Category:

Needle Arts

DIY Mother’s Cross Stitch

by Brandy Burke April 11, 2019

I found this cross stitch pattern on Etsy and nabbed it up. May is the month of Moms, you know – and this quote is truer than true.

Things that make me sound like my own mother:

Weather reports to my grown children
Saying “Oh my stars”
Being super leary of any meat and not trusting expiration dates
Saying “There’s always tomorrow” (Side note, that’s not exactly a true statement).

The list goes on….

For this pattern, I chose some different colors (I am a fan of ALL colors, so I didn’t hate the ones the pattern designer chose, I just have a color scheme going here and I didn’t want to break it up 🙂 )

Grab the pattern here

Here’s the colors I used:

DMC 3607
DMC 3836
DMC 943
DMC 3816
DMC 3819
DMC 3768

April 11, 2019 0 comment

Needle Arts

Happy Camper Hoop Art

by Brandy Burke February 19, 2018

written by Brandy Burke

I’ve recently found great love for cross stitching, embroidery and hoop art – things I used to do in my twenties while the kids napped have found their way back in to my heart.

Most recently, I made a few tweaks to a pattern I found online (at a site you really must visit if you love this sort of thing) I’ll tell you more about that later.

Most everything I love to create has to come together in the confines of my craft room for the sake of sanity because inks and paints in the living room on the white sofa, well – it probably wouldn’t end well.

But needle arts are different – I can drag all of my embroidery supplies to the sofa for a Netflix binge session of Jane the Virgin with the family – I get my favorites of both worlds – time with the hubby and creativity so my mind doesn’t go numb.

Anyway – you came here to see the hoop art, so here it is – let me tell you how it came together.

happy camper hoop art

Supplies Needed

8″ embroidery hoop
Cotton Material in Ecru or white for your base
A fat quarter or various material scraps
Embroidery Floss in Black, White and Pink
Fusing
This pattern from Bev at Flaminotoes

What I did differently: I hand stitched. I’d love to say it was for the artsy effect but I just haven’t bought a sewing machine yet (it’s on the agenda) – I liked hand stitching because it’s supposed to look imperfect and it really does (:D)

I also opted to just have HELLO as my text point. The pattern author has a creative saying about getting out of town but I’m a home-body without a camper so Hello suited me better.

I also decided not to add the banner to the corner of the camper. Oh, it’s super cute with the banner – I just tend to get to points in projects where I feel “done” and that pointed landed before the banner was added.

February 19, 2018 0 comment

Featured Needle Arts

Crochet Owl Eye Mask

by Brandy Burke October 18, 2016

written by Brandy Burke

Through the early stages of my early menopause my number 2 complaint was my sleep patterns. If the hot flashes and night sweats weren’t enough, I’d be awake all night after them staring at the clock, the moonlight through the window shades, the red light on the smoke detector – basically anything my eyes could focus on.

I had an eye mask that my husband bought for me with a pajama set years back for Christmas but after I have a night sweat in something, I don’t want to put it back on until it’s clean – needed a few more and happened to run across a thousand different patterns on pinterest for eye masks. I found three I really liked one element or another from and pieced together an owl eye mask that I love!

I obviously didn’t create this pattern – you can find it everywhere online with little tweaks – I’m not taking credit but quite honestly, I don’t know where credit is due. I took little things from multiple sites to bring you this awesome crochet owl sleep mask.

Crochet Owl Eye Mask Materials Needed:

Cotton Yarn (white, black, and then 2 colors of your choice)
14-15″ of 1/4″ Elastic Band
Size 3.5 -4.0 crochet hook
Tapestry Needle

Outer Eyes (turquoise) Make 2

Create Magic Ring

16 double crochet into the magic ring and pull together tight
2nd Row:16 single crochet
3rd Row: 32 double crochet
4th Row: 32 single crochet
5th Row: 48 double crochet, cut yarn, and make one more

Inner Eyes (white)

Create a Magic Ring

16 DC into the magic ring and pull together tight
2nd row: 32 Double Crochet around.
Fasten Off and leave long tail for sewing on to outer eyes.

Using black thread and a tapestry needle, sew the eyelashes on – use your eye judgement to determine where to stitch.

Nose:

Chain 6
Skip the first stitch and slip stich in the 2nd chain from hook
Single crochet in the 3rd chain from hook
Half Double crochet in the 4th chain
Double Crochet in the 5th stitch
Treble Crochet in the 6th stitch (if needed – sometimes I need this to even it out right.t

Sew outer eyes together with about 7 slip stitches

Optional, SC around joined together outer eyes for a more finished look.

