Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

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Harriet
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Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby Harriet » Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:35 am

Creativity is our outlet, our FUN time and our self-affirming time. It's the lovely thing that we slip away to work on as a reward. ;) It's what we daydream about a little, when waiting time has us bored!

Great FUN in both January and February here, as our threads grew long with excited plans and successes. Considerable understanding from thread friends, too, as we ran into some obstacles! :roll:

Lynlee experimented with color schemes, went through her yarns, and learned about joining techniques. Nancy completed several pretty projects even though some original plans didn't work out. Harmony found the right fabric at last and has hope in her ongoing drama of creativity vs adversity! Harriet made it through some patchwork math puzzles and has reached the fun part of her piecing. BookSaver lent her talents to charity and found the right heat-reflective fabric for a lunch bag pattern. Several in PWYC mentioned they are creating, too. Sunny has been making book covers, bittersweet has been crocheting, Indiana has been knitting during the time she had computer troubles, and LisaB got in some creative time before she got sick recently so we hope she can get back to that soon.. And then there was the MOST IMPORTANT PERSON, whose name does not jump out right now... ... hmmm!

Anyway, come let us know about your FUN - creativity makes the world go 'round!


editing to add - remembered Emptynester had sewing machine trouble and was finishing a sewing project by hand, so she must have been the Most Important Person!

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Nancy
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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby Nancy » Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:40 pm

I wanted some goldenrod color yarn to go with a brown I have left over
but they were out but at least I remembered to look while I was there!

Yes Harriet that's a good thing to remember it's fun and relaxing for me to
shop for yarn some time.

I found some pink for one of the other projects here at home and started that this week.
Lovely pic. of a quilt you have there!
Last edited by Nancy on Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby Harriet » Wed Mar 03, 2010 1:46 am

Nancy, it takes time to search out supplies and the time isn't wasted. But it sure can be frustrating when it doesn't work out easily. I managed to get by the quilt shop in February, but the fabric store would have made more sense and I haven't had a chance to get there. At the quilt shop I found a couple border fabrics that I hope will be the end of buying fabric for the Forest quilt, except I guess the backing.

In February I finished up the center medallion of the Forest quilt. Here it is laid out on the cutting board. Hopefully it appears there's a circle "behind" the star points, but really there was only straight piecing.


ForestCenterMarch2010.JPG



The last 2 blocks will be simpler so I can relax with them and just enjoy how the fabrics blend together. I'm running out of design wall space right now. Am getting one of the last 2 blocks mocked up on an edge of the design wall and the 2nd one on a scrap piece of flannel draped over the door into the hall. LOL, that makes it look like my quiltmaking is creeping into the hallway, spreading out into the house.
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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby BookSaver » Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:28 am

Harriet ~ Your quilt block is beautiful and yes I can see the circle behind the star points. I love the idea of your quilt making a stealthy reconnaissance of the hallway, preparing to take over the rest of the house!

Last night at sewing guild we did a fun workshop on fabric beads. Very simple - a small strip of fabric glued to a small piece of plastic straw, then rolled around the straw and glued to hold it together. The straw is a permanent part of the bead so it holds its shape and is very easy to string together or attach to whatever. Fabri-Tac is the name of the glue the instructor recommended. Everyone brought strips of fabric to share and trade colors. She also gave everyone a little baggie of plastic beads and pieces of colored jewelry wire to embellish the beads. Her samples were really attractive.. She found lots of ways to use her embellished fabric beads to make jewelry, zipper pulls, decorations on bags and jackets.

I have not been able to sew up the polarfleece cat mats yet but will get to them soon. Once I get my machine out of its case, I can assembly-line sew the mats. Each one is just a piece of fabric 36" x 20" (so 1 yard of 60" wide fabric makes 3 mats). Fold in half (to 18" x 20") sew up 2 sides, turn right side out, sew straight across the 3rd side. It's possible to just sew around the 3 sides without turning, the cats in the shelter really won't care, but doing the turning hides any ragged selvedges or crooked cuts to make them look neater. The shelter does not want them filled with anything because they will be washing and drying them frequently.

And of course I am starting to gather projects to take to sewing retreat in a couple of weeks. Bliss!

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby Harmony » Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:01 pm

Booksaver, that sounds like so much fun!

