Part II: Second Post of the Day

Here is the second part of the post. I finished up the sewing pins and glued the pincushion to it's pedestal.
Photos:

Above: From cute to....

Above: cuter :o)

Above: Cupcake has some sprinkles on it-clear glitter.

Above. Cupcake on pedestal with 2 pins: cupcake pin and cherry pin.

Above: Pedestal with painted on sprinkles to match crochet cupcake. I will add the wooden dowel for the thread holder tomorrow or maybe Monday. Tomorrow is clean up day, we are having our Sunday School     class over on Sunday for a Super Bowl Party. I have talked D#1 into watching the kids (so the house will still be in one piece) and I will paint her room next week. She wants more growny colors: yellow and orange.

Good night,

Holly

Finished projects!

I finally finished the pillowcase. The longest part of this project was blanket stitching the edge. The yarn I was using was a little too big. When the needle made the hole, the yarn was too big to fit through the hole. I will either use a bigger needle or smaller yarn. I believe she (http://www.yougogirl.typepad.com/) used a size 3 yarn. Not sure what that means exactly, but I plan on asking my crocheting sister. I was really suprised how fast the lace did go. Once blanket stitch was in place the crocheting went fast! Hopefully I will be inspired to make many more of these.

 Below: This is the other project that I was working on for the birthday gift. A little Cupcake! with sprinkles and a cherry on top! I have made many cupcakes, 10 or so, and somehow I remembered how to make them. Or basically the steps to making them. I didn't write the pattern down as I crocheted, so I am not able to give you the "recipe". Sorry. I do make up my own patterns, usually from drawings I do. I did a sock monkey and if i do him again, I will make a tutorial for him-maybe. There are free patterns on the internet and I am sure that there are cupcake patterns, just google crochet cupcake and several should pop up. Cherry was mine too. Sorry no instructions, they are lost somewhere in my brain.

Instruction book of basic stitches because it has been a few months since I have picked up the crochet hook. I have not been crocheting long, so please forgive the wonkyness of some of the stuff that I do. I was amazed at how easy it is to teach yourself to crochet. I learned in how to in about a week. Of course I probably crocheted 8 to 10 hours a day. And ripped out numerous mistakes, but it was well worth it. I can now put down the hooks, pick them up months later and still crochet like a pro novice-but I don't really have to do any refresher stitches. Why did I want to learn how to crochet, you might ask? I was determined to learn how to do this and read the patterns. I had seen the most adorable crochet animals, fruits, foods and many other cutie pie stuff and nobody in my household wanted to crochet them for me or should I say nobody wanted to learn to crochet and then teach me. So, I took it upon myself and I love it! So hopefully I will be listing some thing in my Etsy store soon (http://www.cottonpickinfun.etsy.com/).

Above: Here is the cupcake. It does have a little scallopy edge, I just forgot to smoosh it down. There are little tiny sprinkes on it.

Above: The sock monkey with fleece scarf. He is not very tall, maybe 6".

Maybe I can post some more stuff tomorrow, I seem to be on a roll.....

Stay warm and crafty,

Holly

What in the world is amigurumi?

These past few weeks have been busy, busy, busy. I have not gotten to blog as often as I have wanted to. I am now in full gear for Christmas. I have BIG plans to make most of my Christmas gifts. I am getting better at crocheting and am in love with amigurumi. I believe it is pronounced AM-A-GOO-ROOM-EE. At least that is how I am pronouncing it. Amigurumi means "single crochet" in Japanese. The patterns are super easy to follow and I am having a ball, no pun intended, making these little guys. I have decided to make some for Christmas presents for the little ones on our list. I have even made up some patterns. I am still not very familiar with all of the crocheting terms, so my patterns are a little hard for anyone else to follow. I also use a paperclip as my row marker. It works quite well and if I lose it, I have plenty more up in the craft room.

Supplies, gotta love that this is all it takes. Not an expensive hobby at all! Dear hubby appreciates that.

Naked little fellow. Waiting on his prickly fur. Can you guess what he is?

Did you guess hedgehog?

Here's a smaller one. The arms look a little wonky from this angle, but they really are on straight, I promise, really.... they are. He doesn't have his eyes yet, they are the last to be put on. I am making him some felt eyes. The safety plastic ones that I have were a little too big for my taste. I am going to make a momma and hopefully daddy and a felt mushroom house to put them in. I will have to make up my own pattern for the house, I can't find a cute pattern anywhere.

Look what I received in the mail today. It is my Prairie Women's Sewing Circle quilting supplies. They sent this one in a little cigar box, which is just the cutest. The box is for storing your "WIPs" or "work in progress" projects. This quilt is suppose to be hand pieced, which I love doing. I have been working on a hand piecing quilt for a while and I could finish it in about 2 weeks, but time just gets away. Maybe in January I will have some more time to devote to this project.

Pretty little civil war fabrics. See the pattern of the quilt square in the background. It is called "At Mama's  knee".

More beautiful Civil War fabrics.

Have a great day and keep yourself busy,

Holly