Sew inner eyes on with the tail left after you finished crochet
Attach the inner eyes to the outer eyes and trim and weave in ends.

Attach nose

Attach the 14″ elastic band to each side – you can choose to sew this on – I chose to tie mine on because I knew I’d be covering it up with fringe.

If you want, you can add fringe to the corners, I saw a couple of crocheters do that on Pinterest so I did it on this particular one – I don’t think you could sleep with the fringe but it sure is cute!

Do you love it? Pin it!

Crochet owl eye mask

October 18, 2016 24 comments

Needle Arts

Crochet Flower Mug Cozy

by Brandy Burke May 19, 2016

written by Brandy Burke

I might be a little bit partial, but I think this crochet flower mug cozy is absolutely adorable. The best part of course is that it makes the perfect gift for the girly coffee drinker in your life. Since I don’t much care for coffee, but everyone I know does, these are a bit easier to give away for me than a crochet blanket or slippers – those I like to keep for my greedy self.

They make great gifts for birthdays, holidays, Bible studies, and as hostess gifts.

Though you could probably use any yarn, I choose a cotton/kitchen yarn because they tend to hold their shape better – and they’re also easy to wash if your recipient sloshes a bit of coffee on it.

crochet flower mug cozy

Crochet Flower Mug Cozy Materials

Affiliate Disclaimer

Crochet Flower Mug Cozy Pattern:

For Mug Cozy

Chain 21

Join with Slip Stitch

Row 2-5, Ch1, HDC in each stitch around, join with slip stitch

On last row, do not CH1 after joining, fasten off.

Weave in ends neatly

For Flower

See this cotton crochet flower post with photos

When finished, weave in ends on both pieces. Position flower in the center of the mug cozy and fasten on securely.

[highlight]Who would you give the crochet flower mug cozy to?[/highlight]

May 19, 2016 0 comment

Needle Arts

Cotton Crochet Flower

by Brandy Burke April 28, 2016

written by Brandy Burke

This cotton crochet flower have become one of my favorites!

I love to crochet anything lately – honestly it’s a time when I can just zone out – and not really think of anything except counting stitches. It’s the one time in my day (or week) that I am not thinking of the household chores that need doing, and I’m not trying to solve a work related problem or an internal struggle – just simply counting and watching the cotton creation taking place in my hands.

I’ve created my own cotton crochet flowers, and I’ve worked the various patterns found on the net – each person adding something of their own to it – but this cotton crochet flower is by far the easiest for the end result.

Cotton Crochet Flower Pattern

Affiliate Disclaimer

Cotton Crochet Flower Materials

Pattern

Create Magic Ring

Chain 1 and work 6SC in Ring

Pull it tightly closed. Do not join. You’ll be working around the pattern without joining your rows.

Round 2: In BLO work 2SC in Each ST around for a total of 12STS – Do not Join

Round 3: In BLO *Work 2SC in next ST and 1SC in next, repeat from * around for a total of 18STS

Round 4: In BLO *Work 2SC in next ST, 1SC in next 2 STS, repeat from * around for a total of 24STS.

Fasten Off and weave in ends.

We worked this entire pattern in the BLO (Back Loops Only) so we’ll now work the front loops and begin to build our flower up.

Join yarn in the first unworked front loop from your beginning round. Work 1SC in the same loop you joined in. *3HDC in next ST, 1SC in next, repeat from * around. SL ST at end and fasten off. Weave in ends.

[highlight]Have a favorite flower pattern to share? Let me know in the comments[/highlight]

April 28, 2016 1 comment

Needle Arts

Crochet Owl Mug Cozy Pattern

by Brandy Burke April 21, 2016

written by Brandy Burke

I love how this little crochet owl mug cozy pattern (hodgepodge pattern, I should say) turned out.
I’ve been crocheting a lot lately – I pick up one craft that I like, do it for a few months (just long enough to invest hundreds in materials) and then I decide I like to do something else 🙂

I used pieces from a couple of patterns to make it the way I wanted – and though I made it for a gift, I may just have to selfishly keep it all to myself.

Except I don’t drink coffee. Not even a little. Can’t stand the way it smells, can’t stand the way it tastes, dark, light, sweetened, straight – I just plain do not like it.

But I like tea – so I could use it for my tea – except I don’t like hot tea – so I guess back to plan A – it’s a gift 🙂

Crochet Owl Mug Cozy Pattern

Materials

Affiliate Disclaimer

Size J Crochet Hook

You can use any colors you wish – it takes so very little of each color that I just used tiny amounts from my stash which included – however if you start with new materials below, you’ll have enough to make 8-10 crochet owl mug cozies.

