Afton's Afghan

---Revised---
Jan. 8 2013

I made a video tutorial and posted it on Youtube here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7FIHaz9cvw&feature=youtu.be

It's my first video tutorial so be patient :)

----Revised----
Aug 28 2012


This is the Blanket Grandma Turner (Tyson's Grandma) made for Afton when she was born. Since then I have been trying to figure out the patter because it's so amazing!

Yes, it would have been easier to just ask for the pattern but it was fun trying to figure it out on my own.

Well, I finally did it so I thought I would share because it really is one of the neatest patterns I have ever seen. It gives the afghan a 3D look and I love it.

So I kind of came up with a pattern but it was kind of hard to explain so I decided to do a picture tutorial. (also, I always wanted to try a picture tutorial) It's not the best but here it goes.

This is the actual pattern I came up with:


Here's the revised version to try and make it easier to follow

Grandma's 3D Baby Afghan

Hook Size H

Lion Brand Pound of Love: pastel Pink

Row 1: Using this technique of a no chain foundation, 122 dc. Turn

Row 2: ch 3 (does NOT count as dc), 3 dc in next dc. (ch3, sk next 2 dc, 3 dc in next dc) 40 times. DC in last dc. Turn

Row 3: ch 3, 3 Bpdc in the first dc of 3 dc set. ch 3 [working behind the ch 3 of previous round, 3 Bpdc in 1st dc of 3 dc set, ch 3) 38 times. 3 bpdc in 1st dc of last 3 dc set. Dc in last turning ch of previous row. Turn

Repeat row three until desired length

Last row: ch 3, (dc in next 3 dc, dc in ch 3 sp ) repeat to the end of the row. Dc in last turning ch. fasten off and weave in ends.

Photo Tutorial:

Starting on Row 3-

Ch 3. Yarn over,

Going behind the ch 3 of previous row

bpdc in the first dc of next 3 dc set

(Going around the front of the stitch)

(Yarn over, pull through, finish dc)

When making the next bpdc in the set of 3, do it the same way but make sure the second one goes on top of the first one, not beneath it. (which mean you may need to pull down the 1st st in order to get the second one on top of it) So the three stack on top of each other. You'll get a totally different look if you do the dc under the previous one.

Here's what it looks like when you just finish the 3 bpdc

This is what the back side looks like

ch 3 and repeat till the end. Then dc in last st (it's the turning ch 3 from the previous row)

This is what the edging looks like

And here's a few rows done

Wow that was not an awesome attempt to explain that but I hope it helped even a little. I love this blanket and I think I'm gong to make lots. It goes pretty fast too.

New Whiteboard

I've seen this Idea a couple of time and I really liked it so this time I decided to try it. I found the idea here, but it's a link to a link to a link, so I decided to do a mini tutorial on it. It's not very hard to do really

(Although, theirs are much cooler than mine, and I'm still not sure I like my fabric choice. I may change it soon)

So,

1. Find an old picture frame (with the glass in it).

I found mine at DI

2. Sand it and paint it

3. Cover the backing, or picture that was in it with your choice of fabric.

The other tutorials said to just glue gun the fabric onto the back, But Tyson had some spray on adhesive I wanted to try. It worked great so I guess any way you want to do it

4. Then put it together.

Place the glass in the frame, then put your fabric-covered backing onto the glass and voila

You will actually be writing on the glass and it works just like a regular white board. When I switch my fabrics I'll post another pic and maybe you'll be more excited :)

Toy Bag Tutorial

I'm so excited about this one! This is the first project where I thought it up all myself and created it and it turned out just how I wanted it to! I'm so excited I just wanted to share it with you.  I'm new to this so let me know if it doesn't make sense. I took lots of pictures to help my explaining.

What you'll need: 

• One 12 x 26 piece of fabric for the bag
• Two 1.5 x 15 pieces of same or contrasting fabric for the strings {or you can use ribbon or rope or anything you want, just cut it at 15 "}

Strings:

{If you're doing ribbon or rope, skip steps 1-4 )       

                           

1. With your string fabric pieces, fold down one short end 1/4" and iron. Then again. 

2. Fold the fabric in half; iron; and open back up.

3. Fold one long edge into the middle and iron, then the same for the other edge (so it's folded in thirds)

4. Then fold the fabric in half again, iron down, and top-stitch the

 whole length. 

Repeat for second string.

That's all for now with these, onto the bag:

5. Fold one of the long ends of the fabric down 1/2 in. and iron. fold down again and iron (you

 can do this on both long ends but you don't need to.) 

6. Iron down both the short ends 1/2 in. once

7. (This is going to be a confusing one) Place the short raw edge of the string (the side you didn't fold down) on the raw edge of the short side of the bag. Fold the bag fabric over the string so you can sew the edge of the bag closed without getting the string. Pin it down and sew the edge, Making sure you don't catch the ribbon in the stitch! keep the pin in for now.

8. When both short ends are sewn, fold the bag in half hamburger style so the right sides are

 facing. 

9. Sew the long edge with the raw edge first (the pinned side of the ribbons) together with a 1/4 in seam allowance. Sew over the ribbon a few times for durability. 

10. Sew the folded edge next, starting from the bottom. Make sure you stop before you get

 to the ribbons! I stopped at the top seam. 

11. turn the bag right side out and iron. Tie a knot in the end of the ribbons if you want (it won't be a problem if you don't want to, I just did it for looks)

An optional way to do the bottom bag:

12. You can leave the bag as it is or you can do this: Turn the bag inside out again. fold the corner flat and pin it. 

 

13. Sew straight across following the pin. 

14. Trim the corner and turn right side out.

Ta Da! You're done. you can embellish as you want. Let me know if it's all totally confusing.

