Art, Craft and Needlework, October, 2015

[Harriet]

The season of giving is coming our way quickly. We'll be thinking about handmade possibilities in new ways. These thoughts were posted by "Kari" on the U Create Crafts site and I think they are thoughts we all could applaud :

When you give handmade you can choose to create a one-of-a-kind gift that is unique to that person. A friend gave me a necklace and I always get asked, “Where did you get that?” I tell them that a friend made it. Sometimes it’s nice to wear or have something that nobody else has!

Creating something can be therapeutic or a time to get away from our busy schedules. It’s great to have an excuse to do what we love.

You have creative talents – share them! Finishing a creative project can give you such a sense of accomplishment, right? Seeing somebody wear, use, or display what you created them, can give that same feeling!

During September,
Nancy has enjoyed giving gift baskets and is working on round starburst dish cloths.
Harmony completed a matching pillow and quilt with handmade label.
Sunny needlepointed a plastic canvas butterfly that could be mailed for a birthday!
Harriet made mints that looked like buttons for a baby shower.
Harriet's dd made sets of ceramic bowls with vine designs.
Elizabeth crocheted on the train to work, and assembled a sewing room storage unit.
blessedw2 is knitting mittens for her dds and has found a new close-by sewing shop.

What have YOU been up to?

[Nancy]

I finished up two teal colored dish cloth this month.
I have been working on a new knitting pattern trying to knit lacy leaves.
I have a yarn stash to finish up doing more hats.
I love those mints.

[Harriet]

Here's a photo of the button-shaped buttermints for the baby-boy shower, in my mother's pedestal ironstone candy dish. Each one was slightly less than an inch across. They are cut with the reverse ends of Wilton's standard metal icing tips according to a net tutorial on making fondant button decorations. The outer cut is tip 4B, and inner indent is tip 2, holes pressed with the tip of 2 and then a toothpick pushed through each hole after the mints dried a bit.

Dd has some other photos she says are better but I haven't gotten them yet. If one is better I'll just switch later, but I decided finished is better than perfect and put my photo up. But I'm supposed to send to dd35 and DCousinMary as well, so I wish dd would hurry up. She took one of my cousin's little granddaughter who is a very suspicious eater and wouldn't eat anything else at the shower but these after seeing them. I know Mary will want that one.

I was very appreciative of the tutorial's recommendation of this color of blue food coloring, which is so much prettier than any blue-green I've been able to blend. It is AmeriColor brand in "Sky Blue", but I would call it a Robin's Egg Blue. I think I'll like this color a lot for things like Easter Egg dyeing, etc.

MintsSmall.jpg

[BookSaver]

Harriet, those are adorable!

[Harriet]

Altered one more shirt for dstepfil. HRH will be able to take it to them when he drives his cousin over to see them on Monday. Cousin lives permanently in a therapy/rehabilitation place because of his physical infirmities. I really wanted to get at least one shirt done out of the new batch so cousin could feel there was additional purpose/help in their visit, and not just a ride for him. This shirt is brown and my closest color of single bias tape was dusty rose, but it blends very well.

BookSaver, you wouldn't believe there are almost 8 dozen mints there, would you? Only drawback of that dish - the "bowl" dips way down into the pedestal.

[Nancy]

Hats hats and more hats might be selling them U never know.
Went to knitting class today.
I have been weaving too. Going to try a new weaving design next up.

[BookSaver]

I've started my annual "How many projects should I take to Sewing Camp next month?" (It's called a Sewing Retreat for the others in the group, but I always have to work in the kitchen and such, so I rarely have the chance to relax. Thus, I prefer to call it Camp.)

The camp is an overnighter the first weekend in November, from Thursday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. Some square footage in my car must be filled up with my suitcase, sleeping bag & pillow, groceries, and sewing machine. I also offered to carry out 3 tote bags containing the group's table risers, extension cords & multi-outlet strips.

I drive a compact car so that doesn't leave a lot of room for fabrics, supplies and tools. Even so, traditionally I have managed to fill every square inch with far too many projects to ever hope to complete in 3 nights. I'm going to try to be more practical this time.

One thing I know I want to take is an item I bought at the library's recent fund raiser Books & More sale. It's a pieced quilt top roughly 72"x72" in dark pink & white. I don't know the name of the quilt block, but it's curved triangles in each block that, when joined to other blocks, form the optical illusion of circles. It has a lot of stains on it from being stored, so they originally priced it at $5. That is an incredible bargain even with the stains, and I couldn't believe that no one bought it the first day of the sale. When they announced on the 2nd day that they were going to let everything go for half price, I immediately bought this item. $2.50 for perfectly hand-stitched curves!

Since I don't think some of the stains will come out, my plan right now is to sew it to a cotton backing and use it for a picnic cloth. I don't think I'll use batting because I want it to be washable and not take forever to dry. I'm assuming that the pink dye will bleed into the white, but I don't care about that for a picnic cloth.

[Harriet]

BookSaver, a "Summer Quilt" then. Very suitable in pink. Those color-catcher things for the wash (after it's backed) are supposed to actually work well - Dove gave a review of them, with her experiences, on this page. Assuming it's not too expensive, it would be worth it to keep colors in place and save the pattern's look.

I've pressed more of the torenia, although I wasn't as happy with it after I peeked at the last pressing I did of those blooms. It is a trumpet-shaped bloom that's very delicate, so tends to get a 'folded-by-mistake' look no matter what. With these new ones I tried the daffodil-pressing trick of carefully opening the trumpet out into an arc, which might make it more attractive in a design, although you can't easily tell what flower it is when you do that. The purple color is very rich and lasting, though.

I've pressed the first of my own violas. The only ones I had similar to these were found on a roadside last year.

Went through some slacks and made notes on those that need to be hemmed. I safety-pin those notes, written on post-its, to the hems.

How do ya'll change the hems on knits that have been serged? I don't have a serger. I am thinking trying to zig-zag over the raw edge without stretching it, and then top-stitching for the turned hem in a matching color? Seems to be full of potential problems, but might work. Thankfully, this type of slacks is usually not a big investment, and these are pretty cheap, really.

[Sunny]

Harriet, if I have slacks that need hemmed I just turn the original hem up once or twice -- however much I need it and hand stitch. I searched this website and found these episodes that might give you some tips. (Sew Knits with Confidence). I know there are some kinds of tapes, or elastic tapes that are used with sewing knits. http://wpt.org/SewingWithNancy/Video/se ... nce-part-1 There is a part 2 also. These TV shows are free to watch - there are 52 of them, I think.

Those button mints are so pretty. Could you use a cardboard circle with a doily over it to line the bottom of the dish (so the mints don't drop down to the bottom) ?

[Nancy]

Back from knitting class today a cowl project.