Still here!

Hello my fellow crocheters! A lot has happened in the last year which is why you havent seen much of me or any new crochet designs. I am still here however, filling crochet pattern orders when I check my email! Im also still available for any crochet questions you have regarding my patterns or any other crochet question you have. I am in the middle of a divorce, and currently my girls (my beautiful little crochet models you see on my pattern pages) are living with their father so I dont have my little models to create new designs for at the moment. Someone suggested creating some American Girl doll crochet designs, which is one option I could look into. Perhaps this summer when the girls come to stay with me for a couple of months, I can work on some new crochet designs. Until then however, please keep the emails coming, I enjoy hearing from you!

New Home!

We are finally moving into our new home here in CO. For those who dont know, we moved out of CA on May 26th and have been living in hotels since! We were very blessed to find a house to buy quickly with only a 3 week wait until closing.

Well, we close on our new home today (yay!) but I will be without internet access for the next few days. We leave the hotel room tomorrow morning, our internet company will be installing our internet on Tues, July 1st, so I will not have internet until then. Hopefully I will be able to get online to check my emails on Tuesday, but Im not positive so I might have to wait until Wed.

Any pattern orders received tomorrow thru Tues will be delivered as soon as I get my internet back. I may be able to take my husbands laptop to Starbucks or the base BX for their Wi-Fi settings, but I cant count on that LOL.

Please be patient with me as I go through this transition.

Thanks!!

Hooray for Crochet!

I finally finished writing up the Valentine Halter Top I started last year! Can you believe it? I had it all written up while I crocheted it except for the edging and the different sizes. It took me a year to finally sit down again and finish up the pattern. Good thing I still have the original crochet top to look at!



The new pattern can be found on my website. I hope you all enjoy it. It's mainly for intermediate crocheters who know how to change colors by picking up the yarn from the previous row, but if you are an experienced beginner (not just starting out crocheting), then hopefully my full color pictures showing how to do the color changes will work out just fine!

Thank you all for your patience with me while I was on a bit of a sabbatical from creating crochet patterns.

Knitting/Crochet Holder

I finally started sewing again yesterday! And I didnt stop until 3:30am this morning. Over doing it a little? :o) I have been wanting to create a knitting needle case/roll for a while now. Well yesterday my new set of needles came in the mail from knitting-warehouse.com, so that put me into action creating a needle roll!

I used fabrics that were on hand, measured my longest needles (who uses those these days anyways?) and made my first needle roll! I used thin batting for cushion, and all I have left to do on it is make the ties and sew the opening closed!

I have more fabric ready to go for my next roll!





I put the circular needle information in the pockets with the needles, to recall what size they are. I dont understand why the companies cant add a little something somewhere to the circular needles stating what size they are?

Since this is my first roll, Im already looking to improve my next one. I will have 9 bigger pockets (2 on the right on each pocket top to bottom for 6 big pockets, and 1 on the left for each pocket for 3 more big pockets). There's also room for my crochet hooks as you can see. But I need more of the bigger pockets since I am overlapping my circular needles, and I need room to put my measuring tape and scissors.

Yes, I plan on selling these. I cant understand why some people (on etsy) sell either a circular roll or a straight needle roll, and you are paying near $30 for each of them - instead of having 1 roll to hold both?

Sewing Again!

I finally started sewing again yesterday! And I didnt stop until 3:30am this morning. Over doing it a little? :o) I have been wanting to create a knitting needle case/roll for a while now. Well yesterday my new set of needles came in the mail from knitting-warehouse.com, so that put me into action creating a needle roll!

I used fabrics that were on hand, measured my longest needles (who uses those these days anyways?) and made my first needle roll! I used thin batting for cushion, and all I have left to do on it is make the ties and sew the opening closed!

I have more fabric ready to go for my next roll!





I put the circular needle information in the pockets with the needles, to recall what size they are. I dont understand why the companies cant add a little something somewhere to the circular needles stating what size they are?

