Crochet King Blanket

I finally finished this massive king-sized crocheted blanket. I took me 10 months to do but, I did it! Well, I did put it down in the 90-100 degree humid heat of the summer! Most of the yarn I had for years. I did end up buying a few skeins to get the color scheme that I was after. It is big and heavy and I worry about having to wash it. If you have any ideas please let me know. 

The corner and the binding worked out really well. I love all of the purply-blues that the color scheme that the stripes created. It reminds me of the mountains in the winter frost. I long to be in the mountains, I think that is why everything reminds me of it. I actually started with the darker center and worked my way out from both sides. I wanted it to have a very random color choice with thick and thin sections. Now looking at the picture, it looks like it was planned out. I get something that I want to do in my head I cant get it out until it is completed. I started the blanket with no real plan. I would not consider myself an accomplished crocheter, the whole entire blanket is single stitched. I became rather irritated with myself when I realized how much faster it could have gone. I also just simply knotted the yarn together and did not feed the tails through my stitches. I just cut them off! Very Bad! One edge is very lumpy and bumpy, hence the binding. Oh Well!

 I looooooovvvvvvvve it and finished it just in time for the cool weather.

Halloween Stitching

I love Halloween! Have I mentioned that? I am not into the spook and gore, just the funny, silly part. It also means that I am allowed to buy copious amounts of candy and eat it! I like the crafty part of Halloween too. I have made many a costume for myself and friends. Like a shark (friend was victim), deviled egg, spelling bee, flower....Oh! so much fun! This year I am too old to party and have to work late so, I am compensating. I have many crafty ideas including the embroidery that I did earlier this week. Hubby watches too much football, this is what I get accomplished. Both the hoops were very old and rusty so glad to find a use for them. Hope that it wont mess up the material later on.(Just thought of that!) I really enjoyed creating the "Happy Halloween" one. So, started off with wanting to put an owl in a tree. First I researched; owls, owls in trees, embroidered owls, owl cartoon, scary owls. I stitched the tree and put owl in hole. Then I wanted a spider web, so I researched; spider webs, webs in trees, spiders in webs, cartoons of spider webs, spiders..... Well this is pretty much how the whole scene went. I saw some really amazing pictures especially naturalist who put their images on flicker. Check out some bat images, really creepy, yet some how, still, really cute!

Painted Glass Jars

I really enjoy recycling objects that I have around my home. When we moved I realized that we had a nice collection of glass jars. I have a lot of glass paint that I used when I painted my M.I.L. a cake plate last Christmas. I love the pearlescent purple paint. My office/computer/craft space is red and black. So I used the red as an accent. I know they are funky, I wanted to spice it up with a little color and pattern. Most of the jars are old jelly jars (the labels came off easier).

I like the shorter jars because the skinny tall items stick out and my hand wont get stuck trying to get the item out. Yes, that is little Me and young Monk in the sock monkey frame! 
I do like the bigger jars as well. This one Ball Jar on the Right had a great raised image that I crudely painted. This one I end up pouring everything out on the table to find what I am looking for. I enjoy having everything out at eye level for whenever creativity strikes me! In my old space at the old house everything was in boxes or plastic crates. I had no idea what treasures I had. I have taken way fewer trips to Joann's recently because I have found multiples everything!

My favorite month!

OOOOHHHH! I am really excited that my favorite month is approaching! I love October because it means that Fall has really come! The warm fall colors, the crisp cool air, dry earthy smell of leaves, pumpkins, long sleeves, nip in the air that makes me want to eat soup, Halloween! I love fall too! I was a very spoiled southern girl and lived seven years in the Blue Ridge Mountains! I miss it terribly! The colors of the leaves are unmatched (ok! maybe Not in such grand scale) in the piedmont of NC. It is still hot here, just dead leaves, no real color yet. I want to see this:

To be more exact this is the Linn Cove Viaduct that skirts around Grandmother Mountain near Boone, NC, boonejag75 took the image. 

I went to the farmers market here in my city in a sweatshirt on this past cool Sun morning. (Today it is all most 90 degrees). I bought wonderful fresh crisp apples.  The entire time I was there enjoying the fresh produce I was thinking of these images. Soft green mountain leaves turning shades of fire and embers. I hope that I will get to visit soon. Unfortunately it is quite a haul up the mountains.

Inspiration

I found these images of hand dyed fabric on flickr. I absolutely love both of these images. The second is from lovefiber's blog. I am bummed that we didn't dye more fabric when I had it set up. I really, really want to make a quilt out of the hand dyed fabric. I am delighted by the soft, warn, warm and used feeling that the hand dyed fabric gives to the quilt.
I really loved the mountain landscapes, I reminded me of my original inspiration for the king size quilt. By the way I haven't touched in months. This is so amazing to me. The depth that the hand dyed fabric gives to the rather non-dimensional piecing is incredible. I hope to create more things like this soon.

Gettin' There

Here are my projects from the weekend.  I had camera issues...I couldn't find any batteries. There was an entire drawer filled with dead trick batteries. As soon as I thought I had two that were working, the camera would turn off. I had to charge a group overnight so, I could take them this morning. Sorry the light is not that great we have rain clouds outside. So here we are today, later than I promised.

