I’m going to attempt to post most Fridays about the free craft resources that I have found and used during the week. I’m not going to focus on blogs or You Tube videos or individual tutorials unless they have really been a major element of my week, but I will mention courses, one-off videos, live events and similar things that I think you may not have heard about or are in some way time limited.

Please remember that these items are free but that doesn’t mean the producers wouldn’t appreciate something back from you, even if it is only comments! For more ways you can support free (i.e. make it worthwhile for the producers to keep making it), please see this series on Craftypod : Free & Sustainability (in crafty business).

This week, I’ve discovered:

1. Strathmore Papers has a free series of Online Artist Workshops this year, with a focus on visual/art journaling. The first one on doodling for mixed media has only recently started, there’s plenty of time to catch up and join in.

2. Craftsy, my favourite online craft class venue, has a free course that also just started.  It is a block of the month sewing project to make a lap quilt and finish it all in 2012. Since Crafty had a big sale just before Christmas I am already knee-deep in some of their classes (and will be posting about them soon) but this is still excellent and a perfect way to get introduced to the Craftsy format. New videos will be posted on the 1st of each month.

3. Scrapbook Soup is a tv show in the US that comes out weekly on PBS (public television). Not all stations carry it yet (it just changed its name and format, it used to be Scrapbook Memories) so they are offering limited free streaming on Saturdays. One episode will be available each Saturday between noon and 5 pm EST. I know this is somewhat inconvenient but it is better than nothing I’ve seen most of the series but missed the first episode so I hope to catch it tomorrow afternoon if I get back from the Quilt & Fiber market in time.

4. Sharon B of Pintangle is running Take a Stitch Tuesday again in 2012. This is a series of weekly challenges and tutorials in hand embroidery and is in its 3rd year. Even if you have done it before she changes up the stitches and the order in which she presents them. I hadn’t heard of this before but I certainly plan on following along, at the beginner level. I only found out about it after it started so I am behind a bit but I hope to catch up before next week’s lesson/challenge.

5. Urban Threads, my favourite source for machine embroidery patterns, often has freebies available. Right now their featured design is a little monster in a box with a “Free Monster” sign. So cute The design is available in several sizes for machine or hand embroidery or digital stock art. It is free until the 16th of January.

I hope you find some of these things useful and if so, please let me know. Also do remember to thank the people who have made them available.

Tags: art journaling, embroidery, free, quilting, scrapbooking
Filed under: Free Resources Friday

I’m sure you’re quite ready to be done with the recent holiday season and that every other blogger has long since posted the things they made for Giftmas 2011. Well sorry, I prefer not to post until the gifts have been received so there is no chance of spoilers. (Which is why this is part 1, as some gifts are late and the recipients are still waiting…oops.)

Do you remember the Handmade Pledge that was so popular about two years ago, maybe three? It was a pledge to only give and request handmade items, with a darling little blog badge favored by those who had made the pledge. I never signed up, never will. Not because I don’t give handmade gifts but because I always *want* craft supplies and books about crafting. I also try to give craft supplies to those on my gift list who appreciate them. Unfortunately, while I believe that is still supporting handmade it doesn’t fit the terms of the pledge and it does still mean money is going to large companies that manufacture their items en mass in foreign countries. (Like books, most of which are printed in China.) I did feel like I was a little bit left out because I didn’t get to wave a banner of indie, handmade pride like those who signed the pledge but since that fad fizzled out I guess they couldn’t really stick to those ideals either.

What I do support is giving handmade items as much as I possibly can, but only things I have made myself. Even if it is just a small fraction of the total package someone receives, it is still meaningful. So on that note, I’ll start showing you some of the things I made this year. Unfortunately, I forgot to photograph the things I made for my in-laws prior to leaving Australia. Today, therefore, is what I made for my mother to send to friends and family as part of the gifts she gave. (I don’t generally exchange gifts with the extended family so these were just little tokens, not intended to be stand-alone gifts.)

