Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2014

[Nancy]

I am working up some guage swatches.
dgd said to keep 'em she can take em to preschool
for show and tell on that the week they have that color.

[BookSaver]

Nancy ~ That's a fun idea, to take knitting swatch tests to school. Multiple teaching ideas there -- colors, different types of yarns, how yarn is made, how knitting is different than sewing, etc.

I'm doing a different type of craft tonight. Someone donated some very old LEGO pieces to the library. I was very happy to see that also in the shoebox with the pieces were pictures from the original LEGO box, and 1 of them included the model number 205. Thanks to Google, I confirmed that the pictures matched the box for LEGO basic building set 205-3 which was sold around 1965-66.

I even found online a list of the pieces that came in the original set. The good thing about that is I can make a display that compares the old vs. new pieces -- which I think are supposed to work together even after almost 50 years. (?)

I want to try to build at least 1 of the things in the old pictures.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll be meeting my LEGO Club partner so we can put together a colorful table display. We already have a poster. She is bringing a large size plastic jar that she's decorating with various modern LEGO pictures. I want to put it on a base plate and build some partial walls around the jar -- we'll play around with stripes and other designs. That will be our donation jar if someone wants to slip us some cash.

I saw a picture somewhere with the word "library" spelled out in LEGO bricks.

This is all for a craft sale at the Tiny Town elementary school on Saturday morning. The craft sale is for the firefighters auxiliary. They said if we want to collect donations for LEGO Club, they have just enough space to squeeze in a card table -- if we bring our own table.

LEGO partner won't be able to do the event with me because her 2 boys have a major boy scout event at the same time. I don't mind, as I was given several LEGO magazines that I can study in between chatting with customers.

[Nancy]

I had to stop on the swatch I was doing after the third rip out I have to do it when I am not watching TV!

[Harriet]

LOL, Nancy! I know how that is - I can't get engrossed in a tv program and just keep on doing other things.

Ivy, there is no different thread you would use for lap quilting, necessarily. Just a Dual-Duty type thread for piecing and a quilting thread for quilting, unless you are quilting the parts/blocks by machine, and then there are many options, just NOT a quilting thread since that won't go through a machine. Invisible would be for machine quilting, but isn't necessary, unless you are trying to keep stitches from showing. Different threads give all different looks for machine quilting - I think you can find web pages that show different looks.

To me lap quilting means fully finishing parts of the quilt, like each block or each row, etc., and then the last step being sewing all the parts together like the various lap quilting books show. I made a basket quilt that way with only four parts. It was a diagonal set so the 4 parts were large triangles. Worked well, and with a print for the back you could hardly see the seams. I used invisible thread for the first and last time on that quilt for machine quilting - hated it and would never touch the stuff again, although they tell me there are much nicer ones now.

BookSaver, what a thoughtful gift for someone to give you antique lego blocks - how precious. Isn't it great to be combining creativity with charity work/donation. Love that.

I'm expected to press some petals from the roses from my dfil's casket spray. I don't know if people understand what they are asking - I tried to be very clear I don't know anything about drying full rose blooms, I would only be pressing petals, which anyone could do. I wonder if what they are really asking is for me to make something with them. Sigh. On the way home from the funeral I broke the stems an extra half-inch up and stuck them into a leftover soda so that should have perked up the blooms.

[Ivy]

Thank you for the information, Harriet. Is piecing when you sew the raw seams together on the wrong side of the fabric and the actual quilting are the stitches on top, which show and can be decorative? Grandma did beautiful crazy quilts, with all sorts of embroidery. I have DMC floss, a long leather thimble and a silver thimble. I have Grandma's scraps I inherited, hoops, fiberfill, and Dual Duty thread, too. I need to go through my quilting books and need to look on-line as to how to do crazy quilts. I don't know if it's as complicated as it looks or not. I looks hard, to me. I can't figure out how the quilter figures out how to fit all those odd shapes together, into a square. It is beyond me. I think I'll do some YouTube investigating, too. And Pintrest has nice ideas, too. ♥

Today, I sorted craft papers, put some smaller ones, for making collage cards, into Ziploc sandwich bags, into a Rubbermaid craft carrier with handles. I'm putting larger sheets of paper into drawers and medium papers are going into a mesh plastic bin, standing upright on their sides. I've been wanting to organize my paper crafts for quite some time now. It's such a lengthy process.

