Birthday Necklace

For years, I have been frustrated by not having any jewelry in my birthstone. Those who share July as a birth month will be familiar with my plight -- it's very difficult to have jewelry made with an actual ruby, since it's so darn expensive (April babies has a similar problem, cursed with the diamond). And while I am not that fond of the color red, sometimes I do wish I had something in my birthstone. So last year I had an idea; I would get myself some ruby zoisite beads! Those are predominantly green and black with inclusions of rich wine colored ruby, which is both more affordable and more wearable than straight up ruby. They are still a bit expensive though, so I went with a lower grade when I placed my order. The photograph on the Fire Mountain website still showed plenty of inclusions though, so I wasn't worried. When my package arrived in the mail I tore into it, excited to start making my necklace.... until I saw the actual beads. Maybe 1 out of 5 had any visible ruby at all. I felt jipped, but there was nothing I could do. The site *does* warn that your beads are not the ones pictures. I tried to figure out a way to salvage the project, but I was just too disappointed. The beads sat in a box until a week ago, when I decided to see if there was anything I could do. After some experimentation I had a necklace, and I am quite happy with the results! I sorted through the ruby in zoisite and made sure that all of the beads with visible ruby inclusions were in the front. I alternated those with gemstone chips (I'm pretty sure they are garnet, but they might be a very dark amethyst) and accented with 8 silver cones. In the middle is a moonstone pendant which my mother in law gave me for Yule. I quite like that I managed to add the gemstone that governs my zodiac sign (Cancer) to my birthday necklace! All told, this necklace is much nicer than the one I had in my head last year.

pin cushion FAIL

I have wanted a new pin cushion for years. Mine was given to me by my mother many years ago, and while it is my favorite color (green!), it isn't my style at at. It's perfectly functional though, so I replacing it has never appeared at the top of my to-do list. However, when I saw this adorable tutorial for turning a jar into a pin cushion, I had to give it a try. This project would kill two birds with one stone, since I also needed a jar to store the buttons I've been collecting for crazy quilting. Plus, I already had a jar for it. As soon as I had some free time I set to work.

The tutorial instructs you to cut a circle of fabric by measuring the lid insert and increasing the radius of the circle by 1 inch. When I cut my fabric I misremembered it as increasing the diameter by 1 inch. That makes a bit of a difference; I had wondered why I had so much trouble getting the fabric around the stuffing when assembling it. I didn't realize my mistake until I had already hot glued it together.

Rather than give up or start again, I decided that even if there wasn't enough stuffing for it to work as a pin cushion, it could still serve as a decorative jar for my buttons, so I pressed onwards. I decided to cover the rim of the lid with beads. Since the rim is a curved surface I had to do this very slowly, covering one small section with glue at a time, letting it dry, then rotating a bit and starting again. After a few days of intermittent turning and gluing, I had the rim covered. It was done! All I had to do now was screw the lid onto the jar and admire my handiwork.

I put the lid on and twisted it. And twisted. And twisted. Nothing was happening; the threads weren't catching. When I glued the cardstock on to cover up the fabric folded under the lid I must have covered the threads just enough that they won't screw on! I am not happy about this development -- you can see from the picture above how cute it would have been had it worked -- but I haven't quite given up yet. I will try to prey the cardstock off (I didn't glue it on all that well, thankfully), and shall hope that fixes the problem.

I'm back!

I have been crafting during my long absence.

The Super Secret Project
The Super Secret project is now out of my hands and being finished by my partner in crime. From what I've heard about her progress it is proceeding very nicely. I hope to be able to reveal its glory in a month or so.

Crazy Quilt Purse
I am perhaps halfway through with crazy quilting the front of this purse. I hope to do a more thorough post on my progress later, with pictures and full explanation. Since the front is taking me so long I no longer have any illusions about crazy quilting the back, but I do intend to do so for the strap. I fully expect this project to take forever, especially since I will have to halt progress on it eventually in order to make a crazy quilted Yule stocking for my mom. I'll want to leave myself plenty of time for that.

Other
I hope to blog about a failed craft project soon. I figure it's only fair to share the ill-fated projects along with the my successes. :-) And I've got a number of other projects in the works, including a baby bib for a friend and new items for my etsy store. Also, I will be continuing to fiddle with the colors and layout of this blog, as I'm still not happy with them.

I finished it!

Well, I finished the ill conceived crazy quilt collage project mentioned earlier. I can't say that I am 100% pleased with the result, but neither am I displeased. If nothing else, it was a fun experiment, and I got to play around with seam treatments that I might use in future endeavors to make real crazy quilts.

You can read full details here on Craftster.

iPod Cozy

I finished the iPod cozy this afternoon! This is my first crochet project in probably a year and half, so I am rather proud of myself, especially since I free handed the entire project.

The project was crocheted using Lion Brand Glitterspun and a size E hook. I selected that instead of the size I-9 which the package recommends in order to get a sturdier fabric.

