How to Salvage a Project

Original Quilt -1

Knit square which unravelled

 Refer to my previous post here, to know more about this quilt and how it was created!

So after we completed the quilt and washed it ,knitting of one block unravelled exposing the wadding inside!

Disastrous thing to happen considering the amount of time and energy that was invested in it.  Plus we did decide to gift this to one of our friends baby!

Double OOPS!

       After a lot of cribbing and frustration with ourselves we decide to salvage the project with minimum effort.

Crocheted Blue Patch

So we started crocheting same size patch with shades of blue wools ... spares lying in back of the cupboard :) .... 

Removed the previous woollen stitches and applied the new patch. We did not waste time removing the unravelled patch just covered it with the new one and quilted the squares again to match with the rest of the pattern!

Final Quilt with new patch

 Mental notes for myself !

1. Always wash the knitting samples before quilting
2. Don't waste time cribbing and frustrating
3. Spare craft items can always be handy when one needs to salvage the project

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Neddle Craft

This is my first attempt of needle craft kits. The kit includes preprinted design with colour coding and matching cotton silk threads and cross stitch needle(blunt tip with big eye hole). The end results does look impressive but the process was not so much fun and creativity was limited. 

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Embroidery Art

Hello People!

  

There's one more of my crazy ideas... I  start off project with one view and end up finding completely new use for it!I started embroidering a white cotton bedspread (something that rubbed off on to me from my neighbourhood housewives in 1999)


This project took longest period of 5 years to complete ! It was humongous project that was always kept on the back burner :)

So I printed floral peacock design on four corners of the bed spread and a freehand design in the centre. I used silk threads and cotton silk threads for embroidery.

Stitches used for Peacock Design:

• Satin stitch
• Stem stitch
• two thread running stitch
• Chain stitch

French knot (moti taka) was used for completing the free hand design in the centre.

  

 Later I realised that using this white bedspread for everyday living is not ideal. (Note: I am not a fan of "daag acche hai movement!")

So decided to reuse it as decor item. Peacock design was cutout and glued on plain beige coloured lamp shades. (See Below).

 The centre free hand design was framed to make a wall decor.

The work has very professional finish and people promptly ask, "Where can I buy this?"

I am always happy to say that it's one of piece made by me :) 

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Stained Glass Painting - Flowers

 
 
 
 
 

Please note: I have published this post on Craftziners in last week and wish to share it with my blogdost who are not on craftziners. I am not a pro blogger yet so can't link back to my old post hence reposting!

 

In early 2002 as I was busy enrolling in to various art classes and learning new skills... I came across stain glass painting. 

 

Originally this art involved cutting coloured stones of varying sizes and piecing them together with lead material to make a picture. This picture was then illuminated with back light! 

 

Stained glass lamp shades are the perfect elements to utilize for this art. It needs a glass tinting paint that is easily available either online or offline.

Glass painting designs of peacock are quite famous among house owners as peacock is considered as lucky bird in many cultures around the world. You can paint wine glasses to get the feel of same elegance that were during the time of historic rulers all over the world.

Though authentic lampshades are still made in this pattern, wall decors can be made with easy tools and skills.

Materials used

• Wooden frame
• Aluminium Foil
• Stained glass paints
• Flower pattern printed on A4 size paper
• White liner  
• Glass frosting gel

 

 Step by step process:

• Remove the glass from the wooden frame and place it on the A4 size pattern. 
• Using White liner trace the pattern on the glass
• Let it dry for 30-40 minutes paint the flowers with stain glass paints. Be careful not to mask the outline
• Mix two colours to create shaded effect ( see leaves)
• If the pattern is small then cover the rest of the glass with glass frosting gel or make some patterns with paint(as shown) 
• Leave the painting flat for drying
• Add crumpled aluminium foil to the background of the frame before setting the glass frame
• This makes your design stand out! 
• The right side of the glass is turned inside while framing. This means you can't feel the paints and liner after framing. 

This is very versatile art and can be used for painting window panes, cabinet doors and entrance doors. You also get readymade stained glass panels as wall lights from IKEA !

 

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Easy Craft - Felt Owl!

making sure the pattern and felt pieces match

I recently came across this simple free pattern from Articles Sew Simple site. I created this owl from the same pattern. Its quick and easy hope you'll will like it. 

Please download the pattern from the link above.

Materials: Two contrast colour felt pieces, Suitable colour Cotton Embroidery thread, Thick Embroidery needle, 2 black buttons(small size), small piece of ribbon

back side and front side

Process:

1.  Cut out the various body parts from the pattern
2. Place the various body parts on the felt and pin it together. Cut the felt pieces as mentioned.Tip: Cut body, Eyes, beak and foot pattern in same colour felt. Use contrast colour felt for pupil, face and tummy pattern
3.  Stick the face, tummy, eyes, pupil and beak with craft glue on front side of the body. (use glue sparingly) Stitch all parts with running stitch using  the embroidery thread. Use thick and bold coloured thread so it stands out. (stitches should be even and small in sizes)
4. Stitch the black buttons for perfect eyes with a black thread. 
5. Using Blanket Stitch cover the outline of the four feet's. This will stop the frail edges and give a finished look
6. Stitch the hands to the back side of the body and the feet to the front side of the body. Use matching thread for this stitch so it's not visible in the final product 

   

   Blanket Stitch

   

   pattern vs final product

7. Match the felt pieces with the pattern cut out as shown below. This will ensure you have all the pieces in right places.
8. Stick the backside and front side of the owl's body using a blanket stitch. 
9. Keep a small opening near the feet, so as to fill in the wadding. 
10. Close the end with blanket stitch or running stitch. 
11. Stick some fancy ribbon on the top as a hook. I thought of adding hook after completing the project.  (Tip: attach the hook to the backside of the body before stitching for more professional look)

It took me only 3 hours to complete this project on Sunday afternoon!

hanging proudly on nursery room's door

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First Knitted Sweater

 This is begining of my Knitting craze.... I made this for S prior to her arrival.... Thanks Mum for teaching me this skill!

 It took me 2 weeks to make this ..as I was a rookie then!

The fact that it turned out to be usable standard got me hooked on to knitting .....

Materials required:

• Knitting Needles size 6mm
• Pure Bambino Wool : 2 balls (100 gms)
• 2 wooden buttons
• Wollen stiching needles

Size: 0-3 months baby  

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Quick and Easy - Wollen Quilt

This cheat quilt is brain child of my Mum and me---- who always love to make quirky things from "Items for Sale" box placed outside the craft store ! 

Items required for the quilt :

1. Woollen Knitted Squares
2. Quilt Wadding (Polymer fibre)
3. Spare Cotton piece for backing 
4. Some spare wool 
5. Some pare time and Patience 

 As we love checking the sale box at our corner craft store , we stumbled across stash of knitted samples of various types of wool. These were for 50cents each and unanimously we thought it will be of great use! So after brainstorming and watching/reading too many BHG magazines we had this "Cheat Quilt" Idea! 

Quilts made from scratch includes preparing the quilting blocks (in this case the knitted samples) , which are stitched  together. So we stitched all blue shaded blocks together (hand sewing, machine doesn't work :( thanks Mum )

Then attached wadding and backing of the same size. To get exact square shape we had to twist some corners inside the quilt. Once all the ends were stitched (by hand) we used baby blue coloured wool for quilting (running stitches across the blanket)  squares which keeps the wadding and backing together. 

Credit of making this Quilt entirely goes to my Mum for doing all the hand stitching :) ... I tried to play the role of catalyst ... to keep her motivated from time to time :D 

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