Sunday, February 17, 2013
Monday, February 11, 2013
Sleepy Time
I made this cute sleep sack for a friend who's having a baby soon. It's from Anna Maria Horner's "Handmade Beginnings." The quick-change trousers from that book are a hit too!!! This is lined in flannel. The closure is velcro, which seems a lot stronger than I thought it would be. That baby's never busting outta there! Awww!!!
Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Reversible Top for Summer
I got the pattern for this top in Virginia over Christmas. It was smooth sailing until I got to the bottom hem. Part-way through I sort of figured out how to pull on it so the hem would lay flat, but it's not pretty close up. I don't think the bad parts will be too noticeable, though, when it's on. It's supposed to have applique giraffes on the side without pockets, but obviously that would have been weird with the whale fabric. I didn't think it was necessary to make up a whale applique to go on that side. The whales are cute all by themselves.
Monday, January 28, 2013
It Stands
Well... I got these light garden stake things and some squishy rubbery cord stuff. They work for now. I'm going to want to make the poles shorter. All the bamboo poles I came across were skinny little ones. This thing is fun and cute! My sister informs me they have something similar at IKEA. I'm sure it cost me way more to make this one, but it was fun and I learned some things about sewing and I got to choose my fabrics. Tee hee!
TeePee!
Well I meant to post some work-in-progress photos, but I got on a roll this weekend and actually finished this awesome play TeePee for B. It's from Growing Up Sew Liberated which I got for Christmas, yay!
Working with canvas was no problem for my Bernina. I used a jeans/denim needle and just regular 50-wt cotton thread. The only SNAG occurred when winding a bobbin. Ew, I hate throwing away this much thread. I hadn't threaded the winder properly, oops! The pattern said to use home dec. fabric for the trim, but my LQS is good and terrible, so I just used quilting cotton. It seems fine so far.
Whoopee! I even did bias binding around the outside AND the inside of a circle. That was the part I was most scared of, but it worked out fine.
Can't show you any pics of the thing actually standing because now I have to find some bamboo poles. Good luck to me in Nova Scotia in winter. I don't want to wimp out and use hardwood dowels, though, which are easy to find because those will be heavy and expensive. This week's mission is to find some poles!!! Oh yeah, and I need a couple patches of velcro, but that's no biggie. Oooh, I can't wait to show you what it looks like if I can actually get it to stand upright!! And if B actually goes inside it!!
And here are some solids I found in my pile that I thought of using for the Skill Builder BOM. I don't know if there's enough contrast in the warms. And I have lots of some colors and not much of others. I'm already taking a pass on the first two blocks since we were all flu-filled zombies when they came out and I wasn't into it. They were just made of straight strips anyway.
Working with canvas was no problem for my Bernina. I used a jeans/denim needle and just regular 50-wt cotton thread. The only SNAG occurred when winding a bobbin. Ew, I hate throwing away this much thread. I hadn't threaded the winder properly, oops! The pattern said to use home dec. fabric for the trim, but my LQS is good and terrible, so I just used quilting cotton. It seems fine so far.
Whoopee! I even did bias binding around the outside AND the inside of a circle. That was the part I was most scared of, but it worked out fine.
Can't show you any pics of the thing actually standing because now I have to find some bamboo poles. Good luck to me in Nova Scotia in winter. I don't want to wimp out and use hardwood dowels, though, which are easy to find because those will be heavy and expensive. This week's mission is to find some poles!!! Oh yeah, and I need a couple patches of velcro, but that's no biggie. Oooh, I can't wait to show you what it looks like if I can actually get it to stand upright!! And if B actually goes inside it!!
And here are some solids I found in my pile that I thought of using for the Skill Builder BOM. I don't know if there's enough contrast in the warms. And I have lots of some colors and not much of others. I'm already taking a pass on the first two blocks since we were all flu-filled zombies when they came out and I wasn't into it. They were just made of straight strips anyway.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Skill Builder
I couldn't resist this one: Pile O'Fabric's Skill Builder Block of the Month. I signed up, but I've already given myself permission to not do all the blocks since
A) Some of the blocks look like things I already know how to do, or don't really tickle my fancy
B) I've got a lot of WIPs going on (is this just the new-school term for UFO's?)
C) Sampler quilts don't really tickle my fancy
D) I'm on the verge (I HOPE!!!) of getting a new job, so I might be kind of busy soon.
E) I can't afford to buy a bunch of new fabric for now
I'm thinking I'll try most of them and make placemats or mini-quilts out of them individually, and if any of them are totally cool, I can make a quilt out of that. They're quilt-as-you-go, so that makes me feel like I won't be just making a new big pile of UFOs.
Some of the blocks look SO COOL, and I'm most excited about doing some practice with free-motion quilting, since I've only tried a few inches' worth, ever! Yay! I'll keep you posted :)
Meanwhile, in fabric bowl land...
I whipped up this bowl - my first try at one with a handle - to hold a bundle of Christmas gifts for a neighbor. One side of the handle got attached pretty crooked, but mostly I was happy with it. It was tough to line everything up since the handle was too short to let me happily nest the assembly in its inside out form. These things are just so darn cute! I'm hoping to avoid OD-ing on them so I'm going to put this pattern aside for a while :)
And these are some Design Seeds color schemes I want to play with some day. Some day.....
A) Some of the blocks look like things I already know how to do, or don't really tickle my fancy
B) I've got a lot of WIPs going on (is this just the new-school term for UFO's?)
C) Sampler quilts don't really tickle my fancy
D) I'm on the verge (I HOPE!!!) of getting a new job, so I might be kind of busy soon.
E) I can't afford to buy a bunch of new fabric for now
I'm thinking I'll try most of them and make placemats or mini-quilts out of them individually, and if any of them are totally cool, I can make a quilt out of that. They're quilt-as-you-go, so that makes me feel like I won't be just making a new big pile of UFOs.
Some of the blocks look SO COOL, and I'm most excited about doing some practice with free-motion quilting, since I've only tried a few inches' worth, ever! Yay! I'll keep you posted :)
Meanwhile, in fabric bowl land...
I whipped up this bowl - my first try at one with a handle - to hold a bundle of Christmas gifts for a neighbor. One side of the handle got attached pretty crooked, but mostly I was happy with it. It was tough to line everything up since the handle was too short to let me happily nest the assembly in its inside out form. These things are just so darn cute! I'm hoping to avoid OD-ing on them so I'm going to put this pattern aside for a while :)
And these are some Design Seeds color schemes I want to play with some day. Some day.....
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Pin Sink and Bowls
Here's the beast that ate all my pins. I finished this top in 2004, and started hand quilting it a couple of years ago. I didn't get that far before little B came along. I recently dug it out to make sure there wasn't any rust. I guess I should finish off some other UFOs and get back to this one. I need my pins!
Here are some fabric bowls I put together from acuppaandacatchup. There are so many cute options in the pattern! Therese two were sort of trial runs. I am proud of myself for finally cutting into this fat quarter of Christmas linen that I got in San Francisco years ago. The red one is pretty small and it was a little tougher than the bigger one. I'm going to have to hunt down some more interfacing if I want to make more. Then I'll try to get a bit more creative with handles, quilting, etc.
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