bought all the glass cutting tools and a glass grinder. But I was a wee bit afraid of cutting my fingers. Still am. There goes the banjo career! So much easier to just use found objects, glass marbles, and tile. And I have yet to cut any fingers.
I’ve pressed the grandkids into service to get even more original art in my yard!
Addy’s First MosaicRiley’s mosaic is “space”. There’s the earth, sun, a planet and the sky.Justin and Courtney in their initial design phase.Krazy Kendall and her project. Modern art open to interpretation.Addy’s an old pro at it now. This is me walking Maggie by a tree. Or maybe it’s a flower. At night. Come on, you can see it!This is the beginning of one of my mosaics.Gators aren’t really greenThis little guy was in the canal behind our house. Not green.Just a little mix of cheap paintsTypically we use weldbond glue but I was afraid the little concrete gator wouldn’t stick so we tried tile repair mortar. I’ll let you know how that works out after a few of our Florida deluges.Gator with tile repair mortarI have a hard time mixing up the grout by hand. My entire arm goes numb. Terry came up with this great idea. He pounded the end of a paint can opener flat and stuck it in his drill! We like to call him the Wizard!Before groutAnd after
Next step, put on a layer of grout sealer. Then place them on the next sunny day. Maybe I’ll have the finished project to show you next Thursday!
Tea towels are easy to make and fun to give as hostess gifts.
I started loving unique tea towels when I spotted them at Anthropologie many years ago.
Just a sample of tea towels available at Anthropologie for $22 EACH!
I have to fess up that I did buy one and made it into a pillow.
I couldn’t spend $22 for a tea towel but no problem spending that for a fun pillow!
You can get less expensive towels at Cost Plus World Market but we don’t have any of those wonderful stores in the Tampa Bay area. The ones that I bought when I lived far far away are worn out now.
So I started making my own tea towels. I’ve posted about making tea towels in the past and today I just want to give you some hints that I’ve discovered on my “tea towel making journey”.
The easiest method is to use finished plain towels that you can get just about anywhere. That’s what I used for the LOVE towels in the upper left corner. The applique fabric is a Moda Charm Pack.
Then I discovered Moda Toweling which is also easy to use. The towels in the upper right corner are made with the Moda toweling and fabrics. The lower right corner geo-heart towels are made with the toweling and a Moda charm pack. The toweling is finished on two sides which is wonderful since I don’t have to do all that hemming. I had a problem with the corners being kind of lumpy. But no more! I found an easy way to do that hemming. Once again, Sew4home taught me something new about sewing and now I can make those clever corners!
Here I am, making clever corners!
Then I didn’t know what kind of fabric to buy. Another one of my favorite sewing websites came through for me, PurlBee recommended Kaufman Essex Linen Blend so I ordered three yards of white from fabric.com.
This fabric is 44” wide, after washing and drying it shrunk a little. I cut the towels 16 ½” wide and 20 ½” long. Three yards is enough fabric to make 12 towels.
Now let’s discuss the appliques. I love to use tea items for my tea towels and I pulled the teacup and teapot from Sew4home. But I also use designs from many other sources and even cut them out of magazines and scan them into my computer. An easy one I recently discovered from another blog (sorry can’t remember which one so I can’t credit them) is SweetClipArt. It’s free and there are numerous fun graphics for every season. It includes a download program which I didn’t use because I worry about picking up viruses. I just right clicked on the picture and copied it to my computer then made it in different sizes through Photoshop. You can do the same in Word.
For my latest creation, the warm spring-like weather inspired me to go with butterflies and I again used the Moda Charm Pack “Chance of Flowers” that I bought at our local quilt store, Tomorrow’s Treasures.
Now a little hint about where to put the appliques. If they fit, I like to place them in the lower half of the tea towel. For instance, this towel is 22″ long so I put these butterflies in the bottom 11″. I also centered them in the middle third of the towel so all of the butterflies are visible when hung on a towel rod.
This is just before I ironed them down. Of course, when I took them to the ironing board, the butterflies had flown about and I had to place them all over again.
Here they are appliqued.
Hope those little hints inspire you to make some fun tea towels on your own!
