Sunday, September 30, 2018

Tweedy

Here's the last of the crochet pumpkins I plan to stitch this year. I used a yarn from the Mary Maxim Studio collection in the color Pottery. It has a beautiful variegation and slides in an out of green, rust, brown, and gold hues. The yarn has a loose twist, so was a little challenging to stitch with, but the results are gorgeous.


This pumpkin was stitched in the round from the bottom up. It was stuffed. Then yarn ribs were wrapped around it to give it the pumpkin shape. I gave this pumpkin two leaves and a nice round plump stem. This may be my favorite in the patch ... but they're all unique and each gives me a smile.


Here's the entire crochet pumpkin patch ... with a quarter on the Tweed pumpkin for scale.


I still have two or three other pumpkins I might make this year that involve paint and fabric and découpage. So many ideas! So little time to distribute among them!

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Lace and Beads

Easily distracted by shiny -- and lacy -- objects! Oh, so pretty! This is even more gorgeous than my bedside lamps. Mine have a domed glass shade painted in roses and plain beaded fringe. I'm in love with this fabric-covered swag shade with the lace details. Swoon!


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This, too, was spotted at the vintage mall.

Friday, September 28, 2018

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Throwback Thursday - 2001 (Part 9)

These are the last of the tassels from my correspondence course. The first three are described as "Ethnic Tassels" and the final one is a "Unique Tassel for Fun."


Multiple Tassels on One Cord

These little two inch tassels are made of 6-strand embroidery floss. Because they are so small to work with, it was difficult to create six identical tassels. They are attached to a braided cord that I also made.




Tassel Head of Rolled Felt and Beaded Cord Skirt

Though I'm not very excited about the color choice of beads with this tassel body, I sure do like the overall look of this tassel. However, it was a very frustrating tassel to make, which had a direct correlation to how lopsided the tassel head is.

In making the twisted cord for the skirt, the instructions say to make sure those white beads are eight inches apart. That's no easy feat. One of my daughters helped me figure out a system. Then making the cord became tedious. When turning the cord into a tassel, I had to compensate at the head of the tassel for beads that hadn't landed exactly where they were meant to be, then hide the resultant mess under the wide collar.

The collar is made of a #5 perle coton. Then I added two rows of grape/purple seed beads to the top of the collar, and another row to the bottom. I think the proportion of wide collar with the seed beads is really pretty.

This tassel is about four-and-a-half inches long and made from a purpley-blue Wool Ease yarn.




Long Afghani Tassel

I thought I'd lose my mind before I got this tassel done! It took about nine hours to complete, and the techniques seemed so redundant that it was a completely frustrating experience. There were all kinds of problems:
  • It was hard to hide the "knot" end of the cording in the tassel skirt as the skirt was being formed. It was difficult to tie all the skirts to the main cording.
  • The winding of the cording with bright threads at the top of the tassel was hard because the long winding thread kept getting caught in the tassels.
  • I broke a needle trying to get the winding thread tucked into the wound threads.
  • The beading needle was so sharp that I kept poking myself and had to keep from getting blood on my work.
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Guess that's really putting blood, sweat and tears into my craft!

Overall, I think it is a weird-looking tassel and not at all worth the frustration it took to make it. Maybe it'd look better decorating a camel than on my Studio table. A web search for Afghani Tassels results with some gorgeous examples of what they can look like when made by experts.

This complex tassel contains seven two-inch tassels on a cord. The tassels are made of purpley-blue Wool Ease yarn.





Feathered Tassel

This was very quick and fun to make -- and a welcome ending to the tassel course. Especially after the frustration of the previous three tassels!

Here, the head and collar are combined in the form of the big wooden bead. Only the feathers stick out for the skirt. It looks like a miniature feather duster.

Just keep it away for kids and cats!




My next #throwbackthursday post has me returning to the cross-stitch and silk ribbon embroidery projects I completed in September 2001.






Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Lamp Detail

An unusual bedside lamp I saw at a vintage mall.


