The Other Stash...

I really have no plans for these little projects, but they're getting done anyway. Partly to use up my stash, partly to have a few things to draw from as more and more friends keep having more and more babies! I'm afraid I won't be able to keep up with everyone - what a happy problem to have! - so I'm making a few soft and sweet little blankets and things to pass out when I'm not able to make something more intense.

Already in the stash is a happy little denim and fleece blanket:

And joining it today is a hot pink and aqua  owl and rosette/minky blanket:

I love how perfectly the hot pink rosette fabric goes with the hot pink owls! And even better, the owls are stash and the rosette was a clearance remnant piece.I might even have enough to make a second one of these... though it might have to be a little smaller...

This little stash also includes two other tiny quilts that I'm working on whenever I have absolutely no desire to work on one of my bigger projects. There's not much to show yet, but here's a sneak peak (in the form of an old photo) of what else is going on in my 'secret' stash:

I haven't made much progress on it - partly because I'm waiting for a hint that I need to get working on it. I know the point is to be ahead, but I'm hoping that having a plan and fabric already will put me far enough ahead that I can keep up with everyone. I think last count has me anticipating 6-10 Welcome Baby packages to make in the next 8 months or less. Between that number and the number of hours I've been working, or filing with other non-sewing, non-quilting activities, I'll need all the head starts I can get!

Resistance? Not So Much...

I know as well as anyone that I ought to be working on the second top for our bedroom quilts. I even managed to get out the pieces last night - only to determine that with two computers still in my work space at the moment, I don't really have enough room to lay out all the pieces I need. It's a flimsy excuse - but in all honesty, despite the pressing (self imposed) deadline, I am also having a hard time buckling down and doing the same top I already did.

So, I'm giving myself a respite - while I finish up the last things before I can move back to a one computer work room - and started playing around with a Kate & Birdie Paper Co. 'Winter's Lane' layer cake I picked up after Christmas 2013. I guess all that 'Christmas in July' talk has gotten to me after all!

I'm still toying with whether I'm making a lap quilt or a tree skirt, but I've narrowed in on the design I'm working towards and started cutting the layer cake pieces (10x10) into 5x5 pieces. I've got a couple more cuts to make before I'm done, but it feels like progress -- especially considering I managed to get this done in 15 minutes while dinner was being cooked.

--

I didn't stop there though. I actually managed to turn on the sewing machine and whip up 8 nine patch blocks. They are badly in need of ironing, but I haven't managed that yet!

Winter's Lane fabrics don't quite come in four color stories, which is what I really ought to have had, so I'm working with a blue (above), a brown (below), a red/white, and a neutral - which is mainly the lighter toned pieces from the browns and blues. I'm not sure how it'll all work together yet, it might be a bit more unbalanced than I'd like - but we'll see.

I'm off to purchase a neutral low volume or solid to coordinate with this, and maybe by Monday I'll have a top done. Then again, maybe I'll work on Greg's quilt instead if I hurry up and get this older computer out of my own way...

My next quilt group meeting is coming up in a couple weeks and this would be an easier one to take to work on there than the massive bulk of our bedroom quilts. But... I may not be able to hold off that long!

Modern Mini

I've been seeing mini quilts of beautiful retro style houses pop up all over my Pinterest feed for a couple years now. It seems like all the links go to flickr, which is good because it usually gets even more examples of what I'm drooling over, but seems strange to link to (especially when I'm not always certain who to give credit to).

One of my long term goals is to get the pattern and learn how to make this mini quilt thing. I love it so. But, for today, I thought I'd just use my favorite as inspiration to make one of my own.

I turned on one of my favorite audio books ("Leviathan" by Scott Westerfeld, performed by Alan Cumming - which not only is an amazing book, but seriously one of the best audio book performances I've heard), grabbed a stack of fat quarters that mysteriously leaped into my hands recently, and spent a happy hour or so cutting and sewing.

And ultimately, I wound up with a little something like this:

Already basted and ready to quilt!

I just love the fabric I chose for the house itself. It's kind of an olive/avocado color scheme, but it really works - and I guess I have a little thing for circles and dots...

