Art, Craft and Needlework, November, 2013

[Harriet]

How does your creative garden grow?

Check last month's thread for lots of updates! Here are creative tidbits gathered from there and around the village

BookSaver sewed quilt blocks for Quilts of Valor and bought a new machine
Sunny has fabric cut and ready to start sewing her dgs11's quilt
Twins' Mom organized for card-making & spiffed porch decor with washi tape
Nancy switched her rainbow afghan from crochet to a knitting project
Ivy is finishing the edging on an afghan for her dgs for Christmas
ellephant inherited a beautiful stash of fine wrapping papers
Elizabeth is crocheting a Pokemon character
Harriet is teaching her dd15 to work with clothing patterns

Fun discussion on Home Ec is last month's thread, too!!

[Ivy]

Re-taught my dfriend with memory problems, how to SC. She's making a dishcloth from yarn I donated to her with a spare hook, too.

I crocheted on a dishcloth at the same time, to help show her by example, which I'll donate to a pen pal to go with Christmas.

[Nancy]

I had to restart the rainbow project two times now this is normal thinking.

I can get is going with the first of the pattern rows this weekend. Yea! Finally got that going
Have the next set of pattern rows started now.

[BookSaver]

Last night I fired up the new machine and sewed some quilt blocks for Quilts of Valor. Since these are the ones I did before that I decided to un-sew and re-sew, I'm back where I started (plus a little bit). I'm doing them assembly-line fashion, chain piecing, so there are a bunch of them half-done. My plan is to finish that set today before starting anything else.

The new machine takes some getting used to. Biggest automatic habit to break with it is reaching for a lever to raise the presser foot. This machine does not have a lever, it only has buttons. (Not sure I like that.) I've been moving a lever on sewing machines since I was a young teen, so that's quite an adjustment. At least chain piecing last night meant I wasn't putting my hand up for a lever quite as often.

The new machine doesn't sound and move quite as smoothly as I'd expected, compared to my 25-year-old mechanical. After I'm done with these quilt blocks and some urgent mending, I'll play around with decorative stitches. I think that will give me some more clues about the motor's timing, to see if I need to take it in for a tune-up or if I need to adjust my expectations.

[Nancy]

I am settling in to knit and watch my team play. They won yea!

[Ivy]

I was looking for my 100% kitchen cotton P 'n' C yarns. I lifted a tote hanging on the handles of an art storage case, much like a travel storage thing on wheels you see rolling behind people getting ready to board planes or trains. Inside the top pocket, I found my stash of Grannies! I have 21! I've always wanted to add a round or 2 to them, to make them larger, then put on black as the last round, since all the squares have black in them. I was thinking how frail my dfriend is with memory problems. It'd be a good throw for her lap and legs. I notice how they have a high wall heater, the stove, and heaters going, so she must get cold. I could whip this together some Friday through Sunday night and be done with it. She's the perfect person for it, the Granny is a different pattern than the normal ones, shown on PBS TV and was on-line on a website, too. It's a show where they both knit and crochet and now I've heard they've got DVD's out of their shows to sell, too. I'm not sure, but I believe It's called Knitting and Crochet Today. Now, that's not chiseled in stone and I'm human and forget and make mistakes, but it's something like that. I hope to be able to give her a little lapghan or throw for Christmas. She deserves something nice. I'd totally forgotten all about the squares, but now, to find them at the perfect time was such a surprising blessing.

[Nancy]

I am working on the 3rd color on the rainbow afaghan.

[Nancy]

I got a red paisley print hankie hemmed today.

[Ivy]

I FINISHED GRSON-4.5-YRS. CHRISTMAS AFGHAN TODAY!

Now I need to crochet afghan #3, for 2.5-yrs. grson.

Also, I found 2 lavender "hippo" buttons, which would look so cute on a little vest for dgd.

After afghan #3 is done, I plan on crocheting hand puppets for dgrson 4.5 and 2.5, too.

I also have a bunny-binkie toy to make for dgd, so the vest takes #2 priority. The bunny binkie is top priority for dgd.

If I do puppets and the bunny-binkie, it makes the gifts even, so if I do the vest for dgd, I'll need/want to make the gifts even, for dgrsons, so might make each a hat OR a 2nd puppet or finger puppets.

Of course, this is all depending upon time.

[Ivy]

Ddil called me, she was resting because she's got the tail end of a bug, but is fine, yet tired. The baby/toddlers were napping, so she could talk. I told her about the Mario hat and Luigi hat for the toddler grands and the puppets. I told her about the bunny-binkie carry-around toy, vest, and leg warmers for dgd. Ddil's going to see if the TLC "Baby" yarn's on the 20% off sale because with Ddil's employee 20% discount, it's a good price for the leg warmers.

Then, I got out a clear acrylic green clip board, put the remaining Christmas-to-do patterns on it, grabbed 2 totes, put in those projects' yarns, and am organized now, with my quick-to-go-to arrangement. I got excited while talking to Ddil and it made me want to get more organized.