I started by making a chain slightly longer than my iPod is wide and then single crocheted in the round by not turning when I reached the end of the chain. Instead, I crocheted along the other side of the chain. When I reached the first single crochet again, I still didn't turn, but instead stepped up and crocheted the bag in one long spiral. This a) eliminated the need for pesky turning chains and b) created a more uniform fabric which I think better displays the fun yarn.

I made the cozy a couple of inches taller than it needs to be for the iPod, so that it can fit a recording attachment when my husband uses it. The pouch can't be closed that way, but at least everything fits. When it's jut the iPod the excess folds over to form a little flap. I added 2 extra rows to the back, making it a tiny bit taller than the front so that it looks neater when folded over. I'm very proud of the edging on that flap -- it's reversed single crochet, which was easier than it looked once I figured it out. The first time I tried it I was so confused and turned around that I ended up doing slip stitches instead of single crochets, which needless to say does not produce the desired effect!

This is far more glittery and over the top than my usual style, but I really like it. Sometimes it's fun to have a bit of crafted bling!

This week in crafting

Despite starting a new full-time job, this has been a fairly productive week craft-wise.

Super Secret Long Term Project:
I finished the embroidery on the penultimate square of my Super Secret Long Term Project. Once I finish the last square, I will pass them all on to a friend of mine, who will initiate phase 2 of this Super Secret project. Considering that I started embroidering these 3 or 4 months ago and tend to have crafting ADD, this is a huge accomplishment for me. It'll be a huge relief to be done (DONE!) with these, and I'm going to be very proud of myself. I look forward to having the whole project finished so we can share it with everybody!

iPod Cozy:
Due to my new job, my iPod is doing a much more traveling, so I decided that it is finally time to make a case for it to travel in (it normally lives its days in the speaker dock and serves as my home stereo). Wednesday morning I rooted through my yarn stash and came out with a beautiful skein that had been languishing unused for nearly 4 years. It's a beautiful metallic bronze color and it's working up beautifully. I've crocheted through 2 lunch breaks and a doctor appointment, and I think I'm over halfway done with it. I still need to find a suitably gorgeous button to close it with.

Crazy Quilting:
The two books I requested from the library came in, and are providing me with some wonderful eye candy. I'm most impressed by Crazy Quilting: The Complete Guide by J. Marsha Michler. It doesn't have any projects in it, but it's a great reference work with 10 different ways to piece a crazy quilt, diagrams for 100 embroidery stitches, and 60 pages of different types of embellishments and surface work. When flipping through this book for the first time I had to be careful not to drool over all of the options. I'm not sure if this craft form is a blessing for those with crafting ADD or a curse. It certainly manages to incorporate a wealth of techniques, but how am I meant to decide what to try first?

I have decided on my first (and possibly second) CQ projects, to be started after I finish the Super Secret Project. First, I will make a new slip cover for my camera. I know that this won't provide any padding for the camera unless I use batting and actually quilt it, but it will be as good as the hastily crocheted cover it currently has, and will at least prevent scratches. My next project will probably be a throw pillow. Both of those seem simple enough that I can probably manage their construction. I am tempted to try one of several purse designs in the other book, but I think I should start simple. Unless I change my mind, which is always possible.

ETA: Scratch the pillow idea. I'll make a bag from this pattern!

New Crafts and Bad Ideas

Despite already having a long term embroidery project to work on, an etsy store to keep stocked, and a seemingly endless string of special occasions requiring handmade gifts, I have found a new craft to fall in love with (actually, this is not at all unusual for me. I think I am required to fall head over heels for at least one new craft each year. Most of these infatuations don't last). My current love? Crazy quilting. I haven't tried it yet, but the pictures I'm finding online are so beautifully tempting, so organic and and overly embellished and, well, crazy! And it includes embroidery *and* beads and I'm sure I could work handmade felt into it somehow if I try hard enough. It's enough to make me forget that I can't sew.

Yes, you read the correctly. Despite my love of embroidery and my general craft aptitude, I am incompetent when it comes to sewing. I'm not sure why I have this sewing dyslexia, but I'm hoping that the sewing involved in a crazy quilt turns out to be within my limited skill set. I've requested two books on the topic from my local library network (of course the branch closest to me doesn't have any), but in the meantime I'm very impatient. I want my new craft, and I want it now! I did find a few online tutorials, but I feel that it would be better to learn from a book, seeing as I suffer from a disability when it comes to sewing.

This has led to a very... strange development. The current Craftster craft challenge (I swear this is relevant) involves reusing unwanted catalogs. I have one catalog which is particularly virulent, so that was a shoe in for this project. Except what to do with it? For awhile I was toying with the idea of somehow using the images in a mosaic. This would give me an excuse to learn to mosaic, which I've always wanted to try, but I lost interest in that plan before I could implement it. However, my new love of crazy quilts has led me in a new, unexpected, potentially foolhardy direction. I am now creating a bizarre mixed media collage in which I embroider the "seams" between patches of paper as if they were seams in a crazy quilt. So far so good, but as I haven't completed even one seam yet it may be too early to tell if this plan has merit or not.