The evolution of a sewing frame. I have wanted to sew books with raised supports for awhile. After buying Keith Smith's third volume, I decided to build the frame he described. Here is a photo of it - not so impressed. Granted, I did not follow the instructions exactly, but still I thought I could do better for just a few dollars more.
Here is the next try. I removed the wooden crossbar and replaced it with a turnbuckle from Home Depot. Then I suspended eye bolts through the channel down the center of the turnbuckle. I used wing nuts so I could adjust the tension of the supports. I had a problem with the length of the channel in the turnbuckle - too short, but that's the largest one I could find. Also, I cut an elliptical curve so the edge of the book would line up with the suspended eye bolts.
I needed to find something with a longer channel. I couldn't find a larger turnbuckle so I decided to try and find something else. It took some time walking up and down the aisles at the hardware store, but I finally found what I was looking for. I tried some U-bolts connected to some threaded rod with threaded metal couplings. All in all, 2 U-bolts, 4 couplings and some threaded rod cost less than $8. The whole sewing frame cost less than $10. Now let's see what I can sew.

My daughter's Sunday School is having a Purim sculpture contest. The instructions said that all sculptures should be made from only recyclables. After a quick Google search for trash art, we found these really neat shadow sculptures. So after much discussion, some imagination and about 20 glue sticks for the hot glue gun, here's what we ended up with.

What do you think? Can you see Queen Esther in the shadows? I think we should have built her in separate planes, but Cece wouldn't go for it.