Monday, February 15, 2010

A Glimpse to Open



A Glimpse to Open spans 33 years of poetry in the life of American (but Norman-French by lineage), lesbian poetess and writer Danielle Sainte-Marie. It is a book meant to help open a reader to what it is like to live poetically; it is a glimpse of actively seeking and/or serendipitously finding, the mystical experience of being human. Filled with poetry, quotes she has written throughout her amazing life and even an essay on what poetry means to her, A Glimpse to Open is truly a book worth living with for many, many years.
As she once remarked, “When one has mystical experience, one no longer needs faith in the mystical.”

Get it here

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Collage Clutch Purse

Cut Out + Keep has so many tutorials and projects of all types; I found this project one day & I turned a collage I'd already started into a small clutch purse. It is really simple- basically you need a sheet of plastic/paper protector, collage-making stuff (glue, sissors), a way to close it (sew on buttons, velcro, magnets), and a sewing machine to sew the purse closed (you could hand-sew it, but this would not be ideal).

You can fold it anyway you choose, and use any method of closing the purse. You'll be sewing a collage into the plastic protector, and you can see the inside (a little or a lot, depending upon how you fold it) so make it a double-sided collage. Also something to consider: you can put two paper protectors together & make a larger clutch purse. I didn't try that (yet) but that would actually fit a wallet and more things in there!! So try doing it, put it in the comments, and post it on Stitchin' Misfits on Facebook and Flickr, ok? Click here to get to my project, which should link you to the main project & there you'll find the instructions that I started with.






Berroco® Free Pattern | Albem

Berroco® Free Pattern Albem

This is another free pattern on Berroco's website, this one is a purse with cables and tassles! It is a knitted bag, and I think that this would be so cool to do the edging in a complementary or contrasting yarn. The tassles too, or at least the yarn that wraps around the tassles. For example you could knit it in dark purple and edge it with teal. Or do black & white/ navy & cream / green & blue....etc. The photo example is in teal-color yarn and it looks really good the way it is, in one color. Just had to share this awesome pattern...