Sunshine Paisley Throw Pillow Tutorial

Ok, here it is. What I've been meaning to write and put up for ages. If I didn't have to keep doing that pesky schoolwork (five more weeks until graduation, five more weeks!), this would have happened a lot sooner.

Once I finished the five embroidered paisley squares (click for pattern), I knew I wanted to make a pillow out of them. I was worried though, because I didn't want it to get too "patchwork quilt." I didn't think that would go with the modern feel of my bedroom.

I wanted to do solid yellows and grays, but the quilt story nearby (Gracie Lou's--sooooo awesome!) didn't have any. This was perplexing. Normally, when I get an idea, there is nothing that can prevent me from doing that idea. I mean, small adjustments, they normally make the project turn out better. Large adjustments like substituting a print for a solid? I will normally not proceed. I think the saleswomen in the shop thought I was being completely unreasonable (although she was very perplexedly kind about it). Like, I had gone into a restaurant and said, "But, these green beans aren't green enough, I wanted more of a Christmas green, not so much an olive green. And I wanted them cut 1/4" longer. Do you have different green beans in the back?" (I did not ask for super-secret back-room fabric, FYI).

 

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Aqua and Pink Camera Strap Cover

I'm not sure why camera manufacturers make camera straps so uncomfortable. I'm guessing that it's so that the straps have a grippy quality that allows them to be less likely to slip and therefore less likely to fall off of your neck and (in a second therefore), therefore less likely for your camera to achieve contact with ground (this is bad, unless you gently set it there. I once dropped my most expensive lens. That was un-fun).

I have not yet developed callouses on my neck that would allow me to wear my camera strap without discomfort. Perhaps that's something that is discussed with pride among professional photographers? I wonder if they compare neck callouses? Although it would be pretty hard to see your own. You'd have to get an impartial judge, which seems like a lot of hassle for a simple callous comparison. Or you could get two mirrors. Or, I can't believe I didn't think of this earlier, you could just take pictures of each other's callouses. I'm spending way too many words thinking about something that probably does not exist. I'm unfamiliar with small talk among photographers (or their necks.) (I don't mean small talk among their necks, I just mean, I'm unfamiliar with their necks--I don't make a habit of examining people's necks; although I do enjoy vampire fiction, a preoccupation with necks has not yet resulted, apart from this blog entry). Whenever I meet professional photographers, I try to change the subject. I feel like a fraud and I don't want to get caught forgetting that my camera is a 60D or confusing ISO with aperture (it's totally happened, even though I can use ISO and aperture with dexterity if with mixed results).

I've resorted to some pretty interesting solutions while trying to relieve camera strap chaffing, including wearing the whole thing down around my shoulders or under one arm. Not exactly ideal. So, it's pretty sad that it took me this long to make a dang camera strap cover.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: Hexagon Quilt

Quick post to show you my progress.

Maybe I'm half way done? I'm not sure. I'm thinking I might want to do a few rounds around the outside to make it bigger anyway, so who really knows.

I'm just happy it appears to be getting bigger. Maybe I'll finish in time for Christmas. Darn. Now that I've said that, it sounds like a goal or something.

Midterm grades came out last week. I have an A- in my public speaking class (it will go up, we do a semester long test, and the best score out of three counts, so once I take it the final time, I think I will have an A in the bag) and an A in my Organizational Effectiveness class. I have to watch that one, because I'm at the point where I'm starting to be highly UNmotivated to do my assignments. Always dangerous territory.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: Hexagon Quilt

Yes, another week has come and gone and all I've managed to post is another update on my quilt.

It's not that I haven't been doing other crafty stuff. I have. It's just super-secret-crafty stuff that I can't share yet, because it's super-secret. I haven't done any super-secret stuff in a while and it is KILLING me not to share.

I clearly need to do more crafting, so I can share more on the blog and save my arteries.


However, I still have been sewing my fingers to the bone on my hexagon quilt. There hasn't been actual blood yet, but I have stabbed myself a few times, and I get a lot of hand cramps. I try to just shake it off and keep going. David and I had an argument the other day after I'd been sewing for hours and watching Vanity Fair. I got a case of the hand trembles. I said it was because I was getting a migraine and need chocolate, and he said it was because I'd been doing too much close and delicate work with my hands. No one won, because our arguments are more like mild disagreements, and we both go away thinking we are right and rolling our eyes in our heads at each other. Except, if David is reading this, I never, ever roll my eyes at you, not even in my head, because you are the best man in the entire universe and I love you and respect your opinion and you might have been right about my hand trembles and I love you. Smooches. (I know know you just rolled your eyes at me! Ha! Caught you!)

