Goals of 2014

With wintry days a plenty, i'ts a good time to stay home and get 'er done.

Here are my goals in the Craft Room for these cold, cold days.

1. Organize. Started this early in January but more must be done.  Its an ongoing process isn't it?

2. Quilt the 1000 Pyramid Quilt.  It took me so long to piece this quilt. I feel like it is always a WIP.  But now it is time to bring it from WIP to Finish.

3. Quilt the Craftsy 2012, Sampler.

4.  Quilt the Kaffe block quilt.

5.  Quilt the two lap blankets.

6.  Finish piecing the pinwheel quilt.

7.  Finish piecing the Farmers Quilt.
 
8.  Finish piecing the 30's Quilt

9.  Quilt the String Quilt.
 
10.  Quilt the Bonnie Hunter Quilt.


Notice how so many of these say finish.  Why do I have a ton of quilt tops done and I have not quilted them?  I think there are many answers to that question.  Knowing how to quilt it for one.  Finding the right backing. Having the time. Not totally happy with the end result. But 2014 is the year to press on and Get 'Er Done!

Another Monster

Okay, a few more monsters might be in order.  Me and my daughter, on a snowy, cold weekend, sewed a monster.  She had great plans for the weekend to sew a bunch of monsters.  Just like her Mom.  Expecting to get a ton done and, well, you know the rest, just not the time you thought you had.

Nevertheless, she managed to get one crazy, cute, delicious monster completed and nearly all by herself.  I was pretty impressed with how straight she sewed her lines.  I must admit she is a better sewer than I was at her age.  Wait, I wasn't a sewer at her age.  High school.  Okay, she is a better sewer than I was in high school. 

I'm a proud mama.

Scrapitude- Saw Tooth Stars

Scrapitude partial reveal.  Well, we know what the blocks are- they are Saw Tooth Stars. Oh, so deliciously scrappy.  Love it! Not sure how the sashing will come into play- we will find that out in February.

Until then plenty to do with putting these blocks together.

25 Saw Tooth Block squares- measuring 12.5 when completed as above.

12 of the larger set triangles.

4 of the smaller triangles.

These are because the quilt is set "on point".

Charlotte's handout how to's are on the right.

Monster Love

I have been totally inspired by these amazing kids.  These two young boys design and make monsters.  They are sold for 30 dollars.  One you get and one is then donated to kids in need. It's called A Monster To Love. Great job boys (and their wonderfully supportive parents- I am quite sure).  Click here to go to their site and buy a monster.

If you make some monsters, like I did, be very careful.  They are incredibly addictive.

My monsters were made for my kids.  Well, and one extra.  Maybe for me.  In order from left to right, Charlamaine, Reynauldo, and Adrometer.  Reynauldo was my first monster and my one daughter was kind of jealous that the other daughter got him.  Reynauldo was named after a client that I once had.  He certainly was not a monster.  When he had a temper- yeah, but most of the time he would hide in corners and peak out at me when I came to see him.  A shy kinda guy but coquette at the same time.  I just loved him.

Mini Duffle Bag

I have a thing for cosmetic /travel bags.  I love them.  I can't get enough of them.  Two years ago my friend gave me one for Christmas that she made.  I loved it and have been wanting to make a few ever since.

I had borrowed this book- Sewing the Seasons by Sandi Henderson; Wiley from the library and in it were instructions for this bag.  I decided to make the medium sized one, Its about 9 inches long, 4 inches high 6 inches wide. The book dimensions seem off to me- though it could be me.  Another thing I didn't like about the book and wondered if there was a page missing, is that the whole part about what do after you cut the corners, seemed to be totally missing. Luckily I searched the Internet for a similar pattern and found out how to do the corners.

Having said that there are a lot of cute things in the book.  I haven't tried any of the other patterns yet. There is a cute little tote in there but really I am on tote overload.

I love how the bag turned out. I didnt make it reversible as the pattern said.  I much prefer it one sided.  Seems like a lot of trouble for something I would not particularly use.

Never even noticed the 'Bring Me' printing on the bag until just now.

