Pages

Showing posts with label crafting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafting. Show all posts

Sunday, March 06, 2016

Gran Jam

I can hear you saying to yourself..Who or what the heck is Gran Jam? Well..she is a 'Shopkin' , My 9 year old granddaughter asked for Shopkins for her birthday. I took a look at the Shopkins website and hoooboy there are SOOOOO many of these little figurines - they are anthropomorphized things you can shop for (there are also Petkins..wee animal items) There are oranges and apricots and hair dryers and cookies and donuts and wheelbarrows..you get the picture...they are currently on series 4...

Gran Jam is a jam jar...with granny glasses and a gingham hat... 
"Gran Jam watches over all of Shopville. She spreads love and slathers affection on the Shopkins, sweetening their lives with her kind words."

I could not find a Gran Jam in the store...so..I made one! Drafted the pattern one day at lunch. She is made of two different green fleece materials, purple gingham and a white felt face with pink felt glasses..I think she turned out pretty cute!


DGD was pretty impressed with her new Shopkin...said she was going to take it to school and set it on her desk..not sure how that will work out, but it made me glad that she likes it!

I even made a tag...


I had DGD sew the arms on..which lead to more sewing and crafting...

She wanted me to make a blue bird with red wings...


while she finished off a beaded necklace


and a landscape


She learned a whole bunch of new skills - threading a self threading needle (the ones with just an eye will come later), how to knot off when done with stitching, how to sew on a button, how to do a running stitch and the applique stitch (not very invisible..but hey...gotta start somewhere!) She did everything on the landscape except the initial knots on the thread..



Sunday, January 06, 2013

Christmas 2012

These are some of gifts I made this year.

First, the 'rag' dollies I made for my DGD and DGNieces...my DH wanted to keep them! We both like the red-headed dolly best..I named them The Butterfly Girls since all of them were made with butterfly fabric! I saw the original dolly on Pinterest..they are made by just rough cutting fabric - no measuring! - and sewing it together..the hair on the one on Pinterest was loops of fabric but I wanted a bit more traditional look so...they got yarn wigs!

Next, the Grey Flannel Horsie for my DGNephew...
Then, Button Tree ornaments - I had a BLAST making these...again, saw the idea on Pinterest and had a jar of green buttons that were just begging to be made into these...
 And last but not least, a fabric covered picture frame that I saw the idea for on, you guessed it, Pinterest!! 
 All of these projects were made with stuff already in my sewing room (with the exception of having to buy more stuffing for the last dolly and the horse!)

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Coastal Shop Hop

Yesterday, a group of us went on a 'creative crafting' shop hop - usually we just go to quilt shops on the big So Cal Quilter's Run..but this one had a bit of a different flair..there were a couple of quilt shops, a couple of bead shops, a couple of gifty type stores, a couple of yarn shops and one that had scrapbooking supplies too..

Most of the day we were hugging the coastline and it was quite overcast as it usually is at the coast in the spring...it was nice hopping weather! Not too cold, not too hot..and not too bright...

Starry Night Hollow...a very interesting Quilt Shop..in a house! The gardens around the house were so pretty, I asked if I could snap some shots...

Notice the gate in the picture..it has a quilt attached to the gate!


The poppies are starting to really bloom out around the freeways - these two shots were taken thru the car window as we were going down a freeway ramp (which is why they are a bit blurry):


I think there is some blue lupine mixed in there too...


At one of the shops...I found wool roving in a vast array of colors..the lady asked me what I was going to make with the wool and I said I wanted to try making some felted animals - she said 'I have just the book for you!' and indeed, it had to come home with me:

if you follow the link to Amazon, you can see more of the pictures inside the book..the animals are sooooo cute!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

What to DO with braids...

Rian asked "What does one do with the braid? "

The one I am currently doing will probably end up long enough for a bracelet - since it is my learning piece, it really does not have to have a purpose, but I will find some way to use it. The round braids could make bracelets, necklaces, badge holders, shoelaces, key chain fobs, scissor fobs, napkin rings...the flat ones could be bookmarks, curtain ties, headbands, guitar straps - anything you would use a ribbon for could be replaced with a flat braid...You could braid around a core and make jump-ropes, or plant hangers...

