I made fabric from photos of my carvings

01 Saturday Oct 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in fabric, home decor, projects, sewing, Spoonflower, woodwork

Tags

carving, fabric, fabric design, floral, sewing, Spoonflower, woodwork

If you’ve been following my Instagram feed here, https://www.instagram.com/juliaamonroe/, you can see the progress I’m making carving wood panels for a terrarium.

Before assembling the carved wood panels into a terrarium base, I thought they would make a nice striped fabric so I took photographs of the panels and created a seamless, railroaded Floral Wood Carving Stripe fabric design. The design repeat is a little over a yard. You can find the fabric here on Spoonflower.

Fabric design from photographs of the carvings I’m making for a terrarium base.

Close up of carving detail printed on fabric.

Another close up of the carved fern section.

The Floral Wood Carving Stripe also makes a great gift wrap.
It’s available as wallpaper too.

The design is railroaded, with a repeat a little over a yard.

I’m looking forward to making pillow covers from this fabric. They will look so nice outside on the deck. Or I might make cushions for the deck rocking chairs. Hmm, that will be a hard decision!

Floral Wood Panel Fabric

I’m keeping busy

18 Saturday Jun 2016

Posted by Julia Monroe in crafts, On my Worktable, woodwork

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

carving, crafts, woodwork

Carving the wood base for the terrarium with my dad’s knives. 5 panels done, 1 to go.

He liked the cutting board!

05 Thursday Jun 2014

Posted by Julia Monroe in baking, birthday, crafts, family, food, projects, woodwork

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

21st birthday, bread board, carving, cutting board, food, woodwork, wrapping paper

It was a happy 21st Birthday! Twenty-one is a big birthday and the “toys” will never be the same again. We got our son 4 items: a big hunk of awesome steak wrapped in meat paper, a loaf of hearty homemade bread wrapped in brown paper and tied with string, a bottle of champagne, and a bread board.

He was amused at the loaf of bread and had not yet opened the steak wrapped in meat paper and cutting board wrapped in cutting board paper.

The meat and cutting board wrapping paper were great! I got them from a kickstarter project. The wrapping paper is available here from Gift Couture.
I took a discarded but still functional breadboard, sanded down the scruffy top and carved words in the sides. It was comforting using my dad’s old carving tools again.

He’s an awesome cook and appreciated the gifts.

Thank you, God, for good bread, for good meat, for good wine.
Life doesn’t have to be complicated.
Enjoy the people you love!

Wood Spoon & a Topiary Tree

01 Tuesday Jan 2013

Posted by Julia Monroe in crafts, Gilded Girls, Uncategorized, woodwork

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

carving, Gilded Life, Glittered Roses Topiary, wood spoon

I finished the wood spoon but the recipient forgot to take it home. That’s just as well because I forgot to carve my initials in the back. Will do that this week.

Wood spoon with wheat and grapes carved into the handle.

Wood spoon with wheat and grapes carved into the handle

I finally felt like working on a Glittered Roses Topiary, by A Gilded Life for the 12 Artsy Ornaments of Christmas class. I didn’t get very far in the glittering because of pain, no doubt left over from two days of crazy carving, but I’ll tackle it some more tomorrow. The topiary will be beautiful when it is finished! It will look lovely in the guest room/library.

Starting to make the Glittered Roses Topiary, by A Gilded Life for the 12 Artsy Days of Christmas class.

Happy New Year!

Picking up the Carving Tools Again

27 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by Julia Monroe in crafts, Inspirational, Scoliosis, woodwork

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

carving, gouges, surgery, wood spoon, wooden spoon

It has been months since last I carved.

I am slowly recovering from October’s grueling surgery. Most days I have to sit very still, my back held against a heating pad. But today, despite the pain in my back, I just had to pick up the gouges to work on the old spoon. Handling the wood and gripping the smooth handle of the gouge felt so right. I was comforted.

Grapes and wheat wind around the wood spoon handle.

The wood spoon was buried in a box for months, unfinished.

It felt good holding the wood, gripping the gouge.

Just because something is put away for a long time, even months or years, doesn’t mean it’s gone. When the time is right, it will happen. Be patient. Be at peace while you wait.

The Box

06 Friday Jul 2012

Posted by Julia Monroe in art, crafts, Inspirational, projects, woodwork

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

art, box, carve, carver, carving, the box, wood box

We’re excited about life. The pieces are all there. We have plans and everything seems straight and simple.

Construction gets under way. We’re moving forward. We know exactly what we want.

And then the Carver picks up an instrument and begins the work.

We hold tight. We think I can do this. It’s ok.

But then things change and we’re not so sure.

People are brought into our lives that make us uncomfortable.

The cuts get deeper.

Color pales and we get confused.

We watch as bits of us drop away.

We look down and see what is lost. We mourn what has fallen. We don’t want to part with things we think are important.

The Carver keeps the instruments sharp. Carefully honing the blade, we hear the swish of metal on stone and we’re afraid.

We no longer recognize ourselves.

There are strange steps. Odd bits of life, ragged and raw.

The gouges are deep.

We weep over the pile of loss from the past. We focus on what is gone.

What we don’t see is how the Carver’s hands firmly and lovingly hold us.

All we see is the pile of shavings that obliterate our view.

But the Carver sees. The Carver sees a beauty on the inside that we can’t see from the outside. The Carver whittles away, bit by bit, to reveal the treasure within.

We don’t understand the Carver’s dream. But we reach a point where we must trust. Even though we don’t understand, we let the Carver work. And we begin to let go.

We begin to trust that the Carver has a greater plan. It is too big for us to understand right now. But now we think I can get through this. It’s going to be ok.

And for the first time, we’re ok with it.

♥

To be continued…