Hi,

It has been forever since I have posted anything (it has been forever since I have MADE anything) but tonight I turned my partner's 16 year old, ratty, college sweatshirt (all frayed around the neck and sleeves and several sizes too big) into Alma Mater memorabilia pillow fun!  I am sure this has been done 1,000s of times but the creation of this squishy trip down memory lane got my endorphins going and reminded me how much fun I have crafting

Before:



After:



Thanks for looking and rock on!

I am making a mermaid costume for a friend's little girl.  My sewing machine keeps skipping huge skips and sometimes the threads are not catching each other when I sew on the stretchy costume fabric.  Is there something I need to do differently with sewing it?  I am losing my mind -- Please help!

Rockon

A looong time ago I made my mother and her partner some cloth napkins.  They LOVED them.  They asked for coasters, and I made some.  Then I promised them placemats and a couple other napkins and coasters to round out their set.  Then my mom bought some expensive fabric for a whole different set.  I said I'd do them for Christmas.  Well, now, on January 29, I finished the first set, the one from 2 Novembers ago.  Anyhow, they are far from perfect, but I am proud of them, especially of the coasters.  I sandwiched terry cloth between the fabric layers to make them super absorbant.  They were finicky little things, though.

Here they are:

The set:


A pseudo-action shot:



All wrapped up and ready to go:



I will mail them out Monday . . . I hope I finish the next set within a few months

Rockon!

Yay!  I am taking a class (after my mom tried to teach me multiple times and I tried to teach myself multiple times) and finally got it.  Here are my first 4 granny squares -- I want to make an autumn themed afghan.  Of course I probably won't finish til spring, but, what the heck?  



Rock on!

I was inspired by an article in Green Crafting Magazine (might not be the exact title) to resurrected an old leather thrift store jacket ($10!) as a pocketbook.  This was originally intended as a Christmas gift for my sister but it might not make it to her because it is sooo far from perfect.  I didn't use a pattern and I learned  A LOT about purse construction from this project.  Also came head to head with my machine's limits (broke a few leather needles trying to push them).  Anyway, it came out kind of cute.  I am a lousy photographer, but here are some pics:



(modelled by my male roommate )



Not a great shot but it shows the little flap that I think was inspired design (using an existing button and hole, just sewn on differently)



Probably the best photo of the bag.  I finally got so frustrated with the strap that I just knotted it on. 

It was a great learning experience and I will try this again.  And this one isn't too bad  . . . .is it?  Let me know what you think.

Rock on!

I learned intarsia knitting with this project (a skill that was aquired on the heels of learning to parallel park . . . what a week it has been!) I think they came out neat (they were graduation presents for a client graduating 8th grade -- she loved em).

Thanks for looking!

Rock on!



PS: These are the geek wristbands from stitch and bitch

I had to share a couple of photos of the blanket made by the knitting group I co-facilitate at the school where I am a social worker.  We have 13 girls (grades 3,4, and 5) and one fiercely independent boy (grade 6) who worked together the past 6 Tuesday afternoons to create this baby blanket (another is in progress) for local charities.  Some are using needles and others nifty knitters.  They have also made preemie hats with the nifty knitters for the local hospital.  They are a great group of kind kiddos.  Here is the blanket (it is backed with batting and fleece, stitched around the edges and tied . . . I did that tonight):






Thanks for looking!

These are some pictures of a play mat I made for my cousin's little ones.  I am somewhat of a haphazard crafter, so this is far from perfect, and the sewing leaves a little to be desired, but it was fun to make.  I got most of the fabrics from the remenent bin at Joann's and drew the pictures on.  (I am not a very good artist but am especially happy with the LDS church I drew on because her family is LDS, because I think you can tell what it is ).  I also fretted over how long it was going to take to get the yellow lines in the road and was pleased by my brainstorm of using yellow cotton thread!  The kiddos are all pretty small and I will send it with some mini farm animals I got in a swap and some hotwheels.  I backed it with cozy yellow fleece so even if it is a complete flop as a toy it can be used as a blanket

Anyway, c & c welcome.

Rockon!

Hi everyone!

I am a live-in caretaker for a man with a developmental disability and we try really hard for homemade Christmases, usually with sort of a mass-produced homemade gift line for friends and family (especially for the gifts he gives).  For the past several years we have used his colorful, cheerful artwork as the focus (calenders in which he drew a picture for every month, magnets of pictures of local haunts he had drawn for the next . . . ).  In the spirit of September-being-awfully-close-to-Christmas, we made a trip down to our favorite day trip destination -- the ReStore, where they sell a plethora of recycled stuff a.k.a. supplies cheap (if you live in VT or visit here ever, check it out, on Granite St. in Barre).   We scored TWO TOWERS of these cardboard restaurant coasters for $0.75 each tower:



  We left several more towers there in case there are jealous Vermonters out there   Our plan is to gesso over the unappealing design/writing and then decoupage color copies of his favorite drawings of '09 on some of them, and I will get to play with others myself.  And (boy I took forever to get to the point) my question is how I then seal them so that they are impermeable, impervious and waterproof -- and so the pictures stay intact?  Will plain ole' ModgePodge work?  Is there something better?  Please send any advice my way.

So I have this thing about starting projects and not finishing, especially if I have to knit a pair -- today in a mighty show of self-discipline, I, who really was inspired to make a gift for my cousin's 5 children (all under 7) by the post of knitted veges and food -- http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=308961.0 -- decided I needed to free up my #4 double points and instead of just ripping off the second sock (about 1/3 of the way done) and casting on a carrot, as I would have in my less-enlightened days ( ), I forced myself to finish the little pink acrylic sock.  Which was a pain in the you-know-what.  Especially since I was so impatient to get it off the needles that I messed up a couple times and had to frog    So, not because these are perfect or cool or anything, but because they are evidence of my new leaf being turned, I present the socks (from this free pattern: http://www.valleycafe.com/knitting/sock-pattern.html) along with a little wizard finger puppet from a pattern out of Meg Leach's book that had been on the #2 double points forever that I finished up right after, so that I can really feel justified in casting on the carrot.







I am now going to cook supper for some hungry people and then begin carroting -- Thanks for listening to my ramble and  looking at my pics.

Rockon