Art, Craft and Needlework, November, 2012

[Nancy]

I am knitting up the other yarn decided I wanted to do some knitting next.

[Harriet]

While NOT being able to find an image of a decorative cardboard filing box (which I'm sure Harmony has already seen anyway, and doesn't need me to show), I DID find this tutorial on how to use recycled cardboard to make attractive storage boxes. This lady happened to need to hide (um... store) magazines, but of course the concept works for other things. Because of the way she finished them off, it gives a built-in-storage look that says, "I meant to do that". Here's another lady who uses even cheaper materials and offers printable labels if anyone likes hers. Hmmm... ... is this for A, C and N or is this for Decluttered Home?

[Harmony]

Great ideas! I loved the twine and tag idea. (Never knew a dog could do that with a nut, by the way!)

I don't know if I'll go to that much trouble, I'll probably just wrap in tissue & fabric strips, put in the box, and wrap the outside with Christmas wrapping. I'm down to the wire with 1 to finish and 1 to make.

[Nancy]

I have made progress some of the knitting I am happy about this newest project a childs size striped prayer shawl in pink, blue dk. & lt. off white and cranberry. This one is fun growing enough to be warm now that the colder days have come with fall here.

This one is done and turned out excellent after seaming it together the stripes added a wonderful interest to the project!

[Harriet]

Right, that twine is too basic to do without, for many reasons. I need to replenish my supply because whatever's left has been kept outdoors and is dusty by now.

The idea of making only the top, then sewing on a towel for an elderly person's cover-up is brilliant, BookSaver.

Creative ideas from the Christmas Show

Number one for both myself and dd was the beautifully stitched/decorated sweatshirts/hoodies. I'd call them Bohemian, old-world, hippie, eclectic. These are made of what I would call heavyweight tee-shirt material or a non-fleece sweatshirt material that is in some way dyed to look distressed/old and heathered. If they were paints, I'd call them milk-paints. Another shopper said "pigment dyed" which I came home to look up, and yes, that might account for the heathered colors but not the motley-dyed distressed look. So I think they have been hand-dyed and dd even wondered whether she should be cautious about washing too often.

To explain how they were made so spectacularly, looking at the hoodie garment for instance as 3 main pattern pieces of back, left front and right front, the right front (as worn) was made in 3 or 4 different fabrics of contrasting colors (like teal, purple, black/grey, rust), set at a slight diagonal down the front. The front kangaroo pockets, also, were made in 2 or 3 different colors set straight not diagonally. A few of these blocks of color would be double-layers with top-sticking in rows. A very simple-stitch, contrasting hand embroidery, multiple strands cotton, primitive look, was done, sweeping over the whole garment and out onto sleeves. Every once in a while, one leaf or other image would be an actual applique. Usually the back was nearly plain but sometimes the embroidering continued around if it was a vining leaf, for instance. Finally, the top fabric of the double-fabric blocks (or sometimes hoods or sleeves) were cut in between the top-stitching lines so the fabric curled away, revealing the contrast color under that block.

We were so impressed with these that a hoodie for dd14 was one of our few purchases. I came home fascinated with the idea of customizing sweatshirts and hoodies! I believe these were literally made from scratch but it occurred to me that there might be ways to use some of these ideas on a purchased sweatshirt. Even if you took a ready-made one apart just enough to add in extra color blocks.

Another idea we saw was many different "takes" on the quick fleece spiral scarves. Here's a tutorial that's a couple years old, but the ones we saw were far from plain, made from highly unusual fleeces, like two-tone sophisticated, swirling sky or tie-dye patterns or animal prints. You had to get really close to these to see that they were just cut fleece. Was wondering why we never saw plaids, which would imitate traditional scarves, but thinking about it, I bet that type of strong lines wouldn't work well in something made on a spiral. Still, interesting.

Something different in textile angel ornaments was skirts made from team or college fabrics. I saw only a few vintage-quilt cut-up items, and we used to see so many. The "quilt angels" ornaments I saw this time were fabric-onto-stiffener and machine embroidered.

Prettiest crochet item - definitely the granny-square type scarves. They were made from a lighter weight yarn - sorry, I'm not knowledgeable enough to know how to express it. The center of the granny square was a little different on these (still flat), but basically you were looking at a long string of granny squares with fringe at the ends. There was an array of them hung up, all done in the traditional rounds of colors and every square the same, but muted like grays, beiges, near-black, tan. They really looked gorgeous.

Prettiest painted item - Loved the barrettes that were hand painted. Usually a dark color background, then a tole-look or china-painters' look (or maybe some were the "one stroke" method?) of roses or other simple floral over that in lighter colors, then a high-gloss varnish/polyethylene. $10 each was a little steep for me to pay for a barrette on the spur of the moment, but if I had been shopping for some and comparing, not a bad price for all the work.

[BookSaver]

Oh I forgot to describe the spiral scarves from Tuesday night, very similar to that fleece one in the tutorial but lighter and more delicate. She was again repurposing Tshirts.

Start with a circle "about the size of a paper plate" and cut into it in a continuous line around, a strip 1 to 1 1/2 inch wide, which forms the circular ruffle. Then she used 2 or 3 in the same scarf, usually different colors, and tacked them together in the center because that would be at the back of the neck. Sometimes then she would put a clip somewhere down the front, sometimes just let them hang loose.

She also made flowers from the Tshirt sleeves. Cut a circle. Fold it in 4ths, hold onto the point and round off the top corners to make a petal shape. Sew or glue 4 or 5 of the folded circles onto a backing. Fluff out the petals. Again, some were all 1 color but others used 2 colors. She used the flowers for pins, scarf clips and barrettes.

The "stringy" scarves she made pretty much depended on using a tubular knit fabric like an old Tshirt. However, the spiral ones and the flowers could be cut from lightweight knit fabric or from fleece, or pretty much anything that wouldn't ravel much.

Seems like I've seen circular ruffles from sheer fabric, too, but that was as a hemmed collar or cuffs. I haven't worked with enough sheers to know how much they would ravel if not hemmed.

[BookSaver]

Both the hoodies and the granny square scarves sound lovely, Harriet.

[BookSaver]

I saw a very pretty decoration at the library today. The library director copied it from Pinterest.

She took 3 fishbowls in graduated sizes. Each bowl had a little snow scene inside, like what would be in a snow globe. The scenes were made from bits and pieces of an antique holiday village scene, with a "background" in each bowl made from a glittery scenic greeting card.

Then she stacked the 3 bowls as if they were parts of a snowman. She put a knit hat on top that made the smallest bowl the "head", and a scarf around the "neck".

My only fear is that it's a public library, and the table could get bumped, so there is danger of the glass bowls crashing to the floor.

Still, it's a really pretty way to use a winter village set in a vertical format so it doesn't use up the whole of a big table.

[Nancy]

I'm working on a crochet random striped prayer shawl or afghan this week. It's fun to see how these colors work together!

[Harmony]

That does sound pretty, Booksaver. I hope it doesn't get bumped.

My quilt is off the rack. Oh, my that was a lot of stitches to do in a short time. I might make it yet before Christmas!