Make-a-List Monday 03-29-16

Tags

cats, embroidery, Make-A-List Monday, Othello, Pasco, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing, Wade Park, Washington

Nature Refuge in Othello, WA

Make-A-List Monday is an idea that I borrowed from Sarah Craig over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and I thank her for inspiring me to try it!

A little late, but still in there swingin’!

Let’s see how I did on my list from 3/15:

• Top priority:  make my sister’s birthday present. 

Done!  Took about forever, but look how cute these cat coasters turned out!

Somebody posted the link for these on one of my Facebook sewing groups a while ago and I just KNEW I had to make them for my sister.  She just got new furniture for her living room, so I made them in coordinating colors.  The fabric is hand-dyed wool felt from the stash, and the picture doesn’t do it justice–it is gorgeous stuff.

Lots of TINY bits of felt here; I used Tacky Glue to hold things in place, then used a blanket stitch on the larger pieces, running stitch on the tiny ones (the instructions just say to “stitch” without specifying how).

• Make the Kaffee Fassett dress. 

Almost done–just need to attach the bodice to the skirt, sew hems, and do buttons and buttonholes.  And I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.  Might have been better if I’d used the collar??  Hmmm . . . .

• Do a Make-a-List Monday post, hopefully on Monday. 

Well, I got to it eventually.

• Stretch goal:  do last few bits of spiffing up in my sewing room and take some pictures.

Nope.  I usually clean up the sewing room after I finish a project, and I’m still in the middle of working on that dress, so it’s a bit scary in here right now.

 

Goals for this week are mostly to tidy up unfinished business as the quarter is ending and I’ll need to link up my finishes.

• Finish the dress.
• Do a post about it.
• Do a post about the cycling jacket (still don’t have pics!)
• Work on some more Splendid Sampler blocks.  I’m really longing to get to some of the blocks that have applique and embroidery!
• Test at least one of the circle skirt tutorials I’ve found online in preparation for next month’s class at SCRAP.

 

In the meantime, here a little bit of what’s been happening here:

New fabric!  I did some house-sitting for my mother and sister while they were in Oregon last week, and they brought back this Kaffe Fassett jelly roll for me.  According to my sister, she had to talk my mother out of getting the pastel cabbage rose fabric–TOTALLY dodged a bullet there.

I also got this lightweight border print (well, it’s actually embroidered, but you know what I mean) denim at SCRAP the other day.  I saw this post and knew this fabric would be perfect for that pattern. It’s a little wrinkly in this pic, but not bad considering this is after two days sitting in the dryer (hey, I’ve been busy).

I went to the Sandhill Crane Festival in Othello the other day, thinking I might learn something about the local birds.  What I actually learned:  birders are very nice people, but I will never, ever be excited enough about which sparrow is which to be one of them.  Also, you get some pretty premium swag when you go to the Sandhill Crane Festival.

And spring is here!  With the accompanying allergies and gale-force winds!  Here are some tiny flowers I found in Wade Park, next to the walking path.

Have a great week, everybody, and I hope you’re getting some spring wherever you are.

 

STH

Make-a-List Monday 1-11-15

Tags

2016 FAL, Bateman Island, clothing, embroidery, Kennewick, Make-A-List Monday, sewing, Washington

Took a frosty walk on Bateman Island on Saturday

(Make-A-List Monday is an idea that I borrowed from Sarah Craig over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and I thank her for inspiring me to try it!)

Okay, so last week was supposed to be my organization/administration week?

I’ve now decided I much prefer sewing weeks to organization/administration weeks.

I was really fighting my natural tendency toward procrastination, but I did it, because, to be honest, I didn’t want to have to write a bunch of lame excuses in this post.

So let’s see how I did.

 

1.  Do a blog post on the Willara tunic.

Done!  Post is here.

2.  Link up finishes to the 2015 Finish-Along–6 finishes out of 10!

Done!

(No word yet on winners for the prizes, though.  I did all that work and now I want a cookie, dammit!)

