Disappearing 4-Patch

I have been working on my latest quilt project for a friend of mine.  Her daughter is turning a year old and so I wanted to make her a quilt like I did her sister.  In fact, her sister was the first baby quilt that I had ever done, second quilt ever as well.  Below is that quilt:

 All of my quilts have been unique patterns and this one was no exception.  I was trying to find a way to use a fat quarter bundle with 5 coordinating fabrics and stuff I had on hand.  I have so much fabric, I should try to use some of it before buying more.  It took a long time to come up with a pattern that was interesting and not just straight blocks and which also used all the fabric without requiring loads more.  This sounds easy, but it really wasn't.

Pinterest is really a great visual place to get inspiration for quilts.  I can search block types and see what people have done for colors and fabric choices.  Some are really creative.  I settled on a block called "Disappearing 4-Patch".  It required 12 - 5" blocks of each of the 5 fabrics and 60 - 5" blocks of my solid, gray in this case.  The tutorial I used can be found here on how to make this block pattern.

Lots and lots of cutting.  Thankfully a fat quarter will give you 12 of these and have just a tiny bit left over.  Scrap pile!

Now all these squares need to be friends.  Sew them together.  Can I just say I love the chain piecing technique?  Quilting would be much more tedious if it wasn't for this!

After some cutting and swapping pieces around, you get a finished block that looks something like this:

Then you take a bunch of those and make a pattern and add a couple of borders.  I wanted to bring out the purple in this (one of my favorite colors and this is for a little girl so it's only appropriate) so I found hues that went with the patterns in the fat quarters.  As an aside - purples can be very tricky to match!

A close up view of the work in progress.  I was impressed with myself on how well all my points matched on this quilt.  Being an anal engineer definitely has its perks.

Then we toss in some batting, put a back on it, stitch it together and throw some binding on and ba-da bing, ba-da boom, voila!

I am hoping the little munchkin likes it.  :)  The next one in the hopper is for my daughter, so there's more to come off the sewing presses.  Not sure who else I am going to make these for now that everyone is done having babies.  Ha!  

Rainbow Whirls

In my free time (ha!), what little there is, I enjoy sitting at the sewing machine and creating quilts.  Mostly I am doing baby quilts due to the rash of friends having little ones, but I someday envision a time where I actually make a bigger one for people to use when they are curled up on the sofa or one for our bed.  In the meantime I get a lot of practice on technique and picking fabrics.  My latest finished quilt took a lot time to get together.  Not because it was hard, but just because it was one that didn't have priority to be done for a baby shower. :)

Of course I have an inspiration board on Pinterest for quilts and one of those pins spurred the thought behind this quilt.  When I set out to do this, the person having the baby didn't know if was a boy or a girl.  I was looking for something to do in rainbows.

Thankfully, the Missouri Star Quilt Company put together this fabulous tutorial on making pinwheels.  I have such a hard time with triangles, so this video gave me the boost of confidence in finding a "cheat" to making pinwheels so I just went for it.  I think it is the best way to make them, especially if your whole quilt is pinwheels.  You can basically make whatever size you want and just roll.  As a side note, the lady that does these tutorials is great.  I have watched a good number of them and they are excellent.

I am pretty pleased with how this one turned out.  It's colorful and pops.  Not to mention it was fun to make.  I had a small learning curve to learn that it mattered how I assembled the pinwheels together.  My seam ripper and I bonded just like always.  I swear, one of these days I'll get through a project where I won't need it.

It was shown off to the whole family and everyone ooohed and aaahed over it.  I just hope the little man who ended up with it loves it just as much. :)

Pop Tab Purse

I love funky purses.  I am not one to get really hung up on getting some $400 bag for Christmas or the ever popular Coach bag which almost everyone seems to own these days.  I prefer ones that have some personality but are still functional and aren't on everyone's arm.  So when I saw some photos on Pinterest for purses that were made from tabs of cans, I thought, hey, that looks like something I would like!

The link I am using comes from my Craft board:
http://naomivandoren.com/pop-tab-purse-tutorial/
Most of the references are for Etsy shops which are selling them, but there are a few links that are actually tutorials.  Some suggest crocheting, and others have you putting them together with wire.  I opted for the wire option after I was in Jo-Anns and saw colored copper wire.  I thought, ok, that's pretty cool.  Sadly, I haven't gotten too far on this, but I think it's a good, "work on it when I have time" kind of project.  So this is what it looks like so far:

I picked out a blue and purple colored wire so I will alternate as I go.  It'll be interested to see how this will take shape.  Progress photos will be posted as I go.

