Category: Crafty

Crafty

Crafty Storage Progress Update

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I wanted to wait to post until Tuesday so that I could report more progress, but now it’s already Wednesday, so this post won’t be wordless, but I’ll post some extra pretty pictures in a separate post later. I have discovered all the lovely spring flowers in my yard. Fancy has rediscovered the joy of rolling in wet grass. She’s helping me find all the flowers and chasing the huge squirrel out of the yard.

I did make something crafty this week for my new counseling office, but got so excited to take it there, that I forgot to take pictures. I will have to get pictures  of it on Thursday when I am there again. My office is shades of cream and brown with blue accents. I already have one candle holder that is brown and needed a blue one. This one is a blue Ball canning jar with brown and white twine and bronze tone scrapbooking charms hanging on it and it’s filled with blue glass beads. I need some more of the beads as I realized I can’t reach the votive without tipping the jar. I am using the fake battery candles, definitely not real candles, but it’s still sad. I have some brown fish tank gravel that may work for it as well, so I may try to use a mixture of the two.

So I started sorting out my fabric in my big cream colored trunk this week. It is something I can do in pieces, as the fat quarters in the trunk are in separate boxes. I can just pull one box out at a time. I haven’t really gone through it with a realistic eye for what I’m actually going to use in a while. It was buried in the storage unit at the last apartment and I let it get messy.

So far I have a little pile of fabric that is a yard or more, which needs a new home, and another pile to get rid of. I have donated to the church quilting ladies in the past, but may try to spread this around. I could probably donate a bunch of my scraps to a local community art center for their materials box as well, or see if my friend’s girl scout troop needs them. I could also add them to my therapy art supplies, which I may do, if I have a lot of clients who like art.

I sorted through my pinks, purples, reds, and blues, and am in the middle of my browns, yellows, and black fat quarters. The reds, pinks, and purples fit in one container for right now with some room to expand. I know I have some more of each if these colors in various places which will be added as I find them. I tried to fold everything the same width so that they would all fit neatly and did a pretty good job. The container is the top tray for a different container holding my interfacing. I have a second one as well that currently holds pot lids in the kitchen. This might be viable and neater storage solution than the random collection of boxes I have now, but I’m not sure If I’ve seen too many sturdy trays like this lately.

Here is the blue box, which will probably need to be switched out when I get all my blue pieces together again. You can see it’s already bowing out in the middle and blue is my favorite color.

I have more motivation now to actually get things cleaned up. I have a couple of projects for other people to finish and have found a place to donate most of my finished quilt projects. My friend, who is an occupational therapist in a hospital, has a sensory room with lots of things that quilts could be used for. I would rather have my quilts go to a place or person that I know can and will use them. Not to say that the national charities I was looking at couldn’t or wouldn’t use them, but I’ve been looking for ways to help locally, either geographically, or with those I know personally. My goal is to spread as much kindness as I can and use my stash as much as I can to counteract the negatives. Do you have any favorite charities or causes that might need fabric for projects, or completed quilts? If so, please let me know!

Well, that’s it for this post. I have a whole day of errands planned for tomorrow, but will make some time for more cleaning and organizing.

Hello? Organization Fairy?
Crafty

Hello? Organization Fairy?

LSieh2 Comments

I haven’t been doing much crafting lately, due in part to scheduling, but mostly because everything is such a mess and all over the place that it frustrates me to try and find anything. When we moved into the house, the basement was where all of my crafting things went, since it was where I was going to be sewing. I kept saying “oh, I’ll organize this later.” Then we got a dog, had dinner parties, vending events happened, Christmas gifts were made, and I now work three part-time jobs. (I told my Mom the other day “I thought it was supposed to be easy when you got your dream job.” She just laughed and laughed.)

Regardless of life events, I’ve let my craft area get out of hand. It’s more like a craft/fabric dumping ground. I also found more fabric in boxes that were packed from our last apartment, which really means they had been packed in a hurry and never unpacked from the previous living situation. Gosh..

I don’t even want to take pictures because it’s too embarrassing. I have three scrap boxes that are overflowing and I keep finding projects and thread in unexpected places. I had a hole punch, sharpies, and paper scraps in my dance bag from who knows how long.

