My Favorite Project from 2019

Lots of bloggers do a review of their projects for the year.  I didn't make a lot of things this year, but there was a lot of variety in my crafting.  I sewed, quilted, crocheted, and knitted.

My favorite project this year was my knitted ribbed ear warmer.  They are easy and cheap to knit and so useful.  Since the middle of September, I was able to knit 12 different ones in different colors of acrylic yarn.  I gifted 3 of them to dear daughter and kept the others for me.  These easily my favorite project this year for their usefulness and ease.  I'm pretty proud of the way I figured out how to make them double thick without using someone else's pattern.

I'm still knitting these.  I just finished a black one yesterday and I'm starting a beige one tonight.  These are fun, warm winter accessories that I needed and was able to make.

Christmas Has Come And Gone But I'm Not Done Making Decorations

I can't believe how many cute ideas I found to distract me this year.  I'm still working on several projects that are Christmas related.  I'm afraid that I will be Christmas crafting into the New Year.

I did manage to finish dear daughter's table runner, some small  tree ornaments, and her star garland, but I'm still working on the decoupaged cookie plates, my table runner, some fabric covered Christmas tree forms,  and a star garland for me.  My star garland may go up after I finish it and stay up all year.   Here is a picture of dear daughter's garland on her China cabinet.  She added fairy lights and it looks pretty.  I love the way this turned out and the stars are so easy to make. 

Other things I want to make are felt tree ornaments.   I found this picture on the internet and thought these felt ornaments were adorable.

I saw this picture a bunch of times for different ads.  The day I took this picture they were advertising Hobby Lobby craft store.  I have not been able to find this picture on Pinterest with a link to instructions or patterns, so dear daughter I made our own ornaments with green felt in the shape of a Christmas tree and we beaded them for her co-workers.

I also want to make some string art.  I found a string art star with instructions here.

As usual, I spent too much time watching YouTube videos showing items made from thrift store finds and I saw some interesting wood burning ornaments being made by using 4" wood rounds that you can get at Amazon.

One person was walking through a Antique store or 2nd hand shop and I also saw something I have to make.  It's a paper garland made from hymnal pages.  It's super simple, fan folding the pages and gluing a bunch together to make a long piece that you wind around a piece of twine.  I don't have a good picture of it but I took this screen shot from the video where I saw it.

I have looked on Pinterest and all over the Internet for a better picture or even instructions but could not find anything similar.  I fell in love with this garland, so much so that I bought a Baptist hymnal on Christmas day for this project.  I have the glue and twine.

I don't know when I'll finish Christmas decorations, I just hope I finish before next Christmas.

Merry Christmas Everyone.

Merry Christmas everyone.  I'm still crafting, but I probably won't be finishing anything new for the next week while I take time out to celebrate the holidays.

Jute Twine Crocheted Stars

   So I made seven of the white cotton stars (that's all I could get from one 120 yard skein of Peaches and Crème Cotton) and I took them to dear daughter's home and we ended up making a garland to put on her china cabinet in her dining room.  She added some battery operated fairy lights to it and  loves it.

   I am now making seven more stars in jute twine to make another garland to layer with the white star garland.

    This is what they look like in jute twine.

Breaking Out My Crochet Hook

Saw a crocheted star that I had to have.  Used my size H hook and some Peaches and Cream white cotton yarn.  Used the tutorial here.  Each star took about 15 to 18 minutes.  This was a fun easy project.  I'm going to make more.  Of course these will go to dear daughter for her Christmas tree.

Clear Cookie Plates With Holiday Fabric Decoupaged On Them

I wanted to make four of these for the holidays and I ran out of time.  They will be ready for next year.

I'm using the dishwasher safe Mod Podge and it needs at least 28 days to cure.   I'm also using the tutorial on youtube found here.  The person doing the youtube tutorial mentions that you can cure it by baking it in the oven for an hour, but I'm not 100% sold on that so I'll just let my plates cure for 28 days.

This is the first plate.   I'll share the others as I make them.

Easy Christmas Ornaments Made And Ready To Gift

Dear daughter is getting these.  I used the tutorial at Patchwork Posse.  She had a fussy cut ornament tutorial and the link is here.  These took me about an hour and half to make from first cut to last stitch.  These ornaments are double-sided.  I put the same picture on the back of each of these.

I Made A Quilted Christmas Table Runner

   I have been planning this table runner all year.  I made this one for my dear daughter.  I am going to make a second one for me. 

