Fashion Challenge Check-In #2

The Goal: To use 4 different fashion looks from my Pinterest Fashion Stuff, Shoes, or the accessories on my Window Shopping boards as inspiration in creating a look for me to wear in November, December, or January. -- And I'm adding February since I've been so slow at accomplishing this! 

The Budget: $10 (specifically for tights)

The Inspirations:

1) Dress + Shirt

2) Dress + Cardigan 1, 2, 3, 4,

3) Shorts + tights -- DONE!

4) Statement shoes 1, 2, 3, 4,
I was actually incredibly excited to try this out the day that I played in the orchestra (all black outfit). So excited that I rushed out the door without taking the time to get a photo! So, from the day of, this bad cell phone picture is all I've got:

I keep thinking I'll recreate the outfit to get a more accurate photo, but instead I've been working too many hours to think about putting on such a dressed up outfit. Also, as much as I love those shoes (and I do, despite this being the third wearing in five years), after ten hours on my feet in winter boots, I do not think I could force my feet into them!

I also had a chance to try out another, but very similar, approach.

Again, a little artistic blur on the photo. Pretty basic, new black dress (love it so much), red shoes last worn three years ago to my sister-in-law's wedding, and - nearly impossible to see - a little fish-y necklace.

Not bad for something pulled together in about three minutes after the planned outfit had a breakdown. (I must remember to buy size 'tall' tights. The consequences of forgetting are not good.)

5) Accessories/Layers/Etc. -

I've been making more progress - even wearing accessories and layers on days I don't intentionally set out to create a picture for this challenge. I guess I've got to learn to embrace the selfie!

Also, while the fish necklace isn't so comfortable to wear (boo) (nor so visible in that photo) I am loving my diy hobbit door type necklace. The 'chain' is a semi-stretchy material and much more comfortable on my skin than the metal chain but my favorite part is that the door is actually a tiny locket held closed with a magnet. It has given me something to fiddle with when I'm tired or bored, which makes it practical as well as fun. Okay, 'practical' might be a bit of a stretch - but needless to say, I'm really enjoying it and wearing it a couple times a week when possible. 

For all that #4 (statement shoes) and #5 (accessories) have been going well, I am increasingly worried that the first two challenges I set myself are going to prove impossible. I have some dresses, and I have both shirts and cardigans. But so far, they are not looking good together at all. I'm going to try a little harder over the next couple weeks, but I might have to replace those challenges with things that more reflect my closet's abilities - or try again when I have improved my closet a little!

Bunting Project

I've been working on using up some of my supply of vintage sheets. Turning some of them into pixel heart style quilts has been keeping me busy- patchwork keeps me really on my toes -but today I really wanted to try my hand on something that would give faster results.

I took a single large pillowcase that had previously avoided being cut up thanks to being more textured looking than the others I've been working on (the weave of the fabric is slightly more apparent than the others I've grouped) and used my rotary cutter to cut it into several triangles.

If I'd been clever, I would have turned the pillowcase inside out to cut the triangles so they would have been face to face. Since I wasn't, I had to flip each set before sewing them together. Using a wide quarter inch seam, l sewed two sides together then ironed  them, flipped them outside out and ironed again.

I did attempt to top stitch along the finished edges on one, The edges did look nicely finished, but my machine refused to feed the point. Newer or sturdier fabric might be able to handle the tug but this vintage fabric couldn't cope.

So, now I have a pile of triangles just waiting for me to find ribbon or bias tape to attach them to before I can call them finished. It's nothing like a quilt top - but I am loving having something more 'finished' to show for my time already. I still love quilting, but it can take so much time before I feel rewarded for my effort -- especially when working patchwork style. I'm off to search the stash and see if I've got the right finishing touches for these!

Mon--No Wait, Tuesday... I think...

This should be one of my easier days this week, but this doesn't look like a good sign of things to come.

In theory I was only prewashing to rid the fabric of a strange odor they'd picked up somewhere along the way to my hands. But the second I dunked the first of these bold pink pieces into the water I knew there was a little more than that going on. None of the other colors, including the red, black, and navy pieces bled dye at all, and I managed to get all the other pieces out before this excess dye could latch on to them. These two have now been washed twice and continue to turn the water pink (I hope that coloring comes out of my tub). I'm not particularly happy about this - but I am glad I learned it when there were only a few little pieces and no labor at risk!

On a brighter hand, I have been getting some work done on my muted half square triangle quilt.

All the fabric is sorted and the brown yardage is cut (still have the black to cut though).

And the next step is in progress - though my chalk lines are kind of hard to see, even in person. I'm hopeful I can stitch them together like this, but so far it isn't going well. I'll finish the muted blocks all the same way (marking, then sewing just off the line on both sides) but unless I get better at it, I'll cut the saturated ones before sewing instead of after.

