Knot Your Way

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This week I made a beautiful Peace wall hanging for the house. It's got some macrame and some crochet. Come check it put and get inspired to make one of your own. www.willowdaystudios.wordpress.com #macrame #wallhanging #wreath #crochet #peace #handmade #crafts #diy #kidfriendly https://www.instagram.com/p/BuXqd1MB-Xw/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1dw743v1x1fkj

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I made a Valentine wreath for the house in just a day. I'll tell you how on my website... https://www.instagram.com/p/BtmMaWABbGh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1q17ch2hkw7mm

[knotyourway]

Out With The Old

Before the day completely gets away from me, I wanted to stop by and wish everyone a safe and Happy New Year!!!  I hope you have plans to be with family and friends over the next couple of days.  One of my favorite things about New Years Day is my husband making wings for us to munch on while we watch all the football games.  It takes him hours to get a big tray of them done, but boy are they…

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Bracelets You Can Make In Under An Hour

Yesterday afternoon Hubs and I loaded Gracie in the car and traveled north to fight with other mall shoppers and exchanged a few gifts.  There wasn’t as big of a crowd as we had anticipated, so we finished up shopping quickly and headed out for a nice bite to eat at our favorite Pho restaurant.   On the way home the NJDOT had updated the highway boards to warn of the winter storm that would be…

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How I Was Able to Organize My Crafting Blog in One Day

At the end of every year this sense of urgency comes over me to get organized before January.  In years past, I would walk my home and make a note of all the things I put off the previous twelve months that have now created little pockets of clutter seemingly every where.  This year I am purposely ignoring the house mess to focus on the blog mess first.

There have been a lot of starts and stops…

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Yesterday I shared the how-to information for putting a Pom-Pom Rug together and in the post I said it would probably take me a couple of days to finish.  When I started to put the rug together it was so adorable that I couldn’t wait to see the end product so I just kept at it until I finished it about half an hour ago.

It’s really so adorable!  Look at all the colors…..

When I said this was a scrap buster project, I was not kidding!!!  I have two skeins of yarn left from my Caron’s Simply Soft collection and only 2 or 3 skeins of specialty yarns.  I didn’t use the expensive stuff to work this project because the poms unfortunately won’t last forever.  I have a plan to make them last as long as possible, but poms are fragile.

The poms are basically yarn that is cut to a specific length that is wrapped with another piece of yarn.  The smaller cut pieces will work themselves out of the yarn that ties them eventually and if one or two too many start to come out, the whole pom is compromised because the knot is no longer tight enough.

Knowing that they will require some special handling, I would just caution that as you work your project, leave a little room at the edges…the squares you tie your pom to seem to be a bit weaker around the edges of the piece and I had a few pop off after I had attached them.

After the piece is done and you are enjoying your rug in your space, when (not if, but when) you see long pieces of yarn sticking up please avoid pulling the strand out and take the time to find scissors to trim the length.

Finally, you can’t machine wash this rug.  It would be best to spot clean it and Febreeze it until the rug has worn out.  If that isn’t a possibility, you will have to hand wash the rug and hang it to dry.  Any other attempts to clean it will probably ruin the integrity of the piece.

Here are a few more shots of the rug and it’s progression to completion.  I hope you will take the time to make one for your house.  It looks so precious in Gracie’s room at the foot of her bed!  Depending on your color combinations, you could put this in any room or even on the deck if you want!  Check mine out and then make one of your own and send me pictures.  If you have experience making poms or pom rugs and have pointers, I’d love to hear.

The Bucket of Poms

A Good Start

Halfway Done

It’s perfect!

  As always…

Happy Hooking!

  A Finished Rug Yesterday I shared the how-to information for putting a Pom-Pom Rug together and in the post I said it would probably take me a couple of days to finish. 

