This is a project I stitched up years ago, in 2004. I think I bought the cross stitch kit at the Walmart by Ocean City, MD to entertain me during a beach week with Bill’s parents. For whatever reason, I never got around to the finishing. I even had the fabric. But all things happen for a reason.

I was finally motivated to finish this project as a Christmas present for Gran. Gran is keeping Harrison (Bill’s cat) permanently. We miss him, but he’s good company for Gran and I think Harrison is happier being a single child. Plus, we do have visitation rights. Anyhoo, I finally had a reason to finish this project.

It’s the first cross stitch that I made into a pillow, and the first pillow that I did with piping. Lots of firsts. I think my piping skills have room for improvement, but I’m happy with how the project turned out. Very happy actually, and that’s saying a lot. Here’s another picture.

It was a fun project to work on, and I was happy to give it as a gift.

Tags: cross stitch, sewing

Over the summer, I found a dresser at a garage sale. It was in need of some serious TLC, but I saw potential. Fast forward three months or so, and I finally got around to working on it. I sanded it and primed it and painted it and then realized I hadn’t done a good job of sanding it. Or washing it before the priming. Back to the beginning; I resanded it. The top had some serious damage to it, lots of scratches and stuff etched into it. I thought the paint would fill in the scratches (lazy talk). This time around, I sanded the crap out of it. And then I really did a good job washing it. I re-primed and re-painted and this time I was very happy with the job. I used spray primer and paint to get a smooth finish, and I used glossy paint. My big splurge was the hardware which I got at restoration hardware. I looked at Home Depot, but wasn’t impressed. Anthropologie had/has some nice hardware, but RH had the look I was going for. I lined the drawers with wrapping paper from the Container Store. It can’t be seen, but if the drawers ever empty out some, it will be there. Bill installed the hardware for me, and my dresser was finally done. $25 for the dresser, around $25 for supplies (paint and sand paper, etc) and let’s say a bit more for the hardware. Not a bad investment for a pretty & very solid piece of furniture. Whatcha think?

I’m using the dresser in my craft studio for my sewing stuff. The top drawer is for my notions (zippers, ribbons, bias tape, purse handles, etc.). The second drawer (in the photo) holds he majority of my crafting fabric (as opposed to my garment fabric). The fourth drawer holds some of my more special garment fabric as well as some heavy weight fabrics. And the third drawer. Well, that’s the one drawer that is left. It will hold more crafting fabric, and I’m hoping there might be space for my buttons.

The folding of the fabric is quite tedious. Bill has been a treasure and helped me with some of the folding. And if there’s a good movie on, the folding goes quickly. I’m hoping that I can finish the third drawer today and be done with the project. That will be a big accomplishment!

I’ve been working on my craft room, trying to get stuff put away once and for all. I know I’ve said that before. I’m trying hard to get to the point where everything is away and tidy and I can concentrate on the projects. This is the closest I have been to that goal.

Tags: organizing, sewing

This is the first garment I’ve made in a long time. It’s a summer blouse pattern from Simplicity. This is my second time making the shirt and as a result, I made some adjustments to the pattern. The changes included making the sleeves less full and only gathering the front and back of the neckline; the original pattern called for gathering the whole neckline. The last think I changed is how the neckline was done; I really couldn’t understand the instructions and I had my own way of doing it. The fabric I used is *perfect* for this pattern – it’s from Amy Butler’s Midwest Modern line. It’s a subtle light pink on beige pattern so hard to see it in the photo (click for a larger view). I can usually find something I would do better, but I’m pretty darn pleased with the final result.

I’m diligently working on my circular shawl, except when it’s too hot to have a pile of silk and wool on my lap. It was 97 this weekend so I did pull out my sock for a bit. I felt like knitting but I couldn’t tolerate the shawl. Now that it’s cooled off, I’m focused on the shawl. I only have 5 repeats of the cable edge left and then I can bind off. I’m hoping to have it done in the next couple of days. Yay! This will be my first project where size matters so I’m really hoping I did the math and have my gauge right. I cannot tell you how bummed I will be if this doesn’t fit right.

I hope everyone has fun plans for the 4th!! Can you believe it’s July already???

Tags: finished projects, sewing

AKA a much larger project than I thought it would be. But I’m very happy with the final result. I started it on Sunday afternoon and thought I would be done by Monday. What planet was I on?

I finished the first two squares on Sunday after a lot of ripping out and redoing. I finished the second two squares on Monday and sewed it into one piece. I started the quilting on Tuesday and didn’t like how it was looking so I undid it. Then I restarted it and was much happier with the results. I did diagonal lines and my idea was that one side would go one way, the other side would go the other and they would meet in the middle forming a chevron. Sounds easy right?

