Hooking on Hump Day – All Aboard!

The Christmas Gingerbread Train!

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here to tell you about the adorable, crocheted gingerbread train I created to add to our holiday decorations. 

Christmas Gingerbread Train

The pattern for this detailed amigurumi was created by the designer from Toyfox Store on Etsy. The fifty-eight-page pattern is incredibly detailed with many pictures and even includes a few links to videos you can watch to help you complete this project. The yarn used is Scheepjes Catona (50g) which is great for this type of work. I used two skeins each of Snow White (106) and Caramel (506) and less than a skein each of Scarlet (192), Kiwi (205), and Chocolate (507). Since you can’t tell by the picture how big the train is I will give you some dimensions as we look at each piece. All coupled together the train is about 14 ½ inches (37 cm) long.

Lead Car with Christmas Sweets

I’ve had this project on my hook for almost 9 months with a few breaks for other projects in between. I started with what I determined would be the simplest part, the Lead Car and the Christmas Sweets. This car measures 3 ¾ inches (9.5 cm) long by 2 ¾ inches (7 cm) high by 2 ½ inches (6.4 cm) inches wide. Each of the candies required a slightly different technique for the colorwork. Charlie did his usual handyman job of supplying me with the sticks for the lollipops. The trick to getting those lollipops to stand up in the car is a small piece of florist foam in the bottom of the car.

Cupcake Caboose

The Cupcake Caboose used some more new techniques and stitches to me such as the “split single crochet” (also known as the waistcoat stitch) that was used on the striped lower part of the cupcake. A crocheter can see that this stitch gives you the look of knitting. The spirals of frosting were done by working a single crochet in the front loops of the previous round and then working another single crochet into the back loops of the same base stitches. The first time I made the top of the cupcake I did it wrong and when I realized my mistake, I ripped it out and redid the frosting. This car is 3 ¾ inches (9.5 cm) long by 5 inches (12.7 cm) high (to the top of the cherry) by 2 ½ inches (6.4 cm) inches wide. I just love all the minute details that went into this car.

Gingerbread Train Engine

The pattern is written with each step for each car separately, but I did some of the parts in an assembly line fashion. For instance, all the wheels are identical so instead of doing the first four and then finishing one car I did all of them together, so I didn’t have to remember how to make them each time.

Front view of Engine

To create the various shapes and make them rigid, cardboard was used either in a sandwich of crocheted pieces (the wheels) or in the case of the engine the cardboard is glued to the inside of the walls and roof before it is sewn closed. Other parts of the train were stuffed with polyfil and with the lead car and the cow catcher on the front of the engine, I used stiffener to make them rigid.

Back of the Engine

There are a lot of little parts that went into making the engine, so I left that car for the end. I just love all the little details of the snow-covered roof with icicles hanging off, the candy decorations and the way the stitching makes it look like frosting on the roof, and the cute little door and windows on the sides and back. Not to mention the boiler and all its adornments on the front.

A 360 view of the Engine

This engine is 5 ½ inches (14 cm) long by 5 inches (12.7 cm) high by 2 ½ inches (6.4 cm) inches wide. Overall, I’m very happy with how this train turned out. For displaying it I created a machine embroidered set of train tracks on white polka dot fabric so it looks like it’s flying through the snow.

Christmas Gingerbread Train

If you are a medium to experienced crocheter I would recommend this pattern. The instructions are very detailed with lots of pictures to help you and is extremely easy to follow.

I’m joining the The Loop Scoop Yarny Link Party (formerly known as Hookin’ on Hump Day). You should stop by to see some of the other projects people have posted.

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Let’s Help Holly!

Hi everyone! Today I’m going to share two events that are happening right now to help out our Blogville friend Holly. So the first question you might have if you don’t already know her is who is Holly? She writes at many blogs but her pet blog is called CreekHiker. Now you might wonder why she needs our help. I will let her tell you in her own words.

On May 8th, my beloved dog Mabel Lou, started showing symptoms of bloat. I raced her to the vet for emergency surgery. It was unsuccessful and I lost my companion and sweet baby. It’s one thing to spend over a grand and get your baby back…it’s another to still have to pay for her cremation. That same weekend, the local bakery where i sell my jewelry burned to the ground! As a struggling artist, these unforeseen events has thrown my precarious finances into turmoil.

As usual Blogville has come together to try to help Holly with those bills.

