Month: March 2013

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Parliament

After that owl give away, I’m back to making critters again.  
First a parliament of owls.
They look so plain because they’re still in the designing phase.
Soon they’ll have button eyes
And detail stitching.  Mostly machine stitching because I’d like to sell them and I have to balance the time put into them with how much I can realistically charge for a stuffed denim owl.
But I’m not totally a practical person so a couple have hand stitching because that’s just how I roll.
Hoot.
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The Odds Are In Your Favor!!!

I finished and washed the latest baby quilt.  If I were a different person, I would feel guilty about how much more promptly I dealt with that particular load of laundry compared to my usual laundry response time.  
I think the corners held up well.  I’m as happy with them as I can be.
I didn’t add any additional stitching to the border.  I often consider doing it but I never have.
Once the border is on, I’m done.  It’s like the period at the end of the sentence.  There’s no going back.
I tried to get pictures of my stitching but it was tough.  I’m really happy with it.  
These were the best pictures.  You’ll just have to take my word for it:  The stitching is cool.
My second give away is still going on.  I’ve had one comment.  Maybe it’s because I said people had to post an ego boosting comment.  I was kidding.  I’ll take that part out, I guess.  Sheesh… lighten up folks!
For my first give away I joined a blog hop thing that’s over now.  It really boosted the number of comments.  I guess people don’t need a new purse.
Go check out that give away.  The odds are in your favor!!!
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Draaammmaaa + Give Away the Second!!!!!!!

This give away is closed!  No more entries will be accepted!  

Winner is announced here.

Continuing my draaammmaaa from yesterday.  I cut the seam allowances down as close as I could without panicking.  It always makes me nervous to cut close to a seam.  Sewing the binding went pretty well and I really like the way the binding looks on the edges.
  

See.  It’s a nice, narrow binding and I LOVE those colors together.  Love them.  
BUT the corners.  UGH.  Hate them.   
Truth be told, there was no chance of me ripping the binding out and starting over because the linen is very un-ravelly.  It couldn’t have stood up to it.  I was afraid of damaging the orange fabric.  That would have been a tragesty.  
 
The corners, however. are tragesties.  I should have done my research.  I needed a different corner technique to go with my different binding technique.  They were all donkey eared.  So I cut and resewed them and they are messy as hell.
See the second one down?  I didn’t resew that because the donkey ear was small but the other three corners were hugely awful and actually look better resewn than they did at first.  Sigh.  I’m washing it now in the hopes that, if the wash is going to cause corner problems, I can fix them before gifting it.  My husband said it just makes the quilt look more handmade.  He is a very nice man.
Onward and Upward to Give Away the Second!
Here we have a slouchy hobo bag that I made out of bark cloth!  The floral cloth pattern is perfect for a spring and summer bag.  It has two large pockets on either end (excellent for cell phones and keys) and an adjustable strap upcycled from a store bought purse.
The inside used to be a linen skirt and has a button closure pocket on one side.
To enter this give away, just write a comment and that is all.  The give away will end on Thursday March 21st at some point and the winner will be announced before that midnight.  
I will need to be able to contact you but you shouldn’t have to post your email address to the world if you have the kind of account that lets me just click on your name and then be able to reach you.  If you aren’t sure, you can always click on my name and send me your email.  
Thanks for stopping by and best of luck.  Hopefully the next picture I post of that baby quilt will be happy.  At least happy-ish.
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We have a winner!

It’s yet another Jennifer! (Not me obviously, there are plenty of us around)  Jennifer Gail from the blog Hoodies and Flip Flops.  You should go over there and check out her yo-yos, they’re fabulous.
It was so fun to have everyone visit and I’ve decided to have another give away.  I’ll post it here tomorrow.  It’s another hand made thing; this one is made out of bark cloth.  (eyebrows waggling).
That just leaves this baby quilt to finish today.  Well, I shouldn’t say it like the baby quilt is all that’s left for me to do.  I have, like, 20 things underway, but, you know, this is what I need to finish next…anyway…
I’ve decided to try an exciting new and kinda nerve-wracking way to bind it.  
I made a line of dark green stitches around the border.  But I think it’s still a little boring on the border.
I wonder if it’s OK to add more stitching after the binding is attached   I’m often tempted but somehow it always seems like a bad idea.  I may try this time if the border still looks boring after the binding is on.  But, this is just me rambling on to avoid my binding drama.  That’s right, there’s drama today.
I made the binding by cutting up a light green linen shirt into two inch wide strips and then sewing the strips into one long continuous strip. 
When I was visiting family in Phoenix, my cousin showed me how she binds quilts and it looks so much better than my way so I just had to try it.  Here’s where the drama really starts.
Here’s how I normally attach my binding.  I just machine sew it flat on one side with the right sides facing each other.  Then, I hand sew the other side to the quilt, tucking the raw side of the binding under as I go.  So, no, that actually wasn’t where the drama started but we’re almost there now.
She folds her binding fabric in half before machine sewing.  That way she doesn’t have to tuck it under, it’s already super tidy looking.
Gratuitous sewing machine centerfold shot.  Just trying to avoid the drama,  Again.
Here it is after I machine stitched it on.  
When I flipped it over, though, it’s too narrow.  THERE’s the drama.  Told you it was coming.  I should have made it wider.  So, now it’s nerve wracking.  Now I’m freaking.  I’m just going to try to cut down my seam allowance and see if it’ll all work out.  If it doesn’t work I’ll have to rip the binding out and hope I have enough of the shirt left (pretty sure I don’t) to make a wider binding – gasp!
I’m taking a break before I dive in any deeper.  I need to get the owls to the post office and send them off first.  I gotta tell you, on the possible scale of life dramas, I’m glad mine is down there pretty low.  
Down in the solvable quilt binding problem area seems a pretty good place to keep one’s drama.  
Remember to come back tomorrow to get in on my next give away!
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Linked

