Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

A place for Artistry, Crafts and Needlework; Decorating and Holidays.
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Harriet
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Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby Harriet » Tue Nov 01, 2016 11:55 pm

The calendar is telling us the unbelievable! Just a few weeks until the end of year holidays. What are you enjoying lately? Are you working on handmade gifts or decor that makes you happy?

In October:

BookSaver attended sewing camp, progressing on 3 projects. Made a creative costume and chatted about paper crafting.
Nancy completed fabric bags in lots of fabrics (she is SO ahead for gift-giving) and chatted about paper crafting to fill out the bottoms.
Twins' Mom chatted about getting back to card making, but knowing it must wait for now. We've all BTDT.
Harriet made a Halloween costume for a grandchild and learned more about her machine's free-arm feature.
Cathy has been stitching on her counted cross stitch projects, and goes to a stitching group now - cool.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby BookSaver » Thu Nov 03, 2016 9:16 am

I have made a little more sewing progress on the pajama pants.

Must get back to finish the wallet. My purse is wearing out but I can't start looking for a new purse until I know the wallet's finished size.

As described in PWYC the knitting loom hat class was fun. I finished the first hat, although I'm not happy with it and may pull it apart to do over. I made a 2nd hat with different yarn and it turned out much better. I've started a 3rd hat with the same yarn as the 1st, to see if practice will make it better or if the problem is the type of yarn.

I'm still using the large round knitting loom I borrowed from the library. I might buy one for myself because we've talked about asking donors to bring hats to the library to be distributed to women's shelters and the VA. My coworker said she has a lot of yarn she's willing to share with me.

The fun of the knitting loom is that it is very, very easy to use while watching tv. No counting stitches or rows, and only a little concentration needed. Convenient to be able to set it aside any time and pick it right back up without losing stitches or losing track of a pattern. Of course, that will change if I try more complicated stitch combinations, but right now the simple hat is a relaxing project.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby BookSaver » Mon Nov 07, 2016 12:50 pm

Finished knitting a 4th hat.
1st was blue, 2nd was variegated olive greens, 3rd was same blue as the 1st, 4th was charcoal gray.

I asked DH if he would like either the green or gray hat since his purchased hats from last year are worn out. He wants them both. He likes that they are big enough to pull down over his ears when needed. 8-)

I was not happy with the 1st hat I made with the loom because my tension was too loose. My technique has improved with practice. I took the 1st hat apart to reuse the yarn.

The loom kit needs to go back to the library today because someone else has asked to borrow it.

The library director wants to have several Christmas trees in the building as it will be our 1st Christmas in the larger space. She has agreed that 1 of the trees can be decorated with hats, mittens, & scarves that will be donated to a women's shelter or a local veteran's group. (We thought about the school but were told that 2 churches in town already supply the school with all they want.) After I make a hat for myself, any others I make will be decorations/donations.

Did a few minutes of sewing last night on the pajama pants.
Need to finish the wallet I started last month because I need to know its finished size before I can buy a new purse.
Would like to sew on other Works In Progress this week, too.
Still need to decide what to make for coworkers for Christmas gifts.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby blessedw2 » Sun Nov 13, 2016 10:01 am

I love reading all of your projects everyone!
it is always a joy to be here with you!

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby Nancy » Mon Nov 14, 2016 8:05 pm

I am so glad I got the ironing board cleared off have been working on a couple of bags with bee print on them. I have the main part of them seamed up, I still need to do the corner tucks however. Need to refill the bobbin. Folks are coming and going in a few min. So I could not stay in the basement sewing room ... later payroll done, h. has been fed, got those 2 bags done except for hand work will give me something to to at the meeting.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby Nancy » Tue Nov 22, 2016 12:48 am

Started a yarn project have ripped more than I did it is not turning out well at all.

Working on a comforter that is going well and I am ahead of where I thought I would be by now on this project.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby Nancy » Tue Nov 22, 2016 12:34 pm

Comforter is now all pinned yea! I have one side henmed and a forth of another side done as well.

I have some bee fabric I found in my stash I am excited to sew, and words of faith print looking forward to doing those up.

KidN loved the 5 polished rocks in the pumpkin bag that went home with her yesterday.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby BookSaver » Mon Nov 28, 2016 9:37 am

Friday I bought the XL size round knitting loom needed to make hats for adults. The library has 1 in the set that patrons can borrow, but someone else has it at the moment and there's no guarantee when she will return it. I received a 50% off coupon in the mail and decided that would be a good enough deal for me to buy my own loom.

Started a hat for myself on Saturday. It's about half done because it's something I can do while watching videos.

Cue the joyful chorus :mrgreen: I think I have a winning project to sew gifts for co-workers and others. Japanese knot bag -- simple but interesting design for a bag that can be a purse, lunch bag, book bag, or general shopping bag. Free pattern & tutorial online
http://www.thechillydog.com/2015/07/sew ... t-bag.html
editing on Dec. 13th to add: this particular pattern didn't work as well as I'd hoped but I found a very similar one from Martha Stewart's website so will do updates in the December thread

I know that I have enough fabric in my stash to make bags for everyone -- 4 co-workers, hostess gift for DSis, 3 library friends who gifted me last year when I didn't realize they would so I was unprepared :oops: , 1 more in reserve in case DF Z wants to exchange gifts ... plus the test version that I'll keep for myself. That's 10, right? Quantity of fabric won't be a problem but quality might be; are the fabrics in my stash pretty enough for gifts?

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby Harriet » Mon Nov 28, 2016 10:46 pm

I stared at the knot bag photos a while and thought of all kinds of ways to make your life harder by being a perfectionist. I was imagining one in a stripe or a border fabric that would give a horizontal band of contrast. Both ideas that would take longer!!! Pay no attention to me! I can see a dark fabric with polka-dots, too. Anything in a dark, interesting print would be great.

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Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, November 2016

Postby BookSaver » Wed Nov 30, 2016 11:51 am

Harriet! :lol: No, thanks, I don't need to make this project any harder. The quantity (10) will be enough of a challenge. Each bag will take 4 parts to sew together -- front & back of the outside, front & back of the inside -- and I want both outside & inside to be pretty so the bag can be reversible.

I could make the 1st test bag for myself to be not so pretty -- except chances are that I might run out of time and need to use it as one of the gifts, so the tester needs to be pretty on both sides, too.

First glitch already: I followed the instructions to print the pattern PDF, split it into 1/4ths and enlarge 200% on the copier. When I was taping the enlarged pages together I checked the measurements. Unfortunately, somewhere in the translation between her PDF to my printer to the copier's enlarging and printing, the squares on the grid became smaller than they should be.

That makes the overall measurements smaller enough to make a difference in the finished size of the bag. I started to piece in the difference on the papers, but I could see that the curve arcs would be out of proportion so I stopped.

I think the problem was with the copier enlargement thingy. Not only did it make each square a smidge smaller than it should be, but it made them not actually square, so the vertical is stretched a little more than the horizontal. The copier is the library's ancient one, I'm sure the optics have gone out of calibration over time.

The quickest/easiest way for me to enlarge the pattern will be the old-fashioned method. I'll get my old cardboard cutting board with the 1 inch grid printed on it and some see-through pattern paper. I stink at drawing free-hand but I've had enough practice with transfer from grid-to-grid to be able to sketch out the shape.

I wonder if I can find a big enough piece of cardboard to glue the pattern on. I'll be cutting out a lot of these, it would be handy to have a pattern that's more sturdy. Then I could just set the cardboard piece on the fabric and quickly trace around it with my chalk pencil.


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