July Theme

So I know this blog has been rather boring as of late. My computer hasn't quite recovered from the move yet. I'm still borrowing husband's laptop whenever I can steal it away, which obviously is rare. Hopefully I'll be back in business in the next day or so...anyway the whole point was to say that the July Crazy Swap theme has been posted. Have fun!

in the mean time...

Still swamped with boxes, but hope to back to sewing soon. In the mean time the June Crazy Swap Assingments are up.......here

Applique? Oh yeah..

So since this is supposed to be a crafty blog or something I figured I should post


something
crafty. I snagged this project out of a box right before it was about to be taped. I made 20 of these for the girls that I teach at my church. It took WAY too long. This is actually the only one that I ended up putting flowers on, I ran out of time, but the girls love them anyway. I made them big enough to hold a binder and several books, and they're super strong. After making all of them I actually totally got into bag mode and drew out and bought fabric for several other bags, including a diaper bag. Maybe someday I'll get around to making them! You don't get the real color in the pictures, but it's this fabulous, rich, lime green.

Where? Oh Where....

...has my sewing stuff gone? Oh where, oh where can it be? I would continue on re-writing the lost puppy song, but I'm just not that creative. It is so sad, all of sewing stuff is hidden away in boxes! I'm going through withdrawals! The thread keeps staring at me with the evil eye. It's mad that I'm not letting it out. Part of me is really looking forward to Saturday when we can put all the boxes in our storage unit. At least then I don't have to stare at the boxes in with longing knowing what's inside. I won't get to see or feel fabric till June! I don't know if I can make it. I have dreams that I stumble across fabric in random places....the trunk of the car, munchkin's toy bin, kitchen cabinets, the mail box....everywhere. If only it were true. I swear I'm going to go stark raving made before too long. So how do you make it when you can craft?

Crazy Swap III

Okay I promise this will be the last post about the swap, at least till I come up with something fun for the watercolor theme and post my project. When watercolor popped into my head I didn't think it would be as hard as it is to come up with something, maybe it's just me. Anyway's the point of this post is to ask those lovely ladies who are on board with crazy swap to e-mail craziestswap@gmail.com with their names, addresses, e-mails and whether or not they're willing to ship internationally. Thanks so much for being as excited about this as I am (or at least pretending to). Did I tell you we got a new crazy swapper that's not from this site! Super exciting! And Sandra's offer to make a button for the swap, also super exciting! Okay now that I've complete scared you all away with my over excitedness I'll go away....at least till tomorrow.

Crazy Swap II

So I know that I've only got three people on board so far (totally excited about that, thanks Serena, Sandra and Danielle), but I'm totally excited so I went a little crazy, which is rather appropriate and made blog for this crazy Crazy Swap idea. Check it out and give me feed back, and of course tell everyone you know! I really hope we can get people on board. I think this could be a ton of fun. I do really want feed back on it though. Does everything make sense? Are the rules fair? Do I need any other rules? Let me know!

Crazy Swap....?

I hope you all had a wonderful mother's day. I spent mine obsessing about a swap. I just couldn't stop trying to come up with an idea. I know I need to get a life other then crafting, husbands already told me that...but I did come up with an idea. It's actually sort of a compilation from lots of ideas, so not really my own idea, but anyway, tell me what you think....

It's called Crazy Swap after a crazy quilt because anything goes. Basically it will be a monthly swap where each person can choose whether or not to be involved that month. We'll all take turns picking a theme and then have a month to make something, anything, be creative. For example.... say like for June the theme is Watercolor. The last three or four days of may will be sign ups and then on June first randomly assigned partners will be announced. You then have till the last day in June to make and send something, anything that is, represents or makes you think watercolor to your partner. Then if you want to you sign up again for July and somebody else picks a theme. Or if you need a break you don't sign up again till august. How does that sound? I was trying to go for a laid back no pressure swap. I also figured this way more than just quilters can be involved. We can all share our talents and creativity with each other regardless of our chosen medium. I was also think a cost limit $5-10 dollar max on it like One Flew Over suggested would be good. Of course if you can make whatever it is with stuff you've already got that's even better. This of course means that you'll never know what you're going to get, and you may or may not like it, and one month you might work five hours one something when someone else only works 20 minutes. But I figure that's part of the adventure. I'm excited to see what crazy talents everybody has.

