Art, Craft and Needlework, March, 2014

[Harriet]

What are you figuring out lately? That's a fun, satisfying part of our creative life - learning more and getting more experience so we can figure out puzzles of fit, color, method, and make something unique!

Nancy figured out a triangle shawl method and worked with ombre yarn
Nancy's also been knitting scarves.
Ivy figured out how to make a hat pattern have an ideal fit - Olympics colors!
Ivy made Valentine cards, too.
Elizabeth figured out how to paint a portrait of Panther the kitty by taking photos
Elizabeth is also making a shawl for an animal org. auction
Harriet figured out pressed-flower bookmarks and posted pictures in Feb thread
BookSaver pondered a book with pressed clovers, figuring out a book-page project
Harriet's dd figured out a tutorial for a skirted tank top from a tee - link in Feb thread

[Ivy]

Our neighbor's probably home now, as of Thursday the 27th, his Dwife and DD were going to the hospital for a meeting, about him coming home soon. I got out chartreuse card stock, folded it in half, and got out a kidney-shaped wooded tray thing, for writing in a chair on. I got out some permanent markers, a Pigma pen, and owl stickers. On the face of the card, I lettered a poem about owls onto curved lines, in modern artistic calligraphy lettering. On the inside, I put two 3-D stickers of birds, continued the poem, and added scrapbook clear stickers, which said "Friends" and "Thinking of You." It turned out quite nice. DH puddled up when he read it, too. I kept thinking how I hope I won't bring our Dneighbors to tears, too. I know it'll be happy, fond, touched by kindness tears, if they do come. I've not lettered for ages, took a year-long college weekend course with a master calligrapher, at the local college, too. It was nice to put my old workshops, classes, and training to work, even though it was a quite modern font with a Pigma pen.

Now if I can only motivate myself to crochet on a Dneighbor's 2 dishtowels! They're due by/on May 6, but I wanted to finish them early so I can move onto dgd's butterfly Christmas afghan.

[Nancy]

I had to rip out the tringle shawl bc the yarn did not gauge right so I am knitting with it now.

[Harriet]

Oh well, Nancy, more learning! Thanks - I was happy how well bookmarks came out, too.

My creative life is dove-tailing into my outdoor walks these days. So happy with the bookmarks and want to make a few more. Somehow it was a fun challenge making them with fewer choices. Don't know how I'll feel about everything blooming at once in early summer, lol.

I took a walk along roadsides/wood's edge today. Found the jonquils coming up. They will be so pretty in a week. Wondered if I could walk straight to ferns like my mother used to be able to do. And there they were, less than half a minute after I'd said it to Sammie, even though I'd not seen them there before. Just a hunch thinking about the type of shade they like. Not ready to pick any now but in a few weeks they will have sweet green growth. Still stiff and half-brown from winter now.

Next will be looking for wild violets. I know I've seen them before at distance into the woods beside a certain path. It's in my memory. Best guess on their blooming will be April 1 - let's see how far off I am!

Here, hold this poem for me, dear A,C & N, or I'll not find it again! Thank you!

For violets suit when home birds build and sing,
Not when the outbound bird a passage cleaves;
Not with dry stubble of mown harvest sheaves,
But when the green world buds to blossoming.
~Christina Georgina Rossetti

Came home with wild strawberry leaves and pressed them - a different shape from the other green bits I've found this spring, and found some still tiny. That's important for bookmarks. The prettiest flower or leaf, if too big, won't be right for a tiny craft.

Now that I look at ideas for using pressed flowers, I notice petals and blooms for sale sometimes. But I'm not tempted to buy any because it's just not magical if they are not found by me. LOL! I must be a purist. Better wear orange in deer season. Better watch out for critters. When I go to nurseries this year I'll be looking for tiny flowers more than I would have in the past.

[Ivy]

I found a lovely wedding anniversary card someone had printed up on their computer. It was a larger greeting card with flowers and a love for two quote in a white vertical bar from top to bottom, surrounded by light blue swirls or scrolls, around the white quote w/flowers. I took a pair of scissors and I cut about 1/8" of the scroll design around the vertical greeting, making a lovely bookmark. I can use the bookmark for myself or give it to someone for their anniversary, too. ♥ ♥

Greeting cards DO make lovely bookmarks. Also, 1 pen pal I have, collects her greeting cards over a year or two. Then, she sits down, and cuts and glues old cards into new cards, to recycle them into new greetings for her friends, family and pen pals. I know it might sound "cheap", but the card she sent me for my b-day was quite lovely and I thought, "How unique!" I loved her idea.

[Harriet]

Oh, Ivy, that scroll sounds like a pretty bookmark. Since I've been looking up ideas for pressed flower bookmarks I've happened to see so many other bookmark ideas, and yes, using greeting cards is so smart. Of course, I'm looking for ways to USE the FLOWERS, which is a desire brought on by gifts from the funeral. Laminated bookmarks just seemed the most lasting. So I have to keep telling myself to avert my eyes from other ideas I just won't have time to do!

