I've Had Worse Evenings

A little Good Earth.

A little Bela Fleck.

A little sewing.

P.S. sorry for the heinous photos. My camera isn't working right now so all I have is my iphone.

Middle School Doodling All Grown Up

I think it was in middle school when paying attention in class all-of-a-sudden became uncool.

Who the heck needs to understand the basics of English grammar...drawing your initials in a heart with those of your latest crush is clearly more important! Jeez...everyone knows that.

One would think that by college, people would be over it though. But people would think wrong. My doodles in first-year statistics were a wonder to behold. Now, however, four years later as a SENIOR (praise the lord) my doodles have evolved. When I sit in my horrendously boring Introduction to Christianity class (which I am being forced to take and am very unhappy about) I make stuff like this...this is doodling all grown up.


I wanted to make something with the scraps from my Alexander Henry "Ready for Action" fabric, but I really had hardly any left. So between answering questions and participating fully in class discussion of course, I designed this little pencil pouch. I sat down and sewed it in just over an hour later in the day. It's cylinder-shaped and is the perfect size to showcase Lars (one of the hunky firemen from the fabric). Construction was a bit tricky, but I think it came out quite well.


Here's a picture of Lars, just because. Isn't he handsome?


Sadly, this is my last sewing project for a while. This week is midterm, and I am swamped. The sewing machine has been put away until after I'm done. Then its Spring Break though, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel!! I'm going to New York for the weekend, and then heading back to school for the duration. I'll sew and watch lots of movies and eat Chinese takeout. Maybe I'll get this little nugas written up in another tutorial. If I get too bored, I have a friend who lives nearby that I can visit. It should be fun...

In the Pursuit of Tote Bag Nirvana

Due in large part to the ever-increasing tedium of winter, the number of tote bags featured in the blogging world has recently exploded. I've been seeing them everywhere. Tote bags mean picnics in the park, afternoons at the beach, shopping at the farmer's market...sun! We're all desperate for it.

I'm no exception. I am currently engaged in a very serious quest to create the perfect tote bag. When summer finally rolls around, I'm going to be ready. I refuse to be one of those people caught flat-footed who have to carry stuff around in old plastic grocery sacks. No, when I go to jazz in the park this summer, I will be ready with my very own "Be Prepared" bag!


Last week I made my first sample with the Alexander Henry fireman pinup fabric. I absolutely loved it at the time and I still like it...its pretty dang cute...but I have since improved my pattern. The new sample I made this weekend is GLORIOUS. I widened the straps, tweaked the dimensions, added interfacing and more decorative elements. I am so close to tote bag nirvana that I can smell it!! .

Meet "Be Prepared" variation two..."KP Patches". (In case you haven't noticed by now, I name everything).



The tutorial that I mentioned previously is still in the works. I have the instructions all written up, I just need to take some process pictures to illustrate them! I hope to have it up by the end of next week.

I Don't Procrastinate, I Reschedule!

I've had procrastination on the brain recently. My sister was talking to me about it a while ago, and really, as a college student, procrastination is ever present. In fact, its practically a way of life. Over the last four years, I've pulled my fair share of all-nighters, I have almost never done my laundry before running out of clean underwear, and at this point in time, no, I haven't done my taxes yet (don't nag Mom, I'll get to it).

I used to think that this was a bad thing, and ok sometimes the laundry thing can prove problematic, but isn't some procrastination healthy? Couldn't you argue that procrastination by another name is flexibility? My point is, things change, priorities are fluid. If something isn't as pressing as something else, we schedule it for a later date when it is the top priority. Sometimes watching a TV show and helping my overstressed brain to chill is a higher priority than working on class readings. Some would call that procrastinating. I call it smart and healthy. I deal with my highest priorities first, and believe me, my mental health is numero uno.


