Winter Crafts - Crochet Bags

What do you do at the end of busy Holiday day when you finally get to relax? Well, sometimes for me it's some TV and a little random crochet. Fun little bags to hold treasures. Fast and easy to make. I like to exercise my crochet muscles once an awhile but it's like riding a bike, you never forget. The first thing my Mom taught me to crochet was something like this when I was maybe 9 years old.

World Collage

This is it. The finished World Collage. I added fabric icebergs, glitter dimensional paint in silver, blue and purple, alcohol inks in various colors, some more silver glitter paint, some more alcohol inks, some silver threads that I created a mesh with and cut into squares, and then I had to stop. It was done, or as done as I was going to make it. I don't really feel 100% that it is done but I do feel 100% as if I don't want to work on it anymore.  I was done. I kind of sort of mostly like it but it was an experiment from the beginning and I had no idea how it might come out. I learned some things about the materials I used and it was a fun project. But I'm personally still critiquing it. At this point I think I would have to start over to correct what doesn't feel right about it.

More Icicle Ornaments

I'm still working on those ornaments. I have 19 done so far with many more to make.

 

I've been off on a tangent doing some small quilt projects until my sewing machine decided to get flaky. I had some Christmas patchwork projects planned and finally got all the fabric I wanted to use together but that will have to wait. I love these colors and it's all snowflake fabric.

And I'm in the middle of a collage project that I'm sort of stuck on what I want to do next with it. It needs more of something, paint, lines, texture, color, shapes,....  I'll be working on this some more. I just hope I don't end up hating it when I get done messing with it. That happens sometimes.

work in progress

Beads Beads Beads ... Icicle Ornament

This is my beading station. I'm still working on those icicle ornaments. Whenever I want a little break from the daily routine I can sit down and make a couple fairly quickly. Preparing the wire is the most work to the project. I have some ideas for other shapes besides a simple icicle that I may try.

Vintage Glass Icicle Ornaments

Yes, I have been making those ornaments I talked about last time and I have many more to make. I was surprised by the number of glass beads I was able to salvage from the old Christmas chains. I've also found some interesting shaped inexpensive new glass beads to use as spacers between the vintage beads. I'm pleased with how they are coming out and look forward to seeing them on a Christmas tree.

Christmas Projects

I'm starting a new project. I have some vintage glass Christmas tree chains handed down to me years ago that I treasured but didn't know what to do with because they were badly damaged from years of use. Many of the glass beads were broken and the chains needed to at least be taken apart and restrung. I hesitated to do that because of the fragility of the beads so they have been stored in a box with other treasures for many years. Recently I've seen many examples of beautiful beaded icicle ornaments made from many kinds of beads including vintage glass beads. As soon as I saw these I knew that's what I needed to do with these beads. This is the first of many ornaments I expect to make with my heirloom beads:

September Bracelet Projects

September was a busier craft month for me. I continued to work on jewelry but I also got back to work on a few other projects. This month I finally got some beading wire and crimp tubes and pliers and made some simple bracelets.

And I made a copper and pyrite wire wrapped bracelet for a guy.