Remnants Challenge Part 2!

To continue with the recycling theme I began in my last post, I have been challenging myself to create new things using leftover scraps from previously completed projects.

Recently I was working on a woven project. I wove several ribbons that I wanted to weave into a pillow top. I wove them together, then stitched them with the sewing machine. I couldn't stop myself from stitching on the top, and discovered that I really liked the effect and stiffness of the new stitched fabric!

When I had finished stitching around the square, I cut off all of the excess ribbon ends. I had a wonderful pile of mini weavings that inspired me to make this pendant using the ends plus some yarn and felt scraps I have. Did you spot the crocheted chains?

This was such a satisfying project, especially since it came out of a successful technique experiment.

If you are on Instagram and you would like to participate in the challenge, post projects made with your remnants/ scraps with the hashtag #remnantschallenge.

Using Crochet Remnants

From most any design project, I have leftover pieces. I save these pieces hoping for just the right project to come along. I decided to challenge my self to make a pendant out of some of the pieces leftover from the free Mademoiselle Necklace Pattern I designed for Berroco.

By layering them and adding some surface embroidery, I was able to create a 3D background for one of our stitchable "Pod" pendants.

I like working with remnants and leftovers, because working with what you have exercises your creative problem solving and the results are always unexpected!

I plan to continue this challenge and will be sharing more remnant creations in coming posts. I challenge you all to make something out of your scraps and remnants! If you are on Instagram, use the hashtag #remnantschallenge.

Adventures in Combining Crochet and Weaving!

Even though I love working with many techniques, I always have crochet on my mind! I especially love to combine different technique to achieve interesting effects. For a while now I have been experimenting with and teaching modern weaving with our eWoodStory weaving kit. I love doing freeform work, and weaving can be so creative. You can really show the beauty of the yarns and fibers you are using.

I recently started experimenting with including crochet in my weaving. The first experiment I did was to crochet the weft for a weaving in an ivory color. I freely wove it into the piece along with some other yarns, and then painted the crochet to go with the yarns. I also crocheted the fringe. I felt it was really successful, and the wheels of creativity began spinning!  If you want to see the evolution of this weaving, here is a link to an earlier post I wrote when I was just beginning to weave this piece.

The next piece I worked on had some crocheted chains and bobbles added to the warp. I then wove around them to incorporate them into the piece without covering them up too much. I also did a little embroidery embellishment to finish it off.

The third piece had a completely crocheted warp. I crocheted a filet mesh that was tailored to fit the loom, and then I crocheted some chains to weave into the mesh. I alternated weaving the chains in, with some of the same yarn that hadn't been crocheted. I love the rich tapestry it created! I made this into a purse. By crocheting the warp, I was able to make the piece long enough to make a purse from the one panel.

After completing this piece, I decided that I wanted to try making the warp the focus of the piece, and I crocheted interesting wavy strips that I wove a little color into after crocheting. I alternated these with double chain bands in a contrasting color. Then the challenge was to find a warp that would hold it all together but not compete with it.

I have many more ideas for combining crochet and weaving. I am excited to keep on experimenting with this! I have decided to call these combo pieces "weavrochet". My daughter and I had a great time brainstorming words combining crochet and weaving, and this was our favorite!

If you would like to follow along  and see progress photos of my weavrochet adventures as they unfold, follow me on instagram, and you can also search by the Instagram hashtag #weavrochet.

My Latest Adventure: Combining Crochet and Weaving!

When two worlds collide...I really love to do anything related to handwork and fiber arts (crochet, knitting, weaving, embroidery, felting, spinning), and I often struggle with which thing to do because I want to do all of them all of the time!

My solution to this is often to combine several techniques in one project. In promoting the weaving kit for eWoodstory, I like to demonstrate different things that can be done with the loom. The latest idea I had was to paint the warp, then crochet the weft to create a textured piece.

It is evolving as I go, and I am now filling in with surface crochet. I am thinking of incorporating some felt as well. An interesting work in progress!

Freshly Painted Warp

Beginning to Crochet the Weft

Achieving Texture!

Summer 2017 Crochet and Weaving Classes in Eugene, Oregon!

I have arrived in the USA and I am excited to announce that I will be teaching two classes while I am here, at the lovely Cozy yarn shop in Eugene Oregon. 

