T-shirt quilt not done, but darn near close

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I swore that I started this project in 2011, but alas, it was 2009.

Good news is, I feel very close to finishing this 5 year old project. VERY CLOSE. It’s amazing how a few years of crafting increases your confidence.

Last weekend, I teamed up with my sister in law. Both of us were in a crafting slump and meeting together with no kids or distractions was the perfect way to jumpstart our stalled projects. We talked. We laughed and we got some work done. My project is now ready to be quilted together (the scariest step of all for me, anyway.) 

It’s clipped together with magnetic clips…the backing, the batting and the top. I have nightmares about bunching and shifting, but I am committed to taking my time on this guy. This is a sentimental and amazing project that I cannot wait to complete.

Absent from the blog

I swear, I do this post all the time.....
"I'm sorry I haven't written, I am really busy. I don't have time. Blah, Blah, Blah."
Bottom line is that I love to write. I miss it, a lot sometimes. I have missed it terribly lately as I have been helping my students with their research papers. I find all sorts of ways that "I" would write the paper. Of course, I have to remember, I have years and years more experience than they do. It's hard. I need to write a good essay or something. Sick, I know.
As for the frugal part of my life...I miss that, too.
To be honest, I have a hard time even getting to the grocery store, let alone shopping sales and matching coupons like I used to. And, I just lost a very valuable coupon and it frustrated me to no end. Fortunately, I work and make money to make up the difference in the money I am not saving. I am still frugal when time allows me to be, but more often than not, I am just grabbing what I need, whatever the price may be. I love to shop at the bread outlet, but it's pretty far from my house and going there means picking up Ayla late from daycare, a trade-off I am not willing to make. So, I buy bread at the regular grocery store at double the price, because we NEED to eat, right?
I have been able to work on a few projects, including making a diaper box into a storage bin with fancy fabric and a liner (I will try to post that soon. TRY is the key word.) If you can't wait for my post, Google it. It's amazing. And I have tons of diaper boxes in all shapes and sizes.
And, on the home front, we finally refinanced our home...our payment is $60 less a month and we went from a 30-year mortgage to a 20 year. Woo hoo. How about that for saving money?

Quilt Success

I call it imperfect perfection. This quilt was a labor of love. It definitely has flaws, but the fact that I stuck to it and it's finally complete is a miraculous feeling. I got my information on how to do each step from a variety of sources. In crafting, you have to be resourceful. There are a lot of steps in quilting, but I have always been one to change gears, so quilting was a great project to embark on. First is the piecing together, which is fun because you get to cut out a variety of squares in cool colors and use your creativity. Then comes the putting it together with the backing and the batting. Then, you have to quilt it together, which I found to be the most challenging step. I had a hard time not getting it to wrinkle and scrunch up. And while I hand quilted the middle yellow square, I resorted to machine quilting for the rest to save time. Then, I had to trim the quilt. All the shifting and wrinkling that occurred made it a little tough, but I improvised and made it work. Then, I had to bind the edge to make it look finished. And, this is where the fun came in. I learned the invisible ladder stitch from a blog and was so giddy with excitement, I couldn't stop smiling the entire 4 hours I finished the quilt. I ended up finishing the quilt at 7 a.m. this morning (couldn't sleep). It's done a whole 8 weeks before my little girl is predicted to arrive. That just means, I can do a few more craft projects in the meantime.

Another homemade onsie

I was so inspired by the camo onsie that I posted on, that I used the same technique to gussy up a blue onsie that was handed down to me. Not too shabby. It was pretty tedious with the small parts, but I am proud of the outcome. I didn't attempt to sew this one in place, so let's hope the Heat N. Bond works well. I love birds for my baby (it's the nursery theme), so it was easy to get inspired.

Cute and personalized onsies

I wanted to get Nate a camouflage outfit for the baby so he would be at ease that I wasn't going to frill up this little lady. It was way too hard to find something cute, but not cheesy. So, I decided to make it myself. The first photo shows what I came up with. It took only about 10 minutes to make, and I have to admit it's cuter than anything I saw online.

Materials:

White onsie

Camo T-shirt ($2 at Salvation Army)

Pellon fusible interfacing

Heat N' Bond Iron-On Adhesive

Embroidery floss

Here is what I did:

I cut the sleeve off the camp T-shirt and ironed it to the Pellon. Pellon makes the stretchy T-shirt material easier to work with. I used a heart stencil and cut out a heart from the camo material. Then, I followed the directions on the Heat N' Bond. The purpose of the Heat N' Bond is to adhere the material to the onsie without sewing. Once I applied the heart to the onsie, I used a running stitch with embroidery floss. Voila, it's done. The hat is homemade, but not by me. It's from Etsy, I believe the store is called Little Lids. This will be wrapped.

