The top is pieced

What a crazy weekend this has been, and I can't believe that I actually got any sewing done.  Though, I have to admit, I didn't exercise at all.  

On Friday we had a worker here to patch all of those (13) rod holes we found in our basement ages ago, as well as 2 vertical cracks.  While he was working away I started making a cupcake/cake stand for my cousin's baby shower.  It's funny- with things like this I have better luck searching pinterest rather than google.  It turned out pretty good- I'm just hoping it stays together!

Great idea, pinterest.

I'm going to put a 6" mini cake on top

After that we went to a birthday party for a neighbor where I (shockingly) stayed up until 12:30!  I know, I know, party animal.

Sherwin Williams was having an amazing sale so we decided to pick up some paint to patch places in a bathroom as well as paint for the basement wall we destroyed.  They have this nifty color matching machine which has worked well for us in the past and was able to match perfectly the basement color, but the purple for the bathroom was a disaster.  I ended up going home and cutting a piece of drywall out to be able to get a better match, which still didn't work.  Thankfully they were able to manually guess what needed to be added and we got something that is quite close.  I haven't had the chance to paint anything with it, but my fingers are crossed.  I really don't want to repaint the whole thing because they have yet another wall paper border in it and I actually like it.  

We also put on a trailer hitch on our Saturn, cleaned the mess in the basement, crafted for the baby shower some more, did the laundry, went to Home Depot 3 times, practiced making monster cupcakes, washed the floors, and sewed.  

I am sooooo happy with this baby blanket!  I wish it were mine.  I need to see about duplicating it for myself and my sister because it is adorable.  See?

I'm going to put a dark brown binding on it.  I just want to squeeze it!  It is going off to the quilter this week, hopefully!  Now I need to work on a couple for twins next.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend!

I'm famous!

Well, kind of.  Our project was featured in the local paper :)

You should probably read about it and see me in my lovely orange gumby suit!

I'm on a roll now... ?

Hey!

Look what I made this weekend!

I'm adding these to my panel quilt.  I'm so happy with them, I just want to hang them on the wall.  Since this is the quilt of firsts, I saw this block and thought why not?  They match well with what I put on the top so I went to work.  Yesterday when I was creating the the first two, I found a reason to leave them alone.  They took me like, 3 hours.  And they are only 6" blocks.  Ugh.

Looking for a quick 6" block to shimmy up to it, I thought a 9 patch would be good.  I put some pieces on the floor for appearance sake and called in the husband.  He hated it.  Ugh again.  So then I decided to throw in the towel and make 2 more stars.  Good news!  The rabbits went so much faster since I knew what I was doing.  So thankful.  

Now as the husband puts it, I'm back to staring.  At this.

He also asked me if I was aware that everything wasn't the same size.  Haha, no sweets, I did not realize that this was a puzzle.  Thanks for pointing that out :)

This week is our first full week of field work and to be honest, I'm kind of dreading it.  One of the gear types we are dropping this year just is not conducive to the strength of the current and I had to cut lines and leave an anchor on the bottom of the river last week in an extremely dangerous situation.  We were all, literally, shaking in our boots.  I hope we don't have to do it again, but you just never know what the boss will say.

I hope you all have a lovely week!

Making Progress

So this weekend I sat down again and finally tackled more of this paneled baby blanket I am creating.  It went well, surprisingly!  Though I have learned I hate panels.  Too much math and creativity is involved.  My cousin better love this :)

So far I have put together the top three main blocks with some spacer blocks, and added a border to all of the blocks in the panel.  I decided my next "spacer series" is going to be a row of hourglass blocks.  This row is going to be duplicated beneath the block with the boat as well.  I asked husband's opinions of color scheme here, so I hope they look good when I put them in.  I finished 8 or 10 while husband was watching b-ball and have another 6 or 4 to go.  Then I need to make a couple blocks to saddle up to the side of the boat panel and decide what to do from there.

It has been interesting though, since every block I've made thus far has been a new one for me.  I made 4 pinwheels and I am happy with 2 which went into the top section of the quilt.  The two I need to make next are some version of the Ohio Star and a Nine-Patch.

