sunflower (mrs longhair) spends her time at the sewing machine, quitling. she has six or eight projects underway at any given time.
i make quilts by the english paper piecing method. i have three in progress, but as all the work is done by hand, progress is pretty slow. here is a picture of the early stages of my first project. this section is about 12 inches across. there is a long way to go for a queen sized bed, but i am in no hurry. as buddha says: the journey is also the destination.
I just took up knitting (successfully, for the first time out of several attempts) and made a scarf out of a really thick ply yarn, for my husband, in three colours. I was pleased that it got finished since all my other knitting attempts have been disastrous and short. The key was that I just did garter stitch. No counting! And it was really quick because of the thick yarn. I feel like I kinda cheated, but heck, a project got finished. I have the yarn now in the same ply to do a big thick blanket out of plain squares in 2 colours, dark brown and light cream. That will require a little counting but so little as to hardly strain my poor knit-unfriendly brain.
Other crafts, I used to hand sew a lot, I also made my own clothes a few years ago, made hats (cocktail hats, using premade hat shapes. I was really proud of the little black pillbox I made.) Actually, the strangest project I probably ever made was a hat for my mother. It was for Melbourne Cup day at her work place, and they were supposed to wear hats themed to match the magazines they worked on. She works on a medical magazine, so I made her a cocktail hat covered in cut up latex gloves in pink, white and yellow, with latex glove roses on the front, then a spray of syringes filled with jello (red, yellow and orange, if I recall correctly) wired and glued onto the front, to stand up like feathers, and, of course, a veil to finish it off. It looked sensational, in a very weird way.
I have been doing a lot of computer crafts lately. I just got a bunch of graphics from http://www.pccrafter.com to make paper crafts. I’m working on a scrapbook-type page for a cookbook being done within one of the groups I belong to for Valentine’s day. I’m also making cards and other paper craft products. Some of the ladies on the list I belong to have made these lighted glass blocks that I’m itching to try.
I have been working on rubberstamping, and doing watercolor paint on them. I have some chalk squares to try to use a new chalking technique I’ve read about.
In the past, I’ve enjoyed almost all types of needle crafts. Currently, I’m into paper crafting, specifically scrapbooking. Apparently I didn’t get enough cutting & pasting paper when I was in kindergarten.
The best description of me would be a craft collector~! I have the supplies for glass painting, tole painting, needlepoint, scrapbooking, rubberstamping, and artificial florals but so far haven’t had the time to do them. I’m not allowed (self-imposed) to go into a craft store until some of these things get done!
I took up cross-stitch after a gap of five years or so when I broke my ankle this summer. So far I’ve finished a map of Guernsey, and also Scorpio from this book. I do love to cross-stitch, but my ankle is now healed and I just know I’ll never get around to finishing Gemini! Maybe next time I’m in hospital…
One year for Christmas, as a joke, a friend asked me to crochet a dick warmer for her husband. She wanted it to be blue with an orange pom-pom on the tip and orange ruffles on the bottom. She gave me measurements to go by.
I would have loved to see his face on Christmas morning.
I focused on the needlecraft aspect of the OP, but some of you may know already that I am a professional polymer clay crafter. By “professional” I mean “good enough at it that people have paid me to do it” not as in “I can live off my art” – as lissener said it’s hard as hell to live off handwork! But I wanted to mention to those craft supply junkies out there that you can get a lot of freebies from craft companies if you demo for them. You can contact the companies that manufacture or distribute the supplies you use and see if they need demo people for shows. They don’t pay terribly highly, but often they are more than willing to pay in supplies. Plus trade shows can be a hoot, and you get all kinds of cool ideas and meet all kinds of nice people. Even if I’m not demo-ing, I like to check out the ACCI (American Craft and Creative Industries) shows whenever they’re around. (And here’s another little tip - at trade shows like ACCI, vendors frequently sell their goodies at wholesale or below on the last day of the show. It pays to lurk around after hours…)
Also, if you ever submit a project to a craft magazine, you can get paid quite well - assuming the magazine publishes your project, of course. The magazine will pay you, as well as any of the companies you endorse in the project. Just as an example, I submitted a project to one magazine and specified the use of a particular brand of polymer clay, a particular line of tools and a particular rubber stamp. I got paid by the magazine (I think it was $50, but I could be wrong) plus $25 from the tool company, $20 from the stamp company and a whole bunch of clay in lieu of cash from the clay company.
Obviously both these things can be time-and-labor intensive, so they’re not for everyone, but if that sort of thing IS up your alley, it can be a lot of fun.
I’m hoping to start sewing for myself soon-I’m going to attempt the Beatrix Potter walking skirt from Sense and Sensibility Patterns.
