Catch up from February and March 2015

This year has been a busy one and a rough one. Personal issues, a really bad school year for my kindergartner, family life in general, and lots of extra curricular responsibilities have overwhelmed my ability to write and post anything significant. Perhaps the coming months will be different. I am going to make an effort to make them so.

As I have said in recent posts, Instagram, Facebook and a little bit of Twitter and Flickr have been where my sharing has happened.

So once again the next few posts will be summary posts of the last few months as far as my crafting goes.

Papercrafts:
I have thoroughly enjoyed having access to my rather large rubber stamp collection and have made a handful of cards for various occasions and people. Almost all of them are "cased" cards, meaning I copied a layout or color combo or both to create them.

I also made these for the ladies I visit teach for St. Patrick's Day



Sewing
This first one was a test bag for Schlosser Designs. You can find the pattern for purchase here: Chopsticks Tote (link no longer valid.)

I made this and then filled it with crochet hooks, yarn and instruction books for our Young Women's Camp fundraiser silent auction.

 

 I spent a day playing with my Hex n More ruler from Jaybird Quilts and this beautiful fabric I won a while back. I only got as far as cutting a few blocks worth.

 I also made some more Personal Progress book folders for the incoming 12-year-olds.

I worked on quilting the robot quilt, trying to get it finished up before the baby turned 2.  I quilted the pink and yellow using some of the decorative stitches on my Brother machine.

 

Blogger's Quilt Festival: Pinwheels on the Playground

I am entering this baby quilt in the Blogger's Quilt Festival hosted by Amy, at http://amyscreativeside.com.
You can find information about the Festival HERE.
I am entering in the Original Designs category. Voting opens next week and if you like my quilt I would love to get your vote!

About the quilt:

A WIP that lasted almost 2 years (first fabrics purchased 8/12/13) is finally complete. It took longer than that if you count the first top made for this baby when we though it was a boy.

 I designed this one myself. I knew I wanted to do pinwheels and it had to have robots because our husbands worked for a robotics company so that was kind of a running joke amongst the wives. It was called the robot quilt through most of it's creation. I re-named it Pinwheels on the Playground.

I found Funbots by Anne Kelle for Robert Kaufman to use for the focus fabric. The pink is Remix Polka Dots Pink also by Anne Kelle. The background is Kona White. The yellow is 2 different polka dot fabrics, one of which, the small dot, I no longer have the selvage for so I can't tell you what it is. The large dot is Fashion Plate by Barbara Jones for Henry Glass. I had to use 2 different yellows, because when I was doing the math, I miscalculated and when I went to get more, it was gone, so I had to substitute.






The backing fabric was very different from what I planned but I really love it. It is from the "Glamping" line by Mary Jane Butters for Moda. (side note: I love her Milk Cow Kitchen line!)



I used my home sewing machine to do the quilting. I did free motion in the white areas with a few hidden messages and used decorative stitches to do the yellow and pink areas and also to attach the binding to the front. I did a bias binding since this is going to be a very used quilt (I hope). (I used Gene Black's Bias Binding Tutorial for cutting the strips.) I always have trouble meeting the ends of my binding so I used  Pam's tutorial and got through it with only 1 seam rip. I have learned not to trim until I fold it back up to see if it is right. :)

I am super pleased with how it came out and both the mom and the little girl LOVED it!

 

Pinwheels on the Playground baby quilt

A WIP that lasted almost 2 years (first fabrics purchased 8/12/13) is finally complete. It took longer than that if you count the first top made for this baby. It is in the wash as I type and I will deliver it this afternoon.

I designed this one myself. I knew I wanted to do pinwheels and it had to have robots because our husbands worked for a robotics company so that was kind of a running joke amongst the wives. It was called the robot quilt through most of it's creation. I recently came up with Pinwheels on the Playground.
I found Funbots by Anne Kelle for Robert Kaufman to use for the focus fabric. The pink is Remix Polka Dots Pink also by Anne Kelle. The background is Kona White. The yellow is 2 different polka dot fabrics, one of which, the small dot, I no longer have the selvage for so I can't tell you what it is. The large dot is Fashion Plate by Barbara Jones for Henry Glass. I had to use 2 different yellows, because when I was doing the math, I miscalculated and when I went to get more, it was gone, so I had to substitute.

