Tag: fabric

Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update
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Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update

LSieh2 Comments

Apparently cleaning the basement makes Fancy sleepy. She napped for most of the weekend, when she wasn’t running frantically around in the basement pretending to be a shark guard dog. She must have been getting into the spirit of Shark Week, since I’ve been subjecting her to it all week.

She likes to think all boxes are hers and hers alone. And how dare we try to pick them up, or take them away from her! We did manage to distract her with some box flaps so that we could clean the rest.

I took one picture of part of the basement before it was organized. It’s terribly embarrassing, but I thought maybe I would be more likely to keep it clean, if I posted it. Try not to judge us too much…

We were able to recycle some of the boxes and the rest are in the garage waiting to be recycled. The city finally figured out the recycling program, so once we get our can, we can really get it under control. Moving takes a lot of boxes.

The Husband put together two more shelves for my crafty things, so that was very helpful. Now even if the inside of the totes are messy, they will be at least on shelves and off the floor. Here are two after pictures:

We still have to figure put storage for the Husband’s Legos and there’s more craft and general household items to figure out, but it’s nice to be able to fully work in the basement.

I cleaned up and put away ton of fabric. I need to get a different storage option for my fat quarters. They are outgrowing the shoe boxes and all the boxes are different sizes. I’m thinking the bigger shoebox type clear boxes will be the best.

I also went crazy with tea wallets! I kept finding good pieces for them while I was putting away fabric. I did them in color batches again. This time it was reds, browns, grey, and some pinks. I specifically needed rose and fall themed ones, so tried to get those done so I can mail them out.

Here are the groups. Fair warning, there are a ton of pictures. Most of them will go to Etsy, some will go to Hawthorne and Vine, the lovely flower store where they are currently being sold.

Grey batch. Yes, those are shiny unicorns…

Pink batch. This one had a lot of the roses in it. It also has one that looked like frosting, so I used sprinkle fabric s the inside.

Red, brown, yellow. With beer! And rockets!

More brown with fall leaves, tea, and revolvers.

Sometimes once I start sewing them, I can’t seem to stop. I suppose there are many worse things to be addicted to than sewing, but it does make getting anything else done a problem. I’ve put the rest away for now, but do need a few more rose themed ones for my flower store package.

I was experimenting with new Etsy pictures this week. My pictures on the website definitely need an update, so I was playing with backgrounds and props.

I sent the birch tree picture to my husband and he said  “Are you being weird in the front yard?” The answer, is of course, yes, because that’s where the tree is…

I figure the neighbors might be ready for our true selves to come out anyway. It’s been a year and there’s four flamingos in the front yard. So I need opinions on which picture looks the best. I don’t mind being weird in the birch tree and think it looks the best after editing, but want a second opinion. Which one highlights the bag the best? Birch Tree or Trellis? (My pics upload fuzzy on the blog. I haven’t been able to figure out why yet.)

I have a picture of our garden harvest too. It’s not being as prolific as we would have hoped, but we are getting a few things. The pepper had a bad spot on part of it, but was good on the other side.

So that was my week and weekend. Busy and very productive. Now that the basement is a bit more organized, I have more room to get things started down there and be able to work with the bigger projects. We have to get the Husband another Lego table too, so he can have more room to build more pieces. He’s filled the one he has with Lego city pieces.

We just have to keep working on the bits that need to be finished and we’ll be all set. It’s definitely encouraging to see our progress. I know we can keep it up too, if we just do a little bit at a time. Wish us luck!

Crafty · Gardening

Crafty Weekend

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It was too hot to work in the garden, but everything is still alive! I’ve been watering frequently and the zucchini grows every time I look away. We have buds on the strawberry plants and a few of the tomato plants. I’ve used some of the oregano and the rosemary in a pot roast recipe and it was delicious.

I did some work in the basement and cut some more scraps down into squares and strips. I cut them into squares and strips measuring 2 inches, 2 1/2 inches, and 3 1/2 inches. Then I store them in baggies separated by measurements. Those bags are in suitcases. The theory is that I can then pull them out of the bag and have scrap quilts go together quickly. Most of the time it works. The quilts I’ve been working on lately have all been scrappy quilts, so I haven’t had to use them. My bags of 2 and 2 1/2 inch strips are currently overflowing, so I should find a quilt that needs those measurements.

I also cut out some new tea wallet pieces and made four tea wallets over the weekend. They just need their buttons to be completely done.