Still trying to resuscitate my photography mojo.

Monday, September 24, 2018

Striped

Pumpkin #4 is here!


It took a while to get the stripes to look the way I wanted them. Success!


The family portrait grows.


Sunday, September 23, 2018

Gee, You're Tall For Your Age

Crochet pumpkin #3 is done. This it the tallest of the patch.


Stitching this was different from the others, because I began with a circle at the bottom of the pumpkin, and stitched it in the round from the bottom up. The ribs are formed with a front post double crochet. Nice technique.


Time for today's family portrait.


Saturday, September 22, 2018

Things That Go Bump

I finished the second of my five crocheted pumpkins. These are rolling along nicely.


The pattern and texture in this was soothing to stitch and looks like a yummy sweater.


It's quite a bit bigger than the first pumpkin I crocheted. Here's a picture with a quarter for scale.


The family is growing!


Friday, September 21, 2018

Back at the Patch

Though today it's officially Autumn, we've been feeling the chill mornings here in north Idaho for a few weeks now. It's the ideal time to put on a cozy sweater, curl up in my chair, and crochet. This week I started another of my 18 in 2018 goals: to crochet 5 pumpkins.

I bought a kit at the start of the year from Mary Maxim. I decided to begin with the smallest pumpkin, shown front and center on the Mary Maxim website.


You can see how small it is compared to the other pumpkins in the photo. Here's the scale next to a quarter.


I'm about half finished with the second pumpkin, and hope to complete it tonight if I can get my act together. I'm having one of those days where I'm dressed, ready to go, my engines are revved up in the driveway ... but I can't quite get on the road. Perhaps a little crocheting is all I need to put my energy into motion.

Thursday, September 20, 2018

Throwback Thursday - 2001 (Part 8)

Six Embellished Tassels


Tassel with Needlelace-Covered Head

This was a fun challenge, though it took some practice to get the needlelace to look symmetrical. It also takes a bit of finesse to keep the increases and decreases from looking too obvious. I learned it's very important to keep from piercing the fibers of the tassel head as I worked the lace.

This tassel is six inches long and made from brown 4-ply acrylic yarn. The needlelace is stitched with #5 perle coton.




Tassel with Whipped Spider Stitch Head

So ... think about technique here, rather than the ugly colors, OK? For this tassel, you divide the head into equal sections, then cover the head with a whipped spider stitch. It adds color and texture to the tassel head.

This tassel is six inches long and made from 4-ply acrylic yarn. The whipped spider stitch is stitched with #5 perle coton.




Tassel with Multiple Heads

I love this tassel! It was extremely easy to make, but packs a big visual punch. You simply put three collars around the tassel to form three heads. You've got to pull the collar in very tightly to get the poof you need. Wouldn't this type of tassel make an impressive statement as a curtain tieback, especially if made from a shiny rayon fiber and a collar of contrasting cording?

This tassel is 10 inches long and made from 4-ply acrylic yarn.




Tassel with Sectioned Head

I chose to divide my head into three sections, wrapped in coordinating fiber. Then I added a bell in the center.

This tassel is 8 inches long and made from 4-ply acrylic yarn. The sections and collar are wrapped in 4-ply yarn. 


I used a silver-colored jingle bell in the center




Covered Cord

We learned to to this technique in order to make the following tassel. It reminded me a lot of making coiled baskets when I was in high school. You basically wrap a narrow thread tightly around a cord about the diameter of a clothesline. It's the kind of thing to do while watching TV when you have a foot and a half of cord to cover.




Tassel with Chinese Knotting

This tassel is mostly about the hanging cord, and a little about the collar. I started with a 18 inch long cord, and covered it with crewel wool yarn. The cord was tied into a cross knot, then attached to a fairly plain tassel. I added some extra wraps around the hanging cord at the crown of the tassel head to secure the thick hanging cord.


For the collar, I mimicked the colors used in the covered cord by first making a dark green collar, then adding a lighter green collar on top of it, allowing the dark green to show at the top and bottom of the collar.

