Thompson Family-Life

vintage bedspread crochet pattern progress

I made some more progress on my crochet bedspread on our vacation. I still have quite a lot to go (we have a king sized bed!) but it's nice to see it looking like a blanket finally. I've posted some progress photos over the past 6 months or so here and here. Here's the vintage pattern I've been using. I love it! I can't wait to add that pompom trim.

I took these pics at the beachhouse (hence the gross carpet and awful bedspread... I've been spoiled by having hardwoods throughout our home, I hate carpet! We've been house-hunting and I'm realizing I might not be able to avoid it in our next home since we're looking at a lot of homes built in the 70's and most don't have original hardwoods)...

This has been such a fun project. If I'm really ambitious, I might be able to finish this by the time it gets cold again around here. (crosses fingers) The yarn is pretty chunky so the octagons work up pretty fast and those little popcorn flowers are so much fun to make.

This blanket will replace this quilt (old pics below) I had custom-made a couple years ago. The back of the quilt started tearing apart because vintage sheets were used and one was a bit too used. (sad face) I hope to have it repaired one day, but it will be nice having something new on the bed. I can't help but dream about how I'll be decorating this room when we buy a new home. This room is one of the few rooms I think I'd keep pretty much the same. I've been happy with it. Now all the other rooms? That's a different story! I'm been doing lots of decorating dreaming.

Do you have any fun spring/summer crafts you're working on? I'd love to see! Share some links!

handmade gift

It was my good friend Heather's birthday last week and I knew I wanted to make her something. Of course, the first thing that came to mind was to stitch up one of these cute cross-stitch pendants! When I think of Heather, I think of 70's style (she rocks it) full of 70's motifs and colors. So I came up with this butterfly design in orange, mustard yellow, avocado & olive green, and brown.

I always have high hopes of handmaking gifts, but my spare time is so... spare. So these really are the perfect idea - still with that handmade touch, but it doesn't take you forever to complete. I backed it with mustard wool felt and attached a chain I found at Michaels Crafts. I'll be putting together a pattern for this butterfly if you'd like to stitch up one of your own. You can buy the pendants here. I'll have that posted soon!

Cross-Stitch Pendants

I bought some of these wooden laser cut cross-stitch pendants many months ago from The Workroom and when I came across this project on Pinterest this weekend, I remembered that I needed to stitch some up! This is what I worked on during my hotel holiday weekend I mentioned. Even though they are relatively fast projects (it's not like you're making a quilt!) the did take me many hours a piece, but I was entertained with movies. These two little guys were serious therapy for me. Isn't that funny what crafting can do for a creative soul? It's just what I needed this past weekend.

These pendants were screaming for something 60's or 70's inspired, so I went searching online for some inspiration. I had no patterns, so I needed to come up with something. I stumbled onto these Vintage Japanese Ondori patterns from Gina's Flickr (of Doe-c-Doe). She has the most incredible collection of all kinds of vintage things, especially vintage craft books.

These Ondori stitch books are hard to come by, but I have procured a couple from Ebay/Etsy in the past. I used her photos as a guide and then asked her if it was okay for me to post about these on my blog. The good news is that I ordered an Ondori stitch book this weekend off Ebay and both of these patterns ended up being in it, along with a ton of other fantastic, small patterns that will work perfectly for more of these pendants. I can see these becoming my go-to-gift-craft. They are easy and fast to finish and so satisfying for that reason. I have SO many unfinished huge projects lying around, it's nice to find something that can be finished in a weekend. I can see these becoming addictive!

I bought some 36" chains at Michaels for these. I like the idea of them being long necklaces. I already have ideas for the next one I make. I guess I need to buy some more blank pendants!

If you end up making some of these, my tip would be to use three threads of regular embroidery thread (instead of the entire six) or you can also use cotton thread. I used that as well. I also used a cross-stitch needle. It was small enough to fit through the small holes in the pendant.

credits: Background patterned paper courtesy American Crafts from Liz Kartchner's new line. Digital Ribbon in intro photo by Minitoko.

Vintage Needlepoint Book circa 1976

This is one of the books I found thrifting a few weeks ago. The title is Carolyn Ambuter's Needlepoint Celebrations, published by Workman Publishing Company, copyright 1976. ISBN 0-8129-0583-0.

This is such a find. So many amazing patterns! Here's Carolyn herself. Pretty groovy lady.

She's working on a Zodiac symbol rug, the patterns of which I'll be sharing with you today. I immediately thought of Jonathan Adler's Zodiac pillows. These are cool because they show more of the graphic symbol. What a cool project this would be! You could make them as birthday gifts to represent friends' astrology signs. Perfect gift! I'm personally not so into astrology, but I do love the visual symbols. And what kid doesn't get asked at some point in his/her life (especially girls) "What's your sign?!" You just feel special having your birthday month be associated with a certain special symbol, right? ; ) I'm a Capricorn, what about you?

(And no, I don't know what makes me special as a Capricorn.. I should know. Off to google... I bet it means that I'm high-strung. Because I so am.)

