latch hook – Page 2

Tag: latch hook

26
Jan
2014

I need a Fabrics Anonymous

categories: craft

What have I been up to lately? Well, work has been keeping me busy, so I haven’t had much to post yet. But I’ve been working on a few things here and there…

A bit more of “Enjoy Today” (satin stitch is still doing my head in, but it’s getting there!)

I finished my Merry Snowmen latch hook…

And I took another trip to Spotlight because they had 30% off printed fabric!

I’ve acquired some cream and red fabric for all those Christmas stitheries, as well as a couple of different options for my “New Beginnings” that I want to start soon. And of course, no trip would be complete without a couple more fat quarters!

I also ordered some hanky linen online for some of my projects that are in a set, just to make it easier if I choose to do the other ones – with my track record, it’ll be years and then I won’t be able to find the old fabric! I also grabbed a couple of pieces of wool felt that I need for another project I’m doing as a present.

It’s been a bit of stash building, but in my defence almost all of it has plans – now I just need to set up my study/craft room and give myself some space to put it all!

20
Jan
2014

Tutorial: How to finish a Latch Hook

categories: craft, tutorials

Well, I did it! My first official finish for 2014 – and it’s a project that I’ve had, on and off, for the last 5+ years (most likely more – I can’t remember when I first bought this kit).

I finished the Snowmen latch hook off on Saturday, but this one below I’d actually finished around about 18 months ago, and never fully completed the whole thing. Which.. was just finishing off the edges and sewing it up. In retrospect, very easy.

The latch hook kits all seem to have the same directions for finishing off a completed latch hook, and are all rather useless, hence me putting this off for so long. I tried to search YouTube, but for once it’s let me down in terms of tutorial videos. I did come across a couple of blog posts, but they were a bit tricky to follow. So, trial and error ensued, and thanks to a couple of requests, I’m detailing the process. It’s by no means perfect, but I think I did a pretty decent job for my first go!

Decent scissors were a must, to cut through the fabric. I also used some larger needles (Chenille, Size 18, according to the packet, although it doesn’t really matter), and some DMC Perle 5 thread. Perle 8 would work just as well, I think, it’s just that Spotlight only had the colour I wanted in Perle 5.

I started by cutting about two squares up (just under an inch?) from the edge of the completed rug area. The straight side was obviously the easiest part, and so I started with this side. You could probably go a little closer, but in the end, it didn’t make a huge difference.

I knotted off at one end, and tucked the fabric over. Then, it was just a simple matter of going through each square, one by one. I’ve tried to get a good picture to show what I did – basically, go on the diagonal, and make it loop over. Don’t worry too much if you catch the wool – I did this quite a bit and you can’t see from the other side, as long as the needle & thread are pulled through securely.

Sometimes the canvas can be quite thick, and doesn’t move with the stitching (see above). Just fold it down as you get to the area, and it’ll stay in place as you stitch nearer to it.

The rounded sides were a little trickier for me, but I continued with the rough pattern of two squares around the edge. Less is more – you can always trim it if a certain bit gets too fiddly to work with, like I did.

I did the corners in different ways, although I didn’t get a picture of the second one. In this one, I cut it down and folded it over, to try and make it a bit neater, however it didn’t really make a huge difference – the next one, it was 2 squares on either side and folded up nicely. As long as both sides are equal, and you keep them flat when sewing, they’ll sit quite nicely.

I admit, the rounded areas aren’t the prettiest – when it went down 1 square each row, it was neater than when it went down 2 or 3 squares. Either way, the canvas is fairly easy to manipulate, and you should be able to do some kind of stitch on each diagonal square to catch the fabric. Don’t be worried about doing extra stitches, sometimes they are needed.

As you finish each length of thread, knot it off and start another one. The finished product should hopefully end up something like this, roughly even around the whole thing. There is latch hook/rug binding which can be purchased to sew on top and produce a more polished finish, but I didn’t bother on this one – after all, nobody’s going to be looking at the back, and this is a Christmas themed rug anyway.

The finished product! As you can see, it tucks well under and you can’t see where the stitching has come through. Relatively quick and simple to do, for a nice finished edge all round.

Luckily, I’ve only got one more that is rounded, and the rest of my latch hooks are rectangular or square, so it’ll be a lot quicker to sew along. I do have a couple of the “huggable” latch hooks which turn into a toy which have been proving to be a bit of a challenge – if I manage to work out what on earth I’m doing with those ones, I’ll try and put up a tutorial for that one too.