If you are going to be in the Eugene area on Friday June 30th, and/ or Saturday July 1st, here are the descriptions of the workshops:

PAINTED CROCHET ART PENDANTS- A new approach to color in crochet! Crochet a specially designed motif, then use watercolor paints to bring the stitches to life. The art crochet piece you created will be stitched into an eWoodStory "Olive" shaped Stitchable Pendant, to make a one-of-a-kind accessory that is sure to be a conversation piece!

BEGINNING LAP LOOM WEAVING- An introduction to modern weaving with a lap loom, to create small scale woven paintings created using a mix of techniques and surface textures. The class will teach you how to use all of the tools in the eWoodStory Ultimate Weaving Kit. The kit will be yours to take home and continue creating with! In addition to learning how to weave, you will learn how to make tassels, pom poms, and lucet cord with the specially designed tools in the kit.

If you are interested in signing up, you can sign up online here, or in person in the Cozy yarn shop.

I am really looking forward to this, and hope to see you there!

Introducing eWoodStory's New Weaving and Fiber Arts Kit!

This past year has been a whirlwind of activity! After finishing up the Weaving Stories Exhibition, I was incredibly inspired by all the work that was made by so many talented hands coming together in the woven installation,  that I decided that my husband and I should design a loom that would be fun to use, and that would get people of all ages working with their hands!

It has been many months of experimenting, designing, and testing. A special thanks goes out to Tammy Asad, of TS Daily Treasures, Suad Murad, and family members who tested our kits and instructions to give us the valuable feedback we needed to make this available to the public!

We are so proud of this kit. It started out as a weaving loom and grew into a fiber arts kit with the inclusion of the tassel maker, pom pom maker, and lucet for making cord. It is lightweight and portable and designed for people of all skill levels!

We have just begun selling the kits in the Sadu House Gift Shop in Kuwait, and worldwide in our Etsy shop. I also plan to offer workshops that will teach people how to weave and use all of the tools in the kit. Please stay tuned!

Our Ultimate Weaving Kit

Pieces Created with the  Kit

Reflecting on 2016 and Hinting on my Stitching Future for 2017!

2016 was a year full of new challenges and experiences, with many highlights! I wore many different work hats last year: designer, project manager, textile collaborator, instructor, liason, and coordinator. All of these jobs have enhanced my creativity and how I work. 

Let me tell you about some of this year's highlights:

I was so excited for my work to be featured on the cover of Interweave Crochet, last fall. My work has appeared in 15 issues of Interweave Crochet over the years, and this was my first cover with them! Magazine work is really such fun. The thrill of seeing your work among the vibrant, glossy pages never gets old!

I got to teach my first workshop for eWoodStory at the Sadu House. We crocheted motifs, then painted them and stitched them into "Olive" shape pendants. I love how each one was so very different and beautiful!

Next month I will be teaching a session Freeform Crochet Workshop for the Kuwait Textile Arts Association at the Sadu House as well.

In addition to working in crochet this year, I also learned more about modern weaving, learned how to weave on a rigid heddle loom, and between me and my daughter, we now have 7 looms in the house!

I also started experimenting with weaving that incorporates my crochet work. This is a piece I have in progress with some of my hand painted crochet:

I can't wait to learn more about weaving and how I can put my own spin on it! I dream of making garments incorporating pieces of my weaving.

While working on the Weaving Stories project, I had the opportunity to be on the radio and television twice! Most recently with my daughter, Sara. We got to talk about our weaving, and I hope we got some of the viewers interested in the fiber arts as well!

I also got to meet so many amazing people through Weaving Stories. Some of the best moments were people discovering the joy of weaving and working with their hands on our specially designed interactive loom that was made by my husband who co-designed it with Professor of Textiles, Lesli Robertson. People who have never tried to weave before, sat down with the intention of weaving for a minute or two, and ended up weaving for an hour! We had tags made so people could attach their name or their thoughts about weaving to the sections that they created. We had to warp the loom three times during the exhibition. The more that was woven on the loom, the more people wanted to weave on it. The colorful yarns and fibers were attracting people like a magnet!

We created 7 new pendant shapes to add to our eWoodStory Modern Stitchable Pendant line, making it a total of 13 shapes in addition to our Mini Masterpiece Frames, for people to stitch their own creations into:

We also added several pendants to our Featured Artists Series, where we ask artists that we love on Instagram, to create special Mini Masterpiece Pendants. It is a way for us to showcase our pendants, and to connect artists to people interested in their work. We have met so many amazing people through this series!

