Mums for my Mum - Blogger's Quilt Festival entry

I just finished a quilt that is for my mom and her new husband - "Mums for Mum", and I'm entering it into the Fall 2013 Blogger's Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side that just happens to be this week!

I have been collecting chrysanthemum print fabrics for a few years now - mostly half yard cuts - 28 different prints in this quilt! I have plans for a Bargello Mums and another patchwork mum quilt with the large amount of scraps from this project - yay! It's hard to give this one away, but I can think of a better cause than my own Mum. And I can keep the next one...

The pattern is called "Twinkle" from Sew Be It. I saw a finished one on display at Back Porch Fabrics in Pacific Grove, CA. I love Pacific Grove - we've been going a couple times a year lately to go to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and go tide pooling at Asilomar State Beach and just hang out at our cheap and funky (but clean) motel adjacent to the butterfly grove. There's a great yarn store there too (Monarch Knitting). Anyway - the sample was made with all Kaffe Fassett prints, and a few of my mums are KF too, and all the prints together are a riot of color - so I knew what I'd been stockpiling mums for at that moment!

I built each block with some light/dark contrast and then pieced them so that you can see sort of large pinwheel shapes alternating across the quilt. It came out fairly subtle since there are a lot of mid-range prints among my mums. But I like movement in such a bright "printy" quilt and I think I got what I was trying to achieve.

I'm not terribly accomplished as a quilter, so this large quilt was a bit ambitious for me. I quilted it in 2 pieces and then attached them together. The quilting itself is a mix of hand quilting the center stars for each block, then using concentric organic wavy outline around the stars by freehand using my machine.  There are a lot of imperfections that I'm not very happy about - but since the overall effect is really cool I will call it a success.  

The binding was cut from a Marimekko scrap that I got at the Crate and Barrel Outlet store - they sell scraps for $0.50 each and you can pull out pretty good sized pieces if you fish through the bins.  The yardage is a great buy too, but I don't remember exact price. This piece was simple blocks of reds from light to a dark burgundy. I attached by machine and then handstitched to the back.

This quilt makes me so happy! I hope it brings joy and light and warmth to my mom and her new husband for many many years to come. (I love you, mom!)

This little piggy went to Market...

Actually, THIS little piggy has been to Tucson, Nutley NJ, and San Diego all in the space of 3 weeks. The last trip was a spring break family mini-vacation...but my point being that I haven't been at my sewing machine or craft space for over 3 weeks.  But fortunately, knitting is portable so I usually have something on the needles to work on.

I've also taken on a couple of writing challenges lately - one was to write in a Gratitude Journal every day during Lent. The other is that I'm participating in the Health Activist Writers Month Challenge over on my other blog.

My Friday Finish this week are these "Pudgy Piggy Slippers" (I'm playing with my camera settings and post-processing, so the colors are a bit different. I guess the bottom photo is more accurate, but I like the top photo.

Here is the story about these slippers. My super cute niece and god-daughter sent me a letter several weeks ago with one of those free patterns that you can pull off a tablet hanging in the yard aisles at Michaels.  For these slippers.  She "fell in love with them" and her mom told her that while she couldn't make the slippers, her Aunty Janet could. (!)

Only problem?  I don't know (or didn't know) how to crochet.  So I went back and reviewed some of the Crochet School lessons at CraftyMinx. Then I had to go to redheart.com to download a full size version of the pattern because my old eyes couldn't handle the teeny version from the craft store. The pattern is all done in SC (single crochet), so I thought I could tackle it.

And of course because it's my first crochet experience, I had to rip out the first slipper after the second one looked better and more correct...so it was actually a fairly "big" project. But I can single crochet like nobody's fool now - increases, decreases, circles...Next project needs to use some other stitches so I can learn those too.

Miss Thing's Birthday was Sunday, but we were out of town - and the slippers weren't finished yet. But I'll see her on Easter - I hope they fit! I hope I remember to take a photo with them on!  Here is the Red Heart photo she fell in love with.

Happy Friday - time for some Friday Finish link-ups:  Go check these out!

Whoop Whoop! with Sara

Finish it up Friday with Crazymomquilts

TGFF is over at Dreaming in Patchwork this week

It's Friday...everybody say whoop whoop!

It is Friday - yay! I'm having a really full day today: early a.m. teleconferences, art docent volunteer at Wild Things classroom, more work work, catch up my blogs a little, 3 errands to run, lunch with a dear friend I haven't seen in ages, a mammogram (note to self: remember the advil!), Little league baseball practice, Boy Scout Pinewood Derby. I expect to be exhausted and ready for sleep after all this, but I like these kind of days where I am forced to juggle a bit to get everything accomplished.  Often I don't get it all done, but that's usually okay too.

