Tag Archives: Sewing

Pinning on a table

pinning on a table top

I’ve wanted to learn how to pin my quilts on a table for some time now. The kitchen table is a nice size but I wasn’t having luck finding a protective cover the right size to prevent pins from scratching the wood. I also have one of those Rubbermaid tables with the folding legs but had a hard time finding clamps large enough to fasten the quilt to it. It took a few hardware stores but I finally collected enough large clamps for the job and gave it a go with my Stash Party BOM from last year. It went really well and I think this technique will be easier on my back and knees and with a little practice I should start to get better results than pinning on the carpeted floor as I had been doing.

JJ Blouse Tutorial – Part 3

I am feeling productive I guess?

cord and tassel detail

No big shocker I suppose, that as I am trying to take it a little bit easy, AND it is still technically winter here, I have been spending most of my time knitting.

There is now a hat for Miss Lydia's first winter next year,

Lydia's winter hat (for next year)

and a coming home hat,

Lydia's coming home hat?

I made this braid out of a bunch of different yarns to thread through the ingenious eyelets the hat's pattern included.

I love braids :)

Hat is finished and waiting to be washed. Super cute and easy pattern. I highly recommend it!

Another fun pattern is this sweater/tunic type thing I am working on.

baby sweater

Not sure what size I'll end up with, but it doesn't matter. She'll grow into it eventually!

Now something for mama, in the form of MY FIRST FAIR ISLE EVER!

Fair Isle Boot Toppers!

These are the Fair Isle Boot Toppers from the Juniper Moon Farm Chadwick Booklet and they knit up so fast! I did the actual Fair Isle part in only a few hours, but the ribbing at the top is taking me a lot longer.

ANYWAY... I was super excited to have a reason to make them because for my birthday over the weekend (32nd, if you're counting), I ordered myself something I have been longing for for a very, very, long time.

that's right -- it's birthday boots time

My very own wellies!!!

Now I am all set to hit the garden in any weather!

all set to to do some gardening

See? I have a new compost pail and everything now.

lettuce friend!!!

New compost pail's name is "Lettuce Friend" in case you were wondering, and he will become fast friends with this little beauty:

new composter!

A real composter! For as proud as I was (and still am) of my compost house, the increasing neighborhood feral cat population has destroyed any desire I had to use the beautiful soil in my little heap. Between the terrible odor and the threat of, well, piles of cat crap in my compost, I am shutting down the house and moving on to something a bit more enclosed. Let's hope this guy does the trick!

On a brighter note, I made a dress today, based on a beauty I saw on, where else? Pinterest!

new dress

It has now joined the ranks of only a handful of articles of clothing in this house that can accommodate my rapid expansion.

new dress front

(Needs a wash and press obviously, but I was too impatient to wait for all that.)

new dress back

As far as the expansion goes -- I'm 27 weeks today and now have exactly three months to go!

new dress side

VERY hard for me to believe that spring and baby are both just around the corner!

I have comments to catch up on (bad blogger), and a skillet handle cover tutorial to do, and probably a million other things I wish I could get organized enough to share, but all we should realistically expect in the immediate future is a thousand pictures of knitting, my new red boots, bizarre combinations thereof, and blathering on about any of the above...

JJ Blouse Tutorial – Part 2

JJ Blouse Tutorial – Part 1

Croquis + Me

A Bunch o’ Stuff

So I guess I have hit an official blogging slump. I have been doing things, at least I think I have, but most of them are not things I take pictures of. And the creative stuff has been mostly long-term projects -- not the kind of things I want to keep posting updates on as it would probably bore everybody to tears.

But I have a few little things to share. First off, some yarn dyeing, Or overdyeing if you want to be accurate.

all of them - just out of the pots

One of many wonderful Ravelry friends had some leftover Juniper Moon Farm yarns that she was willing to swap to me so I could put them toward my Log Cabin Blanket.

They were all lovely, but not quite bold enough next to my other colors, so I decided to dye them a little darker.

