CHA Summer Report: Provo Craft

I spent my fair share of time at the Provo Craft booth at CHA. It was the first booth I went to on Tuesday morning. I showed up because I wanted to play some more with a YUDU. Little did I know I'd be invited to attend their gala that night. It was the party to launch the Gypsy. I had seen the Donnie K videos before the event and I give Provo Craft an A+ for a very clever social media campaign.

Here is a quick video I filmed of Jim from Provo Craft demonstrating the Gypsy for me. It looks really exciting and I like the fact that you can just load your cartridges on there and they're good to go!

I was super excited to get a Gypsy (oh, the benefits of being a craft blogger!). The only problem? I don't have a Cricut.

Here you can see a picture of one. However, I'm pretty sure I'm going to want the Cricut Expression. I would be using it more for home decor, fabric, and vinyl so I can only imagine I'll want a bigger size. They're on sale this weekend at Joann's so I may have to go and check them out. Do you have one? What would you recommend?

Who wouldn't want to make this? This sold me on the Cricut right then and there.

Back to the YUDU. I wanted to play with this machine as much as possible to see if I should make the investment. Lucky for me, I waited because I found out last Friday that I won one at BlogHer!

Here is an attendee using the YUDU to print on a picture frame. The Provo Craft had some really great make and take projects that allowed us to use a variety of different products in a multitude of ways. We used the Yudu on paper, picture frames, and shirts. We used the Cricut for embellishments and glass etching.

Here was one of the finished make and take projects.

By this time, I was glad I brought an extra suitcase. The projects were so fun that I spent a lot of time doing those. It was a great way to get hands on practice and chat with the reps they had there.

Keep your eye out on Provo Craft. They are doing some amazing things with technology and anything that combines technology with crafting- I love it!

Want to know what else I love? Meeting up with some of the Craft Critique gals at the Provo Craft Gala. Not the most flattering picture of us but it was all I got!

Speaking of the Craft Critique, they did an excellent review on the Provo Craft booth as well (I told you that bird pillow was great!). You'll also want to get your September craft challenge packets NOW! Craft Critique is the sponsor and you'll be sure the prize is amazing. I'll give you more details on that in a separate post.

Make. Filet Crochet Table Runner.

I'm recycling some of my older craft related posts while I'm at the Craft & Hobby Trade Show. Enjoy!

I made this table runner probably 10 years ago. This was before I knew how to knit and sew. I was all about the crochet. It is the perfect size for the top of our piano, so this is where I keep it.

I graphed out the pattern on my own using an alphabet from a book and the edging was from a book also. I wish I knew what book I used. There are so many great resources out there for alphabets and filet crochet edgings that I'm sure if you want to try something like this, you'll be able to find something you like.

I don't remember how long it took me to make this but I do remember being glad when I was finished. At around this same time I made a wall hanging for my mom that says, "Families are Forever".

This is one of those things that I will keep forever. Do you have something you made that you will never throw out or give away?

Learn. How to Weave a Chair Seat With Fabric.

Meet Lisa, our guest blogger for today! I know Lisa from my local knitting group. She's super funny and always has the best stories from her adventures in teaching Kindergarten. Enjoy this post from her!

My name is Lisa. I'm a teacher, knitter, quilter, and all around crafter. During the summer months, I tend to find myself neck deep in ongoing projects and I blog about them here.
A month or so ago I found a chair for sale. It was a beautiful wooden number with a rattan seat. The seat needed reworking (which I had never done) but the chair itself was sturdy and had such beautiful lines, I couldn't pass it up.
I knew I had to repair the seat, but wasn't sure how. After walking through my favorite fabric store ever, The Cosmic Cow, and drooling on a new fabric I was considering eloping with, the idea came to me. I'd incorporate the print into the seat.

