so much for mom sewing

I went downstairs to work on some quilt blocks. I did not. I untangled yarn and threaded needles over, and over, and over. For the entire two hours Dad and the big girls were at church. Seriously. As soon as I had one taken care of, the next needed a refill on her needle. It was a constant rotation. Plastic canvas and yarn, and these girls are ready to get their craft on!

Future Crafters of America

Monkey Wrench tutorial

Trina and I have been working on the Squared Away block of the month for the past year.  We got to the end and I didn't like the bonus square (and one other).  So I broke the rules and picked one I liked!  I found this Monkey Wrench block here but it used a paper piecing method, which wouldn't have matched the rest of the quilt.  So I had to figure it out on my own.  It was pretty straight forward, but to help Trina out when she was ready to make her own I made up this little tutorial.

Cut your fabric.

Purple: 

one 6" square (for magic 8 HSTs)

four 4.5"x2.5" rectangles

one 10.5"x2.5" strip 

White:

one 6" square (for magic 8 HSTs)

five 2.5" squares

one 10.5"x2.5" strip 

Make your pieces.

-Use your 6" squares to make eight HSTs. - VIDEO on how to make magic 8 HSTs.

-Mark four of the white squares with a diagonal line.  Put it RST on the purple rectangle.  Sew on the line (shown in red in the picture below).  Trim a 1/4" seam allowance (green line).  Press open.  Note: Make sure your diagonals are either going ALL one direction or HALF the other direction.  Either way works, just be aware of them.  I made them all going one direction, so that's what the pictures with show.

-Sew the two long strips together.  Trim into 2.5" sections. (Just like we've done throughout this whole project).

Note: I have no idea the best way to press the seams.  Most of them were open because I wasn't sure.

You should end up with this...

eight HSTs, four diagonal rectangles, four white/purple rectangles and one single white square.

Sewing!
Start with the HSTs.  Sew them in pairs.  To keep it quick I just made them all the same direction and rotated it in my final placement.

Sew the HSTs to the diagonal-rectangles.  Again, all four will look exactly the same. 

Add a purple/white rectangle to TWO sections.  (You can't do all four at once! Ask me how I know.)  While you are at it you can add the lone white square to another one of the p/w rectangles.

These seams will give you three long pieces.  Be aware of the direction you place things.

Finally, sew the two larger pieces to the center strip.  Press and admire!

January in Connecticut

I'm finally sewing a lot again! Hooray! I missed it. Now I need to get back into blogging too, so things get their own posts throughout the month instead of a big photo dump at intervals.

Clothing
1 - circle skirt for SM - I watched the video from Made Everyday and used her instructions. It was pretty intimidating at first because of the curve, and sewing directly to the elastic. And ... yeah, don't look too closely at that part. Good thing her shirt covers the top! But it's sufficiently twirly for her, so she's happy.

2 - peasant top for RG - tutorial from Things of Cloth. It's the same pattern that SM is wearing in the above picture, that I made last spring (yep, these are two different shirts in the pictures!). Now RG has one as well, but she's worn it only the one time. ???? Maybe because she has deemed it a spring shirt? Or maybe it will end up in SM's drawer. The peasant top I made for SM last year has been worn SO much that it's becoming very, very thin.

Quilts
8 blocks for 3 different quilts ... 4 for Squared Away - I'm FINALLY getting back to it! Just two more colors left - dark green and dark purple.

JE and TA wanted to try their hand at machine sewing, and they worked with me on 2 blocks each. I did all the cutting (I don't trust kids yet with the rotary cutter - I gashed my own finger with it a few months ago), and I helped them with the machine. JE learned chain-stitching, which she thought was nifty.

JE made two of these star blocks with her own selection of fabric, to be put into a doll quilt. She did the chain piecing for all the half-square-triangles (HST), and was excited to put them all together into one star.

TA has plans for her own twin-sized quilt for her bed, which obviously I've not made yet ... happy to have her assistance! She did two blocks as well. We're using the house block pattern from Intrepid Thread.


Crafting
1 - Ten canvas tote bags for a church activity. The 10 girls in my group decorated them with fabric markers, and hot-gluing ribbon and fabric flowers and "jewel" sparkle thingies to them. Yes, I could have bought them. But buying 10 would have cost $45, and the fabric cost only $15. I had the time to make them, and I have other ideas for blowing my budget money this year.

2 - While I had the craft supplies out, JK found some leftover fabric circle flower things kicking around, and decided one needed to be a hair clip. Sure, why not!

3. Edge stitching on a large piece of fleece to make into a throw blanket for the TV couch.

Mending: 5

January in Canada

I've got to admit, Trina had a good idea last year.  I liked her monthly reports.  I didn't post too often last year because I was working so much on one quilt that still isn't finished.  Other bloggers post progress on projects and honestly it is just as much about the journey as it is the completed object.

So far this year I've been sewing pretty much constantly, with a drawing added in there for good measure.  My house may suffer for it, but it isn't like I can keep up with the mess anyway so I might as well have fun.

