Altered Keys, Altered Birdhouse and other ramblings

Where has the last six weeks gone since the last time I posted? I've been busy visiting with my very good friend, Kathy, altering keys, altering a birdhouse and celebrating my hubby's VBB (Very Big Birthday). Oh, and of course, going to garage and rummage sales. Once the kids go back to school in September, there is a deluge of these sales here in NJ. Everyone is rushing to get things sold before the cold weather arrives.
Kathy hails from Tennessee and is a world traveler. However, she had never been to NYC until last month. As part of her birthday celebration, Kathy came to visit and we had a total blast. One day, we visited The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
It was an awesome day and we had fun researching Kathy's ancestors to see if they came through Ellis Island.
Kathy gifted me with the most fabulous fabric book that she made. Pictures just can't do this book justice. As you can see from the above picture, the spine is decorated with vintage buttons and charms and the cover is embellished with a photo printed on fabric, lace and a button flower.
The inside pages are made of fabric, vintage papers, and some of Kathy's beautifully painted pages. This book is breathtaking and I know just what I'm going to do with it. However, you'll have to wait to find out.

On another day, we visited the Garment District in NYC. We had a wonderful day exploring my favorite stores which you can read about here.

Of course, the Garment District isn't the only place to acquire really amazing embellishments and art supplies. NJ garage sales offer a wealth of possibilities as witnessed by the picture below. Yes, all of this came from one sale!

Are you wondering what I do with all this junque?
During one of the days that Kathy was here, another friend, Santa, joined us and we decided to alter keys. Making altered keys has got to be one of the most fun projects I've done in a long time. Using old keys and pieces from my odd assortment of junque jewelry, we had a laugh-filled day eating, talking, sharing and arting. If you'd like to read the article that inspired me to make these keys, go here. I plan on using my keys as pendants.
On Kathy's last day here in NJ, I altered a birdhouse. I had seen a picture of a birdhouse that Kathy had altered and was dying to try it. With her encouragement, I went ahead and had a go at it. If you'd like to see my inspiration for altering birdhouses, visit Kathy's blog here. As you can see, Kathy's gorgeous birdhouse is vintagey. I was aiming for vintagey but somehow my muse had other ideas. It seems she was in a glitzy mood that day hence the lace, sequins and ribbons.
One last thing, in addition to the beautiful fabric book Kathy made for me, just look at this fantastic wire mannequin she squeezed into her suitcase. I had been looking for something just like this to display charms that I have gotten in various swaps and it seems that a little birdie told this to Kathy.

On a family note, last month Howie celebrated his 65th birthday! It's hard to believe that young guy I married 42 years ago is now an official senior citizen. Here's a picture of him opening one of the gifts I gave him. Yes, it's Hostess Cup Cakes. I was trying to help him re-live his childhood.
I couldn't find an appropriate birthday card, so I made one. Here's the front of the card....
and here's the inside of the card.

How to make fabric beads from scraps

I'm still obsessed with fabric beads. This is very odd since I usually spend a few days working on something and then go on to another project. Perhaps it's because I was presented with a challenge that I couldn't resist. There is nothing I like more than a challenge.

The other day, one of my online friends, Shauna, mentioned that she had tried making fabric beads following directions she had read on the Internet. She was quite frustrated since her results were less than stellar.

The technique involved taking scraps of material, fibers, threads, etc. and washing the collection in the washing machine or by hand and then drying everything in the dryer where the material/fibers would get tangled. The instructions then said to take a small amount of the tangled material, roll into a small, tight ball, pin in place to hold everything together, and then stitch the material until a tight bead was formed. Once this was done, the bead could be embellished with seed beads.

After following the directions, Shauna lamented, "My material didn't clump up. It just made a mess in the washer." I felt badly for her, and since I was stuck in the house while Hurricane Bill deluged northern NJ with rain, I decided to try my hand at this technique.

Here is my simplified version of how to make beads from scraps of fabric and thread. I like "simple" don't you? I also like to recycle. It makes me feel patriotic and noble. I'm not adding to the landfill. I'm not increasing my carbon footprint. I'm creating something from nothing. Oh what a good girl am I!

I decided to bypass the washing and drying steps. First of all, it saved time. Second of all, it saved water and electricity. I'm getting greener and greener by the moment. The goal of the washing and drying step was to get a tangled mess of frayed fabric.

I accomplished this by cutting some odds and ends of fancy fibers into 12 inch pieces.
I then ripped some scraps of fabric into very, very thin strips. The goal was to have lots of threads hanging off the fabric. To be honest, when I was all done making the bead, I could hardly see the frayed edges because I had sewn the bead so tightly. The trick is to have the material in very thin strips (as close to 1/4" as possible.)
Next step was to intersperse the fibers and fabric .....
and then roll the whole thing up into a ball.
Next, cut off a small amount from the fabric/fiber ball.
Rather than pinning the fabric/fiber into a bead shape, I used a temporary adhesive spray (used by quilters to hold paper pattern pieces to fabric) which did a lovely job of holding the fabric pieces together while I formed the ball. Note: It didn't make the fabric sticky as I had feared.
Knowing that I would need to attach my bead to a chain using a jump ring, I inserted a wire through the material before I stitched the bead. Once the bead was tightly sewn together, it would have been impossible to get the wire through the bead. I am so proud of myself for having figured this out before I made my bead.
Working my way around the bead, I used colored thread to stitch the strips of material tightly together. This way if my stitches showed, I could claim it was part of the design.

After the bead was stitched tightly, I had fun embellishing the bead. I used metallic threads of various colors which I wrapped around and stitched through the bead. I finished up by sewing small beads all around the bead. I have to admit, it was a labor-intensive project and took a couple of hours, but the results were worth it.

And I have the satisfaction of having met the challenge.