I am Not Precise

As I finished my quilted mini-table runner it became very apparent that I am NOT a precise person at all.

I do tend to eyeball things, instead of relying on the easier, truer, more fool proof way of doing things, which would be measuring. Rulers. They are our friends!

Never has it been more clear to me. Society at large owes me a huge thank you.  You're welcome, Society, that I am not a surgeon, an architect, an engineer, or an accountant. You wouldn't want any of those professionals "eyeballing" their work, would you?

 I learned the hard way that from now on, so help me God, I will always square off and always use a ruler when it comes to quilting.

Despite the crazy Dr. Seuss-like lines/ angles of my table runner, I still think I'll be able to use it this Christmas. It was a great learning experience and that's the most important thing. (I used this tutorial to learn how to sew on the binding.)

And dare I say it--despite the lack of precision, I am a little proud of the thing.

Homework

I've been such a good student this past week! I've been doing lots of studying and working hard on my homework.

I've been putting tons of thought into the Janie and Jack-inspired fair isle hat for C and plotting out possible designs on knitting graph paper. (I printed mine out from here.)

I studied the Norwegian Star hat pattern and followed its design.

After playing around with graph paper and pencil, I turned to the Internet for a quicker design solution. I found this great website, TricksyKnitter, which allows you to graph your design and print. Much easier to add or delete things you don't want that way.
 

Here's one of my changes: an all white background.

Or gray background.

I still wound up making a mistake on my final print though.

I started the actual knitting this week, and I'm still studying and thinking about the design as I go.  I am probably going to keep it on the simple side, but I'm not 100% sure.

I also completed my sewing homework from P. I entered into this activity completely clueless so this was a big step for me. Above you can see my quilt sandwich and basting pins. Again, I have no clue if I did it correctly.

Here are the strips of binding I made.



And here's the finished binding I ironed, using this cool little tool P. loaned me. I didn't know it's name so I looked online; it's a bias tape maker. It's awesome! Makes it so much easier.
 
All in all it's been a pretty productive week even though I haven't really finished anything. Again, I'm trying to focus on the process and enjoy that as much as the finished product.

Girls Night: September

P. hosted a sewing-intensive Girls Night last week, which gave K. and me a great opportunity to dive into some projects that normally might be a little scary to tackle on our own.

I find that martinis, especially cotton candy-esque ones, really help one deal with fears-craft related or otherwise.

A couple weeks ago I spotted some cute Christmas fat quarters at a local craft store. At $1.49 I couldn't resist snagging a few, even though I had no idea what I was going to do with them.

I threw around the idea of making wine gift bags, but P. suggested a little quilted wall hanging or table runner. I was kind of nervous b/c of my mediocre sewing skills, but P. helped me do the whole thing--from the measuring and cutting to laying out the squares. (By the way, that telephone-looking suction cup thing above? What an awesome tool! It makes cutting so much easier).

Again, I know very little about quilting (so far) but P. told me this is a log cabin design.

While I labored with my log cabins, K. went to work on a Cat in the Hat hat for her daughter for Halloween. (I'm not sure, but I think she was following this tutorial).

Unfortunately, there was a slight mishap: sewing in the lining backwards. I once sewed the hem of my workout pants backwards three times, so I can totally relate. She had to rip out all those stitches, and they were made with a serger! Not fun. I can't wait to see the finished product.

I'm hosting Girls Night next and I have a lot of homework to do before P. shows me how to attach a binding and finish the quilt. I have to sew strips of binding, sandwich the quilt, and quilt it before our next meeting. Gulp. I don't know if I'm ready for this. I feel kind of freaked out. Where's that martini?

Girls Night: June

It was my turn to host Girls Night last week and P. showed up just in time to give me a refreshed interest in sewing again.

While K worked on her cupcake hat and I barely worked on my blanket, P. managed to whip up this skirt with ease. She still has to add a zipper, but it was really cool to watch her work.

She used this pattern for an a-line skirt--perfect for summer.

Action shot of her working with the pattern. (I've never seen this done before. K and I were mesmerized).

And the coolest thing was checking out this fine piece of machinery! A serger which P. brought over!

I kind of just sat there with the crochet blanket in my lap, and my mouth open, staring at P. work.

I also took breaks to shove these brownies and shortbread cookies in my mouth.

