Whenever times get a bit crazy and my schedule’s full of one-too-many spinning plates, I tend to buy myself new art and craft supplies. It’s inevitable. Take, for instance, these new crochet hooks. Don’t they look like candy? I passed them by on a muslin-run last Saturday and had to have them. Ooo, crochet. I want to crochet. In fact, I’m going to once I get through X, finish Y and wrap up Z. That’s right, and I’ll need new crochet hooks, so why not get them now?
It’s the promise of obligation-free creative time that sees me through the craziness.
I haven’t done much crochet since I was a young girl, just a few edges here and there. I did find one of my earliest projects recently — a hideous pink and turquoise ruffled number I designed for my doll when I was nine. I’ll wash it up and snap a photo — add some real beauty to the blog. I wish I had more of my early creations to both wonder and snicker at. I really did crochet a three-foot long banana slug with an "all-purpose hole," which I filled up with baby banana slugs. Who would get rid of such an heirloom? Where is my slug now?
Have you ever made anything weird like that? Am I admitting something I shouldn’t? Heck, let’s open the door to Strange-Craft Confessions. What’s your strangest project so far? If it’s strange in a raunchy way, I don’t want to know about it.
∆ ∆ ∆
And, look what came in the mail, two more magazines sporting Freshcut. Quilts and More has a drawstring baggie on the cover and a fun apron article by Cindy Taylor Oates. (We’ve met for lunch a couple of times – fun and helpful gal. Hi Cindy!) Sew News has a headband pattern I designed — similar to the free one here, but I bothered to illustrate it this time, so it’s a definite improvement. The ties are a different shape. That’s my friend, Chelsea, modelling. Hi Chelsea!
Preview the articles in Flickr, but get ’em soon — one’s a Spring issue and one’s a March issue.
Hmmm…so many to pick from, lol! When I was younger I thought I was going to create an entire, full-sized horse stable from found wood. I was 10 and have never held a hammer or saw. Nonetheless, I went out to the flower garden with a steak knife and started hacking the flower borders into “pegs” for the bridles of my new stable.
Then there was the time, also the same year, where I thought I could make my own life-sized furniture out of plastic canvas and used yarn that I found in the pool shed. The cat had peed on it but that didn’t stop me…
Wow, what a start! This will be fun.
I think making weird stuff in youth is a sign of true creativity. 🙂
hi!
I do the same as you!!!
🙂
bye, manela
Gorgeous photo at top! Love the colors!!! Who could resist those transparent crochet hooks, with the light coming through!!!
The last time granny squares were big, I crocheted a long skirt which had a round of granny squares around knee level, and those same sort of alternating little squares and holes as the granny squares for the rest of the skirt, only round and round and round.
This long (mostly black) skirt, all full of (inch-square?) holes. A useful and practical garment. NOT. If I ever wore it, it was only once. 🙂
Dear Heather, I am not quite sure how I came across your blog—but it is such an inspiration to me!
Keep up the good work, and thank you!
Have a blessed day.
I had so many “creative” moments when I was younger, it will be hard to pick just ONE story…but here goes….When I was 11, I wanted a leather skirt, I mean REALLY wanted a leather skirt. So I promptly went to my local fabric store, Morris Fabrics and bought what I thought was THE most fashionable piece of fabric ever – brown nogahyde…Yep..I looked like a walking couch! The fabric was SO stiff I could hardly sit down. I’m not sure I even spelled the darn stuff correctly – hopefully you know what I’m talking about!
My sister and I once made an entire Nativity set out of aluminum foil. We saw a set in a magazine made out of tin and decided we could do that. Since there was no tin in the house, we used the next best thing that we could find. It came out so good, my mother put it out every Christmas until it finally fell apart.
Where o where can I buy your fabric? It’s simply gorgeous!
banana slug?? No… I’m not that creative. But when I was little I did make a lot of those floss necklaces. One time I wanted to see how big I could make it and ended up with a giant necklace that wasn’t even wearable… What was I thinking??? I think my mom “saved” that one for later.
