What I've Been Doing These Days...

I have been sewing pretty much non stop since May. I have been staying up till the wee hours of the night, going to work sleepy only to run home to my sewing machine and start all over again. What made this addiction come out full swing well I blame Cal Patch- in a totally good way.

Another crafty friend and I took her dress boot camp class: two days, ten hours of making and I can now make a dress from my own measurements and then some. It has been healing. It has been lovely. There is something that happens when I make thing, the rest of the world quiets and I stop worrying.

I have made 7 dresses for myself and walked two people through making a pattern from their measurements. I have also been sewing baby stuff for friends kids but I will save that for another post.

Here are the highlights. Starting with the first one I made in class to the newest that I made last week.

A Fair Well to Avice

On Monday my adopted grandmother passed away. Although her death was not a surprise, she was 93 and in failing health, it has still left me with a heavy heart. My sister and I were very lucky to have her as part of our lives, she taught us about what it truly means to be a creative person and has nurtured our creativity. She is in large part the reason I started this blog, as a means of sharing my projects with her even though she lived many states away.


After I got the news on Monday I was somewhat at a loss of what to do with myself. I was filled with relief and sadness. She would have been horrified with sadness and tears and so my guy asked what she would want me to do at that moment, and the answer was simple, make something. And so I got out my sewing machine and finally made a cover for my heating pad. Admittedly there was still sadness and tears but there was also sewing, and I think she would have liked that. In order to be a true memorial to her I should have covered it in Black and Whites (her favorite color combination) but I used what I had on hand.

Sorry for the poor picture, I pulled it out of my bed this morning to take a picture before heading to work so I guess it has the equivalent of bed head in the heating pad world.

Quilt Top for *****

Several exciting things happened in my world over the long weekend post thanksgiving. 1) I caught up on sleep, not so exciting for you but really needed in my world. 2) My guy managed to straighten out our ongoing home internet problem which had left us with intermittent phone, internet/wifi (hence no blogging) for a week. 3) I finished the Wallaby to end all Wallaby’s. 4) I got started on a quilt.
For many years I spent Fall cursing my loved ones under my breath as I madly tried to make them all handmade goodies. Depending on your point of view, in the last few years, I either wised up or bailed out. I made the general decision that I would only make things for those who would appreciate it or for those who were so supper special to me that I wanted to make things for no matter what. Of course this didn’t really cut down on Mahka’s little sweat shop pre holidays because most of my loved ones fall into one if not both of the categories above.

But truth be told I wasn’t having that much fun making so many super special things in such a short time. So I stopped. Now I only make one thing per holiday season, sometimes I make more but mostly I stick to it. So far so good, I don’t lose my mind pre holidays and I get to put extra attention into the project I do pick to make. As for my other gifts, I try to buy things only from small crafters via shows or etsy so everyone in my life still gets something made with love and my money goes to supporting people that do good stuff.

This year the gift is for: ***** Okay, I am not going to tell you yet. I am going to do what I can, while still blogging about it, to keep it a secret. Thank you in advance for being understanding.

Last weekend in an afternoon of the great crafting stars ailing just right I managed to make the top and with the extremely appreciated help of super crafter Molly I got it sandwiched an pinned too. I followed Oh Fransson’s advice on making a quilt sandwich, which can be found here. Her technique for rolling the top and batting onto the back is fabulous. It went a lot smoother than usual.

Next up: machine quilting!

Sweet and simple.
I finished my postcard for the swap this weekend and it is traveling to the UK as we speak. I spent some time pondering this card, and actually I was going to go a totally different route with old metrocards as buildings. But something about a stitched postcard spoke to me. And after I received my lovely postcard I knew I needed to stitch it. My guy things it is pretty funny that my cards sentiment home sweet sewing machine is all hand stitched except the edge. I kinda like that about it.

Please don’t judge me for my embroidered script! Half way through stitching the back I realized that I have spent far too many years writing in block letters and can’t remember how to make that crazy extra loop for the r. I fear I have let my mother down- she has a drawer full of palmer penmanship awards.

Post Card Swap

A few weeks ago I signed up for this postcard swap. It is a great idea where you make a handmade postcard for your swap partner; you also get a handmade postcard! The theme for the cards is "home".