3.   Do a post for the 2016 Finish-Along.

Done!  Post is here.  And I cannot tell you guys how happy I am to be making progress on getting some of these seriously ancient UFOs done.  I like the mix of old and new projects on my list.

4.  Deal with another pile of mending.

Oy.  Done (okay, all except for one sweater that I need to find a button for).  Bleh.

5.  Reorganize this corner of my sewing room/office/world headquarters.

Done!  All clean and organized and lovely!  And I went through all my craft books and craft ideas torn out of magazines and weeded out all the junk–a bag of books is going to SCRAP and two bags of paper are getting recycled.

Here’s the before:

And the after:

I’m still fine-tuning where I’ve got things, but at least the crap I don’t use is gone and the huge pile of filing on the right is put away.

So, the goals for this coming week.

1.  Put the damn button on the last damn item of mending.  Dammit.
2.   Make the boxes for my desk drawers and get all the stuff in there.
3.   Finish the cross-stitch clock.  The more I think about how old that is, the more I want it done!
4.   Check the fit on the wool jacket and cut out the lining.  I’m a little bit nervous about dealing with the silk and making the lining, so I’m just thinking about it one little step at a time.

Okay, I think that’s enough to keep me busy this week.

Have a great week, everybody!

STH

 

 

Plans and More Plans

Tags

2016 FAL, bags, clothing, Cool Cottons, embroidery, quilting, RSC15, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing

Okay, it’s time to get all planned and organized and signed up for the 2016 1st Quarter Finish-Along, so let’s do it.

Here, in no particular order, are the projects I want to get done in the next three months.

1.   The famous wool cycling jacket, now that the uber-fabulous silk map lining fabric has arrived.  I should probably do this soon, so there’s still time to wear it this winter.  Shell is done; lining, pocket bags, elastic in the sleeves and hem and the back pocket need to be done.

2.  The flannel quilt, a leftover from last quarter’s FAL.  Sandwiched and pinned, just needs to be quilted and bound.  I plan to make the binding from a plain white sheet.

3.  Another leftover, the shark pencil/glasses/whatever case.  Just needs finishing and a fix of the zip.

4.  The black jumper that I’ve been planning for about forever.  Needs to finally happen.

5.  Purple jersey top.  Can you believe it–a pattern that isn’t 10 years old!  I got the jersey at SCRAP (some outrageous amount, 7 yards or something) and can’t wait to get this done.  I’m planning to make the gray version on the right.

6.  Cross-stitch clock.  Oh man, I don’t even want to think about how long I’ve had this UFO.  I pull it out every 5 or 10 years and work on it a little bit more, but somehow it never gets finished.  It’s actually pretty close to done now–it just needs to be assembled and put in the wooden case.

7.  Black leggings.  I really need these!  I wear my lone pair of black leggings all the time, and they are ratty.  I need to find a TNT leggings pattern and make 10 pairs.  I like that this Greenstyle pattern has an option for a yoga waistband, which sounds SO COMFY.  Black knit is from SCRAP (yes, I am seriously stalking their knit fabrics and grabbing the good ones!)

8.  Boxes for my sewing desk.  I need some way to organize the drawers in my desk, and I haven’t found a tutorial for what I want, so today I drew up a pattern for small fabric boxes custom made to fit the space.  They’ll be made from these Mary Engelbreit sewing-themed fabrics and I’m going to use interfacing and plastic canvas to stiffen them.

9.  Turquoise shirt for my honey.  This is his current favorite color, so we picked up this lovely fabric from Cool Cottons in Portland, and he asked for a henley.

10.  Dress for me!  This Kaffe Fassett print also came from Cool Cottons; the plan is to make the long dress on the right, but with the pockets from the pattern on the left.  I also have black piping for the bodice edges.

11.  Finish the RSC 2015 quilt.  This is a pretty ambitious goal, but I’d like to at least continue work on the blocks so that maybe I can get it done next quarter.  I think I’m about halfway done on the star blocks, so there’s plenty more to do.

First priority here is probably to work on the little boxes, since I’m reorganizing my sewing room right now.  Then it’s on to the jacket.

