Getting (Back) to It!

It's been forever since I posted, but I sort of took a hiatus from anything that added stress. Hopefully, I'll be better at sharing now that things have settled down.

Anyway, I wanted to share what I've been working on and why...

A few weeks ago, a friend, and one of my daughter's Girl Scout leaders, called me and asked if I'd teach her how to sew a bag for her big, honking, yoga mat (it's really big). We scheduled a time, I gave her the list of materials, she went shopping, and we got together. I didn't make the bag in advance, so we made a few mistakes, but she's happy with it. We decided that stitching together was so much fun, we wanted to do it more.

We decided on our next pattern, thanks to Pinterest, and set another date. This time, we were making Travel Trash Bags. We included her cousin, because she's a beginning sewer too, and got busy. I sent them a list of materials, then got my own fabrics out of my large stash, and I made a prototype.

We had a great time, and this time, not as many mistakes were made (my biggest one was ripping right through my button hole with the seam ripper. Our little bags came out adorably and mine is being used in my van.

You can tell I need it!
Pattern is adapted from: http://www.raegunramblings.com/2015/04/car-trash-bag-holder-tutorial.html

This week, we got together once again. I sent them the list of materials last week, and we worked on iPad pillows (another project thanks to Pinterest). We worked for 3 hours together, laughing, and getting it done. We even made some changes to the original tutorial to make it more friendly for each of our devices (I have an iPad mini, in a case, MA has a Kindle, and I'm not sure what device J uses). Shortly after we got home, instead of watching a show before Quiettime, my youngest, Z, grabbed the pillow and went up to Quiettime...I'll take that!!

Adapted from: http://mysticmandy.blogspot.com/2013/04/ipad-pillow.htmlWhich was adapted from http://www.pixelstopatchwork.com/2013/04/tablet-pillow-stand-tutorial-girl.html

I'm planning on making these for my entire family, in corresponding fabrics. I hope they like them, I know my little guy does.

Until next time, and I hope it's not too long from now, Happy Stitching!!

Slacker

Yep, been too busy to post, so I'm definitely a slacker.  You'd think with all these new fangled handheld gadgets, I'd find time to post, but NOPE...

Anyway, really quickly, this is what I've been up to...

 Because every new baby deserves a boob hat...this one was for a friend and his wife and new baby from my High School.  I've made several others, and even crocheted one (which is a lost art for me).

 Our Easter/Spring wreath...which now has a prettier bow...from an idea I found on Pinterest.

 The new baby's winter hat, which I finished at the end of winter, you know how that goes.  Hopefully next year he'll still be able to wear it.  The pattern is the Keegan Hat by Irishgirlieknits.  I made the socks too, but they are too small since he has ginormous feet like his daddy.  I plan to give them to a good friend of mine who should be having her baby anyday...maybe their new baby and Z will even be date twins, a year apart.

 Re"upholstered" the nasty kitchen chairs....they look fresh now.

 The quilts...ahhh.  Finally got back to my sewing machine...  This one is for my third grader's teacher.  The kids can all sign in the white space and the teacher has a nice way to remember her kiddos.

 This quilt is for my daughter's Kindergarten teacher.  Thanks to the moms that went into the art classroom, we have some fabulous handprints. 

This is a mini-quilt.  I made it with the left over squares from Z's baby blanket which I made last spring.

 The lollipop centerpiece....I added my kids' handprints around the flower pot to personalize.  Another idea I grabbed from Pinterest.

Bok Choy boys...knitted up...they still need details.  My kids loved the little silicone toys last year.

I also made another handprint quilt for my 4 year old's preschool teachers.  And I'm currently working on some quilts for the in-laws and my parents...I'm a busy momma, but what else could I do but craft!

Gosh am I lazy...

I know, it's been forever since I've written about what I'm working on...Part of it was that I really wasn't working on anything, and part was that what I was working on was growing a child and being too tired to work on anything, but as I have at least a little bit of my energy back, I'm rocking out the NEW sewing machine now...

Yep, NEW, awesome, and incredible sewing machine.  Actually, it's technically a quilting machine that sews, I think.  DH just bought me the Pfaff Expression 2.0.  It has just enough stuff to keep me occupied for a few years.  I'm not one to care about too many stitches, so this machines is just right.  And, although eventually I'd like to get into embroidery, this machine doesn't do that.  And really, that's okay by me because having four kids will be enough to keep me plenty busy.  And of course, being a quilting machine, it has a nice, large opening that I can actually easily shove my current work in progress through.  AHHHHH.

So, now to talk about what I'm doing...hmmm, where to start, so much in action right now.  We'll start with quilting since I've been waxing poetic about my new machine (although I just got it yesterday, so much of what I've done so far was on the oldie)...

My oldest son's 8th birthday is coming quickly upon us.  He has wooden wall art of Thomas the Tank engine and friends from when he was little (Santa's handiwork) that he wants to pass on to his baby brother(s), so we need to fill that space.  He's currently into Legend of Zelda, so I made him a Zelda-inspired wall hanging. 

 Apparently I haven't taken a picture since I finished it, but it's free motion quilted pretty much everywhere, and bound in light blue.  And, for his bed, I'm working on a Link quilt. 

This is a twin size quilt.  It was the straw that broke the camel's back with my old machine, so I thank it heartily that I have an awesome new machine...now if only the icky stitches would jump right out of the fabric so I wouldn't have to spend hours taking the jumbled mess out of the back.  I'm just diagonally quilting this baby.  Then I need to add a border to make it large enough, which will probably be 2" strips of alternating blue and green, and the binding which will be red (like the backing).