I'm not super keen on the color schemes that were chosen for a lot of these (a by-product of the era maybe?) but that is the great thing about needlepoint patterns (or any craft pattern!), you can choose your own colors. These would be so much fun in some fun, bold colors. I really love these next two for that reason.

The coloring is ick on this one, but I felt I needed to show all of the signs. Ha...

I love the variety of stitches!

Thanks Carolyn for being so awesome to write and design for this book.

There are many other designs I want to share with you guys.

Tomorrow I'll be sharing a couple cross-stitch projects I worked on over the weekend.

It's been a rough few weeks here on the homefront, I won't lie. Dealing with discipline issues with the boys (they are k-i-l-l-i-n-g me slowly - ok, i'm exaggerating... only a little) and just general stressy-issues. Ethan and I are just dang tired. Schlepping the boys to this sports thing or that, holding Cooper's hand through his homework (this boy has got to work on self-motivation, Lawd!), refereeing bicker-sessions with the boys.

We need a vacation.

We have one coming up, but it will be with the boys. And we all know, childless vacations are the most relaxing. Ahem. I'm hoping we can all reconnect and see through the stress-fog during Spring Break. And just be in the moment. With no appointments or homework on the horizon... for a week at least.

All you parents out there, how are you holding up? Ready for Summer? If you're like me, you're signing up for lots of summer camps, maybe? So you don't have to hear all day that "i'm bored." But I'm also looking forward to spending time with them without having any obligations for the most part. Yeh, homework, TAKE THAT!

A couple of cool things that DID happen this weekend:

The boys and Ethan went Geocaching for the first time! It was an amazing experience! I can't wait to go with them on their next Geocaching adventure. The great thing about it is: they're EVERYWHERE. You don't have to take a big trip to see one. There could be one right down the street of you. From what Ethan said, the boys really got into it (especially Cooper). There's a whole world out there into Geocaching. Check it out if you haven't. I'll be blogging about our experiences in the near future!

So where was I during the Geocaching adventures? I took the weekend off. Ethan's been working a lot of long hours and I just needed a BREAK badly from Mommy duties. He was sweet enough to let me take some time off. What did I do? I got a hotel room... like 10 miles away from my house. Lol. And stayed inside that hotel room and just... watched movies and stitched.

Movies and stitching, stitching and movies.

THAT'S IT.

It was heaven, my friends. Heaven. I watched dated 80's movies (I'm looking at you Tom Selleck. Three Men and a Baby. You were hot back then even if you did wear Mom jeans and a mullet.) I paid a crap-load of money to watch a movie that's still in theaters (oops): Young Adult. It's amazing, go see it. I watched Anchorman for the first time and holy-S*@t that is a FU-NNY movie. That is one that I think we'll be watching over and over again for years to come.

So, have you ever done that? Just rent a hotel room for the weekend to decompress?

It's bliss. You Moms should try it. : )

Vintage-Style Needlepoint Purse Pattern & How-to on CRAFT

That needlepoint project I was telling you about is up on CRAFT today! There's a free needlepoint pattern and also a how-to for constructing the bag!

They asked me to contribute an idea that uses yarn and I narrowed it down to needlepoint (because, really, yarn is such a fun material to work with, there are so many ideas!). The plan is that I'll be contributing more original how-to's on CRAFT in the future and I'm really excited about that. They have been fabulous to work with so far.

If you haven't tried needlepoint, this is a great get-your-feet-wet project. In fact the needlepoint was the easiest part. I finished this purse from start to finish in about a week or so. The two stitches I used in the design are very easy for beginners.

The color palette I used for this bag is very springy, but you could choose a palette that's appropriate for all the seasons. The sky's the limit on color. This project is also a great yarn stash buster.

This purse turned into quite the complex project! But no fear, I put together a very thorough step-by-step on how to construct the bag from beginning to end. This was one of the most fun projects I've worked on in a while. I can't wait to come up with some more ways to use needlepoint.

I put together some tips on starting and ending your yarn when you're stitching your needlepoint panel. (these are not included in the CRAFT post) 

Here's an example of what to do when you need to start a new color in the middle of your design:

I'm pretty wary of carelessly starting or ending threads. I'm so paranoid that threads are going to come loose, so that is why I make sure to pull the thread through those previous stitches 3 or 4 times before I start stitching. This will ensure that your project will last many, many years (decades!) without having stitches come loose.

Here's an example of ending a length of yarn. When you're doing those large "Crossed Corners Cushion Stitches" it can be tricky when you have to end a thread with no previously created stitches nearby. The long diagonal stitches of these Cushion Stitches are a bit loose since they're traveling over many "threads" of your plastic canvas. Here's what I do when I only have those diagonal stitches to anchor my yarn (and this will happen often, because these Cushion Stitches use LOTS of yarn... your length of yarn will end in the middle of this motif often, no matter how long it is):

Again, I would go back through 3 or 4 times to make sure it's secure.

A book I used as a resource (no I was not paid to say this!) is Stitch Step by Step. I highly recommend this book if you'd like to try needlepoint. Half the book is also about surface embroidery, so if you've been wanting to try that, too, this is a double whammy. ; )

Remember, you can find the free needlepoint pattern and purse construction how-to here on CRAFT!