So what do you think?

Any suggestions to tweak it?

What about partners? Would you want to give to the same person that gives something to you or more of circle swap where everyone has someone different?

And if this is something you guys are interested in should I create a new "Crazy Swap" blog or flickr group?

And last, if you are interested and it would be a lot more fun with more people, so tell your friends, ask them if they would be interested.

That's all....I think....sorry for the long post. I hope it makes sense!

Swap?

So I really like all the swaps, and quilt alongs, and stuff that's floating around out there and I really would like to start one of my own. But my last idea I think was a little too grand to be practical for most people (which is very typical of me actually). If you're wondering what I'm talking about please see "alphabet soup" post and mumble under your breath "wow, she's crazy". Go on...I mean it, go....have you read it yet? Good. Okay, so now that you are familiar with my first bad idea can you help with a good one? What sort of swaps would you and people you know be interested in?

Moving...

So it's been a little crazy here lately. We're moving at the end of the month so I've been running around trying to pack and sew, which really doesn't work very well. I end up sewing cardboard and packing fabric. And on top of that our computer decided it was just too old. So I'm writing from husbands laptop, which also means I don't have access to any of my files, which includes pictures of current projects. So I pulled up good old Microsoft paint and made a picture for you all to illustrate what I've been up to. Voila! My masterpiece....


It's entitled "Moving Boxes" and is supposed to channel my paranoia of death from falling boxes. It's also basically what our humble abode looks like at the moment; stick figure and all. So if you don't hear from me in awhile send a rescue squad. I'll be under a pile of boxes!

Question?

Alright folks out there. I have a question for you all. I've found an old Huskylock 535D Serger that I'm considering buying, but I know next to nothing about it. Do any of you? It's a viking, which makes me think it's a good machine, but.......? So if you or anybody you know knows anything about this serger I would LOVE some imput on whether I should go for it. It's only $50. THANKS!

PS. Husband absolutely adored Katie. He laugh a good big belly laugh and didn't believe that I actually made it. Now husband and munchkin fight over who gets to play with Katie. An overwhelming succes in my book!

Katie II

So here's the finished project. Like most of my projects she ended up looking completely different then I had planned, but still cute. I included a picture of the "real" Katie, so you could compare. Sorry about the low quality of that picture, it's the only one I could find. My Katie turned out a little more squashed ball, then round ball, but besides that I'm pretty pleased. I haven't showed it to husband yet, but I'll let you know how hard he laughs. She turned out so roly poly and fluffy I decided not to add her legs. What do you think? Does she need her little hoofs?

Katie

Today is my sweetheart's birthday. So I thought I'd share my unfinished present with you. He loves the movie Horton Hears a Who (the new one from fox animation), so it was a Horton themed birthday. I got him the movie and the original Dr. Seuss book, which he doesn't remember ever reading. (I'm gasping in shock.) I also wanted to get him a little stuffed animal of his favorite character, Katie. For those of you that have seen the movie you know she's this minor, rather bizarre little fur ball. My sweetheart thought she was one of the best parts! Of course because she's such a minor character you can't actually find any Katie paraphernalia. So I'm making one, this is the work in progress. It will be a late present, but I'm pretty sure he'll laugh, which makes it worth it.