Congrats on the articles… that must be the most amazing feeling to see your fabrics being published 😀 I haven’t had anything written up yet… but I can imagine how dreamy it would be.
xoxo,
Jenna Lou
Me-I made a bunny out of an old sock…it is still in the closet somewhere…
But I had an aunt who made bucket hats out of bread sacks and belts out of soda can tops! I thought she was so weird! (she was…)
Wow. These are great. I did so much of this as a kid. I made so many Barbie Clothes out of toilet paper and crepe paper. They were wear-once kind of clothes, but they looked cool that one time! My weirdest project to date is on my to-do list, though. My brother (now 24) carried around a plastic roach (about 12 inches long) like it was his best friend. Mom and Dad called it “Teddy Roach”. I’m going to re-create it as a softy for him. (coming to my blog soon.) Anna
Thanks for sharing; I’m jogging my memory for other goofy childhood creations. In hindsight, aren’t they all a little funny?
When I was still in single digits, I braided and wound a skein of yarn into a spiral rug – acted as a ‘discarded banana peel’ on our slate floors. 🙂
I used to hang out in my dad’s workshop and hammer (think: 5 + 6 years old). I used his wood scraps to make a doll out of 2 x 4’s (a very square doll) and then “designed” her face and clothes with crayons. She’s still in the workshop!
It must be so fun to see your fabrics popping up everywhere… Ebay kids’ clothes, magazines, Flickr projects galore. It’s exciting!
When I was in high school I made a real cool patchwork vest out of old denim jeans… I lived on a dairy farm, so I had a lot at my disposal!
Well, I thought it would be so artsy to put a pocket on the BACK of the vest… that came off a pair of old Levi’s! Well, you wouldn’t believe what people would put in that pocket after a night out dancing with friends… money, wrappers, etc. I never knew what I’d find!
When I was 17 I had this (stupid) boyfriend who was in a (stupid) heavy metal band. He had just bought his dream guitar, a black and white “flying V”. So I knit him a black scarf with a white “V” in the middle of it. I’m self-taught so I’m kind of impressed that I was able to do that “V” right. Looking back, it was actually pretty ugly but he liked it. In fact he took it with him when he went back to his ex-girlfriend. Needless to say I was better off without him!
i just started crocheting again after stopping for 20 years (but…i was only 10 when i learned the first time…), and i am having a lot of fun with it. i am actually making a scarf out of a very similar (maybe the same?) light green yarn in your photo. 🙂
congratulations on the magazines!
How happy that you’re in print!
I can’t think of any really odd crafts but I am sure that it would have to do with Barbie’s since many of my early crafty projects had to do with outfitting my Barbie’s or their houses. LOL! Reading the comments has been great!
Thank you so much for the links! Now I have to find those magazines… Love your fabric. It must be so exciting to see it in print, too. What fun…
The strangest thing I’ve made so far is a 40-cozy. Yes, a cozy for a 40-oz bottle of malt liquor. No, I don’t drink these often. A friend was hosting a Superbowl party and 40s were on the menu. So I figured, “Hey, what the heck. They are so cumbersome and cold to hold onto. Might as well be stylish and have a warm hand.”
Strange.
I just bought the quilts and more book the other day for the rug inside. Wasn’t it cute!!! It’s somewhere near number #100 on my list to do and make…LOL
Love your needles too, makes for a happy crafting day.
Congratulations on the success of your designs! Exciting for you and also for us!!!
I think my worst idea for interior design was when I was about 12, and decided to paint wheat shafts found in the field behind the garden- I gathered a bunch of really dried up ones, and painted them in gouache I think, any colour, yellow, green, pink, you name in. Then when I had about 30 I enterprised to “arrange them” in a mock rococco vase nobody wanted… after a while the paint was peeling in small coloured specks on the shelf.. I gathered them conscienciously into a miniature perfume bottle… Hmmm… Wonder if my mum kept it when I left home?
I recently came to the conclusion that more art/craft supplies do NOT buy me more free time. It was a sobering moment, I tell you. I have yet to start working backwards and emptying out the craft closet (for the move into the new studio space – YEAH!) but the moment is nigh.
