Feelin the Love

I've made it my goal to complete a TON of crochet project this year. I am trying to crochet projects before the holiday arrives, and I managed to succeed with Valentine's Day! (I also have some post-Christmas projects that I haven't blogged, so that will be fun later lol).

 

First up, the Love Bunny. The pattern suggested two, and it really was easy enough that I could have done it, but this guy is flying solo. He's off to my secret sister in my fire wife group. Adorable, right? Also, I realized that I overprocessed the photo and you can't see the stitch definition. Fail. Click on over to the original post for better pictures.

 

Next up is the Heart Potholder. I have never crocheted a potholder before, and I am still a bit wary to use this guy. But it's thick. So that's promising, right?

 

Lastly, want to see what it looks like when I try to take a picture? Complete chaos behind the scenes! (also, don't be like me and take pictures at 10 pm. Take them with natural light. Unless you have a day job and forget on weekends. Then you are stuck with 10 pm pictures).

Iron Craft Challenge #5: Be Mine

This week's Iron Craft Challenge is all about LOVE.  We were challenged to make a valentine for someone we love.  Well I got a little excited and made Valentines for lots of people that I love.  It all started last week when I decided to make sewn cards with fabric scraps.  The idea was that I could send one with each etsy order, so the recipient could use it (and it would match).  Here are my first two:

As you may have noticed, the first one (left) was a bit messy and the scraps were sewn straight onto the card.  This left the back of the card looking like a total disaster. By round two, with a little advice from the hubs, I decided to first sew onto an index card, and then sew the card onto the folded card.  Then you still see stiches on the card, but not a zillion. 

I made a third card that night, much neater thant he previous two!  Also, I used a gluestick on the back of the index card before sewing it on... just wanted to keep those thread ends tucked in!  Each of these is going to a friend whom I love.

A day or so later came the Iron Craft Valentine Challenge.  I wanted to make a few Valentine's for specific people -- with specific fabric.  There is school fabric for a teacher friend, traveling / luggage tag fabric for a far away sister, polka dots and hearts for friends closer to home, soccer stuff for my beloved, and wine for one special wine loving cousin of mine!

I am really pleased with the final result!  And thankful that Joanns had cards on clearance so I could finally push myself to try this whole sewing on paper thing out.  I mean, seriously, I have been wanting to do this for months!!

And because you asked so nicely, here is the back of a card.  :)

Lots of Love Coasters

Valentines's Day is near and my shop is getting busy.  I whipped up these coasters (and a few others which are not listed yet) this weekend.  I have a crazy story to go along with the coasters, too!  So I was sewing up a storm and all of a sudden my machine was going without me.  I thought maybe I was going crazy, so I picked up the presser foot to check... and it just kept sewing.  I was thuroughly freaked out.  And a bit miffed that I could not finish my projects!  I told my husband there was a ghost in my craftroom and could he please come and help me.  He was laughing at me, as, sure enough, the machine sewed on it's own again (mind you, it was usually after I sewed and took my foot off the pedal... it would keep going.  but sometimes it would stop and then slowly start again).  I googled it "janome sewing machine won't stop sewing on it's own" (as I laughed at the ridiculousness) and found that the issue was in the presser foot / pedal.  Apparently if it gets lint or thread in in, it can mess up the sensor.  Hubby unscrewed it and blew the dust out for me. Now, the machine is running well again.  But I will not soon be forgetting the day my machine was possessed.  [And the comments in the forum were hilarious.  People were talking about how they took their machines in and the service department looked at them like they were crazy!!]

This is the perfect gift for someone you love -- or for yourself!  Bring them out every February to brighten up your home!

There are only a few sets, so get a set of Lots of Love coasters now if you are interested!

Oh yeah, and the verse on these is Proverbs 3: 5-6.

