Holiday Making

Every year I hope/try to make gifts for family and friends. For many years I have made a Christmas print, usually cat themed. (I of course have not yet figured out this years print.)
Some years I have more sucess. Often I have too many ideas and they do not all get finished. Here are some fingerless mitts for my friend. I also have a knitting project started, embroidery project started and some ornaments in the future. There are some people of course I will buy things for. But I do love making presents and also trying to be resourceful. Currently I am trying to use yarn and fabric I already have, only buying new stuff if I need something specific to finish something.

Speaking of using things up... I am losing my sewing studio space soon. Honestly the amount of hours I spent there is probably not a lot over the last year or so. Life has been busy and I prefer to do handwork at home if I can. But, it was an amazing floorspace. I finished 2 quilts in that space and did some other smaller projects and day dreamed about being better at sewing. I do need to sort through everything and see what I can pass on to people/use up. Also I do not know where my furniture will go.

There is change once again in the air and I just have to trust that things will turn out well. Mike's studio will either move soon or be put in storage for a while... we just have to be grateful for the time we had and be more creative/ save up for paying rent somewhere else.

Anyway, I have to get back to crafting or I will never finish!

PS: Here is a photo from our beach trip.

Pumpkins!

Generally the last few years I have used my printmaking cutting tool for lino-cuts to carve my pumpkin. This year I got two baby pumpkins and used regular kitchen knives etc. Mike's pumpkin was bigger. I think this year we just feel it has been so busy so we went with somewhat simpler designs. Very cool to see them all lit up.

More Hats!

 Another hat and I am also working on a purple one in acrylic. This blue one is from some handspun I bought on our honeymoon.

Also some fingerless mitts I finished. I had started the first one probably last year and then  realized I was halfway done, why not just make the 2nd one? I love them and used them primarily for driving to work in the mornings.

Hopefully before too long I will post about our pumpkins and about the wool quilt I finished.

 

oh and I finished the kid mittens!

Little hats & general October update

I started knitting short-row hats to keep in my purse/knit at lunch. I have finished two and it's a pretty simple pattern and fun. The first one I did not wrap the shortrows, the second one I did and I prefer the wrapped style. I am making them for kids in my life though I'm not sure yet what size I have made. They will grow into them eventually :0)

Other news (if you can call it news):
- I bought a pumpkin (small and cute)
- I saw a pheasant in our backyard! Wish I could have gotten a picture.
- I am working on the other wool quilt for our bed. I am almost done patching it and then i will post more photos.
- I have done some mending/thinking about altering clothes. Slowly but surely. Modernizing the neckline of a blue and white floral dress that was high-necked buttondown. Trying to reinvent a dress to a shirt.
- I may be a penguin for halloween, but I am not sure yet.
- I have also been trying to cook more & learning about avoiding food allergins. (Dairy, eggs, corn, wheat...)
- I am really hoping my tomatos will keep ripening. I have some inside and others on the vine to catch whatever sun they can.

Quilt in progress

The current denim and wool quilt, which is a birthday/christmas present. I bought dark teal wool for the back, which I think will make it amazing. I often back denim quilts with poly-fleece but it is nice to make it higher-quality/it just feels so much nicer. One of my green fabrics was stretchy and it drove me a little crazy. I generally just do the best I can and move on unless it is way off and I actually need to rip it apart and re sew it.  

Hopefully I can work on backing it soon... it will be a long way around and I generally hand sew it for some reason. :) I guess first I need to iron it and make sure to pull all the strings to the backside. 

Wedding Pillowcases: Bear vs Llama

Well, Here are some pillowcases I made for a friend's wedding. Pretty fun!
I generally hand embroider, but had decided less than a week before the wedding to make them, so I tried embroidering?drawing by machine. I think they turned out pretty cool! The main thing I would have changed is to make their bodies more curved, not so cut-off.

 Bear

 Llama

Cassette tape fabric for the bear, and green and blue 60s floral for the llama.

Today I have been working more on the wool patch quilt and cutting out more denim squares for an upcoming quilt.

Pink quilt

This is an awesome old quilt we got. It is old and coming apart at some seams. I love the combinations of patterns and colors. It does need a new binding at least and maybe someday i will get around to replacing more of it. (Sorry that my photos are not amazing)

Yesterday I got a few hours to work on a wool quilt top I got at a rummage sale forever ago for $2.50. It had random non-matching squares I am trying to recover. The whole quilt is awesome old wool (perhaps Pendleton shirts?) And then there was random magenta, teal, beige courdoroy mixed in. So... i have been hand sewing some patches over the worst offenders. I hope to finish sometime sooner than later and find fabric for the back and make a quilt that actually will fit our bed. So many quilts to do. So little time!

Baby mittens

Baby Mittens! To be more precise, toddler mittens? Forgive me, i will find the pattern and link it here. I figured with all the babies everyone is having, it would be good to have some quick projects to knit up. This is not my favorite yarn color but i decided i could knit a test pair. It was a pretty quick knit and would be a great carry-along project.

Back in the studio!

Finally working in the studio again, despite the heat and craziness of the summer! Trying to make a wearable muslin of the Portrait Blouse by Gertie.

I need to hem the sleeves and bottom and also do the zipper. So far it seems that it will fit me. I had to remember a few things... like drawing my dart lines on the wrong side of the fabric... seems like I would remember that, but I guess it's been a while. I like learning construction details, and I think if I can force myself to pick simple enough patterns to start and make wearable muslins prior to using the perfect fabric, I think I will learn a lot from my mistakes.  

Busy summer

Well in the last two weekends we've had a funeral and 2 weddings to go to. I had no idea how tired I would be after two weddings (Saturday and Sunday) in the heat and sun. They were both lovely and fancy and I'm so happy for the couples... but it was very Hot!

My garden: Hanging basket to replace dead flowers I forgot to water for several hot days.

 My tomatos are reaching up soooo high. This cherry plant I had to use 3 stakes to try to prop it up.

 We have used some basil from our garden, it just keeps on growing. 2 of my bean plants sort of got pulled up (i assume by the chickens?) But one is climbing the walls, and the other 2 have some small new leaves so they may do something.

 Not much has happened craft-wise but I have made a little progress on the cat embroidery.

 Sorry for the washed out photos. These are vintagey fabrics from my mother-in-law who finds great stuff at yard sales. I think the blue paisley is silk. I have never sewn with silk before so it would be interesting to try. In the bottom photo there is also a textured yellow cotton fabric that has several yards to it so i could practice making a dress or skirt. I have so many Colette patterns I have hoped to do but have not yet worked on. It is so hot in the sewing studio, and frankly we have been to busy with family health issues and weddings we have barely kept up with basic housework and life.
Hopefully some things will slow down a bit and I can make more progress.