The chocolate chip cookie/ brownies were from a Betty Crocker mix (they were very good though) but these shortbread cookies I made following a recipe I found here. (They look much better in her photos so check them out). And they were incredibly easy. I will definitely be adding them to the Christmas Cookie list from now on. (I'm imagining them rolled in red and green non-pareils or raw sugar). They could easily be rolled in red for Valentine's Day, green for St. Patrick's Day, red white and blue for July 4th, orange and black for Halloween...ok, I'm sure you get it.

Even though I didn't get much work done on the crochet front, I found a keeper cookie recipe and learned a lot by watching P. P. also said she'd make K and me a skirt now too. That would be a good Girl's Night activity, actually. Maybe she could help us make our own skirts? I'll have to discuss it with the girls.

Anchors Aweigh!

I have to make a confession.

I think I hate sewing.

I really want to like sewing because it's really cool (in my world at least), you can make awesome things, and be super creative. And I so admire the people out there who are good at it. In fact, they are so good at what they do that these people make me think it's easy.

It's not. At least not for me. I'm sure this is because I need lessons, or at least a lot more practice. So far the only thing I can really do is sew a line. And it's probably not going to be a straight line either.

Sigh.

My confession emerges in light of a recent reverse applique experience. Like the octopus tee, I had an idea for an anchor shirt (anchors are on everything right now for boys' clothes) for Little C. for a few months now.

I drew out an anchor after looking at different images online, cut it out, and followed this tutorial for reverse applique. There are other ways to do it, like here, but I chose the former because it required fewer materials.

I turned the shirt inside out and attached the navy fabric to it (wrong side facing up) and pinned it in place.

Then you're supposed to sew around the anchor. I tried pinning it to anchor it in place (ha! get it?), but that wasn't working for me because the shirt was getting all bunched up when I was sewing. So mother's ingenuity struck and I decided to use this:

Little C's sidewalk chalk. Remember when we made these for Girls Night? I use mine all the time for crayons, etc.

Anyway, I used the chalk to lightly outline the drawing and then sewed around it.

Not exactly perfect, but I gave it a good shot.

I turned the shirt right side out. You can sort of see the outline that I sewed.

I used small scissors to cut away the white fabric to reveal the navy beneath.

Then I trimmed away some of the excess navy fabric on the back.

Here's what I learned:

1. Sewing circles/ curves is really hard.
2. The ideas I have ALWAYS look much better in my head.
3. When sewing the front of a shirt or onesie, it's really hard not to sew over the scrunched up fabric on the sides/ keep the knit flat and not pulled taut.
4. There appears to be a delay between the time my brain tells my foot to get off the foot pedal and my foot actually obeying. This made me have serious issues trying to sew an outline. Who knew my reflexes were so slow?

Oh, and here's an actual tip and not just another example of me complaining/ whining:

5. Draw your design larger than you want it, because you will lose width when cutting it out. (This didn't make much of a difference for my anchor because it was large to start with).

***********
Conclusion: I must practice more on the dreaded sewing machine, and  I need to look up basic sewing tutorials online. There's just no other way around it. I don't want to hate sewing and I'd really like to learn to be better.

All in all the anchor shirt is not that bad, and Little C. will definitely get some wear out of it this summer. It also cost next to nothing to make (the navy blue fabric was a dollar, and the white shirt was on sale for 2.99). $3.99 for a new shirt and a good learning experience? Now I call that a deal!

Attack of the Giant Squid

When I was making this shirt I kept thinking back to an early assignment I had during my first year of teaching when I was completing my education classes at night.

The science lab teacher at my school was also taking this Integrative Curriculum class with me and we teamed up together for the final assignment. It was a weekly 8 o'clock class. It was across the street from my workplace which was close to an hour away from where I lived. This forced me to stay at work until 8 after teaching all day, attend class until 10, and get home close to 11. Then wake up the next morning at 5:15 for work. Needless to say it WAS NOT FUN!!! Looking back I don't even know how I managed to do it (I had to do the same thing with other classes, and committees as well over the years and I always hated it). The thought of having to do something like that now makes me feel kind of nauseous. Let me repeat: IT WAS SO NOT FUN.