Alphabet Soup

So this weekend I had an idea. I'm sure others have probably done it before, but I thought it sounded like fun. So here's the idea. I loved the quilt festival, that so many quilters became connected so I thought about doing an alphabet quilt swap. Here's how it works. 26 people sign up, each person is randomly assigned a letter from the alphabet. Each person makes 26 quilt squares of their assigned letter. When they're done everyone sends them to me along with the "story" behind their design. I repackage them and send each participate an alphabet soup kit, complete with one square of each letter and it's story. Voila we each have the makings of fabulous quilt full of stories and friends. What do you think? I know I don't have 26 readers of this blog, but I figured if you signed up and told your friends, we'd eventually get the 26. So here's the "rules"......

1. Each square should be 10" x 10"

2. Each square should have the letter somewhere on it with something that starts with the letter (a for aardvark, b for butter, you know how it goes)

3. The squares should be completed and returned to me by Dec. 1, 2009 (that gives us plenty of time AND a fun Christmas gift to ourselves, or anyone else we like)

4. There's nothing else I can think of, but if you can let me know.


So there's my idea. I'm all in of course, so we've got one. Who's going to be #2?

Hummm, not so much...

So kinda funny story. Yesterday while quilting with the beast I decided that I just had to make a skirt. I have this one knit skirt that I just LOVE. I'd wear it everyday in the summer if my kid didn't render that impossible within the first five minutes of the day. So I decided I need to make more. The picture in my head goes something like this...nice simple black knit circle skirt with appliqued red flowers. Well as you can see from the picture (don't look to close, it's really not that flattering) there are no flowers; and here's why. I've never made a skirt in my life, nor have I ever worked with knits before. What made me think I could do this I don't know, probably insanity. It started out okay. I pulled out my favorite skirt (or as I like to call it, my lollipop skirt), used it as a pattern and just started cutting and sewing. Well, it doesn't fit quite right, due to a cutting error, but I at least know how to fix that part, and I wished every other minute that I had a serger, but what gets me is that I couldn't for the life of my hem the darn thing. Is there some secret chant you need to know in order to hem knit? At first I thought that it was the curve of the bottom that was giving me problems. After unpicking the hem twice I decided to just cut it off and have a straight hem. Well I couldn't hem that either, not to mention the fact that apparently I can't cut straight and the hem had a couple "peaks" to it. (Luckily that doesn't show too much.) So way too many hours later, most of which was spent unpicking, which is probably my least favorite activity in the world, I had a skirt that I couldn't hem, didn't fit right and really is basically see through. Sigh. I tried. My dear husband made it a little better with his suggestion of lining it with a fun color and then making those "peaks" more prominent, so it looks like it's on purpose. Which is a great idea, if only I knew how to line things. So really the up shot of all this is 1) I need serious help in the knit department. 2) I should think before I cut. 3) That picture is one I'll stash away and never show anyone ever again. And.. 4) This would be a lot easier if I had a serger. Anybody know where I can find a cheap one, or someone want to donate to my pathetic cause?


PS. Sorry for the long, rambling post. As you can see I have yet to make peace with the skirt. Maybe tomorrow.

Motivated

The response I got with my one measly little quilt was so overwhelming and unexpected I was actually motivated to get up off my duff and pick up work again on another quilt. My husband is shocked! He came home last night from work and I was actually at the sewing machine, not passed out on the couch recovering from chasing around our sick two year old. I tell ya it's a miracle. If I keep this up I'll have another quilt to share in no time! (Crossing fingers, toes and just about every other thing that's flexible enough to cross.) Well I'm off to visit "the beast" my beautiful, really old machine. But here's a little snippet of the quilt I'm working on. What do you think?

Quilt Festival

This is first post of my new blog. I love applique/fabric art, so I'd thought I'd start sharing. I figured joining in on this online quilt festival was the perfect way to start. So here's my current favorite and actually also my first applique quilt I've ever done.

Front

Close-up Front

Back

It was a baby gift for a good childhood friend of mine. It definitely was an adventure. The poor kid was over six months old when I finally finished it, even though I started six months before he was born! I sure learned alot during the process though and I love how it turned out. I'm now nearing completion of his little cousins quilt and will post that when it's done.