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Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Sun Dec 01, 2024 12:20 pm
by Harriet
Here we are in the happy season of getting to offer our creativity to others.
Maybe it's gifts, maybe enjoyment of decor with us, maybe donation of our creative items.
Maybe it's the creativity of past years brought out again for meaningful experience again.
What's making you smile as you offer to others this season?
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 4:58 pm
by Nancy
I have started 2 big knitting projects this week.
Did a couple of
journaling projects as well so I have been busy.
Did some knitting today.
Started a new color on the cape.
Had a bump in the road for the pink next color on the baby blanket
Got over the bump.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2024 7:09 am
by Twins' Mom
Wishing I had stamping time. Maybe this afternoon? The Hanukkah market at temple is on Sunday, perhaps I should get organized for that? LOL. I will probably need some dollars, etc. for change, and perhaps signage with pricing?
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2024 12:58 pm
by Nancy
Trying for Christmas Green Yarn
I have some cotton green yarn ordered that has shipped yea!
Keeping my fingers crossed that it arrives in time for this Cmas... if not I'll just see about putting it in the stash for next year.
I have red so I'll work on that. Or other projects.
Like the hemming I need to do I cut off new items for me and need to mark those to hem.
for Cmas & colder temps. to be cozy.
Got pink coming will try to do up a pink and blue baby blanket to have on hand.
Or one of both colors. Next one will not be crib size.
Might be sewing on some of that baby stuff.
------Update
In my best sponge Bob voice... apx....3 hrs. later...
I have cut off one more pr. of older sweats cuff was a bit too tight.
Hemmed 3 pr. of sweats now yea! 2 were new 1 not,
[ I Put one pair aside for summer in a liter wt. fabric and a fun pink color.]
Two more items to hem a flannel shirt I cut the tails off of and fleece pj's
I need to change the thread for both of these black and read.
Phone is charging and I'm taking a break.
It's a great time to be in the sewing / basement zone with small windows up above eye level I can
be in denial about the fog.
I did get the hem on the shirt. Yea!
One last pr. of pj's to mark & hem might got that done.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2024 8:20 am
by Harriet
Twins' Mom, that sounds like a fun afternoon adventure and rather nice social time, too. Definitely a way to offer your creativity to others and make the event more of a success.
I can hear your Sponge Bob voice, Nancy, lol. My mending basket suddenly got fuller, too.
New in the mending basket -
a front patch pocket has come loose (and messy) on a thick, cozy red top. It's not new, but it will really be appreciated this winter, if it can be mended. Solid color, same fabric for pocket. Red thread top-stitched by machine should disappear into the thickness of the fabric, I hope.
and a lightweight denim shirt of HRH's has a tear right in the middle of the front yoke on one side. That may be handwork. First, I've got to search through my blue fabrics and see if I have anything that will appear the same and not call attention to the mending.
Dd44 took me into Goodwill yesterday after lunch - she loves the place for keeping boys in clothes, and sure enough found a couple shirts. My eye went to a Christmas themed 4-pack of 2-inch stuffed birds, mostly machine sewn but with cute contrasting hand-stitched wings. I know I don't need them but I want to see how they are made. I can follow them to make larger birds for such cute package decorations.
I have been keeping an eye on the "Mini" Grace home quilting slider-machine that came out a month or so ago. It's for any home sewing machine to ride along on, side to side, on smooth ball-bearings, and allow machine quilting to be done at home. They've got the size and the price down pretty small, but I'm still probably too cheap for it and where would I store it, much less where would I find the table space to keep it out for any length of time. Thinking.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Sat Dec 07, 2024 9:53 am
by Nancy
Harriet your mending and projects makes me think of a Christmas vest I need to get busy with soon!
I have been knitting some in the morning and then later in the day after I do some stuff.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 4:01 pm
by Harriet
Had a face-to-face tell-it-like-it-is conversation with the lady from the small animal rescue place and was able to ask the question I've never really been sure about an answer for. Yes, they and other local rescues around this area really WOULD welcome handmade small mats for pets. They would be mostly for the events in which the pets are considered for adoption. She says yarn items do catch onto claws but can still help. It's mini-quilt type mats that are very helpful for small dogs or cats/kittens. (Big dogs really need tough mats or carpet.) She says most helpful in her opinion would be a measurement of about 18 inches, either in a square OR a rectangle with the largest measurement 18 inches, in a "quilt" with a layer of batting inside. She says the pet that needs it most is a black colored one, because they can't get attention against the grey cages without some other color to lie on to show that they are a cute pet, too.
So, I really appreciated that info. I know that bittersweet and BookSaver, make mats for rescues - 10s of them at a time, wow. But they are in a colder climate than me, and I didn't know if that mattered. I'd also heard that some places wanted store purchases rather than handmades. This lady says she is forever running out of them and resorts to towels that don't work as well. And she says she worries about a pile of kittens where the one on the bottom doesn't have anything to protect against the hard metal cage! Awww. I never thought of that!
Now (someday!) I have to make pet mats! 
I have actually envisioned cold pets now. Too late.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 9:57 pm
by Harriet
The thick red top is mended. The mending job isn't pretty, but the threads are buried so deeply that no one will know that but me. Part of the red thread got tangled and wedged in the sewing machine foot - I've never had that happen before. But thankfully, I was able to take the foot off easily and the thread came away. I guess it happened because the fabric was just so thick.
I've found 3 scrap fabric pieces that might work for HRH's shirt mending. I don't trust my eyes to choose which color without daylight, though, so I'll wait until tomorrow to choose which one is really the best shade of blue.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 11:37 pm
by Nancy
Cape is off the needles more of a child's size but fun to knit up.
I need to work in ends and do a crochet edging.
Took a break to do my morning tasks.
Started a red dish cloth with the first point on it another round one in the works.
Putting this here to remind myself to play up the single ply wool I spun up and
get it into yarn.
I bagged up two bags tall kitchen size bags, of clothes to donate that I had in the laundry zone.
Re: Art, Craft and Needlework, December, 2024
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 7:48 pm
by Harriet
Twins' Mom, how did the craft event go? Hope you enjoyed it.
One of the 3 scrap fabrics came very close to the shirt's fabric color - yay. I cut out a rectangle of Heat N Bond because I wanted a neat-edged patch that won't fray, without turning under edges. But I didn't want a stiff patch, so I did it a way I've done applique at times.
I made a little template for an oblong patch with very rounded corners using a 3 x 5 card (what else). I traced that onto the H N B and cut the INSIDE away on the marked line. Then ironed the cutout with its open middle onto the back of the patch fabric. Cut the patch out an eighth-inch larger all around, so that about an eighth of an inch of H N B was left around the edge of that oblong shape. Peeled it away and ironed the patch onto the shirt to cover the tear. I machine sewed using a wide blanket stitch so that the straight part of the stitch was just outside the patch and the "bites" crossed over that eighth-inch border of glue. The needle didn't go into glue.
I did some practices of this and the diagonal blanket stitch worked a little better than the straight one, not sure why. The diagonal one laid flatter.
It very neat and soft, so I'm pleased. I think it will stand up to washing well.
journaling projects as well so I have been busy.