I have another crazy busy week ahead of me so I know I won't have time to touch this again until maybe Saturday afternoon.  Field work this year will, most certainly, eat my life.  When that's not eating my nights, boot camp will.  Or it will be a combination of the two.  Which was a ridiculously stupid idea I had thinking I should do some heavy lifting all day then go to Miss Killer's class.  Only two more weeks of it though, then I can just keep to field work.  

My mom is also coming to visit this Friday.  Mostly because I'm forcing her too.  She is a putzer, even with taxes, so I scheduled her appointment with my tax man and am going with her Friday to be sure she gets them done and in on time.  After that, I have no idea how I will entertain her.  Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can dink around in the yard :)

I hope you all had a nice weekend!

Just keep swimming, Just keep swimming..

You know Dori from Finding Nemo?  I hear her serenading me on daily basis.  I don't think I'm crazy, but this song has been me for the start of this year.  So much has happened between now and January that, when I was thinking about it yesterday, I really had no idea what went on.  I don't even have photo documentation for most things, so really, my chaotic life must not be very fascinating.  Here are some things that have been occupying me lately:

Last year I kind of dropped the ball on Richard's birthday.  He didn't get a gift from me.  I was supposed to get him the corn hole game since he enjoys playing it during the summer.  I wanted to get him custom ones, but I just wasn't happy with my options at the time.  Well, a year later, I had them made.  They are awesome though, so I don't feel all that bad for the delay.  It took me a long time to find someone who was fantastic at woodworking and gave me a good price.

Happy late birthday, honey.

This is our new huge monstrosity garbage disposal after the old one decided it was time to simply dump all of the water that came out of the tap directly through the bottom of the sink into the cabinet.  That was fun.  Husband picking the biggest  most highly rated disposal he could- that we had to order and wait for shipping?  Also loads of fun since I was out of a sink for 6 days.  We also had sump pump issues, roof vent issues, and basement leak issues.  Some are better, some are still works in progress.

Garbage disposal disaster, 7 days later.

 He did redeem himself, however.  After I cleaned the daylights out of the cabinet I wanted to tile over it in order to easily clean future leaks.  Being just like a man, I was going to do it myself, but then husband said "Why don't I do this and you can do other things?"  What? Oh, ok... um... I'll just... go over here and um... vacuum while I contemplate what just happened.   

Thanks for the idea, pinterest.

Then I went to West Virginia for work.  I helped teach people how to ID larval fish, which is so captivating I know you want to hear all about it. Perhaps another time.. I didn't take any good "pretty" pictures.  It was mostly food. 

I ate terribly

And also this one of a random jewelry store inside of a Kroger.  That also sells furniture.  Who does that?

Then I told Richard I had enough with at least one shelf of our pantry and I was going to buy a pull out drawer for it.  And he just said, "ok."  So we went and bought it... then he put it in.  In the same morning.  I think that my husband is turning into a mutant.

Really, this is life changing

I can see everything

We had family over for Richard's Grandpa's 88th birthday!  I forced pictures on them.  Lesson learned from not taking enough of my own grandparents.

bottom left: FIL, Grandpa, Husband

I also cooked a lot.  Way more than these photos.  I'm vastly expanding my recipe collection, again, thanks to pinterest.

I'm in my 9th week of boot camp.  No pictures.  Just imagine a giant hot mess.  That's what I look like every Tuesday and Thursday. 

We bought a new (used) Saturn Vue for Richard to replace his aging Grand Prix.  You never know when you are going to need a family car!

Annie has been getting into various shenanigans   

We start field work next week!  It's crazy at work and will continue until December.  Thanks, climate change!

(not me)

(me)

Tomorrow I'm getting my taxes done, going to the dentist, and visiting my pregnant cousin.  Not too much longer until July and her little boy will be here!  Hopefully Sunday I will get more than 1 block done on her quilt since I'm running out of time :)

I hope you are having a lovely day!

How Stacey approaches panels.

I haven't sat down and worked on a quilt since December.  It's mid-March.  Wow.  Here is how it went:

Step 1: Pull out fabric.  Iron, realize you need to pre-wash.  Momentarily give up and go to kitchen to find baked goods.

