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The need to always create. The need to always make something. This is my page where I show you all a sampling of my "crafting." I don't want to get into a debate about what a 'real' artist is, or what fine art is versus folk art. Everyone has their own opinion. I only went to art school for one semester and I found that "fine" art is full of stuck up people who use the excuse of being an 'artist' to act like an idiot. (I'll never forget when someone smeared sh++ on the wall in art class @ SFAI.) Don't get me wrong, I like 'alternative.' I grew up in a hippie home and my dad was always talking about the counter-culture. I have met many famous people and not-so-famous from the counter-culture. But even these people are looked down upon by the world of fine art. New York fine art is not real. Painting a canvas one color and selling it for big bucks in not true art. It is a way of manipulating people with money into believing that they are investing in something that is truly fine and extraordinary. Rather sad that art dealers are the ones who decide what is fine art and what deserves to be put up as special.
Anyway I am rambling. To me knitting et. al.
is a way of being creative. It is an art form. I am not
a very good "artist" in many ways. In knitting, quilting etc.
I am far less skilled than most. But a hand made sweater or
scarf means so much more than one bought from a store and made by a
machine. To me it reminds me of how humans have been clothing
themselves prior to the industrial revolution. They are
important skills that should be appreciated. And they are fine
to me. So even though some anthropologist and historians
debate the beginning of 'art' only by painting I believe 'art' first
began when people started to adorn themselves: piercing, tattoos,
jewelry, hair styles, clothing, etc. So here is my Artsy crafts that I do more often than
painting. These are things I do when I sit in front of the
boob tube. It is easier to knit and watch TV than paint.
Painting demands all your attention. And I have leaned how to
knit without looking! Yippee |
Ahh so many necklaces have I made.
Here's a page that shows some of the many necklaces I have made.
I did not make any of the beads so I guess one can
say I designed the necklaces. .


Some of my Quilts. The pictures
aren't very good and don't do the blankets justice.
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Batik Butterfly Quilt Batik Fabric sewn together to make a blanket (both sides are this fabric) with double batting inside. The quilting part is me "quilting" different color yarn around the butterflies. All the rainbow colors. I quilt a certain number of butterflies for each color depending on the size of the panel. For example I will quilt for 4 or 5 butterflies on one side of a panel then 4 or 5 butterflies on the other side using red thread that is normally used for stitching. So sometimes the butterflies overlap and sometimes the butterflies don't and tone the other side here is no batik butterfly just a stitched one. Overall I think it looks really neat. |
Batik Squares
Batik fabric sewn together in squares. The quilting was rather simple and done with a machine on corners of quilt. Big X's or, if fabric was the fish I quilted around each fish using thick white thread. My second quilt ever. I only used one layer of batting and it was 100% cotton so it is a rather thin blanket. The white fabric is actually tan-ish natural cotton (can't remember the official term) and is used for the back of the quilt too.. |
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My first quilt
ever. This is a great idea for parents who don't know what to do
with all those T-shirts your child gets for a particular sport. In
this case the sport is hockey. This is an ongoing blanket and has
grown over the years. The secret is to turn each T-shirt (one side
or both depending on image) into a square (mine
end up being rectangles most of the time). Each square
is quilted, batted
and sewn separately. When you get enough squared to make a side you
add it to the blanket. I also added patches and hockey related T-shirt images that didn't come from
a tournament or playoffs. |
Pinwheel
Quilt
The first quilt where I actually used a pattern and used the correct size by using those plastic pieces available at fabric stores for cutting. The key is to have one of those round cutters. Wish I had know that when I completed my silk quilt! Bad picture but you get the idea. I used the sewing matching for everything and have learned that it is far easier, for me, and far more accurate if I sew by hand. (See below) |
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Sun & Stars Quilt I did not use a pattern but came up with my own design. It is a Sun & Stars theme. It is 90% hand sewn and hand quilted. The blanket ended up being rather large after I had sewed all the pieces together. I did use the sewing machine to put the back of the quilt to the front plus a little bit with the octagons. I found that I could not line things up evenly with the sewing machine and that those parts that I attempted using a machine were 'off." So, back to hand sewing. Besides regular 'quilting' I' quilted' various sun and moon faces on the larger yellow blocks.
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Silk
Quilt My third quilt. I didn't
know about proper sizing for the triangles so the middle has a lot of extra
fabric. If I could do this over it would look a lot 'cleaner.' Except
for the fact that my cat has dug her nails into the silk so much that
it is beginning to run. Don't use silk if you intend to
actually use the blanket, or if you have cats. |
Baby
Quilt
My first 'baby' quilt, and the first quilt I have made for someone else. Very simple squares placed randomly. The cloth I got from Beverly's in a pack plus I added some off-white. The back is flannel. |
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4th of July Quilt
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Pineapple Quilt
I love to go to Beverly's or Joanne's and buy the scrap fabric. And sometimes they have a 'set'of fabric on sale that just looks too good to pass up. This quilt resulted from one of those fabric packs. | |||||||||||
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Latest Project
This is what I am working on currently. By currently I mean for at least the past year. Hand quilting can be such a pain. Before this I took about 8 months to make a quilt for my mom. No pictures of that yet. |
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A Knitters Supply Bag Very Good Idea! for those who have a lot of knitting 'stuff.' They sell these types of bags but they are rather expensive. I made pockets for the needles and labeled them with tin tags a,b,c,etc. that were actually made for scrapbooking. Below the knitting pocket is one long pocket and on that pocket is a smaller pocket (the batik fabric). I sewed and glued pink Velcro to the inside of each pocket as well as at the top of the bag (where you see the fold in the pictures) . The Velcro at the top holds the longer knitting needles in place. I roll up the bag and use a hair rubber band to keep it rolled up. I came up with this before I saw the same basic idea on Knitty Gritty. |