I’m off and running!

STH

ETA:  I have linked this post up to Scraptastic Tuesday and WIP Wednesday.

 

Sunday Sevens 09-06-15

Tags

bags, cooking, embroidery, recipe, sewing, Sunday Sevens

If you’re new to Sunday Sevens, welcome and come on in — we’re celebrating one year since Our Fearless Leader, Natalie of Threads and Bobbins, got the whole thing started.  Many thanks to Natalie!

This has sort of been home improvement week here.  I don’t know, maybe it’s the change of seasons that makes you want to clean up and start over, but there has been much hanging of pictures and washing of wall quilts and sorting of things to take to Goodwill.

One of the pictures that still needs to be put up–a comforting phrase in sunshiney yellow, my favorite!

The biggest accomplishment was sorting through and organizing all the bike mess in the garage.

This is my partner’s work table and I really wish I had a “before”picture–this was a big job and took both of us most of Saturday to sort out.  You never saw so many nearly-identical brackety-things in one place as we had in here when we started.  Now much more manageable and he can actually find things!

Also:  BONUS SEWING STUFF!

I scavenged this pile of hardware from bike bag straps my honey threw away.  Some of it is a bit mysterious, but some will definitely be put to use.

After I finished my Summer Crush dress, I was itching to get back to my scrap quilt blocks, but decided to be a RESPONSIBLE ADULT and take on this pile of mending before I ran off and did the fun stuff.

Then I remembered how much I hate mending.

So the pile is still sitting there . . . and my partner keeps adding to it.  😦

Made a little bit of progress on my embroidery, but I’m not exactly burning through that project, either.

I did cook some nice things this week, though (maybe that’s why I’ve been so tired and unproductive?)

I’ve been tinkering with this recipe forever, and finally feel like I’ve got it where I want it.

I added sliced onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms to the marinated chicken and cooked the whole mess in a grill pan on the barbecue.  I put the chicken and vegetables on some brown rice and seasoned black beans, then topped it with some chopped tomato and green onion, a little cheddar, and the sauce.

SERIOUSLY good.

And this–a Greek bread called Ladenia–was part of tonight’s dinner.  I also made a Potato, Squash, and Goat Cheese Gratin and added some grilled sausage at the last minute to make the resident carnivore smile.

I’ll take another shot at that mending pile tomorrow.  Then I want to make a valance for my tiny and very bare bathroom window.  And maybe get back to those neglected scrap quilt blocks.

Have a wonderful week, everybody.

STH

Sunday Sevens 08-30-15

Tags

cats, embroidery, Greenstyle Laurel, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing, Sunday Sevens

Sunday Sevens is a weekly feature in which we post seven-or-so pictures of our week and chat about what we’ve been up to.  See Natalie at Threads and Bobbins for more info and join us if you’d like–it’s fun!

Sadly, no outdoorsy pictures this week.  😦

I REALLY want to get outside and walk but the air quality here is very bad because of all the fires raging throughout the Pacific Northwest.  Between that and my usual fall allergies, it seems wiser–though a lot less fun–to exercise inside for a while.

This handsome boy went back to the vet this week for a recheck after having a dental cleaning and some tooth extractions.  She tells me he’s healing up really well and also, everybody in the office loves him and his sweet personality.

Of course.  🙂

Because I appear to be unable to resist the lure of a sew-along these days, I’ve decided to finish this UFO for Summer Crush Week of the Sew Long Summer Sew Along.  This UFO is at least 10 years old.  😛

Also in the works, another embroidery project.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this–maybe frame it?–but the comforting themes in it are drawing me in.  I’m applying for jobs and thinking about the future and just generally feeling rather unsettled; the quiet, slow embroidery helps with that.

Birthday present from my sister that’s now brightening up my tomato planter.

Had a moment of inspiration regarding this rather frumpy knit fabric:  a (hopefully) wearable muslin of the Greenstyle Laurel Dress!  The fabric was obtained through Freecycle and it’s really nice quality, though I’m not crazy about the grandma’s-couch type design, so perfect for a muslin.  Setting that aside for a bit later in the fall.

