Tag: Organization

Sew Funny
Sewing

Sew Funny

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The title of the post in inspired by the email I got from one of the fabric websites I use. It said in large bold letters “We’re worried your fabric stash might be running out!” After I got done laughing, which took a while, as you might imagine, I had to go organize fabric.
Don’t worry, I still have enough to last through the zombie apocalypse! I checked! Some of it is even sewn into the projects I bought it for!
Things to be T to B: tablecloth into skirt? Green linen shorts? Husband Christmas pjs, Star Trek potholders for FIL, 2 cozy flannel pjs for me!
For example, this grey and pink sweater.
I made it into a lounging at home sweater and it is currently keeping me nice and toasty. It’s not helping with the being sick chills though, so afger I write this up, it’s straight to bed for me. Preferably with two quilts. Speaking of quilts, I finished one from my stash. Fancy slept on the edges while I was making it.
I’ll post a bigger picture once it’s been delivered!
I quite enjoyed hand quilting it and have one destined for my friend who is an OT that might get hand quilted, or at least tied. It’s a smaller one, which hopefully won’t take me as long. The featured picture is fabric from my latest pair of leggings. It feels like it has more spandex to the mix than the other ones do. They are still so soft and comfy! I wore them today to work with a tunic and cardi. No pictures, as I’m cozy and a bit disheveled from work. This stack of fabric is all going to be pants of some sort. The black is ponte, a heavier fabric that will be made into more structured pants. The polar bears and the snowflake fabric will be more cute leggings. The bears appear bigger in the picture than they are in the picture. That one came in a bundle, so I have two yards of it. I can make a pair of leggings and probably some kind of shirt from it.
This flamingo shirt I made with the leftovers from the sweater. The back is also pink.
It’s my new favorite pattern, the Relaxed Raglan from Patterns for Pirates. I thought I didn’t like raglan style shirts when I got one from Lularoe, but as it turned out, I just didn’t like that one! The fabric was a bit rough and it was super, duper tight in all the wrong places. These raglans look and feel good on me. I’ve made four so far and have some more planned. Sometimes once I get a good pattern down, it’s hard to not make about 6 more of them. Sorry for the short update! I have a couple of things in progress, but think I need to get to bed semi-early. As my dad always says “Sleep knits up the raveled sleeve of care.” Have a great night!
Fabric Mail and Planning
Sewing

Fabric Mail and Planning

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Fabric mail is one of the best kinds of mail. It falls somewhere in between letters from my Mum and new books. 🙂 That’s saying a lot, considering how much I love both of those things.

I had a bunch of fabric come in lately and started organizing it into pictures based on what each piece would be. I thought about adding to my written list, but it now spans several pages in my notebook, which are all mixed in with reviews and book lists. It makes it a little hard to be organized. Sometimes my brain doesn’t want to be organized at all, so I’m working on creating a system that will actually work.

So far I have a lot of fabrics that I bought knowing exactly what it would be. There are some that are waiting for the right pattern or inspiration, but here are the ones I have so far.

These will be shirts. The owls, waves, and stars will probably be Perfect T’s from Pamela’s Patterns. The middle two will be Brunch Blouses from Patterns for Pirates. They are all woven, except the stars. For the top two wovens, I plan to have a knit back on the shirt, like my hot air balloon shirt.

These will be dresses. I’ve started on the pink and black on the top. It just needs a black lace hem and it will be all set. It’s an Agnes from Halla Patterns.

The blue floral will be a Kimono dress from Halla Patterns. It’s ITY, which stands for Interlock Twist Yarn. It’s very slippery, smooth, and cool to the touch. It has tiny darker blue stripes all over it. The black is all ruffles, which I didn’t realize when I ordered it. I kind of want to make either a ruffle dress or ruffle pants. The hearts want to be a dress pattern I haven’t found yet.

This next set is all skirts. The top two, the black and the mint, are going to go together just as they are. They will make a beautiful Maxi dress or skirt.

I really need to make a skirt soon from the ice creams. It’ll be fall before we know it and then it won’t be fashionable if I’m wearing summer things for fall. The bottom one is a table dressing from Ikea. It has the border on both sides that I think might possibly be a dress, if I can find a pattern I can work with.

