Archive for the 'sewing' Category
Toddler-Wearing?
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009
When Mazie was little, I wore her first in a sling, then a “snuggli” then back to the sling, then to several kinds of wraps. I really liked carrying her that way, and for the first four months of her life, it was the only way I could get her to go to sleep.
Now, she’s a big girl. She walks, runs, and loves her independence. Until I’m trying to do something in the kitchen. Then it’s “up, Up! UP, MOM!!!” (she calls me “mom” now. She’s 18 months old, and going on 18 years!) So…I need a way to carry her around and still bake bread, do dishes, etc. I’ve been just letting her sit on the counter, but I’m nervous. I was thinking, too, about getting some sort of stool or something that she could stand on and help me stir, knead, wash, etc. BUT…then she’s still several feet off the floor and not really stable.
I’m thinking about making one of these It’s a generic pattern for one of these….but I am really intimidated for some reason. I’m not exactly sure what my hangup is…
Carrying Mazie in something *I* made doesn’t make me nervous. I make our food because I like what I put in better than takeout or store-bought…so why won’t the same be true for this? I can double-reinforce everything, make sure I use proper weight fabric, and make sure it’s comfy and cozy!
OK. You convinced me. I’m going to try it! I’m SURE I have some fabric that will work.
ETA: Found these two: One is an upholstery fabric and the other is a lightweight corduroy. Either would work great!
Mazie is in an owl phase, so maybe I’ll do that one first. I’ve also got a little owl quilt in progress, it’ll hang over her bed.
Sorry for the fuzzy picture, the FO pic will be better! 
Those little multi-colored eggs are going to look like owls when they get their eyes.
In other domestic news, I found a simple recipe from this book online, and whipped it up on Sunday. It was so easy, and the bread is incredible!
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Do you think I’ll have crazy dreams when I sleep under this?
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
The whole quilt top is made from the scraps that I hand dyed. (I blogged about that here.) I did use two half-yards of fabric that Tonya had given me one Christmas to outline the log cabin pieces, but they’re the same tone as the turquoise that I used. The entire rest of the quilt is from that dye experience.
I like it. These fabrics look like they might have been worn by people coming through Ellis Island. They’re so sepia and sort of plain, but really intricate if you look at them closely. All of the plaids are woven, not printed. Some of the fabrics have even been brushed to peachfuzz on one side. And I think the randomness of my design is very like a really old utilitarian quilt might look. Cobbled together from whatever pieces there were. (Which is just what I did!)
Initially, I thought I might sew all of the strips together, and then cut them to make diagonal stripes, so I made a lot of looooooong strips. I cut the plaids along one stripe in the fabric (since this is woven plaid, it was either with or perpindicular to the selvage.) I also just pieced the charms (squares) together as they were, didn’t do any flying geese or even triangles. I then stitched a few stripes and a few charm strips together to make aprox. 2-foot wide sections, and then arranged those together. Then, yesterday, I decided to try a few log cabins. I hadn’t ever done any, and they look so nice (in other peoples’ quilts) so I threw a few of those in, too. Finally, I laid all of the big sections out next to each other, cut the longer strips and used those to lengthen the shorter ones, and it came out to be almost a perfect rectangle, with very few scraps left over.
I’m going to use a big piece of Tina Givens fabric for the back. It’s a nice purple and turquoise that I think will really compliment the front. It needs a whimsical fabric on the back.
I’ll let you know when I get it quilted! I’ve got two quilts that are just waiting on binding and then I can cross them off the UFO list. I don’t want them to languish too long…we all know that the longer they go unfinished, the more used we are to having them unfinished!
This is going to be a bear to lay out and sandwich! It’s at least 8 feet tall. (I need to measure so I can buy my batting!) It’s too expensive to have every quilt professionally quilted, so I’m going to try to tackle this one on my home machine. Because of all the tiny pieces, I want to quilt this one pretty tight (lots of lines). I’m predicting at least a couple of months’ work. I’ll keep you posted.
ETA: It’s 8ft 4inches by 7 feet 4 inches! We sandwiched it on the patio the other night, and I rolled it up so I could start quilting. It’s HEAVY.
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What I did this morning…another dress.
Friday, May 22nd, 2009
This is a See and Sew pattern, using a purple linen with gold embroidery. Simple-simple, but I love it!
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A few (sewing) FOs.
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
Here are a few things that I’ve finished lately:
This is a dress from Very Easy Very Vogue (#V8278). I used an aqua “linen-look” fabric that should be pretty easy-care. I zigzagged all the edges to make sure it doesn’t unravel on me! (especially at the hips, at the top of the slit in back, and at the back seam.)
I’m really happy with this dress, it’s exactly what I needed in my closet. Something bright and easy to wear. I’ve had it on all day today, to run errands, go to lunch, play with Mazie…work…and it’s great. There’s a little stretch to the fabric, which is nice.
I think I might make another one of these in a different fabric.
Here are a couple that I’m not too sure about.
I made this first skirt in a class at the LQS. They had three options, and the other two both had elastic waists.