Scrappy X and + Pillow

A few days ago I shared a scrappy x and + block that I had made, quilted, then bordered out in a deep purple scrap:

Although I love the single block (I am going to have to find a reason to make more of these blocks!), once I added the border I figured this was headed toward becoming a pillow for my library chair.

I pulled together a rather scrappy looking envelope close back:

(which I actually love almost as much as the front)

and wound up with a single 13 or 14 inch pillow.

I do wish the overall size was larger - maybe approaching 20 inches or so - but otherwise I'm quite pleased. Who would have thought that these colors and patterns could work together at all? I was worried that my combinations weren't going to work at all - but I'm pleasantly surprised with the results.

I'm always worried about choosing fabrics to go together - probably part of why I rely on precut packages so much - but this has been fun, and rewarding, and yes, has me thinking I should push myself to try matching fabrics on my own more often.

Progress

Green/Koi/April/May Mini Thing... -DONE!

Happy Go Lucky Quilt - DONE! (NEEDS NEW PHOTO)

Yet to Do: square up, buy fabric and make binding, bind, wash.

Semi-Sampler Quilt - DONE! 

Progress: add additional border?, make a back, baste, quilt, bind, wash  
Yet to do: mail it off!  

Pansy Patch Project

No recent progress.
Yet to Do: finish piecing tops together, make back, baste, quilt, bind

Our Bedroom Quilts

Yet to do:

• Cut Reunion fabrics for tops
• Cut sash
• Piece each top
• Pre-wash fabrics for the backs
• Piece each back (choose more fabric?)
• Baste both
• Choose thread/buy thread 
• Quilt
• Make binding 
• Bind
• Wash

Scrappy X and + Pillow: 

Recent Progress: made the top, quilted the center, added a border
Yet to do: find/buy pillow form, make back, finish

Starbursts Quilt

Recent Progress: made 1 scrappy starburst block
Yet to do: make at least 2 more in various sizes, find a large piece of fabric to use as a field, piece top, make back, baste, quilt, bind, wash,

Vintage/Pixel Heart (Blue/Pink/Yellow/Muted)

Recent Progress: Pieced top
Yet to do: make a back, baste, quilt, bind, wash

Half-Square Triangle Quilts (Saturated/Black and Muted/Brown)

Recent Progress: Bought Fabric
Yet to do: Cut solids, piece tops, make backs, baste, quilt, bind, wash

Waiting to Start:

• Second vintage/pixel heart quilt
• Simple Marks charm pack quilt
• 
  

2013 Portrait?

I haven't been making much progress on making my 2013 cross stitch portrait yet. It isn't a very big project, probably taking less than two solid hours of work, but it does take some time. With my printer still on the outs, I do have to sit at one of my computers until I have enough of the pattern to travel with the project.

I have been toying with different ideas for the look of the year though. I usually do try to choose outfits we've actually worn during the year, but so far I have always gone for pants on Greg rather than his usual shorts. This year, he's requested that I at least try shorts.

It is a bit more realistic a look - though I wish I had a way of illustrating his hair without going for the long and loose version he so rarely chances!

For him, I'll be going with the grey shorts, blue top look. For me, I'm less certain. Both outfits are representative of what I've tried to do this last year - but I'm kind of leaning towards the dress just to shake things up a little bit for both of us! I might change my mind though - the dress is a little more complicated to stitch.

Pinterest Challenge: Oven Fajitas

The Inspiration: Budget Bytes Oven Fajitas found via Pinterest

The Results:

Although I did take the short cut of using fajita seasoning I had on hand (rather than making my own as the recipe gives instructions to do for those interested - and I'm sure it would have been a little better tasting and a lot better for me), I tried not to deviate much from the recipe as presented. Not being a fan of red peppers, I went only for green peppers and some onions - though I seriously thought about adding squash or large pieces of mushroom. My knife skills are rusty, so cutting everything up wasn't the easiest for me to manage, but I was still able to have everything in the oven a few minutes before my husband realized I'd started cooking dinner.

About half-way through the baking time, he kept coming out complaining that it smelled too good in the house. By the time I pulled it out of the oven, we were both practically drooling. Fortunately, the oven fajitas tasted as good as they smelled. Maybe better.

Delicious. I didn't have to do any clean up - not only did everyone come back for seconds, and thirds, but the scrappy little leftover onions and peppers that didn't quite make it into any plates got picked off before the dish was cold.

I've had multiple requests for the recipe, and repeated requests that this become a weekly thing. It's easy enough it just might!

Welcome Baby O!

Just a little something I'm sending out to carry my best wishes to some friends and their soon-to-arrive baby.

Getting a good photo of the set was impossible-thanks to wind that blustered up every time I went outside with the camera.

