I haven’t posted anything lately about the crafts I was finishing … probably because I didn’t finish much until recently. In October, I finally “finished” a huge doily I’d made 18 months prior but never got around to blocking it. I decided it would make a great wedding present for my uncle. The pattern, called Rose Scallop Doily, was part of a Crochet-A-Long on ThreadAddicts Yahoo group. Someone found a charted pattern online and “translated” it into written instructions.
Around the same time I finally finished my daughter’s curtains. Yippee! My first real sewing project completed and I didn’t even really follow a pattern. The polka dot material was actually a 50¢ purchase from Goodwill – it’s a flannel sheet, but I thought it would look so cute as curtains. I lined the curtains with some white cotton fabric I had on hand. I would have gotten away with super-cheap curtains, but I wanted something a little warm and better able to block the light. So I purchased some bright pink fleece to use as a secondary curtain. My husband got the bright idea of attaching them to the first curtains with snaps. The other big expense were the extra large grommets – but it made hanging the curtains so easy.
In December, we had lots of things happening. Of course, there was a second birthday party! My brother-in-law, Eric and I had a grand time the day before we celebrated. I found a recipe for marshmallow fondant and we made up Veggie Tales characters. Em loves Veggies Tales … just ask her Papa who has to watch several episodes a day! The cake was a bigger hit with the adults (dark chocolate with raspberry filling and Swiss buttercream frosting) … she didn’t eat much of it and preferred the homemade ice cream instead.
I was finally able to finish a shawl remake for my aunt. I think she gave me the shawl back in the fall of 2010 because she wanted it a bit wider to help cover her arms. Hopefully it’s big enough this time. It’s not the same pattern as the one I finished in 2009. I got tired of trying to make all those special stitches, so I just used a half-double crochet (hdc) in the back loop only. I like how it turned out. I just hope it’s big enough now.
This year the department I work for decided to change how we handled Christmas and instead of chipping in for a larger gift for our manager and he in turn buying something for each of us, we decided on a theme, found a gift, and played a game to exchange them. It was a lot of fun. This year, the theme was “Green” – so we needed a gift relating either to the color or to something ecological. I wrapped up a green colored reusable grocery bag and made a bag and a scrubbie to go with it. Unfortunately, the bag ended up being a lot smaller than I expected – but they can use it as a produce bag (it’s made with nylon thread so it’s super-strong).
I got out my blocking board in late December and finished up several projects including quite a few snowflakes. The first non-snowflake thread project is called “A Rose in a Dream” by Teresa Misale and it can also be found on the ThreadAddicts Yahoo group. It was something made in 2011, but I never got around to washing and blocking it. The second item is from Patricia Kristoffersen’s (I love her work!) Coasters by the Dozen book – #1 Striking coaster. Not sure how it’s suppose to work as a coaster since it’s a bit 3-dimensional, but it’s pretty nonetheless. I just made this last week.
