sewing and other stuff

I've got some random stuff to share with you, since I haven't been posting regularly it is a hodge podge.  I often do things, or take pictures, with the thought that I want to blog about it.  In fact, I kind of compose part of the words I want to write in my mind.  Then the moment passes, I get wrapped up in stuff, and it doesn't happen.  Today I'm clearing out some of the backlog!

Last summer I had a nice big outdoor planter dish full of thriving succulents.  By the time fall came, I brought them indoors and started a few smaller plants from the cuttings.  Part of the main plants still did well indoors, others not so much.  With the weaker light and short days of winter, they weren't real happy, but most survived.  In the picture below, that big healthy jade plant in the middle is from the last summer growth.  I uprooted all the rest and replaced them with all the little ones around the outside of the bowl.  As soon as we get more warm days, they will go outside again.  And I have more pots started with more cuttings.

When we cleaned out the garage, one of the more nostalgic finds was our original old tent, purchased in 1976, I think.  Still intact, and we even set it up in the yard to see what it looked like.  It brought back lots of nice memories.  Now it has gone to Goodwill and will hopefully bring more memories to someone else.

Yesterday was an exceedingly good weather day, plus Earth Day!  So I did a little digging and started getting rid of some of the old winter scum of dead leaves and even new weeds popping up.  I found a little bit of asparagus showing up!  Yum!

On the sewing side of my life, I am working on finishing up 2 things that will be offered as classes this summer.  One is called Mini Rings, and I don't have a picture here but if you look at the Bear Blog tomorrow you will see a bit of it.  And I'm nearly done with it, just finishing up the binding.  

The other is the big star quilt shown below.  I saw this on display last fall when I attended Quilt Market in Houston, and I was very impressed by the use of color and design.  It's called Star Storm and is by Victoria Findlay Wolfe.  The fabric is also her design, called Meadow Storm.  We have complete kits and the patterns for this at Bear Patch.  Now to get it quilted!

Since you had a bit of grandson overload on the last posting, I'll toss in some info about things that I made for little Leo's nursery!  I found some fabric that pulled together some of the colors that Brita wanted to use, and here's what I made:

A "boppy" pillow cover--it gets a lot of use with just about every feeding time!  With the first grandson, I bought the pillowform and it had directions on the wrapper to make the cover.

A little pillowcase (travel pillow size) that matches,
but for decorative purpose only at this stage of Leo's life. 

Matching crib sheets to spruce up his crib.
He's still sleeping in a little cradle in mom and dad's room,
 but will eventually move onto his own mattress.
Use this link to learn how to make them.

And his name banner, not finished in this picture but you get the idea.
You also get the idea of how many threads are stuck to my design wall!  

Last Sunday, Easter, Bob and I had the afternoon to ourselves and decided to visit someplace we had never been before but not far from home.  The Mississippi River is maybe 10-12 miles west of here, and there is a big dam and park that we have never visited.  It's called the Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park on our side (the east bank) of the river, and we walked across the dam to explore the trails on the west side, too.  The dam was much bigger than we expected, so I'm glad we went there.  We came upon an area that has had a lot of recent beaver activity, in this picture you can see all the trees that they have been gnawing on.  Lots of carefully made wood chips!  We saw lots of people walking, some folks fishing in the river, and some osprey watching us!

what have I been doing??

Last time I was sharing here, I was on vacation, and now that seems like so long ago even though it hasn't really been that long!  I have been trying to make the most of my time at home for sewing, but that has become more limited as I have been working more at the store.  We have needed to rearrange some hours and duties there, and some of that has come my way.  It's all things that I enjoy doing, I really love being a part of the quilt shop.  

