Busy Busy

I have been working nonstop (or so it feels) because I am trying to get a lot of things done before A) Paul’s parents get here for his show tomorrow and B) I go to NY (three days after they leave). Phew. The idea is to do everything now so I can do absolutely no work while I am there. What a concept!

I did do a little fun sewing this weekend on the who-knows-what-its-for quilt. I outlined all of the rectangles with this tan/khaki cotton. I was going to use some linen-like fabric I had but I didn’t like the way it felt so I used cotton instead. It still needs sashing around the borders, but that may require an extra bit of fabric. I think I would like to freeform quilt this one, and am actually looking forward to the quilting part, because it’s so meditative to just sew. I’ve been doing a lot of crocheting “for work” lately and I miss my sewing.

 I’m getting excited about my trip to New York. On the list:
-Crochet Coral Reef
-Visit to Brooklyn Flea
-Purl Patchwork plus other Soho shopping
-Birthday Bar night (plans forthcoming)
-lots of eating

 And boy am I looking forward to the eating!  Plus maybe the weather will be nice and if not, at least not snowing. I must admit I am getting so sick of the snow here.

Starting Something

It’s snowing outside. A lot. GAH. Can’t a girl catch a break? I don’t actually need to go anywhere, but I thougtht maybe I’d go to the coffeeshop and type instead of sitting at home. Oh well.

I started a little quilt this weekend. I’m not sure who it’s for or how big it will be (although I think it will only consist of the 9 rectangles I made already) but I am liking it. I keep looking at it wistfully because I want to work on it, but I have other things to do. It’s fun to play around with fabrics with no real goal in mind.

 

In other exciting news, I bought myself a ticket to NYC for mid april. I can’t wait to eat, shop and walk my way through the city again. I’ve really been missing it lately, and it’ll be fun to spend another birthday there. Plus I will get to see this.

Oh, and I added a bunch of earrings to my etsy shop. The photos are a little gray, I’m afraid, but trust me- they are vibrant and pretty in real life. Damn snow.

Easter Egg Placemat

 

What is it?

 

Well, you probably already read the title. It’s an Easter Egg Placemat. Don’t worry- that’s a tiny plate, not a gigantor egg.  I made this last week in Bernina club, did some seam ripping last night (piping is hard!) and finished the decorative stitches today. I bought the kit for the class- so, no, this is not my usual color scheme, but I wanted to fit in. I did change it up a bit by sewing all of the stripes together, cutting the piece in half, and lining up the pieces perpendicularly when piecing the top.

All in all, making it was good fun. I’ve been feeling pretty lonely working from home lately. Plus I’ve barely had time to make anything for the sake of making it. Sewing straight lines up and down this mat was downright enjoyable!

I love Easter and I kind of miss celebrating it. My birthday always fell around Easter when I was a kid, and I’m sure that had something to do with it being one of my favorite holidays. Plus holidays are acceptable times to be crafty. Hopefully I’ll at least get around to some egg dyeing, even if I have to eat all of the eggs myself.

I’m a Berni-nerd!!!

It’s true. There’s no other way to describe how I dorked out last night after I went to pick up my new Bernina and took it for a spin in the intro class. I am in LOVE.  It’s there, in the back, waiting for me to pack up my old machine.

 

Out with the old, in with the new.

The things I am most excited about include decorative stitches (above) and the freeform quilting foot I just purchased (evidence below).

 

Don’t worry, my old curvy singer is going to California to a friend who works at a nonprofit for Senior Citizens. Hopefully lots of people will get to sew on her, she was (& still is) a good machine.

I’m a firm believer that you can do whatever you want with whatever you’ve got, no matter your level of machine. But I upgraded because I really wanted to be able to lower the feed dogs on my machine. Yep, that’s the #1 reason. No more turning the whole freaking quilt just to go in another direction. I also love how smooth and quiet this machine is. Oh, and I can sew into nothing (like one might do while chain piecing)  and the bobbin doesn’t freak out.

Hooray!! And thank you Mommy!

Quilted Art

I worked on some patchwork pieces on New Year’s Eve & Day (exciting times around here, I tell you). I think that some of them will become pillows, but this one is for a local art show. I figured that the last time I tried to paint I was basically trying to paint fabric, so why not just quilt?

 

I used some hand dyed wool, flannel, suiting and cotton. This was my first attemp with the triangles, and I think they came out pretty well. Although I must say that I cannot WAIT till I get to use my walking foot! Here’s a closeup.

Peep peep!

Holiday Wrap Up (Part 1)

Paul is sleeping under many quilts right now. We made it home last night, just barely, but my luggage did not. I’m hopeful that it just went on to Alberta since we only had ten minutes to transfer (thank you airport cart man!), because I finally let myself buy some cute fabrics. And I want them! Oh, and you know, all of my jewelry and clothes and xmas presents. 

My camera cord is also in the missing bag, so I’m just going to show off some photos of presents I took before Christmas. I did not formally take the handmade pledge, because I knew that I was going to buy some books for Paul. However, I did manage to give handmade everywhere else. We aren’t big gift givers in my family, so I didn’t really have to stress myself out. (I am, however, thinking of all the cool things I can make for next year if I start tomorrow.)

