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!