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Sprocket Pillow

Sprocket Pillows have been popping up everywhere on the sewing blogs I read lately. I have a ton of scraps around that I've been wanting to use together but didn't know what to make with them. But after seeing the different versions of this pillow I couldn't resist:

The white with purple leaves, the middle border, and the backing are from remnants I found at WalMart last night.

The blue is from a fat quarter I got at JoAnns the first week I got my sewing machine.

The sparkly pink is actually a cotton jersey (which yes, was not all sunshine and rainbows to work with when mixed with such crisp, pressable cottons...but it was screaming to be included in this) and it's a remnant from a yard I couldn't resist buying awhile back and am in the middle of making a shirt from.

The dark purple rose print is leftover from the Pseudo-Amish-Quilt I made for a class project last semester.

I absolutely love the backing fabric. Occasionally WalMart has good prints, but unfortunately the one WalMart here I could count on for a small, if not very good, fabric selection is cutting it all back and there was only a 5/8 of a yard scrap left of this print.

You can find the free tutorial for this pillow at Cluck Cluck Sew.

Easter is Sunday and it's the first weekend day I've had off of work since Christmas/New Years weekends, and before then... since last summer before I started this job. Much needed. I'll actually get to go out Saturday night with friends and act like a young adult. An oddity in my world.

My mother mailed Alex and I some Easter goodies. And of course she couldn't forget her grandbabies. Hiroki annihilated most of his within an hour or two. He usually saves some of the end for the next day.

And even though it's too dark to take pictures outside right now... I can still share that my tomato plants have two decent sized tomatoes on them at the moment. One is probably the size of a golf ball, the other a bit bigger. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of tomatoes, I love watching my apartment-garden grow.

A project of a different kind...

These past few weeks I've been working on a project at work. The end result is that we opened an entirely new section of our store at the flea market, a t-shirt shop with custom and plain t-shirts of every color and size. And an e-bay store to go along with it.

Not the best photo, as it's a hurriedly snapped picture from my boss' iPhone, but the general idea of things. Instead of having the heat press and t-shirts stored in my vinyl shop (we make decals and custom license plates, yard signs and banners... etc) now it has its own home in a little closed off cubicle. And obnoxiously bright signage for all sides.

Yesterday we got in our last shipment of shirts to fill out the place, and tomorrow will be the first day that all signs are up, ebay shop has items in it, and shirts of all colors are lining the aisles. Better pictures to come.

So who needs a custom t-shirt?

Behold... the most even edges to have ever come out of my machine

My mother got me a gift subscription for American Quilting and Patchwork magazine. And as soon as I saw this quilt I wanted to make a miniature wall-hanging of my own.

And so I whipped out some scraps, made a promise to myself I would pay attention to every seam and cut edge... and wala.

The most lined up and even square centers that I have ever created. Ignore the fact that the light purple and burgundy are slightly shorter at the ends, because as you can see...

They get cut off anyway, and I only had 4" squares of this material to work with.

And then came my first ever curved seam that was intended to lay flat. And it worked out.

I promise, promise, promise I have been sewing these past few weeks. I've got two shirts completed, one shirt almost completed, and a dress that is partially constructed and in that awful stage of limbo where I have no motivation for it.

And then, of course, this little four-squared wall hanging I started on a whim last night.

As soon as crazy projects and papers for this semester are over (next week! and then there's only finals left to go), I will have pictures and updates.

Florida Spring

Spring is definitely here for Florida. We haven't seen a chilly day in over two weeks. Above is an amaryllis that decided to bloom early. And a Hiroki that is pretty excited outdoors lately.

Last night I took a trip to Joanns and decided it was time to venture into jersey knits. This is the outcome:

I like the length, color, and simplicity of this. I'm probably going to make another one, possibly in cotton.

The pattern isn't for jersey, so a zipper was in order for the back. But after cutting all the pieces and trying it on in its half-constructed state, I decided it didn't really need a zipper. That is why there's an unnecessary seam down the entire back middle of the dress.

I finished it today and wore it to a LAN center where the guys are all used to me wearing jeans and t-shirts. Entertaining reactions to say the least.

Spring break is next week (though I'm done with classes for this week, so I guess technically today was my first day of spring break). I intend to finish a cotton dress I started ages ago, sew a hook and eye on a skirt that's been waiting for one forever, get a head start on some papers for the second half of the semester, and maybe work on my quilt a bit.

And get a tan. My legs are ungodly white for being a Floridian.

