September Craft thread

[Melissa in Australia]

What are you working on this month? 

[Jane in NC]

Thanks for starting the thread, Melissa.

Admittedly not a lot of crafting going on in my world at the moment. I have my usual knitting/sewing/embroidery projects underway but I'm not making a lot of progress due to a series of positive distractions. I'll report more after I get back on track.

On another note...I am thinking about some projects that I would like to undertake before the holidays. I don't do anything quickly so l need to start working! One gift project I am considering is the Wildwood Vest from Helen's Closet using wool that has been living in my stash for a while.

Does anyone have any fall crafting plans?

Edited September 6, 2023 by Jane in NC

[Faith-manor]

I don't have pictures but I will in a few days. I have a large Arbor floral arrangement to make for a wedding on Sept. 16. After that with the hope that harvest season will be winding down and so will be done in the kitchen, I will be making to Halloween throw quilts and some autumn colored throw covers for the couch pillows as well as a table runner. I will post of pictures of each one as I get them done.

[kbutton]

I am *this close* to finishing the biscornu (buster my bum to finish the stitching), but it requires finding some scraps of white fabric, attaching buttons I am not fond of (I think they are a bit large for the project, but I couldn’t find smaller), and stuffing it (I am not particularly good at getting it smooth).

All that to say, my official craft is likely to be procrastination.

Or maybe it’s the catalyst to get me to finish my simply designed Christmas tree skirt (really just needs a hem). 

[Mona]

Last time I posted that I was working on 2 quilt-alongs. I completed piecing the Meadowlands top, but fell way behind on the mystery quilt. The finishing was all appliqué and I didn’t get to the Hexie blocks. I’m setting that aside for now and have to post a picture later. 

Ive been wanting to make clothing and always thought that my first project would be something like pajama pants, but last month my dd needed a tie for her school uniform cosplay for comic-con, so I found a free pattern and video online and got that done just in time. 

Currently, I would like to have four quilts done by Christmas, so I have 2 more tops to piece, and I am planning on joining Moda Blockheads 5 weekly quilt block for round one that ends in November, so I’m thinking I could use Christmas fabrics. It started today if you’re interested in joining.

Also, if you like making dresses for girls, September is Project Dress A Girl month and one participant shared an easy dress pattern to use. Dresses are distributed to Canada, US, and UK.  I might give it a try. The pattern is a girls size 4-5, but they are collecting dresses for sizes 6 months to 14. 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Mona

[Faith-manor]

12 minutes ago, Mona said:

Last time I posted that I was working on 2 quilt-alongs. I completed piecing the Meadowlands top, but fell way behind on the mystery quilt. The finishing was all appliqué and I didn’t get to the Hexie blocks. I’m setting that aside for now and have to post a picture later. 

Ive been wanting to make clothing and always thought that my first project would be something like pajama pants, but last month my dd needed a tie for her school uniform cosplay for comic-con, so I found a free pattern and video online and got that done just in time. 

Currently, I would like to have four quilts done by Christmas, so I have 2 more tops to piece, and I am planning on joining Moda Blockheads 5 weekly quilt block for round one that ends in November, so I’m thinking I could use Christmas fabrics. It started today if you’re interested in joining.

Also, if you like making dresses for girls, September is Project Dress A Girl month and one participant shared an easy dress pattern to use. Dresses are distributed to Canada, US, and UK.  I might give it a try. The pattern is a girls size 4-5, but they are collecting dresses for sizes 6 months to 14. 

 

 

Wow, I think I will take part in this as soon as the wedding is over. I have a lot of cute prints and could make simple, but adorable dresses. Thanks for posting!

[Kareni]

Sending good wishes your way, @Melissa in Australia.

I recently finished several more bookmarks.

The A Hotel is a Place bookmark will be a Christmas gift for my sister. My sister and I were raised in hotels as our father was a hotel manager and our mother, in our early years, was in charge of housekeeping. The book, by comedian Shelley Berman, is one that my father would sometimes give to disgruntled guests.

The Martian is a favorite book of mine, so I made this bookmark for me.

Fronts ~

Backs ~

Regards,

Kareni

[Kareni]

When I made this post on the board ~ What would be on your 'Ideal Bookshelf'? [Any new takers?] ~ I also asked family and friends what they would put on their Ideal Bookshelves. 

One college friend mentioned having been quite taken by The Soul of an Octopus. She said that she could no longer eat octopus after having read the book. Thus the bookmark for her. The octopus came from a card, and the other illustrations were from gift wrapping paper.

