The Vintage Wooden Spool Rolling Blog Hop

Hello everyone!  I'm so happy you stopped by today.  I hope everyone who celebrates Halloween had a great day yesterday. 

One of the nicest things about blogging is the people you meet and become friends with.  The blog hop I'm sharing today came about because I found a blog friend named Christine.  Christine makes wonderful jewelry and is a very generous caring person.  A few months ago she contacted some of us and told us she was sending us a package.  In it we would find some vintage things she had found at an antiques store and some beads.  We could do whatever we wanted with the beads but we had to use at least one of the vintage items in the package.  It would be  a rolling blog hop so we wouldn't feel pressured to finish a project on a specific date.  We had the option of participating or not.  See, I told you she is a very caring person.  She, like the rest of us, has too many things to do and she didn't want us to feel pressured.  When the package arrived we found that the vintage items were thread spools.  I knew immediately that I wanted to use at least one of them on a canvas with a sewing/thread theme.  Here is what I made for the challenge.

It's called "The Fabric of Life".  I found that phrase on a piece of scrapbook paper in my stash and I knew that was my direction.  The friends we make become a part of the fabric of out lives and I thought this was the perfect project to use it for.   I made this canvas in a class my daughter and I took last month.  The class was taught by Michelle Ward.  Michelle has become another friend because of our blogs.  So another thread in the fabric of my life.  Michelle is not only a great artist but also a great teacher.  This class was called Recess and I knew that this was my project for this hop.  I would spotlight the vintage spool on this canvas.

After covering the canvas with gesso we took an empty match box and positioned it where we wanted it on our canvas.  Then we cut around it with a craft knife.  The match box was inserted into the hole and glued in place.  After applying more gesso we dry brushed the canvas with paint adding layers of paint and wiping some off.  I chose the green paint because the printing on the top of the spool is the same shade of green.  Unfortunately you can't see that in the pictures.  Before I started painting I tore my paper and glued it down.  To make it part of the canvas, and not the focal point, on Michelle's advice I sanded the edges.  I wanted it to be very subtle so that the spool was the focal point of the canvas.  I used a stencil with heavy body gel to add some dimension and lined the matchbox with some old pattern paper from a child's vest pattern I used for my daughter when she was a little girl.  More threads.  Finally, I glued the spool into it's little recess.  When I got home from the class I added the scissors above it.  The scissors was a gift I found in an order from Linda Coughlin, The Funkie Junkie.  Another kind person I met on the blog. 

So, that's the story of my vintage spool gift.  There were more spools in the package and I'll be using them all eventually.  I'll share what I do with them.  For now, here are some details which will speak for themselves.

Thank you all for visiting with me today. You all  are part of the fabric of my life and it has become a very rich fabric indeed!    I hope you have a wonderful day.