{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.
Friday, April 5, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
wonky stars
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| quilt blocks are out... Moses' homing beacon. |
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| I swear he hears me laying the fabric on the ground. |
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| only ever more comfortable after the blocks are pieced. |
Months ago, I began experimenting with quilting wonky stars. I have a significant number of vintage sheet scraps and an even larger collection of vintage sheets from which to cut. I've seen several wonky star blocks on pinterest and started with a few blocks just to try something new. Well, I ended up liking the blocks more than I anticipated. Instead of using my blocks as hot pads or saving them for a larger project (no more bed quilts, please!), before I knew it I had half of a baby quilt.
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| all pieced and sandwiched and ready to (finish) quilt(ing). |
Each year, the staff where I work host an enormous garage-type sale. We collect donations for a few days, then the staff volunteer to price and arrange everything the day before the sale. Usually, the prices are really low. We also host a corresponding bake sale and silent auction. The auction is a combination of promised items and the higher end donations we receive. All proceeds benefit the students via student book scholarships.
After getting the hang of the wonky stars, I committed to a baby quilt for the auction. I finished the blocks and the quilt top relatively quickly... and then set way too high expectations for the quilting!
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| all done, with a beautiful drape. |
I decided to do a dense free motion quilting pattern I hadn't really done or tried in years. I had just gotten the hang of this on a much larger quilt (that is still unfinished) waaay back in 2006. Of course I haven't touched it since then. And I have a different machine than I did back then, too. So it was more than a little new.
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| folds nice and square, too. |
It took me hours, but I am so. pleased. with the way the quilt turned out. It was great FMQ practice, I got a confidence boost in actually finishing a project, and the quilt went for $70.00 in the silent auction.
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| finished front. |
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| finished back. |
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| sorry, Moses. not for you. |
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| no, really Moses. we can't keep it. |
There's probably a limit on how many photos I should post of my dog, quilts that I make and combinations of those two. However, it always feels like a finished project doesn't happen all that often, so indulge me. These are some of my favorite blocks. I realized after I was done that the best looking blocks were those that had high contrast stars to background.
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| love that blue hatch sheet. |
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| bought this vintage sheet FQ from elegantitus months ago. so hard to find purples. |
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| so, technically the green fabric wasn't a vintage sheet. but it was a repurposed sheet from the thrift store. :) |
When I was making the blocks, I started with a patterned background and a white star. Then, with each new block, I utilized the background fabric to form the new star, creating kind of a chain of matching/coordinating blocks. Then on my last block, I used a white background with a pattern star. You can totally move from block to block and see the order I finished them.
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| the coordinating blue star to match the blue background block above. |
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| FMQ close-up |
Although it was a lot of work and I don't have my next FMQ project lined up, I am looking forward to trying it again. I can't wait to give other patterns a try.
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| Moses, ever hopeful. He even brought a ball! |
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
mistakes were made.
Full of pride after successfully making a cover for Mark's kindle, I recently volunteered to make my colleague a case for her tablet. Although I measured the tablet myself, I lost the dimensions and later found myself with the time and motivation to make her cover, but no dimensions at hand. She had her tablet nearby, but no ruler! With a little googling, she was able to text me dimensions and I got to sewing on my merry way. It turned out just as well as Mark's did, I thought!
Unfortunately, she didn't have her tablet with her when I gave her the case, but later texted me this photo:
The moral of the story is: don't depend on the internet for the answers to all problems. My father in law is right (rules of the wood shop): You better measure twice, because you only cut once.
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| hot off my sewing machine. |
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| same coordinating elastic and button closure. |
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| love the navy and white polka dot interior. |
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| found this button in my stash. |
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| ready for a tablet! |
Unfortunately, she didn't have her tablet with her when I gave her the case, but later texted me this photo:
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| that... doesn't look like a good fit. |
The moral of the story is: don't depend on the internet for the answers to all problems. My father in law is right (rules of the wood shop): You better measure twice, because you only cut once.
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| love the finished product... but mistakes were made, so amendments will be required. |
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
organized corners
I know I've mentioned that our apartment is (415sf) small. Generally, we all fit inside of it, but when there's no extra room, there's no wiggle room. It means, (if we're lucky), everything has a place, but just one place. If it gets out of place, well, quite a lot else also gets out of place. So when something really works for us, I really delight in it working. When something stays organized for awhile, I really appreciate its organization, and work to keep it organized.