I decided against making any of the accompanying houses, or trees, but just to concentrate on this little retro/modern house.

Well... I guess I did try one tree...

I almost like the back better - at least for showing off the quilting.

It isn't quite as cute as the ones I've been drooling over (probably because those people are using paper piecing and/or patterns and I was just winging it). And as much as I like my fabrics, when I do this again I'm going to have to go with something less patterned for the 'sky' pieces. The disconnected way the pattern meets up is a little distracting here. I knew I was taking a chance, as this kind of thing has always bothered me, but I had hoped the finished piece would distract me from it. No such luck. I still like it, but I've learned something for next time. Which is probably the number two reason I make these minis.

Some Sewing

I didn't choose a very good week to take off for my mini vacation from blogging - it's been so hot I can hardly manage to turn on my machines, much less make progress to talk about later!

About the only things I managed to accomplish in my entire week off were the coordinating bib and hooded towel for my second Welcome Baby Package of the year, for Baby W.

The bib is backed in the same terrycloth as the hooded towel (using the leftovers from the hand towel that made the hood) and one of the decorative pink-ish fabrics also helps tie the two together. I chose the coordinating fabric first, based on scrap size to do the towel trim without seams. After that, I chose the cupcake piece because I know there's some baking and cupcaking in the family history. After that, I just pulled any scrap that seemed to match one or both of the pieces I'd already chosen and was the right size for my project. It's a lot of pink, but I'm hoping the greens, browns, and blues will help tone that down and keep it from being too overly sweet.

It's been a couple years since the last time I made a hooded towel, so I did have to pull up my favorite tutorial for it again (at Obsessively Stitching). This should be an easy thing to make - even with the addition of the accent fabric - but I made mistake after mistake and it wound up taking me more than two hours to get it all pulled together. I'm still not thrilled with the outcome, but at this point, it's going to have to be good enough (unless a trip through the wash destroys my work). Clearly, I need not to take off years between projects, even if it is relatively simple and straight forward!

Fortunately, sewing and assembling the bib went much more smoothly. Even installing the snap - not my favorite part - went fairly smoothly. I'd kind of like to make one more bib to include with the package, but if I do so, I ought to write the family and see what not-pink, not-cupcakey themes they might be interested in.

The two pieces are in the wash at the moment, and assuming all goes well, I think these might be the last pieces before I can take photos of the package as a whole and begin wrapping. I've got a couple more weeks before delivery - and a longer timeline if I find someone else to take this to the baby shower instead (sadly, I was booked to work long before I knew that was the baby shower weekend).

At least installing snaps and taking photos is relatively cool work! It's about 80 in my house at the moment, and that's just too hot to turn on the sewing machine or iron, so all my other projects are just sitting in the corner waiting for cooler weather. Looks like I may not get our quilts done by end of August after all!

Mini Vacation

We've been back from our first of the summer's mini vacations for over a week now -- but I still feel like I'm playing catch up in all areas of my life!

We had an absolute blast hanging out with our friends and their 'baby' -- who is very much a toddler and nearly 2. All three of them were so much fun to be around for a while, and I know we all wish we could have stayed longer - or that life worked out for us to be able to see each other more than a couple times a year.

We played with fireworks (as you can see above, in the intentionally blurry photo), watched a firework show, and had some amazing food both from their kitchen/grill and some restaurants. I had an absolutely amazing jerk chicken with sweet potato dish that rates well within the top five dishes I've ever had.

Long story short, I'm already counting the days until we can find another reason to visit our friends -- and not only for the food they make and have up in their part of the world!

I thought I'd be able to step back into the regular movement of my life as soon as we got back, but it's been a bit of a struggle even before Friday and part of Saturday were taken up by dealing with mysterious cat illnesses, so I'm going to take a couple personal days and hopefully be back later in the week with some updates.

