Category Archives: Crafty

Aug 17 2012

Sewing Boot Camp is Almost Over

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I’ve sewed everyday for the last two weeks…or pretty close to that. I’m definitely still no expert, but I think I’ve at least progressed from newbie to intro intermediate. I’ve double stitched and edge stitched and gathered and pleated and elastic-ed and hemmed and eased and ripped and ripped and ripped and then done it all over again. I am very thankful for all the instruction and advice my mom has given me and for the ripping out she helped with when my eyes started to cross.

Needlework | Clothing | Shirt: Completed

This blouse (I don’t really like the word “blouse,” but this seems to be more of one than a shirt) is from another pattern Anya picked out last fall. I liked how the pattern says “EASY” on the front in big letters. I’d like to say, though, that the shirt was not EASY. I said this to my mom who replied, “Well, it is easy. It doesn’t have any buttons or zippers, so it is kind of easy.” I feel more accurate advertising would call this pattern EASIER.

Needlework | Clothing | Dress: Almost Completed – Needs Buttons

We went to the fabric store. A few times. One time, we were supposed to just be going to get something specific like a half yard of fabric to finish the back of a quilt or a spool of thread or a button. Then we remembered the sale bin. And saw the patterns on sale. And Ooo! Look! Pretty! This one time, we found fish bowl fabric, and it was on clearance and how can you resist fabric with fish IN BOWLS? You can’t. Did I mention patterns were on sale? Had to find a pattern for the fish bowl fabric. The pattern I found happened to be one already in my mom’s stash. (Don’t worry; I found a few more to get for other projects.) This dress was nice and moved pretty quickly until I got to the buttons on top. My mom recommended I use my machine at home that does buttons automatically, unlike her machine. And then I couldn’t find the right sized buttons, too. So, it’s not quite done. While I was admiring it, those darn fish started to misbehave. On the skirt, the fish are upside down. Oops.

Needlework | Clothing | Misc: Completed

When Sewing Boot Camp started, I hadn’t planned on doing the Misc, but when I saw this pattern (ON SALE!), I was inspired. I found some nifty clearance fabric and whipped out this baby in a few hours. When the kid went to bed this evening, this leotard was in pieces, and now it’s all ready for her. It’s probably big, but I still think she’ll enjoy it. With the bow it will be really nifty with her hot pink Tooth Fairy twirly skirt.

Needlework | Quilting | Pieced Quilt: In Progress

All that’s left is the binding. Will I finish it tomorrow, the last day of my trip? Unsure. Unlikely.

Aug 8 2012

The countdown begins

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The fair is September 22. Have I mentioned that yet? It’s getting close, and I’m getting a bit nervous. I’m still working hard and have finished two more pieces. I don’t have the numbers, but here ya go anyhow:

Needlework | Clothing | Skirt: Completed

I don’t know if I’ve ever completed a clothing sewing project. (Unless that Michael Jacksony glove I made out of swimsuit material in elementary school counts. Does it?) I’ve started several but didn’t finish them. When I went looking for patterns for the fair, I tried to find something simple. Want to know of a pattern this is not simple? McCall’s M5841. Looking back, I wonder why I thought it was simple. It has a bunch of pieces. It’s gathered. Why would I think that’s simple? I suppose it doesn’t have any zippers or buttons. I also suppose back then when I bought the pattern, I didn’t realize how gathering and bunches of pieces can be cRaZy.

I tried starting this a while ago. I got all the pieces of the tiers sewed together and the top part cut out and sewed. Then one night I started trying to put it all together, and I don’t remember what happened….it’s sort of fuzzy, but the next thing I remember I was stuffing the pattern, directions, and fabric into my sewing box in a very angry and crumply way. I remember Andy stared at me and blinked and was sort of in shock or afraid or something because I was cRaZy.

Everything stayed in the box until my current visit to my Mom’s house. Thank goodness for Mom, who gave me some great tips and support and distracted the kid. In no time…or a few days perhaps…it was done. HUZZAH! (Alas, my model was in need of a nap at the time of the big reveal and only very reluctantly wore the skirt for ten point two seconds while I snapped this very cranky photo of her.)

