Goals for 2018

For some reason my phone wont let me upload pictures to my computer.  So while I've had progress on many things, I thought I'd do this, sharing the things I'd like to do this year.  I'll have new ones pop up as the year goes on.  I'll update it as I go, but these are things I know I want to do at the moment.

Projects to finish 2018 

(so at the end of the year I have a concrete list off of which I can judge)

I have an Idea

1. Quilt for niece M

2. Storage bag for kid's blocks

3. Bag for music

4. Bag from handwoven tshirts

5. Quiet Book

6. Reusable shopping bags

7. State applique wall hangings

8. Brooklyn inspired quilt

9. Rainbow HST quilt

In Design Stages

1. Curtains for kids room

2. Red Knit clutch

3. Travel Bag for Husband

4. Storage Bag for Reverse Charades game

5. Reusable Produce Bags

6. More Handkerchiefs

7. Son's name Wall Hanging

In Some Stage of Sewing

1. Wedding Quilt

2. Quilt for niece A

3. Christmas Tree Skirt

4. Curtains for front entry

5. Tshirt Rug

6. Christmas Matching Game

7. Embroidered Alphabet

8. HST Wall Hanging

Needs Quilting/Binding

1. Code Wall Hanging

2. Daughter's name Wall Hanging

3. Baby Quilt(s) from Wedding Fabric

Long Term - (To work on, but not finish, this year)

-Hand Stitched hexagon quilt

-Cathedral Window quilt

These are all things I definitely want to do.  I have a stack of projects that I have started throughout the years and not finished that I am unsure about.  They may get recycled, they may get tossed, they may be redesigned, they may be completed as originally planned.  They're not as high priority, so most will likely be dismantled and used in other ways.  But who knows, you may still see some of them on this blog.

til then....

Train Blanket - The Beginnings

More train fabric from the friend who gave me the train book panel.  My son wanted to do another job (project) with me.

When I got this I figured it was perfect.   I asked him what he wanted to make and he said a blanket.  The fabric's not very big (the above panel is 32"x41"). I haven't decided if I'll try to put some more borders around it to make it bigger, or just leave it and have it be a toddler bed size quilt. 

I'll probably ask him as well.  It is his blanket, after all.  He helped me trim both pieces (we hold the rotary cutter together and we each have a hand on the ruler).  Then he got distracted by racing monster trucks down my mini ironing board leaning against the couch.  Love that kid.

til next time...

Wedding Quilt - slow, slow progress

Wedding Quilt!

(I love little stacks of fabric like these.  They make me happy.)

My husband and I didn't have a wedding book, we had everyone sign/draw on pieces of fabric.  Those were all sewn together into LeMoyne Star blocks (which I finished 18 months ago-ish?).  These will be the spacing blocks in between. 

My iron died at this point though.  Saddest moment ever.  (Though it was 12:30am on Sunday morning and I had a veeeeery long day ahead of me, so it may have been God saying, this is the only way to get her to bed.  So be it.  Let the iron die.)

  But I've got a new one (YAY!!!!), so progress may continue to be made.  We only got married 5.5 years ago.  That's not too bad, right?

til next time...

Thomas Fabric Book

This is the first project my son and I have done together.

He's 3.

(sorry about that photo, it would just not go horizontal)

A friend of mine gave me a panel that had instructions on how to cut and sew it into a book.

The instructions were a bit vague, but it's a kids book and we had fun making it.

There's a layer of batting in each page, nice and cozy.

And it's all wrinkled because it got peed on the night it was made, so it went through the wash.

And came out whole on the other side!  So it'll last just fine.

The actually "story" is weird.  I hesitate to call it a story.  But eh, it was a job (read: project) to do with my son and he's proud of it. 

til next time...

Tshirt Rug (or bowl?)

What, you guys don't use your son's monster truck bus to keep your braid from pulling the whole rug off the table?

So, note to self and everyone else.  Don't fold your rug in half while sewing it.  Get a bigger table.  Otherwise...

You'll get a bowl instead!  Yep, major bowlage. 

Or platterage. It's not quite a bowl. Luckily I checked after a few rows (though not soon enough).

Didn't think I could fix it.  Hence, the ball of braided yarn.  4 hours to lace it up, 30 minutes or less to rip it all apart.  

Here we go again. 

til next time...

Tshirt Rug - All Coiled Up

Here it is, all coiled up. 

It's not sewn yet.  I was trying to get an idea of how big it was and if I'd need more shirts.

