Cross Stitch: Celtic Piranhas

Here are what I call my Piranhas from a Celtic cross stitch book.  This was made into a tissue bag holder.  The idea came straight out of the book on how to finish it.  It is the first time I finished a tissue holder and it came out really well.
Keep stitching
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Cross Stitch: Celtic Cross

This cross stitch I made for my mother.  This is pre-framed, obviously.  I gave it to her a few years back.  I took her to Michael's to have the framing done so she could pick out what she liked. And it came out good with a arched matting.
This picture was taken at my grandmother's house for some reason.  That is her marble table.

keep stitching
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Blackwork: Scissor fob birds

I made this fob using a varigated brown thread.  I made the twisted cord also.  I sewed the whole thing together as a pillow with polyfil filling.
Blackwork is relatively fast for me.  Alot of bang for buck.

keep stitching
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Cross Stitch: Welcome, Willkommen

This is a cross stitch I made for my grandparents years ago.  My grandfather was from Switzerland so I put the german version of welcome on the design.  It hangs in their house through today.

Keep stitching
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Polymer Clay: orange kitty

Christi Friesen styled kitty cat.  These are faster and easier to make than the lions.
As usual with Christi's designs right on the first shot.

Patty

Polymer Clay: dragons and bird

These are Christi Friesen style creations. The first is a dragon, the second is a dragon on a pile of gold and the last is a bird.  Really fun projects.  I used the dragon on the gold as a monster in a game of DnD that I ran.


Patty

Polymer Clay: Inked beads, tile hearts

These are translucent beads with two colors of adirondac inks.  They were put in the tumbler and then buffed.  I made these a year or so ago and they looked boring and I did not do anything with them.  But I Finally figured out how to tumble and buff and they look great now.

Patty

Above are curvey beads from a mistake.  I tried making a cane that looks like glass tiles and grout.  but I made it too small and the effect did not work.  I eventually made a large cane and I used it to make hearts.

These are beads using the bad cane from the previous picture.

It just goes to show that even mistakes can be used for other stuff when working in this medium.

Here is the good cane used to make hearts.  The one on the left did not come out good but the one on the right came out good.

The one on the left had the cane put on the round ball before the heart was formed so it stretched significantly.  The one on the right had the cane slices put on the cone shape that leads to the heart shape. No stretching here.

Patty



Crochet: Blue Hobo Bag

This is a single crocheted bag.  I have been using it as a purse.  Only one person so far has commented on the fact that I made it and I have been caring it around for three months now.
Fun fast project.  Lion brand yarn has tons of free patterns to download and this was one of them.

Patty

Polymer Clay: Mayan croc cane

This is an attempt at caning and reducing.  This is a mayan style croc inspired by some pictures I found by googling images of mayan art.  It is not perfect but I still love it and did a good job reducing.  I think I finally have the hang of caning.  I had at some point last year given up on caning images as impossible.  I managed to reduce a cane recently and I got back into it.  My mistake was that I did not stretch enough during the process.

Patty

Polymer Clay: Brown casablanca beads

Here is a casablanca style bead and several swirl beads using different canes and scrap from the casablance bead.  These are inspired from desired creations.  I hand sanded these and buffed them with the buffer.  The complaint I have about these is that they have too much black in them.  It is possible to do this by making the black layer thinner.

Patty

Polymer Clay: Book cover dragon eye

These are the front and back covers for a journal.  On the back cover is a dragon eye inspired from items I have seen on etsy.  The eye ball itself is from a cane I made.  On the front cover is my first wack at putting letters into metal, patina'ed, and polished copper.  The lettering says spell book.

The are swarovski crystals in the corners. I tried a cheapo glue on crystal but it was plastic and it melted when I tested it in the toaster oven.

The dragon scales are slices of cane.

Patty

Polymer Clay: malachite faux

first cut at a malachite from Making Polymer Clay Beads by Carol Blackburn.  Mine looks more like a flower than a random stone.  But it is fairly pretty.  When I cut the rectangles I put saran wrap on top then pushed down making nice curved sides.  I put a layer of black on the back and black strips along the sides.  I am trying to get better at finishing.
I put them in the tumbler with soap water and river rocks (1/2 inch size or less) then polished them with the buffer.

Patty;)

Beading: Apache tears

I made this necklace for my grandmother.  The stones are Apache tears. Merconite obsidian.  My grandparents picked these up years ago rock hounding and finally they made it into jewelry.  It was a pleasure and an honor to do this for her.  These were the first to get done beause she made it a point that they were special.

Keep the faith
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Polymer Clay: Lion

Christi Friesen style lion.
From the Cats book.
Next up I want to make dragons.  They might be useful for DnD if I make them on scaled miniature bases.

Keep an open mind
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Polymer Clay: Bird

Christi Friesen style bird of paradise.  This is from the Mixed Media book she wrote.  She did a great job texturing the feathers.  Mine are passable but not as good.  Had some problems with the tail feathers.  I flattened them too much.  To fix it I put more rounded feathers on top and covered up the mistake.  At first I used too much clay for the body and had to remake it.  I also did not get a feel for how thick the body should be to get the wings to lay on each other. I also did not get a hang of making feathers.  With some problems it came out nice in the end.  Her instructions are very good and my problems come from me not her.

Keep trying, clay can always be mushed up and done over.
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Crochet: Blue scarf

This is blue scarf made from a Lion Brand pattern. I think it is a waffle pattern.  It is fun, quick and easy.  Some time I will make matching pieces.
The next thing to make is scarf pins out of Polymer clay.

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Crochet: Hat

Here is my first hat.  It just barely fits and my gage is tight.  It fits loose.  This is a pattern from a learn how to crohet book.  None of my projects match each other.  I have been going to a knitting group at church  they are not doing any group projects.  I am working on a stitch sampler afghan using some expensive yarn.