The green was a very pale mint green to start,

green before

green after - wet

and became sort of a brown and green mossy color when it was done.

green after - side of cake

The red was very pink-y/magenta-y,

red before

red after - wet

so I oranged it up a bit.

red after - side of cake

The blue was so pale that it was not even as blue in person as it appears in this photo.

blue before

blue after - wet

I am pretty proud of this one. :)

blue after - side of cakes

So that's that for yarn dyeing adventures for the time being. I'd love to do more, but I absolutely cannot take on another hobby at this point in time.

A cool thing was this suitcase that the boys and I found by the side of the road when we were out walking the other day.

fun decal

have to try to preserve this sticker

I gave it a good shake to make sure it wasn't filled with anything (believe me, my mind was going over all the terrible possibilities of what might be hiding inside a locked suitcase on the side of the road). When it felt empty, I decided to go for it and we carried it home.

good sturdy handle

The locks were easy to pick, thank goodness.

classy

And the verdict is: a million dollars in unmarked bills!

Sorry, no, that's my fantasy version. In real life, it was empty as can be, but in excellent condition!

clean and really nice inside!

No smells or anything, so we are good to go. Now to decide what to use it for!

Other recent acquisitions include some very special baby clothes.

This dress (actually a toddler size, rather than a baby size) was made for my mother, for a wedding she was in when she was about four years old.

a dress my mother wore around the age of 4

dress detail

Needs a cleaning and has a small stain, but it will make a little girl very happy someday I am sure.

This sweater and matching bonnet were made for me when I was a 6-9 month sized person and will be perfect for Liddy's first winter!

another one of my baby sweaters

yoke detail

And THIS sweater.

a sweater I wore as a newborn

Newborn sized, lightweight, covered in these little gathers that remind me of little daisies,

gather detail

perfect for a May baby! I think if I can make a matching hat, Lydia might wear it home from the hospital.

Now a super quick update on the ever growing Log Cabin:

progress and next colors planned

I am OBSESSED I tell you. Love this project so much.

can't stop staring

A sort of recent project that is not especially pretty but is inherently useful is this set of cast iron skillet handle covers I made.

I sandwiched layers of plain and printed vintage feedsack over some vintage wool batting I took out of a dry rotted lap quilt, and put pieces of an unwanted pot holder in the middles for added protection.

short handle snap-on cover

The feminine hygiene product looking ones are for the short handles. As you can see, they wrap around

wrapped around

and snap securely in place.

snapped

For the long handles, I layered some some longer rectangles the same way, but sewed them together into tubes then so they can just slip on and off.

long handle sleeves

They work SO WELL! I snap them on before I start cooking and they stay cool to the touch and do not burst into flames the whole time the meal is being made!

now safe and easy to handle

They even work on a skillet that has been baking in the oven (but obviously I do not keep them on the handles during the baking...)

Anyway. Finishing up a very lengthy post with some love.

Love item #1: I joined Pinterest.

HOLY COW I LOVE IT SO MUCH. Seriously, it is what I always dreamed of in a site for categorizing and sharing my favorite things. Love, love, love.

Look me up over there, if you are so inclined. (Link above) I will be busy filling up my boards and spamming the crap out of my followers with pictures captioned with such descriptive gems as, "WANT!" and "COLORS!" and "GARDEN LOVE!"

Love item #2: The other morning, Ethan magneted a message on our refrigerator to remind us to "go out and love people."

Ethan's reminder to go out and love people

A few hours later, I came across Love item #3: a tiny flour heart on the bottom of my hotdog bun at lunch.

random heart on a hot dog bun

(And yeah, I checked first to make sure it was flour and not mold. Either way, it was still a tiny heart.)

I think that's all for now. I am exploding with ideas but finding myself with little motivation to actually do much other than knit and sit in front of the computer. But I have a few things lined up for when I have those bursts of productivity...

Block of the Month: February

Block of the Month: January

WIP: January is Flying By