The backing fabric was very different from what I planned but I really love it. It is from the "Glamping" line by Mary Jane Butters for Moda. (side note: I love her Milk Cow Kitchen line!)

I used my newish Brother machine to do the quilting. I did free motion in the white areas with a few hidden messages and used decorative stitches to do the yellow and pink areas and also to attach the binding to the front. I did a bias binding since this is going to be a very used quilt (I hope). (I used Gene Black's Bias Binding Tutorial for cutting the strips.) I always have trouble meeting the ends of my binding and I used to use Pam's tutorial but the pictures aren't showing up. I was still able to use her directions though and got through it with only 1 seam rip. I have learned not to trim until I fold it back up to see if it is right. :)

I am super happy to have this done and even more happy to be able to deliver it.


 

Quilting

Sorry, this might be a downer post. It has been one of those days/weeks/months.

I mistyped quilting in the title at first and it was quitting. Which was fitting. (Which rhymes with quitting.) Because lately I have felt like quitting.

I am working on a commission bag. It is not going well. I want to quit. I can't quit since I committed to making it. I have been working on it since the beginning of March. Which seems to me like a long time to work on one bag. Especially when I have made smaller similar bags. It is the zipper pocket that is causing problems. I can't get it right. Also, snap placement has become an issue, as has finding a nice lining fabric. 

Then I have the baby quilt that I meant to give as a gift last year when the baby was born. The baby has now been one for a month. I finally got the backing fabric at at 25% off sale Saturday.

On top of that, our rent is being raised so we are house hunting and that is not going well at all. And our last rent check bounced thanks to the bank putting a hold on my husband's paycheck until tomorrow. And now we have to pay a late fee and  2 bounced check fees.
So yeah. I am ready to quit.

Instead of wallowing today, I pin basted the baby quilt and started quilting it. I tried out the stippling stitch on my birthday present, a Brother CS6000i we found at Target on Clearance.The stippling was way too dense. It looked cool, but took too much thread and time both, so, I will be ripping out stitches already. I moved on to FMQ and it is going well.
Then came the call about the bounced check. Now I am unwinding from talking to the very firm and stickler-for-the-rules leasing agent who would not budge on the late fee even though we have never been late on rent in 3 years except the time they lost our check. Sigh. And they want a cashiers check from our online bank. So we have to overnight it. Sigh some more.

And so I give you a pretty picture of the baby quilt being quilted to hopefully brighten a dreary post.

I'm going to go look for some chocolate.

Photo Friday

Cute little HSTs!

This was delivered to my house today by a talented and kind friend. I was surprised and delighted!

 

Another Diaper Clutch

A friend of mine is having her first baby so I made her a diaper clutch.
 I love these! If I had time I would make 2 for her. One for the diaper bag and one for the car for the "emergency stash". I added a wrist strap with the theory that it would be easier to carry while carrying the baby. Sometimes you don't want to haul the whole diaper bag, so I think this makes it easy to just grab the essentials and get 'er done!

The original tutorial can be found HERE.
You can view my other diaper clutches on Flickr in my Diaper Clutch set.

 

March Along: Week 3 Summary

http://scientificquilter.com/2014/03/23/34-7-march-a-long-2014-week-3-report-in/

 I am reporting in for my 3rd week of the Scientific Quilter's March Along (craft every day for 15 minutes). Not such a great week for crafting. It was just a really busy week and when I was not busy I was exhausted. The 2 things I completed have been on my to-do list for a while.  The first were 8-10 more fabric Personal Progress folders for the incoming Beehives at church (which I forgot to photograph before I delivered them today). I have been working on them since December I think. January at the latest. I had them about halfway done a while ago and kept putting off finishing them. I had to finish the majority of them before April because that was when they are going to be presented.

