A Summer of Quilting

If there is one thing I know it is how to rock a summer. Obviously, there is nothing cooler than teaching yourself how to quilt off Youtube. I did have some motivation, Eden got chicken pox and we have been in quarantine for the last two weeks. If you can't go out, you may as well learn something new at home.

The first picture is the back of the quilt which MAY not appear to be a stunning or revolutionary view but hot d*mn! it is a thing of beauty. I quilted it on my regular home Janome and there is not one pucker. Seriously, what are the odds. I meant to go get a walking foot for my machine to make quilting easier but with sick kids and exhaustion I never made it out. So this is a double miracle in my books. Now, on to the flashy side...
I think these blocks are called Amish Star blocks. I learned to make them and a ton of other random blocks from Missouri Star Quilt Co. on Youtube. There are some mad geniuses at work in the quilting community. I had no idea. The ladies break down scary, intimidating blocks like these (scary to me anyway) and actually make them so simple that they become monotonous to make.
I also realized that I have had a rotary cutter for about 6 years that I had never used. I don't know why I am so slow to embrace new tools but I can be stubborn that way. The rotary cutter has CHANGED MY LIFE!! sob, sob, sniffle... I'm ok. It is pretty cool and saves so much time and headache that I feel a bit stupid for not using it for so long. Those days are behind me now though, onward and upward.
It was just a quilt waiting to happen in my studio. I had all the fabric ready and purchased for someone who had told me his preferred colour scheme but I just couldn't see how to put them together. I will be giving him his quilt next weekend so for now it is a *secret* ssshhhh.
Each block is 11" so the final quilt is just over 4' x 5'. It should be perfect to throw on the couch for him and his lady to watch movies all snuggled up.

It seems weird to me that I could make this. I am after all not Amish and not a grandma and it was secretly really fun. My next quilt for my own couch is a Bento Box quilt made with a Moda Honey Bun (fancy quilting name for set of pre-cut 1.5" strips of fabric) that Dark Cloud sent me and some fabric from my stash. It's pretty ugly but I'm glad, I won't be as upset when Eden and Arlo spread jam on it and make it into a quilt sandwich.

**edited to add that the Bento Box quilt is not ugly because of the fabric sent by Dark Cloud, her fabric is awesome. I however did not think the design through all the steps very well and the end result, to put it mildly, is incredibly buzy.

Tree Quilt

Here is a quilt that I powered through in the last week. It is for friends that have had a tough time. They need some love. And since I am too far away to go into a mad cooking frenzy (like I usually would) I hurled myself into a quilt project for them. It is truly a scrap quilt, all the trees are made out of bits and pieces left over from Grandpa N's quilt and assorted other green things I have made. I have made an astonishing array of green things it seems.

The top photo (I don't know why it is sideways, blogger issues) is of the back, Captain Obvious, which I decided to semi-piece for added loveliness. This was inspired by the gorgeous work of Red Pepper Quilts. She makes the greatest quilts and all of them have been given extra spice on the back, not to mention some really beautiful long arm quilting. As a novice quilter I am in deep awe of her mad skills.

Nightgowns

Eden likes red a lot. We got a copy of "Red is Best" and now it is the only colour. Eden does like a bit of drama and she can definitely pull red off with no problem. When she said she wanted a red dress down to her toes I thought we should start with a nightie.
Both Eden and Arlo are horror struck with the idea of wearing pants pajamas, so another nightie made more sense than a ball gown. She has managed to convince me in a few moments of weakness to let her wear her red 'dress' to the grocery store. I can't help myself really, she's so cute in it and I want everyone to see a kid wearing something that doesn't relate to any cartoon characters at all. I'm weird that way.