So, I really just wanted to talk about procrastination, but since its a craft blog, lets provide some crafty examples. Yes, by all means, lets. Months ago I posted about some great new Heather Bailey Freshcut fabric that I had plans to make into a log cabin quilt. I just got around to cutting that yesterday, and I haven't even sewn the first stitch. Do I feel guilty about that? Actually a little, but priorities changed. Instead of making this quilt, I finished the quilts I was making as graduation gifts and I sewed several scrap quilts. I'm happy with that, and now I can get to this one!


And speaking of scrap quilts, here's a look at the scrappy snowball quilt I was making. It took me a week to do that last 45 minutes of work on it (procrastination/rescheduling at work), but now I have the top all done. I'm actually kinda meh about this one. It has a bit too much white for my tastes. I like more color in my quilts. I think I'll like it more when I get it quilted though. My very last remaining bits of these fabrics will be used for binding, so getting that extra bit of color in will really help I think.

The thing that I like best about it is that it reminds me of one of those optical illusion drawings. If you look at the quilt one way, I see the diamonds, and if I look at it the other way, I see squares with triangles in the corner. I stared at it for a realy long time. Yeah...I'm just that bizarre.


So what do you see? Diamonds or squares? The young beauty or the hag? Can you see them both at the same time? That's a sure way to go cross-eyed...

Long time...no post...

So...mucho apologies my few but faithful blog readers. Its been a while. I have come to the conclusion that writing a blog is like going to the gym. If you skip a day, its that much harder to pick it up the next. I guess I really shouldn't be that surprised at my two month blog vacation though...considering my spacey gym attendance.

The good news, however, is that no post doesn't necessarily indicate no sewing. I've been quite busy. I finished by graduation gifts (binding and all) wrapping up a LONG project. I made six quilts to give away all together. Yay me!

I also finished up my first quilt in project "scraps are our friends." Yes, that's right...I am beginning to change my scrap-wasting ways. I had a lot of yardage left over from my belle quilt, so instead of shoving them in the depths of my closet and cutting into something new, I forced myself to use 'em up! It was an interesting process. I knew that I wanted to experiment with making my own design and I knew that I needed to keep it fairly small because of fabric constraints. With those restrictions in mind, I dove in feet first. Notice that I didn't say head first, because believe me there was no planning involved. I made a big mess and ripped out TONS of seams. TONS. After trial and tribulation, however, I have to say that I came up with a quilt that I love.


The finished quilt is pretty small. I made it about a yard square, which I thought would be a good stroller/car seat size. Big enough to cover baby well, but not so long that the ends would be in danger of dragging. Designwise, I used traditional blocks spaced between solid squares of my focus fabric. For the sashing, I used white linen. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, and I have to say, I had a really mixed reaction to it. I love the different texture, and the way it breaks up the blocks...it looks great. On the other hand though, I struggled with construction. I don't think my seams are as neat, and the dang stuff just does not want to iron flat. I really had to steam the heck out of it. I'll definately use it again, but not for every project. It would raise my blood pressure too much.

Up next is another "scraps are our friends" installment. I am using my final belle remnants (praise the lord) and then I will be done!!!!! Not that I don't like the fabric, but I have so many new things that I want to start on...like six...OMG.

I absolutely love Thanksgiving, but its not a good holiday for productivity. You sit, you eat, you chat, you watch football. Oh, and you shop. Nowhere in there, do you craft. The baby belle blocks below I finished a week ago and never posted, because over Thanksgiving break, you don't blog either.
I'm really pleased with the way these turned out. I like the the background block uses a large piece of the pink, so it really gets shown off. I love the small pieces that I used in other blocks, but you can't really see much of the pattern. Its nice to have a good mixture of both. I like the randomness of the foreground block too. I just sewed the pieces together randomly, not really worrying about whether the pieces were straight or not. I think they both came out really well.

This is a busy couple of weeks for me, so I'm not really sure what I'll have time to do, but up next are my triangle blocks. I'm excited to play with those!