This next set is all about sweaters. Nice, cozy, favorite part of fall, sweaters!

The top is french terry, the middle is an open weave lace, and the bottom is a single brushed poly. I got the stripes in a mystery box and am excited to see how to use it.

‘

In between organizing, I made some pillowcases for the Husband and I out of Star Trek fabric. I suddenly have a lot of friends who watch Star Trek and it makes me think I should actually sit down and watch it from the beginning. I haven’t seen or don’t remember a lot of the episodes. These fabrics were on sale at Joann’s and I had to text the Husband to see if he wanted them. His dad will be getting potholders to match the ginormous Spock oven mitt we gave him last Christmas. (Seriously, it was bigger than my head!)

I keep screwing up the first one and getting the second one right. I have terrible spatial reasoning skills sometimes and keep cutting them not wide enough.

Here’s the second one that actually turned out.

I also made one just for me!

Because who doesn’t want a bright flamingo pillowcase?  I don’t know if I want to know that person. 😉 My friend gave me this fabric for Christmas and I wanted to keep it whole.

I failed at making this fabric into a large pillowcase, so cut it down in size and made a mini knee pillow. I just have to get a form for it. It’s paired with the yellow from the flamingo pillow. It’s super bright and cheerful!

I didn’t ignore Fancy. She doesn’t get a lot of fabric things, as she likes to tear them apart, but she will be getting her own stocking this year out of these two fabrics.

Aren’t they adorable? The clerk asked me if anyone had said anything to me about buying Christmas fabric in August, but I just laughed and said there was no guarantee it would actually get made before Christmas. 🙂

It’s been a pretty good couple of days. I hosted Craft Night tonight and got to see my craft ladies and gentleman. Fancy was very good and got extra excited when she had her party harness on. She ran to the edge of the couch and sat staring out the window. 🙂

I’ll leave you with a picture of the chalk artist at the Toledo Zoo this past weekend. We didn’t see too many of his works, but this one was pretty neat.

Have a great night!

 

Yearly Review- Sewing and Crafting
Crafty · Life Posts · Monthly Review · Sewing

Yearly Review- Sewing and Crafting

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It has been a crazy year! I switched jobs twice, lost my serger pedal, but found it yesterday (!!), made a dress in 5 hours, found a favorite dress pattern, and used up an entire notebook.

I’ve watched multiple seasons of weird British shows (Death in Paradise, Doctor Blake, Great British Baking Show) and some Project Runway. Also, some action shows like The Flash, and Wynona Erp, much to the Husband’s dismay. 🙂

My space is getting organized, slowly but surely.

All my larger scraps are now housed in two containers. I have a shoebox style container full of tiny scraps as well, but they get lost if they are in with the bigger pieces.

Umm.. there’s a slight chance I need to stop saving scraps, or work exclusively in scraps for a bit…

I made about a million tea wallets, which does help with the scrap piles. They’ve also been selling a lot on Etsy all of a sudden. My tea wallets are in a brick and mortar store as well, Hawthorne and Vine, which makes me more confident when trying other avenues in the future.

My Etsy and vending events went decently well. I’ve been better about posting to Twinflower Fancies and am investigating other options for advertising.

One of my favorite clothing makes for the year was my Dita Dress, otherwise known as the “5 hour dress.” I did make some modifications to the pattern,  but got a ton of compliments on it from complete strangers. It’s very exciting to say “Thanks, I made it!”

We discovered that Fancy is not a fan of my dress form unless it is dressed. Silly dog.

I also made two other versions of my strawberry dress, after finally remembering which pattern it was. I like them all, but was so pleased at how the lace worked out on my rose dress. I think it’s my favorite. I wore it in my professional head shot for work too. 🙂

Quilt-wise, my absolute favorite quilt was this rainbow one for a friend’s baby.

I love this quilt. Maybe that’s what I can use my scraps for! I’ll make a version to keep. It does use tiny pieces if I make the 5 inch squares first. Plus, I’m fairly certain I have some extra black squares somewhere.  The Husband is shaking his head at me and suggesting that I should maybe finish the projects I have started for other people first… Silly Husband, deadlines are for other people… (He’s probably right though.)

