Ruched

Back to the sewing machine

I was worried all of my creativity had run from my fingers to my belly, I've been feeling divinely uninspired.  Today I manged to break my un creative streak using an idea I read in an article about professional artists.  It's so simple, go to your studio at the same time each day and do something, cleaning, fiddling, whatever.  Then your ready  when the muse strikes.

It definitely worked for me today.  I started out folding some fabric I had washed and dried, it's been sitting on my table for weeks.  Ho hum.

Then I pulled out squares left over from old projects, more to play with color and pattern than to start anything.  A little better.

Then I picked up the superbright quilt, finished the quilting and added the binding.  All that's left is to sew the binding to the back.  While this wasn't made with a little bean in mind, if I don't make anything between now and giving birth it will be the default baby quilt.  A friend asked me what sort of quilt I'd make for my own baby and my answer was that I'd probably make 4 or 5.  Finally, some progress.

I'm not sold on the binding but the whole quilt was a stretch for me.  The color was interesting so I just went with it.  It was freeing to make the decision just like that.

The weather was gorgeous this weekend so I spent some time outside which always seems to be good for what ails you.  After my B mowed the grass...

we spread out a blanket and watched the birds...

checked the sky for clouds...

and spent some time with our little dog while he sunned his buns.  He was in the vet hospital overnight last week and the vet says he has less than a year to live.  He's old (11) and has developed heart problems.  One of the valves is bad and as a consequence his lungs fill with fluid.  The fluid build up is mostly controlled with medication but every so often something sets him off and when he starts to sound like a bellows I know it's time to head to the vet.  It's one of the worst sounds in the world and I hate seeing him like that.  I'd always assumed he would die in his sleep at 18 after a day spent chasing balls and rooting in the dirt.

At some point the vet won't be able to help him and we'll have to euthanize him.  I don't want to think about it but I don't want him to die slowly by drowning on dry land either.  I don't want to think about life without my little dog.  His floppy ears, the way he squints in the sun, his enthusiasm for everything.  Sigh.  We've been through so much together.

In happier news I found an OB I like through a recommendation from a friend.  I really like the doctor and her staff, and they gave me a rose which was so sweet.  All new pregnant patients get a flower.

Finally

Fear not, loyal readers, I have not abandoned my blog!  Since my last post I've been dealing with morning sickness, yuck.  I thought it was only ms if you puked, but no, apparently any sort of queasiness or stomach upset counts.  My new best friends are Maalox and ginger ale and things seem to be settling down.

I'll apologize in advance just in case my writing heads towards cutesy, twee, or baby obsessed.  We've been trying for a baby for about four months so this is a happy turn of events.  I really thought it would take longer...famous last words, right?

On to the crafty!

Freezer paper stencils seem popular right now and I wish I had posted about it, it's a technique I learned in college (I studied textile design).  This book has all sorts of surface design techniques and the writing is very accessible.

Here's the page on freezer paper stencils, she recommends using a silk screen but obviously you don't have to.  It would help spread the ink in a smooth, thin layer if you're having those problems.

The index

The most creative thing I did this past weekend was choose what show to watch on TV and I was very lucky to have remembered to record the first part of the Elizabeth miniseries on HBO.  There are some pretty nasty beheadings and drawing and quarterings but I was watching the costumes.  More than once I wanted to shout "Stop! Show me the underside of that sleeve!" at the TV.   

As an aside, I only remembered to set the DVR after I heard an interview with Helen Mirren on Fresh Air.  Unfortunately it was the fill in guy and not Terry Gross doing the interview but when HM could manage to squeeze a word in she mentioned that she loved the elaborate costumes.  Ooof!  It's a good thing, often she was covered head to toe in ten layers of fabric.  In one scene she was wearing that trademark Elizabeth ruff plus a giant cobra hood thing (what are those called?) and a hair clip with a three foot feather coming out the top. 

While I was busy paying no attention to the acting, which was good, I noticed that lattice pattern smocking was used often.  Once in velvet over an entire dress bodice and skirt, once in silk as an embellishment on a slashed pouf-shouldered sleeve.

It reminded me of this book

Ahh..much better.  It felt awful to just leave things hanging but posting just wasn't going to happen. 

No Crafting

I finished my thriller and it was pretty good though I think the author may have a few issues with women.

After I posted yesterday I realized that often what I write here is similar to the notes I make (used to make) for myself in my sketchbooks, except I write for a moron when I'm leaving myself notes because my memory has gone to crap lately.

At lunchtime I had a chance to go thrifting and I found a few treasures and took some photos of this awesome sewing machine.

It's a "White House".

De Luxe zig zag!

I guess that's the stitch width, it looks half like a radio, half like a speedometer and all fifties.

More treasures, a Vera scarf and some bias tape/seam binding.

