Category Archives: Crafty

Nov 13 2011

I can show you anything on my belly belly belly screen

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Things I’ve Learned in My Fair Quest – Months 1 and 2:

  1. Wing it.
  2. Read (and follow) the directions.
  3. As much as you want to cut the darned infernal ties off the baby bib you are cross-stitching, resist. It’s possible they may be needed at some point.
  4. Joann’s has better stitchy stuff than Michael’s.
  5. I cannot resist sparkly paper that is on sale even if I already have lots of sparkly paper and even if sparkly paper doesn’t really have anything to do with Fair stuff.
  6. Plastic mesh canvas crafts don’t have to look like the ugly kleenex box covers you remember from your youth.
  7. Just because you finish the cross-stitching doesn’t mean the item is done. You absolutely may not mark it off your list until you sew on the back and add the hanger.
  8. Apple jelly requires patience. And a thermometer.
  9. Canning apples in Virginia is more difficult than in Michigan.
  10. Apple leather should be on the Fair list. I’ll make it even if it isn’t.
  11. Chik-fil-A beverage carriers make great craft caddies.
  12. Don’t casually toss your stitching floss into your great craft caddy unless you like to either (1) keep buying new floss or (b) spend precious Fair crafting time unraveling tangles your kid’s hair would be scared of.
  13. Stitching floss is really cheap. At least the cheap kind.

No huge projects completed so far, but I have done several smaller ones. I’ve also been busy working on the bags of apples that have been living in our dining room for far too long. I made 10 or so quarts of canned apples, a ton of apple leather, and a batch of dried apple rings. The leather seems to be the winner. So, in case you’ve been eagerly hitting “refresh” on this blog to see what work I’ve done for the Fair…wait no more.

113 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Christmas Item: Completed
141 | Craft | Handicraft | Plastic Canvas Item: Completed

112 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Baby Item: Completed

64 | Food | Jelly | Misc. Jelly (Apple): Completed (No picture. Jelly is shy.)

Oct 23 2011

Moving right along

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Last night I finished the dread number 114. I am relieved. I am lighter and free and full of joy and song and dance. Or that could be the candy corn.

This is a piece called “Dragonfly Duo” by Dimensions Crafts. It’s a kit I got 50% off at AC Moore. I think the 50% I didn’t get had my sanity in it. I think it should be renamed, “Damned Dragonflies Bleepity Bleep Bleep.” I sent my suggestion to the manufactures, but I haven’t heard back from them yet.

Being the sadistic crafter I am, I started on my next project this afternoon: 113 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Christmas Item. For this piece I am using a pattern I found online called “Shades of Christmas,” from Crossing Montana. I chose this pattern because (1) it was free, (2) it only had 3 colors in it, and (3) it is small. Do you remember Unhelpful Store Lady from a month ago when I went to the local craft store to find cross-stitch supplies? I said, “Hey, I’m a cross-stitch newbie and I want to make this –show lady pattern–. Could you help me get what I need?” And Unhelpful Store Lady grumbled and led me directly to the 32 count Aida cloth and never once said, “This is not really for newbies,” or “You need magnifying glasses to stitch on this,” or “Whatever you do, do not try and stitch on this when you are in a car being driven by your crazy-driver husband going along wavy, windy, hilly roads with your whining pre-schooler in the backseat.” Not one word about any of that.

Strangely, once I had the magnifying glasses and a chair on solid ground and peace and quiet and a bowl of candy corn, this piece became not only much easier but actually pleasant. I think I can dig 32 count Aida. It’s more like real fabric, and the finished product doesn’t look like it is stitched on a piece of graph paper. And I definitely can dig the simple, small, three-color pattern that lacks half stitches, back stitches, and the insidious french knot.

Oct 16 2011

10 Down, 180ish to go

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Days 31-35: Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging.
Day 36: Completed 161 | Craft | Holiday Decorations | Fall; Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging.
Day 37 (today): Completed 21 | Food | Canned Fruit | Apples.