I tend to work on tea wallets in batches. It’s easier to chain piece them like you would a quilt square. I sort them into colors too, so this batch needed black thread. Two of these wallets have plain black fabric for the inside and two have black music print fabric, which doesn’t photograph well at all. It has treble clefs printed in black on a slightly darker black background.

It felt good to get some more scraps cut. I need to make some more tea wallets again. I changed out my order at the floral store and now have many more for Christmas, but not a lot of generic ones. I also need to figure out some more masculine fabrics. I figured the circle ones could go to either gender and I have more plaid and gun fabric I can use. I have a lot of floral wallets and pastel colors at the moment.

More fat quarter pieces got folded and added to the trunk. It still looks I did absolutely nothing down there, despite working for a couple of hours. My latest Netflix/fabric sorting show is called The Dr. Blake Mysteries. It’s set in 1959 in Australia. My Netflix watching gets progressively weirder the more fabric I want to cut. It’s pretty good. A bit laid back, but has social justice themes and murder, so what’s not to like?

We had people over this Sunday. My friend needed help with a bellydance costume and her husband plays video games, so is friends with my Husband. There was supposed to be an Atari marathon, but our TV is too new and they ended up playing Lord of the Rings in the Wii. I am atrocious at those games, so I was glad that the Husband had someone to play with who was actually good.

We had a new recipe for pot roast and a huge salad for lunch. It was lots of fun. My friend took some of my give away fabric too, which made the Husband very happy and her husband not so much. 🙂

Fancy was extremely excited to see them. They give her lots of love, because of course, the Husband and I never pet her…

This was Fancy shortly after they left. She was tuckered out.

In other news, I am getting ready to use my yogurt maker. It just came in the mail today. I’ve made my own yogurt in the past, but the texture wasn’t quite right. I need a plain starter yogurt and will be getting that tomorrow. I’ll let you all know how it works out. I’m excited to be making it again. My yogurt habit was getting expensive and one of the Food Network magazines has a “50 Things To Make With Yogurt” booklet in it. I see tastiness in my future!

Organization Progress and Fabric Stash
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Organization Progress and Fabric Stash

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I did some late night organizing yesterday, but was too tired to post about it. I did remember to take pictures though!

I was able to clear two small blue totes that had a very odd mix of kitchen stuff in them. One of the things I found was this thing, which I was told was a device to make bread in the crockpot. A former coworker brought it to me and said “you like weird kitchen stuff, right?” I’ve never used it and haven’t been able to find out much information about it, so I think it will be donated. Unless, of course, someone can tell me how it works, or wants it.

I also found our King of Sweden mugs, which we bought at a very odd rummage sale last year, or maybe the year before. They say “By appointment of His Majesty, the King of Sweden.” We thought they were kind of funny.

The third tote was storing larger pieces of fabric that had been pulled from the fat quarter trunk. They are now refolded and have been added to the tote that holds my 1/2 yard to 1 yard pieces.

I also cleared and reorganized my pattern stash and found 2 patterns to give away. 

The raised, under the bust waistline on both of these patterns is not a good look for me and I haven’t made either one. The one on the left is one of the first patterns I ever bought and it’s been long enough that I don’t remember when that was. Now, my patterns are in one small blue tote. I do have a few pulled out, so I’m not sure if they will stay in this box or not. They were exploding out of the other box they were in.

There is also a small stack of (brace yourselves!) fabric that is headed for the giveaway pile. I’m seeing a sewing friend this weekend, so I am going to see if she wants any if it, but after that it goes away. I haven’t done a true fabric purge in at least two years, so it’s definitely time. I was pretty ruthless too. If I couldn’t think of a project to use it for, or someone that needed something made from it, it was gone.

This fabric has been in my stash for at least three years and is a nice turquoise linen, but I can’t figure out what to do with it and don’t have anything that matches. (Sorry for the terrible lighting. I was on a roll in the basement and didn’t want to stop to bring it upstairs.)

I’m not even sure if there’s enough to make anything useful out of it. That darn remnant basket got me again with this one. All those little pieces of fabric, sadly contemplating the end of their usefulness, desperately hoping someone would take them home… I must save them all! (This would be why I am not allowed to be unsupervised in Joann Fabrics, or any quilt store.)

Our next giveaway contender is sparkly cloud fabric. When am I going to use sparkly cloud fabric, you may ask? I have no idea either. I kept it for the sheer novelty of it, but obviously haven’t done anything with it. Take my word for it, it is very sparkly.

