Think Crafts Blog – Craft Ideas and Projects – CreateForLess

Welcome Guest Blogger and Designer, Phyllis Dobbs.

Phyllis Dobbs began her creative career 20 years ago designing in the needlework and crafts industry. Phyllis’ designs reflect a sense of whimsy and she is driven by her passion for color. Phyllis has created over 1500 designs that have been published in books for cross-stitch and quilt designs.

Phyllis' new fabric collection - It's a Dog's Life

For the past two or three years, a big trend has been “retro” with various decades being a hot trend influence.  When I see remembrances of these decades in fashion or home décor, I also recall the crafts that I was doing when I was wearing the original versions of these fashions. (Yes, even bell-bottoms!)

I started crafting at an early age and learned cross stitch, sewing and quilting from my mother and aunt.  Although needlework has remained my “craft specialty” and the medium that I have devoted most of my designing career to, I have tried and loved them all. 

Because of my great love of crafts, I started designing.  My career started in the 80′s during the height of another craft dynasty – counted cross stitch.  At that time, there was a cross stitch shop on nearly every corner.  I jumped in with both feet and self published cross stitch books and leaflets.  I was successful and enjoyed my new career. 

When cross stitch began losing its popularity, I also began designing quilt patterns and started a freelance design career. Giving up self-publishing, I designed for other publishers for magazines and books.  I continued trying new craft mediums and created designs using these mediums.  I designed with beads, creating jewelry, tassels and adding them to cross stitch and quilting. I loved ribbon embroidery and authored several ribbon embroidery books.  In hard crafts, I loved to design mosaics. 

For the past 8 years, I have been painting.  I have translated my painting into product design through art licensing.  With my love of quilting and fabrics, I have been thrilled to have my art licensed for fabrics with Quilting Treasures.  My newest fabric collection, It’s a Dog’s Life is debuting next week at the International Quilt Market.  Throughout all my years of crafting, my style has evolved into whimsy combined with brilliant color.  My career as a designer started with seeds – all those seeds of being taught by my mother and aunt, and then from all those various crafts I loved over the years.  If you love something, it can take you on a path you never anticipated. 

It's a Dog's Life Fabric Collection

Happy crafting,

Phyllis Dobbs

Click here to read more of Phyllis’ posts.

Welcome Guest Blogger, Jenny Hart, founder of Sublime Stitching.

Vintage Lamp Hoodie

So, by now you either have the new patterns in your stitchy little hands, or are anxiously awaiting them. Wanna project idea? How about this one using the Vintage Lamps and Glow-in-the-Dark thread? What a bright idea…

x – x – x – x – x

Who: You!

What: Hoodie w/ Vintage Lamps and Glow-in-the-dark (GITD) thread

When: Right now! Or, when you have time. Give yourself 1-2 hours

Easiness Level: Beginner to Intermediate

You’ll need:

 * Vintage Lamps patterns

* GITD Thread (optional, but nice touch!)

*Floss in Pastel Palette (or your choice)

* Stabilizer (optional)

*Basic embroidery supplies of needle, hoop and scissors

* White hoodie, light-colored cotton jacket
(or a shirt you like)

Vintage Lamp Pattern

A transfer tip: The best results for getting a pattern on knit fabrics is with an iron-on transfer or transfer pen. Carbon transfer paper, while great for smooth fabrics like cotton weave, just doesn’t take too well to spongy, soft surfaces. Dangit!

Oh and: I worked with a hoop on this project. When working with stretchy fabrics on a hoop, be careful not to overdo (overstretch) it. if you really stretch the crud out of your fabric, your work will scrunch up in a way that will make you go boo hoo when you take it off the hoop. There will be no boo’ing and hoo’ing. 

INSTRUCTIONS
x – x – x – x – x – x

Instead of going over the instructions for getting a transfer pattern on fabric (those instructions come in each pack) or the basics of embroidering, I’m going to show you how to do whipping for the glow-in-the-dark accent. Let’s whip it! We’ll whip it good! (You had to see that one coming.)

