A Little Bit West

I haven't had much time in the studio lately....just busy with other life stuff. So I was pretty tickled when a couple people shared something they created inspired by something here on the blog. That makes me so happy.

A week or so ago Lily asked about the button hole binding technique that I used on Emily's journal. I sent her a video that has been helpful to me and links to several of my posts where I shared some of my favorite button hole books. 

She got right on it...and made her first journal using the button hole technique. Well done Lily! 

I love that she used brown packaging paper for the signatures...also a nod to Emily's journal filled with paper bags.  I like her choice of fused fabric for the inside cover.

She stamped the cover using one of her homemade tree stamps and stitched a border 

around the edge. It's a very earthy journal...and she's going to fill it with trees!

Aren't these stamps fabulous!

Back in 2020 I was commissioned to make a fabric piece to mimic stained glass for  Amy.  Before I made hers....I made this practice piece which I blogged about here. 

I tweaked the pattern a bit for Amy's and you can read about her piece here in this post.

I fused batik fabrics pieces onto my hand drawn pattern...then covered all the seams with hand dyed black fabric to create the trees and the stained glass lead effect. It's a fun process...there are lots of photos in the links.

Randy saw my practice piece on the blog...and was inspired to use my pattern to make an actual stained glass piece while taking a class. I was tickled that he sent me a photo. His window is 65 by 25 inches and took about 8 weeks from pattern to installation. The frame is zinc and all the black trees are lead. Pretty darn impressive. Well done Randy! 

The Traveling Flowers spent some time in St. Louis

at the top of Arch Hill and at the St. Louis Art Museum.

Cherie was hoping to get a photo at the Cardinals stadium but there was a day game so no parking. 

But she was ready to go with the flowers in her lap...and snapped this shot at a stoplight with the arch in the background. I love it...and it's a fitting end to their visit to St. Louis! 

It's time to head home. I had to chuckle because they actually went a little bit west before the home stretch going east. 

Leaning into the Journey

I'm always glad when I pause to notice something beautiful....last evening it was the sky. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the business of life and forget to pause...and just look. I never want to be too busy to stop and look at something beautiful.

I'm so excited to see green buds on the lilac near my condo!

Cherie and Dale....along with their precious cargo...had a busy day yesterday touring along the great river road. Cherie mentioned that she might have Traveling Flower withdrawal when this journey is over....and that made me smile. We've all been on this journey....so there will be an adjustment period.

They started in Alton, Illinois where they found a kindred soul bumper sticker.

It still makes me smile when The Traveling Flowers dine with Cherie and Dale. It takes someone with a playful spirit and a joyful heart to cart them around and take the time to stage these photos. They have leaned into this journey...and it has been an absolute pleasure!

They headed on to Grafton, Illinois to see the mighty Mississippi.

Aren't these bird sculpures beautiful!

And finally a visit to Pere Marquette State Park.

Today they are headed to St. Louis...before the final stretch back home.

Mini Gallery

This lineup makes my heart sing! This is Jane's bottle collection on the window sill at her beach home. I popped in yesterday to wish her a happy birthday...I think I photograph these bottles every time I visit.

Jane has a mini gallery wall in her guest bath with five of my pieces...two little mirrors...and two pieces from Regina Lord....an artist we both admire. My little bird collage on the lower left still needs to be hung. 

Yesterday I took her this felted piece that I mounted it on another piece of wool. It was an odd size to frame....so that was my solution. 

I also added this this doodle stitch piece to her gallery that I did a while back. I described my process (on a different piece) in this post.

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2023/06/rabbit-hole.html

Here's another piece I did at the time with decorative machine stitching.

I shared my process for framing both pieces in this post:

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2023/06/one-step-further.html

I remember having a lot of fun playing with the decorative stitches on my machine...then adding a little hand stitching. I think I will revisit this again sometime,

Here's a better photo of the felt and fabric piece.

Cherie, Dale and the flowers have had some much needed rest at Rita's in Illinois. In the next few days they will be in the final stretch as they head home. I copied and pasted Cherie's email below that describes this photo of Rita and her whole garden of gifted Chuck flowers. 