First, the cards:

I know they seem a little plain. It is just a Sizzix embossing folder of a Christmas tree (directly embossed on pre made card blanks). Inside is just a simple stamped greeting. My mother wanted neat and elegant so this was exactly as requested, she really liked them. Alas, even with such basic techniques as embossing and stamping, I still managed to mess up quite a few! I need to remember to never stamp when my blood sugar is low because I often get the shakes. Also I am quite a perfectionist so even if things were off by 2 mm I still counted them as imperfect. Two imperfections and they were out! What you see were the ones I deemed entirely unusable.  Still, a handful wrong and 25 good enough is not a bad average for someone very out of practice at card making, if I do say so myself.

Next, the potholders:

This is a little embarrassing because as most crafty folks know, kids often start making these around the age of 6. One of my cousins even asked why my mother had returned the potholders she had made her over 40 years ago. *rolls eyes* But again, this was my mom’s request and I made them even though I suspected people would not really appreciate them. These potholders hold up better than any other kind and you can’t buy them in stores, they’re only available handmade. She had originally envisaged sending everyone gifts of soup mix in a jar with potholders and spoons to go with them. She later decided against the jar mix part so the potholders I made for her wound up being rather out of context.

If you are familiar with potholders made of loops (the stretchy cotton loops are usually the leftovers from sock manufacturing), you may notice how very vivid these colors are. That’s because these are not the grab bags you can buy at craft stores but are made with Harrisville Designs’ Potholder Loops. In addition to their very saturated and modern colors these loops are guaranteed to fit the standard potholder looms. No more loops that break or simply don’t fit, no waste.

I came up with a system for making potholders where you only have to weave 1/2 of the weft loops rather than the way I learned where you have to weave all of the weft. I suspect there are more ways to improve since I’ve seen these for sale on Etsy for about $5 each and I can’t imagine anyone taking the 35-45 minutes I spend, plus expenses, and then selling them for only $5. Maybe they have found a way to make at least two an hour? Maybe they don’t have to stop and fast forward through commercials on the DVR? At any rate, I’ve been thinking of doing a video or a photo tutorial showing my method to cut down on weaving. (It is not where you use a pencil to hold the warp in one position, but it gives the same results.) Would anyone be interested in seeing that? Don’t want to waste my time if weaving potholders with loops is too 20th century or only for under-10s.

I don’t know how the cards were received but the potholders I think had dubious responses.  I suspect they thought it was too primitive an item, that only children made them and adults only own or use them to indulge the child makers. Heh. I’m not really close to the aunts and cousins my mom gave them to so I don’t feel like asking directly. In the future I think I shall only make potholders for people who appreciate them and/or serious cooks without any children in their lives to make them some.

I’ll be back with parts 2 and 3 of my handmade holidays soon, including dyeing, machine embroidery, needle felting and loom knitting.

Tags: card making, cards, Christmas, Harrisville Designs, paper embossing, potholder looms, potholder loops, potholders, Sizzix, weaving
Filed under: Finished Items, Show and Tell

I took a bit of time and really thought about what I could offer in a blog.  One of the main reasons I have not been blogging lately is because I haven’t been designing and I don’t really feel that just following other people’s patterns and designs is worthy of readers’ attention.  I was fine when I was doing really original things but when I started cranking out 25 identical cards or 10 matching dishcloths it wasn’t anything “to write home about”.  But I miss being part of the community, I miss contributing, sharing and encouraging others while also feeling like more than just a cheerleader.

I think I am going to take this blog in a slightly different direction. Instead of being project-oriented I am going to make it more about the crafting life.  In 2009, when my father was seriously ill and in hospital long-term, I discovered that if I don’t do something relating to art or crafts every single day I go nuts.  That “something” may be reading, watching videos, chatting with crafters on Twitter about crafty topics, shopping or just pondering new projects. However I think that as creators we all need to engage in these activities; we need to feed our minds so we can make our ideas come to life. So I am going to talk a lot more about what goes into my head and be less worried about the stuff coming out being “worthy” of a blog-reader’s time.

I hope that this will be useful to you. If you think I am taking things in the wrong direction, please let me know. I don’t want to put energy into something that no one will find useful. But I do hope that crafting and founding a craft-related charity as a person who moves around the globe often and deals with the limitations of chronic illnesses daily might bring insights and perspectives you may not find elsewhere.

