New year, new project

After ogling the scrappy paintbox quilt featured on Oh, Fransson! for years, I've finally started to make one of my own. Actually I am making two (eek!) of them -- one for myself and one as a graduation gift for my niece.

I started them while at quilt camp last weekend, and so far they have been slow going. I'm trying to use as many scraps as humanly possible, so that is slowing me down a fair bit. With the help of my mom, we sorted through all my strip scraps and pulled out ones that go along with the solid colors that I have. None of them are cut to the right size though, so I am having to do that as I go along.

Here's the pile of 2.5-inch squares I am picking some of my centers from. Ahh, love the rainbows!



And my finished blocks so far. All I've done so far are pinks -- I need to get going! Still, I think it will be great when it's all finished.

Handmade Christmas, part 2

This post definitely isn't very timely, but seeing how it's posted within one month of Christmas itself, I'll call it a success in my book. :)

Anyway. I made this scarf for my niece, Stephani, as a Christmas/birthday gift. Last year (I think it was), I knitted scarves for my sisters, and my sister Cheryl (Steph's mom) uses hers all the time (yay!). Stephani asked that I make her a red scarf that was similar, so I was glad to. I love anyone that appreciates my handmade gifts!

I wasn't crazy about the yarn that I used -- Lion Brand Homespun -- because it was really splitty to work with, but the finished product turned out really pretty and soft, so that's the important thing. I made the scarf so long, it took almost two complete skeins of yarn! The pattern was just an easy K2, P2 rib, and it turned out plenty squishy but still laid flat.



This marked the end of my Christmas crafting this year. I really wanted to make more, but 2011 was not my best year as far as planning ahead and getting stuff done early. I was working on this project right up until Christmas eve! Next year will be better, I promise!

Finished!

I was super happy to get this Jungle Baby quilt finished for my friend Elizabeth, who is due to have a boy in a couple of weeks. I gave it to her this week at work and she said she loved it.

These pictures aren't great, but they were the best I could get at work.







I used this Moda Bake Shop pattern for this quilt with a few changes. The original pattern suggested cutting all the pieces from a layer cake, but I just used fabrics I already had in my stash (yay me!). Another change I made was the size of the inner square in each block. The pattern said to cut that piece 3.5 inches, but I cut mine 4 inches, which worked better for the jungle animal fabrics I decided to use. I had these fabrics for quite a while, and fussy cutting them for this quilt worked out so well! I am really happy with how this project turned out.

The quilt got nice and crinkly after I washed it -- perfect! The back is the same striped fabric I used for the binding.



In unrelated news, I am having a bad pain night. :( The pain (which tonight is like stabbing in my left heel - fun!) isn't the worst it's ever been, but it's bad enough that I have been up for like 2.5 hours and not able to fall back asleep. I've taken a couple of painkillers and some Advil and I'm still hurting. Ugh, so frustrating. I really miss the days when I could sleep easily through the night. And be awake and alert all day at work. Sigh.

Preview from quilt camp

I just returned from quilt camp today (and had a fabulous time) and don't feel like doing a complete rundown of all the projects I worked on, but here's a little preview of the main project I focused on over the weekend. I'm so thankful I was able to go!

Handmade Christmas, part 1

Once again I tried as much as I could to make homemade gifts for my friends and family this year for Christmas. I don't know if it was that I was lazy, disorganized, busy or waited too long to start, but I was working on stuff up until the early hours of Christmas morning. Ugh! I really, really have to do better next year.

Anyway, I made a couple cool projects this year.

This was my absolute favorite — a Harry Potter made from felt, stuffing, yarn, and embroidery thread for my niece. He turned out so great! Now I totally want to make some more characters.





I had a little trouble getting him sewn together, especially his head. I made up my own pattern and didn't really think about how I was going to attach his head to his body — making the little scarf helped cover up his weird chin seam. And it made him look jaunty.

I also made some knitted dishcloths. I was so rushed with a few of them that I didn't even take photos. Whoops. Here's two that I finished early.



One of my friends has a little girl who often makes little things for me. I try to make her handmade gifts, but I was stumped this year. Inspiration finally struck though, and I ended up with this — a little quilt and pillows for her stuffed animals. The quilt was re-purposed from a quilt-as-you-go project I have been working on for a long time.

Here's the quilt modeled by one of my bears.



And the set with the pillows.

Look familiar?

I have no clue how many times I've posted about this quilt, but heaven knows I've been working on it FOREVER. Like so long that I'm on my third sewing machine since I started this. I started it with my first machine that died way too young, then had an interim machine that a friend gave me when my first one went kaput. Now I'm on Buster, who so far has proved to be a very trustworthy companion. Knock on wood.