Woodcraft | Woodburning: Completed

After I put the squiggles inside the heart, I wished I hadn’t. Oh well. I do think I will do more wood burning because it is fun to burn stuff in a nice, controlled way. I used some of my birthday money to buy a little kit, and it’s pretty nice. I do wish there was a good way to change the points without having to wait for them to cool down. Or perhaps a way to better tell if the point is cool before actually grabbing it. (Ow.)

Up next? A small quilt, a shirt, and a dress (made using fishbowl fabric!).

Jul 28 2012

July Fair Update

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The fair is September 22. Seems like a ton of time and no time at all. I’ve started marking items off the list that I know I won’t get to…like the cursed crocheted afghan and all the machine embroidery. It’s been sort of freeing! Here are the items I have been able to finish lately.

23 | Food | Canned Fruit | Peaches: Completed
69 | Food | Preserves | Peaches: Completed
72 | Food | Pickles | Dill: Andy Completed

The pickles are Andy’s (and the jar in the picture is an open one, not one that would go to the fair, just so you know I know), but he’s going to enter them and I figure that’s good enough for me to mark that off my list. A week ago I did the peaches and the jam. So far my fruit canning is not going so well, and the jam didn’t set up as much as I would have liked. (I don’t have to win; I just have to enter. And in the case of canned items, not kill anyone.)

119 | Needlework | Embroidery | Ribbon Embroidery: Completed

I never even knew people did embroidery with ribbons. I did a little googling to figure out how to do it, and then I came across this book at the library. (I love the library.) I definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in this craft. It has good pictures and nice examples. I made up the design I used, but I got inspiration from the ideas in the book. I like the texture and dimension of embroidering with ribbon, and I’d like to do more.

159 | Craft | Holiday Decorations | Hanukkah: Completed

I think I found this idea last fall. I bought the card stock in the winter. I kept putting it off thinking it would be a pain and tedious and blergity. Made myself start it today and got it finished fairly quickly and easily. My shapes are a bit wonky and smooshy, but I like it. I like how it floats around in the air.

171 | Craft | Ceramics/Clay | Hand-Built Item: Completed

The ceramics/clay group has been a bit intimidating for me being outside of my experience. I bought a big block of air-dry clay and made a coil pot/vase/thing. I am pretty sure I should have smooshed the coils together and flattened it all out to make it stable, but I really liked how the coils look. Anya calls it my beehive pot, so that’s why I painted it yellow.

183 | Craft | Art | Mosaic: Completed

I was inspired by this post, which I found a link to on pinterest. Here’s my helpful hint if you decide to make a mosaicy thing with paint chips: do not cut the chips into little bits in one big heap. Keep them separate by color as you cut. I think I spent two hours sorting the darned things. I do like this, but I would like to recommend the judges viewing it from a few feet back. If you look at it up close, there are little cat hairs and teeny bits of rubber cement I couldn’t get out. Eh, that’s just character, right?

Apr 29 2012

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…

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….me wearing a cape I made for Anya’s class.

This weekend I made seven capes. Most of them don’t look like this one. Well, none of them look like this one. One of them looks kind of like this one but with zebra stripes. The rest are velvety, and I can’t wear them because I don’t have the neck of a 3-4-5-year old, and Anya refused to model one for me, and so I have no picture. And now for a fair-crafting update.

137 | Needlework | Quilt | Wall Hanging: Completed

I feel like a real quilter now. The pattern I chose was called “Amish Unknown” and was from Quilts from America’s Heartland: Step-By-Step Directions for 35 Traditional Quilts, which I found at the library. I love the library. If you recall, I had a bit of a rocky start. Yeah, I am pretty sure the measurements in the book were wrong. Here’s a picture of the size called for in the book (left) and what it really should have been (right). (I forgot to mark the mistake in the book before I returned it. Arg.)

After I ranted and whined for a while about having to cut down those squares, the block went together pretty quickly. I stalled for a week or two, though, on the binding. My goal was to finish this weekend, but yesterday I realized I was almost out of thread. So, I took a nap. But when I woke up the thread fairy had not appeared, and I learned the fabric store in town closed in 32 minutes. I threw Anya and Andy in the car and flew! I thought all was lost when a fancy car from one of the funeral homes in town pulled out in front of us on the road-with-few-passing-zones. Luckily, they were done with the funeral and on their way home and I guess ready for a beer because they drove pretty fast. We pulled into the parking lot of the fabric store with three minutes to spare. One of the workers was walking out the door, and I began to panic. I grabbed my money, ignored Andy and Anya, and dashed to the store door, which was mercifully still open. I walked in, and the lights were dim, and all the other employees were standing in the entry way with their coats on and their purses on their arms. Uh oh.