Now if I could just figure out why I dragged those miniature clay flower pots home from a yard sale last weekend….
😉
I once made a pair of slippers out of maxi pads… is that strange enough? 🙂
The aprons in the Quilts and More Magazine are adorable! I have them hung on my inspriration board!
shiny crochet hooks… how lovely.
Mine are all grey. How boring.
First, I recently found this site, and adore it.
I once made about a bazillion beads rolled out of strips of magazines. The intention was to make a beaded curtain out of them. Oh dear.
i love your pictures!!! how do you make them!!! beautiful colours!!
I picked up the quilts and more on the way to the hospital this morning I had been looking for it for weeks. Stopped into a store I don’t goto to get her something special to play with before her cat scan and found me a treat to. I was looking for it for the apron patterns that are in it way cool you are in it too.
take care
sunshine
My sisters and I spent many hours as a kid making clothes for our non-Barbie dolls (our mom had it in for Barbie, but we had the odd “fake” Barbie or Ginny doll) out of tissues and scotch tape. The only drawback was that they were definitely not reusable!
I used to make lots of things that I thought were cool, yet others found weird. I made a “tail/rope/whip/etc.” for myself out of pop bottle tops with holes punched in the center, then strung onto lanyard.
The most memorable one, though, has a place of honor in my living room. When I was about 8 years old, I was taking a pottery class on Saturday mornings, and one of the techniques I learned was a simple coil, which I thought would make a great cobra sculpture. A few years ago, I found it and showed it to my siblings. They just looked at me and asked “Why’d you make a pile of dog poo?”. I just gave them a look of indignation, declared “It’s a cobra!”, and walked away in a huff.
How awesome is that to see something you’ve created, being turned into something else! Marvelous!! Your print are beautiful…I wonder if I can break out my old sewing machine?!? hmm….
I stayed with my Grandpa a lot growing up, so I had to definately improvise whenever it came to my crafty ideas.
Needless to say by the time I was 12 I had made a Santa claus hat from old ties, loads of sock monkeys and sock dollys, and my most unique creationa hideous cat bed made from warm old man sweaters!
Very fun to remember!
I was always drawing and painting growing up, but crafts, especially sewing, were and are dear to my heart. Three projects still make me groan just thinking about them. One was decorating Easter eggs. I wasn’t happy with just dye that year, I had to use my own concoction of salt dough. We are talking sculpturing here in full color! Ugh! Just thinking about that one makes me laugh. I also sat for hours and hours designing clothes for my doll. I still have them. Wow! What was I thinking? Lastly, I decided to use real sugar on a card that I made for a family friend for her sweet sixteenth birthday. It fell apart before I could get it into the envelope. My mother sent it out anyway!!!
When I was 12, I made a hammock from the plastic rings that hold six packs together, woven together with rope.
Thanks for the opportunity to confess.
I love your eye candy blog! The pictures are absolutely fabulous. I’m sure you get comments like these all the time but just thought I’d add another.
You rock!
🙂
My number one project as a little girl was making clothes for my beanie babies from socks. These were usually no sew and I sometimes used sticky velcro and often staples. I also often colored plain white socks with markers. Of course, all the outfits had to have little holes for tails and very wide necks for large heads and such… though I think the number one project was vests- quite easy 😉 haha
Oh, how fun and yummy it all is! Congrats!
Heh, Youre going to be a “Happy Hooker”!
I’m learing too!
Oh, and so very few women can sit down at the end of their time in peace, knowing with deep satisfaction that they once crocheted a banana slug! I’m enjoying your writing very much indeed, Heather. Congrats on Freshcut!
Congrats on the articles. I would love to see pics of your earlier creations. I enjoy thinking back to my childhood crafting and artsy days and some of my projects make me chuckle.
This is great – I love reading about what eveyone has made!