Feb 13: Crochet Heart Garland (Love) - COMPLETE

Pattern #44: Crochet Heart Garland

Remember our heart pin pattern from Wednesday? This pattern from Cindy [at Skip to my Lou] is a spinoff on that. It should really be called a project, more than a pattern. Basically you made a bunch of those hearts and join them together. Only Cindy added another row to make them bigger. I am going to make these my own way -- which is a new concept for me. I am a stickler for rules, that I always feel like I need to follow a pattern exactly (especially for this project). However, the exact pattern might not be right for me. So I am going to make this chain with 3 different sizes of hearts, and feel more comfortable crocheting other things differently (like making a beanie bigger or smaller than the pattern, so it fits me!)

A pile of hearts:


The finished chain (close up and then a shot of the whole mantle):



(I chose to use a little pink as well, I thought it gave it an extra kick!)

Feb 12: Love Bunnies - COMPLETED

Pattern #43: Love Bunnies

How cute are these 2 little bunnies? Erika over at Cast on Erika  (her blog is now private, but the pattern is still on ravelry, yay!) made them. What an adorable pair. I bet any little girl would love these!

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January 17, 2014:  I made this guy in an evening for my fire fighter wife rescue pack (it's basically like a secret santa in my fire wives group). It was Valentine's themed and I really wanted to crochet something. I thought this was adorable, and I hope my secret sister thinks so too!

I tweaked the pattern a bit so I worked it all in one piece. Well, the ears were two pieces, but the body and head was one. Also, I did not overprocess the picture as it looks below. It looked great on my phone. Technology fail.

Feb 11: Heart Potholder - COMPLETED

Pattern #42: Heart Potholder

This pattern was designed by Linda Lanning over at Kalei Designs. I love hearts, if you hadn't noticed, in the past few days; so this obviously caught my eye. I don't think I would use it as a potholder though, I already have lots of those. I will probably put it to use as a decoration during February.

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January 19, 2014: This was a pretty quick project. I'm still a little unwary as to if I will use it in my kitchen, but it's worth a shot. I do like how it came out with the two colors though. Very fun!

Feb 10: Heart Pin (Love) - COMPLETED

Pattern # 41: Heart Pin

This lovely pattern is from Suzetta, over at Suzie's Stuff. I found this link while searching for another pattern - which you will see on Saturday! Anywho, I realized these little hearts are SUPER easy to make, and super cute! I made a few of the medium & small ones and have not decided exactly what to do with them. Well, many will go into Saturday's project - but not all. I think I am going to attach one of the little ones to a pin and then put it on my purse, or my black jacket. How cute are these?


This is actually that Butterfly beanie, from back in January, but I added the heart just to see what it would look like -- very cute! I am going to make another little beanie and adorn it with a heart. I really hope baby Atwood is a girl, because I want to shower that kid with gifts!

Feb 9: Conversation Heart Scarf (Love)

Pattern #40: Conversation Heart Scarf

This pattern is very similar to the 100 flowers scarf (yes I have it written as flowers scarf, but I realized it is actually called 100 flowers), as requested by Lisa. This scarf was designed by Pepperberry and I can't wait to make it! I think I am going to stick to the basic pastels that she used, to make it look genuine. But the real test - should I stitch on some of the wording? Like "Call me" or my favorite, "Marry Me?" I can't wait to get started on this one!

Here is the picture from Pepperberry:

Feb 7: Box of Chocolates (Love)

Pattern #38: Box of Chocolates

It's Love week over here at Crochet Every Day. Then again, it's Love week on my other blog as well. Love is in the air and all over the blogosphere! I wanted to kick this week off with this pattern from Coats & Clark. It is a project that I labeled, many months ago, as "crochet, candy, hard." That is what I really thought, "this project will be so difficult and I will never be able to do it." However, once I looked at the pattern, I realized it is a bunch of easy stitches, it just look super hard. If only I had looked closely at the pattern before, and not been so easily overwhelmed. But honestly, won't this be the cutest Valentine's Day decoration, once I finish?

Picture from Coats & Clark / Red Heart: