Pillow

The other thing my friend asked me to do was make the ring pillow for her wedding.  So of course I had to do this before altering my dress this weekend. 

I started by embroidering their names in two colors.  They are having a lavendar, mauve as accent colors, so I used that just in the shadow.  With white on white.  Once their names were embroidered, I figured out the placement of the hand then then added their wedding date under it.

The last thing to do was to embroider the hand adding the ribbons to tie the rings on and then make it into a pillow.  It's a 12" pillow form which is the smallest I could find.  I overlapped the back pieces by 3" and added no closures of any type.

I can see this living on their bed after the wedding.  I hope they like it. 

Trip Anyone?

After spending more time working on one garment than I ever have in my entire life - I need a quick little instant gratification project. So - I made luggage tags for a bunch of friends. I had to do this because after receiving a tag for my birthday last year - I was amazed at how easy it was to find my bag on the luggage carousel. I want everyone to have it that easy. Can you find yours?

Long Done!

It was brought to my attention that I had started a crocheted afghan many many years ago. Maybe around 7 or so. I pulled it out of hiding and it was way more done than I had thought. The afghan is made of 5 rows of blocks. 3 rows have 5 blocks and the remaining rows have 6 blocks each. I decided when I started crocheting this to mix the light and dark blocks and put them in their own rows. Anyway- when I put it away, I had 3 rows completely done, and the 6 blocks with the light centers had 2 colors done, and the last 5 blocks where only the dark centers. I spent 2 evenings crocheting the remaining rounds. Then another 3 nights sewing this sucker up. After that I did 2 rounds around the outside edge. It just makes it a bit more finished - in my opinion. Anyway - it's done now and there is no more Red Heart in my house. It's a nice warm, machine wash throw that will make a great gift - don't judge.

Crafty Bits

While it wasn't garment sewing that got done - I did get into the studio this weekend and get my "craft" on. It felt good to get these projects done and out of the way. My childhood best friend became a grandma to a lovely baby boy this past November. I'm just now getting around to making the little one a very special blanket. His parents happen to be big football fans as well as being horse people. When I couldn't find the super cute baby bears that I usually use for blankets of this type. I figured this bear with a stick horse would be perfect. The blanket is Seahawks blue with lime green trim. I also did all the edging in a matching lime green. It's completely washable and dry-able and I hope they love and use it. I made another pink blanket with chocolate brown trim. The design was a very sweet bunny holding some tulip - but I delivered that blanket to the grandparents (our neighbors) without taking a photo - duh!!

Last Minute Holiday Crafts

I've been fighting a sore throat and a cough all week. But for some reason when I got off the bus Friday night I was inspired. I went straight to JoAnn's and bought some supplies for the project in my mind. Over the summer I made some triangle bags. For some reason I thought they would be really cute and work great as notions bags in clear vinyl. For some reason - I did not write down the dimensions this summer when I made them. This is a little long and not really wide enough - but it's being gifted anyway. Horrible - eh? First I inserted the ribbon using a reinforced zig zag. The I sewed the end seams with the wrong sides together. I stitched them also with a reinforces zig zag. Then I pressed some wide ribbon in half and stitch it over the seams with a reinforced straight stitch. The little bag is clear - making it easy to see which notions you have.

Knit Minders

How about a quick little tutorial with crappy pictures? So those of you who knit know that sometimes it's hard to keep track of your place in your pattern. But you don't always have a magnet board with you. So - what else can you do? Use a knit minder - it's a two-sided magnet that will stick to itself through a piece of pattern to help you keep your place. So - let's make one, shall we?

What you need: Strip magnet, generally comes with sticky stuff on one side. Peel and stick adhesive, and ribbon slightly wider than your magnet. First, cut your magnet to the length you want. I like mine to be the size of a piece of patter - so these were cut about 8 1/2" long. You need two strip for each minder. Before you cut the second strip, stick it to the first one - paper sides out. It's important to do this before you adhere the ribbon to make sure your magnets are polarized properly and will actually stick together. Otherwise you could end up with a minder that looks like this. Ask me how I know.

Pull the paper off one piece of the magnet strip and carefully adhere your ribbon to the magnet. Slowly put the ribbon down and smooth it out. Leave about an inch on one end of the magnet. With the ribbon still attached to the spool, turn the magnet strips over and pull the paper off the second magnet strip. Leave about a 1 1/2" piece of ribbon before you start adhering the ribbon to the second magnet strip. Again - leave about an inch of ribbon at the end of the magnet strip.

Place a small piece of the peel and stick adhesive to the wrong side of the ribbon, pull the paper off the peel and stick and adhere the ribbon to the wrong side of the magnet strips.

And here's a bunch of finished knit minder sets. There are 2 knit minders per set, each with different coordinating ribbons. The short one is about 9" long and the long ones are about 11 1/2" long - to be able to keep your place depending upon the orientation of the graph.

Enjoy.

Twinkle Twinkle

When I was cleaning out the sewing room to have the windows installed - I came across lots of stuff that I hadn't had anything to do with for many, many years. One of those things was cross -stitching. I recently packed up all of my cross-stitch supplies and packed them off to Sue.

I did keep this little beauty. I made it when the girls were little for one of them - don't even remember which girl it was for. The cross stitch was finished - but never finished. Oh well - I guess I can frame it for my new grand-dog. It's signed gh 87 - yes, I made that 22 years ago!

Ouch!

Dorset Buttons

I've found a new obsession and I'm not sure what to do with them.

Got left over sock yarn? Some little plastic rings? You too can make your own buttons.

These are so easy to make and they really don't take much time or materials - about 4 yards of left over sock yarn. You can also make them using embroidery thread or DMC cotton.

Carolyn I really want to send you some of these - what is a good neutral that you would use and how many? Off-white? Tan? I could actually see you using these on a cardi or as an accent.

The top one is traditional Dorset button construction where I went over the spokes properly. And then in the bottom one I played about with how many spokes I went over. Like I said - these are fun and addictive.

Goldilocks

First I want to thank everyone who stopped by and sent well wishes for Beau. It's helped, he's home now and doing better - but it's still scary. The worst part now is he's starting to feel better and still has to be kept quiet. For anyone who didn't read Fudge's report - Beau had bloat. He had surgery last Wednesday and came through fine. Now we are dealing with recovery. Before last week's crises, I had been sewing. I'm still in craft sewing mode and that's okay. I had seen some little rectangular knitting bags at my LYS and decided I wanted to try making some. I wanted a bag that would hold the necessary supplies for knitting two socks at the same time. As you can tell - I was feeling a bit like Goldilocks. The first bags I made were too small. They would be perfect for holding one sock - but not a pair. The second bag was a bit too large - I think it would be perfect for holding a lace project or possibly a scarf - but there's a bit too much room for the yarn cakes to roll around and get tangled in the bottom of the bag. I made a third bag - which I think is just right, but it didn't get photographed - of course. These next couple of bags were made for Golden Tracks. She had seen some similar bags on a website and thought the idea was great. She wanted a couple of bags to put in her big knitting bag to keep things from getting tangled. The inspiration bags had weighted bottoms. Because GT lives in a dog house I wanted the bags to be washable - so I made bean bags that fit in the bottom. Hopefully they are the right size and will do the trick.

Finally - all three bags together.

I do like the size of the one in the back - the Daddy bag if you will. I will use my Baby bag and I mailed off three others so hopefully they will get used as well.

I have a few more crafty things to get out of the studio and then I'm ready to start making clothes. I wasn't in the mood most of the summer - but I'm itching to get back to garment construction. I think my weight is probably stable - whether I like it or not. Hopefully my life is stable for awhile too.

Help! I Need Somebody

- not just anybody! Yesterday I was at Michael's shopping for supplies to make Dorset Buttons when I ran across this fabulous bead. I know - it's a really crappy photo and for that I apologize. But - I couldn't leave it there. It's fabulous. It's got a mother of pearl background with a real pale green. Then there are blue flowers and blue dots. It's stunning really. Here's where the help comes in. I'm not a jewelry maker. I've tried making beaded stitch markers and if you've been unlucky enough to receive any of them - you know I suck at it. But this bead is begging to be a necklace. Just a simple something with maybe an additional green or blue bead at the top. I took a second crappy photo with a quarter for scale. Funny thing is - I don't really wear large chunky jewelry. But this screamed necklace so loudly at me that I dropped it into my basket. So - does anyone reading make jewelry? Would you be willing to make this into a necklace for me? If so leave a comment with a way for me to reach you and we can work out details via email. Thank you (in advance).

