The Ladybug Challenge

 

Last year I started a challenge, using the crafting magazines that have been left to me. I have actually enjoyed looking through these magazines, with the thought of creating something. AND I've found them inspirational, as well. This issue has been traveling around with me for a while, with a gallon ziploc carrying some balls of crochet thread.

Annie's Crochet Newsletter Sept-Oct 1996

Inside, is a pattern for a pair of cute little crocheted ladybug earrings. Since I made those ladybug outfits for the stuffed bunnies, I was caught! No, I am not making earrings, but I thought they would be cute! cute! cute! on a hair scrunchie, or the like. Heck. They're just CUTE!

Ladybug Pattern!

  

Ladybug Pattern page 2

I've been busy making stuff, so these guys kinda have been biding their time, waiting patiently (since, like, 1996). But, last Thursday, I started one. Today, I finished the cute little guy. 

Top view

  

Side view

Small, and adorable. 

So, here's my take on these guys. The pattern was pretty simple, and easy to follow, and not super difficult with the small hook and thread. Even so, I am going to make another, and scale up the yarn and hook a little. Yes, I used beads for the spots. I have never gotten the hang of French knots. Even today, they were more like French nots! But I got to sift through my bead stash and found these guys, which I like the look of. A lot. The biggest pain in the butt was having to thread the needle to go through the ladybug to the next spot spot (hee hee) and then unthreading it, waxing the thread so it was stiff enough to go through the bead (and making it easier to rethread the needle, too) and then rethreading the needle. 

Scattered Fans For Christmas

 

Now that the gifts have been given, I can talk about the fans some more.

scattered fan fabric box

I was inspired by one of my vintage quilting magazines to scatter fans on my new purse, but I discovered that there were more fans in my gift giving projects this year.

This became...

  

scattered fans purse

For instance, I started on some fabric boxes, and found that the fans still were fun. I wanted to give the impression of a fan, more than an actual fan block, so I worked with some beautiful blues for my sister in law.

Fan in blue

My niece is getting more greens, but some beautiful pops of color as well. (Blues can be beautiful pops of color, even within other blues, right?) On these boxes, I trimmed the fans in bias tape. I also gave peeks of the background fabrics, something that I liked from building the purse. 

A fan, and also, some scattered fan pieces on the left

I didn't really worry about making a perfect fan for these boxes, but I sure had fun with the piecing.

more pieces for the box sides

I couldn't resist leaving a little of the fuzzy selvage

One of the reasons I got drawn to the scattered fans was because my mother left me a fan quilt that she had been working on before she lost too much of her eyesight. I have decided to turn those fans into wall hangings, and this year I finished one for one of my brothers.

fans in a circle make a Dresden plate

I admit that if I had more practice with stippling, I would have quilted the blue areas. I am learning more about quilting by working on the Charitable Crafting quilts, but I have not practiced that. Yet. Still, I was very happy to find the backing fabric (it folds over the top to make a slot for a hanger for the piece) that had a vintage feel to it, to go with the vintage fabrics that my mom used. (well, they weren't so vintage when she was using them...)

The best part of that wall hanging is the feeling of working with my mom on a project that I get when I'm putting it together. I hope that my brother will also get memories of both of us in his turn. 

While I have more fan blocks to turn into wall hangings, I am taking a break for a bit, and moving on to other projects for a while. I feel like those fans are going to show up again, though. Somewhere. Some time.

Scattered Fans Purse

 

Once upon a time, I made myself a purse. A few years later, I made another one. And now, I've made another.

scattered fans purse (without the hardware)

This purse came from a collision of crafting ideas. First "my" purse. I wasn't happy with the purses I could find in the store. I'm picky, because (in great part) I'm not really a fan of purses. BUT, I need to carry stuff, and take it with me. Generally, it's too much stuff to put in my pockets (if the clothing even HAS pockets), much less carry in my hands. What if I need to wait for something? Yeah, there better be a book in there somewhere, too. At least part of the time. But, I don't want a big purse either, to fill up and get heavy.

