Deadline for Inspiration

Recently I joined a couple of holiday handmade/quilty swaps on flickr. The first swap was round 5 of Potholder Pass. This was a blind swap for one partner in which you send two holiday potholders and a handmade ornament. The catch was that there was only one month in between getting your partner's name and sending out your package.  I found myself smack dab in the middle of a bunch of highly talented quilter's without a clue for what I'd make.  Square in square block?  Wonky star?  Tree?  Snowflake?  eh.

Finally, I had a single spark 8 days before the deadline.

Here is my partner's inspiration mosaic.   I stared at it off and on for days.  Suddenly, the apple fabrics and the pear shapes and the leaves struck me, and I thought, "pear tree."  That immediately led to singing a part from the Twelve Days of Christmas, which led me to "partridge!!"  I knew I wanted details.  I didn't want to fit a vague bird on top of a tree on a small potholder.  

We've been doing a lot of reading to Henry about the alphabet and that led me think about alphabet books featuring one simple picture and a letter.  I then exchanged the letter "P" for a strip of pieced squares instead.  I thought the squares would tie the two potholders together best.

Then I drew my designs, and traced them onto freezer paper.  I heavily starched my fabric choices, ironed the fusible webbing on the back, ironed the freezer paper shape on the front and then carefully cut out each shape.  After that I peeled off the freezer paper, placed the pieces on the background fabric and ironed them to fuse. Lastly, I carefully appliqued each piece, adding the stem and the eye last. 

The bigger block was cut and the strip of squares was sewn on.  I used a square of recycled felt sweater for the insulating part of the potholder. Wool felt works great to keep your hands safe and it is flame resistant. I also love the texture of wool inside a potholder as opposed to the standard crinkly Insul-Bright.

To complete the potholders, I did some simple machine quilting around the designs and some hand quilting in the ditch between the design square and the pieced border.

Sometimes I just have to wait for the creative inspiration to strike and then roll with it.  I'm really glad I did.  These were hard to let go of. 

Next time I'll have to tell you about the ornament design that I made up and completed in just three days!  I might just pull together a tutorial for it, too.

Quilt squares in no particular order

Here are some of my quilt squares from the Sew Buzzy Bee. I laid them all out on my floor a week and a half ago and took a quick photo. These blocks came from the Netherlands, Atlanta, Buffalo, California, Michigan and Oregon (in addition to a few blocks that I made).

If you click on the photo, it will take you to my flickr page 

and links to the other quilters that submitted blocks.

Since this picture, I've received blocks from Canada, from England and another from Oregon. I've also laid them out on my design wall in the approximate positions for the final quilt and put sashing around a few. I'm still waiting for one more block from Chicago. That one might be awhile, but I have plenty to work with for now.

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Letter to my son in the future

Dear Henry,

Today I came to get you after your nap.  When I walked in the room, you were busy sitting and woofing at your stuffed doggie.  You took one look at me and collapsed on your belly with your face in your hands.  You were hiding from me, but you were so delighted with yourself that you were kicking the bed with your feet and wiggling.  Then, suddenly, you arched up, smiled at me and said, "boo!"  Then we repeated the game three more times for good measure.  After that, I picked you up and found that your diaper had leaked.  I took off your pants and your diaper and you stood there, still boo!-ing at me, then promptly peed on the floor.  I put your diaper on you and you said, "poo."  I said, "pee."  You insisted, "poo," and I stood by, "pee," and we sweetly argued like that until you were ready to put your shoes on and then you said, "schloo."

I have never loved anyone this much in my entire life.

xoxoxo,
your mom.

Big boy bibs

I can't put the super pastel baby bibs on my big guy anymore. Not when he whips off the velcro bibs in one second flat. Nor when it is so much fun sewing him new ones. The pattern for these bibs came from Amy Karol's Bend the Rules Sewing.

Corduroy backs

Big snaps and Mama's labels

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Sewing Lessons

This month I had three private sewing lessons to learn how to sew knit fabric and to sew apparel.  I've tried making clothes before, but they never fit right.  The biggest thing I learned was to make the first version in a fabric that you don't care about.  If it turns out, great.  If not, adjust the pattern and make it your own before making version two.


Here are the first shorts I made for Henry.  The pattern was from the 70's and had super wide legs, so I took them in (roughly) but they still work for jammies.

Here is the second version of my own pants pattern.  The first version I made with crummy flannel and this last pair was out of junked t-shirt of Ben's.  

I like how these cover and stay up over the bulky cloth diaper.

Lastly, here is a t-shirt for Henry made from one of Ben's old shirts.  This one turned out well the first time!  You can bet I'll be making more when my quilting bees are a little more caught up.

Unexpected Finished Object

I have to start with an admission....  I am a terrible housekeeper.  I like to start a lot of projects, but I'm not good at finishing things and, to top it off, I'm awfully forgetful.  So, that results in my house covered in lots of little piles of things that I mean to finish.  But, I move to the beat of my motivation (not the best priority-setter), and I'm usually inspired to start something shiny and new.

So, this week I decided to tackle the piles around my house and thin a few.  I didn't get far uncovering the dining room table, but I did sort some lovely fabric bits in my craft room in the basement.  Henry was "helping" by tearing up the shelves and banging on my project on the loom.  My table loom sits on the floor now that the sewing machine and a million projects live on the craft table.  Remember my scarf from this post?

It was woven only 36" long (not just the 6" in the picture) and still was on the loom five months later.  While I sorted fabric, Henry was yanking on the scarf and futzing with the parts of the loom and then he toppled over.  That's a good sign for nap time, so I came back to the loom during my free time.

The first step was to examine the project and figure out why I put it down in the first place.  In this instance, the grey alpaca yarn that I chose for the warp and the weft is truly, truly lovely, but it is so overwound that the lines of weft couldn't be beaten snugly.   This resulted in a scarf with lots of holes and a stiff fabric.  That doesn't seem cozy to me.

So, I took a deep breath and then started the tedious job of unweaving 36" of work line by tangly line.  That took most of a three hour nap on Tuesday.  The next day (and next nap time), I auditioned eight different yarns, chose a new weft and wove 16".

On Thursday I wove another 32" during nap and some more after Henry's bedtime.  I also took the loom outside for some pics in the outdoor light (the basement lighting is atrocious).

On Friday I wove another 2", tied the tassels, wove in the ends, washed and blocked it.  And there you have it.  The scarf is dry and soft and gorgeous and finished.

 (doesn't the overwound yarn make the most perfect twisty tassels?  i love them!)

I guess it isn't really unexpected that I finished it since it took four days, but it still is delightful.  Doesn't a finished object make your week a little brighter?

Now I just have to hold myself back from starting another loom project just to let it languish on the floor for baby fingers to play with.  Nope, I must must try to find my dining room table.
I cannot let the siren call of fabrics and yarns distract me.
:: plugging my ears and humming to myself ::
Really.  I know there is a table here somewhere....

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