[BookSaver]

LEGO Display:

* I put a giant clear plastic jar in the middle of a baseplate and we built half walls around it. I did 2 walls using the antique bricks while she started the other 2 walls in new bricks. She couldn't stay very long so I finished the walls. She took the jar home to decorate it with LEGO pictures. Once finished, this will be our permanent donation jar to have on display at club meetings.

* I spelled out the word "Library" in LEGO pieces.

* I grabbed the boxes from our starting sets of pieces. They have attractive pictures. They had been flattened but luckily hadn't made it into the recycle bin yet. I will reassemble them on site and stack them on the table somehow.

* We have a big bright colorful poster with our rules for LEGO Club (play nicely together, don't take pieces home, etc.). I originally planned to hang it from a sign stand, but the stand the library owns is very heavy and too big to fit in my car with everything else. I can't count on being given any wall space at the venue.

My music stand doesn't raise high enough, nor does the handle of my rolling cart.

I'm going to experiment with taping a piece of foam board to my broom handle, then clipping the poster to that. If all else fails, I can tape the poster to the front of the card table, but I would rather have it up higher to eye level.
-- Editing to add that I found another music stand that will raise a bit higher, and a longer piece of foam board. That combination will make the poster at eye level. Plus the music stand folds quite small so will fit in my tote bag for easy carrying.

* We have some book bags to sell, but I don't know if they'll give me enough space for another card table. I'll take a small folding table that I use at sewing retreats. It's about the size of a tv tray and is very lightweight, but relatively stable.

-- Not the kind of creativity we usually talk about here, but I'm enjoying using my Make Do With What You Have creative skills.

[Nancy]

☆ Crafting list ☆
♥ Knitting goals ♥
♡ New stitches to learn ♡
★ puppets★
Meetings ?
■ knitted mesh bag ■
¤ shawl ¤
◆ lace ◆
◇ knit sox puppets ◇
● cable rib get cable needle ●
▪samples ▪
Small projects hats and such

Projects to finish
Working on this list.

[Harriet]

Nancy, someday I'm going to come back and copy your last post and then paste it into a post with my hopes in the spaces!!

I wish you time for ALL of it.

BookSaver, I'd say that seems exactly the kind of creativity and enjoyment we all enjoy. "Library" spelled out in legos is especially fun. I hope you have a big success on your hands!

Yes, Ivy, piecing is the sewing together of fabric shapes to make the patchwork pattern. But appliqued patterns would still use Dual Duty types, come to think of it. For crazy quilts, some might be pieced with an additional fancy stitching line along the sewing line - maybe even in embroidery thread if by hand. But also in crazy quilts some pretty swatches or laces might be appliqued.

[Ivy]

Harriet, Grandma used to take neckties to piece together crazy quilts. She added velvet, lace, and the most gorgeous embroidery stitches.

Nancy, I have a mental list of crafts to crochet or do, but I have a file of Christmas items to make for the 3 youngest grandchildren.

♠ 3 afghans ♠
• 3 pillows •
♥ 2 scarves with hand-puppets on their ends ♥
☻ Some toys ☻
☺ Various kitchen items ☺
♥ Hats & Scarves ♥
☻ Hand-made cards ☻

I think that's pretty much my list, except I might crochet dgd a cardigan sweater.

I'd love to crochet myself an afghan, a bluebird pillow from a magazine, a bunny for display in my "Bunny Room", and more face cloths, kitchen mats, and hanging dishtowels. I would love to crochet myself a nice triangle prayer shawl, too, which is large enough to warm up my longish arms. I guess a good place to look would be Ravelry, for that.

So many plans; so little time! :lol:

[Nancy]

I am excited to try out some ideas new knit patterns as my skill increases with samples practicing us helping!

2 books I got yesterday can help doing some puppets up. When I was at Joann's they had a display needing vol. To work on knitting scarf but I cannot add to a project as I knit left handed, but I can do my own at home! And as I do I can practice some stitches on them I do have fun yarn odds and ends of yarns I have here to use the colors are inspiring!

I need a cable needle and will get some yarn next week I went to Joann's and found a knitting resource book with page 30% off! I am trying to increase my skills. So got that instead of yarn this week.