Pay it forward!

I've seen this game on a couple of blogs recently, but today decided to join up.  It's a sort of pay it forward swap, but you don't swap (duh, since it's a pay it forward game) AND you have a whole year to deliver on your commitment. I should be able to handle this - especially since I have so few followers and it may take awhile to get 3 comments.


How does it work?  (copied from Scraps of Happiness where I commented on a Pay it forward and committed to do this)

1. I will make a little something for the first 3 people who comment on this post. It will be a surprise and it will arrive when you least expect it.
2. I will have 365 days to do it in. What's the catch? To get a handmade present from me, you have to play too! This means YOU pledge to send a little handmade something for 3 readers of your blog. It doesn't have to be quilty - just handmade.
3. You must have a blog.
4. Once you comment here, you must post about your Pay it Forward on your blog to keep the fun going - with the Pay It Forward badge.  Also, feel free to join the Flickr group to see what else is being sent!

Okay!  Leave me a comment and I will make something fun for the first three to comment on this blog. 

I linked up my crazy Circular Logic pillow

Since this Friday Linky party was a big push for me to actually blog about the projects I was trying to do for the Fat Quarterly Reader's Contest, I thought I should link to the final FO for the one I actually finished.

Confessions of a Fabric Addict - it's a great blog!

Finished project - the Circular Logic pillow

Remember a couple of posts ago, when I described the crazy 1" patches of fabric project?  I showed the layout of all the pieces on the fusible Quilter's Grid...  Well, after a few nights of insomnia last week I managed to finish the pillow it was intended to become!  Say hello to Circular Logic!

I won't lie, this was a time consuming project for the small size payoff -and that is not something I would have ever undertaken except that the project came from an ezine I subscribe to "Fat Quarterly" - and they put out a call for entries to a Reader Competition in mid-January.

I also planned a full-sized quilt project since you were allowed an entry into 2 categories: A for quilts, and B for other projects. I finished the quilt top (the Flying Geese project I also blogged about last time), but there's just no way I can quilt or bind it before the deadline at the end of the month.  (Don't you hate when your job gets in the way of you life?)  

So, I'm adding this post to the Blogger's Pillow Party as well - because I've been following that too, and meaning to make more pillows since before Christmas (when I did make a few pillows...pillows appear to be the rage lately and I love making pillows now!)

Although I love how this pillow turned out, I have to tell you this project challenged my limits in terms of slightly tedious pressing and challenging piecing, even with the Quilter's Grid fusible.  After I had everything cut out and was trying to piece the inset circles, I had to rip out the smaller circles a couple of times and finally had to improvise a different way to put the top together - sort of a hybrid inset/applique with a different finished look to it. With the linen and seam ripper and fraying edges, it was touch and go there for one evening!

I guess that's the great thing about accepting a challenge once in awhile instead of only going with ideas in your own regular comfort zone.  It was definitely a learning, skill-building process!

London Vacation 2008 - is it embarrassing to be more than 3 years behind on photo albums?

Click here to view this photo book larger

WIP it good!

I don't have anything finished to post as of late.  I'm thinking about taking the "process pledge" that I've seen on so many quilty blogs...it would be a good excuse to post something even if you are not finished with it and won't be for who knows how long.

My little crafty corner is a total zoo!  Luckily, Teen Wonder installed Photoshop Elements on our computer, so I can wrap it in plastic and make it look more artsy and crafty, and less just plain messy.

But also I wanted to link up to a blog I follow called Confessions of a Fabric Addict that does a Friday linky party called Can I get a Whoop Whoop?  Which sounds like just the right amount of silly for a Friday. Of course, I don't get around to posting until late into the evening, if at all. ever. So I should almost wait until next week. But that's what I said last week. So here's what I've been working on...

Both of these projects are or were intended for the Fat Quarterly Reader Competition, which is a crazy idea for me to begin with because it comes with a deadline that is fast approaching...

First up, the "small item" category - an insane patchwork project involving hundreds of little 1 inch squares of fabric, and something called "Quilter's Grid" with is a fusible interfacing with a little grid on it 1in by 1in. So you cut a million squares like these: 

Then you lay them out on the grid and press them down.  This layout step alone took me something like 3 evenings to complete. Remember my friends that I only have the after 9pm time slot to work with most of the time. (what a friggin' nut)

Now I need to seam along each of the lines of the grid (80 seams. or maybe 70 if I was clever and did some math. I can't remember at the moment). Each seem has to be trimmed and then pressed. I bought a little craft iron just for this project... (nut!)

Oh yeah, then there's still the actual piecing and construction of the pillow this is meant to become. 

Okay, moving along. 

Here is the second project, which was the first one in the beginning, but then I ran out of bobbin thread one night and instead of picking up and finishing the quilt top I started the other project instead.  This is in the "quilt" category of the contest. I took forever modifying the color scheme and this also required a lot of cutting (I think I showed stacks of pieces in some previous post).  

Here's some of it partially put together draped over my serger (which you can't even see anymore):

And here's the rest of the strips waiting patiently on the back of my chair. Notice at the end there, where I ran out of bobbin thread on, I am not joking, the very last of the flying geese to pieced into strips:

So there you have it. I could finish the top this weekend I think, but since it's a pretty good size quilt (cuz why would I be smart and go for the crib size?) I'm certain I won't have time to quilt it before the contest deadline. I have a business trip coming up and won't even be home next weekend. Maybe I can get it professionally quilted in time...hmmm.  But the pillow too?  

I think I'm going to give up on the contest idea and spare myself the anxiety of an impossible deadline.  My chances of winning one of the runner-up prizes (which is what I wanted because it's like bushels of fabric or something rather than a fancy quilting software I wouldn't have time to use or a bundle of craft porn books that I probably already bought myself because I am a craft porn book addict) where extremely slim anyway.

But! check out the linky party while you're surfing - 

There aren't too many this week, but they are fun to check out - and last week there were dozens of the most beautiful blog post links you'd ever care to see!

Have a great weekend!!

The post that time forgot...

um. I think I started writing this post about a month ago and then never had time to finish it. But I still love this little instant gratification project, so what the heck. I'll post it now!

Anyone else out there chronically forgetting to photograph their projects?  It's especially problematic when you've just given a gift and then realize you don't have a photo. I didn't think about this too much before I started using Flickr and then blogging.  

Well, actually when I first learned to knit I kept a detailed little journal of each project. When that notebook filled up, I was already having trouble keeping up due to multiple WIPs and always finishing gifts at the last minute.  Anyway, I wish I did a better job of this. Ravelry helps with the journal urge, but you still don't have a photo if you never took one. duh. And also I need to learn some basic skills in photography of crafted items. I'm sure that taking your own picture wearing your item is acceptable - I see it all the time in other people's Ravelry and knitting blogs. But it isn't very high quality photography. I have an even tougher time with quilts and other projects...

Oh well. The red muffler above was a recent FO, not a historical one - and it was the first thing I've knit in awhile for myself and I've gotten several compliments over the past couple of weeks that I've been wearing it. (yay!)  One skein of bulky yarn from a sale bin - don't remember what it was, but it surprised me because knit up it turned into a really nice non-itchy wool blend, so I should look for the ball band around here. I got the button at Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkeley (love that store soooooo much).  I also made a really nice little muffler in a really lovely yarn (full price was worth it even) with a different pattern just before this one and gave it to a friend.  It was beautiful.

did I take a photo of it?

no.