A Truly Unruly Award!

I am so glad all the Fair stuff, and the many other things in my life that occurred in August are over.  I worked way too hard and long at the Fair and a strange thing happened to my ankles.  Truly feet and concrete do not mix!  So, being ill this past week has allowed me some creative down-time (after three days of being a vegetable).  I made a special "Unruly Award" ribbon for the Unruly Quilt Artists to award to some lucky individual at the Boise Basin Quilt Show coming up on Sept 27-28.

I actually drew a plan in June, but I through that out the window and started fresh!  How refreshing!  I went looking through my grandmother's sewing cabinet, which has resided with me for thirty years, and found some amazing 'vintage' things that might go into an amazing award ribbon.

The fabric measure tape was the item I was hoping to find.  So glad I found one!  Then there were some large metal bobbins, some amazing plastic shower curtain hooks, a pack of three sizes of metal thimbles, made in Germany and only 33 cents at Skaggs!  Looking at said goodies, one asks if one should open that thimble package or put it on Ebay.  I have been on a bent to use what I have, so those thimbles will finally feel the air of 2024 upon them.  Yes, I am going to cut up that fabric measure tape.  If I just hold on to these things in the museum of my grandmother's sewing cabinet, who knows what will become of them after I am dust.  Let us use what we have on hand, instead of running down to the store to buy some cheap, (but oodles more expensive than 33 cents!) made in China, thimble.  

looks like an electrical project gone wrong

I have long held the idea that using what you already have makes you more creative.  I keep proving it to myself.  I dug out my old box of ribbon and found some amazing stuff to bling up an award.  To add strength to the award, I used actual batting and a wee strip of stiff interfacing in between the back and the front pieces.  The front piece has a contrasting fabric below, so I can cut a bit out of the top layer of fabric to reveal that which is beneath.  I am just copying a technique that Kirsten used on all those name tags she made.  Oh, yes!  I used some of the hand-dyed fabric, I made in May, for the front and back pieces of the award.

Here is a truly unruly award!  I used the thimble, measure tape, and bobbin, plus a strip of creamy yellow rickrack to pull it all together.  The little bit of measure tape, up top, is a loop to hang it with.  I really outdid myself; it must have been all that cranberry juice!