Yummy Yarn

There is a beautiful yarn shop that is walking distance from our house in Eugene. It is trouble. I had spent some of my birthday money on some chunky alpaca yarn. These beauties are not cheap.  I never pay this much for yarn, but I wanted to use good thick yarn so it would a substantial piece. Plus it is something good on the hands to work with. I have wanted to make a nice piece for me and hubby for awhile. I am going for a hat in the navy multi-colored and large cowl for me in the emerald. It is chilly here today and I think Ill get busy. I know spring is in the air, but we will use these for years to come.

Embroidered Patches

I wanted to add some detail to my Scrappy Beginnings. So, Ive been working on these colorful embroidery boarders while I am waiting for spring to happen outside my window. I love these color combinations. Ive just got to do the other panel for the other side of bag. I stuck with the crazy notion of what ever I feel like goes with these bags. Reminds me of a sampler or vintage crazy quilts, except in modern colors. I havent embroidered in awhile. It is quick and simple, but yet creative and carefully planned.  Ive decided to work more in embroidery because I am not stuck behind a sewing machine. Sewing is a rather isolating task/hobby. I am trying to not isolate myself as much.

Knots

This fabric "yarn" has been in a ball of knots for a few months now. It is destined to be a large container basket/ bowl. Its is a bit how I personally feel. My brain feels knotted up, not sure which way to go. I had have had a harder time than I expected. I miss green grass and blue skies. There is nothing quite like home and yes I miss North Carolina. Oregon is a beautiful state and feel fortunate that we are here. I just wish I could feel more comfortable here. I wish I could untangle my brain so that I could relax.

I have kept this yarn near my bed for a couple of months, it was tossed aside when it got tangled while crocheting a basket/ bowl. I got frustrated so there it stayed. I decided to untangle it in hopes that it will help me relax. It took me way longer than I expected and actually ended up cutting it, which equals failure to me when untangling knots.
Iam thinking of this as a metaphor, a soul needs untangling, sometimes it takes way longer than expected and sometimes ties/bonds need to be severed or altered. I wonder if I will have to change or what I need to let go of. All that makes me rather sad. So did completely untangling the knots in the fabric "yarn". When it was done, a part of me wanted to unwind the two large balls and tangle it all back together.

All in the details

I love a sweatshirt, I dont particularly love how boyish I look in them. I was in the dreaded wal-mart the other week , looking for cheap yoga pants, and I was thrown off course by this huge display of $3 Hanes sweatshirts in the middle of the bathing suits. It's spring ya'll! I grabbed up this awesome blue and brought it home and stuffed it in the drawer . I got ready to wear it the other night and decided that the rounded neckline had to go. I went for it with the sharp scissors. I wanted an off the shoulder with a low v-neck. After holding it to myself to decide how wide to make the cut, I  smoothed it out on the table folded in the center (shoulders together) and cut straight lines. I never drew a line, I just went for it. I have very very very sharp heavy long dress making shears that made this beautiful neckline cut possible through 4 layers.
I would recommend penciling your lines in, using a ruler and cutting each side separately, if you dont have baller scissors like I do.

As soon as I cut it, I put it on to see if it was as I planned. Perfect. When I put it on I noticed the seams on the shoulders were pulling apart because I had cut the ending knot out. Not so perfect. I thought for a moment about grabbing the same color thread and fixing the seam. Then I remembered seeing awesome embroidered sweatshirts on Pinterest. Oooh and this.

I found my favorite color, salmon peach, and went for it. I knotted the seams back carefully. and then did a super easy dot dash pattern. I may add another color row, but I wanted to wash it to see if it rolled up at all after wash and dry. I am concerned that the embroidery will get "eaten" by the roll that normally happens on raw edge fabric. 

I love it now and hope that dosent happen. I love that it is kinda girly and screams "Look at me, I make stuff, and I think I am awesome!"

 I am tempted to go buy more $3 sweatshirts. I will not, but you should! This was super easy and maybe took me 20 min to make. It could take all day if I kept elaborating on the pattern. Great future gift idea too! Super cute for kiddos stuff too!

Hell, I could put a bird on it if I wanted to! Imagination is the limit!

Okay enough exclamation points...

Wallet made

I ve been on the wallet hunt, I have a very large designer leather wallet. It is not really practical when you are thinking about camping and taking backpacking trips. I wanted something smaller and thinner. The ones that are typically that size are for boys or childish. I have been on the hunt with no luck in the retail world, so I decided to make one.
 I found this lovely bi-fold wallet tutorial by Modest Maven through a Pintrest rabbit trail search. I was super excited that it didnt require anything of me that I didnt have. I used velcro instead of the snap like the tutorial suggests. I did feel that the bill lining part was not quite the correct size. I ended up cutting a 1/2 off making it 4 x 9 and it still rolled over the edging. Otherwise the directions were super easy to follow and make a perfect size bi-fold.