I snapped a group of photos of the organized corners of our home during my blogging hiatus, and thought it might be encouraging for me to post them here so I can look at them when things get out of hand again. Because, of course, they probably will.
An organized medicine drawer. This works so much better for us than keeping medicines in our medicine cabinet. I have asthma and have come to require a well-stocked first aid kit; Mark gets frequent headaches. I was also a Girl Scout and like to be prepared. We have regular pain relievers, allergy medications, herbal remedies, a plethora of Burt's Bees chapstick (chapped lips are a medical problem), anti-itch gels and sprays, a snakebite kit, etc. This photo was taken when nothing was expired and you could more or less see everything in the drawer at once. The drawer is also chest-high, which is the perfect height for either Mark or myself to look in without hunching and theoretically, only adults could get into the drawer.
We wash laundry on a regular basis. We even fold laundry on a regular basis. Unfortunately, we somehow don't hang up clothing on a regular basis. Look at this! No empty hangers and the majority of my clothing hanging in the closet. Mark's wardrobe at this point of his graduate degree consists primarily of T-shirts, sweaters and a handful of short-sleeved button-up shirts. He's also a boy, which explains (hopefully?) why the majority of the clothing in this photo is mine. And yes, that is pretty much our whole closet.
Mark's got two rows of shoes on the rack and I've got two rows of shoes on the rack. We have some other pairs of shoes not pictured (rain boots, cowboy boots, sandals, Mark's two additional pair of tennis shoes). I have an unfortunate habit of buying low-quality shoes that don't fit me well, which has led to only a few wears before 'retiring' a pair of shoes to the bottom of the pile in the closet in the past. I wear a 10.5 in women's shoes, which is a surprisingly difficult shoe size to find. This shoe rack is a real accomplishment whether it looks like it or not!
I have to be fair and confess that any T-shirts I wear also go in this drawer. But when you have as many T-shirts as the Masdin household does, you absolutely have to fold them this way to get them to fit in your drawer. Amazingly, there are weeks when we get to washing day and this drawer is empty (maybe those are weeks we didn't finish all our laundry the week before). But folding T-shirts this way allows them all to fit, and you can see immediately which shirt is which as soon as you open the drawer. T-shirt Victory!
My love for vintage sheets is well documented and not to be taken lightly. When I am not on top of my collection (for instance, when I'm pulling things off this shelf to mix and match and cut and not re-folding and re-shelving as I go), our household is in a heap of trouble (or sheets). Which Moses really appreciates, but which is really pretty unhealthy for Mark and me, and our laundry pile. Sheets tend to end up back in the washing pile if they don't get re-shelved. Also, if they are not here, and ordered mostly by color, how will I be able to consider using them for sewing projects? When the shelf looks like this, all is right with the world.
Lest anyone believes that my household is drowning in the accoutrements of my hobbies alone, let's talk about Mark's books. I have mentioned, he is a student? He's also a student who truly strives to complete all his assigned reading (it's a miracle... or an impossibility). Books are almost never stacked neatly like this. Honestly, how can they be if they are being read? This is definitely an organized corner to be proud of.
Lastly, let us consider these images from my kitchen. All. Organized. Neatly. Not much of our 415sf is devoted to the kitchen. Every surface (including the floor, and the top of the toaster oven, which is stacked on the microwave, which is stacked on the refrigerator) is prime real estate and home to something. I cannot express my gratitude and appreciate for this beautiful oak (I think) shelf that my father-in-law Dave built for me. It fits right up against our refrigerator and is home to four rows of spice jars (all identified with labels printed on waterproof bumper sticker paper and perfectly cut out by a craft circle punch) and another two rows of pint-sized mason jars and another two rows of quart sized mason jars and an extra row of whatever's left. Mason jars are full of healthy whole grains, nuts, and seeds and closed with plastic caps. Those jars are labeled with chalkboard vinyl labels my sister cut out for me in perfect circles with her cricut machine. I label and re-label those bad boys with washable chalkboard marker. Works like a charm.
