Must... Share... ANYTHING!!!

You know that feeling you get when you’ve been busy working on various projects for Christmas presents and can’t wait to share with everyone all the fun things you’ve made, but can’t for fear the recipients will see them prematurely? No? Just me? Huh…

So I have been busy sewing up a storm, but alas, can’t post any pictures because they might end up in the wrong hands. You know, like on the person for whom the gifts are intended. That would be bad. Even though the chances of this happening would be slim to say the least for any of the people I’ve been making stuff for, I don’t want to risk it.

Every year I try to do one big gift for a different person, and every year I get started early and then set it aside thinking I’ve got plenty of time to work on it later. Then it becomes later and later until it’s a week before Christmas and the project has yet to be completed. I started it in September. It’s now December seventeenth. So much for not procrastinating this year!

Also, taking time off from blogging has had, well, mixed results. On the one hand, my mornings are not filled with obsessing and stressing over what to write about in the homemaking realm and actually much more relaxed and allows me to take my time drinking my morning coffee and checking the news. But on the other, I feel like the main reason I wanted to cut down from daily blogging was to refocus my efforts on writing fiction, as in one of the seven or so novels I’ve been working on for years now or the three or four novels or dozen or so children’s books I’ve completed and might need tweaking or rewrites or (gasp) submitted to publishers!

I’ve already wasted ten minutes writing when I should be sewing, so back to the grindstone. I just hope I don’t work my 1963 Singer Touch N’ Sew Deluxe Zig-Zag Model 600 sewing machine to death, because then I would be sad.

Desperate Housewife’s Quilt: Block Forty Six

After another unproductive day off, I felt the urge to do something well, you know, productive. I decided to sew.

I’ve taken quite the hiatus from the Desperate Housewife’s Quilt as of late (http://quiltjane.blogspot.com) and decided to check which blocks I still need to do. There are a lot of them. However, I found a block pattern, picked out the fabrics, and started cutting. Within the hour I had a complete block, albeit with some obvious mistakes. Mistakes, as in, I mixed up a few of the pieces. Oh well. I long ago decided that these blocks were not all going to be the same size since they don’t all end up being the same size while doing them. I even left the ironing board in case the urge strikes again today after work.

Bad Sewing Weather

Hot weather is good for a great many things. Sewing is not one of them.

My sewing machine looks sad. With the weather being so unbearably hot, the last thing I want to do is drape myself in quilting fabric and sew. Of course, my creativity level drops by like a thousand when the thermometer hovers over seventy to begin with, so the fact that these last few weeks I’ve been a little less homemaker-like and a lot more poetic shouldn’t come as a surprise. Well, except to me, as I don’t consider myself a poet.

Inspiration Board

Everyone needs a little inspiration now and then. It was time to put my magnetic board from IKEA up in the sewing area.

I’ve had a magnetic board for years and it was used at the old house in the craft/guest room above the desk that now is used for our desktop computer. The plan was to put it up in the office/craft room here but never came to fruition. Well, that is, until I was a bit restless last night and started grabbing power tools and making holes in the wall to accommodate the magnetic board above the sewing machine. Currently the plan is to change out blocks depending on what I’m working on or as my mood see fit. Time will only tell if this serves as inspiration or a hindrance. 

Waiting for Inspiration

Lately my inspiration to create has been, well, lackluster. It could just be the dull of summer or the random acts of sunshine we’ve been getting an excess of here in the Pacific Northwest, or perhaps I’m just in a funk. I think what I really need to do is get the sewing area organized and cleaned up so I can focus on quilting again. But alas, I wait instead. Wait for inspiration to hit when I know better. Wait for some bolt of lightning to strike. Wait. For what? Waiting is another word for wasting, and wasting time that could be better spent on other projects. So what if my quilting aspirations are a little off at the moment! Perhaps finishing four quilts this year and starting two others has taken a bit of my sewing juices away. That doesn’t mean there aren’t other projects waiting for me to work on them. Like, for instance, building a new ramp into the henhouse that the ducks would be able to use. Or perhaps I simply need to make sure the dishes are done and I am presentably dressed before sewing to prevent any distractions or lackadaisically approaches.

Quilting

Even though we’ve had rather hot weather for here in the Pacific Northwest, I was inside a house without air conditioning quilting yesterday. Just call me crazy.

