Blocking Crochet Snowflake

Dec21
Goodness gracious I just can’t believe this is Christmas week!!  I know everyone’s  crafty fingers and hands are “busy little beavers” trying to complete those projects, wrap presents, bake cookies, mail notes and cards, finish shopping, and thinking about squeezing in one more handmade item.  🙂 If you do have the time to create one more gift giving item or something special for yourself, I think I have an answer for you.  Check out this link for a very lovely crocheted snowflake pattern if you haven’t come across it before: http://bobbilewin.com/?s=crochet+snowflake It works up in a couple of hours.  I basically followed her pattern but I did make one change and that was the 3 picots at the end of round 4 ~~ I alternated with a picot cluster ~~ I made the 3 picots, then the 3 stem snowflake arm, then a PICOT CLUSTER,  then the snowflake arm, then 3 picots, all the way around.  So I have (3) sets of picots and (3) sets of picot clusters between my snowflake picot cluster arms or branches. I used a size 4 (2.00 mm) metal hook and Aunt Lydia’s Fashion 3 100% mercerized cotton crochet thread ~~ making my snowflake finished size to be approximately 4 1/2″ across.   Just purchased 100% Egyptian cotton thread from Handy Hands and really looking forward to working with it too. Thought this snowflake would be an ideal item to show you how I block my finished cotton pieces. This picture shows the completed snowflake right off my hook. SONY DSC Since it is small, I just blocked it on my ironing board using a folded thick beach towel on the bottom, layered with 2 cotton napkins and a hand towel between the napkins.  Thickness for my pins and to help with the drying process. SONY DSC  SONY DSC SONY DSC I use RUST PROOF stainless steel pins and very thoroughly soak my item with my spray bottle of water.  I do not wring or twist or pat dry.  I just laid the snowflake on top of my fabric pallet and started shaping the picots with my pin points and began pinning in place.  I just about put a pin each picot and picot cluster so that the snowflake will really have definition once dried.  I don’t think I will have to use any type of stiffening agent either.  Will know better once totally dried. The drying process should only take about one day ~~ possibly only 4 or 5 hours.  Will share a picture with you once dried so you can see the finished product.   🙂 I think this snowflake will be perfect as a gift tag, ornament for your tree or I vision several hanging at different lengths from my bird watching window.  I might even try size 10 and size 20 thread with a 6 or 8 hook to create different sized snowflakes too.   And the best part is that I can enjoy them all winter and they won’t melt!!

HAPPY CREATING!!

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Keeping your Sewing Foot Pedal in place

Nov16

If you are like me, I do a TON of sewing especially this time of the year!!  One thing that always seems to happen to me is that I am forever chasing my sewing machine foot pedal all around because it is ALWAYS moving out of my comfort zone for sewing!! I have tried placing self-adhesive felt pads on the bottom of my pedal without much success and have even used sandpaper stickers on the underneath side of the pedal and I am still always having to move it back into place.  However, these sandpaper stickers work super on your quilting rulers to help keep them from sliding around!!  Sorry, I digress. Anyways, I have designed a platform that I place my sewing machine foot pedal on and it really seems to help keep it from moving all around.  Believe you me it is nothing fancy and you probably have these items around your house so NO COST which is right up my alley.  This is what I presently use: SONY DSCSONY DSC         See I told you it is nothing fancy  ~ ooooh and pardon all my thread explosions LOL!!  I have taken a couple of card board mailing boxes and covered them in the rubberized shelf lining material with some extra-large rubber bands to hold it all together.  The boxes I used are about 16″ wide by 11″ long and I covered three of them for some thickness and height.  You see I am also vertically challenged so it works better for me to have my foot pedal raised up a little bit. My foot pedal will still move around ever so slightly but it doesn’t travel way out of reach. This works for me and keeps me from getting frustrated 🙂 It would be great if you could share your ideas that you use to help with this issue!!

HAPPY CREATING!!

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Crochet Outfit for 18″ doll

Oct15
SONY DSCSONY DSC Found a neat, free pattern designed by Darlene Cutler on Crochetville.  At this point in time, I am only using the cape and added some of my own embroidery embellishments to make a fun beanie and capelet for an 18″ doll ~~ like the American Girl dolls. The pompom beanie is a basic crochet hat pattern that I again added embroidery style embellishments as well as a multi-colored pompom using the Clover pompom tool. I really like how the outfit turned out ~~ kind of made it to look like something Anna from Frozen might have worn or a little girl from the Victorian time period. A perfect holiday gift idea too!!

HAPPY CREATING!!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links – “Commissions Earned”

How to make a Half Treble stitch

Oct10
In my opinion this is not a very common crochet stitch but I like to use it when I really don’t want a sharp or deep drop between a double crochet and a treble crochet.  I use this stitch in my crochet pumpkin leaf tutorial and here is a tutorial on how to make this stitch: You will yarn over (yo) twice on your hook (just as if making a treble stitch)  ~~  then insert your hook into the stitch or space according to your pattern directions  ~~  now yarn over (yo) again and pull through that loop (at this point you will have 4 loops on your hook ~~  yarn over (yo) and pull through the first 2 loops on hook  ~~  yarn over (yo) again and pull through the last 3 loops on hook.  I’ve included some pictures too: SONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSC SONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSC It just makes a subtle difference in the look of your leaf or whatever you are crocheting. SONY DSC

HAPPY CREATING!!

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Storing Bobbins

Sep30
Came across this super inexpensive and clever idea on Pinterest showing an easy and neat way to store your bobbins using pedicure forms.  So I went to the blog site, Manoa Road, to get further information. Myself I have these plastic snap cases that I use and I do really like them because the bobbins are quick and easy to pull out and put back away ~~ especially since I seem to do this procedure one-handed.  However, they tend to get messy with the threads having a mind of their own and they get stringy even in the case.  So I thought I would give the pedicure forms a try!! SONY DSCSONY DSC Now I didn’t actually go and buy anything at this point just used a couple of pedicure forms that I had on hand.  Voila, it seems to work nicely and threads are all tucked away neatly but not sure if it is the way to go for me. As I mentioned earlier, I tend to grab and replace my bobbins using only one hand (probably why my threads get unruly but is a timesaving process for me and my sewing needs). This solution needs two hands to replace the bobbin back into the pedicure form.  Also,  my bobbins seem to make the form curve a bit ~~ not sure if my bobbins are larger/smaller or my forms are not new and maybe too soft and flexible.  Brand new forms are probably a little sturdier and might not curve. SONY DSCSONY DSCSONY DSC For me I’m not sure if I will change my current bobbin storage system, however, I still think this is a grand idea worth looking into and maybe will work for you and how you sew with your tools. Hmm ~~ probably next time I am shopping I just might have to pick up a couple of new pedicure forms though!!  Let me know if you have success with this idea 🙂

HAPPY CREATING!!

Disclaimer:  This post contains affiliate links – “Commissions Earned”