I'm Melting....MELTING!

I hate heat waves. It is so hot and unbearably sticky I thought it would be a good time to go back to the flickr archives to see what I never got around to posting.

I made this needle roll for my little sister "D" for Christmas. I first made a sample for myself, and realized I needed to make a couple of design changes if the roll was to be used for straight needles. D said she only uses circulars, so no need to redesign.

I looked at several needle roll tutorials online before I started:

Kimono Needle Roll
This one was good, but I wanted a different style

Lupin Bunny has a nice one too, but I am lazy and wanted to make this version easier on me. So I made it with home dec fabrics and left out the batting. I will follow her method more when using quilting fabrics.

Circular Needle Roll Tutorial
This one is really what I based my design on. I loved her use of decorative stitches and I thought the way she folded it into the middle was brilliant, but I don't care for flaps, so I left it out. I also have seen the way that needle rolls can be stuffed to the gills *cough* MOM! so I used a ribbon to close it instead of snaps.

More pics of her roll here

So here is what I made: I call it "Preppy Needle Roll"


Ignore the imperfect sewing






I sewed the ribbon on perfectly in the center of the needle roll.....but not in the center of the ribbon. OOPS!


I need to make another one for my other sister, so I will do a tutorial when I make that one. I also need make a different model for my Mom who has 40+ years of needles to put in to her roll. I think that one will be called "Monster Roll".

I also want to make some of these double pointed needle pouches that Jen of the brilliant needle roll also made .

Fabric Fun at Crybabys

I ordered a ton of fabric a while ago to make diapers and clothing sets for the new babies in our lives. We have a set of identical triplet boys, a new girl, a gender unknown due to arrive later this summer, and a couple of friends we are expecting to hear official announcements from any day. Not drinking? Really? You have a cold? HA!

Here are some pics.
Organic birds


I heart you


Bikes and bones!


The gold is metallic!


Apples from the big apple


cute

I also got some great slate gray and brown velour from Sewzannes

Vote in style!

After GothamGirls afternoon nap we were preparing to go vote in the NY democratic primary. She decided that one should be dressed to the nines to practice democracy. Here is a quick shot before we crossed the street to vote.



I recommended this book for your little citizens:

Dye Job part 1

I took a great fabric dying class at The City Quilter back in November, but never got around to writing about it.

I really enjoyed the class. I liked that the instructor had a relaxed "let's see what happens!" enthusiasm about her craft. I tend to be a little rigid, or cautious when it comes to crafting and I really have found that I enjoy teachers who push me out of my comfort zone. The first teacher who did this was Meilssa Sarris in a weekend seminar that I loved. I bristled the first couple of hours with my little internal pris whining "what do you mean there are no real instructions?" "There are no templates??" Her class was process oriented, all about exploring the fabric and sewing and cutting and letting the impulse take you to your finished quilt. It was the perfect class for me. Knocked me off my uptight stool.

Look at that quilt! (that is her work NOT mine)

Back to the dye class.

Our teacher used a great method for apartment dwellers:
1) Soak the fabric in water and soda ash
2) Squeeze out the excess water
3) Put in zip top sandwich bags, or bags appropriately sized for your piece of fabric.
4) Add the mixed dye (dye mixed with water) to the bag and depending on what kind of effect you are going for squish the fabric around to distribute the dye evenly (or not).
5) Let the fabric sit in the baggie at least overnight.
6) Dump in the washing machine and wash with synthropol.

Pics here more info to come:

Ottobre! Sleepsack for Mr. D - or Why you should sew slightly tipsy

For my birthday Mr. GothamMom gave me a subscription to Otttobre, but since I could not wait for it to ship from Finland I bought some back issues to get me started. "Well GothamMom your birthday is in August, why did it take you that long to make anything?" Well observant inquisitor...I was chicken; you have to add your own seam allowances, and the clothes look so nice in the book I was worried I was not up to the task.

This is for my 6mo old nephew, Mr. D, younger brother of Mr. H who was the recipient of earlier sleep sacks. One layer sleep sacks from a home drafted pattern. Wow. This one puts those sleepsacks to shame. (and I was SO proud of those!)

