Happy New Year! It's time to do my favorite scrapbook page of the year. For this layout I use a selfie, lots of journaling that needs a little creative hiding and a paper collection chosen simply because it is pretty.
For this layout, I've used some old Basic Grey with lots of the stickers. I also added a few 6x6 paper scraps. The video shares the folding technique to get a lot of journaling about my accomplishments from 2019 and my plans for the new year on one page. Also in the video are links with a little 'i' in the corner to some of my past pages with hidden journaling.
My resolution this year has to do with one of my least favorite things in the world - housework. Ugh! But I have to admit that I really like it when the house is clean - well, cleaner - so I want to get more done each week. I find resolutions work best when it is something specific you do for a little bit each day.
In the last year both my godparents, my father's brother and his wife, passed away. He was the last of my parents siblings. After my cousin cleaned out the house and distributed what was to go to the children and grandchildren, she generously let each of the nieces go through and select something for ourselves. I chose a cake plate and an embroidered dresser cloth. My cousin told me that my aunt had done the embroidery on this cloth when my uncle was serving in Korea during the war. They were newlyweds and she wanted to make some things for their housekeeping when he returned. She was training to be a nurse while he was away.
The cloth had embroidered flower basket designs on each end that were in good condition. However the rest was in terrible shape. There were large holes, small holes, brown spots. I soaked the cloth in Oxyclean for several hours and got most of the staining out. I was amazed that the embroidered areas were unharmed save for a tiny shadow and one tiny hole.
The embroidery was a youthful design so I thought they should go to some of the younger girls in the family. I cut them up, added quilt fabrics in a log cabin design and turned them into pillows. The purple pom pom fringe finished the outside. On the back, I was able to use the only other salvageable thing from the cloths, the lace, on the zipper plackets. I embroidered my aunt's and my initials on the back as well.
This week I was able to give the pillows to their new, young owners so they can have a little piece of their great grandmother for themselves as their time with her was too short. She lived across the road from my parents and was part of my life for over 50 years. My mother only recently told me that my aunt was in the delivery room with her when I was born. That must have been comforting for mother because back then, dads didn't go in with the mother. So typically a new mom would have no one she knew well there with her during delivery.
My aunt was someone you could always talk to and seek advice. She paid attention to our lives and was a joy to visit. She and my uncle even sweated (literally) through a 3 hour graduation ceremony in a gymnasium when I finished college. I loved them both and I miss them. Working on the pillows was a gift to me as well.
Soon I'll have a new scrapbook process video for you to kick off the new year. Be safe as you travel and celebrate the arrival of 2019.
My favorite holiday event is an annual party at my local knitting shop. I love the company most of all. We have good food, door prizes and a fun gift exchange. With the exchange, you keep the gift you get, none of the time consuming swapping. Everyone brings a small dollar value gift. Many people do gift certificates to the shop wrapped cleverly or included with something handmade.
I wanted to do nested boxes. Unfortunately, Hobby Lobby seems to have stopped selling the ones in the mixed media supplies. I found a box at Home Goods that I liked and decorated that. Then inside I put my gift which was some gold $1 coins in a little bag; I thought they would add weight and tinkle a little as gifts were passed around. So the recipient had to take the paper off the outside, open the box and then open the little bag. She seemed to really like it. I chose neutral colors because I didn't know who would get my gift. There are several ladies like me who love the blues and greens but I couldn't be sure one of them would get the gift. The recipient said she had just redecorated a room that this would be perfect in.
Several weeks ago I wrote my mother a letter to say some of the things I always wanted her to know that I felt about her. I even made some discoveries as I was writing.
This was prompted because I didn't say everything I wanted to to my father before he died. As far as I know, Mother and I are both in good health. I didn't want to wait until one of us wasn't or something happened and I missed my chance. I was going to say these things out loud to her and someone suggested I put it in writing instead. I think that was wise as she has something she can read again if she wants. If her memory fails her, she will always have the words written down. None of us remember that much of what we hear anyway.
The video shares a bit of this idea and the process I used for making this card which is sort of a booklet. It is only 2 pages inside front and back but you can pack in a lot of text in those two pages. You can use this idea for anything you want to capture and share.
My husband will always be young because he is young at heart.
He had fun running through the fountain on his birthday last summer. I know he picked this location because he knew Mother would enjoy an outing to a garden. What a sweet man!
For the layout, I used plain cardstock for the background and punched some elements from bright papers. I wasn't sure about these at first but they worked. I think the title here is a key element to set the mood. The page really didn't need a lot of journaling.
Here's the process video:
Thanks for watching!
