Here is today’s Advent stocking:
Advent Stocking: Dec. 2
Each stocking will have a little red or green card with a thought or activity for each day. I don’t have them all planned yet, but today’s is about writing a letter to Santa, but also making a list of people we want to give gifts to and what we want to make for them.
Of course, they all have chocolate of some sort :). Today’s also has a little Christmas pencil set complete with pencil, pencil sharpener, notepad, eraser, and ruler.
tagged: Advent, Christmas, Craft, felt, Sewing, stockings
One highlight of the Christmas/Advent season is the inspiration it lends towards the creative. Of course, this inspiration comes at the same time as all the other preparations for the season so it becomes something of a challenge to find the time–more so than normal it seems.
Last year for Advent I made a set of 24 mini stockings for days 1 – 24 of December. The project was mostly finished in that there are 24 stockings made and about half of them are decorated. I hope this year I can get the other half decorated. Here is the one for today, December 1:
Advent Stocking: Dec. 1
The stockings are made with cream and blue felt. The stitching is a blanket-type machine stitch with red rayon embroidery thread. The stockings alternate colors: odd numbers are cream with blue cuffs and even numbers are blue with cream cuffs.
More on this project tomorrow…
tagged: Advent, Christmas, Craft, felt, Sewing, stockings
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Just one, really:
To use up my craft and sewing stash and refrain from buying new stuff for the entire year.
This includes all the various pieces in my fabric stash, craft supplies, and craft and sewing books.
Before Christmas, as the economy was heading down the toilet, I stepped back and took a look at all the stuff I had. I have a lot of stuff. I’ve been collecting craft and sewing stuff for at least 25 years. Maybe longer. The stash reduction contest this past summer inspired me to take that idea a step further. I don’t need to buy new supplies. I need to use what I have.
Realistically, I expect to get through about 6 months of crafting and sewing from my stash. Then I’ll have a new little baby to deal with, along with my adorable preschooler. I expect I’ll have to put a bit of that on hold for a while. To keep me honest, I’ll post my progress here and you can read along. Are you working from your stash? What’s the oldest piece you have in your stash? What creative challenges are you facing with dealing with your stash? Do share.
tagged: Craft, new year, resolution, Sewing, stash
Did I just say that? Well, for St. Valentine’s Day, I offer up these amigurumi-style hearts I’ve designed. I hope to have an Instructable up in the next day or so and will post the pattern here, as well.
Happy St. Valentine’s Day! Enjoy!
Update: The instructable mentioned above is posted here and it’s accompanying slide show posted here on Instructables.com. Both were entered in the Valentine’s Day contest and the Lion Brand Yarn contest. No luck in either, but it was still a fun project.
tagged: Amigurumi, Craft, Crochet, hearts, instructable, softies, valentines
About a week ago I was perusing Craft: magazine’s website/blog. I came across their collection of posts on softies and amigurumi. The amigurumi they featured really caught my attention and, well, I was hooked. Amigurumi, as I understand it, is a Japanese style of soft toy created primarily by crochet but also by knitting. Amigurumi are usually crocheted in the round, as a continuous spiral, using the single crochet (US) stitch. The three-dimensional shape comes from increasing and decreasing stitches within a round. I’ve been into crochet for quite some time. I’ve never really cared for most crocheted dolls or animals, but the amigurumi style critters really appealed to me. They’re just so cute. They have a simple form and really accentuate the “toddler” or “infant” proportions: big head, tiny body. So this mouse represents my first foray into the world of amigurumi. I came across the pattern via a list of links on Squidoo (which I found via Google, of course). The pattern was created by KristieDM and posted on Crochetville.org. She has other really cute amigurumi patterns on her site: http://kristieskids.weebly.com.
I had so much fun making this little mouse. He’s made from worsted weight blue yarn (that’s what I grabbed from my stash). I think it might have been Red Heart brand–lost the wrapper a long time ago. It took me all of an evening to make it. Such a fun, little, near-instant gratification project and my son thinks it’s a neat little toy to play with–fit’s so nicely in his hands. Since making this mouse, I’ve tried my hands at a couple of other critters and also have tried making my own designs. More on that later.
tagged: Amigurumi, Craft, Crochet, mice, mouse, softies
