It’s really hard for me to learn something by just reading instructions. If you show me, I will get it quickly and retain it forever. But teaching myself how to do certain crafts is nearly impossible. This is why I tend to stay away from how-to books b/c I feel it’s wasted time and money. However, I’ve recently been intrigued by crocheted items and wanted to move away from knitting and into the arms of crocheting. After flipping through Jen’s copy of Debbie Stoller’s Stitch ‘N Bitch Crochet, I decided to get my own copy and tackle some of the projects. But first thing first – I need to learn how!

I’m a lefty, so naturally I’m already having difficulty as this book is written for righties. But after surfing the internet, I found a video tutorial that was very clear (still for righties, tho) and I was able to do everything backwards and produce a few rows of single crochet. A HUGE step of progress for me. It gave me so much confidence, I can’t wait to do more.

One thing tho: why is my UFO turning into a trapezoid? The ends are decreasing slightly – is this normal? And if anyone knows of any video tutorials for lefties, please let me know and you will be my new BFF.

ETA: For those interested, here is the website I found with the video tutorials. They’re short and to the point – hope you find them helpful!

First of all – I want to thank the girls of Crafty Daisies for inviting me to guest blog this week! I don’t get the chance to blog about crafting very often, but I love to craft/sew/knit/etc! So I’m looking forward to sharing some of my projects with the readers here at this great creative space!

As an avid reader of Crafty Daisies, I have noticed a lack of quilting posts thus far, so I thought I would post about some of my quilting projects. I started quilting about two years ago, teaching myself out of a book – Quilting 101: A Beginners Guide to Quilting (one of the current reads on this blog!!). I highly recommend this book for beginning quilters. If you do not have a lot of sewing experience, it gives you a rundown on how to use your machine. It is spiral bound and opens easily for use while sewing. Also it is full of some great and easy quilting projects to get you started.

As usual, when starting a new hobby, I had to get all of the equipment. Quilting requires you to buy quite a few things that I, at least, did not have on hand in my sewing materials:

Cutting board, special ruler, special pencils and pins, rotary cutter, book, tons of batting, and fabric!!!!!!! One of my favorite things to shop for.

Since I already knew how to use my sewing machine, I skipped a lot of the easier projects, like quilted pillows and potholders, and jumped right into my first quilt – a flannel lap quilt. And I fell in love with it! It is such a fun project. The whole thing can be put together in just a couple of days. Also, when you buy the fabric the first time, you end up with enough for the top of two quilts, which is great!

I started off making a quilt for myself:

I fell in love with all of these great, pretty, pink and red flannels. The quilt is really warm, cozy, washes well, and looks great on my couch!

I loved making this so much that I made several as gifts for others. I made one for my Aunt for Christmas, in reds, greens, and whites/creams (edited to add that I am not in that picture – my Aunt and Cousin are holding up the quilt):

And one of my favorites, a baby quilt with a barn animal theme:

Hard to see in the picture, but there are patches of pigs, lambs, frogs, and ducks. So cute and the baby now drags it around, which I love to see!

So that is my first adventure in quilting. I recommend trying something out in flannel – it is really cozy and there are a lot of fun prints you can use. Plus the fabric is pretty forgiving! Puckering around seems is part of an old-fashioned looking quilt, especially in flannel, so minor mistakes just add to the charm of the quilt. I hope to work on some more complicated projects in the future, but I think this was a great first quilting experience!!!

Emily

This is the yummiest acrylic yarn I have found in a while. I was in Florida for my brothers wedding a couple of weeks ago and thought I would look through the craft section at the Walmart there. I was so excited to find this. It was 50 cents a skein!!! It feels a lot like the Angel Hair yarn from Joanne’s. Yeah I pretty much bought every one – I love it! I’m trying to decide what to do with it tho. I mean I can hardly think of anything but a scarf cause it is sooo cozy, but knitting a scarf in April?? Come on! Any ideas?

Because we work hard at our love of all things crafty, we’ve decided to take a spring break. We’ll still be posting, but it may take us a little longer to return emails, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still send them or comment – we appreciate all the crafty love you give us. Your encouragement and support are what fires this machine! We do have a guest contributor this week to help out while we’re all away, so make sure you check back to see what Emily will be posting (thanks again Em!!).

Enjoy your holiday, behave yourselves, and have a great week!

Much love,

Candace, Heather, Jen, and Joy

PS – I wanted to do something fun and “WOWEE!” to announce our new cafepress store, but time has gotten away from me. So if you want to take a look at our goods, click here. And keep checking back – we’ll be starting some giveaways in the next few months.