Project Quilting mystery quilt along, 

that I totally tweaked and made my own.

Project Quilting challenge -

a baby quilt for a friend made in just a week.

I got further on the Twilt 

(or Twin Quilts - the Squared Away BOM from last year).

I'm going to make a scrappy border for it

so LOTS of 2.5" squares for that.

Made a replacement block for the Twilt - 

I just didn't like the original blue one.

Now that we both approve, I need to make a second one.

  

NEW PROJECT!  Sew Fresh Quilts is making a Harry Potter quilt!

It is more exact that I've ever had to be, but super fun.

I'll just be doing the first four blocks instead of the whole thing. 

(See, this is something that I wouldn't have posted about before,

since it isn't a complete project, just a block.)

And since there's time for something between the HP blocks,

I started a mini quilt with economy blocks, because I think they're fun.  

I plan on donating it to A Doll Like Me like last year.

chicken and spinach saute

Adam was being inventive awhile back and created this really good recipe. We liked it so much that he hurried to write it all down before he forgot what he did ... which is a good thing, because when I made it tonight for dinner, he'd completely forgotten that he made it at all!

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, diced
1 onion, chopped
spinach - choose your own quantity
sundried tomatoes - choose your own quantity

salt and pepper
1/2 tsp grains of paradise
1/2 tsp lemon extract
1/2 tsp orange extract
1/2 tsp almond extract (you could just leave this out if necessary due to nut allergies)
1 tsp oregano

In skillet with olive oil, saute the chicken, onion, spices and extracts. When the chicken is cooked through, add the sundried tomatoes. Cook until soft. Then add the spinach and stir it around until it's wilted.

You can eat at this stage. OR you can make it into a sauce to put over pasta. We poured straight cream over the whole thing, and added a splash of apple juice. Yum.

stylin'

So fashionable for age 5.

2019 To-Do / 2018 Ta-Da!

I know this sort of post isn't required, but I really like to see my to-do list become a Ta-Da! List.  2018 was full of fabric and sewing.  It was wonderful!  My posting dropped off those last few months (my personal blog is at least six months behind!), but I was still very busy - my sister got married and I made four dresses for the flower girls!  And the twin quilts (or Twilts and I've started to call them) that I talk about below...

QUILTING

• Maple Mission: My own design!  My parents love it.
• 2 Doll Quilts: Made for and donated to A Doll Like Me.
• String Bean: My first Project Quilting challenge, and the string piecing I wanted to do.
• Mini Pink: Little doesn't always mean faster. 
• 2 Narwhal Quilts: Started and finished in time for two new nieces!
• Christmas Cake Quilt: All the blocks finished. Hoping to finish in 2019.  I also started a table runner with the scraps!
• Block of the Month Twilts: This is probably where I put in my most sewing hours, and yet I haven't posted about it at all.  Trina suggested we do the Squared Away Block of the Month on Academic Quilter and then share blocks with each other.  I've made 44 10" blocks - two identical sets of 22, half for me and half for her.  So much work!!  We haven't gotten the last of the blocks sorted out so I can't finish it yet, but I've been cutting even MORE little squares to make a scrappy border for it.  Countless hours of work, but I love it!

As for my non-quilty sewing, I actually accomplished most of what I had hoped to.  My color challenge fizzled out, since I didn't give myself any rules.  And I never made jackets - which I should do soon before Cupcake grows out of the pattern!

• two sets of pajamas and a sleep sack
• six towel baby bibs
• two Mckenzies
• 
• two baby peasant dresses
• four baby crinkle toys
• two Ishi dresses for Easter
• four Alder skirts for me
• Maggie Mae sheepy top
• matching My Little Pony outfits for me and my daughters
• MLP purple top
• Strawberry top x4 (two for my girls, two for a friend - they wore them for family photos!)
• 
• four TMNT drawstring bags, plus four Christmas ones
• six eye patches
• 
• Quilt-As-You-Go placemat for a church activity (and helped with many others)
• Sailor Mercury costume pieces
• six Garden Party dresses (two for Christmas)
• 
• four Everyday Necktie (two for Christmas)
• and mended 49 items.

This year I hope to work on Christmas projects (including at least one [maybe three!] quilts) throughout the year, so I can give more homemade, meaningful gifts. (I'm so over the commercial aspect of the holidays it isn't even funny.)  I've got ideas for ornaments and a few other surprises, so I hope the week after Christmas is full of project posts.  I want another skirt and I've already got some Ravenclaw flannel set aside.  Cupcake will be needing more pajamas.  For quilting: paper piecing and hexagons are still on my list, and I've added economy blocks (unicorn fabric?), perhaps as a pin cushion.  Lots of ideas but I also want to be flexible enough to join in on Sew Alongs as I am inspired (I've already got my eye on a few blocks from this Harry Potter one).  Happy sewing to you!

First Finishes of 2019

Since I've started quilting, I've noticed lots of quilt-alongs and Blocks of the Month and lots of fun in the sewing community.  Trina and I are still working on our BoM from last year, and I haven't even done my 2018 review post, but that isn't stopping me from playing with new projects!