So, here's the progress I've made on my quilt so far:

It's getting bigger! I'm thinking I might be half of the way done by now. Maybe? We shall see. I'd like to step it up this week, but we'll see. If school and laundry and birthdays and zoo trips and Primary programs and Halloween costumes didn't keep getting in my way, I could get a lot more done. Not that those things aren't important, but it's impossible to look at elephants and hand sew. Just saying.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: Hexagon Quilt

I miss summer. I had so much time during the summer. Oooooodles and oooodles of time! Now it's all gone. Xander's birthday was last week and he's getting baptized on Saturday and Griffin's birthday is next week, so you can see what I mean.

I've been recording my first speech this week for my college class. I finished yesterday and I'm going to post it to the blog next week. Then you can see how, um, silly I am. In person. Or rather, on video. It was really hard to stop doing takes (I did two non-filmed practices, two filmed and very kid-interrupted filmed takes and one final take). I could have probably done 20 takes and still not have been happy.

Still, last weekend I found some time to work on hexagons. I made a lot of hexagons. I figured out I'll probably need around 475, or maybe more. Depending on how distracted I am and how long I've been doing them (the more I do in a row the faster I get), they take me between 4-8 minutes to do. So, let's say 6 minutes on average. That's 47.6 hours on hexagons. Roughly. I'm just happy I don't have to put it all in as one long work week. It's a nice break from school.

So, here's the stack I got done this week. Aren't they so pretty?There are about 150 hexagons in these stacks. I can't wait to sew them into my top!

I'm thinking that if I get my coursework done quickly today that I might start a dress. Maybe. I found some of the feet for my Bernina at my mom's house! Not the regular 1/4" foot (I believe that has disappeared into the dark abyss and joined that planet floating out in space somewhere made up entirely of mother's objects lost by their children), but one that I think will work for most regular sewing. At least one that will work until I buy a new one!

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Tutorial: Quilt Top Paper Piecing Style

If you remember, I've been working on a new quilt. It's a hexagon quilt, and I'm trying out paper piecing. This is all new to me. I've been enjoying it, although it's a crazy amount of work.

There are several ways to piece a quilt this way. In one way, you baste through the paper, and then later take the basting out. In the way I'm doing, I'm tacking down the corners, and then removing the templates so I can reuse them, and I don't take the basting out.

If you're interested in my method (for those of you who don't think I should be committed for attempting a project this time consuming), here's what I'm doing. I think this would be stunning to do smaller and frame to hang as a piece of art.

I printed my templates from this website.

Step One:
Cut and print a template. After a few uses, my corners started to get a little questionable, so I used some shiny tape just over the corners (if you do them along the whole edge, the template doesn't stick to the fabric as well). Cut a square of fabric a little more than 1/4" bigger around each edge of the template.

Step Two:
Fold over one edge and finger press.

Step Three:
Insert the needle with a smallish knot tied on the end of the thread into the fold. Pull through. You can see my needle in the above photo ready to be pulled through the fabric.

Step Four:
Fold over the next edge (I work counter-clockwise) and finger press. This is the hardest part to get lined up. You can sort of tell where your template should go by lining it up with your previous finger fold from step two. This will hide your knot, which appeals to my sense of neatness, although it's probably really unnecessary.

Step Five:
Back tack (I'm not really sure if back tacking is necessary, but I'm paranoid, so I do it--it does seem to help the hexagons keep their shape a bit better). To back tack, insert your needle a tiny bit behind where your thread is already coming out of your fabric, make sure you are catching all your layers of fabric, then come out again, close to your original thread, and pull through. My needle in this photo is all poised to back tack. I just need to pull it to complete the back tack.

Step Six:
To do the next corner, fold down the fabric, again making sure your template is secure into your corner and lined up with your first fold. Once you have it all lined up, finger press it. Then take a small stitch on the corner, making sure to go through all the layers of fabric.

Step Seven.
Back tack.