I also found a bunch of fun fabrics that I had maybe forgotten about. Some of them have specific projects linked to them and some were just too cute to pass up. I try to have a rule that I need to have a project in mind for any of the fabric I buy, but sometimes things slip by. These are all staying in my stash.

This one was bought with the intention to make a mixer cover. It matches my KitchenAid! I have a mixer cover tutorial hanging around somewhere, but of course, can’t find it. I’ll have to look up another one. How cute is this fabric though?

The next fabric was bought for a project when I was younger. I think I was making ballerina wall hangings. I know I have one waiting to be finished in the UFO box. If there is enough left after making it, I will use the rest with some pink fabric to make a child-sized tote bag for Etsy.

This one has been used for a few bags, but should probably be an apron for a friend of mine. Her kitchen is all blues and yellows and she loves tea. (I don’t think she reads the blog, but if so, just forget about this post.)

And here are the fabrics that I have no idea what to do with, I just liked them.

Sandra Boyton jersey. It’s really thin and pretty see through, but there are hippos. This and the eyelet were free from a fellow crafter, so I don’t feel as bad. I mean, there’s a hippo riding a unicycle! Really, that should be reason enough. I could maybe pair it with fleece or something and make a baby blanket.

This one was just adorable and a half a yard leapt into my basket of its own free will. That’s my story at least. The Husband doesn’t believe me.

This fabric was in a Christmas box from Mom, I think. It’s a little odd, but charming, and I’m not sure what to use it for. I have quite a bit of it. Any ideas?

Also, bears. I may have kept this one for either my brother, or the Husband, but now I can’t remember why. There isn’t much of this one. This one was a gift as well.

There’s more of course, but I’ve got to save something  for another post. My fabric stash has some seriously weird stuff in it. I’ll try to take some pictures of the weirder fabrics to share, as well as the cool ones too.

For now though, I’ll share the newly organized 1 yard totes.

Don’t worry, I’m sure this second tote won’t be empty for long. There is still fabric everywhere downstairs. I swear it breeds when I’m not looking.

Tonight I have plans to iron and cut scraps down into usable sizes. I only do this when I have a built-in distraction. It bores me to tears otherwise. I’m hosting my craft group finally, after not being able to attend for what seems like forever, due to work.

Depending on Fancy’s behavior, I may or may not get anything done. I’m not serving cheese, so I’m hoping she will stay off the table. I’ll freeze her treat dispenser with peanut butter and other lovely things in it and that should help too.

I’ve started a Pinterest account for the blog to keep track of recipes and projects. Feel free to follow along if you are a Pinterest person. It’s under Not So 50’s Housewife.

I hope your Tuesday is as interesting as my fabric stash, just without the random bears and strange looking clouds. 🙂

 

 

 

 

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Free Fabric (and Fancy’s reaction)!

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I know, I know! I should be saying “no new fabric,” but our friend Katy came to stay with us for a few days with her dog Moose, and brought a whole lot of free fabric from the costume shop. How could I say no to that?!

We did make an agreement though. The fabric I won’t use, I can donate or get rid of. I have the same arrangement with my Mom when she gives me fabric and I’ve been pretty good about it. Katy wasn’t sure what was in the bags, so it was lots of fun to go through them and see what could be discovered.

This may have been Fancy’s reaction to seeing all the new fabric. I think she thought I was going to take over her toy closet.

Here are a few more pictures of some of the fun fabrics.

This is a cotton fabric. I’m thinking about making a bellydance hip wrap, as it is long and a little too narrow for bags.

Red sparkly bow ties. I believe these are hand sewn. The stitches are very neat and orderly. They are also a cotton material.

Stretchy fabrics! The polka dot one is a very odd shaped remnant and is a pretty thick poly material. The yellow poly is in two slightly bigger pieces and is thinner. I’m kind of fascinated with it, but have no idea what to make. It should be enough to cover a dance bra though and would be quite sparkly on stage.

Olive Green jersey. There isn’t a lot of this and it is bottom weight, or heavier, so I am going to try to make a pair of sleep shorts or a casual skirt. It feels nice and smooth. I forgot to take the pin out, so that’s not a hole.

Stretch poly. This is very thick and makes my texture issues go wild, so I may not keep it. There is a bunch of it though and it’s very shiny. I’ll see how I feel about it in a month or so.