I am sure there are hundreds of ways to use braids...of course I probably will find some way to incorporate braids into my crazy quilting...I am thinking of trying one with embroidery floss to get a really thin braid...

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Wednesday WIP - Kumihimo

Went to a craft fair last weekend with my quilting/crafting buddies and we were all drawn to this one booth where they were showing 'Kumihimo' - the art of Japanese thread braiding. The picture below is a disk made of three layers of fun foam with 32 slits cut in the edges and a hole in the center. By moving the threads from top to bottom in a specific order, you get a spiral braid out the center of the disk.

At the bottom of the braid, a fishing weight is hung to keep the tension right as the threads are coming thru the hole. I think the setup looks like a jellyfish!

By varying the order of which thread gets moved, you can produce a bunch of patterns.

Want to try it? There are some instructions here that are reasonable - she is showing using only eight strings where the one I have in the picture has sixteen. I want to try with eight and see if its a more bendable braid - the one with sixteen is quite stiff!

Also, if you want a longer braid, you have to plan ahead and wrap the excess length of ribbons/threads on bobbins (the embroidery thread kind) or tama (which look like spools).

There was also a hexagon shaped loom that uses only 5 threads but creates a cool looking shoelace! One of my friends got that one and I will see if I can borrow it sometime to try a pair of shoelaces.

The lady also had some really BIG looms made of wood called marudai that she was using to braid beaded strands into necklaces...same kind of philosophy on the hand movements but no handy notches to put the strands into, so you have to be really concentrated when you are working with that loom!

Also, you can make flat braids - the one I am showing is a round braid (kongo gumi) but here are some cool looking flat braids - I want to try that too but its a little different in how you set up the loom.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Charming!

This is the charm we made in the Craft Club today at work. It was the first time I had used 'hatpins' to attach beads. Managed to rip one of the beads off as it was dangling from my purse (it's supposed to be dangling from my purse!) so I had to try to fix it at home...but the danged needle-nose pliers have gone missing! So...it's gonna stay home, looking cute, until I can find the pliers or buy new ones.


The Arizona Retreat went exceptionally well! We had SOOOO much fun. Lots of laughter, lots of sewing, lots of inspiration from the other quilters...and many memories!

Here is my Challenge piece - it did not win any prizes, but WAS the only one that was made entirely from the challenge fabric!


Here we are in the retreat room during my ribbon embroidery class. I had seven students...and it was so cool to hear the squeals of delight when they 'got it'!


And..here I am during my 'Show and Tell', demonstrating my lovely tiara (doing a 'princess wave') and wearing my new ribbon embroidered vest. That's my retreat spot there in the left side of the picture and behind me are the pressing stations.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Making Lemonade

Last year I started knitting this scarf on my Knifty Knitter...was going along just fine - more than halfway to where I wanted...then it wasn't winter anymore so I stopped working on it. Needed the Knifty Knitter loom for something else and thought.."well, just slip it off and when you are done with the other project, slip it back on and finish"..
You know that old saying about best laid plans? Well, one of my darling kitty-cats found the project and was dragging it around the house with much glee - DH rescued the poor thing from the taloned monster. But..the damage was done! I could NOT figure out how to get it back onto the Knifty Knitter loom the right direction and several rows had been pulled out..It languished in another stack until this morning when I had a flash of inspiration about what to DO WITH IT!

A few tassels, a couple of buttons and some beads, and voila! I have a scarf-collar! Beauty of using the button fastener is I can make a new one anytime I want to match any outfit I want to pair this with!

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Run Run Gingerbread Boys!


Aren't these the cutest ornaments? We had a craft fair at work today and I could not resist these cuties...they are fabric fused to craft foam and die stamped...I am thinking of making something similar but not die stamping them...just cutting with my sharp little scissors.