The sewing machine is in the office, which is also the hottest room in the house because of the computer. So while my husband was away floating on an inner tube in a river somewhere most of the day, I decided to sew up a backing and begin the quilting process. After looking at the lines in the quilt, I decided simple straight line quilting would work and began sewing from the center of the quilt out. It would have also been a good candidate for free-motion quilting, but I decided I’d better not test my luck on a larger quilt like that. Instead I opted to sew just outside the center squares of every other block and used that as a guide to make quilt lines every four and a half inches. I managed to finish the quilting itself and sew the strips of binding together, but then the heat really set in and I had to retire into the living room and watch the last two episodes of True Blood season 4 which pissed me off so much I had trouble sleeping. The heat didn’t help either.

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day sewing. Today I plan more of the same.

I’ve been working on my coworker’s going away quilt for a few days now, but only in the sense that I was trying to figure out a design and made a few sample blocks. Last night I finished the top. Today I will sandwich and quilt it. That is, assuming I can get enough motivation to finish it… or don’t get distracted watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Going Away Quilt Started

Last night I finally got started on the going away quilt I’m making for a coworker leaving for college to become a veterinarian. Something tells me this will be a quick project.

After sketching out a rough idea of what I was thinking for the quilt, I mulled over it and decided to add at least two solids to the mix and up to five if needed. My original thought was to have all of the finished blocks be eight and a half inches, and while my gut told me to cut correctly, my calculator told me otherwise. Let’s just say math and I are not friends, but eight inch blocks will be fine for this quilt instead so it isn’t that big of a deal.

I’m still debating taking the two large prints and cutting them down for the picture window blocks, especially since I will need twelve total. I suppose I will cross that bridge tonight while working on more blocks. However, I’m thinking right now my answer is a yes.

Desperate Housewife’s Quilt: Block Nine

Curved piecing is difficult. Glue can help with that.

When I first saw block nine in the Desperate Housewife’s Quilt (http://quiltjane.blogspot.com) I was intrigued. Here Jane was going to show us how to make a block with curves without sewing any curved seams. Brilliant! Instead of sewing the seams together and risk distortion, the block is assembled with a little glue and topstitched into place. Well, I didn’t have any glue so I put this block off for a very long time until I just couldn’t hold off any longer and decided to just make due with materials I had on hand. Instead of interfacing I used freezer paper (seriously, amazing stuff for any quilter to have in their arsenal) and instead of glue I mixed up a little cornstarch in water and used my fingers to dab along the folded edges before ironing the pieces together. For the topstitching, I decided on a gradient Aurifil thread in blues to go with the blues in the block. My only regret was that I used a much smaller stitch than I intended to, which doesn’t show off the beautiful colors in the thread. Oh well, live and learn.

Desperate Housewife’s Quilt: Block Sixteen

I’m sorry if my random back-and-forth between blocks in this quilt is confusing. Who am I kidding, no I’m not!

Block sixteen in the Desperate Housewife’s Quilt hosted by Jane over at Want it, Need it, Quilt! (http://quiltjane.blogspot.com) is like a spider web, and for this particular web I needed a forty-five-degree kaleidoscope ruler, which I don’t have. Instead I made a template using cardstock, made my first cut, and then used my square ruler on the forty-five-degree mark to cut out the triangles. The cutting was a breeze, even without the proper equipment. Sewing the block went together pretty quickly too. I decided to embellish the block a bit with some wavy lines using the Aurifil thread I won in a giveaway and have to say, I really like this thread and already have plans to use it for quilting in upcoming projects.

After making this block and realizing just how easy it is to do, I can’t wait to make blocks using the Dresden plate and sixty-degree rulers I got for my birthday. I was nearly tempted to make the block using my sixty-degree ruler instead, but fought the urge. I wonder what it would have looked like had I not?

Fall Quilt: Finished

Some projects come together quickly and others take their time coming to fruition. The Fall Quilt is definitely in the latter category.

After church and a Bunco fundraiser for our youth group, I felt the urge to sew. Right away I knew I wanted to finish the Fall Quilt. I completed the simple hand quilting nearly a month ago and it has been sitting in a bag waiting to be bound. So I swept the kitchen floor, grabbed my rotary cutter and mat and started trimming off the excess batting. I had planned from the beginning to do a simple binding using the backing and wrapping it around the front. What I hadn’t decided on was whether to hand or machine stitch the binding in place. After thinking about it for about four seconds, I decided to machine stitch it.

Using safety pins about every ten inches, I double folded the backing over the top and pinned it in place. I then used a hot iron and pressed it flat to make it easier to sew. Starting with the bottom, I stitched the binding in place, pulling and tugging the quilt to keep the stitches straight. For the corners of each section, I mitered them and began stitching as normal, using a backstitch to start.

When all was said and done, I had a completed quilt, ready for this autumn. Okay, so really it is ready for whatever time I feel like using it, but honestly, I absolutely love everything about it… except for my hand quilting. I wish I had kept going and done more of it!

