A Favorite Fabric Artist Designer

I love Mary Robinson's work.  She is a wonderful thread artist.  She makes many gorgeous tatted bookmarks and doilies.



She has a fabulous website, http://www.peachtreecottage.com/.  The items I absolutely adore for sale that she has made are wonderful jointed, miniature bears and friends.

This little guy is only about 2.25 inches and has tatted flowers

This little guys can be ordered and she will make them in your choice of color combination.

Mary says "Handcrafting has been handed down through my family over the years, from my mother's mother, to my mother, to me, and now on to my daughter. I have been crafting for over 50 years mainly in needle arts (I now create my own designs and patterns). Even with years of hand crafting experience, I continue to research new ideas and concepts as I create each of my bears, other creations, or patterns.

Thread Crochet Bears (and other animals)

I've been making my bears and their friends since 2002. My collectible miniature thread crochet bears and other animal friends are individually handmade using only the best quality yarns, threads and fibers. Most are 4 inches or less in height. My animals are typically 5-way jointed for easy posing and most can stand or sit without support. Special attention is given to every detail as they are being created. A little bit of love is stitched into each one!"

For anyone who would like to try to make these darling miniatures she has patterns for sale.  The one that would be especially great for Easter is this darling lambikin.

I know that if you check out her website http://www.peachtreecottage.com/ you will find your own favorites.

March and Leprechauns

It has been a while because I was sick but I am much better now.  Anyway, I love the month of March.  It usually brings the promise of spring with bulbs pocking their head up.  The other thing March brings to mind is birthday parties.  My younger sister's birthday was in March and so we always planned a party.  Her birthday is the day after St. Patrick's Day and so many of them had leprechauns, 4 leaf clovers and that pretty spring green for decorations.  So this year, I decided to design a bookmark for all those great parties.

Thus, the Lucky Irish Leprechaun bookmark was created.

Well of course he has his pot of gold with him.  His hat includes a lucky 4-leaf clover to sew or glue on.

Of course he had to have pointed ears and the red beard.

Here is my favorite Irish saying just for the occasion.

" May those who love us love us.

And those that don't love us,

May God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn't turn their hearts,

...May he turn their ankles,

So we'll know them by their limping."

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone and of course, Happy Birthday to my sister.







Pine Trees and Cones Lace Scarf

I have finished my Pine Trees and Lace Scarf.  I am really happy with the result.

Pine Trees always represent safety to me.  Growing up in Colorado where pine trees are plentiful they have always represented safety from the elements to me.  Sitting under a pine tree in a summer storm will keep you perfectly dry.  You will notice all sorts of birds and small animals use them during this time also.  Living on the plains, as I do now I miss all those pines so I decided to commemorate them with this design.

In designing this pattern, I found that the normal center decrease did not stand out like I wanted the center truck to stand out so I made it a bit thicker using some different center decreases.  I also modified a pine cone pattern quite a bit to come up with the pine cone I am using.

What do you think of this design?





Cold weather knitting

With winter weather here, I love to get out the knitting needles and make warm things for gifts or our own use.  This year I have some wonderful Misti Alpaca yarn that is Suri Alpaca and Silk.  It is so soft and warm.

My sister-in-law, who is also a dear friend who lives too far from us, gave me a wonderful batch of soft Corriedale fiber to spin.  All I have to do is add angora bunny fur and spin them together and I will have some wonderful yarn to make into something really soft and warm.

All these deep greens put my in mind of the Pine Tree's in the Rocky Mountains of my youth.  Now I am going to be busy designing a new lace design of Pine Trees.  I think I will make a scarf, new fingerless gloves and maybe some leg warmers to help keep me warm.  I can hardly wait.  What winter projects are you working on? 

Christmas Season

With all the activity in the past month is has been a while since I have posted.  The Thanksgiving holiday was wonderful and my husband had a week off of work.  I love having him home.  I have so much to be thankful for as God has been so good to us.

My favorite holiday is Christmas.  I love the lights and carols and colors.  (Red is my favorite color and I will go into stores and just be mesmerized by all the shades of red.)  I love the reason for the holiday which is the birth of a little Jewish baby boy in Bethlehem.  What an amazing God that would allow His son to be born in such a broken world.

This year I decided to make Victorian Carolers for ornaments on the tree.  My first was the female caroler which took some research on how their clothing looked. I love the muff and the little cape.  She even works as a bookmark

With all the research I naturally came across men's outfits and of course, I had to try my hand at this outfit also.  I love the top hat of the era so I knew I wanted to include this in my ornaments (or bookmark).