A high school era friend wrote back saying, "The World Almanac -- the 1968 version -- sat atop a bookshelf along with the Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedia at the end of a hallway by my bedroom.  I stumbled across this book around the time I was ten or so (1971?) and it was easily the book I read the most in my pre-teen and early teen years.  It was a window on so much of the world.  I was fascinated to read about different states, countries, flags, Olympic medalists, election results, and tons of other statistics and information.   I suppose it was the internet of our day.   It didn’t dawn on me until 1974 that it was possible to buy an updated almanac and that life didn’t end in 1968.  I remember devouring the new 1975 almanac I received for Christmas in 1974."

l had a lot of fun making his bookmark! I went looking in thrift stores but was not at all surprised to not find the book. I asked the reference librarian at the bigger city nearby for help thinking she might be able to use some internet skills to find some interior pages. Imagine my surprise when she said, "Just a minute" and looked something up on her terminal. A few minutes later, I was holding a copy of the 1968 World almanac! Evidently the library has some 120 different volumes in the back. Who would have guessed! I copied a few pages and used snippets for the bookmark. There was much more information I'd have loved to include. Who knew that a doctor's house call cost less than ten dollars in 1968?

The bigger city nearby also has a store for artists/teachers/etc that is filled with recycled goods. The front of the store sells some finished artworks as well as some priced materials such as partially used Prismacolor pencils, paints, tiles, fabric, and more. The back of the store has the world's supply of toilet paper rolls plus tubs of greeting card fronts, game bits, used pencils and crayons, small pieces of fabric, and more. I went through a tub of stamps there and found the pair with the 1968 postmark as well as the unused stamp released in 1968. All the materials in the back of the store are pay what you wish and free for teachers.

I also included clip art I found online and colorful cars that were from a Father's Day card I'd given my husband.

Fronts ~

Backs ~

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Miss Tick]

1 hour ago, Kareni said:

Sending good wishes your way, @Melissa in Australia.

I recently finished several more bookmarks.

The A Hotel is a Place bookmark will be a Christmas gift for my sister. My sister and I were raised in hotels as our father was a hotel manager and our mother, in our early years, was in charge of housekeeping. The book, by comedian Shelley Berman, is one that my father would sometimes give to disgruntled guests.

The Martian is a favorite book of mine, so I made this bookmark for me.

Fronts ~

Backs ~

Regards,

Kareni

I love the both these bookmarks and their stories! You really have a talent here.

 

“I wonder what he's thinking right now.” LOG ENTRY: SOL 61 How come Aquaman can control whales? They're mammals! Makes no sense. -Andy Weir, The Martian.

[Kareni]

1 hour ago, Miss Tick said:

“I wonder what he's thinking right now.” LOG ENTRY: SOL 61 How come Aquaman can control whales? They're mammals! Makes no sense. -Andy Weir, The Martian.

There were so many good quotes in the Martian! I squeezed in as many as I could, but I ran out of space.

Regards,

Kareni

[Dmmetler]

I'm working on a miniature haunted house/party. I joined a dollhouse crafting from household/recycled items group and am having a lot of fun with it. These are all the scale for the Calico Critters/Sylvanian Families that we just happened to have around.

Lab equipment made from pieces of eyedroppers, beads. Buttons, and a skull from a mini skeleton garland from dollar tree. The shelf is a Barbie shoe rack.

Thr lab table is a matchbox, pieces from a mini Jenga game, and glass tiles. 

 

 

The potion bottles, test tubes, beakers and flasks are made from eyedroppers and stuffed with beads. The shelf came holding little wood cutouts. 

 

 

The "crystal ball" is a broken automobile turn signal bulb, set in air dry clay inside a key ring. 

 

 

The parlor furniture is made from more Jenga pieces and wood bits. The vanity came from a My Little Pony Ponyville set...I think. 

The snacks are made from glue sticks, craft sticks, bamboo skewers, printed labels, and poker chips. 

 

The cake is made from the top of a Walgreens prescription bottle, covered with air dry clay and decorated with little fingernail decorations and beads. The plate of cookies is another poker chip, and the cookies are more little fingernail decorations. 

 

 

Edited September 6, 2023 by Dmmetler

[Vida Winter]

I was inspired to try some embroidery from this Etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1214494078/upcycled-boro-sashiko-denim-patch?click_key=53c0013859b7a7ac4c0647606ee710f683364852%3A1214494078&click_sum=20432e69&ref=hp_rf-1

[Melissa in Australia]

1 hour ago, Dmmetler said:

I'm working on a miniature haunted house/party. I joined a dollhouse crafting from household/recycled items group and am having a lot of fun with it. These are all the scale for the Calico Critters/Sylvanian Families that we just happened to have around.

