I made this recipe card last week. I had been planning it for quite a while so it was quick to put together. I used Misty-Fuse for the first time and I must say it was a dream to work with.This was for a challenge, actually two challenges, in the Fiber & Stitch Yahoo! group. This is one active group of women and they're making challenge projects right and left. This is my first attempt at anything like this.
I had all the pieces assembled. I printed my recipe onto plain white paper. It is for lavender cookies with a rosewater icing. They’re quite easy to make and addictive—I’ve made them several times since I found the recipe a the Spice House site (I also got the rosewater and edible lavender buds there).
I cut out the recipe and colored the paper with stamp-pad ink I found in stuff that was my mother’s. It’s a bright pink and I have no idea why I kept it, but it worked well for this. Then I got to work. I laid a plain piece of cotton fabric on my ironing board. Topped it with a piece of Misty-Fuse, I sprinkled on some rose petals I had saved from yellow roses my dad had given us when we bought our first home. We moved them when we moved to our current home and nurtured them for years, but they’re gone now. I saved every petal from the last few year’s roses and dried them. These were kept in a glass jar in the kitchen and were still very fragrant.
I placed a piece of tea tie-dyed cheese cloth that had been pressed pretty smooth on top of the rosepetals and fused the whole thing (using parchment paper). Then I added another layer of M-F, more rose petals (red this time) and the recipe. I fused it all again.
Once it was cool I cut it into a front and back and trimmed them to match. I pulled a tube of purple plastic mesh from a vegetable bag (from Brussels' Sprouts) over the piece and arranged it like I wanted. Then I stitched around the edges with either a buttonhole or an overcast stitch using purple perle cotton. Everyone is right, the M-F stitches like a dream.
Once the net was secure, I began to have some fun. I got a tea bag from the kitchen and replaced the tag with one that said "serve with tea." I edged it with some lavender and replaced the string with perle cotton. I tucked the teabag back into it’s paper wrapper. I glued the wrapper to the back and then glued the tag in place. I added some lavender buds along the top of both sides and a piece of lavender and green ribbon along one side.
I have no idea what I’ll ever do with it. I made it a rather ungainly size...I’ll need to think this all through more carefully in the future. But my old eyes require big type and I wanted lots of space for embellishment, so I’m not unhappy.
I love the memories of my parents that were evoked while I was doing it. The plastic mesh reminded me of the netting women wear on their hats and of a proper tea. I made my netting a little off kilter, because I can never quite carrry off proper and neat (I'm always untucked or a bit crooked).
