SERENA GALE'S CRAFT PAGE

SERENA'S CRAFT PAGE

Pottery, Quilts and Crafts Of All Kinds!

These are a few of the crafts I have made over the years. Please feel free to write and tell me what you think of them, good or bad. To see a picture of the item described, click on the graphic on either side of the description.

QUILTS

This is the first quilt I ever made. It was supposed to be for my mother’s 40th birthday, but she didn’t get it till the Easter after her 45th birthday. I’m a big procrastinator. I was inspired by a quilt that was featured in some woman’s magazine in 1988 or 89. The orrigional project was done by the children in an elementary school for thier teacher. Each of the children took scraps of fabric and made a picture of themselves, and then a mother sewed the quilt together. The article included instructions, so I took the basic idea and changed it. I cut pieces of fabric for all of my Mother’s friends and family and mailed them to the respective person with instructions to decorate them any way they desired, so long as the block be washable, and something personal. I got all the pieces back (a good part of the time it took me to finish the quilt was in tracking the people down and getting them to return the block), and assembled the quilt top. I then put the quilt together and quilted it on my machine at home. I presented it to my Mother on Easter 1996 (don’t try to figure her age, she wouldn’t like that! Tee Hee). At first she didn’t understand what she was looking at, I had done this all as a surprise, but then as she looked at it she started to understand and asked me all kinds of questions about it. I appologised for it being late, but I don’t think she minded too much. It hangs in her guest room to this day.

Hints For Making Your Own Memory Quilt

My quilt had 1/4 “ borders all the way arround (ie: a 6” block would be cut 6 1/2” vertically and horrizontally, so that when sewn together, it would measure 6” square). The blocks were 6” square and the stripping and sashing (the color between the white blocks) was 1” x 6” and 1” by the width of the quilt. I used 25 blocks all together and bias tape to finish the edges. The finished size was about 3’ x 3’. This is the perfect quilt for beginners because it consists of large blocks that are decorated by someone else and all you have to do is put them together. Squares are also one of the easiest shapes to cut and sew together. When figuring out your design, you will want to lay it all out in advance so that you know how it will go together. I found it easiest to take a sash ( the short piece of colored fabric) and sew it tio a block then add another sash and another block, untill I had a whole strip of blocks. I did this with all the horrizontal rows and then sewed the rows together with the stripping in the same fashion as above. When this was done I assembled and quilted it and finished it with the edging. Since this was a hanging quilt, I also added som loops so that I could insert a dowel rod and hang it with that. My best tip is to pin everything as straight as you can and no more than 2” apart. Always pin at all seams so that the match up together when finished. That way, any excess space will be sewn down close to the source and not pushed all the way to the edge. When pinning a series of blocks together, start at the ends and work in. Also, invest in a rotary cutter and a good size cutting mat. I doesn’t have to be huge, but it should allow you to not have to require you to constantly move the fabric. Do the best you can with what you have. Take your time and be patient.

That is followed by a bad picture of the quilt I am in the process of making for my brother. It has 8” x 8” squares and no sashing or stripping. I had to put it together in sections because it was too big to lay out in my living room as one whole piece. I made 4 sections as above and then sewed them together. This was more difficult than the first quilt in that I used about 10 different fabrics and had differing numbers of blocks in each fabric. I aqlso wanted it to look even and not have all of one fabric in one section and none in another. What I had to do was, divide the squares into five piles, 1 for each of the four sections and one for extra pieces. I took each fabric and if there was at least 4 squares of it I divided it up into the 4 piles. If there were any extras, I put them in the extra pile. Then I went through the extras pile and did what I could to divide them up as evenly as possible. The extras from that group were used for the center collumn and row. The quilt top was then assembed as stated above. The only reason it is not finnished by now is that, a day or two before I was to begin tying the quilt (it is too big to be quilted in my machine...queen size) I showed it to my brother and he decided that he didn’t like the backing I had chosen and said that if I would hold off on making it, he would go get a material he liked for the backing. That was in July of 97 and I haven’t heard back since then. BROTHERS!!

POTTERY

These are some of the pottery items I have made. I have several more pictures that I have to scan onto disc so that I can post them here, but this should give you and idea of what I am doing. I am still very new to the pottery thing and I haven’t done alot lately but I plan to start doing more in a month or two when things quiet down. All together, I have about 9 months of experience, where a month equals about 8 days of actual work. I got into the pottery thing when I saw a pantacle at a store made from clay and costing about $25 or $30. I didn’t want to spend that much money and I figured that I could just as easily make it myself with a little help. I ran across a flyer for the K.C. Clay Guild in the Westport neighborhood of Kansas City, Mo. I decided to go down and check it out and made my panticle on the second try. It came out really well if I do say so myself and although I don’t have a pic on the page yet, I hope to have one up in a couple of months or so. I was hooked and continued to make more and more pieces and these are by no means, all the things I have made, but I hope to expand the photo collection over time. Anyway, these aren’t the best pieces of pottery you will ever see, but I am proud of them, none the less. You know, I even sold a couple of pieces to friends and family, and that gave my confidence a big boost!

SWAGS

These are two of the swags I have made. I have only made 3 all together and one was stolen (I know, stupid, huh?!?). I am not too great with flower arranging, and it can be very expensive so I don’t do too much of it. The reason I did these 2 swags is because, my step-mother (and crafting mentor) gave me all the supplies to make them. As a thankyou, I gave the vertical swag back to her. All I really do is start with a eucalyptis base, separate the bunch in half and lay the bottoms of the two halves together, wrap wire arround the middle and stick a few flowers to it with hot glue. You may wish to add baby’s breath, ribbons, raffia, or twisty paper.

PAGAN CRAFTS
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Links to craft sites.

QuiltNet
This is a site by and for quilters. There are lists of tips and some great links.

This site is dedicated to giving a lot of general information about crafts, how to succede in selling them and lots of wonderful tips. They even have a "chat area" where you can post your problem and other crafters will write back, giving you tips and ideas about how to solve your problem.

Craft Mall

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