We are adjusting to the absence of one of our key players, as she recuperates from a devastating injury.  This is the kind of injury that strikes horror in the heart of anyone who loves to work with their hands.  She took a bad fall on her stairs at home, and ended up with multiple fractures of wrists and a shoulder.  For weeks, she was incapacitated for anything involving upper extremities.  Now, 4 months later, she is in the midst of constant therapy and exercises.  She has regained limited use of her hands, and can sew on her machine for brief periods and slowly knit with big needles and chunky yarn.  The physical ramifications are a huge challenge, but also the mental and emotional hurdles.  Loosing the ability to do what you love to do (sewing and knitting), loss of independence (unable to drive until a week or so ago) and just feeling like everything has changed without wanting it to change!  We all express encouraging words, but can't truly identify with her situation.  We just want her to get better!  It takes a lot of determination and work for her on a daily basis to do even some of the basic things that we take for granted.  

So, as I share with you about the things I work on, it is good to be reminded that I am lucky to have the ability to enjoy this big part of my life and creativity.

In January, I started making blocks for Urbanology by Sew Kind of Wonderful.  It's a 12-month plan to create interesting shapes and designs with the Mini Quick Curve ruler.  I've used the ruler before, and now I'm a big fan!  These feathers and arrows are my favorites from the whole quilt.  I still have to make the last section, the antlers.  And then, of course, put it all together and quilt it!  I would love to teach this at the store starting in the fall, so I hope I get it all together by then!

My little grandsons, Ian and Jack, like to help with a little stirring and mixing in the kitchen.  So I am making them some little chef aprons with a Mickey Mouse theme.  I found the fabric at the JoAnn's store, they have a lot of licensed fabrics of all kinds to choose from.  I know these guys like Mickey, so this should be a good fit.  I had enough fabric to make 4, so that's what I'm doing, and they can share with friends.

The directions are from Mom and Me Aprons by Atkinson Designs.  It's a straight forward and well-constructed design.

One of the things I do for the store is help with designing and organizing the little make-and-take projects that we use for retreats.  I altered a free online design to make this bag, and have written up the instructions for my modifications.  I get inspiration from all kinds of places, but with something like this, I always feel it's important to give credit to the source that I took that inspiration from.  We make up little kits to hand out to the 54 women at the retreat.  I'm calling it My Tiny Treasure Bag!

I'm also preparing for Grandson #3, arriving in March!  The nursery has the colors shown below in the chevron, arrows and feathers fabrics.  I just spent a little time pulling out some colors of solids in my stash to go with them.  I have some more work to do to get the combinations just right, and then do some sewing.  I'm thinking sheets, changing pad cover, boppy pillow cover, name pennants, diaper storage box and a couple other things if I can.  Better get busy!  Glad I just have to deliver these things, not the baby!

I've had little time for my English Paper Piecing project, Glorious Hexagons.  But I whittle away at the blocks and eventually I hope to have enough to make a quilt.  I have decided that I am going to simplify things a bit and instead of making several of each of the 54 blocks, I am going to make multiples of the blocks that I really prefer.  Those are the blocks with less pieces!  Here are 6 that I have basted and ready to hand stitch together.

And that's all for now!  Have a great day!

finally some sewing (etc.) to share

I haven't put up much here lately about the creative side of my life, so here goes:

A young friend of mine, Molly, gave birth to her first little baby about a week ago (or so).  I had some fun making her pretty little crib sheets for the nursery and some pennants for her name (Ada) to decorate the wall.  When I first heard that her choice of colors for the nursery was gray and green and purple, I wasn't sure how that was going to work out.  I found out that the walls were painted a fairly bright limeish green, and the purple that she was going for was definitely not lavender!  She came into Bear Patch one evening and we picked out some bolts that fit into her color scheme.  After that, it was easy to visualize how it would look.  In addition to the crib sheets, I have put together this small quilt for Ada, although it isn't finished for the young princess yet!

One more touch that I added for the nursery was altering the curtains Molly had purchased to fit the windows.  And more importantly, add light blocker lining!  We know how precious a sleeping baby is, and sometimes the darkness is so important to calming and relaxing.  In the picture above, you can see the difference between the naked curtain on the left and the lined curtain on the right.  I highly recommend this little addition for any babies in your life!  I purchased RocLon Budget Blackout lining for this, cut a rectangle to fit and topstitched it across the top and down both side edges of the curtain.  I left the bottom loose and didn't turn a hem or anything because this stuff doesn't ravel.  Do use a walking foot if you are sewing this, and plenty of pins, because it tends to not feed through the machine quite like ordinary fabric does.

