Yimi Handwork

-----Hi, where are you going? ---Hmmm, heading for the woods~~~ ---The woods is down over there, just get back in line!!! ----You guys are fast, don't leave me behind And no, these are not coasters

An area rug made from my old T-shirts and yoga pants Cut old clothes into long strips, then braid 3 fabric strips together, as you braid your hair, then stitch the braid to oval or round A round one which I made before Tips : 1. when braiding, fold the raw edges towards center, like binding strip, so no raw edges will show in your rug,           2.Don't cut too narrow strips.  otherwise, when braiding, it's hard to fold edges, and the folded strip will be to narrow.  I personally prefer 1"1/2         Some Blah, Blah,  People always say we need reduce waste to protect the environment,  to help the Earth, save our planet. Actually, the earth doesn't need anyone to save.  Pollution, climate changes will not destroy the planet,  tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes probably can only cause scratches on it. but to us, those are devastating disasters, we are the fragile environment-depending little cr...

Time keeps changing, spring comes and goes, but these flowers will never fade, bloom in the coldest winter. These tulip buds are actually by-products of that tilted windmill table cloth, which I just finished assembling. After cutting, lots of squares were left, with diagonal grain. I made a carton template and got a pile of these, three of them can make a tulip bud.

This set of plastic canvas watermelon coasters was a gift to a couple, I finished them on last Saturday and sent out on the very same day. I think I'm really a last minute person, no more how early I start, things always end up being finished at the last minute. This color is a bit off due to the light, there is no way to photo again. :) Put them together. I made some mistake when cutting canvas, so here comes these two. Can you tell where are the mistakes? I put extra stitches on to make up where I cut off wrong. That's the real color. :) Here are the mistakes. I cut off one gird more. The pattern is a freebie in Uniek Inc.'s website. Littledeer, a nice friend I met on internet, found and shared it with me. Here is the link: http://www.uniekinc.com/crafts.html

When I mark on fabric, sometimes fabric moves and stretches, which annoys me. Last week, I found a product named Patchwork Board(produced by Clover, a Japanese Company), a kind of marking board has a built-in sandpaper surface to hold fabric in place so you can mark accurate lines, and the opposite side is an ironing board surface. The price listed on the official website is US$29.95. Today, I tried to find this patchwork board in 3 local stores, they don't have it. So I decided to make one myself. I went to Canadian Tire and bought a piece of Ultra fine sandpaper (the finest sandpaper in store) at $0.27 + tax. :) I glued it on hard paper board, and glued a layer of batting on the wrong side, then cover the batting side with a piece of fabric( larger than the hard paper board), folded the fabric to the sandpaper side and glued the edge to cover the edge of the sandpaper. Voila!! In about half an hour, I made a marking-ironing board for less than $1.00. If I know it, I wouldn...

This is a project I started last year, yeah,that's right, last year. I cut one of my husband's old jean, finished appliques and left it there until yesterday. Some people keep really good working habits, always finish one project before starting a new one. Unfortunately, I'm not one of them, I'm easily distracted by new ideas. Therefore, I have a storage box full of half done projects. Sometimes, I don't have new ideas, I go through them and finish one or two. Am I terrible? But look on the bright side, it takes half as much time to complete, at least, feel like that way. I turned the light on to take another shot.

This is something I always want to make, old-time looking walnut pincushion. I'm an embellisher, I guess, I always try to add some small things here and there, this time I added some cotton lace in and out the walnut shell. Tutorial: Make this Walnut Pincushion, you'll need a walnut half shell glue (white glue,etc I used Elmer's school glue) 3.5" fabric square 2 pieces of cotton lace (1/4" wide) a bit fiberfill a pair of scissors a needle and some thread 1, Get yourself a nice walnut shell and clean it. I tried 7 walnuts and got one. I found it was much easier to use a hammer than a cracker to get an intact shell. 2. Stitch a circle in the fabric using running stitch, leave at least 1.5" thread at both ends. 3. put fiberfill within the circle 4.pull thread from both ends, keep all the fiberfill inside. 5. tie a knot tightly to make a ball 6. put some glue at the bottom of the shell, put the fabric ball into the shell. Put some glue around the edge of the side...

More boxes :). I used to put my fabric scraps in a plastic bag, which I always did't like much. Last week, I reorganized my fabric stash and found a few pieces I bought a year ago just when I started doing patchwork, those pieces were too thin to be used in patchwork but would be perfect to cover boxes. I also made two redwork pieces to decor the boxes. The pot one was a leftover of a wall hanging, I cut it off and used fusible webbing to attach it, the bear one was stitched on using blanket stitch. My scraps have a nice house ever since.

This beautiful china lamp caught my eyes in a flea market. It came without a lampshade, but I thought I could easily find a nice lampshade for it. It even has a night light inside. In the next few months, I tried every place selling lampshades and couldn't find anything matching this beauty. Until last week, I got an idea when making a new curtain for our kitchen, why not make a fabric lampshade for it? I bought a lampshade in a Dollar store. It didn't matter how ugly it was, I believed it would look good after my work. :) I cut out the fabric, so it wouldn't diminish light too much after I added the ruched lampshade. Lucky I found these two fabric that matched the blue flower on the lamp nicely. Now it really lightens our bedroom. :)

One can never have enough things to hold needles/pin, pin cushions,pin holders, small bottles,and etc, one of my friends even used a mechanical pencil to hold her needles when traveling. Yesterday, I saw a cross stitch Stitcher's book kit on internet, it was adorable. So I came up with this idea, and made a felt needle book, it looks nothing like the cross stitched one. But I love it all the same, maybe, it only because I made it. :) Inside

What do you do with a empty jam bottle, throw it in a recycle bin? Give it a hat, it'll look lovely and can hold many things for you. The round treasure box was made of a empty 2in tape roll. Putting them together, I got a new treasure box. The bottle before wearing a hat.

Someone’s trash is another person’s treasure. I want to have a large sewing box for a long time, but couldn't find one. Until I saw this one in a garage sell, it was only asked for $3.00, apparently it'd been used as a sewing box by someone else a long time along, there were some needles inside. It looked old before painting. I took it apart before taking a photo. After painting, can you still recognize it? Look inside, a really big one!

It's not time for a sweater yet. Since I found this piece of fabric in my stash, I decided to prepare for cold weather. ;)When fall comes, it'll keep me warm. :) Actually, I have no idea when and why I bought this piece of fabric, I've never made any clothes before. My husband always says: if women stop shopping,the fragile global economy will receive a damaging blow. I picked an old sweater which fits me best as the "pattern" to cut. Since the fabric is pure black, I stitched a bead rose to lighten it up.

Seems summer is not a good time for crafts. I didn't do much recently, lots of garden work need to do. :)) Inside

Being not a very organized person, I always leave things where I use them last time. But on the other hand, I can't tolerate mess either, guess that's why I love bags, boxes, baskets and whatever can be used to hide things. I found the sewing notes pre-quilted fabric square in my remnant bag. It was the leftover of my sewing machine cozy. Looking at it, I found if I made a square basket, the only job I need to do would be adding binding and 8 ribbons. It took me less than half an hour to finish the all thing. BTW, the pin cushion inside the basket is supposed to be an owl. I didn't put eyes on it. If it has eyes and looks like an owl, I can't use it as a pin cushion. "It's just a toy." my husband said. I know I'm weird in that way, but I just can't.