Plenty to do

This month for LYoF, I am going to divide my attention between two main goals. First off we have my Pantone challenge quilt. This is my fabric haul for it. The two left fabrics are solids and the second from the right is a shot cotton. I have never used shot cotton before and I am loving it! I have a design and everything is cut. Stay tuned for progress!


My other main goal for the month is to finish up my bag for the Secret Tote Bag Swap. (Is it cheating is both of these HAVE to be done this month?) This is the main panel I have come up with. It is now trimmed and on its was towards becoming a bag.


While I was working on the boxed corners for the tote last weekend I broke not one...


But TWO needles! Dang. This second one was even a brand new denim needle! There are just so many layers in this bag. I might have been a tad overzealous in my plan. Oh well. With a third needle I was able to get the corners done!


I also served as a pattern tester for TartanKiwi and came up with this lovely badger (pattern is now available for free over here). I named her Constance after the badger in the Redwall books. She is going to be the focal block in a tote bag for a friend of mine who is ironically named Constance. (She goes by Connie and would kill me if she knew I just called her by her birth name!)


In an exciting twist of fate, I actually won something! Something gorgeous! I won all this fabric from Cuts of Cotton! I have no idea what to do with it.


Then of course we have the chickens. They are thriving. Here they are at 11 days old, learning the joys of napping in laps.


Two weeks old.


 Now 18 days old and huge!

Quilted Cedar Chest Finish

A few years ago, my mom bought be an old cedar chest (Virginia Maid by Lane) because I had been wanting one and she refused to part with hers. It had good bones, but was basically hideous. I didn't actually take any pictures of MY cedar chest, but found these of the same model. The first one shows the same wood finish as mine with a clean upholstery cover while the second one shows a different [lighter] wood finish than mine but with upholstery closer to the disgusting condition mine came in.

I immediately knew that the cover had to be changed. Being a quilter, I had this secret yearning to piece and quilt the cover. The original was just stapled to a piece of particleboard with a thin layer of fluff between them. This cedar chest was going to double as living room seating, so it needed a little more cushion. I went with 3" furniture foam. 

Apparently I'm super picky because the original knobs on the chest were deemed too lame to live (not to mention filthy!) and had to go. See?

Last summer while in Ireland with my boyfriend and cousin, we found a store called Knobs and Knockers that sold... Knobs and knockers! I was able to find a tremendously better option! Aren't they gorgeous?? Yes, my main souvenir from the trip was a bag of drawer pulls. 

Now I should stop blabbing and get to the good stuff. Here is a view of the FMQ on the cushion. The cushion itself is held onto the chest with industrial strength velcro.

The cover was made out of one solid piece that had a seam up the middle of the back [well most of it. I had to leave some unstitched to turn it right-side out], then the sides were sewn up and the corners were boxed to 3" to fit the foam. Then the foam was stuffed back in and the gap in the bottom that was left unstitched for turning was closed with skinny velcro.

And here are some overall shots of the whole thing!

Some of the detail on the back edge gets lost behind the foam, but having a comfortable place to sit was vastly more important to me.

Now I'm aware that some furniture restoration experts would say I messed up by not refinishing the surface, but I don't care. I took something practical but [in my humble opinion] hideous and gave it new life! Plus, now it is pretty and way more comfortable to sit on!

Hard to believe I finished this in time for February's Lovely Year of Finishes. Woot! Here are the milestone links in the process of finishing this beauty!

Back when I cut the foam.

Starting to piece the "quilt."

"Quilt" front done (LYOF link-up)

FMQ begins.

FMQ is done!

Quilting and Chicks

I finished the quilting on the houndstooth "quilt" which means all I have to do is assemble the "quilt" into a cushion cover and it will be done in time! The easy way would be to staple the quilt to the bottom of a board and screw that into the chest. That is how the original cushion was attached. I want to actually make a pillow case for the foam. I'm thinking boxed corners. We'll see.


I also finished up the baby quilt for my BFF's new baby girl. I was working on another front because this one seemed too babyish, but I went with it. This front was originally made as a sort of challenge.


I used a stipple pattern for most of the quilt, since I'm still trying to master that technique. I couldn't resist throwing in a few FMQ hearts. I'm not sure how you are supposed to do this, but this seemed to work.


I also finished the Valentines gift for my boyfriend. We went to Great American Beer Festival in 2012 where he got this shirt. Sadly it ended up with a greasy stain that wouldn't go away. He loved the shirt but didn't want to wear it stained. So I made him a reusable tote bag out of it. The other fabric is all leftover from the quilt I made him last year.


