Gifting a Quilt
I’ve been very lucky to have a great mother-in-law (MIL). She is very supportive, has raised responsible, kind, independent, and wittingly humorous adults, and she is both the receiver and the giver of a fair amount of said humor. Because of the great human being she is, I decided that gifting a quilt to her was something I wanted to do. My mother-in-law had talked about looking for a quilt for her bed for the spring season. She couldn’t seem to find anything that interested her. Her walls were a light shade of green, almost a pastel apple green. She wanted a bit of that in the quilt, along with…
Throwback Thursday Craft – Fashion Plates
It’s that time again, for Throwback Thursday, crafting style. And again, we’re going back to the 80s to another of my first crafts. Show of hands, who had their very own Fashion Plates set, or at least access to one? You too? Weren’t we all going to be fashion designers with our avant-garde (is that even spelled right?) fashion? LOL. The charcoal holder. The plates of models. The plates of designs to embellish the outfits. The different tops — halters, billowy blouses, tee shirts. The variety of bottoms — skirts, pants, shorts. The “looks” — athletic, romantic, trendy. The different hair styles — pixie cut, long and luscious, a cute…
10 Lessons I Learned from Organizing Pictures
Organizing pictures into 11 different albums is one of my goals this year. Why 11? And why such an audacious goal? My mom has been purging as they are downsizing. One of the items she entrusted me with was her vast array of photos, which for me, are like gold. Priceless. Photos from her childhood, my dad’s childhood, mine and my brothers’ childhoods, their grandkids, their mini trips, among others. How it all started My mom took pictures throughout our lifetime and had them developed from 35mm film (gasp!) and from disc cameras (gasp!). If you’re young enough and don’t know what either of those are, go Google it. Now…
Passing Down a Quilt Legacy
Many moons ago after I had learned how to sew, had sewn my own clothes, tried my hand at a variety of crafts, and I was out on my own, I came across a quilt my mom had started when I was just a kid (which was even more moons prior to my many moons). I wanted her to show me how to make a quilt. Little did I realize at the time that she would be passing down a legacy. The Quilt Beginning She had found a pattern, purchased fabric, cut pieces and started hand piecing it probably in the 1980s. It was continental blue and mauve with a…
Throwback Thursday Craft – Spirograph
Today we’re going to go waaaay back to the 1980s. Those were some good years. Big hair, mullets, matching sock colors to shirt…I could go on and on. {slight eyeroll}. But instead of a throwback on fashion, how about a throwback on crafts? Who remembers some of their first “crafts”? Activities that inspired creativity, and kept you out of mom and dad’s hair? Spirograph I remember one of mine was Spirograph. A series of different sized plastic circles with numbered holes in them that you would place inside another circle and make designs. If you never had one, this makes total sense, right? Here’s what I’m talking about. We had…
The Power of Perseverance
Perseverance – persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success (thank you Google). We’ve all been there. Starting out on our own. In our first apartment. Or buying our first house. Trying to step up our game, because now we’re playing on our own. To show everyone we can do this. And do it well. Like it’s second nature. We DIY’d how many different things? Some we laugh about to this day. Others we still pat ourselves on the back for our ingenuity and brilliance (even if we’re still the only ones who thought it was brilliant). The Brilliant Plan When we moved into our house, we…
4 Quick and Easy Ways to Crochet on Fleece
You know how it feels when you get to combine two things you really love into one? Well, that’s what we are doing today —-we are going to marry cozy fleece and fun yarns by using crochet on fleece I learned this simple technique a few years ago. By crocheting around the perimeter of a piece of fleece, it gives an already cute fleece design just a bit more character and charm. Prepping to Crochet on Fleece You start with a piece of fleece. For a blanket, I would recommend at least a 1-yard piece, and really anything up to a 2-yard piece. After cutting off the selvages, straightening up…
What to do when you bite off more than you can chew
Have you ever been up for a challenge, went with it, and conquered it, but maybe not in the prettiest way? Let me introduce you to my first quilt….still a UFO (UnFinished Object). We had just moved into our new home a month before when I decided I wanted to start my own quilt. I mean, what better idea to have when the packing boxes are still kinda, sorta, there. I’m full of brilliant ideas like this! I had previously worked on a quilt with my mom. You can read about that in Passing Down a Quilt Legacy. But with my newfound quilting knowledge, I wanted to pursue one on…
Organizing Yarn: An Organizer’s 5 tips (plus a bonus tip) for Keeping a Yarn Stash Under Control
Organizing yarn can be a daunting task. Are you acquiring yarn as a result of your new crochet or knitting hobby? Maybe the hobby isn’t so “new” and you’ve curated a yarn collection. Either way I have 5 tips to share from my own yarn stash organization. My yarn organization took on a life of its own when I started acquiring way more yarn than I knew what to do with. It started with a tote here and a box there. And then it turned into multiple containers overfilled with yarn. Eventually, I graduated to the level of yarn connoisseur with dozens of containers of yarn. While my yarn projects…
Hooked with Love, Paying It Forward (crochet prayer shawl)
A crochet prayer shawl is a great service project and way to give back, or pay it forward. In thinking about the prayer shawls I’ve made it gets me thinking about really “seeing” people. When was the last time you really looked someone in the eye? Maybe a person you don’t know very well, or even at all. As you’re passing through the hallway, really looked them in the eye and smiled? Not in an awkward way, just really “saw” someone. Today’s post helps me to help someone who is feeling alone. Maybe forgotten. Maybe they have even forgotten who they are. Maybe they have a form of dementia or…
