Craft Projects

My other calling besides writing is crafting. I'm starting an online journal of my projects. If you like crafting too, write me at the mail link below or join me on the Flarer's Fabric Bee.

Update August 24, 2001

I am still working on the bedspread and have it around 75% completed. I have also gone back to painting miniature figures. The latest three that I finished are here.


Update June 29, 2001

Due to the heat and a flare that just won't go away, I haven't been working on my polymer clay projects much this month. I've been crocheting on the white bedspread that I mentioned below, "Romantic Bedspread" from Decorative Crochet Issue 8 (March 1989.) It's now about two thirds finished. This is an excellent project for me because it's made up of small square motifs that only take about fifteen to twenty minutes to complete. I did get a page done for the card modeling project that I have underway, Microtactix Games' Dirt Cheep Starships. I probably won't get too much more done on this until the weather cools down, since my craft room is not air conditioned.

Update May 30, 2001

I had intended to do a big update of this page in January, with pictures of the projects that became Christmas presents. In the usual holiday rush, though, I forgot to photograph them before I gave them all away! LOL! I haven't really been doing a lot of crafting, but I have done a few polymer clay things. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post here shortly.


Pineapple Tablecloth

"Pineapple" designed by Carol Becker, published in Crochet Tablecloth Elegance, booklet #870913 by Annie's Attic. Please click on the thumbnail to see a larger picture. This booklet is apparently now out of print. Annie's Attic now has another book with the same title but another product number on sale for $2.98. All the Annie's Attic patterns are gorgeous, but this one worked up especially well. If you see the edition with "Pineapple" in it at a yard sale or something, it's worth getting.

I started this tablecloth shortly after I had to quit working and finished it in August 2000. This is far and away the biggest crochet project I've completed up until now, and finishing it really feels like quite an accomplishment, if I may say so myself!

I chose Knit-Cro-Sheen cotton crochet thread in Natural and used a size 8 hook. Of all the crochet threads I've tried, I nearly always keep coming back to Knit-Cro-Sheen, unless I need the range of colors available from South Maid.

It wasn't easy to decide whether to keep it or sell it, but I finally decided to put it up for sale. Crochet projects are first of all practical, meant to be used and enjoyed, not stored away.

I have two other crochet projects in progress, a white bedspread made from square motifs and an oval tablecloth in a filet rose pattern in Victory Red. I'm also working on a cross-stitched landscape of a waterfall which is simply the most intricate cross-stitch pattern I've ever seen in my life. Stitching it has been almost like watching a photograph develop before my eyes. I'm a beginner at sculpting with polymer clay (Sculpey and Sculpey III), a craft I just started this summer. (Summer 2000, that is.) I've discovered that I'm no Michaelangelo, but it's really a fun craft. Hopefully I'll come up with something good enough (or ridiculous enough) to photograph. :)


The Flarer's Fabric Bee started out as a group of people from the Usenet newsgroup alt.support.arthritis, who got together to make a quilt to raise money for arthritis research. The web site provides a source of inspiration, instruction, and mail order sources. The site's primary focus is on disabled crafters who may need to adapt a craft or learn a new one, but all crafters are welcome.


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