Oh, and Momo is apparently on the mend. We never did get an answer as to why he was refusing food, running a higher than usual temperature, or any of the other concerning issues, but at least we know it isn't any of the usual suspects. He's been shaved, poked, prodded, subjected to x rays and ultrasounds and blood tests, and every test says he's doing fine. It's not as definitive as a diagnosis and an answer, but at least he's eating again and acting more like himself. Hopefully he's well on his way to being better and we won't have to stress ourselves - or him - by going through any of this again!

Today, There Will Be Whining

I'd hoped that this afternoon would be filled with me updating you all on my new sewing room furniture - but instead I spent most of the day at the vets' offices. Yes, plural.

Momo hasn't been feeling well the last few days. Because I'm usually an alarmist, I tried to give him a couple days to recover, to get over it on his own. But after two nights of him eating nothing between 5 pm and 5 am (usually he has two or three small meals in this time period) I was nervous. Since I had to call the vet anyway, I mentioned it - and the next thing I know I was off to the vets.

Six hours, two x rays, an ultrasound check up, three physical assessments, a blood test, an iv of fluids, a shot of antibiotics, and two vet clinics later - basically I'm out nearly $1000 and have nothing to show for it other than a wet, shaved, cranky cat and the surprise rewards left in my car, all over my living room floor, and inside the litter box.

And unless he's acting closer to normal by tomorrow, I'll get to try it all over again.

For a cat who can't prove there's anything wrong with him, he's costing a lot of time and money. And... let's just say I'm really glad we already swapped out the carpet for 'wood' or I'd be even more cross.

Oh, and to bring a lovely end to my day, I learned that mice have been living in the closet with my overflow quilting and sewing supplies.

Today was not my day. And I'd feel a lot more hopeful if tomorrow was looking any better.

If you're the kind of person who believes in prayer, positive thoughts, etc., please send a little 'better' towards me -- and Momo. We are going to need it.

Ugly Secret

The house we're currently living in has a few issues. Some of the more minor issues - like the ancient carpeting and the old toilets - we've been able to fix, but some of the more major issues are beyond an easy fix. One of my greatest annoyances with the house is that it was put on the property backwards. The front door - which opens into the living room - is all the way around the house from where anyone would park. Of course, at this point even if a person were to know that they should circle the house to get to the 'right' door, they wouldn't be able to between overgrown pathways and the stairs to the door being broken.

Instead of battling this - or wandering the waist high grasses hoping to find a 'front' door, everyone goes to what appears to be the front door: just a few feet from the parking area/driveway, nice welcoming porch, patio furniture on the porch, door bell on the side of the door. There's really no choice but to use it - if only it opened up anywhere else in the house...

Welcome to my laundry room - and the worst storage we have.

Not exactly a welcoming sight, I know. And that's after three rounds of purging (this year) and several attempts at reorganizing to make things a little more appealing. It just doesn't work.

Although in the long run, it might be worth it to replace the single shelf with a couple cabinets - as doors and multiple shelves could really help our storage needs while still being relatively attractive - at this point, that's kind of beyond my ability. So, looking for a short cut, we found a tension rod that's long enough to span the 61.5 inch opening.

Initially, we had planned on using a mounted closet rod for the sturdiness, but ultimately we wanted to go with something requiring a little less commitment - and something that wouldn't damage the walls on the off chance that Momo somehow pulled on the curtain.

I turned a flat sheet into a quick curtain, trimmed and hemmed it to the size I wanted, and within about 15 minutes we have an improved laundry / entry space.

It's not ideal, and I figure we'll make more changes down the line, but for now, I'm just happy not to be staring at all those boxes every single time I come into the house - or walk through the hallway there.

After a week of living with it, I was beginning to think that it wasn't that great of a change: it's a little bulky, it makes the space seem a little smaller, all kinds of negativity. Yesterday I had pulled the curtain more open while I was doing laundry, and happened to come into the house from outside while it was pulled out of the way and I am now even more firm in my opinion that while it's not ideal, it is so much better than seeing all the boxes. As a temporary fix (that might not be so temporary), I think this is going to work very well.

Welcome Baby D Package

Despite what this looks like, I promise this is actually a fairly small Welcome Baby Package.