    Trying to find the best block to use in this table runner took me almost all year.  I knew I wanted to use solid pieces of the pretty Makower fabric alternating it with a pieced star block, I just couldn't find one a block I was in love with.  I finally found a block in one of my Civil War quilting books.  I found the New England block in "Civil War Sampler" by Barbara Brackman.

     Here is a picture of the runner out.  It's 84 inches long and 12" wide.

    I think the New England block looks like a Christmas gift wrapped up and it still has star points.  I love it.  The book only includes cutting instructions, so I was careful with my piecing.

    Here are the individual blocks up close.

 

Cats and Christmas Decorations

     I did my decorating in the house for Christmas.  I pulled out three big bins of decorations and got it done last night.  I don't put up a regular Christmas tree because I have two cats and I gave up my precious Christmas tree when the cats came to live here.  I do have a nice collection of small trees and I put those on my dining room table. 

    One of the newer things I bought to decorate for Christmas this year was this pretty ceramic mixing bowl that I found at Marshalls.  I added a small lighted tree to it.  I found the tree at Lowes, but I also saw it at  Joann's and it was cheaper at Joann's.  I love it.  This picture was taken on my kitchen counter but this mixing bowl and tree will not stay there because, well, cats.  I know that any large glass decorative items I want to keep need to be placed on the floor.  My cats can be kind of crazy when they are chasing one another through the house.  If the bowl is already on the floor, I don't have to worry about it.

Another Christmas Craft

I've been watching Christmas DIYs on YouTube and I saw a couple of ladies cover Styrofoam cones with fabric or scarves to make Christmas trees and I decided to try it.

I bought my Styrofoam cone at Hobby Lobby last Saturday using my 40% coupon and I saved a three dollars on it.  I found the cute fabric in my Christmas fabric stash, I bought the silver star at Michael's on Sunday and saved a couple of dollars on that with my frequent buyer membership, I had the piece of round board (I bought it for a decoupage project, but it was perfect for this tree), and I bought some sliver metallic paint to paint the board.  I had a chance to use my glue gun and I used up two regular stick of glue putting this together.  Fun. 

I'm loving this tree.

Yarn Hat Christmas Ornaments

I've been wanting to make these for the last couple of years but I didn't have the time until now.  I found several youtube tutorials on how to make these.  I used a 1 inch section of a toilet paper roll as the basis for this hat.  I got three pieces from one toilet paper roll, hence the three ornaments you see here.  I ended up cutting my yarn pieces about 12" long and I cut 50 of them to make sure it covered the entire piece of cardboard.  It took me about 10 minutes to cut the yarn and another 40 minutes to secure the yarn onto the piece of cardboard and finish the ornament.

Here's a link to a tutorial.  Youtube tutorial on yarn hat ornaments.

Easy Christmas Ornaments

I found a very cute tutorial to make some easy Christmas ornaments with fabric and fusible fleece (link below).  I didn't have anything specific in my Christmas fabric stash to use for these, so I went on etsy and found a fabric that will be fun to use.  This is Susan Wingate's Snowman Stitches.  I have to check my ribbon stash to see if I have some pretty ribbon to make hangers.

Link to Easy Christmas Ornaments.

Here is the fabric I want to use.

I think these square pieces will be lovely as ornaments with ribbon.  Can't wait to get this fabric.

Return From An Amazing Vacation

Last week my dear daughter, my dear friend and I took off on a week driving trip.  We planned a trip from Florida to Savannah, Georgia and then to Asheville, North Carolina and back again.

Our first stop was Tybee Island Lighthouse and Fort Screven.

We walked the River district, and the historic section of downtown Savannah.  We also took a Ghost Tour one evening.

We took a day to drive up to Asheville, North Carolina and play in the mountains.  We had a low key birthday celebration for dear daughter on her birthday.  We spent the day walking through Asheville downtown and boosting the local economy.  Dear daughter finally opened her gift and loved it.  I gave her Stitch ears so she will have special ears for future trips to Disney World.

We spent a day at the Biltmore Estate meeting another friend for the day, toured the house, ate lunch at the Stables, bought souvenirs and returned to our vacation rental very tired.

Our last day in North Carolina we wanted to drive up to Mount Mitchell but the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed because of ice on the roads.  We did manage to visit the visitors centers on the Parkway.  We drove over to Hendersonville and spent the morning and part of the afternoon looking at the local history in the old courthouse.  There is a beautiful quilt that memorializes the local history in that courthouse.  

