Small project, big ego.

My first grader's teacher sends home a canvas tote whenever it's my daughter's turn to bring in snacks for the class. The bag looks like it was lovingly handmade by someone, but since getting dragged around by first graders, it started to look a little worse for wear. I thought I'd make the class a new snack bag, for the same reason I do anything: 50% out of actual kindness, and 50% out of the desire to get rid of fabric and foist my crafts onto others.

On the right is the old and busted, and on the left is the new hotness. I tried to make the bag similar to the first - heavy material on the outside, webbed handles. I tried to improve upon the things that I found lacking in the original bag: I made it a little bigger, plus made the word "snacks" more visible. Plus, I like my bags like I like my women - with a flat bottom.

 

The lining is made from a colorful food-themed fabric I bought at Wal-Mart two years ago, fully intending to make a quilt with it. I was thrilled to clear it out of my yardage for once and for all. In fact, the only thing I had to buy to make this project was the webbing for the handle. I even got to try a "something new" for this project - for the first time, I made a bag without any sort of pattern or tutorial. It's not perfect, but it turned out pretty well in the end.

And when my job as snack buddy comes the day after Easter, you bet there are going to be 20+ kids who get to eat some deviled eggs. 

And even though the teacher sent home a very nice thank you note, her appreciation couldn't even touch the ego boost I got a few days ago. I was looking at the numbers of views on my blog posts, and I noticed that my post about the Dan Savage Valentine's Day "Fuck First" pillow had received over 1000 views, way outnumbering any other post I had done. After a little bit of investigation, I found that about a month ago, Dan Savage had Tweeted a picture of the package I sent him to Ann Landers' daughter.

I found the same picture later at a Nebraska news blog, showing Margo Howard's response, and her claim that if Ann Landers ever saw my work, she'd faint. This readers will take that as a compliment.

And even though Mr. Savage didn't mention my name or the name of this blog, people found their way here. And Dan's picture found its way around the internet, even to this Pinterest page:

See it there in the middle? Adorable.

So my work got a few bright moments of internet fame, and it was quite a thrill. 

Quilt Boss: Pinwheels, Placemats, and Procrastination

Back in September, a friend from high school asked me to make some quilts for her sons, as well as some throw pillows, throw quilts, and placemats. She picked a few prints from Fabric.com, gave me a few ideas for design, then trusted me to create something awesome.

I sent off the boys' quilts right before having my baby, and then my productivity level just dropped off. Sure, I had a teeny baby, but let's be honest - I really could have gotten the rest of this stuff done sooner. The throws and placemats became my February project...which carried over into being my March project. But hallelujah, everything is done and mailed.

The throw quilts were 60"X60", and I made two 14" pillow shams to match. The orange, yellow, and blue color scheme came from the print shown above, which I used on the back of the shams and throughout the quilts. I fulfilled my goal of trying something new on this project by using an invisible zipper in the pillow shams.

I'd used regular zippers before, but this was my first experience with the invisible kind. I found the overall effect to be meh. For throw pillows, I'm usually satisfied with making them envelope-style or installing a visible zipper. But some people swear by invisible zippers, so maybe I'll come to love them in the future.

 

The design for both the quilts and the shams was made from half-square triangles. Another "something new" for this project was the experience of making HST units eight at a time, using the technique described in this tutorial. The process went so much quicker than making each HST individually, and I'll definitely be using the same technique in the future.

Trimming a million little quilt squares puts me right in front of the TV for a long time. So this month and last, I found myself watching a whole lot of "Cake Boss" on Netflix. I just can't get enough of watching Buddy's team do all the work, then seeing how he calls them in so they praise him for how amazing the cake looks. I watched so much Cake Boss, I actually started hearing my life narrated in Buddy Valastro's voice.

"And the more I'm doin', the betta she's a-lookin'!"

As I said, I had to trim a few hundred quilt squares. But it had to be done - trimmed squares just make for better accuracy. Not every seam matched like clockwork, but for the most part, the quilt tops came together pretty well.

"This is the crew...mia famiglia."

Never too early to get the kids started, right? My 7-year-old was a big helper with cutting the batting.

"This thing is gonna be huge!"

So maybe 60"X60" is not a huge quilt, but as far as a scale of accomplishment, it felt huge. These days, if I set the baby down, I'm in for a whole lot of screaming. There aren't a lot of sewing tasks I can do with a baby on my hip. I could only work when I could scratch out some free time. Now, I've got more quilt ideas than I have time or energy to work on them.

