New things all around :)

Well I’ve been busy trying out all sorts of new things. There’s a first time for everything-right?

Well I tried my hand at a new type of creation. My mother used to crochet all the time and make beautiful things for people. I never really picked up on it when I was a little kid. When I became older she couldn’t see to do it anymore. My sister has been making the cutest things lately and really inspired me to give it a shot. I taught myself with a little help from her via facebook chat. There’s probably easier ways to learn to crochet…

Here’s the scarf I made. Found the pattern online…I can track it back down if you like, but I’m too lazy at the moment. It was on the Lion Yarn Website. Yes-it’s supposed to be curly :). If I wasn’t totally gross right now, I’d model it for you.

It took a while, but I had a lot of learning to do. I don’t think it will be the last thing I crochet :)

I also have been working on a requested item for a friend. She saw my wallet and asked if I’d make her something similar but as an expandable file with 10 pockets. (whoa!) So I said I’d see what I could come up with.

The design took me forever to come up with, but I eventually figured it out. I got to use some denim I got from Joanns, and practice with my binding skills.

Features a magnetic snap for ease of use :)

Check out all those pockets! all ten! (felt like more)

Each individual with it’s own expanding side panels.   

Hope that fabric didn’t make you dizzy!

Today I was working on part of a big project due in less than a month.

To make a long story short: Josh is in charge of planning the Annual Open House for the Veterinary School this year. (CRAZY huh!) It’s a huge event with tons and tons of people and activities. Following the open house is a benefit dinner called the gentle doctor benefit. He will be honored there for a moment for planning the Open House. Since he’s involved with that and also friends with the person planning the Benefit-he asked if I could make some things to donate to the silent auction portion of the event.  They requested pretty much anything-including ‘crafts’.

I agreed and plan to make a ‘kitchen gift set’ which includes a tablerunner, apron, button down kitchen towels, dressed-up dish towel, cloth napkins, pot holders…

I’ll probably also donate a camera strap or two :)

So I picked out some cute fabric and planned my tablerunner today. I looked for a design online I wanted, but nothing was quite what I had in mind. I’m sure this isn’t the first one like this-but it is an original design by me :)

I pieced the top today. It is turning out better than I hoped. It’s hard to imagine the finished product from these pics of the top, but I’m excited!

 

I was really hoping that I might be able to get the courage up to do some free-motion quilting on this sucker. I LOVE how things look with it. I even had already got the foot for my sewing machine but never made anything with it. Tonight I cut some batting and used some scraps to practice. I’m definitely not a pro (yet!) but I’m so excited by how well I was doing! I think with some more practice I can pull this off on the tablerunner. The pic is hard to really see what I was doing, but you basically sew around in a random pattern. You have control over where the stitches go. It’s tricky because you have to time the speed and motion just right, and keep your design smooth. This is far from perfect-but an exciting start! I tried a ‘meandering’ method-as its called- and a few swirls :) Some people draw beautiful pictures with the stitches-I don’t think I’ll make it that far.

Here we go!

Here’s my first batch of camera straps I plan to put up for sale. Not sure exactly where or when…but I’m starting my inventory! (And my product photography skills. Please ignore any stray threads I didn’t catch before taking the picture…)

Enjoy! And feel free to comment :)

 

Wallet

This is my first wallet. I followed a tutorial I found online. It came out pretty good! I might change a couple things for the next one but overall I’m happy with it.

Front

Flap Side

Top flap opened. Features a magnetic snap  

Top and bottom flaps open. Features 6 card slots, zipper pouch, and ‘receipt’ pocket.

different view of zipper pocket and extra pocket.

Clutch

{or makeup bag}

^ Click on the picture for larger detail ^

{Snow}ed In

Well we have a sever winter blizzard warning going on right now. Everything is shut down. My work is closed, and so are Josh’s classes. So, what’s a perfect thing to do? Sew!

We have this nice griddle to cook yummy things like eggs and hash browns and sausage on (like this morning!). The problem with this thing is there’s no good place to keep it except some open shelves we have. The problem with the open shelves is dust an floating pet hair that can accumulate between uses. That means it gets washed after cooking, and before. I don’t like having to keep it somewhere it gets so dirty-when I want to prepare food on it. SO-I came up with a solution :)

Got some green fabric to blend with my attempt of a green kitchen theme. I used my serger to put it together. I thought about making it from one big piece-and just tucking the corners to box them. BUT, as I was measuring and looking at the griddle, I wanted to make the cover fit the curves better. It’s not just a rectangle-the long sides round out about 3 1/2 inches.

I traced a pattern and cut it all out. I sewed a rolled hem on the bottom (first time doing it!) and put it all together. It fits nice and snug :)