Finished Pillow

So I did end up finishing the pillow and this is how it turned out:

A couple of lessons/notes:
I need a really really long needle if I want it to be a fairly firm pillow.
The bigger the needle, the bigger the hole it makes when you push it through, so you need bigger thread.  I used a heavy embroidery floss for this.
This really is a pretty easy pillow to make even if you are fairly new the sewing.  You just need the right tools and go slow while stitching around the circle.

Supply Run!

So I am taking a sort of break from hands on projects today.  I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics to seek out some supplies for future projects.  It's one of those things where I have 90% of what I need and am missing that 1 item that's preventing me from starting it.  I was armed with a sales flyer and a stack of 50% off coupons.  Seriously, if you aren't on their mailing list (email OR paper mail) you need to take advantage of it.  One - you get to make your own sales.  Two - you can use more than one coupon at the register.  Today I used 4 of my 50% off coupons (it's coupon commotion) and combined with sales, I saved 45% off my entire bill which was a hefty chunk.  Honestly, it's the only way these projects are affordable.

So I did pick up another bag of Poly-Fill to have until the next ice age probably.  I will need some amount to finish the pillow and then I have another project lined up which should hopefully even out the bag and I won't need any more.  *fingers crossed*  I might be in an infinite loop.

I also picked up piping material ($0.59/yd) which will allow me to work on some experiments I have in mind.  Eventually I am going to reupholster the chairs in the living room (haha, I have had these for 3 years telling myself this), so might as well learn how to make piping now on the smaller stuff.

I am most excited about my colored copper wire purchase today.  I will be making a can tab purse as one of these upcoming projects.  There were numerous ways people have done these in how the fasten them to each other.  A lot of people used nylon cord or crocheted them together, but there was one post that explained how to do it with wire.  At first I thought that was obnoxious, but I realized it allows for some vibrant colors to be worked in too.  I am probably going to contribute blood to that fiasco, but hopefully it'll look cool in the end. To start, I cleaned a load of tabs and am letting them dry.

I have no idea how many I need, but I figure, might as well start with a bunch and see how far I get.  

Sprocket Pillows!

Today's project comes from my Sewing! board:
http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2011/03/tutorial-sprocket-pillows.html
These remind me of pillows that used to be at the family camp.  They were full of scraps of random material.  Some shinny, some velvety, and some just plain funky.  I do not have such a diverse scrap fabric collection yet (key word), so I made do with pulling on a color group and working from there.

Anyone who has been in our house or knows anything about us will not be surprised at my pick of the color blue for this pillow.  To be fair, I needed 12 pie slices for the top and I didn't think I could pull together the eclectic look the author in the tutorial was able to do (need to learn that skill).  I also have more random blue fabric than any other color.

First step first, print the template from her tutorial page.  Mine printed right on the first try.

 I cut out the pie slices which wasn't too hard.  I made 2 each of 6 different fabrics.  Just folding the fabric over itself meant only 1 cut to get two pieces.  This I like. My assortment looked pretty good to me.

I will say I am glad she put the instructions to sew them in pairs and then sew the pairs together and then sew the halves together.  This helps keep all your pieces even and allows you to have a fairly good circle at the end.  Way to go!

So my pretty pinwheel of color looks like this:

When cutting out the bottom circle, it's important to make it match the top as close as possible.  I went a little bigger on mine and had trouble lining it up with the center ring in the last steps.  I ended up just fudging it at the end, but had I thought about it earlier, I would have taken the time to pin it down and make a closer copy.

I was able to reuse some of the crib skirt material I used in my son's room for the side of this project.  Getting the length of that just right was a little tricky, but not too bad. When you go to sew the top to the side band, pinning is really your friend.  I dislike pinning, so you know if I am telling you you need to, then you really probably need to.  I am guessing I used close to 30 pins to make sure it would sew correctly.  You are basically sewing a straight piece to a curve and that's not exactly an easy thing to just have happen.  You'll need to be as obsessive about pinning for the bottom as well.  If you did it right you get something like this:

And because I happen to have a random bag of Poly-Fill laying around (who doesn't right?), I went ahead and started to fill the pillow.  The bad news?  I only had enough to fill the pillow about half way.  The good news?  I finally found a use for that silly bag of Poly-Fill I have had forever.

I'll post finished products when I get to the store to buy more Poly-Fill.  I was thinking I was doing pretty darn good on not spending any money on these projects just yet.  There are a lot I can just do with the mini craft store I seem to have in my house, but there are also a number of them that need just 1 or 2 random things that I don't seem to have.  My shopping list is becoming a hodge podge of random supplies.  All in the name of a Pinterest Challenge. :)

Glittery Things

What makes every day items better?  Glitter of course!  My oldest is bringing home some smashing art work these days and the magnets we have on the fridge are only kind of so-so with holding them on there.  So these looked easy enough to do.  The hardest part was locating my glitter stash.  I swear it moves on me.

