Crazy head

So what was I doing the night before my New York trip with my CFF? You'd think packing, right? Any sane person would assume so. But no. I was sewing pillow cases for my parents. They did turn out lovely with the Amy Butler fabric.

I find it's best to leave packing until the last minute, anyway. Otherwise I just start throwing in more and more entirely unnecessary stuff. Pack 15 shirts for five nights - Why not!? Something could happen, like a leaky cup dripping coffee down my shirt or dousing myself with a bottle of sparkling water. True stories.

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.