Step Eight:
Continue around, keeping the template tight and back tacking at each corner. When you get to the last corner, it's going to look like this.

Step Nine:
Pull taut, then tuck corner under, making sure the fold goes all the way to the edge. I use my thumb nail to make sure I get a crisp fold. This is the same method I use for each corner, but it was the easiest to see with this corner.

Step Ten:
Fold down, and tack.

Step Eleven:
Put needle back under first knot. Pull up through fabric.

Step Twelve:
Tie a square knot around string (my mom always helped me remember where I was by saying I should make a rainbow and a smiley face). Cut thread.

The front will look like this:

And the back will look like this:

Then you can pop the template out and carefully press with your iron to keep sharp corners and crisp edges.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: Hexagon Quilt

Hey there!

Contrary to any rumors you might have heard (or not, considering I'm just making that up right now), I have not fallen off the end of the earth or taken any voyages into space or moved to Mexico to escape the law.

I haven't posted in forever because my kids started school, and then I started school, and between the two and getting a new routine down, I didn't take any pictures of the projects I was working on. Then I started writing a few posts to explain, but they sounded all strange, so I gave that up, and thought I'd just update once I took some photos.

Which I did yesterday! So hurray! Except that my camera might have died at the end. I'm hoping it's just being a tempental artist, but with my luck since we moved, and it's age (six years seems long for a digital camera), I'm guessing it's surrendered to my heavy use.

Short story: there's a post today. Which I'm going to do a lot more often, now that I'm into my 2nd week full week of school--it's not so bad. If you're curious, I'm taking Public Speaking and Organizational Effectiveness this semester. I go to school all online, so I find it kinda hilarious that I'm taking a public speaking class. Good thing someone had the good sense to invent web cams. Anyway, I'm writing my first speech, which is about crafting! Of course. How could it not be? I might post it here once I'm all the way done.

Onto my new project progress! I've started a hexagon quilt. These things are deadly serious. This is not the type of project to start if you only kinda feel like making a quilt.

I picked out a bunch of fabrics from my stash--mostly scrap-ish ones and fat quarters--I think there are 19 different fabrics. I love these colors. They are so cheerful.

Then, the next step is to make about a billion little hexagons. I did mine by paper piecing, which basically means you wrap a rough cut of the fabric around a piece of cardstock (or paper, but I like cardstock better), tack it down at each corner on the back, and then pop the template out of the middle. It takes a surprisingly long time. My hexagons are 1" hexagons, which is the measurement of one of the sides. Yeah, still doesn't make them too big.

That isn't all the different kinds, but most of them are there.

I've been working in a sort of leap-frog fashion. So, I make six hexagons of each type of fabric (so about 120 hexagons), and then sew the hexagons together. Because I'm too impatient to make all my hexagons and then sew all the seams. Oh, and you whip-stitch the seams together. By hand.

You can see my progress so far in this photo.

And a close up. If you look closely, you can see my tiny stitches.

I'm making a lap quilt, so I would guess I'm about a third of the way done, or close to that. I'm scared to guess how many hours I've already spent on this thing. I really like watching BBC mini-series and hand-sewing. I've watched an embarrassing amount of them so far.

Not that I'm not enjoying myself, mind (do you see what they have done to me already?). I am, tremendously. I might finish this time next year. The BBC might have to ramp up their production of mini-series to keep up. We might have to start resurrecting dead novelists to keep up with the demand for material. But, in the end, I'm going to have a beautiful quilt, and I'll be able to fake an intimate knowledge of Middlemarch. Always good for an English major.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: UFO Week 3

I missed last week, with my UFOs. I haven't finished much lately, because I've been doing new projects. I did get one thing done this week--my crazy quilt! Yay!

Have you been finishing anything lately? I'm going two more weeks, then find a new project progress (probably something decorating related!!).

I think it turned out pretty cool. I had a lot of fun free-motion quilting this.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Share-A-Craft: Crystal Strawberries Quilt

Share-A-Craft is just as much fun as a tilt-a-whirl, but with less stomach upset and possible vomiting. Every Monday, I post a project of any type that I've recently or not so recently done. We'd love to see what you've been making too. Send me an email with your name and a link to your project at karah99 @ gmail.com. 
 
