A Special Gift....

...For a special friend, that I had planned to create once we arrived in Germany. 

     This lace piece is made from 6 strips of laces, hand stitched together. I had purchased it from a shop in my area at home. There were a few things I had tucked into a cellophane bag that I brought with me on our trip to make this gift. All of them beautifully old and some of them are very worn. 

I love this striped white and blue six inch ribbon. Definitely old and breaking down, but a wonderful element for a "project board", don't you think?   I don't usually make blue creations. It isn't one of my traditional colors to work or decorate with.

On the right is two pieces of some antique woven trim sewn together to make a two sided lace. I sewed them together myself. This is interesting trim, I am not sure of its intended application. It is a tube! And can be gathered beautifully. So that is what I did with some of it.

I also used this vintage pink six inch ribbon,
together with the laces, the striped ribbon and a piece of
linen that my daughter had left from some curtains.
I love how it looks together. I sewed some of the ribbon to the back of the piece of lace to add some color to the lace.
 I wasn't completely sure what I was making yet. But I realized that this would make a lovely pocket. I thought about a collage, but I wasn't sure
I could make it pretty ... I worry about that kind of stuff!

I started playing with the fabric pieces and layering and moving and realized I could make a project board. You know, a combining of elements that she could use for making her own creations. I had quite a few vintage pieces that could be used together and I trust her judgement better than my own when it comes to collages!!! So everything was sewn together with the intention that it could be taken apart and reused, should she decide to do that.
The piece of gathered trim, the blue ribbon with tiny silk flowers and lace pinned at each end, the length of vintage sequin leaves, the vintage peach ribbon bows and all the ribbons, tacked down for easy removal. The old cat eye  buttons were a fun addition that kind of brought all the colors together. The old seam binding and the purple flower motif were a great combination
of the colors as well!

I got so excited about it and so pleased with how it was moving along, I forgot to keep taking pictures! So here are close up pictures of the finished board. If I made an items list, it could probably be a page in a hunt for sewing notions book!

I love these pearly swirly things! There are eight on one ring and I think each one would be a beautiful addition to a vintage style/element necklace. There is also a tiny key from those I found here in Germany on the same string.

Here you can see the heavy olive green thread I attached, along with some vintage military flowers, the sequin leaves, a set of gold foil angel wings, and a vintage tassel I took apart and remade with added new crotchet threads that had similar colors in it. There is another larger German key I attached to the tassel, along with a perforated metal heart. I try to add a heart to the creations I make. Since the gift comes with my "Heartstrings" attached.

I love the iridescent sequin leaves, they reflect many of the colors in this piece and
give it a beautiful shimmer.

There are a few small hanks of crotchet threads, some other vintage laces and ribbons are hiding in there, along with a vintage paper doll and a vintage cupboard card with these words on it ~ 

"With Kind Remembrance". 

All of the fabrics you see were sewn to the piece of linen and then I glued that to an artist canvas board. I also made a cording twist and put it on as a hanger for the board.

I was happily surprised by how this turned out, and very satisfied! Especially since this is NOT what I was planning to make! I left a bag of fabrics, embellishments and a chip board box at the home of some friends we stayed with the night before we left for Germany. 
I hunted all over for it and I couldn't find it! I was afraid 
I had left it at home. The day we arrived in Germany, I received an email from her telling me she had found my "stash bag" between her guest bed and the wall. I did have it with me, it just slipped off the bed and was out of sight!  The sweet girl put it right into the mailbox for me, but it did not arrived in time for me to use any of it to make the gift. I will still use it, however, 
before I leave Germany!

As I got into bed that night after I finished this, I could feel my heart beating really hard.

I realized how excited I was that I was able to make something beautiful out 

of less materials than I supposed I would need.

I knew she would be happy for me that I finished a project I was

happy with, using less. Maybe having less options made it easier for me to accomplish. 

It seems with my particular form of A.D.D., more options makes it harder 

for me to decide what to actually use in a project.

Please come see my next post to find out who the gift was delivered to!!! 

It was as much fun to make as to deliver!!!

Hugs!!!!

Betsy