New Bag

It was raining cats and dogs yesterday so I let the girls rot their little brains a bit and watch a movie. While they turned into mini couch potatoes, I came up with a new bag. It's the biggest bag yet and is verging on luggage. I reinforced everything with heavy interfacing and quilted it. So it will hold everything and keep it all safe. It has an interior zipper pocket and two deep leather pockets on the front.
I found an old leather coat like one Bad Babs had when I was little. It had some great leather buttons that I saved and used one on the front flap though I opted to use Velcro for the actual closure. I fought against Velcro for a while, but in the end decided that it won out for practicality. Next I will try a zipper AND the Velcro, just in case you have stuff that needs to be EXTRA safe and twice as hard to get at in a hurry.
It occurs to me that this would only be the case if you did not have kids in tow, as all my purse has in it are gum wrappers, cracker crumbs and last weeks art projects from story time at the library all marinating in leaking sippy. Hmmm. Foul, I know.

My new purse

And the little critters who left me alone enough for a few minutes each night to let me finally finish it. PH and I have often lamented the sorry state of women's handbags. There are too many rhinestones, studs, gold latches, useless-decorative pockets, extra handles and patent leather parts for me to feel comfortable with. I don't want my purse looking like a cheap hooker. Not even with my new hair, it still is not me.
So I decided to make myself a test purse and then, if it worked, make it a flagship purse, one I really wanted to carry around flaunting it's happy existence without all the standard purse-deco, clutter garbage. The front panel is hard felted merino in blues and greens and silvers with a lot of sashiko mermaid stitching. The pocket on the front panel came from the leather coat I used on the back panel. This is truly and unsale-able item due to all the hours of stitching involved in it's subtle decoration.
The back panel is an up-cycled suede leather coat, and the inside is a fantastic flannel print with old cars and the appropriate accessories for traveling around in such ancient vehicles. I wish I had taken a photo of the fabric before it went inside the bag.
This is a close up of some of the stitching and (shame on me) my logo embroidered on in flashy red and white. I am a fame whore just waiting to be recognised :)
When I went to school for ceramics I would have called this red and white mark my 'chop' and stamped it on the underside of all my works as a signature of sorts. Somehow, even with the switch in mediums I still feel like this makers mark is important. Maybe even more important in a world filled with cheap, mass-produced goods where the items aren't even seen by the people whose names appear as the chop or brand.

Grandpa N's Quilt

Here's the other reason I haven't been posting much lately. This quilt is for Boss Hog's dad. I started it last fall intending it to be a birthday gift and now it is three months too late or nine months too early. Either way, we are lucky because Grandpa N is VERY easy going and will no doubt be very gracious regardless of my lousy timing. The top photo is Arlo after about 10zillion attempts to get her to pretend sleep for a photo. "Ha," she says, there is not a camera fast enough to catch me with my eyes closed.
Eden on the other hand, is always up for pretend sleeping. It's one of her favourite activities. Arlo hates this of course, as it usually means Eden appointing herself the 'mom' and repeatedly putting 'baby' Arlo to bed. The fights that result are delightful, I assure you.
The one good thing about the delay in getting this quilt quilted was that I came up with a much simpler method of quilting it than I originally envisioned. After shoving the wedding quilt through my little sewing machine a few hundred times to make circles of stitching around the stars, I decided only to sew in straight lines until I forgot the pain of sewing my own finger. Seriously. I am a crafting martyr.

Wedding Quilt

I was hoping to upload a few more pics of this quilt for you, but for some reason, blogger would only like you to see this one. All the others keep getting uploaded sideways or upside down. Crazy.
Anyway, I know I seemed like a lazy poster here for a while and I just wanted to show you all what I was up to. Boss Hog, the kidlets and I are heading down to Vancouver tonight for my little brother's wedding. Yes it is true, my little baby brother is getting married (and I am getting out the Kleenex for the wedding already). Him and his lovely lady will be wed Feb. 20th. The patch on the back of the quilt says their names and the date and has little interlocking rings sewn onto it with my free-motion foot. If blogger would stop spinning my photos I would show you.
I got the idea from a book I took out of the library. It is full of great quilting ideas that run the gamut from super simple to complex, mind boggling (to me anyway) designs that I will never have the guts to attempt.