Desperate Housewife’s Quilt: Block Seventeen

With my To Do List from yesterday completed (well mostly, I didn’t vacuum) I decided it was time to sew. And sew I did.

Perusing the list of yet-to-be-done quilt blocks in The Desperate Housewife’s Quilt being hosted by Jane over at Want it, Need it, Quilt! (quiltjane.blogspot.com), I decided on block seventeen also titled Swing Me Around on the Hills Hoist. This was another foundation pieced block and while I’m not that big of a fan of perfection, seeing those tight points and perfectly aligned corners did give me a thrill. Perhaps this foundation piecing technique is growing on me!

In case you are unfamiliar, foundation piecing is using a printed paper design to aid in creating the block. All of your lines and angles are on the paper and you simply place your fabric where you need to sew and sew along the lines. It’s pretty simple and straight forward. Also, it’s super easy because you don’t have any exact pieces to cut out, you just have to use a piece of fabric that will fit within the design and trim after it is stitched together.

For my block, I chose two colorful batiks and made the Hills hoist itself from black and white fabrics that I’ve been using in various other blocks in this series. I was going to try to make it with a variation on a color, but couldn’t decide which one would work, so to make it easy went with black and white. The result is a block that is super fun and was super easy to make.

Weekend Sewing

I felt the urge to sew this weekend despite the nearly ninety degree temperatures. I didn’t get very far.

Saturday after the parade and a late lunch I decided to work a little bit on That 70s Quilt. Seriously, just a little, as in chain stitched one section to another in what will become the rows of the quilt. I almost started the next section, but decided against it. Why? Because it was just too damn hot to sew and iron. Heat and I don’t get along… except in the shower.

Buttons

The thing about saying I’m going to be productive means the probability of me actually being productive drops by a factor of ten. It’s sad, really.

So productivity and I aren’t friends. However, I did manage to sew on the buttons for my husband’s clown vest! I even, if you can believe it, managed to also sew the button holes too! Of course, most of my day was spent watching movies on Netflix. I’m not sure why, but my motivation as of late has been a little, well, absent. Whether it is the prospect of having to move again or that mid-spring-you-should-be-doing-something-outside I’m not certain.

Perhaps what I need to do is make a plan with rewards; if I do this then I can do that. Of course, I’m a spontaneous person in that manner. I can’t spring on creativity. It’s the same with writing. I don’t plan what I’m going to write about, I just sit down, come up with a topic and start typing… as if that wasn’t obvious by this blog.

Productivity

Saying I’m going to be productive is the same as saying there is only a ten percent chance of rain here in the Northwest. It’s going to be jinxed.

Having goals is one thing, but stating, “This is what I’m going to accomplish today!” is another. When I have a goal, I usually have a goal date or time to complete it by and am usually pretty generous. Of course, I usually procrastinate until the last minute before starting the project and it turns into a horrendous nightmare and I vow never to make another cake for as long as I live! Okay, so perhaps I can be a little overdramatic when it comes to things like cake.

I’m hoping, however, that today will at least be productive. By that, I mean I have plans to clean the house, go grocery shopping, and work on a few sewing projects. Maybe I’ll throw in a load of laundry or two. If not, oh well. I tried. Okay, so knowing me I will end up not cleaning the house, watching a couple movies then throwing a load in the washer and trying to figure out a last minute meal for dinner.

New Quilt Project

My goal of not starting another quilting project until I finish the top for That 70s Quilt has been crushed by Pinterest. Thanks.

After seeing a picture on Pinterest of a quilt block that looked like a bunch of Polaroid pictures scattered across the floor, I thought this would be a super cute way to showcase fabrics that I love. It also would mean fussy-cutting and a lot of waste, something I don’t love. However, I decided to grab a stack and start cutting. I would have clicked on the picture on Pinterest, which probably would have led me to a tutorial or something, but instead decided to wing it. Sometimes the less information I have the more informed my decisions are… when it comes to quilting that is!

For the Polaroids themselves, I decided to fussy-cut a three by three inch image with one by three inch strips of white on either side, a one by four-and-a-half inch white strip on top and a one-and-a-half inch by four-and-a-half inch white strip on the bottom. This creates a four by four-and-a-half inch Polaroid. I then gathered various shades of grey and started cutting out strips to create the outer edges. At first I was cutting them out on angles and sewing them together to create the wonkiness and scattered look, but then I figured that if I simply cut rectangles and chose my direction afterwards it was less of a headache. I highly suggest the latter approach if you plan to make these yourself. To further the scattered look, I threw in a blank grey square and plan to have anywhere from one to three of these in future blocks.