Then we come to my most important WIP: Baby chicks! We received them from the hatchery at 3 days old. Cute little fluffballs! There are 15: I am keeping 2-3, my cousin is keeping 6-7, and we are selling the rest.


Here they are taking a nap at 4 days old.


At five days old, they were all starting to get big girl feathers.


At day 6, we gave them pine shavings to dig in and a big rock to play on.


At one week old, they are all starting to master perching!


I goofed and only took GoPro footage on day 8, so you have to settle for a shot of them today, at 9 days old. They are getting huge and very fast [as you can tell by the chick that is no more than a blur!].

Four Weeks

Woohooo! I only have 4 weeks left until Spring Break. Teaching this semester is going really well as I am lucky enough to have some amazing students, but I'm just sleepy.

I have managed to get some sewing done this week!

Here we have some FMQ on the houndstooth "quilt". I ran out of thread so this won't be touched again for a while. I'm still shooting for having this done in time for A Lovely Year of Finishes: February edition!

I also finished a purse! I followed this pattern.

Here is a fabric shot so you can see all the goodness! Cuckoo clocks, wood grain, sketch, and mustaches: Oh my!

Last weekend, the boyfriend and I whipped up some seared tuna with coconut rice and veggies and had plenty leftover for lunches.

Speaking of lunches, I made another silverware roll-up/mitered corner napkin since my teaching schedule keeps me out of the house during lunch and dinner. I love taking my lunch but I especially love having adorable napkins and silverware pouches to cheer me up.

As it turns out, blackberries were on sale so naturally I bought a bunch and made some jam. Three are plain blackberry, three are basil/blackberry that tastes like plain blackberry. Next time there will be more basil. In the left background of the photo you can see my sprout garden! Om nom nom, sprouts on EVERYTHING! For a few days we couldn't eat them fast enough to keep up with their growth.

Nosebleed

On Wednesday I had every intention of buckling down and getting a bunch of prep work done for all the classes I'm teaching and then going to the gym. ...Then I got a headache. After a while of that, it turned into a nosebleed that just would not quit. That made me realize that I would get no work done during my 6 hour break between classes, so I drove home pinching my nose and finally got it to stop after a while at home. I still had a bit of a headache, so work and working out seemed out of the question. That of course left napping or sewing but I'm an insomniac so if I took a nap during the day there would be no chance of sleeping at night. Logically I chose sewing!

I finished basting the houndstooth "quilt."(FYI, it is a "quilt" and not a quilt because it will be the upholstered cover of the cushion on my cedar chest.) This might just end up being my Lovely Year of Finishes goal for February.

I also successfully made my first mitered corner/self binding napkin! I have tried to do this several times and it always comes out as a horribly lumpy mess that doesn't look squared up at all. Maybe my heart wasn't in it before because this time I read through many [10+, so not joking!] tutorials and fiddled with 3 attempts out of cheapo fabric before I could do anything that even remotely made me consider trying it with nicer fabric. It still isn't perfect, but if I make a few more, it might very well get better! Here is the best corner of the four.

And here is the backing/binding fabric. It is roughly a 14" square, which means I started with a 12" front square and a 16" backing/binding square.

The napkin was needed to complete my little lunch silverware rollup thingamajig since I love to take my lunch. Here it is all rolled up and adorable. Oh gosh, I love these lambs.

This is what it looks like from the inside with rip stop nylon for the lining. I need to whip up a few more of these since they are machine washable and will get thrown in the laundry upon my return home every day. Here's hoping the lambs and elephants get along!

On a completely unrelated note, it would appear that winter is officially here in South Texas since it *almost* froze last night!  Despite the frigid weather facing us, this was a view from my backyard this week. I am very proud of my sunflowers. They just get bigger and better every year, though this is the first year they have decided to pop up again in winter.  Luckily it is cold or else I would be outside not getting anything done.

EDIT: Please help! I am making a baby quilt for my bff's brand new daughter and I need some input on which color layout to choose. Here is the fabric (crosshatch for background and black for binding) followed by the two possible layouts. Which do you prefer: Left or right? 

Thank you so much for your feedback!

