My mantel's first bunting

In my new place I have a fireplace.  I don't really know what the heck to do with it, and I'm pretty certain I'll never have the nerve to actually light a fire, but with a fireplace comes a mantel. 

Since I'm still a few months away from hanging stockings, the only thing I really know that is required of a mantel, I dressed it up with some bunting.  I saw a tutorial on Saltwater Kids this morning, and found myself at Jo-Ann this afternoon picking up floss, denim and ticking.  I found the denim in the remnant bin, which was a pretty good find, and was able to make the entire bunting with only a quarter yard of ticking. 

Then I snapped one picture. Then my camera died.

I made the flags a bit bigger than the tutorial called for, but that was about the only variation.  That and she is obviously way better at embroidering flags than me.  The whole project only took about an hour, and most of it can be done in front of the TV.  And, really, can there be a better barometer for how cool a project is?

I think this is best served as a July 4th decoration, but with tomorrow being Memorial Day, which is pretty damn American, I'd say I'm well within my rights to leave it up tonight.  You'd better believe I'll drag it back out for the 4th, though.

Why, yes, I DO love patchwork!

Hello.  Me again.  Long time no see.  The short story is home (not so sweet) home is still where the sewing machine is, and still not where I've spent a lot of time.  Plus, I've actually been busy with other things.  Who knew?

I was able to fit in two sewing projects last week, but I will only show you one.  The other was an experiement that I made up as I went along.  Which went about as well as you'd expect.

I got Rashida's book, I Love Patchwork, for Christmas and have dog eared (sike! I can't ever bring myself to dog ear books, but they're marked in my head) a whole ton of things that I want to make.  I've been holding on to a charm pack of Rouenneries, so I grabbed the scissors before I could change my mind and hoard them even longer, and made this.

I know, it's just a kitchen towel, but I still love it.  It was a really easy project, which made it quick AND fun (except for that one time when I burned my finger trying to press that curve under 1'4").  I think the Rouenneries looks great with linen, and I'm glad I used it.  I'm also glad that I needed such small pieces that I've still got a whole bunch of charm squares left over.  I'm thinking of the table runner in the book to match the towel, yes?

My one and only (sort of) quilt

I've totally slacked on not only updating, but on actually making things.  I really hate it, not even not being able to post, but being able to hang out and relax by the sewing machine.  Problem is, not that the Internet much cares about the details, my sewing machine is at home, and home...home sucks right now. 

I've made a few quick projects here and there, but still on my camera card are pictures of this (wannabe) quilt that I put together for my favorite baby's first birthday.  Every single piece came out of the remnant bin at Jo-Ann, and probably didn't cost $10 to make.  I did it that was because I'd never tried to quilt before, and if I either failed or gave up I didn't want to be mad that I forked over all kinds of cash. 

The backing is a super soft minkee-type white fabric (remnant bin...I didn't purposely make a solid white backed quilt for a baby), and the rest are mysteries.  The quilting is solid lines stitched (as close to) in the ditch (as I could get it).  The binding is machine stitched. 

You cannot see photos of the back of the quilt because I'd rather not remember it.  Total puckersville.  Thankfully, the minkee was pretty scrunchy, and by the time I washed and dried it it was decently camouflaged.   

I haven't tried to quilt since, and I'm afraid to try anything bigger.  I finished this one in about three days and by the time I was done it was cozy and heavy and soft and crinkly and I know that once I get up my courage and am back in a peaceful place, I'll give it another try. 

February 8-10: Tea towel apron

I've had My Spare Time in my Google Reader for awhile, and even though I've noticed this tutorial before, I've never tried it.

I've also had this tea towel in my linen closet (since 2006, apparently) but it doesn't get much use because the colors don't fit my kitchen and there is a big stain on the front.  (No, I'm not sure why I kept an unmatching and stained towel, either, but I'm glad I did.)

The hardest part of making this apron was trying to iron the wrinkles out of a 100% linen tea towel that's been wadded up in a closet for I-don't-even-know-how long.  As you can see, I wasn't totally successful, but I wanted to just get sewing already!

I love the end result of this tutorial.  The design of the towel worked perfectly and gave me a great border on the bottom of the apron, and the stain is caught under the rick rack and the fold, so I won't even be embarassed to show this one off.  The only modification I made was that I didn't sew three equal pockets, but made one large and two smaller pockets instead.

I also tried to take my first camera in the mirror shot of myself wearing the apron.  But...no.

February 4-7: Simple pillowcase

This one is a simple pillowcase from Rachael Rabbit.

I made this one for Christmas, so I'll be copping out here and just showing that one.  I'm still not feeling great, I'm tired and I'm in kind of a mood. 