Okay, my Friday Whoop Whoop linky project is this quilt for a brand new baby girl who I haven't gotten to meet yet!  I showed a little preview of this when I was still piecing it together - now it's quilted and bound, washed for the crinkles, and ready to go (though I may redo the label as you will see...)

The prints are from the Sherbet Pips line - most "modern" quilters will recognize this popular print - I've had these charm packs in my stash for a long time just waiting for the right project.  A couple of close shots:

I really love these little prints!  I used Kona Snow for the sashings, Kona Med. Gray for the binding, and a blue polka dot flannel backing. The quilting is simple diagonal lines shadowing the inside and outside of the patches.  I haven't done much straight line quilting (or any quilting as I'm still new to that part), but if you don't examine it too closely I think it looks pretty cool with the lines as opposed to an all over stipple.

My one disappointment is that the label bled a little in the wash.  I may decide to redo it - I used a black sharpie, but forgot to heat set it (I assume that will work, but if anyone knows it won't please let me know!). I may run down to Beverly's and look for a pen made specifically for fabric though.  This is my first actual label. I have (sometimes) stitched my initials and the year onto quilts, but I usually forget to do that even!

Nice to have a finish this week!

The other thing I did in the past couple of weeks was join the Craftsy BOM class (it's Free!) - each month there are two blocks to practice a new piecing method.

January was "slash" blocks: 

block #1

block #2

February was HSTs made two ways and then putting them together for different looks.  Piecing the small HSTs (3 inch finished) was more challenging than I expected, especially for the 2nd block which I think I will do over to get it right - the seams are not all lined up and I used scrap HSTs to replace the ones I botched first try - so the red HSTs are not with Kona Snow, but a cream color.  The first block came out a bit smaller than it was supposed to because my 1/4 in seams weren't "scant" enough, but I think it may still work.  If not I will have to do that one over. 

block #1

block #2

I am not using a FQ bundle of coordinated prints - I have to work on using up some more stash fabrics, and I think it doesn't matter so much for the more scrappy look of a sampler. I pulled a rainbow of fabrics and scraps to use. We'll see! I've never made a sampler quilt or BOM quilt, so I'm curious to see how I like it in the end.

I hope you all have a great weekend!
For more craft goodness, check out Sara's Whoop Whoop Linky party! (bonus this week - there's a giveaway too!)

And I found some other fun linkies, like TGEFF party at Quilter in the Gap !

And Sew and Tell Friday at Amylouwho:

Another belated Christmas gift - colorful tote bag

Here is the second project I made for someone for this Christmas - I haven't even given it to her yet!  It's for our afterschool care provider - she's been taking care of Wild Thing since he was a wee babe, and along with her husband they are extended family more or less. They took care of Teen Wonder too and have known us for more than 10 years now.

She's also crafty, and we like to give them a little end of year bonus check but usually also a handmade gift - and normally it's something that I've helped Wild Thing make, but this year that just didn't happen due to circumstances beyond all control.

I still wanted to make something special for her because they are so generous and we trust them with our most precious family treasures - our kids!

I used laminated cotton scraps leftover from my kitchen chair makeover for the exterior (Michael MIller print I think), and the interior is a decor weight cotton that's been in my stash for a long time (Valori Wells). I also used a fusible interfacing on the exterior pieces and squared up the bottom so the tote can stand on it's own.

 The lining has 2 pockets and a snap hook for keys or whatever.  I used strips of batting to pad the straps for more comfort toting books around!

I sure hope she uses the bag - it sounds like our other gifts in the past get put on a shelf sort of shrine fashion or she's afraid to get them dirty or worn out.  

But I like my gifts to get worn out!  Then I can make more with some justification!

FO's in the face of repeated bouts of illness - I will persevere!

I know it's halfway through January already - but Happy New Year!

I haven't gotten too much crafty goodness accomplished in the past couple of months.  It's just been...well...rough around here.  My body just can't seem to get the message from my brain that I have better things to do than be sick and sleep and rest.  I haven't even dared yet to put any resolutions for the new year to paper...but perseverance will be my motto, and health my main goal.  Since making stuff makes me happy, I want to continue as much as possible - but the late night sessions will need to be curtailed so I won't be as productive, I'm imagining.

blah blah blah...I only made a couple of Christmas gifts this year as a result of all that stuff - and overall, that is okay. I don't have so very many crafty friends or family who really are impressed by handmade (sadly). My immediate family get these types of gifts as they roll off the needles, so they are understanding. But I do have a few people I like to make things for to go along with a charitable contribution "gift" at Christmas. For example, the only thing my mom asked for was another zippered pouch - I had made her a Noodlehead Gathered Clutch last year and she liked it so much she found herself wanting zippered pouches for other uses like carrying a little notebook and such.