Lab equipment made from pieces of eyedroppers, beads. Buttons, and a skull from a mini skeleton garland from dollar tree. The shelf is a Barbie shoe rack.

Thr lab table is a matchbox, pieces from a mini Jenga game, and glass tiles. 

 

 

The potion bottles, test tubes, beakers and flasks are made from eyedroppers and stuffed with beads. The shelf came holding little wood cutouts. 

 

 

The "crystal ball" is a broken automobile turn signal bulb, set in air dry clay inside a key ring. 

 

 

The parlor furniture is made from more Jenga pieces and wood bits. The vanity came from a My Little Pony Ponyville set...I think. 

The snacks are made from glue sticks, craft sticks, bamboo skewers, printed labels, and poker chips. 

 

The cake is made from the top of a Walgreens prescription bottle, covered with air dry clay and decorated with little fingernail decorations and beads. The plate of cookies is another poker chip, and the cookies are more little fingernail decorations. 

 

 

So cute 

[Mona]

2 hours ago, Vida Winter said:

I was inspired to try some embroidery from this Etsy shop:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1214494078/upcycled-boro-sashiko-denim-patch?click_key=53c0013859b7a7ac4c0647606ee710f683364852%3A1214494078&click_sum=20432e69&ref=hp_rf-1

I love the look of sashiko! 

[Cecropia]

My son wanted a tie dye Led Zeppelin shirt, but only size small was left available.  I picked up a shirt, cut it up, and appliqued sections onto an apron.  He also requested a fig leaf embroidered onto the Icarus character in an... um... sensitive area.  I was thinking of you often, Melissa, as I worked on it.

 

[Melissa in Australia]

Looks absolutely amazing 

[Kidlit]

I was going to wait and share this later in the month but decided to go ahead since I had snapped a picture to send to friends and family.  This is the first installment of a stitch-a-long.  I'm really enjoying this one!c

[Faith-manor]

10 hours ago, Cecropia said:

My son wanted a tie dye Led Zeppelin shirt, but only size small was left available.  I picked up a shirt, cut it up, and appliqued sections onto an apron.  He also requested a fig leaf embroidered onto the Icarus character in an... um... sensitive area.  I was thinking of you often, Melissa, as I worked on it.

 

This is great!

[Miss Tick]

11 hours ago, Cecropia said:

My son wanted a tie dye Led Zeppelin shirt, but only size small was left available.  I picked up a shirt, cut it up, and appliqued sections onto an apron.  He also requested a fig leaf embroidered onto the Icarus character in an... um... sensitive area.  I was thinking of you often, Melissa, as I worked on it.

 

This it's fabulous! I hope he happily makes you some hot dogs with tangerines and Custard Pie for dessert!

[Cecropia]

3 hours ago, Miss Tick said:

This it's fabulous! I hope he happily makes you some hot dogs with tangerines and Custard Pie for dessert!

He did grill some hot dogs this week for us 🙂

[Faith-manor]

I will be doing some quilting this coming week, but what I have been working on all the way through the summer was on event planning and decorating for another wedding, a young woman, former rocket set on our rocket team who is LGBTQ and has been abandoned by her own parents due to religious differences. She is very precious to us, a wonderful human being whom we love very much, so when she asked us to step into that parent role, we accepted. It was a great honor, and I am so glad that everything turned out well. Lots of work. It was mostly live flowers transported in 5 gallon buckets, but also silks for the arbor because I didn't have the ability to do that out of live flowers the day before due to lack of refrigeration for something that size along with everything else. I didn't have room to do the bridal bouquets, so I asked a local florist that I know well if I could purchase all of the flowers through her, and then work with her to design and assemble the bouquets, but leave them In her refrigerator until time to transport. She was happy to do that for me. So here are a few photos. They are not good ones. Mark has WAY better ones. But, they all had the happy couple or their bridal party in the background and also with some close up. I don't have permission to post those so you have to live with my on the run, crappy, not great cell phone pics.

[Melissa in Australia]

Lovely 

[Mona]

@Faith-manor You did a fabulous job! The floral arrangements and arbor are beautiful. I love the colors.

You are quickly becoming the go-to person for weddings.

[Miss Tick]

So pretty, @Faith-manor  !

[Faith-manor]

3 hours ago, Mona said:

@Faith-manor You did a fabulous job! The floral arrangements and arbor are beautiful. I love the colors.

You are quickly becoming the go-to person for weddings.