Anyway, despite this hellishness, I loved working on our final assignment. We decided to integrate three subjects into a lesson plan the Science Lab teacher already used about squid dissection. Since I taught English, it was my job to plan how to incorporate it. I knew immediately that the students would become instantly engaged with a multi media introduction to the Giant Squid. We planned to show historical illustrations, and sailor accounts of these enormous sea creatures attacking boats, etc. on the SMART board. Then the students would read the squid description from Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I think the third member of our group was a math teacher, which is probably why I do not remember her contribution at all. You know I tend to block out anything math-related.

Since the students would have already studied about the squid in Science class, they would then have to discuss and write down what was correct or incorrect about the physical descriptions. What was myth/ fact...etc, etc. There was a lot more to the lesson but this was the general thread. By then the students would be really fired up about getting their hands on a real squid and dissecting it. It was always a big shock to them to see how tiny the squid was that they were working with (they were usually about 6 inches long). I'm sure they were expecting the Science Lab teacher to roll in some giant sea monster on a trolley from the hallway.

Trust me, they forgot any minor disappointment they may have initially had as soon as they were able dissect the ink sack; they were to use the ink to write their names on paper and hang it up outside the classroom. Looking back I find it gross and barbaric--and exactly what kids would find fun.

Unfortunately, I never got to use this lesson plan with the Science Lab teacher. I had observed her regular squid lesson that year but she left for a different job the next year and we never got to collaborate. I still think that it would be a great lesson all these years later. And I guess the child-like excitement/ wonder of "sea monsters" hasn't left me because I've been wanting to make Little C. this octopus shirt for almost two years.

I'm not the Science teacher so I can't go into detail about the differences among squid, cuttlefish, or octopi. Although, I'm quite certain that an octopus has 8 tentacles, not 4. I'm calling it artistic license.

This long-in-the-making shirt started with an octopus sketch on a discarded piece of Little C's drawing paper. I made a variety of designs to start with.  I initially was going for a mod-vector art-ish look, but my husband liked this illustration better. I really trust his eye on color/ design. I can get way too caught up in those things and complicate matters for the worse, so I almost always go with his opinion on those things.

Then I appliqued the shirt. I have only done this once before, and I definitely need practice. This was also the first time I changed the foot on my sewing machine/ used satin stitch.

 I did practice a lot before hand, but I still had some difficulty with the fabric puckering, etc. I should have put some kind of stabilizing fabric on the other side of the shirt, but I was too impatient. Live and learn.

I knew I wanted to use buttons for the suction cup tentacles. When I saw these in the store I knew they were perfect; what a great find!

I'm glad I finally made this idea concrete, and probably just in the nick of time too, while Little C. is still little and into wearing a mom-made shirt with pink buttons on it.

Girls Night: April

Last week we met at P's with husbands and children in tow for Girls Night. I worked on my flower pillow (and finished it the next day--hooray!) and K. started working on a knitted cupcake hat for her littlest one.

P. really put us both to shame because she has been going crazy lately with crafting at her house.

Here's a fun scarf she's knitting with novelty yarn. It produces a very soft and fluffy texture, but takes a little getting used to when knitting; you have to knit in between the puffs of yarn and P. said the stitches didn't always match up with the amount of space she had, etc.

And here's a beautiful ruffled scarf that I love. P. got this kit at the yarn store we all visited together. I hope she's able to finish it. Unfortunately she's had a lot of issues with yarn breaking on this one.

Hopefully she can continue it.

And if that wasn't enough already, the girl went and made herself a dress too!

It's Simplicity Pattern 2369. Now that she's played around with it in brown jersey knit, she's going to try it again with this print:

As K. remarked, it's very Diane von Furstenberg. I'm so impressed. Now she's getting me inspired to try my hand at an actual sewing pattern. I don't know though. The sewing machine and I don't always get along.

I was so excited by all the craftiness going on. But I was even more excited about this cotton candy vodka drink (left) and whipped cream vodka (on the right). Who knew they made vodka in those flavors?

I can't forget my hastiness to eat these desserts either (the scale certainly didn't forget). Gotta love Cowboy Cookies and chocolate covered pretzels.

It was a very fun craft night and good to see the girls. I was so inspired afterwards that I was determined to finish my flower pillow. The next day I added strips of leftover yellow flowered fabric from C's baby quilt. I then top stitched it to the flower top, stuffed in the pillow form, and sewed it closed.

I presented it and the doll blanket to my nieces on Easter.

They really liked them and that made me most excited of all.