Little Update...

The last few weeks have been all about learning more techniques in pyrography and again more practice and more practice. I have now finished two more projects (pictures to follow later).
We have had rain almost daily for the last couple of weeks and the weather is getting colder by the day which makes it the perfect opportunity to play around with crafts. I have come up with a couple of new idea's that I have seen and would like to try so, watch for those at a later date.
With winter coming I guess now is the time to start thinking about doing some holiday crafts. I have lots of things going around in my head the problem is taking them from there and turning them into reality.

I have an exciting trip coming up where I will be checking out materials that are suitable for pyrography as well as material for sewing. Getting the right type of pyrography blanks here has not been easy so I need to look elsewhere.

Yesterday while I was paying bills I thought I wonder if there is a way to turn this job into feeling more like your doing something crafty LOL. Any idea's?  

Long time no hear from...

It's been several months since I have updated my blog, sorry about that!
So many things have happened and changed over these last few months, my daughter has moved back home for awhile with her stuff, a dog, a cat and a bunny. After not having her living at home for 4 years this is an adjustment for all of us. I will say this though it's been really nice having her so close, we cook, shop together, watch tv and gossip. All the things that husbands tend to do under protest, ignore or just won't do at all..
I have also spent a great deal of time learning and practicing more with pyrography. This of all the things that I have spent the last 4 years teaching myself it is the one thing that I found that I get total enjoyment out of. I can be stressed to the max but when I sit down and take a plain piece of wood and turn it into something that I am proud of, all my stress seems to go away. The once craft area's I had have considerably gone down in size to accommodate my daughter and her things, it's ok though because it has forced me to concentrate on one thing at the moment instead of doing a bit of card making, a bit of sewing, a bit of transferring and all the other crafts that I have spent the last 4 years teaching myself but not becoming as good at them as I would have liked. I am not giving up any of these crafts I am just concentrating on one until I become confident enough to consider myself as approaching professional :-) .

I would love to take a pyrography class, unfortunately there are none offered in my surrounding area's.
The days are getting shorter here in Sweden now which in my case means that I can not drive in the dark. After having my license taken away because of poor night vision I have now been given it back, with restrictions! I can only drive during daylight hours, this means that I can not start driving until one hour after the sun comes up and must stop one hour before the sun goes down. This makes it hard to take fall and winter classes of any kind due to the lack of daylight hours. Oh well at least I can go get milk now if I need it.

Back to my pyrography... During the last few months I have burned many boxes, spoons and just recently I started burning animals. My goal is to one day in the very near future learn to burn portraits. To help aid me in learning more about pyrography I bought several books from the internet, I have read these books over and over again while practicing and practicing and practicing and more practice. I do feel that I have come a long way since I started pyrography. I hope that you all enjoy my projects as much as I do :-).

Another bit of news, myself and my wonderful friends in England decided to knit scarfs for Detroit, Michigan's less fortunate. Winter can be harsh in Michigan. My Son and Daughter in law work with a couple of different shelter's in Detroit. They collect coats, hats, scarfs, toiletries just to name some for the less fortunate. To date we have more than 90 scarfs and more than 25 hats going to Detroit in December. I am very grateful to my friends Doris and Trevor in England, they have done 70 of these scarfs and more than 15 hats. Love you both dearly <3 .

I will be adding my newest pyrography to the site. I also will do my best to not wait several months before updating...

 

Coming along...

It's been an exciting week for diy at my house.

The sign that I had done for Sömmerskan's was delivered to them this week. Börje and Birgith, owner's of Sömmerskan loved the sign. It's the suprised look that made my day. It was just a small way to say thank you for all the help with my embroidery machine.

Börje had to show it off next to his new machine :-)

After finishing the sign I started two more burning projects. The first box has a few more new techniques for me. I am very pleased at how it turned out, however I had a desire to try something even more detailed.

 I am pleased with this box

I am so excited about my latest pyrography project!!

Even though I started with woodburning just a couple of months ago, I decided that if I didn’t try even more techniques I wouldn’t know if I could do it. I found a country cottage template with many different details and went for it. This is the end result. 

Latest project.. So proud I am..

Another Easter has Past....

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter...
Last week was a hectic week, this week is going to be no better. One good thing is, I will not have to think about Easter dinner.
I spent a lot of time last week practicing quilt stitches and pyrography. This week I will attempt to sew together my first bigger (twin size) quilt if I can get my hand on a pair of quilting gloves, I find that my hands have a tendency to slide a little too much on the material. Due to the fact that it is not easy to find these things here I might have to order them from the net.

In the last week I have burned a sign for someone that I want to say Thank you to.

This is the result of my 1st sign. Woodburning I am finding is something that I really enjoy doing. 

I almost feel like an artist. :-)

Today I started a box with a country cottage on it. The details and blending in this project take time and patients. It might come out alright or it might not, either way it's great practice. Look for pics of the finished product sometime this week.

The last project I have going now is something that has a lot of meaning for me. I have lived in Sweden now for about 11 ½ years but before moving here for 42 years my only home was Detroit MI. Almost all of my family live in MI. I have children and grandchildren in MI. 

The last couple of years my son and daughter in law take up a collection around Nov./Dec for the homeless and needy.They collect winter coats among other items. This past December they gave the two shelters they work with 300 coats. This however only put a dent in the actual amount of coats that were needed. I have decided that I am going to try to do something to help for 2014. From now until the end of October I will spend my evenings knitting scarfs and hats for the homeless and needy in my home town of Detroit. 