I do something crafty every day. So for 2012 I am going to do my best to share it with you. I don’t think I can manage to post every day but I will try to keep a running log of as many creative activities in my life as I can remember and post them frequently. Don’t worry, there will be projects, too!  But also discussions of products, media, events, stores, tweet chats, email lists, workshops — everything that is part of my crafting life.

Welcome to The Sick Chick’s Constantly Crafty. I hope you enjoy your stay and I look forward to talking to you soon.

Pixiebelle says "Fat Quarters are for Fat Cats!"

Tags: Pixiebelle, the creative life
Filed under: Announcements, General Housekeeping

I am decidedly embarrassed that it has been almost a year since I last posted. A great deal has happened, then unhappened, then new things happened. I know that makes no sense but I doubt you really want a play-by-play of my year!  The important thing is that I am *almost* at my final destination — January 24 my husband moves from Australia to the USA (remember how I was moving there instead? Didn’t work out for a variety of reasons although I did live there for a big chunk of 2011), and then when he finds a job we’ll be settling down for a good, lonnnnng time.

This means that the Sword of Damocles is almost gone above my head. I know what is going to be happening in my life, more than in the past two and a half years of trying to get a country we are both allowed to be in but which has better weather for my health than the UK. Now I can breathe again, and start taking my life off of the HOLD it’s been on for too long.

I’m going to start with this blog.  Obviously, I don’t expect you to believe me, as I was saying the same thing almost a year ago.  But I am posting this for myself.  I’ve been crafting up a storm lately and have many things I am willing to show you. I’m going to start photographing again by the end of the week.

If you have hung in with me this long and want a holiday card, I’m getting ready to send them out.  It’s my first foray in digital card making and I had a lot of help from a digi kit but I hope it may still make some people smile. Just send me your address using the contact form and I shall send you a card. If I run out of the digital prints I may even make some by hand! (I did make 25 for my mother, just need to photograph the leftovers I still have on hand.)

Thanks for everyone’s support over the past year and a big shootout to my Twitter peeps who have kept me mostly sane.

Obligatory photo: While in Australia, I started teaching my nieces how to crochet and loom knit. And looked silly in the process.

Filed under: Announcements, General Housekeeping

Ooof, it’s been a busy time here in The Sick Chick Land. I’ve temporarily moved back to the US to save up money and wait with my cat til we can go back to Australia in a few months (she has to wait as per quarantine rules).

In the meantime, I decided to upgrade this blog, kickstart my charity, redo my podcasts and a lot more.  So…

THIS BLOG IS IN CHAOS!  Sorry!

At the moment the pictures are broken.  I’ll have to go through and re-upload them all or maybe just go back to using Flickr in the first place. Please bear with me in this process.

Also, if you are using a feed reader (reading this via the RSS), that feed may have changed address. Let me know if you have trouble subscribing with the new one.

Plus my widgety things are not installed properly.  Another thing I must fix ASAP!

A *lot* of new posts should be showing up soon, I just couldn’t wait for the blog to be looking all pretty before writing.  I’ve got the itch to post and I just can’t let a few little things like total chaos stop me

If all goes well things should be back to “normal” in a day or two.  Thanks so much for your patience. I’m very excited to be able to bring you so many things that have been percolating for such a long time, I hope it all excuses the temporary confusion around here!

Filed under: Announcements, General Housekeeping

I don’t really do resolutions. But I’m always looking to learn more, expand my skills and even add to my growing repertoire of crafts!

11 Crafty Things I want to try (in no order):

• Finger Weaving
• Tunisian Crochet
• Locker & Rug Hooking
• Free-motion stitching (by machine)
• Creating patterns in crochet
• Metal etching
• Garment sewing
• Digital scrapbooking
• Nuno Felting
• Fabric-based art journalling
• Actually keeping a proper craft blog for a change, with regular updates!

What do you want to try out or learn in 2011?

