My Poor, Poor Fingers!

If you ask my doctor I’ll be 35 weeks pregnant next week.  If you ask my sister’s doctor (who counts differently), I’ll be 36 weeks pregnant next week.  Either way, my belly is swollen, my shoes don’t fit, and my poor little fingers haven’t been able to tolerate more than ten or so minutes worth of hookery lately.  Boo.

I miss you, yarn!

Solution?  Some non-yarny crafts!  I know, I know – they’re not nearly as awesome (or as dragony) as I’d like, but until my fingers stop looking like hot dogs it’s the best I can do.

So.  Check this out:  An old, ugly cork board I inherited from my brother when he went away to college (in 1998), a pillow case that didn’t fit any of the pillows in my house, and various & sundry craft supplies!

The only logical thing to do was to use my crafting superpowers to somehow turn this pile of crap…err… craft supplies… into a useful item: one of those quilted picture board thingies that all the frou-frou Cornflake Girls like to make.

Step Two: slit the seams of the old pillow case, cover the batting & pull it tight around the edges, then hot glue gun it to the back of the cork board. Try not to hot glue your fingers to the cork board (also difficult).

Step Three: do some measuring & string some -gasp- yarn evenly to create a quilty pattern. I'd tell you my measurements, but unless my cork board is the exact same size as yours it really won't help. Just make sure it's even.

I’m pretty sure the frou-frou crafty Cornflake Girls would have used some sort of fabulous ribbon for the stringing, but, well.  I never was a Cornflake Girl, so… black hemp yarn it is!  If you look closely you’ll also see that I actually drove tiny nails the entire way through the cork board to mark each cross-over.  I could do that because it was soft cork, and I recommend it if you use a pillow case with any sort of straight line pattern (like mine).  I *did* drive the nails the entire way through the cork, and here’s why:

Because Nina! Yay!

Uhh, I mean… because of the buttons.

Step Four: Sew a button over each cross-over on the board, making sure your yarn (or thread) goes the entire way through the cork board and contains both sides of the yarn you've already strung. In other words, don't just sew the button to the top of the pillow case or it won't work.

If you do the sewing right you’re going to either need a thimble or some serious finger first-aid.  I recommend the thimble.  Finished product:

It's my boy!

I sacrificed my vanity to make room for a bassinet in Husband & I’s bedroom, so the trade-off is this new creation… a cool place to display the pictures and whatnots that used to be attached to the sides of my vanity mirror!  Hooray!

Two quick notes:

1: I couldn’t just toss the pillow case because my moM made it for me.  When I went away to college she made me a t-shirt quilt with all the shirts I’d acquired from various musicals, plays, and other high school events.  The back of the quilt is made of the two fabrics you see in the picture – a dark blue with glitter and the little rain squares.  FUN!  I used the pillow & quilt the whole way through college, and still use the quilt to snuggle up in when I’m feeling sick.  The pillow part of the pillow wore out, but I couldn’t just throw the case away now, could I?

2: You’re going to love what I did to the vanity mirror… stay tuned for a new post soon!