So many hobbies!

Decisions, decisions

This coming weekend, the girl's of my family are having a craft weekend.  We'll all meet at my parents' place and craft our brains out.  If the fabric I ordered arrives on time (it's coming from the west coast, Yen), then I'll be started my Christmas quilt.  I ordered these fat quarters for the greens.  I'll be doing a variation of the Log Cabin quilt.  Mostly green and white with red centers.  I'm hoping the fabric comes in at least by Thursday so I can start cutting.  It would be nice if I could have the cutting done and just start sewing when I get to my parents' place.  I'm still deciding on whether or not to use just plain white fabric or white fabric with white pattern.  I like the idea of white with a white print but I already have plenty of plain white fabric.  I have to weigh the look of the printed fabric over the cost of said fabric.  It's a toss up.

Craft weekend

I've been trying to write a post for a while now and nothing's coming out.  The only thing I've done tonight was wind that 700 yards of yarn into a ball and watch more Doctor Who.  Not really anything blogable.  I'm heading to my parents' this weekend for a craft weekend.  My dad is going to teach me to cane chairs.  He's got a couple of chairs that had needlepointed cushions when they bought them but the seats had worn out.  So, Dad took the old seats off, cleaned up the chairs, sanded and varnished them and they're all ready for my first caning lesson.  The chairs' original seats were caned so they're already ready for new caning.  And that is all I have to blog about.  Not very exciting but there it is.  I'm kind of hoping to drive to Frankenmuth and Bronners on Saturday to buy a few Old World Christmas ornaments but I don't know if there will be time. 

Ach!  I need to go to bed.  I've been cranky all day.  All morning I'd been thinking it was Friday only to get jolted when I realized it was Thursday.  Thank goodness I didn't pay my bills thinking I'd gotten paid this morning.  Tomorrow should be better.  I think I'll order some new knitting needles for my new shawl.  (I need size 11 needles.)

Embroidery

Once upon a time, I was a Medieval re-creationist in the Society of Creative Anachronism.  I get a huge thrill out of being creative and making beautiful things so I made a fair amount of the trim for my garb.

 

I'm also a big fan of Celtic knotwork and since my persona was Welsh, I embroidered several sets of knotwork trim for the cuffs of my dresses.  Actually, I'm not sure how big knotwork was in Medieval Wales but I loved it so I made it.  This set never got used.  (Hey, Yen, would you make me a shirt with this trim on it?)

 

In case you haven't noticed, I'm big on the fiber arts; I was also into blackwork embroidery.  This is a sampler I did trying out some new patterns.  My favorite is the one on the far left.

 

And last of all, I made a couple of patches displaying my SCA Coat of Arms:

 

I've found embroidery ends up looking pretty good if you're a touch obsessive compulsive.  My friends thought I was nuts but hey, my stuff looked GOOD!   

Two down...

 

The Sweetheart Bag is finished.  Yay!  I'm happy with how the embroidery turned out but the shape of the bag isn't quite right.  My niece is 6 so hopefully she won't care.  The flap keeps flopping open so I may add some hook&loop tape to keep it closed.  Not sure yet.  Embroidery is one of my older hobbies but I haven't done much of it in quite a while.  I had fun digging through my embroidery storage box and finding past projects.  I'll dig some of them out later this week to show you.

Having good quality tools makes working on a project so much more enjoyable.  I bought these scissors probably ten years ago and I still love them.  I've used them for embroidery, sewing, beading, knitting...  Gingher makes a darn fine pair of scissors!

 

My Saturday of learning new skills didn't get very far.  Eric had company and didn't have time to have tubes knitted so we could get started and I foolishly stayed up 'til 2am reading and was too tired to really get into the learning.  I did learn how to pick up stitches though and Eric printed off a tutorial on afterthought heels.  I can probably figure out the toe and the heel but I'm going to need Eric to babysit me through Kitchnering seams.  I learn by seeing then doing; reading about the technique is useless for me.

Two Christmas projects down and one to go.  I've got the yarn I'm going to use and a bright, shiney new pair of size 8 straight needles for the project.  I'm all set for the long Thanksgiving weekend.  I'll likely spend a great deal of it on the couch, watching movies and knitting.  I can't wait!

Fitted sheets

A couple of years ago, I bought these gorgeous red cotton sheets.  Unfortunately, after using them and washing them the first time, the bottom sheet pilled terribly.  I returned them, got a new set and the same thing happened with the second set.  By then, the store no longer carried that brand and I'd lost the receipt anyway so I couldn't return them.  (BTW, it was only the red sheets that had the pilling problem - the other colors were just fine.  Go figure.)  Since then, I've been looking for a bottom sheet that is either the same shade of red or has a pattern in other colors (like white and blue or green) that would work.  I like the red sheets too much to just toss them.  I've had no luck whatsoever finding decent cotton sheets that matched and I don't want to just use a white sheet 'cause that would be boring.  The new plan is to buy a white sheet and tie-dye it blue so I have a sheet set again only this time in red, white and blue.  I'm going to do the same thing only in dark green to go with a green set I've had long enough that the bottom sheet is wearing thin.  The top sheet and pillowcases are perfectly good so why throw them out and buy an entire new set.  Now I just need to find someplace that sells sheet separates.  I struck out with Kohls but I haven't tried anyplace else as yet.  I just got the tie-dyeing idea a few hours ago.