22 March 2024

Adventures in a Lace Scarf

Today's edition of Tabi's Creating Adventures focuses on a lace scarf. It's absolutely beautiful and the picture here does not do it justice. I enjoy working lace, so this was a nice project to satisfy the lace embrace. My only regret is the yarn I used was a specialty or novelty yarn and it ended up being scratchy in the finished product, which was a surprise to me. I really thought it would be soft when it was finished.

On a side note, I am trying to figure out how to get my pictures to show up correctly in the blog. This one is sideways and I'm not sure what happened.

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

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24 December 2023

Adventures in Potion Containers

Welcome back to Tabi's Creating Adventures! Today we're looking at an experiment in specialty bag making. Inspired by Critical Role's "Bailey's Dice Bag of Hoarding," this gem is intended for use as a potion bottle bag. Each slot has enough space for two potion bottles, but I don't want them to clank together, so the second potion bottle will be in a pouch.



I used a fealty fabric for the bag and the pouches. The pouches are made with my medium size drawstring bag pattern and have rope-ribbon for the drawstring part. (Pardon the distressed background of the table.)

Each pouch fits a potion bottle. Shown below is a Potion of Greater Healing (as per rules for D&D).


I recently received a box of bottles to use for healing potions. Time to get crafting on another project. =-)

Yay, stash-busters!


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

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19 December 2023

Adventures in Knit Hats... for Me!

Welcome to another installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures! Today we're looking at hats! 

I had some yarn I had bought years ago, when we lived in Washington state, and finally decided to use it. Both of these yarns were novelty handmade yarns and I only bought one skein of each, so that limited me on what I could make. With that in mind, and a new knit stitch pattern book, I worked up these beauties.


These were fun little projects. In the end, I decided to keep them for myself. After all, I did buy the yarn for me.

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

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15 December 2023

Adventures in Hanging Towels

Happy New Year! Welcome to another installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures!

Today we're enjoying some coffee... er... at least we're looking at some coffee decorated tea towels. Eh, take a look!




So, these bad boys were not quite what I expected. I pulled the towels out of the box and opened them up, and they were not the size I was expecting. They were much wider, and the coffee logo was not centered. In the end we have 4 different work-ups of the same color and pattern scheme. I don't think I'll call these a set, but if someone wants all four, awesome!

As for process, I cut each towel in two (like usual) to make four towels, then I elected to sew the top seam allowance on the sewing machine to make the anchor stitches more secure (I find it helpful). Next, I simple stitched with a wide embroidery needle (it looks like a sewing needle and works to thread yarn through fabric). Finally, crochet! Finishing touches include adding the functional buttons and weaving in the ends of the yarn. 

I experimented with how to fold the towels for the crochet part so they look nice and are usable. At least two of them were folded into quarters before I set the base stitches (with the embroidery needle), and the widest one is folded into almost thirds.

I hope you enjoyed this post!


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

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09 December 2023

Adventures in Quilted Cup Cozies

Welcome! Today's post is all about quilted cup cozies. These little gems were inspired by the crochet and knit versions of the cup cozies in combination with my recent endeavors with the Microwave Bowl Hot Pads (MBHP - see the previous blog posts). As I was cutting and preparing to make the MBHPs, I realized I had large enough pieces left over to make some smaller items. Eventually it dawned on me that I could use the paper sleeves from my recent trips to the coffee shop as a pattern for quilted cup cozies. After a few questionable attempts and some wonky stitching, I finally figured out how to piece it all together and make it work well. 

As a note, all of this batch of quilted cup cozies have been gifted. The next batch will have some for sale.

 
Above: This is the picture of the "right sides" of all the cup cozies I quilted. 15 in total. They are all reversible. 
 
Below: The next three pictures are of the same cozie. I stitched a tree, an ornament, and a light around this winter holiday cozie.
 




Above: With 4 different cactus cozies, each with green plaid on the reverse side, two were stitched around the cacti. This seemed to work quite well.

Above: This cactus cozie was stitched with the "pebble" design.

Below: I particularly enjoy random "squiggle" quilting.




Above and below: The duck and flower fabrics are the reverses of each other. Super cute!

 
 


Above: Computer fabric on the "right side" with simple stitching.

Below: Computer fabric on the "right side" with a "wave" stitching.


Above and below: The computer fabrics are reversible with the blue fabric (below), and the "squiggles" stitching blue cozie below is reversible with another blue fabric. I really like this picture because it captures the fading of the blue fabric as well as where I closed the fabric into a cozie shape.


