A Little of This, A Little of That

So, I really haven't blogged much this month! Or sewn, really. I spent some time after New Year's with my family and friends in Nebraska, and had a great time. Then I drove to Michigan to spend some time with the boyfriend. We had a great time together too!

Fancy dinner (Christmas tradition) and then the symphony! We're so posh.

Now, I'm finally back in New York, and ready for a new semester to begin (well... ready-ish). Thankfully, I have a Tuesday-Thursday class this semester, so I get one more day (today) to prepare! I'm only a TA this semester, instead of an instructor like I was last semester, so that means a good deal less preparation on my end, which is great, since the class I'm TAing is totally out of my area and I know nothing about it. :)

Yesterday afternoon, after unpacking my car (which, after driving halfway across the country and living out of it for a month, looked like a hoarder car) and getting things in order, I made a couple of Valentine's projects I'd pinned on Pinterest. I'm so happy with how they came out!

This argyle heart wreath is my favorite. The tutorial can be found here. I used a 12" wreath form, and 14 hearts that were about 2" x 2". This is a very easy project, though the tediousness of wrapping yarn around a wreath form should not be underestimated. Do it while watching a movie or a few TV shows. I plowed through four episodes of Arrested Development just in the wrapping stage.

Worth the carpal tunnel.

But isn't it SO cute?

I also made the Valentine canvas that Quilt Story wrote about last week. Very quick, easy project! The hardest part was keeping cat hair out of the Mod Podge (in retrospect, doing this on my living room floor was probably not my finest thought.) I made the little one to brighten up my dreary basement office, because we're in the middle of the gray six-month stretch of winter here.

Speaking of the six-month winter, I'm blaming that for the horrid lighting in these. I couldn't get good lighting no matter where I put them in my apartment. Sorry!

Christmas Placemats

This is something I never blogged about! I wanted to make placemats for my grandma out of this fabric ever since I saw it last summer. She's not actually Swedish, but she married a Swede and did so wholeheartedly, and now can out-Swede many a Swede. Of course, I waited until Christmas to do it, and the problems I had with them meant that it was January before I finally finished them for her.

I hate them. They caused me so much trouble! And why? They're placemats, possibly the easiest sewing project on the planet. I initially wanted to bind them, but that was just a horrific disaster for whatever reason. Seriously, I've never had problems binding things, but it just was NOT happening on these. So I topstitched around the edge for the rest of them.

What fun fabric though, huh?

Sigh. I never want to look at them again. But since they're my grandma's, I'll probably have to. :)

Cake Carrier Fail

My birthday is at the tail end of December. I made a cake to take to a New Year's party to celebrate. My mom had stored some leftover Christmas goodies in the oven in order to save counter space and protect them from the dog. She had warned me to make sure I took them out of the oven before I pre-heated it. I said "sure thing" and promptly forgot. And then this happened.

The cake inside was miraculously ok and unharmed. But I did have to buy a new cake carrier for my mom. :) At least she was a good sport, and we got a good laugh out of it!

Linking up this miscellany to Plum and June's Monday link up, which is being hosted by the very sweet, kind and extremely talented Heidi this week. Here's to more actual sewing in the near future! Pin It

Two Finishes, a Minor Disaster, and the Curse of the Reindeer Cat

If that title didn't draw you in, I don't know what will. :)

I spent the few days before Christmas in a flurry of sewing activity and was able to finish two gifts for my mother. Since my mom bought me a beautiful machine this year (see Tobias' debut here), I felt it only right that she get the first fruits of my sewing efforts.

So I made her this table runner:

This project is also significant to me because it is the first time I have EVER tried FMQ on an actual project. It is actually pretty fun, as I'm sure most of you already know. :) Some of it turned out quite pretty:

And some did not:

But that's ok. It's a busy enough quilt design that the quilting doesn't show up much anyway. The fabric I used is a "Christmas Spirit" charm pack by Holly Taylor, which isn't really my taste, but it is definitely my mom's. The pattern is from Keepsake Quilting and can be found here.

My second finish is in some ways my first quilt! Several of these red and white blocks were made during the beginning quilting class I took almost a year ago (love that 9-patch, eh?) This was the quilt I referenced last month as being intended for my grandmother. Events happened, and my mother ended up being the recipient instead.

