Necessary Chocolate

More felt!

Jeremy was an impulse buy. This French hen has been on the project list for a while. It's not from a kit, but it is from a really well written pattern from mmm crafts. The pattern taught a great technique for transferring embroidery to felt. I've always found it hard to do that - I've tried transfer pencils, and transfer paper, and really good light tables. I usually end up with the pinprick technique, where you prick holes through the pattern and then apply chalk or marking dust.

But Sulky Printable Sticky Fabri-Solvy (ugh, that name) is GREAT. Using an inkjet printer, you print out the pattern onto what is essentially a sticky-back interfacing. You need to preshrink your felt (just handwash and let dry). Then, stick the printout on your felt, and embroider through it. I don't know that I'd use this for really fine work, but for thick strands of embroidery floss, the extra layer doesn't get in the way at all.

Then place your pieces face down in water.

Soon, the printout dissolves away.

Rinse off the pieces and let them dry.

Isn't that great? While I didn't need to embroider Jeremy Fisher, I still printed out the pattern onto the solvy. It sticks really well to the felt. I could then just cut around it. Much easier than trying to trace around a pattern.

Kits kits kits felt felt felt

I like a good kit at any time. But a kit in January? Where you can just knock something out without thinking about it? Joy.

And if there's some nice, forgiving, wool felt involved, all the better.

This is Mr. Jeremy Fisher from The Cheswick Company, who also designed  the Poky Little Puppy and Tweedle twins kits. Jeremy took all of one Sunday afternoon/evening? With some extra time for paint to dry and to make the hat. He's a very dapper fellow and a good addition to the felt ornament collection. 

 

No decision crafting again

During deadline seasons (another one next week - eek), I need mindless things to do. No decisions. Just cut and sew.

So I started another quilt top a few months ago. One that will look like this. I'm using a layer cake of Moda's 2wenty Thr3e; the ticket fabric from that line was the lining for the prize bags last year. The disappearing four-patch quilt block is complicated to keep my mind engaged, but simple enough that I can be stressed up to my eyeballs and still sew a successful block.

The prizes for 2013 are very very close to completion. I just have a few more decisions to make. And that pretty much sums up the issue. Maybe I should just post the issues here and give up on this surprise nonsense!!!

A "during the break" throw

You know what you need after a tough deadline? A nice, easy, poofy project. I dreamed of making the lap duvet from purl soho, and all the necessary fabrics sat around for a couple of months, just waiting for me to stop writing, spread out the material, and cut things and pin things. 

So, one night, a few days after I handed in my report, I dragged myself off the couch, thinking, "you promised yourself you'd do this. TV is not more fun. Go do it." Just the kind of attitude to have for a nice, relaxing project.

It's just 42" x 60" and made out of Nano Iro double gauze, which is wonderfully soft. And expensive. This is not a cheap project. But this fabric seemed made for my family room.

And, despite the kneeling on the floor for two nights cutting and pinning, and the three days of deciding which color thread to use to tack it together (beige in the end), it was, in fact, relaxing.

 

*Of course, if I didn't take the break, I wouldn't need to work crazy hours for the next deadline. Ha.

Another summer, another set of deadlines

What can I say? Another summer with a crushing deadline. But there have been wonderful highlights. And now that there's a break between deadlines, I can take some time to record those highlights. 

But seriously. Summers are supposed to be leisurely, right? Endless? Days of wading in creeks, and playing in the garden, and canning, and country fairs, and exploring the woods nearby, and reading? I think that my idea of summers was forever warped by Elizabeth Enright's "The Four Story Mistake." Or her "Gone-Away Lake." Yep, I'll blame it on her.

So just this week, The Quilt was officially finished. Because my mom was kind enough to quilt two rows of stitching in the border - she has a better quilting sewing machine than I do, and she's nice, and she loves me. Yesterday, I washed it and took it out of the dryer, and it's perfect. 

Washing it crinkled up the sashing, and now the squares pop out just like I hoped. It's soft, too. So I'm happy.

So the ten-year-goal of redoing one of the bedrooms is one step closer. There's a daybed (you can see a glimpse of it behind the quilt) and a quilt. Now just to take out the carpet, restore the hardwood floor, get some storage, repair the damaged sheetrock on the ceiling (from an ice dam), put in some bookcases... Sigh. I really want this room to be a guest room/my studio. But maybe not enough to do all of the work? We'll see.

Oh, and I plan to replace the wallpaper. Even though it makes me laugh EVERY time I walk in there.