I had to photograph this one draped haphazardly over the futon in the guest room because the light hitting our bed was not great during the ten minutes I had to photograph it between clipping off the last errant threads and packaging it up to stick in the car. Meanwhile, Boss Hog was roaming around innocently suggesting that I had embroidered the date wrong on the patch.
Helpful? NOT SO MUCH @#%^&*\
I am no longer feeling all-cappsy but I have taken a few painkillers to keep my head from exploding en route.

I love invisible zippers!

But as you can see, I'm not a huge fan of ironing. Can't win them all. When PH and DC were here this winter--together! at the same time!--they gave me the rundown on how my whole life would improve with the addition of invisible zippers. Of course they were right. I haven't looked back. I've made five things with invisible zippers in a month!!
This dress is one of my favourites. I bought the green linen in Vancouver this summer and have just been waiting for time to sew it into a new dress. I know the dress is not flashy and linen wrinkles like a son of a gun, but I just love it. This is the second time I've made this pattern and I did a really good job following instructions. The first time there were a few things I couldn't puzzle through in the instructions that I thought I could figure out on the fly. Hmmm. Not so much.
This time I trusted the great sewing gods at Vogue, did their bidding, et voila! it is a testament to mankind. It is lined and fits perfectly (I did have to take in the back a bit and I left off the giant bow, blech) and it's linen, so why waste time ironing it anyway?

Delighted with my darning foot

After cursing and fiddling with the darning/free-motion foot I picked up for my sewing machine a month ago I finally had time to get it to work properly. The manual for my machine offers no insight and the package the foot came in has nothing printed on it other than the name. I assumed the best way to work this thing was without feed dogs to allow for the implied free-motion. HA HA! Silly me. I also assumed that using an inverted embroidery hoop would give me more control and allow for more even tension on the underlying fabric (wool felt in this case)I found a diagram to this effect. Again HA HA!
The stitches weren't catching and the tension was way off on the bottom. My frustration levels were rising and so was my blood pressure.... then I walked away (in an uncharacteristically grown-up fashion). I came back to my machine days later and pretended not to have any clue as to how free-motion sewing SHOULD work.
As it turns out, my machine would like the feed dogs up and engaged with nary an embroidery hoop in sight. Who knew?
Now that I do know though, I will likely need to buy thread in bulk. This free-motion stuff is fun and hypnotising and burns through thread like there is no tomorrow.

Monsters for the Boys

It didn't seem fair to only make dollies for the girls we know so I invented some monsters for the little boys we love. These two are slated for a couple of special little boys we will see when we go camping next week. My dad though monsters should not have hearts on them but I found it physically impossible to leave them off.

Oh, and dads, just so you know, these are not dolls, they are ACTION FIGURES.

Little Blue Dress

This is actually the third dress I have made from this pattern. I love this pattern so much. It calls for a zipper down the back but since I like not to be squeezed into my clothes, I make it a bit generous and forgo the zipper altogether. It is super easy to make and easy to wear. This one was made in a mad fit of alone time the other day when Boss Hog took the girls to the beach. I had to raid my stash for something that might work and this is OK, but a bit thin. I always try to avoid making things that need slips.
Then since I am not usually a head to toe pattern wearer I felt I must break up the pattern with a belt. (Boss Hog took one look at this dress and said he had just about bought me a package of paper napkins in the same print, how lovely) In any case, I had a bit of fabric left over from the cape I made the other day and thought I would whip up something wide and corset-y to make this dress easier on the eyes.
It is just a five inch swath of corduroy (double sided) with heavy iron on interfacing on the inside and four elastic loops on one side to attach to four buttons on the other side. Since it was such a surprise sewing afternoon I didn't have the buttons I would really like so I layered nice little shell buttons over the last of my big black buttons. I wanted the size of the big ones but they were too ugly on their own. I tried just using the four "real" buttons, the ones actually holding this corset together but it looked unbalanced so I added the four fooler buttons across from them and I think it looks better and more substantial.

