Jean Genie

I've been collecting our denim jeans that are beyond repair for a couple years now thinking that I wanted to recycle the fabric somehow.

 

I finally found the perfect opportunity when a group at work started collecting blankets for a charity relief effort.  I didn't pay too much attention to what the actual charity was, I think to provide basic needs stuff, in this case blankets, to earthquake victims.  If that is actually the cause, I'm a little dubious how much use the Haitians receiving the donation will get out of blankets.  Isn't Haiti a tropical island?   Whatever. I was simply excited that this would be a great way to experiment with making a quilt out of the denim.  One of my friends gave me one of her cast-off pairs as well, and off I went cutting, cutting, cutting 4 pairs of jeans in little strips.

 and then sewing, sewing, sewing all those strips together to achieve a "subway" tile look and taking some care to make a pleasing pattern of the different colors of denim.

 

I didn't quite have enough of the denim pattern to make a full 40" x 60" (standard crib size) so I had to decide if:

1. I was OK with making a dinky, not even going to cover up a kindergartner, blanket? - heck no
2. having run out of the gray denim, did I want to just add more regular blue denim? - also, heck no, it took some effort to make a pattern I was satisfied with
3. should add blocks of a different fabric entirely? - YES! 

 

This little problem actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  I was concerned that the denim was a little stiff  as the heavy fabric and lots of seams turns out to not be the best of ideas for a cuddly blankie.  A trip to the local fabric store turned up the cutest fleece with a googly eyed lizards all over it to add to the top and bottom.  Now, it will make a very snuggly, cuddly blankie, especially with the flannel backing covered in goofy blow-fish.

 

my favorite thing of all was adding the pockets.  I can only imagine Barbie getting tucked into bed along with her little girl, or maybe some little boy's secret treasure of green army men will hide in the pocket "caves".

Bad dog!

bad dog strikes again!

can you see the mischievous glint in his eyes?  Or maybe he really did think that the BRAND NEW, still in the package quilt batting material was a true threat? The family/pack was in imminent danger of the batting somehow strangling us in our sleep?!?  Anyhoo, our little security guard thoroughly "killed" the batting.

 

Threat neutralized, for now anyway.  He doesn't know about the reserve army of dangerous batting massing at the local quilting store, hah!

Life's too short to use bent pins

Now that I've got my sewing mojo back on, another project has been released from purgatory (AKA the sewing room closet).

I picked this pattern and fabric up in the lovely tropical paradise of Kauai at the Kapaia Stitchery in 2008.  The store was great, in a little red schoolhouse type building.  It was an explosion of colors inside with lots of beautiful examples of Hawaiian quilts.  Craig didn't find the store quite as interesting as I did....

It's sort of weird that quilting is popular enough in Hawaii that it would have even developed it's own style.  They are typically symmetrical applique patterns with echo quilting (sewing around the appliques so has a "ripple in the pond" effect).

Cutting out the intricate shapes brought back fond memories of Arts & Crafts projects in elementary school. Remember the nervous excitement the first time you get to use the blunt-tip safety scissors to white knuckle the pattern from the folded construction paper?  The pure wonder and delight of opening the paper to reveal that long chain of dolls holding hands.  So here is today's chain of turtles and dolphins holding flippers and fins.

Literally hundreds of pins later (and several annoying bent ones I finally threw away), it's ready for the next step, the slightly more nerve-wracking step of actually sewing these 2 enormous doilies onto the backing without bunches and creases.  Lunch might be in order first.

Mama's got a brand new bag

I finished it, yah!  The pretty in pink knitting bag is complete and actually came out just as I expected it. 

Bag

I would like to report that I finished the knitting bag, sadly that is not the case.  Progress continues, but oh so slowly.

 I did some light, wavy quilting across the bottom to keep the layers together; I am still loving this explosion of girly, pink flowers!










I also just cast on for a light weight wrap type sweater, the pattern is called Odelia.  I bought the pattern and the yarn at the Stitches event this year.  The yarn came from a company called A Verb For Keeping Warm and it feels so nice, it's got a little cashmere in the blend.  The pattern is Odelia from Cocoknits. Below is my knitting swatch (the little practice piece to measure how many stitches per inch and row, this allows each person to size their own garment based on their actual yarn and needles), which shows that I am getting 5.5 stitches/inch using size 7 needles.

Crafty projects old & new

I just finished my first ever Baby Surprise Jacket, a gift for a friend at work having her first baby in June.  The surprise part of this jacket is the amazing construction, designed by the famous, Elizabeth Zimmerman, okay so maybe she's not famous in a Bruce Springsteen/Lady Gaga kind of way, but definately a Rock Star in the knitting world. 