• Here's what you need:
• 100 feet cotton clothesline cording (must be cotton)
• 2 yards of fabric (pre-cut jelly rolls purchased from quilting stores will work if you're not interested in taking the time to cut the strips)
• matching cotton thread
• sewing machine
• ironing board & iron
• chair

After cutting the fabric into 2 1/2 inch strips, iron them as if they were bias tape (folding the cut strip in half the long way and ironing), open the strip, fold each half in half again and iron. (you will have four equal sections after final ironing) This will hide the long side raw edges.
Next, you will wrap each ironed strip around the clothesline cord like a burrito. I found it easiest to position the cording in the center of the strip, folding the right half over first, followed by the left. Make sure to fold the beginning of each strip over to hide the short side raw edges and sew down the center of the wrapped cording using a straight stitch.
For my chair, I used the entire 100 foot strand of cording.

Below are pictures of the 'naked' chair and the different stages of weaving.

Here is the chair sans webbing. It received a good scrubbing then I stained the dowels in case any of them showed through after installing the new seat.

Prior to securing cording to the chair, I found the half-way point on the cording and marked it. I wanted to make sure I had enough for both sides of the chair.

I stapled the cording to the bottom of the dowel using a staple gun.

I wrapped the cording around the chair tightly. You can see the rope I used to mark the 1/2 way point. I decided that if I ran out of cording before finishing wrapping in one direction, I would space it out evenly. Fortunately, that didn't happen.

I stapled the cording to the chair and cut. Using the same wrapping method, wrap the chair in the opposite direction but weave as you go. I made sure to weave the upper and lower part of the seat. Pull tightly as you go. I figured the fibers would loosen the more the chair was used.

This part is not for weak fingers. My fingers began to get sore trying to squeeze as many weaves as I could into the seat. I would up getting a knitting needle and using it to help me pull the cording. The end of the needle (not the point) was great for hooking the cord when the space got too small for my fingers.

When I couldn't weave another row, I spaced the cording out evenly in both directions.

This is my favorite craft project of the summer. It was lots of fun to do. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via my blog and I'll do my best to answer them. Have fun!

Outdoor Patio Spruce Up

I entered another design challenge over at Fresh Nest.  We were supposed to spruce up our outdoor living spaces.  The prize is a headboard and I would really, really like to win it.  I've wanted a headboard for over 10 years but it just isn't something we could justify spending money on just yet.  Winning it would be great!  Vote for me here! 

Our outdoor space was in need of some rearranging.  Here at the left you can see the area under our deck.  There is a small patch of paver stones under there that we installed two summers ago.  Our plan was to put a table and chairs where it could be shaded. 

Instead, a playhouse was put there because we got it when the weather wasn't that great so we didn't want to put it in the yard. 

Our table and chairs were on our other patio right outside our sliding glass doors.  Not very efficient, that's for sure!  Do you see that huge weed?  Those bags of rocks from our patio work from TWO YEARS ago?  We definitely needed to get to work on this space.

The first thing we did was cut down a huge branch off our neighbor's pine tree.  Don't worry, we asked first.  It was over our fence and crowding our own tree. 

We cleaned up the playhouse and placed it back in the corner of our yard.  That picnic table was behind the playhouse in the before picture.  We cleaned it up as well and made a great little play area for the kids.  They played out there for a long time on Saturday and the neighbor girls enjoyed it as well.

 

Once we had the space under our deck cleared off, we moved the table and chairs over there.  We won this patio furniture by participating in a year long event put on by the city of Lincoln. 

We added our hammock, as well.  We still have one more row of pavers to put down and we have some timbers to frame it with but with the rain we've been having lately, that had to wait!

I really love the backyard now and hope to spend some time knitting at that table soon!

Make. Fabric Covered Embroidery Hoop

Here is a good 2 minute craft project.  I've been wanting to spruce up my craft room a bit but I wanted to do something, you know, crafty.  This idea is not new or novel.  It's not even difficult. 

Get some fabric and some embroidery hoops.  Put your fabric in the hoops.  Hang them up on the wall.

You can change out the fabric whenever you want. 

Tip:  you can usually find embroidery hoops at garage sales.  Keep an eye out this summer.