I Don't Wear Sweaters - Clothes Revamp No. 1

So I picked the article of clothing I plan to reinvent for this month.  I actually had it in mind before I even published the last post so I'm giving it a starting day of February 1st, meaning I've got until March 3rd to do something with it.  Luckily, I had it in mind because I had a plan for it already.  So here's the piece - the Roots Sweater.  Yep, see, I have a tendency to reinvent something and then not really love the final result.  In this case, I loved what I did, but I haven't worn it twice that I can remember.  I don't like turtlenecks and I rarely wear sweaters.  I'm not sure why I did this in the first place.  So.  Revamp Attempt #2!  And I'm not making it wearable.  It's going to turn into a pillow cover.  I plan to add a few more roots and extend them out to the edge of the pillow.  But then a simple (fingers crossed) cut and sew with probably an envelope backing because it requires no extra hardware and is easy! I've already pinned the new roots, so it's hand stitching time!  This is when I wish I lived in the city again.  Nothing like 45 minute train rides to give you some good forced hand craft time.

Anyways, I got off topic (and I wrote the previous paragraph last week).  I have finished sewing the extended roots and they look awesome.  I have to now figure out exactly how to do the envelope style cover.  I don't have a lot of extra fabric for the back since the bottom 6 inches of the sweater body is a knit rib, but I think I've figured out a way to actually use the ribbing to give me enough fabric to do the envelope binding, because that really is my favorite way (can it be a favorite if it's the only way you've ever done it?).  Either way, I have about a week left to finish it, though it'll only take me an hour or two from this point, so it's all dependent on when I get to it!  So excited for a crafty finish!

See you soon...

(with a new pillow cover and pictures!)

Goals and Motivation

I love crafting.  I also love how I go through phases in my life where different things become more intriguing and compelling for me.  I got a little burned out on crafting over the holidays.  I made 2 aprons for my husband's brother and his wife and then I made a 2 sided appliqued fleece blanket for my brother.  They both turned into last minute works, delaying our departure to my husband's parent's house to finish the aprons, and cutting off the extra fabric for my brother's blanket in the car to the airport.  So I came home to a messy, disorganized craft room.

Needless to say, I haven't really entered back in except while looking for index cards (which I couldn't find).  So I've decided to make organizing and cleaning up (and out) the room my new crafty priority.  One thing I have is 2 giant boxes full of random fabric (from quilting cotton to corduroy to lining material to who knows what this is for).  Another thing I have is a pile of clothes that I either almost love or have bizarre, unreasonable attachment to and can't get rid of, but I haven't bothered to do anything with them yet.  I have been following Amanda Jean on Crazy Mom Quilts and she has this goal of making 101 projects purely from scraps to help control her quilting fabric.  So I was thinking I could do the same sort of thing.  

I plan on:

  1st, picking an article of clothing that I either need to alter or rework and give myself 30 days to do something with it.  If the 30 days goes by and nothing happens with it, it's being donated.

  Once that first one is done, I pick the next article of clothing that day and have 30 days to work with that.  So worst case - I end up giving away 12 articles of clothing by the end of the year (meaning this may take a few years to get through all of them), or best case - I'll have 12+ new items in my wardrobe by the end of the year.  And some I may refashion and realize I don't like the new one any more than the old so off it'll go.  

  2nd, picking a number (101 seams...ha totally unintentional pun!...seems a little high, but maybe it's good to aim high.  Go for Gold!) of projects that I'd like to complete that use up my 2 boxes of random fabrics.  While doing that, I'll go through and decide if some fabrics just aren't worth saving (or should be used as filler or batting for another project).  The idea is to hold off on the next quilt until I get rid of a bunch of this other fabric.  So I'm going bold, but not too bold.  57.  I plan on doing 57 projects with the box fabric before I can look to do another quilt.  

I like this kind of pressure.  Not overwhelming, but for the box fabric, it'll be great motivation to be creative and think of what I need in life and how I can make it out of fabric!  It'll be like my 31 projects in 31 days that I used to do (hey, it's February! I totally missed it this year!  Awkward embarrassment) except that this time they have to all contain fabric.  But that's cool, most of my other one's did anyway.  

Already I've got my mind thinking hard.  Like, if I plan on organizing my craft room, I'm going to need some nice containers for things and I really have loved all those fabric boxes/baskets that I've been seeing and I've got some heavy weight material that would stand the test of time.  

Do you have ideas for me?  I've got a lot of projects to do and any piece of inspiration is helpful!  I'll post them as I do them and I'll show my clothing article that I plan to redo as well, and show the finished product if I end up refashioning it!  So excited for progress.  And cleanliness.  And orderliness.  I like those things.  