I also took a huge leap and made the pictures for my office. I was nervous about putting my almost non-existent drawing skills out for display, but was inspired by someone who repeatedly makes me draw things to “help build my confidence in drawing skills.” In the end, I’m glad I ended up choosing the songs and images I did. I’ve had positive responses from people and take pride in embracing my space as my own.

I found a source for my quilts, since they don’t meet Project Linus requirements. My friend has an OT room for kids with emotional disturbances and they will be getting some of them. I have one completed and two tops waiting to be finished.

I used 7 craft books. I added a few more in the process, but have tried to pull patterns or books that I am not using to be donated. I actually was able to connect through the bellydance world with a high school sewing club and they will be getting these items. The box of fabric I had for them is getting bigger and bigger. I’m excited for it to go to kids who are just getting into sewing.

Overall, I completed 67 total projects. This did not include actual numbers of tea wallets. I lost track somewhere in one of the rushes. If you know any tea drinkers, send them my way. I’m sure I can find one for just about anyone.

And what did you learn? 

Things I’ve learned from this year is that I don’t really like working with paper very much, despite having a bunch of scrapbooking stuff.  There is not one paper project on this entire year of blogging. I’ve brought a bunch of it to my office and most of it will probably make its way there.

I need to have a firm hand with the supplies that I keep. I have random craft supplies, Christmas ornament supplies, and beading supplies that I rarely use. Is it really worth having it take up the space, when it could go to someone who would use it?

Organization is my least favorite part, well, along with ironing, of the whole process. Losing my serger pedal is the perfect example of the reasons why I need to get this under control.

Do you know where it was?

It was staring me in the eye from behind a box of elastic and hidden by my thread boxes. The thread boxes that I go to every time I need new thread… that sit next to my sewing area in the basement. That I swear I searched. I’m a bit annoyed with myself to say the least.  My dad is going to say “if it was a snake, it would have bit you” when he reads that.

I may make this picture my background screen on my Ipad if I’m having trouble getting to the organization bit later. Maybe it’ll shame me into actually doing it.

Speaking of actually doing things, here’s my yearly goals.

Yearly goals: 

* Continue blogging both successes and failures.

* Be more involved in the online sewing community for support and growth.

* Continue to develop my Etsy store.

* Learn to take better pictures.

* Learn to use (and not be scared of) the serger. It dishonors my friend’s memory to have it just sit there and not use it.

* Get halfway through my UFO boxes.

* Donate items I am not using/that don’t work for me.

* Be fearless with new projects and techniques.

Whew. That’s a lot of words. Here’s a new cute sleeping dog picture, if you’ve made it this far.

I hope you’ve enjoyed coming along on my journey with me! I know I’ve learned a lot, maybe I have inspired you too!

Here’s to another year of creativity and adventures!

Reminiscing and Thankfulness
Life Posts

Reminiscing and Thankfulness

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Social media can be a tricky thing to manage, but most of the time the good outweighs the bad, I think. According to my Facebook memories, 5 years ago I posted about possibly turning into a 50’s housewife. I had been very domestic  with cooking and such. Everyone pretty much agreed that as long as it wasn’t Stepford wife style, I was probably fine. 🙂

I still don’t wear pearls when vacuuming, mostly because the Husband does the vacuuming. If you start seeing weird things in Jello appearing on the blog though, maybe send help.

Now, five years later, I have a blog about housewifery, which includes both my successes and failures in all the areas. Life is weird sometimes.

I did a photoshoot with a friend of mine very early in the very cold morning on Saturday. She’s a bellydance friend, so it was fun to get all sparkly. Here’s a shot of the costume inspiration that I wore.

We were shooting in front of some graffiti off one of the big markets downtown (yes, Dad, in the big yellow spot, but in a safe area), so my friend wanted a lot of contrasting colors. I’m excited to see how they turn out.

We had visitors again this weekend. Katy and Moose stayed with us on their way back home. The dogs pretended not to be friends, but we know different. We had a doggy sandwich going on the couch for movies.