Here’s what the table looks like when I’ve been on a sewing spree:

I’ve been looking at fun ideas to organize using fancy boxes and bins, cute revamped dressers, and even filing cabinets for fabric which all seem like they would like life so much easier and prettier. Here is a link to one of the sites I like to dream about using all these ideas. http://www.thescrapshoppeblog.com/2015/01/20-fabric-storage-ideas.html

I’ve come to the conclusion, however, that I might need my own sewing store set up, just to contain it all.

I currently use a mix of old suitcases, cardboard boxes,  randomly sized Rubbermaid totes, and some smaller baskets. Mason jars and tins hold my buttons and smaller things. I have some wheeled drawer carts and a two shelf thing with dividers in the shelves, making it into four thin shelves. I have a three shelf bookshelf and a 2 shelf metal shelf that is questionably sturdy.

Oh, and the huge old wooden trunk that tried to kill my husband by sliding into the driver’s seat of my old van while he was driving. He hates that trunk, but it works pretty well to hold my fat quarters and I borrowed it (with no intention of giving it back) from my parents so I can’t really give it up. Plus, I would have to replace it with another option to store fat quarters anyway.

I think that I need a more standardized set of storage containers and at least one more sturdy metal shelf. My crafting and sewing books take up almost all the small bookshelf and I still have some magazines to add to it, so I don’t really have that as an option. We have some nice IKEA shelves in the kitchen that I think would work well down in the basement too.

I’ve seen people who leave their fabric wrapped up on comic book boards in a bookshelf and think that it looks adorable. I don’t want to leave my fabric exposed though, since it is all stored in the basement. I am going to use the cardboard from our moving boxes to make my own comic book boards for fabric, but they will be in totes. All my totes right now are different colors and I may want clear ones so I can see what is in it. The other option to avoid having to spend money is to divide the totes by type of fabric or by how much, such as all cottons, all apparel fabrics, or by 2 yard, 3 yard, etc. That is sort of how they are now, but it is still a mess. Having the cardboard should help everything stay in the right shape and make things easier to store hopefully.

I’m not giving up my suitcases though. I love the way it looks to store things in them and it makes it look a little more personalized instead of all totes. I have a cool vintage 60’s one that has my already cut squares in it, and another one that has already cut strips in it. If you’re interested in seeing that scrap saving system, I used Bonnie Hunter’s guidelines from her site Quiltville. It works really well to get me going through scrap boxes, but lately I have not been good about using it. http://quiltville.com/index.html

I also want to do something different with the scrap boxes and color code them. Most of the time with scraps, I’m looking for a specific color and have to sort through ridiculous amounts of fabric to find them. I have two sets of clear plastic drawer carts with three drawers each that if I can move things around, I can use them. Some of the colors can be put together, like yellow and orange, so that might work. They also sit next to my sewing space, so it would be very convenient for scrap quilting.

So those are some of my ideas. If you have any other ones that work for you, let me know! Hopefully one day soonish my craft area will be lovely and well-organized space to work in. I’ll post some progress pictures along the way to keep myself motivated.

Crafty · Recipe Roundup

Cooking and Crafting Musings

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Whew! I am glad last week is over. It was crazy busy and I worked late each night.  We didn’t have many recipes to talk bout because we had canned soup one night, pizza for 2 nights, and I had the Husband bake his own chicken another night. The only two things I actually made were a Milk Chocolate Cherry Pie and more of a method for the chicken. I did make new recipe last night and attempted to make something on Sunday after I came home from my trip, but the Husband convinced me to have rotisserie chicken, salad, and bread instead. It was probably a much better idea, I was so sleepy and loopy from driving.

I’ll start with the recipes first and then talk about the crafts.

1- Milk Chocolate Cherry Pie from Icebox Pies: 100 Scrumptious Recipes for No-Bake No-Fail Pies by Lauren Chattman. Section: Chocolate Dream Pies

Modifications: None, I followed the recipe! We liked it, but it was very rich and we weren’t able to finish all of it ourselves. I think I would make it again for a party where there were more people to eat it.

2- Italian Marinated Chicken Drumsticks. Method by me: Throw chicken parts in a zip bag and add Italian Dressing, salt, pepper, oregano, basil, and garlic powder. Zip the bag and roll the chicken legs round in it. Bake at 375 for about an hour, depending on how frozen the chicken still is. Serve with a salad and bread. No pictures, I wasn’t home until after it was eaten.

