wise craft

suddenly crafty

Thank you for the sweet comments on the marquee quilt. Many of you pointed out that the little strips of fabrics stacked up the way they are is very Lego-like and I guess I was looking a little too closely at my work because I never noticed that till you pointed it out, thank you! They really do!

I had to laugh hard though, just as I was sending the notice out to the world in that post that I'd finished the top, I got up out of my chair and realized I'd been sitting on row #10 and didn't even know it.

Um...yeah....I gotta clean this room up.

My mostly uncrafty little guy was suddenly feeling quite crafty over the weekend. Together we made a shield and sword using directions in a book he checked out from the school library. He was quite pleased with himself, and I'm always happy when he feels a little success in the crafting department.

First day of work was great. Tired but great. Felt really good. The biggest disappointment of the day is that I didn't bring Emma a slurpee (there's a 7-11 across the street from the office).

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If you are already feeling inspired to get crafty for the holidays, I wanted to let you in on a really fun online workshop that Betz is putting together. The Felt & Stitch Holiday Workshop will be held October 12 through November 6, here is the description from Betz-

Join me this fall for my first-ever online workshop! No matter where you live we can gather together online to make wonderful felted wool projects for your holiday décor and gift giving. I’ll be teaching and working with you along the way through a combination of blog posts, downloadable PDF’s, and videos posted weekly, where participants can communicate with each other and with me. Projects will include ornaments, home décor and small gifts, designed especially for this workshop and are not available in my books or anywhere else!

Click on the link on the upper right sidebar to register. Take it with us and get some holiday gifts made!

marquee

Giving myself a deadline to have this at the quilter was all I needed. Once I started the process of putting this quilt top together, I knew I'd get into it and just keep going. It is really coming together well. This is the Marquee pattern from the book The Modern Quilt Workshop. I've had it in my mind that I would make this quilt since that book first arrive on my doorstep, years ago. I love improvisational piecing of any kind (which I also call just making it up as I go along).

This quilt will be used on Ian's bed, and I plan to use a heavier cotton batting inside so that the it can be used in the colder months of the year. I will still use the Goodnight Moon quilt on his bed too (its on there now), but now he'll have two. My next decision will be what backing color and fabric(s) to use. Do I go totally solid? Bright solid? Do I piece? I will have about a week to decide that before I hand it off. I think I will go with the same quilting pattern that I did on Emma's.

I was at the fabric store the other day and I overheard a woman choosing fabrics and conversing with her husband and a store clerk over the conversational prints she was choosing for a quilt she was making. I assumed it was going to be for a grandchild, and she wanted to include lots of things the child likes...cats...bright colors...etc. She commented that "this was going to be a wild quilt" because of all the different patterns she chose. It got me thinking...I have never really looked at any quilt and thought that the fabrics within it didn't go together. Something about sewing pieces together, then adding the layer of quilting stitches that really make my eyes accept all the pattern and color play as a whole piece. I was thinking about this as I was putting this top together because initially, it was such a challenge to find patterns that, in my eyes, felt right. Even as I was piecing I had some reservations about a few of them. But really, when my eye takes it in as a whole piece, everything seems to work. 

I can't wait to get it quilted!

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I am starting my job on Monday (tomorrow). I'm very excited to embark on this new job, its been 11 years since I was last in the apparel industry. Its part time, and I will be able to pick the kids up from school each day, which is really important to me. But it really changes up the structure of our days, and there will be some juggling. I know the key to making all this run smoothly is getting as organized as possible, which I have been working on (hence my absence last week). Its all good, really good. I will let you know how it goes.

This little space is still my refuge, though. 

I wanted to say thank you to fellow North Carolina girl Susan Beal for her mention of the Halloween projects over on Geek Crafts!

happy first day of fall

Some new fabrics, and some new wool, for the first day of Fall. You know, there's never enough evenly spaced polka dots in fabric form for me.

A few people have asked exactly how much fabric I buy when I see something I like but have no specific use for it in mind. That's hard to answer, but I will say I've made a lot of things from a mere 1/2 yard of fabric. And when I'm doing patchwork, 1/4 of a yard goes a long way. If I'm buying something for just a whim, often a yard seems too much by the time I get it home. But if you like a fabric, keep in mind that one yard will be enough to make pj pants for a small child.