Tags: 2011, crafts, learning new things, resolutions
Filed under: Inspirations

Well it is that time of year again where I attempt to make presents for my family for Christmas.  This year I thought well ahead and took yarn from Peaches n Creme (made in Pisgah, North Carolina!) with me on my trip to Sydney, Australia.  So I have had a little while to get cracking on these things.

I had 9 couples on my present list this year, so I decided on one dishcloth/washcloth/hotpad and one Christmas tree shaped ornament.  (Both are crocheted, my passion this year.) Here’s how things came out:

This is what 9 dishcloths look like before washing

After washing the stitches are tighter and the fabric is softer

I used a really basic pattern that I have seen many places and memorized it so long ago I don’t really remember where it came from, sorry.  As I said before the yarn was Peaches n Creme, a perennial dishcloth favourite in the US but one that is rare here in Australia.

And then there were the ornaments!  I made some of these for my mom last year and they were so easy to make that I thought I’d do it again:

12 ornaments drying after being starched on the ironing board

The green yarn is local Australian: Sullivans Coton-A 5 ply, a cotton-acrylic mix that was very pleasant to work with. The pattern is Grandma Tree by Michelle Kludas/The Royal Sisters (Ravelry page, pattern page) which is designed for larger yarn as a scatter decoration but I’d found that it’s a good size for an ornament (about 3 inches tall) when worked in a fingering weight or close thereto (5 ply).

I can’t decide if I should add a loop of yarn at the top or not. If I don’t they can be used as other sorts of decor if the recipient prefers…so I am leaning toward not. But I’m afraid that without the loop they won’t know what to do with them at all!  Decisions, decisions…. (and not that I have much time as I leave Australia in two days!!)

I have three spare trees if anyone wants to do a trade! I always need more ornaments

Finally, I made some Christmas cards for the inlaws here in Australia.  (I haven’t even started on the ones for people on my list in the US! That will have to wait til my return.)

Inspired by @ChristineUrias on the Scraptime video podcast, I decided to use Pan Pastels and a stamp.  I then tried to tart things up a bit with some markers and then sprayed the whole thing with acrylic sealer.  Here’s the whole lot drying:

Products used:

• Rosie’s studio pearlised cards & envelopes in cream (made in Australia)
• Stamp: Happy Christmas by Fern Gully Stamps (made in Australia)
• VersaMark Ink
• Pan Pastels
• Marvy Twinklette markers
• Micador workable fixative (made in Australia)

The basic principles were explained in a Scraptime episode, but the concept is simple: Stamp onto your paper using VersaMark or another watermark ink. Swipe Pan Pastel (here I used Permanent Green) across the image.  Where the Versamark was will show up darker.  NOTE: let the ink dry before swiping with pastels else you will get smears and blurs.  Ask me how I know this *rolls eyes*  Spray with workable fixative and let dry. Then I coloured in the stars with a red Twinklette marker and the baubles with the silver.  The silver marker turned out a lot darker than I had thought  I was going to add some stick on rhinestones too but I found out too late that the ones I had bought were not suitable as they had the wrong sort of adhesive.  Oh well!  I then sprayed it all again with fixative just to be safe.

I can’t say that I am thrilled with the way they turned out but I am short on time and hey, they will do the job.  Handmade cards are rare nowadays so I hope they are appreciated.

If you have any questions or comments, please drop me a comment.  I’ll be unavailable Sunday, Dec 5 as I will be flying back to the US via New Zealand, but I will hopefully feel up to being online again on Monday.

What are you making for the hollydaze this year??

Tags: cardmaking, Christmas, Christmas 2010, christmas cards, christmas ornaments, Coton-A, crochet, Marvy Twinklette, Pan pastels, papercrafting, Peaches n creme, Xmas
Filed under: Finished Items

In my first attempt at amigurumi, I made a little stuffed heart for my niece’s 8th birthday.