I talked to Rachael and Chrissa at SCRAP Tri-Cities this week and we finalized plans for me to teach a class on October 8.  We’ll be making this rice-filled foot warmer:

I’ve taught psychology classes in the past, but never something like this, so I’m taking a CreativeLive class this week on how to do it.

The National Weather Service warnings on my phone are getting increasingly hysterical.

Don’t worry, NWS–this is August in eastern Washington and we’re used to it.  Crops are getting harvested and it’s dry, so the usual wind is kicking up some dust.  Forecast predicts some rain today–first rain in a LONG time–so conditions may improve soon.

Have a great week, everybody.

STH

The Heidi Bag

Tags

bags, embroidery, Heidi, sewing

Yep, I’m still alive.

Just skipped Sunday Sevens this past week because we didn’t get home from Oregon until Monday afternoon, and the post probably would have been Tuesday Sevens, and that wouldn’t do at all, now would it?

I do have a new bag to show you, though, a birthday present for my BFF Heidi.

I had wanted to make her a bag for her birthday, but played it safe and asked her earlier in the summer what kind of bag she’d like.  It turned out she had been thinking about a new bag to replace the little cross-body one she uses for her camera and other essentials when she travels.  She had definite ideas about how big it should be and what pockets it should have.

And she wanted it in a neutral color so as not to draw too much attention to it.

Um . . . what?  NEUTRAL color?  SUBTLE color??????

So I looked and looked, through all my summer travels, for a heavy-weight, sturdy fabric in a subtle color that was as cool and funky as my friend.

I don’t know that I found it, but my first thought when I saw this fabric was that I’d seen her wear all the colors in this, so it must be her kind of thing.  Plus, it was a home decor fabric–so super sturdy–but also washable, an essential requirement for purse fabric, as far as I’m concerned.

(Will you LOOK at the stripe matching here.  I didn’t even have to break a sweat doing it, just cut the large piece for the front, then sliced it into two so that I could put the front pocket zipper in there.)

To compensate for the SUBTLETY of the exterior of the bag, I went with this very cool and colorful batik for the lining.

And I added a fun little pocket inside, just big enough for an ID or a tube of lip balm.

Close-up:

(The embroidery pattern is from Craftsy.)

I think the zipper technique in this tutorial is my favorite (so far), so that’s what I used here.  I wanted the front pocket lined and nicely finished, too, so I basically used the same method for that zipper as well (minus the tab).

I put an ivory ribbon and a small stone bead on the pull of the main zipper so that it’s easy to find and grab without looking.

And, no, there was no pressing of this with the iron–the home decor fabric has a weird rubbery sort of finish to it and I was afraid the iron would do nasty things to it.

Happy birthday, Heidi!

STH

Cozy Afternoon Block-of-the-Month Quilt

Tags

CozyAfternoonQuilt, embroidery, quilting, sewing

Okay, so I sort of have a bit of a problem with fabric scraps.

There’s this:

And then there’s this:

And there are three or four shoebox-size boxes of other colors.

Oh, and I almost forgot this bin in the closet:

This is not altogether a bad thing, since it means that I can always find an appropriate piece of fabric for a small project, like a bike bag or a sewing tool organizer.

I would like to make a dent in this, however, as it’s starting to feel a bit overwhelming and taking up a fair amount of space in my small sewing room.  I’m starting to have that slightly-frantic HELP TOO MUCH STUFF feeling in here.

Hence, this:

I saw this on someone’s blog (sorry, whoever it was, I don’t remember who you are to give you credit!), spotted the blue version with the hand embroidery and thought YES.

You have the option to just put a square of fabric in the center of each block, do hand or machine applique there, or embroider it.

Here are the fabrics I have in mind for the blocks:

And the setting triangles and binding will be made from the fabric I bought in Pendleton the other day:

I’m thinking about using the blocks to make a runner for my ginormous dining room table.

