The Stitch Up

Another February Project Down

I'm thinking that instead of a monthly project list I should make in an "ongoing" project list.  But I have managed to finish another project from my February list.  I have been meaning to make a sewing machine cover since I bought my machine about 10 years ago.  The poor thing gets covered in dust and my solution of tossing a towel or scrap of fabric over it is just not dignified.

I looked at a few on-line options and chose this project.  It's adorable with the pom pom trim, although since I'm using these projects as stash busters I ended up using trim I already had around.

I chose a couple of Anna Griffin fabrics I had around as well as a blue cotton for the lining.  This project was pretty straight forward and came together quickly - which is saying something considering that I am a novice sewer and I take a while to get through any pattern.

There are basically three pieces to this pattern as well as fusible web to give it some heft.  The only trouble I had with the directions was that it said to place the outside in the lining and sew them together with the right sides together.  I think it's my total lack of experience with patterns but I couldn't figure out how this would work, so I sewed the two pieces together with wrong sides facing.

The finished project is a little tight at the bottom for my machine.  I think if you're a better sewer you might measure your machine and adjust the pieces accordingly.  Still, my machine does have a nice little blanket to protect it from the dust now.

I was fairly productive today.  After getting up early (despite the daylight savings change) to do some grocery shopping, I got this slow cooker lamb vindaloo going, started on the sewing machine cover and THEN made it to my book club meeting.  I know!  I impressed myself for a Sunday.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and survived the time change.  I'll hopefully have more projects finished soon!

Labeling

I finished ONE of the projects on my February to-do list.  Sigh.  The weekends this month have been a little busier than I expected.  That just means I'll carry over some projects and add one or two.

The project I finished is the Quilted Canister project from Handmade Mommy.  I really like how these turned out.  The directions were very clear and the process turns out a very pretty finished product.

The basics of the labels are like any other quilt project.  You cut strips of coordinating fabric, cut those into squares and then sew those squares into strips.

The strips are then sandwiched with batting and a backing fabric and quilted together.

At the end you use printer fabric to sew labels for the individual spices and dry goods you'll be storing onto the quilted fabric.

My finished product looks very nice stacked on top of my counter.

I really did love this project and I encourage everyone to head over to Handmade Mommy for this project and lots of other cool stuff!

 

February Projects

I've made my list of projects for the month along with my goal date to complete them and I've entered it all into my trusty Weave App.  I thought I'd list them out here so I can track my progress over the next few weeks and I can also use the motivation to get these projects done!

First up, Quilted Canister Sleeves.  This project by Handmade Mommy is so great if you've got jars or canisters on display in your kitchen.  My kitchen seems big to me compared to the kitchens in the condo and town houses we've lived in over the past few years.  But there is no dedicated pantry and I'm having to improvise space for things like flours and sugars.  Right now I have a collection of glass jars ready to be filled, sitting on top of my cabinets.

Since they are going to be out for everyone to see I've been looking for cute labels or something but these quilted labels are going to be perfect.  I sorted through my fabric and found these three fabrics that I think will look good and match my kitchen:

I haven't decided if I'll just use the fabric labels as the pattern suggests or embroider the labels, but I'm anxious to see this complete.

Second up is a variety of projects for my sewing room.  I need a sewing machine cover and I also want to make up a few matching storage and organizing items.  Stitch Magazine has a great idea for a sewing machine cover - it combines a cover with an organizer:

It is really cute!  After I choose fabrics for this project I'm going to decide on fabrics for some embroidery hoop wall organizers that are also from Stitch magazine:

and also patterns for a pencil holder and some baskets from 1 2 3 Sew, a great book with some easy home decorating patterns.

The last project I'd like to get done this month is a set of throw pillows for our basement.  We have a sort of outdoors theme downstairs and my plan is to make denim pillows and embroider a few wildlife patterns onto them.  A couple of the patterns I"m thinking of useing are:

and

We'll see how these turn out.  I don't really have a pattern for the pillows, I'll just be winging it more or less.

In addition to my February projects I have some ongoing items that don't have a deadline. I like to have something to work on in front of the tv at night after work so I'm going to still be poking along on my tea towel,

And I barely started this Soft As Lamb scarf, but even though it's supposed to be easy, I'm thinking to switch to a cowl I saw on Lion Brand which looks like it might be a little simpler.  Either way I haven't made much progress as SOMEONE thinks any yarn movement is an invitation for attack:

The last thing I'll be working on is another Spanish Quilt Square.  This one will be the Infanta by Velazquez:

I'm hoping to have that started by the end of the month.