I used the Tree Hearts pattern by Linda Cyr for Red Heart (Ravelry link, Free pdf of pattern link). Her original pattern called for a worsted weight yarn but I used a bulky one.  So my heart was just over 5 inches across.  A good size for a snuggle toy for an 8 year old, I think.  I used Shepherd Colour4me Twist yarn, 100% Australian Merino Wool, in The Sick Chick signature colours, of course

I had a bit of a problem on the first half: when I turned around to crochet into the unworked loops on the back of the foundation chain, I managed to get a bit of a hole forming right where I turned around.  I fixed this on the second half by tugging and pulling at the yarn til the hole closed, but on the first side it was too late to fix it.  (Or at least all efforts failed ). So I hit upon the idea of the felt hearts!  As you can see my blanket stitching is more suitable for Frankenstein than nice presents but it did the job.  I cheated and just glued on the smaller one.  And it gave me a way to personalize the gift so I thought it was a nice touch and no one but you and me need to know that it was done to cover a problem.  Shhhh!

In all, I think it’s not bad for my first time!  I thought the pattern was very easy to follow, except for that strange hole but even then once I worked out that it was happening I was able to work around it.  I also really liked the yarn.  I was afraid it was going to be scratchy but really it worked up just fine!  Wish I had more, I love seeing my three colours all twisted together like that

Tags: amigurumi, crochet, linda cyr, quick fix, shepherd colour4me, softie, stuffie
Filed under: Finished Items

Several people have been poking me wondering what has happened to this blog.  If you don’t care, avert your eyes now

I actually was posting through May of 2010 when I went to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.  A good, sweaty time was had by all, but then I needed to crash for a while.  Silly illnesses!  Unfortunately, when I came up for air, this website’s database had taken a nosedive.  It took my poor husband a while to figure out how to restore it but alas, our backup system wasn’t working and I lost everything back to January.

Then, just as all seemed right with the world, I found out on fairly short notice that I was moving to Australia in September!  Oh my!  So much headless chickenage abounded, trying to get ready.  This trek I am just here for a few months — we got ourselves an apartment and t (the husband) is settled into his new job and loves it.  I’m headed back to the US soon to pack up our things and have them shipped, and also to wait out the months of pre-quarantine needed to bring our kitty over. So once again t and I will be living in separate continents, but this time it’s finite  Come April or May I will relocate permanently.

So from a car accident totaling the vehicle in January to moving abroad again by December, 2010 was a crazy year!  There was much crafting, although there wasn’t much taking of photos.  But I have a few things to show you, so this blog can live again!

Obligatory Australia photo:

Whale watching on my 36th birthday. Alas, humpbacks seem to *always* hide from me so once again failed to see any.

And before anyone says it, it’s not “so exciting!!” to be moving to Australia.  I am not all that keen on the idea, actually, but t’s job is worth it and we’re desperate to live on the same continent again. But I’m not particularly excited by Sydney, as I don’t surf and am not one of the beautiful people who line the beaches Take away the beaches and it’s just like moving to Chicago…only I am so over Chicago after my parents lived near there for 13 years

Filed under: Announcements

OK I had meant to do another post before this trip but I’ve been sleeping my life away (what is it with the Country music in my head right now?? I usually listen to New Age & Baroque ). Oh well. Oklahoma road trip news it is…

Tomorrow I leave to drive to Tulsa/Sand Springs for the weekend and then to my adored free hospital where I have a bajillion doctors appointments in Talihina for the week. I also hope to pop over to Durant to see Gail & Jim of Ozark Carding whom I met at SAFF. I know of the fabulous yarn shop Loops and the Bead Merchant, both in Tulsa.  I also know Hobby Lobby is based in Tulsa and OKC but in my experience the stores are the same as everywhere else. I hope to be able to meet @ZenSuriAlpacas — if anyone else around there wants to meet up let me know!

So my dear readers, any other suggestions of crafty places to go in any of those towns?  Most of the shops listed on the net are out of business so it’s hard to find out which places are still thriving!  Please let me know ASAP if you have any suggestions.

Meanwhile, I don’t know if I will have much net access until the end of the month. I have my ipod Touch for checking email in cafes but I don’t like lugging out the laptop in public so I don’t know if I will be able to post or not.  (I’m staying at the hospital’s hospitality suite and dunno if they have internet!) But I will try to take pictures and do a write-up when I get back, especially of Ozark Carding.  I hope to be allowed to take video, I’ve never been to a professional carding mill before, I am so excited!

Filed under: Announcements