WIP

This blog should really be called "stuff I make infrequently." I am working on a few things, but not seeming to get a lot finished. (I've tried a number of new recipes in recent weeks - does that count? Please let that count. Ah, who am I kidding - even this blog post is a cheat.)

Anyway ... I'm plugging away on my cross stitch Bill Murray when I feel like a relaxing evening of crafting in front of the television. The pattern is deceptive - it looks small, but it's got massive solid patches of crosses.

Slowly but surely I am working through my stack of Hawaiian fabric cut for napkins. Last night I whipped up this pair for a present.

I think I'm getting faster because these two were done in a snap. Or maybe it only seemed that way because I was listening to a favourite podcast to distract me from the tedious measuring and ironing for the mitered corners.

At the Creativ Festival earlier this spring, I picked up two kits to make wonderfully soft rag quilts. The first step is making the sandwiches of batting inside two flannel squares. Charm packs made the tasks much easier, leaving only the batting to cut into squares.

The sandwiches are stacked neatly on my work table, ready for the sewing machine. Which is where I should be and not fooling around on the computer.

Sheep to shawl

A few weekends ago the Kitchener living history museum Joseph Schneider Haus put on a sheep to shawl competition, drawing the local weavers' and spinners' guild and two other in the area to make a wearable shawl starting from a fleece. The teams had four hours to card, spin and weave.

Seeing the teams in action was interesting - they were working diligently and quickly, but still chatting and having a nice afternoon. I like to think that's how it was in circa 1816, the period the museum captures, when the women gathered with their walking wheels in the wash haus to spin the fleeces freshly sheared from the farm's sheep.

Alongside the sheep to shawl competition, museum staff were demonstrating parts of the process of turning fleece into fabric - colouring with natural dyes, spinning on the great wheel and picking the dirty bits from the fleece. This guy drew the short straw and was looking after the rather smelly and greasy fleece. I think he was relieved to sit back when a helper showed up.

Inside the wash haus, two women in period clothing were tending to the open hearth cooking - a warm job on a warm day. These dedicated people do everything in heavy woollen and cotton clothing from head to toe, even the gardening. That is almost more admirable and amazing than managing the endless farmstead chores. My air conditioned existence is so blissfully far removed from that time.

Sigh

Fighting the urge to tuck away my lap quilt somewhere safe and pet hair-free, I put it on the back of my couch to admire. It has become the new favourite spot for the cats to sleep. Sigh. Even better than sleeping on the neatly folded quilt, they like to make it into a cozy tent to curl up under. Double sigh.

But how can I get angry at such a cute, and obviously very content kitty?

Round the corner

My quilting projects are incrementally growing bigger, up to a lap quilt now. But boy did that thing seem monumentally huge on my first go at handsewing the binding.

The inspiration was this Film in the Fridge tutorial on strip quilts and this amazing September Lights fabric I stumbled on while doing a little crafty perusing on etsy.

It's pretty simple - cut a bunch of strips of various sizes, arrange them until you're happy, then start sewing. Easy peasy. On the back, I sandwiched a few strips between two large pieces of the two fabrics I especially liked.

Foreseeing the epic battle on the quilting ground between me and my sewing machine that, make no mistake, I would lose, this was my first outsourced quilting project. And she did such a lovely job, both straight lines and a simple pattern inside the wider strips. Worth every penny.

All that was left was the binding. And so it sat. All my smaller quilt projects I zipped around the binding with my machine. But with such painstaking handquilting, it seemed wrong to do the binding with any less effort. So armed with a needle and thread with a stack of movies at the ready, I got started.

And kept stitching, stitching and stitching. Then stitching some more.

I finished this afternoon and immediately headed outside, quilt tucked under my arm and camera in hand to capture the last of the afternoon sun. Unfortunately as I was taking pictures of a quilt spread out on the grass, I was joined by my neighbour, the strong silent type who was doing the uber-manly task of charring meat on the backyard barbecue. I stuck with small talk instead of attempting an explanation, and I'm sure he headed back inside with yet another tale of the crazy neighbour. But, seriously dude, any crafter would know in an instant what was going on and jump in to hold it up for a photo.

A post addendum ... I got up to toss my new quilt into the dryer and immediately noticed the dog bed at my feet. Which is about the same size, only the pattern - a split nine patch - is far more intricate. Not to mention the crazy amount of quilting, including the bottom side of the cushion. The fabric was more expensive, too. What the heck!? I made my dog a better quilt than myself!

PA

Despite my general embargo on weekend shopping because the only thing worse than shopping is shopping in a crowd, I braved a trip to Fabricland for their half-price sale. How can I resist the siren call of everything 50 per cent off?

I always forget they have a pretty good selection of quilting cotton that includes many popular lines - like the ikat I used for my wiksten. The new spring collection included one with delicate pink and orange flowers on white that looked like watercolour. As I held the bolt and a co-ordinating one with soft rectangles in oranges and pinks, I wondered what could I do with this fabric too beautiful to not buy. The answer popped into my head as quickly as I dismissed it - pillow cases. I need a crafting intervention. No more pillow cases. That is after I post these two sets, one for a friend's birthday with Jay McCarroll fabric and the last with Hawaiian fabric earmarked for bedding:

How pretty is this Hawaiian print?

Now, that's not to say I don't have more Hawaiian fabric. I bought a bunch more for napkins, including this hibiscus print on red. Again I was seduced by the siren song of a sale. As I unfolded and unfolded and unfolded the whack of fabric, I remembered the good price and the moment of craziness when I asked for four yards. Four yards! Let me tell you ladies, that is tricky to iron! Especially since I washed it first, which meant trying to do a decent job folding that length in half.

I cut it all up to make 18-inch square napkins - the maximum size with the minimum wasted. Consulting Martha's sewing bible, she said the standard dinner napkin size is 20- or 24-inch square. Wha!?! That's practically a tablecloth.

So now a dozen Hawaiian napkins are on the crafting list. And no more pillow cases (thus the blog post name: PA - pillow cases anonymous). Right now I am handsewing the binding onto my lap quilt, going along at a snail's pace. But yesterday I turned a corner on that - two literally - and the end is in sight.

Hawaiian dreams

While I was in Hawaii, I picked up yards and yards of lovely Hawaiian fabric. Because the patterns and colours are a bit wild, I figured it would be best to use it in small doses. The plan - pillow cases and napkins. Then you can have a flavour of the unique fabric without it being too in-your-face.

I've finished three sets of pillow cases for friends, with one more part way done for myself. Now we can all have sweet Hawaiian dreams.

I wrapped them up in bundles with leftover fabric strips.

Now onto the napkins. I may regret the idea a few mitered corners in.

Shovel and stitch

I learned an important lesson - don't try to top stitch right after shovelling heavy snow for an hour. It makes sewing straight lines darn near impossible. But my seam ripper and I forged ahead.

I wanted to make my dad handkerchiefs as a little gift for his 75th birthday. After much rummaging through my fabric stash - the pinks, florals and cute critters - I found a couple masculine-ish fat quarters. A little ironing and semi-straight seams later, I had two handkerchiefs.

I love that my dad still uses handkerchiefs. So old school. It's too bad such gentlemanly habits slipped away. Now you've got guys walking around with their pants hanging below their butts. That is if they're not wearing pyjama bottoms.