I've got a lot to keep me busy this month and I"m hoping it will all get done before my Weave app starts sending me notifications that I'm behind!

Project Organization

In my quest to make organization my middle name, I've found a few tools to keep me on track this year.  

The Project Girl, who is becoming my go-to for organization ideas has a host of print-ables that I've been using.  This one is a Project Master List, which I'm using to jot down project/craft ideas as soon as I come up with them.  I'm then trying to think rationally about how long I'll need to complete each project and giving myself a deadline goal.

For my next step I am using an AWESOME app called Weave.

It lets you break each project down into individual tasks, set a date to complete each task and it then gives you reminders of when your completion date is coming up.  It also keeps track of how much you've spent on a project, which I think makes this a great app for people who are selling things on Etsy or other sites as it keeps you within budget.  It would also probably be a good idea for me to keep track of my budget, but at this point I'm pretty much working out of my fabric and embroidery thread stash, so I think I can postpone concerns about budget for a bit.

My plan is to list the projects I plan to complete each month here on the blog as an added incentive to get those things done.  I'm trying to be realistic about the time it will take to finish everything as I've learned that the reminder every day from the Weave app that I'm up against my own deadline is really guilt-inducing!

So an update here soon on my projects for February and their progress.  Hope everyone is keeping warm and enjoying 2012.

A Quick Quilt

Last year some friends and I went to Oregon to visit our girlfriend Lianne.  We wanted to see her new home and life in Oregon and celebrate the fact that she and her husband were expecting their first child.

While we were there we had a small baby shower and did one of my favorite shower activities.  Everyone decorated a quilt square with a message to the baby and I collected them together to make a baby quilt.  I finally put everything together and mailed it out to the new mom and baby (Aaron) last week. 

Everyone did a great job on their squares.  I played around with the squares a little to find a nice mix before pinning them together. 

We used blue for the personalized messages as we knew in advance that Lianne was going to have a boy.

I found some yellow gingham to set off the blue squares and a really cute farm animal print for the back as Lianne grew up on a farm and I had a feeling Aaron would have a few farm themed baby things around. 

The quilt came together pretty quickly as it was small and I just did some "stitching in the ditch".  

The final product is cute and I hope for years to come it will bring sweet dreams to Aaron and remind him and his parents how much we love them.

Does This Look Familiar, Lianne?

Ah, Spring!  Such a good time to clean out the closets and cupboards and wrap up those lurking "to be finished" projects.

I've blogged before about the classes that my friend Lianne and I took years ago to learn quilting.  And how we somehow managed to leave behind unfinished projects after each class.  I've been completing these poor forgotten quilts here and there over the years.  Two potholders, (I still can't believe we took two potholder classes and didn't finish either one!), a small lap quilt, and finally, I've unpacked the remnants of a double irish chain quilt I'd started in the last class Lianne and I took together.

I think we were struggling to finish our projects in each class and figured that we'd take another class and finish up our projects then, but each class had a different pattern.  The potholders were just some basic piecing, while the lap quilt was a log cabin pattern and the final quilt was irish chain.  Obviously our logic was flawed.

I've been carting around the fabric and pre-cut rows and squares for the irish chain quilt for at least 6 or 7 years.

Part of my issue has been I'm not as excited about my fabric selection now.  At the time we started taking quilting classes I was a little nervous about picking out too many patterned fabrics and having a quilt that looked too busy.  But now, I really prefer a lot of coordinated pattern and color and wish I had something other than the basic green and the faint pattern in the white.  I still love the green paisley!

In any case, this quilt needed to be set free.  I spent a weekend getting the top completed and am pretty happy with the outcome:

I need to complete the back, pin it all together and bind it, but it's a lot closer to finished than it's been for the last 7 years.  I think in the future I'm going to have to make myself finish all outstanding projects before taking a new craft class.  

Finishing this also lets me feel more comfortable continuing on with my Spanish Quilt project.  I should have a new square ready to go soon!

 

Dublin

Hey All!  