ETA photo of new refrigerator to post on a message board. There is a story behind this and it will surely make a scrapbook page some day...
This quilt was completed for the Linus project. This organization pairs quilts with children in need of security. Just as Linus had his security blanket, a handmade quilt or blanket gives comfort to a child.
I shopped my stash first and then added a few other fabrics for the pink and lavender color scheme. The pattern is a combination of a couple of designs I saw in Crafty classes. It is a simple 4 patch design of 6 1/2" squares joined together with friendship stars in the sashing. I got to practice several free motion quilting designs while quilting. I quilted this one as one large piece.
For the next quilt, I'm dividing it up and that is part of what the video is about. The Hourglass quilt made from some fabrics from Northcott's Chloe collection and many others that I've found will be a large bed quilt for us. I love the red, yellow and teal color scheme.
I filmed this the weekend that Hurricane Florence made its way across the Carolinas. I left that part in the video even though I'm just now getting it posted. After Florence cleared and we knew we had no problems, we left on a trip so I'm just getting home and caught up. I've never done so much advance prep for a storm. I did so much that I really didn't end up cooking much the actual weekend of the storm. I think my Dh got a little tired of eating my 'storm food' even though much of it was home baking I'd done in advance. We were fortunate to only get 5 inches of rain, a little wind and not lose power. Many of use still remember Hugo (1989) for which we were not prepared and had a 5 day power outage here 260 miles inland.
Anyway, here's the video: (baby quilt at 12 minutes 44 seconds in.)
Since I filmed this, I've started the actual quilting. The results are mixed and I try to remember I'm still learning to machine quilt.
Have you ever bought a yarn or fabric only to be heartbroken when you washed it and the color runs? I found something that works for me - Rit Dye Fixative which I bought at Michaels. I can't guarantee it will work in all situations but I've tried it with several quilt fabrics and recently with a sweater made from yarn that bleeds. I'm very pleased with the results. This product and how it works are in the last part of the video below.
I did not get into many details about how I constructed the completed light blue/green sweater (shown at right) in the video. I did not use a pattern for this. While I have many patterns added to my favorites on Ravelry, increasingly I find it more enjoyable to just work up my own sweaters using a stitch pattern from one of the Treasury of Knitting Pattern books and figure out the fit as I go using my own measurements and working off of a favorite sweater or top.
To create the blue/green sweater, I worked a swatch for the gauge and then calculated how many stitches I would need for the bottom edge based on my measurements. As I explain in the video, I made a simple math error and did this wrong the first go round but after restarting I got a good fit. I knitted the pattern for a few inches and switched to all stockinette. I also mentioned in the video how I left some stockinette all the way up to work decreases to the waist and then a little increasing up to the bust line. I learned about this in the Sweater Modifications for a Custom Fit class on Craftsy.com. This is an excellent class to help with fitting. I use some of these concepts now but I do not use her pattern. I also tend to remeasure a lot.
When I get to the armholes, I follow another sweater or top that fits the way I want the one I'm making to fit. I just measure how much I need to decrease and work out how many stitches to bind off at the beginning of rows and for how long to get my desired fit. For example, if I have a gauge of 6 stiches per inch and I need to lose 1 inch over the next 4 rows, I would bind off 3 stitches at the beginning of every other row. I added a little more pattern stitch to the top of this sweater as I felt it would be a bit plain otherwise. (And I get bored with stockinette.)
For the neckline on this sweater, I had a Talbots blouse that had a rolled collar and a keyhole back and it was my inspiration. To get the rolled effect, I picked up stitches around the neck working in a 2x2 rib for about an inch and then did all stockinette for a few more rows which naturally rolls after binding off.
This is a simplified version of what I do. I like playing with different stitch patterns and I don't mind doing fitting for myself in knitting. Knitting has far more give than sewing does which to me is far harder to get a good fit.
I'm doing this same idea with the vest using a zip front vest in my wardrobe as the model. I've never put a zipper in my knitted garments so that will be a new adventure. I love making things that I know I will wear. So far I've worn all my knitted sweaters several times each.
Here's the video of my projects for the last couple of months:
I'm back with a two pager and process video. I FINALLY got some photos printed. The first part of the video shares some of those and selecting which photos to jump back into scrapbooking on my first layout in several weeks.
For this two pager, I used kraft cardstock, stenciling and some wood veneer to fit the mood and keep it simple. Here is the process video:
Soon, I'll have an update on some of my other crafts as well.
As a reminder, if you have purchased a class in the past, please watch any videos from the classes you would like before October 1. As announced earlier this year, all classes will go away at that time. This does not affect sketchbooks. All of my other process videos will still be available.