Quilting

This is the start of my first big quilt. I'd say full-size, but I don't know what the quilting world considers "full-size" and I don't know exactly how big this is going to come out. I think it'll be in the neighborhood of 5.5' x 5.5'

The center will be 9 of the squares you see here (Summer in the Park style, a la Missouri Star Quilting Co, but not quite as matching as theirs). Then around the border will be rectangles that are half the height but just as wide as these squares, then a 6" border of the folded up light blue/green birds you see there, and a binding made from the leftovers of the jelly roll.

I've been using Fabric Central's Aerie jelly roll, a mix of bird-esque things. Instead of doing white strips in-between, I found a crackled looking tan fabric that seemed to work well with the jelly roll. All of the fabric is from JoAnn's, as my brother got me a gift card there for Christmas and I decided it was hi-time I make something large.

It will probably be quite some time before this is finished, as my sewing buddy and I don't have time for a regularly scheduled sewing night this semester as we did last fall.

slow and steady... takes forever

Yes, yes... it's been more than a month since I've posted. Suddenly school and work decided to both take up an extreme amount of time all at once. This is probably going to be my most time-consuming semester so far. Combine that with working three days a week now and that's not a whole lot of knitting or free time.

But! I have been working steadily on my Tibetan Clouds Shawl. The middle panel is done, and I've got two of the eight repeats of Chart E complete on one side. I didn't realize how wide this thing would be, but maybe that means I'll actually wear it. I'm not beading it, I really just wanted something large and lacy to work on.

We also have a new neighbor. A hungry neighbor.

I heard him/her (?) start talking to Sakura as she sat on the patio one day. No collar or anything, but really friendly. Definitely not scrawny as you can see from the picture, but hungry all the same. Sakura is not happy with this new cat and hisses at him/her through the windows and patio screen as the cat circles our place. Of course, I fed it and gave it water. Because I'm a sucker.

the start of 2011

I am officially headed to Russia for two weeks this summer. I applied for and got accepted into the program that's a combination of history tours, cultural sights, and a lot of justice system studying.

I didn't really make concrete resolutions this year. I guess in general I just want to try to eat healthier and exercise more. And so far so good, we bought a cart full of groceries of real meals with vegetables and fruits and such rather than just snack foods. Today Alex and I even went to our apartment's gym.

Classes start next week. I've got Monday/Wednesday classes and will be working Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That leaves Tuesday and Thursday for going to the gym, sewing, knitting, etc.

My boss told me yesterday that starting this coming weekend I get a raise. Hurrah! This year will also mark me starting to work on Fridays for a few hours instead of just Saturday/Sunday, so hopefully I can save away all money from Fridays for Russia spending money.

Two more for the family

I've been going purse-making crazy and designed two new purses that are in the shop. The first is the Gypsy's Rucksack, more of a carry-all bag than a purse:

The second is a half-circle bag with enough of a flat bottom to sit nicely on a table:

A new addition...

This one's up in the shop. It's a simpler style than the other, with a main compartment and a side zippered pocket rather than the divider in the center.

And it's got fun colors on the inside :)

So how bad is it really, you ask?

Do they have Bags Anonymous?

The only green zipper I had on hand is intended for my mom's spring purse (which I'll make after she lets me know if the dimensions on her fall/winter one are okay) and I just had to make this right now so black zipper it was. There is black in the pattern at closer review, and this purse is for me, so no harm done.

More sewing

My machine has been seriously paying its rent these past few days.

First up is a Christmas table runner my mother requested. She's going to attach tassles to the ends. On the flip side of this is just a plain tan/peach that will match the dining room the rest of the year.

Then I made a valance for our living room's sliding doors, but a picture for that will have to wait until I can get the damn things to hang straight. I'm working out the kinks that happen when you attempt to ghetto-rig things instead of properly buying a curtain rod that will fit the 6 1/2' door.

And finally, a bath mat I threw together with some of the snuggle fleece I bought on Black Friday. I sewed wrong sides to wrong sides and then cut the seams into little chunks so its kind of rag-looking. It's cute to fill such a big bathroom floor, adds some color, is nice and warm on the feet, and absorbent for stepping out of the bathtub. As it gets used more, it'll look more worn and the cut ends will look better.

Making my way toward being a bag lady...

The sunflower purse I made for my mother was a big too big for her, she tried to use it and couldn't find things. So I took that one back (hurrah! perfect size for my notebooks for school) and she bought fabric for two more purses.


This is the first, for fall/winter. It's 9" wide, about 8" tall. Same construction as the other one, except the magnetic snap is on the inside this time.


Two small pockets and a zippered middle compartment on the inside, two pockets -- one skinny for pens and such, one bigger for keys -- on the outside.

Started this yesterday after work and finished about 20 minutes ago. I'm ever so slightly addicted to the construction methods of purses.

Crafters take their Black Fridays very seriously...