So Crafty Together

Once the turkey was in the oven, I headed down into the studio. You see, I kinda committed to making some blocks for Cami - go read the story. I bet even if you don't quilt, you'll make a block or two if you sew. I plugged a movie in and got busy. I was soon joined by The Musical One who has finally learned to purl. She sat down and worked on the scarf she's gifting. It's a basketweave pattern and she's making good progress. TMO also got called into action for her nice handwriting. Next up - I had to share half of my craft table with The Princess - she was busy handcrafting cards for her Coffee Swap Partner. Some body's getting a lovely set of note cards - do people still write letters and send notes? Finally - check out this mess I was making. This is why I don' t quilt. I am very matchy-matchy. This drives me crazy, I can't mix the pinks, oranges, blues and greens. Plus I try so hard to make my blocks random that they look planned. So far, I have finished 4 of 6 blocks. Hoping to get the last 2 done today and get them into the mail by Monday. After dinner - we started our annual Santa puzzle. Hope your holiday was equally relaxing and enjoyable.

Great Yarns Bear Party

This is Fontelle, she makes the bears happen.

She coordinates getting the bears donates and distributing them for clothing. Front and center in this picture are my friends D and R, I'm not sure where M slipped off to. Apparently, even with good camera equipment, I can't take a decent photo.

This is another Great Yarns regular. She's an overachiever, like most of the bear knitters.

This year, she clothed 4 bears and boy are they cute!

Here's another pair of the regulars. They are big fun - I enjoy hanging with them at knit nights. K (on the right) made her first item ever making it up as she went along.

Too bad I didn't take a better picture of their bears - they were precious.

Here's my attempt at a group shot. It's a large group of volunteers that knits for these bears.

There is a girl who is 7 who dressed a bear as well as couple of men!

These bears are set aside for the action. There are some bears that are so well dressed that

they are set aside for the auction as they money they will raise is better spent than giving

the bears away. My 2 favorites are the bear dressed in a nightshirt, he has a stocking cap, a letter to Santa and a Christmas stocking. the one of the far right is a polar bear - he's dressed in a beautiful blue hoody, pulling a sled that has a baby bear wearing a matching sweater.

Too cute!

Crafting Again

This little bag has now been received by my friend Chan. I had started out to make her the 'perfect' bag. The first bag I made wouldn't be it. It might work for a day or two, but it wasn't going to fill all the dreams she has about a bag. So one day when posting about a top I had finished, I noticed that the pattern had a little handbag included. Hey - I said to myself - that might work. I looked at the pattern and thought it might be a little big. See Chan doesn't want a huge bag, she'll put too much in it and hurt herself. So, I cut some width off the pattern and a bit of the length too. I added a piece for the bottom, so it had some contrast on the outside. I think it's fun. I used some bead pins and attached beads to the bottom as 'feet.' (Chan, those can easily be removed by taking the bottom stabilizer piece out.) I also put a pocket on the inside for a phone and added a little loop for attaching keys. Unfortunately, once it was finished I think I trimmed too much off the pattern, it's not large enough to hold a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of patter - which was important. So, the making with continue - but not until after I made the revised version of the sundress :)

Crafty

I don't know what my problem is lately - but I am completely unable to get motivated to do anything on my first day off every weekend. That means that yesterday (because I worked this Friday) I sat on the couch in my PJ's until almost 2, then I ran errands, etc.

Today, I slept late and it was lovely. JB and I took the dogs for coffee (we get coffee they get a nice walk and a couple of cookies). When we got home I fixed brunch. JB then went shopping for dirt and more food to add to the yard.

I knit and talked to The Princess. Once I got off the phone I worked on some dog themed coasters. I have a couple of birthday packages to put together. One I am already behind on and the other I'm sure will be late too by the time I get my act together.

Each of these coasters is made from 6 different fabrics. They are all 5" squares, plus a square of batting. Then you fold 4 of the squares in half, weave them together, layer, sew and turn. They turn out pretty cute. The first picture shows some of the backs, the next shows the front and the last is of the stacks - one is done done. Tied and ready to be packaged. One is just done and still needs a tie and the last stack still needs to be sewn, but I ran out of time.

Bits & Pieces

First up - I finished another pair of socks for JB. These are the Undulating Rib Socks from Favorite Socks. These were done with the standard JB sock recipe which reads as follows:

Cast on 16 stitches using the Magic Cast-on by Judy Becker (credit where credit is due). I increase 4 stitches every other row by doing a yarn over one stitch before the end on each needle. On the next row I knit into the back of the yarn over and you can't even see them! Thanks Cami. I had attempted to make a tutorial for Chan, but I'm using Addi's all I got was glare. So, for both Chan and Nicole here's the start of another pair of socks for JB. These are the Trekking XXL socks which I was having fits with the ball winder for. Those toes have about 16 stitches per side in that photo, I will continue increasing until there are 64 stitches total and then switch to some form of mind-numbing ribbing!

