i am in love

My latest project:  organizing my craft room.  I would sit in it and just become overwhelmed by the clutter.  I had rubber stamps looming over me, yarn falling out of baskets everywhere, a bazillion little clutter organizers that weren't organizing anything.  I had some books there that I never looked at because they were behind sliding doors, but most books were in another room.  Fabric lived in a big sterlite tub in another room down the hall.

So I have been purging and decluttering like crazy, and have slowly been getting some Ikea furniture to help organize everything.  I've also been spending a bit of time on Pinterest looking at ideas.  Will have more pictures on that when I'm done.  But first I wanted to share one organizing scheme that I have completely fallen in love with - I had doubts when I first saw it, but now I am utterly charmed.  

When I see pictures of organized sewing rooms, the fabric is either stacked neatly horizontally - which would never work for me, I could see those piles easily falling over - or vertically.  How do they do the little vertical mini-bolts, I wondered.  Then Margaret found this post that explains a cheap way to do it:  comic book boards.  They're already acid-free etc, they're a standard size, and they're cheap - about $12 for 100 on Amazon.  You fold fabric selvage to selvage twice, which is exactly the height of these boards, and the fold the fabric around the board.

At first I thought, how terribly OCD.  

Then I thought, I don't use the fabric much because I never see it.  This may be a viable way to get it out in the open in a non cluttered fashion.  So I ordered some and tried it.

You know that feeling you get when you first fall in love with a craft?  I felt that rush when I first saw embossing powder melt under a heat gun, and I was hooked on rubber stamping thereafter.  I have it every time I go into a nice yarn store.  I had it when I finished my first woven scarf.  And now I have fallen in love with folding my fabric.

Not sure I'm addicted to sewing yet, but I sure have become addicted to fondling fabric :D

Shine bright

Last year I started going to a young survivor's group.  It is a wonderful group of thirty somethings who have all suffered through cancer.  We laugh, we cry, we get angry, we commiserate.  Cathartic and cleansing.

Their stories are inspiring.  One of the members, Ruth, founded a school in Haiti and had dedicated much of her life to improving literacy and education there.  

Doctors could never figure out the source of her cancer.  It kept coming back.  A month or so ago I knew she was not doing well, and I made her this blanket - just one of my simple crochet-edge fleece blankets.  I attached two strips of color to roughly symbolize the Haitian flag.  It was an interesting exercise in joining two fabrics.  I just whipstitched them together with a navy blue yarn, and the seam wasn't bulky at all.  It's very simple, but I liked it.  I also wanted to get something out to her quickly.

This weekend, she lost her battle to stay on this earth with her family.  

One image that lingers is a picture of a beach, and in the sand someone had written "Ruth - Shine Bright."  Rest in peace, Ruth.  You touched many lives and will not be forgotten.

To bead or not to bead

You have seen my collection.

I have waaaaay too many beads.

It's worse than my yarn collection.  Because when I look at my yarn, I find a pattern and I can start knitting.

I look at my bead collection, and I cannot begin.  I am overwhelmed.

My bead stash increased quite a bit last year.  Beading was something I could easily do with visitors.  It was easy to teach, easy to learn, and we could craft together.  I also wasn't venturing out much, so I ordered a lot online, with variable success.  Two problems:  the obvious one being that I couldn't see the bead in person, so occasionally it was way off.  Like the democratic donkey beads that I was going to make earrings out of, but didn't pay attention to the size of them (they're huge!).  Two, I often had to order a pack or a string of beads, would use a few, and then still have the rest remaining.

So I sat down and made some stuff.  First, I made this - it's a super long chain that goes down to my navel.  Here it is looped twice.  I like this new technique (for me) of putting chain in between beads.

Recently I went through a Groupon phase and overbought a lot.  I bought a groupon to a local bead store ... which actually was kind of sparse, but I lucked out and found these wood agate beads that I really liked. 

But I still have so much remaining.  I had a little party with a few neighbors and taught them how to bead.  Still too much remains.   Anyone want some beads?

Flickr Find: Desert Scarf

Beautiful rigid heddle weaving. Clapsed weft is the technique that creates the pattern.

Flickr link:http://www.flickr.com/photos/waschbear/6856706931/

Blocking the zippy sweater vest

I soaked and partially dried the pieces of my Portland Tweed Zip Vest. I'm not sure if superwash wool will hold the block, but it looks good now.

Elemental, my dear sewer

This is awesome!  I found this on Pinterest.  I'm totally printing this out to post by my sewing machine.

My other favorite part of her blog post is the cutting table on which she decoupaged the pages of the Merck manual.  I think I would like this woman.

Yes, I am one of those

Have you ever seen those knitting books and think to yourself, now who on earth would be crazy enough to buy that book and make anything from it?

Like the book "Hot water bottle cozies."  I mean, that's that's screaming crazy knitter.

I made one for myself a couple of years ago. I love it, I must say. So much so that I made one for a friend. She is going through chemo and one of her side effects is that she is intolerant to cold. Which is kind of a problem in February here in the midwest.

So I made her a fleece blanket. And a hot water bottle cozy. I hope she likes it.

Here it is, blocking the entrelac part before I added on the ribbing "collar."  I put my finished one next to it to make sure I blocked it out to the right size.

I love the entrelac with the noro kureyon.  Very fast, satisfying project.

A new toy for me!

Got a Brother sewing machine from my husband, SIL, & MIL for Christmas. They must love me so (no pun intended)! Here are my first two projects. Done a little backwards: did not iron the fat quarters prior to sewing because I was too excited to stitch something together. The tote (my 2nd stitching project) was made for my daughter -- she loves Hello Kitty. The pink/brown project bag was the first thing I sewed together to break in my new sewing machine. And I admit: I hoard grograin ribbon that's used on gifts & packages. Now I finally have a use for them. For my next project: a simple accessory bag with a zipper closure. When that's done, I'll post it. Wish me luck!