8 Years in the Making: Part Deux

Last year (also just over a month ago!) I made a wedding quilt for my cousin and her boyfriend fiance, now husband. They had been dating for 8 years! I even managed to finish the quilt, including quilting and binding, in time for the wedding which was on December 21st. Incidentally it was the best wedding ever. It was at a restaurant/bar/bowling alley/arcade so we ate, drank and bowled!

Oh yeah, the quilt; Focus, Sabrina. When I last wrote about the quilt, I was struggling with a decision about the border. You can read all about that here.

Apparently I just couldn't make the decision so I asked my cousin for input and she picked the border fabric! Here it is.

And here is a horribly lit overall shot of the quilt. I was worried the border would be too big, but I think it actually works pretty well which is wonderful because I did not feel up to making another set of the zig zag thingamaboppers.

Here is a shot of the happy couple [plus a John Goodman mural] at their wedding.

They have now been married for over a month now. Huzzah! Except that it makes me a total slacker for just now getting to the blog post about the quilt. I'm also a total slacker because I'm not feeling up to writing about anything I'm currently working on. Le sigh.

Back to it

I was able to finish so much stuff in the final days leading up to the start of spring semester. I am going to be teaching over-full time, so my time now belongs to students.

First off, I picked a design for Mug Rug Revival! I hope my partner likes it!


I even quilted it up and finished the binding. Zomg, I love this backing fabric. I had just enough in my scrap bin and it was difficult to part with it. Please give it a good home, partner!



















So here is the finished product! The heart is so much bigger than the mug because I think love is bigger than caffeinated beverages (unless of course you love caffeinated beverages!).

Here is some super tasty rye bread. It turned out so delicious! Two loaves of it went into the freezer to be provisions for the semester since I won't have time to cook. (Recipe here)


One of the loaves went towards Rueben sandwiches. They came out so incredible! We bought the kraut at a local German restaurant because their kraut is magically creamy and delicious. Couple that with nice corned beef, swiss, and homemade Russian dressing and it would be difficult to not be amazing. (Russian dressing recipe is over here)


Then we have some feijoada (pronounced: fay-joe-ah-duh) with sauteed kale and rice. This is a Brazilian recipe and was so insanely tasty. There are 6 leftover bags of this in the freezer!  I kind of frankensteined the recipe out of two that looked decent. My original struggle with this recipe was the cuts of meat they all called for. Originally this was a slave dish in Brazil, using the cheapest cuts of meat, but now it uses some fancy stuff that I couldn't find locally. I used 2 pounds of black beans, 1/2 lb of bacon, 1.5 lbs of beef tips, and 1.5 pounds of pork sausage. Basically I used all the veggies and seasoning listed in both recipes, but added the veggies towards the end. (Recipe 1 & Recipe 2)


We also made Greek food. I didn't take a picture of the tirotrigonas (cheese puffs) but here is the pastitsio. So delicious but so messy. When I was a little kid, an elderly Greek woman told me that "pastitsio" actually means "every dish is dirty" which is totally believable, but I still try to make it at least once a year.  One whole leftover pan of this stuff is in the freezer! This is a family recipe but I could get it for you if you really want it. :)


I also got the mini heart sample quilt back from the quilters and finished the binding up.


Here is a close-up shot of the quilting which was done by Kenneth Butler of the Quilt Cottage.


And here is a horribly lit overall shot of the quilt! It really didn't turn out as bad as I expected, though it still isn't my style.

Lastly I made up some reusable snack baggies for my cousin and her brand new husband. They are taking a cruise for their [delayed] honeymoon, and I am a big proponent of taking snacks off the boat with you on cruises. I mean, you totally payed for the food! 

Anyways, two of these have velcro closures and two have foldy over type closures. I like the velcro ones a lot more because they keep in little stuff like blueberries and nuts but I can see the allure of both so I would suggest trying both and seeing which fits your needs. I used rip stop nylon from JoAnn's for the lining on both (meaning I subbed it for the melted plastic bags in the flippy turny one). This was done for two reasons: 1) I take my own grocery bags so I really don't have leftovers and 2) My chemical engineer boyfriend says that as long as the bags aren't scorched, there shouldn't be any issues whatsoever but for some reason, melted plastic near food just stresses me out. [Said the girl who once ate food that was microwaved in a styrofoam container]. (Velcro bag tutorial & foldy bag tutorial)

Today was my first day of classes and I am exhausted already. This might be because I have had to be up ridiculously too early every day this week for various reasons that are luckily not ongoing. It could also be because I just had almost a month off from teaching. Oh well. Six and a half weeks until spring break!