Well B of Sweet Limes is a heck of a lot faster then I am and I already received this yummy bit of craftiness. Aren’t I lucky!

A few weeks ago I signed up for this postcard swap. It is a great idea where you make a handmade postcard for your swap partner; you also get a handmade postcard! The theme for the cards is home.

Well B of Sweet Limes is a heck of a lot faster then I am and I already received this yummy bit of craftiness. Aren’t I lucky!

Well B has inspired me to get cracking and I have been stitching away for my postcard recipient. I hope to have it finished up in the next day or so and in the mail by Monday. I know you all can’t wait to see mine but you will have to wait until I am done, no peaking. In the mean time check out B’s sight here, it is a worth a visit or two, or three…

Last Day of Blogtoberfest

Well I almost made it. We had dinner with my inlaws last night and somehow in my mind I thought I would be home early enough to blog something interesting for the second to the last day of blogtoberfest. Instead I came home full and content and promptly fell asleep. So I guess I owe you all two posts today.
I feel a bit like a lousy crafter because I don't have any Halloween type things to show you. Maybe it is because I don't have kids, or because I grew up in the west village, the hub of all Halloween craziness, but I have never been a huge Halloween party, costume oriented kind of girl. I promise for post two to try to think of something spooky.
Until then I thought I would share a post summer picnic napkin making moment of bliss I had the other morning. I meant to do this at the beginning of the summer. I bought some fat quarters of this great material but some how it also made it to the bottom of the heap. So in the midst of preparing our outdoor space to be winter ready I made some summer napkins.

Ta Da

Applause, applause, applause! Please excuse my lack of humility here but this was one hard finish line to cross!

Miss Amelia's quilt is finished. Despite family events, a cold an a evening wedding on Sunday I managed to put the peddle to the metal and get this puppy finished.
Because this quilt and I spent various weeks not speaking I figured I needed to make the binding as simple as possible. This wasn't really the moment to get over my binding fear, instead of doing one continuous strip I bound each edge with a separate strip.  It worked fairly well and unless you know better you wouldn't think there was anything wrong with it, and really there isn't.
You will all have to excuse me now as I do a happy little dance to the post office. And let's hear it for finishing before her first birthday! In fact she just turned 10 months so really there was tons of time...

The Making of the Napkins

The making of these lovely napkins was one of those great moments when the process was just as good as the product.
I am very lucky to have a group of ladies in my life that creative, kind, funny and daring.  I like to think of them as crafting super hero's (and yes I am thinking about making us all outfits).  One of the best parts of this project was that I got to work on it with them and I got to spend a lovely weekend upstate.  Here are some photo's of the making of the napkins with super crafters Molly and Katy.  Unfortunately super crafter Mary wasn't able to make it to our weekend but I promise she was there in spirit.

Lovely Linen Napkins- for Lovely Folks

Two of my all time favorite folks got married this past summer: my good friend Callie and her now hubby Randy.  Callie is the Reverend of The Church of Craft so a community crafting project only seemed right.  Crafting superstars Mary, Molly and Katy joined me to make this delicious napkins. 

We made the napkins from a lovely natural color linen and embroidered the flowers.  I found an old plant identification guide at the library and copied a ton of pictures, we whittled the options down to four, so there are two napkins of each image.  We had some trouble with the photocopy transfer (this is were you iron a photocopy imagine onto fabric) I think the linen still had too much sizing in it despite having been washed.  We ended up doing a compilation of several techniques: photocopy transfers, transfer pencils, and hand drawing with an water soluble fabric maker.  In the end they turned out lovely but there was some grumbling along the way.
I think if I every manage to put together a craft book of my own it will be on community craft projects.  I love getting together with a group of friends to make something for someone special.  These things end up with lots more love in them and I love seeing how people can take the same project and do it differently.  No two napkins are alike, in fact I bet if I hadn't told you that there were two of each you would not have spotted it.