This is our former across the street neighbor and good friend Rita with the rest of  her Chuck flowers.  The large red one is a one of a kind flower. These arrived after the ferrous flowers and live in the house. Rita’s grand-dog, Petey, has to be watched at all times because he has been caught lifting his leg to pee on them….fortunately just in time! 

The yellow hummingbird flowers are a double flower that Rita got specially made for her. She was supposed to get the hummingbird flower that resides on our cabin table . Since I “commandeered” it my dad felt Rita deserved a special replacement. The white flower, which I call the floppy flower, I gave her from a group my dad gave me to give special people at work when I retired. Lastly, the flower Rita is holding is one of three garden flowers she made in Chuck’s shop when she came to the cabin to visit. Rita says she’s very blessed to be the recipient of so many flowers.

Behind The Scenes

I was out and about almost all day today...so I'm going to use this opportunity to give a little behind the scenes of The Traveling Flowers. 

But I'll start with another patch of crocus....that's still mostly all we have for spring color so I pause every time I see some.

And I did finish this 100 Great Words puzzle during breakfast!

Kudos to this puzzle maker for this hodgepodge of interesting words.

Several days ago Cherie sent a few photo of the trunk of her car...with all its precious cargo. It's all part of the story of Chuck's generosity so I wanted to include them here. She and Dale have several of her dad's flowers in the car but you can see only my yellow ones. That's because Chuck makes all the flowers so the blooms can screw off for easy transporting and storage. How clever is he! 

There are flowers for a few people...and a new design for Cherie for her garden that I hope to see a photo of at some point. Also..she has several of Chuck's plaid shirts that she's going to turn into a quilt..and of course she'll look for interesting tags.

 This set of red ones were handed off to friends in Oklahoma.

The Traveling Flowers made it all the way to 

O'Fallon, Illinois today. Not only are Cherie and Dale visiting their friend Rita...but the flowers are visiting friends too. These are an earlier version of Chuck's flowers that they are hanging out with.

 Yesterday I mentioned the Rt 66 Mid Point...but forgot to plot it. 

It's there now in Texas along with the new destination for today!

Number Fifteen!

At the end of January I launched my Joy Journal Project....and I mailed my 15th journal a few days ago. It was just the right project for me this past winter. When I was absorbed in cutting, folding and stitching, I was in a place of peace.When I was doing it for someone else, I was in a place of joy. 

I am aware of a few sets of papers that still might come....but for the first time in awhile there are none waiting in the wings. I welcome the break to focus on other things...but will also welcome more papers if and when they come.

I tweaked the original post just a bit...but the general guidelines are still there if you are interested. 

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2026/01/hidden-in-my-joy.html

You can always contact me by email with questions at joyfulputtering@gmail.com

This seems to be a good time for a sneak peak  of the covers (there are 3 layers to the cover) of journal #15....the one chocked full of Julie's joy! 

Do you see the dotted rainbow card on the left....that's where I started. Her grandson loves rainbows...and there's lots of things that honor him in the journal. The first thing I did was cut off the white around the rainbow. 

I backed the dotted rainbow with fabric. 

It seemed a little risky to stitch between the rainbow colors in black thread...but I just went for it. It gave the rainbow definition...kind of like black pen and ink would.

Phew! I liked it...so continued with black thread through the whole journal. 

The second layer is a thread spool postcard. I like how the circles of the spool image gives a nod to the circles in the fused fabric on the left. 

One of Julie's cards became a sweet little pocket in the corner.

The third cover is a collaged with Julie's cards...and a few of mine.

I lined the inside of this third cover with rainbow striped fabric and wrapped it around to the front...then covered the edges with solid aqua fabric. I outlined the collaged pieces in black stitching. 

It seemed inevitable that the part of the fabric snippet strip Julie provided would be the belly band closure. 

The bright pink daisy will make more sense when you get a glimpse of the inside. The colors of these layered covers are much more vibrant in person....I'm guessing my lighting wasn't right.

I'll share some of the inside once it's in Julie's hands. 

Cherie, Dale and the flowers got quite a few miles under their belt yesterday! They made it to the Route 66 midway point between Los Angeles and Chicago.

Their last stop last night was in Chickasha, OK to see the 40 foot high leg lamp sitting on a 10 foot box. It's a classic image from A Christmas Story. I think Cherie and Dale like quirky roadside attractions. How fun is that!