I have indeed been missing from the blog but I have a good excuse: I took a trip!  The hubby and I set off to see a wee bit of Ireland (that's my attempt at an Irish accent!) and had a great time.  The only down side of the trip - it was not long enough!  We spent a couple of days in Dublin and a couple days in Belfast and saw as much as we could fit into our quickie vacay!  

First up - Dublin.  What a pretty city!  We stayed in a quiet area near St. Stephens Green (a lovely park) but we were able to make our way on foot to most of the city.

The leaves were starting to turn in the park and it was such a pretty fall afternoon!  Although, there were still of bright flowers:

 

Our tour guide told us that the park ranger lives in this little house inside the park.  I hope it's true as I think this would pretty much be a perfect existence!

 

We wandered out of the park and into Grafton Street - which is a great area for shopping although I mostly just snapped photos:

From Grafton Street we headed to Temple Bar which is a great neighborhood of bars and restaurants and had lunch at a place called "Elephant and Castle".  I ate some yummy locally raised Hereford steak (which I would feel a little guilty about a few days later when we passed through the fields full of beautiful cows on the train) and generally relaxed into the pace of Dublin:

 

 

From Temple Bar we were right near the River Liffey (which flows through the middle of the city of Dublin) so we wandered over and had a cup of coffee by the water:

 

 

 

There are obviously several bridges across the Liffey throughout Dublin - but that last photo is of the Ha'penney bridge (which is short for half penney which was once the charge to cross the bridge) but according to my guide book - this bridge has come to be a symbol of Dublin.

All along our walk I noticed these street lamps which are just so cool:

 

I love the shamrocks!

One of our days in Dublin we took the requisite double decker bus tour.  As I've said in the past - these bus tours might be a bit cheesy, but they are always the best and often the cheapest way to see the highlights of a city and get your bearings.  We hopped off the bus at Christ Church Cathedral as this is a place I was really looking forward to seeing!

 

We went below the cathedral to the crypt which was cool and very interesting although when I heard "crypt" I was hoping for something a little creepier!

We hopped off at a few other places - including the Jameson's Whiskey distillery - which may explain why we didn't have energy to see everything that was available on the tour.  One of the places that looked truly beautiful and I would love to spend some time in the next time we're in Ireland is Phoenix Park.  It houses the Dublin zoo, the President's house, some gorgeous flower gardens and a monument to Wellington:

 

It is the second tallest obelisk in the world - the first tallest of course is????? The Washington monument here in DC.  So I guess now we should figure out where the third tallest obelisk is and add that to our travel list since we seem to have started a trend without even knowing it!

We had great food in Dublin including a Guinness stew that I intend to try and recreate here at home and of course we had wonderful beer!  After Dublin we were on to Belfast and I'll post some pics of our visit there next - it was just as beautiful and interesting as Dublin and I hope you'll enjoy it!

 

 

Counting Sheep

I finished the last of the craft projects I picked up in Berlin last year - this was another pre-stamped embroidery kit.  This time - cute sheep!

 

 

This was fresh off the embroidery hoop so it's still a little wrinkly - but I'm figureing I probably won't use it until Easter or some other Spring holiday (ha! look - I'm early with a project this time, or actually really late) so I'll probably wait to press it until then.

 

I do like the relaxing aspect of pre-stamped embroidery projects.  I like the creativity of creating my own pattern and choosing the floss colors myself - but there is something nice about getting a project that's ready to go, floss included. 

My next projects are things that are already in progress but have been waiting in the background for me to devote my undivided attention to them.  First, a project that has been sadly waiting about 7 years (or more?) shoved in a pile of fabric for me to pay attention to it:

 

It's a potholder in case you couldn't tell.  When I first became interested in quilting, my friend Lianne and I (what up girl!) decided to take a class at JoAnns Fabrics that taught basic quilting techniques through a potholder project.  The class was intended to be a short and fun course that ended with a completed potholder you could take home and use.  The other ladies seemed to have no problem with this - leaving with a nice, ready to use potholder.  Lianne and I struggled to get the top done.  We are not natural quilters I would say - but we make up for it with determination.  Er, or something.  Despite the slow start, Lianne and I had a good time and went back to JoAnns for another quilt class - and that time we made full size quilts.  (although we just finished the quilt tops in class and it took me about 4 years to finish that quilt entirely)  So the potholder is a symbol of my discovery of a craft I now enjoy and it doesn't seem right to let it continue to languish, unfinished in a drawer.  It just needs a little more quilting and the border sewn on and then it will be done!