I was able to make this one in about 1.5 hours (while eating lunch) I am sure I can do it faster if I wanted to churn them out. I know that one side of my card slots got out of line. This purple fabric I have had for ever and have 6+ yards that I got on clearance at Mary- Jo's. It is not a quilt weight cotton. Its very stiff but not very thick. Other than cotton, I am not sure how else to describe it.
The super awesome stripe fabric is a Kaffe (which I am unable to find on his website :-P ) the stripe is rather thin. I did use stabilizer on both pieces of it. I would like to make this again with a zipper coin side.
Can wait to start using this awesome wallet!

Scrappy Beginnings

I saved almost every scrap from my Kaffe Quilt I made a year ago. These were end pieces from the color themed strips. I pieced them together and end up with nice size rectangles. I love the stagger piecing and that I am using up this amazing fabric. With no real planned out intentions I added cotton batting and backing fabric. I want to hand embroidery each pannel and make them into....
Who knows. I am not your typical following the pattern/direction girl. I generally look at an image an go for it. I think some thing with a zipper. I've got a nice stash of zippers I got at a Joann's closing. I do love the patchwork it made. I like the dark one a wee bit more than the pale.

Scrappy Christmas Trees

I made these last year as gifts. There were about 20, but now I only have about 5 left. I think this was one of the easiest gifts to make. I found the strips in my stash bag. Made a few color schemes and cut out triangles. I used upholstery fabric for the trunks and fleece scraps for the backs. Small ribbons were sewn in to create hangers. Some had jingle bells and some had buttons. on the top like a star. I liked these especially for homes with small kids and animals who like to attack the tree.
I like that each one is different and unique. I think I would put the cost at a roll of ribbon and a bag of poly fill, so about 5 bucks for 20 gifts. The scraps were all from quilting projects that I had made my money off of prior. So to me that was free. I love using up the items that I hold onto forever.

Beaded Snowflakes

I have been making these beaded snowflakes for years. I got a small kit when I was 13 or so that had directions, wire and beads. I used the beads and wire up years ago, but always seem to have the supplies to make more. I never get tired of making them. No matter the size of beads the patterns always work. It is nice to have a pair of jewelry pliers to help pull and wrap the wire at the end. I think they make rather nice looking ornaments. I have given them as sets or just singles tied to gifts.

This year, I used vintage beads from broken necklaces along with small silver beads from Michael's. In about 30 minutes and very little money I can make one snowflake. I usually put on a Christmas movie and make a few.  I love how these turned out. I decided to keep these for myself. I live how they twinkle with lights and stand out against the green tree.
I put them on this wire tree I made to display items. I made the tree put of a heavy iron plate and green floral wire. I just wrapped and twisted away as I saw fit until the branches seemed strong enough to hold up the items. It has been a nice accessory for Christmas display as well. Wire is fun to work with and has limitless creativity.

Watercolor Christmas Cards

I found these plain newsprint cards I was hoarding. I decided to make Christmas cards. I love watercolor and felt the paper would soak up colors well and not ripple.
I love how the turned out. I made 20 of them. It took me two evenings after dinner to paint them. It is basically what I see around me, well when it's not raining. So, basically what I saw this summer. Oregon sure is beautiful.
I started with dark heavy on the paint outlines of mountains and then hills. Then I soaked the brush and pulled the paint out and created a bit more depth and color wash.
Then I let them dry a few moments before the trees were added. They were more of a thick paint and would run into the hills if they were too wet.
Each one was slightly different,I didn't really try to make each one the same. I simply tried to keep with the same layout. Who will know anyway. I think they are amazing and show our friends and family back east what is around us. It is from the heart and not that expensive. The cards were probably under $10, I've had the water color set forever, and high quality brush dosen't hurt Also, water color painting is very very therapeutic.
Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth!

