The Craft of Being Crafty

Moustachilicious

thecraftster — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 00:17:49 +0000

I made these awesome Christmas tree ornaments for my nephew and his wife. I saw the fabric on Spoonflower… Had to get it!

They turned out better than I expected lol!

Crochet Week

thecraftster — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 04:03:29 +0000

I’ve been busy this week making hats for my newest niece. She is a little sweetheart (only a few weeks old) and I promised her mommy that I would make her a few hats. So…

I started with this one. I kind of ran out of pink (oops) so I added the sparkly blue. It was kind of goofy looking until I thought to add the flower. It pulled it all together.

Next I tried something with a rim…

It was pretty simple and not a very exciting look.

Third, I wanted to do a cute panda…

Not bad… not bad at all! I was a little concerned about it but it turned out pretty well. The yarn is really thick so it is good that it is a bit bigger for in a few months when it gets cold outside.

Last one…

Everyone I showed the picture to said it looked like cake or ice cream lol. It is unique anyways!

And the grand total for all 4 hats…

less than $5!! I bought a big rubbermaid tub full of yarn from my mom’s backdoor neighbour’s garage sale for $5 last year. I’ve been using it for all sorts of things. woo hoo!

Baby Blanket Extravaganza

thecraftster — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 17:29:20 +0000

I have been busy quilting baby blankets … I made 2 in 2 weeks. Must be a record for me. And it was even during beautiful weather outside. Oh well. It had to be done. These baby girls are worth it!!

I got the fabric in a cute little quilting shop on the coast of Oregon this summer. The first blanket I made was with Moda’s Pip sherbet or something like that. Cute fabric with its little girls swinging and scooting around. And the puppies! I liked the idea of simple squares and rectangles… easy to sew!! But I had to throw in the minkie rows and of course that made it much more difficult to sew. That stuff is slippery to sew and hard to not pull. Fortunately, babies don’t usually pay that close attention to details and just love the soft feel

(didn’t have anyone around to hold up the quilt for me lol)

The second quilt I wanted to use little squares and made 2″ strips that I sewed together before cutting them into 2″ squares. Saves a lot of time and looks like a lot more work than it is lol. I chose this fabric because my friend wasn’t saying if she was having a girl or a boy and I thought this would do nicely for either

My kids are busy making clay animations today and I’m going to make another photo book of our summer holiday… wondering if I should try to make a coffee table book with some of my best Greece pictures… I wonder if people actually buy books off of blurb??

thecraftster — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 20:11:55 +0000

knitting project done!

thecraftster — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:19:37 +0000

I found a really nice [free] tutorial online for a toque so I made it for my husband for Christmas. I finished it last night and I’m pretty happy with it. Not perfect, but better than most of my knitting projects!!

I really love the square-ness of it. I didn’t understand how to finish off the toque top, though. I never do. If someone wants to explain how you go from 8 stitches to done, I would appreciate it.

Miss Pink

thecraftster — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:52:02 +0000

J loves pink. A lot. So, I bought some pink fabric to make her an outfit ummm a couple of years ago. I cut out the pieces near the beginning of summer and just realized that if I don’t get my rear in gear, she will have outgrown the pieces!! I finished it last week and am very happy with the result. I cut out a few steps from the original recipe, but did that to save time I got it from an old Ottobre magazine.

She loves it. Tonight I was going through the scraps left over in my sewing room and decided to add a little purse to the outfit. She hasn’t seen that yet, but I know she will love it.

I hemmed pants todays

thecraftster — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 05:08:10 +0000

Within a week of being asked, too!

My Ride

thecraftster — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:12:23 +0000

It used to be my ride, anyways. When I was still in the womb, my parents bought a 1974 Rambler Ambassador and drove it to the World Expo in Seattle. My dad loved that car. But the only one who appreciated it as much as he was my nephew, so when my dad died, we all knew that the Ambassador was going to C.

He drove it to high school. Everyone there thought it was a sweet ride and we all laughed. He took it to his high school graduation and then had it parked cause it seriously drained the gas budget lol. Plus, you can’t really 4×4 in the mountains in a wagon.

Today he convocates from university. *pause for proud auntie moment* He has been planning these last 5 years to get this boat running again for his big day. And he did (with a little help from his folks for new front tires).

Oh the memories that I have from even just the smell of the inside of that car… I wonder how much it would take for him to sell it to me…

I hope today gets really hot so I can go burn my skin on those black seats in my shorts for old times’ sake lol.

Is buying fabric a craft?

thecraftster — Sun, 31 May 2009 05:45:53 +0000

If so, I’ve accomplished plenty this weekend! Yesterday I stopped at Earthly Goods to get some inspiration for a quilt I’m going to make for our cat (more like a mat, as in ‘the cat sat on the mat instead of on the couch’). I scoured their 30% off bin and got a few remnants that are Amy Butler or matched Amy Butler . J found some flannel with rubber ducks on it that she insisted she had to have. It was soft. What can I say. I think I just enabled my daughter to start her own fabric stash lol.

Tonight I hit the jackpot on craft sites… It just seemed like an unending series of interesting links… tutorials, giveaways, ideas…

I somehow started here (note the very cool arrow on the back of the quilt!) and ended up with a new to-do list of crafts lol. So far, the list is as follows:

So, ya, a very productive weekend in a very non-productive way. Oh, except I did manage to cut out the fabric pieces I had previously pinned for J’s little jacket I’m making out of an old Ottobre magazine. It is very pink. I’m making the pants to go with it. J has requested I make matching outfits for one of her babies and her stuffie chickie. That could be interesting. I’m not sure if I’m *that* good of a mom lol.

Astronauts and Antiquities

thecraftster — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:33:53 +0000

Last night I finished a baby blanket for some friends’ baby. The baby is much cuter than the blankie, but that is to be expected

It was more square than this pic leads you to believe. Honestly it was.

Here is a close up of the fun part. I stippled stars and swirlies throughout the black background of the central piece.

I don’t usually do hand-stitching that is visible, but I thought I would give it a try on this border.

Yesterday I attended a talk on improving one’s photography skills so I felt inspired to pull out the camera and play with aperture settings. However, I realized that I *still* have to read some more of that huge honking manual so that I can figure out *how* to play with the aperture settings. In the meantime, I got some fun pics of the oldest thing we own. Not exactly an antiquity but still … it is from the Old World.