Mollie & Alfie are hosting an auction. There are lots of great items available. It runs from today through next Tuesday (June 17th) at 1pm UK time. I’ve donated a couple of items to the auction that I will share with you now.

Best Dressed Dogs

The first item is a custom dog bandana in any size. You can see a few examples of them above but there are a couple I haven’t told you about. The first one I did for our auction host Mollie.

Pretty in Pink Mollie in her bandana

It is a custom design to fit Mollie’s personality.

Mollie the Ball Junkie – custom bandana design

The second special bandana design I want to show you is one I did for the now Angel Mable Lou.

Mable Lou in her custom bandana

Holly’s friends from the Rottrover blog had this bandana custom designed for their special friend as a Christsmas present. You need to read their blog to understand the story behind the design.

“Queen Bitch of Everything” really is a term of endearment 😉

You can also read what Holly had to say about how Mabel Lou got her nickname.

These are just a couple of examples of the custom designs I can make for your dog too. You can check out all of the embroideries that are available by hopping on over to my Cindy’s Thread Craft blog where you will find a wide variety of pet related designs that would go great on these bandannas. If you don’t see what you are thinking of for your pup just ask and I will probably be able to make it happen. The bandana is item #12 in the auction.

The next item I’m offering for the auction is a pair of custom designed medium sized plush squeaky dog bones.

Medium Dog Bone Samples

This fun dog toy is about 9″ x 4″. It is made of fleece fabric with machine embroidery embellishment and includes a squeaker inside. These dog bones can be personalized with your pets name or a short message. I have fleece available in a wide variety of colors.

Hafiz loves his squeaky bone!

The dog bones are item #18 in the auction.

The other auction happening right now is one Holly is having on Facebook. Now don’t be intimidated that you “don’t do Facebook” because you can still see what she has for auction (I had my husband, who isn’t on Facebook, see if he can access the links). Just click the link above.

Holly’s Folly Bracelets

Holly is a gifted artist and makes beads that she then crafts into a wide variety of jewelry. Here is what Holly has to say about these items up for auction

 I’m having an inventory reduction sale of my jewelry stash (since I no longer have a venue to sell it!) to raise some funds to pay off the vet bill and cremation cost.

When you get to the main page of the Jewelry Sale just click on the “…See More” link in the first story. That will open the story up to show you links to the different categories of available items and instructions on how to bid on an item. Click on one of the links and then click on the photo to see pictures of all the available items in that category (just hover over the picture to see an arrow to scroll through the pictures).

If you are a Facebook user you can also “Join” the event which will let you receive notices of new items added to the auction. You have to hurry because the jewelry auction is only running through June 13th at 5pm PDT. Now I haven’t asked Holly but I bet if you aren’t a Facebook user and see something in her auction that you really like you could leave a comment on her blog or email her from there (there is a link on her side bar) to place a bid. Just let her know which item you are interested in.

Let’s do what Blogville does best and help a friend in need! Thanks for bidding.

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The Modern Jeans Skirt

Hi everyone it’s Cindy here to tell you about another crafty thing I’ve been up to in the past couple months. A while ago Miss N, a younger member of the knitting and crocheting group I belong to, put out a call to action on Facebook looking for someone that could help her convert some jeans she had to skirts. Miss N is working towards her Doctor of Ministry degree. For her internship this year she is working at a university interfaith chapel where she interacts with people of many faiths. In keeping with the preferences of certain religions Miss N wanted to be able to have some long skirts to wear for work. Other than formal wear there wasn’t much she could find in the stores to fulfill her requirements so she was hoping she could convert a couple pair of jeans to skirts.

Blue Gradient Jeans Skirt (click image for full detail)

If you are of a certain age like I am you might remember making these as a youngster. Back in the seventies it was cool to turn your jeans into skirts. We usually did them short and were able to use the bottom of the legs for the filler piece. Since Miss N wanted the skirts to be long I had to find fabric to fill in the center area.

Jungle Batik Jeans Skirt (click image for full detail)

Miss N came to my home and we looked through my fabric stash to see what would work well. With a little help from Charlie we decided on the two batik fabrics you see above. Now I’ll show you how I transformed a couple pair of jeans to the skirts.

Rip open the inseams

The first thing you have to do is rip open the inseams and the center crotch seam of the pants.

Re-sewn center seam

Then you adjust the front and back center seams so they lay flat and re-sew them.