Above and below: This bird fabric is super cute and pairs nicely with the floral fabric (two pictures down). One of these is reversible with another bird fabric and the other is reversible with the floral fabric. The floral fabric two pictures down is reversible with another piece of the same floral fabric.


These last three are gifts to the same friends who received the MBHPs of the same fabric.






I hope you enjoyed quilted cup cozies!

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

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01 November 2023

Adventures in a Last Minute Bag

Welcome to another installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures! 
 
(It's a little later than normal. Thanks for your patience!)

My son decided to be Spiderman for Halloween. The day of, we made sure his costume fit, then I realized he didn't have a trick or treat basket. I grabbed some yarn from my fall colors box and worked up this little guy in about an hour and a half. It's small, but super cute. He got a lot of complements on it while we were out, and when we got home he insisted on keeping it in his room. I guess baskets will have to be a thing I add to my repertoire. Yay for the win!

 
The handle on top stays up quite nicely. One of the benefits of fiber products, compact.



I hope you enjoyed this little smile.
 

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

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14 October 2023

Adventures in Sensory Bears No. 2

Hello all! 

Today we're looking at a sensory bear. This is the second sensory bear I have made and both have gone to the same family. When the mom requested a second bear for her son to snuggle, it was all I needed to make it happen. This family is precious and if this is the request they make, then I am more than happy to do so.



Top: I started this bear while on a road trip with my mom and son, so my mom was driving and I was crocheting. The pattern I used has the head and body in one piece, then each other part is worked separately and sewn to the head or body as appropriate. This picture looks like a mushroom.

Bottom: The finished bear actually turned out kinda cute, like so ugly it's cute kind of cute. Functionally, though, each color yarn has a different texture. Brown is very soft and plushy, solid red is more coarse but cozy, red and white is coarse and dry, and the red fuzzy is a novelty yarn that just feels pretty and silky.

 
 
I think if I make another sensory bear, I might shop around a bit more and try to find yarns that match in aesthetic better. The red and brown combo is good, but I would like to make one in a different color scheme.   
 
I hope you enjoyed this post!
 

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

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21 August 2023

Adventures in Quilted Cup Cozies


In this installment of Tabi's Creating Adventures, we're looking at the beginning of a product line. Previously, I had made cup cozies by knit or crochet and put applique motifs on them; this time I decided to play with cup cozies by quilting. Not to say that the knit and crochet versions are no more, but rather that I am expanding into a new (to me) method of making cup cozies.

 
 
Above is my first demo. I designed this one with a Velcro closure and carried it in my purse to see how well I like using it. (My favorite local coffee shop is great about letting me use my own cup cozies.) Functionally, it's great! Then I asked, "What if it didn't have a closure?" After thinking about how to design a solid round cup cozie for a while, I finally came up with an idea!

Below are my second two demos. These two are solid round cup cozies (no Velcro closure) and based off of two different paper cup cozie designs. One worked much better than the other, so that made the decision for which one to use for future cup cozies much easier. One template was simple and straight forward while the other had some notches that made the construction a bit difficult. In the end, the template with the notches cinched up at the bottom and made the cozie too tight to fit the coffee cups, while the simple design template has fit each coffee cup well.


Overall, the experimentation with quilted cup cozies has been interesting. The one I will be using for the product line is the solid round, simple design (bottom picture, the one on the cup) primarily because of how straight forward it was to put together. There are a few details to iron out, but I look forward to sharing a full line of quilted cup cozies in the future!

I hope you enjoyed this little update.

Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

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25 July 2023

Adventures in Socks

Happy Adventuring!

Not too long ago I made house socks for St. Jude in a Facebook based knitting challenge. I had a couple of wonderful people donate to the fundraiser and each received a pair of socks in thanks. I still have two of the four pair of socks I finished for that fundraiser: the purple pair from the top picture and the multicolored pair from the second picture.


I had intentions of making several more pair, however life happened and things got busy. I still plan to make socks and donate a portion of the proceeds to St. Jude. I am also considering partnering with a local charity in the future. (Please check out the links below to stay up to date!)


I hope you enjoyed this little update!


Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

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07 July 2023

Adventures in Hanging Towels


There's not too much to say about these hanging towels. I enjoyed making the eyelets and playing with stitch and color designs. And, as always, my products are designed with functionality in mind. The functional button makes these great for oven door handles, refrigerator handles, microwave handles, or pretty much any other similar hanging area. 
 
While I have plenty more hanging towels ready to make, these are the ones I finished.

 
Blessings and Peace!
Tabitha

Tabi's Creating Adventures

 

If you would like more information, feel free to connect with me at one of the mediums below:

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