So, I made myself a purse. I used some black denim and I used the heck out of it.

Not a big fan of the distressed look

It didn't wear as well as I would have liked. First the strap wore out. I was held together by the threads I used to sew it with before I replaced it with this woven belting. THAT lasted long enough to add to the second purse! I also didn't like how that denim just wore out. I was really disappointed with that. Plus the purse was a little smaller than I found I wanted.

The second purse I made was also denim, but a different piece. 

Oh, look how new and clean it looks!

I had fun making this purse, playing with the fabrics on the inside, making pockets for stashing small stuff, adding hardware like clips to hold my keychains out of the way. This purse did a good job, for a long time, but eventually, it also wore out.

Well loved/ well used

It has seen better days

Definitely time for a new purse. I tried making a slouch bag, but it didn't seem to really be what I wanted. Then I started my vintage crafting challenges, and found this magazine in my stash:

Vintage from 1988

It has a scattered fans tote bag pattern in it.

a selection of totes

I fell for that idea in a big way. I started by making fans. I didn't want blue and pink, but I do like the scrappy look of them, and the background fabric peeking through in places.

The pattern for the fans and their placement

The pattern helped me visualize what I needed to do, but of course I wasn't working within a square, so I figured out roughly how many fans (or parts of fans) I would need, and some fabrics I liked, and cut the pieces of the fans out. Then I foundation pieced them with a quilt as you go method. I wanted them to be able to stand some wear! Once I was happy with how they looked on the background fabric, which I also used for the inside of the purse, I found some thin batting which would give the purse some body. I also cut side pieces for depth and shape of the purse. Then I worked on sewing it all together. 

Y'all, I'm going to take a moment here to talk about this machine. 

The Green Singer

She is the first sewing machine I owned. I got her for a present (Birthday? Christmas?) when I was maybe 12 or 13. She was not new then, but in those days she had a simple wooden cabinet which eventually rotted from around her, and I eventually had to take her out before she fell out, and throw that thing away. I got her serviced, and commissioned one of the wood workers at Cruces Creatives to make a box stand for her so I could use her again. This little workhorse will sew pretty much anything that will fit under the presser foot. My other Singer machine will do a lot of things, but it doesn't do that. This girl had no trouble sewing up the layers of that purse. She also does a great job with quilting when there get to be a lot of seams to stack.

Anyway, back to that purse... I made pockets with fan detailing on them to go inside.

Pockets for coupons, and chapstick, and...

And yes, the background/inside fabric is a batik. I love a batik. 

fans scattered on the outside

Finally I added the hardware. Clips for my keys again, taken out of the old purse and sewn into the new one. Another piece of belting for the strap (Thanks, Eva!). And she is ready to go!!

Ready for anything!

I'm counting this as a win for a vintage crafting challenge. Even though I didn't make the item in the magazine, it definitely is related to that tote, and I wouldn't have gotten to this purse if I hadn't found that magazine. I Love it!

Baby Booties Challenge

 

A preview of the project:

Baby booties are done!

My friend is looking forward to some grandchildren in the not-too-distant future, and was asking me if I had any baby crochet patterns among the myriad of resources that I have. She wanted to get a head start on a baby project or two. So I looked, and found

A book of baby patterns to crochet.

Thumbing through the book, I found quite a few really cute patterns and thought this would be a good place for a crochet challenge. It isn't really vintage, like the magazines I have stored up, but, still a good opportunity to try something I haven't done before. It doesn't hurt that I can put the results toward an excellent baby shower gift.

This book has some very cute options in it, which I will explore more at the end of this post, but I'm going to focus on the challenge item first.

A cute collection of booties

The included patterns offer a variety of baby booties, including these. The yarn I had on hand was white with a pink fleck in it, so I was drawn to these in particular:

The Rose Booties

Cute, right? A couple of comments about the book in general. Notice that the print is a good size for easy reading. Also, the binding is a ring binding, which allows the book to stay open to the page you are working from. Good job, publisher!