Just a couple days ago, I decided I wanted to make one more thing for a Christmas present.  I went for something made with bulky yarn and big needles so I have a hope and a prayer of getting it done in time, given the fact that my knitting time has been pretty limited lately.  I made this once before, it is the Gaptastic Cowl.  I gave it to Brita and she thought it was great, so I'm game to do another!  The pattern is a freebie, so maybe you would like to give it a try yourself!

And speaking of knits, Miss Penny of Whitefish, seems to have taken possession of the scarf I made for Lauren!  I guess Penny knows a good thing!

Another knit gift that is completed and in the mail is a neat pair of fingerless gloves.  In the picture below, I have one glove that is done and blocked, and the other (on the right) is done but unblocked.  I didn't know the value of blocking when I started out knitting, thinking it was just something that the really good experienced knitters did and that I didn't have time for such fuss.  Well, turns out I was wrong.  The process of blocking is simple--just soak the item in lukewarm soapy water (mild detergent), then rinse and roll up in a towel to squeeze the excess water out.  Then lay out flat on a smooth surface, and stretch and straighten to get it looking perfectly aligned.  When it dries, it looks neat and finished, plus any little bits of dirt or oil (or cookie crumbs?!) picked up during knitting are gone.  The knit stitches lay much flatter, even though you can't really see that in the picture.  But the edges and ribbing lay smooth and even, making a much more professional finish.  As far at the soap goes, there are several types of mild detergent soaps out there (dreft, soak, soaps intended for babies, eucalan, etc.) but the one I often use is called Show Paste Shampoo from the Fleet Farm store.  It is an animal shampoo, but really good to use on textiles, too.  Who knew?!

I whipped up a little sewing project a couple days ago to try out a new design from QuiltSmart.  It is called the Gadget Cushion, and is the perfect propper-upper for our favorite little hand-held computer devices.  Works great for my phone and I need to try it for my Kindle, too.

During the fall, I got addicted to making these little bags.  I think I made about 2 dozen.  It was just so fun choosing the fabrics and zippers!  I have a few more combos already in a box for the next retreat.  And a lot of these little guys are making some fun little Christmas gifts, sometimes even with a gift card inside!  The pattern is Bridget's Bagettes by Atkinson Designs.  Go ahead, see if you can make just one!

And that's about all for today!  

new things

I'm so lucky to have a son-in-law who's mother is a fabric lover, just like me!  Mary creates wonderful bags like this:

carpetbag available at Mary's website

And now she has been busy designing fabric and very kindly sent me a towel made from the exact print that is my favorite from her collection.    I love it!  Every time I look at it I picture Mary busily creating.

Wonderful fabric from Mary Kaiser

And Brita and I did our own bit of creating last week to prepare their nursery for the little guy coming along in a few weeks.  The color theme is brown and green (there seems to be a pattern here, this was the color scheme for their wedding, too!) and the walls have been painted green on the upper part and brown on the lower section with a white chair rail.  The crib and dresser/changing table are in place, along with a very comfy rocker/recliner that is going to see some action.  I found some decorator weight dark brown fabric with white polka dots and purchased enough for drapes and bed skirt.

pardon my poor photo, it was night time!

I used the directions from Sew4Home as a guideline for these projects.  I hadn't sewn lined floor length drapes in a long time (maybe never!) so it took a little planning and plotting.  But I was very happy with the result.  Brita installed all the grommets and Ben installed the curtain rods.  The drapes plus the blinds do a good job of darkening the room.  The bedskirt has pleats in it but this crib kind of hides that, so I could have saved some time and eliminated the pleats.  Nonetheless, it gives a nice finished look to the crib.  I'm glad I had the chance to help with my sewing.