Back to babies!

There must be something in the water, because just about everyone I know is either getting married, having a baby, or going for both! In the spirit of life moving on around me, I've delved back into some baby quilts. I started this one yesterday. It's a simple pattern, but one that I haven't tried before. I'm loving the sock monkeys and bananas! There's another row around to go, that will be a dinosaur print in the color scheme of the small blue squares. Hopefully it will all come together! I think crib quilts are my favorite to assemble. I love all of the adorable prints and color combinations that you just couldn't get away with, for any other occasion!

“Oh, Dearie, dainty doesn’t do in the kitchen.”

I'll have to concur with Julia Child on this one, but this apron certainly is cute! Once I finished snipping away all the stray threads, and got a good look at the finished product, a little Doris Day slipped into my head...

I love you a bushel and a peck
A bushel and a peck though you make my heart a wreck
Make my heart a wreck and you make my life a mess
Make my life a mess, yes a mess of happiness

There might even be a shade of practical in this apron... it covers more than most outfits! No messes here! ... something tells me I won't be able to say that about the kitchen when I finish cooking in it! It is a little on the large side, but I have a feeling that once I wash the finished product, It will get a little smaller. The one take-away message I did get from constructing this apron, is that items completely bound in bias tape are VERY tedious to put together! Every single inch of edge in it is lined with bias tape!

I also got a fabulous tip from a fellow crafter, to treat the fabric with a spray silicone treatment, to protect it from stains/splatters. I definitely think I will give that a shot.

I also think I will give my apron it's trial run next weekend. I have never cooked a duck, so I think I will give Julia's "Caneton Roti" (roast duck) a shot. I might even wear some heels and pearls while I'm at it! I'll need to be sure to invite someone who knows how to carve! Any volunteers?

Project overload!

So many projects, so little time! I'm still working away on my 50's apron, and hope to have a finished product by the end of the week! I'm also plugging away at a crib quilt (IPG on the cutting... ya we all know how that goes) and sewing the pieces of a throw quilt from a jelly-roll. After this one's finished I might have formed an opinion on the jelly-roll concept. In theory, I like the idea- many fabric choices, little waste and much of the cutting is conveniently done for you in advance.  But I'm still not overly thrilled... I've never encountered one in which I liked all of the fabric selections, and the pinked edges create a substantial amount of fabric dust that settles in the machine (constant cleaning required). It's a tough call... I do hate cutting!

Last but not least, I had to dedicate a bit of time this evening to come up with two new cards for my etsy store collection. That's my mini-goal: 2 a week. It's a meager goal, but one I'm still likely to fail to meet on more than one occasion! Here is the fruit of this weeks labor. I spent part of the morning playing peek-a-boo with a kitten (yes, I'm an adult....really I am) and the game inspired me to create these animal peek-a-boo style cutesy any time cards. I like the concept, but feel like they are missing something. Maybe tomorrow, an idea will come to me.

And we all know that no crafter is complete without a plan for the next project to add to the pile. So, to top it all off, I ordered a new sewing pattern today, to try my first attempt at a blouse. This will require a degree of success in the fitting department, so it should be an interesting new challenge for me. Updates to come!

Donna Reed in the making!

I am a planner. A fabulous planner. It's the execution (specifically the initiative to begin), that I lack. Once I start something, it's as good as done. But that point in time in between planning and beginning is where I tend to lag. A couple of weeks ago now I purchased a pattern for a 1950's style apron. I had the fabric, the practically perfect shears, and the desire to create... but became paralyzed at the cutting stage (I mean, those patterns are tissue paper thin!).

I have officially broken through my road block, and not only cut out all of the needed pieces, but I've finished constructing the flower pocket! It has a soft yellow binding (that will also trim the seams of the apron- I love the 50's!). This was my first attempt at attaching binding using only a machine. Typically, I will sew the front with a machine, flip it over and blind stitch the fold line to the back. The machine-only method used here was so much simpler, and faster! I'm very happy with how it looks, but I still have the feeling that I will revert to my conventional binding method for my quilts. The stitching on the top is easy to control with a piece this thin... but something tells me that using a machine, I will lack the control to achieve the precision I want with something quilt-thick.

I've also purchased some fabulous childrens fabric to create a quilt for a friends new baby. Hopefully I'll have a good start on it to report on soon (hey, maybe I'll even try a new binding method on this one!)!

Wrong is right

For the left-handed crafters of the world, finding the perfect scissors is a never-ending challenge. Most of the best manufacturers don't make them (or they do and they're no where to be found) and the rest put no effort into them; Crappy ergonomics, poor quality construction and dull blades abound in the land of scissors for the lefties! For the most part, due to a lack of availability at the time of need, and the poor options available when they're there,  I've taken to using the right handed version in the wrong hand, and turning them upside down so that the cutting blade is on the correct side (picture fingers in the thumb grip and thumb in the larger grip). Over the years, I've grown pretty used to this orientation.

With shears, this strategy doesn't really work, because of the angle between the handle and blade surfaces. If you turn them upside-down, the function of the angle is defeated... and frankly, they're useless. I've been working with a beautiful pair of Gingher feather light shears for the last two years that I recieved as a gift. They are the right handed variety, so I've had a hard time using them, because to hold them at the correct angle in my left hand, the cutting surface is in the wrong place, which makes the cuts difficult to predict...but really didn't want to let them go!