Another one from my Crafts board:
http://fromainsleywithlove.blogspot.com/2011/07/shake-glitter-off-your-clothes-now.html
This one is actually just an image and someone "hacked" instructions below it.  It's the clothes pins with glitter on top and magnets on the bottom.

I had some left over magnet reel from when I did my spiders on my door (still my favorite Halloween decoration).  I have glue and I did manage to locate my glitter.  Surprisingly, I only found 1 clothes pin though.  Eh, better to start with one than none.  Here's what the final product looked like:

Total time: 10 minutes plus drying.  Pretty snazzy upgrade for not a lot of effort.  And hey, glitter!

*Changes I would make - not to use the curled up magnets, they don't lay flat enough to stick well.  I have some flat circle magnets that work better.  :)

Pinterest Challenge

Ok so it's been a while.  A long while.  Ok, just over a year long while kind of.  I could fill in all the blanks on what happened in the last year, but honestly, I have better things to do with the limited free time I have.  Speaking of free time, I am on maternity leave, so it seems I have some more time available to me than I used to have.  Funny, first kid is a loss of personal time, and the second you get some back and don't know what to do with yourself.

Anywho, since it's the middle of summer and it's not always nice or easy to just get out and go for a walk or otherwise occupy my time anywhere other than home, I have come up with a game plan.  I have decided that I am going to set a challenge for myself.  I don't have anything better to do right?  So the challenge is this: Do something related to my Pinterest Pins 5 times a week.  This could be anything that has to do with the just over 1,000 pins I have on my board.  Preferably, it's some sort of "project" and not me just laughing at a hilarious eCard I pinned.  Although, on some days that might count.  This challenge is for the month of July (what's left of it).  I am hoping this yields at least roughly 20 project-ish things.

So to kick things off, here's what I did yesterday:
http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2014/06/01/chocolate-chip-scones/
That's right, make something from my Food Love board.  This is where I pin things I consider "treats" instead of Real Food (another board).  I have to say, baking things really isn't a huge time investment other than waiting for the oven to make your mush turn to magic deliciousness.  Also, I prefer recipes that don't care for completely off the wall ingredients.  So, this one fit the bill.

There may be one missing because I couldn't wait to taste it before taking a picture.  I regret nothing.  It was delicious and I would encourage you to try the recipe if you like to have "cookies" for breakfast because let's face it, scone is a nice way of saying breakfast cookie.

The second project is one that I adapted from this post from my Craft board:
http://www.ohreallybeckyforever.com/2011/08/15/im-not-crazy-youre-crazy/
Making envelopes from scrapbook paper!  We have decided after this past Mother's day that we are kind of done spending $45 on cards for people for one holiday.  Since when should it cost $5 to say Happy Mother's Day with a cute picture on the front?  My kids can do that!  Anywho, in her tutorial she was making the envelopes a different size.  I wanted to make mine so they would fit an 8.5" x 11" piece of paper/card stock folded in half.  For those that want to know, this is known as an A2 envelope size (4 3/8" x 5 3/4").  She also had a template to work from that fit the scrap book paper.  I did not. You would think I would have measured using the dimensions for the A2 size envelope, but that would have made sense right?  I just sort of eyeballed it with a piece of folded over paper.  I did however pick a scrapbook paper that was essentially a grid so I would have some guidelines.

Overall, it came out pretty good.  I also did not have double sided tape, so I raided the Elmer's glue stash and used that instead.  I would in the future make the tabs that fold in a bit wider so there's more surface area to glue to.  One of the questions that she was asked was how did you seal the envelope?  There are a few ways to do this; 1 - use double sided tape, 2 - use Elmer's glue, 3 - use a decorative sticker (you can splurge there since these are cheap to make - see breakout below).  I think I would go with double sided tape or a sticker.

Otherwise I think it turned out ok.  I just need to put something on the card stock and mail it to someone.  :)  Also, if you are tempted to do this at home yourself, the comments section recommended that you use a white sticker address label so the poor people at the post office don't have to decipher the mailing address a midst whatever pattern paper you decided to use.  And if you want a price comparison for store bought vs. homemade, here you go:
Store bought - cheapest I could find $1.99, but I'll admit, even those were sort of lame.  Typically $3.99 is more average for a card.
Homemade - 50 pack of card stock (regular price $9.99, I buy it only with 40% off coupons at a minimum - $6).  Price per sheet (assuming $6 for pack) - $0.12.  Price per sheet of scrapbook paper - Individually $0.49, rock bottom sales - 6 sheets for $1 ($0.16 each) for individual sheets.  Packs can come in 180 sheets for $20, can get them on sale for $10 - $0.06 a sheet. So card stock - $0.12 + $0.16 = $0.28