 

Pretend that I'm sitting by a fire, knitting

Seems like I've been reading lots of blogs that show women snuggled up under a quilt, with their dog, cat, and/or child, near a cozy fire. The Christmas decorations have been put away. Usually they're knitting. Maybe there's homemade soup on the stove. Sigh.

I, on the other hand, spend most of my day in front of a computer screen. Sure, I'm doing great stuff, but still. It'd be nice to have the cozy, too.

So lets just pretend that I have a puppy, that there's a fire in the fireplace, that I don't have a baby shower at my house this Saturday that'll happen in the midst of Christmas decorations that haven't been put away yet OH MY GOSH. Pretend that I'm not a control freak, who actually told the women planning the shower that they should use red and white decorations to match my Christmas decorations. Pretend that I'm calmly knitting or embroidering. Or something.

To inspire you, I will share my admittedly cozy Christmas moment pictures over the next few days. You can pretend that my life is like this all the time.

Let's begin with flannel. Nothing cozier than that, right?

Flannel with KITTENS.

Awwww.

I've had this munki munki fabric forever. It's some of the softest, fluffiest fabric I've every touched. As soon as the pants were done, I wanted to make MORE flannel pajama pants. I wanted to outfit the world in flannel pajama pants. I settled for one Arizona girl. The others got ebay-bought pajamas. All with a distincly orange theme, it turned out.

Tomorrow, cookies. 

See? Cheerful. No back story. No serving others. Except for quilt stores.

Thank you so much for your kind comments. As a reward, and as promised, there is no story with deep meaning for this quilt. No spiritual thoughts whatsoever. Nope. I made a quilt top! In bright colors. For me. I've had a layer cake of Moda's Swell (or Sweet? I can't remember) for at least a couple of years. 

No stash for the back, I'm afraid. The stripe (part of Moda's Vintage Modern collection) came from the trip to the Utah quilt shop with the Arizona girls; there's not quite enough, so more is on the way. I could only justify a yard of the birds/wheels fabric - but it's perfect. 

It's been a very long time since I managed to make a quilt. This one was simple enough and fun enough to keep my interest. Now, of course, I want to make more. I have dreams of an online bee. 

Summer sewing

I'm starting to think that I shouldn't list "sewing" on any form asking for my hobbies. Maybe "fabric storing". Or "dreaming".

But I did recently finish an apron that I started fifteen months ago.

It's a very complicated pattern; you can see why it took me fifteen months. Ha.

It took a month just to decide how to attach the applique. It's needle-turned, as recommended by my mom when appealed to on a particularly "I don't know how to do anything" sort of day. 

The embroidery is inspired by a beautiful Snow & Graham card.

Christmas dishtowels

Can I just say that I have a rather large pile of dish towel fabric? This is what happens when I can't find the dishtowels I want to embroider, and as a result have to buy fabric/towels whenever I find them. 

Of course, that pile is nothing compared to the other fabric piles that I own.

Anyway, it's nice to use it up every once and a while. These dishtowels were my easy summer-fall project. The project that you can pick up and not have to make any decisions at all. One color of thread, two patterns. The perfect evening or early morning project.

Someday, I'll embroider pillowcases with these patterns. Of course, I'll need to start a pillowcase pile first.

Another white dress

And this is why no Easter sewing this year. My friend Kathie's daughter, Grace, will be baptized this weekend, and I was lucky enough to make a dress to commemorate the occasion. Yay! I love making pretty dresses. (This one was a long time coming. I have unfinished baby dresses that were intended for Grace.)

The fabric is a very fine lawn/batiste (it's been in a the stash for awhile) with a white stripe, lined with a cotton/poly batiste. The dress came out of the washer/dryer today remarkable unwrinkled.

Because a girl should wear horizontal stripes while she can still get away with them.

The ribbon is from stash, too. Grace said that she likes flowers and big skirts and twirling.

There's a big puffy sash. And pockets. And word is that Grace loves it!

The pattern is Jane-Ann from Children's Corner (sadly, out of print). It's hard to see in these photos, but there are cool little pleats in the front bodice waist. The sash is supposed to extend out of those pleats. I liked the ribbon too much to cut back on it, so I made a full sash. The only other modifications were to add an underskirt; interface the upper collar; interface the button area in the back bodice; and I ironed interfacing onto the back of the floral ribbon to keep the threads in place. I use a beautiful, lightweight German interfacing - again, from stash.

Besides the stash dress and lining fabric and ribbon, I used Robert Kaufman's Silk Radiance cotton/silk in Champagne for the contrast. I love this fabric so much that I've used it a lot.