3- Crossword Cipher Chicken from The Nancy Drew Cookbook by Carolyn Keene. Section: Picnic and Patio Get-Togethers

Modifications: I used butter instead of margarine. One, I didn’t have any, and Two, I don’t believe in margarine generally. I have one recipe that I use it in and that’s about it. We used garlic butter Ritz crackers for the breading and it was pretty good. The breading didn’t stick on very well in spots, until I started pushing the crumbs more firmly into the meat. We had garlic bread, raspberries, and roasted carrots with it. I don’t have a picture of the finished project, but did take a picture of the chicken before it was baked.

I was working on my vending items all week, but did squeeze in one more project from my list. I made some Kanzashi-Style Hair Clips from the book Button and Stitch by Kristen Rask. I made them into pins as I have misplaced my hair clips. I’ve made something similar before, but this time I decided to sew a back on and sew the whole thing instead of hot glue. I think it looks neater and It was a good project to do while out of power.  Eventually they will go into  my vending stash, once I have worked out the kinks. I like doing the little projects like this, as it’s lots of fun to pick out the perfect buttons for it. It also helps me use up my already cut squares. My 2 inch square bag is currently overflowing. I want to try them with my bigger squares too for a different look.

Vending is a funny thing for me. I always get anxious about it, even though I have a lot of product. I’ve been trying to branch put from my preferred colors and patterns into more things that might appeal to others. I vend at bellydance events, mostly local, as I bellydance myself. Since I also have my Etsy store, it can be a good way to get my Twinflower Fancies brand to be more well-known. It can be disappointing though, when my table gets passed over or I don’t seem to be in the right genre. This weekend inspired me to work more on my Etsy store and see if I can develop better style and pictures online. Hopefully my next events will be a little less discouraging. I definitely came home from this weekend not understanding what was wrong and struggling with the motivation to make more items to sell.

I might take a break from making Etsy or vending items for a few weeks and make a few things just for me. I am reading a bunch of sewing blogs that are inspiring me to work on my clothes goals, including working with my serger. Hopefully I’ll have more clothes pictures to show you next week.

Crafty

The Importance of Ironing

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I think I’ve said this before, but I hate ironing fabrics while sewing. I understand that it makes things flat and without it your project will turn into a wobbly, wavy, disaster, but I just can’t stand it. My mother in law’s first question when I ask her for help is “did you iron it?” My Mom says things like “I’m not mad, just disappointed,” and my craft group threatens to take away my sewing privileges and my good scissors, but it generally seems like a terrible chore. I have been known to set up marathons of really terrible action movies along with my ironing board and try to get as much done as I can before starting to twitch. (I won’t even start discussing washing fabrics first, which is my other least favorite task.)

There are times though, where even I admit that it would have worked out much better if I ironed first and sewed later. Don’t get me wrong, I will iron fabrics for clothes, since that is a much different prospect, but scrap quilts are a whole other story. It’s hard to take the time to stop and press things while just wanting to chain piece my little heart out. I’m never happier than covered in threads from a long day of sewing.

This latest scrap quilt that I started has been a lesson in what I should have done differently. It got a little frustrating actually and is currently in a bag until after my vending event is done.  The pattern is called “Razzle Dazzle” and it’s from a book called Bright and Beautiful Quilts. It’s a beautiful and fun crazy quilt and log cabin mix up. It perfectly suits my need to use up scraps and not having to be precise. I also thought I had the same fish fabric that the book sample uses, but looking more closely, I have a smaller version of a similar print that is probably not quite right for this.

First off, I fussy cut the center pieces too close to the fish themselves, so bits of the poor fishies keep getting cut off in the seams. Then I pulled my usual “I’m sure I can just press this at the end” trick, completely disregarding the specific notes about pressing while sewing to avoid stretching and distorting the block seams.

Here’s an example of one of the two unusable blocks before I admitted that I needed an iron for the seams.

And here is a picture of a nice flat block that I pressed between each seam. There is a huge difference.

This is where the Husband started saying “And what did you learn?” As he so often does when I admit I should iron things properly…

Now you were supposed to cut various shapes out around the center pieces with at least 5 sides, but some of my sides seem to disappear as I sew, leaving me with giant pieces of scrap fabrics that will just end up cut off and not used. I try to make new angles or follow the old ones, but it’s not entirely working. I’m supposed to make 24 Blocks for a full twin sized quilt, but I may see if I have coordinating fabric to make big sashing strips for a smaller quilt. The squares will eventually be cut down to 10 1/2 inches.

