Crafting and Hobbies

[BradTheMad]

It's been a long time coming, but I'm finally pulling myself out of a pretty long depression spell... so I'm sort of rediscovering my hobbies.

That's great to hear! Always nice when the black cloud lifts an you feel like actually doing stuff again

That Necronomnomnom sounds like fun and definitely something for me to check out. I also own the Elder Scrolls and Star Wars cookbooks and they are pretty cool. Not much of a kitchen prince but I do enjoy it once in a while.

[Howltrail]

I do a little drawing, traditional and digital, but I crave for more frankly. I want to expand my talents to more than what people see as the common stuff. But things cost money and it's a real bummer to not be able to afford things

[castlevania]

(pardon the thread necro) i taught myself to draw when i was at the end of middle school and beginning high school, but i didn't pick up an interest in many physical crafts until recently.

i want to learn to sew plushies and quilts- and possibly, when i am at an advanced stage of sewing, clothing (especially for dolls like monster high). i am currently a beginner. my household had a crappy plastic singer that we just replaced with a much better janome that should handle quilting well; so i would love to draw and sew on my own applique, free-motion quilt. i want to be conscious about the amount of waste and energy generated by manufacturing cotton fabric, etc; when possible, id like to purchase secondhand fabric. theres a great secondhand fabric store up north of me with lots of cheap fabric and sewing supplies! it feels so satisfying to repurpose perfectly good old things without spending too much, though i also want to support the local quilting stores with brand new supplies here too.

i would also love to upcycle plain shirts from thrift stores, and screen print or machine embroider (another skill i need to learn) my own art onto them to sell or gift to friends. i would tie dye thrift store shirts, but if the shirts i buy contain unknown percentages of polyester in them, ive heard that synthetic tie dyes wont always work the way you want

i have seen my friends and other people do beadwork. i dont really wear jewlery, but would like to make bracelets and such for fun

[BBkat]

OH a perfect place for me!

Back around Christmas I picked up cross stitching (again. I learned how to do it long ago as a kid). I finished off a piece my mom had started a long time ago but never finished (it was a Goldfinch, it was unfinished due to missing one shade of yellow). I then did thw Wren pattern from the booklet of bird patterns, then bought and finished a cherry blossom kit
And then (so around the beginning of March) I started on my largest/most detailed project yet, which I just finished the other day!

Spoiler

Also, for scale here it is with a 7 inch ruler (the ruler has a magnet on the back and I use it for marking my place on my patterns)

It has, so many colours (over 30), I got to use shiny thread which I've never used before (had to order them online b/c the brand it called for was just, not in stores around here) and BEADS. Which were a whole journey just to find. The pattern called for Hill Mill Magnifica beads. Well uh. Turns out that the Magnifica beads, and ONLY the Magnifica beads by Hill Mill are on backorder/out of production due to supply chain issues. Since like 2021. Soooo I had to hunt around for something of comparable size and colours. I did find them, obviously. But man was that a trip.

I do have the materials for another large pattern I want to do (it's a unicorn) but I'm going to take a break from big, complicated ones. I bought a kit w/ pokemon patterns so I may do one of those lol

Also the beads give it a really fun texture to run my hands over.

[froglady]

I'm a seasoned citizen, from a generation that learned to cook, sew, etc before we got very far into primary school. I can sew by hand and machine, crochet, crewel embroider, needlepoint, cross stitch (though I prefer crewelwork because it's less squinting at graphs with my trifocals). I cook and bake. I also play the clarinet. I read like a fiend. My writing was published in Ohio Magazine and Redbook when I was younger and had more time to write, before my career in healthcare swallowed up my life. Now that I'm retired due to an injured right arm I hope to take back up a lot of my hobbies, but I'll have to learn some of them left-handed. I'm still working on that.