The first half went well. Really well. Couldn’t have been happier with the result. The second half was a nightmare. A nightmare I tell you. Getting the lines to be even and symmetrical was a pain in the ass. I did about half of the second half and had to undo it. It was horrible. Then I tried again and got through another half of it and it still wasn’t working out and need to be undone. Again. For the second time. But at least this time it was a respectable drinking hour and my glass of wine made ripping it out not as horrible as it was the first time. So when I finally resumed the quilting (for the third time on this side) I drew the lines and went very slowly. Oh, and I ran out of the color thread I was using for the quilting so the second half is done in a different (yet very similar) color than the first half. Then the binding looks like a three year old did it because I couldn’t stitch straight to save my life. But it kinda works for the table runner and the crazy uneven squares. You can see more detailed photos here and here. (Sorry for the poor quality)

Despite the difficulties, I am very happy with the end result. My table has character and I’ve brought some color to that side of the room. I’ve learned that I have a lot to learn about quilting. I am also appreciating all its imperfections because they give it character. Personal growth; it’s a good thing.

Tags: projects, quilting, sewing

How can I resist those eyes? The eyes of an unspoiled, unloved, unplayed with puppy… Yeah, right!

I can’t believe that I have been in California for a month. So far, I am loving it. California smells so good. Seriously. It’s perfume, but not overpowering, just incredibly pleasant. And I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to actually be able to smell it. I have some bad allergies and can be pretty congested which makes the sniffer pretty useless. But my allergies are in check, and I am enjoying the scent of California. I asked Bill what Maryland smelled like and he said it was more piney and mossy. I’ve never really noticed how a place smells (except for New Jersey and parts of Delaware). I’ve talked to a couple of locals and they don’t notice it, but it is wonderful.

Moving one, we have made excellent progress on the unpacking department. As in, we are fully unpacked and almost everything is put away. Yay! We really pushed last weekend, starting in one end of the house and moved to the other end, not leaving a room until it was done. There are little projects here and there that need to be completed, but isn’t that always the case. It feels like home now and that’s a very good feeling.

A big project that we have left is the garage. Yikes. I started to work in there and get it organized but it scares me. Part of the problem is that we have put all the garage sale stuff in there and that’s a lot of stuff. I’m thinking about doing the garage sale next weekend so that we can just be done with it. I’ll see how I feel on Monday. I think a couple of hours everyday would have me ready by Saturday AM.

This is the first week that I’ve really been able to get into an ideal routine. Get up in the AM and go for a walk, take the dog to the park, get cleaned and dressed, and then work on sewing or knitting, or whatever I feel like. Little break for lunch, some more “work” and then wait for Bill to come home for dinner. It has been very pleasant.

I’ve also been spending a fair amount of time watching the Stanley Cup playoffs. Go Blackhawks!!! And my schedule also revolves around the Cubs games. Cubs day games start at 11am here which I am still getting used to. I like to have the games on while I “work” and the early start time does work well with my schedule.

My sewing has been pillow-centric of late. It has been a long time since I’ve sat at my sewing machine. I think it got packed away in mid-March. In that time, I’ve forgotten how to do zippers. I’m experimenting with zippered pillows because you can get a tighter fit, and I made my first zippered cover in March and that was it. So it took me a little bit of time to figure it out again. Zippers perplex me. My first zippered cover of today took an hour and a half. My second took me about 45 minutes. Hopefully the next once takes even less time.

The zippered covers are for my kitchen. I’ve also been working on pillows for the guest room. I have big 26×26 inch pillows which were naked, but now they have covers. And I embellished some pillow cases. Which will send me off on a tangent. Martha Stewart has some interesting bedroom decorating ideas on her website. One of them was to embroider a pillowcase with the initials of your guest. Lovely, but WHO has time to do that. Seriously. WHO? It’s bugging me because I can’t find it on her website but I know I read it. The rest of the ideas were good, but that one just didn’t seem reasonable to me.

Moving on, I can’t finish the pillows for the guest room because I ran out of fabric. Thank goodness for Sew Mama Sew. My fabric will be here early next week and then I can finish up that room.

I’ve also started making some reusable shopping bags for my etsy store. I hope to have those ready early next week!

Busy busy busy!