Harriet the square is beautiful and I can see the 'circle behind the star points too. I would never have knows it was straight seams if you hadn't said. How big is that whole center square?

I look wistfully at my quilt still laying on the dining room table where I was marking it before I fell. After I finish my work in the office I'd like to finish the marking (I think I can accomplish that) and somehow get it into the quilt frame. At least then I can clean up the dining room. Stuff won't need to come out again until I'm ready for the binding.

Wish me luck in getting this completed, I only have 2 months left tops for this quilt, then another 2 for the next one. Whew!

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby Nancy » Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:25 pm

Looked at a diff. store for yarn today w/ out any luck.
I will keep on trying!
Not going to give up yet.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby Harriet » Sun Mar 07, 2010 11:19 pm

Thanks for the kind words! It makes me so happy to see progress being made on a UFO.

The medallion center is 20 inches square, Harmony, and must fit into a 25-inch opening, so I'll be planning two borders for it, dark inner and medium outer, to total 2.5 inches on all sides. I know you are delighted to be making healing progress so you can get back to your quilt. Something to look forward to in a few weeks.

Thanks for the info on measurements, etc. for the pet mats, BookSaver. You really have something to look forward to in a couple weeks, too! Will it be day-only or some overnight time? I've often wondered how much I could get done sewing if the world went away. As it is, there are only snippets of time. So go out there and have some extra fun for us!

The good and bad of fabric shopping -

HRH had surprised me, while dd was in school, with a morning trip to a little quilt shop he had noticed in his work-travels in the next county. She has a very small stock, so she cuts a lot of fat quarters and spreads them around to look like more. I would see something blue-green across the room and head for it, then realize they were the same fabrics I'd just seen. But I did find a few and bought quarter-yards. I'm very pleased with how they blend with the quilt :) and as I go along I may decide to return and add to my purchases. HRH noticed I didn't buy much and was disappointed because he wanted to have found something nice for me. I reassured him that I had a great time, loved looking at all her little quilts, and it was worth a mint to have him take me out to someplace just for me.

Then I had a chance to go to the regular fabric store (where I still :roll: have a gift certificate from ds24). Dd and I looked and looked and found ZERO. Not one fabric that would half-way work in this quilt OR WonderBoy's (next project up). What is going on - I wonder if they are getting ready to close up shop. :( We left with me wondering what I will spend the gift certificate on??? I would maybe like some pillow forms, I thought, and could use rotary cutting items. Thread? Gee whiz, that's amazing to think not a single fabric I wanted. They were s-p-a-r-s-e.

So I knew how you've been feeling in your search, Nancy - hope you have better luck soon searching for your goldenrod color yarn.

Oh, dd did spend 33 cents in change on a bit of interfacing for some bookmarks she wants to make. Hope she has fun with that. If they turn out nicely, I'll let her photograph and post it.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby Nancy » Mon Mar 08, 2010 8:17 pm

I looked at the yarn and it had been restocked at Walmart today they did not have the color
that I had in mind so I'm rethinking this and maybe can use off white and sunshine yellow.
I'm still pondering this now is the best time for pondering before I go ahead I need to
make sure what I do want to make up.

I am also enamored with a spool tube knitting thingie in the yard dept.
so would love to get one as it reminds me of the cords I used to make with crochet thread in a spool with four nails on it when I was a kid on long trips kept me occupied. Only this version is
bigger and can be for scarves. They also had beginner 4" long knitting needles with a booklet
for learning how to do a scarf.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby Harriet » Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:04 am

I ran across this page and thought 50 free ideas for little bits of thrifty creativity was something we needed to note. :idea: I haven't gone through them all, and was disappointed in a couple, but most I've read seem genuinely fun and at least pretend to be helpful. It is POSSIBLE that someone NEEDS fabric covered thumb tacks, for instance. ;)

50 ideas for FABRIC scraps and remnants

And a whole 'nother page just for yarn stash scrap and remnant ideas

Bunch of ideas for YARN scraps and remnants

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2010

Postby Nancy » Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:13 am

I finally gave up on the gold color yarn decided to knit it all in brown instead.
Got a small baby doll blanket knit up yesterday with some odds & ends in red white and blue
yarn. I think it will go in the gift closet.


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