Snowflake Monday

It's that time of year again!!! Time to crank out 20 flakes suitable for Halloween buttons and quick enough that I can get them in the mail before it's too late! This is becoming a Halloween tradition for my family. It's a great way to send easy handmade Halloween gifts that don't rot the teeth!

I scored on an excellent Etsy deal again this year with beautiful embellishments from ButtonJones. Honestly, I try to purchase all my buttons here now, not only because I don't have to drive around looking for what I want, but also because the shop is in my home state of New Mexico, the selection is awesome, the prices are great and the shipping has always been super fast.

I've wanted to stiffen identical flakes with all five colors of my glow-in-the-dark glue for months now but haven't had the opportunity to make six of one pattern until now. I mixed the blue and yellow to see if it would make green, and I can barely tell the difference between "my" green and the out-of-the-bottle blue. But it was a fun experiment, and I hope the kids like them more than they argue over who gets what color. Ha ha!

I had reported earlier this year when I made glueflakes that the glow-in-the-dark glue may have a shelf life. Several of the year-or-more older, never-opened glues seemed to be drying inside the airtight bottles, and I had difficulty getting the glue out. Well, now here it is seven months later, and the glues have dried out even more. So I guess I better use them up quickly! Just don't do like I did and buy a two-year supply. It doesn't last that long!!!

I have to apologize for uncut strings on all of today's flake photos. I'm finishing up this blog post at 9:24 Sunday night. I just realized I'm two flakes short, and I haven't had time to attach any of the buttons yet. I will add more photos once I get them done. I'm just in a time crunch right now to get this pattern published and get to bed on time to be worth what I’m paid to work today!

25 OCT 21 UPDATE: I almost forgot to take a photo of the finished flakes before I mailed them!!!

Yes, I took them out of the package and snapped a photo, then carefully repacked them. Half of the grands received their snowflakes over the weekend. The rest should receive theirs tomorrow!

You may do whatever you'd like with snowflakes you make from this pattern, but you may not sell or republish the pattern. Thanks, and enjoy!

Finished Size: 6 inches from point to point
Materials: Size 10 crochet thread, size 7 crochet hook, optional Halloween or other holiday button, empty pizza box, wax paper or plastic wrap, cellophane tape, water soluble school glue or desired stiffener, water, glitter, small container for glue/water mixture, paintbrush, stick pins that won't be used later for sewing, clear thread or fishing line

Mojo II Snowflake Instructions

Make magic ring.

Round 1: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 11 dc in ring; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 2. Don't pull magic circle too tight.

Round 2: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 2 dc in same ch as sl st, [sk next dc, 5 dc in next dc] 6 times, omitting last 3 dc of final repeat; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 2.

Round 3: Ch 2 (counts as 1 dc), 2 dc in same ch as sl st, [ch 3, 1 sc in 3rd ch from hook (picot made), sk next 4 dc, 5 dc in next dc (middle dc of Round 2 5/dc shell),] 6 times, omitting last 3 dc of final repeat; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 2.
If you're not reading this pattern on Snowcatcher, you're not reading the designer's blog. Please go here to see the original.

Round 4: Ch 7 (counts as 1 dc and [ch 5), sk next 2 dc, sk next picot, sk next 2 dc, 1 dc in next dc, ch 20, 1 sc in 18th ch from hook, 1 hdc in next ch, 1 dc in next ch, 1 dc in same middle dc of Round 3 5/dc shell] 6 times, omitting last dc of final repeat; sl st in 2nd ch of starting ch 7; bind off. Weave ending tail down back of flake to center. After stiffening flake (as directed below), use both starting and ending tail to securely tie button or other embellishment onto flake, if desired. Secure knot and ends on back of flake with dot of glue, if desired, and allow to dry, then clip off long tails, leaving knot in place.

NOTE: Work a ch 7 or ch 9 between points in Round 4, and pull the chains out when stiffening to form hearts! But probably not suitable for pre-teen boys!!!

Finish: Tape wax paper or plastic wrap to top of empty pizza box. Pin snowflake to box on top of wax paper or plastic wrap.

If using glue, mix a few drops of water with a teaspoon of glue in small washable container. Paint snowflake with glue mixture or desired stiffener. Sprinkle lightly with glitter. Wash paintbrush and container thoroughly. Allow snowflake to dry at least 24 hours. Remove pins. Gently peel snowflake from wax paper or plastic wrap. Attach 10-inch clear thread to one spoke, weaving in end. Wrap fishing line around tree branch (or tape to ceiling or any overhead surface) and watch snowflake twirl freely whenever you walk by! Snowflake also may be taped to window or tied to doorknob or cabinet handle.

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Double Century!

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Friday Funny

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Opposites

I initially pulled this panel out of my stash to make a quick quilt for a new nephew I thought would be making his grand arrival in August. Turned out my new niece is scheduled to be born this week. This quilt, which I've been calling Opposites, probably would have sufficed for a little girl, but I whipped up a butterfly quilt for her using stash remnants and am holding onto this one for the next boy in the family.