Tags: life, sewing

I surely hope so. The last couple of weeks have found me a little zapped; further proof that I am so ready to be done with this dual household situation. Alas, it is not in my control, but it doesn’t stop me from hoping that it will end soon and that I’ll feel myself again. I have tried getting up in the mornings to go to the gym, hoping that some activity will get the blood and energy flowing again. I have even, uncharacteristically too, sat in front of the television and not had a project in my hands (gasp!). So I’m balancing doing the things I need to do (like eating some fruits and veggies and getting some exercise) and listening to my body which appears to be telling me it would like some down time.

The good news is that I was motivated to work on my kitchen curtain this weekend. I had all the materials and a game plan, thanks to the book Sunset Curtains, Draperis & Shades. I went with the London Shade (thought I made it as a valance). I am very pleased with the end result. I had a little trouble with the pleats, and fought with them and the iron for a good amount of time, but it was worth the effort. They are fully lined and I just love the beaded trim accent. You can see the full curtain here though it doesn’t do it justice as it’s laying down versus hanging. I also hand-stitched the gather in place so I could control how it looked and I don’t think you’d be able to notice except that I told you. And it is in need of a good ironing, but since it’s just going to be packed up in a box, I figured I’d iron it once I get it unpacked.

I am just loving the fabric though which will fit well in my 1960’s – 70’s kitchen. I have some new cushions to make with more fabric in this line (Anna Maria Horner’s Drawing Room), so that’s my next project. And after that, I will work on my living room curtains.

I know that I will be in California eventually and I will be quite pleased that I’ve gotten through as many of these projects as I could. But for the rest of tonight, I think I’m going to read a little and get up early tomorrow.

Tags: decorating, life, sewing

I have recovered from my Fabric Adventures this weekend. As you may recall, this summer my mom and I discovered the fashion district in New York City, and all the amazing fabric and trim shops that can be found within a 4 block square. It is amazing and can be quite overwhelming! Well, my dear friend Claudia loves to sew (and is quite amazing at it) and I thought that she would be in heaven. I also had some fabric “needs” so we scheduled a girls weekend. As it turned out, Mom’s hubby was on travel so it really was a girls weekend. Claudia and I drove up on Friday night. It took forever and my GPS had a mind of her own, but it went by pleasantly with all kinds of girl talk. Saturday we had a relaxing morning and then took the train into NYC for our shopping adventure. And what an adventure it was!!!

I was looking for some pretty eyelet to make myself a nice summer shirt, and then fabric for another shirt, 2 kinds of trim for curtains, and some zippers. The eyelet I found was awesome! It is really delicate and beautiful and I’m a little scared to sew with it, but I’m going to be brave. Of course my pattern is packed so it’s going to be awhile before I get to it. I also found some beautiful cotton fabric from Italy, which almost looks like silk (for another shirt). Then, the trims I found were perfect! One is a beaded trim for a curtain that is going in my kitchen, and the other is some fun/funky little pink balls to hang from the curtains in my living room. Plus, I found some other awesome beaded piping that I am going to use for a most elegant pillow.

This is my third fabric/trim shopping trip and I’m starting to get the hang of it. Because it can be so overwhelming, I know that I need a shopping list and a basic idea of what I’m looking for and what I’m going to make with it (and how much I need). That doesn’t prevent me from making impulse purchases (like some amazing silk chiffon that is going to become a skirt or some fun ric rac) but it does help me stay focused.

I think we only went into 4 stores in the course about 4 hours. But we took our time and enjoyed every minute. Of course we worked up an appetite so we got hot dogs from a street vendor in Times Square. It was just enough to tide us over for our delicious pizza dinner back at my mom’s house. We ate while watching Vicky Christina Barcelona which was good. Penelope Cruz was very good in the movie and I can see why she won the Oscar.

Sunday morning we had plans for breakfast before driving home, but it was snowing and we were worried about the big snow storm that was going to hit the East Coast. No sit down breakfast for us, but we made it home before the snow.

I love the picture of me and Claudia. We’re standing in front of Grand Central Station and it looks like everything (including the lights on the station) are moving, except for us. We’re in focus. I think it’s cool.

Tags: life, sewing

Yay! Another Christmas FO!

I don’t know about you, but I struggle with what to get some people for the holidays. And “those” people are people who are looking to reduce the amount of their “stuff” instead of adding to it. It’s not really an age thing either, because right now Bill and I are looking to lighten out load and we’re 50 years younger than Bill’s grandmother. Since I do know that Gran has spent the last two years (off and on) going through closets and getting rid of things, I classified her as one of “those” people. And I don’t mean for you to think that I’m being negative about “those” people because I’m all for simplying (see new year’s resolution #1).

