Hobby-starting-itis?

I've been organizing my stuff and decided that I have a disease...don't know what to call it yet. If I only have one talent, it would be that I'm very good at buying the supplies for a hobby. I'll post the supplies I have for various hobbies, not necessarily in the order that I have attempted them. Some of them I've taken up on multiple occasions. I've put some of the finished projects in there too...but we'll talk more about that later.

Wood Burning

Wood Carving (no wood made it out alive)


Faux Stained Glass


Punch Needle


Origami (All of the projects quickly get loved to a wad of paper by my boys, and those that didn't my husband took to work)


Painting/Mod Podge (For Decorating the Nursery)


Loom Knitting



And on to Crocheting and Knitting. This is my pile of yarn that I have accumulated over the years. I also have almost every size hook you would want and many knitting needles.


This is something I did in a crochet class


This is something I am working on, Here is his body and an arm.


These are books I am going to make projects from.
Crocheting


Knitting


Sock Projects
I have a few books and the cheapest per-pair socks I could find that would be fun to make stuff out of. Here is Ronald from an earlier post.


Softies/Sewing
Lo-lay and Carl are my recent projects in this area.


Did I mention I love books? As far as finished projects go, I tend to feel that in general they just look decent, especially if you squint your eyes (haha) but that is one of the reasons I am totally digging making kids toys. The finished project doesn't need to be EXACT for it to be right and for the kids to love it. I have gotten way more satisfaction out of my recent hobbies than any other. Most nights I find myself frustrated that I have to go to sleep....it's a good sign.

This is how I am storing my several projects going on at once.


Obviously I need to thank my husband for always supporting me in starting hobbies, even knowing that some of them would never last. So, Thank you! and I am so sorry for all of that money I have spent, I am glad you still love me! Also thank you to my mom, she is also a fan of starting hobbies and has always been good to buy double supplies so we can start things together.

Ronald the Elephant

This is Ronald, the elephant. I made him from two baby socks. I named him Ronald cause I made him for Reagan (hehehe)

Hopefully this gives you a little bit of an idea of how small he is.

Another Softy

Of course once I made a toy out of my younger son's drawing, my older son wanted one too. So this is his drawing, it's an alien, in case you were wondering.

And this is Carl. Try not to pay attention to the placement of the 7 legs.

On this project, I first learned that you will break your needle if you are using a quilting foot when you try to use an applique stitch (Sorry Mom!) I then learned how to get the hair between the two sides of the head by sewing it on the front of the face upside down (so the hair is basically covering Carl's eyes) and then clipping the fabric below the seam so it will be the right shape when you turn it right side out. After I figured that out (with the help of my mom) it was fairly simple to sew the legs and arms the correct way keeping it all inside the "pocket" when sewing the two right sides together. I also learned that I do not know how to whip-stitch and that even when I do know how I need to be strategic in placing it. I could have put it behind the hair instead of the chin which shows how ugly it is. I didn't know I would be doing this blog when I made these, but I will try to post pics of the steps to give a better idea of how it all went down.

My first project

My younger son drew a picture of a guy on his magnadoodle, and I thought it would be a fun practice project to bring it to life. So here is his drawing

And here is the creature he named "Lo-lay"

With this project I learned that I need to put the face on before I sew the two sides together so that all of the knots and stuff can be properly hidden.