Scarves
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The first scarf f I ever finished.
The pattern is knit a few, purl a few. I don't remember the exact
numbers but for example: |
My second scarf. Cant remember
the pattern exactly but the ends are: |
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I used two balls of yarn divided again because the yarn was similar but not exact. I had originally bought one ball of yarn for my son to teach him how to knit. He wasn't into it and the yarn sat around for a year or two. I started knitting this scarf and found one ball wasn't enough so I bought another. Same brand but the colors had changed some. So I divided each ball into two and knitted in 4 parts, old ball, new ball, old ball, new ball. The pattern: |
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SF Giants
Paraphernalia
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Fastest scarf I ever knitted.
Took me about a week, just before hockey playoffs. These are the colors
of my son's hockey team I made a pattern of 10 but it is hard to
see: |
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More Scarves
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Some of My Hats
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Hair Doily
Not sure how to explain this but I knitted a "hair doily" like the ones my American Sikh friends wear in their hair. They bought their's from who knows where, but I found that you can knit them by following certain hat patterns, and using sock yarn and size 1, 2 or even 3 kneedles. | |||||||
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Socks My first pair of socks. I knitted them completely once, found them way too big and took one apart and began knitting it again (above). But this one still looked bad, lots of mistakes and still too big so I did them over again. I got this pattern from the internet and didn't understand the heal part at all. I kind of made up my own heal but I am sure it is what you are supposed to do. Took me forever to find out what a "dropped stitch" is as none of my knitting books explained it very well nor the internet. It really helps to understand what one is because it allows you to do so much more than knit simple squares!
I have knitted tons of socks since the first shown above. Found there are several ways to make a heel! But I love the pattern for "Elven Socks" found in Faerie Magazine. |
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My Pillows.
A bit of painting on fabric a bit of needlepoint and simple sewing.
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So.......so so so
There are zillion of knitting and crafting links out
there. I will put down some, hopefully they are the useful ones.
Lots of knitters have BLOG websites with good pictures/patterns.
Go to google and type in knitting blogs.
The Anti
Craft:
Lots of neat ideas. Ignore the
melodrama of the site (wanna be pagans? or goth girls, not sure)
Definitions of Sewing Terms
- from a LOTR clothing
website but good info.
Dharma Trading Company
- One of the places I buy yarn. They also have a large selection
of dies, and die-able stuff. They have various kinds of silk at good
prices plus other folk craft stuff (weaving, needlework, spinning, etc.)
Harry Potter Scarves
- one of several websites that have patterns
for the HP scarves from the movies.
Historical Clothing
- A bibliography of sources for the design and
construction of clothing throughout history.
Knitty.com
- very nice magazine with really neat designs/ patterns. I LOVE this site!
Knitting at About.com
- Good picture guide to various stitches
Knittinghelp.com-
helpful website for knitters. Has interesting stuff and videos to
go along with some of the patterns.
Knitty Gritty
- TV show on
DIY. It seems it's been cancelled because they did not renew the
domain name. Has videos to watch, however.
Knitopaedia: a free online dictionary for words,
phrases and abbreviations that are related to the fine art of knitting
The
Online Quilt Block Pattern List - List
of Quilt block names arranged alphbetically
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Quilts & Quilt Making in
America
- From the American Folklife Center, Library
of Congress
Types of Fabric -
from the Silk Org. in Britain. Useful info
Understanding Fabric
- a good basic introduction. Includes info
on yarns, woven fabrics, theirsbrics, felt, etc. Has other good info too..

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