I’m glad we are back together crochet afghan and triangle quilt. I was a fool to ever leave your side. Me minus you is such a lonely ride. The break up we’ve had has made me lonesome inside.
Reunited. Solid love. Feels so good. Sing it baby.
And when Everett and I were cleaning his room we came across this scrap of cross stitching he did. I taught all of the boys how to cross stitch back in the day.
At the beginning of the summer Blair, from Wise Craft, started a crochet project follow-along based on an afghan in a 1982 Better Homes & Gardens Treasury of Needlework book. It has been the perfect portable project for car rides, sitting in the bleachers, etc. And with all the different granny squares I have broadened my crochet skills. (I’m avoiding the not so fun part of tucking in all those tails.) Blair has all the different granny squares bookmarked in the link above so if you had a hankering you could start your own.
I am so glad I signed up for this swap! I spent much longer than necessary thinking about it. Which also means I’m a day late sending my fabric out. I once turned in a project late in one of my Design classes in college. And I’ve never forgotten what my professor said. ”If everyone had had as much time as you, they could have created something as outstanding.” This was stated in front of the entire class. I think she was trying to stress that meeting deadlines was an important part of being a designer/artist… and that even if your design is great it won’t matter in the real world if you can’t get it turned in on time.
Thankfully this is not a paying job, and hopefully my recipients won’t mind getting it a day later. I tried some things out on a test piece, and I actually like the random patterns on it. The upper designs were done with a stamping technique and the clouds were done using freezer paper stenciling.
Here are the final results for the swap. I have plenty of fabric though and plan to continue my experiments!
*tower cloud – isn’t the sky amazing sometimes?
Maybe it’s the 3 cups of coffee I have on board… but I’ve got a creative electric buzz flowing through my synapses this morning. I feel like I can move mountains today. Heck, I’m even psyched to finish the house cleaning. Do you ever experience that creative adrenaline surge?
I’ve got to put some of the energy to use finishing my hand printed fabric for the swap.
The experimentations are great on paper, but so far I’m not very happy with the results on fabric. The ink is not as opaque as I would like it to be. Off to try and try and try again. The quiet persistence of an introvert moving mountains today!
I’m a little late getting my herbs going this year. Especially since I’m planting most from seed. To make them easily accessible I created a cheap and fun container garden. I’m thinking too that I can bring these inside during the winter and have herbs year round.
I found some chocolate mint, which you see in the photo above. I also planted some basil, cilantro, lavender, and flat leaf parsley seeds.
The containers are feed pans bought for $3.99 each at the agri-center. These can be found at pet supply stores, hardware stores or an agricultural supply store. I happened to have some happy orange spray paint to add some color and sizzle. I was tempted to buy a can of bright neon pink, but decided to stick with the adage: Use it up, wear it out, make do, or do without!
Here is the process:
1. I first punched some holes in the bottoms for drainage. I used a nail and hammered the holes from the inside of the pan.
2. Next I used painter’s tape to mask off the areas I wanted orange. I wanted each container to be contrasting. So this one I taped off the top so that the bottom would be orange.
With this one I taped off the bottom and also masked off the inside because I just wanted the rim and top of it to be orange.
3. Next spray a nice even coat of paint on, let dry, peel off the tape and paper, and get planting!
I’m following along with Blair’s granny square sampler afghan. Here is my week 1 assignment completed.
Here is week #2 assignment completed. I must confess that I’m using a mixture of yarn weights and fibers. For me the project is about using up what I have. Hopefully it won’t prove disastrous when it comes time to put it all together or when I need to wash it…
You still have time to jump in!
Or if crocheting isn’t your cup of tea, why not participate in Leslie Keating’s handprinted fabric swap. You have until June 1st to sign up. I waffled back and forth about whether to do this, but I’ve wanted to try my hand at printing fabric for a long time. So I signed up and my head hits the pillow at night swirling with ideas for this.