In the mean time, I love hand embroidery. Not cross stitch-I just do not like cross stitch. But I love making my own patterns and just tracing them onto cloth. I found a really neat source for patterns-stained glass patterns! My favorite are Art Nouveau type designs.
I started cross-stitching again after a gap of several years as well. Years ago, in a few very short months I did a “forced march” of cross-stitiching to complete a wedding gift and a christmas present. After those months of cross-stitching on 32 and 36 count linen I felt completely burned out. I think I was developing carpal tunnel syndrome and worsening eyesight!
Now several years later, one day I spotted a pattern book with some celtic patterns and started that same day. I’m finding it slow going though, and not feeling very committed to the project.
I do traditional rug hooking (with the wool strips, not latch-hook), along with the candlemaking and soapmaking (those “crafts” are a business for me, which puts them on a different scale from “hobby”). I’m finishing a Ballyhoo Rug design (Sheep in Padula Flowers) and looking around for another primitive design I like.
So last night, instead of working on the third repetition of the pattern, I got to wind up two different colored yarns representing 50 rows of 83 stitches each.
I’m primarily a knitter, although the thing I finished most recently were some tie-backs for my new curtains, glass beads on wire. Very simple, basically they could be two necklaces and a bracelet if they weren’t on my curtains. Right now, I’ve got in progress: a baby romper that I designed myself, a pair of lace socks, some gloves, a baby sweater that needs the collar, and some mittens for myself to match a hat I made.
I’m a stamper. I’ve made my Christmas cards for the last 4 years. Each one is different and tailored to the individual. I make them all year long since inspiration can hit at any time! As far as needlework goes, as a teen I learned needlepoint, then moved to counted cross stitch, now I’m back to needlepoint. The project I’m waiting to start (waiting for what, I don’t know) is a horse and rider from the Spanish Riding School (my main passion is Bob, the Wonder Pony and dressage). Learned to knit in college but never advanced to knitting with 2 colors so I’m a real beginner. I’m also anxious to learn to sew. A friend bought me a Spartan machine (made in Great Britian in the 50s by Singer) at an auction and it’s in the shop for a tune-up. A cow-orker has volunteered to teach me. So I’ll be able to do “Martha Stewart” type crafts–easy pillows, etc.
Right now my main hobby is cross stitching. I have a dozen works in progress that I rotate through, including a big mermaid with lots of metallics and beads on a gorgeous hand dyed fabric, a 10" diameter solidly stitched cricketing scene for my dad, and a largeish East Asian carp design for the hub.
I also dabble in sewing and beading (stringing, not weaving) for variety.
Tried knitting, it didn’t go well. I’m allergic to wool so that really limits the options, plus I’m very easily distracted and therefore spent most of my time trying to figure out where I screwed up. It was just too frustrating.
I used to stamp, but after five years I got bored of it.
Weirdest thing? How about a clock that looked like a present? you had to open the box to see what time it was. My mom liked it though.
I think an SDMB craft swap would be a great idea. Anyone interested?
I love to do counted cross stitch. I’ll start a project, work on it for hours at a time, and then abandon it until I get the urge to finish it. I am currently working on a huge project with lighthouses on it that I will eventually give to my mom once I’m done with it.
The weird thing about me (among other things), is that while I love to work on the projects, I don’t want them after I’m done with them. Isn’t that strange?
Me too! Lots of times I pick a project because I’m interested in learning something from it (new technique, different kind of yarn, etc.) and once I’ve figured out how to do what I wanted, I lose interest in it.
For me, the journey is more interesting than the destination.
Me three. By the time I’m finished with it, I’m sick of looking at it. Plus I see all the mistakes and imperfections and the piece is ruined for me. I’m also like that with cooking–once the food is done, I don’t want to eat it!
I do counted cross stitch. Over the last several years I have stitched enough baby bibs that I can’t get inspired to do bibs for the people I know who are pregnant now.
My present project is a Cat Alphabet. Each letter of the alphabet is represented by a different breed of cat. It is very nicely shaded, which means that after I stitch for awhile I can no longer tell the colors apart and have to start counting from the letters(which are in blue). It also has a lot of mice on it, but I decided long ago that it doesn’t matter whether the mice are stitched correctly as long as they are shaped correctly. Now I don’t have to worry if I misread those symbols.(I hate projects where they use color as much as symbol to identify which thread goes. This practice is acceptable on a bib where all the colors are bright and distinctive, but aggravating when there are lots of quarter stitches and one is trying to decide what color the kitty’s eye is meant to be!). I’d really like to counted cross stitch an afgan, perhaps with a flower alphabet, but I am in no hurry to get started, I’ve been working on the kitty alphabet for two years and I’m only about half done. (I alternate between working on it to the point of obsession and not working on it for months).