So that's $3.99 - $0.28 = $3.71 savings per card.  I know some people will say, "I don't have time to make a card."  I get that.  I don't have time to agonize over the 50+ card selection in the store (which can take me up to 30 minutes, plus driving to and from - I hate picking out cards) only to find cards I like which are $6 a piece which I won't spend.  SO!  To each their own, but for family at least, you are going to get homemade wonders.  Don't worry, we have markers, crayons, glue, glitter, and stamps to make them all one of a kind Picasso's.  :)

Spring Wreath

I am beginning to wonder if Pinterest isn't funded through places like Michael's, AC Moore, Hobby Lobby and Jo-Ann Fabrics.  I feel like anytime I see something cool on there, I am usually ending up at one of these place to do said cool project.  Today was no exception.  Granted, I did want to go to Michael's to get Colin a decent Easter basket, but I didn't NEED to buy the other items until I saw a pin on Spring Wreaths. 

We have a fall wreath, a seashell wreath, and then usually something Christmas-y for the door during December.  I lack other wreaths to fill the front door during the spring and late winter.  I was inspired by this pin (website) for my design.  I still think that one looks a little nicer, but hey, this is wreath number two I have ever made, so I think it came out ok. 

Inspired and ready to go, I headed off to Michael's to buy supplies.  My sad hot glue gun, wires, and pliers were in stock in my closet, but I needed a new wreath ($4), flowers ($5), and some bling ($6).  If I had held out (read - had the patience), this project would have been a bit cheaper, but for a $15 investment, I thought it was worth getting everything at once.  I did save 20% on everything at least (hooray coupon!).

I basically just watched TV and puttered until I got a look I thought was decent.  Then I got the hot glue gun going and starting making it permanent.  After the flowers were in, I placed the butterflies where I thought they would look the best and then added the beads in various spots for sparkle.

Overall I thought it turned out pretty cute.  If I had wanted to spend more on the flowers I am sure it would have changed the nature of the wreath, but not too shabby for $15 and an hour of my time for the end of the weekend.  And now we have something for our door for the spring.  I am sure the neighbors will appreciate a bit of brightness in this dreary wannabe spring weather (currently wintery mix falling from the sky - hooray).

Project Update

A couple of weekend ago I purchased the material needed to begin my creative project I post about a while back.  I found almost half of my fabric in the remnants bin which was a pleasant surprise.  I love 1/2 off fabric and I really only needed small amounts anyway.  It worked out well and in some cases I have left over fabric for future projects.

I got out my rough sketches and started to put things together.  I have to say that the up front thinking allowed me to go through to cut and putting together process much easier with much less troubles and re-dos. So I present my Valentine's Day inspired creation.

The top part, unfinished

Completed "front"

Completed "back"

I am quite pleased with how the whole thing turned out and am proud of myself for making my own pattern AND it was actually pretty good!  I hope to do placemats for other holidays as well, but as Rob would like to point out, I have to actually put the binding on the other 5 placemats from this set before I should move on.  :-)  Details, details. 

Dabbling in the Creative Arts

This past month, my sewing machine has seen more action than it has in a long time.  I think I got fairly creative with some of the gifts this year, plus I made what we wanted for decorations around the house.  I had a great time making everything and it made me realize two things.  One - I really need a craft room in our future house and two - I wonder if I could sell anything I make.

My friend sent my this link a while ago about creative craft room inspirations.  I nearly passed out looking at them.  How I would love to have space where I could spread all this stuff out. My favorite of these spaces is the first one on the page where everything is white and bright and roomy!  I think a lot of these craft rooms look more like craft closets and while best to make use of spaces otherwise not utilized, you still need room to work.

eclectic home office design by vancouver media and blogs The Locker

Granted, the first place we buy probably won't have big sunny windows for me to work under, but if I keep it in the back of my mind, it can't hurt.  :)  So without a fancy dedicated room, I take over the dining room table on a frequent basis.  It works, but is far from ideal.  Even so it's better than nothing.

The second part of this post is supposed to be about if I can sell anything in a place like Etsy or not.  I haven't looked into many details on how much it would cost to set up a site and if I am responsible for all the taxes I would owe on the millions of dollars in sales I will generate.  Details, details.  I have a couple of ideas for things to post for sale on there, but I have to work out how much time it will take and a tentative cost on materials.  Mostly I would be revolving around kitchen/dinning room items like napkin holders, table runners, place mats, and oven pads to start.  Granted I know how to make about half of those, but the idea is still being worked out.  If anything comes of it, I will be sure to let you know.