I think it will be pretty fun. It was a trip down memory lane to go through my scrap box. I tried to use the smaller box first. I currently have three boxes and need a better method of sorting them. It looks like a tornado went through when I go through them.

Thanks for reading my ironing rant. I was a little embarrassed to post it, but figured I should be honest about my successes and failures in crafting adventures. Otherwise how will I learn anything?

Now I have to go get my Husband off the floor. He passed out from shock when I admitted my need to iron things.

 

Crafty · Wordless Wednesdays

(Almost) Wordless Wednesdays

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Mondays are typically a craft post, but I haven’t finished many projects this week. I’ve had more work, so less time to be crafty. So this post will be a combo post. I did finish two bellydance hip skirts with tassels. I have vending events coming up and needed to have some more stock on hand. Both of these were from the UFO project bin, so that was lovely.

The day I started on one of these skirts was extremely frustrating as well. I discovered there was an obvious flaw in one of the backing pieces and then discovered that I had absolutely nothing else that would work with the fabric. And I had no ribbons for waist ties… None of the right colored thread… Not enough of the right colors for tassels… It’s a wonder I didn’t quit on the spot. There may have been some unladylike language. The dog was a little concerned.

Hopefully this weekend I can get some of my other projects done as well. Enough words. Here’s some pictures.

 

 

A Dress is Made and a Quilt is Delivered
Crafty

A Dress is Made and a Quilt is Delivered

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What to do when you need a fancy dress and have five hours? Make one, of course!

I made this dress to go to a Dita Von Teese show nd it was a ton of fun. Sadly, I was heading up the stairs to the seats and somehow stepped sideways on the side of it and ripped it straight across. It stopped at the side dart luckily, but it was still sad. I fixed it though and it looks as good as new.

The pattern is Mcall’s Evening Elegance, M5002. I don’t know if it is still in print. I got the pattern and the fabric from a friend from my craft group and it was fun to finally use it. It is red cotton with gold Chinese dragons all over it.  It’s a tunic dress, so has slits up to the hips and I will wear it over pants. For the show I wore leggings and boots, but I also have a pair of gold pants for dance that would also look good with it.

Also, the three stages of pitbull curiosity, just for fun:

“What are you doing?”

“Can I eat it?”

“Can I play with it?”

What I don’t have is a picture of Fancy running away because the other side of the dress fell on her ear. She’s also scared of lamp shades, moving holiday decorations, and bags filled with air. Oh, and Betsy the dress form when she is not dressed. Silly pittie.

I also washed my strawberry dress and it is nice and soft. I’m looking forward to wearing it. I think it’s adorable! I have no idea what pattern it is. It might be New Look 1080. The lines look similar. I need to potentially add a hook and eye, but I’ll see how it works first.

I also delivered a baby quilt this weekend and got to hold the little one. It made me excited to see him with the quilt and as it turned out, the circle backing and binding perfectly matches his bedroom curtains.

I have plans to make a shorter tunic with some other material from my friend with the same dress pattern. I’ll alter the keyhole neckline to make it a little more work friendly. After delivering the quilt, I started making another scrap quilt. I couldn’t resist. So far I am making pretty good progress on using my craft books. My project bin is getting some love too, so I’m pretty happy. Now I’m off to get the crockpot ready for dinner.

 

Crafty

Crafty Completions

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I didn’t do a lot of cooking this week. We had Chinese New Year left overs coming out our ears, and both of us had to work late. I ended up only making two new recipes. Tonight I am making a couple of new ones, so I’ll wait to add them together.

I got frustrated by my UFO box, well, boxes really, this week.  They are not organized and all over my basement. Making new things is fun, but I really wanted to add in the projects I had that were started to get them done too. I filled an entire page in my projects book with the things from just one box. A lot of the stuff I found just needed a few seams fixed, or a lining material. A lot of them I seem to have run out of the thread color I needed and hadn’t gone back to fix it. Grrr..  It’s easy to forget about projects when they get tucked into a box, or in my case, I get confused or frustrated with them. I forget that I can’t learn how to be a better seamstress if I don’t persevere and learn new techniques.

So this week I focused on finishing both old and new projects. I sewed the top of the rainbow snowball quilt together. It’s not perfect, but it turned out pretty.   It definitely showed me the value of  labeling quilt rows. somehow they got mixed up and I should have gone back to look at the pictures of it laid out instead of just continuing to sew it together. It’s not ironed yet and the dog tries to play with it on the floor, so I don’t have picture yet.