Embroider the design completely. I worked everything in back stitch, which is so easy, but looks so, so…embroidered. After you’ve finished the embroidery, re-load your needle with GITD thread. I chose to match the color of the GITD thread to the color of each lamp for maximum stealthiness.

Whip It! Come up from behind your fabric just like you would to begin embroidering. Then, pass your needle and thread under and over your stitches, always keeping your needle to the topside of the fabric (not piercing the fabric). Your stitches will wrap around the worked embroidery like so:

Returning Guest Blogger, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”

My grandmother had a rack of spools over her sewing desk in the spare bedroom of her house when I was growing up. Every summer I would spend a few weeks at her house and every summer she would take me to the fabric store, almost as soon as I arrived, to pick out a pattern and fabric to learn during my visit. I spent hours each summer in the room affectionately known as the waterbed room with it’s green and white butterfly papered walls, it’s wall size shelf of family photos, and my grandmother’s sewing table. When I wasn’t in the kitchen learning how to stew figs for drying or experimenting with pudding and gelatin or out in the back yard trying to work up my courage to attempt my aunts famous “death drops” off the swing set, I was in the sewing room working on increasingly difficult patterns and never fully understanding the valuable skills I was acquiring.

The sewing room was a haven from the Redding, CA heat. The shade from the house next door, the dark walls, perhaps even the waterbed itself made the room cooler than the rest of the house. In the cool quiet I could pin and cut and stitch, or lie on the undulating mattress of the waterbed, or in my tween years, watch Days of our Lives on the tiny black and white Television that was perched on the bedside dresser.

Sometimes in a fit of teenage self-righteousness I would do nothing but spin the spools of thread on their wooded pins or finger the gold stork handles of the delicate sewing scissors that hung from a ribbon on a hook. The wooden spools were always my favorite. It seemed she had hundred of them, but it was probably no more than a dozen, plastic spools were already taking over by then. When one of the wooden spools ran out of thread we made them into dolls or furniture or animals or spool crochet sets. My grandmother’s imagination was endless and she always had something new to make, to teach, to show.

When she moved out of her house after my grandfather died, a pair of wooden spools was among the treasures I took away with me. I have carried them across states and oceans and they now sit in one of the mason jars of thread on my sewing table, a reminder of the lessons of those long hot summer days of my childhood. Of sewing dozens of tiny buttons down the front of a dress and sneaking dried figs out of the freezer in the family room, of my grandmothers dried apple kitchen witch and the thumping of the dough hook on her beloved mixer beating away at her bread.

My Grandmother, who now lives in a second floor apartment and uses the Internet and has a Judi Dench haircut, continues to amaze me, to inspire me. And every time I sit down to sew or slide dinner in the oven, or set out on a new project, I am reminded of those summers, the rows of wooden spools and the cool of the waterbed room, and of my grandmother.

So what crafts have been handed down in your family? And what skills do you plan to pass on to the next generation?

To read more of Gillian’s blog, click  here.

 Pretty Little Potholders by Lark Books

Potholders are just fun and make a great gift for any occasion.  This book has over 30 projects that range from quick and easy to a little more detailed.  The book includes great instructions for all the sewing techniques used including embroidery, yo-yos, quilting, and beading.  Most projects have a retro look and feel, but with different fabric selection can be changed to meet your personal taste and style.  I enjoyed the pot handle cozy and the yo-yo potholder.  This is a fun book with great illustrations, photographs, and step-by-step instructions. 

I enjoyed combining yo-yos with quilting for this set of potholders.

I’m hopelessly addicted to needlepunch or punchneedle (I’m not really sure which term to use!). I don’t always have time to make a project from a kit or punch a complex design so I came up with an easy way to get my needlepunch dose without having to concentrate too hard!

I use needlepunch as a background for jewelry pendants!  I use miniature frames and variegated floss; I’ll needlepunch the frame shape (measure the inside area of the frame) as a background.  Once done, I apply fray stop around the edge of the design, apply to the back of the design (remember when doing needlepunch you are working the back of the design). Once the fray stop has dried, I cut out the background. The fray stopping adhesive keeps the raw ends of the floss from unraveling.  I add a cute button, bead, or charm to the background. If needed I mat the design onto light cardboard and insert into the frame. 

