In the Works

I have a couple of projects going on right now.  One is a baby quilt using this adorable teapot block from Pink Penguin.  I've assembled six of the blocks so far, and the most fiddly part of the process is cutting out the pieces.  I have very little patience with precision cutting (remind me why quilting is fun again?), and keeping the tinier pieces in their place can be exasperating.  But the assembly is actually very straightforward and with a little care these blocks are turning out to be extremely cute!  I'm using grey and white prints for the teapots and hand-dyed hot pink muslin for the background.

I'm also working on a black-and-white version of this Alchemy Quilt by Amy Butler.  It's my first real foray into machine applique, and it turned out rather well.  I'm in the middle of machine quilting it right now...this project has been interrupted by my purple baby quilt and the teapot quilt, but I'll finish it eventually.

As always, my brain works way faster than my hands and I'm planning many more quilting and sewing projects, including some quilts inspired by Elizabeth Hartman's beautiful mod blocks.  I'm also planning to finally sew some of the patterns in my Burdastyle book!  Whew...if only I had more hours in the day.  

Purple Crib Quilt

I started this baby quilt for my friend Margaret a couple of weeks ago.  I wanted to experiment with strippy blocks and use my new walking foot.  I pieced together a few different watercolor print fabrics in pink, green, and purple and used a plain dark purple fabric for the sashing.  I used my walking foot to quilt intersecting squares and rectangles in a random pattern.  I think it worked pretty well!

I started another baby quilt last night using a hot pink fabric I tie-dyed and some grey and white fat quarters. The blocks will be based on a sweet little teapot pattern I found via Pinterest.  More on that later!

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I forgot to introduce someone!

Say hello to my new friend.  She's a My Double dress form and a Christmas gift from my mom!  I'm looking forward to many happy hours of sewing together.  This is also a horrible shot of my basement sewing studio. As soon as I figure out how to take photographs in the fluorescent light and without showing off the giant furnace or the cat box, I'll post some real ones!  

New Year, New Stuff!

I'm back!  Again!  And, hey, I finally finished that quilt for my sister and her husband.  Finally!

Here's the happy couple with their quilt.  It was a Christmas present, so of course I finished tying and binding it on Christmas Eve.  I had a good time with the layout and sewing together the quilt top.  Unfortunately, I picked a nice soft poly-blend flat sheet for the backing, which slipped and slid all over my sewing machine and did not stick to the batting.  Even with ridiculous amounts of safety pins, I couldn't get it to stay put.  So...I hand-tied the whole darn thing.  Something like 300+ individual ties.  It took awhile.  But the result was homespun and pretty and very nice overall.  Besides, hand-tying gave me a chance to put a little extra love and intention into the gift...a little Craft in the craft, if you will.  

More projects are in the works!  I'm just about to finish quilting a crib quilt for a friend's baby shower this weekend, and I'm halfway done quilting a couch quilt for a wedding at the end of March.  I have all the materials for a wedding quilt for my best friend (they got married in August, so at this point it looks like it might be an anniversary quilt), and I'm drawing up plans for yet another baby quilt (there is seriously something in the water...four of my friends are pregnant right now!) and a scrappy mandala quilt for our bed.  Oh yes, and I also have several dip-dye projects going.  Whew!  I blame Pinterest for giving me too many good ideas.  

Lots of things have been happening on the home front.  Mac Mini starts morning daycare on Tuesday, and that will be a big change.  I'm excited to have a somewhat set schedule for the first time in three years!  I'm sure we'll get used to it in a couple of weeks, but right now I'm a little nervous to send her off to "school" every day.  Mr. Mac also bought a pressure cooker a couple of weeks ago (best Valentine's Day gift ever!), so we've been using it for just about everything.  Perfect risotto in 15 minutes?  No problem.  The most delicious carrot soup you've ever tasted?  Sure.  Caramelized onions that smell like they came straight from a bistro in Montmartre?  Give me 10 minutes.  That thing is amazing.  It goes very well with the copy of Modernist Cuisine at Home that we received as a housewarming gift!  Oh, and one of our cats has diabetes. Long story.  Lots to tell.  Later.  

Leafy Dresser Decoupage

We've undertaken a number of projects around here, making our new house more comfortable and more "us".  Mac Mini inherited this dresser from her grandma.  It wasn't bad, but the brightly-colored knobs and matching contact paper were a little clownish for my tastes.  Since her new bedroom has a green rug and dark green curtains, I thought some leaves might make it a little more interesting.  This was my first experience with decoupage, an art I usually associate with little old ladies and Martha Stewart...but looking around the internet, I found a lot of pretty cool DIY projects and makeovers involving Mod Podge, so I decided to buy some and try it out.  Here's what the dresser looked like before:

Bonus picture of Mac Mini with bedhead looking extra cute.  As you can see, it's actually a nice big solid dresser (much better than the 25-year-old particle board menace I've been using in my bedroom for the past, oh, 25 years or so...but that's another project).

