Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

A place for Artistry, Crafts and Needlework; Decorating and Holidays.
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Harriet
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Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby Harriet » Tue Dec 01, 2015 11:35 am

♫ ♪ ♫
♪ ♫ Frosted window panes, candles gleaming inside ♪ ♫
♫ ♫ ♪ ♫ Painted candy canes on the tree ♪ ♫
♪ ♪ ♫

It's that time of year!

What are your plans? How are you expressing yourself artistically?
How are you organizing your time to create the decor, gifts, ornaments, and art you hope for?
Or maybe you are decorating cookies or other tasty treats?

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Nancy
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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby Nancy » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:11 pm

I am working up the last of a shawl got my 10 row quota done yesterday yea. Last half of the last skein on this project.

I have 2 ropes of spinning fibers to work up I am excited about these.

Some weaving ideas are floating around in my brain also.

I will have Friday off so am thinking of crafting in that time slot.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby BookSaver » Sat Dec 05, 2015 1:20 pm

I have fabric for 3 knit tops, but I need a really large flat space to be able to cut out the patterns since the fabric is quite stretchy.

This weekend I am working on decluttering and clearing enough space in the dining room to be able to cut out multiple projects.

If I can't manage to clear enough space by Monday, I'll try putting the cutting mat on our bed. That would not be ideal because (1) I would have to wait for DH to get out of the bed and (2) I'm sure the cat will think she needs to help. ;)

I cannot crawl around on the floor the way I always cut out patterns in the old days.

I could take everything to the library and use a large table in the basement, but that would be awkward hauling everything in and out, and would take a lot of extra time.
.....

I haven't been able to come up with a better idea for coworker gifts than a mug rug with an instant beverage packet and a homemade treat. Need to customize each one because 1 doesn't drink coffee, 1 only drinks black coffee, etc. Maybe instead of hot beverages I should buy some bottled water and glue snowman or Santa decorations on the bottles?

I was going to add a box of my homemade fudge for each, but now the boss has started a new diet where she doesn't consume any form of sugar. Maybe popcorn? Veggie sticks? :?

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby Nancy » Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:33 pm

I had to return the spinning fiber it was turning my hands green not fun to work up.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby Harriet » Sun Dec 06, 2015 12:26 am

Started to quote BookSaver's points on not having enough flat surface or enough space, or the right space (bed or floor, etc.) But I realized she said a lot about it, all of which sounded familiar to me! So, just read that all again! :lol: Those are my struggles, too!

No sooner had we gotten the dining area cleared after all Thanksgiving activities were done, but I saw those tables so clear (whoops), and thought "Aha! space to spread out all the carefully preserved flowers and leaves I've been pressing!"

It's astonishing to me how much space it takes up to be able to see all the pressings. You have to have flat surface for each one, or you can't know what you have. Anyway, I've created and glued 7 bookmark florals - that doesn't include laminating, which, if not done right, could ruin them of course.

Why do I always choose creativity that takes so much space? :roll: When I started pressing flowers I was thinking what a small, storable art. That's all over as soon as you want to start doing something with them!

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby Nancy » Sun Dec 06, 2015 8:50 am

Got some knitting done last night.

Thinking of what colors to weave up next. Saw some biege & blue chennelle to weave up interested in getting that for a project next year. I am excited thinking about weaving up smething for weft I have not used before.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby BookSaver » Mon Dec 21, 2015 11:12 pm

I have missed my self-imposed deadline of having the coworker gifts done by today. :( They are taking a lot longer to cut & sew than I anticipated -- thus proving my lack of experience with piecing and quilting even small projects!

Plus, I needed to look up how to program my machine to sew names, and run tests with different stabilizers to see which made the lettering look better. I'm not totally happy with the result, but it's ok. Sometimes done is better than perfect.

I also decided to cut the striped binding on the bias because it will be prettier, but it will take longer to mark & cut the 45 degree angle strips. I watched a couple short online videos this morning to refresh my memory of how to make continuous bias binding and mitered corners.

I'm going to try to sew all the binding on with the machine. When I get to that point I'll do my test version first so I can change course to do the others by hand if I can't get the machine stitching to look nice enough.

I am enjoying the process very much. New deadline is Wednesday afternoon.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby Harriet » Tue Dec 22, 2015 1:45 am

I like thinking of Nancy excited about a weaving project and BookSaver enjoying a sewing process.

:D

If stabilizing isn't perfect it is sooooooo forgivable - not what most people notice anyway.

I have used traditional coffee filters for stabilizer, which is something I haven't needed often. But the coffee filters have worked as well as some items I've bought for the purpose. I read that tip in a magazine, so long ago I wouldn't be able to find it again now. I bought coffee filters for the first and last time after that, since I don't have a coffee maker and the one box has lasted for years and years! LOL!

I am deep into decision-making about gift wrapping now.
More and more has been "put onto my plate" what with poor HRH's kidney stone troubles and extra work at church that I didn't feel I'd signed on for. Sigh. IF, IF a little time should fall my way, I will have bookmarks for small gifts this year after all, though. I can hope! I have them laid out in my dmother's china cabinet so the petals will be safe and sound until they are laminated. We went by Hobby Lobby the other day and I neglected to see if they had tassels. Oh well.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby Nancy » Tue Dec 22, 2015 10:52 am

Dec. Jan. For me is working on a clean sweep of the sewing laundry zone has been under way. I did the floors. Working up will be clearing counter and table for some decluttering work space. I need a better plan. Maybe more clear totes. Wish me luck! I will need strength to let go of unneeded bags purses etc. at some point. :roll:

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December 2015

Postby BookSaver » Thu Dec 31, 2015 8:22 pm

My gifts for library coworkers were completed Monday morning. I had planned to deliver them Monday evening but the library closed before the beginning of my shift because we were in the middle of a bad winter storm, freezing rain turning to heavy snow. Gifts were delivered Tuesday morning.

They ended up being really cute, if I do say so myself. Can't remember if I posted the link to the pattern before so here it is:
http://sew-fantastic.blogspot.com/2011/ ... block.html
If I squinted I thought the pattern sort of looked like books lined up on a shelf.

I used 9 bright prints and lined them up in order of the rainbow -- navy w/red dots, red, orange, yellow, dark green plaid, green/blue checkerboard, medium blue, dark blue, purple. My solid for the alternating strips and the backing was unbleached muslin. The binding was a stripe/check combo that included all of those colors.

Along with the mug rug, I filled a sandwich baggie with what I called a Winter Emergency Kit: pkt of hot chocolate mix, pkt of orange flavor EmergenC, small chocolate bar, and purse size pkt of tissues (which by coincidence had characters from the movie Frozen on the plastic cover).

I did attempt to find snacks for the boss which were not chocolate since she had mentioned cutting out sugar, but then I noticed her several times eating treats that patrons brought to the library, so decided not to worry about it any more.

I was more concerned that the mug rugs took a LOT longer to sew than I anticipated. As I said before, most of that was due to my inexperience with piecing blocks for quilted projects. I really enjoyed making them, but probably will not do anything that complicated for next year's gifts.

I never did get those 3 Tshirts cut out. I'll do those in January. I've decided to make one of them in oldest DSis's size to replace the nightgowns I gave her that she didn't like.

Edit for correction: Obviously tired when I posted this because I forgot that I changed the backing for the mug rugs. I originally planned to use the unbleached muslin, but I decided to go with lightweight denim instead. Light blue color. That made the mug rugs double-sided because they looked pretty on the back, too.


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