There's a reason I sew...

I can't draw! I need ocean/fish stamps for D's Sunday school tomorrow
(all about the ocean), so I cut up some sticky craft foam and made
stamp holders from strips of cardboard. Hopefully it will work!

Yesterday was productive:

Two shirts for D (more onesie-collars. I can get 1short sleeve and 1
long sleeve out of 1 yd jersey, so at $2.69/yd, these are awesomely
cheap shirts. This green print has small racecars all over. D found it
himself, and loves it)
I also took an old stretched out waistband off one of my gram's
squaredancing skirts and replaced it. New fabric and elastic!
Tonight I took the night off from crafting and read trashy novels in a
hot bubblebath. Fun. Tomorrow I plan on going out dancing, so I'll be
back to show off on Saturday.

Tada!

Ok, so the other day, (gosh, was that just yesterday? yikes!) I showed you this sneak peak...

Here's the finished product!

It's a zip-up hoodie for D. He doesn't fit anything store bought right now, so why buy and alter when I can just make myself (out of superior materials, tailored to my boy!)

He wanted a tow truck, so I decided to make it a working truck, and put the appliques on the pockets,

I free-motion stitched "D's Towing" on it... lettering is hard!

I hand-embroidered the cream/grey chain (using a chain stitch, of course) after everything else was done... I really wanted the chain to connect(match) across the zipper....

I've never made outerwear before (I'm counting a sweatshirt as outerwear, not sportswear, but that's probably because I live in LA), and I didn't have a pattern, I drafted this one myself. (I'm not going to bore y'all with the incredibly long list of errors I made, but the next one should be doable in 1/2 the time, and with considerably less ripping of stitches!!)

It's after midnight, so I'm refraining from waking D up to make him try it on right now. Hopefully it fits and I will be able to get action shots in the am....

I also need to find my camera (I'm pretty sure it's in my husbie's car) so I can show off some other pics I took over the weekend...

various bits...

My husband is very Irish, so I decided to put a little bit of effort into decorating for St Pat's day.

Tada! yup, I am NOT a decorator.

But I am proud of that wreath! it's made out of coffee filters, I just glued them onto a circle cut out of a paper bag, and tied that to a wire wreath frame... I taped the shamrocks to the door, and to the wreath frame... I hope to continue changing the wreath to suit the seasons... not sure if Easter will be eggs or rabbits or...

Here's a sneak peek at my latest boy applique project...

the car will be on one pocket, and on the other pocket:

the tow truck!

like this! I ironed on the pieces using wonder under, but I don't trust that stuff at all, so I've already done all the blanket stitching and thread painting on these, and they look super cool... Now I just need to make the garment, but I'm totally a wimp who's afraid of the dark, so I don't want to go out to the garage tonight to find good colored thread for my serger. this can get sewn tomorrow night...

Oh, and here's the finished Dutch flag onesie for baby Oscar... hopefully he likes it...

And today I did my block of the week for the Modify Tradition Quilt Along... pics here...

adrenaline/caffeine/cold medicine

I'm sick. I have a really painful sore throat, so talking is rough right now.

but once the kiddos were in bed, I had no need for talking!

I drew this cement mixer...

and then cut lots of little bits, and did a LOT of blanket-stitch, and some thread painting, and got this:

I'll get good pictures with a real camera in daylight, but I was so excited, I had to post a preview right away.

I also made yet another race car shirt for D (this is #5 or 6). I clearly bought too much of this fabric, but it's finally all used up. This shirt has long sleeves, so at least its not exactly the same as the others (which were all really just muslins, and hopefully I can disappear some of them, or fix them and give them as gifts).

I also got lots of ironing done.

I think/hope this stack is about 150 semi-circles... Just need to sew them together to make my pie pans...

oh, and I need to add to it (I'm planning some 4leaf clovers for the immediate future), but this is on my front door right now:

Coffee Filters! (LOTS of them)!

Oscar's birthday present

My friend Catrine is Dutch, (like, actually born and raised in Holland). Her little boy is celebrating his 1st birthday this weekend, so here's what I've made for him:

This onesie is still drying, but I've used freezer paper to stencil the Dutch flag (I do know how to spell the word white, but the "e" is covered by the side strip of freezer paper...just FYI)

then I made a cute pair of pants, with some felted wool remnant pieces, and lined them with a mans shirt...

I used scraps of each to applique a matching tie onto a shirt.

I think my favorite part of the pants is the patch pocket on the side... I still need to sew the button on, but look:

It's from the button placket on the front of the men's dress shirt I used for the lining/waistband.

