I have been working on my crafty stuff, but I don't have anything finished yet. I am in the middle of a gift, a market bag, a pair of Palazzo pants, hemming my curtains, and making a crocheted summer bag. I will post photos as soon as I get them.

I finished a couple of projects in the past month. Here is a market bag I gave my sister for her birthday. I also gave her a fused pendant I made.



I made a couple of washcloths in cotton.




I have been writing and crafting a little. I don't seem to have the time. I did buy some cotton to make a pair of drawstring pants for the summer. I am using Simplicity 4190.

I have been working on a couple of things.
I made this felt bunny for my brother-in-law's birthday. He likes to collect little figures.



This is a cable bracelet I made from an online pattern from Lion,


This is another cable bracelet from Lion.



This is a bracelet I made from one of those silver charms I made last summer. The photo is terrible. I really need a new camera.



I want to make a couple of more knitted bracelets but first I have to make a few cotton dishcloths.

I have been quite busy although it only seems I have been sitting on my couch watching television every night. I have been working on a knit bracelet from Lion. If you visit their site at www.lionbrand.com, you can download free patterns. I am working on the Vanna's Choice cable bracelet. I have never tried cables in hand knitting, only on the knitting machine. It should be interesting! Photos when I get them.

I also want to make my own Amigurami cat to keep me company while I edit my book. I do have four real-live cats and a dog that like to lay on me, but one more yarn cat can't hurt, can it? Again, I will post photos about it when I get done.

I have been getting back into knitting. I made an Amigurami cat for my husband for Valentine's Day. I downloaded the pattern free from Lion Yarn. His name is Veblen.



He likes catnip and staring at people.

Craft news! I ended up not giving out my homemade presents for Christmas, but I still have them for birthdays.

I was working on my purse that appeared a couple of posts back, but was unable to attach the lining sufficiently so I threw it away and I have to say it was liberating. I did buy two more purse patterns from Simplicity, #3828 and 3715. Beyond that, I have been hemming jeans, which turned out pretty good, I think.

I am going to finish my hemming and then I think I will start the magenta suede purse using pattern 3828, view B.

Until then.

I have worked on a couple of things that haven't turned out for whatever reason. The first is a macrame necklace that uses square knots and double half hitches but it didn't work with the silk rattail I used. It is really purple but came out blue on the photo. The necklace uses one of the fused pendants I made a couple of months ago. I am still deciding on how to finish it, clasp-wise.



The next one is from the book Beading With Pearls and it is the "Lasso." Keep in mind that I usually don't have the correct materials to start with but use whatever I have on hand in my own interpretation. The directions called for white freshwater pearls in two sizes strung on "Greek-style leather cord." I had neither. I had white suede cord and purple "pearls."


Meh. I am not thrilled but now I know that I am not going to waste the money buying freshwater pearls and Greek-style leather, whatever that is!

I wanted to give a shout out to that anonymous commenter in that previous thread.

Earlier today, I was organizing my craft room/writing room after a month of novel writing and went through my UFOs, unidentified found objects also known as unfinished projects. I have bags of them. So many, in fact, that I probably don't have to go shopping for a while.

In fact, as I write this, I am looking over and my cat, 2%, is sitting on a pile of to-be-felted projects. I hate to take away his bed.

I started a hat for my husband and I just realized that I have been doing 2x2 rib wrong. No wonder it never turned out. I mean really! I have over 20 knitting books that provide instruction on how to do these things. You think I would have read it or something.

Hi everyone! I didn't want to neglect you but I have been busy do other creative things.

Now, some photos:


These are fused glass pendants I made at a fusing class held at Prism Glassworks in Maumee. It was really fun! I first took a glass cutting class and then the fusion class. I can't remember how much it was, but they fused them for me. It isn't a good photo, but I am going to be making necklaces out of them and will take photos as I make them. I am also taking a stained glass window class early next year at Prism. I am pretty excited about it.

I mentioned that I made a PMC pendant to go along with my Burn Notice bracelet. Here it is.



Sorry, for the poor quality photo. I like to blame the camera! Ha! Anyway, I wanted the pendant to be imperfect, that is why it is misshapen a bit.



Above is a bag of zippers my mom is letting me borrow to make these:

A slipcover for the cushion on my couch.

I went to a powwow in October and bought these really great beads:

I haven't been posting because I decided that I may make Christmas gifts this year and I already have a head start and I don't want to post anything in case the recipients look at my blog. I am not sure that I have to worry about it, but you never know.