Now I was on a role.  I had to try designing a scene with snow and a period lamp post to read the music by.  The lamp post itself made a fun ornament (or bookmark).  This was a much bigger project but I really love how it came out.

Now my house is ready for the Christmas season.

  

A Favorite Crochet Designer

One of the best things about designing crochet and knit patterns is getting to know some of the other wonderful designers out there.  One of the nicest and most helpful to me in getting my design business going has been Ann White.  I met her through Ravelry.com after I had favorited some of her designs.

I don't have any Fall colored designs but Ann has some wonderful Lovely Thread Ladies doilies that can be found on her web site http://www.bellacrochet.com/  Her newest (above) is called Double, Double Toil and Trouble Doily

My Favorite is Lucy and Jack's Afternoon Stroll Doily

What wonderful Wall Hanging these would make.  She has so many wonderful Thread designs with vintage and three dimensional look that I adore.  She also has some wonderful Wraps, Capes & Shawls for people who prefer to use yarn along with many free patterns such as this festive gingerbread boy and girl .

Ann Says:  "I have been a professional crochet designer for over 20 years. I will never forget the day in 1988, when I nervously walked into the Annie’s Attic design department, carrying a black plastic trash bag full of my original designs. I am lucky they did not mistake me for a bag lady! Instead, they bought all the items I had brought in that day, and sent me home with a list of ideas for other items they would like for me to make. My career as a crochet designer was launched; I was ecstatic!

 I worked as a free-lance designer for the next several years, then was offered a position as a technical editor in the Annie‘s Attic Editorial Department. I quickly found out that designing crocheted items and writing crochet patterns are two different things entirely! I trained as a technical editor for the next two years, where I learned to write accurate and easy to follow crochet patterns in what was called the “Old Annie“ style. When a position for in-house designer for Annie’s Attic and its sister company, The NeedleCraft Shop, became available, I happily moved to the Annie’s Design Department, where I worked for several more years.

I am grateful for the time I spent working for these companies, as it allowed me to learn many new crochet techniques, stitches and skills relating to crochet, as well as pattern writing and designing skills. I was also able to meet many other talented crochet designers, and gained much valuable knowledge from my association with them.

In 2008, I left DRG Publishing where I was the crochet pattern book coordinator. I am thrilled to now be in the position of self-publishing my original designs. I love creating vintage- look thread designs- I am a doily and potholder girl! I am the proud mother of 3 daughters and 3 sons, and the grandmother of 10 sweet and wonderful grandchildren (with 2 more on the way!) I live on a farm in rural East Texas, with my darling man, David."

I have bought several of her patterns and they are well written and very easy to follow.  I am so glad to have met her and had her help over the years.  I can hardly wait for her next design to come out.

Special Long Half Double Crochet Tutorial

One of my designs calls for a long half double crochet stitch and someone who was doing my pattern let me know that she couldn’t find a tutorial on line on how to do this stitch. So I am going to try to show how to do this stitch.


I use half double crochets a lot in my designs as they make an excellent transition from single crochet (sc) to double crochet (dc) without an apparent jump in size. They also make an extra thick sc in designs that need the bulk.

The half double crochet (hdc) is a cross between a sc and a dc. It has two wraps like the dc.

The hook is then put through the next stitch; the thread is caught from behind the working fabric and pulled through, resulting in 3 loops on the hook. Then the working thread is pulled through all three loops on the hook.

The hook is then put through the next stitch; the thread is caught from behind the working fabric and pulled through, resulting in 3 loops on the hook. Then the working thread is pulled through all three loops on the hook.

In my design of the Rose Budding Hearts Doily I use this stitch with a variation. I have named it a Special Long hdc stitch. Two buds have been made by folding a working fabric in thirds and secured by a row of sc, connected by a chain. The thread is then changed to a stem color with a sc to start the row

                                                                                               

The next stitch is the Special Long hdc. Instead of inserting the hook in the next sc it is inserted in the first burgundy row (skipping the pink row). There are no Back Loops to work in the previous row because the stitch is poked through all three layers of fabric and worked.

This helps further secure the folded fabric in place and makes a small leaf on the front side. A second Special Long hdc stitch is then worked in the same hole as the first one.

The sc behind the special long hdc is skipped on the working row and a sc is worked in the last sc on the working row. Then a chain is made and the first sc is worked on the second bud. The next stitches are again 2 Special Long hdc.

The row is completed with a sc in the last sc on the working row. The buds are turned for the next row and you can see how the pretty little leaf looks on the buds.

I hope this tutorial has explained the Long hdc stitch and especially the difference of my Special Long hdc required to make these cute little rose buds.