First I removed the knobs and the contact paper inside the drawers.  I painted each set of knobs a different shade of green using Folk Art acrylics.  

Then I applied the decoupage thingies.  I used a set of parchment leaf decorations that my mother-in-law gave me...I can't remember what they were originally for, but they worked out well for this project.  I wiped 'em down with Mod Podge, stuck 'em on the dresser, and painted two coats of Mod Podge over the top of each leaf.  Most of them stuck pretty well, but there were some places I had to re-glue, especially where I cut the leaves so the drawers would open.  

It's not exactly the masterpiece I had envisioned, but it does liven up the room a bit and once I get some decorations on the walls and reupholster the cat-ravaged  La-Z-Boy rocker, it should look pretty good.  

Many, many more projects are underway here!  The transformation of the utility/unfinished basement room to artsy-fartsy studio/workshop is almost complete!

Bridesmaid Dress: It Turned Out OK.

Here's a short sewing interlude before I start catching up on all the new-house-related projects Mr. Mac and I have been working on.  My best friend B of Reviving the Hondamatic got married last Saturday at a farm on beautiful Whidbey Island, and I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid!  I shopped downtown Seattle for an appropriate dress, but sage green is not this summer's hit color, it turns out.  So I decided to buy fabric and make my own.  I went to Pacific Fabrics Outlet and chose a couple of yards of green cotton and this pattern.  Unfortunately, I neglected to check the size chart and bought the wrong pattern size.  Whoops.  I consulted the Internet and foolishly decided to try it without a pattern.  I calculated, measured, and cut panels for a simple skirt and bodice.

And then I sewed the panels together.  The result was a saggy, baggy, shapeless mess.  I don't have the words to describe it properly, because hideous and disappointing don't do it justice.  That's when I decided to alter my store-bought pattern and Make It Work.  I went back to the fabric store, where they had run out of my original fabric, and bought a patterned green fabric, which I hoped would look good with the original.  I used the patterned fabric to make a pleated waistband, then cut it to fit my altered pattern.  

Since I had run out of my solid green fabric, I decided to make a paneled skirt using the patterned green fabric.

Then I followed the pattern and constructed the lined bodice.  My first ever lined garment...it went ok!  The armholes were slightly wrinkly, but I wasn't about to tear them out and do it again.  I applied interfacing to the waistband and attached it to the bodice.  The pleats in the center of the bodice were my own addition...when I altered the pattern I made the pieces slightly too big (better than too small, but still a problem).  I had to do a bit of messing with it to make it fit.  

Next I attached the skirt to the waistband.  Again, more pleating and ootching to make it fit.  My pleats were not ideally placed, as I found out when I tried it on, but a little too much emphasis on my belly pooch was the least of my problems.

It took me THREE tries to insert the zipper.  Damn and blast, that was annoying.  The first time my bobbin ran out.  The second time I got part of the skirt stuck in my stitching.  Obviously I am not a professional and need some practice.  

The finished product!  It started life as a Frankenstien's monster of a dress, patched and pleated and brought to life with sweat, tears, and a couple of drops of blood from when I stuck myself with a pin.  But in the end it turned out just fine, the bride was gorgeous, the ceremony was beautiful, we had a great time on the farm, and it was a wonderful day on Whidbey.  

Our new house!

Hooray, hooray, we have a house at last!  We got the keys last night after a whirlwind adventure with the bank, the underwriters, and the escrow company in which our bank sent all of our very personal private information to the listing agent instead of the escrow office...and then put the wrong date on all of the documents.  That escrow agent was a saint.  She hung in there, printing, revising, and reprinting our 95-page bundle until it was all correct.  After an hour of signing and making that big ol' wire transfer, everything closed yesterday and we were able to get into the house to take a look around.  We had arranged to buy the couch and storage fridge from the previous owners, but to our surprise they had also left five storage units in assorted sizes, all their gardening gear including a wheelbarrow and hoses, and a full rack of paint and hand tools in the garage.  Score!  And also, wow, that's a lot of stuff to sort through and decide what to do with.  Oh well.  We have lots of time to figure that out.  Our first order of business is to give everything a good rubdown with some TSP, clean the floors, and paint a few walls.  Luckily, everything is already in good shape and it won't take much to make it ours.  I'm so excited!  This is going to be fun.  Lots of before-and-after pictures to come!