This pattern is from Ottobre Winter 5/2006



The Bad
Things I will do differently:

1) I will lengthen the back straps and shorten the front so the snaps are more on the front instead of the tops of the shoulders. I thought I had screwed up the seam allowances, but that is how it looks on in the picture.

2) I will sew the zipper on last, instead of first.

3) I will sew the zipper between the lining and the outer layers. Something I was really kicking myself about until I looked at our super pricey petite bateau ($90) sleep sack and saw that they did not sew the zipper between the two linings either. tsk tsk. Regardless of how the French do it I will sandwich the zipper next time.





The Good
- The Malden Mills fleece is SO soft. Like Butta. Mr. D is super cuddly in it. I used a pretty printed fleece on the outside, a super soft lightweight 100, and then a heavier 100, (maybe 200?) for the lining.

- The 110 size was a good fit on my 6mo old nephew.

- Pattern was easy to cut out and sew



I sewed it in this order:

1) I put the zipper on first. I will not do that again. The only other thing I have sewn a zipper in is a wetbag, and this sleepsack that I came up with on my own, where the zipper is down the middle of the front. Both of those projects I put the zipper on first. I never even thought that I should do it differently for this one.

2) Put the front pieces together with right sides facing, and sewed a 1/4 inch seam starting on the top side, up and over the straps, across the neck and to the other side. Repeated with the back.

3) Then I laid out the sleep sack so I could serge the rest of sleepsack in one fell swoop. I put the outside lining right sides together and serged them starting at the bottom of the zipper, then followed it across the bottom and up the side. Without stopping I continued to serge the right sides together of the lining, down the side and across the bottom. I left several inches open at the end to flip it inside out.

I figured out how to serge it like that after a glass of wine and hanging out on the sofa staring at the sleep sack. I did have a moment of panic while turning it right side out, that I had just sewn the whole thing wrong, but to my delight it worked out!

4) I then sewed up the opening in the lining with a stretch zigzag on my sewing machine. I could have done a pretty hidden seam by hand, but come on. This is for a baby to grow out of in a few months, and it was the lining......


Next?
I would love to make with with velour outer and knit inner. I found some great velour for a friend's baby, but not the knit inner yet, I am looking for stars in the lavender family......Any suggestions?

Umm.... I've been busy?

Well I haven't posted in a while......well for over a year. Lets just start anew with the new season.


In that vein:

Inspired by a dream about bedbugs last night (we don't have bedbugs {knock wood}, but I do have several itchy mosquito bites from hanging out outside this weekend) hence the dream about itchy visitors, I think.

Today I:
Stripped the bed
Emptied the Vacuum - Note: don't EVER get a bagless vacuum
vacuumed the mattress (never done that before) ,
vacuumed both bedrooms, including behind DD's crib.
vacuumed the living room included the crevices of the glider (also have never done that before)
Vacuumed the area rug 10' by 10'
Rolled up said area rug, vacuumed the carpet below the area rug and put down scraps of rug pads with what I hope will be a unsuccessful effort to keep the rug from slowing creeping across the living room and bunching up under the love seat.

Then
I went through my fabric stash to find fabric for my sisters' needle rolls, younger sister will get hers for her birthday in November and Older sister will get hers for Christmas
Emailed for church
Did some work

Yes, all of that cleaning was to put off the actual work I was supposed to be doing. At least it was productive procrastination.

Then I emptied the dishwasher, went grocery shopping, made dd dinner, we made Grandpa a birthday card and put the kid to bed. A day well spent.

I hope your day went well too.

Sick and Slow

Sick
I left the house for the first time today (Saturday) since Monday, because of this stupid cold. Normally I have a cold and I get the sniffles and spend an afternoon in bed, not this cold, it was days of bed. I would not have survived without the help of my mom and sister who came to my rescue, Thanks!

Slow is how my daughter's "Baby Quilt" is going. I don't find much time at all to work on it, and I am designing as I go so there is not a simple pattern to stick to and follow. I find the improvisational nature of this quilt is much more like parenting. I have consulted a number of books but the final product will be mostly me. Here are some blocks, I have not committed to sewing them yet, and a design wall would be helpful, but we don't have the wall space for that. So I will post them here and think about the combinations before any final stitching.