 

Easiest Scubbie Ever

So as I was craft-blog hopping, I found the Sydney Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef blog and thus began the inspiration. I've been trying to find a good scrubbie pattern and there it was. The site is a place where people from all over crochet a coral reef as a "woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world."  It's really cool all of the designs they come up with, so I made my own little coral to be my scrubbie. 

Materials: 

Peaches and Cream Yarn

Crochet Hook- any size (I used size H)

NOTES: 

• sc=single crochet
  
• You can use any basic stitch you want
  
• Crochet in the front and back loops to make it sturdier
  
• Worked in one continuous round
  

1. Make a Magic Ring. (Planet June has the best photo tutorial for this. You'll never go back to the old way)

2. Crochet 2 sc in each sc 

Ta Da: that's all

Repeat Round 2 until you feel like it. 

Finish: slip stitch into next stitch and fasten off. Weave in Ends. Trim the middle yarn

It starts out looking like this

After a few more rounds, it starts to get wavy

You can stop here if you want, or keep going.

These are my finished scrubbies. 

The best part about this is, you can make them as big or little as you want, or until you run out of yarn or time. The big one takes about 15 min. 

You can make at least 4 or 5 out of the small Peaches and Cream ball. These would be good to give with a bottle of dish soap as a bridal shower gift. 

Paper Bag Album Tutorial

Yay! My first Tutorial!! Good thing it's an easy one. Anyway, here's how you make the paper bag photo album:

Materials:

• 3 Regular paper lunch sacks
  
• Ribbon
  
• Paper
  
• Glue
  
• Hole punch
  

Optional:

• eyelets
  
• brads
  
• stamps
  
• Stapler

Take your three paper sacks, fold them in the middle and punch 3 (or however many you want) holes on the folded edge. You can also just staple the end if you don't want to do the holes.

Open the bags and stack them on each other alternating the open ends of the paper bag.

Then close them like a book and tie a ribbon through each hole, or staple it closed or you can also do brads or eyelets or eyelets and ribbon. 

Cut out 12 5x5 pieces of paper, and 3 slightly smaller pieces of paper.

Decorate the pages and glue them straight onto the bag.

The three slightly smaller pages are the ones that will go into the open ends of the paper bags. Just cut them 5x5 and trim a little bit off.

Decorate them and staple a ribbon to the page (or punch a hole and tie a ribbon through it), so you can pull the page out. These 3 pages are good for journaling or just more pictures.

I love making these. They even make good gifts :)

Thanks for letting me do a tutorial.

Tutorial: 7 patch quilt

Okay, so I'm not the type to start cutting and sewing without having any directions to follow (which is why I love tutorials), but I'm trying to branch out. I bought the fabric for this quilt with a pattern in mind and then changed my mind about it and just started doing my own thing... I was going to just do a bunch of 9 patch blocks and sew it all together, but I had one fabric that I really wanted to showcase and little 4" squares just don't do it, so I made a 7 patch. The end result was pretty fun because it is such a versatile quilt block, there are so many variations you could use.

Here's how you do it:

You can start with pieces of fabric that are any size you want or scraps from your stash. I got fat quarters. Then you pair up the fabrics that you think look good next to each other and iron them together, right sides facing with starch so they stick together a little bit. Then cut each pair of fabrics into 4"x4" squares. Move them carefully into a stack so they don't separate. They're completely ready to sew at this point. Cut all your fabrics this way and lay them out next to your sewing machine so you can sew all of them at once. Stitch one edge of each of the squares together with a 1/4" seam allowance. All seams in this project are 1/4". After you sew the first piece, don't cut the thread, just feed the next piece in and keep going until you've finished all of your squares. This method is called chain piecing. It saves time and thread. I separated the pieces a little more than usual so you could see what was going on.Now you have your twosies. Cut the threads between each one and press all seams toward the darker fabric so that it doesn't show as much once you're done. Do that to all the pieces and then lay them out again by your machine so you can see what you've got.Then take two of your twosies and sew them together to make a 4 patch. The only pinning I did was to just pin the two pieces of fabric together where the seams meet to make sure they line up. It's best if each block is different so you get the random look when you're done. Press seams.Then take your 4 patch blocks and sew another twosie on top of it to make a 6 patch. Press seams.Then take the fabric that you really want to show off (in this case a yellow and blue toile), and cut it in strips of 4"x11". This will make up the third column. Sew it onto either side of the block, on the side that has 3 squares. The finished block looks like this:You may have to do a little bit of trimming to even up some of the sides. Then lay the blocks out on your design table (I like to say that because it makes me feel like Fons & Porter, but really I just lay it on my living room floor) and move them around until you are happy with how it looks. As I said before, there are a lot of variations in how you can put them together. You can do something more random:

Or something more organized:Once you decide on a layout, sew the blocks in one row together and press seams and do the same for the rest of the rows. Make sure you're lining up each seam.Then sew the rows together, and press the seams. Again, make sure you line up the seams. If you don't want a border, then you're done! Quilt or tie and bind as you like. If you do want a border then you're almost there! You can put as many borders on in whatever thickness you like. I did my inner border 3" wide and my outer border 6" wide. Cut your fabrics into 3" strips and sew as many strips as you need to cover all 4 sides. Repeat for the outer border. And...Voila!! You are finished. Quilt or tie and bind as you like. I'll post a finished product picture once mine gets back from the quilter.