This is “wrap it up” from Indygo Junction. It’s the shorter version, but I added another 1.5″ to the length. I like the fabric, but I don’t think it works as a skirt for me. I’m having a hard time picking out shirts to go with it. I’m very inclined to wear darks on the bottom and lights on top. I’m also still fighting the baby jellyroll syndrome, so don’t want to wear a ribbed tank or teeshirt…so I need to sew something with more structure to go on top. In like a medium-grey linen. We’ll see what I can find. I want something that isn’t girly or frilly, because that would just push the whole look way too far over the edge.
This is the Amy Butler Barcelona skirt It’s done in 3 different Amy fabrics. I’m not really sure if my mix was a success. I like the overall feel of it…but maybe my fabric choices weren’t the best. I’m not sure if I need to substitute one out, or if it’s something I’ll get used to. I’m thinking I should change out the bottom layer. The top 2 layers are really sewn in with the waistline and zipper, but the bottom 2 could be changed really easily. When I cut the third tier, I was so concerned about cutting it straight that I didn’t think to center the motif horizontally. That could be a big part of my issue with it. hrm. I just don’t know.
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When you need a hobby from your hobby…
Monday, May 18th, 2009
I realized that that’s what all this sewing is about. My main hobby (knitting) has, in the last 2 years, become my primary “job.” That means that at least some of the time, I HAVE to knit.
Which means that when I feel the need to procrastinate…I need a hobby from my hobby!
Which is what my little quilting and sewing jag has become.
For example, after I finished dyeing the yarn in the above photo, I overdyed some fabric…
I hope that the knitters among us won’t get too impatient while I do a little bit of hobby-switching here and there. You can always read my knitting thoughts here in the meantime, too!
BUT! This is just the kind of thing to make me drop my hobby-hobby and go back to my original hobby:
You can read the whole article here.
(My sweater review is at the bottom…the one I drew a great big arrow by!)
I’ve got some Lorna’s Laces Green Line DK in “Wink” on the needles now! Oh My Gosh. Love This Yarn. This is the same yarn I used for Habanero…
but in a different colorway. I can already feel that twitchy-fingers feeling I get when a new design is formulating…so. Get ready for Knitting Content!
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Tee Gee Eye Eff
Friday, May 8th, 2009
Well! The car’s out of the shop!!
I drive an older car (actually a minivan, but I was trying there for a minute to deny it.) It’s a 1996! I had to have a belt changed, the A/C charged, and thermostat replaced. $700. Holy Jeez! (I’m trying not to swear now that Mazie’s talking a little bit.)
It’s really a good thing that I just got paid for a big freelance job!
So, a couple of days this week were hogged up with that stress. The rest of the week, I’ve been working on this, this:
And this (…and trying to write.):
The dress is an Indygo Junction pattern called “over the top tunic.” I used Kaffe Fassett fabrics that I bought when I visited Spool. The body is in Millefiore, and the sleeves are Shot Cotton. Laura at Spool picked them both out for me. It came out a little bit too short (which is my fault for not lengthening the hem while cutting) but will be cute with jeans. Doesn’t it look like it should have a purple band at the hem, too? (I had to work a little bit to make sure none of the circles ended up right on my chestal area front and center!)
Nathan called the MC fabric “Mommy’s hippy fabric.” He’ll just have to get used to it.
(Indygo Junction also has lots of cute little girl patterns, if you’re looking for summer kids’ gear!)
The quilt is Chinese Coins from Susan Ziegler.
In my last post, I was moaning about how expensive quilting can be, and it really CAN, but there are a lot of really cool quilts on Flickr that use all or mostly scraps, too. I found a really pretty one that uses mostly thrift store clothing, cut up and pieced. I love that.
I need to clean out the garage and will probably find a number of things that I’ll never fit into again. QUILT!
Last week, I dropped a quilt top off at Courtyard Quilting to be quilted on the longarm. (We did a barter deal.) I’m so excited to see how it comes out. They told me that it typically takes about 3 weeks, but hoped it would go on the machine this week. Looks like next week. Cynde said she’d call me when they have it on the frame, so that I can come over and take pictures! I can’t wait!!
I’m also realizing that the more one quilts, the more scraps there are. There are some totally beautiful scrap quilt patterns out there, like these on Etsy. (Link courtesy Bitterpurl who made me the coolest scarf AND dyed yarn to match!!
(You can tell from my fabric and nail polish choices lately that I’m in a ‘brighter’ mood!)
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Weekend in Review!
Monday, May 4th, 2009
This was a spectacular weekend!
We’ve started something new called “Studio Saturday” where Nathan gets to be ALONE in his STUDIO (he’s a painter) on Saturdays from 10 -6, and then Sunday is family day. It might sound contrived and forced, and how can we force artistic whatever into such a regimented, timed space?
WELL. He’s been Jonesing for studio time since Mazie was born, and trying to steal minutes away and it just wasn’t working. I thought that if we just said, “Ok, we won’t bug you from X time to X time on Saturday, but them Sunday is Family time” it might both help him to get some work done and help us to have a more pleasant time when we’re together (he won’t keep sneaking off.)
AND IT WORKED!!
Saturday, Mazie and I got up and went to the Farmer’s Market, to the quilt shop and to the yarn shop.
