My first knitting project

I’m also learning how to knit.  This is the scarf that I am making.  It’s not yet finished.  It’s going to be very long.  All of it is done in garter stitch

My first jacket

I am learning how to sew clothes …. finally. I never thought I would get there. The first Saturday of every month I have a sewing class. This is a picture of the first jacket I have ever made.

ARRRRRRRRRRGH!!!!!!

My sewing machine broke   I am bummed.  I was almost finished with the skirt I was making and then it broke.  I have to find a reliable place to take it to for repairs.  Hopefully I get it back before sewing class next month.  Not that I don’t have anything else to do …..

The Caricature Signature

When a friend of mine was a kid, she had a caricature signature.  It’s a really cute stick figure.  Occassionally, I see her doodle it.  The last time I saw her doodle it, I took it from her, scanned it into my computer, and imported the scanned image into my cross stitch pattern maker software.  From the software I got a cross stitch pattern of her caricature signature.  I cross stitched the caricature, 1 over 1 on 28 count even weave fabric.  Then I made it into a small wallhanging.  I gave it to her today .. it was her birthday.  I can’t show a picture of it here because it’s her signature.  But when she opened the gift, I could tell she was really touched.  Happy birthday buddy!

Inspiration Round 2? – another possibility…

Today I was at Walmart with two other friends of mine.  I saw a 9 inch diameter styrofoam ball …. 

That’s a BIG temari ball …. <giggle>

The story:

The director of our division where I work, has started an art hall.  It is the hallway leading to his office.  He has solicited people to hang up their artwork.  The only problem is that one of the walls is just a huge window, the other wall that is opposite to it gets all the sun.  So anything that gets hung up on that wall, will just get faded by the sun over time.  Not many people are going to want to showcase their artwork on that wall.  Now, since the other wall is mainly window, there isn’t much wallspace left to hang anything up.  However, there is always the ceiling.

So, I hung up one temari ball in every corner of the hallway.  However, they are small and they are somewhat difficult to see, but not impossible.  And I did hang them up rather high because I didn’t know how high the sun would hit the room during sunrise.  Someone suggested I make them bigger …. <giggle>

We’ll see ….. but I have no intention of spending $10.00 on a 9 inch styrofoam ball.  It’s just styrofoam ….

Inspiration Round 2?

I friend of mine retired at the end of January this year.  When she was cleaning out, she gave me these:

I’m thinking tiny temari ball – we’ll see …

Inspiration – Part VII

The finished piece:

Inspiration – Part VI

So the challenge here was to create some kind of casing around the charm from which I can suspend the tassel.   I accomplished this by beading around the circumference of the charm.   I used silamide string to create a circle of approximately 38 galvanized gold delicas.   To hold the shape of the circle so that it framed the pendant nicely, I inserted beadwire – worked like a charm – uh – no pun intended.   Similarly, I beaded another circle, but with two beads less.   The one with two beads less was put on the back of the charm.   Because of the thickness of the metal plate on which the charm is mounted, I used a few delicas to create a space between the two circles and which sewed the two circles together.   They are the beads which look like they stick out of the circle of beads in the picture.   When the spacer beads were put in, it created the groove I needed for the pendant to rest inside between the two circles.   The regular spacing of the spacer beads themselves around the beaded circles prevented the charm from falling out.

I must say, I now have a newfound respect for designers.   It took me well over 24 hours to figure out the casing on the pendant.

So from the photo you can see what the rest of the tassel looks like.   I made a butterfly chinese knot because of the butterfly in the pendant.   I made it out of rattail that I had purchased from some local craft store.   The two ends of the knot lent itself easily to making a double tassel out of DMC floss.   I chose a color of DMC that most closely matched the cell phone string so that the cell phone string blended well with the rest of the ball.   Didn’t have much choice with the color of the butterfly, but I think the color complemented the rest of the ball nicely.

Inspiration – Part V

The is the finished temari ball …. it has plum blossoms like the charm on the cell phone string.

So, all I need to do now is make the tassel.

Inspiration – Part IV

You can start seeing the blossoms starting to form …