Isn't that cool?!?!

anyway, hopefully he/his parents likes the gift... I forgot to make a little gift bag, guess I still have that to do...

Wordless WIP Wednesday.

(because I'm sick)

Quilting catch-up!

Tonight, with help from a large Coke/Root Beer (mixed together 70/30, it tastes a lot like Vanilla Coke!), I made this weeks block for Modify Tradition (the block is called Shoo Fly)...

Again, I'm only using scraps, so the red is from the bolt from the thrift store, the white was left over from... uh, something else.... not sure what, but I really only had enough to do these 4 triangles, that perfectly used up the scrap of white... and the print, in honor of V-Day yesterday, is a bit of my most cheesy valentine/love print. I really love it, in small doses... (I'm about to attempt a pair of jeans, and this might be my pocket lining).

Next up, since I was in a quilting frame of mind (and I can't find my granny squares, I think they're in my husbie's car):

work on my pie pan quilt....

I'm making a California King sized quilt for my bed... I started it when I was preggers with D, so... at least 4 years ago? Other people keep getting married/my kids and I need clothes/I lose bits of it, so I have worked on it in fits and starts... My goal is to finish the top this month...

California King is really really big. just FYI...

The blocks are all dark blue and light purple... this is really a "kaleidescope" block, but I think the pieces look like a pie, hence in my head it's always been my pie pan quilt... I have about 1/3 of the blocks totally finished, and then about 1/6 of them pie-panned (needing triangular corners put on to square them up), and then tonight I started piecing the other 1/2 (yeah, I made sure my fractions added up correctly. Me = nerd).

here's my pile of triangles from tonight. It's a very large pile (3 hours of sewing)

One of my favorite bits about this is going to be the back... I have purple/blue blueberries on a white background... not floral, but sooooooo pretty. and C loves blueberries. I can't WAIT to finish this!!!

Utility sewing

The slupcover on the sofa on our back patio was ripped to shreds on
the seat, so I grabbed a remnant canvas piece that sorta matched,
pinned, and zigzagged it on. It's not my best sewing, but the dogs are
always on this sofa, and they don't care about puckers!

What I accomplished last night...

the kids went out early, I didn't...

I was so excited to get the fabric for the 1st Wednesday Block Swap, I got right to work...

I made a pinwheel star for Flic (she asked for stars, 12" square, in black and red)

I used the Made Tutorial as inspiration for a shirt for D... His head is really big, and he hates the pulling-over-the-face part of getting dressed/undressed, so I thought the onesie collar might work...

but I don't believe in stealing patterns (copying from a store-bought item of clothing *is* stealing, unfortunately), so I drafted this my self... The armscye needs work... luckily the fabric is cheap, and the sewing is fast, so I can make several more attempts....

D is pleased with it, though, he LOVES race cars...

here're some scraps from the block I made... don't they look cool like this?

I'm assuming my dude doesn't read this, at least not regularly, so I can sneak a post with his valentines present... he (and the two kids) will get an envelope, with his name embroidered, and then some bits that can button onto the cards... (the one in the middle says "*heart* my stinko")

here's another pic of the shirt, from the side...

Hats for Kat

As I think I said before, my friend Kat needs some things knitted up for her photography business... so tonight I worked on some hats... she chose the yarn (fun bulky brown yarn with a variegated twist of blue/green/beige)...

I knitted these up with size 11 needles...

this top one has a straight top, no decreasing... (makes it look almost like it is a hat with bear cub ears)

below shows the same hat, but with the brim rolled up

and here's one with normal decreasing...

the doll's head makes it look really pointy, even though it isn't...

see? not pointy.

the top one has about 2" of 2x2 ribbing, but I didn't bother on the second one. The yarn is so bulky it doesn't show, and the needles are big enough that I don't think the stretch factor will be necessary...

now if only all kids/moms can be well enough to have a playdate, I can hand everything off to her!

D's new shirt!

is from C's old shirt!

He's asleep, so I can't try it on him, but I'm super pleased with it!

links...

I saw 2 really awesome tutorials in my google reader today, and while I don't usually link to other people's stuff here, I am going to today. Purely selfishly, since I want to be able to find these again!

first, I saw these awesome flowers:

tutorial here

then I saw this awesome tute on how to do Flying Geese blocks quickly and easily. LOVE.

P.S., if anyone out there feels like making something for D, he really wants one of these, and I don't have any socks like that...(nor do I want to go out and buy socks just to cut up)

modeling her sweaters...

So here's the Bean in the sweater dresses I made for her... they've been keeping her nice and toasty, and she's been looking awfully cute in them!



(she has a very unique sense of style, even at only 15 months)