Scrapitude Part III

I am oh, so late posting this.  My food blog, Lori's Lipsmacking Goodness has been getting all of my attention, as well as my kids and the many projects that need to get finished around here. I beg your pardon if you have been following this and wondered what happened.



Scrapitude Part III

1. Remember those 64 - 4 7/8" squares you cut way back when? Cut each of them diagonally once, to make 128 half-square triangles.

2. Next, remember the 128 triangle patches you made in step 2? You'll sew one of the half-square triangles from #1 above to each of the 128 triangle patches from step 2 as shown in the diagram below.


Press the seams towards the larger triangle (the single-fabric) side.
Square up units to 4 1/2".

Note here: You may recall in the cutting instructions that Charlotte had mentioned you could choose to have 50 of the 4-7/8" squares as pairs if you wanted--she addresses that in this video (link below) again as it relates to sewing this step.

To watch a video (done by my dear friend Sandy of Quilting For The Rest Of Us) instructional by our dear Charlotte, giver of the Scrapitude Mystery Quilt, click here.

Christmas Wall Hanging

Every Christmas I have to make something Christmas-y.  It usually happens pretty late in the game.  Its a bonus that the Christmas fabrics are on sale... No, seriously that has happened way too many times so now I clearly have enough Christmas in my stash.  Time to use it up.  If only I could find the quilt I want to make with it...  Sigh.  I actually did find it then lost it.  Crap.

Anyway this year, I made this.  They are 1 1/2 inch squares.  For the HST (half square triangles) I used the same squares and sewed a seam diagonally down the middle.  Cut one end off and that was that.  I love it.  I kind of want to make an all year one too to hang in my sewing/crafting/family computing room.

Drawing with Gel Pens

For Christmas my Mother gave my daughters and me, each, a set of gel pens.  We have been drawing pretty regularly ever since.  I found some videos on You Tube for learning Zen Tangle.  This is the lady I copied emulated. Doesn't emulated sound so much better.  She really is quite good.  This is not quite that good.  Fun, though.

 
My older daughter's drawings.  She is very into fashion lately.  From drawing dresses to making up clothes on a mini dress form.

My youngest daughter has to follow what her sister does, all the time once in a while.  I do love the bustle thing going on.  Thats something unique.

My younger daughter built this wonderful snowman all on her own. Isnt he awesome? I love his huge schnoz. 

Doesn't he kinda look melancholy.  Made me just want to say, "awww".

Duffle Bag: Simplicity Pattern 2274

It's like I forgot all about this blog.  Truth is I have been thinking about how I would like to grow it. Post more often, have tutorials, gee this sounds like resolutions.  Okay, here are my resolutions for 2014 in the Crafty area of my life. Some of which I have done but I need to continue to do it this year as well.

1. Get more organized in my crafty room (definitely have been working on that the past couple weeks).

2. Create with what I have and stop buying more fabric.

3. Finish my UFO's or rid myself of them.

4. Create an Etsy site to sell my stuff.

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I made this cute little bag from, Simplicity Pattern 2274.

Here is what I liked about the pattern/bag:

I love how big it is, plenty of room to pack stuff for a weekend away and then some.  Perfect for the quilting retreats that I go on where I pack my sheets and towels as well.

I love the side zipper.  Nice place to store things that you might need in a hurry without having to dig through the bag.  It's zippered so you don't have to worry about it falling out either.

I love the little front pocket- great place to stash a ticket as you are getting ready to board.

Here is what I didn't like about the pattern/bag:

Three inch webbing is hard to find so I made my own handles with stabilizer.

I also didn't like the floppiness of the bag- I think I would have used a little more stabilizer.

The one big thing that I didn't like was the quilting/cutting of the main body of the bag.  You should cut it to size after you quilt it.  Depending how close together your quilting is, it will alter the size of the piece. So, quilt it first, large enough so that you can cut away to size as required by pattern.

Would I make it again?  Definitely.  Since I made it for my daughter for Christmas I am sure I need to make it for my other daughter and one for myself.