Create patterns for the inserts

In order to fill the open area I had to make a pattern for the front and the back. I have a large roll of drawing paper that I placed under the legs and then drew a line to mark the edge. If you look close you can see that the paper was folded in half. After I drew the initial line I folded the paper in half and then adjusted the pattern to be the same shape on both halves. I also had to add about a half inch for a seam allowance. I then traced the shapes to the fabric.

Since batik fabric is fairly light weight I decided to add a little heft to the center areas. I used a thin muslin for backing and a very light weight batting and then did some quilting to hold all of it together. The truth is I let my embroidery machine do the quilting.

If you look closely in the picture above you can see the line I drew on the fabric from the patterns I made.

Paisley Quilting

On the light colored skirt I used a paisley style of quilting.

You can see the pattern on the reverse side better. For each paisley I had to re-position the embroidery hoop. There were about 10 on each side. I used a dark blue thread that blended well with the fabric.

For the jungle batik I used a quilt design that had butterflies and flowers and quilted it in a dark green thread.

Butterfly and Flower quilting

I fit each block of quilting together so most of the fabric was quilted.

Inserts cut for skirt

After the quilting was done I cut the front and backs out. Then it was just a matter of pinning them in place and sewing them to the jeans. The final step was to fit and sew the hem. I’m happy to say that Miss N was very excited to get her new skirts.

Walter poses with a skirt

While I don’t have a picture of Miss N in her skirts my super model Walter was more than happy to pose with them for me. I was glad I could help out a friend with this project and didn’t ask for anything in return but Miss N insisted on compensating me and gave me a gift card for one of the eateries where our knitting/crochet group meets. Thanks Miss N I was happy to help you out on this fun project.

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A Bird’s Eye View

Hi everyone it’s Cindy here to tell you about one of the crafty things I’ve been up to in the past couple of months. During November and December I had quite a few crafty things I was working on. Some were gifts, some were orders from my Etsy shop, and some were just for us to enjoy at home. Today I will tell you about a wall hanging I made for us. It might not be very big, but a lot went into making it so sit back and grab a cuppa because this post is not short.

A Bird’s Eye View of Winter

This wall hanging is a perfect fit at about 28 x 52 inches for a skinny wall we have in our family room. It is made up of 7 large embroideries that I found at my favorite source Embroidery Library. You can see my stitch outs for each block below. You should click on each block for the full size to be able to enjoy all the amazing details in them.

Northern Cardinal
(click image for full detail)

The bird embroideries average about 8″ x 8″ each which if you aren’t familiar with machine embroidery you might not realize that is a large size. Here are a few more statistics:

• Average Number of Stitches for each embroidery = 105,225
• Average Number of Unique Thread colors = 29
• Average Number of Thread Color Changes = 40
• Average Number of Hours to Complete each Embroidery = 6

Eastern Bluebird
(click image for full detail)

Now let me interpret those statistic for the non-embroiderers. Each embroidery had about 29 different colors of thread used and some of them are used more than once. The way it works is the machine tells you what color thread to load in your machine. When it is done with that color it stops and then lets you know what the next color is. So the number of thread color changes is the number of times the machine stops so you can re-thread it.

White-breasted Nuthatch
(click image for full detail)

Some of the color changes were for less than 100 stitches to make some of the smallest details. Think white dot in the birds eye or the steering wheel on the tractor below.

Dark-eyed Junco
(click image for full detail)

That last number was probably the hardest one to deal with and the Junco embroidery above was the biggest endurance test of them all. That embroidery didn’t even have the most stitches, but it had the most colors and 49 color changes. It is extremely detailed and even though it felt like it was never going to be done stitching it is one of my favorites.

Downy Woodpecker
(click image for full detail)

Sitting and watching these stitch out for 6+ hours each was a marathon. I could take some breaks at the beginning of each embroidery when it did large areas, but if I didn’t want them to take any longer than they had to I needed to be there to change the thread as soon as it stopped.

Black-capped Chickadee
(click image for full detail)

In addition to just stitching these out it took about an hour to set up each one. It did get easier the more I did since I would repeat thread colors for similar elements like the poinsettias, leaves and evergreens. All of the embroideries are done as close to what is called for in the files except for one of them.