Map Art

I love maps and photos. I wanted to make something to remember our epic road trip we took this summer. I had this huge frame from my Dad's that I carted all the way across the country. Why? because I hate to give usable stuff away and I wanted to junk up my house in OR real good. I still get mad about stuff I left behind or sold.
  I am an AAA member and before our cross country trip I went to their travel store and requested maps. I got 8 (for free) basically what my year's membership cost, valued in maps.
Once we got here from NC, the maps and frame sat in the same corner. I had seen some awesome map crafts on Pintrest. I decided to go for it. I cut them up. I felt slightly bad, because I love to look at maps so much. I figured a) we wont be driving through Tennessee and Texas again in the near future and b) I will be a life long AAA member and can acquire more maps if needed and finally c) map technology exist that surpasses paper :(
For the quick prep work: I used a heart template I made out of an index card. I laid it down between the existing blue mat from the original frame and then on some photos to be sure of the size that I desired. Finally, I determined how many photos I could fit.
Now the fun starts: I went hunting for my favorite photos from our cross country trip. This was the hardest part because I took sooo many amazing shots like this one:

UTAH

or these:

IDAHO                       OREGON

I had a very hard time choosing when it is scenery like this.

 I pulled some of my favorite images off the computer that had been taken by iphone and SLR to be printed. I took my thumb drive down to walmart and had them printed cheaply. The quality if the prints certainly had a lot to with which camera I had used.
I spread the photos out on the table and started hunting for those locations on the maps and when found I centered them in the heart and traced them and cut them out.
We found an awesome quote online, " Distance is a Test to see how Far Love can Travel" by simply doing a Google search for: "Travel Love Quotes" It was hard to pick there were so many. One gripe is that, I don't know who to site.
I set my hearts on the craft/brown paper and decided on a layout, then used double sided tape to stick them to the craft paper. I traced the quote in pencil and checked it from a distance and finally went over in sharpie marker. The blue mat was already in the frame. So, for the cost of $2.00 to print the images, I got a huge piece of personal art, that reminds us daily of this amazing country and the freedoms we are blessed with, to travel as we wish.

 I know this is a bad image, I did take it.  It is hard to take pictures of glass. I didn't think of taking a picture until after I had already closed it all up.

Chairs

The in-laws are coming from Texas to Oregon to our tiny apartment for Thanksgiving. We had two kitchen table chairs, with dirty white seat covers. There will be 7 of us for dinner. See the problem.

We went hunting and found these cheap folding chairs at vintage/ second hand store in Springfield. We have found a few other goodies there that we love as well. These were rather hideous, but at $5 a piece I couldn't say no.

After three trips to the hardware store,cussing and whining; due to a broken staple gun, the task was completed. We recovered 5 chairs for Thanksgiving.

Our guest should be proud our work, especially Hubby's handy work. These tasks are usually my domain. He wanted to help. :-) He is a great cleaner and helps in the kitchen. I never imagined he would like this task. After completing "his" chair, he asked what else he could reupholster.

Too cute, he and the awesome new chairs.
The folding chairs were rather ugly all baby blue. I think it makes them look modern and cohesive by having them all covered in the same fabric. The fabric is a Jo-ann's flannel that I got 75% price at a store closure, that I hoarded. Iam so proud, so is he, and now everyone can sit and eat, which is important.

Passing the Time

We are finally feeling settled in to our new new home in Eugene. We disliked the first house's neighborhood and location. We are in a cute spot now that is close to everything. It has been a challenge though. This is a very tiny duplex.
I was fortunately still unemployed when we moved again, so I had time to put my organizing skills to work, but now I am bored. I don't currently have a sewing table so I decided to a bit of crocheting. It was lovely today as it has been since we arrived in September. So, I set myself up outside in the sun today under a pretty maple tree and crocheted away.

I wanted to make containers to store items around the house. I found the stash of balls of yarn scraps. I love the earthy colors. Then I went digging for the containers, a glass jar and left over plastic butter container. We had saved the glass salsa jar last week, because I found the shape to be useful. I had scraped the label off but it left a funny mark that needed covering.
I simply crochet a disc/ circle the size of the bottom. Usually starting with a loop and then adding stitches in every other slc stitch. Then when reached desired size I will stop adding stitches and it start creating a tube. For the bowl size I just stopped at desired height and then rolled under the last few easily.
For the jar the curve in the top created a problem. I stitched the tube a far as I could and then I had to deduce stitches. Then the hole became small and I feared I wouldn't be able to get the jar in. So, I ended up having to crochet the rest of the way with the jar in the crochet tube. This was a bit challenging and slowed down the entire process. I think the end result was super worth this annoyance.

Here is the end result, they were virtually free with yarn scraps from old gifted projects and recycled containers.  I just had to put in a bit of time. I enjoyed sitting outside today under the tree and watching all the cyclist and kids play. I think this could be a great gift idea with flowers or candy.  I think that older kids could definitely do this project if you teach them the stitch and teach deducing and increasing of stitches. I like projects that dont require a pattern but need a little creativity.