I Was Ready For The Roaring 20’s Not The Great Depression

Hello everyone and happy Wednesday!

Wednesday is our bin collection day and so I was rudely awakened this morning by the sound of breaking glass as it was the glass collection today, always disconcerting to hear that much glass smashing at one time as the bins get dumped into the back of the truck.  Today I have yet another fabric journal page to share – It wasn’t planned, but when I pulled out this fabric to make the sample mask, I knew I had to use it on a page!  I’ve had this for years and years and not used it and kind of forgot about it.  It’s another American quilting cotton and there are some co-ordinating fabrics that go with it, one of which I have but can’t find lol.  No great surprise there!  This art journal page is inspired by the VINTAGE theme over on Art Journal Journey where this month’s lovely host is Wendy K.

The Roaring 20’s

I made the mask first – more on masks further down

I didn’t want to hack into this fabric more than I had too so I used the piece that was left from cutting the mask out, then pasted on the extras to fill in the gaps.

That’s where I left it last night.  This morning I got up early (thanks to the bin men) and used this art deco die to cut out some pieces.  It’s one from PinkFresh and it cuts both pieces to use separately or together.

I used the backing piece as a stencil on my page with some gold paint (which is why they are gold in the photo above) then I shaded the stencilling with a black pencil.  You can see below where the gold has been shaded with black on the LHS and not on the RHS.

When I was done stencilling, I cut up some of the die cut card and glued on my page.

Here’s a closer look at some of the detail on the printed fabric.

Last night I was looking through my quote notebook and found this one, so I quickly wrote it out on some white card, and then this morning, used the diecuts to frame it.

And finally, for those days when you feel the need to co-ordinate your mask fashion with your journal artwork ha ha ha!

Mask Making

Since we were talking about masks, I made six yesterday including the one above.  I haven’t had any new masks in the 18 months this has been going on, because I already had masks before it even started!  I’ve had some issues with allergies so I had to invest in a few good masks (complete with zip compartments and charcoal filters!).  So when lockdown and mandatory mask wearing happened last year I was already prepared!  But 18 months later and I’m tired of wearing basic black so I decided yesterday that I would make something different.

I started by getting out the pattern paper and my mask and measuring up.

Then I went through the stash and pulled out some fabrics and yes I actually had to go find the iron, dust it off, and do some hateful ironing.
I found some Dr Who fabric, some with vinyl records, this pretty blue one with the kitty and the bird, and this grey and black one that has tiny little black and red birds in the trees.

So now I have six extra masks in some fun fabrics.  I feel quite secure in my black mask because of the layers and the filter etc so I wasn’t keen on just making masks out of two layers of cotton, so I have added interfacing and wadding in the middle of each so I’m breathing through that and not just two layers of thin cotton.  Now the question is, which one to wear first and do I need to co-ordinate with what else I’m wearing, because normally I don’t think about that since black goes with everything LOL

The Escape Artist

I posted this photo last week but in light of what happened yesterday, I’m posting it again.  It’s a photo of Miss Lily sitting on top of the cat tree in the sunroom.  The window opens into the dining room and at this time of year it’s usually open as that room can get hot, anywhere from mid 20s to over 40C.  She likes to stick her head through and see what the humans are doing on the other side.   Both of them were in there enjoying the balmy weather, and then my other cat wanted in from the garden for an afternoon nap.  She doesn’t like any other cats but since the other two were up on the cat tree sleeping, and then she went to sleep, all was good, this happens a lot at moment because of the weather.  I came down periodically to check everyone was ok and no one wanted out, as I have to keep the door shut when grumpy kitty is in there.

So I’m upstairs sewing masks and I thought I heard something behind me, which was weird as I was the only human in the house and all the cats were in one room downstairs.  I stopped sewing and listened, but heard nothing and went back to sewing.  Then five minutes later I turned around and there is Miss Lily sitting on the rug watching me!  Whaaaaa?  How????   I guessed she might have climbed through the window but there is nothing on the other side to climb down, so she jumped from that window?  I quickly checked her over for injuries, broken limbs etc, she seemed fine. I know, she’s a cat, it’s what they do, but short distances can cause more trouble than great heights. The other alternative is that maybe I didn’t close the door properly, so I went downstairs to check.  The door was closed.  I went inside the room, grumpy Miss P was sleeping on her chair but Mr G was nowhere to be seen!  Another escape artist?  Eventually I found him hiding inside one of the little houses on the cat tree, somewhere he never goes, so I’m thinking either they got too hot up the top of the cat tree and Lily’s solution was to climb out the window to the cooler room and Mr G’s solution was to move to the cooler floor; or Miss P got a little agro with them and Lily climbed out the window to escape and her big chicken brother hid in a little house!  In the five years they have been here, that has never happened, but now I’m going to have to keep an eye on her as all the downstairs windows are like this and the kitchen window is often open, though with flyscreen on.  I thought it was pretty safe and there would be no way they would attempt it but now I’m going to have to keep a close watch on Houdini kitten!

WOYWW Today

Here’s what’s on my desk today.  These are the drawers from my vintage Singer sewing machine table and they are not in the table!  The table is in the shed, and I use the drawers in the studio to store acrylic inks and reinkers.  These drawers normally sit on a shelf but I pulled them out to reorganise the contents as they were getting out of control and needed to be sorted out – I like them in colour order but when I’m using them I don’t always put them back in place.

Let me know what you think in the comments.   As always, thanks for reading!Ingredients
my handmade journal, watercolour paper, fabric, gel medium, glue, art deco die, cardboard, gold paint, black pencil,

Challenges

Art Journal Journey – Vintage – September Challenge

WOYWW – #642 – What’s on my desk (I’m number #22 in the linkup!)  Happy WOYWW!

Blog Along with Effy – Day 22
Links to all the days of the September blog-along
Sept 1st – UFOs Tapestry Cushion and Harris Tweed TBD
Sept 2nd – Second on the Second – e-reader covers
Sept 3rd – There is no enjoyment like reading
Sept 4th –  A Day in the Garden and UFO update
Sept 5th – Begin the Beguine
Sept 6th – She Sells Seashells on the Seashore
Sept 7th – Vintage Children Doing Vintage Things
Sept 8th – WOYWW Desk, Garden, Kitties, Kitchen and Blog Along One Week In
Sept 9th – August Reading List
Sept 10th – Sorry Not Sorry
Sept 11th – A Peek Inside The Fabric Stash
Sept 12th – Garden Catch-Up, Bees, Cats, Cat Mint
Sept 13th – Happy Roald Dahl Day!
Sept 14th – T Stands for Banana Bread
Sept 15th – WOYWW Arts & Crafts Storage
Sept 16th – The Cat Sat on Andy Warhol’s Mat
Sept 17th – Needles and Ribbons and Packets of Pins
Sept 18th – A Woman’s Work is Never Done
Sept 19th – Talk Like A Pirate – The RRRs of Recycling
Sept 20th – She Is an old soul with a vintage heart
Sept 21st – T Stands For Tweed, Model Kitty, and Decaf
Sept 22nd – this post

This month I decided to join in with Effy Wild’s blog-along – 30 posts in 30 days same as we did in April this year.  The idea is to blog every day if you can, but also to comment on other people’s blogs to keep the conversation going.  There is a facebook group where you can link your posts and find other people’s to go visit and comment.

A Peek Inside The Fabric Stash – Some Vintage Favourites

September 11, 2021

T Stands For Banana Bread, Garden Update and Kitties

September 14, 2021

Happy Roald Dahl Day!

September 13, 2021

Garden Catch-Up, Bees, Cats and Cat Mint

September 12, 2021