Then we went to Grandad's Apple Orchard for apple cider doughnuts.  Here is the view from that property.

Our last stop was Chimney Rock.  The road up to the view was full of hairpin turns.   I enjoyed this stop more than I thought I would.  You take an elevator up 26 stories from the parking lot and you arrive at the top of the rock.  The views were amazing.  Then you can walk up 44 steps to another section of the rock for more views.  Here is a picture of Lake Lure from Chimney Rock.

That was our vacation.  I got one ear warmer knit on vacation.  Here it is.  This was the Licorice Red Heart yarn that I bought last month.

Gifts Wrapped With Fabric

 Dear daughter will get these gifts next week and I promised I would let you see them as well.  These are the packages I wrapped with fabric (dogs in Halloween costumes), sewing up the ends with contrasting thread and big stitches, adding a fun ribbon.

A Previous Quilt

I made this quilt between April and August 2014 for my daughter.  I had a jelly roll that I bought with her in mind and we collaborated on what background colors she wanted.  She decided on the cream and turquoise background fabric for the top and the beige for the backing.  This is a granny square quilt.

The front

The back.

New Yarn For Knitting

  I'm still knitting ear warmers.  I knit up three for dear daughter in the last few weeks (gray, red and teal), but now all the rest will be for me.  I'm doing them in all the colors of acrylic yarn that I have that I like.  I will have a whole wardrobe of ear warmers in different colors.

     I was playing on Amazon one night and found these yarns, so I had to have these to make more ear warmers for me.  I love the idea of the neon colors popping up with the neutral, I just hope it knits up as cute as it looks in the skein.  Of course it's Red Heart, the gray is called Rock Candy and the black is called Licorice.

    I'll let you know how they knit up after I get to them.  I have about three colors in front of them.  I'm knitting up a light blue ear warmer right now.

Need to Baste, Use Needle and Thread or Pins, Not Glue

   I am a member of the Quilting Board which is an on-line quilting community.  I am amazed at the number of people on the board that use Elmers School Glue for basting quilt sandwiches, basting English paper piecing papers to fabric, basting seams, and basting zippers.

    I recently read a post by a person who wanted help because they used too much glue on their English Paper Piecing papers and the fabric was stuck to them and wondered how to fix the over use of glue.   It took all I had not to respond that using glue instead of thread to baste was just not smart.

    I have never used Elmers School Glue in my sewing.  If I want to baste something I get a needle and thread and baste it by hand or by machine.  I use large safety pins to pin baste my quilt sandwiches.  That's what sewing is all about, needle, thread and pins.  Not glue.

    I have used fusible interfacing, fleece, and webbing in my sewing.  I have also been intrigued by the two sided tape used to stabilize zippers (Dritz Wash Away Wonder Tape) but I have never used any.

    I would NEVER take the Elmers to my fabric.  Yes, I understand that the glue washes out, but  I think it's gross and really unnecessary.  It makes me wonder if the folks that are using glue don't really like to sew at all.

Make With Leftover Red Yarn

  I found some leftover red yarn.  It was leftover from my Christmas knitted stocking cap that I made last year.  I made two knitted ribbed ear warmers with some of the leftover yarn.  These ear warmers are knitting up very quickly now.  I'm loving this accessory.

   Here is a picture of one of the red ear warmers that I made in the last 7 days.

 

The Fifth Anniversary

    I started this blog on October 17, 2014 to I can keep track of my crafting projects.  I just recently spent a few hours going back over my old posts to see if I had left anything out.  Nope, it's all there, warts and all.

Here are a few items that I recently completed that I want to show you.

   A proper turquoise ear warmer knit with my original ribbed pattern.

 

  Three new shopping bags made from three yards of home decor fabric.

 

   A couple of crocheted cotton coasters.  The top one was made using Jayda in Stitches YouTube video tutorial.  Link here.

 

    I found some extra fall kitchen towels I bought last year and lots of the black cat fabric in my stash and I made some fall hanging dishtowels and potholders for a friend.

    I made another water bottle carrier.  It's too tall but I don't care.  I was playing with resizing the pattern.

    I also made a lovely find on Amazon.  I found these fun needle threaders.  I love the flowers and the pastel colors.  These came in a pack of 50.  I haven't used any of these yet so I don't know how sturdy they are, but the wire feels like it is secure in the plastic flower.