I am so thrilled to be sending my semi-sampler quilt off to them. Although I didn't sent out to make it for anyone, the moment I learned the news I began thinking that this was really meant to be shared with them. As I finished up, I just couldn't shake the idea that it really belonged with them instead. With the help of a mutual college friend - who happened to room with us each at one time or another- this little set (along my best hopes and wishes) is headed to the upcoming baby shower.

I worked with pearl snaps for the first time as the finishing touch for the two coordinating bibs. Installing them should have been about as easy as any other snap but I did manage to put a small crack in one of them! Despite using layers of padding between the tool and snap just to be safe. The crack was small and almost disappeared after the first wash (to rid cat hair and ensure the snaps are decently set) so I'm hoping it will hold up for a while at least! They do look good - I just wish they'd installed a little easier.

Doing Some Homework Over the Weekend

"Fresh Quilting"
"Modern Holiday"
"Shape Workshop for Quilters"
"Patchwork Please!"

Also, taking a walk -a very short one.

Plotting on Quilts

Remember my crush on the weave fabrics?

I've come up with a general plan for what I'd like to do with it. I'm at least going to begin with some half-square triangles making diamonds of the feature colors and diamonds of a neutral.

Though I may piece out with some featured color borders if the size needs a little work. 

After a great deal of thought, I split my Weave charm packs into two different color stories. 

 A bright/intense/saturated group that I'll pair with black.
And a more muted/softer group that I'll pair with the brown I'm so in love with:

Although I'm very tempted to steal the plum color from the saturated group to see if it pairs nicely in the more muted group. Just feels like the muted one could use a purple shade. Hmmm...

Huh. Everything looks totally different - guess that's the difference an hour makes in terms of lighting - but I think I like it better with the purple added. And the more saturated set doesn't seem poorer for the loss. I'm hoping that I can do a bigger test layout tomorrow - just laying all the squares out on the background piece so I can see them in large pieces instead of little bitty ones - but so far it's looking good. 

The two stacks aren't quite the same size, so I expect the saturated/black one will be slightly larger. And as usual, I have no idea what I'm going to do with them except that I can't keep my fingers away from the fabrics so I have to do something with them! I have a vague suspicion that at least the more muted one will end up as a gift, if I can get it to be a good size. We'll see what the future brings! 

Still Just Playing

I am still in love with the strange little scrappy x and + block I made, and still not certain what I can do to make it into something workable. I'd really like to see it pillow size, which will require the addition of a border to enlarge it a little more than the current 11.5 square. 

For right or wrong, I couldn't see using a very printed border, nor a solid one. But I found three purple options that fell somewhere between a print and a solid, and all of which seemed decent enough matches.

I'll have to find a pillow form - probably by taking apart an older one and seeing if I can re-size and re-fluff it a bit first - before I determine whether it needs another border or not. I suspect a quick border in something nearer the dark blue would be a nice finishing touch... but we'll see what's needed when there's a form to size to.

And since my scrappy collection grew a little during the making of this, I have started another starburst as well.

I do wish I'd swapped the purple/black/gold/white and the grey/teal/citron/white places. I thought from the prints that I was doing the right thing, but looking at the finished piece I would have been happier if the two citrons were farther apart rather than adjacent to each other. The scrappy block on point in the center was my own addition, and while it's not as cleanly made as I had hoped, I am pleased with the addition of something in the center. I'll lose a few points on the edges no matter what I do - but I'm toying with making a few more scrappy blocks like this. I'm not sure I could make an entire quilt out of several of these blocks, but a few scrappy ones set in a large field might work well... 

Nope...

Attempt at making angel food pumpkin loaf: 

Not quite so successful. Turns out, despite the directions saying just two ingredients, it actually takes more than that. Not that it's bad stuff, just a little bland, and a little denser than expected. Will try again, but maybe next fall.

Vintage Colors and Pixel Hearts

There's a growing pile of partial sets of old sheets and pillowcases taking up space around here. There might be just an orphan pillowcase, a partly worn out sheet, or only a fitted sheet. The one piece that's the right size for the only bed in the house is a fitted sheet with elastic that gave up doing anything several years ago (from the look of it). So, the pile grows while I try to think of what to do with it all!

Eventually, I pulled out some of the orphaned pillow cases to think about what I can do with them.

Of course, Momo had to check them out. Once they passed his approval, and once he was persuaded to get off the sewing desk, I grabbed my rotary cutter, took a deep breath, and got to cutting.

I sliced and diced by way through the stack until I had a stack of 4 inch square blocks. Due to wear and tear in the pillowcases, and some having ruffles and other trim work I didn't want to mess with, I didn't wind up with a set number of any of them... but I had quite a pile.

The stack of squares sat on my shelves for several months, just waiting for inspiration to strike.

