Posted on 02/01/2021 12:32:56 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Image stolen.
I’ve been working on Valentine wreaths, decorations and a largish heart doily of various left over shades of red to clean them out of my thread stash. Those projects are mostly done, but I got sidetracked with bead knitting and crocheting little amulet bags and earring sets because I came across a kit I purchased eons ago while organizing and got distracted.
My son just bought his first fixer upper house and will be moving out on his own by the end of the summer. I’m pretty excited to have another house to decorate and make stuff for AND to have his room be the new guest room so I can have the old guest room for a craft room. He’s the last one to flee the nest, so it will be empty soon.
Here’s a link to my Pinterest, where I put up a board of the wreaths I made since fall.
https://www.pinterest.com/oregontrailyarn/wreaths/made-by-me/
I will. The ‘after’ so far is the TV is in place, the new area rug is down, flattening itself out, new sheers on the patio door - which are now the NEWEST TOY of the cats - *ROLLEYES* and I’ve put things back up on the fireplace mantle. ;)
Beau just took a pain pill for his pending kidney stone passing (Ouch!) so not much else is happening around here tonight in 3...2...1...Zzzzzz! :)
That baby blanket is SO pretty! I love Chenille on anything.
What does George Costanza say about Velvet? “I would drape myself in it, were it socially acceptable!” LOL!
......you can let your imagination tun wild with that project......
What are your favorite Craft/Fiber Arts Magazines and/or Books?
I'm also one for any and all Home Decor magazines and I can't live without 'Mary Jane's Farm' and 'The Pioneer Woman' magazines each month.
Books I love and will always have at hand:
'Knit The Sky' by Lea Redmond (I use her ideas and apply them to Crochet)
'One Skein Wonders' by Judith Durant (More knit than crochet projects, but again, it's a jumping off point for creativity)
'The Crocheter's Skill-Building Workshop' by Dora Ohrenstein (Great way to learn ALL THE STITCHES and also how to shape things and increase and decrease rows, etc.)
Also, can't live without 'Simple Times; Crafting for Poor People' by Amy Sedaris (Amy is a fave of me and my Sister. It's a hilarious send-up of all the things we 'crafty' types are into.)
One of my fave sewing projects is doing applique.....you can literally take, say,
a magazine photo, and cut it up to make a pattern for each applique component.
Thanks for sharing! I bookmarked your Pinterest link for later.
Is it a Bad Thing that SOME of us Moms really LIKED it when our kids all moved out? LOL!
Enjoy! :)
Well I think too much is made of “empty nest” syndrome.
I remember my parents being gleeful when I left and I understand it completely.
LOL! That looks like some of the yarn rescues I’ve had to work with!
I finally found the “applique of the month” calendar blocks, and once I get moved, I’ll enlist my daughter-in-law to help me make them. Then she can have them when I’ve passed on. Hopefully, it will bring her a little closer, as she is so stand-offish, now. “Hope springs eternal,” and all that!
I graduated from High School in January of 1977, at age 16.5, but Mom made me stay for my Senior Year. ‘Oh, Honey! You’ll regret not graduating with your friends...’ Blah, Blah, Blah. I spent a lot of time in Study Hall, reading, that semester. It was a small school and I had taken EVERY course offered and still graduated early. I moved out two minutes after the Graduation Ceremony. And I don’t know a single kid I went to HS with anymore, LOL! Joined the Army at 18, and the rest, as they say, is History!
Dad always said the thing he liked best about me was that I left home early and never came back, LOL!
I did come back ONCE for about a week, when my then-husband was in the Navy and left for 6 months on a West Pacific Tour. Then, I was able to get into military housing. I had a nice three bedroom condo all to myself (and my cat) for all that time. Heaven!
Dad WAS kidding. He was always proud that I was a motivated self-starter. My SISTER more than made up for it with her shenanigans. I ended up caring for Dad for the last 15 years of his life.
I look at it as a CHALLENGE when yarn gets all tangled up. You have to take it slow, logically...and know when to WALK AWAY from a lost cause!
It’s an acquired skill. ;)
I never learned to walk away from that kind of a tangle. I stuck with it until I could wind it all into balls. Some of the rescues (other people “kindly” gave me they yarn stashes their [insert type of female relative here] left behind when they passed on or otherwise couldn’t take it with them) were horribly messed up, with different weights as well as textures.
If I got too frustrated with it, I would set it aside and find a project of my own to do so the yarn could flow through my fingers. Then it was back at it. (It doesn’t take much to keep me amused!)
You must be part cat if you can’t walk away from yarn! ;)
That’s what I was afraid of...LOL!
I see untangling it as a challenge, yes, but I’ve never been a quitter, and until I can wind it into balls, I’m not done! ;o]
Last night I was looking through a VERY old book (1997) from ‘Country Living.’ It was ‘Handmade Country’ and I had just been using the book as a ‘stacker’ for some other decor because it had a nice cover. Anyhow, there was a section about Quilting, and the practice of suspending the current quilt you were working on from the ceiling to save space. So, I went looking for more information and found a nice website about the History of Quilting.
“The history of quilts began long before European settlers arrived in the New World. People in nearly every part of the world had used padded fabrics for clothing, bedding, and even armor. With the arrival of the English and Dutch settlers in North America, quilting took on a new life and flourished.
The term “quilt” comes from the Latin culcita, meaning a stuffed sack. The word has come to have 2 meanings. It is used as noun, meaning the 3-layer stitched bedcovering. It is also used as a verb, meaning the act of stitching through the 3 layers to hold them together.
A quilt is a cloth sandwich, with a top, which is usually the decorated part, a back, and a filler in the middle. Under the general term of patchwork are of 3 different types of quilts: (1) the plain or whole cloth quilt, (2) applique quilts, and (3) pieced or patchwork quilts.
The quilt, as we know it in America, was originally a strictly utilitarian article, born of the necessity of providing warm covers for beds. Quilts were also used as hangings for doors and windows that were not sealed well enough to keep out the cold. The earliest American quilts, made by English and Dutch settlers, were so intimately connected to everyday life of the early colonists that no record of them exists.”
Interesting stuff! I’m sure Quilters know all of this, but having never really ‘quilted’ anything, (though I own a few) it was very interesting!
https://www.quilting-in-america.com/History-of-Quilts.html
This is Jean’s Gift Shop in Chiticamp, Cape Breton on the far eastern edge of Nova Scotia. These aren’t needlepoint. They aren’t cross stitch or knit. They are an art version of hooked rugs. Small, beautiful and done for hundreds of years by transplanted Arcadians. It may be gone now as their website is down. We found items made by people with the last name of my wife’s sixth great grandfather.
The easternmost needle art store in North America.
Amazing skills! Thanks for posting that. :)
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