I think you can never have too many zippered pouches - do you?

Since mom was here over Christmas, I snuck in a pouch just under the wire - I used Keyka Lou's pattern for a zip pocket pouch. I think it turned out pretty well - it was hard to know the first try where to place the applique so the pouch would fold up correctly but I came pretty close.

The Applique is from Meringue designs - I love her modern embroidery patterns!

I have all this denim from some old curtains in Wild Thing's room before it became Teen Wonder's room - endless amount of fabric! (IKEA curtains originally - they were so long!)

Here's the pouch opened up - it has a pocket to slip a notebook into (a little one), and a zippered pocket.  I think this would make a perfect small wallet and plan to make more of these.  The lining was a random FQ from my stash - I don't remember where it came from.

Mom seems happy with it - I was in such a rush to get it finished before she left that I totally forgot to take any photos - so thanks mom for sending these pix!

I have at least 3 other little projects that I've finished recently too...but no photos yet. So stay tuned...for the moment I'm healthy-ish and back at work. I'd like to get more blogging in too!

My new toy!!

I got the most splendid birthday present and I am so excited! Years and years ago I used to take a lot of photos on film and I used a Pentax K1000, the VW Bug of film SLRs.  I loved that camera and it loved me. It traveled to different continents with me and in the jungle and savannas and cities afar. I have carousels of slides that I took with it and a couple of nice lenses.

Then I started using a point and shoot Elph with that new fancy cartridge film (what is that called?), and then moved to a couple of different digital cameras that have been okay. But I just don't take good photos with them for whatever reason.  And I think that having a slightly larger camera means I remember to take it with me (but we will test that theory now).

So, I've thought about a digital SLR for a little while now. I didn't know what to get - Canon or Nikon?  Well, there is a Pentax option that gets great reviews AND that I can use my old 50mm 1:2 lens with the K mount with. And other old Pentax lenses that may not be too expensive nowadays but would be fun to try (my dad apparently has a collection so I asked him to go through and see if there was anything interesting. I'm pretty sure he has a nice wide angle lens...)

I asked for the Pentax K-r for my birthday - and now I have one!  And I've learned that I have forgotten most of what I once knew about taking photos (which wasn't a huge amount to begin with), and digital introduces new concepts. But I have been playing a little with it, just around the house so far...I'm trying the manual mode rather than preset auto modes (of which there are several).

Cody in a semi-dark bedroom

close shot of my birthday bouquet

this is the same shot, cropped to show more detail...

And even more cropping - the image maintains nice detail even sized for the web at 60% quality.

a new shot at my little corded handbag...compared with the original shot below (which I took with a point and shoot Lumix) The first one was doctored up a bit in Photoshop Elements to get the colors right. I didn't do any editing at all with any of these photos. I used the white adjustment right on the camera before shooting.

 

A couple of different versions of the same shot of our front door from the couch - it will be fun to play with the composition of photos with different settings.

So much fun!!  Thank you to Mr. Wonderful, Teen Wonder, and Wild Thing!! I just asked for one present this year so they all pitched in (especially Mr. Wonderful). xoxoxoxo

I need a camera case for my new baby - if anyone knows of a great pattern for making one please let me know. I'm thinking I could adapt a diaper bag or box pouch pattern or combine elements somehow...

(linked to Sarah's Whoop Whoop! because I actually did get a new post in on a Friday)

Excellent last minute Mother's Day craft gift!

(Mom if you are here, just look away now and come back after you get my card in the mail)

Having no time to breathe means that you may have to resort to store-bought cards and little else for the moms in your life.  But I stumbled on this tutorial today, and decided to procrastinate on packing for my trip long enough to make 3 sets of them.
One for my own mother, who I admire so much and with whom I have developed the greatest friendship.  Every year I learn that I'm more like her than I thought and now I hope I can retire at a reasonable age and follow her example there as well!
One for my mother-in-law, who never ever makes me feel I should be something different from what I am. She's been that way since the day I met her - a divorced single mother dating her (marvelous) son. Mr. Wonderful must be that way for a reason!
And one for my step-mother who deserves a medal because she is in love with my father, which has saved him I am sure, and she's such a generous person.

