Multiple Craftonalities

I Never Pre-Wash My Quilting Fabric

Okay, almost never.

I got up one November morning and decided to apply myself to a work in progress that was randomly growing from 4 charm packs and a bit of yardage I had from Moda's Fresh by Deb Strain.

I had some blocks done, some halfway done, some strips cut, and some uncut yardage scattered about my dining room table which is really my craft table because we rarely dine there.

Wouldn't you know it-

I went to take a swallow of my fresh cup of coffee (with cream and sugar), reached over my sewing machine to get the cup, and caught the bottom of the cup as I was lifting it over the machine.

I could have just spilled some of it, but no, the whole cup slipped from my grip and flooded the work table.  It was bad.  It was one of those moments where I was stunned in disbelief for a second or so before I could even react.

All I could do was pre-soak the blocks and pieces, and then put them in lingerie bags through a gentle cycle in the washer.  There are still some dingy areas, but maybe I am the only one who would really notice.

The real issue is - wait for it -

The fabric really does shrink.  This makes it a bit tricky to sew unwashed blocks with the coffeed/washed blocks, but whatever,  I just did it.

I'm free motion quilting it myself, so the fact that this is stained and some of the blocks are smaller than others  really takes the pressure off of me as far as the quilting goes.

I'm still just learning and practicing and I'm cutting myself some slack.  I keep telling myself that I have to see some disappointments before I'll see improvement and the results I really want.

 

 

My Attempt at Simplicity 7229

I sewed view C from Simplicity 7229 which I'm sure is designed to be super easy even for a beginner like me, but I made too many changes and it did not turn out well.  I am just about at the point where I suspect I will be happily relieved to just toss it in the garbage and say good-bye.

I used this stretchy woven black and white plaid fabric which gave me the idea that I wouldn't need a drawstring as directed by the pattern.  Then I started adjusting the waistband and top of the body of the skirt to be more fitted than the drawstring skirt would have called for.  I sewed and unsewed the pieces a total of three times which tortured the stretchy, cut on the bias, waistband really badly.

I think I learned a few things.  I learned that all the shaping cannot be done at the side seams.  Also, the shaping needed to be more gradual because the angle plus the bulky seam made a "hip" that will not lie flat.  Lastly, to do this type of a waistband, I would have had to put some interfacing in so it would hold it's shape.  All good to know for future projects I'm certain.

In any case, it's too short for me and I haven't even hemmed it yet, so I think it's time to just let it go.  There is no point in hanging on to a piece of clothing that does not fit well and shouldn't be worn in public.  It is still kind of difficult to just toss it after all the time I put into it. 

I'm not giving up on sewing clothes, but I am going to take a little break and turn my attention back to quilting for a little while.  The cold, fall weather has got me wishing we had more quilty-good throws to cover up with while watching tv. 

Charity Baby Quilt

I made this quilt earlier in the year as a charity baby quilt for W.I.C./Women Infants & Children.  Some quilting friends of mine all made baby quilts to donate to this organization.  We all spent a volunteer day at a local church and worked about eight hours at it.  Some of the ladies actually finished their quilts the same day.  I was not among those who finished that day.  Sadly, my little quilt was turned in quite a bit later than most. 

I have been loving some of the quilts I've been seeing that are done on a white background.  There is one in particular that always makes me stop and stare (and mentally drool a little).  It is featured in an add for a New York quilt and yarn shop called Purl Soho, I believe.   They've had a series of ads in the knitting magazines that feature a lot of bold color palettes.  The quilt I'm referring to has a very modern, bold look.  I think it is reds and oranges on a white background sort of done in a bargello style.  That is how I remember it, but I cannot find the ad for the life of me right now.  It often happens that I'll have a memory of something, but when I see it again, it is not what I remembered at all.

That may just be the nature of inspiration.  I will try to remember that instead of feeling like a crazy person when I finally do find that ad and see that it is 95% different from the picture I have in my head right now.

This quilt was an attempt to work with a little brighter color scheme on a stark, white background.  I realize it's a teensy bit risky to use white for a baby quilt, but hopefully it will see some use and enjoyment from the recipient even if it ends up a poster child for Oxy Clean.  I sent it out in the world hoping it puts a smile on some mother's face who maybe would not have had a new baby quilt by other means.

I sketched this out on grid paper I downloaded from the internet.  I didn't get too technical at all.  It was just a rough estimation of where I was heading with it.