Ballooning dress girls.  I've seen a feed sack fabric similar to this, I think it was in an issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.  The feed sack girls looked like they had just been tossed in the air like cheerleaders, you know, doing the splits on the way up.  It was a fun fabric but I thought they didn't print stuff like that in the thirties, or at least not for common consumption.

My best find was big money, $3.99.  It's so funny that I found this because I was just sent some upholstery samples and I don't believe I've seen sample books in a thrift store before.  The floral I pulled to the side is the exact pattern and colorway of some fabric I used to cover kitchen chairs in college.  I've already pulled the book apart, I just need to sort out the few polyester samples, I don't like to use synthetics.

Still Quilting

Still working on the quilting, with a few tips this time.

I'm using a free motion foot with the needle set to stop down.

This kind of foot doesn't clamp down on the fabric so when you stop or start too quickly (while pulling the fabric) the needle bends just a bit and causes these jogs.  The needle down setting helps some, if the needle is up when you stop it's easy to pull the quilt out of line with the rest of the stitching.

I'm also having problems with bubbling, partly because I go to fast.  Pulling from the back in line with the stitching seems to help.  I've been pushing the quilt through the machine with one hand on each side of the needle.

Front side

Back side, don't the stripes look crooked!

Socks for sock creatures, kid sized because smaller is cuter, right?  Also I'd like to mention that I've seen the "Stupid Sock Creatures" book and he uses recycled socks.  Eeewwww, blech!  Yay for recycling but that's just gross.  I should also say that I have only flipped through the book, not read it, so I'm assuming the socks have been worn because they're pilled and some look faded.  The creatures are a little gross so I guess it adds to the effect.

I almost blew off posting because I'm so absorbed in this thriller.  I love thrillers, especially when the writing is decent.

Superloud

The super bright quilt came off the shelf today.  I've only quilted two rows, one in each direction, but they went very quickly.  I'm using a darning/embroidery foot to make wavy lines, I didn't think straight lines would look as good.

Some of the lines are single, some are doubled, I like the look of doubled lines.

I've had this book for a while but I haven't made anything from it yet.  Most of the scarves are pretty as is  or need just a bit of help, only a few are humdingers. 

     

The last one needs a bit of help.  I've thought it might be fun to make all 25 patterns as a way to improve my crocheting.  It sounds like a lot of scarves but I'd give some as gifts and sometimes a little outside organization helps keep you going.

Out our front window.

Mouse pincushion

I had a reader request  (woo!) over  here .  This was a bit more difficult than I imagined but I think that is a result of some of my choices.  It might be nice to add a tail, eyes, and nose, but I'm waffling on that.

The fabric in the body is an upholstery sample, the face and ears are a wool suiting sample.  The fabric in the background is one of my absolute favorites and it's so plain...I only have two fat quarters, that's all that was left in the store.

The upholstery sample is from Mary, I mentioned it in my last post.

Before starting I had to get the paper off of the sample.  I mentioned this project to my mom who had the answer of course.  I used a dry iron and set it on the backing for  a bit longer than I was comfortable with and the paper peeled off pretty cleanly.

If you try this be careful not to scorch your fabric or your fingers.  The paper has to be peeled off while the glue is hot so you might want to try using tweezers.  Try to avoid leaving shredded pieces, I found it almost impossible to peel up if the paper didn't have a clean edge.

Here are the cut pieces.  I enlarged them to make a 3" mouse rather than the 6" specified in the pattern.

I accidentally put my chopstick through the end of the ear while I was turning it.

The wool pieces needed to be fused or fray blocked and fray block was closest to hand.  I try to stick with needle and thread but I'll use fuseables etc when necessary.

The mouse body finally sewn right sides together.  I sewed the ear on backwards and picked that out, then I sewed two right sides instead of a right and left and picked that out too.

Don't forget to clip your curves!  I usually do.

Stuffed with bottom attached.  I had to leave the back open this way so I could slip in a cardboard support for the bottom.  It would have been easier to sew if this had been on the side rather than the curved rear but I didn't think I could get the cardboard in that way.  I ironed the seam allowance on the bottom and needle turned the top and it came out ok.

My grandmother's sewing box.  I'm trying to make a space to display it along with some others.  I pulled it out of the closet last weekend  and  was  surprised to find stuff in it, I forgot I'd put anything in there.

The closed box inside the tin, it's in the upper right.  I really like this photo.

That Doll

I got my doll back today with some, ahem, improvements.  The pants made me over confident and I pretty much screwed up the dress.  It was all fixable though.

Fixing the dress prompted my mom to remember that she had made the quilt included in the pattern.