This tassel is 6 inches long and made from 4-ply acrylic yarn. The collar is made with crewel wool yarn. 


I'll share the last four tassels from this correspondence course in my next #throwbackthursday post.

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Birthday Card 2

This is the card I made for Julie.

I started with a sheet of dark green cardstock and cut it to size. I then embossed the front with this leaf and vine design. I cut out the flowers using two sizes of the die at the same time, holding the dies in place with washi tape before they went through the cutter to get this off-center effect. I used white glue to adhere the flowers to the card front.



For the inside, I started by using gold press-on letters to add the "Happy Birthday" to blue cardstock. I then put the die on point around the words, and cut it out.

It took a while for me to figure out what I wanted the message to say. Once done, I printed it on white paper, and used the same shape die cut in a larger size, but cut the normal way. I used white glue to adhere it to the inside of the card. Oh, man. That was a mistake! The paper got all lumpy and bumpy. I knew that trying to remove the white paper would mess up the inside of the card. What to do?

So I reprinted the sentiment with green ink on yellow cardstock and cut it with the die. Then I adhered it to the inside of the card on top of the white paper, but offset so that the white paper became a highlight for the yellow cardstock. I think that was an elegant solution.



The outside of this card was also inspired by a card I found on Pinterest.

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Inspired by SplitcoastStampers


Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Birthday Card 1

Last Friday my daughter Jeanne spent the day with me as she recovered from a minor medical procedure. We spent many hours in my Studio, playing with my new papers, die cuts, embossers and stickers. We each made a birthday card for daughter Julie. Both cards were inspired by designs we saw on Pinterest.

Here's Jeanne's card. It's a little hard to tell in this photo, but the cardstock is a soft purple parchment. She embossed the front of the card with polka dots, drew on the lines with a marker, and added gems in three sizes and four colors. She embossed the cake on a different purple cardstock, cut it with a die cut, and glued it at the bottom.


On the inside, she used flower die cuts in several colors and glued them in place. We typed up the sentiment on the computer, printing it in purple ink. The hearts were made with a shaped paper punch.


Some "rivalrys" never end.

We're still learning to use my tools. Some of it is a little challenging. I'll share my card tomorrow.


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Inspired by KT Hom Designs


Monday, September 17, 2018

More Fun with Rocks

These are the final three rocks I painted in this go-round. I hope to hide them all later this week at a local park.

In some rock painting / hunting / hiding groups, they have a theme during each month. One of the themes last summer was to paint a rock that says, "You Matter." I obviously didn't get mine done in time, but I painted one anyway. This one is a little bigger than the size of my palm.


The inspiration for this gnome caught my fancy, so I tried recreating it. I think it's adorable. This one fits nicely in my palm.


Some happy kid is going to find this rock for Halloween. This is about 2.5 inches. If/when I post painted rocks again, I'll put a coin in the photos for size comparison.


Perhaps the next batch I make will concentrate on holidays.
Or all hearts.
Or mandalas.
Or ... so many possibilities!

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Inspired by denylalange .ml




Inspired by Lez Get Ideas




Inspired by an unknown Pinterest artist


Sunday, September 16, 2018

A Birthday Visit

Dale, Jeanne and I headed down to Moscow to celebrate Julie's birthday ... and spend some time with our Melody. First we went to the county fair to see the animals, then returned home for lunch, birthday cake, and opening gifts.

Jeanne got to share the Tigger cookie cutter with her niece.


After her nap, Melody knows it's time to go to the park to play and climb. She let us know in no uncertain terms that is was time to open the pet gate and GO!


Dale took these adorable photos.


Saturday, September 15, 2018

Tiny Painted Rocks

Well, two of them are tiny ...

This happy emoji is slightly bigger than my thumbnail


Here's looking at you ... is about one inch wide and a half inch tall.


The bouquet of hearts is a bit bigger ... about the size of a fifty cent piece.



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Inspired by weheartit




Inspired by unknown Pinterest artist