Mini Masterpieces that have been created by the Artists

I have a great feeling about 2017 and have started lining up some fun projects involving the community, as well as some special commissions. I also hope to work on some new techniques that I haven't tried yet like tapestry crochet and macrame. I just want another few hours added to every day to have more time to create! I hope that this next year is happy, healthy, and wonderful for all of you!

New eWoodStory Stockist in Australia!

We are so excited to announce our new stockist, The Embroidery Den in Victoria, Australia. You can now find our exotic wood Mini Masterpiece stitchable pendants and our embellishment flowers in their lovely shop!  The Embroidery Den sells everything for the hand embroiderer and they have one of the largest collections of threads in Australia!

eWoodstory Stitchable Pendant Giveaway!

We have teamed up with the wonderful Moogly, for a fun summer giveaway of 4 Stitchable Pendants of the winners choice from our Etsy shop!

For all the details check out Moogly Blog's post, and to enter, simply click on the Rafflecopter at the bottom of the post.

Good luck to all who enter!

Here are just a few ideas as to what you could make with our pendants:

For more inspiration, check out our flickr galleries for Mini Masterpiece Pendants, and Modern Stitchable Pendants.

eWoodStory Nouveau Necklace Crochet Kits are Back in Stock!

We have arrived in the US, and are now restocking our Etsy shop with Nouveau Necklace crochet kits, and Stitchable Pendants. Also, we will be shipping worldwide from Oregon until August 22nd! New items will be added to the shop daily, until they are all listed!

My Latest Cross Stitch on Tunisian Crochet!

This is the second piece in my little Mini Masterpiece series of cross stitch on a Tunisian Crochet simple stitch background. You can see the first piece in my previous post. There is something therapeutic about working the simple stitch, and combined with a variegated yarn, it produces a beautiful fabric!

After crocheting the background I decided on the tree theme. I loved the yarn and was anxious to start stitching, so I didn't take the time to decide what would be stitched on the background. I let the finished crochet fabric do the talking! 

After I decided on the tree I got to work stitching the trunk:

Then I decided how to make the foliage of the tree. I had some lovely soft chenille in my yarn stash, so I combined it with a coordinating wool to make different sized crocheted circles. My original idea was to place a circle at the top of each branch, like a Bonsai tree, but it looked a little odd. I  like how they look layered on top of each other much better. It gives it more of a 3D effect, and I love this mix of textures in the different types of yarn. I think the mix of textures emulates nature.

I am really enjoying stitching these Tunisian pieces, and I think there will be more to come in 2016!

Cross Stitch on Tunisian Crochet!

Cross stitching on a Tunisian crochet simple stitch background, is a technique I really love! There is something very relaxing about doing Tunisian simple stitch. It is also a great way to introduce beginners to crochet. I had been trying to teach my 7 year old daughter how to crochet for quite some time, and she was having trouble getting the hang of it, until I taught her how to do Tunisian crochet. She took to it easily, and it was a great transition to more challenging projects in crochet. After she finished her first large Tunisian project, a blanket, she wanted to try regular crocheting again. I showed her how to do a Granny Square, and she was able to make one very easily. I feel that the Tunisian crochet gave her confidence, and good practice. Now I start everyone who wants to learn to crochet, with Tunisian. Incidentally, I found I should always carry hooks and yarn with me, because when I crochet in public, or mention crochet in public, I very often get asked to teach the person on the spot!

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I was doing a piece for one of our Jumbo size eWoodStory Frames. I had the variegated background completed and was ready to start doing the cross stitch.

 I found a vintage charted design online, which I used as a guide and inspiration. 

It was amazing to watch it come to life as I stitched each section.

I took a poll on Instagram to ask what color people thought I should stain the frame: Cherry, Walnut, or Jacobean. It was a 3 way tie! So I decided to do a coat of Cherry, then a coat of Jacobean. I think the combination works very well to coordinate with my stitched piece.

Then for the exciting part...stitching it to the frame! I stitched it in a chunky yarn from my stash, that just happened to be the perfect color!

Such a fun way to combine two techniques, which results in a rich tapestry of color and texture!