Art, Craft and Needlework, February 2016

[Harriet]

Last month we shared a lot of fun. What will we be up to next?

Twins' Mom enjoyed making greeting cards, attended stamp camp, and is donating creative items
Elizabeth posted photos of her eye-opening "Ugly Christmas Sweater" (and matching doll sweater)
BookSaver attended a webinar on decorative pockets, and sewed a flap to change the look of a purse
Nancy learned a new stitch, and has been spinning fiber, and peeling and sanding some walking sticks
Harmony has been finding the color choices and textures for her adult coloring books very creative
Harriet made a bookmark and heart ornaments, and posted their photos
Sunny came in to encourage!
Lynlee came it to encourage!

Our answers to the question of what we want to change for 2016 seemed to have a theme... ..
Do More !
Finding more time for doing more creative things.
Not just for others but for self, too.
Working ahead and having items already done when occasions come up.
Regular planned time on the calendar for making items by hand.

[Nancy]

I started a new crochet project today.
Have new wool locks to spin that I have been getting ready to spin for art yarn is a fun process . A demo this mo. With the group.

[Nancy]

Sigh re knitting a sleeve for like the 5th time!
Bought a sweater but was too sm. So it will go back to the thrift shop.

[Nancy]

Sweater is ready to seam up yea! I have spun & plied upna batch of blue colored heathery wool to weave glad that is done.

[Harriet]

Trying to decide which creative things deserve to be included in my 25th of the month plans.

I've been wanting to change the fireplace wall hanging, and I have good starts on ones for Independence Day, Autumn and Christmas. Not sure whether I want to give up time to those, although I could enjoy them all year. Kinda "get credit" for sewing.. ... hmmm.

One of those starts is another Mariner's Compass, like the one in the very middle of the unfinished quilt top Harmony had asked about last month.
Harmony, I forgot to answer you that I haven't gotten back to that large quilt since I last posted about it in August.

[BookSaver]

At Saturday's sewing group meeting, the owner of an independent quilt fabric store located about an hour away showed us some fabrics they just received from Africa and Australia. The color combinations are incredible. He brought 2 bins full of 1 yard pieces for our members who wanted to shop.

I resisted buying any of those because I'm trying to use fabrics I already have in my house, and only add to my stash if I need something for a specific project. However, if any of my sewing friends happened to suggest a road trip to his store, I have no doubt that I could come up with a specific pattern that would need those gorgeous bright colors.

What I did buy from him Saturday: 2 pieces of painters' canvas cloth which he had washed, dried, and cut to size roughly 25" by 32". He makes aprons to sell at farmers markets and says he always backs cotton prints with the painters canvas to make sure that anything really sloppy won't seep through the apron fabric. Very practical!

He gave each of us a copy of his butcher style apron pattern, which I thought was very generous since it's his copyrighted pattern and includes adult and child sizes.

His tip for using the painters canvas is to wash and dry it before cutting in smaller chunks. Otherwise, straight from the package the weave of the cloth is so loose that it would ravel away to just strings in the washer & dryer. Obviously that means that it also shrinks a lot, so to use it as backing for a washable apron means that it must be prewashed/preshrunk.

[Nancy]

I finished that pink verigated sweater and showed it to the knitting class. I do not care for the batwing style sleeves on this one so much. But it is done fits and is warm.

Got two bags of washed sheep wool to spin up obe is a Jacobs sheep dark and light, the other is a dark one.

It was a blissful day!

[Harriet]

I bought a new ruler for rotary cutting. This one is the 6" x 12" from Eleanor Burns. It seems to be a good size and shape with plenty of uses, but won't be much trouble to store or carry around.

For my February 25th of the month creative time, I planned designs for wall hangings for the hearth. Decided against making anything for Independence Day (even though I have a pretty block that would be a great start), because I need to stay with broad seasons or themes instead of dates, so that they can hang for a while and seem "current". Am part-way along on a chickens one, using some cute appliqued images. Pleasant.

Loved hearing about the blissful day, Nancy.

I know that took willpower not to buy those fabrics, BookSaver - hope you enjoy some apron making.