This is the first time that I've actually ventured out early in the morning on Black Friday. In the past, my mother and I might go out in the afternoons once the crazy dies down... but today JoAnn's had some good deals going on from 6 am - noon so I decided to venture out.

It wasn't too bad. There were racks of snuggle fleece usually $5.99 a yard that were $1.29. Several women filled two shopping carts full of them, got a yard cut of each, and had stacks a few feet high at the cutting counter. Ridiculous, but hey... if you quilt, you quilt.

I got three different prints of the fleece, a cute bird one I intend to make a throw pillow cover out of, a giraffe spot one, and a palm frond one. Alex and I's guest bathroom is a bunch of giraffe stuff (I collected giraffes as a kid and some of them made their way into my new home) so I'll figure out what to make with a combo of the giraffe and palm frond fabrics.

My mother picked out some fabric for me to make her a Christmas tablerunner with, and then we picked up some odds and ends. I didn't go fabric crazy like most, and I didn't buy any yarn because overall I'm unimpressed with most of JoAnn's yarn. Some of it is good staple stuff to turn to for scarves and projects for friends, but I wouldn't make a sweater out of most of their yarn.




And Hiroki is enjoying his stay at Grandma's, hurdling up and down the stairs every five minutes.

Yes, I'm a part of the true Harry Potter generation...

The Harry Potter books came out when I was in 3rd grade, so I was one of the original kids waiting for my owl to come with my Hogwarts letter. Such disappointment.

Tonight I'm seeing the seventh movie at 12:20 a.m., and my friend requested a scarf. Unfortunately I only had two days to work on this, and while I knitted and knitted and knitted... it was driving me crazy and it's nowhere near as long as a proper scarf should be. But this is Florida and we don't take our scarves too seriously, so a 52" scarf is perfectly acceptable.

I prefer Ravenclaw... but Slytherin is definitely better than high school when a Hufflepuff scarf was requested and I walked around crocheting a scarf everyone presumed to be for a bumblebee. Of course... now those are pretty much my school colors (ahem... gold, not yellow).

And this is the progress I've made on my Tappan Zee Cardigan:

I'm on row 7 of the first diamond pattern. Now a whole lot to show, but I've had two presentations for school, the above scarf, and lots of reading for the last few pop quizzes of the semester to undergo this week.

About a week ago I got an e-mail from the Criminal Justice department at my school talking about a study abroad opportunity to Russia this coming summer. And I think I might pursue it. It's two weeks, a few days in Moscow and most of the time in Volgograd/Stalingrad. Unfortunately it carries a $3500 price tag. I'm advertising to my friends and others around me that I'll make scarves, beanies, and sewn purses in an attempt to make money for this trip.

Realistically I'm not sure if I can make that on the side, considering most of my money right now is going straight to rent and utilities. My father has offered to help, but that kind of offer has come in the past and usually ends up pretty fruitless so I can't rely on that. The first payment is due the end of January, so I don't have much time to make up my mind so I can save up.

Kind of unsure whether I want to go or not. I want to go, but I've never traveled anywhere without someone I know with me (this trip is about 20 students and some faculty, no one I have met yet). I'm not sure how hectic it would be.

My dog is fashionable and my homework is... well, not so done

Finished Hiroki's sweater in time for his Friday dog park date. Now he can be nice and toasty after his bath.


He's such a funny model. Like a deer in headlights. He is often mistaken for a deer, though.


Same pattern I used for his first coat, with a different decorative stitch going down the back this time. I used some wool that I recycled from an ugly gray sweater from the thrift store and dyed with Kool-Aid.

I've gotten back on the dyeing and recycling yarn train this past week. The above wool I already had measured and skeined out, but I've been wanting new yarn lately to make something nice and found a misshapen and sad cardigan at the thrift store that desperately wanted loving. It was a really thin yarn after being unwound, but there's enough of it to double up and make a Tappan Zee Cardigan by Amy King.

It was a strange mustard baby poop yellow, I wasn't sure it would dye because it was 70% acrylic, 30% wool. But it did work well with the Kool Aid, so now it's a more orange and orangey-red color and drying on my porch. I'm very tempted to start knitting with it damp, I'm so excited because I think I'll actually be able to wear this creation. But alas... I have homework that needs desperate attention after being ignored these past two weeks for work and crafty things.

And then...


This has been my on-going project for the past three or four weeks. For my Cultural Approaches to Tourist Arts final, we had to do a project -- anything we wanted to do -- that related to the course objectives. We talked a lot about authenticity and how cultures change their cultural items to be more tourist-friendly, so I made a pseudo-Amish quilt and am going to present on what makes an Amish quilt Amish.