One of the reasons as to why it is taking me so long to finish (other than my obsession with hand quilting all these multicolor circles of different sizes on it) is that the strips aren't sewn together all that great. The tension on my first machine was off and a lot of the strips aren't very secure. So much so that I've been having to go back and hand sew a few of the seams together better so the white stitches are no longer visible.

You can kinda see it in this photo:



Anyway, it's been labor intensive to say the least. But I love it so much. I can't wait until it's finished and on my bed.

Hello again

There are a few reasons why I don't blog regularly. One involves me being super unproductive, another is that I'm in a serious funk.

Luckily, neither of those is the case recently. :D I've just been busy. And happy. And productive. At least I am most of the time.

This week I finished one of the projects that has been hanging over my head like a cloud, the butterfly baby quilt.

I am so, so glad I kept at it though. All the time I put into it was worth it because it turned out SO good! I really hope my friend Kathy, who paid me to make it for her second daughter, is happy with it. It went in the mail earlier this week.









On to the next unfinished project!

I'm not a morning person

But every once in a while I'm glad to be up early for work.

Slow and steady

I've been trying to work on the butterfly quilt, but it has been slow going. I seem to stall out on parts of the process I don't want to do, like cutting strips and whatnot. I really need to get in gear. Really.

Here's a look at the fabrics I'm using for the blocks (which are actually all done, I've stalled on the cutting of the sashing strips.)



Want to know part of the reason why it's so hard for me to get much done? This seems to be a common occurrence around here.



Sigh. Maybe someday I'll get my act together.

I need the distraction ...

While watching and posting updates of the Purdue and Rice football game today. (It's been a tough game to watch so far.)



This is a custom baby quilt order for my friend, Kathy. It's for her second little girl, Kaitlyn. I made this quilt for her first daughter, Grace, last year.



The current quilt will have a similar layout, but with butterflies instead of flowers. And with a different color scheme, this time using pink, green, white and brown. I've only got about 3.5 more blocks to finish the hand applique on, then can put them together to quilt. I hope it turns out cute!

Backblogged - Winners & Losers

Walmart. It's always an interesting trip. I found these in the women's section a couple weeks ago. Oh my.



Needless to say, I didn't find any cute clothes there to buy. The trip wasn't a total loss. I found this Peanuts flannel in the fabric section. So cute! I am thinking I will either make pillowcases or some pajama pants or shorts.



I also couldn't pass these up. Yum! I wish Target would stock them.



While at Walmart, I also stopped by the Fashion Bug next store since I had a $10 off anything coupon. I found a couple cute summer shirts on clearance and a pair of cropped jeans. This one is my favorite.

Finished (a few weeks ago)

I've really been working along on a variety of projects lately, but sadly neglecting my blog. Anyway, here's a look at the entire order of dishcloths I finished a couple weeks ago.







I really had fun making these and have since made two more. And (what is common behavior for me) bought enough cotton yarn for several more. I'm always like "WHEE! So fun! Must knit hundreds of dishcloths, so will buy enough yarn for all of them now!" Then a day later I get distracted by another craft project.

Wordless Wednesday

Moving right along

I've been steadily working on the order of 10 dishcloths I mentioned in my previous post. So far I've made five, and did each of them in a different design. I really hope the woman who is paying me for them doesn't mind them being different, since I think I would certainly go a bit nuts if I had to do them all alike. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

She asked for dishcloths that would go with a tan kitchen, and also said she likes orange and yellow. I've been working with those colors the best that I could, considering I haven't had much luck finding all cotton yarn that is actually tan. I did find one that was beige and darker beige (my personal color nightmare house-wise), so I hoped that was close enough.

Here they are in all their dishwash-y glory.













And I couldn't help but notice, but between these dishcloths and the socks I started recently:



and this fabric stack I bought this week at Michael's:



there seems to be a color scheme developing for the month of July.

Yet another new project

I seem to have gotten over that slump I was in a couple weeks ago when I didn't feel like working on anything. The bad part of this equation is that I keep wanting to work on new projects instead of something I've already started.

Work on the shawl has been going great, but it's a lot of the same thing. The same colors and stitches, and since it's gotten so big, it takes a long time to even finish a couple rows. So of course it only made sense to start another pair of socks.

I wanted to use one of my own hand-painted skeins, so I pulled out the three that I was most drawn to at the moment.



(The colors in the photo are kind of washed out - all of the yarns are more vibrant in person.) After pondering this decision for quite a while, I decided to go with the yellow, pink and orange one, since it seemed the most summery to me. And I've been wanting a pair of yellow socks.