Okay, maybe not small - but certainly not something that took a ton of effort or energy over the last couple months. Probably because I started working towards this shortly after the soon-to-be-parents got married. There's really no excuse... just something I did for about three years.

The parents-to-be are both musicians and both highly creative/artsy, so anything with music joined my stash for them. Spacing that 'work' out over the course of three (okay, maybe closer to five) years makes it no work and no effort at all.

The quilt and blanket were a bit more effort - but the kind of effort I enjoy.

And picking books to go with? Another kind of fun/effort. I never send books I'm not already familiar with, which means I spend a couple evenings a month browsing through the kids books section. I usually try to avoid hardbound in favor of board books or Little Golden style binding/page combinations, but this very new hardbound was too beautiful - and too great a message - to pass up just because it wasn't as durable.

A part of me really wants to do one more thing, but with me it is always one more one more. Whatever it is that says 'okay, that's enough,' I don't have it when it comes to quilting, crafting, or putting things together for those I love.

Because my July is already off to a rather hectic start, I'll be dropping the package off this weekend. I hope the parents-to-be enjoy our choices -- and I'm looking forward to getting to see them again!

Update: Random Reflections 1 of 2 (part 2)

As predicted, it only took a few minutes to turn my 4 sets of reflections (and one lonely non-set strip) into a finished top!

The lonely non-set piece is on top of the shed roof

My goal was a twin size blanket, but I took my measurements off the "twin" I've been sleeping under for the last 7+ years. I suspect it was larger than any twin ought to be. That's okay. It's the size I'm used to, and I had just enough fabric to make it work, so I don't mind the size. (I say that now, but when it comes time to quilt it, I may not feel so happy.)

The outcome is so large it's nearly impossible to get a good photo of -- and it is still in need of another trip through the iron -- but since we had no rain this morning, only a little wind, and I had a helper and a couple hours to make this happen, I thought I'd better jump on getting photos before I lost out on all that near perfect line up!

I didn't take a photo of it in the bedroom yet - that'll wait until 2 of 2 (his) is at least top finished as well - but it looks perfect in there. It does make me think that I really need to be looking for more navy/deep green to go with his or it's going to be too light compared to his painting... But that's a problem for another week. For now, I'm just celebrating how great this looks - and how happy I am to have made such progress all in one week!

Now I have to decide if I'm going to start on his top or the back for mine. I'd like to get the back side of this covered (basted at least) as soon as possible as it is having some unraveling issues (the solid), but I'd also like to start on his top right away and put off the backs. It's become quite clear that I might not have enough fabric to back either of these (without going really scrappy, which I'm not interested in). I do have some bolts of things that might work, and I suspect I still have one vintage sheet, which might be able to do mine. His is going to require something thicker, but I might be able to work with that... I just want to back these in something really durable...

Pinterest Challenge: Wild Hearts

It's only been two months since I mentioned wanting to try my hand at the Scrappy Little Heart Block tutorial from Kristan Kremer at Doodle Do Designs - and this week I finally went for it. 

It wasn't great timing to start a new project - I have so much already on my table - but I only have five bobbins that fit my machine (the shop told me that all the bobbins that came with it were wrong), and all five were filled with the wrong kinds of thread. One pink, one brown, one bright blue, one green, and one purple/aqua/pink. With an eye to emptying some of the bobbins from the ghosts of projects past, I pulled up the tutorial and went digging through my scrap piles. 

The tutorial was easy to follow - so easy that I didn't stop to take a single photo until the mini quilt I made with the blocks was done!

Although I do get a little twitchy looking at the places where the prints don't line up at all (so almost all of these hearts), I do like the 'big picture' view. But the solid purple is by far my favorite, despite being the one that didn't come from the scrap pile -- and I'm certain that a big part of that is because I don't get distracted by the pattern being so clearly interrupted. If the other hearts had been less obviously interrupted pattern I would have done additional quilting on each one, but as it looks now, I thought that only the solid heart could really take that much more attention. I also figured the pink quilting thread might work on some of the hearts, but it was not going to look very good against the green/aqua/orange or the red/yellow/orange blocks. If I had made each heart scrappy (as in the tutorial), this would probably all have been less of an issue. Next time I'll try it that way and see if my twitches are a little less for that. 