Since this is my first roll, Im already looking to improve my next one. I will have 9 bigger pockets (2 on the right on each pocket top to bottom for 6 big pockets, and 1 on the left for each pocket for 3 more big pockets). There's also room for my crochet hooks as you can see. But I need more of the bigger pockets since I am overlapping my circular needles, and I need room to put my measuring tape and scissors.

Yes, I plan on selling these. I cant understand why some people (on etsy) sell either a circular roll or a straight needle roll, and you are paying near $30 for each of them - instead of having 1 roll to hold both?

Quilting

Check out my new quilting blog!! http://mommachellequilts.blogspot.com/

Sewing, Ruffles, Swaps and more!

I have lots and lots of updates! I have been very busy over the last week or so! I am sewing a lot more now, and have made some cute outfits for my daughters baby doll. I was trying to make a simple doll dress and thought I would try my ruffler foot again because the ruffle strip was very long and it just wasnt pulling right to ruffle. I found this ruffle tutorial on youcanmakethis.com by Carla C. (awesome lady, and she's available for help when needed too! Very nice lady to speak with!) - a free tutorial! and it was a ruffle saver!! My ruffler foot and I have a new relationship and it makes it's way out of my sewing box more often now. It's been sitting in there unused for a good 8 months or so now!

Here are my many ruffle practices before doing the ruffle for the dolly dress. I even know now how to ruffle and attach to the fabric (skirt) at the same time to save time! No more ruffling and then pinning and then sewing! Just ruffle and attach all at once. YES!!





My daughter was just so happy to see the new dress for her doll (who has been wearing the same clothes that it came with 2 years ago!). Im not even finished, Im in the works of finishing another outfit for this doll! Then my daughter wants a matching outfit. Too cute :o)





Oh guess what else I am learning how to do? I am learning how to quilt!! My friend and I went to our first quilting class last monday, and we will be going every monday night to learn to make a new quilting square! We are making a sampler lap quilt to start with. Here is my first square made, I cant wait until tomorrow night to get the next square pattern! This quilt square pattern is called Churn Dash, and I will be keeping with my pink and purple theme. I just finished the square last night! I had all week to do it, and I finally was able to sit down and do it. I dont want to fail the class already by not having my homework! LOL





I've also joined 2 new swaps on swap-bot. I havent swapped on there in so long, ever since my last swap where I didnt receive any package in return (it was a pink and purple yarn swap and I was so excited about it!!) and I was so bummed about not receiving a package in return. I had so much fun picking out yarns and little goodies to send to my partner.

So now, I've joined the swaps again and these ones are so much fun!! I joined a Stuffies swap. I've never made stuffies before but I found this adorable pattern for a stuffie that Im sure my swap partner is going to LOVE! I am also making a little something extra to go with it, so I cant give it away just yet, but I will post pictures once I mail it out.

My other swap is handmade envelopes. I have had so much fun making these! I want to get more creative with it though, so I will post photos of those once I send those out to my 2 swap partners also!

Oh, I almost forgot! The last thing I sewed before my quilt square was a pillow for my daughter! I made my oldest daughter a simple pillow, just one type of fabric, nothing spectacular except that it fit the whole width of her bed (she wanted it huge, so I gave her huge!) and she just loves it. With this pillow, my other daughter had picked out 2 fabric choices and wanted me to put them together in one pillow. Ok, so I thought I would just put one fabric color on one side, and the other color on the other side and call it a day!

But, when I was ironing out the fabric to create this pillow, another thought ran across my mind. I am so glad it did too, because this pillow turned out SO cute and fits my daughters personality perfectly!! I was a little hesitant when she picked out the black and gold cheetah print, along with the pink cheetah print. I didnt like the combination at all, especially the black and gold. But I must say, everytime I see this pillow on her bed I like it more and more!





Now back to a little bit of crocheting. There will definitely be some crocheting going on as a little bonus to my swap making. But shhh, dont tell my swap partners!!