I bought a flour sack from Lehi Roller Mills and framed it using stretcher bars artists use to make their own canvas. I like that it's a historical flour mill from a town that we visit whenever we can. It will remind of us of our Utah adventures past and future. Stretcher bars are useful in crafts because they come in four pieces. You pick the sizes of the pieces that are delineated by the inch and thus can make custom frames for craft projects relatively cheaply compared to trying to find a frame in the size you need which are usually expensive. I buy mine locally at Jerry's Art O Rama. For this project I just stapled the flour sack, uncut onto the back of the frame I made from the stretcher bars. It took 15 minutes from start to finish and a lot of that time was spent finding an industrial stapler and dusting it off:)
The next project I finished was a banner for my kitchen. I hung it over my antique mirrors for a nice, finished touch to a semi-bare wall. The idea came from my sister-in-law who made a similar one for the 4th of July family reunion on the previous post. I really like hers especially since the colors were red/white/blue but not distinctly 4th of July. She can use that banner for birthday parties or any festive occasion. I took that spirit with this banner and made it double sided. The other side has warm, winter colors that suggest christmas. I used bias tape for the string which is easy, peasy to use and I hung it on two nail heads. I hot-glued vintage buttons onto the nail heads for a little detail. I plan to make more of these.... It only took about 1 1/2 hours:)
This dishcloth is apparently a very old, traditional pattern called Grandmother's Dishcloth and is familiar to many. I knitted this up pretty quickly and I find it a great project to knit while watching TV with hubby. The pattern is simple enough to knit while half paying attention to the tube. I knitted this in 100% cotton with aluminum needles. The pattern can be found here. I have knitted 3 already and printed a coupon so that I may buy more cotton yarn at 40% off over founders weekend. If you frequent JoAnns then it may be worth it to sign up for their newsletter. They send electronic coupons you can print out a few times per month. They are usually 40% off.
I have a few (several) more projects in the works. I will share when I have more pictures. Craft on!