See you soon...

(with projects!)

A Finished Picnic/Whirlygig Quilt!

It's done!!  The Whirlygig Quilt is done! (Except for a quick wash and dry.  That part's easy.)

I decided to keep going with the circular theme and do spirals starting at the center of each pinwheel.

I then filled in between the spirals, copying the curves and getting smaller until the space was filled.

At the edge I also mimicked the spiral to fill in the space, so it looks like little curved pyramids.

The giant center pinwheel.  It was a little tricky quilting this one, at one point I had about 3/4 of the quilt in the throat of my machine. (And I have a Bernina 1008 - not a big throat!)

The pinwheels:

Pink - I love these fabrics.  The watermelon seeds and the pink hexagons! 

Supposed to be yellow - didn't find any bright yellows I liked at the store (the binding was bought later) .  Love the darker pattern, though, circles that make diamonds.

Purple - Love the contrast with the hard lines of the darker purple and the organic lines/seeds of the lighter.

Orange - Again, very geometric lighter and more organic dark pattern

Green - love the light, the random almost scribbled cross hatch.

Red - probably my favorite fabric is the light red.  I don't know why, but red is the hardest color to shop for.  It took forever to find ones that I felt were really red (and not maroon or what not) and not just polka dot or gingham.  Why is it so hard?

But look how pretty the flowers are! I know it's mostly white.  But it's my favorite. 

Blue - The darker pattern was probably a little too large for this, but it was the best color, so it worked out just fine!

This was supposed to be a slightly greener yellow - I love the lighter pattern.

Sneak peak at the back!

TA DAH! This pattern was so cool to me, and I didn't have a lot of green on the front and it's meant to be a picnic quilt, so it's good to be green - grass stains will be slightly less noticeable!  I just think the pattern's so cool.  From far away it looks more like flowers...

But closer in it looks more like interconnected rings.  So fun!  And yes, I took a picture of where my quilting was poorly done, because I'm ok with it!  It's the trouble with doing spirals.  This is where the two spirals met and so the fabric was being pulled in opposite directions.  Live and learn!

The spiral from the back.  I just used white quilting thread on the back. 

And then it was bound - I used the same fabric as the dark orange in the giant center pin, except I did it in bright yellow.  I thought in the sea of blue the quilt needed a hard, wide binding.  It's a double folded binding that I cut at 4", so the finished width is just a little under one inch.  And it's cut on the bias as well, so it could go around the curve.

I machine stitched the binding onto the front with the lovely walking foot my husband got me for my birthday.  And then my brain exploded and I decided I wanted to hand stitch the binding on the back.  It went quicker than I thought.  A few hours on Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning while my husband was out of town.  Not bad for approximately 18 feet of bias binding. 

This is also a gift, so the H is us, the B is the recipients, because we like them a lot!

I just love the circles/flowers!  And I love that I'm done!  I hope you love this quilt.  I do.

See you soon!

(...with another quilt project?)

I've opened an Etsy Shop! Finally!

I'm pretty sure it was months ago that I said I was planning on opening a shop on Etsy.  Well, I finally did it.  Better late than never, yeah?  I'm so excited about it.  It's been open for all of 10 minutes and I'm stoked.  Go check it out!  Here are some glimpses of what I've listed so far.  I feel a little odd trying to advertise myself.  It's not really my style.  But having a shop doesn't do much if no one knows about it! Christmas is coming up and I think what I create would make great gifts.  So sneak a peak.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/motenema

I've got clutches/cosmetic bags and some reversible pleated shoulder bags.  Love them all!

See you soon!

(...with a few finished projects!)

A Love Letter

Remember this horrible day?  When it all came crashing down?  It stayed there for a few days because I didn't have the heart to touch it.  Then it got rolled up and stuffed on a shelf until I had time.  Well, not that I had time, but my brain was fried from math and I couldn't concentrate on anything else.  So I worked on this.

It was a little crazy.  I had a picture of what half of it looked like, but I hadn't taken a picture of the whole thing (or at least I can't find it), the second half took a little longer because I had to read the code to put it together!  I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but this is a love letter.  Each fabric stands for a letter of the alphabet.  (When putting it together I found 2 missewn words.  I left the misspellings that were written in the letter, but I found 2 where I had replaced an 'n' with an 'm' and one where I forgot an 'e')

They were very much crumpled.  I had to iron them all.  I got lazy, however, and ironed straight on the table (with the batting in between).  DON'T DO IT! The steam got into the varnish and created white spots.  So I spent the last 30 minutes blow drying my coffee table.  (I should have continued reading the site that said it would probably clear up on its own in a few days).  The blow dryer worked pretty well.  I focused on one little area at a time and wiped it down to pick up some of the moisture.  