January 28-31: Tin can cover

To make this project, the tin can cover from elsie marley, I first had to track down a 28 oz tin can.  Since I don't often have them laying around, and don't trust most foods that come in cans anyway, I had to dig pretty deep into the storage rack of various creamed soups and emergency vegetables to find a huge, dusty can of sauerkraut.  I hesitated to dump it out and use it (even though I can't think of one time that I've dared make anything that called for sauerkraut  out of can) because I didn't want to waste it.  Then I noticed it expired in March of 2008.  Not that you'd know, but I moved to my current house in January of 2009.

Does that mean this girl actually packed and moved a can of expired sauerkraut, you ask?  Yes, I did.

Nasty spoiled food related anecdotes aside, I messed this project up pretty good, and it still came out pretty good.  I'm going to blame it on my still feeling pretty sick, but you can free to take that as an excuse, because it sort of is.

I wanted to try thread sketching, but for the life of me I couldn't come up with anything to sketch.  I want to use this can as a pen/pencil/spare change/wadded up gum wrapper holder on my desk, but I was afraid that a sketched pencil would just look like a wonky rectangle.  So, I dug deep and come up with.....the letter A.  In a pale, nearly impossible to see, pink.  Wild, I know.  There wasn't much to it, but it did help me realize that thread sketching might not be as scary as I'd thought, and I want to do it again.  And soon.

The fabric doesn't wrap around the top of the can as called for, because I read and read and read and my medicine riddled brain just could not comprehend the directions.  I debated trekking upstairs to pull up the original tutorial to see if the pictures would help, but realized that I didn't have any glue anyway, so that point was pretty moot.  I sewed the edges shut and that's it.

I want to take it to work with me tomorrow, but my sniffer is still outta whack and I'm afraid it still smells like sauerkraut.

January 14-17: (Not so) Mini oven mitt

I'm behind in the calendar projects again.  In my defense, I had until Sunday to finish this tutorial, and since I had today off, I thought that today was Sunday.  It is not.

The January 14-17 feature was a mini oven mitt from My Longest Year.  BUT! since I had a need for a big person sized oven mitt I modified the pattern to make a full sized mitt.  Instead of putting an unbatted (word?  not sure) band at the wrist I just added three inches to the template and cut the lining, outer fabric and Insul-Brite (since I was making a real mitt, I wanted to use a heat resistant batting) all the same size.

This is another project that I managed to make using just a fat quarter.  I used the same fabric for the mitt, lining and binding.  Instead of sewing a loop to hang the mitt from I used some jumbo rick rack.  I also, since I was already behind in time, didn't quilt the mitt.

My current oven mitt is a stained, ripped and scratchy masterpiece with sailboats and "Welcome to the Caribbean" printed on it.  This is most definitely an improvement.

January 1-3: Quilted Coasters

Better late than never.  It's January 10, and I just sewed the project for January 1-3.  Whatever.

I like quilted coasters around the house, because it's an easy way to sneak a little pattern or add a little color to a room.  These coasters, originally from The Long Thread, small versions of a pinwheel quilt block.  The write up also says that they're good practice for quilting, which is true.  I felt better reading her original tutorial because just like me she says that quilting calls for much more precision than I have the patience for.  It's pretty obvious that my pinwheel points didn't line up perfectly once I was done, but since I used a few different prints I think it's harder to tell they're not precise.  At least that's what I'm telling myself.

The quilting is stitched along the seams of the pinwheels, which I made from a patchwork of a few different prints instead of a solid/print mixture like the calendar photo shows.  I've got a big stash of small scraps that aren't good for much else but patchwork, and this seemed like a good excuse to use some of them up.  The backs, which you can't see, are a plain white linen.  A few of the scraps were linen and the rest are home dec fabrics, which, when paired with the linen backing and some quilt batting, make for a pretty sturdy coaster.

The next project in the book is a yoga mat bag.  Seeing as I can barely keep my clumsy self standing somettimes this is clearly not a project that I'll have much use for.  I'm going to try it out, but I think I'll try and modify it into something a little different.

Pillow love

A few weekends ago I saw this pillow at Pottery Barn.  The great thing about Pottery Barn pillows or covers is not only that they're gorgeous, but they're primarily linens and really great prints, and can be reproduced at home.

It was the pocket on this pillow that really caught my eye.  I didn't really groove on the words embroidered on the pillow because they don't fit in with the rest of the room, but, I knew the coloring would have looked really nice with a chair in my living room.

This is a small chair, so the pillow is only 12"x12".  I was set to cut a linen square for the pocket and then stitch it the to pillow with red embroidery thread, but then remembered a Rounneries charm pack that I got for Christmas and decided to just use a square of the red solid for the pocket, and it gave just enough color to not overpower the linen.  It's on a small chair that no one really sits in anyway, so I might make one more to make it look a little softer. 