19
Jan
2014

I can never stop at one thing!

categories: craft

Well, after my post a couple of days ago, I managed to finish off my latch hook yesterday. Which leads to the question – why am I so horrible at finishing my WIPs??

Now, I have two latch hooks done, and just need to work out how to bind them and finish them off. I’ve had a look around online and pretty sure I have a decent idea, so I’ll be playing a bit of trial and error to see how I go with it. I’ll try and take pictures of the process, as a couple of people have asked about how to bind it. No guarantees it’ll work, though!

So with that, I decided a trip to Spotlight was in order, to pick up some thicker thread.

As you can tell, I purchased more than the thread. I always seem to do this – trip and accidentally put more things into my basket.

Also pictured – a pile of fat quarters and thread for a project, some buttons that were on sale that I may or may not need (I believe a pattern called for “two” buttons, but they were on sale!), a tin to put my needles in, a pile of Christmas themed fat quarters that were also on sale, a jelly roll that I have no plans for but were great colours, some fat quarters that I can possibly use for those Christmas patterns I keep buying, and because who doesn’t like adding to their stash, some needles, and of course the thread I came into the store to get in the first place!

A close up of the fabrics I selected for my “Happy Days” needlebook I’m planning as a present, and the matching threads. Technically I didn’t need a fat quarter – I needed far less – but the colours are gorgeous together and I may even make another one.

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this one before, but this is my work on my largest latch hook project to date (it’s quite literally as tall as me), and this got put aside for about a year. I’ve pulled it out again, and am slowly working on 10×10 blocks in the theory that as long as I do a little bit of work on a project each day, I’ll get some progress going. It seems to be going well, although the piece is so large I have to do on the bed, as it won’t fit out on the couch. This one isn’t on my list of goals or working towards a deadline to finish, as it’s just so damn huge. Maybe some day!

17
Jan
2014

More goodies!

categories: craft

Has it been almost a week since I’ve posted? Whoops! So much for my goal of remembering to post regularly…

I’ve found a new store and I’m delighted to say that it’s close to me! A Patchwork Quilt is run by the delightful Jess, and opened at the beginning of this year. It’s currently online only although Jess hopes to open the doors to the public in the future – and just a couple of suburbs over from me, I’m overjoyed. It’ll be so nice to have a store in the northern suburbs.

I promptly went ahead and purchased a couple more patterns to add to my stash – I’ve got plans for one of them, but not the other two (yet..) and am waiting on a couple more to come into stock.

The middle “Thought of the Month” series has a ton of great quotes, and I can easily see me buying the rest of them …

I’ve also signed up to a couple of the BOM programs – Rosalie Quinlan’s “Best Friends Forever”, and the Cottage Garden Threads club. Both begin in February, and I’m looking forward to receiving my goodies each month.

Not entirely sure when I’ll be able to start these patterns, as I’m trying to get through my WIPs which seem to keep growing out of control…

I’ve decided this is my next one to tackle, while I take a break from “Enjoy Today” and the cursed satin stitch (it’s really not that bad, it’s just I can’t handle stitching neatly in this heatwave), so I’m hoping I can finish the hooking over this weekend. Then I just have to bind it – and find where I put the binding!

03
Jan
2014

2014 – The year of finished projects?

categories: craft, goals

I’m not normally one to set New Year’s Resolutions, but this year I want to try and set myself some goals. Most of them are craft related, however I’m throwing a couple of personal ones in here for good measure. And I’m posting them here so I’m not only accountable to myself (and the internet!), but also so that I can look back in 6 and 12 months and see how I’ve gone.

My crafting goals:

Finish at least 5 projects – at least 3 which I’ve started this year.

This seems relatively easy, but if you know me, you’ll know that I’m a fan of having a lot of projects on the go – and failing to actually finish them. I can’t recall how many projects I’ve got on the go at the moment – which is terrible. I’m hoping to give some craft presents for Christmas this year – I’ve ordered them, so now I just have a little under 12 months to finish them. It’s achievable, whether I get distracted mid-project is another story.

I have, however, made a start on “Enjoy Today” that I posted about a couple of days ago – not much, but you’ve got to start somewhere, right?

Here’s hoping that the next post, there’ll be a lot more colour to show you all!