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Christmas Aftermath & a Bucket of Poms

Anyone else having trouble finding a spot on the couch today?!?  🙂

I love Christmas!!! It’s my favorite holiday! Once the preparations are complete and the food bought for the big meal, I can finally relax.   After the gifts are open, we all just spend the day enjoying each other, eating way too much good food and a napping in front of a few great old movies.

Even on special days you can usually…

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Japanese Knot Bag Pattern #2

I wrote this week about a beautiful Japanese Knot Bag I created and posted the link  to the free pattern I used.  The past three days I have been able to put the smaller bag to use on a daily basis and I love it more now than I did when I first finished the bag!!!

Today I want to expand on the first posting for two reasons: (1) the assembly instructions for the first bag are difficult to follow…

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These Japanese Knot Bags are Amazing!

So, yesterday I woke up with nothing pressing on my to do list and after quieting the household; I grabbed a fresh hot cup of coffee and starting scrolling my Pinterest boards.  Some days I will just scroll the home page boards until I find something interesting to do.  Yesterday I knew I wanted to make something for myself and I had already decided that I wanted to sew something so the project…

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Last Minute Gift Creation In Under 30 Minutes

With almost no days left to spare I have finished my Christmas creations!!  Most of the time I am up late on Christmas Eve stressing out about finishing up gifts for Christmas morning; which is why this year I am feeling pretty proud of myself!  I can credit my awesome new sewing machine and tons of free patterns for my success.

After getting everyone out the door this morning I sat down to find…

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Christmas Stockings Pattern

After staying up past midnight last night cutting out the pieces for the last three Christmas stockings, I had the jump on today’s crafting that I was hoping for.  Not only did I finish the four stockings for our holiday, but I also finished the last sewing project I had for Christmas gifts.  It’s a good thing I’m taking a little break because my hands are torn up from the rotary cutter and…

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I'm making Christmas Stockings!

I’m making Christmas Stockings!

Check out how cute this is…..

I made this stocking in under an hour!!!

It’s beautiful!!!

I hate to stop working on the other three I need, but…..

I’m off to do some holiday shopping today.

When I come back I’ll show you where I found this free pattern and talk about my learning curve.

Oh, before I forget, I finished Mom’s birthday gift! It’s super cute. Maybe a bit advanced for my skills, but I…

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Just a Peek

Today, I’ve been working hard on the pattern that recently had me off the rails. It’s been frustrating to say the least.

So today I picked out some fabrics I thought would match nicely. I’ve created three attempts on this pattern and all three have been fails…honestly, I’m fighting through frustration to work this pattern correctly.

I’m sure it will be beautiful when I get it right.

Some times I…

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Off the Rails!

I mentioned yesterday I had a plan for the hexie angle template I found. As you can imagine it involves fabric scraps. Who doesn’t love using up scraps??

The scraps I had in mind were already cut, but to the wrong size for the pattern I want….

this is where it goes off the rails….

Now I have to decide whether to change the pattern or the fabric scraps…

Off the rails I go and…

After some…

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What tha hexie?

After the flurry of activity over the weekend I thought the Christmas crafting rush was ending, but then I remembered my Mom’s Birthday is also the week of Christmas!!  I was fortunate enough to spend some time with her just recently and I remembered to bring her Christmas gift but I totally forgot to create something for her special day…

I knew right away what I wanted to make for her birthday. …

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Christmas Coasters

This weekend I worked feverishly on several sewing projects as Christmas gifts for family and friends.  It was a good weekend for it since the weather in South Jersey took a turn for the colder and we had our first snowfall of the winter.  I captured a picture from out back to share.  It wasn’t a lot of snow and it’s mostly melted now, but I used it as an excuse to hunker down for the weekend and…

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It is finally snowing!!

My most favorite way to spend a winter Saturday is watching the snow fall and crafting!!

I’ve got some holiday drama playing in the background, but my focus is on a new sewing pattern for a Christmas gift….or a few. I bought a yard of fabric but it appears after tracing the pattern and cutting it out I maybe used 1/3 of the minky fabric. I’m already making plans for the extra.

For now I am really…

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