On my last visit with Gran, we had been talking about cute yet moderately priced grocery tote bags. I had an idea to make one of out burlap but never got around to it. So for Christmas, I was inspired to put my idea into action for Gran’s Christmas gift. My mom recently told me how to do French seams, and I used the French seams on the grocery tote so that I wouldn’t have any raw edges, and I figured it would give the bag extra reinforcement. For the edging on the top, I made my own bias tape, and used that same bias tape for the handles which are one piece going around and under the bag, again for reinforcement. The bottom is where things got tricky. I couldn’t figure out how to do the french seams on the bottom, and I was really short on time so I didn’t have the luxury of being able to really play with it, leave it, mull it over, take out what I did before, etc. So for the bottom, I used some of my left over bias tape to cover those two raw seams. Even as I think about it now, I still can’t figure it out; definitely something that will require “play” time. My other design decision was to do short handles. My giant tote has long handles which I could use to put the bag over my shoulder, but I never really do that, and I haven’t really seen other shoppers do that. So I went with short handles.

The fabric, which you can’t tell unless you see a detailed view, is pink and red strawberries! I love it! Strawberries for a grocery tote; cute right? The bag itself is made out of burlap which I figured would be strong. The only downside about the burlap is that it sheds. I am wondering if it will stop shedding. It would be really nice if it did. Really nice.

If you’re curious about the dimensions, so am I. At one point I did write it down and have a sketch. No idea where that is. I was in a hurry to get the gift wrapped and while I stopped for pictures, I did not stop for final measurements. But it is a generous size, probably about 13 inches tall and 4 inches wide?

All in all I am about 90% pleased. As I told Gran, normally I would have made a prototype and kept that one and then would have made a second that would have been the gift and corrected all the mistakes of the prototype. But I was really really under a time crunch and so Gran got the prototype. I will also say that I am pleased with how it turned out even though I would change some things, and that if I had been even the tinest bit unhappy with it, she would have gotten an IOU.

Now to make one for myself.

Tags: finished projects, sewing

This past weekend, Bill and I went to my friend’s sister’s house at the beach. It was the perfect time to go as it had gotten hot, Hot, HOT. It was a full house with the sister (Mary) and her husband (Ron), my friend Suzie, Suzie and Mary’s nieces Katherine and Emily, Ron’s son, Louie, and then Bill and myself. Oh, and don’t let me forget Suzie and Mary’s dogs, Isabelle and Sam. (Names have been misspelled to protect the innocent.) The photograph is the gift basket I put together as a hostell gift. I had wanted to put it in a sand pail but when you want to find a decent sized one, you can’t. All I could find were small ones. So I had to settle for a basket. I embellished kitchen towels myself with fabric. Bill made homemade granola from this recipe, and we put in some fresh fruit to round it out. I thought it looked nice.

We arrived late on Friday and after a full day of work, Bill and I hit the hay. Saturday started with a hearty breakfast and one of the neighborhood cafes. We were well-fortified for a kayaking adventure. And adventure it was. Bill and I had brought our two-man kayak with us. We rented to kayaks and a small two-person sailboat. And out onto the water we went. Bill and I ended up going our separate way, not for any particular reason except I was interested on what the shore looked like on the other side of the bay. So we headed straight across the choppy water. Suzie and Katherine caught up with us at one point to let us know that they had run over Mary on a kayak, but she was okay. The retelling of the story involved a lot of laughing so it hadn’t been serious. Then they went their own way and Bill and I decided to head back to where we started. Heading back, we were going into the wind and the paddling was a lot harder. We ended up taking on some water as the swells crashed onto us, and then we turned a little and the water started to swish in the kayak and a wave hit us and out of the kayak went me and Bill. We both knew it was going to happen, I was laughing and Bill trying to plan his exit so as to not get hit by the kayak, paddles, water bottles, sea turtles, etc. We had our life jackets on so there was no panic. But we did bob up and down for a good ten minutes not really knowing how we were going to get back to shore. The kayak was completely full of water and the only way to unfill it was to take it to shore and dump it. Shore was a good distance away and the kayak was not very dragable at this point. Bill tried to use a water bottle to get the water out and it worked for about two seconds until a wave hit and filled the kayak again. Thankfully, a guy on a jet ski came to see if we needed help (Yes!) and radioed for another guy to bring a rope to tow the kayak in. (Yay!) We got the kayak attached, Bill got on the back of one jet ski, leaving me bobbing in the water with the paddles and water bottles. (Thanks) I used the rope to pull myself to the jetski, got everything loaded on, pulled myself up and off we went. Well, off Bill went. The guy who rescued him was the guy who went around to tell jetski renters their time was up and they had to return the jetski. The guy took off full throttle and Bill thought he was going to die. His hat flew in front of his face, he couldn’t see, had no idea where he was going or who was in the way. On the other jetski, I was going a whopping mile an hour, towing my sad, water logged kayak. I thought Bill was going to get off his jet ski and kiss the sand.