I quilted this little charity quilt with my embroidery machine using two designs that came programmed on the machine.  It was a good way for me to get it finished, and I thought it didn't turn out too badly.  I have found a website that has really great looking continuous line, embroidery designs for quilting.  As I recall, they were only a dollar each, but I have never gotten around to purchasing one and trying it out.  It is definitely on my mental to-do list though.

It is a bit of work to keep hooping and moving and hooping the quilt for each medallion, but I don't think it is any more or less tedious than stitch-in-the-ditch quilting would be.

Today is a cold and damp October day in Wisconsin.  I hope some little tyke is cuddled up in it's soft quilty goodness and feeling the love and care I put into this little quilt.

 

 

 

If You Like a Little Sewing with Your Movie...

I subscribe to Netflix.  I still subscribe to both the streaming videos and the 1 DVD out at a time, even though I did think their recent rate hike was a little excessive.  I rarely watch the DVD, and in fact, I have one that has been sitting unwatched in the mail pile for a long time.  It's been so long that I have no idea how long it's been.

I love watching entire seasons of tv shows one right after another.  It is so very different from watching regular tv.  I have watched Damages, Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, and Breaking Bad episode after episode, after episode all the while staying up too late and yet, not getting my laundry done because it is JUST SO ADDICTIVE.  No commercials and no waiting a week for the next installment of the story.

Anyway, Netflix, I'm hooked.  I think I saw four seasons of Mad Men in two weeks, and that is not an exaggeration.  In my defense, I did have a bad cold or viral thing over one of those weeks, so I was down for the count in any case.

Now for movies it's another story.  I spend an inordinate amount of time browsing the movies on Netflix and thinking they all look pretty lame.  I'm not into slasher-type-horror movies or the "unrated" type of movies of which they seem to have many.

Every once in a while though, I take a chance on something that I've never heard of and never seen a trailer for.  Some of them, especially period pieces, are well worth watching.  I feel lucky when I end up happy that I took the risk.  One of those movies is The War Bride.  I'd never heard of it, but the synopsis looked interesting enough that I thought I would try it.  It was really good.  I think I will definitely watch it again sometime. 

It starts out kind of sad, but the main character is a tough cookie with a positive attitude and uses her talents to her best advantage to improve her sorry situation.  Her talent, as it turns out, is that she is an accomplished seamstress.  She uses her sewing skills to aid her in forming relationships with her new family and acquaintances.  It's not the main plot of the story, but for anyone who craves sewing content in their entertainment, it will do the trick.

Sewing content aside, it is a good movie with a happier kind of ending.  This is the type of ending that I prefer.  I always think that life can be rough enough without entertaining ourselves with depressing movies that have tear-jerking endings.  This is not to say I never enjoy those movies, but given my druthers, I'll take the upbeat ending.  I'd rather cry tears of joy when I have my good cry.

I really do love it when there is sewing or knitting shown on tv and in movies.  I loved the scene in Raising Helen where Joan Cusack's character is knitting and telling her husband how many celebrities are knitters.  They hear a car pull up, Joan says, "I wonder who it is", and her husband teases that it may be a celebrity come to knit with her.  I found it hilarious!  Susan Sarandon sews in Stepmom, and knitting content can be found entangled in the plot of the infamous A Cry in the Dark which I would have enjoyed less and found less notable if it wasn't for the bit of knitting.

Sometimes, I think my true hobby is being obsessed with hobbies.  I think about and shop for sewing, and knitting, and scrapbooking all the time, but spend a relatively small amount of time actually creating.  It's more like I study the hobbies and collect their related paraphernalia. 

I wonder if there are others out there like me.

 

Three Year Quilt

This is my 9-patch exchange quilt that was started in September of 2008.  I finished the top some time ago, and then it got folded up and stuffed in a drawer for a long time.  Poor quilt top.

One of my local quilt shops had a sale the first weekend in September.  The sale was 25% off of backing fabric if you brought in a finished quilt top.  While I was there, I ran into a woman who long arm quilts and offered a very reasonable price, so I picked out some backing fabric with the assistance of my six year old daughter and left the quilt top and backing in the hands of Marge. 

I really wanted this quilted in very small stippling, but the price would have been twice as much as the edge-to-edge pattern I ended up choosing.  It was a kind of a "rock and a hard place" decision because I don't really like the quilt too much.  I can see it's merits, but it is just not to my taste.  The quilt was made from a block swap I joined while attending a quilt show.  The sample quilt at the show was beautiful and was quilted in the very small stippling.  This whole experience was one of those VERY IMPORTANT LESSONS that we often experience when learning a new hobby.