If you go to the link at "Mufn Inc" (here it is again), you'll find the free printable cards, the free printable tutorial to include, and instructions on how to make the tissue paper flowers (assembled, but flat-packed for mailability!)  genius!!

"How DO you find the time?"

Well, right. I get this question pretty frequently regarding making crafty things...and blogging. But really, there are times when I just don't find any time. And then other times I am really productive in making things. Over the course of a month or a year, I don't think I have enough time for projects or really get that many done. There are so many of them backed up in my little craft corner and spilling out of baskets by the sofa.

As for blogging, I don't think I am terribly prolific since there are so many bloggers out there who find time every day to post their thoughts and/or pictures of the beautiful things they make. And tutorials, which I love to read and use. If I'm lucky I will get a post in once a week - but obviously I'm not that lucky most weeks.

But here are some of the reasons I have time to make crafty things (in no particular order):

1) I have craft stuff out all the time. I didn't used to have a place to keep a sewing machine or WIP out, but when we re-did our basement a few years ago, I carved out a corner. Just a table and shelving to keep my craft-y supplies in and to be able to leave out projects without having to clean them off the dining room table everyday. This makes such a huge difference because I can just go sew for 20 minutes if that's all I have. Like these piles of half square triangles which will eventually be a quilt. They take a lot of cutting and sewing and pressing that can be done a little at a time. Knitting is portable, so I have projects in ziplocs ready to go with me anytime.

2) art and craft are just things that everyone in my family has always done - I can't think of very many people in my immediate family (meaning parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, siblings, cousins) who isn't crafty or an artist, or both. So I grew up in this reality where it wasn't unusual, and where having a sewing room or art studio or workshop was a housing choice priority, and where time spent doing projects isn't considered only "spare" time.

3) I don't watch very much TV.  And very often when I do, I'm knitting or just listening to it from the sewing machine, or pressing things on the ironing board.

4)  I believe that you don't need to be particularly artistically talented or perfect at your craft for it to be worthwhile - I really think this is thanks largely to my dad, who if he reads this will take it in the good spirit in which it is intended.  It seems like this idea keeps a lot of people out there from making things with their own hands. I love trying new things and making stuff. period. If you want to make something and you don't know exactly how, you should go ahead and give it a shot anyway. You don't need to create something perfect. You are the one who will notice the majority of mistakes anyway. And with practice anyone can learn a craft or an art - of course, there are these amazingly brilliant and gifted people out there who have talents I can never really aspire to. But they inspire me, and I'll aspire to developing more skills anyway.

5) I try to trick convince my children to do projects with me so that I can justify the time and the trips to the craft store.  Teen Wonder doesn't fall for it anymore. But she is creating her own things now. Wild Thing really loves to make stuff and will still do it with me.

6) I have insomnia. And evening is probably one of my most productive times of the day. For my real job, I have to get up at an ungodly hour. Morning people probably think getting up at 5:30 or 6 is peachy, but I'd rather sleep until at least 7:30. Unfortunately, 7am teleconferencing requires at least getting up and having some coffee - and usually I like to go to the office to do them since we have such a tiny house and our "office" is in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I still stay up too late and I need more sleep...but the majority of my sewing or knitting happens after 9pm (or the rare weekend afternoon when we aren't running around like crazy).

Okay, that's about all I can think of now, plus I am running out of time to post...and I wanted to share a project from Christmas that still isn't quite finished. I wanted to make multiple sets of these, but I only finished two in time for gifting. At least one more set will go out to my uncle, and the last one (which will get done sometime before the end of the world) will be for me.

My grandma passed away in October. She was an artist, and an amazing quilter - wow. I wish I had a catalog of all her quilts, because I've only ever seen a small fraction of them. Anyway, she had made these paper dolls sometime when she was quite young - they are very old and laminated with some sort of tape. Extremely detailed, and all with these big round heads. A few years ago I got a small Xyron on sale at the craft store, and I used it to make bookmarks with old foreign cancelled stamps that I'd cut from reprint requests to scientists in my grad school lab. I'd been saving these things for something like ?15 years - sheesh. Anyway, that was fun...but you have to do more than one project to justify buying a new toy, right?  I've done some other stuff with it, but I have been wanting to make magnetic laminated copies of the Big Head Dolls for quite a long time.  My grand-dad scanned a few of them for me a couple of years ago, but not the whole set...and I could never find the magnetic-laminate cartridges in stock for my Xyron. But after Grandma passed away, my mom lent me the dolls so I could scan copies and do this project. (the dolls belong to my auntie - and they are priceless, so I was a bit nervous taking custody of them!)