But, when I held up my nearly-empty spool and declared a thread emergency, one of the women calmly escorted me to the thread display, picked out what I needed, gave it to me, and ushered me towards the checkout, where another woman rang up my purchase with a smile and turned off the cash register, and then they all gathered behind me and herded me out of the shop before I could be distracted by shiny objects. I was so excited and full of glee, I flung my thread-holding hand up into the air as I skipped to the car. The spool flew from my fingers and bounced off the parking lot surface and rollllllllllllled under the car down the hill towards the huge drop off to the street below. Time went in slow motion as I yelled, “My threeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad!” Then I realized there was a wall there and the thread didn’t go so far and it would all be O.K.

Anyhow. After that I felt I must do the binding immediately. Otherwise all the drama was pointless. It took me three episodes of Monarch of the Glen and several furry helpers to do the hand stitching on the back, but now it is done! (I can’t believe they killed off Hector!!!)

Now, without further ado….

Apr 26 2012

Missing the warm February days

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Someone from school posted recently that she missed the warm days of February. Me too.

84 | Horticulture | Cut Flowers | Dahlia: sprouting
85 | Horticulture | Cut Flowers | Gladioli: sprouting
94 | Horticulture | Cut Flowers | Calla Lily: planted

133 | Needlework | Clothing | Tote bag or Handbag: Completed

I bought the pattern for this bag around Christmas of 2010. At the same time, I bought some fabric and thread and bias tape. I started work on the project fairly soon after my purchases, but when my fabric ended up being too short of the pattern, I tucked everything away in despair. Stupid fabric being too short. I’m not really sure what qualifies something as a tote bag, but I am going to say this grocery-type bag is something you can tote things in, so good enough. This bag really stumped me several times, starting with the pocket on the front (which you can’t really see in this photo). I learned about top stitching, and I did a lost of basting (without a turkey), and I sewed bias tape around a corner (tucking in the fullness). The bag took me a really long time to make, but I think now that I know how to make it I could make another one a lot quicker. Don’t know if I want to make another one, though.

139 | Needlework | Quilt | Misc: Completed

I wanted something simple for my first venture into quilting. When I saw the Ziggity Mug Rug, I knew this was the piece for me. I’m not quite sure what a mug rug is. I thought at first it was a fancy coaster, but it’s really big in a rectangular sort of way. The best I can figure, you put your mug on it and have room left over for a pile of cookies. For my mug rug, I poked through the bag of scraps from my yo-yo adventure last fall and found almost enough teeny pieces. I cut the last two pieces from some other fabric I found in my fabric stash. (I hesitate to call it a stash. It’s more like a handful of handkerchiefs crammed in between yarn bins.) The fabric colors and patterns don’t go together all nice and cute…part of that is because I accidentally sewed a few pieces together differently than I had meticulously planned. The binding is pretty messy, and I wonder if the washable marker I used to mark the points will indeed wash out. Still, the points match! THE POINTS MATCH! I am in awe.

Apr 12 2012

But the book can’t be wrong!

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ARG! So I picked a quilting pattern from a library book. The pattern is called “Amish Unknown.” Great name. Anyhow, it’s a quilt, but I am just gonna do one block and frame it up or whatever you call that and make it my needlework | quilted | wall hanging. So, I’m grooving right along and get all my pieces cut for the block and start sewing together stuff, and there’s these 5 checker board square piece thingies made of four smaller squares and I followed the instructions and double-triple-quadruple checked, but the last time I was in math class, if you put together four 3.5″ squares into a bigger square, the bigger square is NOT gonna be 3.5″, too. Unless there is some secret space warping quilting secret. GARG. I had Andy look at the directions, too, but it was like I was back in high school asking my Dad for math help and he had to read the WHOLE book to help me with one little question that had absolutely nothing to do with anything else in the book. Quit looking at the triangles! I am not talking about the triangles! This has nothing to do with the triangles, dammit!

So I put everything away and went to watch “Fairly Odd Parents.”

Tomorrow everything will magically make sense, or I will find a red pen and fix the bloody book.

Apr 8 2012

Wowsie Daisy!