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Crochet: Socks

I made this pair of socks from a Lion Brand pattern.  I did not get the color I wanted but they came out nice and actually fit me.
I got help from the Local Yarn store as I did not understand the pattern.  I had made them half way by myself.  The lady said I made them wrong and had to rip them comepletely and started over.  It took me quite a while to get the first rounds right.  But after that I was on a roll and finished them.
If you don't at first succeed...
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Polymer Clay: Buttons

I made buttons to match a piece of fabric for my friend.  I mixed all of the colors and marbled the clay.  She wanted basic round buttons.  Nothing funky.. I have seen some cool buttons at bas relief on etsy.  Oh well.  She reports that she likes them and will make an outfit with them.  Hopefully I will get a picture that I can share here.
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Polymer Clay: Savannah

The lion is Christi Friesen style.  My mom gave me some polished stones from my grandfather's collection.  (This might even be pertified wood.)  She asked me to team it up with the lions in a creation.  This is what I came up with.  I used my extruder to make the grass.  I think she is getting this for mother's day.

p;)

Beading: Knot bracelets

These bracelets show off the Josephine knot and the half hitch with beads.  These designs came out of the Celtic Knots book by Susan Millodot.
To make some of the knots in the book I made a foam board to pin into while constructing the knots.  I think its a necessity to have the pin board.

keep knotting
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Beading: Celtic Black Dragon

This is a dragon pendant I picked up years ago.  I decided it needed a pick me up from being on a basic chain.  So I grabbed my Celtic Knots for beaded jewellery by Susan Millodot and came up with a necklace.  It is very difficult to see with the black satin cord.

Keep knotting
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Beading: Green knots

This is a necklace with knot beads.  The large knots are seperate beads, done in two colors.  The knot on the end with the loop closure is made on the main string.  There are two slip knots at the ends of the strung beads.  This necklace was made based on a book I have about Chinese knotting called Decorative Knot Craft by Kim Sang Lan.

keep knotting
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Beading: Shell Lariat

I made this necklace based on the dolphin abalone pendant that I got when I was little.  It is all AB (oil slick) seed beads.  The colors don't really pop in these pictures.  I wore this necklace to a wedding and got compliments on it.  It is always nice to hear comments on something you make when unsolicited.

Keep beading

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Cross Stitch: Barnegat Light House NJ

I made this project for a friend from work.  They have a vacation house down near there.  I left the framing up to them so they could match decor better.

Keep stitching

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Crochet: Granny Squares Class

Here are my Old American Granny Squares from Crochet Bible.  I learned how to make them in crochet class.  Next week I will learn how to sew them together.  Next week we will start socks that I found at Lion Brand see them at  Lion Brand Socks.
I like learning crochet from a person better than books.  I have too many detailed questions to ask that a book does not cover.  Most things I can learn from books.

keep crocheting
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Cross Stitch: Santas

I framed this one. The design is from Leisure Arts Santa's Great Book.  For some reason I love Santa designs although I haven't made many.  It was stitched on aida fabric.

This is my other Santa.  It is done on sparkley aida fabric.

Keep on stitching.

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Cross Stitch: Indian Totem Afghan Beaver

Here is the fourth square of the Indian totem afghan.  The beaver.  Next up is a deer that I started.  I have been crocheting with a little polymer clay thrown in.  So I don't think I have stitching mojo back.

Don't lose your mojo
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Polymer Clay: Steampunk Critters

I finished the blue afghan today and it is now in use on my bed.

Here are two projects I finished today.  Steampunk elephant and dragonfly.  These projects came out of the new Christi Friesen book Steampunkery.

I bought a bag of watch parts,  searched the house high and low, and tore apart a watch I found to add parts to these two critters.

These projects were fun to make but the elephant had its difficulties.  I did not get the trunk, ears and eyes placement right.  But it looks ok.  I will have to try again.

keep claying

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Crochet: Blue Afghan

This is my current project.  An afghan of double crochet stitches.  The panels are 8 rows and the connection is chains.  This is a free pattern from lion brand.  The yarn is homespun Montanna sky from lion brand.  I have to attach two more strips to finish it.  I started the project last Friday.  So it is pretty fast to make.  I am using a size N hook.

This yarn is hard to work with.  It snags and splits constantly.

I am currently taking crochet classes from a local knitting shop.  We reviewed the basic stitches- single, double and treble, and she showed me shells and v's, ribs and popcorn stitches.  She said my tension was good and nothing to worry about.  Next week we are going to do granny squares.

Lion brand has a free pattern for a sampler afghan where it has squares of stitches.  Popcorn, v, shell, etc.  I think that would be a good one to attempt.

Keep crocheting

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Beading: Progress gray stone

This is the progress I made on the stone.  But the experiment is not working out.  It slips off.  I am going to try a wire backing to stabilize it.  I don't think row after row of beads is going to help capture the stone.  The beads against the stone are very slippery.  I picked out the beads on the internet by picture alone.  The pictures seem true color enough that I got what I wanted.  The beads look good next to the stone.

Keep trying
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Cross Stitch: Progress Indian Totem Afghan

Here is the finished falcon.  I finally finsished the outlining and the flower.  I plan on starting the next square tomorrow which is the beaver.  I might have my stitching mojo back.

Keep stitching

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Beading: Beaded gray stone

This is the start of the first stone to be surrounded with beads to make a cabachon.  This is one of the stones from my grandfather's rock and mineral collection.  The idea comes from Beadwork magazine Feb/Mar 2009, article Chained Elegance by Julie Walker.  If this one works I'll have a good idea on how to do the rest of the stones.

Keep beading

patty