These are a couple of shots of just some of the dolls (and my first watermarking of photos - since I don't want anyone to reproduce these in any way. The photos are low res anyway, but still...

I love that they are magnetic! 

And here you can see why I'm still not done - this is a lot of cutting out. I can do it while watching TV if I don't need to pay attention to the program...but I'm still not quite done...

Happy Sunday everyone! Now go out and make something!

Another FO to share - Nine-Patch Doorstop...but that's not why I'm so excited!

It is a little silly that I'm dancing around the kitchen trying to finish dinner, but I'm just so happy at the moment! I'm multi-tasking, as usual (not necessarily recommended behavior), so I check my email while I'm stirring vegetables (not exactly at the same time - it's a back and forth thing).  And what do I find? An email telling me I won a giveaway of Heather Ross fabrics from Fussy Cut!!  whoo hoo!!  You should check out this cool blog - very inspirational projects and quilts (and very cute children).

LOOK LOOK! Here they are!

Oh, you didn't get a close enough look?  Here they are again!

(could you die?)  Not only am I lucky to win a pack of fabric at all, but these fabrics are the more or less the exact same ones that I've all but used up this year on a couple of gifted quilts. One for cute little Angela (see this post)  and one for cute bigger Megan (here). 

These are probably the happiest fabrics I've ever had myself - although I do not have yet an extensive or long sewing or quilting or stashing history. I know there are some really happy prints out there, even some that I've used, but these ones from the Heather Ross Lightning Bugs and Other Mysteries collection are some of my all time favorites.  I picked them out for those two quilts specifically because I wanted to stitch into them all the prayers and happy thoughts that would be humanly possible.  And I love how both of them turned out.  Since then, all I've had are some little scraps left - I made my mom some nesting doll fabric buttons for Christmas with fussy cuts (did I photograph those? no. this is the subject of a whole post where I catalog all the projects I've gifted before thinking to take a picture...), and most recently I used two little fussy cuts in this next project.  And I think it's perfect that the giveaway was from the Fussy Cut blog, since that's all I've had left until now. But now I may be able to work some of these into a bigger project that stays closer to home.  Or not - I am now a big believer in the power of gifting your more happy and beautiful creations for the power of good. (i'm not sure what happens when you gift dark and ugly creations, but it's probably a bad idea...)

Okay, now for the latest project I finished. Do you see the little dog patch and the camper-van?  Those are from my itty-bitty Heather Ross scraps! This is the Nine-Patch Doorstop, made using the exact directions and measurements found in this tutorial on Oh Fransson!  Now, some of you dear readers may already know this, but the author of this blog is incredibly talented - apparently this one is the first tutorial she made, and it was flawless.  For Christmas, I got a copy of her recently published book "The Practical Guide to Patchwork" - I really love the instruction style and the projects are gorgeous.

Anyway, this was a present, officially, for Mr. Wonderful. Whenever the weather is even remotely nice, we like to open all the doors and windows and get fresh air moving through the house. When the air moves quickly between our front door and our back/basement door, the hallway door SLAMS so loudly that it feels like it shakes our little house! Probably almost a year ago, Mr. Wonderful was surveying some project I'd put together and asked if I could make a doorstop. I had already thought of this and downloaded the tutorial, but hadn't done anything about it. And then I still didn't do anything about it for a long time. Then this week I realized I was itching to do a small project and that I'd bought the special materials I didn't already have (specifically 5 pounds of beans and fusible fleece).  Probably this project took me 3 hours to complete (? plus or minus) including picking and arranging the little patches for the front.

yes, it's full of beans (and some lentils) with a zipper on the bottom in case you need to empty it out for cleaning. so clever!

The beans serve an obvious purpose - weight and shape - and I'm not sure I put 5 pounds in because I confess I'd only bought 4 pounds and added what lentils we had left in our cabinet. It may need a little more stuffing...

Here's the back: this is another Wee Woodland piece taken from a Layer Cake I bought quite awhile ago - another purchase that I've forgotten the original intent for and so I've been pilfering pieces for a number of projects (like mom's pillow in my last post, and my zippered pouch linings before Christmas.  oh well. It's not like I'm lacking in fabric selection down there in my crafty corner.  The backing shows the straight line quilting I used - I did the same thing for the front as well. I was looking for some instant gratification, so took the easy route rather than anything complex.

And finally - here is the Nine-Patch Doorstop in it's native environment - when the weather turns warmer we will be able to give her a good functional test!

Happy Martin Luther King day to everyone! This is the first year my company has given us this day off as a holiday - yay!