I tested it out with a remote and then hid a little note.  What about you?  What would you put in a pillow pocket?

Brown Paper Packages: Swaptastic

I love that the crafty blogosphere gives us all the opportunity to share our projects and our thoughts and inspiration and missteps and our favorite things.  I also love the awesome bloggers that host swaps that allow us to exchange actual THINGS.  Things that you can feel and use and get for free can share with other lovely ladies who craft.

I've done three swaps this year, two for supplies and one for handmade gifts.  In my supply exchanges I've received tons of awesome buttons, so really pretty trims and ribbons, fat quarters that I never would have bought for myself but loved as soon as I had them in my hands, vintage bias tapes and scraps that I've done my best to make into lovely finished items. 

My handmade gift exchange I sent off (in a huge rush) about a week before Christmas as soon as I realized that mail delivery was going to start slowing down and I needed to get my butt in gear.  The rules of the exchange were one gift to spoil the person, one gift for the home and one gift to eat.  (Don't worry, for the gift to eat my roommate offered to give me some outrageously tasty Holiday pastry balls (heh) to send so that my giftee was spared my baking.)  I wish I had bothered to take better pictures, but I was flying to get them into the box.

The "for the person" gift was this granny bag.  The handles are a brown suede lace and the fabric is a Kaffe Fassett print from my local quilt shop.  I love a granny bag because they're so easy to throw a bunch of things in and tote around, but they're cute enough so you don't feel like your schlubbing a junk bag. 

I ended up making two "for the home" gifts.  I first made this fabric basket out of a creamy linen and (vintage, maybe?) floral print that I just LOVE, but I had such a small amount of scrap left over from the granny bag that I wanted to give the pillow a try.  The envelope flaps on the back are the same print as the bag and the criss-cross on the front.  It ended up matching so nicely and looked so pretty with the linen that I included it in the package.  

I hope my recipient has as much fun opening these treats as I had making them.

And the piggy goes oink oink

So, you've got this cousin who likes purple and likes pigs and just moved to a new house.  Plus, there's a pretty big holiday coming up where the tradition of gift giving is pretty prominent. 

If only there was something that seemed made for a situation like this.  Enter Pig Let by Echino.

Then, add some sand colored sueduecloth and two 16"x16" pillow forms bought on a super sale at Jo-Ann, and you've got these!

These were actually some of the first Christmas gifts that I made, they'll be the last to get wrapped, and one of the first to be given away.  I think that's about fitting.

I've got one more last minute gift to make in a hurry tomorrow evening, and then I'm calling it off. 

More kitchen linens

I've been sewing quite a bit for Christmas, but not much to be shown until after the Holiday is over.  I'm trying to fight off a itchy ear stuff nose type thing, which is putting a bit of a crimp in my plans.  I also can't seem to tear myself away from The Secret Life of Tiger Woods long enough to get everything done. 

Now for a project I can show, because it is a Christmas gift, I'm just not sure who for (me?  maybe?  my kitchen isn't blue and this doesn't match in the least?). 

Turns out that I do NOT think that poms are too much on dishtowels, because in the past week I've gotten white, orange and yellow poms and all are destined for kitchen towels and napkins.  The white was originally for a Holiday towel, and I picked up some Figgy Pudding at my local quilt shop but once I washed it I noticed hot pink spots all over it.  No longer fit for toweldom, I'll need to see what I've got left after I cut the pink out and work from there. 

Whoa.  Anyway.  Since I needed something to do with the white poms, I googled for this tutorial from Film In The Fridge (via Sew, Mama, Sew!), lengthened it and, duh, added poms. 

The blue is Quilter's Solid in nearly navy, the white is a plain linen and the scraps are...scrappy. 

I've got three (and a half) more must finish projects to complete by Christmas.   

Kitchen Kaboodle

I decided to officially start my Christmas shopping today, far, far too late in the season if the traffic leading up to the mall was any indication.  There were security guards directing traffic into the various parking lots.  I nearly turned around right then.

While I was shopping for others, I decided to pop into Anthropologie for myself, not to buy anything (not that I wouldn't love to buy up the whole store, but alas...) but to just soak up all of the visual eye candy. 

I saw two kitchen towels and a napkin set that I just had to try as soon as I got home. 

I have an Anna Maria Horner print that I think this will look super neat with, but I wanted to try it out on another (read: cheaper) stash fabric before I cut into in.  Kind of like a kitchen muslin, yeah?  Plus I wanted to see if it was maybe just a bit...too much?  Is it?  I can take it?  Are the poms overkill? (I like them.)