Step 2: Throw fabric into washing machine.  Go back to sewing room.  Observe disaster from the last project.  Contemplate adding current project to the top to create a nice layering effect of clutter.

Step 3: Give up and start cleaning.  But not really cleaning.  More like putting crap in totes and line the room with them.

Step 4:  Get fabric from wash.  Iron again.  Think about cleaning that dirty fish tank.

Step 5:  Stare panel down.  Get intimated   Walk back to kitchen for baked goods.  Begin making a  fresh batch of cookies.

Step 6:  Return to sewing room.  Stare at panel.  Get out cutting mat and position panel on mat.  Click blade protector on rotary cutter back and fourth.  Set down blade.  Return to kitchen.  Stare at kitchen mess.  See what I can get into for lunch.

Step 7:  Go back to sewing room and attack panel with vigor.  Stare at pieces.

Step 8:  Google how to make blocks that were picked out since I've forgotten since I chose them.  Get distracted on pintrest.  Eat a cookie.

Step 9:  Go grocery shopping.

Step 10:  Come home, stare in sewing room.  Unload groceries.  Start prepping for dinner.

Step 11:  Sew one block as a test.  Be pretty pleased and quit for the day.

Now I can finally say that I've started my cousin's baby blanket!  And by the way, it's a boy and the shower is mid-May.  Which means I have two months to make this thing.  Hmm..

Baby Blankets

Oh my.  So you know I have to make a baby blanket for my cousin.  Well, I found out this weekend that one of Richard's cousins is also pregnant.  With twins.  Um..... yay!(?)  Now I have to make three quilts!  Lord help me get them done!

For the twins' quilt I think that I'm going to make two stacked coins quilts.  Or maybe this rainy days quilt.  Or even possibly this charm quilt.  I really, really, really like life in the jungle and it is gender neutral so it would be perfect to make ahead.  I'd really like to make it out of precuts since it is just so much easier, so the rainy days quilt has a disadvantage there.  We will see :)

So I've been trying out a lot of new recipes lately since I've discovered greek yogurt, wheat germ and milled flax. They are very interesting, versatile, and healthy!  One that I thought was interesting was a strawberry greek yogurt banana bread.  Well, I technically made muffins and substituted in 1/4 c flax and 1/4 c whole wheat flour for 1/2 c AP flour.  And you know what?  Two of them are only 120 calories!  Man.  My mind was blown because muffins are taboo.  They are better the second day since they have sweetened up for some reason.  Next time I'm going to chop up the strawberries really small because they kind of leave spots mushy in the bread.  See how pretty they are?

Raw

Baked!

Now I'm off to body boot camp with my nicely strapped in fitness mat!  I hope you have all had a lovely week!

Yoga Mat Strap Tutorial

I have to bring my own mat to body boot camp.  I don't have a strap for it because I've always used it at my house and never cared if it unrolled.  Now I need a strap and instead of buying one ($5 to $20!), I decided to make my own.  Now I'm a trendy lady at the gym :)

Here's How:

Materials:
1 strip 5" x WOF
2 strips 5" x 28"

• (This is for wrapping around your mat and making a velcro closure.  I suggest measuring your mat before you cut this to ensure enough length.  See note below)

Coordinating Thread
Velcro strip

Measure your mat for the smaller strips

 *Note:  I have a large, fluffy mat for weight lifting and more back support, not a thin yoga mat.  My strip will be longer than yours if you have a thin mat.  Be sure to measure around your mat and account for finished seams and velcro overlap.  I also wanted a more adjustable closure since I don't always roll it tightly.

My three pieces.  I'm only using one fabric choice.

Working with the long strip:

This strip will be inserted into the sandwich made by the two smaller strips.  If you want to make a finished seam, feel free (ie, wrong sides together and then turning it right side out).  I'm not going to in this tutorial.

1.  Fold the edges in a half inch and press.  I'm not super great at this, so bare with me.

I started with the long sides and then folded the ends.  The ends on this strip don't have to be perfect because it will be inserted into the middle of the two smaller strips.