I follow Project Quilting and have done one or two of their challenges -- sew a project, from idea to completion, in one week, within the suggested theme.   Right after Christmas they hosted a Mystery Quilt, which sounded quite intriguing.  So I jumped in on it!  Lots of tiny 2.5" squares.  But half way through I figured out what it was going to say - I heart PQ.  Which is great, but I've only done a few of their challenges so it isn't super inspirational to me.  So I spent some extra time to add MORE squares and came up with this:

It is 16" x 42" and is hanging up above my sewing desk.  I adore it.  Aside from being first finish of the year, and my first mystery quilt, it was also the first time I had made fabric from scraps (the heart), the first time using low volume fabrics (not just white on white), and my first time using decorative stitching to attach the binding (which was harder than I thought it would be).  Lots of firsts, lots of fun.

----------------------------

And then immediately after finishing that I started the first challenge of Season 10: Hope Springs Eternal.  Start the timer, I've got one week.

Sunday: Project Quilting posts the first challenge of Season 10, Hope.  Perfect.  I had a stack of grey and yellow fabric just waiting to be turned into a baby quilt for a friend.  And what is more hopeful than a brand new baby!  I finally settled on this Giant Block from Kitchen Table Quilting and got started.  I added an extra block in the middle to feature the little lamb fabric - my first economy block!  It was fun to make and I want to make more in the future.

Monday - Wednesday: Making the top.  Aside from adding the center square I followed the directions for the 36" square and added a 3" border around it.  I like how the grey and yellow play together.

Surely you remember Cupcake's best buddy Grey, right?

Thursday: My favorite sandwich is a quilt sandwich.  Actually, basting is one of my least favorite parts of quilting, because I just can't seem to get it right and always end up with wrinkles in my backing.  But this time wasn't so bad - I used grey flannel for the backing and it stuck to my rug just enough to keep everything pretty flat while I pinned!

Friday - Saturday: Quilting.  I had to keep it simple to make sure I got it done in time.  To keep it even faster I used the backing for the binding - and it's the only way I can manage to get the binding to look decent.

I hope my friend loves this for her baby due next month.  I hope it brings a bit of sunshine as she adjusts to being a mom.  And I hope that baby is healthy and happy and brings great joy to family and friends.

December journal

This month was the closest I came to no sewing at all. I've been working on a book project all fall - ghost-writing a memoir for someone else. The manuscript deadline was dropped on me out of nowhere, and I had only 10 days to get it done, reviewed, and submitted to the publisher. After being so completely furious that I cussed out the author for destroying Christmas for my family, I worked nonstop for a week (my kids ate a lot of store-bought pizza) until it was submitted at 1 a.m. on a Friday night. Mr. Author went with me to the school to pick up my kids that day, in the middle of our 15-hour marathon push to the end, and my 5-year-old wouldn't even look at him, much less give him a high-five. She had informed me that morning, "After today, I don't want you to work with him anymore, Mommy." Noted. 

So, with all of THAT, there went all my Christmas energy, any Christmas activities, and any Christmas sewing.

What I did instead was I took my DC map embroidery project with me on our Christmas break trip to Tennessee and Virginia, and worked on that while at my husband's sister's house. It was nice to have something productive to do instead of watching TV. I didn't quite finish the entire bottom section of the quilt, but I came awfully close! The whole project still has a LONG way to go and I doubt it will be finished in 2019, but I hope I can get a lot closer to that.   

And that concludes my 2018 year of sewing! I'm not going to do an entire review post like I have before, because I've done all the monthly journal posts. Just click on "review" in the index and you'll see my 2018 months all neatly in a row. I didn't finish any quilts this year, which is my one disappointment - I did want to do that. Other than that, I'm happy with what I did! 

For 2019, I have no new projects I'm adding - I still have a huge list I wrote out last summer that needs to be done! Mainly the four quilts for my kiddos. I have 5 kids, and I finished JE's quilt ages ago ... 2 years? I started on SM's quilt right away after that, but 2 years later, the pieced top is nowhere near being done. I'm making the Squared Away for JK. RG and TA are planned but nothing is started. It's way past time to get ALL my kids their quilts. I also have fabric that I bought to make myself a skirt AGES ago, seriously, I think 6 years ago. It's way past time to make that skirt too. 

November journal

1. Loads of fabric pumpkins. I lost count, but there were more than 30.

2. Two more Squared Away quilt blocks - I did make two of this block, but when I went to take the picture, I realized I'd put one of them together wrong. Fortunately, I just need to take one of the side rows off to turn it around.

3. And it's not sewing, but I made my Christmas letter blocks ...

I'm excited to do a lot more sewing this month! I spent the summer traveling and doing theater and camps. This entire fall has been totally sucked up with editing a book. Ya know what? It's December tomorrow. I'm self-employed, and I don't work during Christmas! I'm doing service, and baking cookies, and sewing for my kids!

If anyone needs me, I'll be in the kitchen. See ya.