Under Construction

Quilts/muffins

From the comments and conversations with friends it seems folks are a bit intimidated to enter the quilt giveaway. Don't be! It's really not hard and there's no such thing as screwing up an experiment. Whatever happens happens. Really. 24 hours left and I'll draw a name. Of course if this sounds totally lame to you, don't enter.

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Right now I'm heading out to the craft shack to sew up some more samples/practice for my quilt class TOMORROW. I should really be more organized. I'm teaching patchwork pillows at Beverly's. It should be a fun time! And I'm even MORE excited for my next class. Just as soon as I work out the details ;)

I need to make a bunch of muffins for an upcoming field trip for Biscuit's class (like 50-100 muffins). If you can point me to a tried and true muffin recipe I'd be very grateful and will, in return, post my mother-in-law's bran muffin recipe for you. I thought of Swistle's pumpkin muffins but pumpkin seems wrong for spring. Ideas?

Textile experiments

With thanks to my friend for the perfect name I'm finally ready to introduce this idea on the blog. I've been thinking for months about a series of, for lack of a better term, "interactive" quilts and textiles. Basically I create a piece that is in some way incomplete and then someone else finishes it.

Sort of like those stories where one person writes a sentence and passes it to the next. But with a quilt.

Here's how "it takes two" is going to work:

• I create a piece (a small quilt, pillow cover or other project).
• I post a photo of that incomplete piece on the blog and open it up for comments.
• Anyone who in the United States who is interested in playing along leaves a comment (if you're outside the U.S. and willing to chip in for shipping please join in--I'll pay for domestic shipping)
• I'll select a winner (probably randomly but maybe not) from among all the comments
• I'll mail the piece to the winner
• Within one week of receipt the winner will complete the quilt following the instructions provided
• The winner will take a photo of the completed quilt and email it to me and/or post it on their own blog/flickr etc.
• The winner keeps the finished project good or bad as it may be.

I know it all sounds a bit odd but I'm really excited about this. I have at least 10 ideas in mind and 3 projects already complete or partially complete. I hope to post once a month or so until I run out of steam.

Want to play? I'll post the first quilt today!

Thanks so much for reading and hopefully for playing along.

Reading pillow

Speaking of pillows given as gifts, I realized I never blogged about one of my very favorite projects! This pillow was a gift to my mom for Christmas.

I took a photo of Biscuit's bookshelf (I tidied it up first)

Then I had it printed, pretty much life size, onto fabric at Spoonflower.

And I sewed a pillow. Which is very fat because the pillow I shoved inside was a bit too large.

My mom gave Biscuit nearly all the books so it's fitting she have the pillow.

I got several other photos printed onto fabric but so far haven't made the rest into pillows. Seeing this again makes me want to get back to that project. So cool!

Come and sew

Gosh it's been weeks and I never reported back on the sewing class. It was so fun! All the registrants were friends, friends of friends or blog/facebook connections which was cool.

I had marketed the class as "learn to sew" but only one of the four participants was actually a newbie. The other three were ladies who just wanted an excuse to get their sewing machine out of the cupboard and complete a new project.

I actually think a better class structure/marketing strategy would be "come and sew." Participants of all levels would be encouraged. Classes could be a bit larger and the focus would be on completing a fun project and learning a few new techniques during the 2.5 hour class.

Of course I realized all that after already setting up the March class--learn to sew a tote bag on March 18. But still, all levels are welcome.

The absolute best part of teaching the pillowcase class in February is that two of the participants are still sewing like crazy. Now that their machines are dusted off they can. not. be. stopped. It's so cool to think I had a bit to do with them getting back into sewing. Best part for sure.

For a baby girl

Yesterday I spent the holiday helping my friend sew a quilt for her soon to arrive baby girl.

The pattern was (obviously) based on one from Denyse Schmidt's book but as much as I love the look of Denyse's work the assembly instructions are way too tedious. So we cut wonky strips and sewed them together and then squared up each square. I LOVE how it's looking. Next step, quilting and binding hopefully to be done before baby is!

Friends

My friend Carrie gave me an ripped an article out of Martha Stewart Magazine. She said the cross stitched family portraits reminded her of me. She doesn't know that cross stitch is perhaps the one craft I have no interest in. But, I LOVED the patterns and decided to adapt them to a sewn project.

Enter my friend, Donna, who convinced me that, yes, I could do this using 3/4 inch squares of calico. And proceeded to help me choose prints and iron all my fabric.

Then I got stuck with design and figuring out how to affix the itty bitty squares. I couldn't decide which way to stitch for my "big" project so I made up some samples.

Biscuit

Oscar

I debated leaving off the mouths (that look like noses) and I wish I had. Just eyes would have been enough. These are backed with fabric to be pillow covers but I decided to continue the test by washing them. They're in the dryer now and based on how they looked after the washer I'm 95% sure I've ruined them. Oh well, it was only a test.

But what do you think? Mouths or no? Stitching diagonal or up and down? I'm still debating if I even like them enough to do the entire family portrait.....

Linen skirt (revisited)

I finally finished the stocking today.

Honestly, the piecing was annoying. As you can tell by the itty bitty patches near the top (where I started) and the giant patches at the toe (which I sewed today).

It's far from perfect but I'm glad it's done. And it'll certainly work for Santa to fill. Santa should really start thinking about stocking stuffers.

In other news, Biscuit and I made a deal at the Farmer's Market on Saturday: she'll cook Thanksgiving dinner and I'll pay her $4. It sort of started as a joke (I thought) but she's very into it. So far pie crust dough is made, pumpkin is baked and mashed and bread slices are drying out for stuffing. Her recipes are selected and she's written menus for our guests. She's off the hook for major chopping and oven use but we'll see how much of this she can do. Should be fun!

Upholstery samples

In this post we're going to practice the "mom scroll."

KRISTY don't keep reading.

Here's a picture of Oscar's TWO teeth!

And here's yesterday's wreath on the door!

And here's today's project. Pencil pouches!

Years and years ago when this blog was young (and probably not even at this url) a reader sent me a box full of upholstery samples. I'm sad to say I've forgotten who mailed it. But, finally, I've used some!

The brownish ones are extremely late birthday gifts for my friend's boys. They'll be mailed along with personalized pencils (!) a concept I was turned on to by Ali's post.

The pink one in the middle is for Biscuit. She'll also be receiving pencils along with the ream of printer paper I've promised her. That kid is a total paper thief with no sense of conservation or recycling. All projects require a fresh sheet. Luckily she also has her beloved white board and our printer is on the fritz so we aren't really using the paper anyway. I just noticed the paper tray is empty. With a broken printer. Hmmm.

Old linen skirt

This is take two on Oscar's Christmas stocking.

I'm liking this better than the first try but there's no way I could get it done in one evening after bedtime. The sashing is a linen skirt I loved to death and finally retired to the fabric pile. Gotta love the reuse.

Christmas fabric scraps

Sometimes it's just not possible to complete an entire project in a day. Especially when you start at 10 pm. Oh well, at least I got out to the craft shack for a few minutes of sewing.

Making an improvisational star is actually pretty hard (as you could probably tell by looking at this). It's especially hard without an iron. Lesson learned. Not sure if I'll toss it or continue...my goal is a stocking for Oscar.