I finished this quilt quickly. I'm back at my mom's place for Christmas break, so it was tough to sew with her around (she's a teacher, so she wasn't at work either!) She went to a wedding last Saturday night, and I finished the top, basted it, and quilted the sashing. Sunday morning, I got up and didn't even shower or get dressed, and finished the quilting on all of the blocks. I bound it, trimmed threads, and tossed it in the wash (with several color catchers, as you might imagine with this color scheme) five minutes before she arrived home. I think she was very happy to unwrap that on Christmas Eve!

Cat nap approved.

But as we know, the course of sewing does not always run smooth, and I also botched some placemats I was making for my grandmother. I was binding them on Christmas Eve, hours before we were due at her house, so I suppose it served me right for my procrastination (I've had that fabric since July.) The binding on the one I got done was not a thing of beauty, and then this happened. Sigh. So Grandma got one placemat and an IOU for the rest.

Also, I did this to my cat. Rest assured, I do not normally dress my cat up, I'm not that crazy. But my brother and sister-in-law got this outfit in the $1 section of Target a couple of years ago for my mom's cat as a joke, and I decided my cat needed to try it on. His opinion differed.

Christmas Spirit, by Bingley

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts!

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WIP Wednesday: Red, White, and Binding Hell

Happy 4th of July! Welcome to Earf. (One of the internet's most persistent misquotes--Will Smith clearly says "Earth" and YouTube agrees. At any rate, yay Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum for figuring out how to defeat the aliens with a Mac PowerBook and a WWII airplane.)

Anyway. I sewed a bit yesterday and today, though I didn't make as much progress as I wanted to, primarily because I am lazy. It happens. But I did make enough progress that all I have left to do is sew the binding down on the back.

Speaking of binding, let's get to the binding hell of the post title. This binding did not go well for me.

There was a lot of this happening. :(

In addition to the little "situation" pictured above, I ended up having a lot of extra binding by the time I finished a side, particularly on the two long sides. I pinned really well and appropriately tautly (I thought) so it really flummoxed me, as well as made me pretty angry (I may or may not have told my boyfriend I was going to burn the quilt.) I didn't know what to do with it, so when I got to the end with the excess, I re-mitered the corner, and then folded the excess like so:

Technique pictured in no sewing book, ever.

After I folded the binding over to the other side, the corner was a bit thicker, but it didn't look too bad, so I guess it was an ok solution. But why did this happen? This is only my third binding, but I didn't have trouble at all with the first two. But I think the problem is more with my equipment than me (that sounds like I'm evading responsibility...) I have an old, basic Singer and no walking foot. My first quilt binding was attached with my mom's fancy-schmancy new Bernina (with walking foot.) My second quilt binding was just that little table runner which was much more thoroughly quilted and also much smaller with less room for the binding to get bunched up over a distance. So I'm wondering if I just didn't have enough hands to make this workable without the walking foot.

In any event, I'm going to wait until I have access to a machine with a walking foot when I do my friend's wedding quilt, which is my next project.

It was highly irritating, but after I flipped it over and pinned it, it still doesn't look too bad from the front. It'll be fine once it's washed and finished, I think. Still qualifies for Freshly Pieced's WIP Wednesday.

A few other pictures from the process:

1) Basting: I thought I'd have to go to my office to find enough hard floor for this, but my kitchen had juuuuust enough room (kind of). :) Also, I now know that my kitchen is only slightly bigger than 40" by 50"!

Eat your hearts out, greedy women on House Hunters.

2) Backing: I'm really happy with this fabric. I found it in the sale section! It matches so nicely and it's really soft. So many wins right there. I'm still a bit on the fence regarding my feelings toward the binding, but it's too late now. :)

Backing: "Journeys" (Free Spirit), Binding: "What a World" (P&B Textiles)

Anyway, I medicated my binding woes with chocolate pie. It always helps.

My kitchen has the lighting of a cave. Now you know why I'm not a food blogger.

I hope you all had lovely holidays (if you're in the U.S., otherwise, I hope you had a lovely Wednesday). I walked a couple of dogs at the shelter this morning--an 80-lb. Rottweiler who couldn't believe how amazing life and walks and the whole world in general were, and a 5-lb., 10-year-old Chihuahua who can barely walk from an old dog attack injury--making it my most disparate dog walking experience ever. My boyfriend and I independently decided that we would make ourselves burgers in lieu of having any plans, and once we discovered that our brains worked exactly the same way on this point, we had a "burger contest." As one might expect from a distance burger contest, the results were inconclusive. All we know is, in the immortal words of Ron Swanson, that "turkey can never beat cow."