I made simple pieced backings from large squares - a few squares were leftover from the front of the quilt, but mostly, I had to dip into stash and pull some coordinating prints. I was thrilled to use up some fabric that I had no idea what to do with.

"These things taste as good as they look!"

I really should make placemats more often - it makes for a quick and easy project. These particular ones used a soothing, low-key color scheme that made a nice break from the bright colors of the quilts.

Six placemats, no sweat.

I was happy to make the backings from brown gingham, which was another fabric that I'd been hanging onto and didn't know what to do with.

"That's how you do it...WASILLA-style, baby! Whoo!"

I finished the pillows a couple of weeks ago and mailed them off. It felt pretty great this morning to get two quilts and six placemats packed up and shipped to their new home in Nebraska.

Coming up next month on Quilt Boss: "Babies and Orphans." Watch as Youth Hostile makes a bunch of baby quilts and tries to finish up some old projects that she forgot about. 

You down with HST?

Since it's a short month, it's a good thing I've gotten a jump on making the HSTs for my February project. They're all sewn and pressed, and now they just have to be trimmed. Trimming is my least favorite task, and trimming all 720 of these squares is going to be miserable.

Hopefully, I'll be done with the trimming soon, and then I can move onto more fun tasks. I can't wait to see how these squares come together to make two 14"X14" pillow shams and two 60"X60" throw quilts. These, plus a set of six placemats, are promised to a friend who got married back in November. Hopefully, they'll look so amazing that she'll forgive me for sending it three months late.

The colors are great, and I think the leftovers might be just right for a unisex baby quilt that I'm planning.

Ruffling it in the wilderness.

This is about as close as I'm willing to get to an outdoor activity - making adorable little play tents. My girls were invited to a birthday party for a friend who is turning three. I thought she might like a little tent made from this tutorial. Since she's a little princess, I thought I'd make it a little more feminine than the brown and green one that I made at Christmas. I used a pink and white fabric with woodland creatures, and added some eyelet lace around the doorway.

Don't worry, I'm not a cheapskate trying to foist my crafts onto people - I also bought her a gift.

January project completed: Love is fan art and obscene pillows (NSFW)

 

When I was in high school, there was a period of a few months when I had two jobs: a day job at a grocery store bakery, and an overnight job stocking shelves at WalMart. Now, having a little baby and two older kids on a daytime school schedule, I feel like I'm working two shifts again. Once the kids go to bed, then I get started on my nighttime shift, hanging out with my wakeful baby and puttering around the house. So with the many hours I get to sew, it's little surprise that I actually finished a project on time. Early, even. Granted, it's not a quilt, but it's a project.

For my January project, I decided to make a Valentine's Day gift/fan art for one of my favorite podcasters and relationship advice columnists, Dan Savage. I've heard every episode of his show "Savage Love", and have read all the columns I can get my hands on. Even as a straight, monogamous, vanilla woman, I get value from the advice he dispenses. I think if I had started listening to him much earlier, I might have been able to avoid some of the pain I took away from past relationships.

Every year, Dan gives the same advice for Valentine's Day: "Fuck First." What he means is that if you're going out with your significant other on Valentine's Day and plan to have sex, have sex before you go out to dinner. That way, you can get a later reservation. You can enjoy the sex more, not being full on food and alcohol and tired from a night out. And you can enjoy dinner more, with all the expectations out of the way.

 

I decided to express this thought on a lacy throw pillow in Valentine's Day colors. I started by tracing the letters on freezer paper. Then I ironed the paper in place.

 

Next, I sewed right over the paper using my machine's smallest stitch, which made it easy to pull the paper off. 

After the letters were in place, I used free-motion quilting to fill in the rest of the space on the front panel. To make the letters extra puffy, I used two layers of batting. I think next time I do this, I'll only use one layer, and make the quilting a little less dense. The front ended up a little too stiff for my taste.

The back panel was much softer and less stiff. I only used one layer of batting and a simple quilting pattern of horizontal lines 1/4" apart. The back also has a hot-pink zipper down the center. I finished it off with a border of eyelet lace and stuffed it with an 18" pillow form.