 Without further ado:

2 sets of hot mitts by me with handmade (in Montana!) wooden spoons. I bought them from Harry Felton at the Holiday Bazaar, because they were so smooth and lovely and perfect to accompany the mitts.  I also had to buy one for myself, of course! (EDIT: If you want some guidance on making the mitts, check out this post.)

At the same fair, I purchased a couple of locally made teas, salve and lip balm. I used them for my gift in our white elephant swap, and my very pregnant sister picked them.  I got a pretty cool sewing notions box in the exchange (which I had to steal from my mom!)….which is also in the suitcase.  Perhaps when I get it back I can post some “Gifts in Action” shots.

That’s about it from this front. I had a nice, quiet, relaxing holiday. My phone totally died, so I couldn’t really call anyone, and I just spent time with my family and Paul’s family for the most part. I finished a lot of projects at home- a knit hat for me, three new cake hats for the shop, the beginnings of jewelry… I even sewed up a few quick gifts on my mom’s machine (I must go buy a  new one!). I also spent a lot of time wishing I was so relaxed when I was at home, with my craft room and craft supplies! Hopefully I can get cracking on some of my ideas today.

In other news, Kerry of Beaded Forest is giving away some fabric! Head over to her blog for a chance to win. She also has a lot of really fun projects posted, too– I especially love the otter she made for her father.

Last Minute Crafting

 

I was getting kind of fed up with my lack of holiday crafting (mainly due to work work work!) and a box of stuff from ReproDepot came just as I started making some fabric trees. I really loved the Full Moon Forest charm square set (a sweet deal at $6.95), so I went to task and made a patchwork tree. See how over at the ReproDepot blog.

This may be my last post for a bit- on Sunday I’m off for holiday travelling plus for about two weeks and want to actually not think about work for a while, during the moments when that’s possible. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

Done and Done

I finished binding the baby quilt! It took quite a lot of time to do all of that hand stitching, but I had time, since I’ve been on the couch with a persistent cold.

Here are some overall shots of the quilt on our bed.  It’s pretty big– 40 x 50 inches, so hopefully my sister’s kiddo will be able to use it for a lot of years. I was noticing as I bound it that it would make a nice lap quilt…. but no, I must part with it.

 

You can see some more details on flickr.  Here it is with my first quilt, which was offended that I balled it up in order to make room to shoot the new one.

And if that’s not enough excitement for the day, check out my Holiday Swap Ornaments over at Reprodepot.  Here’s a peek.

I got two of mine in the mail today– they were sooo cute! I squealed “Ornament swap, ornament swap!” when Paul brought in the padded envelopes. I’ll share them all, but I want to save the surprise in case my swap group is reading.

Awwww Yeah

Guess what day it is today?

 

It’s baby quilt binding day! The almost-done quilt has been sitting in my closet since whenever I last posted it, just waiting for the finishing touch. I think that’s just part of the process, to let it breathe before you go in and do the final, possibly most pesky part of the quilt-making. (I know my mom has a few quilts that just need to be bound in her closet, Ahem.)  I got myself together and  made the binding last night with my trusty bias tape maker.

The plan was to machine stitch the back this afternoon (in our wee window of the day where there’s actually light) so that I could work the hand stitched front tonight while Paul watches his beloved Spurs. Sometimes I think crochet wins out over sewing just because I can be semi-social with it, so I like to think of ways to bring my other crafts to the couch.

 

I made quite a bit more binding than I needed, since I had the whole operation going anyway. I always end up using it on things like oven mitts or contrast collars, and it’s fun to have some prints in my stash. In fact, I just used some a couple weeks ago to make this fabric box for the craft fair. I was inspired by this tutorial, but changed it up and stacked the box parts, closing them with the bias edge. I used more bias tape to create the removable button-on divider (because I had necklaces on one side and earrings on the other, and because after a certain width, the box doesn’t want to hold it’s sides in). Now it can be my bias tape/binding stash. As if I needed another stash.

By the way, thanks for all your nice comments about the craft fair. I know they can be hit or miss, and selling my hats is not my #1 priority anyway, but the last time I did one it went so well that I guess I was hoping for a similar response. It’s no big deal, and I’ve placed most of the inventory, I just wanted to vent. I hope everyone has a lovely weekend- I’ll be back Monday (if not sooner) to show you some cool stuff I found at last weekend’s Christmas Stroll.

Stitching Upgrade

This Monday I got a very exciting package from my mom (Hi Mom!). It was a new (to me) sewing machine- a singer featherweight. Still a pretty beginner machine, but loads better than the cheapy I was using to make all of my other projects. I’ve been slacking about getting to the Bernina store to just go ahead and make the jump, so she figured she better at least send me something a little nicer. Thanks  Mom!

 

I got right to work on my sister’s baby quilt. I actually finished quilting it today, but all of the light is gone so you probably won’t get a picture till it’s complete. Other than that, it’s pretty quiet on the crafting front. I’ve been making things to sell at an upcoming holiday fair, and I have a slew of work projects coming up.  I also signed up for the 2nd annual holiday ornament swap, just to make myself totally crazy. Being busy is always better, though, and I was sad not to have heard about it in time last year. Plus I have some fun ideas in mind. You have till this Friday, November 9th, to join.

Over 300 people have already signed up. Wow!