Grand plans for sewing

My sewing machine has been getting a lot of love lately. Since I abandoned the T-shirt quilt for a bit, I focused on the baby quilt. I had to do a lot of reading in various places to feel confident enough to tackle the little thing. I even experienced ripping out hundreds of stitches. You never understand the power of a sewing machine until you have to rip out it's work.

I think all I have to do is bind the edges of the quilt, which is a little scary. However, I have my trusty books to guide me along the way. I also recommend YouTube, if you are a visual learner.

Once this little thing is finished, I am going to try to sew some onsies. I was having a hard time finding cute, girly camo. Nate wants our baby girl to wear something other than pink. So, I decided to make some onsies with camo shapes on them. I just have to get to the sewing machine. I bought a worm camo tee at the Salvation Army for $2 and plan to cut some shapes out. I will fuse them to some backing that makes it more sturdy (have you ever tried to sew straight on T-shirt material?) We will see how it comes out. I want to have it done in time to wrap it up for Nate as a surprise.

And, I still have high hopes of making some personalized touches for my nursery. I didn't want the cookie cutter nursery, and tried to steer clear of all things commercial. That, my friends, is pretty much impossible. Look at all of the packaging and plastic. I hope to spend Christmas break getting some more things organized and put in its place. I have a long way to go. I need a dresser, first. However, I have to remember how far I have come.

For now, the nursery is a playground for my cats who love the tissue paper and baby-smelling items.

Quilting progress

So, a few years ago I started accumulating dozens of T-shirts from races and events I participated in. A girl can only wear so many shirts, so I decided to make a quilt with them. I picked up a free pattern at JoAnn Fabrics back when I lived in York and started cutting the T-shirts each time that I cleaned out my drawer.
Well, all 26 T-shirt pieces are finally cut and this is what it will sort of look like, the basic layout. I think that was the easy part. Next, I have to cut all the binding, border and sashing to separate all the T-shirts and make it look more uniform. That, may also be fairly easy compared to sewing it all together. My aunt is coming for lunch one day next week. Maybe she can assist me. I just get so scared sewing on a 1/4 inch seam in a straight line that it won't all line up. I guess the more practice I get the better it will be.
Nate asked me if I starched the T-shirts to get them all so stiff, but it's fusible interfacing that you iron on to make it more stiff and easier to work with and sew. If I had to do it again, I would cut out all the right sizes for the interfacing, then match them up with T-shirts. I ended up with 3 pieces that I would have liked to use that didn't really fit into the pattern. I could have deviated from the pattern, but that is even more scary.
So, the next few weeks that I have left of summer will be spent cutting the other pieces...so hopefully I can post that next.

Who needs curtains when you have sheets?

If you come to my house you'll see that most of my curtains aren't perfect. It's because I generally make them or alter them myself. It's partially because I can never find curtains in the right color and size for the right price. It's also because I like to sew without patterns and curtains are one of the only things you can get away with doing this.

I don't have the patience to measure exactly. I just like to hit the pedal on the machine and watch it buzz away. Who cares if it's straight? ;-)

Back when I was still just a visitor at the house I owned, I bought a set of black King size sheets at Ollie's Bargain Outlet for like $20. They didn't fit the bed. Since Nate didn't have curtains, the flat sheet made the perfect item to drape over the bathroom window, which is really three windows in one. That's how it stayed.

We've since painted the bathroom a brilliant maroon color and kept the white beadboard and accented it with black stuff. See here if you missed the spray paint blog.

So the bathroom looks great, except for this crazy sheet neatly strewn over the window. (Sheets make great fabric for curtains. One end usually always has a nice finish, so you don't have to bother with extra sewing) So, a few weeks ago when I had the bug to rip up the dining room carpet and Nate said no, I took to a sewing project instead. I started on the curtain, finally. I had high hopes of making it look really cool with maroon stripes with leftover fabric I had. Didn't happen. But, I tried to get a little creative.

Most of the time, the curtain covers all three windows for privacy. It's a little crooked. But when we have company or I want to let some light in, I pull it together with a tie I made. You can't even tell. I just sewed a button onto some maroon ribbon and it holds back the curtain. I used stuff I already had around the house for a creative, modern looking curtain.


***If you want the curtain to last long and it's any color other than white, you'll want to sew a white liner to the back of the curtain so the sun doesn't fade the color. I usually sew it like a pillow case and then turn it inside out to hide the seams. It's a little complicated, but with a little practice, you are sure to come up with your own tricks and tips for sewing using sheets.