patti haskins

Here’s a couple of projects from that seventies series of craft books, Encyclopedia of Crafts, to spark your creative drives. A purse that looks like a house (instructions) and slippers made by crocheting recycled fabric (instructions).

I can think of so many ways to personalize that purse, add critters, different flowers, crocheted little squares for shingles instead of the raffia. On and on.

The slippers crocheted from recycled fabrics makes me think of fabric choices like old flannel pajamas, sweatshirts, t-shirts. Just imagine how those textures would feel on your feet. Mmmm. Must start ripping up old t-shirts….

Enjoy.

I was sorting through some images on my portable hard drive and I came upon a folder of short, rough videos that I shot on my camera. They show how Maggie and Mickey used to “wrestle” all the time, making goofy sounds and having way too much fun. Makes me smile and makes me sad to watch the videos now. You can watch the videos by clicking on the photo of Maggie and Mickey. You will be whisked to my Flickr set of videos and there you can choose which videos to view.

I miss Maggie so much and I know Mickey does too. He has no one to wrestle with now. Monty is a lover not a fighter and the cats, well the cats are cats. They only wrestle each other. The little voice in my head keeps whispering “must get another dog, must get another dog”. And then I pick up this morning’s newspaper and there is a story on the housing foreclosure crisis which reports that many pets are the victims, once again. People are losing their homes and moving into rental property, or with relatives, which won’t or can’t allow their pets to accompany them so they are either taking the pets to shelters, or worse, leaving them behind to fend for themselves. Now the little voice is whispering “must rescue abandoned dog, must rescue abandoned dog”. If anyone reading this has a little voice whispering to them about adopting another pet, please go to the nearest shelter and find some fur to take home. You’ll never regret it.

Not a lot to say today, I’ve had the last week off from the day job and have spent my days sewing, crocheting, and enjoying. Back to work tomorrow. So I’m going to post a few photos of my latest crocheted cat that I call Sassy for the colors of yarn I used and for her personality. Enjoy.

The Etsy Plush Steet Team, of which I am a member, challenged us to create our version of our favorite childhood toy/plush and then to post about it on the team blog. Here’s what I created and what I posted:

I wish I had pictures of myself and my favorite plush. I love Yummy Pancake’s picture of her and her Easy-Bake Oven almost as much as I love her crocheted version. Truly impressive work.

My favorite plush from when I was young was a crocheted cat that my Grandma Benton made for me. She crocheted a cat for each of my three sisters as well. Not to mention all the afghans, vests, scarves, tablecloths, bedspreads….my grandma was never without a hook in her hand and yarn whizzing by on its way to become some new creation. All I can remember about my cat that she made was that it was fuzzy, white, and had rhinestone eyes. Oh how I wish that I still had that kitty.

The picture of my grandma, without hook in hand, is from an afternoon entertaining her great grand-daughter as only Grandma could. This picture pretty much depicts her personality. She taught me how to crochet, embroider, say butt in Polish (dupa), how to remove my bra without taking off my shirt while rocking on her front porch and the answer to too many why’s: “Are you writing a book? Why don’t you leave out that part and make it a mystery?”

I miss her, she was one of a kind. I guess I’m trying, in my own way, to continue her crocheting cats tradition.

I like reading Indie Fixx blog, interesting interviews, photos and projects. I notice a few weeks ago that they were running a contest for home decorating with Indie products or home improvement DIY projects. I’m pretty proud of my postcard hallway and entered a few photos. If you click here you will see that I was one of the honorable mentions. Let’s hear it for postcards pasted to the ugly hallway walls! You’ll also notice that I’m the only one to comment on the post. Please don’t leave me hanging out there. Post a comment, won’t you?

Twisted tissue sounds like a rock band name, doesn’t it? Really, it is just another project from the Encyclopedia of Crafts, that 24 volume series of 1970’s era craft books that are long out of print, but that I was lucky enough to find a complete set of at an estate sale. I have been bogged down at the day job and struggling with the fuzzy blue yarn at night and meant to post something about that blue yarn project, but alas, it remains incomplete. So you get another crafty project.

Twisted tissue is a cool way to recycle all the colored tissue paper you have stashed away. You know, the paper you really don’t use but hate to trash because it is just too pretty. This looks like a good way to put that paper to use. Or this project could serve as an excuse to buy some more pretty tissue paper from the $1 store. Either way, enjoy. And as always, if you do complete one of these projects, please let me know and post a picture somewhere. I would love to see your creation. And click that pic to see it big.

Here’s a fun project from Encyclopedia of Crafts, a soft paintbox and cup with brush. I remember back when I was in high school, the dark ages as my husband refers to it, the seventies, when a friend made a soft sculpture big wheel bicycle for her project at school. Today we refer to these kind of projects as plush or softies. If anyone attempts this, I would love to see a picture. Click here for the pdf instructions and click the picture to see it big. Enjoy.

So I was leafing through one of the 24 volumes of the Encyclopedia of Crafts looking for a project to scan and pdf (is that even a verb?) when I stumbled upon this page. I don’t know why, but the idea that this woman wanted crocheted curtains on windows that they would not fit on and didn’t let that stop her, just really impressed me. She did a fabulous job by the way. It makes me look anew at some of the windows here at my house. Now my windows are plenty big enough for curtains, but I paint way faster than I crochet.

Speaking of which, I have been crocheting a very fluffy blue cat forever. I got tired of looking at all that blue fluff last weekend and whipped out these two humorous paintings. It felt good to get that out of my system. Sometimes I just need to paint. I like these goofy critter close ups and think I might have to paint a few more using different but equally bright colors. These two are for sale if you think you’d like a little silliness hanging on your walls. And as always, click on the photo to see it bigger. Enjoy.

Here’s another piece from our Mexican folk art collection. This is one of Mike’s favorites, he bought it for me from our favorite Mexican folk art store here in Dallas, Casa Mexicana. If you look closely, you’ll notice that this painting is created from yarn. Another Huichol masterpiece. Mike likes the whole psychedelic aspect of the painting. I am intrigued once again by the process, just as I am by the Huichol beaded work I wrote of recently. I love the imagery. The colors are fabulous and speak to my love of all things bright and bold. The yarn painting is 23″ x 23″ which is a standard size for this work. I just can’t imagine having the patience to apply the strands of yarn one by one to build the image. Huichol art never ceases to amaze me. (more…)