by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Sep 25, 2015 | Inspiration
Now that fall has officially arrived, time to reflect on the summer. The past few months have not been as productive as hoped. This has many causes – low energy, limited inspiration and the usual glut of distractions. Whatever the reason, my output was not as...
by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Sep 14, 2015 | Design, Inspiration, Woodworking
Today’s post is written by Stephen Parsons. In the August edition of Fine Woodworking Christian Becksvoort presented an article on making a traditional Shaker laptop writing desk. His version uses dovetail joinery and features a small drawer at the side of the...
by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Sep 5, 2015 | Repurposing, Sewing
I’ve been focusing on making bags the past week, trying out a few new patterns and techniques. It felt like a good time to do a number of smaller and relatively quick projects and bags fit the bill since they gave me a chance to do some experimentation. Here...
by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Jul 29, 2015 | Repurposing, Woodworking
This week, we are finishing off a library desk – another project that has been in the queue for a bit. This restoration is unique for us for a couple of reasons: We don’t usually work on restoration projects together – typically one of us will find...
by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Jul 25, 2015 | Design, Woodworking
Today’s post is written by Stephen Parsons. If you have ever developed your own design for an artisan craft project, you have probably started out with a simple pencil/pen and paper concept drawing. You might further develop the design using ruled or graph paper...
by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Jul 20, 2015 | Design, Quilting
As we have already seen, there is not one colour wheel but a variety for different uses. There is no set number of sections or even foundation colours. What colour wheels – also known as colour circles – have in common is that they are used to show...
by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Jul 19, 2015 | Design, Quilting, Uncategorized
This spring, my quilt guild (Mariners in Dartmouth) had a challenge to create a quilt top for another member. We were provided with 2 meters of fabric and, in some cases, a request for a specific style and challenged to make a lap quilt. In my box, there were 11...
by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Jul 16, 2015 | Quilting, Sewing, Uncategorized
Late last year, I finally broke down and bought a new sewing machine. After much research and deliberation, I decided to bite the bullet and invest in a fairly high end machine. After some research and debate, I ended up buying an embroidery machine. I have...
by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Jul 13, 2015 | Design, Quilting
Welcome to week 2 of my working with colour challenge. This week, I’m challenge you to play with tints, shades and tones of your chosen hues. These are the base colours I’m using for my first challenges. Challenge 2: Tints, Tones, Shades First, a few...
by Mary Elizabeth O'Toole | Jul 10, 2015 | Design, Marketing
If you are a textile artist, you might appreciate these tips for getting dynamic images of your work. This is crucial if you want to sell, submit for a show or otherwise share your work with strong visuals. How to photograph textile art – TextileArtist.org....
Recent Comments