Here's what happened:  The quilt shop had pre-cut packs of 2 1/2" strip sets to make up the 12 blocks each month.  I would go in each month and pick out 2 packs of fabrics that I liked for myself.  I would go home and sew up the requisite 9-patch blocks and then turn them in at the end of each month while keeping 4 for myself.  Then, of course, I would get the swapped blocks.  This particular quilt shop is very friendly and the owner and staff is great, and they are very close to my work and home.  This should make it perfect!  It would, except for the fact that the shop is primarily dedicated to civil war reproduction fabrics and I gravitate more towards bright, light, color combinations.  Purple and yellow or red and teal.  Happy colors.

Looking back, I don't know why I didn't just pull out after the I realized that the blocks I was getting back were all really brown and dark.  I just kept my head down and kept on going.  Once I had all of the completed blocks, I distinctly remember thinking "this looks like throw-up".  Again, I just kept my head down and kept on going.

I struggled a little with the assembly.  Many of the blocks were way off the mark size-wise, but I perservered.  Once I picked out my border fabric and assembled the quilt with the borders, it grew on me a little.  The green-with-gold-accents border seemed to pull it all together.  I was uncertain about whether I was going to try to quilt it myself or pay someone else to do it, so it went into storage.

This brings me back to the sale, the long-arm quilter, and then a week and a half later a finished quilt.  Wait!  Not quite.  I still had to bind the quilt.  I really dreaded the idea of this process on a queen size quilt.  I had used a what I imagine to be a whip stitch when hand sewing the binding on previous quilting projects and was not very thrilled with the process or the results.  This time I did a little research on Mr. Internet because I had heard from various quilting friends that there is a BETTER WAY.

Oh boy, was there.  I found out about the ladder stitch and I actually really enjoyed hand sewing the binding to the back of this queen sized quilt.  I loved the result as well.  It was finished in about a week.  After I dragged it in to work for a day to show-n-tell, I threw it in the washer and then replaced my WHITE bed spread with this 9-patch, block swap beauty.  Ugh!  It's so dark!  Every time I walked in my bedroom it startled me.  I kept telling myself that it was just a big change and I would get used to it. 

It's been about a month and I still haven't.  I'm kind of torn up about it too.  I think I did a good job sewing the blocks together and choosing the border fabric.  I think Marge the long-arm quilter did a beautiful job quilting it.  It feels wonderful to curl up underneath it's quilty weight at night and know that I MADE THIS and I actually FINISHED IT!  It's the fabrics that are the insult to my eyes.

I know the obvious answer is to make another quilt to replace it with, but right now I have other crafty pursuits going on, so who knows when that event might ever transpire, if ever?  The rub is that I'll never know if spending the extra to have the tiny stippling pattern done would have saved this for me.  I know the quilting can really change the look of a quilt, but my best guess is that even that would not have been enough.

Good thing my eyes are closed most of the time that I'm in my bedroom, and I don't think I'll be signing up for any other block swaps in the foreseable future.

Full Circle

If one were to go exploring my closets, one might find a speckled blue file box.  In that box, there is a bag from Northwest Fabrics (as I recall, but the store is long gone anyway) with a receipt, and unopened pattern, and two pieces of darling, seersucker fabric.  The pattern is for those cute toddler girl sun-suits with the matching bottoms.

This pattern and fabric was intended to clothe my first-born daughter who is now 21 years old.

In that same file box (most likely) is a blue, knit dress with a white kind of textured swirly print on it that is in pieces and partially sewn.  This was intended for myself at about age 20 or 21, and was abandoned when I had too much difficulty sewing in the sleeves.

Funny, that I can remember that without even looking at it.  And that was about 20 years ago.

About two or three years ago, I caught the Project Runway bug and bought a dress pattern and some fabric to make a dress.  I didn't get to it right away and when I finally did I realized that I had made a drastic error in buying a way too small pattern.  It was not my size, Barbie, so it got stuffed in a drawer as well.

Early this year, I picked up a pattern and some stretchy, plaid, black and white fabric to make a simple, drawstring skirt.  My scissors were quite dull and the thick and slippery fabric was not cutting well.  That was doomed pretty soon out of the gate.

I have quite a "pattern" of getting an itch to sew but never getting anything successfully sewn.

In September, I was planning an away from home, scrapbooking weekend with some girlfriends and lamenting that I had no new jammies.  All my flannel pants were worn, and shrunk up short, and the elastic waists are all monked-up.  I was going to sew myself some jammies!