Finish all the cutting for my “Vignette In Stitches” quilt, and finish 2 of the 16 blocks

I have made very minimal progress on this one, but that’s because I’m a) new to quilting, and b) have been so busy with work and the lead up to Christmas that I wasn’t able to properly sit down and concentrate on cutting the fabric. I’ve seen how long it’s taken some bloggers to do their quilts, so I want to keep trying to come back to this semi-regularly.

The fat quarters, pre-cutting. Isn’t the range gorgeous?

Finish at least 3 full pages of my “Watching It Fly” cross stitch.

Lovingly referred to as “50 million shades of grey”, I’ll be putting up a post in the future about this. The cliffnotes version – it’s a huge cross stitch with 75000 stitches and I’ve completed just over 12000, which is about 2 pages. I am aware that I am totally insane picking such a huge project with such a limited colour palette – and you still can barely see the progress.

The grey blob is the cloudy sky, and you can *just* make out the first strands of hair. I have another 4 pages to go before you can even see the hair enough to work out what it is.

Finish my three latch hooks that have been ongoing for a number of months/years

Two of these are Christmas ones that I planned on finishing last year – one which just needs binding. The third is a latch hook that will actually be cut out and shaped into a lion, to give to my nephew. I’ve completed all the latch hooking and just now need to ‘assemble’ the lion – last time I tried I got halfway through the head, and got frustrated at how fiddly it was and put it in the “too hard” basket. For six months.

You can see what is going to be the lion’s head in the picture. I’m hoping it turns out well; I have other kits similar with a bear and a frog which I need to make for other people, too.

Finish a wedding sampler,before the couple’s first wedding anniversary.

This was meant to be a wedding present, and I was confident as the piece was small that I would be able to frame this myself. Turns out, I’m rubbish at this. Another trip to the framer’s is clearly going to be in order.

While quite a simple design, the final piece just pops when the back stitch is added. Once I’ve framed it, I’ll post up another picture.

I’m hoping that I’ll be able to complete some other projects, both from in my stash, and as I continue to find new things from designers. However, I’m trying to aim low at this stage and actually have some completions!

In terms of my other goals:

Blog at least once a week

Not only because this way I won’t be flooding my twitter feed from people who don’t care about the constant updates, but also so that I can have a record, and by going back and seeing the actual progress I’ve made. I’ve found that having multiple work in progress pictures helps, especially when it feels like I really haven’t done much more after stitching for hours!

Re-teach myself French

I did about 6 years of French in school, and promptly forgot the large majority since I stopped lessons. It’s always handy at least having basic skills in a language, particularly working in a hotel where we have a lot of foreign guests. I’ve come across a website/app called DuoLingo which is honestly the best I’ve seen so far. Amazingly, after only a couple of weeks, I can remember quite a bit. If I get a guest coming down asking about clothing, animals, or types of food, I’m set. The rest, not so much at this stage!

Read 20 books

I’m an avid, and quick reader, so this challenge shouldn’t be too hard – except that I discard books in favour of stitching and watching TV shows. My pile of books is overflowing and I really need to tackle this. I’ve got to track down a website or app to keep a record of what I’ve read – I believe I have a GoodReads account, but don’t really use it – any opinions on how this is, or any other other options?

Well – there are my list of goals. Hopefully achievable, but enough to make me actively work towards them. Let’s see how I did in another 12 months..

28
Aug
2012

My name is Alex, and I’m a craft addict.

categories: craft

I’ve recently gotten back into crafting, helped largely by my good friend Bek who keeps mentioning her cross stitch. I had a latch hook that I had started in 2007, intended for a Christmas present … and then never finished it. I’m pleased to say that 5 years later (and only about 2 weeks of actual work!) it’s completed – that’s a story for another blog post.

But midway through doing this, I got hit with the bug. Big time. I think it’s fair to say that I have a bit of an addition going on, based on the amount of things I have been ordering lately!

I originally started by ordering two more pieces on eBay. Then was looking for some more stuff, and found an American store called Stuff 4 Cross Stitch. I placed one order. Then another one, after being egged on from my work colleagues. And then a third one. I’d like to say I’ve stopped, but I’ve already earmarked a few more things to purchase… but I may hold off for a little bit and give the poor credit card a break.

People have asked what I’ve bought, and what I’ll be working on. I’ve bought items that are latch hook, cross stitch (which I have only done a tiny bit last week – the most recent time before that was 10+ years ago), and needlepoint – which I have never tackled. Yes, I am ambitious!

And so, this is a list of the things which are either sitting on my dining table to be put somewhere and worked on, or are in transit from the US to here (curse you, customs, for holding stuff up!) Please ignore the funky spaces, I’ve copied them from the website and I can’t be bothered with the effort to crop the white borders.