For some reason, that tiny toile (from Joann's) is making me ridiculously happy. I bought plenty of that.

And listening to Beirut, that also made me happy (Elephant Gun). 

And having a really nice talk about friendship with Emma while painting her nails before bed.

Seeing Heidi's versions of the Halloween crafts I created (but then again everything Heidi does is just all kinds of awesome in my book).

I didn't even mind being outbid on those loafers I saw on ebay.

gaining momentum

I'm so happy that Ian's quilt is coming together, these projects sit on my worktable for far too long these days. All I needed was a reasonable deadline. Not a crazy one, a doable one. I was thinking of this when I was watching Project Runway with Emma today. I mean, how the heck do those designers really know they'll get it done in time? How much of those garments are actually glued together I wonder? Anyway, those strips in the photo get sewn together and are the marquee's around the solid squares, which are light gray. I'm really happy with the patterns I chose for this one. That was the challenge of this quilt, 90% of what I looked at would not have worked for this Lego-lovin', Warriors reading, soccer playing 8 year old. He has very strong opinions about almost everything in his world and will literally hold his ears if he hears anything he considers girly or babyish, so I had to tread lightly through the world of patterned quilting cottons. One flower and he'll banish it.

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Totally unrelated, but on my mind. I loved Rachel's post on sprucing up her wardrobe. I've been doing the same thing, especially at the prospect of heading back into the apparel industry. There's no need for me to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe. That would be too easy. No, I'm stalking ebay for some pieces, thrifting some pieces to go with my beloved J Crew cords, even sewing a few pieces. Its fun to pull it all together from here and there and create my own look. It really does make a difference when I feel pulled together.

plum cake

Friday found me at home by myself for most of the day. I looked around me, blank stare... "Where is everybody?" People, this never happens! Working at home, as we do, not only do we bump into each other constantly throughout the day, there are usually other people coming and going. The little person energy gets added in the late afternoon, you get the idea. So to have a little time to myself to do whatever was quite a treat. I immediately decided to bake with all those plums and found the perfect little recipe in Smitten Kitchen's Dimply Plum Cake.

For my version, I chopped the plums into chunks (with skin) and folded them into the batter last thing.

And the best part? I had cake for lunch without someone walking by commenting "you're having cake for lunch?". I don't know exactly when a day will open itself up like that again any time soon, so I took full advantage (like I plugged into hulu.com after I ate my lunch). Truth is though, I love the energy at my house, it keeps me on my toes.

Notice our chair up there in the first photo. I recovered those seat bottoms several weeks ago with Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks laminated fabric. Best and most practical DIY project I think I've ever done. The pattern is pretty and works in our house, and the seats wipe clean! Its great!

One more thing, tonight for dinner, we had one of our favorite dinners, Smoky Beef Tacos from Everyday Food. Something about the smoky taste of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce that I love, this dish will be plenty for leftovers the next day too.

Have a great Monday! Eat cake!

plum. the color of the season

 

The plum trees are bursting in Seattle right now. Every one of these is perfection. Believe me, I know, I've tested several...

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OK, Glee? the best!

Nouvelle Vague is in heavy rotation at the house these days, I just can't get enough of them.

I love J Crew cords. I've said it before, but they are the best. (And in plum, even better.)

Sally tuned me into this website and the kids are loving it.

more lovely books translated from japanese to english

Thank you so much for your enthusiasm over the Halloween project. It was fun. Real, bonafide fun. It turned me on to Halloween big time. I made a little button and put it up on the sidebar <-- over there <-- for the bewitching season, for easy reference.

OK, I got 2 lovely books the other day that I just had to share. You see, there are very few things that make me pine for a 3rd child, but these had me daydreaming for at least 30 seconds, possibly a full minute.

Carefree Clothes for Girls: 20 Patterns for Outdoor Frocks, Playdate dresses, and More by Junko Okawa has crystal clear instructions, color photos, and full pattern pieces for 20 designs for girls sized/aged 4-7. The model is so cute, love the red hair and, of course, the little braids.