As long as we're speaking of Miss Camilla, look what dropped out of the bag of dog food the other day. I feed my dogs Blue, and they have doggy trading cards in each bag of food. Who know that Cami's alter ego Clementine was really a beautiful golden retriever!?!

The reason I had a lovely conversation with Camilla last Saturday was because I called her to tell her that I had hapilly paid $10 a yard for fabric and that I was making her another bag to display. I had picked up this fabric from the Tina Givens ZaZu line to make a new bag. Specifically I got TG21 and TG22 both in Raspberry. Originally, I had been thinking about making a nappy bag and adding lots of pockets to make it ideal for carting knitting around. I mean really - a girl can never have too many knitting bags, right? But then I saw the swing bag pattern and decided that it would be better. I love the chandelier fabric and can't wait to finish the curtains and get moving on the few craft projects swimming around in my brain so I can more on to making clothes again.

Happy Friday Everyone! Oh, and go visit Chan, she's bored!

What's a Girl To Do?

First, I think I owe Miss C an apology. I'm sorry ;} Second, I'm beginning to feel very overwhelmed. This is nobody's fault but my own, and now my plate is overflowing. Maybe I will give in a start looking for someone to help with the housework. In no particular order - here are the things that I need to get done, and soon! Stunt Stitcher Duties ::Make Layered AB Skirt ::Make Simple A-line AB Skirt ::Make AB Apron ::Make Needle Roll, design and make coordinating double pins Pay It Forward Duties ::Make gifts for 2 recipients (I already know what these are) ::Determine gift for 3rd recipient and make Knit One, Tea Two Duties (This is done!) ::Make handmade gift for the person I'm spoiling ::Go shopping for the little gifties and sweets ASG Duties ::determine what I'll be taking to the Fall Sewing Retreat. This is the first time that I have been able to attend. I've paid my money and I'm so looking forward to it. ::Make a faux-fur bear dog toy for the Annual Meeting Silent Auction (it was a request) ::Make something else (still to be determined) for the auction ::Attend a sewing workshop day to help make the Banquet favors DWOA Secret Santa Duties ::Get started collecting dog themed items for a package ::Start on something handmade for the giftee Charity Doggie Duties ::Work on fleece dog beds for OldDog Haven ::Help Miss D make hand knit sweaters in requested sizes for Old Dog Haven edited to add::the link for OldDog Haven. I have just spent several minutes reading the stories of old dogs in foster homes. I don't think I can even put a coherent sentence together about how disgusted I am by some people and the things they are capable of. Holiday Duties ::Start making the gift socks Personal Duties ::Get in to see the doctor, soon ::Get back into workout routine - lately I'm packing the weight on again and I'm disgusted with myself Now - here's the real issue. I h::a::t::e lists. While I love the fact that all those random items are now out of my head, now longer buzzing around in there - saying you need to make me, no work on me, no I wanna be first, hey let's go shopping and get this out of the way. See all that on paper makes me want to go to bed and hide under the covers. No knitting, no sewing, not a pattern in sight, sometimes even without a novel! So there you have it - I'm a freak!

First Craft Project of 2007!

Last year (2005, sorry, still thinking 2006) I found this great cotton fabric at JoAnn's. I loved it! I screamed my friends name and I had every intention of making a needle roll for her knitting supplies. The fabric got washed and then stowed away in the fabric closet with all the other cottons. This year, I was surfing the web and found this great website. Craftbits. I don't remember how I found it, but I did. There was a loose pattern for a Kimono Needle Roll. Starting with Christina's idea, I made this Needle Roll for my friend, who shall remain nameless as I think she might read my blog :) I think this might be a little big, but I filled it with my needles and there are the smaller pockets for stuff. I think it would be okay. I started by cutting the front and back 25 x 17. I also cut 2 pieces of warm and natural batting the same size. Anything that was sewn to either front or inside piece was sewn through both the cotton and batting layers. The top pocket - which is cut at an angle is 25" by 6" at the small end to 9 3/4" at the other end. Just use your ruler to make a diagonal line. The short pocket in the front is 4 1/2" deep. I used the cotton fabric cut on the grain and iron it into "bias tape" using a tape maker. Since the strips didn't have to turn any corners - they didn't actually have to be bias strips. I don't remember the actual dimensions of the obi sash strips on the outside and for some reason didn't write them down. Also the inside flap which is meant to keep your needles from falling out is a little small. Next time I will make it deeper. Enjoy - would love to know if anyone makes one for their friends - or themselves :)

As Previously Promised

Remember this post? Well I promised to show the advent calendars. The first photo shows the original advent calendar made by my Sister-in-Law a million years ago. It has just a few ornaments on it already.

