Poll Closed: February From Trash To Treasure Challenge Poll

The poll is closed and the April Challenges for the ravelry group From Trash to Treasure are De-clutter & Charity and Wips & Ufos.

This was a really close one.  I'm proud of myself for putting together a bunch of great themes, thus making it hard to pick and choose which one(s) to vote for.  

From Trash to Treasure's April Challenge Poll:

365 Items in 2011: Update

A little up date on how I'm doing with making 365 items this year.  I made 106 items in January, 52 in February, and 73 this month.  Thirty-seven of those items have been quilt blocks (not simple blocks).  The grand total so far is 231 items which leaves 134 items left to make.  I have actually made more than 231 items, but depending on what it was, it was grouped together and counted as 1 item instead of 2 or 4 items.  An item to me is something that can be sold or given to someone / it can stand on its own.  So even if something is simple, if it can be given to a person by itself then it counts.  I am keeping a running tally on the right hand side of my blog here.  Not everything I make is blogged about.  Sometimes I forget to take a picture of it before giving it away, and sometimes its for other reasons such as if it is for a swap (keeping it a secret until the person receives it).  
I really wanted to host a monthly link party for this challenge.  However just as I was about to, the one free link party tool that I found was going to start charging people.  So no link party :(   However I would love to hear about how you are doing.  Feel free to also leave your blog or flicker address in a comment below so that we can check out your wonderful creations.  

Cardboard Basket

This morning I saw a blog post on how to make a bird nest style basket out of a cereal box.  I had to try it.  So I cut up two cereal boxes and went to work.  I feel like it is a mess, but I did do it.  Next time I will cut the cereal box a lot thinner.  I also have an idea for how to tie the parts together with the yarn a little bit better.  I'm thinking of adding some fake flowers to it.

Box Exchange Blocks

Last night was my quilt guild meeting and I had not worked on my two box exchange blocks at all.  I've been in a crocheting mood and not a sewing one.  So I needed to buckle down and do my quilting homework yesterday.  This was for the regular box exchange block.  First I needed to cut out 3 diamonds out of light, medium, and dark fabric with the grain going a certain way on each one.  Then I needed to mark a forth of an inch intersection on each one.  

I've been in a "red" mood because of the crayon swap that I'm involved in on ravelry.

Next I sewed the medium and dark diamonds together, starting from the 1/4" intersection mark.

Then I sewed the light fabric to the dark and medium fabrics, again starting at the 1/4" mark.  Yes, this is a block with a Y seam.  Y seams aren't actually hard to do, you just need to take your time with them.

Here is the back before it was ironed.  It was ironed clockwise (dark to medium, medium to light, light to dark).

Here is the finished tumble block.

Next I needed to work on the paper pieced box exchange block.  I was forewarned about this one.  You have to make 4 blocks and then sew them together to make the finished block.  Although it was not hard to make, it took an hour just to make one of the 4 blocks.  That means that the finished block takes 4 hours to make.  

Here is a work-in-progress picture.

Here is the block that I made.  Again, this is just one of the 4 blocks that makes a finished block.

Here is the original finished block by the owner of this particular box exchange box.

While at the quilt guild meeting last night I saw this large portfolio sized bag.  It stopped me in my tracks, it was so amazing and beautiful.  It was made out of woven ribbons, and it was lined.  I really really want to make one, but maybe not as big as this one.

More Blossom Hot Pads

I've been slowly working on this blossom hot pad for Easter.  To me Easter colors are purple and yellow.   Yes pastels and white are totally Easter colors, but purple and yellow really say Easter to me.  What's funny is that they are pretty much the colors shown on the pattern's picture, except my purple is much deeper.  Last night I had to frog an entire round, because I crochet into the front stitches instead of the back ones.  I only have 2 more rounds to go before I'm done.

I finished this one last week.  I reversed the red and orchid / dark pink colors that I had used when making the 2nd blossom hot pad.  The darker color (red in this case) looks better in the back.  I used up all of the red and dark pink skeins of cotton making the two red ones.  The center yarn is the same as the other red one.  Its a self striping yarn, so thats why it looks different.  I still have a good bit of it left over even though it was small to begin with.  

Here is my current crafting bag.  Its packed with a variety of cotton yarn, the blossom dishcloth pattern, scissors, a crochet hook, needles (in an Altoid container), my kindle, a notebook, a jelly jar (it contains threaded needles (this needs to be removed from my bag), some soda tab bracelets (those also need to be removed), and a Leapster 2 handheld system for my youngest son (he needs something to do while out and about as well).  The bag itself is a reusable shopping bag.  Normally I use something more fun, but this bag was around when I needed one.  

After I finish this blossom hot pad, I want to experiment with crocheting soda tabs some more.  I want to figure out how to crochet a soda tab bag.  I know that there are patterns out there for it, but they cost money.  I can buy one, but I would rather figure it out myself.  Thats part of the fun.

Tuesday Tot Craft Time: Paper Pizza

It has been months since we were last at the library's drop in craft time.  We finally went back today.  Today's craft was making paper pizzas.  I used to do this craft when I was a preschool teacher.  Instead of the red paper for sauce, I used red glue (just add food coloring to the glue).  It was always a lot of fun.

The supplies are a brown paper bag cut in a large circle, a smaller circle cut out of red paper, shredded yellow paper, a strip of black paper (to cut olives out of), scissors, and glue.

First put glue on the back of the red circle.

Lay the red circle on top of the brown circle, thus adding your sauce to your crust/dough.

Then add glue to the other side of the red circle.

Then add your cheese and toppings on your pizza.

Adding red glitter would also be fun for the sauce.

Add more glue where needed.

Now you have your own personal pizza.

You can also make a board game out of this.  I need to find mine and take a picture of it.  Use the circle toppings as the spaces in the game.  Take it to a teachers' supply store to have it laminated at a good price.  You can make your own "people" or whatever out of clay.

Save your pizza boxes (the more clean ones), and let your kids have their own pizza restaurant.  

You can also make your own pizza with your kids using pita bread, pasta sauce, and your favorite toppings.  

Edited to add:  I just tried to find the pizza board game that I made years ago.  It is buried in the garage.  It looks like it is going to be a while before I can show off my homemade board games.

Question

I have a question for all of you.  I have been seeing that more and more bloggers are creating their own facebook fan page.  I wasn't sure about it at first, but it seems like a fun thing.  They can share what they are working on and cool things that they see on the web.  I normally do that to an extent with my ravelry group.  Plus the whole social connection is cool to.  My question is should I create a facebook page for textiles4you?  Would anybody be interested in following it?  If I did it, I might reopen my twitter account as well (which has been closed for about a year).  

What do you think?  

Edited to add:  I just went ahead and did it.  I created a facebook group page called "Textiles4you."  I keep running across interesting things that I want to share with other creative people, and I don't always feel that there is a place to share it at.  So we'll see how this goes.