Newest Interest in Crafting - Micro Macrame

Originally published on wordpress.com on 1/19/15

So I have decided to take up another type of craft, this time micro macrame. My Mom was big into Macrame in the 70's ton's of plant hangers were made, but I never considered it on a smaller scale and the beauty it could add to jewelry. I also have become fascinated with knot tying also as a piece of jewelry but this isn't going very well.

So back to micro macrame, I like it and I seem to be catching on to the basic moves, yeah me!

Here are a few basic things I have learned -

1. Keep your anchor cord in the hand that is the direction you are going. For example if you are going left to right keep the cord in your right hand.
2. Keep the anchor cord always on top
3. A vertical half hitch will show the anchor cord color and when complete should be going in the direction the row you are creating
4. A horizontal half hitch will show the warp of cord hanging down and should hang down again when finished
5. The cord can flip when being pulled tight be careful to watch that the half hitch is forming with the proper cord, if not pull it back a few inches and try again.

So those are a few observations so far.

English Paper Piecing Storage Ideas

Originally published on wordpress.com on 12/8/14

I am a product of my Mom, who is always looking for a way to organize things better. I also am quite in enthralled with english paper piecing at the moment.

So rather than have bunches of baggies with various templates and fabric laying all around, an idea came to me when I was shopping with hubby at Home Depot, why not use a toolbox. Yes toolboxes are not just for handyman, they are also very much a crafter's friend, wonderful way to keep lots of little pieces separated in one place.

So below is my paper piecing tote, what do you think?

In a totally different place

Originally published on wordpress.com 12/8/2014

Since I lasted posted my life is in a totally different place. For one I am semi-retired, or rather taking a break, or seeing if I can put a craft related business together as well as possibly fund another business model in a few months. The options are many but for now I am weighing them all to choose the best path. The thing I want most this time is to do something I really enjoy doing, not something that just brings in the money. I was very good at what I did but not good at the politics that went with the job, what can I say I am too honest to play games.

I have also moved from the west coast back to the east coast, and now I am nearer my parents. After a couple of health scares this is truly a wonderful thing; to know I can get home in a few hours by cars, much different from Cali where our only option was an expensive plane flight. Also since we have a dog going home to Mom & Dad's is much easier, don't have to figure out should we board her or not, because taking her cost almost as much as one ticket. No now Mitzy can go with us, in fact I think we wouldn't be welcome home without her.

My days now are filled with almost my perfect dream, living in the mountains being able to design, make, assemble craft ideas by day and spending time with hubby at night. The most frustrating thing is too many ideas are coming, but when I go to make them I hate them. Grrr. Also I am scattered with all different disciplines in a little bitty space not designed for being a studio. Hence why I say almost perfect dream, the location is right, the space is not. I have a limited number of my supplies around me, they have to be shifted almost on a daily basis to make room for this or that, things are getting lost!

 

So what are my focus areas right now - taking a Craftsy class on Freeform Crochet, love it; making Holiday cards with new Cricut Explore, wow is this machine so much better than its predecessors; knitting a lace scarf, trying my hands at creating my own design; finishing Rob's scarf for Christmas; cross stitch for Dad; Kumihimo example dictionary for Mom; bead necklace for GA Shoppe; working on Dog & Cat hexie quilt; working on flower hexie quilt, and now also exploring options to do things with blown eggs.

Yesterday I played with my dremal  and found the egg is a lot stronger than I imagine and I was able to scribble on the egg and cut precise pieces out.

2014 Guild Challenge Quilt

Originally published on wordpress.com 2/10/14

So I need your help our guild has an annual challenge quilt in which you get a fat quarter of a focus fabric and 1/8 of an accent. You can make the quilt any size the only thing that must be done is that both fabrics must appear on the front of the quilt. The theme of challenge is a "Celebration of Color".

 

In the picture section I have included the two fabrics and my first draft of the quilt, I would love feedback!

 

When I first saw the fabric the first thing I saw was that the flowers also looked like gears. So my thought process in drafting my first idea was to have basically half the quilt white with streams of color going into the center of the quilt which was going to be two gears, hopefully actually turning, that on the other half of the quilt produced the colorful fabric. The second idea was somewhat the reverse of this idea to have the colorful fabric feeding into a funnel from the top of the quilt and then out of the funnel would come a rainbow. Both of these ideas I abandon because I didn't really like the idea of material coming into a point in the middle of the quilt and then going out. It left triangles of dead space I wasn't sure how to fill.

 

While I was thinking about the design I also started to teach myself how to do English paper piecing. And while I was doing that it struck me, the hexagon rosettes kinda look like gears! With that in mind I designed the quilt mock up you see with this project. I plan to embellish the quilt with seed beads running down the rosettes as if a line of color was being cranked out in the gears. When it comes to the bottom then I might create beaded fringe coming off the quilt to make it appear like a rainbow was the end product of the machine. Right now I am calling the quilt "the Rainbow Machine"

 

So what do you think? Any other ideas?

Focus Fabric

Accent Fabric

Still Organizing

Originally posted on wordpress.com 2/1/2014

So I have my quilt UFOs organized, and I am beginning to post so that I create a Quilt Log Book. today I turned to organizing my books, and wow I have a lot of books that I can listen to. So I think it might be good idea to participate in the 2014 Reader's challenge.  Also added widget to blog so that you can see what I am reading. Right now it is mostly how-to books trying to get ideas for Crazy Quilt.

Burgundy & Grey

Originally posted on wordpress.com 1/30/2014

Started: 2011
Completed: TBD
Size: King size
Type: Bargello

This quilt is something I started making for a very good friend. By the time I finish it he probably won't like this color scheme anymore.  I started out moving like a speed demon through putting the strip panels together, but then life got in the way when the hardest part of the quilt was ready to be tackled.  I need to cut the strips into various widths and then deconstruct the stripsso they fit into the pattern.

Big & Purple

Originally posted 1/30/15

Started: 2013
Completed: TBD
Size:
Type: Traditional piecing

This quilt is based on a layer cake (10"x 10" pieces of cut fabric) I purchased from Wal-Mart in 2010. It sat for years in my stash, than one weekend in the summer of 2013 I decided I wanted to do something quick and easy. Most of my quilts are usually pretty involved. So I designed this on the fly, but I found out as I was piecing it together, Wal-mart's layer cake pieces are not all exactly the 10x10 they are supposed to be, so the seams didn't match up. So this quick and easy project turned out to be a bit more involved than I would have liked. So once the top was done wasn't too happy with the seams so it got put to the side. I am going to try to find the time this year to finish this, but I don't think it will make on the 10 UFO Challenge List.