Welcome home, friend

Finally my sewing machine returned home from the repair shop. Old friend, it seems like you've been gone for ages. Thankfully the repair was simple and (relatively) cheap with only a blown fuse to replace. (And it's a relief my clumsy sewing didn't cause a catastrophic problem. Phew!)

And how best to celebrate its return - sew bunting!

I got started with a tutorial, then made a few changes and additions. Unfortunately while I was finishing the project, I realized a couple of stupid mistakes I made along the way. Oh well, craft and learn. (And I'm probably the only one who will notice the oopsies anyway. I beg you - don't look closely at the photos!)

True to form, I had to make it a bit more complicated than the tutorial by stitching around all the triangles (30!) with a complementary pinkish thread, but I think the extra work makes them more stable - especially since they'll be outdoors - and neatly finished.

The tutorial shows loops at the end to hang them on the wall. Instead I sewed on an extra length on each end to make a handy tie. Then I figured I should make some matching fabric ties. Again, more work. Thankfully I picked up yards and yards of bias tape in a great New York trim shop to skip the tedious step of making my own.

Finally it was time to hang the bunting today!

So sweet, I think. The pinks and flowers are perfect for summer. (I am a bit worried my neighbours will think the single girl has really gone off her rocker.)

I must admit I had to take a break from this post to take it all down and adjust it for reasons that will really make me sound crazy. But now it's just right.

A tip of the hat to another crafter . . . my dad made the lovely wooden planters at the front of my house. I can't believe how much the plants have grown. Another lesson - buy less plants than you think you'll need. Some of them disappeared under the petunias.

On edge

My sewing has been derailed indefinitely by a broken sewing machine. Of course that happened while I was just a few stitched lines away from finishing a quilt top. Frustrating! I took it into the repair shop a little over a week ago and I'm still waiting to hear what needs to be fixed and, gulp, how much it's going to cost.

Meanwhile, I'm getting rather anxious about not being able to sew. I broke down and called the shop a couple days ago and the polite but somewhat annoyed woman on the other end reassured me they would call. By coincidence my mom also had to take her sewing machine in for a repair. Lucky for her she has a back-up, but not lucky for me that she needs it when I could too.

The woman at the sewing shop said she'd put a rush on my machine. I wonder how many frantic calls she gets from women anxious to get back their sewing machines.

Thanks Mom

Today is Mother's Day and a reminder to me to be thankful for a great mom who is also my crafting paragon. She taught me most of what I know craftwise - knitting, sewing, crocheting, cross-stitching, needlepoint and more - and her great skill and passion are both inspiring and humbling.

Yesterday we went on a shop hop together - my first and I'd definitely recommend one. It was nice to see four fabric shops I've never been to before, but I especially enjoyed the drive through the area countryside on a lovely sunny day with my mom. And of course a lunch break between all the fabric browsing. She mentioned she'd like to make a blue and yellow quilt, so I wrapped her Mother's Day gift in a blue and yellow fat quarter and tucked another fat quarter under the yellow ribbon - appropriately blue ribbons on a yellow background.

Inside is a gift card for a spa visit - manicure, pedicure and facial. She definitely deserves pampering and a little break from her intense crafting. But not too long a break because she always has a long and ever-growing list of projects.

Helpers

Cats cannot resist sitting in the most unhelpful spots. On the newspaper you're reading. On the fabric you're cutting. On your freshly washed and folded laundry. Here Ariel and Aurora help with a quilt sandwich I'm pinning together. Maybe they want to make sure none of the layers shift.

The best dog bed in the world

A moment of insanity is the only explanation for me looking at a fat quarter pack of Anna Maria Horner fabric and thinking they would make a great dog bed. The project started out simple. I saw these neat dog beds online that were basically like a doggie duvet that you filled with old towels and clothes. Brilliant! I thought I'd piece a simple quilt top, then make it into essentially a giant pillow. Easy peasy, right?

Next thing I know there's piping, fancy blocks and a quilted bottom. That would have been enough to keep me busy into the far future without the technical problem of a sewing machine no longer interested in proper or even inconsistently bad tension. Then came the hindsight is 20/20 part. After many an adjustment by my mom, we forged ahead with the wonky machine. Then I forged ahead with ripping out all the quilting because it just wasn't good enough. So much ripping. I did find a nifty trick because I sure had a lot of practice.

With a borrowed sewing machine, I finished the quilt top. And I have to say it looks pretty good. How can you go wrong with that fabric?


Putting it together was another challenge. First starting with my lost shank and foot. Thankfully it was found with the borrowed machine, but not before tearing apart my craft room and crawling around on my hands and knees to peer under cupboards in case the cats got frisky. Even more thankfully, my mom came by to walk me through the entire process. Who am I kidding - I often let her take over. She's so fast! Everything I do is painfully slow and nowhere near as accurate. Maybe in 50 years I'll be a sewing superstar too.


