100th Posts! And a Look Behind the Scenes!

It's post 100!  It's been really fun to write up my projects and creativity.  And it's been a really great way to keep my on task.  I've been known to have more ideas than motivation, and this little corner of the internet is a great motivator.

So, for this 100th post, here's a look behind the scenes.  Or at least my current sewing situation.  I started in the basement.  There was so much space when we moved in that I was excited to sew down there, but after moving in, buying more fabric, and sharing the space with a litter box, it became less awesome.

Then, during the summer, I took over the porch.  But winter came, and the porch had no heat, so I moved to the dining room.  It's been great.  I can keep an eye on the children, keep warm, and sew my little heart out.

On to the grand tour!  This is my corner of the dining room table.  The table is fully extended, so I get most of the back half with room for the four of us to still eat.  And if I get bored, I can always turn around and play Hot Wheels.

Here's the landing spot for all my current projects.  I've been trying to keep only current things here, and bringing stuff back to the porch when I'm done with it, but it's so cold out there that some things tend to pile up here.  On the left there is my stack of Economy Blocks and a bunch of fabric to be worked into them.  In the middle is a bucket of Lincoln Logs and some 505, both vital to the creative process.  Then there's more interfacing for doodle pads, more fabric, and a bag of stuff that I should have moved back to the porch a month ago.

Under all those random piles is this cabinet.  It was a freebie off the side of the road that hubs and I redid one weekend.  The paint sticks and the legs are a little wobbly, but I love it.  These colorful drawers are usually hidden behind two doors.  The left side is the kids' cars, crayons, and puzzles; and the right is two drawers of the large scraps that I've been using a lot lately, and the third drawer is full of more puzzles.

So there you have it!  It's chaotic, but somehow it works.  I haven't seen my basement stash in a while, but I love the focus of having only a small amount of fabric in front of me at any time.  And the sun!  That's one thing the basement will never have!

Thanks for stopping by my little web space!  If you want to check out the next 100 posts, click the link below to follow on Bloglovin!

 

Friday Finish: Catvent Wall Hanging!

The cats are done!  I absolutely loved making this wall hanging.  And it's actually the first official wall hanging in the house.  (I may have taken down a photo of how the mister proposed, but this was the right wall.  I'll find a spot for the photo later.  Priorities!)

It's from Elizabeth Hartman's Catvent Quilt-a-long that she started in December.  One cat a day until Christmas.  I loved making one little cat as the start of my day.  It was like a little finish that I could get done first, then feel accomplished the rest of the day.

I used two Kona charm packs for the solids, Sunrise and Sunset, a couple scrap charm packs bought off Instagram, and a bunch of scraps from a guildmate.  It was really fun digging through scraps that were all new fabrics to me and pairing them with the solids.

 I was on schedule until the last week then all the other handmade gifts took over and the cats got pushed to the side.  Then I ran out of Kona Medium Gray, went on vacation, had some surgery, basically life took over.  But I finally got it finished!

I decided to quilt it just like the original.  It looked so good, why try to top it.  I just used some painter's tape to mark out the lines, re-positioning it as I went.  The lines are a little bit more than an inch apart, because I didn't want to stitch too close to the tape and maybe sew the tape to the quilt.

There's just one bad line where I changed directions and the stitching pulled the fabric in the opposite direction.  I might rip it out and sew it again, but I'm living with it right now.

And I finally got the sewn binding right.  I've been trying to make it happen for a while using different techniques, but this one actually worked!  I cut my binding a 1/4" wider than normal, sewed it to the front, pinned it down along the back (so wish I'd had those Clover clips), and stitched in the ditch on the front.  I only missed catching the back binding in two little spots, so I just repinned and stitched those spots again.

The back isn't perfect, but it's all sewn, so that's a win in my book.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday and Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday!

WIP Wednesday: Blocks and Bolero Edition

This super sunny Wednesday finds me working happily on some Economy blocks.  I'm slowly adding to my pile.  I hope to get it up to at least a lap size, but with no deadline, I may just keep adding until I'm tired of the block.

Here's my blocks so far.  Love fussy cutting the centers.  I think I'm going to work more solids into them and maybe alternate solid and print border in the final layout.

And this is the start of a bolero for a friend.  She's making a dress for Lizzy House's Catnap Contest, and her dress really needs a bolero to finish the look.  Luckily, bulky yarn knits up fast!

Linking up with Lee for WIP Wednesday!