American Goldfinch
(click image for full detail)

If you check out the Embroidery Library link above you will see that there isn’t a goldfinch in the set. Since we don’t have Pine Grosbeaks around here I changed the colors to yellow to make a goldfinch instead. All of the embroideries were done on white fabric that has tone on tone snowflakes on it to fit the season.

Okay, enough about the embroideries. If you hang in just a little longer I will finish this up. I just have to show you some of the quilting I did on the wall hanging. Lucky for me I had all the fabric I needed in my stash left over from the Christmas Tree Quilt I made a couple of years ago.  I wanted to frame the blocks with the black and the olive green fabric worked well with all the embroideries. The nice thing with using that fabric is that the quilts coordinate with each other especially since  they are both part of our winter decor now.

Poinsettia Quilting Around Chickadee Block
(click image for full detail)

I did stitch in the ditch quilting around each of the black frames first. To fill in around the Chickadee block I added some quilting embroideries from Anita Goodesign’s Winter Quilt for All Seasons.

Poinsettia Cluster
(click image for full detail)

I had to combine some files and modify others to create what I wanted for all the quilting on the wall hanging.

Poinsettia Detail on Bottom
(click image for full detail)

Since I wanted to fill in the area around the chickadee block I did the quilting with one of the dark red threads I used on the poinsettias in the blocks to make it visible.

Holly Quilting Between Blocks
(click image for full detail)

At first I wasn’t planning on doing any quilting between the blocks but after it was all together and I did the stitching around the black borders I thought it needed a little more. The Winter Quilt for All Seasons set also had some blocks with holly leaves and berries. With some minor modifications I was able to create this nice border embroidery. These are done vertically next to each of the blocks and at the top of the wall hanging also. I used a matching thread since I didn’t need these to stand out as much as the poinsettia quilting.

Doing the quilting with the embroidery machine gave me exactly the same stitch out every time, but also meant I had to put all three layers of the quilt into the embroidery hoop which isn’t easy. I also had to line up the border embroideries very carefully as there was only about a quarter inch of space on either side. Thankfully my machine has a great function for doing this fairly precisely and I didn’t mess any up.

Obligatory picture with Walter the Super Model

I hope you enjoyed reading (or at least skimming the pictures) about this wall hanging. It was like running a marathon to get it done but I really love how it came out.

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Fashion Friday – It’s for the Dogs!

Hey Otto! This one’s for you! It’s Cindy here to tell you about a new addition to my Etsy shop. This is what some of you have been waiting for. I’ve added custom made dog  bandannas to my Etsy store.

Do you want to be the best dressed dog in your neighborhood? Then send your mom or dad to my shop and have them order you your own bandanna.

Best Dressed Dogs

First you can pick from over 20 different colors of fabrics and then choose an embroidery that suits your personality.

Backyard Security Bandanna for Sarge

You can check out all of the embroideries that are available by hopping on over to my Cindy’s Thread Craft blog where you will find a wide variety of pet related designs that would go great on these bandannas.

Of course you have all seen the “Rescue Paw” embroidery and the most recent addition of the “Backyard Security” embroidery I created for Sarge (shown above). I’ve created another version of that embroidery for all the squirrel hunters out there.

Squirrel Patrol Embroidery

How about a couple of designs for the upcoming holiday season?

Nice Until Proven Naughty

All I Want For Christmas Is You

Get the look that is just right for you by choosing the fabric color that compliments you furs and then choosing the colors in the embroidery that goes well with that color.

Rescue Paw on Red and Pink

Each bandana is double sided with embroidery on one side and printed fabric on the back to make it reversible. I will choose an appropriate backing fabric to coordinate with the bandana. I use high quality quilter’s cottons for these bandanas.

Sizing:

• Small – fits neck size 10″ – 16″
• Medium – fits neck size 15″ – 20″
• Large – fits neck size 18″ – 27″

Large and Small Bandannas

Well what are you waiting for? Grab your humans’ plastic card and head to Cindy’s Thread Craft to order your bandanna now!

Sharp Dressed Dogs!

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Marketplace Monday – Holiday Shopping

Hi everyone, it’s Cindy here. Normally I don’t talk about my Etsy shop much but with the holidays fast approaching I thought now was the time.

In addition to the custom bags and purses I also sell custom pet toys. Did you sign up for the Jazzi’s gift exchange and want to find something special for your exchange partner? There are toys available for both dogs and cats.

