Hello!
Welcome to Mile Wide Crafts
Here are Mile Wide Crafts, we love all crafts and want to share that love with you. We will be posting about the projects we love with instructions for you to try them, too. For now, here are some projects we have done, some of which we may post more about later.
Quilts
Most of these quilts are baby quilts, as they are fast to do, fun to do, and useful gifts.
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| Card Trick Quilt |
This is a crib size quilt. It is made using the card trick pattern. Strictly speaking, it wasn't quilted as I chose to tie it rather than quilting it. I enjoy piecing the top more than I enjoy quilting the quilt, and quilting the piece takes me nearly as long as piecing the top. Tying is much faster.
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| Dragon Quilt |
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| Close up of the Dragon |
The dragon quilt is another crib quilt. It has a nautical theme as requested by the child's mother for a child born in the year of the dragon. The ship in the middle is a hand appliqued Chinese junk, which looks better if you zoom in on it. The ships around the outside are machine pieced Viking dragon ships. The quilt was machine quilted by someone else.
Knitting and Crochet
Most of my knitting and crochet projects are portable as they come with me to meetings, appointments, and other places of waiting. I tend to work in natural fibers, but recently, I've come to love chenille yarn. I'll post about the blanket I'm making with the chenille in a later post. Again, you'll see that most of my projects are child sized. They are easier to finish, use fewer materials, and are a fun way to try new techniques.
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| Close up of the border |
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| Crochet cotton baby blanket |
This was another baby gift. The different sized squares were fun to make as they added interest during construction. The larger squares and smaller squares didn't fit together nicely as they were originally made, so I added a bit to make the bigger squares large enough to fit into the final pattern. I also love how the border came out. The crossed chain stitching makes for an airy break in an otherwise solid blanket. The purple squares at the end make for a decorative edge for a toddler bed.
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| James's Christmas Stocking |
This Christmas stocking was made from a wool blend sock yarn. It is knitted using a Fair Isle pattern, which was very fun to try. I added some variations to the original pattern including the name and a few extra repeats of pattern elements from the original pattern.
Sewing
Sewing projects cover so many topics. I've chosen to post some of the non-clothing and non-diaper sewing projects here. I may post some costumes and other clothing sewing project at some point in the future, but, for now, enjoy these projects.
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| Pencil Cases |
These pencil cases are a useful and simple project. They are easy enough that I taught this project to elementary students and to Moms who were distracted by toddlers. Each neatly tied ribbon package has spaces for a dozen pencils. The choices of fabric and ribbon are nearly endless, creating room for creativity in a busy life. Look for a future blog post on making these beginner pencil cases.
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| Lavender Sachet |
These lavender sachets smell as good as they look. They are filled with dried lavender from the garden and make lovely gifts. Because they use so little fabric, they are also a wonderful way to play with new colors and textures without having to commit to a large scale project. They are also a fun way to use up scraps.