I was really excited to share with the world my first felted Easter basket. The first of many baskets designed by me that every mom would have to have for their child. But instead I ended up with this: a floppy bag with no shape, that does not curve in, that does not look like a basket! I should not have been as frustrated as I was considering I did not use a pattern, by say, those who have actually successfully made a basket. So Candace and I decided to try and come up with some other uses to salvage this attempt, most involving our favorite models (and me…). Here’s what we came up with:

The mini messenger bag-

A taco holder, to keep your lap clean-

A trough for snacks-

The Easter bonnet- (yes, Candace you can borrow it Sunday, alright!)

The toddler arm sling-

What do you think? Have I cornered a new market with any of these?
Better luck next year!

I’m a thrifty shopper and crafter, so I’m always looking for a good bargain. This always leads me to the remnant / discount section of my local fabric store. Unfortunately, they are all labeled as remnants, with no indication of the fabric content listed on them anymore.

I had bought a few really cute prints that I wanted to use as outers on fitted diapers, but I had no idea if they were cotton or polyester or a mixture of the two. A quick internet search led me to this great page, and I was able to identify my fabric contents in no time at all!

How to determine fabric content by using the burn test.

Snip a piece of fabric equivalent to 1″ square. Using a butane lighter and holding the fabric with a pair of tweezers ignite the fabric over a non-flammable surface in a well ventilated area.Examine the quality and color of the flame, the odor produced, and the quality of the resulting ash or cinder. Use this table to help determine your fabric’s content.

FABRIC	FLAME QUALITY	ODOR	ASH QUALITY	COMMENTS
WOOL	orange color sputtery	burning hair or feathers	blackish turns to powder when crushed	flame will self extinguish if flame source is removed no smoke
SILK	burns slowly	burning hair or feathers	grayish turns to powder when crushed	burns more easily than wool but will self extinguish is flame source removed
COTTON	yellow to orange color steady flame	burning paper or leaves	grayish, fluffy	slow burning ember
LINEN	yellow to orange color steady flame	burning paper or leaves	similar to cotton	takes longer to ignite than cotton but otherwise very similar
RAYON	fast orange flame	burning paper or leaves	almost no ash	ember will continue to glow after flame source removed
POLYESTER	orange flame, sputtery	sweet or fruity smell	hard shiny black bead	black smoke
ACETATE	burns and melts,sizzly	acidic or vinegary	hard black bead	will continue to burn after flame source removed
NYLON	burns slowly and melts, bluse base and orange tip, no smoke	burning celery	hard grayish or brownish bead	self extinguish if flame source removed
ACRYLIC	burns and melts, white-orange tip, no smoke	acrid	black hard crust	will continue to burn after flame source removed

A couple other sites I read noted that if you have a blend of fabrics (ie 50/50 cotton polyester) then you will see a combination of both types of flames / burning properties. While this wont tell you the exact percentage, at least then you know that it is a blend.

I thought this was a great resource, and I hope it can help someone else identify their unknown fabrics!

I saw this bag recently in a clothing magazine but decided of course to try and make my own.

I drew the leaf and tree shapes out on cardboard and cut them for a pattern. Then cut the pieces out, arranged the order, and pinned each peice. This was fun since they could be kinda scattered. The time consuming part then was stitching each leaf.

The bag in the picture was stitched entirely in white but I alternated the thread matching the 4 colors of felt I used for the leaves. I embroidered the felt tree trunk in light brown to make it stand out against the indigo corduroy I chose for the bag.

When all of the embroidery was done I sewed up the sides and added a floral lining, which I doubt the original has. Overall, I am pretty happy with the attempt. What do you think of my version? Wait, you haven’t gotten to the best part yet!

The cost of theirs: $25.00
The cost of mine: -$2.50

I can’t believe it is almost time for the Cuirim Craft Fair. I am excited about it, altho i’ll be glad when it’s done. I have learned a lot about what to do and not to do when putting a Craft Fair together. I’m sure next time i’ll do things a little differently. It has been fun coming up with the little things.
We have been meeting every Thursday night to make more stuff for the Craft Fair. We recently did a stencil night. (big surprise I know!) I was so excited to teach the girls how to make the freezer paper stencils. We had some onsies and bibs to stencil. We practiced on some plain fabric first.

I think they are just as addicted as I am. I can’t wait to do it again with them. Thanks guys for a great time. You have been such a help with the craft fair stuff! muuuah!