Crochet Owl Mug Cozy

For the Cozy

Chain 21

Join with Slip Stich

Row 2-5, Ch1, HDC in each stitch around, join with slip stitch

On last row, do not CH1 after joining, fasten off.

For the Eyes

For the eyes, I used the Owl Crochet pattern

Her eyes turned out a LOT better than mine – still can’t figure out what I did wrong.

For the Beak

Chain 5

SC in 2^nd Ch from hook and in each stitch, fasten off.

Sew all parts together and weave in ends.
For the eyes, I also sewed a couple of stitches between the two eyes, mostly to cover up a snafu, but I kind of like how it turned out.

Seriously, a 20 minute project – Enjoy

Here is where you can find the mug printable that my cozy is resting on.

You can also find a lot of patterns I’ve scooped up from the net on my Pinterest Crochet Board.

April 21, 2016 2 comments

Needle Arts

Chevron Crochet Blanket Pattern

by Brandy Burke February 9, 2016

written by Brandy Burke

I am so excited about this Chevron Crochet Blanket pattern. My mom tried to teach me to crochet when I was younger, I remember her trying to be proud of me, but all I could do one a single chain – still I’d make that single chain as long as I could – if you wrap it around yourself enough times, it becomes a scarf. Maybe I could have started a trend.
Later my former husband’s mawmaw tried to teach me to crochet – I learned how to make a pot holder. I actually learned how to make a lot of pot holders, but I wasn’t much of a cook so that didn’t get me very far. I wanted to make them both proud – but a 90 foot long scarf and a handful of potholders was all I had to offer.

During most patterns, I lose count, and if you get much fancier than a single crochet I have to flip back and forth between tutorials to figure out what I’m doing. I get pretty overwhelmed and toss the work aside.

Not the case with the chevron crochet blanket pattern – no boredom – as each row grew I became more and more excited.
No losing count – if you can count to 14, you can do this one.
No fancy stitches – it’s just single crocheting!

And to top it off, it’s pretty fast to add a row.

It took me one week to finish this pattern, crocheting only about an hour to an hour and a half every day.

Typically I store my work away and only pull it out when I have time to work on it, but for this blanket, it matched my den so well that I left it laying on the couch, making it easy to just pick up anytime I sat down or had a spare 8 minutes to add a row to it.

My daughter came home to visit from college and fell in love with the half-done piece asking if she could call dibs on it – so now I have an excellent idea for her for Christmas, if she can wait that long.

You can find this pattern in so many places online. It’s not my original pattern and Lord only knows where it originated. In most of the online patterns, the creators tell you how many rows of each color they did – not the case with me. I didn’t want it to feel like a “to-do” item, a task of some sort – I wanted to have fun with this, make it random, and ensure that there would never be an exact duplicate of the crochet blanket.

So I committed to a minimum of three rows of each stripe and a maximum of 10 rows and when I got tired of one, I switched to the next.

I bought the yarn on sale at Michael’s when it was only $2/skein, so this blanket only cost $12 to make – if you recognize the cost and quantity of yard most patterns take, you realize this was a very cheap blanket to make.

Chevron Crochet Blanket Pattern

Materials: Several colors of medium weight yarn
I used 4.5oz skeins:

(1.5) skeins of Impeccable brand in Teal
(1.5) skeins of Impeccable brand in Aqua
(1) skeins of Impeccable brand in Navy
(2) skeins of Impeccable brand in Aran (off white)

Size K /5.5mm hook

Pattern:

Chain 183 (this makes the blanked about 42″ wide, chain loosely)

Row 1: SC in 2^nd ST from hook, *SC in each of next 14 STS, 3 SC in next ST, SC in next 14 ST, SK 1 ST*, repeat from * across, ending with the SK 1 CH, SC in last CH, CH 1, turn.

Row 2-??: Working in back LP of STS for the remainder of the pattern, SC in first SC, SK 1 SC, * SC in each of next 14 STS, 3 SC in next ST, SC in each of next 14 STS, SK 2 STS, repeat from * across, end each row with SK 1 ST, SC in last ST, CH 1, turn.

Change colors depending on your preference

You can choose to do equal thickness stripes or opt for a more random pattern such as the one shown.

Work as many rows as you’d like for length – I made my blanket 42″ wide and 56″ long – just big enough to snuggle under all by yourself 🙂

Simple chevron crochet blanket - great for beginners

February 9, 2016 20 comments