We did make it back to shore and dragged the kayak on to the sand, talking about how everyone else was going to laugh at us once we shared the experience. Except that there was Katherine to tell us Mary and Suzie were stranded because the mast of their sailboat snapped and they were waiting for help. That help too an hour because the boat that was sent out to rescue them was breaking down and had to turn back and they had to radio for another boat. In the meantime, Emily is aiding in the rescue, trying to direct the cute rescuers to Suzie and Mary who ended up having drifted a great distance.

However, Bill and I were not at the beach where the car is parked. Bill was very prepared to walk to the car, but I thought we could dump the water from the kayak and paddle back to the car. He politely disagreed feeling that one rescue per day was enough. I thought we would be fine, giving him at least two reasons why I believed so. First, it took an hour for the kayak to fill up last time and we would only be in the water for 20 minutes maximum, and second, we would stay close to shore which we should have done in the first place so that if we filled up again (unlikely) we could this time swim to shore. He was not as convinced as I was, but got back in the kayak and you will be relieved to know we made it back without incident. I think he was also reassured because we had told Katherine if she didn’t see us in an hour to call the Coast Guard.

Once back at the beach where the car was parked, Bill, Katherine and I sat around for an hour waiting for Suzie, Mary, and Emily and eventually we were all reunited, exhausted from near-death experiences. The rest of the weekend was much less life threatening. We relaxed on the beach for a few hours Sunday, then relaxed at the pool, then went out to dinner, and then drove home.

Sadly, there are no pictures of the near death experiences. But it happened. And, I have to say that while Bill and I were spilling our of our kayak and bobbing hopelessly in the water, not a harsh word was said. Yay us!

Tags: life, projects, sewing

My cat is unimpressed by this revelation. Holy cow, it’s the 19th of March. Where did the month go? I can’t believe Easter is this weekend. Once again, I haven’t pulled out my easter decorations. I even know where they are…

I feel like this month has flown by and that I have very little to show for it. I am suffering from my Dad’s disease of It Takes At Least Two Times To Get The Job Done. Take my sock for instance. I’ve turned the heel three times. I think the third time was the charm, partly because it looks right and partly because I refuse to do it again. I was working on the sock in great natural light and I saw beautiful colors in the yarn that I hadn’t seen before.

I also did some sewing for myself. Clothes, actually. I’ve never made clothes for myself (except for pajama bottoms but nobody really sees those (except for the people at Target and Michaels)). When my mom for the Great Gallbladder Removal of 07, I had bought a shirt pattern and I ordered fabric from the internet. And it sat. And sat. And finally I decided it was time for it to stop sitting. I cut the fabric one night and worked on the first shirt the weekend of the 8th. I was very happy with how it turned out, but it was big. This past weekend, I worked on a second shirt after making adjustments to the pattern. It turned out perfectly. Maybe not sewn perfectly but the fit was great and it didn’t look made by a complete amateur and to me that translates to perfect. Now what to do with the first shirt? Leave it as is? Toss it? I went with the third option of take it apart completely, recut the fabric and resew it. Yikes. That was a job. It looks 100% better but was it worth all the work? In theory I had made 3 shirts but only had two of them to show for it.

Well, Sunday wasn’t over yet (it was 8pm) so I decided to try a different shirt pattern with some of Amy Butler’s new fabric which I had cut on Friday night. About 2/3 of the way through the sewing I tried it on and it was HUGE. Take it apart, recut fabric, resew. Try on again, this time fitting better but looking like a muumuu. What to do? Go to sleep! I think that it needs some waist shaping and then it will look better. I also took out the collar and undid the gathering. I was rushing and it wasn’t up to my standards. Also, the pattern called for interfacing on the collar and it made it way too stiff. So I will try it without the interfacing. I am also considering another option with bias tape, but we’ll see. I am hoping to get the kinks worked out of this one because I have the perfect fabric to go with pants and shoes that I already own. I see the outfit in my head and it would be work appropriate for the summer. So fingers crossed that I can make this work. I just don’t want the shirt to make me look bigger than I am or with child as I am already big enough and not with child.

Anyhoo, it feels like I’ve done a lot but not accomplished much. Bummer. But I did figure out how to put smilely faces in my blog posts. Purely by accident. I think the Wordpress Gods are having pity on me.

Tags: knitting, sewing