Sea Turtle Power!

http://stitcheryprojects.com/2011/03/21/basic-baby-hat/

I made a basic baby hat out of some gray. It is an acrylic yarn, washable. On ravelry there are lots of crochet animal applique patterns for free. Chose to do a sea turtle. It made me remember some crochet and i had to look up some of the secret code :) 

This is for one of my friends babies which will be here soon!

80 degrees in April?

Busy times lately. I have been knitting some socks (got past the heel- a regular heel flap & turn) and the purple shawl but not a whole lot else. 

Yesterday got inspired while cleaning the craft room. I have been thinking a lot about earring holders. I have made 2 attempts of holders in the past. One of them i used window screen. This one has larger holes which helps solve the problem becasuse i use earring backs on my earrings. They can easy slip in and out without having to take the backs off. Yay!

Another thing I need to work on is postcards for the bruhn album. Bruhn.bandcamp.com They did a preorder thing online and one of the extra options was to get aome bruhn postcards. We have 2 bear ideas from the past and i am designing two more. 

This guy is spposed to be a chainsaw carved bear. Hopefully that will come through by the time i am finished with the design. I may embroider it? Not sure yet. 

Other things: hosting my first craft party (first at our new house) this weekend! Yay. I have a great longing to craft with people as i think about crafts almost 24/7 when not thinking about other stuff like work etc. I have been doing a little research trying to see if i should take a sewing class or join a knitting group. There are some things by our house but a lot are when i am at work or when i would be commuting home. So. I'll just start with a craft party and i do have craftsy classes i could work on or finish a skirt i have already cut and just need to sew. 

While cleaning the craft room I found so many clothes I want to alter. Dresses to cut into skirts, etc. A goal I have had for a long time is to make more of my own clothes. Fast fashion is just a bad idea. I'd like to make more of my own clothes and/or buy vintage or used clothes again. I used to be much more deliberate about that. So I am hoping to reevaluate my wardrobe and also see what I can alter that I already have. I have never been a part of Me Made May or Self Stitched September but I think it is a cool challenge to try to see what you've made and what else you could make before the next time you participate. I recently tried on some dresses that I made in collage to see what still fits.  I may need to alter some of those too. I really haven't sewn many clothes for about two years since I didn't have space but it is my hope and goal to start thinking about that more. That's all for now!

PS: having fun doing the little bit of gardening i have done. Pulling weeds. Mowed the lawn! (Mike has done several times already) planted Sweet Pea seeds, planted a Heather plant. Trying to see if my succulants i seperated will take root and grow! 

Hitchhiking

I started the Hitchhiker by Martina Behm. So far it has been really fun! 

I have been working on it on my lunch breaks. 

The colors are more beautiful in real life of course. It has been fun to work on a knitting project that is simple yet keeps my interest. 

Collaborative Easter Painting

Here is the completed collaborative Easter painting I did with 7 other people from my church. I think it turned out great! Fun to see everyones styles and what they took from the story. 

Here is my final piece. I think it tuned out well. I like the collage parts and the metalics I added. 

It was really fun to join people in this project!

Dark to light

3/21/16

Working on a project...

I am learning how much exactness I need to make things line up right... Carefully trimming things before I sew. It is slow going but rewarding when I get a good corner! 

I have collected and saved (and cut out) black & whites for several years hoping to make a quilt from the book Worth Doing Twice, where women reworked old quilt tops. That pattern basically relied on having 4 values. I got so tired laying it out because the colors were so relative. Put a dark gray here and now the light gray doesnt pop as much as it did before.. Etc. 

Lately I thought a chevron pattern might be more the way to go. http://dustyandmarlina.com/rainbow-chevron-quilt/ there's an example of the style. 

A few months ago when I found out that my brother in law was marrying his awesome girlfriend, I realized these quilt triangles were perfect! To personalize them a little more I embroidered some, created a hand printed fabric about their dog, Chili. Got some chili pepper and St Patricks Day fabric. I got a fabric pen and drew a duck square and a killer whale square. 

