Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2013

[BookSaver]

I was able to play a little bit with my sewing machine over the weekend. I had some scrap pieces of fabric so I used them to test several lines of decorative stitches. They would have looked smoother if I'd put interfacing between the fabrics, but even so are very pretty stitches.

Saturday morning I went to another sale at the fabric store in neighboring Tiny Town. The owner didn't have time to do demonstrations, but she had several quick gifts on display with handouts of the instructions. The one I really liked was a little purse made from a hard cover book.

Similar to these
https://www.pinterest.com/asdesigns/book-purses/

I bought a pair of purse handles to try the idea sooner or later.

[Ivy]

[b]Booksaver, The purse-from-a-book idea is so super! It looks GR8! You can pick and choose your favorite fabrics, too. They'd also make good/nice gifts.

Ddil mailed me three (4-oz.) skeins of Red Heart Soft yarn. The color is "Plummy". It's purple, lavender, lilac, and rose variegated. It's for dgd-1 yr.-in-Jan.'s yarn for her leg warmers and a matching hat with holes for 1.5" grosgrain ribbon woven through it to make a bow in front. It'll be an adorable set. I get the leg measurements before Christmas, for the leg warmers, so they'll fit the circumference of the thighs/ankle and leg length. (Dgd has inherited her Grandpa's short legs.) The colors in the "Plummy" yarn are rich-looking for winter, they're dark enough to not show dirt easily, as if they were pastel pink, for instance. When I finish the warmers/hat, I'll ship them to Ddil, she'll take the hat to the fabric dept. of her store she works for, to match the colors in the ribbon to the colors in the hat. The ribbons I have on hand aren't grosgrain and all I have is tulle to use in place of ribbon. Ddil made dgd a bunch of Tutu's, too. So she's got tulle left, too.

After I make the leg warmers, I've got some Caron Brites yarn, which would make nice leg warmers, too. After SEVEN grand-he's, it's so FUN to crochet for a Grand-SHE! [/b]

[Nancy]

Got to some knitting today.

[Ivy]

[color=#8040BF]I'm on row 5 of the Granny stripe afghan. It's sure pretty to see all the different colors go together. I started with light grey for 2 rows, burgundy for 2 rows and now I'm doing 2 rows of bright yellow. I was surprised it wasn't wider than it is, but that's okay because I'll put a nice multicolor wide border around it to make it larger. It'll frame it nicely. [/color]

[Nancy]

Knit up 4 rows 2 for today and 2 for yesterday.

[Ivy]

I crocheted a few more rows on my Granny stripe afghan while I watched an on-line interview by Oprah with Joel and Victoria Olsteen.

[BookSaver]

Last night I sewed in a leisurely way for a couple of hours. I'm making the little business card holders from the tutorial that I linked to before, to give to the sewing group board members I've worked with all year, plus 3 more for the new members coming on for next year.

The prototype I made Thursday morning (and gave to my friend Z) was a good test to show me how to do the others I need in batches. I need to do 9 in all before Tuesday evening's meeting. At least I hope it's only 9, I'd hate to forget anyone but I've counted the names several times so I think I'm safe.

I decided not to sew on a button for closure because I think that makes it too bulky. I'm sewing so the hair elastic sticks out farther, it will wrap around and keep the holder closed. Unfortunately, the neon color pony tail holders I found are too thick and strong, as I learned on the 1st 1 that I gave to Z. I'm using thinner black ones that I had on hand for the 9. They aren't as pretty, but I can't get to WM to look for prettier ones until Monday afternoon, and I don't want to wait that long to finish these gifts.

Last night I was able to get 5 of them to the point of needing to be ironed before I can do the final topstitching. Tonight I will do that ironing, cut the fabric pieces for the remaining 4 sets, and get back to the sewing machine for as long as I can stay awake.

I'm enjoying the process because I'm learning the quirks of my new machine, and the fabrics are really pretty cotton prints.

[Nancy]

No crafting for me my hands are too rough for that hoping they heal up soon so I can get back to it.

[Harriet]

Nancy, I know that bugs you! Hope your hands are back to normal soon.

BookSaver, round coffee filters work well as a stand-in for interfacing behind decorative stitches. Got that tip from a quilter's mag. No problem at all if it's a decorative item, and even if you plan to wash, as long as you clip away relatively close after finishing, the material is so close to interfacing it behaves about the same. Also, you could try with paper and see if it would tear away, like with paper piecing. Might just need some tweezers and be all gone.

Have used so my clear acrylic rulers and rotary-cutters/cutting mats so often for Christmas prep this year. They are great. Had to change a box to a thinner size and marking the sides was so easy with the clear ruler.

[Ivy]

Coffee filters also are a great lint-free way to clean off mirrors.

I have 2 skeins of yarn out, to make DD another infinity scarf, but THIS time, instead of following the pattern to chain 78, I'll chain 90, because DD said it was a bit small for her wide shoulders, although she's petite and short. The colors are a sort of sage or sea foam green or pea green, which is pastel, and a variegated with the same shade of green in it, with rust, and burgundy and a light brown. I'm not sure if she wears these colors or not, but they'll be pretty together. I'm sure she'll like it. Like her father said, "It's FREE!"