      No update on the hexagon quilt top.  It's in a state of limbo for a while.  I have been finding all manner of small projects between sewing and knitting to take up my quilting time.  I may not start working on it again until next year.

Three More Ear Warmers Done

   I knitted up three more ear warmers in the last couple of weeks along with the turquoise one from the last post.  I picked out yarn for two more and I'm halfway through the first of those two.    I knitted a white one, a mulberry one and a dark blue one.  I'm really loving how I made these.

Double Yarn, Bigger Needles - A Knitting Experiment

   Okay, so I had to try this out.

    Last week I wondered what the ear warmer would be like with double worsted weight yarn using bigger needles.  I took some lovely turquoise acrylic yarn (I'm pretty sure it's Red Heart Super Saver), wound up two balls of it.  I used size 11 - 16 inch circular needles and I cast on 60 stitches.  This is what I ended up with.

 

      I did not double this up like I did with the other ear warmers I made because the yarn was already doubled, but it's not exactly what I thought it would be or what I want.  Now I wonder if I should do this with my size 8 needles or I may need a size 9.  The size 11 needles made the fabric too loose.  I'm not loving it, but this would be helpful under a hat.

     And I have just the hat.

Changed My Mind, Again. Had To Revisit A Recipe

    Last December I made gingerbread cookies.  When I made those cookies I did not enjoy the process of making them because I had to mix the dough by hand and it was difficult.  I also used a recipe that made a lot of cookies (Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond's recipe).  I swore I would never make gingerbread cookies again and I even went so far as to throw away my cookie cutter.  But I really enjoyed the taste of the cookies and after thinking about it, I knew I would be making more gingerbread cookies.

   So this year I made the decision to buy a stand mixer (it was on sale and I love it) to help with the mixing of the dough.  I did some research and found a smaller cookie recipe.  And I got a new gingerbread man cookie cutter.

    I found this recipe on youtube The Stay At Home Chef Gingerbread Cookie Recipe.  The description below the video has a link to the written recipe at their blog but the video is nice because she also gives baking tips.

    I made gingerbread cookies yesterday.  It was an easy recipe to make and the stand mixer worked great.  I was really happy with the cookie dough I made and it yielded 15 cookies.  I did not have any dough left over.  It was all used.  I made some men, some hearts, and two round cookies with leftover dough.  I can't wait to try them and let you know how tasty they are.  The unfrosted cookies are now in the freezer waiting for a special birthday in November.

   This recipe made just enough cookies for me, but it would be easy to double it.  The stand mixer made the process effortless.

   I didn't take any pictures of the cookies because they were so dull looking with no decorations on them.  Just brown cookies.  But I hope they will taste great.

More Knitted Headband/Ear Warmers

   I knitted two more headband/ear warmers.  These are so easy to make and it makes great T.V. knitting for me.  I even took this project out and about shopping with daughter because we had to get her flu shot and I wanted something to do while we waited.  I even knitted while we roamed around the store.  I got a bunch of rows done that day.  I have two more colors of yarn picked out for this project to make a couple of more.  I'm currently knitting this on a size 8 - 16" circular needle.  I wonder what it would be like to knit it on bigger needles with the yarn doubled?  I may have to try that idea.

Knitted Ear Warmer/Headband

       I made a simple ear warmer/headband using my favorite hat pattern.  I modified it a little, I used less stitches.  I started with 90 stitches instead of 100.  Knitted the 3 x 2 rib for about 5", then I bound off and whip stitched the two ends together to double up the knitted fabric and got this.   I'm going to make more in other colors.  This would be perfect to wear under a hat on a really cold day or by itself.

Using Scraps For A Quilted Appliance Cover

    I cut a bunch of 2.5" squares from stash fabrics and made an appliance cover for my new stand mixer that I gave myself for Christmas.  I also used leftover batting scraps.  I enjoyed using up fabric and batting that was just sitting around.  I made a long rectangle (18 rows by 9), quilted it and put two ties on each side.  I love the way this one turned out.

Scrappy Project

    I'm making a scrappy appliance cover for my stand mixer.   I dug through my scrap fabrics and cut up a lot of 2 1/2" squares.  I concentrated on neutrals, white, blue, green, yellow, gray and a little bit of dark brown.  This is the beginning of the my project.  I will be working on this for a while.