#craft

[itscolossal]

In ‘Felt Love,’ a Young Boy and His Mother Learn the Value of Spending Quality Time Together

[ivepetthatpokemon]

As I finish up my second video in this crochet badge quest series, I can finally share that Misdreavus is our second team member.

The video will be uploaded later today.

[cursedluver]

i combined 5 sketchbooks into one… i would highly recommend this to anyone who buys the same kind of sketchbook multiple times- also don’t forget to date when you start& finish the sketchbook💖 i’m so proud of this beast. i’ve gone through and collaged pages together so none of the books have the full number of pages from when they started, but it’s still 5 books combined.

i just undid the spiral spines and threaded them with binder clips. kept the covers in as “chapter” markers, so you know when you’re in one sketchbook or another. numbered the pages and summarized what periods of time each book covers on the inside of the front cover. very proud of this and love it a lot. feels like carrying my heart. it’s heavy and i love it.

[nymori]

I've been stitching some cicadas lately. This year is going to be a big one for the screaming bugs!

For those interested in making their own cross stitched cicadas, the patterns are available for sale here and here! (Please note: my software skills mean that I had to freehand the AAAAAs rather than place them in the pattern itself, so those are not included in the patterns. This does mean that you can make these little guys uniquely your own and add any sort of scream that you'd like, though!)

[tanuki-kimono]

Mind blowing craftmanship by tatami artist Kenzie Yamada.

The soaring crane design comes in jigsaw puzzle like pieces, and mats are in fact monocolor. Dark/light areas appear thanks to how each tatami straw mat is woven, beautifully catching the light.

You can see below the different weave directions depending on the tatami parts:

and in this video how those pieces react to light with a mesmerizing shimmer:

[iknityounot]

(Long post, sorry y'all)

A little more than two years ago now, my grandmother passed away. She and my grandpa had moved down to my home town a few years before so we could take care of them. I brought them groceries once a week, helped them write checks, fixed tvs, and found lost things. I was really close with my grandma.

In addition to her hilarious personality and dry wit, one of my favorite things about her was that she was a painter and a crafter like me! She used to crochet, and I took her to the craft store a couple of times so she could get more yarn and books on crochet. But her arthritis and the shaking in her hands kept getting worse, so she eventually had to stop.

She kept her most recent project, a granny square blanket, safely packed away in a plastic bin. She told all of us she was going to finish it one day.

Her hands never got better, and when she got sick, and we found out it was cancer, she rapidly deteriorated.

After she passed, I went to work helping my mom clean out my grandparents apartment so we could move my grandpa in with her. In our frantic cleaning, I found that bin again:

DOZENS of granny squares, dozens of half used skeins. I asked my mom what she wanted me to do with it, and she said she didn't care. I set it aside and later took it home.

Maybe a month later, that tumblr post about the Loose Ends Project was going around. It felt like a sign--I was never going to learn to crochet in order to finish my grandmother's blanket. But they might be able to help!

So I filled out the interest form. They got back to me SUPER quick. And maybe 2 weeks later, I was paired with volunteer in my state (only 2 hours away!) and the box of yarn, granny squares, and my grandmother's crochet hook were in the mail. That was at the end of January this year.

Over the next couple of months, my "finisher" emailed me regular updates on her progress, and asked me questions on my preferences for how she constructed the final blanket.

At the end of August, the blanket was done!

I had always intended the blanket to be a gift for my mother. So I cleaned it up, put it in the only bag I had big enough to fit it, and drove to my mom's. I gave the blanket to her and she was gobsmacked. I explained to her all about Loose Ends, and how someone volunteered to finish the piece for us. She was speechless. (I was quite pleased with this, because I am not the best at giving gifts, so this was a pretty exciting reaction!)

She said that it was the most thoughtful gift she had ever been given. She said "your grandma would love this". To which I replied, "yeah, I know she really wanted to finish it a couple of years ago". But that was when my mom dropped the bomb of a century on me--she told me that my grandma had started making those granny squares OVER 30 YEARS AGO. She had started the blanket when my grandpa was staying in the hospital, but that was back when my mom was younger than I am now! My grandma had packed them all away, planning on finishing it, when my grandpa was sent home from the hospital. Then it went from house to house, from condo in Chicago to their apartment in my hometown. All that time and my grandma had wanted to finish it, but couldn't. First because she was busy, then because she forgot how to do it, then because of her arthritis, and then because of the cancer. My mom said she had given up on expecting my grandma to finish it. 

She said I brought a piece of her childhood with her mom out of the past.

And really, all of this is to say, if you have seen or heard about the Loose Ends Project and have an uncompleted project or piece from a loved one who has passed away--these are your people. They were so kind and treated my project with such care. That box probably would have been found by my own grandkids one day if I hadn't heard about Loose Ends.

Five stars, absolutely worth it!

(From what I understand, you can sign up to volunteer too! If you have time to share, it might be worth checking out!)

[sp00ntaneous]

'Snake' wooden spoon carved in Sapele wood.

[jaubaius]

Source

[itscolossal]

Using Red Thread, Rima Day Intertwines History, Nature, and Human Experience in Striking Embroideries

[snailygoon]

“You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” -Max Ehrmann

[ethanmaldridge]

Home

[tanuki-kimono]

Pumpkin ghost figurine handmade by Acotama, inspired by the Ghost of Sunamura ukiyoe made by Utagawa Yoshikazu for an illustrated yôkai-themed board game in 1858

[jessikast]

I made this for a Secret Santa for a workmate who I knew was also a fan of these books.

Self-drafted (fonts largely borrowed from Lord Libidan, then modified); skeletons courtesy of my husband’s Warhammer hobby, in the geekiest collaboration I’ve participated in.

It’s about 8cm across, on 32ct black Belfast linen.