Handmade Holiday Gifts

This month, I’ve decided to write some more tutorials to celebrate the season.   These will be gifts you can make yourself to give to friends, family, teachers, etc.  My first one is almost finished, all I have left is to photograph the individual steps for the visuals.  All of them will be geared for beginners.

How’s that for a teaser?  LOL  I’ve decided to make some of my gifts this year.  Not only is it economy friendly,  you are giving of yourself to others: your time, effort, etc.

Speaking of gifts, I did finish my first one yesterday.  It is a freeform crochet scarf for someone, and I love the colors in this one:

For new visitors to my blog, I already have a tutorial on how to make this present.  You can also click on the birdy link on the right side for a list of all my free tutorials.

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Quilting Update:  I just ordered some black batting for a number of quilts I need to do.  Since I can’t start the Egyptian quilt until the batting arrives, I’m starting another kimono quilt that looks like this:

That’s all for now!  Hugs, Carla

Metal Play Day

Who says you can’t combine metal and quilting??  Yesterday, I trekked over to Faith’s house in Lodi, CA (remember the song about Lodi? LOL!) where Faith kindly shared with me how to etch metal.  It was FUN!!  I am hooked on etching now.  Here’s my first attempts:

Sorry for the blurry image, but this next one was handwritten quotes, then dipped in liver of sulphur for a nice patina:

The last 3 photos relate to my patina experiments:

Last up is a necklace in progress… I need to wax it, then assemble the necklace pieces together:

I hope you enjoyed the show… I am now loving this class since I have gotten over my hesitation of the new medium.

Last reminder….  I am currently offering a fiber art freeform scarf in my Fall blog giveaway.  Click on the link to win this:

Regards, Carla

More freeform crochet and Jack

Joe and I babysat Jack last night, and here he is crawling around on my quilt playing with toys:

and Yum!:

He is so blasted cute!! Of course, I’m biased…

Onto artistic endeavors… Watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics last night. The Chinese govt. really did a wonderful job on the show. Spectacular even. Shame they wouldn’t put the same energy and emphasis on human rights and individual freedom….. just my political thought for the day.

Since I’ve been in a freeform mood lately, here is another crochet scarf- this one has a focal point flower on the front

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here is a closeup of the crochet:

That’s all from here…. life is quiet, which is a good thing.

take care, Carla

Latest Freeform Crochet Scarf!

Hello! I thought I would show you what I started last night and just finished. This week, my mornings are spent machine quilting, however, my afternoons I like to switch gears and move to something else. I love the colors in this one:

I am considering making up a dozen or so, then offering them for purchase later on. Think they would sell?

Here’s a close-up picture:

I also like to display them in my studio on a cool armature I found. This image is a bit dark, but you can still see what I mean:

So… what’s your opinion…. think these one-of-a-kind scarves are marketable?

Enjoy your day, I think I’ll start another one. Hugs, Carla

Freeform Scarf

While I had out the yarn colors for the freeform crochet basket I completed recently, I decided to make another new scarf. Check this out:

In case you are curious, here are some previous posts for my freeform crochet, Carla style:

Gallery of freeform crochet work, and

Fiber and freeform gallery.

Enjoy your weekend!! Hugs from Carla

New Crochet Scarf

Here’s what I made yesterday:

I decided to use the yarn above as my focus yarn, than add about 5 or 6 other yarns into the mix. This is a linear design, of course following no pattern. Here’s a close up:

Today, we have our niece, Kate, visiting, it is always great to see her.  Pretty much we are taking it easy,  going out to lunch at our favorite Mexican food place, just enjoying the day.  Later on, I still need to catch up and draw my Illustration Friday for this week.

Enjoy your day!  Hugs, Carla