 

 

 

That last one is making me a little crazy with how badly I want to make it. I'm thinking Emma could wear it as a smock. Not really doing dresses these days, so I'd have to call it a long shirt and probably buy her some cool new jeans to wear under it, maybe even shoes, but it would totally be worth i! I mean, double gauze with exposed waistband seam....and unfinished hem...and quilted bodice! I'm in love.

 

The second one is called Felting for Baby: 25 Warm & Woolly Projects for the Little Ones in Your Life by Saori Yamazaki. I've wanted to create more felted things since my first experiment and there is plenty of project ideas for baby and home in here.

 

 

 

This books takes you through all the steps to create fabric and molded shapes out of wool roving by wet felting it, a process which I think is fascinating in and of itself. But on top of that, the featured projects are gorgeous. And you know,  you need a surprisingly small amount of materials to create these projects (and wool roving? inexpensive and highly addictive, trust me if you don't know that already).

Both of these are set to be released on October 13, but you can preorder them now at the links above. And then you'll kind of forget that you ordered them, and one day in October you'll get a surprise on your doorstep, which is cool.

This week, I am trying really hard to finish Ian's quilt. I've cut out the squares and finished the patchwork strips (well, ok, no, I've got 3 more to do, I need 14 total, but I'm thinking I may need fewer than the pattern calls for...wishful thinking). I jumped ahead in the process a bit and scheduled an appointment to take it into The Quilting Loft for the beginning of October to be quilted (they did such a great job quilting Emma's), trying to avoid the Christmas rush. So I've got around 2 weeks. But every time I walk in here to sew I'm torn because I'm doing some more patchwork pieces too, which I just get so excited about, I have a hard time putting them aside. Such a conundrum of craft! Plus, patchwork is messy business, at least when I do it. I only half joke that its really a "family" commitment for me to sew patchwork, because there will soon be little strips of fabric and stray threads will be hanging off the furniture and everyone's clothes tlll I'm done.

Back soon!

what i did this summer. i did halloween, so I should have a party

Way back during the summer, I hinted to you about a photo styling project I was working on. Finally I can now reveal the details of that project. I was contacted by Armstrong Studios, an amazing photography studio here in Seattle, to ask if I was like to come up with some Halloween party and home decor ideas using recycled materials for Value Village and help style a photo shoot using the projects. Um, where do I sign? Honestly, I couldn't wait to get started.

 

So, a dozen or so projects using thrifted, recycled, upcycled materials from Value Village. My mind was racing with ideas. I wanted to use items that could be found any time of year at Value Village or other thrift store, not just during the Halloween season, so I resisted buying Halloween things, that just seemed too easy. The other thing I really wanted to do was to create projects that were "low sew" or even "no sew", the idea being that anybody should be able to jump in and do these projects with materials they find for very little money. The second photo above are the cat and ghost stuffed creatures made from cotton t-shirts (sitting on a $6.99 Value Village chair which I spray painted orange). They are more of a flat shape rather than rounded like a stuffed animal, and are meant to be used as pillows on your furniture during the Halloween season (or, if you're like my kids, you should just hug them and sleep with them). Very soft and easy to sew. The pumpkins in the above (3rd) photo are actually round Christmas ornaments that I spray painted orange, with faces drawn on with black Sharpie markers. They are great to to use for table centerpieces or at place settings. The bottles of "poison" is simple black sand from a craft store poured inside, then drawn on with a white paint pen.

The "sinister ceramics" (above) turned out to be my favorite of all the projects. These are just those terrible ceramic tchotkes (or 'sit arounds' as we say it in the South) you always see at thrift stores. Seriously, if people have one of these, they must have had hundreds! They can be so uninteresting at face value, but spray painted black, with red crystals added for eyes (that was actually Emma's idea), and they turned out to be the perfect thing for our Halloween party table centerpiece. What's so great about this project is how these ceramics went from sweet, colorful little parrots and birds turned into ravens and hawks with a coat of spray paint (one cat with ivy around its neck looked more like it had barbed wire on after it was painted black, it was a great surprise!). Spray painting these things is almost instant gratification.