New Skirt

I thought I might start to scratch my urge to sew more clothing by making myself a skirt.  It is from a pattern that is roughly based on a skirt I got many moons ago at American Apparel.  I made it from jersey with some lycra in it which meant i didn't even have to bother with an elastic waist ban.  Does anyone see where this is going?  Yup, you guessed it jersey with lycra in it stretches- really stretches.  Which means by the time I made it to work I was holding up my skirt with one hand.  A second pass on the sewing machine made things better and I think it may now be one of my favorite go to items.  I promise to post more pictures of the shape and such soon.  I am currently recovering from a yukky cold that has prevented any photo's, well frankly it has preventing anything that wasn't moaning on the couch.

You Have To Eat All Your Vegetables Before You Can Have Dessert

I took Friday off from work to have a super 4 day weekend, because as my boss put it how often do you get a 4 day weekend.  I was planning on sewing the whole day away.  I wanted to make a skirt, make happy birthday bunting for Ms. Chloe who just turned one and work on this new quilt square I just saw a tutorial for on-line.  But then I had a moment of responsible crafter: you have to eat all your vegetables before you can have dessert.  In this case dessert equals all the new projects I want to do that look all pretty and shiny because I haven't started them and the vegetables well those are the heap-o-projects that need to be finished.  So I was a good girl and pulled out Amelia's quilt.  I bought new backing material because you may remember last time I tried to finish up it didn't go so well.  I also decided that this quilt wants to be tied and not quilted.  After three failed attempts to quilt it (twice by hand and once by machine) and a lot of time picking out quilting gone bad I came to accept that it was a tie quilt. 
I got it all tied off and of course realized there was not going to be enough fabric to do a rolled edge...Why are these things never simple?  and so I am now making binding so that one day, one day with a little luck before she goes to college I may actually finish this quilt! 

Placemat Tutorial

I got back from 10 days in the bay area visiting good friends which means i can reveal one of my secrete projects: placemats for Sara. I actually thought I would do a quick tutorial on how to make them because they have become one of my favorite go to gift projects.

I use 100% cotton fabric and batting. Make sure to prewash all fabric before hand, this means that once they are finished the placemats are machine washable. And really let's be honest here, placemats should always be machine washable.

You will need:

1 yard of fabric of the for the top of the placemat

1 yard coordinating facric for the back

cotton batting

rotary cutter/cutting surface

pins

sewing machine

needles and thread

Step 1: Cut Top, Back and Battling:

Cut the fabric you wish to be the top side- I cut my 12"x16" but measure a placemat whose size feels right for you and go with that. The size you cut the top will more or less be the end size of the placemat.

Cut the back out of a corresponding color. For these placemats I got a little crazy and cut 2" more for the backing so the back measured 14"x16". I think I did this because I was super tired when I made them and this was easy to calculate but you don't need more than an 1" or a 1/2" all around.

Lay the top piece on top of battling and cut around the edge so your battling is the same size as the top piece. The battling has a sticky quality so you most likely not need pins. Also if you are a tab short of battling in one place you can tug a bit, battling is very forgiving stuff. (note if you lay the top fabric print side up when you are cutting the battling you don't have to separate and realign these later)

Step 2: The Sandwich

The battling and top are already nicely stuck to each other now lay the top and battling on top of the back with the wrong side of the backing facing up: you will then have back fabric (wrong side up), battling, top fabric (right side up). Place the battling and top piece roughly in the center of the back fabric. Now if you need to you can get out a ruler and do this just so but I eye ball it and it seems to work okay.

Step 3: Pin

Place pins through all three layers all over so that it doesn't shift when quilting.

Step 4: Quilt

Take a deep breath this isn't that scary, promise. This is a great way to get the hang of small quilting by machine. You can trace a pattern or make straight lines. I do meandering thing myself not really straight with a bit of curve to it. **Make sure to back stitch at the beginning and end. I usually sew to from on edge to the other and instead of breaking the thread stitch down an inch or so and start the next line of stitches in the other direction.

Step 5: Edge

Roll the edge over and pin.

Again, due to late night project time I didn't do mitered corners. I simple rolled the next side over and pinned it down.

Step 6: Sew Edge

If you are on a sewing machine roll by all means sew down the edge with the machine. I like to slip stitch the edge in place. I really can't tell you why I prefer this but I do.

So there you have it: placemats. Simple, fairly easy and machine washable. This is a great weekend project even for a beginner.