I have finally gone back and posted some photos of work that I have done over the summer. The first bracelet is the Burn Notice bracelet, which was really a rip-off from a Me & Ro design. I took a class in metal clay and made the charms and then threaded the white leather through the holes. I am very pleased with it. I made four extra charms and a pendant that I haven't done anything with yet. But I have plans! Big plans!


The next bracelet is a macrame number I whipped up. The in-progress photo is first as it was staked out on the cool macrame board my mom gave me. And the second is the finished bracelet. This was from a pattern downloaded from BeadingDaily.com. I also made a similar bracelet in purple, but the photos didn't turn out. I need a new camera.





This next photo is a photo of the PMC3 that I used to make the bracelet in the first picture. Not thrilling, but interesting nonetheless. I believe this small package of silver was over $65. It is probably more now.



The last one is a photo of the light table my mom gave me. My dad had made it for my mom, who, in her career as a graphic arts photographer, would use one at work to cut negatives. When we were kids, we used to play on it, tracing stuff. This was a hotly wanted item at my house and my mom gave it to me! Thanks mom!



Fall begins tomorrow and I am gearing up for some fall projects. I have a bead loom bracelet I want to finish and I am going to make slipcovers for the couch. I was at Wal-Mart and I saw some really nice fabric for only $4.95 a yard. I hope they still have it. It was quite a while ago. Anyway, I want to recover the couch and the chair before the winter. All of these projects will be running concurrently with the kitchen remodel my husband and I started in August. The big stuff is out of the way and all we have to do is small trim stuff, replace the laminate counter top, and finish painting. Piece of cake! Yea, right.

I know that I have neglected you blog, and I feel terrible, so here is a little post. I am a member of the Crafter's Choice book club. I may have mentioned it before. I have been so busy that I haven't been able to do too much surfing around, much less refuse my monthly featured selection from the Club. Well yesterday, a package arrived containing, you guessed it! August's feature selection. Now I know the sensible readers out there will just tell me to send it back, but it's Nicky Epstein's Crocheting on the Edge! You can't just send that back! That would be so anti-crafty and just really the opposite of what I am all about. No, not racking up huge credit card debt (that's only part of it), but more about using all kinds of resources. I haven't looked at it yet but I am sure it is fantastic. I have all of her other "edge" books and I have room on my shelf. So it is staying.

I recently posted about getting back into beading and I wanted to share a couple of projects I am working on.


The first one, which is finished, is from Sherri Haab's book Beaded Macrame Jewelry. It is called the three-strand sampler bracelet. The directions called for Griffin silk to be used for the stringing, but I couldn't find any in any store in Toledo, so I opted for the C-Lon bead cord. It is not as drape-y, but I like it. I was
going to send away for the correct cord and different beads, but I think that I am going to just stick with what I have. It is finished and nice and I like it. That is all that matters, right?



The second bracelet is currently a work in progress. It is an adjustable knotted cuff designed by Dottie Hoeschen and I downloaded it off the Beading Daily website. I am not wild about the satin cord color. Nor am I wild about the beads. I bought both at a local bead shop and am not happy. I will probably stick with the cord color but buy some multicolored freshwater pearls from artbead.com or Fire Mountain Gems.


The third project is a knitted necklace which will have beads strung through it. It came as a kit and there doesn't seem to be a photo of the finished project, so I guess I will have to wing it.

Two other bead projects I am going to work on is another bracelet from the Haab book and an interpretation of the macrame bracelet I made last year. I am not sure how I am going to do this last one, it is going to be a make-it-up-as-you-go kind of adventure. Which are always the best kind.

And some sewing news: My mom and I went to Vogue Fabrics on Tuesday, July 29. We went to the store in Lansing, IL, a little south of Gary, IN. My review of the store is that it had a lot of really great fabric but not a lot of notions. I was really looking for a clapper for pressing. It is impossible to find one in the city of Toledo because all we have here are JoAnn's and Hancock Fabrics. There are no other fabric stores. I found one online but it was cost prohibitive. Besides that, the store was well stocked. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to get out on the road for a little road trip. Gas prices weren't even that bad on the turnpike. After we visited the store, we headed back and stopped for dinner in South Bend, IN. I had a lot of fun. My mom and I are going to go up to the Evanston store in the fall and make a weekend out of it.

