Category Archives: Random acts of craft

back tack– on its way to CA

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I’ve had the bag done for quite a while, but collecting and crafting the goodies inside concluded Monday, and today I was able to steal some time with good lighting to take pictures.

The bag is pretty simple in its construction. It’s made of some thrifted wool fabric that I felted (the technical term for “washed it in hot water so it would shrink”) and lined with Amy Butler Charm fabrics. There’s also a little pouch made to match the lining, and both have rug flower pins to add some fun.

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Table of Contents:
* “Hook Tiny: tips for rug hooking on a very small scale” — a little card with, yes, a rug flower

* a little rug hooked pincushion, which is a little wonky and imperfect, so I hope she likes it

* a pocket journal that fits right into the color scheme

* linen rug backing

* a little book of how to hook

* an emroidery hoop

* a rug hook

* glue for finishing little projects

* and some of that wool I dyed all cut up and ready for rugs

I hope my partner likes it. It has been really fun making this bag and filling it with stuff. It’s got me thinking about Christmas gifts. Hmmm…

Flowers

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I’m getting the finishing touches done on my back-tack project. I’m putting together a little rug-hooking kit, so I’m decorating my bag with little rug-hooked flowers using this fabric.

These are so fun and fast. I think I’ll make some for myself to salvage my clogs.

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And here’s some real flower inspiration. My crowning flower gardening acheivement this summer were these prolific blanket flowers (ghalardia)– because they are drought resistent and handle complete neglect.

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tie some on!

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Dish towel aprons–I just couldn’t resist. My kids needed some art aprons, I needed something to keep dinner off my pants (even though my shirt is usually covered in baby snot), and Martha dish towels were on super clearance at K-mart, so the price was right. Aprons for all! (Well, 3 aprons and a bib.)

Amy has a monthly party at her blog dedicated to aprons

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and this month’s assignment was so easy I had to join.

It has been a busy week. Well, it has seemed busy, I guess, but come to think of it, there wasn’t anything out of the ordinary to do. I just felt busy. I think because I was sick. I had a fever on Wednesday, felt yucky all day yesterday and had to go grocery shopping anyway, didn’t sleep a wink until about 4:00 this morning, and I’m trying to wean Logan–once a day would be good. That’s why I didn’t sleep last night. My teeth hurt, my nose was stuffy (so I had to breath with my mouth open which made the metal/ rubberband contraptions in my mouth that much more uncomfortable), my throat hurt, my ears ached, I had horrible menstrual cramps, AND I hadn’t nursed a baby since nap time early that afternoon and consequently couldn’t lay on either side or move my arms. Blissful? 800 mg of ibuprofen helped once I reached the point of desperation.

Funny things:

We had a “Girl’s Night Out” craft night at church last night–just bring something to do and sit and gab. I got home a little after ten and as I was heaping my load onto the counter I looked in Ellie’s food bowl right there under the counter. It was FULL of rabbit food. Was there a reason for this? I went and nudge Barry to ask about it and he just grunted. I was grinning so hard that I just broke out laughing. Silly, silly.

Barry did the obstacle course with his group yesterday for PT–you know, climbing walls, jumping logs, balance beams and ropes. Well, he was very proud of his monkey bar performance. I guess he was the only one to make it all the way across–and he even did a “skin the cat” to get off at the end. Now, you know who’s been practicing at the playground!

Oh, the wonders of Kool-Aid

I’ve been working on my Back Tack II project. My buddy has expressed some interest in rug hooking, so I’m making her a bag of rug hooking goodies. I went to buy some wool fabric so that I could hook a little rug-patch to decorate the outside of her bag, but fabric is just way too expensive! I decided I’d buy some unwashed, undyed wool and give kool-aid dying it a try. After all, it works great on my handspun yarn and handmade felt.

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And it worked great here too! I wanted a good pink to match some of the flowers on the lining of the bag (to be unveiled as soon as my little rug decoration is done), so a mix of strawberry, orange, and a little graped did the job beautifully! I also overdyed some green wool to give it a little more depth and it turned out great too.

Kool-aid is great for penny pinchers like me!