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Amusing things the kid has said lately. Can you figure out what she meant?

1. “Daddy, would you go get my weasel out of the car?”

2. “I got a casket today!”

I pulled out my rotary cutter, iron, and sewing machine a week or two ago to start on the quilted items for the fair. (Should I mention it took me a week to find the iron?) Anya was immediately intrigued by everything. Letting her use the rotary cutter was out of the question, especially after I sliced my finger. But, I remember helping my Mom iron when I was a kid, so that seemed something okay to try. (I was in charge of my Dad’s handkerchiefs!) We do have an ironing board, but it’s buried in the closet behind a few hundred pounds of scrapbook stuff and a dozen shoes (some matched, some not). Who needs an ironing board, really, when you have stone counter tops? I laid out a hand towel with a cloth napkin on top. Worked quite well. After I had the iron heated up, the kid pushed a chair over against the counter and demanded a turn.

She is, I think, a better ironer than I am now that she’s had about as much practice as I’ve had in my entire life. She only ironed in a few wrinkles and nothing got burned (fingers or fabric). Yay! If anyone in the house needs a shirt straightened out, I know who I am asking to do the job.

I also remember my Mom showing me how to use her sewing machine, so if this story ends in a trip to the ER it’s all her fault! (Don’t worry; it doesn’t.) I found some scrap pieces of fabric and talked Anya through all the parts of the machine. Everything was set up and ready to go when we realized Anya and Miss Piggy have something in common (other than being awesome singers). Neither one can reach the pedal. Miss Piggy wears super shoes to reach. Anya ran off and came back with her step stool from the bathroom. Perhaps not as glamorous as 12inch heels, but it worked just the same. She was a bit startled by the zoooooom of the machine, but she got used to it pretty quickly and sewed several scrap pieces together.

That’s my girl!

Apr 8 2012

Quick Fair Update

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1 Garden Produce Fresh Fruit Apples: Tree is blooming!
2 Garden Produce Fresh Fruit Misc. Fruit: Raspberries are looking good
6 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Beans, String: Seeds purchased
7 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Beets: Seeds purchased
8 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Broccoli: Seeds purchased
9 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Cabbage: Seeds purchased
10 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Carrots: Seeds purchased and some planted
11 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Gourds: Seeds purchased
12 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Cucumbers: Seeds purchased
14 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Onions: Planted
16 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Potatoes: Planted
17 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Squash, Yellow Summer: Seeds purchased
18 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Squash, Zucchini: Seeds purchased
20 Garden Produce Fresh Veg Misc. Veg: Garlic going strong
80 Horticulture Plants Cactus: Been poking along for a few months
81 Horticulture Plants Foliage House Plant: Spider plant at school is a-okay
82 Horticulture Plants Misc. Potted House Plant: Succulents looking good
84 Horticulture Cut Flowers Dahlia: planted
85 Horticulture Cut Flowers Gladioli: planted
87 Horticulture Cut Flowers Marigold: Seeds purchased
89 Horticulture Cut Flowers Zinnia: Seeds purchased
93 Horticulture Cut Flowers Day Lily: Tons growing outside…will any be blooming in September? I don’t know.
94 Horticulture Cut Flowers Calla Lily: Bulbs purchased
95 Horticulture Cut Flowers Misc. Lily: Tons growing outside…will any be blooming in September? I don’t know.
96 Horticulture Cut Flowers Rose: Several plants outside…will any be blooming in September? I don’t know.

104 | Needlework | Crochet | Infant’s Set: Almost done…just have to finish the hat

139 | Needlework | Quilt | Misc: Mug Rug – In progress

143 | Craft | Handicraft | Misc: Quilled Raspberries – Completed

152 | Craft | Homecraft | Decorative Painting: Completed

Mar 3 2012

Chicken Dinner

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We had chicken for dinner last night. So did some of our neighbor creatures. Our chicken came from the fridge, but theirs came from our chicken house. We are now down to one sad and lonely hen.

“Mommy, is the chicken sad?”
Yes, I think so.
“Why? Because she lost her family?”
Yeah.

In other news, I’m still working on Fair stuff. It’s starting to feel like a bit of a burden, though. Sorry, can’t do whatever because I need to work on this whatever for the fair. It mostly doesn’t seem that way, but sometimes it does. “Fair” is, after all, a four-letter word. But, I also love how I am trying new things and learning new crafts and making neat stuff.