To celebrate a recent success I decided to invest in a new pair of lefty Ghinger 8" dressmakers shears. They arrived today and they're so pretty, so sharp, so comfortable and practically perfect in every way. They even came in their own little Gingher tin. I've been cutting away at scraps all night, just to get to play with them! And the best part? They only set me back $22 on Amazon.com, with free shipping!

The first project for my new scissors has been descided! I am going to branch more into garment-type clothes and make a circa 1950's smock-style apron using the fabric pictured above. Donna Reed, here I come!

Holiday crafting

The big upside of holidays is that little bit of added time, to your otherwise jam-packed weekend. I spent a little of that time today, working on some new cards, so that my etsy shop would look a little less bare. There were a few definite discards, and one that is increasingly growing on me. I was playing with a few different embossing powders, and it is amazing to me how they all react to heat so differently. One of my newest additions is a "glassy glaze" enamel powder. The grains are much coarser than most powders, and it is significantly more difficult to control precisely where it goes because of this. It's not such a big deal with this card, because the stray spots provide a dewy effect. But I could certainly see this aggravating me under any other circumstance! Unless I figure this one out, this powder may be designated as a nature-card-only product!

A new banner is born

I have been playing around with a trial version of Adobe Fireworks for a couple of weeks now, and have finally finished a banner for this blog and my for etsy store (which actually has a couple of items listed in it now!). It wasn't as straight forward as I thought it would be, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. What do you think?

From paper to fabric...

I have been working with paper products for quite a few years now, constructing cards, embellishments, wrapping, tags and such. But I have always loved fabric. I could do small projects by hand, but never learned how to do anything more complicated. About 18 months ago I was patiently sewing a pillowcase by hand (well, patient by my standards, which may be slightly skewed), when I had this enlightening epiphany that it would be so much faster with a machine (I’m quick like that)! Not long after, I received my tax return and decided to put it towards purchasing my first sewing machine. After much research and extensive price comparisons (yeah, I’m one of those people), I settled on the Brother Innov-is 40. It’s one of their ”Project Runway” edition models, which honestly, bothers me about as much as publishers changing book jackets to feature movie posters (why do they do this?!?!?!). But, I had to suck it up with this one, because it offered the features I was looking for, without jumping into an obscene price bracket. It’s a great machine at a fabulous price; I highly recommend it!

As a side note- this being my first machine, I learned the hard way that sewing machines have to be purchased through an “authorized” dealer. Not only this, but no dealers will give you a price quote over the phone! Seriously? You can now order a car or airplane (yes, an airplane) online, but not a sewing machine? To say the least, this added a degree of frustration to the process, and made price comparison shopping a more time and mileage consuming endeavor…and made me feel like I was falling through a time warp into the 60’s.

Back to the point- Sewing machine in hand, I started attending a night sewing class series. My first project: a pair of simple cotton pajama pants. And after four tedious weeks of cutting, pressing, pinning and stitching, my final product loosely resembled the pattern photo of said pants… in a Salvador Dali “melting clock” kind of way (picture a pair of pants designed for Big Bird with a peg leg). I quickly came to the conclusion that fashion wasn’t going to be my forte.

The next destination for my new machine and I, was a four session quilting class that was designed to teach the student how to complete a crib-sized quilt, from start to finish. I was the only student who signed up for the class, and it was taught by an adorable elderly lady, who emulated the classic stereotype of the sweet quilting grandmother, in just about every way. But don’t get me wrong, she was pretty strict; if you forgot to follow certain instructions during class, you were responsible for bringing cookies to class the following week. Let’s just say I bought a lot of cookies that month. In the end, I learned a lot of useful skills both in general sewing and in quilting, really enjoyed my time with the instructor, and even ended up with a finished product that looked approximately like it was supposed to (and not in an impressionistic-style way, this time). Check it out!

Christmas in August!

The Christmas/holiday season has always been my favorite time of the year (which, I know, is a little odd for an atheist. But what can I say? I’m a sucker for the decorations and general cheer). For the past several years I have had a hurried, stressful and overall un-enjoyable holiday season, very much lacking in all that "A Christmas Story"esque hope and cheer. So this year I have vowed to be better prepared; Hence, “Christmas in August!” I’ve started work on this year’s Christmas cards, which, face it, take while to get through! And I totally wasn't listening to Christmas music while making them... My focus this year was on embossing- both pressure and heat-based. A couple of examples of this year’s batch! I need to work on the card photography skills... something tells me the nighttime shoots are not going to work.

Welcome to fickle fibers!

So for some time now my friends have been insisting that I blog about and/or sell my fiber-based creations. I have a slight (albeit, hardly worth mentioning) obsession with all things tactile, and find the process of creating to be like solving my own little puzzle...it’s only ever-so-slightly cathartic, and addictive at the same time. Fabrics and paper products are my current media of choice, but who knows what I’ll venture into next! If you see anything you like here, please explore the creations available in my etsy store.