Favorite Project - Bad Photo

Sorry for the delay in posting. A lost camera cord, a camping weekend and whiny toddlers are to blame. Here is a bad photo of my favorite WIP for 2008. Melissa, you caught me mid-year...we'll have to do this again at the end of December and see where we're at! I purchased the fabric during a trip to the finger lakes region of New York last summer when I was in a friend's wedding. I cut the squares last fall and pieced it in January - when there was nothing but snow on the ground here. I love the way the colors play off eachother. It is a crib size, but I think it would make a nice lap quilt for the living or sun room.

Now for the confession - I haven't the faintest idea how to actually quilt. This quilt top has been folded on a shelf for the past 6 months - a shame if you ask me. For some reason I love, love, love fabric, cutting and piecing tops but I am totally scared to actually quilt the darn thing. I guess I feel that I don't know what I am doing. Any advice or tips that you can share would be awesome. I tried to do some quilting on a wall hanging, but I am not too happy with the results. I don't like the way the quilting lines distorted the quilt design. Maybe I should try quilting in the ditch instead? A different color thread? Or go for a larger overall pattern? But if I do that, how do I actually do it on a regular sewing machine without it getting all bunched up and out of place? Whew...so many questions. I guess that's what happens when you try something new.

A few projects from Bend the Rules Sewing

I'm trying to go through this book and take on lots of its projects so I can properly learn how to do things that I've previously taught myself (but taught myself the WRONG way).

First, is the no-cash wallet. The first one was a disaster so it now resides at the craft table and as a tape measure holder. The disaster part revolves around deciding to add a snap in the wrong place! Argh. The second worked (I actually stuck to the directions) and includes a button given to me by my mom years ago.




Second project was the 'charming handbag', which was really fun to make. The liner fabric is a soft, printed corduroy that used to be a shirt at the thrift shop (A J. Jill shirt of all things). I have alot left so I'm going to make other stuff with this as well. I like this but would do the straps different next time. They kind of puff out.

My favorite of 2008

The bench was painted in 2007 so might not technically count but the pillows were '08s. I love the pillow pal idea because it's so easy but has so many possibilities. I'm thinking about making some out of old sweaters that have been felted, like a buddy wearing sweater pants..who knows.

Yeah!! Welcome!!

Hi Beth and Jupe. So much fun!! So, feel free to redesign anything or post anything, especially adding sources and inspirational blogs or other sites. Also, for a first little welcome activity. Post a picture of your favorite project from the past year. I'm so excited to be inspired you both of you.

T-Shirt Pants

I don't remember where I saw the tutorial but I saw it somewhere about making T-shirt pants and I grew obsessed. In all, it took about 20 minutes. Next time I will skip stripes because I'm too lazy to line them up and it kills the short time span idea. But, in all these pants cost 10 cents and took no time to make...all out of a big-sized woman's top. For the pattern I just layed a pair of Cal's pants on the fold of the t-shirt on one side and then flipped to the other and sewed it together at the crotch seam and inside legs! And, the put in elastic. The best part is it requires no hemming (clearly I hate hems) becuase you just use the bottom hem of the t-shirt.

Thrift Store Adventures

Here is the collection of fabrics I gleaned from fabric store finds...going green(er) is sooo cheap!

It's so Easy Being Green(er)

In an ongoing attempt to be more 'green' and always carrying a bit of guilt about buying whole yards of fabric to cut them into tiny pieces I trekked to the local thrift store this past week and bought big men's and women's shirts (including a kimono style robe...what is not to love about that?!). So, with my new fabric swaps I started making some fun kitchen towels.





For the striped one I cut the sleeve off (intact) and used it to create a fun towel tag for hanging. For both of them I used bias tape to edge them so I didn't have to do a hem stitch. I created the bias tape on one of them using bits of a women's shirt. It was fun and satisfying. I'm now obsessed with finding big sized men's and women's shirts and literally dream of finding a thick, cotton yellow one so I can edge it with wine-colored pom-poms. Mmmm.

Just a little zip pouch

Purely for fun.