The backing didn't come from scraps -  but it did come from my stash. I have several yards of pink/skull fabric that I picked up in an early craigslist purchase (someone else cleaning out their stash). I have no idea what to do with any of it - but this one had pink and black, so I went for a little piece of it. Mini backs don't really have to coordinate since they're usually too small to really fold over or ever see the two sides together, but I wanted to bring together the black and pink since I knew I was still using up pink thread and would do the quilting in pink. I did throw in the purple/pink/aqua bobbin for the heart in-lining I did on the solid purple, then switched back to finish up the pink for the binding (the last remains of the binding I used on the Bluebird Park Star quilt). 

I enjoyed making the blocks - the tutorial makes it very easy, and very fast - but if I were going to do a larger scale project with these blocks I'd be more careful about my fabric choices. This is that kind of pretty/ugly a mosaic or collage can be, where the whole is kind of chaotic but pretty in a way that the individual pieces may not be when compared against each other. It's a little strange, but I think I like it. The fabrics were mostly chosen by what was around in the right sizes, but I like the usual combination of colors - especially the black background with an almost pastel green binding. 



Note: although none of these links lead to Pinterest, it was following links from Pinterest that brought me to this tutorial, and I did pin it to remind me to get back to it. Much as I love Pinterest, and oh do I, I am trying to make sure my links go to the appropriate material rather than to the pin (when possible). 

July Goals

July Goals

Personal: 

Read 5+ Books

Read 1+ Non-Fiction (can count as one of the 5+ total)

Keep weekday time on Pinterest to less than 2 hours/day 

Average 13000+ steps per day (working towards 15000 per day by August)  

2 Mini Vacations with friends

New Projects / Pinterest Challenge: 

1+ new recipe

My Projects:

Mail the Unbirthday package
Deliver Welcome Baby D package

Finish Welcome Baby W package
Birthday present for the Nephew (by the 15th)
Finish 1 in progress quilt

Grown Up Junk:

Find new dentist & Make dental appointments 

Take the cat to the vet as scheduled 

Second car: gone - Probably the previous buyer has fallen through, so I think it's time to give up on him ever coming back and look for another way to get rid of it.  

House Stuff: 

Sweep every other day (or more)

Wipe down the bathrooms once a week (or more)

Purge/reorganize in sewing / office space

Dining space update: shop for chairs or stools 

June Wrap Up

June Goals

Personal: 

Read 5+ Books

• "Shadows" Robin McKinley
• "Dark Lord of Derkholm" Diana Wynne Jones
• "Midnighters: The Secret Hour" Scott Westerfeld

Read 1+ Non-Fiction (can count as one of the 5+ total)

Keep weekday time on Pinterest to less than 2 hours/day 

Average 13000+ steps per day (working towards 15000 per day by August) - I only managed 12000 a couple of hard days, but I hit 18000 and 20000 several days - and even 26,000 one day!, so I think that averages out to be well above my goal. 

New Projects / Pinterest Challenge: 

1+ new recipe 2 ingredient brownies, and tatertot casserole

Order fabric for new bedroom quilt plan

Attend meeting at local quilting bee club 

My Projects:

Mail the Unbirthday package

Complete Welcome Baby D package 

• Complete Sweet Serenade Quilt
• Complete nerd/minky blanket
• 1-3 bibs
• Final photos & wrapping

Major Work on Welcome Baby W package

Finish 1 in progress quilt

Grown Up Junk:

Make doctor/dental appointments - 2 of 4 appointments made

Take the cat to the vet as scheduled - Rescheduled at the vet's request

Second car: gone - Possibly in progress, possibly fell through. 

Email re: music

House Stuff: 

Sweep every other day (or more)

Wipe down the bathrooms once a week (or more)

Get serious about making a dining space -- where/how? 

Purge/reorganize in sewing / office space

Whew - I didn't get nearly as much done as I'd hoped, but it's been a busy month here. July and August look to be on the busy side too - but I still have high hopes of accomplishing more in my limited down time!