All that's left is to remove the basting stitches and put on some binding.  This has been floating around for years, I've seen it more times than I can count and I never connected it with the Amish pattern.  My mom used to make miniature wall quilts so I assumed it was one of those.  It turns out that my grandmother pieced this and my mom quilted it.  When she brought it over she couldn't remember who had done what and I said "You must have done the quilting, grandma's stitches were smaller than this."
D'oh!!  I could have said it more gracefully.

Another clue is the white thread used to piece the top.  My grandmother was an amazing craftswoman but sometimes she would just use whatever thread was on the machine.

I'm waiting for some hands on instruction before I start the bonnet and apron, maybe I should make a tutorial?

Finally, a big thanks to Mary for the upholstery samples.  I have a few ideas but nothing definite yet.  She also sent a Gocco printed card that was very cool, I've never seen one in person.

Design Wall

So I was pulling some stuff off of my design wall yesterday and I thought I should share how I made mine.  I wanted a design wall for ages but a. we rented and b. our car was not the right shape to get an 8'x4' sheet of insulation to fit inside.  Oh and c. I didn't want to have sheets of insulation cut by the guys at Home Despot.  Don't ask me why, I had some good reason at the time.

I was in HD one day mooning about in the insulation aisle when I spotted garage door insulation in a bag.  It was just the size to fit in our trunk!  It was a kit with 8 panels, each panel was about 20"x48". 

When I got home I cut the panels lengthwise to fit on my wall and used clear duct tape to stick them together.  I sprayed the panels with spray glue and covered them with off white polar fleece from Jo-Ann.  Don't forget your 40% off coupon and make sure they have enough yardage before you let them cut.  After that I attached them to the wall with drywall screws.  If I could do it over again I would put screws through the top and bottom of each panel rather than just at the top and bottom of the wall, the panels bow out a bit where they're stuck together with tape.  I managed to do most of this without help, it was more cumbersome than heavy.

I was worried that the vertical joints would bother me but I don't even notice them now.  I only have trouble keeping things stuck to the polar fleece when I open the window and a stiff breeze comes through or when I'm using a folded chunk of fabric.  In both cases I just add a few pins.

Here's my design wall.  You can kind of see the bow in the bottom of the first photo.  The second shows where the panels join.

The back of the insulation.  I kept a square piece to use as a smaller design surface.

I love having a design wall.  If I run out of space I pin up a cheap plastic table cloth with a flocked back, fuzzy side out, and use that space to keep working.  Jess + design wall = BFF

A DS quilt in the most recent Sundance home catalog.  If you haven't seen this catalog it has inspiring jewelry, clothes, and quilts.

Some ideas for tags for sewn things.  I had more photos I wanted to upload tonight but wow, I have to find a faster way than one at a time.  Plus I need to figure out how to hold a book flat without getting my fingers in the photo.

Finished the Woven Cuff

I finished the woven cuff today and I like the body but the clasp is meh.  I should have tried a few more things before committing to this particular clasp arrangement.

The clasp was supposed to look like this but I wanted something wider.

I'm also a little nervous about wearing this because it feels fragile.  The wire is 28ga and I'm the type of person who would catch it on something and not realize until I heard beads bouncing on the floor.

Do I clip this apart to reuse the beads or not?  I probably won't wear it and I have no ideas for re-purposing it, I'm much better re-purposing textiles.  A little stitch here, a seam ripped there, and voila, a silk purse from a sow's ear.

I need to try this again, I still really like the pattern.

Vintage Craft Books

Instead of working on the Amish doll I went to this book sale.  I came home with three grocery bags of books and didn't realize until I was loading them in the car that I had just gotten rid of three bags of books.  I was trying to make space for new books but I didn't intend to fill it all at once.  D'oh.

I've read that some crafters like to load photos into flickr because it's easy to sort through and find what you're looking for later.  They treat it like an personal archive of inspiration that happens to be public.  I like this idea for a few reasons, number one being space.  Some of the books I got today were from the bargain room, $5 for a bag full.  They have a few ideas that are interesting or the books smell musty, if I considered the $5 a rental fee and donate the books (somewhere else) after I've taken photos of the good stuff I could save myself a lot of trouble.

After taking a bunch of photos I made a new set on flickr.  I have two others, one is Make and Do books.  I can't describe how much I love M&D books.  I have a small collection of four, they're not that easy to find.  I wish I had saved the ones I read as a kid, they were from the 60's and were full of projects like a purse made out of sheets or an after bath wrap dress thingie made of an old towel.  I loved making things when I was a kid and a whole book of ideas was beyond exciting.  Once I made "Roman" sandals out of cardboard and string and almost killed myself running up and down the stairs.  I took my child size chairs apart because I wanted to make them into stools which didn't work because the back was part of the support for the legs.  I was six, what did I know?  Toy store kits were fun too but they were more messy and tended to magically disappear.  I had a make your own makeup kit for about 5 minutes, it must have been a gift.