I love you, Ron.

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WIP-py Skippy!

Corniest title ever (self-anointed).

Anyway, I've got a couple of things in the works today.

Margaret's Hope Chest Blocks

First, a bunch of blocks for Margaret's Hope Chest. I've wanted to help out with this group ever since I read about it, because they do really fantastic things, but when I read about this call for blocks on Crazy Mom Quilts, I figured I could do some of those quite quickly! I'm actually in Grand Rapids until next week, so I'm motivated to get them done before I leave!

The orange ones are my favorite.

Here was the problem: I'm away from my rotary cutter, mat, stash, and pretty much everything helpful in quilt making besides my sewing machine. I decided to take advantage of JoAnn's fabric sale right now and pick up some fat quarters for $.99 each. For nine fat quarters, I got 18 blocks! Not bad for under $10. And since the edges fray a bit when washed, the fact that my cutting is less precise than usual shouldn't be a huge problem.

Anyway, it's a fun, quick project! Please consider helping them out!

We all help in our own way.

Tropical Table Runner

Second, I bought some fabric for a table runner I'm making for my sister-in-law's birthday in early July. I'll make an admission: batiks are totally not my thing. At all. I love the colors, but it just reminds me way too much of tie-dye. And I don't think they go very well with prints, so the few that strike my fancy just seem impractical to me. However, my sister-in-law loves all things tropical, and batiks really fit the bill there. So, with much deliberation, I came up with this collection. I actually kind of like it! Hopefully she will too.

A Fail Tale

And finally... get ready for a big, fat fail! Maybe no one likes reading about failures, but if you enjoy a little schadenfreude, get a load of this.

It all started with a desire to make my boyfriend a little something with fabric from his alma mater, Michigan State, since I'm actually in Michigan and able to easily get my hands on it. (I am a fan of a better, redder team).  I decided that an oven mitt would be the perfect quick and easy project (mistake #1). I found a tutorial online and embarked on making my wonderful surprise.

When I bought my insulated batting, the woman told me that she didn't think a single layer was enough when she had made potholders before. Of course, I didn't want my boyfriend to burn his hands with my delightful gift, so I decided to double the layers of insulbrite. This probably would not be a big problem with a regular square potholder. With a mitt, however, adjustments for the increased thickness should have been made, adjustments I did not make (mistake #2).

The tutorial recommended quilting a rectangle before cutting out the pattern, which is an excellent idea. Here is how amazing my quilting is:

But the back was even better:

Apparently, I forgot everything I ever knew about quilting, like "use lots of pins to keep your layers together so they don't bunch up like this, stupid." Oops. (Mistake #3) I forged ahead anyway because it was just the inside, and who really cares, right?

I used masking tape to mark my quilting lines, but they still ended up rather wonky because 1) I was in a hurry, 2) I don't have a walking foot on this machine, and 3) the layers were about an inch thick. But pay close attention to my layering here. Do you notice a problem?

I didn't. Not until I started sewing and realized I had my pattern under the tape and pins and would have to quilt through it (mistake #4). (Mind you, this was after I had quilted a couple of lines.) So I unpinned, re-taped, and forged onward. I'm considering this my introduction to paper piecing, without the piecing.

Sewing it together went about as well as you would imagine at this point. I turned it inside out, and this happened (mistake #5):

After reinforcing the seams, I turned it all the way out again. Or, I tried. Unfortunately, since I don't have access to a printer at the moment, I had used an existing oven mitt for the pattern instead of the tutorial one. As I didn't allow for seam allowances (mistake #6) and because there was increased bulk, I could not get the thumb to turn out. After finally trimming it, I got it most of the way turned out. As you might expect, the whole mitt is a little bit small:

Look how it appears to be floating in mid-air. That's because my skin almost matches the pale beige walls. Awesome.

I am going to tell him that I made him half a pair of mittens.

So... needless to say, this oven mitt was not my finest hour. I think I have enough supplies left over to make him just a plain square potholder. Maybe I'll be able to handle that one. :)

Linked at Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.

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