I took a fat quarter, squared it up so the edges would be even and pressed a double 1/2" hem around the whole thing.  I used a small strip of macrame cord in the corner to hang the towel with. 

The napkins were pretty plain, with just little accents on each end.  I was pretty tired by the time I tried these out, so I just made a 12" square napkin and made the corner poms by wadding up some trashed fabric strips, folding 2" squares of the kitchen towel fabric around it and tying the middle to hold them together.  I attached them to the napkin with embroidery floss.  If I make a full napkin set I for sure want to attach and tie off with the same color thread. 

(Sock) Monkeying around

Thanksgiving weekend absolutely flew by.  Which is surprising, really, seeing as I was awake for about 20 out of 24 hours for at least three of the Black Friday weekend days. 

A few days before Thanksgiving, though, I went to a birthday party for a extra special (and extra cute) little boy that was turning one!

His mom mentioned an Ugly Doll a few weeks before his birthday, so I gave softie making a try and made a pseudo-Ugly Doll out of two fat quarters and embroidered his face.  I just realized that I didn't take pictures of his backside, but it was bright yellow with the alphabet (in all the other bright colors) floating around. 

I also trimmed some bathroom towels with the cutest sock monkey print that I found (on sale!) at a local quilt shop.  I bought a half yard and the towels didn't even require half of it.  I'm afraid the full effect is a bit marred, as I discovered that there were exactly zero angles at which my towel bar could be photographed that did not include a view of the toilet, which...no.  So, here they are IN my shower.  Not pictured: me, huddling under the shower head hoping that the water didn't spontaneously turn on (no, it's never done that before, and yes, I realize how unlikely it was) and soak me, the camera and the towels.

Now I need to find another kiddie-friendly project to use up the rest of it!

Table covers: part deux

Last week I finished up the tablecloths that I had been putting off for about a month.

Today I finished a table runner that I've been putting off far longer.  I made a basket liner for my mom (she calls is a bun warmer.  hee hee!) and had a ton of material left over.  She's been asking for a table runner for a long time, so I decided to use the leftovers to make one.

Reversible, even.

I tried to find a tutorial on the Internet to save myself too many mathematical calculations, but everything I found was too short to drape over the ends of the table, so I was forced to try and multiply on my own.  I decided to wimp out, basically, and cut one side into equal 6.5" strips, and then cut 4 10" strips for the other side and used the scraps from the first side to make up the difference.  I used fusible interfacing on one side because I wanted the ends to drape nicely over the end of the table.  The fabric was also very light, so I wanted to minimize the seethroughness.

The real brain tease, though, was measuring the bias tape that I used to bind it.  I used a super neat tutorial I found on Fabritopia's blog and crossed my fingers.  I used my last square of fabric to make the bias tape and as I was binding it I started to sweat because I didn't want to have:
a.) to seam rip the whole damn runner
b.) to run to Jo-Ann and buy two packages of bias tape, delaying the finish even longer
c.) wasted all that time chasing my fingers with an iron to make the tape to begin with.

Luckily, with three whopping inches to spare, I had enough.

She better like it.  I hope she likes it!

I'm not sure this even counts as sewing

I've acually been putting the project off for a long time, and the only excuse I have is I didn't want to cut and iron such a big square.

My mom is hosting Thanksgiving this year, which involves seating more people than her kitchen table will allow, so the plan is to put card tables in the family room and eat there.  Today, about a month after the fabric was purchased, I finished the tablecloths for the card tables.

Care for a mini tutorial? 

I cheated when determining the size of the tablecloth.  I had one huge piece of fabric (3 yards?  I said it had been a long time since it was purchased!), so I folded it selvedge to selvedge, cut off any frays or shrinkage from washing/drying and measured.  It was 51". 

Then I cut the other raw edge to measure 51", too, so I had two giant squares.

Fold and press a double 1/2" seam all the way around, pinning as you go.

Sew 1/4" hem around the whole tablecloth, and then another 1/4" away from the original hem. 

Press the whole thing, then throw it on the table. 

Voila.

Pillow talk

When I was sick last week I spent quite a bit of time in bed, and noticed that both of my throw pillows are a bit dingy.  Well, fine, one has been questionable for awhile, but it's the perfect size and shape and so comfy that I just didn't want to part with it.

So, since I didn't want to give them up, or pop for three new pillows, I decided to recover them.

Both fabrics are from Joel Dewberry's Ginseng line.  The orange is one of the (washed and fluffed) throws that I recovered.  No, I couldn't bare to take a before picture.  The brown is actually a pillow form that I covered awhile ago, but I think they go together pretty nice.  Both are backed in a super soft chocolate brown flannel, which I ran out of before I could recover the other throw.  I plan on fixing up that one, too, as soon I can replenish my flannel stash.