This is a great stashbusting project because you only need 1/4 to 1/3 yard of each of the six block fabrics, then you can use the blocks however you want, depending on what other fabric you have (fabric requirements here).

The BOM starts June 1 and goes for 5 months.  Fabric kits are available here.  Oh, and there’s a fabric giveaway here (closes Sunday, May 10).

Sign-up page is here.  Anybody interested in doing this with me?

STH

Holiday Sewing 3: Finished the Quilt!

Tags

embroidery, quilting, sewing

Whew!  Xmas is over and we all lived to tell the tale!

I had my doubts.  After all, I committed to making all my presents, THEN decided to host my mother and sister for Xmas dinner while planning an overambitious menu.  But I just kept reminding myself of what I’ve pulled off in the past:  the year that my partner called a few days before to tell me he’d picked up four additional “strays” for Xmas dinner, the year that I had two glasses of mulled wine on an empty stomach and cooked a beautiful dinner while sloshed . . . .

But I pulled it off.  A lovely dinner and all the presents got finished.

On Friday, I pulled out the box with the unfinished quilt for my partner.  I’ve had this sitting around for a couple of years while I worked on it at an absolutely glacial pace.  This is how far I had gotten with it:

So three line drawings of bicycles to trace, four to embroider, the quilt top to assemble, and quilting and binding to be done.  Luckily, my honey was out of town for most of the weekend, so I sat down and did nothing but embroider and sew all weekend.

The embroidery designs were from here, though it looks like the set no longer includes the penny farthing.  I enlarged them a bit on a copier, then taped each to a window and traced it to the muslin with a mechanical pencil.  I embroidered them mostly in backstitch with a single strand of floss, but used a 2-strand lazy daisy stitch for the tires.  The base fabric was muslin, and I backed all four pieces with Sulky Soft ‘n’ Sheer stabilizer; instead of cutting it away at the end, I left the stabilizer intact, as the muslin was fairly sheer.

The quilt pattern I used was this one, though I reduced the number of blocks so that my quilt would be a good size for hanging on the wall (about 27″ square).

I had forgotten how long it takes to hand sew a quilt binding, but I finally got the quilt finished on the evening of Xmas eve and had enough time to quickly sew up my mother’s “scoodie” before I went to bed that night (no pictures of the scoodie, unfortunately).

Even with the time pressure, this embroidery was so fun to do!  And my partner loved his new quilt–he’s already got a spot on his office wall where he wants it to go.  My sister was very happy with her new bag, too!

And I’m now on to new projects, of course.  More on that soon.

Happy New Year!

STH

UPDATE:  The designer of my bicycle embroidery pattern is having a sale on her patterns and other items until 11:00 p.m. (UK time) on December 31.  Up to 50% off!  (I have no financial interest in her shop, other than that I really like her work and really enjoy saving money.)

Holiday Sewing 2: The Ornamenting

Tags

booze, cooking, embroidery, recipe, sewing

Sewing of presents continues!  I finished these ornaments last week for my partner’s sister and her husband.

The inspiration came from this post that I had bookmarked some time ago.

Boy were these fun to make!  Messy, though–since I didn’t have a plan in mind before I started, I pulled out all my wool felt, beads, buttons, and embroidery floss.

(Only a small portion of the mess shown here.  More on the floor and on the dresser behind me.)

I chose my felt colors, cut out the hearts, then selected beads and floss.  I really liked the way the ornaments in the original post were done in duller colors with a few bright accents, so that’s what I tried to do with mine.

The embroidery is simple straight stitching and lazy daisy, so fun and relaxing to stitch.  No measuring, nothing fussy, just me holding the ornament at arm’s length and thinking about what might look interesting where.

These will be packed up this weekend with some bags of spices and a recipe for mulled wine, our version of the Cook’s Illustrated method.  The package has to get all the way to Provence, so it won’t make it by Xmas, but I’m sure it will be appreciated whenever it does arrive.