The entire party scene-

 

Decorated glassware-

 

Another favorite project, silhouettes with sinister little details added (I love the girl in the witches' hat). They are all downloadable as PDF's on the Value Village website. These were just printed out on white paper and inserted into frames purchase at V.Village that I'd spray painted black.

Please visit their website for complete instructions to all these and more. There are too many projects to mention in one post. There are even downloadable invitations and placecards for the table (and just look! at what I did to those old Barbies). (Thank you graphic design team of Story Trading for those!) If you do any of the projects, please let me know (and let me know if you run into any problems with the projects too).

I have to say, Halloween has never been a favorite holiday of mine (I actually dread it), but creating all these projects really got me into the spirit. It was a fun project to learn the ropes of photostyling on (plus we ate a ton of candy that day). Thank you so much to Jane and Scott at Armstrong for a chance to work on a project like this, its the most fun "work" has been in a long time. I love seeing companies like Value Village embracing and showing more of these types of DIY projects on their site. Please let them know if you'd like to see more! Your feedback is important for us to hear.

Here's a slideshow of it all.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

quilts for the new quilter

I am often asks what I would recommend as a first quilt project for someone who wants to jump into quilting but isn't sure where to start. There are so many good patterns out there, but patterns can often be unexpectedly complicated once you get into them, and there is nothing sadder than a sewer who feels they've suddenly gotten in over their head (can you tell i speak from experience here?).One *perfect* first quilt project that I always recommend is in Amy Karol's first book Bend the Rules. Now Ms. Chicken is my friend, its true, but I would still recommend this pattern even if I'd never met her. One of the reasons I enjoy making quilts is putting together color, pattern, and fabric, seeing how it all comes together. Amy's easy lap quilt (pictured above) is a perfect project for a first-time quilter. You get to play with the patterns, fabrics, and colors of your choice, she walks you through putting it together, the actual quilting is easy (just straight lines across the quilt), and you can try out your binding skills on a quilt of a manageable size. I've made this quilt 3 times, study quilts for each of my kids, and one for my mom. It comes together quickly (in "quilt time" that is), if I remember each of them were pieced in one day on my dining room table~ with interruptions. Add to that the amount of time needed to pick out your fabrics (the fun part!), make the quilt "sandwich", baste, then quilt (all explained in Amy's book), and you could have a quilt in a week or so. These types of projects can be as quick or as slow as you want them, but they do take a little time.

Another one I think is a great first quilt project is in what I consider my bible of quilting, Denyse Schmidt's book Quilts. The "Flock of Triangles" pattern (pictured above) is a great quilt for sewers who feel ready to tackle triangles (which aren't all that hard, so don't be afraid). Schmidt uses lots of solid fabrics in her quilts, but it would be fun to cut the triangles from a combination of prints and solids, play with placement and mix. And as with Amy's, this is straight line quilting. You don't need a "walking foot" as many quilt patterns call for (this foot has feed dogs that feed the top as well as the bottom of the fabric, and is usually purchased separately from your machine and is specifically for sewing layers like a quilt sandwich). Plus this book just gives good solid advice from someone whose life is all about beautiful quilts. Its the first quilt book I ever owned and it truly changed the way I sewed and convinced me I could make a quilt. Which we all can.

I realize these are both books, not just single patterns. I've always bought books instead of patterns, I'm a sucker for beautiful photography, a designer whose aesthetic I like illustrated in numerous projects, and honestly, its almost always more bang for the buck for me. Inevitably, one project leads to another and books are just more fun to flip through for me.

Hope this helps! Take some inspiration from others over on Flickr.

Look at it this way, you have plenty of time to make Christmas gifts if you start now.

lego city

 

 

 

Last day of summer vacation was spent building a Lego city from the ground up. They started in the morning, and did not stop until I made them get in the car to go meet their teachers and find their lockers. When we got home, they gulped down some dinner, then headed upstairs to keep building.

Making the most of their last day. I'm really going to miss them, but am ready to get back to routines and daily structure.

And more patchwork.