Well, last Friday I started an UFO challenge, and I finished a quilt. The crazy thing is, I was looking for another post (wondering if I had shown you another quilt) and found this one from August 21 of last year, where I say:

I also have a quilt I technically finished ages ago, but I hated the way I quilted it and started to unpick it. This week I finished unpicking it and started quilting it again, but didn't get too far on it. The nice thing about this project is that I already did the binding, sooooo, as soon as I finish quilting, I will be instantly done! Hopefully, next week I will finish. I have to say I'm pretty sick of quilting, lol.

Yep, that's the very same quilt that I finished last week. I bought fabric for it and for the purple/green quilt when I found out I was pregnant with Aubrey. I finished the purple one before she was born. The pink/green one, not so much.

I even found a picture of the fabric, which I bought in February of 2007. Isn't it so pretty?

Look, it's pregnant me, holding the quilt. Too bad you can't see the bump that is Miss Bree Bree.

I had always planned on doing this intensely complicated quilt for the pink/green one, from Quiltmaker magazine, the Nov/Dec 2000 issue.

I sewed it up and I was a little disappointed that it didn't have more contrast. I still love the pattern though. When I first quilted it, I did stippling, which is an overall, random pattern. It looked even worse, because the lines of the blocks were diminished. I unpicked it, and decided to do a simple stitch in the ditch. Simple meaning crazy complicated and time consuming and completely boring, which is why I stopped in the middle and never came back to it.

It turned out much better than the stippling, and I'm glad it's finally done.

Aubrey likes it too. Poor thing has been sick for ages. She has a gaunt looking face and swollen eyes. I will rejoice at the day when we are all healthy again.

I'm linking up at:





(Darn it, just realized those are supposed to be tutorials. Sorry about that!)

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

Project Progress: UFO Week 1

You would think from the sheer amount of projects I've posted on this blog over the last however many years (I just had to go check, I've been blogging for nearly 5 years, gulp, that is craziness!), you might be tempted to think I don't have projects I don't finish. It certainly seems like I crank out projects all the time. But, as my recent organization has taught me, I like starting things a lot more than I like finishing them. I highly recommend starting a blog if you have this problem. I now finish a lot more than I used to finish.

I found a quilting project I started when David and I were first married. That's been over 8 years now. I've been hauling that thing through moves and all sorts of things. It is clearly time to have a huge UFO (unfinished object) finishing party. I've been tempted to join these on other blogs, but the timing hasn't been right. So, I'm starting one right now.

I'm not sure how long project progress will be finishing UFOs, but at least four weeks. I'd love to see if you finish up any unfinished projects with me, and when we're done, we'll have a big linking party and a prize. I don't know what the prize will be, but it will be good. I will also count it if you decide to get rid of a UFO, and by get rid of, I mean physically removing it from your possession so that you never have to think of it again. That quilting project I mentioned will probably be getting the boot from my house.

I have the teeniest head start. I finished a quilt this week (insert footage of me doing a crazy happy dance).

This one isn't that old, being three years old. I bought the fabric for it when we found out Aubriana was a girl. It has a story of why it's not finished, but I'm waiting until Monday, so I can show it off properly in the share-a-craft feature. That's why you only get to see the back for now.

It was so close to being done. Here's a before shot:

If you can't see, it needs some quilting, but the binding is already done (not the usual order). I was about half way done with it when I picked it up this week.

And, here's the back all quilted.

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.

New Etsy Listings

In between studying and taking care of children, I managed to meet up with my sister and sew a bit. We have three new designs of burp rags and yay! we finished a few girly designs too. These would be perfect for new baby gifts if you have any friends or family that are expecting.

First up, this flower applique. I love how cheerful yet sophisticated this one is. The edges of the applique will fray a little with use, giving it a shabby chic look.


I adore this back fabric! So dang cute!
Ok, next up is another girly design, this time with ribbon butterflies. It's here, in our etsy shop. I love the trims used to make this butterfly.



Then, lastly, we have a cute little dinosaur. He's on a lighter leaf green background and so cute. By the way, all the appliques are my original designs, unless they come from the fabric we choose. I'm so proud of this dino, since I drew him in Illustrator, based on a realistic drawing. I didn't think I'd be able to do that!

I've started a new blog: Come follow my crafting adventures on my new blog. Find me at: creativeirony.com.