It seems that my two main projects at the moment are both worked in rings, and as they get bigger, they grow a little bit more slowly.  I am still enjoying making my rag-rug, but it was time to give my “Wheel-Of-Fortune” some love and attention.

Now that I have completed the 9th, very bright-pink ring, it is getting harder to photograph.  The colours in the top photograph are probably the most accurate.

As I have mentioned before, this bright pink is just a little outside my comfort zone, but I’m very happy with how it turned out.  Next up is a peachy ring of squares, just like the second ring, and after that, one made of the paler browns diamonds, like the centre.

Michaela might give you some idea of the scale of this beauty.

Finally, for those of you that are also a little bit like me with pegs – here is some peg-love…

“Carpets” made of pegs (not to walk on though), an ombre peg backdrop, and an Artist who makes sculpture with wooden pegs – all found via Design Sponge.

Are you doing any “circle work”*?

*the term “circle-work” in Australia generally refers to the driving maneuver that is also called a doughnut.  I’ve never done one!

…where she stops, nobody knows!

This is still mostly made of old clothes, but I caved in and used some scraps of fabric for the second-most recent colour, the mid-blue.  I really wanted that colour, and the bit of blue fabric I had was very scrappy – a strange shape that I cut into lots of different sized strips.  It was scrap-chicken, as I only just made it around.  It contributed a whole lot of thready edges too, because it does not curl up like the stretch fabric.  You can read more about my rug and the Rag-Rug-Along here and here.

I wonder if you can guess what colour I am using next?

4 years ago, I made 3 cushions out of some fabric that I purchased at Purl Soho, when I was in NYC.

The beautiful Yuwa fabric, which features cups of tea, has faded (through use) on the front, but not the back (you can see the back in the photo above).  Because the teacups are in such a neutral colour, I decided to revive the cushions with new motifs on the front, rather than retire them.  I decided that at least one of them needed to be decorated with Typography, preferable something swooshy.

So I found part of an old, hand-drawn logo that I liked on Pinterest, traced the part I liked, and used fusible web to cut out the lettering in nice fabric.  When it came to ironing the lettering onto the cushion cover, the chunky zip on the back was a bit of a sticking point.  The zip is usually covered, and is bright yellow because it came off another cushion – I’m thrifty you see, but that was not the problem.  In order to iron on the lettering, I needed a nice flat surface, and the chunky zip was mounding up the cushion cover, right through the middle.

So I had a great idea – I would iron on the lettering, while the cover was still on the cushion, making the cushion-front nice and flat, which brings us to my first fail.  It didn’t occur to me that the cushion-insert had it’s own covering of synthetic fabric.  While I merrily ironed on the swooshy word, I was also fusing the cushion cover to the cushion insert.  After it had cooled, and I had made my discovery, I carefully peeled off as much of the fused fabric as I could and tossed the ruined cushion-insert out.

Which brings me to my second fail.  I decided to send my hubby (at work) a short message, so that he too could have a laugh at my expense.  I went looking for a link to the original, really old, hand-drawn logo to show him.  Turns out that the really old logo, which I found amongst genuine old logos, was actually from a very-much-current brand, (not available in Australia – so not familiar to me) and was not old at all.

Now this might not be your idea of a fail – but I very much believe that I should not be messing with other people’s intellectual property, and feel like such an idiot for not checking out the situation more carefully before I steamed ahead.  I am a bit ashamed at myself.  I felt OK about using an old, out-of copyright, and out-of-use piece of typography, (just for in my home, and not for profit) because it felt more like paying homage to it, and celebrating how beautiful it can be.

So I just wanted to post, to prove that not only do I have the occasional craft fail, but to say, using someones Intellectual property is dodgy, and not cool, and I apologise for not being more careful this time.

Have you had a craft fail lately?

PS:  This was going to be a post about Australia Day, (yesterday) and how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful and safe country – I don’t take that luck for granted, but it turned into a post about what a fool I am.