It's not a full size quilt, it's only 3'x3'. But my first proper quilt where I did the three layers, hand-quilted the layers, and bound it. Yes, I hand-quilted those. First time I've done that, and I think I really like it. I did not so much enjoy the hand-binding. In fact, this would have been done over a week ago if it wasn't for procrastinating on the binding. I'm presenting it in class this Tuesday.


And since Sakura has been missing from the blog lately... here's a really early picture I found of her on my camera. Probably taken in the first two months after we brought her home.

Stay tuned for some sewing things... a friend and I have recently made Tuesday nights our sewing night and JoAnn's had Simplicity patterns 5 for $5 last week.

chilly weather... in Florida?

The past few days it has been chilly here. Lows in the high 40s, highs in the mid 60s. Which is kind of ridiculous for Florida in November. But very welcome.

I had to bring out Hiroki's sweater I made him last spring so he wouldn't get cold after his bath at the dog park. I made it out of acrylic because I was thinking of washability and practicality... but unfortunately he had to sleep in it several nights when we went camping and it is terribly stretched out. Still useable, but not quite as adorable as it once was.

So I'm in the process of making him a new one out of wool so it holds its shape better. I'm trying not to spend money lately, and I remembered I had a whole bin of yarn I recycled and dyed a few months ago.


This is the collar, I made it long this time to go around his ears. A greyhound turtleneck. And I'm doing a leaf lace pattern down the back of it so the rounded part that sticks out past the cast on edge will sit jauntily on his head. He's going to be the most stylish dog on the block. I'm really liking how the colors work up, a combination of reds, purples, browns, and a few spots where the natural grey the yarn originally was comes through.

And since I was winding yarn in little cakes, I pulled out my favorite color I dyed called Sea Glass and started making a beanie for myself.


I don't wear hats often, but they're so satisfying to make. And now that I'm working outsider, I'm going to need hats this winter. Mostly stockinette stitch, but every 8 rows I'm doing a purl row to mix things up a bit so there's ridges throughout.


In other news... I managed to find away to fit crafting into my Humanities seminar. For our final project we can do just about anything, and one of the ideas we talked about a lot this semester was authenticity and how cultural items change when they are mass-marketed to tourists. So I'm making a mini-quilt in a mix of Amish and modern ways. I'm using traditional Amish colors, but with soft patterns to make it a bit modern. I used electricity, of course, to piece the top... and then for the first time in my life ventured into hand-quilting the layers.

Sneak peak (full post to come later):



It's mostly done, I just have to finish hand-sewing the binding to the back of the quilt in time for my presentation on November 16. And I made two side panels that mimic the design so I can hang it on the long wall behind our long boring beige couch when the class is over. Those will have to wait to be quilted and bound probably until finals are over. I'm definitely feeling the stress of school and work combined this semester.

Now it's time to get political...

I'm so disappointed in Florida right now. If I didn't have free school, I'd get the hell out of here in a heart beat.

FO Parade

I haven't posted in three weeks, but I do have something to show for it. Three somethings, actually.



A tablerunner from a pattern I picked up at Lolly's Fabric in Shipshewana, IN, made with three quilter's sticks of oriental inspired fabric from there as well. My first properly batted and finished quilted piece.



A knitted cropped vest/cardigan thing.



Pattern: Vine Lace Vest by Cecily Glowik
Yarn: Wool that I recycled and dyed from a thrift store sweater. Probably about 600 yards.
Modifications: I made this shorter, like a cropped cardigan rather than a full length vest. And I tried to work the recommended finish off for the sleeves but liked the no-finish look better.



And a purse for my mother. She requested this awhile ago and we bought fabric for it in Yoder's Department Store (also in Shipshewana, IN... Amish country is fabric haven). I just haven't gotten around to it but today while I was sitting in class I felt like sewing so I started sketching out the design for it. This is totally my own work.


This bag differs from my first one in a few ways.

First, it's larger measuring 14" wide and 11" tall. It has two straps, and there is batting in-between the lining and outer layer to give it a more plush feel.

There are two big compartments inside separated by a zipped compartment. There are three small pockets on the inside my mother requested for things like cell phone, etc. On the front there's a small pocket for my mom's work keys.

This purse also has a magnetic closure.

This turned out a little bigger than what my mother traditionally carries. I really really like this bag. I half hope my mom thinks it's a tad too tall for an everyday purse. One, so I can keep this bag (it will fit notebooks for school plus purse things) and two so I can make another bag for her.

I like making bags. This could mean I have a future in being a bag lady.

A bit of our new place...

Still working on some of the decor, but here's the basics...

The dining room and kitchen:


The patio:



The living room (as you can see Sakura has already claimed "her" section of the couch):



Next up: pictures of the office/craft room.