Featured on Dollar Store Crafts!

This is so exciting! Heather over at Dollar Store Crafts saw pics of the placemat bags in the Flickr pool and did a feature on them on her site -- http://dollarstorecrafts.com/ -- go check it out! It's a great site that's devoted to handmade crafts using finds from dollar stores, thrift shops, flea markets, yard sales, etc. -- I love seeing the ideas people come up with for ordinary household items -- lots of recycling and upcycling going on over there! Shout out to Heather!

Fire Piston Bags

Okay, I've been crafting -- just haven't been posting! I've been working at perfecting and making bags for the new Barnburner Fire Pistons over at Tangled Strands. Fire Pistons are a primitive method of starting fires. They are used by backpackers, Boy Scouts and other outdoors persons. More info is available at http://tangledstrands.blogspot.com.

I was charged with making the bags for them. These are made of nubuck -- it looks and feels like leather, but no animals were injured in the making of this product. Basically, I just cut 3"x18" strips of nubuck, folded down 1" at each end and stitched it down, and then sewed up the sides, right sides together and leaving about 1/2" open at the top. I just ran two lengths of cording through the casing, one in each direction, and then knotted the ends. I didn't bother to finish the edges of the casing. The nubuck won't fray and folding it over would make too much bulk.

New Link: All Fiber Arts

Another of my favorite sites for how-to articles, tips and ideas: www.allfiberarts.com. It's also listed in my Links section to the left. Anything and everything you ever wanted to know about any and all of the fiber arts! Check it out!

New Widgets!

Okay, Gang! I just added a few new widgets to the left. Extreme Crafts is a cool blog -- check it out! Also Free Patterns is a great site to find patterns for just about any of the needle arts. And now you can add my blog your site as a blidget. Just click the black button for Widgetbox!

Craft:

There's a new entry on my Links List. Check out Craft: -- it's one of my all-time favorite sites! I go there almost everyday to see what people are creating. Craft: is a webzine with a mag available on newsstands -- I get all kinds of fun ideas for new projects and experiments. This is the site that gave me the urge to start sewing again.