crafting this month

OK, the stars were done last month, but they look so stinkin' cute together.

The towel topper was a request from my mom. The topper prevents kitchen towels from sliding off the oven handle. I've made two towels from two different patterns. I'll give links and reviews later. Finding knitting patterns was hard. Many more crochet towel toppers patterns abound on the internet.

The last photo is G of GAIN making his birthday cake. After watching TV shows "Ace of Cakes" and "Cake Boss," he's all about fondant. We made buttercream fondant with this recipe and loved it. "I" of GAIN currently has the leftover fondant sculpted into little vegetables and fruits. They are drying inside a paper cornucopia.

Also, I made some scrapbook pages with lovely ladies Cathy and Nicole yesterday. Scrapbooking as a group just works better for me. "Lone Ranger scrapbooking" is bad. I guess that proves the idea that women NEED to talk more than men LOL.

Rethinking ornaments

I make an ornament every year for my children (look here and here). My parents decided to give us children an ornament, and their parents did likewise for us, so that when we grew up and left the house, we would have our own meaningful collection of ornaments to use at Christmas. I've been told Mr. GAIN's siblings and in-laws that it's an excellent idea that they wished had happened for them.

I recently posted my ornament idea -- patchwork stars. I had previously decided that eggs would be our ornament, and I'll tell you why I switched.

It's the eggshells. Breaking a store-bought eggshell to make a nice opening is very easy. But they are very thin and break easily _everywhere_. Breaking a farm-bought eggshell is difficult. But they are strong and do not break easily which is great for storage. Dilemma: having a strong eggshell that easily, predictably breaks into a nice opening. I want both features in one egg, and haven't been able to do so. The three ornaments that I have made are darling, and I may try to get a fourth and fifth one (my four kids plus me) done, but I won't be making 20 (cousins).

works in progress

The patchwork star mentioned at sew, mama, sew is extremely quick to make. I bought five yellow calico fat quarters for 79 cents each, cut through them all at once with the new replacement blade on my rotary cutter (why did I wait so long to replace it?), then Bam! Just like that, I had a small pile of puffy star ornaments for my kids. i already had yellow backing (a discounted remnant that I was holding in my stash. i'm very guilty of buying without an intended purpose.), ribbon, buttons, and polyester stuffing. I'll add a "first initial charm" to each star since my youngest pointed out that four yellow stars won't be distinguishable from one another, even though each star could have fabric sewn in different orders. as I said earlier, lina must be a genius.

Beautiful things about this pattern:

• all the leftover fabric (it'll go into making napkins with a couple old sheets)
  
• the short amount of time needed for completion
• it's easy to make in different fabric combos, patterns, and colors

Here is my youngest's first creation, a scrappy scarf, on her own sewing machine:

 

How to make a diamond template for a five pointed star

My first attempt at 2009 Christmas ornaments, inspired by linaloo (originally found at Sew,Mama,Sew). The Patchwork Star Tutorial lacks a template. I'm a smart enough gal to figure out that a five pointed star means that each point is 360 degrees / 5 points = 72 degrees. But I can't freehand that kind of precision, even with a protractor. I tried. Not pretty. Linaloo must be a genius.

So I had to look for help. I had success finding a template after a long hunt. Sort of. I started by visiting the fabric store. All I could find were 60 degree and 45 degree diamond templates. I needed a diamond with a 72 degree corner. I tried making lines on linaloo's photos with Macromedia Fireworks and printing the resulting diamond, but got a messy, uneven shape that did not sew up well. I decided to use many different search terms with Google (doesn't Google have everything?), and finally found results for what I desired with the term "online protractor." Basically, there are no templates for 72 degree diamonds. Quilters like things nice and square (for square blocks), and 72 degrees doesn't fit the mold. I will show you how to make a template for yourself now.

If you click on the link (here if you missed it in the previous sentence), you see a chart. What now? How did diamonds come out of a protractor graph? I'll explain, because if you can figure this out, you can do many things with it. Very liberating. I tried doing this on my own with a protractor, but the chart gives precision that quilters (and the very exacting among us) need.

How to make a diamond template for a five pointed star

1) Print out the chart. Draw a line from the origin along the 0 degree line to the right or left. Not both sides of the origin, just one side. I chose right.

2) Measure 72 degrees counterclockwise. Draw a line from the origin to the 72 degrees mark around the perimeter.

3) Since 72 degrees + 72 degrees = 144 degrees, draw a line at 144 degrees.

4) For the angles below the zero degree line, take 180 degrees - 72 degrees = 108 degrees. Measure from that first line clockwise, and draw a line from the origin to the mark around the perimeter.

5) Repeat: 108 degrees - 72 degrees = 36 degrees. Move clockwise; draw your line. You should have a star with five rays leaving the origin/center point of the chart.

6) Decide how large you want your diamond by eyeing the grid in the background and along the horizontal and vertical axes.

7) Tape your chart with the five rays to a window or light table. Using a sheet of clean paper, you will now make your template.

8) Place a straight edge of your paper along the x-axis (right hand side of the origin or center, the first line you drew).

9) Trace one of the adjacent lines that you made onto the template. I choose the one below.

10) Remember how large you wanted your diamond according to the units along the axes? Mark that length with a dot on your line (I made them light blue for you) and your edge. I used 6.5 units long. This is one half of your diamond (the center point, or the outer point, depending on how you look at it).

11) Rotate the template 180 degrees. Line the dots up to the same length (mine was 6.5) along the same lines (the edge and 108 degrees). Trace those lines to complete your diamond (rhombus). My Fireworks skills end here, so no image. I don't know how to group and rotate the layers with Fireworks. But I think you get the idea.

12) Is the shape long or short enough? If needed, mark a new set of dots, then flip your paper to complete the shape.

13) Once the shape is the right size, cut it out. Label it. I laid mine on top of two layers of fabric, set my ruler on top and used my rotary cutter. (New blades rule! especially when purchased with a coupon.)

My findings: Without buying software or acrylic tools at the fabric store, I very successfully created a precision shape using my smart brain and a nifty online prism/protractor. Once I found the chart (I heart you, Laramy-K!), the template and construction of the ornament went fairly quick. If I'm more careful with my stitching next time, I'll have a gift-worthy ornament.

Here is my test ornament. It's kind of cute in camo, crookedness and all.