On to the crochet. The pattern was pretty easy to follow, but the booties are constructed from several pieces, sewn together. I will admit to having some issues with that. Mostly, they are issues of practice and taking care to find the correct start to the joining of the pieces, but still.

So my first booty, even after trying a couple of times to get the sole attached to the sides is rather wonky.

Ummm. Is it supposed to look like that? NO!

The second attempt went better. (See, a matter of practice.) But I'm still not loving it. I just don't know why they need so many pieces!

Definitely better, but not perfect

And, no, it isn't quite finished, and might never be, honestly. I never did get to the roses. On the other hand, I did find out the the little skeins of thread were enough to make at least two booties. Back in the day when I knitted some pairs of socks, I needed a skein for each sock, so I wondered whether that would be the case for these. I had plenty of yarn for the pair in one skein, though.

Well, for my third attempt, I kinda went off the rails and adapted the pattern to be made in one piece. I had to sew the instep down, but it was connected in the right place, and I could work up into the stocking part either before or after I sewed the sides. 

My third attempt at booties - the keepers

My take on this book, and the booties? Well, I think that I could still do a better job on them, but the last ones are definitely usable as they are (more practice is in order, I guess). The pattern took me a few tries to get closer to their intended result, and I'm not done trying for the perfect result. Particularly how they described attaching the sole to the sides. It just looked weird in my opinion, following the instructions in the way I understood them (which could be an imperfect interpretation, I freely admit). I may try one of their other patterns in a different part of the book to see if that is done differently.

I would also be willing to try some of the non-booty patterns in the book. This cute nautical sweater, for instance:

Adorable

There are also several blankets that I could happily revisit:

Cute take on a granny square

Using a variety of stitches

A different take on blocks

I don't know that I would go crazy crocheting a dress or something like that for a baby, but there are several patterns in the book for those who would. There are hats, and more sweaters (a more likely make than a dress for me) along with other blankets and it seems to be a really nice variety of items, and if it is going to be grandparent season among my friends, I could really get some use from the book!

The Blue Shells and Ripples Afghan

 

I started this afghan out of this magazine:

Remeber that challenge afghan?

I posted about this edition of the Hooked on Crochet magazine, HERE and the chain link afghan that I challenged myself to make. There is a companion pattern called shells and ripples in the magazine, too.

What is it about brown afghans???

I decided to make this one, too. But the brown had to go.

My palette of BLUES

Once I got the yarn I wanted in the colors I wanted, I started on the afghan. As in the previous one, some of the instructions weren't as clear as I would have liked, but since I have years and years of crochet making stuff experience, I was able to fudge my way through them. One thing I really like about the blues that I picked for the contrast ripple stripe is that I don't have to (and I haven't) used those yarns in the same order every time.

I like the effect!

I'm not quite done with the afghan yet, but I better get done soon, because the yarn is going fast! Oh, and please don't mind the sprinkles of Kaliegh hair that shows up...

Yep, I like those blues!

Every Ending is a New Beginning

 

I finished a couple of projects this week, and I'm working towards another. 

First up is Lillian's hoodie. A nice fleecy hoody for snuggly soft warmth. It isn't my first time working with fleece, but it is the most complex fleecy make I've made. 

soft hoodie, snuggly hoodie

It wasn't a complex pattern, thankfully, and went together pretty easily. More trouble with my sewing machine, which doesn't like thick fabrics. But we managed. My serger also wanted to ruffle the fabric a bit, which means I should have tested it with the fabric left-overs (where the heck did we put those??), and adjusted the tension. But it wasn't too bad, anyway.

What? no pocket?

Lillian was very happy to take her hoodie home, turn up the air conditioning, and snuggle in.

Next, is that project challenge afghan, which I finished, then took off the border, and redid. I'm sooo much happier with the finish this time!!

Oh, yes!

What will happen to this afghan, you ask? I expect to donate it through Cruces Creatives and Charitable Crafting, very possibly to the Community of Hope/Jardin de los Ninos.