Dollies

For Eden's birthday I made her a dolly. I always struggle with buying her stuff. She, like most kids, has too much stuff. Too much stuff she never even plays with that comes from far off lands where the kids have no stuff at all. Yeah, I'm the downer mom who shows up at your kids party with homemade stuff that has no box or flashing lights. Things that don't make sound effects have little appeal in this day and age it seems. So, naturally, I subject my kids to this too. They get the prototypes usually. This time though I made Eden's dolly (she named her Rick for reasons unknown) first and thought I would make Arlo one next year for her birthday.
As you can see Arlo had a different time-line in mind. She kept asking if I was making her a blue dolly too. And when exactly will she be ready mom? Is she done yet? Is she ready now? Can I have her? The blue dolly you made for me, like the one you made for Eden, is she done?

I've mentioned before that Arlo usually refers to herself as a boy, so I was surprised how eager she was to get her own dolly. Two days later she got her dolly (who she named Lella) and was only slightly disappointed that she didn't have blue hair (how was I to know?)
The black haired dolly was the original (Rick) and was inspired by the dollies made by Emily at Inside A Black Apple. I love the way she does her felt dolly hair! But I wanted much bigger dolls, like a little sister for each girl. Eden and Arlo are pretty happy with their dolls but I only had time to make clothes for Rick, Arlo is concerned that Lella is chilly so I best get to work.

Killer Cape

I found a pattern a while back when Fabricland was having a sale for a cape. I know, capes can be a bit dicey, but I do love a bit of costume-y glory in an outfit so I went ahead and bought the pattern. The idea was always to make a short cape rather than the floor length ones pictured on the pattern but then I decided it would be great to take some of the wall-paper felting techniques that Jessica taught at her workshop (to be blogged about later), and make a fantastic felted short cape.
Since felting requires a bit of commitment in the way of making the fabric I decided to make a mock up out of some corduroy to test the fit and length. Postmodern Hausfrau had some good tips on cape length that really helped. I started out with the hem hitting my wrist and I looked like a huge green box with legs. The pattern only called for one button at the throat but it seemed both a bit twee and also wanted to choke me to death, so I opted for four buttons. I think on the final felted one I will group two buttons together at the top to prevent any pulling in the neck area.
The only other thing I changed on the pattern was to line it. I had some super synthetic lining kicking around in my stash that was a good match colour-wise but makes the hood essentially useless, it just slides off my hair. I realise there are no pics of it with the hood up. I'm not sure if I like it or not. Somehow I feel REALLY Hobbity with the hood up and since the cape itself puts me in a potentially Hobbity, Historical Re-inactors category I want to err on the side of caution. I might try a mandarin collar version next to see how it looks.

Felted Cuffs

I felted and felted and felted and when I was done I still had pieces of unused felt left over. You know the little pieces that are too small for most anything. But still you feel that all the work it took to make that felt should not be thrown away. So I thought a minute and came up with felt and fabric cuffs. I love cuffs. I usually love leather cuffs and can't afford the truly great ones. Not to mention the tiny town factor. I am not a fan of driving for two hours to browse in shops in nearby towns. If I have a spare two hours I would rather spend it solving problems and finding new ways to do things than driving. Call me crazy.

I made about ten different cuffs with different fabric and felt colours and decided to wear this one. It is subdued for me ( I have to work not to leave the house looking like an Easter egg) but I like it and have been wearing it a lot. Yeah!

The down side is that my sewing machine is packing it in. Too much sewing on a pretty inexpensive machine that I bought just after Eden was born. I really have my heart set on a Bernina. Postmodern Hausfrau has one and I have used and loved it. They are hard to find though unless you are willing to buy new and sadly, though I am willing, I am not able to spend that kind of cash right now. If anyone has a sewing machine recommendation to pass along I would appreciate it.

Happy Birthday Dark Cloud!

For the last um, five years every single present I have sent dearest Dark Cloud has been late. Not just a bit late either. A lot late, like a month or two late. So imagine how exciting it was to talk to her the other day and hear that her birthday present had arrived early. I made a very strangely sized quilt. It's not big enough for a bed and too square even for a single bed but maybe good to wrap yourself in while you watch a movie. I don't make very many quilts but I really liked making this one. The black flowers fabric is one I bought years ago and could never use for fear of not having it anymore. Now I know it has a good home though and I can relax and hunt down more dream fabric. Not much of a struggle I'm afraid. Happy Birthday Dark Cloud Blue Sky!!

