Quilting

So I came across this amazing but now defunct blog, katie did, and in particular this post. I have never wanted to quilt. I like knitting since I can sit and talk while knitting, or knit in the car, or while watching television. I like sewing because you can make things fast! Quilting, which is time consuming and takes quiet concentration, never appealed to me.

And then last weekend Joann had quilters solids 40% off AND I had a friends and family coupon for 25% off my entire purchase! See, I had to get some and try this out! That also meant I needed a walking foot. For this I needed to go to Meissner, and since if you don't have anything nice to say you shouldn't say anything at all, I am going to say nothing about Meissner. I did procure the walking foot, and that's what matters.

So on Monday after a surprise! busy! morning, I set about to try this quilting thing out. After I sewed with a bit of the second color of thread, I had to stop and tell Leng just how beautiful it was. It's so simple but so beautiful! After I sewed about a third of the way with the second color I looked more closely and realized that the tension was way off. It was fine for the first color, and started fine with the second. but after a few inches looked wonky the rest of the way. It looked like the upper tension was loose but that was not the case. I thought maybe the lower tension was off but that was also not the case. I cleaned all in the bobbin area, and then ran to see if Trina was online. She was! She said to just re-thread everything. I did, and sewed a sample, and it looks great again! I guess it just got a little dusty in there. It was too late to keep sewing, so hopefully I can work more tonight when Leng gets home!

Minnie in the dress!

Ok, here's a bunch of pictures of Minnie in her stinkin' cute dress.

More after the jump.

2011 Week 12 - March 19 - March 25

Ok new favorite.

I decided to sew this last night. The pattern is from http://habitual.wordpress.com/, the same as the Kimono pattern. I just want to make this dress and Kimonos all day. They are so easy, and they look so amazing that you are super proud of yourself.

Of course, there are mistakes, and I see them when I look at the dress, but it's so cute anyway that I forgive myself. Mostly.

Template ready to sew more...

 The arm hole curve was annoying because I wanted to get it perfect. I need to relax more with my sewing. Just don't look to closely at my stitches.

See how the curve is less wide than the rest? I was ironing this forever to try and make it even. Yeah, crazy.

 French seams! I could have used the serger to finish the side seams, but I thought I'd try the french seams. They were easy and look great!

How cute does it look hemmed? I actually sewed too deep at one point and missed sewing the folded fabric for the hem. Being a lazy sewer I just went back and sewed over it. There's a chunk of white thread where I did this, since I didn't rip the previous seam but just sewed over it. Oh well!

 I sort of wanted to wake up Minnie last night for her to try this on. It's just so sweet!

Sewing Day!

Today was Sewing Day at Theanne's! I made some new spit soakers for the ergo so I don't have to worry about washing them and being without. I LOVE them. I want more of the fabric. I want to make Minnie dresses out of it.

Laura was working on a skirt. She is the more dedicated of the sewers. She follows patterns, and she wants to use sewing to make clothes with different pieces that you put all together. I like to make squares and sew straight lines.  Maybe after I make more clothes for Minnie I will feel more comfortable about making something for myself.

Theanne was working on a ruffled apron. Theanne just dives in to her sewing. She decides what she wants to make and makes it. It's pretty awesome. I spend hours looking what other people have made, and if I decide on something I spend a long time deciding which fabric I want to use. Then I have to pick thread color! I waste a lot of time.

Alice and Elisa Came to gossip visit. So did Dani, but I forgot to take pictures until after she left. Sorry Dani! Next time!

Kelly was making baby quilts! Kelly and I are good at building our stashes. Oh Joann coupons, you are so hard to resist! She is better at planning what she will make than I am, though. She found this website and is hoping to trade her quilts with users to get things. I will have to check this place out.

2011 Week 11 - March 12 - March 18

I love this Kimono! I got this pattern last spring but was a bit intimated about making clothes. I shouldn't have been; it was so (sew!) easy!

