Art, Craft and Needlework, January, 2013

[Harriet]

Welcome! Here's the place to report creativity.

Creativity makes the world go 'round! It's the project that makes our eyes light up and the "me-time" that we crave. It's the thing we look forward to and love to set our hands to. It's oh-so-healthy exercise for our brains, plus it's a terrific "mental health break" for stress relief, and a boost to our self-esteem.

Thanks to everyone who made this thread so interesting in 2012.

The December thread was full of enjoyment and every report appreciated.

Harmony made us all proud with her presentation of 5 handmade quilts to her grandsons, all sewn this year.
scattered had lots of projects including 2 fleece hoodies for her sons, a flannel hoodie for her mother, and a blanket.
Ivy presented a new baby-girl crocheted layette to her ds and ddil, and also crocheted toys and caps.
Nancy crocheted a shawl for her dm, a tote for her dsis, and has been knitting, learning color changing.
Emptynester carved and painted dalas, and posted a photo of them.
Mr. Emptynester made 6 tree ornaments, and we got to see a photo of them, too.
BookSaver is using fancy yarn to make a beret to go with her winter coat.
Harriet made gift tags, some with watercolor background, and tried Zentangle sketching with her dd.
Harriet's dd14 entered an art contest with a watercolor painting, and was one of the winners.
helia came in to encourage!
Lilac came in to encourage!

There may be many others, because a lot of holiday preparation for decor and gift-giving has been going on. Do let us know the creative things that have happened with you. If you'd like to post a photo and haven't posted photos before, there are "how tos" in the Tips, Hints and How-Tos thread in the News forum.

What are your plans for a creativity-filled 2013?

[Nancy]

Last night started knitting a shawl in team colors! Fun fun fun!

[Ivy]

Hi! I'm making "Crochet: 5 Minute Baby Booties" and they're found at Ravelry and also on-line for free, here:

http://www.sewhooked.com

They take a "K" hook, 1 skein of knitted worsted weight yarn, such as Red Heart or Caron Pound or Pound of Love and 1 skein of baby yarn. It made booties, which I "guess" are about 3-month size, so after they were done, I took an "I" hook (at DH's suggestion!) and it made booties the size for preemie to newborn. The pattern goes really fast, it's easy to understand, and they end up so cushioned and soft, modern-looking and cozy for keeping a baby's feet warm, too. I just loved making them last night.

It took me about 15 min. per bootie to make and NOT 5 minutes. I think I'm down to 10 min. though, now. Anyway, I wanted to share the pattern with you because it's so easy, sweet, and cute.

[Harmony]

Ivy, the booties sound so cute. I made ones once that had little loops all over. They were crocheted. Don't know what I did wrong, but I clicked on your link and got into a quilting blog site with at least a hundred pictures of blocks and quilts and I was totally lost for a while. I think I miss my sewing a bit.

[Harriet]

Ivy, thanks for the link, I know the crocheters among us will be delighted, but we quiltmakers will never make our way to see the booties! I, of course, followed Harmony into being totally lost looking at the quilts and reading about them. In fact, I have a question : as delightful as the blog is, with really good writing and photography, how in the world could anyone take seriously that you should finish 12 UFOs a year if they are quilts? That, in 30 days, an unfinished quilt should be done - and then do that 12 times. Well, I suppose if the maid, chauffeur, butler and cook are all on their games, you could do it. Otherwise, these had better be mighty small quilts.

Here is dd's winning watercolor of Mary looking up to heaven. The theme was not necessarily Christmas but Holiday, and there were 420 entries, with 17 chosen. The paper's art editor used 11 of those to illustrate the article. Dd's was definitely one of the most serious or dramatic, I noticed, a very strong Mary, or strong madonna image.

watercolor of Mary small.JPG

[Nancy]

My knit project is growing! Go team! It's in team colors.
Lovely Harriet!

[BookSaver]

Harriet, that's beautiful!

[Harmony]

Harriet, DD's painting is absolutely beautiful. She is really, really talented. I thought some of those quilts were just one square, and some were several squares made into a small wallhanging. Maybe I misread what I was seeing. I did like the idea she had of a triangle-shaped small label fitted into the binding of the top two corners, leaving the bottom open for a dowel, and that could be hung like a picture. Never saw anything like that before.

I am attempting to post my quilt pictures. Have been at it a long time. I think I have them resized, but if I tried to crop, etc., or fix brightness, etc., I lost the image to a bunch of pixels...so we shall see how this all works. I can sew better than I do photography / computer!

Well, they're all posted, but they seem sorta fuzzy...oh well, you can get the idea anyway. Probably the way I did them.

[Harmony]

christmas quilts 001.jpg

2nd try. This one is dgs9's quilt, the 2nd one I did, the beach scene because they spend a lot of time on the beach.

[Harmony]

christmas quilts 002.jpg

This one is DGS13's quilt, the first one I did; it's the old maid square pattern.