When I moved as a kid to live with my mom, she taught me to sew on her sewing machine. I think I was 10. Anyway, I really wanted my own TV set for my room, but mom said “NO.” So I made one on mom’s sewing machine! I used silver fabric for the screen, and stitched lines going across to look like static. I think I applique’d knobs on the front – and I think it had a coat hangar antenna and a yarn cord and plug! She was VERY impressed, but not enough to get me the real thing!
This is so fun to read.
I’m racking my brain…there are so many weird things I do…but the worst expression of my creativity had to be the flower box I (very poorly) constructed for my parents when I was 12 or 13.
I found a bunch of scrappy wood that I nailed together, painted and attached (*gasp*) to our home. Thankfully, it was on a back window.
I’m scared to death of the things my children will do when the chickens come home to roost.
Well, Heather, I want you to know I made two headbands already-one for my daughter and one I mailed off to a friend’s daughter. One question, though, do you use 5″ of elastic for each size headband? I did for the child’s and hope it works out. The adult sized one fit my teenaged daughter perfectly in a mod, denim colored print.
I love the aprons in your prints. In fact, I am trying to locate them to create my own versions of them. They are way cute!! I am so happy to see your fabrics and your designs featured in these top sewing magazines. I hope to see more of your work in the feature in these issues.
Oooh and the yarn! That shade of green is perfect! It reminds me of a Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt I recently bought. I just ordered 18 more bolts of Freshcut, I am “fresh” OUT of your fabrics and can’t wait to get more! I handquilted my Freshcut quilt over the weekend. It came out great.
Heather I have been an admirer of your work and just wanted to say your blog is just one of the yummiest. Your fabric line is to die for! I posted on my blog about the child outfit I made using your Fresh cut. Anyways kudos to you!
Patrice
Heather!
Bet you thought I fell off the face of the earth after I finally got your fabrics in hand! I didn’t. Still here. But those gorgeous fabrics of yours have stuff FLYING off the rack and out of my ebay so fast I can barely keep up! I CANNNNNNOT wait to see what you have coming up! Any hints?
As far as odd craft projects? Well, I try everything I see other people do, so I have – as an adult, mind you – made “Pottery Barn” look-alike paintings for my kid’s rooms, and other acrylic type paintings. My confession, however, has to do with oil paints. About four years ago, while under the influence of a rooster obsession, I decided to paint a nice, big 30″ canvas with a lovely rooster painting to match my collection. I am not a fabulous artist, so I did “whimsical” – I believe my husband calls it “ugly”. No, he would never be so cruel – but he does ask everyone who ever comes into our home if they would like to buy it (for $5).
SO thrilled for you, Heather! Everyone who sees your fabrics comments on how beautiful they are. SO TRUE! I am so glad you’re getting your (much deserved) kudos!
🙂
April L.
I can’t think of anything too crazy that I’ve made, but I think that knitted bikinis are very strange, and sure enough they show up in the magazines every year!
Hey, Heather! Congrats, again! I just got “Quilts & More”. I really like that magazine, but haven’t bought it in awhile. I love the aprons from your prints. I can’t wait to get started on a project. I’m still hunting for “Sew News”. It must be surreal to see your work go from your thoughts to your sketchpad, to fabric, to someone else’s creations.
I think the weirdest craft item I made was a prehistoric fish made out of dried beans. It was for a science project. I don’t know how I came up with that!
such great colors!
Hiya, I just found your site through craftster and I wanted to tell you that I absolutely LOVE your style! Congratulations on all the accolades you are getting, you definitely deserve them!
So fun to see your fabrics splashed around on the magazines!
Those crochet hooks are pure eye candy! Wish I could crochet!
Love seeing the mags that your fabric and patterns are being featured in. I wish I could buy them over here in Germany–if you know of any places to purchase them in Europe, please share!!
As for early sewing, my first project was a scarf, then a pillow. I was not excited about either. My third project was an outfit for myself, made from knit fabric and using a cool Esprit pattern. I was twelve. It turned out great, but was wayyyyy too small. That is when I learned that pattern sizes are not consistent with ready to wear sizes! My younger sister was excited about the blunder. I learned then that my sewing heart lies with making clothes and not much else. I still dread making anything other than clothes, though I do on occasion, if I must!
