My New Mousepad

I have been wanting to replace an old dilapidated mousepad that I had at work and decided to see if I could refurbish the old one rather than buying a new pad. I had recently purchased a package of June Taylor computer printer fabric sheets, and I thought it would be fun to see if I could adhere the fabric sheet to the old mousepad. I'm happy to say that it worked perfectly. I placed a sheet of Steam-A-Seam 2 between the computer printed fabric and the rubber mousepad, applied a hot iron, and presto, the fabric adhered perfectly. I probably should have changed the settings on my printer so the colors would have been more intense, but I actually like the softer colors that came through on the sheet just as well. I did not spray any protective coating on the surface, so I'm not sure how well the fabric will hold up under intense mouse movement, but I'm going to put it to the test.

Nature Walks

Recently, my son and I have been going on nature walks whenever possible on the weekends. This past weekend, we went to a local park near home and I remembered to bring my camera. This particular photo is one that I really love...not sure what it is (perhaps some form of fungus growing in the woods?), but the shape and colors remind me of sea shells. This would make a lovely wall hanging. I just need to figure out how to capture the beautiful colors and delicate shapes.

Up the pathway, we happened upon a tree that had a lot of green moss on the ground nearby and the sun was shining on it so brightly that it became illuminated with a bright green glow (it almost looked nuclear!).

The photo below shows a close-up so you can tell it's not really nuclear...just brightly-lit moss, but has a nice look to it.

Here's a very interesting tree...wonder what critters live inside?

After walking for what seemed like hours, I came back home feeling refreshed and inspired. I was exhausted, but did manage to create a mousepad for myself using that first photo of the fungus design.

Swarovski Crystals

Oh, the joys of having a three-day weekend! I finally had a chance to try out my crystal setting tool that I had purchased a few years ago at a quilt show. I decided to stitch out a plain peacock design in silver thread and then accent different areas with the Swarovski crystals. After much trial and error, I was finally able to figure out a way to get the crystals to stick longer than a few minutes. The tool that was designed to be used with these did not seem to work, but I finally attached the flat head tip and just rested the heated tip on the crystal for several seconds and presto! the stones are now affixed. However, no matter how many attempts I made to get a good photo of the shirt, including taking the mannekin outside on the patio, I still couldn't get a clear shot that shows off the pretty crystals. At least you can sort of get an idea of what it looks like. It was lots of fun anyway, and I hope to do more designs soon.