Today I decided to work on some canning since the canning stuff is still spread out all over the kitchen. I need to redo the apple jelly and work on a mixed fruit jelly, but jelly sucks. I don’t even eat jelly often. Darn jelly. Last week I used the last of our canned apples from 2005 (Anya, these apples are older than you!!), so I decided I would can more apples today. I peeled, cored, and quartered 18 pounds of apples (Andy helped peel about half). [After making cider, dealing with only 18 pounds of apples seems like sewing doll clothes.] Although it took forever to get everything boiling and assembled and into the processor, I was pleasantly pleased with the jars when they came out of the canner. I went and had dinner and came back to oogle, and I noticed that two of the jars (including the one I planned to enter into the fair) were half empty. The lids didn’t seal, and all the liquid was gone gone gone. I had lots of liquid left over, so I filled the jars back up, put on fresh lids, and popped them back in the canner. Hopefully they behave this time around.

With less than 330 days to go, I have only completed 10 items for next year’s fair. I thought it was more. Surely it was more?? Darn cross-stitch sucking my life away. Stitch, stitch, stitch, that was 20 days of my life sucked away. At least the end is in sight for 114. I think 115 | Needlework | Cross-stitch | Afghan is going to be the last thing I work on. Whoever heard of cross-stitching on an afghan?!? I think that would not only suck a few months of my life away, but it would probably also suck out my soul and put it in a jar and make it into jelly.

Look, we got rid of our windows!

Oct 9 2011

Beautiful Bee Barf

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Day 26 (wednesday): Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging.
Day 27 (thursday): Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging.
Day 28 (friday): Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging.
Day 29 (saturday): Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging.
Day 30 (today): Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging; Completed 194 | Honey | Jar of Strained Amber Honey.

I’ve been feeling rather homesteady this weekend. Yesterday we went back to Andy’s chiropractor’s assistant’s house and picked another 360 pounds of apples, and then we spent about 7 hours making about 9 gallons of cider. Today, Andy started 5 of those gallons on the journey to being hard cider, and he bottled his blackberry wine. I worked on cleaning out the garden and replanted some strawberry runners. Our garlic order came in, and I was cleaning the garden spot for that…then I found all these runners that needed new homes. Maybe I can put the garlic in between the strawberry runners? We also collected four frames from our beehive and began the painfully tedious and sticky process of harvesting the honey without a honey extractor. We scraped the goop, comb and honey together, off the frames and then strained them into jars through cheesecloth. Not ideal, but it works.

The honey has a nice, but minty (?), flavor. It looks like we’ll get about a quart and a half. Not a lot, but since we haven’t had any honey since we moved here, it’s a step in the right direction.

Work on 114 continues.

Sep 29 2011

Abracadabra

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Day 20: Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging.

I finished a dragonfly today. Its body is a bit of a mess. If I had magical powers that made the things I cross-stitched become real, this poor dragonfly would keel over pretty much immediately after coming to life. Of course, if I did have those powers, I wouldn’t be stitching dragonflies. I bet it would be fairly complex to cross-stitch a hundred dollar bill accurately, though. At least for me. I’d end up arrested for counterfeiting. Do you think they’d give me cross-stitch supplies in jail? I would practice and practice until I had the craft perfected and then stitch a real dragon who would knock a hole in the wall of the jail cell and carry me away to freedom and not eat me for lunch.

“Let me out! Where is my dragon!!”

Sep 27 2011

One potato, two potato

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Day 16: Completed 60 | Food | Jelly | Blackberry.

Day 17: Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging; Continued 161 | Craft | Holiday Decorations | Fall.

Monday, three of the four classes from Anya’s school took a trip to a local farm to harvest potatoes. The school kids planted the potatoes last spring, and the harvested tubers will be sent to the local public schools for lunches. Anya’s teacher brought back a bucket of taters for the class, and today they washed, cut, and cooked them. Since Anya only goes half days, she wasn’t going to be there for the class potato snack. Her teacher let Anya pick one out to take home, and we’ll cook it up with dinner tonight. Last fall when we did the harvest, we were joined by three buses of public school kids. This time it was just us until maybe halfway through, when one bus of kids showed up. The day was cloudy and misty, and the ground was very wet. We saw all sorts of creatures: a little snake, a mouse, a tomato horn worm cocoon, and a honking bunch of earthworms.