I’ve been around the rug once again, and then some, with a new colour.  I really wanted something darker, and am pleased with the navy.  Jodie, who is hosting the Rug-Along, sent me a lovely prize, for getting straight into the Rag-Rug-Along, which was lovely.  I feel that the reward of turning old clothes into new items is reward enough, but Amelia has already jumped on the prize, “Three Little Maids” and matching fabric – hoping to make them up herself, so I’m not sending them back!

The navy fabric comes from a pair of size 5 pants that are covered with paint, but the beauty of this stuff is that the fabric rolls up on itself, and you can only see the surface that was once on the inside of the pants – with no paint spots.  This fabric is quite a bit thicker than tee-shirt fabric, so I am cutting a thinner strip of it.  It also looses lots more fluff as I work, so I will have to vacuum a bit more often until I am done, or make it out on the deck.

I also added a large “lazy daisy” in the centre of the rug, with a remaining scrap of purple toddler pants.  I’m pretty happy with it, but can always pull it off if I change my mind.  Here is my post about making a toothbrush rug, if you are interested.  What do you turn your old clothes into?

I have spent the last week with a boring cold/sinus infection which has really slowed down my crafting (and everything else).  Right before I got carried away with Jodie’s Rag-Rug-Along, I started making these blocks for a new quilt, using the Koala fabric that I designed and had printed by Spoonflower.  The co-ordinates are all out of my stash – I am really enjoying this colour combination!

Gosh, I even think the scraps look pretty, very restful.

This quilt is actually a commission of sorts – I am making it for my sister’s nephew, for his 1st birthday.  He lives in the country, and is from my brother-in-law’s side of the family, I have never met him.  I feel pretty safe putting progress shots here, because I doubt his family read my blog, my sister and brother-in-law do though, (I hope you like it Al and Scott).

This quilt is going to be the same design as my Fairy Tale Star Quilt, with almost all of the stars either blue or brown, with the blue koala fabric as the centre of the star.

Just one of the stars has a different coloured centre – another colour-way of my koala fabric.

And here it is, surrounded by yellow.

Hopefully I will get a bit more done now that I am feeling better, but who knows – it’s the school holidays after all.

This toothbrush rug has grown really quickly, it is now 12 1/2″ wide. Best of all, it is made of stuff that was destined to become laundry rags.  So far, the rung contains one PJ leg (the centre), and the bottom few inches of two coral coloured tees of mine.  The blue used to be a tiny t-shirt (size 2) , and the lovely purple fabric was the waist-to-crotch section of some holey, old, toddler pants that both of my girls wore all the time.

I imagine my rug is slightly more irregular than the ones that get made of sheets, or new fabric, because of the side seams on the clothing, but I don’t care.

The main limiting factor is going to be availability of old clothes to make it with.  I would like to add some darker colours to the mix, but don’t have any in my rag basket.  I don’t want to buy any clothes, (even at the op-shop) because I only want to use stuff that is no longer wearable.  I think I will start raiding other people’s rag bags, like my Mum’s.  Mum, you have been warned.

Can you guess which one is mine ?

OK – so that was pretty obvious.  Luke has made wands for the kids, (including an extra friend) who are going through a Harry Potter phase.  I was also a lucky recipient of a tool that is going to work magic – a hand made needle for rag-rug making.

The needle is made of a piece of fallen Hakea branch, that has been hand-carved, sanded and oiled, just for me.

I have been planning on re-purposing some old clothes – turning them into rag-rugs for ages.  I can’t stand throwing out (as in, putting them in the bin) old, worn or stained clothes, that are too yucky to send to the salvos (thrift store).  I started stockpiling them ages ago, they are mainly old t-shirts, but the stripy fabric above is cut from one leg of some old pyjama pants.

I just cut the fabric in a spiral, all the way up the leg, so that it ended up all in a strip 1″ wide.  It curls up on itself, but sadly the more vibrant colour ended up on the inside of the curl.

The rug I am making is actually called a “toothbrush rug” because the needles for this method were often made of old toothbrushes that had the bristle-end cut off, and filed to a point.  The fabric is threaded through the hole that the toothbrushes used to have on the end (presumable to hang them up).

