This is a bread cloth for a round basket or bowl - it's still in progress, so I'll don't have finished photos of it in yet! I'm crocheting around the edges in Part II and then embroidering on each of the arms in Part III.
Materials:
*about 1/2 yard fabric - I'm going to be embroidering on this so I chose a plain, osnaberg (like a loosely woven muslin)
*size 20 crochet thread
*size 9 steel crochet hook
*hand sewing needle
*pattern found here
1. Print off the pattern and cut it out. Fold your fabric in half and then in half again so that you have a folded side that's solid and a folded side that has an opening in it.
2. Lay your pattern on top, matching the solid fold side to the solid fold
and the open fold side to the open fold. Pin and cut out.
3. Hem the edges. I used the size 20 crochet thread and finished the edge with a blanket stitch, turning the edge under slightly as I went. Make the stitches very close to each other.
Happy Creating! Deborah
I'm switching gears with this post from fibers to reader apps! As you've probably heard, Google Reader will cease to exist on July 1, 2013. This was not welcome news to me as that's how I organize and read all of the blogs I follow! And since I have 512 (as of today) readers who access ArtThreads through Google Reader, I imagine a lot of you are also wondering what to do with your blog lists. I've been trying out several over the past week and have decided to start using feedly.
Feedly works very much like Google Reader - only a little better, in my opinion. There is a list of unread blog entries you can click on and get caught up. That's what I was looking for! And there are some top feeds of the day they think you may be interested in - sometimes yes, sometimes not so much, but they're easy to ignore. The only complaint I have is that if you read my post in the feeder instead of clicking to go to the actual site, the photos don't line up right and the print is pretty small. But I have a feeling that happens with quite most feeders - so if you want to see what I really put together, click through to Artthreads!
One of the top features that makes it easy to recommend feedly to all my Google Reader followers is how extremely easy it is to begin using it. If you sign up before July 1, you will have a seamless transition - you won't have to re-enter all of the blogs you follow by hand. I'll walk you through to show how easy this is:
1. I went to feedly.com and this is what I saw.
2. I clicked on Connect to Google Reader and a box came up asking if I wanted to download the Firefox App. This is also available for iOS, Android, Chrome, and Safari. I clicked yes and my Google account information came up. I clicked on it and the screen asked me if I wanted to allow access to my Google Reader. I clicked Allow access.
3. I clicked Install and then, as prompted (sorry - I didn't get screen shots of those two pages), restarted Firefox and voila! I had a reader page up!
4. I had three blogs that had new posts since I last looked at Google Reader this morning - they're listed in the upper right corner under "In My Feedly." You just click on one to bring it up. To read it, click on the entry and to skip it click the really giant check mark. Clicking the check mark then takes you to the next new blog post in your feed.
5. Okay - I'm going to return to the main page I first got. It's tiny, but if you notice in the left hand column, under All it has the number 3. WHATT!!!???? I have a lot more than three blogs, what happened to them?! No need to panic - it only lists the number of unread blog feeds you currently have.
6. Click on the little lines next to All and you get all your blogs. Makes sense!
7. Now notice those icons in the upper right hand corner on the above screen shot? Those give you the choice of how you want your feed to look. You can have it all in script like above, you can have a photo, the title, and a few lines like this,
8. You can have the same thing arranged a little differently - they call them "cards,"
9. Or you can have large previews.
10. When you click on the blog title, it opens up the entire post for you to read and also gives you a little bar at the top with icons to click for sharing to some popular social media sites. Clicking on the blog title again opens up a new window to the actual blog website.
There's probably a lot I'm missing that one can do to play with this - I'm just happy to have solved my blog feed problem! If you want to read more on making the transition, the feedly blog is here. They've been adding apps for different browsers and platforms, so be sure to look at the newer posts to see what's now available. And if you read all the comments at the bottom of the page I linked to, don't worry. A lot of people are confused about what will happen when Google Reader goes away. The short answer is, you'll log onto feedly that morning and will read your feeds just like usual!
Happy Creating! Deborah
I keep getting stuck in a rut using the same embroidery stitches! A couple of years ago I made myself try and use new ones, but then I didn't embroider for awhile and now I'm back to my old same old. While looking for inspiration, I found a few sites you might also like.
I always key into any news coming out of the Royal School of Needlework, but for some reason had never looked at their website. There are lots of pictures to look at, including some fascinating step-by-step explanations of restoration work they've done, like this Tudor Rose. I died over the class descriptions - if I lived in England I'd be a regular! However ..... I did not know that a couple of times a year they have classes in San Francisco. This is very exciting! See the information on the intensives here and the day classes here.
Okay - back to reality since I don't live England and can't go to this year's San Francisco classes! Except for missing the camaraderie of a real life class, the internet has some very good sites for taking one's needlework to the next level. My favorite stitch instruction site is Sharon B's Dictionary of Stitches. For those new to Sharon, she's an amazing needleworker from Australia. Take a look at the gallery of her inspiring work here. Also, she features different stitches every week on her blog, Pin Tangle.
And finally, whether you're a beginning embroidery or have been doing this for a long time, if you haven't looked at Mary Corbet's Needle and Thread website, do it now! I'm working my way up from the beginning, which is a good idea if you're wanting to improve your embroidery skills. She started out with more of the basics and has moved into showing how she does her own work - which is gorgeous! Right now she's working on a goldwork and silk piece inspired by an old ecclesiastical embroidery. And if you have problems figuring a stitch out from diagrams, Mary has a library of video stitch tutorials here.
Happy Creating! Deborah
Okay - I promised something lacy for my next clothing remodel and here it is! I started with a Goodwill $1.00 deal, a great linen/cotton blend button up shirt with rolled up sleeves held by a buttoned placket. I've been mulling about sewing some type of lacy, linen/cotton shirt based on the fashions I saw in January on Downton Abbey so this was perfect.
First I took off the plackets that held up the sleeves and pinned lace along the bottom hem, the sleeve hems, the pocket flaps, the edge of the collar and the button placket.
The back looked so plain, I added lace to the two back seams and the mid shoulder seam, too.
I sewed everything in place, changed the buttons out for pearl-look ones ....
and a new shirt was born!
And believe it or not, I'm going to leave this one white. Yep - even my husband was shocked!
Happy Creating! Deborah