Thank you! I am tired. I have had three weddings this summer after a dry spell of a few years of none. It is what happens when your kids all get into that mid-twenty-mid-thirty marrying age or all of their friends get married. I am ready to just putter around my raised beds, get them ready for winter, make a Halloween quilt, and slow down for a little bit.

[Emba]

Months ago I decided to make quilt for my son, and posted about it here. Then I messed around not working on it much, just not feeling motivated. Then I realized his birthday is next week and I needed to get in gear if I wanted to make it a birthday present. Working on as deadline really motivated me, and I May actually  get it done in time.

 It’s quilt as you go, and all of the blocks are finished now. I still need to connect them with sashing, then bind the finished quilt. And make a label.

[Melissa in Australia]

Looks really terrific 

[Emba]

And I forgot this quilt is reversible, so the other side looks like this:

 

And actually now he is more excited about this side ( it is not a surprise quilt, just a surprise that it will be presented on his birthday).  Makes me wonder why I bothered with piecing  the other side! But actually the other side is like my ideal quilt, lots of dark blue and bright colors, so I enjoyed it regardless.

[Melissa in Australia]

I think you are very cleaver to get both sides to work.. I have tried reverse quilt and always end up with the bottom side having same colours beside each other to make the top work. 

[Emba]

22 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

I think you are very cleaver to get both sides to work.. I have tried reverse quilt and always end up with the bottom side having same colours beside each other to make the top work. 

Ha ha, well, it hasn’t worked until I’m finished! I did just spend a ridiculous amount of time arranging blocks, flipping them over, arranging the back, then rearranging the front just a bit more. Now I have to figure out a way to pick them up and put them away, while still maintaining the ability to reproduce the arrangement. 🤔

[kbutton]

40 minutes ago, Emba said:

Ha ha, well, it hasn’t worked until I’m finished! I did just spend a ridiculous amount of time arranging blocks, flipping them over, arranging the back, then rearranging the front just a bit more. Now I have to figure out a way to pick them up and put them away, while still maintaining the ability to reproduce the arrangement. 🤔

Take a picture?

[Emba]

Just now, kbutton said:

Take a picture?

I was going to, but I forgot. What I did is put a piece of masking tape on each block, numbered with the row/column: 1/1, 1/2, 1/3, etc. When I start to put them together I’ll lay out a couple of rows at a time and make sure all the stickers are properly oriented, and check it against my original design diagram before sewing. I figure it’sa lot of double checking but a stitch in time saves unpicking nine,

[Emba]

On 9/6/2023 at 4:21 PM, Dmmetler said:

I'm working on a miniature haunted house

So cute! I love tiny things.

[Emba]

@Dmmetler also your diorama reminded me of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death created by Frances Glessner Lee in the 1940s.  They were created as forensic training tools, and though some of the parts of the dioramas were created by a paid carpenter (Frances was a very wealthy woman) she also used lots of household items to make the miniatures.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/home-where-corpse-frances-glessner-lees-miniature-dollhouse-crime-scenes-180965204/
 

i read a book about them awhile back, and it was fascinating. Also interesting that she was homeschooled (in a very “wealthy scion of late 18th/early 19th century industry” way, by tutors).

 

[kbutton]

17 hours ago, Emba said:

@Dmmetler also your diorama reminded me of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death created by Frances Glessner Lee in the 1940s.  They were created as forensic training tools, and though some of the parts of the dioramas were created by a paid carpenter (Frances was a very wealthy woman) she also used lots of household items to make the miniatures.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/home-where-corpse-frances-glessner-lees-miniature-dollhouse-crime-scenes-180965204/
 

i read a book about them awhile back, and it was fascinating. Also interesting that she was homeschooled (in a very “wealthy scion of late 18th/early 19th century industry” way, by tutors).

 

Stuff You Missed in History has a podcast about her!

[Emba]

I finished the quilt! I really love how both sides have turned out, which is great because my younger son’s will have many of the same backing fabrics.

I used a lot of scraps for the front, some from projects nearly twenty years ago. Even the backing pieces were mostly leftovers from projects or things I bought but didn’t use (for years). I only had to buy batting, the gray sashing, and one and a third yards of blues for the half-square triangles on the front side. Oh, and the binding is purchased. I could have made it but decided to save myself the trouble.

 This is the biggest quilt I’ve quilted on my home machine. The quilt as you go method I used had some drawbacks, but I do really like that I could do it all on my home machine with a minimum of wrangling large wads of fabric around my machine.  But by the end it was still a lot of bulk to work with.

Edited September 27, 2023 by Emba

[Melissa in Australia]

Absolutely stunning