Now that I’ve successfully made my shirt, I can finally work on that baby quilt.  Don’t ask me why one thing was linked to the other,  It just was.
I had a stinker of a time getting a good picture of the stitching, though.  I really like it.  I made vine-y, wavy lines in two different greens. 
Just for fun I think I’ll add a couple of leaves here and there.  You’ll just have to take my word for it that it looks cool.  I’ll try to get a better picture again tomorrow.  I know I’d do a better job with pictures if I owned a decent camera but I just bought myself a laptop instead.  I couldn’t afford both.
On the plus side, it will be way easier for me to blog more. 
So…Woohoo, new Laptop; oh well, no camera.  At least I know why those two are linked.  
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It’s not perfect

But it’s done! And it’s pretty close to perfect.
After
Thank you Alabama Chanin.
Maybe you think I used my ugliest tee shirt but I did not. I still have a bright yellow Johnsonville Brats shirt that makes this one look delightful.
I would like to ask why? Why make a safety orange shirt to brag about being from Wisconsin? 
Before – I know it’s backwards but I just had to post them that way.  Sorry.
 Packer colors are gold and green and the UW’s colors are red and white. So, why? I’ll probably never know. But, I do know how to make this, or any, giant shirt fit me now. And for that I am thrilled!
Don’t forget to comment on my give away post for a chance to win some of my handmade stuffed owls!
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Give Away!!!

This give away is closed!  No more entries will be accepted!  

Winner announced here.

It’s my first ever give away!  I’m making room for new ventures and so plan to give something away every week for a little while.  Some thing I will have made, others I have gleaned through my thrifting adventures.  I’m going to start off by looking for new homes for two of my linen owls!  
 I made them a couple of years ago.  They’ve been pre-washed to give them that lived in look.  They are stuffed with cotton and are feeling neglected here.

Just post a comment and make sure that I have a way to contact you.  I will randomly pick a winner on March 14th before midnight.  Probably well before, but, ya know, I’m trying to make it easy on myself.

Thanks for reading my blog!
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It Was All My Fault

After all.
I tried to make a shirt from the Alabama Chanin book but it didn’t fit – too small.  I also couldn’t get my head through the hole and decided it could be their fault.  But it wasn’t.  It was me.  Deep down inside I knew it all along.
  I didn’t read the directions closely (shocking, I know) and thought that the t-shirt back of the pattern should be cut twice and used for the front and back.  No.  There is a separate pattern piece for the front.  
Ever so sorry. 
Luckily, I am stubborn.  I went to the thrift shop and bought a mighty pile of gigantic tee-shirts.
Here’s the sleeve pattern.  It fit the original sleeve right at the short sleeve length.  Perfect.  
When you buy a sewing book with patterns, you don’t want to cut the patterns directly our of the book.  I was stymied by this at first but some smart people on the interwebs set me straight.  You copy the pattern onto wax paper.  So smart.
I may be XL but luckily this tee shirt is a men’s XXL.  Plenty of fabric to play with.
Wax paper patterns are so easy to modify. I just taped an extra little slip of paper right onto the pattern.  But this one was still a bit snug.  So, I don’t have a finished product to show yet.  I’m going to add a tiny bit more and try again. 
What’s that you say?  The baby quilt?  Hmm.  Oh yeah.  I put in one line of stitching but I’m obsessed with the tee shirt thing.  I’ve got time…I’ve got time…I hope.  One more try at that shirt first.
I hope to model a perfect fitting tee shirt for you here soon. 
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Cute Attack!!!!

Chicks are crazy cute but the pecking order thing starts young.
That is all. 🙂

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truly-madly-deeply

I took a break from the baby quilt because I was so excited about the new Alabama Chanin book and had to make myself a tee-shirt.
It’s all hand sewn, yo.  
But it didn’t work.  The problem I had was with the sizing.  The XL (That’s right, I’m not petite, deal with it) size had measurements that should have been perfect for me.  It didn’t go down that way, though.  I can easily believe that I made my seam allowance a bit too big but not 2 – 4 inches too big.  I also couldn’t fit my head through the neck hole.  hmm. Double checked the pattern and it all looks right.  Who knows.  Could be me, could be them.  I do prefer to blame other people for my mistakes. 
But, I’m undaunted.  The patterns are so simple and elegant, I think it’ll be super easy to modify it for myself and Imma try again.
In the mean time, there sits that neglected baby quilt.  I’ll work on it today. 
It hasn’t made it’s way to the truly-neglected-but-still-upstairs-pile.  Which is nothing compared by my truly-madly-deeply-neglected-pile that’s in the basement.  I also have some truly-madly-deeply exciting plans that I’m working on but not ready to share just yet.  
It involves crafting, a partnership and creative leaps.  
I hope I didn’t give too much away there.  I’m just gonna walk away from this blog now.
No guessing!