Saturday, November 27, 2010

Finished the bag!

A few weeks ago I finished the bag, and of course I was too lazy to upload and post pics, but here they are!!

Once I finally decided on a layout, I got all the separate pieces sewn together, and created the pocket out of liner (now that was an adventure, somehow cut one piece 2" too short with not enough fabric left...igh...I pieced together all my scraps and it actually came out really nice!!  Thank goodness for stitch witchery on that one, those were some narrow seams and pieces!!).



Then it was time for the sewing marathon!!  



And voila, giant charm tote bag with pocket!!  I love how it came out!

Next project Turtle Baby Quilt!  
Sneak peak:


Friday, November 12, 2010

Box of Memories

While I was in the midst of finishing my quilted tote, I found a really cool embroidery site that is just my style!  Tattoo Your Towels  has some really neat templates and great tutorials for easy embroidery.  I wanted to try for my self and I was pretty sure that I had some embroidery floss sitting in my old bedroom at my parents house.  I picked up my old camp counselor arts and crafts box, complete with a lifetime supply of lanyard, half finished keychains and friendship bracelets, and a whole tangle of beading cord, embroidery floss and assorted lanyard bits.  Even as a kid I was a super collector, and saver, I would use as little as possible of consumables like arts and craft supplies so that the would last me oh say, 20 years, LOL.  At least my kids will be all set to go with a complete set of barbies, pretend school, doll cloths and project supplies!






From this awesome tangled mess I was able to salvage quite a bit of embroidery floss and wound it up on some plastic bobbins I bought at Joann's, I was actually surprised how much there was!

I haven't actually gotten to try any of the embroidery yet, it was quite a time consumer to wind all these little cards, but I'll post some pics as soon as I do!

Monday, November 8, 2010

Crafting

I have recently rediscovered my love of crafting, and I must say it couldn't have come at a better time.  Having a hobby/extracurricular interest is something that my boss and I have discussed at my last two reviews and I hadn't been able to come up with an interest that wasn't work, school, family or hubby driven, something that could be just for my enjoyment.  My boss and the secretary had both been discussing craft projects and how they were both going to (with the help of family) create their own crib bedding sets...

On a side note, basically everyone I know or ever knew who is somewhat in my same stage of life, is now pregnant and/or has had a baby.  So crafting + babies = baby crafts and I decided to make a cloth diaper for my boss' new baby to be (a surprise as to the gender) as this is her second baby and she has, makes or ran out and picked up everything else she could possibly have needed other wise.  I was so pleased with how well it came out, that I hit the net for more ideas!

The next week flew by and I found myself wasting my Sunday surfing facebook and commiting random acts of google, wondering what I used to do with my time before it was sucked into a vacuous hole of applications like farmville, yoville, etc-ville.  I began searching cloth diaper patterns and design tips and some how ended up in an endless about.com loop of quilting and related topics.    I found a template for a patchwork quilt ( http://buttonberry.typepad.com/photos/charm_pack_tote/charmtote_pattern_image_final.html ) with a sweet little applique that looked simple enough to be a first project and got the ball rolling!  I hit Walmart and Joann's for fabric pieces and fat quarters, sewing odds and ends, Amazon for cheap sewing machine parts, reclaimed my sewing machine and scored some awesome supplies from my parents house and got down to business!

By the end of the next weekend I had the pieces mostly cut, created the applique ( design borrowed from the Quilting Diva ) and began laying it all out!






Then it was back to Joann's to figure out just what wadding was and pick up a few more pieces of fabric as I felt like something was missing...Once I decided what it needed, a little more pink and a few different blues I headed home and got to work.  By the end of that weekend I had the front panel laid out and sewn down and the back panel laid out!


I packed it in for the weekend, excited to finally have a hobby, a just for me, do as you go in bits and pieces of free time, abstract and vast opportunitied, genuine hobby!  
See the finished product next post!

Introduction and Explanation!

After several failed attempts at journaling on specific subjects and categorized singular interests, I have decided to steal a little piece of the web for ALL the things that make ME happy and that I'm happy to make!  I am a pediatric physical therapy professional, wife and daughter, stretched 5 ways from Sunday exploring crafting as an outlet for my creativity and a way to express my punk rock-ey-ness.  A little crazy, a little silly, tons of fun and lots of experimenting!

~Sarah