Thanks for sharing all your lovelies with us. And please remember to share sources for those mags over here in Europe if you know of any.
sheree
I made 2 headbands last weekend for my girls from the pattern you have posted and they turned out great. I’m not a great seamstress (I can sew a straight line and that’s about where it ends) and the pattern was quite simple and easy to follow. The illustrations for the magazine make it even easier. Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Yipppeeee! I love the picture of the hooks!
Crochet is my main thing, so feel free to ask if you need any help getting started up again. There’s something about crochet in particular that can invite one to make things that later require confessions.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about “fessing up” to some of the things I’ve made too. I went through a jewelry making phase in 7th grade. No plastic buttons were safe from being turned into earrings. Of course I wore them in all my class pictures that year too! And then there was the toga made out of a shower curtain for a highschool play. Poor guy who wore it had to be duck taped into it…
I love those transparent crochet hooks too! And I do the same thing as you…buy craft supplies for new projects even though I don’t have the time to use them. A girl has got to be prepared, right?
I have made so many weird things… in 5th grade, with the help of my mom, I made a stuffed kidney out of felt for a science project. You could even split it open to see all the arteries, veins and stuff! Another weird felt creation was a meatball puppet for a friend who was moving away. Long story.
Thanks for sharing your fabulous style! I too have made several headbands. 3 for myself and one for my 2-yr-old. It looks so cute on her (for the 5 seconds it takes for her to pull it out.)
The object of my strange-craft-confession happened only a few months ago. I made a blanket out of fiber fill and spandex. It took way too long, was super messy, and is useless and ugly. http://projectidle.blogspot.com/2006/11/remember-that-spandex-blanket-that-i.html
i can’t ever pass up candy. the sugar kind or the eye kind, either way I’m down. 🙂
wow I don’t really have anything weird to fess up to after reading all the great comments, however, I did knit a custom fitted fair isle cover for my water bottle a few years ago. My husband saw it and said I needed to get out more!! I have just received some samples of your lovely range from my local fabric store with a challenge to make something from them. Hmmm…
I do that too. I realized a few months back I am really buying the illusion of having enough time to play with all the supplies I bought.
In the ninth grade I crocheted myself a horrible tube skirt in baby-blue acrylic yarn…I really thought I was going to start a new fashion trend. I have blocked out any memory of actually wearing it out of the house. I am pretty sure my mother would have stopped me.
I hope.
Hi, I’m new. I found you via Loobylu (since she’s not writing anymore I decided to go through her links).
The strangest thing I ever made was a whole pile of ceramic cat heads. I think that might have been in the 4th grade, and I know they’ve stuck around in the bottom of my jewelry box ever since.
I can’t top the ceramic cat head story, but my family still kids me about the time that “Mom’s crochet saved the day.” We were moving my daughter into her college apartment in Queens, and driving from Western New York towing a small flatbed trailer full of furniture and stuff. My husband had tied a tarp over the assortment of stuff, but was a little short on rope. Ten miles into the trip, that tarp was flapping like a sailboat, and rainclouds were threatening. I’d brought along a small crochet project for the five-hour drive – an oven mitt, made with three strands of cotton yarn. With no other rope to fix the ailing tarp, we pulled over to the side of the road while I made crocheted several long, triple-thick chains — and they did the trick, all the way to Astoria!!!
God, how many kooky projects were there? I got in trouble once for trying to carve a Snoopy in my Mom’s good soap…there were lots of Barbie and doll-related accessories using wooden spools and cupcake liners…and oh my goodness, too many sock puppets!
Then there was a glued-clothespin rocking chair that I made from a pattern and was SO proud of; my parents let me put it up in a consignment shop we frequented and I never saw it again.
They also had to get rid of some very unfortunately decorated clothes after I had an unsupervised experiment with the Tri-Chem. Fun stuff, I just found out the company’s still around, hopefully less toxic – just thinking about that smell makes me dizzy!
Thanks for posting, everybody. You brought back a lot of joyful childhood memories.