I started working on this pattern called Waterfall Socks. It's a pretty pattern, but really simple. That was key for me - I didn't really want to start anything that would require much concentration.



I don't think I'll get much of these done in the near future though. I was working on them this week while in the waiting room of my doctor's office, and a woman came by and asked me about them. We talked for a few minutes and she told me she loves knitted dishcloths, but hasn't found any for sale recently. I offered to make her some and turns out she wants 10! I won't get paid a whole lot for them, but it will help me use up some of the cotton yarn I've been stashing and make a few bucks. Works for me! (Ask me if I feel the same way after I've knit those 10 dishcloths.)

Inspiration from weird places part 2

I've been trying to pay more attention to color schemes and design ideas more in my day-to-day life, because I think this helps me stay creative. I sometimes seem to get into slumps and look to other people and their work for inspiration, but I don't want to depend on that all the time.

Anyway, when I was doing laundry the other day, I noticed the colors and patterns of these items and really liked how they looked. Orange, green, turquoise, black and white wouldn't normally be a color combination I would use, but I love how it looks here. It would make a great quilt or colors for hand-dyed yarn.

WIP - Shawl update

I've been working pretty steadily on the knitted shawl I started about two weeks ago. I'm about done with the striped portion and will have to do the border next. I know I will have to block this, but I have no idea how big it will end up or if it will be a good size for me and my mammoth shoulders. I am not really liking the idea of figuring out how to make it larger, so I'll probably just cross my fingers and hope for the best.



Having so many works in progress means I have found a good use for some of those box bags I made! They are a perfect size for this type of project. I keep thinking I will post some of these to sell on etsy, but haven't gotten around to it yet. (Story of my life. I love making stuff to sell, but hate writing the little descriptions for the items on etsy. Must. Get. Motivated.)

Lending a hand. Or a neck.

I finally finished my latest pair of hand-knit socks - seen here inside this bag and again here when I found them amongst my widely strewn craft projects. They turned out perfect and fit so well! I haven't yet taken a photo of the finished pair, but plan to soon.

Anyway, since I can't seem to go a couple days without starting something new, I am ready to tackle my first knitted shawl. I'm planning to do this one called Cladonia, designed by Kirsten Kapur. I think it is so, so beautiful, but not super dressy, which is perfect for me. I think the stripes make it a bit more casual, but with just enough lace to get your attention.

Before I can really begin though I have to wind my yarn hanks into center-pull balls so they are easier to use. I have a yarn winder, but no swift, so I have found a perfect stand-in.

Martha.



She's the perfect size to hold a hank of yarn, keeping it tangle free while I wind it up. And she is super cuddly and cute as well.

A good match

During my last trip to quilt camp (in, uh, February), I finished this top after lots of indecisiveness about the layout. I tried a lot of different options and nothing seemed perfect. This was my favorite one, though.



It's made from a layer cake of Santorini by Lila Tueller. I don't usually have the nerve to mix so many large prints together, but I really like this line, especially the fabrics that look like stained glass. Anyway, because the prints were so large, I wanted to make sure to not cut the pieces too small, otherwise I would have lost a lot of the patterns.

Months and months ago I had sewn all the fabrics into half-square triangle blocks, but then it sat around my apartment for a while, because I was perplexed as to how I wanted to lay it out. Then at camp the indecisiveness continued. (For some reason, I agonize over decisions all.the.time. You would think it would be choices about my last quilt or last meal EVER, but no, it's usually not very important stuff.)

I am happy with how it looks, although it seems a bit unbalanced color-wise to me. I am hoping that after I quilt it that it blends together a bit better.

I picked out fabrics for the back and binding last time when I went to Joann Fabrics. I am very satisfied with what I found, because sometimes I find it hard to match the color shades from one line of fabric (usually Moda lines) and the basic fabrics I buy elsewhere. (The green is for the back and the pink is for the binding.)



I'm really looking forward to finishing this!

Stuck

I was thinking that the reason I haven't been quilting was because I've been so busy doing other crafty things and reading a lot.

Maybe not. I sat out in my living room for like an hour earlier trying to pick a project to work on and NOTHING appealed to me. At least not any projects that are in progress. Many of them are held up in one stage or another (mostly finished tops), and nothing is getting done.

I have SO many projects started that I feel guilty starting another. But when it comes down to starting something new or not quilting at all, I'm torn. I can't keep starting quilt tops and never actually layering and then quilting them. I think the main problem is that I don't have anywhere in my apartment where I can baste or pin quilts. That is a definite challenge. I think I may have to use the tables at work again soon so I can remedy my huge backlog of quilt tops.