I stopped by Bella Beads for some quick inspirations.
Simple knotted hemp with striped beads and silver shell button. I plan to remake this so it wraps around twice. I love how the ruby zoisite turned out braided with black leather. The last project is my first one with memory wire. It used curved tubes and Swarovski pearls.
After the hat and 3 sock knitting frenzy and an attack of a virus I had a run of knitting and spinning doldrums. I tried some sewing and made a few demented bags which I'm not happy with, practiced using the rolled hemmers and tried a new project, getting pictures on fabric with gel medium. I will not admit to how many hours I've spent surfing Ravelry and Pinterest in search of inspirations.
I watched numerous videos on how easy or hard it is to make a rolled hem with my Horizon sewing machine and so far I have not been too successful. I am thinking the fabric has to be a little stiff to make it work and that the endings and beginnings are never going to be "perfect". More practice is needed here.
I found numerous videos and tutorials on transferring pictures to fabric. Way back when, I took a picture quilting class. The instructor had us tape pictures to a a paper and we sent it off and had the pictures printed on fabric. I subsequently tried out the various home printing methods, all of which require an inkjet printer. The Landcaster has me networked to a laser printer, but apparently the high heat of a laser printer will not work with the easily available printable fabric. I called around and Kinko's no longer prints on fabric and the other print on flag or canvas fabric and have a $40 dollar minimum. So I tried the gel medium which works with laser printed images. I couldn't get all the paper to come off without removing important parts of the pictures so I've put this craft on the back burner.
A more successful project was Mary's Stilettos. Bob knows I have a lot of beads and Pricebusters had the turkey trussing pins. I wasn't sure what kind of glue to use so I tried E6000 and GS Hypo cement. So far both seem to be holding. The stiletto comes in handy getting the thread when it comes up from the bobbin and holding down seams while sewing.
Frogging and stash organizing were a little more mindless. I keep scanning the net for not only ways to keep the bobbin threads from coming undone in the box and tangling up, but also ways to keep those little balls of left over sock yarn from tangling up and become messy. It could be the Totoros come out at night and play with the yarn, because I don't have cat... I have admired all the Babette's out there and projects of epic proportion using left over sock yarn. All I can say is I'm not worthy...
Shirley from my quilting group does so many crafts. She has found the perfect use for the polyester from the 70's. This stuff never dies and never fades. It was heck to wear as did not breathe. But it made this cool rug. Shirley cut the fabric into 2 inch squares, a feat in itself, then sewed them down to a backing creating a rug that will never die and never fade.
This image of JT for those of us who remember will never fade.
I also pieced the Island Batik Strip Tease Pack, adding the black blocks. There are many tutorials on this quick piecing method. It's about a 60 inch square so I'm not going to sash or border it, just bind it. I'm looking in to sending it out for quilting.
Pattern: Socks on a Plane by Laura Linneman from La La's Knits. Yarn: Socks that Rock, Tourmaline Needles: Size 3 Mods: CO 48 stitches. Comments: This is a very nice toe up sock pattern with a very simple cable. The yarn, while scrumptious, made for a very heavy sock, more like a boot or bed sock. The pooling did not match up so I just had to go with the flow. I used Judy's magic CO and Jeny's stretchy bind off.
The socks are a bit big for me as I knit a size six. They still look pretty large.