Super Hero Capes!

I had a moment of spring time inspiration (regardless of the snow in our backyard) to make the girls some jaunty purple fleece cape-lettes for a bit of extra warmth on the soon to be sunny days. I attached bunny rabbit buttons that are clearly the main attraction for both of them. I find them imminently more satisfying than the girls do, particularly Arlo who is totally perplexed at the lack of sleeves.

Black and White

Here's a quilt I have been waiting to finish for WAY too long. However, in this case I think procrastination has paid off. I finally found the perfect flannel for the back. Amazingly, nearly ten years after I found the black flower print on the from that I hard-core love, I found a flannel print that matches up really well and doesn't scream "kids pajamas"!

And to top off the serendipity of this quilt production, my in-laws stopped by on Saturday and took the kids for two hours and I managed to get all the machine quilting done without smoke coming out of my sewing machine. Now I need to bind the edges and finish the printing and hand sewing parts in the large empty grey rectangles and then straight into the mail without a moment to lose.

It's A Girl!

Here's Arlo finally deciding that she is a girl and letting me put a skirt on her! Up until now she's been pretty consistently telling us that she is a boy. It's actually pretty strange seeing her dress like a girl. Here she is wearing two skirts I made her. They are elastic waisted with one long rectangle for the top portion and two even longer skinnier rectangles for the gathered bottom portion. I love sewing for the girls with their blocky little shapes. Never need to worry about darts or zippers. Bring on the elastic baby!!
This is the non-pattern type of thing I love. Just decide for yourself how long you want each part, how much gathering you want (princessy or super-princessy) and add enough to the top for elastic casing and enough to the bottom for hemming and Voila! The start of the spring collection.

*and just to be clear, Arlo is grinning like a mad thing from the joy of being asked to stand on the coffee table and not from the joy of the new wardrobe.

Pajamas

Pajamas are a contentious issue in our house. There is a staunch anti-pajama faction here trying to sway me to the dark side, naked sleeping. I am, on the other hand, quite fond of being swathed in huge yardages of flannel. My choices for night ware have been dubbed (not fondly) 'passion killers'. I get it. I know there are no magazines of alluring women covered in yards of fabric. I just can't sleep without pajamas though. I have tried and I inevitably wake in the night from a dream in which people wander through my house and catch a glimpse of my hindquarters sticking out of the covers. My house is not filled with wandering people I am simply filled with irrational fears of my bottom being exposed while I sleep.

So here are the compromise mu-mu pajamas. They are a rough approximation of a nightie I had years ago. They are not flannel. They are not old man style pajama pants and a button up shirt. They are not alluring either, but it seems that this is as much of a compromise as I can make. In an act of good faith I threw the 'passion killers' in the garbage.

Fine Friends

One of my dearest friends, dark cloud blue sky, sent me a bunch of very old dress patterns a few years ago and now that the girls are not getting up at all hours I have finally had a look through and found one that I love. It is meant to be a nightgown, floor-length and with a bow at the empire waist (you know I could not have that). Or, alternately, worn mu-mu style with no gathering at all. I have found that I am way to short to wear a tent so I ruled that option out right away. The only thing the pattern lacks is pockets but I will add some the next time I make it.

I think I lived almost exclusively in dresses last summer and since all I can think about at the moment is the end of *&%@! winter, I am working on my summer wardrobe. This dress is perhaps also a bit short. I think it would benefit from a great slip rather than more length though as the problem is mainly evident in the bending over. Since I am the only one here who picks things up off the floor, I do rather a lot of bending over. The pins are from, of course, Postmodern Hausfrau. She is the source of all my fashionable accessories I noticed, since I was actually looking for another knitted pin that she sent me and, lacking time substituted these sweet pins, but did in that search find two other pins she sent me in years past. And I found another two pins from dark cloud blue sky.
Really, I have the greatest friends.