I highly suggest that if you love this block as much as I do, you visit the blog Stitched in Color (http://www.stitchedincolor.com/2012/04/polaroids-on-cloudy-day.html) and read about her approach.

Making Time to Sew

My 1963 Singer Touch and Sew Deluxe Zig-Zag Model 600 Sewing Machine has been looking sad and neglected this past week. That or she’s enjoying her rest.

With another round of a crazy-busy schedule about to begin, perhaps I should make time to sew today. That is, after going to the bank, feed store, Costco and grocery shopping. Of course, once home I’ll need to vacuum, change the litter boxes, do the dishes, clean the kitchen and bathrooms… ugh.

I will persevere. I will make the time to sew.

People Puppets Prepared

The people puppets are done! Admittedly, I was hoping the Id monster would also be, but sadly it is not… yet.

After church, and making a delicious brunch of potato, bacon, egg and cheese burritos, I set a goal of finishing the Id monster and both the costumes for the people puppets. At first I was thinking it would be beneficial to have a picture to go off of for the Id monster using the random design I did for the foam skull, but then I decided I didn’t need to. Why would that help? I have no idea how I want this monster to look. Then it hit me; drawing a picture would be using my Id. Of course, by the time this thought occurred, I was nearly finished with the skin and tentacles and horns and eyes and only needed to add feather and fur and all the fun little features to make it look as crazy as possible.

It was getting late, so I decided to start making the costumes for the people puppets. In the end I figured I would use a Debbie Mumm star field print with lots of wavy blues I picked up at Joann’s years ago for a baby blanket I ended up going in a completely different direction on for their uniforms. I made a simple dress for her and knowing that the doctor puppet also had a red satin jacket, made that and hot glued a patch of the blue star field fabric inside the jacket. There was no reason to make a full shirt after all! That and the jacket was a pain in the ass to sew. I frakking hate satin with a passion and this just further encapsulated that rage. I have a feeling my 1963 Singer Touch and Sew Deluxe Zig-Zag Model 600 sewing machine also has a prejudice against the shimmery fabric as well. It falls into the same category as hot glue in my craft book. Evil. Pure evil. 

Winner

The Dress Up Your Roll winners were announced. I won the international contest!

Shocked to say the least, especially after seeing all of the entries, I still can’t believe my little Roll Sock Monkey won. I mean I think it’s cute, my coworkers think it’s cute, but I didn’t think anyone else would think much of it. Alas, the judges did! I can’t thank Jane over at Want it, Need it, Quilt (http://quiltjane.blogspot.com) for hosting this contest. It was a blast to make and adds a conversational piece in the guest bathroom you wouldn’t expect to find, except, of course, in the home of a quilter maybe.

Now, to figure out how I’m going to spend my prize money… With a one-hundred dollar gift certificate to Fat Quarter Shop (www.fatquartershop.com) I will have plenty of options. I love reading the designer interviews on their blog and have had my eye on a few lines that I haven’t seen in stores. But then again, I also have the chance to build up my stash for projects I’ve been wanting to get more fabric for. Decisions, decisions. 

Patterns

Some people are great at simply using a sewing pattern for, say, a vest and churning one out in a cinch. Then there is me.

My husband is a clown. No, seriously. Besides being a teacher he is also an actual, honest to God clown. He went to clown school as part of the Rose Festival in Portland last year and was in one of the parades and everything. And no, Portlandia was not joking about that being a part of Portland culture because it is real. Very real. Anyway, he needed a vest so we went to Fabric Depot to pick out fabric. I’ll skip the boring details of him being so overwhelmed minutes after we walked into the store and wanting to leave because of the sheer amount of fabric and not knowing anything about any of it, but we found some perfect fabric (while I was in the quilting section, of course) and then searched for a pattern to use.

To say that I am pattern inept would, well, be pretty accurate. They’re usually overly complicated with overly simplified instructions and when you can only get the pattern you want in a package that comes with four other patterns, overly expensive. Maybe I’m just used to seeing advertisements for nine-nine cent and dollar ninety-nine patterns in the Joann’s mailings that I just assumed they weren’t very much money. Oh well, the pattern also came with instructions for both short and long sleeved shirts, ties and bowties. I’m sure I can get a few more uses out of it. Perhaps I can even alter the vest pattern for my size.

So I eventually finished the vest in a record setting six hours. And by finished, I mean it is sewed together. The buttons will wait for another day, along with their coinciding holes. Lessons learned: Cutting fabric out on carpet is stupid and I should have just banished all the animals from the kitchen and used the vinyl floor; my slip-stitch has improved immensely to the point where I may even hand stitch my next binding; I hate satin.