Latch Hook:

16″ tall Lion Huggable – I’d never heard of these before, but they’re really cute! Glenn wants me to make one for him, and one for his brother – they’re both Brisbane Lion supporters, so I’ll probably just buy some coloured ribbons to add to them. I’ve got two of these to make.

14″ Frog Huggable – I don’t know who this is for, but it’s cute. This is the first huggable that I came across and ordered from eBay, and have only just received it. I’m sure I’ll find a use for it!

14″ tall Pink Teddy – I have a couple of people in mind for this one… depending on how fast I get it completed. I haven’t tried the huggables so I honestly have no idea on how long they will take to make/assemble.

24″ by 34″ Lab Puppies – This one is for me (just no idea where to put it). I’ll probably start this one in a while, though – it’s not got a time deadline, and it’ll be nice to work on after all the huggables!

30″ by 50″ Sierra – This is going to be my biggest project. Literally – it’s almost the size of me. The chart is HUGE. I don’t expect to have this finished before the end of 2013, and that’s optimistic! But I think it will look fantastic once it’s done.

Merry Men – My current project that I’m working on. Aiming to have it done before Christmas this year, and I’m well on track for it.

27″ by 40″ Lion – At the request of Glenn, who has informed me that we are filling the house with lion-related items (again, back to the footy team). This is my contribution. At least it’s a nice lion!

27″ by 40″ Windjammer – the picture is awful, as it’s an image of the colours of the pattern, rather than a picture of the finished product. This one’s currently travelling to me, so once I’ve received that box, I’ll post an updated picture of what this is meant to look like. Glenn has requested I make this for his father as he likes boats – I’m aiming for his birthday in July 2013 because Christmas is not happening, I have too many other projects.

Needlepoint:

Admittedly, I’ve never done needlepoint before – or if I have, I was about 7. I’ve looked into it, and it’s similar in concept to cross stitch, which I know I am capable of, so I’ve ordered these:

16″ Long Christmas Stocking – I’m actually hoping to make this for Glenn’s brother – him and his wife are expecting a baby at the end of November. Apparently, I’m going to be ‘that’ aunty that gives a whole bunch of craft as presents! I’ll give it a crack for this year – but otherwise I’ll give it as a present for next year. The baby will only be a few weeks old this year so it’s not a massive drama if it waits til 2013!

10″ by 15″ Asian Butterflies – Again, no clue where I’m going to put this, but it’s gorgeous and butterflies are one of my favourite things. It’s a bit hard to tell in the picture, but that’s an actual coin.

Cross Stitch:

There’s quite a few Christmas themed ones here. I’d like to have at least one or two done for this year, but we’ll see.

Ho Ho Ho Ornament – It’s a small one (so hopefully won’t take me forever and a day) which I thought was quite cute. Something to hang… somewhere… around the home at Christmas.

7″ by 5″ Travel Memories – A bit of a day dream, for me. I’d love to go to Paris (and Europe) one day, so this is a reminder of this. And again, butterflies.

12″ by 12″ Savannah Birth Record – Look, I’d like to have this done for my nephew in November. But it’s kind of large. So, we’ll see how long it takes… otherwise it may just be a late birth record =P Otherwise, someone else is bound to have babies at some point!

5″ by 7″ Stacked Cups – I’m planning on making this for my mother – who’s the first person who got me into cross stitch, way back when. She’s got a few pieces like this that are similar styles around the house, so this would fit in pretty smoothly.

Christmas Sayings – This was the first one I purchased out of the lot of cross stitch. They look fairly simple, so I’ll probably tackle these early-ish, hopefully at least one or two will be done this year, if not the full set.

Christmas Pals – I don’t know if I’ll keep these or make them as a gift – they’re fairly cute! But the kit is Dimensions, and from my (limited knowledge) and what I’ve heard, the thread isn’t as easy to get a hold of as DMC. So I may have to research a replacement before making a decision!

I’m pretty sure that’s the lot of it. Well, the ones that I’ve purchased. I may have had a look online recently and bookmarked a few more cross stitch kits that I want to order to make for people – one for the hubby, and one for my friend who isn’t getting married for a couple of years (so I have plenty of time!)

I’ve recently completed a latch hook so I’ll post that one shortly, along with some pictures of my two works in progress. I’d love to know your thoughts on all of the kits I’ve bought and are going to be attempting, though!