“Home” Banner

I don’t have any finished pictures, because the ones I took didn’t come out, and Marya hasn’t hung it up yet, but here is the banner I made for my friend Marya’s housewarming party. Dune helped.

I did quite a bit of hand sewing on this, which probably wasn’t a good idea just for time’s sake. But I eventually did break in my sewing machine. It is still noisy, but very happy to be home.

This is the closest I have to an “after” shot. The more or less before/after combo of the above images. Marya really liked it, which was awesome. I was pretty please with how it came out too. What do you think?

Hand Sewing

Tonight I am going to do some hand sewing in bed. Yup, this is my big plan for the evening. Just me, a needle, some embroidery thread, and a lot of TiVo.

Good times.

I’m Famous!

My Insider article came out today and to celebrate it, I uploaded some of my goods to etsy. Hello anyone reading who heard of me from the Insider! How are you today? Please comment and say hello! Oh and yes Mom, I grabbed you a couple copies of the paper. :p

Thanks to Emily Shearing/the designer for picking out pink and teal for my colors. Love!

Click the graphic above if you want to look at what I’ve listed. I hemmed and hawed for so long about whether I should sell online or not, and it feels good to have finally done it. It’s like I’m legit!  I also added a bar to the right column for good measure.

End table & Birdies

I’m not very good at coming up with blog titles, am I? lol.

When I got home from work yesterday, there was a package waiting for me!

There were a lot of parts in it, but there wasn’t a picture on the box… What could it be?

After looking at the directions, I saw that it was the end table my dad bought me. I spent waaaaay too much time putting it together, but I think it’s really cool. Hard to photograph though. The decorations on the drawer aren’t actually a different color than the drawer… not sure why it photographed like that.

— * —

TODAY, I woke up early and cut out the squares of fabric I’d need for the swap birdies. Then I cut out the birds and wings while at work. I realized I only cut enough wing fabric out for one wing per bird though, whoops! Guess I’ll be cutting out more tomorrow morning!

The orange fabric was originally going to be for the beaks, but I decided against it. The ric-rack is for their stomachs. I don’t know if I should really post pics since they’re for a swap, but I won’t post any more after this. I don’t think these give too much away.

Another Thing Off My List

Hooray! Another thing off my list. I’ve also spent quite a bit of time going over some of the flowers in embroidery thread, but I guess I haven’t taken a picture of it yet. Ah well, I’ll do it tomorrow.

This was a super simple project, and involved very little sewing. Basically, I did the same thing I used to do in middle school for my school books, but with fabric instead of a paper grocery bag. The only sewing I did was to close up the edge of each end (the flaps) and to secure the folds with embroidery thread (pictured). That was it! I left the inside edges raw since you can’t see them, and just pressed them flat with my iron.

This fabric was a remnant from Wal-Mart that I got for something like 45 cents. And I only used half of it! Awesome. I like the colors and how it looks like it could be from the 60s. It has a nice texture to it as well. Yay book cover!

Sometimes the Smallest Things Make the Biggest Difference

I cleaned my studio today. Hooray organization! John and I are going to put up a bulletin board they were going to throw out at work tomorrow. Also, I WANT THIS SO BADLY!

1. Since about when we moved in, there has been this draft that comes under our front door. I didn’t realize just how much wind/cold came through the door until I put down my creation for today. Lo and behold, my feet weren’t cold if I stood in front of the front door!

2. For the bottom strip, I cut out some green material a little larger than the size I wanted. I took some scraps and made a smaller strip and sewed it to the inside of the bottom. This is for the filling. I originally wanted to use rice, but when I dumped it in…yeah, I didn’t have anywhere near enough. BUT I did have this cat litter whose clumping ability was not to my liking, so I used that. MISTAKE! The dust from the litter leaked through the material and got everywhere!

3. I ended up dumping the litter/rice combo into a bucket, tearing out all the stitches for the “pocket”, and lining the thing with a grocery store bag. That worked pretty well. I think I should have cut bigger grocery bag strips though, because one part still leaks. But it’s nothing like it was. So it’s ok. It’s also really hard to sew on top of bags. The darker green kept folding over on itself. I had to keep telling myself “This is on the inside, it will be ok. You won’t see this.” to keep my OCD in check, lol.