One Saturday, about six days before I was going to leave, I went to Jo-Ann Fabrics (which is conveniently less than a mile from my house) and bought a pattern and some flannel for some new pajamas for me.  I called my mom with the news, and she said, "Aren't you leaving on Thursday?", and then she just laughed hysterically.

But I was determined this time.  I had learned my lesson about pattern sizing and had made sure I measured my hips etc. and had a large enough pattern.  By Sunday afternoon I had a finished pair of pajama pants.  I was sort of swimmin' in 'em.

My mom came over, said, "Oh, those'll fit me", and off went the pajama pants home with my mom.

I started over and by Thursday night I had a finished pair of pajamas that I was able to take on my scrapbooking weekend.  Success!  Yahoo!  The top was a little on the large size too, but hey, it's pajamas.  Too large is pretty okay.

I figured my small success with the pajamas meant that maybe I have a future in sewing clothing after all.  I pulled the dress pattern and fabric out of the drawer and told myself and my husband that it would be good practice and a learning experience even if it was too small.  I reasoned that I already had the fabric and the pattern, so why not sew it up?  There's a zipper and darts, and what, the bodice gets lined?  How did I miss that?  I don't have any lining fabric.   I just adopted some unbleached quilting cotton that I had laying in the drawer.

I cut out the bodice lining pieces and started marking and sewing the darts.  I was doing pretty well with it for not really knowing what I was doing.  I pinned the front to the back and thought I might be able to adjust the seams enough to make it fit okay.  It might fit if I don't wear a bra with too much padding and if I didn't use such a large seam allowance.  I really was thinking I could just make it work.

Once I had the shoulder seams and side seams sewn, I realized a couple of things.  First thing was that the back was supposed to have been in two pieces instead of cut on the fold.  This was okay as I would just need to cut the back down the middle.  That's easy enough.  Second thing was that the center back was actually about an inch and a half from the center of the back piece I had cut.  It began to dawn on me that I was NOT going to be able to fit into this thing regardless of the bra or the seam allowance.

I started researching pattern resizing on line and, for a novice sewer, it looked like too much.  Finally, I just decided to look for the pattern in the correct size on-line.  It was out of print, but I found it on one site for $20.00.  Luckily, I kept looking, and yesterday I found it on ebay for $7.25 including the shipping.  I'll have another run at it after the pattern shows up.  I realize now that even though sewing the too-small dress would be a good learning exercise, my free time is valuable and I don't want to squander it sewing a dress that nobody will every wear. 

On the Road Again

 

Sometimes when I get down and out, I self-medicate by forcing myself to get involved with a crafty project.  For me, it is better than Prozac (or whatever the drug du jour is these days).  Just doing something repetitive and productive helps me shake the blues.  Not all at once, but it starts to get better.

I've been in one of those low periods lately, so last weekend I dug out a quilty project that I began last summer.

 
I spent a few hours on Sunday working on these blocks and finished 5 or 6 more.  Tonight I only sewed for a few minutes, but I'll take it.

 

I think I have had enough of summer, and my thoughts are turning toward cooler fall temperatures.  I haven't forgotten how ugly winter is, but I've never been able to relish summer heat and sun and too-busy-weekends for very long.  I don't have the stamina for it.

Weekends should be for rest, and summer weekends leave me extra exhausted when Monday rolls around. 

I snapped a photo of a beautiful arrangement of flowers that my neighbor brought over to us last weekend.  Now they are starting to wilt a little, so I am doubly glad that I have this pic.

 

Wannabe

 
For weeks now, I wannabe knitting something.  All day long at work, I think about knitting while I listen to  Stash and Burn podcasts on my ipod.

I get home, do all that I need to do, and by the time I can plop down on the sofa for some me-time, I am just too darn tired to knit anything.

Summer is busy with golfing and camping, along with just trying to get through the work day, making dinner, etc. etc.  I love a lot of what is going on, but I miss my knitting time.

I broke down and ordered some knitting books from Amazon the other day.  I ordered French Girl Knits and Modern Top Down Knitting. I guess it's either compensation for not having any knitting time, or just looking for something to get me fired up on a project.

A few months ago, I had started a summer top trying to write my own pattern as I go, and it was not going one hundred percent how I would have liked.  I picked it up the other night and I just couldn't get going on it again.  I am seeing things I wish I had done differently but don't want to rip back yet another time.  I already have the yarn just about worn out.

The yarn is actually pretty nice.  I bought it last summer at store in Rockford, IL which is now out of business and I can't remember the name of right now.  It is Savanna Zitron in "Sunflower", a cotton/linen/rayon, and it has a little shine to it that I am liking.