I used my new Swedish Tracing Paper that I got at Stitches West to cut out the pattern. I cut the front pattern piece 1" too short as I assumed that the side of the flap was the same size as the underarm. The underarm should be the same length in the front as the back piece. I just have to remember to add an inch when I cut the fabric.

 

I folded the fabric in half and cut the back piece on the fold. I cut both the front pieces at once, through both layers of fabric.

The binding was also pretty easy to make. I used a fat quarter and only used about 1/3 of the piece. I want to go get more and add bias tape to everything!

I used some tweezers to push in the flaps from where I had to seam the strips together. I was worried that the bias tape would look wonky where the seams were but it looks great!

It was sort of hard to pin it though. I had a hard time where the shoulders meet the neck across the back. That probably took me the longest to figure out of the whole project. What I did was to pin right up the neck to the shoulder, and then had to fold the cloth on the neck back to attach the binding tape evenly. Once I had it pinned nicely it sewed up quickly and beautifully.

I bought this fabric to make an apron for my Gramma but hadn't made it yet. I pulled out a few fabrics that I liked, but this was the only one that I had a matching binding for. Since I decided Thursday night that it would be my Thing A Week and had to finish it Friday, I didn't have time to get something else. Paper umbrellas it is.

Pictures with Patti!

A few weeks ago we went out to a park to have our friend Patti take pictures of Minnie. Of course she had to wear her new sweater!

We ended up meeting around 11:30, which is smack dab in the middle of Minnie's nap time. We had gotten her to take an earlier nap, but it obviously wasn't good enough as she had a serious face on almost the entire time.

The only time that she consistently smiled was when she was in the swing, but then she was moving and blurry. We were able to take a few smiley pictures but it took a lot of work to get her to smile. Minnie! We love your two teeth! You should smile all the time!

 You want to hold Mama's hand?

Yes Minnie, we know you have a tongue. You don't have to keep showing us.

She was also having a good time watching the other children play. The playground was packed since it ended up being a beautiful day, and the noise and the movement kept her looking all over the place.

2011 Week 10 - March 5 - March 11

I have been playing around with making burpcloths. These have plain cotton on one side and cotton flannel on the other and no batting in between. This is my favorite combination for looks and materials, but I don't know how absorbent they will be. Flannel does not look as nice after a while, but is absorbent after a few washes. The plain cotton always looks nice, but I'm not sure how absorbent it will be. I gave one to my friend Kati so she can try it out with her niece and tell me how it goes.

I like how the fabrics are more for the parents than for a baby. Baby fabrics are adorable most of the time, and also cheesy most of the time! It's nice to have something for yourself, that doesn't scream, "Baby!"

2011 Week 9 - February 26 - March 4

And now we have my favorite knitted object so far this year.

This sweater came out perfect. I love the color and the semi-solidness of it. It fits her great. The gauge is a little looser than I would usually want, but this should fit her into the spring and will be a nice lightweight sweater. It looks adorable with jeans.

I bought a variety bag of buttons and found these perfect ones. I used an embroidery needle to sew on the buttons as the darning ones I usually use for yarn were too thick.

Is it okay if I just post a few pictures of Minnie now?

2011 Week 8 - February 19 - February 25

I finally finished my Percy.

Jennifer and I started it as a Knit-A-Long over the summer, and we both put it aside at some point. I put mine aside because I was frustrated with the second chart. It doesn't really blend in with the charts before and after and it bothered me. I put it aside thinking I would edit the pattern to make it flow better. Since months passed and I didn't touch it, I decided to finish it, give it away, and knit myself something else with the leftover yarn. The yarn is a cone of colourmart cashmere and does not deserve to sit around. It wants to be knit into something fabulous to wear!
Once I finished the shawl I decided that it was wonderful, and I can't really tell that the pattern doesn't flow, and I may keep it instead of giving it away. I do still have more yarn left though...

2011 Week 7 - February 12 - February 18

Happy Valentine's Day, Sweetie!