The rug is made with two separate strips of 1″ wide fabric, and the stitch is basically a version of buttonhole stitch, where one strip goes in through your previously worked knots, under the other strip and  back through its own loop.  When a strip is running out, you simply join another by looping them through small slits cut in the ends of them, it is rather ingenious.  You can have a look at the series of tutorials that I used, which start here.

Just be aware that the tutorials make no mentions of making “increases” as you go around, and as the comments discuss, you will need to make “increases”, if you give this a go.  That’s why my baby-rug has that safety-pin in it.  It marks the beginning of a new circle, and I am changing the ratio of ordinary stitches to “increases” each time I go around.  I’m winging it, but it seems to be working OK.

It seems to be coming along fairly quickly – it almost takes longer to cut up the old clothes, than it does to knot them back together.  I can blame starting a new project on the wonderful Jodie, who gave me the nudge I needed to turn stockpiling into useful re-purposing.  She proposed a rag-a-long, and it seems that I am joining in!

Anyone else?

My niece, Grace, who is 13, has an interest in sewing and has just been given a sewing machine.  For Christmas, I put together a little kit of sewing supplies, for general sewing, and the requirements to make a small project I designed for her.  She lives in another state, so I can’t really teach her in person, so I have written instructions and directed her to this post.  All the tutorials and links below are for her, and correspond to some of the instructions I have written for her.

I made the little bag to hold everything (which I am very pleased with) using this tutorial...

I had lots of fun picking out things in her favourite colours.  I used my tutorial for the star-fruit cushion to make the pincushion.  For the smaller size, you just start with 2 1/2″ squares.

The project I wrote instructions for, was to embroider her name, to fit inside the photo frame.  She has 5 versions of her name, in different fonts to choose from.

Grace – here is a video on how to separate 6 strand embroidery floss…

This is how to make a starting knot in the end of your thread – I love this one, it is a beauty…

How to back-stitch…I would suggest starting with the method where you stab each stitch through, in two separate movements per stitch, rather than one.

Finishing knots – I like the third version myself…

Here are some other projects to try…

Double sided headband (Amelia made this one the other day)

A variety of Drawstring Bags…

or another…

A quick place mat how-to with diagrams…

which are a follow up to this post…

Spring Ruffle Top…You might need a little bit of help working this one out – I have never tried it…

Perfect Box Pouch…these look really cute, and would make a nice pencil case, but you will need to buy a zip…

Some patchwork…

A “string” block – the ones above are ones I’ve made using the tutorial here…

You can see more about mine here…

Wonky Star…here is the tutorial.  The wonky stars above are ones I made into a quilt for Indi.

Good Luck and have fun Grace!

“The North Wind is tossing the leaves,

The red dust is over the town,

The sparrows are under the eaves,

And the grass in the paddock is brown;

As we lift up our voices and sing,

To the Christ-child the heavenly King”

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.  If there is someone you are missing, or if Christmas is general is a hard time of year, I wish you Peace.

Last night, at a reasonable hour, I finished the third and final of the gifts for the teachers.  Today, all three are getting a personalised copy of this embroidery.

Yesterday afternoon I took a number of shots of one of them, in the hopes of getting a good photo for a pattern cover.

I started the one for Amelia’s teacher quite early in the year.  Amelia has done some of it herself, so as a result, all the lines on the design are embroidered.

As I stitched the other two on my own, I chose to leave some details un-stitched, because I think the brown pigma pen looks fine (and time was of the essence).  I’m currently writing the pattern, and have indicated on it that you can stitch as little or as much as you like.  In fact, the first year I designed it, I framed it as just a drawing on cloth.

This is the third year it has made an appearance, and it has changed every year, but I am really happy with this year’s iteration, so I don’t plan on tweaking it any more.

These really are a labour of love, but they are worth it.  Not only do I believe that teachers are really important, but my kids love the idea that their teacher is getting something that will help them remember teaching one of the “Matching Pegs*” kids.

Have you got a favourite gift to give the teacher?

*Not our real name