You Got to Know when to Hold um and Know When to Fold Um

We leave for CA today to see some of my all time favorite folks and their wee ones.
I have been burning the midnight oil trying to finish Miss Amelia's quilt until Sunday night when I realized, on my 3 try to back and quilt it that I was having no fun. In fact I was having the opposite of fun and sounding awful lot like a truck driver in the process. And so I took a deep breath and realized this was not meant to be a marathon it is meant to be a gift of love. I was pushing so hard to get things down that I was cutting corners in ways I didn't like. I was using a sheet as the backing rather than quilting fabric because I didn't have time to get out to a fabric store, I was also using cotton batting because that is what I had even though I thought this quilt needed loft.
And so I stopped. I do not need to finish this before we leave. It is a quilt meant to wrap a little one in love not frustration. So I pulled off the back, gave it a good shake out and folded it up. When we get beck from San Fransisco I will finish it and enjoy it. I will have the right tools for the job and a few deep breaths.

Amelia's Quilt

For those I have not complained to about this I know 33 babies born in the last 14 month. Yes that is right 33. There must have been rolling blackouts or something that i didn't know about cause there is a population boom! To be fair I also blame facebook. How does a social networking site make more babies you ask? Well I wouldn't say that facebook is causeing folks to cuddle up more, however, it is causing me to know about more of them. I have friends from college that I had lost touch with only to find them and there soon to be offspring on-line.
This baby boom has cause a wee bit of crafting stress in my life. There are several little ones that I would have done something but the craft debt is getting pretty high. It is almost bad enough that I want to just hide my head under the covers until these kiddo's go to college. But alas some of them are very special much anticapated bundles of joy that I really want to make something for. So slowly but surely i am crawling out of the craft debt. It isn't easy, especially because the longer it takes to make something the bigger the kid gets which means the bigger the item is...do you see the issue here people!
I am traying to stick with the motto of "keep calm and craft on". At the top of the list is a quilt for Miss Amelia. She is now 8 months old and my guy and I are going to visit her for the first time at the begining of August. Her folks are some of my favorite people on the planet and so I put my noise to the sewing machine and got cranking. And after a long weekend of patch work I have a top.

Home Is Where Your Bernina Is

Last weekend my guy and I went to the Brooklyn Guild's quilt show. My guys mother is the president, thank you very much, so we got the special tour.
What can I say I was inspired. I realized just how much i missed spending time with Tim Gunn (the sewing machine). My sewing/craft room is far from being operational so with special household permission bestowed on me by my guy Tim and I hit the dinning room table. And as you can see we had some fun.
This is a quilt for Ms. Chloe who was born last August so I really need to get a move on! I am in a bit of a quilter's debtors prison so I need to get a move on here so I can start the next two!

Baby Got a New I-pod for the Holidays

My super guy got me a brand new ipod for x-mass. I call her Bluebell, you know cause she is pretty and blue. She also hold 16 GB which means no more massive editing of albums. (For those of you who know my guy, I am pretty sure that I was given bluebell because he was tired of my music selection in the car)
Those clever folks at apple keep us crafters on our toes by always changing dimensions just enough so you have to rethink the whole case thing. I was planning on crocheting a new case but Bluebell is slightly rounded and has a wide screen which makes placing the cross ties hard. So it was time to get creative with a milk carton. This is just my first attempt, I have plans for bigger and better things. But for now it is two ply of milk carton sewn together with elastic to hold it in place. This won't last long because the position of the headphone jack makes it hard to keep it in place and have it the wheel accessible. But fear not more is to come. After all there is a three day weekend.

Winter tote

After finally getting my craft area cleaned up I was able to sit down and sew a bag I had cut out last summer. It has a lovely internal pocket and I feel like I have figured out the internal lining and pockets! I admit there was some grumbling about getting it sewn in the right direction and my trusty seam cutter came out.



New York is awful cold right now and this bag says summer to me. I can't wait to fill it with sun screen and trashy books and head to a warm summer day at the beach.

Another Satisfied Costumer

My guy got back from delivering the precious cargo, oh yeah and having a nice trip visiting friends...
He brought with him the camera filled with photo's of Mr. Hunter loving his quilt.