I suppose I was procrastinating on starting on the two quilts that are supposed to go on our bed, but inspiration struck last night and I got to work. I've been drooling over pixel heart quilts for several months, and it finally occurred to me that I could make some with my little vintage print blocks!

I should have started small and then built up - but instead I went big immediately.

If I had started with a smaller version, I would have known to be more intentional when choosing the pieces I wanted to be the heart rather than the ones I thought were neutral backgrounds. Even if I had used the exact same blocks, I could have at least outlined the heart in intense pieces so the shape was more defined.

Picking out the heart from the neutral is a little more of a challenge than I'd hoped - at this point - but I am hopeful I can do something more distinctive with the quilting to help the wanted shape pop a little more.

Photo editing is helping pop the color a little here

Despite the non-popping heart, I'm not displeased with the overall piece. Sure, I wish my block seems had lined up a little better... but I've got to keep practicing I guess!

And yes, I am making at least one more, possible two. I have the blocks to spare, and I can apply what I've learned so far. I think. I think I'm going to make one with the blues and one with my favorite prints, which just happen to be more along the pink/yellow range. We'll see if I have enough neutral blocks to make that many! I might have to put one of those on the back burner until I get a few more orphan sheets. Fortunately, that doesn't usually take long around here.

Playing Around

I really should be working on cutting the sashing for our two quilts - for the third month running... but truth be told, I've kind of fallen out of love with those quilts. Sad, because I've already cut all the Reunion prints I will use on them. Sadder still because I like the idea of us having matching quilts again (since using one has never worked for us) and I cannot justify tossing the project and starting over with different plans/fabrics. At least not until we've got a new bedroom - which is still looking to be years down the road.

So, I really should be working on those quilts. But instead, I keep digging through my scraps looking for something easy and fun to play with instead. It's a problem - but it isn't costing me money, since I'm using only scraps and a few spare change minutes throughout the week, so I'm hard pressed to complain too loudly.

Tonight, inspired by some scrappy X and + pins, I took some of my scraps and a pin that was almost a tutorial, and tried my hand at it.

Sometimes trying to figure out the best way to make quilt blocks from photos turns out to be fun, or at least a good workout for my brain. Other times, I really wish I had searched hard enough to find a real tutorial. I'll let you guess which kind of time this one was, though I will say that my lack of precision on this one was more than a little frustrating. I think I should have wound up with something nearing 12" square. Once mine is trimmed to square, it's going to have no choice but to be 11.5 or smaller.

I'm a little torn about my fabric choices on this one. Some moments I like the overall look, other times I'm not certain the plus really works with the x. But, I'm hard pressed not to love it - and not only because I finally cut into that dark blue floral I've been holding onto for nearly three years. I know nothing of it - other than that it was a fat quarter bundle purchase from JoAnn's - I have absolutely loved it and hesitated over and over again about using it in a project. I have a little more than half of the fabric left and now that I've seen it in something, I'm all the more eager to find another something I can make with what little I have left.

I have already quilted it to a scrappy piece of batting, but I think I might still be clever enough to turn it into a sofa pillow as I'd hoped. That might require adding a border of some kind since 11x11 seems a little small for a sofa pillow. I'll have to see what I've got on hand. If nothing jumps out at me, this could always become another mini quilt to brighten up the house during these cold and dark months.

Fabric Crush Again

I always say I can visit my local quilt shop in 'a few minutes' but any one who has ever gone with me, or sat in the car while I run in, knows that it's more likely to take forty-five minutes to an hour. Time goes more quickly when you're having fun - so it's easy for me to lose track of time while I'm inside. Less easy for the people waiting on me...

So I was surprised when my husband suggested I stop by while we were out anyway. I hadn't been since August, but I promised I'd try my best to be quick.

Forty-five minutes later, after drooling over nearly everything in the place, I came back out with only two charm packs - but I can tell you, I'm already plotting how to get back and pick up some coordinating yardage.

I am absolutely in love with this collection. The colors are amazing, and I just want to pet them. There isn't any unusual texture, but don't they look like there should be?

It's impossible to choose a favorite color. The dark brown is perfect, not too red or too grey, and I just love the pairing of these louder orange and green colors.

I have a couple ideas of what I'd love to do with them, but everything I want to do - beyond just keep petting the blocks - requires a trip back for yardage. I knew this would be the case when I picked up the charms, but I also knew I needed some time to look at all the colors before I decided which one/s I wanted yardage of. Otherwise, I was very afraid I'd blow my whole paycheck on yardage...

See, my charm pack buying problem is really about saving... and giving me more time to look things over before committing to larger pieces... and... perfectly justifiable. Yep. No problem here. Not at all.

Which clearly means that I need to pick up a couple more while I'm there this week.