I bought three pieces of fabric. One was a green knit with white flowers. I am going to make into a shirt.


The next was a windowpane plaid wool that I am going to make into a skirt.


The third was a snazzy rayon that is begging to be made into a dress.


So, I have been to all three Vogue Fabrics in the Chicago area and I have to recommend them all. But if you are going to make a weekend of it, then definitely visit the flagship store in Evanston.

I wrote last night that I was getting back into beading. When I originally saw the bracelet on the Burn Notice website, I saw that it was made out of leather and gold. As a member of Crafter's Choice, I have a book titled Metal Clay and Mixed Media Jewelry by Sherri Haab. It is extremely informative but since the price of gold is through the roof, cost prohibitive at the moment.

Cue my trip to Meant to Bead, a local bead store. I was looking through their books and saw Beaded Macrame Jewelry by none other than Sherri Haab. This woman is very talented. Her website address is www.sherrihaab.com and while the website isn't the shopping powerhouse you may want, there is information about the classes she teaches and limited items to buy.

So, I am beading again. I have decided that I am going to let my whims dictate what kind of crafting I do. I have been writing and haven't had a lot of time to devote to any kind of crafting and besides, I haven't felt particularly inspired. But that has changed for the moment and I am going to strike while the iron is hot.

I will keep you posted on my progress. I bought some C-Lon thread and will be making some projects from the macrame book while working on my Burn Notice inspired bracelet.

I have become interested in beading again. I watch Burn Notice and on the show's website you can buy clothes from the show. One of the characters, Fiona, was wearing the macrame bracelet I made last year! I am so ahead of the curve! There is another bracelet from the same designer that I would like to recreate. This got me interested in beading again. I was looking into metal clay but it is very expensive because of the price of gold. I am going to reinterpret it in a different medium. I will keep you posted on the progress.

It has been forever since I wrote! I haven't been sewing much lately because I have been working on my writing, but I did whip up two skirts to wear to a work meeting. They ended up being too big, but I wore one of them anyway. I am away from work room at the moment, so I can't give up the pattern numbers, but the next time I post, I will. I am going to schedule more sewing in my future, to fit in with my writing.

Until then, happy crafting!

On edit: I know that I promised to post the pattern numbers on the skirts I made and I don't want to be a liar, so here they are: Butterick 4461 and Simplicity 9825. The Simplicity skirt was inspired by a skirt I saw at Banana Republic but was too expensive for me to even consider buying.

I am a member of the Crafter's Choice book club and recently received the new Nancy Ziemen book, Pattern Fitting With Confidence and Marie Clayton's Ultimate Sewing Bible. I didn't ask for these two and I must have missed the opt out e-mail, but I am going to keep them. I also received, in the mail, an RSVP for Clotilde's Sew Smart. I really enjoy the magazine and I feel you can't have enough sewing reference books.

I went to Hancock's yesterday and picked up a couple of patterns that were on sale for $.99. One is a shorts pattern and the other is a t-shirt pattern. I also learned the difference between ribbing and regular knit. Don't laugh. I had no idea. I also bought some clearance fabric for my shorts. If you remember from a previous post, that I wanted to perfect a shorts pattern and make them in a bunch of colors. The same goes with the t-shirt. As I said in my latest Wordful Googie post, there doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day to get everything done. To that end, I am going to create a schedule to fit writing and sewing in to my day.

I wanted to pop in and say hey! My Chanel jacket hadn't been going as well as I had hoped. I am working on the lining and it is a bit of a nightmare. I put it aside for now and have been working on non-related craft projects. I received the Hancock flier in the mail the other day and they are having fantastic pattern sales coming up at the end of June. I'm talking $0.88 patterns! Wheeee! I want to find a shorts pattern that I can make in a bunch of different colors. I hope I can find one.

Will check in later and hopefully have good news about my jacket.

I wanted to check in to let you know that I have been busy with other projects and haven't been working on my Chanel jacket. I will work on it this week and post an update, but I have kind of lost interest. The jacket is lined and it is not working out as well as I had hoped. I will finish it and post photos, though. Until then.

I wanted to add that I was on a sewing tear this weekend. I hemmed up my skinny pants, fixed the curtains that the cats shredded, and fixed my bra that needed the elastic re-worked. Everything, it seems, except for working on my jacket. I did, however, get more thread so I am all set for sewing tomorrow night.