Wlydhare's Hollow

Crafty Fridays

I have decided to make an official day each week just for me, just for crafting, what ever tickles my fancy!

There is always a bit of a guilt factor for me when I craft just for fun. The little voice in the back of my head nags me. "Isn't there laundry to do?" "I saw a pile of ironing waiting to be done." "The living room floor really needs a vacuum." "You need to be working on the machine embroidery business!"

So, in order to find a balance, I have decided that I will focus the majority of the week on work and chores, but give myself a day off each week to just play.

One of my on-going projects is finishing the doll house which has been sitting in a corner of the craft room for..well for years. That was my New Year's resolution. I have managed to get the 1st floor done, and I am now working on the second. The silly thing seems like it should just go together in an afternoon but there is SO much painting if it is to be done right. Primer goes down on the wood, then a coat of paint, then sanding, then a coat of paint, then more sanding, then a final coat of paint. I know that seems like a lot, but in small scale, even little bits of roughness in the wood, takes away from the illusion of scale (and I am a bit of a perfectionist! My grandpa always said if you were going to do a job, to take the time and do it right.) Even the walls to be wallpapered should have at least one coat of paint to help the paper stick properly. (This is a trick, so if you want to change the wall paper later, it will actually come off and not be permanently stuck to the wood.)

Yeah! I don't have to paint where the singles will be going!

So the last two Friday's have had time devoted to the many coats of paint, with other crafting between drying and sanding times.

I am trying to also get some older projects finished before I jump into new ones. That is only sorta working, because the new projects call my name in the middle of the night. Do you have that problem?

The kitchen towel I started at the quilting show got finished, and surprisingly only took about an additional hour. After wards I thought, "Well why didn't I do this sooner? It was easy to complete!" I tried out doing machine applique for the first time for the majority of the towel, then did had embroidered blanket stitch around the tongue and fish bowl plant. Then I added little beads as bubbles for Mr. Fish, and embroidered a mouth and nose on Mr. Kitty., and finished things off with a couple eyes.

Then finally, I did a quick new project using a little pattern from Bird Brains which I also picked up at the quilt show. It wouldn't stop calling my name and I needed to make the voices stop. *grin*

How cute is that? See why I couldn't wait!

While I can't share this pattern for a little pin cushion, I can share a similar one from a vintage children's magazine called "Children's Activities." If I recall, this issue was somewhere in the 40s. If I was really diligent, I would go look up the exact issue, but that sounds like way too much hunting at the moment.

I did create a PDF file of this, which you can print and use for yourself. It should be easy enough to add leaves from green felt, if you want it to look a bit more like the one I made.

How do you make times for crafts? Do you have a special day? Do you have a place just for crafting? Please share, I would love to know.
   

Spring Sewing and Quilting Show

If there were only more hours in the day to do the fun stuff! Last week I went to a sewing and quilting show at the local fair grounds.

It was primarily to get information and ideas for my machine embroidery business. They were having a special on the top 100 most popular colors for embroidery machines, 50% off! But now I don't want to store the spools properly, they looks so pretty in the box!

 Our cat Milkyway approved as well.

They had some make-and-take projects and it can't all be work and no play, right? This one involved using wonder-under to do applique work on a kitchen towel. I need to machine zig-zag around the edges still, and do some finishing touches, like the eyes and mouth.

 Poor thing can't see! I feel guilty!

I found a new design company called Bird Brain Designs. They do wonderful, country style redwork, as well a felting, and projects in felt. This is a pattern I bought from them. Isn't the strawberry pin cushion the cutest? Can you see the little ladybug on the green felt leaf?

I found a few other goodies to bring home as well, now I just need to find the free time to just do what I want to do. My first project is going to be that pincushion!

Oh, I almost forgot!! The other cool thing about Bird Brain Designs is their free patterns!! If you like doing redwork, I highly recommend you check them out.

If you had free magical hours right now, what would you be doing? 
  

Going Batty!

This week has been devoted to making my daughter a costume for Halloween. Normally I would enjoy the task, but this month seems to be the month of chaos. My older daughter came down with H1N1 and then kindly passed it on to me. Don't worry, we are both recovered now, but it kept me busy as Nurse Mom and then the reluctant patient.

In addition, I am still deeply involved in Project X, as well as having to complete her costume this week, because next week my husband and I are off to Washington, D.C. for a week.

So out came my trusty sewing machinee, covered in more than a bit of dust and lint. That happens when you store it in a laundry room without a cover. You would think I could take an hour and sew a sewing machine cover, but hey, isn't it the cobbler with the kids who don't have shoes? *grin*

Our cat Milkyway was very helpful, supervising all aspects of the project from the cutting out of the pattern, to the trim and hand sewing.

And of course, there was lots of fabric and it was all the slick, slippery kind! LOL!

But the worst was this very cute, but fussy trim of little plastic bats. Technically it was supposed to be ironed on, with a strip of glue stuff on the back of the ribbon. However, in order to make it stick, the iron was so hot it melted the poor bats and the fabric! So, I had to sew it on with the machine and all the little bats and beads tried to dive into the path of the needle.

Fortunately, I have a strong belief that this is NOTHING that either chocolate or duct tape can't fix.

Ah, much better! With a bit of chocolate I had the fortitude to carry through, despite going a bit batty, and the my daughter was very happy with the results!

Hmm, maybe with a bit more chocolate, I could tackle that sewing machine cover, so I don't have to clean it every time I want to sew!
 
 
 

Knitting

So, armed with Knitting for Dummies, online video demonstrations and a stubborn streak, I have started my knitting adventure.

I am too anal for my own good sometimes though. I think I casted on 4 or 5 times before I was happy with the spacing and tension!

And then I practiced knitting, purling and increasing for a few hours and did even more ripping out, but eventually I got the hang of that as well.

I then learned to increase and went to change to another color and things started to go "pear shaped" as my British husband likes to say. Loops slipped and I didn't get them back on the needles correctly and then I knitted when I should have pearled. *Blah!* But it was all good practice and I decided to start over with a different yarn I like the colors on better and will use the mistakes I made as a learning experience!

Meanwhile, when not working on knitting, I decided to finish up a miniature room box which I stated a few years back. There were only a few things I had left to do, but I kept putting them off. So I finally got to work and finished it and the doll to go inside (she has been sitting around hairless for like 5 years!) Here is the finished result:

 

 

 

And what is the rest of the house doing while I work?

 

Minux

 

Milkyway

Embroidered Kitten Tea Towel

This was a fun, quick project I did, using a flour sack tea towel and a vintage transfer pattern I found online. I have a companion pattern I would like to make, to create a set of two.

I am still toying with the idea of doing some trim in fabric or rick-rack.

In our house, there can never be enough towels, so this will be a fun and useful addition to the kitchen.