Ignore the bow.  Try for a straight line if you can manage.

 2.  Once you have your edges pressed, fold the strip in half, hot-dog style.

3.  To give the strap more stability, I added in some interface.  If you don't need or want this stiffness you can skip over this part.  A lot of people use fusible interfacing.  I didn't.  I cut a strip of interface ~ 1 7/8" (because my folded strip is 2" and I didn't want it to interfere with the fold lines) and slipped it inside of the creases.  This held it well.  If you have fusible, cut the same size strip and fuse the interfacing to the fabric where I did.  Follow the manufacturers instructions.

This is optional

4.  Pin your strip together.  Mine was pretty stiff so I only needed a few pins to hold it, but more certainly never hurts.  Sew along all edges of your strip.  If you want to ad design, give it another seam for fun.  I'm in it for speed, so I'm not going to.

Turning the corner

When you turn the corner, stop the desired distance from the edge.  For example, I was using ~ 1/8" seam so I stopped sewing ~1/8" from the edge.  Life the presser foot with the needle down, pivot your fabric strip, drop the presser foot and keep moving.  It is important to note that the closer to the edge you are the smaller the gap will be on the non-crease side of your strip.  So, a 1/4" seam will give you more... floppy fabric... if that makes any sense.

Working with the smaller strip:

5.  Follow steps 1 through 3.  You should now have one long strap that is finished and two small strips that are pressed.

Assembly:

6.  Now you are going to start putting your strips together.  If your fabric is directional, you may want to lay it out on top of your mat to ensure you will sew the fabric the way you like.  Locate the center of one small strip (length-wise) and the center of your long strip (width wise).  Make sure that your opening (non-crease side) of your small strip is point up towards your long strip.

Pins are in the center of my strip

7.  Insert the end of the long strip into the small strip, aligning the center.  Pin.

Go ahead and pin the rest of the strip together.

*Note:  These ends are the ends to be concerned about matching perfectly, since you will see these, though they will be on the underside of your mat.

 I had a little bit that hung over the edge, so I took my small scissors and snipped off a piece.  This way when I sew it together, the finished result will look nicer.  

8.  Sew the entire way around the small strip, as you did with your long strip.  Ensure that your long strip is tucked into your small strip and sew across.

 You will have some extra.  Just roll it up and continue on your way.

9.  When you come to the end of the long strip, back stitch to the beginning to strengthen the seam.  Stitch forward over, and finish sewing around the strip.

You should now have a strap that looks like this:

10.  Repeat steps 6 through 9 on the opposite end of your long strip.  You should have a result like this:

Center, Pin, and Sew!

Adding the velcro:

At this point I wrapped my strap back around my mat to make sure everything was going smoothly.  I flipped it over to gauge the overlap.

My mat had unrolled slightly from what I started with, but because I chose to have an approximate 4" overlap, this is totally fine.  Desired actually.

11.  Now you need to think about how you want your velcro attached.  I wanted mine to have a large range of fastening options because I don't roll with the same consistency each time.  To do this I placed two "fuzzy" pieces, length-wise and one "rough" piece width-wise.  Pin velcro (bobby pins work well), one on the top side and the other on the bottom of the opposite side.

I chose to sew these on one at a time to reduce bulk.  I started like this:

12.  Sew around the edges of your velcro.  I back stitched for security.  I would suggest not not using sticky velcro since you will probably end up ripping it off if you use your mat enough.

I changed my thread color so that it was more invisible.

This is what it should look like after you have sewed on your three pieces (if you are mimicking my closure method).  

*Note:  I am not concerned about how this thread pattern will show through my straps, though I did use a much more muted color so you couldn't see the stitch unless you really looked.  If you are concerned about this, attach the velcro pieces to one side of the pressed hot-dog before assembling the straps together (before step 6).  This will hide the seam lines. It may also involve more thinking on your part, so watch out.

13.  Attach velcro to opposite side.  I wrapped mine again, just in case!  Make sure your shoulder strap doesn't turn on itself or you won't be a happy camper.

This is what you will have when it is finished.

Wrap around your mat and enjoy!