More felt mats!....

So yeah, I'm still in my "felt mat production overdrive mode", and I have 2 more patterns to share today.

Totally enjoying making these...I will probably work my way up to some more complicated patterns eventually :)
My current and future projects? Working on a Tardis amigurumi to be given as a gift to my younger one's friend, and then have been commissioned by my girls to work on graph afghans (!!!!!) for them :D It all started with the pretty, colorful baby blanket that I was working on, and my younger one saying " I wish I was a little baby, so I could have a colorful blanket", and I said to her, well, you know, you could even have one now! Take one to college with you....so with her being a Mario fan, I looked up some graph patterns for her, and then in order to be fair, decided to make a Hello Kitty one for my older one as well. But, even though I've been crocheting for 35 years (!!), I have never tried one of those graphgans.....my girls have faith in me :) but I figured, I would try out a small graph pattern first. So big plans....wish me luck!!

One more felt mat, and my first recipe.

My Easter candle mat sold within 2 days, so that was nice. It also means that I can go ahead and make more of that pattern. I also made a couple of these maple leaf ones, listed currently in my Ebay store....

I'm currently working on a heart/ Valentine themed one as well.....On another note, since my older daughter will be moving to California to start her residency, I'm trying to teach her some basic recipes to make on her own. I know, I know, it's finally sinking in......No Mommy to provide packed containers of food anymore :( So, in that quest, the first recipe we tried out are these
Vegan Yellow Mung Daal cheela with carrots and onion (also Gluten-free) Recipe
Cheela is basically a savory pancake....very healthy, you get your protein.
2 cups yellow washed skinless mung daal (buy at Indian store or Whole foods?)
1/4 cup besan (chickpea flour)- you can use whole wheat flour also but it will not be gluten-free anymore.
3 carrots, grated
1 onion, chopped finely
1 green chilli, chopped finely
salt and red chilli powder to taste
vegetable oil
1. Soak daal for a couple hours, and then grind to a paste with enough water in your mixer.
2. Add the remaining ingredients except the oil.
3. The batter should be pourable consistency, but not watery or runny. Add more besan if this is the case.
4. Heat your electric griddle to the max (you can just make them in a flat pan instead). Add a couple drops of oil, drop a large tablespoon of batter and spread it out to make a thick pancake. You should be able to get 4-5 on your griddle. If they are too large, you will have trouble flipping them.
5. Sprinkle a few drops of oil to the top of the cheela, flip over, and cook till browned patches appear, pressing down with your spatula to make sure it cooks evenly.
6. Take them off, and enjoy with tomato chutney, chilli pickle, plain yogurt or even Sriracha sauce :)

This is my first recipe, so it would be heartening to hear a comment, if you do try it out :) Also, please keep in mind that I'm an amateur trying my hand at writing out a recipe, not a seasoned professional who has published several cookbooks, so the quantities are just eyeballed ones...you can use your own judgement with them.

Two more felt candle mats, and maybe 27 more coming??

Here are 2 more felt candle mats that I finished this week.

Both are loosely inspired by images I saw online, but I cut my own scallop shapes and everything else out. I am totally enjoying making all these felt mats, they are pretty quick to whip up. The planning and cutting seem to take more time than the actual stitching. These are both listed in my Ebay store at very reasonable prices :)
Working on a maple leaf one next....Plus I'm on Spring Break now, so more time for crafting :) even though, my plan right now is to devote a good amount of time to organizing my personal craft store/ stash, the size of which has grown to an unmanageable extent, I have to say....Oh well, as I like to say, hubby better be happy that I'm not an alcoholic/ shopaholic or gambler :)

Yes, more felt candle mats....

So we had a great day yesterday, found out that the older one "matched" to Stanford for her Neurology Residency! Headed to warm Cali-FOR-NI-A :) Now, we wait to find out all the places the younger one gets into, and then help her finalize from those choices. Exciting times!
On the crafting front, I am now officially hooked onto wool felt "penny" rugs/ candle mats. I have a huge bag of felt to finish up (that's what I'm telling myself), and the more I create, the larger the number of ideas that spring in my head :) Isn't that funny? And, I'm one of those people who do not think of themselves as a designer at all.....Anywhoooo...here's my new Fall themed felt candle mat, inspired by some images I've seen on the internets, but then I always add my own touches to it.

My WIP's this week? Working on another felt mat, more in the traditional penny style this time, and crocheting a ton of team color hats to use up yarn from my stash! I've done Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks so far, doing a Dallas Cowboys one next.....will share next time :)
Till then, take care, enjoy the warmer weather if you were in cold climes like mine, and keep on crafting :)

Felt candle mat, and a Lego blocks scarf!

It's finally warming up here in Minnesota :) It was such a crazy winter....I felt like it just couldn't make up it's mind. November was unusually cold, December and January were warm (Brown Christmas!) by Minnesota standards, and then February brought back sub-zero January-like temperatures...so, I'm thankful for the Sun coming out, and am not going to miss the March snow even one bit.
Here's what I've been crafting....I made this felt candle mat in preparation for a Community Education class I will be teaching over the summer. I am happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this quick project and have a large bag of felt that I now plan to put to good use! So be prepared to see more of my felt creations here in the future :)

Also finished up a couple of Lego block scarves:

The scarves will be listed in my Ebay store, and eventually I plan to have some felt creations listed up as well.

Till then, take care, and start using up some more of that yarn from that humungous stash :D

More felt creations in the works!...and a "name doily"!

So, I have been busy teaching some Basic Crochet classes, and working on some felt embroidery squares. I hope to sew up these squares into pin keeps/ pin cushions.

I just free hand embroidered these pieces, which was stressful but somehow liberating at the same time. I would say that I am quite pleased with the results! I like the randomness of some of these pieces.......I also added some seed beads.

In addition, I started working on thread "Name doilies" for my daughters! I had been meaning to try out name doilies for a long time, and then I got the bright idea to make these as graduation gifts for my daughters :) My older one will be graduating from Medical school this year, and my younger one is finishing up high school. Big year in terms of changes!!

Here is the tutorial I am using...and you can pick an alphabet chart from here! So far, I am pleased with the results and am happy to report that it is much simpler than I thought. My daughter wants a block edge with no border for a more "modern" look :)
I hope everyone is keeping warm if you are in cold climes like me! Have fun crafting, and spread/ share what gives you happiness :)

Moving on to Felt penny creations!

So.....this past Friday, I headed out to the Textile Center in Minneapolis for their exhibition: Common Thread 2015, and got some fresh inspirations. One of them, I decided to try out right away...It was their felt coasters/ candle mats with a beaded edge. So here is my pair

Pin keeps/ pin cushion seem to have reached collectible status :) plus they are fun projects to make, so here's my first felt one:

I just did the outline of the paisley shape with chalk, and made all the details free hand. I'm sure I'll be making a ton more of these. I have a lot of felt, and two garbage bags full of good quilting cotton scraps to use up!! Haven't broken my pledge to not buy any more fabric at the stores for several years now, but of course, I still go shop for yarn which I seem to consume by the ton :)
Next on my list of felt adventures is a felt penny rug! How about all you crafty souls, what have you been up to??