The final project I'm going to talk about ALSO will be donated there this month, if we can get it finished. A few of us in the Charitable Crafting group have been working on getting the beautiful, beautiful blocks sewn into rows, and then the rows sewn together. There's a decorative pillow, and a bag to hold the quilt as well. 

The most recent picture I have - beautiful blocks!

I'll try to take more pictures!

And of course, I can't forget the new beginnings part... Yep, some sewists started on blocks for the next Charitable Crafting quilt! So excited to see those beautiful blocks!  I'm working on setting up my next Vintage crafting project. Looks like crochet again, but a much smaller project. It is exciting to challenge myself and learn something! I'm also going to be working on another ripple afghan, but as a challenge bonus, not the challenge. Those bonus projects are going to be some of my favorites, I think. And I can see some happening for the next challenge Vintage crafting source.

On the Border of a Finished Afghan

 

I finished the challenge afghan, and it almost fabulous!

Notice I'm not showing the top or bottom edges.

Here is the sample from the crochet magazine, as a refresher:

Their version

I mean I thought my photo turned out pretty well... but then there's this one. Of the top and bottom. Sigh.

The gathered ends. Not great

Wow! I wish there was a reasonable way to undo the border on just the ends, but I think I'm taking off the border, and adding it again. My mistake? I tried to make the stitch count match the sides. It was a mistake. I just need to go back and let the ends be the number of stitches they are, and I can still keep the basic ripple technique while I do. THEN the dang thing will truly be finished. So this evening I ripped out the border, and started it again.

I'll just blog about it now, and maybe put an update picture in some other time, maybe when I'm on to my next challenge project.

Here are my challenge take-aways: It was very nice working with materials I don't usually work with. I liked the wool/silk mix of the variegated yarn. It felt nice, and it is beautiful. The solid yarn was on a spool (cone?) and I'm not sure what yarn it was, but the cone caused the yarn to fray in places along the bottom. Not a fan of that. I hadn't made a ripple quilt before and I liked this one. It went quickly, and I think someone will enjoy it. It will definitely be warm. I didn't follow the directions exactly, as I talked about in my other posts, but I learned from the process of making this afghan, and really, that was one of my goals! 

Would I recommend making this afghan to others? Actually, since it was mainly single crochet, it was pretty doable. I would say, yes, I would. I might include some instructions on a post-it note of the changes I made, if the person was interested. I might not suggest it as a first afghan you ever made, but maybe the second would be OK.

So what's next along the challenge line? I don't know yet. I haven't picked out the next crafting magazine yet. Not sure if I'll stick to a crochet magazine, or go for some other craft. I feel like doing a variety will keep my interest longer, and I have to admit I do like to trade them off. 

I also bought some yarn - a more conventional acrylic - to make the companion afghan. I don't think I'm going to consider that a challenge craft, though, but more of a bonus find. I went with some blues for that afghan, and I'm sure I'll post some pictures of it, and write about it at some point as well.

Here's the picture of that one from the magazine:

Now picture it in blues

That Afghan Again?

 

I've been working pretty steadily on that afghan, and making good progress. I think I'm more than a third of the way through the main pattern (and then there's a border). 

Making progress

I feel like my later rows (on the edges)  look better than the starter rows (in the middle). I guess I'm getting the hang of the pattern. I remember to do the back loops only on the edging rows, for instance, which helps the pattern look more chain link-y. In some places, the variegated yarn has a stretch that matches the solid yarn, and muddles up the look a bit, but hey, that's why I thought the yarns went well together, so...

In other news, I harvested some of my tomatoes. They are not pretty. The rain we had was too much water, and then a couple hot dry days meant not quite enough. I couldn't win with the water, or not watering... any way, they still taste good, and I would be willing to plant the variety again. Better boys, I think.

Today's tomato harvest

 I guess they go well with my one bell pepper...

One teeny bell pepper (one inch squares there)

It's OK to laugh. I have. I still call it a gardening win, compared to other attempts. I'm still determined to do it again next year!

Oh, yeah, and I've already bought yarn for the other ripple afghan that was in that magazine, so I guess that is a success, too, even though this challenge isn't completed yet.