I asked The Princess to email me a picture of her advent calendar all decorated for Santa, but she hasn't done it. The Musical One lost one of her ornaments last year while she was in the process of moving back home. Anyway - she didn't put hers out this year.

The next picture is of The Musical One's bare advent calendar. As you can see - all the number pockets are embroidered. These truly were one of the first projects made after I got an embroidery machine. There are little gold stars scattered around the tree and some silver 'twisted cord' garland. I also made 3 different pieced and quilted tree skirts. The skirt is much straighter on the banner than the picture indicates :)

The presents were embroidered on organza and then cut out and the edges sealed with a wood cutting tool. Finally - it's hard to see, but I added a button hole by the trunk and placed a little teddy bear (who is on a shank button) there. I think these trees are much prettier bare than the original.

Here's a little close up of some of the tiny cross-stitched ornaments. It would appear that some more of these are in my future for 2007. I put a pocket on the back of the banners and labelled it "Extra Pieces." The Princess was quite upset this year to find out that the pocket didn't actually contain any extra pieces. The picture isn't close enough to tell, but the wreath has little red beads scattered for the berries, the white of the stocking is all beaded as are the faces on the gingerbread man and the reindeer. Now I just have to find the supplies.

Finally - I'll leave you with a fully decorated, but crooked, shot of the original calendar with all the new tiny cross-stitch ornaments. And the good news - the Sister-in-Law didn't even notice that the decorations for the tree had been changed!!!

BoneHeaded Move Comes Back to Bite Me

Yep, that probably deserves an explaination. Well - here goes. Way before I married JB he was married to somebody else. They had 2 small kids. His sister Sue used to be quite crafty in a felt and glue gun kind of way. Anyway - Sue made several holiday decorations for JB prior family. A really ugly grapevine wreath, a felt advent calendar, placemats, napkins, etc. One year JB left the wreath out all year and it found it's demise then, about 9-10 years ago. We still have all the table decorations - and use them. The Advent Calendar is a different story. The original Advent Calendar is a piece of red felt which is about 18" long by 12" wide and hangs from a piece of cording. There are 24 pockets and they used to be filled with rather largish felt ornaments that the tree got decorated with as you counted down to Christmas. About 9 or 10 years ago, my nephew was born and one of my cross-stitch magazines had these really cute cross-stitch ornaments. Well I decided to take the felt banner idea and make new advent calendars - one for each of my girls and one for my sister's family. I also made a new set of decorations for our Advent Calendar. Here's where the boneheaded move comes in - I got rid of all the old, large felt ornaments that came with the original Advent Calendar and guess who coming for Christmas? I'll post pictures of the girls Advent Calendars later for all to see - I'm really rather proud of them :)

Let It Snow!!

It's snowing in my neck of the woods! It snowed for the better part of Sunday and now it's snowing again this morning. Hard little snow, but snow, notheless! It is beautiful outside and I had the briefest opportunity to stay home and play all day. Somedays it bites being responsible. JB drove my car today - as it's front wheel drive. That left me with the Jeep. Fine! However, it was parked in the dirt on the side of the house and I was briefly stuck! I called my boss and told her I was stuck and wasn't it ironic that the others in my house who drive front-wheel drive vehicle got out just fine, but I was sliding all over. I sat and fumed while talking to her then tried to back up one more time. That time I made it. So, here I am at work! Responsibility bites! Over the weekend, I managed to get life back to normal. We walked the dogs on Saturday morning - it was a gloriously cold, but clear day. Then I got some crafting time. 2 things crossed off the Holiday to make list. I got all the Christmas cards written and weather permitting I'll be heading to the post office today for mailing. I even worked on the computer bag for The Musical One. Then the power went out. JB and I played 3 games of cribbage - I won 2 and he skunked me on the 3rd! By then it was late and my eyes were tired from the candlelight and we headed to bed. My brother headed over the pass last night thinking there would be less traffic to deal with so we are back to just our own 4 dogs :) I took a picture of Bosley and will post it tomorrow.