The towels I had purchased in February to applique as Valentine gifts for the ladies I Visit Teach. Well, that didn't happen, so I found some other fabric in my stash and did a Monogram instead. They turned out cute. I just wish I had thought to get one to make for myself! :)

Week 3 
Day 15 No craft time
Day 16 Read the Sewing with Oilcloth book
Day 17 No craft time
Day 18 No craft time
Day 19 Made appliqué Kitchen Towels

Day 20 Seriously No craft time
Day 21 Finished the PP Fabric folders (tutorial from ohbabyredding.com)

Mini Messenger bag: Take 2

A while back I made this little messenger bag for a friend using this tutorial at NoodleHead (minus the pin tucks). I liked the size of it, but wanted to make a few changes, like make the flap wider and longer.

 I had added pockets too, to the one I made for my friend but they went right to the seams and I thought they either need to be in the seam allowance all the way or farther away from it, so that was another thing to work out.

Another reason to make another was that my friend was asked by someone who liked her bag how much it would cost if I made another one for this friend. (I discovered while making the pattern again that it is a moot point, as the tutorial is for personal use only, so I can't even make one on commission.) In order to know for sure the cost, I wanted to start from scratch to get the cost of it from start to finish. Thread, needles, fabric, interfacing etc. Then time it to see how long it takes me from purchasing to last pressing.FYI, all said and done, it would be around $30 for materials (rounded up to the nearest dollar) and $40 for time (5 hours x CA minimum wage of $8p.h.)

 $70 for that little bitty bag seems a little crazy to me, but I passed along the info anyway. I also passed along the tutorial link, since it is a fairly simple bag to make. She may want to just make her own.

And having made it again, I still want the flap wider, I forgot to make it longer so that change still stands and the pockets seem to be ok, if a little small. I need to put it to use to see how they work.

I LOVE the fabrics (2 of which are from Bonnie &Camille's "Scrumptious" line), especially that stripe. I really want to go buy the rest of that bolt, but that is not an option.

I am going to enjoy this little bag, even with it's quirks.

Stitching away!

I have had some actual real sewing time over the last week or so and it has been so nice!
I have had a couple of burp cloths that I needed to finish up. My mother in law was kind enough to stitch up some embroidered terry and a cloth diaper for me using  Piece N Quilt's embroidery patterns and then I used the tutorial to make some cloths with them.

They are cute, but as a mom, I think they might be on the small side.  They end up about 9 1/2 inches square. I plan on asking the recipient in a few weeks how they work for her.

I also made a bag for my teen daughter's toiletries.

Our cupboard was getting a little out of hand and after looking at baskets and bins and bags at various stores, I came back home and remembered something I had pinned a while back. I went and checked out the pattern and it looked like it would be just right for the space and things that needed to be organized. It uses Jeni of In Color Order's drawstring bag tutorial and then an add on to add the pockets by Terri at Sew Fantastic.

I love that it stands up on it's own, thanks to a piece of cardboard between layers. It will make it so I can't wash it, and next time I will use some plastic, but it's good for now.

I have also been making progress on my pillow.

I got the applique stitched down and picked up a large hoop today to do the embroidery. I checked out 2 books from the library to help me learn more about applique and embroidery.

I tried almost all the stitches in the embroidery book, Doodle Stitching: Fresh & Fun Embroidery for Beginners.

I am still struggling with French Knots. I think I need a video, because following the written instructions either gets me a little tiny stitch or a kind of sort of French Knot. They don't quite look right. And I need those to make my little gnomey's eyes, so I really have to get them down.

I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I get kind of twitchy usually when I do small fiddly type things. But I did okay. I can't quite call it relaxing yet, but maybe someday.  This book was just about right for my skill set and most of the instructions were easy to understand. There was one diagram that they left the letters off, by accident I'm sure. The letters were identifying where your needle was going in and out from "A" to "B" to "C" and back to "A" and so forth, so missing letters made it kind of tricky to figure out. But overall I liked the book.

When I finish the pillow I want to try some of the applique techniques in the Stash Happy: 25 Fresh Projects for Fabric Lovers book. I also want to track down the other books in this series. They all look great.