Crafting Away

Wow! I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve blogged. It looks around the time that I started helping the grands with virtual school. I had thought it would be an easy endeavor and I’d be able to get a lot done while they were schooling. Turns out, I was wrong. I spent most of the day running back and forth to help one and then the other. But I am happy that my schedule allowed me to step in and help my daughter out during this time. I haven’t started any book projects as my brain is tired after trying to help the grands with school (especially having to relearn math so I can help them with math)m and I didn’t want to feel like I was failing by missing deadlines so I’ve taken a small break from writing.

What I have been doing is catching up on my crafting projects. I had a long list of crafts (along with all the supplies!) that I’ve been meaning to do for awhile so I’ve used the days I don’t have the grands to work on them. I’m making pretty good progress. I completed my son’s scrapbook album, have photos sorted to make my oldest her scrapbook album, and the pieces cut for a t-shirt quilt. And crocheted tops onto the top of my kitchen towels so I can hang them. One of the hobbies I’ve been working on more is sewing. It started out with sewing hundreds of masks for family, friends, and those in need of one, and after having gotten the Cricut Maker, trying out some of the patterns on Design Space.

Cricut Maker cover and tool caddy

I really like the patterns on Design Space, especially the option of using the washable fabric marker to have the sewing guidelines drawn on the fabric. It’s really helped me get better at sewing straight seams and also giving me a good feel on how to shift the fabric when going around the curves. (On the picture above you can see the lines for the pockets for the caddy. I haven’t washed it yet as I was so excited to complete it, I had to test it out and snap a picture.)

The first project I picked was making a cover for my Maker. I had made covers for my Explore and figured it wouldn’t be hard since there was a pattern so the Maker cut out all the pieces. After that I made a couple of masks using the pattern on Design Space. I do like that pattern and how they have you insert the elastic to where it goes around the head rather than ear loops. I saw the pattern for the tool caddy and thought about making one to match my cover but it looked a little complicated…or so I told myself. With a crop coming up in a few weeks, and March being National Craft month, I decided to just go for it. It was much an easier than I had told myself.

There is a great tutorial on YouTube for making the cover. It was like being in sewing a class. I sewed along with video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=419QM42k8QM

I also found a tutorial for the caddy (and the cover though the first video link I posted is more detailed for sewing the cover). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIdpirgAu1c

Happy crafting!