Tablet Cover

These are pretty badly lit photos, but here they are anyway. I made a tablet cover for one of Mike's friends. I had the measurements and tried to find something similar-sized to use to make sure it would fit. I tried it about 3 ways and then finally went back to the same tutorial I used for our laptop case. It is a great tutorial! 

The fabric is black twill, vintage football player lining (also featured in the baby quilt I recently finished). The middle layer is a fleece to add some cushion. I made a pocket and also used green thread for top stitching. I had some wiggly stitches around the opening, it was definitely hard to get such a thick area of the cover through the machine, since the opening was small (compared to a laptop case).

Anyway, the good news is that Mike's friend likes it! (I was planning on doing another one if it didn't fit right, or looked too sloppy.) I was stressed and putting it off and then just powered through on a hot evening in the studio!!

Continuing with Cats...

This cat sampler project is pretty fun. I have been taking it with me to work sometimes to work on my lunch. It also goes with me when we visit my father in law who is in hospice care. I have been trying to figure out the outlines. Sometimes it makes it look more pixelated. I love all the mice and birds. I will have to re-learn how to do French knots for the eyes. 

 Here is a photo of my grandma's hydrangeas. So pretty. She lives at a lake and we had 4th of July there and ate way too much food, including huckleberry cobbler. Yum! 

I thought I would share a previous cross stitch project. It was a pre-printed pattern. I made it for my husband before we were married. I chose the colors (brown, blue, orange, gold) to match this 1970's-ugly ship painting he has. I mean, it's so ugly it's cool.

Finally planting

My parents came over today to help me make a fence around the garden. I am late planting partly because we weren't sure for a while if we were moving. Also, Our housemates have chickens and they like to peck at things. I was originally just planning on putting up some chicken wire, but today it became a little more complicated. We used the lattuce and wood from a scrap pile. We made a functional door with hinges...(so fancy!) I'm so grateful to finally plant and i hope the chickens can't hop over the lower side. I had 3 volunteer tomatos and bought 1 tomato plant, 1 bell pepper, and some basil. Yum!! Can't wait!

Kitty Cats

Beginnings of an Alphabet embroidery! 

Baby Blanket update

                         First, some flowers from my garden. Yay, so nice that they are blooming.

Here is the baby blanket. It is supposed to end up 30x30 in. I have one mistake and some things could be better, but after it is blocked it will probably be awesome! I got a lot of knitting done this weekend at a beach retreat. And the baby quilt shown previously is done, I just need to add my initials. (Which I should have done prior to finishing it...)

Next up: maybe working on the sorbetto? or a denim quilt? I also have a tablet cozy to make too...

Cloth napkins?

I think maybe this is another project to add to the list: Fabric Napkins - so easy and functional. I love projects that use small amounts of fabric because that is usually all that I have. And I have been thinking about cloth napkins. Even if we don't use them all the time, how ever much we do use them would cut down on our paper towel use. And since they would be light weight, they could line-dry easily.

But now, to clean a bit and then iron carefully the fold on the baby quilt binding so I can sew sew sew!!!

Laptop Case (Belated Finished Project) and Clutch

 Here is our laptop case I don't think I fully posted about. I made it with a bottom-weight twill gray fabric that worked really well for the project. This project is based on this tutorial, yay for online tutorials!

I added a pocket on the outside for our cables so we could have it all together. Check out the Red Velcro! The outside pocket fabric is white flannel with pink snowflakes. The inner lining is cassette tape flannel - awesome! of course this case has a few imperfections, but it is awesome and very functional. (And Manly enough for my husband,)

Okay, here is a clutch I was making many months ago from the book : Sew What You Love. My biggest issue I guess is that I didn't realize I was making such a big clutch. It is so big I probably won't use it. But I did learn some construction things and with a better fabric and better sewing perhaps it would be lovely. I think a stiffer fabric that maybe didn't show all the pleats through the top fabric might be good. I was going to attach large snaps instead of the recommended velcro. But now it has been sitting for many months. Maybe I will just attach velcro. Also, just a thought. Maybe if I attached a strap I would like it better? We'll see.

Duck fabric as the lining - Yep.

In Progress

Mending Mike's jeans. I do it by hand because that's the best way to do it to not have stitching in places where I don't want it. 

Also. The beginnings of a baby blanket. I bought knit picks needles that are interchangable because that's the only way I could buy the size I needed. I had an issue of the needle falling off. I didn't realize that there was a small tool that came with the needles to help tighten it. I have tightened them now and will see very soon if that does the trick. I love the pattern and am having fun knitting. The one sad thing is that the yarn kind of sheds and I get white fuzz on my pants. Oh well! I have a free morning off work and I'd better get back to my mending.

Summer is coming.

From 5/13:
I planted Lobelia and Geranium in pots and am glad to see they are starting to bloom. At the front of the house are huge bunches of Iris and at the back, beautiful pink roses. Today I am replacing a broken zipper in a pair or jeans. I have also already spent a lot of time fighting the ants in our kitchen. I may also work on the baby quilt binding.  Perhaps I will even bind on for a knitted baby blanket that I bought yarn for. (In hopes that it will be a more portable project, lunchtime knitting?) Change is in the air as we may be moving sometime soon and right now I love this spring to summer moment.

5/14:

I have started to knit the baby blanket. The pattern called for size 8 and worsted yarn. My yarn seems thin, and I don't know quite yet how I like the feel of it. It is an Ivory color. I will keep on going and do a few rows of the pattern before I decide if I need to change needles. 

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Not Sewing Related

Well, we have been prepping for our concert, and I made some merch items. My husband helped me re-invent my cd covers (They were originally limited run 4-panel hand silk-screened) We made and image and had it printed, and I hand glued them. Yay!





Also I made awesome stickers through moo. I love them. featuring upsidedown cat images and the wedding one is part of a vintage  greeting card.

Hope to see you at the show on Saturday! upsidedowncat.bandcamp.com