However, I will tell you it made me look at a few greeting cards I've saved that have minimal design and start wondering - WHAT IF. What if I used rectangles from them as the base for a pressed-flower bookmark, so my design seemed to have depth behind it? Hmmm... So many ideas, so little time!

Btw, I once received a large tri-fold card, a landscape of ponds with birds, that was exactly in my front bathroom's colors. Just couldn't bear to part with that! I found (cheap) two 5x7 and one 8x10 wood frames and painted them to match each other, got cheap matching mats, and put the three images in (front went into large frame, other two pages had parts that could be cut to fit small frames), They were beautiful in my bathroom for years and made two wall areas match each other for very little cost. No one would ever have known they were just one recycled greeting card, cut up. Definitely told the person who sent the card.

[Nancy]

Winding down on knitting and heading to gardening season here as temps. And weather warm up.

[BookSaver]

Coming in to read about all of your lovely creative projects.

Ivy ~ Your "thinking of you" card sounds beautiful.
Nancy ~ Sorry you had to un-stitch your shawl.

Harriet ~ I am fascinated with all of the colors and shapes you're finding for your bookmarks. Ooo, violets, I love violets! Waiting for the violets to show up in our back yard because that's when I'll know that winter is really, truly over.

Sewing retreat coming up March 20-22. This is one of the 9AM to 9PM -- haul tools & supplies to the meeting room, sew/chat/eat/laugh all day, leave the mess behind to go home and sleep in our own beds, then come back to sew/chat/eat/laugh again.

Today I'll sort out fabrics that need to be washed/dried before I can cut them. I know I have supplies to make lots of the little tote bags for the local organization that works with preschool kids. The org needs hundreds of the little bags each year because they send them home with the preschoolers, with little books or misc. paperwork in them. They like bright colorful cotton prints, and the bags are small enough for the kids to carry by themselves.

As I mentioned in PWYC, it's the kind of project that once I get going in the rhythm, I don't need to concentrate on them so I can talk at the same time. Unless I have machine problems, I should be able to complete at least a dozen bags during the 3 days. Maybe more, depending on how much fabric I can find and get ready before then.

[Nancy]

I figured out drop stitch for a piece of prayer knitting this month. Next I need to try lace knitting.
So far more ripping than knitting lol! But I am not giving up!

[Ivy]

Does it matter what type or brand of thread you use for lap quilting? I once read about needing to use invisible thread! But with "MY" eyes, how would I be able to see the stitches, if I needed to rip them out with a seam ripper? Is plain white or beige Dual Duty thread "okay"? I'd like to do what's the norm, and invisible thread seems a bit extreme to me. I "THOUGHT" the entire idea of lap quilting was to be able to "see" the tiny hand-sewn stitches. Isn't that the idea behind quilting and thread, stitching, etc....?

Also, I've never ever in my entire life, been able to make a French knot. I tried and tried when I was 9 & 10 years old and embroidered. In later years, I took a silk ribbon embroidery class, but it still fails me, if I try. I just don't "get it". I don't know if I should go to YouTube to actually get baby-step instructions in a video or what. But I get so frustrated when I try. It's been a frustration, which has followed me since I was 9 years old- which is 53 years. I know you can teach an old dog new tricks, but I don't even know where to start.

Also, Grandma, when she was alive, handmade lap robes for nursing homes. She did the crazy quilt stitch and she embroidered with beautiful contrasting threads, all sorts of wonderful embroidery stitches and you guessed it- even FRENCH KNOTS! Grandma's gone, I have absolutely nobody in my life, in person, to teach me, so I guess I'll just look through my quilting books and then go on-line to YouTube. It's like I have a brain block in my head, trying to keep me from figuring out crazy quilts, too. They honestly look hugely complicated, when I see them all finished. Are they hard or are they really easy once you get the "hang" of them? Grandma wasn't a rocket scientist, but if Grandma could have figured these crazy quilts out, certainly I can, too. I just don't know where to start. I don't even have a plan. Maybe an OMM list would help?

Also, this might sound dumb, but.... I used to belong to a craft book club. I got a lot of books, gave many away as welcomed gifts, and kept many books on quilting. I had the idea how I'd someday quilt, so I have all these books. DD gave me several quilting books, too. Also, Dmom gave me a wonderful machine quilting book. All I need to do is get 3 gifts for 3 small grands ages (right now) 14 months, 2 11/12, and 5, for Christmas. Once those gifts are done, it'll free up time to try the quilting hobby for awhile. I'd love to be able to do it this fall. I'm glad I used to belong to a crafting book club. It's going to come in very handy.

So any tips on the "proper" quilting thread, are most welcome!