It's knit as a single piece, when done it sort of looks like a giant knitted tortilla chip, below is an example of what the finished jacket looks like before seaming (in my excitement to put it together I forgot to take a picture of my actual jacket in progress).

 after folding it together and seaming just across the shoulders, voila, the cutest little baby jacket ever!

and Craig helped me pick out the best buttons for it at the local fabric store

 

And now, onward to a new project, a bag for holding knitting projects in progress (yes, I have still have many more knitting projects in the queue).  I picked up this great pattern from the GillianBags booth at the Stitches event in February and just now got around to getting the fabric and other supplies.

 I just couldn't resist the pretty pink flowers

this is what the finished bag should look like.  I really liked the way it opens all the way up, sometimes when I am happily knitting away the yarn gets hung up on the sides of my current bag, which totally breaks me out of the zen stitching zone, I don't think that will happen with this design.

Friends again

The Queen and I are friends once again.  I made some significant progress on the Africa quilt today.  The front is fully pieced together and the elephant is appliqued to the front.  The acacia tree is definitely going to be a more challenging applique as it has many more and sharper curves.  I'll have to rest and mentally prepare to tackle that fresh tomorrow.  So far, I am very happy with how this is coming together : )

I am looking forward to sketching in and quilting the elephant face.  I think this picture will be a good guide.

An audience with the Queen

We are in the process of re-arranging the living , yet again, and I have become motivated to finish the Africa quilt to hang in the living room. After blowing the dust off the machine and quilting supplies and digging out all the fabric I spent a little time figuring out where I was in the process (too little time as it turns out).  

 

Eager to restart, I carefully pinned the black strip to the colored squares and merrily sewed up the first seam in more than a year.  Well, let me tell you, what a rude surprise I got when I started to iron the seam open and D'OH I sewed the right side of the strip to the wrong side of the colored squares.  Such a rookie mistake!  It's been too long since I spent quality time with Queen Bernina, my lovely sewing machine, and somehow she is extracting her revenge for my neglect by blinding my eyes, because what do you think happened on the VERY NEXT SEAM?  Yup, you guessed it, wrong again, arghh!

So, my  plan for today, Super Bowl Sunday, is to whisper sweet words of praise to the lovely Queen until we are friends once again and can work together to get this Africa quilt completed and up where it belongs on the living room wall.

Lunchbag upgrade

Pretty Denim Lunchbag (or how to turn a very simple project into a multi-day extravaganza)

step 1: refuse to repair DH's jeans in the same exact place for the 3rd time

step 2: stare intently at said jeans while wondering what good use to put the durable denim

step 3: smack head in realization that the leg of said jeans would make a perfect lunch sack

step 4: cut off about 20" of upper leg

step 5: again, stand back and stare at what is now a denim cylinder and realize it's just not gonna be pretty enough without some girly decoration

step 6: haul out all the embroidery apparatus and spend at least an hour poring over design options

step 7: finally select original idea of peacock design and sew onto a separate piece of denim cut from jeans

step 8: sew lovely peacock on front of leg as a pocket ("why a pocket" you might wonder, to which I would reply, "why not")

step 9: sew on a circular bottom (after racking brain to remember simple formula for calculating the diameter from the leg circumference.... C=Pi * ((D/2)^2)

step 10: sew in casing and add draw string

step 11: prance around house waving the pretty new bag in the air until husband gushes over the "mad skills" of wife

now, before you feel compelled to point out this was a pretty basic sewing job, I know this is no demonstration of mad skills, but what can I say, I'm an approval junkie

Sewing machine review - Queen Bernina

This review is part of a group project for the Sew, Mama, Sew! blog to develop a user's review of all different types of sewing machines, both new and old. The questions are theirs, the answers are mine.

What brand and model do you have?

Bernina Artista

How long have you had it?

about 2 years

How much does that machine cost (approximately)?

way more than I should have spent and I'm embarrassed to say

What types of things do you sew (i.e. quilting, clothing, handbags, home dec projects, etc.)?

quilting (love the BSR electronic eye gadget), home deco, misc. projects

How much do you sew? How much wear and tear does the machine get?

About once a month. She is very gently used.

Do you like/love/hate your machine? Are you ambivalent? Passionate? Does she have a name?

I love this machine, I am a bit of a gadget freak and she has gadgets and features galore. I call her "Queen Bernina" since she has the crown jewels affixed to her front and of course, the heraldic theme to announce her presence whenever she is switched on.

What features does your machine have that work well for you?

I used to have a commercial embroidery machine which I sold when the business was a failure and we moved. The Queen fills the gap quite nicely for my current "whenever the whim strikes" one at a time embroidery projects. I also love the auto thread cutters and the BSR foot mentioned above.

Is there anything that drives you nuts about your machine?

I find the front load bobbin case a little fiddly, especially as the door is hard to open (I keep a little plastic stick on hand to hook into it) and when I have the Queen's sewing arm lowered to the sewing table height the bobbin case is sort of under the table and I have to extract and replace the bobbin case by feel mostly. I liked the drop-in bobbin on the last machine better.