Moose turns into a pumpkin around 10 ish and would very much prefer the bed, but Katy wasn’t there, so he took the couch instead. Meanwhile, Fancy, who cannot stand to be left out of anything where Moose is concerned, was on the other side.

You’ll notice that she is closer to Katy than me… Poor Katy has two dogs attached to her hip whenever she visits. She helps us train her though, so it’s always fun.

We’re thinking that Fancy’s bedtime is around 11 or so. She starts sitting by the bedroom door looking sadly at us. Sometimes she sighs a lot too. She’s a weird dog sometimes, but she fits right in. Today it’s warmish outside, so she’s napping by the garage until it’s time for her walk.

I didn’t sew very much this weekend, even though I had intended on doing some work. Instead, the Husband helped me set up a decent photo studio to get all my Etsy items finally posted. It’s a bit of a mess at the moment, so no pics of that. Basically, we took a white piece of fabric and clipped it into skirt hangers and hung it on the wall. We rigged up work lights, and my tiny lights from my mini photo studio and I got some nice pictures of the new hip wraps and bags. I’m working on getting them on Twinflower Fancies as I’m able. Fridays and Sundays seem to be good days for me to get pics taken.

We also got a bookshelf for the cookbooks!

Yes, those are all of them, and yes, we may have filled the whole shelf…

We have all this room in the kitchen though that we are still trying to figure out what to do with.

Oh, I’m sure we’ll fill it, but we’re trying to figure out the items that would be most useful. What kinds of things do you guys like to store within easy access?

The Husband also got me a knife block from Henckels which looks lovely. I’ve already cut myself with the paring knife twice and we haven’t gotten all of them washed yet. Eventually I’ll remember that new knives are sharp!

Now it’s off to churn ice cream before work. Have a wonderful day!

Cozy Sewing
Crafty

Cozy Sewing

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We couldn’t take it! We had to turn on the heat. Fancy, as you can tell, was extremely happy. She’s currently snuggled on her fleece on the couch.

I love fall, but forget that about this time of year, I start to freeze. This continues until Spring. I wear two pairs of socks, sweaters, my Jayne hat, blankets as skirts, and wraps around the house. It’s not like we keep it that cold, I just can’t warm up when I get chilly. Fancy will only go out in her fleece when it starts to be 30 or under.

Being cold made me sew a pair of flamingo pj pants that have been in my U.F.O box for a while. I used a striped knit for a waistband and cuffs. I think they are adorable. It’s disguised flamingos in bowler hats, what could be cuter? They are very comfy and warm and I fixed the weird crotch pulling that happened with my last pair by actually following directions! Well, understanding them finally.

I also finished this cute elephant bag. I saw these two fabrics as remnants and they wanted to be together. Who am I to resist what fabric wants? 🙂

It has six outside pockets and three inside. It also has a recessed zipper. It is huge and I love it. Working on it soothed my soul after a couple of hard days at work. It also reminded me how to put in a recessed zipper, so I can add it to my bags for Etsy.

We also organized the pantry over the weekend and some of the closets.

We’re trying to decide how we want to finish the basement. The inner walls are covered in a veneer that isn’t even tacked on. You can’t see it much in the pictures, but the built-in shelves were not put in correctly, so it looks alarmingly like they are tipping forward. Those will come out and metal shelves will be put in instead.

We’ve learned to concentrate on just one area, rather than try to do it all. Being a homeowner can be a little overwhelming, especially when there is a lot to fix or change.

Fancy is teaching us the importance of play even when having work to get done. She’s a silly dog. She fits right in. 🙂

We tried to dress her up as a panda for tonight, but she tried to eat her costume. My sister-in-law sent us the costume and we were hoping it would be nice, but she was too focused on playing with it. Maybe we’ll stick to sweaters and capes for her.

Now I have to go walk her before we’re besieged with Trick or Treaters! Have a Happy Halloween!

Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update
Crafty

Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update

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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
Crafty

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. 🙂

 

 

 

 

More Crafty Organization
Crafty

More Crafty Organization

LSiehLeave a comment

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

LSiehLeave a comment

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.