I tried a few new things this month - sending fan art to a celebrity is definitely a first for me. Certainly, making a project where the main thought is an obscenity is a new thing for me - not that I'm above a swear or two. I think the juxtaposition of a cuss word on a quilted good, much less a floofy pillow, is hilarious. I've never used just one fabric and let the quilting be the focus. This is my first time finishing a pillow with a zipper. I tried a new product, Aurifil thread - previously, I had just used whatever old quilting thread I'd found at JoAnn. I'd like to keep on using it - lots of quilt blogs I've read swear by it. Finally, the technique of making the letters was a new one for me. Usually, if I want to make letters on a quilt, I'd use applique. But I'm liking this so much, and I'm such a huge fan of words on quilts, this might become my signature. Definitely expect more of that in the future.

 
So this gift is done and ready to be mailed to Dan Savage!

Goals for 2013

I started my quilting journey in January of 2011, and my goal for that year was to create one quilt a month. That resolution worked out pretty well - I made at least 12 quilted projects, so it averaged out to one a month. For 2012, I continued this challenge, and added another element: my goal was to work only with my existing stash and not buy any additional fabric. I didn't do quite as well with my goal this year - I got really overwhelmed with the new baby and really dropped the ball on creating new projects. Also, I just gave up on avoiding fabric shops and bought whatever my heart desired.

This year, I am continuing and adding onto my 2011 and 2012 goals: in 2013, I will create at least one quilted project per month, using mostly stash fabric (and hopefully, these many projects will significantly lessen my stash, since I'm having a problem with storage.) I'm going to allow for my monthly output to include not only quilts, but also throw pillows, garments, and other sewing projects. In addition, each month, I will try something new. "Something new" can be a specific quilting technique, like paper piecing, sewing curves, or using an interesting tool. Or "something new" can be a more general sewing experience - I'd like to take a class, if I could ever get my schedule to work out. I'd like to make some quilted fan art to send to my favorite podcasters. I'd also like to make a quilt to give to a charity quilt drive - I feel like I saw lots of requests in 2012 for quilts for victims of natural disasters, and I'd like to have a few twin-size quilts on hand to send in when I hear of another drive.

I've already got lots of ideas circulating in my head - hopefully, I can see lots of them become reality in 2013. Happy New Year!

Hey, baby, you come here often?

 Geez, I haven't blogged for a couple of months. In my defense, I was hugely pregnant...

...and that works as an excuse for a multitude of sins.

I still did a little bit of sewing and crafting during my blogging hiatus. I made full-size quilts in blue and gray for two little boys who were going to be step-brothers. I got this photo of my delicious stack of new fabric...

But I didn't photograph the final product. My camera was out of batteries, and I couldn't find the charger. But it's not my fault, I was pregnant. See, great excuse.

I attempted to tackle the ongoing mess in the kids' playroom. I made an over-the-door Barbie-holding caddy, which is basically like a shoe organizer, with slightly larger pockets. Now we can get 30 fashion dolls up off the floor. Plus, it temporarily satisfied my craving to make something scrappy in rainbow colors. Watch out for that in the coming year, because I guarantee there will be an entire quilt made with rainbow scraps.

Unfortunately, since this photo was taken, the caddy has taken some abuse and held some weight, and the holes I put in for the grommets are starting to rip. So I need to do some repair work. I think I'll fix the holes and then nail it to the wall.

I decorated the nursery, which involved some sewing, painting, gluing, nailing, and stapling...

Then, on November 18, my darling little squalling hellmouth was born.

Normally, I wouldn't put pictures of my babies on the internet, but pics or it didn't happen, right? All babies look the same anyway.

It's taken a little over a month, but I've passed an important post-baby milestone. No, no, I haven't lost any baby weight (like, any). But I did start and finish a sewing project!

I followed this tutorial to make a tiny play tent, then accessorized it with a sleeping bag and pillow.

It's wrapped up and under the tree for my little four-year-old, who still hasn't noticed that her green dog is missing.

It feels like a huge accomplishment to actually get something done. I tried to make a little tree skirt for the mini Christmas tree in the kids' bedroom, but that project never bore fruit.

So, end of the year wrap up. The Barbie organizer, as well as the play tent and sleeping bag, were from stash, but I think you can tell from when I said "delicious stack of new fabric" that I haven't been very virtuous about my no-new-fabric challenge. It was like a diet: I did really well at the beginning of the year, and then just binged more and more as the year went on, always with new excuses. I'm a walking Kathy cartoon, except with quilter's cotton instead of chocolates. Ack, indeed. I'll do better next year - with fabric, with blogging, and hopefully also with my diet. Hey, these 60 pounds aren't going to lose themselves.