Then, we went over to Cindy’s friend Mano’s house and knit / sat around / played with the dog. Then, we did some errands and came home. We got home a little before 6, but by the time we had the grill going and the kebabs on…it was 6!
It wasn’t even that hard! I just organized all of our errands / visiting into that block of time and we were able to give Daddy some ME time. lol.
Sunday, we just had a great day spending time together. We did some stuff in the yard, went out for breakfast, just had a very nice, easygoing day.
During nap times, I worked on a few tumbling blocks:
I made them gigantic. I love how they look. These fabrics just make my heart race, especially the black with metallic gold splatter paint on it. I just LOVE that one! I made the blocks so big because my prints are big, and I want to show them off. I got all of these fabrics at Unravel here in town. (They’re 25% off!)
I’m not using a pattern exactly, I just cut out a bunch of 60-degree diamonds and am putting them together. I’ve been looking at tumbling blocks quilts online, and it seems like almost all of them have the black or darkest diamond on the left, and I’ve got mine on the right. Oh well. It still does the optical illusion for me, so I’m leaving it. I’ve got about 32 blocks left to place, and am still trying to decide how long / wide to make it. I’m definitely keeping the edges wavy (not squaring it up.)
Don’t worry, knitters, I haven’t abandoned you! I’ll be talking to you over on the Lion Notebook for the next few weeks.
Posted in just chit chat, sewing | 2 Comments »
Finished Quilt!
Thursday, April 23rd, 2009
OK, so here’s the finished quilt! (It was really cloudy last night…never did rain, though!)
I really love this one. It’s the biggest quilt that I’ve made so far, and I think it’s happy and awesome. That light turquoise-y blue is one of my favorite colors to be around. I rarely wear that color, but I love that color. It’s the color of swimming pool water. Remember how happy you got as a kid every time you went someplace and saw that there was a POOL!? That’s how this color makes me feel. Just, YAY!
I really think it’s interesting how disorganized the red squares became as I was doing my piecing. I knew as I was going that something didn’t quite work out with them, but until I had it all laid out on the floor, I didn’t realize how much some of them had wandered. Those red squares are frisky!
Here’s the back:
I put this one together by putting the front and back face to face, with the batting on top. I stitched all around the outside edge (leaving a 6″ opening,) turned it inside out with the batting in the middle of the two quilted pieces, then topstitched all around the outer edge. Then, I used a really pointy big-eye needle and tied it using a bamboo-cotton yarn.
I Frankenstein’d the batting together from spare parts. (I’m cheap) I did make sure, though, that all of the parts were the same composition, so that when I wash it, it’ll all do the same thing. You don’t want half of the quilt to shrink (or full, or whatever it’ll do) at a different rate than the rest of the quilt.) That’s why it’s important to use fabrics of similar weights and compositions on the top, too.
I’ve had a couple of emails from people encouraging me not to give up on knitting (after my last few posts, I realize I must seem pretty disillusioned.) Not to worry, fearless readers, I won’t. I think I had a post-winter, post-deadline crash, and I just needed to work through it.
I’m currently working on a knit top that will combine patchwork and knitting and hand-dyed yarn. I’ll start with the progress reports after I get back from teaching at Loop this weekend!
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Quilting.
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
So I used to knit to take a break from school and other work, and I just realized that I quilt when I need a break from knitting.
I’ve finished two big quilt tops in the last month or so…I’m a little bit afraid to show them because I know they’re not perfect. I have a very wabi-sabi approach to quilt-making. I actually like it when my corners don’t match up. I get a lot of satisfaction out of knowing that they never need to be perfect, and sometimes I even turn the pieces until I find edges that don’t quite match up and then use those.
Here’s one that’s ready to be quilted:
This quilt uses up a lot of the flannel that I bought before Mazie was born. There are fabrics here that were incorporated into other quilts that I made last summer, and into the one I just finished for Ida Rose (Rob and Beth’s new baby.)
I cut out all the squares, then I match them up in twos…then I unfold those and sew the ends together…until I have long strips that I then sew all together. In doing that, some pieces get turned the wrong way, or even whole lines / strips move into the spots where other strips should be. And I leave them. It’s just the way it was meant to work out!
So this one looks pretty crazy in parts…but that’s how I like it. Something about the disorder is just so gratifying.
The back of this quilt is just strips of the border (cloud) fabric paired with a coordinating flower fabric. The batting is bamboo. I think I’ll tie this one, instead of stitching the quilting. I’ve never machine quilted, and I want to try it on a smaller quilt before I try one this big.
I’ll post better pictures when it’s more stable. I don’t want to try to take all 3 layers outside or hang them up.
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Quilt in a bag…now with chart!
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
I’m working on a quilt that I had cut out several months ago. I even stacked all the pieces in twos, ready to be stitched together.
Yesterday I got all my two-piece stacks sewn up, but when I laid them out I couldn’t figure out how they were supposed to go.
I searched all over my office yesterday and I can’t believe it, but I found the chart!
Tomorrow I’m going to lay all the pieces out again and see if I can make sense of this.
(I’m still on knit-vacation.)