Small, Medium, and Large
Dog Bone Toys

Dog bones are available in three sizes and can be personalized with almost anything you would like to say. Each bone is made of fleece fabric with machine embroidery embellishment and includes a squeaker inside.  You can also add a paw print or cluster of hearts if room allows.

Add a paw print or cluster of hearts

So far I have only received rave reviews from satisfied customers of my fleece dog bones.

Hafiz loves his squeaky bone!

Don’t worry the kitties are not to be left out. There are three different styles of cat toy available.

Catnip Filled Cat Toys

Each cat toy is made of fleece fabric with machine embroidery embellishment and includes catnip inside. Choose a ready made item from the shop or request a custom order to have any toy made in a wide variety of available fleece colors.

Mayor Madi enjoying her fish toy

I have also received only rave reviews on my catnip toys. As you can see our esteemed Mayor Madi enjoyed a fish I sent her a while ago.

Kip gets kicking with a bird toy

And some cats enjoy them so much they are too fast to focus on.

All pet toys ship via first class postage, including international shipments, to keep costs down. Some international orders can take about 4 – 5 weeks for delivery so please plan accordingly.

So what are you waiting for? Hop on over to Cindy’s Thread Craft and check out the Pet Toy section. You can also visit my Cindy’s Thread Craft blog where you will find a gallery of samples of previously created toys. You will also find pictures of many satisfied customers in the gallery including some Blogville residents you might recognize.

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Walter Wednesday – I’m a Graduate!

Hi everyone, it’s Walter here! For most of the summer mom and I went to training class at a local recreation center. It was lots of fun and I got to make some new friends. At first I was a bit nervous since I had never gone anywhere with just mom, but the trainer and my class mates were so nice I forgot all about Millie and dad not being with us.

Mom didn’t take any pictures during our 7 weeks at class. Something about needing to concentrate on training me and not worry about pictures. Each class session we were allowed some play time and boy did we have fun. Our last class was a real blast. Unfortunately one of our class mates didn’t make it,but the rest of us sure had fun.

We were moving so fast (and mom didn’t want to use the flash) that we were a bit blurry. That cute pup with me is Miss Gracie. She is a mini doodle just like Murphy & Stanley. I really loved her dad since he always had the best turkey and cheese you have ever tasted.

Classmate Gifts

As a going away present and thank you to the teacher my mom made everyone a squeaky bone with their name on it. These are the medium sized ones from my mom’s Etsy shop. Of course the one in the middle is for the teacher and the bottom one was for Toby who wasn’t at our last class (Miss Fran, the teacher, said she would get the bone to Toby for us).

Gracie with her bone

Cute little Gracie loved her bone and her mom assured us that she would get lots of play time with it.

Walter gives Teacher Fran some hugs

I think Miss Gracie was jealous of me getting hugs from our teacher (notice the raspberry). We had a lot of fun running around and playing at the end of class. Here is a little video of all the action.

If you can’t see the video you can go here to view it.

The little pup in the video is Desi our teachers demo dog. He came to class with her a couple of times and showed us how to do some of the things we needed to learn. He was a good teacher too.

All in all I had a good time and even learned a few things from Fran at Pawsitive Behavior Dog Training. Mom and dad say I still have some things to learn, but I don’t know if I will be going back any time soon for another training class or just learn on my own with my parents and Millie helping me. Either way I still have lots of learning to do.

 

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Our New Bandannas

Hi everyone! It’s Millie here to tell you about some new bandannas our mom made for us. Okay we said this week would be all about us and not her crafting, but these were special and just for us so we will let it slide this time.

You see Walter didn’t have a bandanna he could wear when we were out and about so mom decided to make him one like my Rescue Bandanna.

 

Recently we both got new collars so mom and dad decided to choose colors to match. Walter has a peacock feather collar from Lupine. He looks great in those colors! Below is Walter’s collar and new bandanna to match.

 

Here is a close up of the embroidery on this one.

 

After that was done dad said that I, Millie, needed a new one because my old one didn’t match my collar any more. So here is my new and improved bandanna.

 

The colors really match my collar well. Mom also picked some fun fabric for the back sides and we could even wear that side out if we wanted a change of pace.

 

And now for the modeling shot of us in our new bandannas.

 

We wore these out to a special occasion that we will tell you about soon. I love the way the pink is set off against my jet black furs don’t you? If you are interested in your very own Rescue Bandanna just leave a comment for my mom. She will be adding them to her Etsy shop soon.

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