Category Archives: Sewing

Monday is for Sewing

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For the first time in forever we didn’t go anywhere this past weekend! Seriously crazy for us. We didn’t want to spend a dime and we all needed a break. I apparently needed one more than I realized, because I spent most of the weekend catching up on sleep. I’ve been so tired lately, but I never really have the time to take a nap. CT doesn’t take naps anymore, and even if she did there’s non stop construction next door, I’d never sleep through it.

So what I’m basically saying is I didn’t do a single neat thing the entire weekend. Nothing! I kinda played catch up yesterday. I had a custom wall hanging that needed to be finished, plus a few unfinished sewing projects that could use my attention. I carried my sewing machine downstairs and set up shop in the dining room, that way I could sew and keep an eye on CT at the same time! Multitasking.

I actually accomplished a lot! I finished the outside of a new tote bag I’ve been thinking about, and I started and almost finished a few zipper pouches. I also organized and started sewing together the pieces to that chevron quilt I started back in January!!! I might actually have it finished by the end of the year. Ha!

It felt nice to be behind my sewing machine again, It really has been a long time. I’m hoping to continue to work on those pouches and the quilt today, we’ll see. How was your weekend?

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A Calm Week

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Yesterday was as calm as the two days before and I LOVED it!

CT was just as excited about Play-Doh the second day as she was the first. She loved the tools we bought her and all the new colors. She figured out halfway through the day that you could mix the colors and make cool caterpillars.

I also finished up a bunch of sculpting, but I forgot to take photos! Of course! I was really happy with two of the finished pieces and I’ve already started the process of making molds. As always, I will document it all and share it here.

CT has really been into the idea of decorating lately. I guess she watches me do it all the time and figures it’s normal. She really wants a purple room with lots of frames on the wall. If it will make her like her room more, why not? We hope to stop by Sherwin Williams this weekend to pick up the purple paint (their having 30% off paint the 5th thru the 8th). Plus I have some plans for storage and seating.

I’ve also been working on some cross stitch pieces to frame. I love to cross stitch. CT really likes the new My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic show, so I bought some patterns off Etsy and have been working a little bit at a time while watching TV. Multi Tasking!!

That’s another thing I’ve been doing. I’m finally catching up on TV shows that we recorded. I’m almost ready for the Fall season!!

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I’m Keeping Myself Busy…

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I woke up this past Sunday morning with the plan to spend an entire week working on “me projects”. aka: sewing or crafting projects that only benefit me and no one else but ME.

I wanted to work on a zig zag quilt that I’ve been dreaming about for weeks. I wanted to play with some clay and maybe make some tree’s. I wanted to make a skirt. A huge list when you also factor in that CT’s second set of molar’s are coming in and she’s in her clingy stage. I’d be lucky to finish one project.


By Monday I finished cutting out and sewing the blocks of the zig zag quilt, and sketching how to put it together. I’m good at laying out patterns, but I’m not that great at putting it in piles and remembering how it all goes together. I need a visual aid.

I also like working with squares way more than triangles. So I was super excited when I found this great tutorial on Pinterest… “How To Make a Zig Zag Quilt (without piecing triangles)“. It makes a decent sized quilt. It took up all the free floor space in my bedroom to lay this thing out.

I was beyond excited to start piecing this thing together, it was going to be awesome when it was done! My very own chevron quilt!!!!

Well… Tuesday rolls around and I get this awesome email about a huge opportunity for Art School Dropout. Great News… I just had to put all my “me projects” away for awhile. 2 months to be exact.

So I piled up all the squares of the zig zag quilt and put them in baggies and pinned them to my inspiration board. I’m hoping it’ll inspire me to finish them when I’m done actually working.

Wednesday and Thursday were crazy with spreadsheets, supply shopping, researching and trying to find some family to watch CT every so often (so I could work while my husband was at work).

I’m about to spend the next 3 to 4 weeks casting and assembling loads of pieces. I decided that today (Friday) I would sew a little bit more before I didn’t have actual time to do so.

What came out of the sewing was a few more pouches for the site. They may be the last ones for a few months, unless I find time here and there.

I also apologize for the fact that I probably won’t have too many tutorials or DIY-Book-A-Holic posts until I’m finished this massive order. But I will post progress shots here and there, you all can finally see what goes on behind the scenes in my “casting dungeon”. HA!

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I Quilted…

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In my last post I said I wanted to quilt, well I kinda got cold feet. Kinda. I wanted to test out all the new skills I’d been researching, but I was afraid of ruining hours of patch-working (is that a real word?).

So instead I made my first quilt using cheater quilt fabric. More accurately, my own cheater quilt fabric. I designed it last year for one of Spoonflower’s fabric contest. I had it printed up will the full intention of making some simple, no binding, blanket. But as usual, I never got around to it.

The quilt measures 36″x36″. So it’s only one yard of the Cheater fabric. I then used some of my Monsters on the Loose fabric for the back. I quilted around all the triangles, white thread on top, dark pink on the bottom. I used some purple Kona cotton I had lying around for the binding, along with a small patch of my purple Monsters on the Loose fabric for some variety and to test out how it would look.

I used Red Pepper Quilts machine binding tutorial. She made the whole process very easy and painless. I really wanted to do traditional binding where half is hand sewn, but sadly I have bad arthritis and it’s pretty much impossible. I love how the whole quilt came out, and I’m already planning my next one.

If your interested in making your own Cheater Quilt, you can find all the fabrics I mentioned here in my Spoonflower shop. The cheater quilt fabric above fits onto one yard of quilting weight cotton and comes in several color combos, including the rainbow one. You’ll also need some batting and fabric for the binding.

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I Think I’m Going To Quilt

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I’ve taken on a new hobby. I’m going to quilt!

I’ve always had a thing for quilting and patchwork books, but I was never sure I could actually pull it off myself. After making that potholder not too long ago, I realized it may actually be possible for me to quilt larger items. Maybe even an entire full sized quilt.

During my “winter vacation” I started practicing my sewing skills on different patterns. I now feel very comfortable making a texas star, a wonky cross, intersecting crosses and geometric 45 degree triangles.I may be wrong on the names, I get my information from the internets.

I made a few pillows, pouches and a runner. I kept a few for myself, but I plan on adding the rest to the shop. I’ll show pictures when the light is better.

I now feel comfortable enough to make an entire TWIN SIZED QUILT! yep, I said it, a real life quilt. The whole process is overwhelming me, but I really enjoy a challenge. I really enjoyed sewing the intersecting crosses pattern, so I thought that would be a good design for me to start out with.

CT just moved to a big girl bed, so of course my first quilt would be for her!

I absolutely love Lizzy House’s 1001 Peeps fabric collection. I ordered a fat quarter of the entire purple collection, 8 patterns total. I also ordered about 6 Kona solids to match too. I did a paper mock-up of the quilt, that way I could move the crosses around to get exactly the feel I want. I don’t know what fabric I’ll be using for the back yet or the binding, any thoughts?

I’m still waiting for the Kona solids to arrive, once their here I’ll start showing my progress!

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