Silver Bella Needlework Sampler Swap

Each participating Bella was to make 3 needlework samplers, measuring 4"X5". The clever hostess, Chantal Johnson, assembled them and put the three into a lovely hand embroidered needle book. She filled it with needles, sweet scissors, and graceful touches of her talents. We did not get back our own sampler, and the whole swap was a wonderful surprise at Swap Night at Silver Bella.
Look closely at Chantal's delicate crown on the cover--

The first page--with it's cute little pins...

Then, the first of the 3 samplers--This one below by Rebecca Gawryl (please, if I have them switched, let me know, and I'll correct the post)

Next, is from Jana Perenchio--

And the third-below- is Vicki Flinchum's.

Aren't they precious? Such nice touches on each one. When I look at them, I think about all the time each creative seamstress spent--and what she must have been thinking about all the while.

The next to last page had this little heart pocket with the gold scissors.

Such a nice touch!

And then, the last page had a tag with the names of those who did the pieces.

So nice,Chantal, Rebecca, Jana, and Vicki, you did yourselves proud.

I'll treasure this little jewel always.

The following was included also, from Chantal--with her thoughts.

You will have to enlarge to read it.

The redwork girl below was my offering. We didn't receive one of our own in our booklets.

Carol

Holiday Fabric Book

This is the lovely fabric book that Michelle Geller put together for Silver Bella Swap participants. There were 30 girls in the swap and Michelle made 3 different books of 10 pages each. We sent her 11 6x6 inch holiday fabric pages and she made the covers and put them together.

Here are the pages that were in our books.

above page by Julie Baxley

Rita Blanks

Kana Conger

Michelle Geller

Sharon Giordano

Jemellia Hilfiger

Jen Kershner

Carol

Sabrina Sane

Elizabeth

Thank you Michelle for all of your hard work.
This book is more than fabric pages sewn together - It is a work of art.

Silver Bella Vintage Paper Swap

We are back from Silver Bella! It was a wonderful, magical event. Carol visited with me for some days ahead and after the event. It was so much fun to visit with friends and meet new ones. We have many creative and hopefully, inspiring things to show you.
There are swap items and classes to come in the next week or so. Our heads are so full of sparkly ideas for decorating and gift giving, we can hardly stand it!!

We will begin with this swap. The participants mailed vintage papers to our hostess, Lori Oles.
Lori's beautiful blog is -Vintage Flair. At Silver Bella, she presented us with this folder full of vintage papers.

The folder is made of vintage wallpaper and tied with a cheesecloth bow. There is a crepe paper rosette and a gorgeous sewn tag. I just love this beautiful girl on the tag.

Here are the papers inside. All were different, of course. These are the ones I received- a really nice selection.

These papers will probably go into a plastic bag, ready to use in projects. This folder needs to hold special items and be displayed someway.

Thanks for looking and please stop by for more creative ideas to come from Silver Bella.
Elizabeth

Silver Bella Bound

We are off to Silver Bella for four days full of glitter, creativity, friends, and laughter.

See you soon with lots of photos.

Carol and Elizabeth

Silver Bella Feltie ornament swap

These are for another silver Bella Swap - a felt ornament - I used felted wool from a thrifted sweater. The wool has some silver sparkle in it. I used more felted wool for the cream band and the heart. The mittens are open at the top and can hold small items. There is mica on the leaves and vintage trim at the cuff. These are really fun to make and I would like to make more in other colors before Christmas.

Elizabeth

Fabric Book Pages

These are pages from a Silver Bella fabric book swap that I have been working on. They are all a little different because of the crazy quilt fabric. The little girl image is on a fabric sheet that I purchased from Paper Whimsey. -- Lots of trim and beads added on top.

Below is the back of the page. The image here is on my "Moo" cards that I have hand sewn on the back. You can flip it over to see the contact info.


Thanks for looking.
Elizabeth

Silver Bella Projects

Looking forward to Silver Bella in November, I'm in the midst of creating, designing, and creating favors, gifts, and swaps. It's a real mess around here. Threads, pins, and needles dropped into carpets, felts, fabrics, bags of this, that, and the other cover every available surface.

Last night, Gretel, my cat, came flying around the corner of my chair and crashed into a pile of "stuff" I had just put down on the floor so that I could get up. Ha! She just sat there with the most confused expression. Then, started to lick herself furiously in case I misunderstood and thought she had made a mistake.

Trays of cut out felted wools and embroidery threads, seam binding ribbons--

And always, lots of buttons--

And these are some of the results....I'll post some swap completions later on (I guess they should be surprises.) These little bitsys are just for favors--to give to friends at Silver Bella.

These are not large--maybe 8" to 10". They made me happy as I was making them, using all kinds of buttons and trims. There is no pressure when designing for oneself, just pleasure

thinking about the recipiant's reaction.

Anyway, I hope everyone likes them.

Carol