Mulled Wine

Toast spices in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. (Alternatively, let spices cool, then place in bouquet garni bag and return bag to pan.)  Add wine, orange zest, and 1/2 cup sugar; cover partially and bring to simmer, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar. Reduce heat to low and simmer 1 hour until wine is infused; do not boil.  (I’ve also simmered this on low in a slow cooker for 4-6 hours and that also works, though I think the wine done on the stove comes out a bit spicier.)

Strain wine through fine-mesh strainer; return wine to saucepan and discard spices and orange zest. (Cook’s Illustrated recommends adding the brandy and more sugar to taste at this point; I’ve never found that to be necessary.) Ladle wine into small mugs; serve immediately.

* 3 cinnamon sticks (3 inches each)
* 10 whole cloves
* 10 whole black peppercorns
* 1 t. allspice berries (about 25)
* 2 bottles red wine , medium- or full-bodied
* 4 strips orange zest removed with vegetable peeler, each strip about 2 inches long by 1/2 inch wide, cleaned of any white pith
* 1/2 c. sugar
* 2 T. sugar (optional)
* 2 – 4 T. brandy (optional)

Please note that this keeps well in the fridge and leftovers are lovely microwaved on a chilly evening.  I’m not a wine drinker–I’m barely any sort of drinker at all–but I love this stuff.

I’m now into my next holiday project, a wall quilt for my partner that I have literally been trying to finish FOR YEARS.  This time I’m going to do it!

Here are the blocks laid out:

And the first block has been embroidered and pieced.

Plenty to do yet–I’d better get back to it!

STH

Not-Clothing Sewing

Tags

embroidery, sewing

When I was taking pictures of the infamous PJs in the bedroom the other day, it occurred to me that I’ve got some other nifty creative projects around here, and, hey, throw them up on the blog cause the blog is where I get to talk about whatever I want to talk about and if people aren’t interested they can just clickclickclick away.

First, here’s a blanket that I made for my honey for, I think, our first Christmas together.

Actually, this is an L.L. Bean cream-colored fleece blanket that I’ve hand-appliqued some wool felt shapes onto.  I wanted to keep the decoration subtle, so I only embellished two corners of the blanket and left the rest plain.

This is the other corner, and you can see that in addition to the leaves and vines, I’ve sewn on some stylized thistles.  My partner’s mother was Scottish and he has spent a lot of time there; it’s important to him, so I wanted to work that into the design.

I cut the simple shapes freehand and made freezer paper patterns for the more complex ones.  I used several shades of wonderful wool felt that I had been buying at a local quilt shop and stashing away for just the right project.  I think much of it was actually thrift-store wool suits that had been cut up, overdyed, washed and dried to felt them.  That gives the fabric subtle tweedy patterns that are so much more interesting than the usual flat felt colors.

I gave this to him on Christmas with a set of L.L. Bean flannel sheets in olive green–you can see them and the chocolate brown bed skirt peeking out from under the blanket.  I don’t think he was quite convinced that those were actually supposed to be thistles, but he liked the gift anyway.  🙂

Second, this is the quilt we have hanging over our bed.

I really haven’t done this justice with the picture I took, but it’s a fall-themed quilt with sunflowers, fall leaves, and pumpkins machine-appliqued onto a pieced background.  I really love this pattern and all the colors in it, so it stays up year round in our bedroom.

One good reason that there’s no close-up of this quilt is that I made it with my grandmother’s ancient White sewing machine, and that machine was not too happy about being asked to do satin stitch on appliques.  The stitches were not nice and neat and, most annoyingly, as you sewed, the foot pedal would get hotter and hotter until it started to burn your foot and you had to take a break.  That machine was just as difficult to deal with as its former owner, come to think of it.

Third, here’s a quilt I made as part of a quilting class.

This is a paper-pieced pattern called “Oklahoma Dogwood.”  If you enlarge the picture, you may be able to see the oval shapes I used to quilt the border to echo the paper-pieced portion.  I really like how this turned out, and paper-piecing is another fun quilting technique that I definitely will use again.  Right now, I’m sewing some clothes for myself, but all those quilting supplies and all that gorgeous wool felt is waiting for my attention to shift back to them, as I’m sure it will.

STH