More pictures later. I am saving this as a draft and will share this after the wedding!   I do not yet have a backing fabric. It is very true I doubt the whole project will be done before the wedding, but I must try! It was delayed enough by us moving to our new house etc. 

catching up on podcasts while i work! 

3/29

Sewing the last of the quilt top this morning. I bought backing fabric,  batting, binding and thread last night. Hoping to get as far as I can today. I am now wondering if it is still small for a twin size. Sigh! 

Final product! I did go with a border! Bias tape for the binding. 

Here is the back. I bought just enough so had to expand with the gray fabric. 

Close up! So fun! 

They have now received their gift so now I can share photos!

Ripping

Here is a glimpse of the vortex cowl i slowly have worked on for the last months. If you look at the authors pattern she uses 4 colors for the stripes. I had tried to get the same effect by using a varigated yarn. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vortex-cowl/slideshow?fullscreen=1&start=29991217 I was also trying to save money and only got two colors. With christmas etc i put it down for a while. Recently i grabbed it and took it to work for lunch break knitting. The colors weren't working for me. It looks cool but is not the effect i wanted. Plus i probably only had 8-10 inches and it is a long cowl!  I believe i heard something on the knitmore girls podcast like " if you don't like it now, you won't like it in x amount of rows". I realized it was probably true. I didnt like it enough to continue working on it and had started thinking socks might be a better use for the two skeins. 

So. Last night I ripped it! I started with the varigated purple to make a hitchhiker shawlette. Martina Behm is the creater. I also like the Trillian pattern she has.  I hope the colors will look okay. So far (I have only done one pattern repeat) it looks good, but time will tell. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hitchhiker/slideshow?fullscreen=1&start=14067097

Hopefully this links will work (Blogging on my phone) but you can also just google them for pictures. 

Easter Project

I volunteered to be a part of a Good Friday/ Easter project with my church. I haven't painted a ton lately and was a little nervous. 

The very beginning. There are 8 segments and when joined together will be the shape of a cross. We worked with a color palette and specific passages. I realized the above yellow was not really in the color palette, so I went a different direction.

My passages were of Jesus' resurrection and ascension.  Due to the shape of the canvas I had to rig up a way to attach it to a drawing board as a make-shift easel. (Just a piece of paper taped well to the back of the canvas)

I had the idea of 3 story segments. Hopefully it will come across well enough.  

This is just the bottom segment of the finished painting. It is acrylic paint and some paper collage. I used some silver paint and gold paper accents to try to give it more depth, etc. I will show the full painting later and of course the full cross when it is joined together. I can't wait to see everyone elses paintings! I am so curious what it will look like together. 

Slowly

Slowly getting things a little more organized! Greatful for all the supplies that have been passed down to me or given to me! Hoping to be a resource for friends someday!

Sorting.... I have kept lists of projects etc over the years. Future project ideas... Finished projects. I am trying to focus on the finished peoject list- it is more clear how productive i have been over the year.

Meanwhile taking photos of arts & crafts I did in school & sharing them on facebook. Fun! Trying to not get too distracted! 

New Home

Testing out my New Home machine again. It's been a long time since I have used it and last time I had trouble with thread breaking and bunching up. Today I put in a new needle and tried to find the best tension/ refamiliarize myself with the dials. On the first test run it seems fine. One thing I noticed is its straight stitches are slightly diagonal. 

Just barely, but enough for me to notice. 

Anyway 2 out of 4 machines working is good! My dad got this machine for me at a yard sale, so it has been sentimental to me. Plus it has fun colors! 

Back to sorting and trying to organize!

Craft room update

Lets think of this as the Before picture/ unpacking!!!

So many boxes and I think there may be even more in there today! Can't wait to organize and get things put away so i can work on my big spring project. I am hoping to add more lamps for better lighting and hang up artwork I have collected.  

Hope to show more photos soon! 

Here is my awesome Valentine I made for my best friend. Cat calendars!