The quilt back is fashioned of remnants from quilts I made for my grandkids several years ago and a quilt I made for a new nephew five years ago. I thought the quilt back needed some color to contrast with the starkness of the quilt front. I love that it's sort of an I-spy theme that might really capture a baby's and toddler's attention. The border on the top and bottom of the front and the sashing on the back is Moda Grunge to add just a bit of black pop to both sides.

After piecing the quilt back, the front was no longer big enough. I needed to add eight inches to the width of the panel. I trimmed off three inches of white on each side of the panel and incorporated leftovers from another grandchild's quilt into the piano key border on the right. I really like the visual interest the stripes provide, and if my one of my musical brother's musical daughters brings the next boy into the family, I think that piano key border makes a lovely addition to his piano-playing family. And his girls are the most likely candidates to add new miniatures members to our extended family for the next few years.

Almost forgot to mention this is my next finish in the Devoted Quilter's 100-day WIP challenge.

As I was sandwiching the layers for this quilt, I was terrified I might miss a stray thread of ball of lint that would show through beneath all that white. So far, I have not found any out-of-place threads! This is giving me a little bit more courage to work with light colors.

I decided all that negative space on the front would be perfect FMQ practice on the longarm. And boy, was I right! The dense quilting also gives the quilt such wonderful texture. I stitched my first-ever pebbles (and got better as I went but still need practice). Some of the designs I tried to draw free-hand with the longarm look pretty darn good, in my opinion, and some show how much practice I still need. I used lots of arm and shoulder movement, trying to train my body to move smoothly with the machine. I'm a little anxious now to try a whole-cloth quilt just so I can practice moving the longarm more. The longarm, which I've named Ringo, used to be so intimidating to me. Now, I long to use it again.

Linking up with Alycia Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

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Wordless Wednesday

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WIP it Good

I vowed last month to participate in the Devoted Quilter's 100-day WIP challenge. I've been participating in a Ravelry quilt WIP challenge for years, and sometimes I've even successfully completed quilts on my list. Many summers, however, have passed without fnishing a single thing.

I also participated for several years in Ravelry's Starfleet Academy, which also had regular WIP challenges. I was much more successful in meeting those goals, possibly because the crafts I was trying to finish were smaller than quilts, and I typically had to finish just one each month. The real challenge was tying my finishes into the monthly outer space themes...

I still have stacks of projects hidden in every nook and cranny, crying out to be finished. I'm excited to start searching for them and to hopefully start whacking a few of them into the light of day and more appropriate lifestyles. Finished lifestyles. Giftable lifestyles. Useful lifestyles. Anything but hiding in a brown paper bag beneath the bed or in the corner of a closet!!!

I didn't have to hunt far and wide for one of my first finishes. This flimsy basket has been in my crochet project bag for at least three years. I'd set a goal back when I whipped up this "Flower Girl Basket", literally in about two train commutes, to use up some of my hand-dyed thread so I could justify dyeing more. It's funny to remember now that back then, I wanted to make similar baskets from each of the six colors of the rainbow. I'm not sure I've touched my hand-dyed thread since I finished the handle of this basket.

I also didn't have to look far to find the single-serving cereal cup I'd used to shape my previous baskets. It was in the basement, in a box of unfinished snowflakes I've wanted to bring upstairs for several years now. Gosh, since perhaps 2013!!! That's when I wrote the basket pattern!!!

The Honey Nut Cheerios container had a surprise for me, though. I did not remember that I had another unfinished another basket from the same pattern. This one is not my hand-dyed thread. It's Lizbeth, which I collected quite a stash of back before I became addicted to thread-dyeing.

If I finished the basket handle to go with the unexpected WIP, I didn't put it in the same box. I had to make another one. I searched my old Lizbeth stash to see if I even had any more of that pink and purple thread.

Turning to the stash was not a pleasant task. I've long avoided organizing my Lizbeth thread. Lizard has accidentally knocked down a ball or two from time to time, as have I, and the unraveled messes often got tossed back onto the pile. The stash literally was a tangled mess. A tangled mess I wasn't using anymore, so why bother, right???

I'm probably going to have to dive into that stash to finish more of the WIPs lurking in that crochet box from the basement. So I might as well clean it up before I get started.

The variegated threads look so much better now! I didn't organize the solid colors yet. I'll try to do that in conjuction with my next crochet WIP. Maybe. Thankfully, I did have a tiny bit of the Girly Girl thread left, so I set right to work making a handle for the Girly Girl basket.

Both handles had to be stiffened, and then I got side-tracked by work and by a Boss Day project I needed to finish in time to mail. Oh, and a couple of baby quilts... But that's another WIP story.

The blue basket had to be stiffened, too. I apparently crocheted tighter three years ago than I did back in 2013. The blue basket wouldn't fit over the Cheerios container. I ended up using a regular plastic drinking cup, which was square on the bottom. Before I set the school glue-covered basket aside to dry, I twisted it around on the cup, and that evented out the corners the cup formed. Now dry (and finished), the blue basket gives no clue it was dryed on a square-bottom form.

Finally, I got to sit down and finish my baskets. I wove a ribbon through each handle, then stitched the handle ends in place. I don't know yet what I will do with the baskets. But they are done, and that feels so blasted awesome!!!

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