Crochet Bowl

Months ago, I had cut up the legs of the blue jeans in a continuous length about 1.5 inch wide. I had already used the pockets. Have I mentioned that I love recycling and using up the crap that I have! I finally felt like making something out of it. I started off making a bowl for myself. Ultimately, I feel that it is too big for its intended use. I have plenty of jeans to make more. When I made the bowl, the largest problem I had was that the denim that had stretch in it was difficult to control the tension on. I pulled a few times too hard and it pulled apart the factory seam. I had to go back and hand stitch these seams.  I hope it will stay together. I hope that the receiver enjoys it . I really like the texture that the factory seams created. I think it would look much cleaner if I had made strips in to thinner tubes. I don't have the patience to turn them all right side out. Maybe with regular cotton fabric it would be easier.  I am working on a super awesome easy tutorial for a pot holder that I made in masses to give as gifts this season.

Snowflakes

Check out this guy's insane images of snowflakes that he takes with his special camera! I found fwwidall on flicker. I was searching images of snowflakes that I can sew/quilt on some christmas gifts. I love this type of close up images of crystal structures. I look at one similar to this everyday, (hubby has water crystals tatted on his arm) It is amazing that he can capture the images. Nature is the most amazing artist ever!

Crochet Pumpkins

I worked on these pumpkins for awhile, but I think one could make them fairly quickly with no interruptions.  I found the instructions for creating the smallest pumpkin on twj1963's you tube page. She has amazing tutorials. I appreciate so much what she has done. I am an extreamly visual learner and cannot read the code books for crochet. I simply increased the stitch instructions she gave to create the larger pumpkins. I really wanted a set and one with a face. I have tons of old buttons that I wouldn't dare put on something like clothing or purses. This was a great usage for a few. Teresa's other tutorials show a pumpkin with crocheted eyes and mouth. I didn't have any black yarn, I didn't want to buy it just for the details. I actually like my choice of the buttons better. 

  I enjoyed the spider web in the window in the photo with the flowers hubby brought home Friday.

To make the pumpkin basically chain a multiple of 4, I wouldn't go smaller than 16 (smallest pumpkin). For example: chain 24 (middle sized pumpkin); single stitch 4 , double stitch 16, single stitch 4 repeat until you get image above (folded over). It depends on how fat you want your pumpkin to be depends on how long. The ends are sewn together with a running stitched and pulled tight and knotted every few stitches. The stems are simple single stitched and skip stitches as you go up. They are stuffed with poly-fill or strips of leftover batting. Thanks to Teresa for the idea. This project cost me nothing to make. It was from what I had at home! Yeah for crafting, I LOVE using up stuff that just lays around.

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.