Photo Scavenger Hunt

I came across a fun photo link party where you have to take pictures of certain things during the week, blog about them, and then link them to Ramblings and Photos by Ashley Sisk.  It looked like fun, and photos are a big part of my artistic life (my husband and my father are both photographers).  Normally you are suppose to take new pictures, but since I just learned about it today, I'm going to post some older photos.

Red

I took this picture last month in my garden.

Home Space

My fabric and yarn stash recently organized.

Fence

Last Winter

Rock

Azurite from the Harvard Museum of Natural History.

Sharp

Making bangles for a summer class.

That was fun :)

Tarn

I figured out what I am going to make my grandma for Christmas.  A tarn (t-shirt yarn) walker tote.  The pattern is by Cindy at myrecyclebags.com.  Her current walker bag is a little to light for her liking, and she would like something with more weight to it.  The first t-shirt that I cut was not good.  I forgot that shirts with side seams do not make good tarn.  I have 4 shirts that are tarn worthy, the light blue above, light gray, a medium gray (below), and black.  The tote is going to be mainly light blue because that was an extra large t-shirt thus it has more yardage.  I am thinking that the black is to bold, so I might use the medium gray as a stripe.

Last night I started a new project that will be a Christmas present for my mom.  I won't be posting any pictures of it until after Christmas though.  Both of these Christmas presents fit into Stash Busting September.

Navajo Spindle & Video

Today I tried for a 2nd time to spin wool on my Navajo spindle.  The first try, earlier this week, was horrible.  The left side is my 2nd spun wool and the right is my 3rd.  The one on the right is what I filmed myself making.  I'm starting to get the hang of it.  Oh, I also did not use a leader!!!  I wanted to learn how to spin it on my Navajo spindle because my arm gets tired using the drop spindle after a while.

The music is by Coyote Grace.  It is called "Don't Think Twice."  

I was fortunate enough to see them play live with the Indigo Girls in July.

From Old T-Shirts To New Hot Pads

Last weekend when we stopped by my in-law's place, they were packing up to move.  While going through their things, my mother-in-law came across some old shirts that she would no longer wear due to stains.  So she gave them to me to craft with.  Today I went through them and found 3 that were suitable for making tarn (t-shirt yarn) out of.  In the end, only 2 were tarn worthy.  The middle one's print took up to much of the shirt, and thus would not give me enough tarn.  I'm going to making something else out of that one.

Here are my 2 skeins of gray tarn.  I know a lot of people like colorful tarn, but I actually like gray tarn.  Maybe its because gray shirts have usually been really comfortable for me to wear that the tarn makes me feel comfortable.

I was able to make these 4 flower hot pads from those 2 skeins.  I followed Cindy's pattern found here.  The first one (upper left) has one to many petals.  I finally figured out how to get the desired 7 petals after that.  The small one (lower left) only used 4 out of the 5 rounds, because I ran out of tarn.  My favorite is the lower right one, because it uses two colors in it.  I'm feeling pretty productive today.  What is really nice about Cindy's pattern is that it uses one skein of tarn (which can be hard to come by at times) and they make the perfect hot pad.

Stash Busting September

Robin from The T-Shirt Diaries is hosting Stash Busting September Blogs on her blog.  Anyone who wants to participate has until September 4th to sign up.  Basically it is an extreme craft challenge.  You can not buy any craft supplies (with the exception of if it is for a job) for the entire month!  I haven't done a craft challenge in a while, and I really need to save some money and work with what I've got.  So I took some pictures of some of my stash to help motivate myself.

Fabric

I have a lot of fabric.

Scrap fabric

WIPs & UFOs

Felt (eco-fi felt made from 100% recycled bottles)

Vanna's Choice Yarn

Cotton Yarn

Plastic Bags, good for fusing, making plarn, and making wreaths

Juice Pouches

Bottle Caps

I recently started saving the popsicle sticks with jokes on them.

Soda Tabs

This is a small look at my craft stash.

Back To School Round Up

Juice pouch backpack

Felt Story Board for preschoolers

Small Juice Pouch Notebooks

Large Notebooks

Juice Pouch Pencil Pouch

Juice Pouch Lunchbox

Small Juice Pouch Container

Notebook made from a cardboard box

Milk Carton Wallet

Cereal Box File Folders

Apple for the teacher

T-shirt bags for gym, lunch, etc.

Make fun magnets for your locker 

Matchbook Notebooks, great for exchanging phone numbers & passing notes.

Poll Results

The poll for the From Trash To Treasure's September challenge is closed.

The winners are: Continue making December holiday gifts & Wardrobe Re Do.

Wardrobe re do was a challenge earlier this year.  I turned a pair of jeans into a long skirt for it.

Continue making December holiday gifts	14 (56%)
Continue the 2nd hand challenge	7 (28%)
Wardrobe Redo (make something out of your old clothes)	12 (48%)
Denim	8 (32%)
Rug along	4 (16%)
Soda Tabs	3 (12%)
Plastic Bags	2 (8%)
Halloween decorations	6 (24%)
Back to school items	0 (0%)
UFO / WIP / & unhappy FOs	8 (32%)
Newspaper/magazines/junk mail	1 (4%)
Gadgets	1 (4%)
Boxes	6 (24%)
Glass / Broken Dishes	0 (0%)
Found Objects	5 (20%)
Souvenirs (inspired by or use them)	1 (4%)
Decorating your home	7 (28%)
T-shirts	7 (28%)
Inspired by the Farmers' Market	1 (4%)
Plastic Bottles and jugs	5 (20%)

Votes so far: 25