184 | Craft | Art | Misc. Art: Completed

For Christmas, Andy gave me a groupon for a bead-making class at the Jacksonville Center. We’ve lived here six years now, and except for a recent birthday party, I’d never set foot in the Jax. Made me a bit sad. The class was held about two weeks ago, and it was taught by a friend and mama of a classmate of the kid. When we turned on the torches, I felt like I was back in chemistry lab. Don’t I look cool and arty?

Hot glass is fun. When I came home, Andy wanted to know if I was going to add bead making to my crafts. Not for now, I said. This is definitely an activity that requires a lot of practice, and it’s also not cheap. Maybe, I said, when the Fair is over I’ll play with it more.

157 | Craft | Holiday Decorations | Christmas: Re-Completed

When I saw this kit on clearance, I made an executive decision. I took the piece I’d previously made for my Christmas decoration and moved it to Metal Art (see below). Then I set to work on this holiday garland. I was rocking and rolling and thought I would finish the piece in one day, but then I discovered I was missing the pink birds. What is it with me and kits and missing pieces? I did as much as I could, and Andy emailed the company, and a week or so later I got the stuff I needed plus an entire new kit for a “PEACE” garland.

177 | Craft | Art | Metal Art / Metal Jewelry: Re-assigned / Completed

The metal stars I made a while ago and was going to use for 157. Now they are 177.

106 | Needlework | Crocheting | Misc. Crocheted Item: Completed

I am starting to believe that free patterns from magazines, display racks at stores, and included with yarn are bogus. There was that teepee trellis I tried to make years ago, and the great afghan disaster, and the latest, a crocheted market bag. The pattern was on the paper wrapped around some cotton yarn I’d bought a while ago. The directions said it was Easy! After trying for several days to figure the pattern out, I tossed it and went searching online. I found this pattern. It took me less time to finish this bag than it did to realize the first bag pattern was junk.

Feb 29 2012

Sweet Baby Cheeses! (Or, How I spent my winter break)

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The other day when Andy had to stop the car suddenly, Anya blurted out “Sweet cheeses!” At least that is what I am telling myself she said. Another one of her favorite exclamations? “What the hex!” We are definitely doing a great job making sure our kid has a colorful vocabulary.

Last week, the kid had winter break, so she and I packed our clothes, toothbrushes, legos, dollies, and various crafts and drove to Georgia. We did all the usual things one does when on winter break. We drew monster eggs on the porch and waited for them to hatch. We planted and watered acorns in the flower boxes. We made chalk outlines of each other and then washed them away.

We went to Michael’s four or five times, bought little wooden birdhouses, and did a little painting. Anya’s first birdhouse (of 3, they were only a dollar!) was done up in bright, happy colors. After that, I can only figure that she decided birds were goth or emo or something, so she gleefully mixed all the colors we had into a big gray mess. I have to admit her coverage on those last two houses was impressive. Nary a bit of wood showed through the thunderstorm-colored paint.

I re-started my afghan. Anya was very excited when the afghan was big enough for her. It still seemed too small to me, so I plodded on. I really should have stopped. More on that another day.

We helped Gramma with the afghan she’s been working on for about a year now. It’s Anya’s rainbow blanket! We bought the yarn around Christmas of 2010, and Gramma’s been crocheting squares ever since. I was supposed to help with this project, but my squares weren’t. Christmas of 2011, we figured out we needed more squares, so Gramma bought more yarn and crocheted more and then POOF! Now all that’s left is to sew all the squares together. I’d help ya, Ma, I really would, but, um, I have 150 fair items to finish. Sorry!

The highlight of the trip? Mulch! I love mulch. It’s all smooshy and weed killy. One afternoon my mom noticed the neighbors were having some trees taken down, so she did what she does (talk to people!) and by the end of the day, she had three newly trimmed trees and a giant pile of mulch in her yard. I like to put down mulch. It’s sort of like mowing the lawn or vacuuming. Quick, visible change. Anya wanted to help me out (because I forced her to stay outside). She clambered up the pile and quickly declared herself, “KING OF THE MULCH!”

To wrap up the break, I got food poisoning or a stomach bug and spent a day moaning and whining and barfing. Sorry, I didn’t take any photos.