There were a ton of other fabrics too, some lace pieces, a bunch of blue satiny stuff, and some solid color broadcloth. There was also a full bag of little scrap pieces of all kinds of material, which might come to the office with me to be part of my art kit.

Speaking of the office, I have discovered that the totes I bought to store things in were not quite all that I needed. I’m constantly switching what I put where depending on what I am using at the time. I had thought that I might need to make some containers and I was right. I need a pencil trays for colored pencils, a container or two for my loose games, and a big basket for my puppets that I just acquired.

I went looking for what might work the best and found a few tutorials. I think I’m going to go with the fabric trays, as being able to see what is in things would be good. I am going to use fabrics I’ve been saving, primarily in blues and browns to go with the color scheme, but a few flamingos might slip in there as well.

Here is the website I used, in case, you might find something useful as well. http://noodle-head.com/2011/10/fabric-tray-tutorial-2.html

If the trays work out, I may put some on Etsy. I want to diversify my bag options a little more. If not, all I will be out is some fabric. I’ve got all the materials already.

I have a vending event this week, which is a local one, so it should be good. We’re also picking up the cinder blocks for the garden, which should be exciting. . Then, this coming Sunday is the second to last day of my third job! I’m excited to focus on growing my caseload and more on Etsy and the blog.

Tomorrow I plan to make one of the trays with some octopus fabric and some fabric that looks like sand. I’m hoping it turns out as cute as I think it will. If I can get it done on time, maybe I will post a picture on Wednesday. For now though, I’ll go dream of new fabric ideas.

More Crafty Organization
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More Crafty Organization

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I made a skirt! I finally got around to using my gift certificate for a new fabric store that I received from my in-laws at Christmas and it was glorious.

I’m very inspired and the ladies there were so nice. The store is also trying to start a garment sewing guild and I am excited about the possibility of learning how to do things properly. I think it will force me to start reconsidering cutting corners and will be a good place to learn the things that I’m struggling with learning out of books.

I got clothes fabric there, as I’m trying to use mostly scraps for quilts, but I did find a cute fabric with inspirational quotes that will be a pillow for my new office.

This skirt is made from one of the fabrics I bought. Batiks are my weakness. I can’t seem to pass them up. You’ll see more of them, I’m sure.

The skirt has an elastic waistband and two in seam pockets. It had the same hexagons on both sides of the fabric, so I split it down the middle, added a casing for the elastic, gathered the skirt around the elastic and sewed it up. Since I used the selvege edges, I didn’t even have to hem it.

It is a full yard of fabric, so it’s very poofy and it seems to wrinkle quite a lot. I wore it twice, and didn’t want to iron any messy things in it, so that’s why it’s so wrinkly in the pictures. It’s also quite saucy in wind. I’ll probably always wear this with full leggings or shorts, as I don’t trust it to stay well-behaved. It’s much brighter in real lighting. It has yellow, pink, blue, and purple in it.

I have plans to make two more skirts, a tunic style shirt, and two dresses from the other fabrics.

The green one in the picture changes colors from green to blue in different lights. There was exactly 2 yards of it left, so I think it will have to be a simple sleeveless shift dress, but I think it will be a good summer dress. I may end up making it into a tunic, or adding a contrasting band on the bottom if I can’t fit the pattern on it.  I’m not normally glad that I’m short, but in this case, I’ll take it. One of the ladies at the quilt store was very jealous that I was buying the last of the bolt.

In other crafty news, while I was waiting for my new fabrics to wash, I finished my fat quarter trunk project. All the fat quarters are now neatly sorted and in their own boxes. I might need to find bigger boxes for some of them, if I find anymore of the colors, but they are all done and it looks nice.

It’s not the perfect solution, but it’s getting better. I won’t get any sewing done today, most likely, as I work until late. My birthday is tomorrow though and after my one appointment in the morning, I am free to sew away!

I have plans to make the middle lighter blue fabric into a sundress. It has an ombre effect from light blue to dark blue and if I can get it done in time, I can wear it to my birthday dinner! I’ll be sure to post pictures when it’s done.

It felt good to sew again and I’m spending some time re-ordering my priorities. I really need to finish the wedding quilts I owe people, so I think that I am going to make a push to get those done first, with a sprinkling of new projects in there as well.

Now I have to go get the dog back inside before I leave for work. We have a fenced in yard and lately she has been very interested in napping in the sunny driveway. She tends to give me a look when I suggest that she come in that’s very similar to this one:

Wish me luck!

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.

A Dress is Made and a Quilt is Delivered
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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.