I also finished putting the bias tape on my strawberry dress. It has a black cotton background and is covered in tiny strawberries. I used red bias tape to finish the neck, armholes, and hem. It just needs a hook and eye or button loop at the top of the zipper. It is in the wash, but is adorable.

I also finished a present for some friends of ours. I’ll show a little preview picture, so as to not ruin the surprise

.

A little silver and pink hip belt for Etsy was also finished. All it needed was pink ties. It had probably been sitting there for over a year because I originally sewed it all without ties. It felt good to get it done. It’s really cute and I kind of want to keep it, but it’s similar to one I made myself and don’t wear often. I’m hoping someone else likes it more than I do and will wear it.

Now it’s back to finishing more projects. I’m working on this 6 pocket tote bag to go up on Etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/twinflowerfancies).  The accent fabric was part of my annual fabric box from my Mom. Thanks, Mom!

Crafty

A Weekend of Creativity

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This challenge has really inspired me to think about what happens when a project doesn’t go my way and isn’t easy. Generally this means that it gets shoved in  box and I stop working on it for a while. With this challenge though, I decided that I wasn’t allowed to work on more than two new things and I have to finish something before I can start another. The only things I can work on while working on new projects are ones that are already started.

I currently have two sets of slippers in my craft area waiting to be finished, but got confused on how to put them together and stopped working on them. They will be cute when finished and I will have new slippers, but I got frustrated. I can’t figure out the directions for how to put them together and I think that the pattern didn’t include seam allowances, but it doesn’t say that anywhere. As a result, the backs of the small pair are too short and they are very tight. I am debating whether or not to call it a wash, but I actually do need new slippers, so I need to figure out what is wrong.

In the things going well category, I have made a lot of progress on the rainbow snowball quilt. This one is an example of why you should read the directions. My rows are two shorter than they should be and I ended up making one more row just to use up the squares. It looks like I meant it though, so that’s alright.

All the rows are together, I just have to sew them into the quilt top. It looks very pretty. I haven’t decided if it will have borders like the one in the book. I don’t have enough cream fabric to make one and am trying not to buy more. I’m going to use a bright red floral flannel for the backing, so that it is as interesting as the front. I may just use a flannel on the back and not add batting, just make it a lighter quilt. Or I may add batting and see if I can learn to use the long arm quilter on it, if my in-laws will teach me. There are still lots of possibilities. I had put the quilt rows on the floor in the living room yesterday to check the alignment and my dog, Fancy, decided to help me with that by standing on the rows until I petted her. Quilting with pets is never as easy as it looks. Here’s pictures for proof of progress:

And here’s a picture of just the quilt:

Crafty

Hello again sewing machine!

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I haven’t had to cook much over the weekend. Friday and Saturday were busy with party prepping and partying respectively. We’ve been busy eating all the party leftovers since then. I did make cheesy polenta with sautéed veggies for dinner tonight and will post the recipe details on Thursday.

I’ve been sorting and cutting fabric for my first official craft project for the year. I’ve not sewn anything in a few weeks and it’s funny how much I miss it. The project is a Strip Pieced Snowball Quilt, from the book “Making Scrap Quilts To Use It Up!” by Lynne Edwards. I have another project from this book that I started long go that’s about half done which I want to finish as well. I desperately need to use up my scraps. I have three overflowing boxes at the moment. The project in the book is made of blue strips, but I wanted to use rainbow colors. It will have cornerstones of black fabrics and black sashing. So far I’ve made 14 blocks and need to find some more yellows, oranges, purples, and greens to make the plan work. Here are some of the untrimmed blocks:

I’ve included a picture of what the finished quilt should look like below. Obviously my color scheme will be different, but it should still look pretty neat. It will be about twin sized.

I’m not sure what I am going to do with all quilts that I make during this challenge. Some of them I will keep and some may find their way to other people. I looked up some places to donate them to as well, so I should have enough places for them. Not all of the quilt projects will stay as full quilts. I want to experiment with making some quilted bags or other items to go on my Etsy store, Twinflower Fancies. No matter where the projects end up, or how many quilts I make, the point of this is to just keep making new things, and to finish the projects I have already started. I think I’ve made a good start. Now back to sewing!