Arts N Crafts Canada

My sculpting attempt

2010-04-05T20:40:00.000-04:00

One of my many hobbies is doll making. I paint baby dolls, and I desperately want to be able to sculpt dolls. I have studied and studied and studied. I took one class that didn't result in anything wonderful, made a second attempt shortly afterwards that was almost as bad, and now I'm finally giving it a proper try. I didn't have any eyes that were the right size, and I really wanted to do an open eye sculpt, so I just put two clay balls in and I will have to paint something proper later on. I have photoshopped in some eyes in the meantime, so my little elf doesn't look too scary (even though he's just a head right now).

This is where I am at right now. I hope to show much better sculpts in the future, but we all have to start somewhere...

More rag quilts

2010-01-19T21:20:00.000-05:00

This is the chenille quilt that I was making in the tutorial.

This is a smaller rag quilt that I made for a boy. It is made with fleece and ribbed cotton.

These blankets can be seen on my website http://www.weewrapbabies.com/.

Making strip quilts

2010-01-18T23:14:00.001-05:00

This is a bit of a tutorial, but I always forget that I am supposed to take pictures, so it isn't complete. You will get to see my mistakes because they are documented here, lol.

Needed:

Various fabrics

Ruler

Rotary Tool

Cutting Mat

Thread

Scissors, preferably spring loaded ones

Once you have your fabric washed and ready, line up the raw edges and smooth the fabric out onto the mat. Line your ruler up on the raw edge (not shown) and cut a straight line as close to the edge as possible. This is already done in the photo below, but you can see that the ruler is sitting on a very straight edge.

Then, line your ruler up on the new edge and cut the next strip. I was cutting my strips the width of the ruler, which is 6.5". If your squares are going to be larger than 6" between sewn edges, you don't use the strip method.

Continue cutting strips until you have all you want or you run out of fabric. I was just cutting strips on this day.

Once you have all of your strips cut, choose which fabric will be the front and which will be the back and arrange them like I have below. This is where you will see my first mistake, which I didn't notice until much later. I number the pieces to try and make it easer to explain....

Once your pieces are all sewn, you will cut and reverse the strips (you will see this below), so you need to use an even number of strips, and you need to make sure that you don't get the same fabric lining up together. So, #6 will be under #1, #5 will be under #2 (do you see the problem?), #4 will be under #3. Obviously, I forgot to do this simple step, so I fixed it later on.

Now pin your strips together.

Here you see the strips are all pinned together, with the raw edge going to the side that you want the fringes to appear on.

Sew your strips together leaving at least a 1/2" seam allowance. I did 6/8" seam allowance on this quilt.

When they are all sewn together, you lay it out on the mat and line it up to cut your next strips.

Hey...I figured out my mistake right before I sewed them together, lol...so you will notice a change in the order of the fabrics.

Once your strips are cut, you will want to pin them together so that the rows are reversed from each other. I just sew 2 together at a time, but I line them all up together first, to avoid mistakes.

Be sure to line up your corners when pinning these strips together.

Sew all of these pieces together, and then sew a seam allowance around the entire quilt. I'm sorry, I didn't take any more pictures while I was working, but this is not that hard to understand.

Next, take your scissors and make cuts on all of the raw edges, including around the outside. Be sure not to cut into your thread.

Once all of the cutting is done, wash your quilt. The raw edges look better with each washing, so you need to wash it at least once to get the effect.

You might also notice that there is an extra row on this one. I didn't like how small it was, so I added a fifth row after I was finished the other ones.

Another rag quilt

2010-01-02T09:37:00.000-05:00

I finished my second rag quilt. This one was also done in strips, and is a gift for my newest niece, Jaclyn Olive. I used chenille, flannel and some cotton fabrics for this one.

My Christmas Crafts

2009-12-27T22:00:00.005-05:00

My family has had it rough financially this year, with my husband's plant closing and the recession taking it's toll, but I didn't want that to impact Christmas. I love giving gifts to my family, and I didn't want to hit the dollar store, so I dug through my fabric bins and bags of yarn (I may be seen on a future episode of Hoarders) and searched the internet for gift making ideas. I found these fantastic message boards and decided to make them for my oldest son's girlfriend, my older nieces and my mother in law. These are the end results...

My message boards were about 12"x18", so not as big as the one on the website, but I liked how they turned out and I think I will experiment a little more in the future.

My 5 year old daughter worked on some wine glass charms and Christmas tree ornaments to give to a family friend.

Then I got to crocheting and made several items. I started with this hat and scarf set for my 6 year old son. The hat pattern is one of very few crochet patterns for men or boys, and I made a simple scarf using the same stitches as the hat. The scarf is shorter than usual so that he can wear it on the school playground without the risk of it catching on anything. It does look much shorter in this picture than it actually is though.

Next I made my daughter a hat and buttoned cowl. The hat is made from the same pattern used above, only I didn't use a different colour for the stripe and I only did one stripe near the bottom. The cowl is my own pattern that I can try and write out if anyone is interested.

I used Paton's Shetland Chunky yarn for both the boy set and the girl's set, and it is so nice to work with. It's soft and the colours were great. My son loves camouflage, which is why I chose the yarn, but the feel of it is what will keep me buying it now.

Next I started making this Baby Ruffle Hat because I think it is cute as heck, but I wasn't as fond of it once is was done, so I pulled the ruffle out, and made my own design for the cuff and added tassles. It was made using Bernat Cottontots yarn, which I really like, but I had to adjust the pattern for the heavier yarn. I think that is why I didn't care for the ruffle as much too. I am very happy with the end result, and it fit my two year old niece perfectly, for the 2-3 seconds she actually wore it, lol.

I made a couple more cowls with some pom pom yarn, using my own patterns. The purple/pink one didn't go to anyone yet, and I kept the black on for myself. The pom pom yarn was terrible to work with and I doubt I would buy it again, but I do have several balls of it here to use so I guess I will have to use it again.

For my Mom, I made a rag quilt. She is a Reborn Artist, and this type of quilt makes an excellent back drop for the dolls. I also made a matching pillow for it. I am very pleased with how it turned out. I worked in strips, with guidance from my mother-in-law who is a talented quilter, and only made a couple of mistakes. I am nearly finished my second one too, that I will share in the next few days.

That is it for my Christmas crafting this year. I had some other projects I wanted to make, but I ran out of time.