Winters in Detroit can be very harsh and very cold. A hat and scarf I hope will keep someone a little warmer. I am also very happy that a couple that are very close to me have decided to pitch in and knit a few scarfs to the cause. 

HELP!!

If there is anyone out there that can give me some tips on inexpensive shipping to Sweden it would be appreciated. I am looking for having material and other of my hobby items shipped to me. The problem is that shipping international has a tendency to cost double or more then the products that I want. So HELP!!

Have a good week!!!  

Easter Egg Tutorial

This is an Easter craft that can be done by adults and kids (with help from an adult), then enjoyed for many years. It is also great on easter baskets or to give to someone special.

Materials needed

Any spare fabric you have

Thread

Needle

Egg template (google)

Ribbon

Trace egg template on wrong side of material. You will need two cut pieces for one egg.

 Cut out material into egg shape.

If you want to embroider a name on your egg do this on one half of your egg before pinning your two egg halves together. A name can either be put on by machine or hand.

Place right sides together.

Place a piece of ribbon between both pieces.

Pin your egg halves together and sew by machine or hand. Leave approx. a 1 inch opening to turn your egg inside right. I used a ¼ in seam allowance.  Back stitch both at the beginning and end so that when you turn your egg inside right it will not come apart.

I did one for all the kids & grandkids.

Once your egg is right side out carefully stuff your egg with pillow stuffing to get your desired fullness.

Sew the opening closed using a hidden stitch or a whip stitch.

Done!! Happy Easter

Hobby Area's

So far it's been a great weekend. Hubby was very nice and made me a sewing table. He took the top from his old L shaped desk then cut the hole for my machine and made new legs. The new legs are because I'm short. Hahaha! Now the area's that I spend a great deal of time in are more in order so that work can be more productive...Wishful thinking :-)

A weekend tip..

With all of the things I am learning, the books that I am reading & the video's I'm watching, time is not something that I have a lot of.
I found this amazing tip I have to share. Cutting your fabric for quilting takes a lot of time. I am one of those people that can not cut a straight line with a ruler. Rotary cutters are great if you can manage not to have your ruler slide on the fabric. With just the couple of quilts that I have cut fabric for it just amazes me how many cuts did not come out as straight as I thought they were.
Here is a tip that I read about. If you are into card making and happen to have a big shot die cutting machine you also have the beginnings of tools to cut many pieces of fabric accurately. I happen to have a big shot so I got a couple of quilt dies and tried it out.
WOW! I placed my fabric on the die, sandwiched it then ran it through the machine. In less then half hour I had 72 half-square triangles, 4 ½ in finished squares cut. the start of my next quilt. :-)

1 big shot die cutting machine +

1 quilt die cut +

fabric =

72 4½ in finished squares in less then half hour..

 

Loom knitting for comfort

This past September is when I discovered Loom Knitting. Wanting to do something to help other's afflicted by aneurysm I had decided with the help of a few other's to loom knit 100 scarfs and and sell them, donating the proceeds to the university hospital that I feel saved my life. Loom knitting is a craft that is not hard to do at all. If you have problems with your hands but would still like to learn knitting then this is the way to go. I am not at this point the greatest at reading a pattern or doing all the many stitches that one can do on a loom but I figure all in do time...

Latest hat & scarf set..

100 scarfs for Aneurysm

My 1st quilt

My 1st baby quilt when finished was a very proud moment for me. Don't laugh but when I saw the finished product I cried :-) . I have always been so jealous of people that could sew. I love quilts and never thought I would be able to sew one myself but here it is! This coming for the women that took two year's in high school to make a mini skirt. Over the weekend my hubby has promised to built me a sewing table because I want to learn how to do free motion quilting.

At the moment I am working on a boys twin quilt.

Very proud.. A baby quilt

Pyrography Tea Boxes

These are what I have worked on in the last two weeks. Pyrography is my newest craft. Looking for a stress reliever this is it! I started by using an inexpensive craft burn tool however having a problem with my hands I found that it was not very comfortable. I received as a gift a burn tool that is more like a pencil so it is more comfortable to do several hours of burning. Practice is the key. My goal is to be able to burn portraits. If you are someone that knows about pyrography and has any tips I am all ears.

Burning tea boxes make great gifts...

Tea box fit for an English tea party...

This box took a lot of practice, but I love it!!! 

My 1st attempt at adding color.. 

New week, new rewards!

It's Monday! It's a new week for a variety of things to do. At the moment I am working on a boy's twin quilt. The top is finished, it's just to put the sandwich together and sew. At the same time I am working on burning (pyrography) a couple of tea boxes that someone has ordered, plus loom knitting another scarf & hat set.
I am really thinking that I should split the day with doing one craft in the morning, one in the afternoon then knitting in the evening.  Within the next few days I will post pics of what I am working on plus what I have learned to do. DIY is a rehabilitation that I highly recomend. Although I am just learning how to do all these things it's very rewarding when a project is finished and looking good. Enjoy your week!!

April 4, 2014

Today is the first day of my blog :-) My blog will contain crafts and creations that I am working on at the time. I am very new at just about every craft from pyrography to sewing. Hope to share tips and idea's with you all!!