Maybe I just need to get stern with myself and resolve to get down to it and figure out what I had going on with this little project.  I feel like I need to give myself permission to just knit it and not focus on it turning out perfect.  This is the first time I am trying to knit something like this out of my head. 

It is tougher than many knitters would have you believe.

It is so weird how I feel like I want to knit, but just don't do it.  I think what I have is knitstipation.  I think that sums it up exactly.

Knitstipation.

Pause

I finished another not-quite wearable sweater 2 weeks ago.  It is a cardigan/wrap type cardigan.  I love the pattern which is from SweaterBabe.com #112 Dramatic Lace Wrap (Top-Down) Cardigan but, once again, I ended up with something that is not happy to wear.

It is too big.  I think my gauge was right on, but I suffer from this syndrome that causes me to choose a size up from what I really need.  In this situation it created a back and back neckline that is just too wide and the sweater constantly slips back on my shoulders.  I even tried cinching it tightly with a lovely new, hand-carved, cherry shawl pin, but it still fits uncomfortably.

I am bummed.  I suppose I could just give it to someone larger than myself, but I really like, no love, the sweater.  I have just enough yarn to almost make another one in the next size down, but the sleeves will be really short.  Really.

If one more person says, "Well, couldn't you just shrink it a little?", I think I will break down entirely.

So I am pausing, trying to decide what my next move will be.  I want to knit a sweater that I can wear and love.  Over the past 10 years I have learned that is not as easy as it sounds.  At least not for me.

2011 still hand-knit-sweaterless in Wisconsin.  Brrrr...

Bad Knitting Voodoo

 
I stayed up a bit late to finish my Hot Flash socks last night.  I was feeling pretty fine and pleased with myself for finishing the toe and then weaving the ends in right away.  I was giving myself a mental pat on the back and thinking about how I have really grown as a knitter now that I was completing old, unfinished projects and even doing the finishing work immediately upon completing the knitting.

Fueled by all of my kind thoughts about myself, I decided to snap a few photos so I could post right away about my awesome accomplishment.  I took about a thousand crummy photos of my Hot Flash-stocking feet (my photos never do justice for my knitted items so I play the odds by taking many, many photos and hoping I get lucky and get one decent one)(which I rarely do).  It was taking quite a while because I was setting the timer on my camera for each shot so I could get a picture of my feet at a less awkward angle then I usually manage. 

While all this was going on, it did dawn on me that anyone looking in at this crazy lady in her nightgown, setting the timer on her camera, and then pulling up her nightgown and posing her feet in front of the camera would think something really, really weird was going on.  I guess it is really, really weird, but what’s a knitter to do?

At some point during this amateur photo shoot I started to notice that the knitted pattern in the socks didn’t seem to quite match up.  I had noticed this when the second sock first came off the needles, but I attributed it to it not having been tried on and “stretched out” yet.  I started to really concentrate on the tops of my feet and tried to figure out what exactly was different.

It slowly dawned on me that I knit approximately 10 more rows of stocking knit before the toe decreases on the first sock than I did on the second sock and it was, of course, about and inch longer than the second sock that I knit.  Incidentally, the second sock was a better fit.  Ugh.

 
The “funny” part of the story is that I was knitting on the sock at work (on my breaks and lunch) yesterday, and stopped when I got to the toe decrease section because…  because I wanted to check the second sock against the first sock to see if I had added any length to it.  When I was home last night, I did check it against the first sock to see if there were any added rows.  I didn’t see them.  It appeared that I had started the toe decreases at the same spot on the first sock that I was sitting at on the second sock.

(Insert large sigh here)  I don’t know how to explain it.  It must be some kind of bad knitting voodoo, but there it is.  I have successfully completed two different sized socks.  I’ve had little to no success with sweater knitting, but sock knitting I could depend on to make me feel like I was a proficient (if not exactly an accomplished) knitter, and now this mini-tragedy.

I am going to see if I can find my woven-in toe end on the first sock, and if I can find it and pick it out, I will rip the first sock back and tear out the extra 10 rows.  Then I will re-knit the toe.  I just don’t think I can live with or wear a pair of socks that are two different sizes.

I need to start making notes on patterns.  It is such simple advice, and I have read it time and time again, but it took this little incident to make it sink in.  I always think, "Oh, I'll remember what I did here", but I rarely do.  I really hope I can find the yarn end in that wildly variegated yarn.  I'm pretty paranoid that ends will pop out so I weave in a lot of end yarn.  I realize I could just snip the yarn at the toe, but I really would prefer not to go that route.  My hands are starting to sweat just thinking about it.