Doodle Pad Love

The kids have a couple birthday parties coming up, so I figured I'd whip out a couple of these cute doodle pad holders.  They're super fast to make and the kids can kill hours in a car!

I used a tutorial by Sewing Novice.  It came together pretty quick, and after making one, I realized that I'd overbought all the interfacing, so I had enough to make a second.  All in all, the two only took a couple hours to make, and that included plenty of "pat on the back" time.

These two hold jumbo crayons, but I think I might make a couple more to hold regular-sized crayons and maybe add a loop to hold a pencil.  It's really a blank slate, so I could customize it forever.

Linking up with Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday and My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday!

A Really Finished Rainbow Quilt

I'm officially calling this quilt done!  And I really think I mean it this time.  See, it's all bound and everything, that totally says done.

So the last time I thought it was done, I had only sewn the quilted top to the backing along all the seams.  It was then that I realized that all the blocks were warped from all that dense quilting, and that they bubbled in the center of each block.  I know that only I would ever be bothered by this, but I was really bothered.  

After hiding it away for a couple months, I busted it back out did some hand-quilting on each of the squares to attach the centers of the blocks to the backing and bound it in a bunch of black prints that I've been stashing away for just the right project.

I absolutely loved laying under this quilt and slowly adding all those little stitches.  There was a lot of just running stitches along the quilted lines, or following the pattern of the fabric, but there's also stars, x's, pluses, feathers and zigzags.  I may end up adding more when I'm bored and need something to keep my hands busy, and since the top has so much going on, I could probably fill it with stitches and it wouldn't look overdone. 

This quilt is going to get a bit more time on the couch before I run it through the wash.  I'm a little nervous about what shrinkage is going to do to this quilt, so I want to have some quality time just in case it spontaneously combusts in the dryer.

Linking up to Amanda Jean for Finish It Up Friday!

Snow Day!

Staring at the snow and general goobering.

 Snow day.  Stuck in the house all day with these two crazies, a bucket of animal crackers and my sewing machine.  Luckily, we'd done a run through Joann's yesterday and the flannel was $2.79 a yard!  The kids got to pick some for new pjs and since no one was going anywhere today, they got to help me sew them up.

I had supervision while cutting (did three pairs at a time with a sharp rotary blade. Yay mass production!), and the dude was put in charge of placing the pins back in the pin case.

The trains were his favorite, and the only pair I could wiggle him into, but three pairs of pjs done in one afternoon is probably a record for me.  I used the Parsley Pants pattern and cut a few corners, like ironing, and actually measuring the hems.  The end result is still a solid pair of pants, so it worked out.

The mustaches were my contribution to the pile.  I'm really hoping to convince him to wear them to school for the next pj day.  Instant cool.

Our other project for the snow day was to make Valentines for his class.  He made all the design choices and shot down a lot of my suggestions.  He just wanted hearts with glitter and his name in pencil, none of my yarn, stickers, or markers made the cut.  I love the focus.

We may have to make a few more for non-school friends, teachers, and family because he loved doing this.  Plus, why not make more since the house already has a thin coating of glitter on all flat surfaces.  :)

Rainbow QAYG: the Reboot

Well, since January really kicked my butt, I'm going to make the most out of February!  I've already made a giant list of everything I want to do, but I'm going to pare it down to just the things I want to complete this month.  And since my eyes are usually bigger than my sewing box, I'm going to try to be realistic and only have a couple things on my "Must Finish" list.

This is one of the first things I want to get done.  It's the Rainbow Quilt-as-you-Go quilt I "finished" a while ago.  I'd sewn it together and sewed the top to the backing when I realized that it was quite lumpy.  All my blocks were slightly warped (which might still work itself out in the wash) so they bubbled in the centers.  I was so frustrated at that all that work hadn't turned out perfect, that I just rolled it in a ball and stashed it in the corner of the sewing area.

After some grumping about it, I realized that doing some hand quilting in the centers would attach them better to the backing so there'd be less lump.  So I grabbed my collection of Perle Cotton and got to work.

With all these little decorative stitches, it's turning out to be one of my favorite projects.  I know I'm going to love cuddling under it and tracing all those stitches.

And this guy is loving sitting next to me while I stitch.  He gets to pull the needle as it comes up from the bottom.  A very serious job!

Linking up with Blossom Heart Quilts for Sew Cute Tuesday and Lee for WIP Wednesday!