But I finished putting everything back in the right order.  And this time, I pinned them all on that batting  so until I figure out what to put as the spacing fabric (which I'm thinking a dark gray/chalkboard color) those pieces aren't going anywhere.   This word is my favorite.  It's rainbow, just because the code happened to make it that way.  Love it.  

Can't wait to go the fabric store and get some fabric to bring all this together.  Any other ideas on what to put in between the words? I love ideas!

See you soon!

(With a love letter sewn?)

A little of my life-

So I feel quite special, I have reached 3000 views.  I know, some blogs get that many in one day, but I am so excited.  I write for fun, a little creative outlet and I love the idea that maybe I'm helping other people get their crafty on, or get into crafting.  I love anything creative.  I had a lovely girls weekend with my sister in laws and mother in law and it was so much fun, but it meant a lot of not sleeping and just a little crafting (and somehow no pictures of it).  So here's a little of my life...

A great ice cream place, $1 scoops.  I got 2 half scoops, because I wanted two different flavors.  Notice anything though?  That top "half", it's about 1/4 the size of the bottom "half".  I feel more than a little gypped.  It was only a dollar, though, so I sort of can't complain.

This is the squirrel that parked itself in the tree outside our house (I'm looking at it through my craft room window).  It stayed there for over an hour making noises I've never heard from a squirrel before.   Some normal squeaks, but then growls and yips.  It was staring down at the ground the whole time, seemingly very hostile, but there was nothing down there! It was a little frightening.  But it left eventually.

These next few are from a series of running/biking trails near us.  My husband took me there for a walk to see all the beautiful colors as the leaves change.

He told me it was better a few days before, but it was still beautiful.  I like the trail disappearing into the trees in the picture above.  

The colors were just amazing.  Purples and greens, reds, oranges, blues.  Loved it.  I love the trees going up the hill.  They look like fluffy pom poms.  I want to rub my face in them a little.

I told my husband that if we weren't already married he should have proposed to me on this trail. 

I also love that pop of lime green up in the left there.  Surprise! 

So that's a little of my life.  To be honest, the rest of my life looks a lot like this...

So sewing is slow.  But I got one more pinwheel quilted on my GillyWhig Quilt, 2 more small ones left and then the center.  Thanks for reading!  Now go on, get crafty!

See you soon!

(...with something crafty this week, I promise!!!!!)

I live!!! And I Quilt!!!

I know, you probably thought I died.  Looking at my arm, I think it's starting to die!  I match my pj's at least!  That's 2 days after a little blood draw.  Not donating, just some regular small vial of blood for testing.  I guess I'm just very delicate.

sad bruised arm

But really I'm just super excited!!!!!!  So I had a take home test due on Thursday and I spent practically the entire week working with complex numbers.  Whee!  This weekend, however, I finally did it.  I touched my sewing machine again (and not just to move it out of the way to do math).  I sewed on it.  Not just sewing either.  Quilting!  I am finally quilting my gillywhig quilt!   (Ever notice that quilt and guilt look very similar?  Do I feel guilty for quilting?  NO!)

wonky wiggly spirals

I've got 5 of the smaller pinwheels quilted.  I'm doing spirals starting at the center and moving out.  Normally you would think of doing this quilting pattern with a walking foot.  I don't have one, though, so I'm doing it with my darning foot.  And it is hysterical.  The purple one is my best so far and you can see it's still got fun wiggles and jumps.  It's also a little squarish because I am not marking it in any way.  I'm being free and loving it!

spiral quilting on pinwheel quilt

It's my first free-motion quilting and I'm letting myself be totally free about it.  I am still contemplating.  I wanted to do spirals after I saw this awesome quilt from Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie Studio.  (Go see it, I love it!!!!)

I love where the spirals cross over each other in her quilting.  My problem is for mine to cross over, I'm off the edge of the quilt.  So I will quilt the rest, stopping at the edges, and then decide if I should quilt partial circles to get the cross overs or just do roundish triangles to fill in the blank sections.  Or just leave totally as is.  We shall see!  I'll show you when I've finished all the pinwheels to get your advice! I'm so excited!  Off to more sewing (because I have 2 days of no hw! YAY!)

See you soon...

(with a hopefully less bruised arm.  It just feels weird)