I made a batch of blackberry jelly Sunday night. It tastes a lot like the raspberry jam. Last night I worked a little bit on the Halloween garland, and I started to wonder if this is really a “fall” decoration. There is a miscellaneous holiday decoration where Halloween would definitely fall, but Halloween is in fall, and there are no Spring or Summer or Winter classes. I’m gonna go with it. Last night I also went back to the cross-stitching. No matter how carefully I think I count, I keep finding little mistakes. Some I fix, some I let go. I’ll just add a couple extra squares of yellow here, move the green over there. Perhaps in the end it will still look sort of like what it is supposed to look like. I still want to make apple jelly and can apples before I put away the canning stuff, but my canning energy is mostly boiled away. Andy is making a cider press.

My feet stink.

Sep 24 2011

Check, check, check!

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Day 15: Completed 146 | Craft | Handicraft | Jewelry; Completed 65 | Food | Preserves | Apple Butter; Completed 66 | Food | Preserves | Berry.

Tired.

It might not look like much, but for someone who hasn’t canned in five years, those 12 little jars wore me out. During the whole process, I worried a stink bug would accidentally add itself to the ingredients. I don’t think it happened. I can’t guarantee it. I told Anya I wanted to dress up as a stink bug for Halloween and she shrieked and screamed and ran around in fear and terror. Or maybe she just said, “No. Stink bugs are scary.” Sounds like a challenge to me.

Went to the craft store today (after going to the community yard sale but before going to several other stores and arriving home and starting to can after 6pm). I picked up supplies to finish my jewelry item, fall decoration, plastic mesh needlepoint thing, and stamped item. I didn’t work on cross-stitch at all today. Hurrah! I did, however, do some lovely knitting in the car.

Did you know, 4 pints of apple butter uses about 4 pounds of apples? That leaves around 226 pounds.

Sep 23 2011

It’s Fall; Let’s Party!

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Day 13: Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging.

Day 14: Continued 114 | Needlework | Cross-Stitch | Wall Hanging; Started 161 | Craft | Holiday Decorations | Fall.

Yesterday, Anya’s school celebrated the start of Fall with a big party. The kids got to throw corn, walk in corn, make cider, drink cider, make apple cake, eat apple cake, blow bubbles, and eat bubbles. The highlight of the event was a play about Demeter and Persephone that the school’s new drama teacher and the music teacher helped the students put together (in two weeks!). Some of the middle school kids wrote a few songs, the elementary kids choreographed a dance, and the little kids learned a dance about leaves (RED RED RED!).

One of the teachers (who was a photographer in a previous life) borrowed my camera during the play. Alas, the camera battery wasn’t fully charged, so she was only able to get a few shots before darkness fell. The play was definitely the main event of the afternoon, and everyone loved it. I hope we get to have more celebrations like this one.

After the par-tay, Andy, Anya and I drove out to the house of Andy’s chiropractor’s office assistant. Andy was in for a sore neck last week, and he told about how sad we have been because our apple trees grew about three apples this year. The woman offered to let us pick apples from the four huge trees her family has in their yard. There are so many apples, she doesn’t know what to do with them all. By the time we got there, two other families had picked their fill, and the trees were still loaded. We drove away with about 230 pounds in the back of our car.

Andy really wants to make cider, but I won’t let him spend the money on a press. (I need to save the money for my fair projects!!!!) This weekend, I want to make apple butter (#65), apple jelly (64), and canned apples (21). I’d also like to (while I have all the canning stuff out) make some blackberry jelly (60), raspberry preserves (66), and possibly canned blackberries (22). The berries are all in the freezer from this summer. I’m not sure if frozen berries make bad jelly/preserves/jams. We’ll see how far I get before I collapse. Ooo, I also want to make apple sauce, and apple leather, and dried apple slices, and an apple pie, and some apple cake, and apple pancakes, and apple head dolls, and apple kebab, and apple pudding, and apple tarts, and apple pincushions, and apple skin yarn.

Today’s progress on #114 has been anti-progress. I realized I had done a whole whompin’ bunch of full stitches that were supposed to only be half stitches. I tried and tried to convince myself it would be fine, but, alas, I failed. I’ve spent quite a while this evening pulling those naughty stitches out. I will probably have to buy new floss in that color because I don’t think I’ll have enough now. I tried to pull the threads so that I could reuse them, but it was too messy where other colors had gone over/around/through.

Also, before lunch, Anya and I pulled out some craft foam sheets I bought months ago at the dollar store, and we are making a Halloween garland (161) I saw in a book from the library. All the pieces are cut out except some lettering I need black foam for, and I think I’ll be finishing this one up tomorrow…umm….after I finish all that canning. Or maybe not.