4. The reason why I made a pocket instead of just filling a tube was so that the edges would more or less make flaps to better cover the crack under the door. I don’t know if it actually works, but I think it helps.

5. This was my attempt at trying to show you how the “flaps” work. Imagine that the door’s crack is in where the middle of the thing is. Flipping this thing right side out was a massive pain in the butt, let me tell you! But I am super happy with how it came out.

Banner Love

It would seem that I am all about the banners lately! It’s just that when I took down the congratulations banner I made John, the doorway looked so sad! So I had to make it a Valentine’s Day one! AND it was a good use of those hearts I posted yesterday! I ended up only needing to make two more.

1. This is what my drafting table looked like when I left this morning! Messy!

2. This is the little birdie I made for that one heart. It came out ok, even though it kinda looks like a penguin. Or a peanut. I think I need to add a wing line.

3. These are the two new hearts I made last night.

4. This morning before work I connected them all together with embroidery string. I tried to make the string go all the way through the middle of the two layers (so you wouldn’t be able to see it) but that was taking too long, and I didn’t want to be late for work. So at least you can’t see it from the front. Haha you can see my pj pants in this shot.

5. Twilight supervised the banner’s construction.

6. Finished project! Hooray heart banner! Happy Valentine’s Day! I used mostly untraditional colors because I just might keep this up for longer. I just love it!

7. You can see the cherry wall hanging in the background.

8. I put three beads in between each heart to space them.

9. The beads were either all white/clear (in two sizes) or pink, white/clear, and purple.

10. My car was covered in ice this morning when I left for work, but it didn’t seem that cold. The wind kept blowing my jacket up while I was scraping off the ice. I felt like Marilyn Monroe.

Little Hearts

I made these hearts last night while John was watching some shows on TV I was not interested in. I might embellish these a little while I watch shows I DO care about tonight. That teal area on the upper left heart is screaming for something, isn’t it? Maybe a little bird?

They’re made with a mix of vintage and new fabrics and embellished with vintage buttons and rick rack. I want to make four more or so.

The first picture shows the backs of the hearts. All plain. The second picture is of the heart I made this morning, but I don’t think it matches the set at all. Almost like “What was I thinking” doesn’t match. So I don’t know what I’m going to do with it.

I still have to iron these. Ugh ironing. Also, I think these killed my sewing machine! The tension is all messed up, and it seems to struggle to get the thread out from the underside of the machine.

Wall Hanging Pictures!

Here are some pictures of the wall hanging I’ve been talking so much about!

1. This thing is made up of left overs, and I’m very glad to have found a good use for them! The back panel and the main background panel are made form fabric that used to cover my college radio station’s couch until they threw it [the couch] out. I saved the fabric, and am happy to say that I don’t have much left!

The cherry fabric I’d been hoarding for a long time, afraid to even cut it, but I’m glad I finally did for this project. I even have little left over! Cloth napkins maybe?

The black was left over from a “textile arts” assignment for my 2D class, and the green that you can see in the corners is left over from a duvet cover for my bedroom. Aaaaand last but not least that cherry ribbon was $1 at Wal-Mart. It’s kinda plasticy, which I was sad about at first, but I think that fits fine for a kitchen wall hanging. Also, the rick rack is vintage from my grandmother.

2. Close up of the “Things to Do” pocket. I figured since I’d posted a pic of the other pocket, this was only fair.

3. The kitties watched the Super Bowl with us. That red pillow near Twilight also uses some fabric from the college couch, as well as the same red in the “2Do” pocket.

4. 1997-2008, Ford Aspire. I will miss you.

Whew!

Man today flew by! John and I saw Cloverfield, which I DO NOT suggest any one sees if they get motion sickness. It even made John a little sick. Afterwards, we ran some errands.

When I got home, I started working on the wall hanging for the kitchen. I am LOVING how it’s coming out. I was planning on scanning one corner as a “tease,” but it seems I never plugged my scanner in when we moved. And it’s too late now to go fishing for wires in the wire box in the basement. So for now, I’ll have to leave you with the closest version of the cherry fabric I could find online:

The hanging is made of that cherry fabric, plain red fabric, red fabric that has boxes on it, black fabric, and a little bit of green to accent the stems & leaves. Good night!