Minnie and I went over to Jill's house to decorate Star Wars and Valentine's cookies. As I was decorating some Yodas I came across one that didn't have a mouth. It must have gotten stuck in the cookie cutter. Of course, I had to make him a Zombie Yoda. I also found a Storm Trooper and a Boba Fett with head injuries to add to my Zombie Star Wars collection.

And then there was my Hello Kitty Boba Fett. How could I not?

Cookie Cutters available here.

I also gave Jill her birthday present!

The pattern is 198 Yards of Heaven, and here's a link to my project page.

2011 Week 6 - February 5 - February 11

So napkins may be sort of boring, but I like them! They are cute, and re-useable, and cute, and I really like sewing squares.

2011 Week 5 - January 29 - February 4

I finished this sweater for Minnie two months ago and finally sewed on the buttons so it can count for this week's thing.

I put it off for so long because it's huge. It still looks pretty adorable on so I'm not worried. I should have started with fewer stitches across the back. That's where most of the problem was. I sort of made this up as I went along, so I'm not too disappointed. It should also fit for a while since the arms stretch so much. My husband can put his hands through the arms, so this should fit her next winter and maybe even after that.

2011 Week 4 - January 22 - January 28

So I finally finished my Swallowtail.

I started this in early 2009. I also joined a dodgeball team. Early on in the season I sprained my right pinky. Since I knit English, where you hold your yarn in your right hand, I was unable to knit. I could still play dodgeball though.
I decided to teach myself Continental knitting, where you hold the yarn in your left hand. I did not want to work on my shawl while I was still perfecting this style of knitting, so I put the Swallowtail aside. After my pinky healed and I could knit English again, and have similar tension to my previous knitting, It was time to start wedding knits! I was married in the summer of 2009 and of course needed to knit myself a wedding shawl.
This is my Cheshire Cat Stole that I left in the hotel room during the wedding. Oops.

After that I became pregnant, and the shawl languished in my knitting drawer while I worked on baby knit.
The Swallowtail shawl was picked up again in early 2011 and Jennifer and I talked about decreeing January 2011 FO (finished object) month.
I was about halfway done with the first set of nupp rows when I left off, so it didn't take too long to finish. I love knitting shawls and there is no reason this should have sat unfinished for so long!

Third tooth!

At the start of the year, our neighbor Matt was telling me that his daughter Morgan, who is two weeks older than Minnie, got her two bottom teeth. I said that Minnie still wasn't teething, and joked that I should check. She had a tooth! Two really, as they were both just barely poking though. I wonder how long it would have been until I noticed if he hadn't said anything.

Now finally, I think Minnie is cutting another tooth!

There's been nothing since then though. She's had two bulges at the top and I kept thinking that she was going to get those two soon, but there's been nothing for two months. She loves chewing on things, but she actually chews more on the sides of her mouth rather then where her top bulges are. Today it looks a bit bumpy on her right top bulge, so I think the tooth might be getting closer to the surface.

I'm glad for her to be getting more teeth, but not excited about her having top teeth while nursing. She's been pretty good about not biting so lets help for the best.

I'll leave you with a picture of her two (soon to be more!) pearly whites.

2011 Week 3 - January 15 - January 21

Spit Soakers! I promised my friend Sara some spit soakers a few weeks ago, but had a hard time selecting the fabric (and finding time to make them with the holidays). I have a ton of fabric and didn't want to buy anything new, but wanted it to go with her personality and her Ergo, which is black and maroon. I spied this cute pink design and was off!

A bunch of my friends and I have an Ergo baby carrier, and the babies love to chew on the straps. I got the idea of how to make these from the www.lubirdbaby.com tutorial here. You can just toss these spit soakers in the wash instead of the whole Ergo!

Here is the set of spit soakers I made for our Ergo carrier.

I would recommend using cotton chenille for the inside fabric as it does not stick to the velcro. The terrycloth that I used on my spit soakers does catch on the velcro.