It's about 24" in diameter (don't know how much that will change when it's actually sewn together), which is perfect for in front of the chair in our bedroom.  Any bigger and it would just be hiding under the bed.

On to the sewing! (Though I may actually try lacing, not sewing.  Depends.  On my patience and skills.  Wish me luck.)

til next time...

Embroidered Alphabet - The Choices

I have no picture, but the paper was taped to the fabric and then taped up to a window so I could transfer the markings to the fabric with marker.  My children decided to join me. (First under my supervision, then unexpectedly when I was making dinner.  Their beautiful artwork shown below.)

I picked to embroider in green because I had the most variety in green floss, and I had decided to do an ombré effect to give it a little more interest.  So here's my pile of green. (I've allowed my children to play with the floss to distract them while I do other projects, so it's not organized.  At all.  It's a hot mess.  Yay!)

And having never done this before I don't know if I have enough of one color to do the whole thing.  (I'm still deciding if I want to just outline the letters or fill in the block parts of them.)

Tshirt Rug - The Braiding

With all the strips cut, I started braiding.

My genius set up - I used the hinge of a folding tray table to keep the tension on my braid.  I'd get about 18" braided and then readjust.  Pretty quick while we watched a movie. (Or two).

And it is now all braided. How exciting!  Ready to be coiled and sewn.  Not sure exactly how big it will be.  We'll find out and if I need to grab a few more shirts to add, I can do that.  I like the flexibility of that.

til next time...

Embroidered Alphabet - The Beginnings

I'm on a crazy mission - I have become fanatic about cleaning, organizing, and decluttering my craft room. It’s a hodgepodge of stuff, but most importantly, projects that I’ve started and not quite finished over the last decade. Or more.  I’m trying to clear it out. Use things up, donate what can be donated that I don’t have a good use for, finish things and get them out!

Naturally, with that, I started a new project! Ha. Not surprising. But I did it for a good reason! I didn’t want to do any projects involving cutting and sewing fabric because that would involve a giant mess in the room I’m trying to clean, so I decided to start a completely new hobby of embroidery. Why not?

I found this image on Pinterest a while ago and loved it. I knew I wanted it displayed in my house (maybe kids room?) but I didn’t know how. It can't really be pieced in a quilt, my free motion quilting skills are not up to snuff for it, I didn’t want to just draw it, I don't have cool paper to put it on, and I wasn’t going to print it. So this week I had embroidery on my mind and thought, that could work. Then I found a piece of cloth that seemed like the perfect dimensions and it was already finished with a hem on the end to hang it from.  I decided to give it a try.

Since I don’t have a printer, I blew up the design on my computer screen and traced it onto paper with pencil, then traced the pencil with sharpie.  That's what I'm doing now.

(And yes, I use paper that my kids have scribbled on already, because I'm not keeping that, but I'm not wasting a basically empty piece of paper, either.  The dilemma that got me into the above situation.)

til next time...

Cinnamon Rolls

I bought the buttermilk for these and it took me over a week to find the right day to make them.

But Sunday morning we were treated to a second breakfast of Alton Brown's overnight cinnamon rolls.  (Second because my kids wake up when I do and these still have to bake an hour in the morning, so we had a quick english muffin appetizer first. Savory, then sweet.)

Totally delicious.  Only thing I would change, I may add more cinnamon next time.  But mmmmh, delicious.

(They store in the fridge marvelously, just microwave for 30 seconds and spread on the icing when it came out. Yum.)

til next time...

Braided Tshirt Rug - The Beginnings

I tend to ramble here.  I have a post waiting to be edited because it basically tells my life story as an intro to my new craft.  I am trying to settle myself down a little.  So here goes!

New craft - doing a braided tshirt rug.  I'm going to be doing a presentation to some ladies at church, so I figure I should make one so I know what I'm doing! 

Tonight I spent 90 minutes cutting up 5 L/XL tshirts.  Tada!

I chopped them up into strips between 2-6 feet and I'll be randomly pulling them from the bag to have all 5 shades mixed throughout.  I hope I like the effect.  ( I also hope this makes an ok size rug.  No other tutorial is very clear about what number of tshirts makes what size rug.  So we'll see, I guess.)

Tomorrow I'll start braiding.  (I did a mini version of this, like coaster size, as a preview for the ladies and I really enjoyed the process, so I'm looking forward to some mindless braiding as I listen to TED talks or watch Netflix or listen to a book on tape or something.)

til next time...