The photo above shows an example of a pendant set done with a fish, turtle, and seahorse bead!  Ocean and sea life are my favorite themes for needlepunch and many of my crafting projects.

I’ve loved books since I was a child.  My mother read to me all the time and my favorite books were always by Dr. Suess.  My mother kidded me as an adult about how she wasn’t really reading to me after the 100th time I requested Horton Hears A Who — she had the book memorized!  When I learned to read the library became my home away from home.  Books allowed me to travel to far away places, see exotic animals, and learn about nature.  Reading allows me to keep my childhood wonder and imagination.

Thus, Think Crafts!, must have a Book Club!  We can get together the first day of every month and share our favorite books and authors.  I might even throw in a magazine here and there.  There is a magazine for almost every hobby, passion, and subject.  I hope you join me often for the Think Crafts! Book Club.  Keep reading, you have a chance to win this book.

Featured Title: Trim The Tree published by Annie’s Attic

This books features 35 crochet ornaments with whimsical and Victorian themes.  The instructions are easy to follow, you have full color photos, and each ornament lists the skill level needed to complete.  The projects are colorful, fun, and worthy of any Christmas tree.  Many projects are quick to make so the ornaments would make perfect holiday gifts.

Think Crafts! Blue Ribbon Book Award

Would you like to win this book?

Be the first person to e-mail me at Maria@thinkcrafts.com and this book will be yours.  I will reply back to the first e-mailer requesting a mailing address.  Please don’t post any personal information on Think Crafts!

This contest is closed, the winner has been shipped the book. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed in!

Calling this meeting to order… Welcome to the first meeting of the Think Crafts! Kit Club where we talk about kits we’ve enjoyed! And each month one lucky club member will win the kit of the month!  See below for details…

There is nothing better in life than a great crafting kit!  Because of my love of kits I’ve decided to hold a monthly club meeting just for us kit junkies.  Kits are a great way to learn a new craft or technique.  Kits can also be perfect for taking on a long car trip or vacation. And kits make great gifts for family and friends!

Please feel free to post a comment or tell us about a kit you’ve enjoyed.   I don’t have many photos for our first club meeting, but please keep coming back as I hope to be able to add more visuals and maybe even a video or two!

Colonial I Felt Creative Felt By Number Kit

When this kit arrived, I ripped it open and started immediately.  I’m a felt fanatic and I loved the wonderful colors of the roving.  The kit is very complete with roving, two felting needles, design transfers, and excellent instructions.  The Colonial Needle Co. was a real leader in bringing back this traditional craft in a hip and innovative way.

You are given the design transfers (left) and the actual size felt by number pattern to match.

You can make 4 different mini stocking: snowman and star, bell, poinsettia, and holly.  You transfer the pattern onto fabric (acrylic or wool fabrics are recommended) or onto a sweatshirt, hat, or even a guest towel!  The instruction booklet gives you plenty of ideas.  The felting instructions are easy to follow so no worries if you are a beginner.  I’ve been felting for almost 4 years now and I learned quite a few new things including how to get rid of needle marks on the finished design (a spritz of water to the back and a little ironing!).

I really liked that the kit included the felting needles.  I usually have some handy, but it’s nice to start a project with a fresh sharp felting needle.  A foam board is included to work on.  Another big bonus in using this kit is that I can use the transfer designs several times.

Kit includes all the roving shown, plus the foam board and 2 felting needles.

I highly recommend this kit to anyone who wants to give felting a try without investing in all the supplies needed separately (it can add up!).  I also recommend this kit to anyone who enjoys felting and wants a specific project to make.  It’s a real time saver. You can easily adapt the patterns to create ornaments, a pretty touch to a sweatshirt, or as a pin!

I give this kit a five glue gun salute!

 
Would you like to win this Felt By Numbers kit?
Be the first person to e-mail me at Maria@thinkcrafts.com and this Felt By Numbers kit will be yours.  I will reply back to the first e-mailer requesting a mailing address.  Please don’t post any personal information on Think Crafts!

This contest is closed, the winner has been shipped the kit. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed in!