Finished too late

My mother died in the night, slipping away in her sleep, the pain that has been plaguing her for so long finally at an end, though ours will continue for a time.

Looking around my house, my eyes keep falling on half-finished projects. A cross-stitch piece that would have been the front panel of a purse. A pattern for a nice dress and jacket set, a crocheted sweater, the pattern for a hat, all things I was making for her or had planned to give her for her birthday or xmas. Most of it will never be finished now, some will never be started. The sewing patterns will be added to my pattern collection, the cross stitch and crochet patterns added to my already full shelves, the fabric and yarn added to my stash, maybe to see use one day when I can look at it and not think about her.

Two things, one for her and one for me, I finished only today, too late to show her.



This sweater was for her. She's been asking for a sweater for a while, but we could never agree on a pattern or a yarn; I think we enjoyed the discussion more than anything else. I made this on a whim, thinking she would enjoy it and since it was something I picked, we would be able to continue our fruitless, never-ending argument. Now an argument that will truly never end.

It's made from four crocheted quilt squares that had originally been intended for a crocheted afghan, but in the end was converted to this sweater. I think it's rather pretty and it will go into my closet, though I'm not sure I will be able to wear it any time soon.






This poncho is for me, made from granny squares and carron so soft. I think the colors are great, not so bright it's uncomfortable to wear, but beautiful, slightly muted tones that just look great. Even mom thought so, when I showed her the half-finished project a couple weeks ago, before she began to loose her memory and ability to stay in the here and now.

Long summer

It's been a long summer and I'm glad that it's over, but I've come out of it with a half dozen almost-finished projects from nearly ever craft hobby I have. Yes, I admit it, I'm a flitter. A bit here, a bit there, over there and back again.

One of my first hobbies, the one I picked up on my own instead of learning from someone else as I did crochet and sewing, is cross stitch. I was in college, I needed something to work on and WalMart - at the time - had a fair selection of cheap and easy cross stitch patterns.

I let it fall off for years, but a whim had me picking it up again and now I have plans for gifts both this year and next. This is for a friend of mine. I'll put it in a shadow box and add a couple whimsical shoes.



The first day of fall is in late September and I'm working on ponchos for a couple friends. The blue is from the summer issues of Crochet Interweave and the second - though this picture ruins the color, it's a combination of pink and green that I quite like - uses a diagonal stitch that sometimes is called the crazy stitch.





I'm slowly making my way through my small group of friends, making them afghans for the hols and bdays. This is for my shoe-friend up above. She was down this weekend and I forgot and left this bright beastie out where she spotted it. Thankfully, she
commented on how much she liked the colors. Phew. It's much (much) brighter in real life, rows and rows of mitred squares.



One of the first quilts I tried to make was a postage stamp quilt. Epic disaster, if I do say so myself. As much as I enjoy looking at these exercises in frustration, I have avoided making another until I came across the technique where long strips of blocks can be sew together vertically and then horizontally, creating even corners and an almost-stress free sewing experience.

Enter in a cross-stitch sampler pattern that just screams to be made into a quilt. This is the first four blocks, a hundred inch and a half squares (yeah, I have a couple screws loose) per block, 10 blocks by 10 blocks. The plan is to have it made by xmas for my mom. She might have to wait until next year.

And an important note for anyone thinking about doing this. I went to the store and found the floss recommended by the pattern and used that to pick out my colors. Otherwise I would have made a huge mess.



And finally something for me, because every crafter knows you have to do stuff for yourself as well as other people or burn out. This is based around Caron's Tulsa jacket, but in bright neon colors and black, because I'm peculiar like that, in microspun, which is silky soft and light.

I've been beading

Well, I've been doing a bit of everything this summer - and thank the crafting gods that this summer is over - but the beading is what I've got finished.

When you live in a very small town where the local craft/fabric/yarn store is in fact WalMart and getting to an actual craft store is a bit out of range at the moment, you learn to make do with what you got and get a bit creative.

I've gotten a bit creative. :)

Ribbon, pony beads and pendants are about the easiest and cheapest things going. As much as I love the exquisite collars and delicate frou-frou necklaces that are so common in the beading mags, I don't make them and I sure don't wear them. I would break them within moments of fastening the clasp.

Ribbon, et al, are much more forgiving and in their own way, just as attractive.

Sometimes I do it simply. A length of ribbon, a pony bead and loop for closure, a pendant and voila, necklace.





Sometimes I get creative and crochet beads into the yarn.





Sometimes I get silly and see how long I can make the chain along with the beads and sometimes a heavy pendent.





And sometimes I get even more creative. Yes, that is a peyote stitch with pony beads and yarn. The current plan is to go until I either run out of beads or ribbon. No clasp, I'll simple knot it behind my neck (I prefer pedants about halfway between my cleavage and the base of my throat) and let the ends (already long) dangle down my back. Might be a bit odd, but I think it will be a neat effect.




Coming soon, afghans, shawls, quilts and cross stitch oh my.