The next WIP is a collection of crocheted flowers I've started without any idea of how to use them.  I wanted to practice a technique I saw in a crochet book and I've made one or two of these flowers whenever I'm between other projects.  I just picked up the summer edition of Knit magazine last week - and now I think I have a plan for using the flowers:

 

By the way, props to Knit magazine for coming up with patterns and projects that make me want to knit or crochet in the summer.  Usually I don't have the urge to pick up any knitting projects until the winter, but this magazine had cute projects in lightweight yarns and I am sorely tempted to whip up a crochet bikini!  But I won't.  You're welcome.  Instead, I'm inspired to work up a scarf that I can use in late summer or fall.  Here are my crocheted flowers:

 

They are a little floppy - I haven't blocked them yet.  But this is what I'm thinking of for their ultimate use:

 

How cute is the scarf on the left?  They basically use a single chain stitch to attach the flowers together and I think this would be cute!  I just need to figure out a good contrast color for the attaching yarn. 

So, plenty of crafty work ahead of me - I'll let you know how it all turns out!

Happy Blog-a-versary!

It' been two years since I started up the old blog here.  The point initially was just to chronicle our time in Spain, but it's been fun posting what we're up to and I've managed to find a few things to blog about since our return to the U.S.

My latest crafting effort during the time I've had off is a wreath for the front door.  I think I mentioned - when I was mocking my neighbor for still having a Christmas tree up on Valentines Day - that I still had a "winter" wreath up at the time.  To be honest, the wreath had big sleigh bells, holly berries and a sprinkling of fake snow on it and was pretty obviously a Christmas wreath.  So I shamed myself into taking it down - I really couldn't have hung onto it much past February anyway.  It was time for a spring wreath. 

I mentioned that I really liked the patchwork wreath at the JCasa handmade site, but I also liked this wreath that I saw in the winter edition of Marie Claire Idees magazine:

 

Marie Claire Idees is the most awesome crafting magazine.  It's published every two to three months I think and I can ususally find it at Barnes and Noble.  (Katie and Amy if you read this, the news stand across from the embassy usually carries it!)  It's in French but you can usually figure out the directions despite the language difference and the images are so pretty!

 

I decided to do a combination of the two wreaths.  I used the JCasa directions for the basic wreath and then decorated it with yo-yos, similar to the Marie Claire wreath. I used some fabric scraps in spring colors that I had around.  What do you think?

 

Overall it was a pretty quick and easy project and a great one for working on in front of the t.v. as it's all just hand sewing.

 

Hopefully I can find more fun stuff to blog about as I start my third year with this blog.  Time really does fly! 

Hooked it UP!!

Another project done.  I shock myself.  This time it's a crochet project, but just like my last project the timing is a little off.  I probably won't be wearing a snow hat anytime soon, but I like to think that I'm really ahead of schedule rather than woefully behind. 

This was my first time crocheting in the round or making a hat so I used this book for reference:

  

I really liked this book.  It had specific instructions, but also provided different ways to individualize your hat - you could make it a bit long to roll it up, make it a straight pull on with a finished edge and make some different flowers or leafs to pretty up the hat if you felt the urge.  I made a roll up version with a flower and leaf on a pin to make it a little bit "special".

   

That's the finished product and here's my attempt to capture the hat in action with my iPhone:

 

Normally I don't wear a hat and jacket in the bathroom but it seemed the best mirror for a self portrait.

I'm pretty pleased to have finished another project and now I'm on to finishing up the sampler I started a year ago in my class at the Royal School of Needlework in England.  I'm really looking forward to finishing this sampler and getting it framed and on the wall!  

I've seen on some of the craft blogs that I read, bloggers keeping a list of the projects they are working on and plan to start posted on their blog.  I'm torn on whether this would be motivational or just stress me out and make me realize that I dawdle forever on some pretty simple projects.  I keep a written list of things I am working on and want to work on but it's pretty easy to just avoid looking at that list and no one else sees it and realizes that I haven't done anything for weeks (and sometimes months) at a time.  I'll have to give this some more thought.

In the mean time I need a project to work on after the sampler that might be seasonly appropriate.  Something related to Spring or Summer?  Feel free to offer any suggestions!