Here are the curtains that I made out of the tie-dyed fabric. I love the color that fills the room when the sunshines through. 
The first shot is with no flash. I like it better because it shows the translucent quality of the fabric. The lower shot is with the flash. I was hoping that you can see the varation in the fabric dying. I love love love the color.
Here is my Dad's quilt which is still very much a UFO that is taped to the office door. I am really hoping that I can get it done soon. I don't have much more creative work in order to complete. I want to put a star in the right hand top corner and make a embroidered label for the back.  Of course, the dog has to get in every photo. She loves the camera, she comes running to me when she hears the click, click. I think it is hilarious.

Tying up odds and ends

I spent all day cleaning and sewing. No real finished projects to share. I finished hemming the tie-dyed panels for the curtains. I do not have hooks to hang the rods. I love the panels, I can't wait to get them up on the windows. Since Fall is sneaking up on us I want to be able to open the windows without having them uncovered. I never like for folks to be able to see in. I have plastic blinds now and hate them. I can wait to soften them up.

I finished my forest of trees. I am trying to figure out how I want to place them on the quilt. Hopefully, I will have my forest pieced together as well as my curtains hung tomorrow. I have the day off of work!

Clothesline shot of fabric dyeing!

Here are is a shot of me and my GF dying fabric. See previous post. The colors were so much more vibrant at first. They definitely faded as they dried in the sun. Please don't be confused by the small prayer flags in the back right.  You can tell why my hands were purple for days, those are my hands in the edge of the shot.

Lots of Trees!

So I decided to make a forest of trees for Christmas gifts. Well, I guess that makes them really Christmas trees. I have been contemplating for months of gifts to give for Christmas. I would Love to make them all handmade for the immediate family at least. This presents somewhat of a challenge, because of the eclectic bunch of taste in the family. I also have many more people to make gifts for since I got hitched. I would love to make handmade gifts for all, but there never seems to be enough time for what I normally want to accomplish.  I have utilized many blogs and flicker images to compile ideas. Thanks! 

Eventually, I came across a great idea of these scrappy trees. (Sorry, I don't know who to owe credit to.) I had tons of scrappy green to use up. I liked the idea of making the trees A. Because they are more versatile than Christmas Trees. ie: use in the fall B. My Dad loves trees C. My Dad has requested a quilt and I wanted something that I could use his shirts and my creativity in. D. No pattern/templates required and finally, E. I love trees. My first tree turned out OK. A little wonky! (yes, that is a technical term!) I made a handful more and liked them even better. 

Overall, I am very pleased with the result. I am hoping to use the design idea in other gifts as well. Hopefully, I will have enough time off of work to complete all my grand plans for Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, I will not be able to share my gift ideas in fear that they would see. 

Fabric Dye

Well, I had a wonderful labor day weekend.  We were fortunate enough to have very good friends come to visit. It was also hubby's birthday weekend. At the last minute, I decided that I would want to do something crafty outside with our friends. I made hubby take me down to the craft store. We miss gaged the amount of time that I would take us. The actually beat us there. 

I ended up getting three colors of fabric dye.

 I have tied-dyed a few times, but I was never too thrilled with the result. The men did not want to really participate. I should have guessed. My GF and I produced some real works of art. I had a bolt of  cotton that I planned on making curtains out of. I thought I would be nice to bring in more color. I picked Black which looked slightly Purple, Orange which was yellow and torquoise which looked slightly green. I seems hard to judge the color on the box.

 I dipped just the ends of some of the bigger panels of fabric in the dye for the curtains. The graduation of color is beautiful especially on the Black piece. I had black dye on my hands for days.(I can never keep gloves on) Some smaller pieces we twisted and rapped in rubber bands and experiemented with color. Unfortunately, my GF took pictures with her camera of the finished product hanging on the line. I just have my freshly ironed pieces waiting for the sewing machine.

I  can't wait to do this again and make a quilt out of the difference shades that you get in the colors. I think it will be absolutely beautiful. 

Recycled bags

OMGosh! I had a million grocery bags under the kitchen sink.  I had seen this blog about crocheting plastic grocery bags a while back. I thought about the image the entire time we were in the process of moving. (Note to self: Blog about moving tips, I have ample experience) I cut bags into loops then daisy chained them together. Then used a HUGE ("M" I think) needle to single chain stitched them into a basket. I loved how expandable the bag was when I finished and it fit into the crate of dish towels. Now, when I need a dish towel I wont get a plastic bag stuck to my wet hand. This is a really great project for kids too. The daisy chain is super simple and using the fat needle is easier for the little hands. I could have varied the bags from different stores to create a pattern but, I stuck to the same old grocery bag.

I had a handful of other ideas that you could use to recycle into yarn. Like blue jeans, paper, linen, salvage edges, ribbon, VCR tape. Oh, I am sure I can come up with other applications. I like this concept more and more. 

Desk Acessories

Look what I made for my new sewing desk. I recently moved and it took me awhile to get my craft/sewing/office space set up. My hubby is going to grad school so he got my old desk with a spiffy new executive chair. I got a door, a very large solid wood door. I made legs and have been getting it all set-up recently. 

I recalled seeing awesome blocks/storage on Oh, fransson! I kinda altered her easy directions to suit my desired outcome. I have tons of old blue jeans so I recycled the pockets on the front. I made two of the same size. I have attempted fabric storage boxes before however, they were not what I expected. They were way to floppy despite the extra thick batting. Oh, fransson! suggests using pelltex. After a long search in the newly remodeled fabric store I found this prized material. I was astonished at the price, but felt in the long run that it was well worth the purchase.

I went ahead and made a matching pin cushion with little pockets for my desk. Can you guess what my color scheme is. I looooovvvvvvee black and white fabric prints. I would buy them all if allowed. The red help ties together my red stapler and other office accessories.