Do you have a great story to share about your machine (i.e., Found it under the Christmas tree? Dropped it on the kitchen floor? Sewed your fingernail to your zipper?, Got it from your Great Grandma?, etc.!)? We want to hear it!

no great stories yet

Would you recommend the machine to others? Why?

The Queen is not cheap, oh no she isn't, so unless you have some serious cash on hand from say, selling a big commercial embroidery machine, I would recommend this only to the serious sewer. Also, she may not be the best machine for technophobes as she is fully computerized with a bazillion features. If you do invest in this royal machine, please do take full advantage of any classes that are offered to help you get to know her better.

What factors do you think are important to consider when looking for a new machine?

1. experience (if new to sewing, start with a simpler machine, it may force you to learn to do a few things manually that you will then appreciate so much more when you can spring for an upgrade)


2. the store you intend to purchase from, I got mine at Meissners in Sacramento, even though it was a bit of a drive, the staff is very knowledgable and friendly, they offer free classes on most new machines, they have repair staff on hand and also a pretty good selection of used machines if you have champagne taste on a beer budget.


3. weight (if you intend to cart it around to classes, your friends house, etc), more metal in the body will probably last longer, but makes it quite heavy.


4. get one that does an automatic buttonhole if at all possible


5. your comfort level with computer systems, there are plenty of perfectly good machines that are not computerized (my last one was an entry level Elna and she was great).

Do you have a dream machine?

Yea and she lives in my sewing room :)

Furry blue iPod case

On one of my all too infrequent trips to the gym, I pulled out the ratty little plastic baggie where I keep my iPod. "Well", I said to myself, " this just won't do, here I am the proud owner of Queen Bernina, the best darn sewing machine on the market and I don't have even have a proper case for my iPod" So, that very night I perused my stockpile of odds and ends of scrap material, and what did I see, but this awesome electric blue furry fleece in just the right amount to house the iPod!
After sewing a few simple seams, I now have a very unique iPod case! It even has a separate compartment for keeping the charging cord, a little flap to keep everything inside and folds over for a tidy little package. As a bonus, I can locate it in the gym bag by feel.

Finished Pegboard

The tools of the trade : ) I used old file folders to make very stiff "interfacing" for the border fabric. Originally I was going to glue the fabric to the interfacing, the glue it to the board, but that began to seem quite messy and I thought it might lead to unfixable mistakes, so I went a different way.

I carefully folded and ironed the fabric to wrap around the interfacing,

then sewed it along the edge with metallic gold thread. Then I glued the strips onto the pegboard to form an inner, decorative border to tie it in with the rest of the deco.

I put up all kinds of fun hooks, mounted everything I could find that had holes to hang and even managed to mount my cute little Bernina accessory holder box. I also cut up a used, giant ibuprofen bottle, covered it in the trim fabric and mounted it as a pen holder. I love it!

A weekend to dye for

What a lovely, and long, weekend it has been. I took Friday off as we had the company golf tournament. Now, as my friends can attest I am quite awful at the game of golf and actually woke up dreading this "fun" event. So, I gave myself (and my unknowing teammates) a gift by begging off. Initially, this posed a conundrum for me as I didn't want to make up a lie about why I wasn't going, like "my dog is sick", it didn't seem fair to the dog or my teammate, on the other hand I also didn't want to just say "hey, I hate golf, don't know what in the heck I was thinking and am just not gonna go", as that seemed a bit too blunt. So I finally settled on " I'm just not feeling up to it today", which was both vague and true.

Saturday we went to a friend's 50th birthday party. DH, being horribly allergic to cats, had the bright idea to use a gas mask in the hopes that we could stay in the house more than 60 minutes before a "total airway closure" emergency. God love him he walked into a house full of mostly strangers for a social situation (party) in a gas mask! Now, I ask you, what kind of cohones does it take for a man to do that! He is a true treasure, you must understand that he basically did this because he knew how badly I wanted to go and have him with me. I love this man.

Finally got around to creating the "sunset" backdrop for the elephant silhouettes in the African quilt. I started with 4 yards of 36" plain white muslin, dyed the entire piece a lovely shade of yellow in the washing machine, then I had to seam it to the approximate dimensions (square 52") and left is very over sized. Now the hard part, I wanted the middle to be orange and the bottom scarlet. So, I basted a couple of "guidelines" in black thread to divide the piece in thirds. Then dyed the entire lower 2/3rd orange on the stove, carefully holding the top 1/3 out of the dye bath. This turned out so well, I got excited and immediately started on the bottom 1/3 in scarlet. Well, not a total disaster, but I did learn that it's not smart to handle your lovely yellow parts with gloves stained in scarlet, damn! Anyway, I knew this was not likely to be perfect as it's the first time I attempted a complicated dye job, hopefully I can cover some of it up with the elephant silhouette. On top of the near dye disaster, I think my washing machine has developed a leak.