 

I also made this baby quilt for a friend's baby.  I have to admit I cheated.  I bought a kit so I could get it done quickly and it really took no time at all.  I think baby boy R will love it once he's here.  Again, this was done on the old machine, and now I'm wishing I hadn't already sent it out so I could fix it's little imperfections.

 

This little stack of fabric is what I found for our new addition.  I have been an elephant nut for as long as I can remember.  My first stuffed animal that I remember was a pink elephant pillow friend.  So, once i can figure out what goodies to make for our little boy, I'll get rocking...I was thinking of doing an around the world style quilt, but not sure.  I bought 1/2 yard of everything except the backing (the bottom blue flannel with elephants fabric) and the next one up...and I think the remnant is more like 3/4 of a yard too.  I thought that would be a nice contrasting border.

And on to knitting...This little stack of pretty yarn is cotton.  Not my favorite to work with, so it's my car project.  Since I spend everyday trekking the kids too and from school, I have about 30-40 minutes of time to work on it.  It's destined to be a cardigan for my daughter.  She always wears dresses and short sleeves, so I thought that would help to keep her warm, and since she wears anything that makes her feel like a princess, these colors will go with (and clash with) all her crazy outfits!

I bought this yarn at our new LYS, Stormy Blue Pottery and Yarn Shop.  It's still getting set up and I can't wait to see what the owner has next time I'm there!

AWWW, and here's the new baby's first sweater (and mine for that matter).  He's due in June, so I'm making the 6 month size.  I like the way the yarn moves from blue to white to yellow and back again.  I finished this much in 3 days, so I'm hoping to be done very soon so I can stare at it and dream of my little boy wearing it next winter (hopefully he's a normal sized child and fits in it). 

So, whadya think?  Have I been busy enough since I can actually stand to keep my eyes open after dinner now?  I have other stuff, but you'll see that soon enough!!!

Zelda-inspired

My two oldest have been enjoying the Legend of Zelda games we have here. My oldest, who is 7, has his own DSi, and has finished both Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks. My daughter, who is 4, loves watching him play. We also have an old school Nintendo 64 that the kids can play on. And, my husband kept all his games, so they have Ocarina of Time, and Majora's Mask, so they play those too.

Anyhoo, you ask, "what's this got to do with crafting?" well, dear reader, the kids want to be Link and Princess Zelda for Halloween. So, being that it's 2010 and not 1985, I had to get busy making some things. For Link, R will get a large golf shirt to put over a turtleneck and we'll add a shield (no swords at school ya know). For Zelda, I searched the pattern books several times and found a pattern that looks sort of like Zelda's dress in Spirit Tracks. I decided to do the dress all in white, giving it an ethereal, ghost-like quality, since the game ends when Zelda is no longer a ghost. I picked Simplicity pattern 3902. So far, after several hours of sewing, I have the basic dress done. I just need to add sleeves and trim...and it's not even September.

My view...askew

Knitting socks keeps my mind happy, and I love to try new ways to knit them up. To date I've tried knitting with double-pointed needles, magic loop, two on two circulars top down, and two on two circulars toe up. When I saw the Skew pattern on knitty.com, I knew I had to make these too...

After one false start when I cast on and knit about 2 inches using my Knit Picks Imagination sock weight yarn in Wicked Witch colorway and didn't like the way the short color repeats looked, I went out and bought Joann Sensations Bamboo and Ewe yarn with it's much longer color repeats and got busy.

Now, to be fair, I love, love, love, Knit Picks' yarns. It just wasn't the right yarn for the job. And, I'm sure I'll be blogging about it soon as I've recently cast on a pair of socks (two on two circs., toe up), but for now...I will keep you in suspense.

Back to the Skew socks. They were pretty easy to whip up. I only get to knit (or do any other crafting) when my kids are occupied or sleeping, so figure I knit maybe two or three hours tops a day, and not even every day. I was able to finish these cool socks in about 5 days apiece.

Without further ado...here are some shots of my recent project:

Pretty cool, ay?!

2 hour tote

When, less than 2 hours after a fast-paced game of Boggle with my husband, I walked back into the family room with this tote, my husband was in awe...but really it's very simple, and as I've already made several of these, they just get quicker and quicker. Try for yourself though, the tutorial is great and is right here.

The only change I've made to it, is that I used cloth napkins for the outside fabric, so instead of just jumping in and sewing things together, I had to first cut and sew my napkins together. Before I did that though, I stuck the handles in so that they would be tightly sewn to the center of the bottom of the tote and then I was ready to continue on. An hour and 25 minutes later, all I have to complete is sewing the lining seam where I turned the bag right side out. And, viola, a beautiful birthday gift for a friend (shhhhhh, don't tell).

End of Year Projects

This year I decided to create wall-hangings for each of the kids' classrooms. L, goes to preschool and R, just finished 1st grade. Last year, I created two quilts for his teacher, a large crib sized quilt for her new baby (born on the final day of school), and a wall-hanging for her classroom. Both of those quilts had the students' handprints in a simple 6" square pattern. Here, you can see them:
Baby Quilt Teacher's Wall-hanging.

Anyway, this year, I tried my hand at applique. I made two of these wall-hangings, one for each classroom. Sure, I'll have to outdo myself if any of my children repeat older siblings' teachers-which in a school that only has 2 or 3 teachers per grade is fairly likely, but, I liked doing it...plus, who knows what craft I'll be obsessed with in a few years....
The pattern for this is "All the Children of This World" by Barbara Skjonberg. It's listed in the free patterns section.