Category: Crafting

Transforming one thing into another for the purpose of personalizing my home or simply for the joy of doing it! :)

finished sweater mitten

Recycling Old Sweaters

Recycling Old Sweaters

I have been wanting to try my hand at sweater mittens for some time and have been saving old sweaters for that purpose.  This summer I learned to knit and decided to knit something for my children and grandchildren for Christmas and I thought I would make them each a pair of sweater mittens to match.  I may have bitten off more than I could chew.  While I did succeed in getting all the hats and headbands completed the mittens and liners were sewn, but not sewn together.  So they all got wrapped up and opened and then I took the mittens back to finish by New Years Eve!  🙂

One suggestion I would make is to do one pair completely before making such grandiose plans.  🙂  I, of course, decided to work on them all at once, ignoring my own advice.  I used the information at Sew Very Cute and traced out the hand print on paper as a template adding about a half and inch all the way around which allowed for thickness of hand and about an 1/8″ of seam allowance.  sweater mitten pattern Read More

making barn quilts

Barn Quilts

Making Barn Quilts

Decided to make a couple of barn quilts to hang on the old carriage house/shed in the back that we just painted to spice things up.  I thought I would explain my process here in case anyone would like to try as well.

I found a couple of quilts I liked and then proceeded to print the picture and divided the quilt picture into quadrants.  I then used a bit of math to be able to do it to scale in order to transfer the pattern onto my 4′ x 4′ 3/4″ plywood boards that my hubby got pre-cut at the lumberyard.  We could have cut them ourselves but they do it for free so why not take advantage of their kind service?  😉 Read More