I wish that I had learned this earlier. This was so much faster and with basically no ends to weave in. I don't think I'll ever go back to sewing squares together. I got the idea from this blog page which gives you the basics of what it is, but there are lots of pages and videos on how.

Now I need to add the backing and the edging.

I feel like I've been making squares forever, but its only been a couple of months. I designed and redesigned this blanket a few times before settling on 7x9 square pattern. It meant I needed 8 squares of all the variations except 1 where I only needed 7. Technically I needed 9 of one and 7 of another, but I fudged it since I had didn't have the yarn to change :) No one will notice but me.

This square pattern is from the Granny Square Sourcebook by Joke Vermeiren. It is the Rose Square on page 74. I used the 100% cotton yarn recommended in the book Yarn and Colors Must haves and got it from Linde Hobby.

I'm going to try join as you go stitching, fingers crossed. River has decided to supervise.

It's been quite some time since I made gnomes. I was really feeling like making them lately for some reason.




I started with some normal size gnomes making half male and half female.




Then moved on to some smaller gnomes, also male and female, that can be used as wine topers.




One of the females ended up with Princess Leia buns!




I also had in my head to make some mushrooms.




And before I knew it 2 birds and a fish happened too. This has gotten me thinking about the menagerie of animals I made a couple of years ago that never got glazed. I wonder how many could become wine toppers!

I am nearing the end of weekends that are taken over by wedding events. There's only one more at this point which is the actual wedding in 2 weeks. I did manage to sneak in some clay this weekend. I didn't have time to make mugs, but was feeling a bit more abstract and made leaf forms.

The more I make these the better I get at them. I made these rolling the leaf forms into the clay and then trying to soften the edges before making the shapes. I think it's going to make a difference in the final product. The small vase is a new form.

I ordered some new texture from an Etsy Shop in Europe a few weeks ago. I have one more I haven't used yet, but loving both of these textures.

This is a repeating star texture. I think it's going to be really nice to hold once fired.




This is a leaf pattern that has really nice veins. I'm trying it out with the 214T Mugg Plugg which I think is going to make a really nice cup.

I saw a demo of the Mugg Plugg on ClayShareCon a few weeks ago. I saw a demo a year or so ago on the original Mugg Plugg, but they've expanded to tapered forms and that caught my eye.

I decided to take advantage of the deal and I am really glad I did. This is the 3T and according to Mugg Plug with a 5" tall slab, this will hold between 18-20 ounces of liquid.


I decided to make them upside down because that's how I freehand my mugs. I rolled the slabs out and let them stiffen up a bit before putting them around the wood. I made my own template ahead of time using a pencil and rolling the form on some craft foam. Before wrapping the clay around the wood I made sure to use a lot of corn starch, but one time I forgot and was still able to wiggle it off pretty easily.




Here is my almost finished mug, just need to do the rim once the form is leather hard.