Then I needed to rustle up enough stuff to fill the bed. You can't imagine how much got tossed in there - sheets, blankets, old sweaters and a whole bunch of those long since out of fashion clothes buried at the bottom of drawers. Still I could use a bit more to fill it out.

Here's the spoiled pup taking a tentative sniff of her new bed:


It seems to meet with her approval. I should really hope so considering the huge expense for fabric and supplies and then the hours and hours that went into making it. At least now the gigantic beast finally has a bed she fits on. And look at that elegant face - she needs an equally lovely place to sleep. Plus it's a nice addition to my living room that looks so much better than a plain ol' dog bed.


I wonder where my next crazy idea will take me. Oh right, I still need to make the matching pillow to go against the railing. Crazy, crazy, crazy.

Looong absence

Forever and a day has passed since my last post. I haven't much been in a crafty frame of mind lately. Plus I got distracted by the second two Hunger Games books. But I have been plugging away on a couple things.

I finished a nice Frank Lloyd Wright cross stitch kit from my CFF. Now I have to decide how to finish it off. I'm thinking wall hanging. I got started on my first needle point kit - a pillow that looks like a Klimt painting with rich colours and gold in geometric and swirling lines. It will be lovely.

Never too late

Yesterday I was chatting with a friend about people who send out with their holiday greetings a summary of the past year in their life. I guess that took a while to foment in my brain cuz suddenly today I started thinking about all the noteworthy moments for me in 2011. And there were some big things, both glad and sad, but definitely all memorable.

In January I moved into my new home. This is already the third home I've owned, but this felt like the real deal because it's a single house. It took a while to finally get here, starting with a condo apartment, where I stayed only about a year after a nasty legal battle over my dog, and then a townhouse, which I thought of as temporary but stayed for seven years. Now finally I've made it to a honest to goodness house and home that truly makes me proud. This will sound super dorky, but I still get a kick out of walking all the way around my house - and four walls that are all my own! Silly, I know.

This December, I finally finished my ambitious project of painting every room in my new house. I got it done just under the wire of my self-imposed one-year deadline. Phew! I had to hire someone to do the two-storey entryway, but otherwise every room was painted by my aching hands. Of course, being me, there were many hilarious/disastrous moments of clumsiness - the best probably when I stepped into the paint tray and had to hop on one foot to the sink.

In May, I said goodbye to my sweet dog Marie. The decision had to be made suddenly, which was difficult at the time but in a way a blessing because she could go while still happy and feeling relatively well. Often we hold on longer than we should for ourselves, not our pet.

Then in August I brought home Alexi, a three-year-old Borzoi. In many ways she is so much like Marie - both incredibly sweet and calm. But she's also goofy and loves to play. This is the first dog I've had that will fetch and sit on her own playing with toys. Greyhounds are far too dignified for such doggy behaviour. My only teeny issue with Alexi is all the freaking hair. I simply was not prepared. How is she not bald by now!?

In October I had an amazing three-week trip to Italy with my parents. We spent two glorious weeks in Tuscany, exploring the countryside and all the old stone towns, and a week in Rome seeing all the storied sights and amazing galleries. Italy is also where I learned to drive a standard. I'm not gonna lie - the first few days were stressful and at times embarrassing. Driving in a foreign country with weird signs, lots of roundabouts and notoriously aggressive drivers is a challenge all on its own. But now I miss driving a standard. I would have gladly missed the day I had to stop for a light on a steep hill in Siena and stalled the car numerous times before finally ditching the driver's seat for my mom to take over. Thankfully after a while the cars behind me stopped honking. I'm sure they had some choice Italian expressions for the stupid tourist who can't drive a standard.

This past year I also really got into sewing. I think it's taken over as my craft of choice. I've done lots of relatively projects - bags, mug rugs and small quilts. Actually I finished my first quilt - a bright summery table cloth - and I felt pretty accomplished, even if it was small. This year I want to launch into bigger projects that take a little more dedication than a couple hours and stretch my skills a bit more. But first placemats and a dog bed. Related to my new-found love of sewing, I started building with great dedication a fabric stash this past year. I probably have enough now to get me through this year!

I'm not sure yet what this coming year will hold for me. Except I do have a trip to New York planned with my CFF Tara to go to the Renegade Craft Fair. We went together a couple years ago in Chicago and had a great time. That's also when she introduced me to the mouth-watering yet odd taste combination of Chicago mix popcorn, which I crave still. I went back to Chicago the next year with my mom, only ever so slightly motivated by getting another popcorn fix at the Pier. I hope another trip or two will also pop up, which is quite possible since I'm not generally a plan-ahead sorta person.

I invite you to think about all you have to celebrate and remember from 2011 as well, and start thinking about adventures for 2012.