We struggled for months with my large spice collection in an organization system which didn't work. This shelf has been a godsend. It is so easy to make granola (which deserves its own post) when I can just pull a jar, measure into the bowl, replace the jar, pull the next jar, measure, replace, etc. And now the spices are also alphabetized, so there's no hunt for the right spice, either. While my jars do not block light, this shelf moves them around the corner from our stove, essentially protecting them from heat. And the shelf is only 4" deep! The footprint is infinitesimal, which is so so important in a space as small as ours.
I know our space won't stay this way, and in fact, I can tell you already it hasn't. But in the moments when we can get our organizational act together and things are working... well it feels like such a feat, such a major accomplishment. I hope the memory of that will be enough motivation the next time things are out of whack to put them back to rights again!
I snapped a group of photos of the organized corners of our home during my blogging hiatus, and thought it might be encouraging for me to post them here so I can look at them when things get out of hand again. Because, of course, they probably will.
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| organized medicine drawer |
An organized medicine drawer. This works so much better for us than keeping medicines in our medicine cabinet. I have asthma and have come to require a well-stocked first aid kit; Mark gets frequent headaches. I was also a Girl Scout and like to be prepared. We have regular pain relievers, allergy medications, herbal remedies, a plethora of Burt's Bees chapstick (chapped lips are a medical problem), anti-itch gels and sprays, a snakebite kit, etc. This photo was taken when nothing was expired and you could more or less see everything in the drawer at once. The drawer is also chest-high, which is the perfect height for either Mark or myself to look in without hunching and theoretically, only adults could get into the drawer.
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| Clothes hung on *gasp* hangers! |
We wash laundry on a regular basis. We even fold laundry on a regular basis. Unfortunately, we somehow don't hang up clothing on a regular basis. Look at this! No empty hangers and the majority of my clothing hanging in the closet. Mark's wardrobe at this point of his graduate degree consists primarily of T-shirts, sweaters and a handful of short-sleeved button-up shirts. He's also a boy, which explains (hopefully?) why the majority of the clothing in this photo is mine. And yes, that is pretty much our whole closet.
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| A shoe rack that actually works. |
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| the T-shirt drawer. |
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| Oh, the sheets. |
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| So important I had to include two photos of them. |
My love for vintage sheets is well documented and not to be taken lightly. When I am not on top of my collection (for instance, when I'm pulling things off this shelf to mix and match and cut and not re-folding and re-shelving as I go), our household is in a heap of trouble (or sheets). Which Moses really appreciates, but which is really pretty unhealthy for Mark and me, and our laundry pile. Sheets tend to end up back in the washing pile if they don't get re-shelved. Also, if they are not here, and ordered mostly by color, how will I be able to consider using them for sewing projects? When the shelf looks like this, all is right with the world.
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| Oh the books! |
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| Eggs, organized neatly. |
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| Spices, labeled neatly. |
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| Spices and grain jars, organized neatly and BEAUTIFUL! |
Lastly, let us consider these images from my kitchen. All. Organized. Neatly. Not much of our 415sf is devoted to the kitchen. Every surface (including the floor, and the top of the toaster oven, which is stacked on the microwave, which is stacked on the refrigerator) is prime real estate and home to something. I cannot express my gratitude and appreciate for this beautiful oak (I think) shelf that my father-in-law Dave built for me. It fits right up against our refrigerator and is home to four rows of spice jars (all identified with labels printed on waterproof bumper sticker paper and perfectly cut out by a craft circle punch) and another two rows of pint-sized mason jars and another two rows of quart sized mason jars and an extra row of whatever's left. Mason jars are full of healthy whole grains, nuts, and seeds and closed with plastic caps. Those jars are labeled with chalkboard vinyl labels my sister cut out for me in perfect circles with her cricut machine. I label and re-label those bad boys with washable chalkboard marker. Works like a charm.
We struggled for months with my large spice collection in an organization system which didn't work. This shelf has been a godsend. It is so easy to make granola (which deserves its own post) when I can just pull a jar, measure into the bowl, replace the jar, pull the next jar, measure, replace, etc. And now the spices are also alphabetized, so there's no hunt for the right spice, either. While my jars do not block light, this shelf moves them around the corner from our stove, essentially protecting them from heat. And the shelf is only 4" deep! The footprint is infinitesimal, which is so so important in a space as small as ours.
I know our space won't stay this way, and in fact, I can tell you already it hasn't. But in the moments when we can get our organizational act together and things are working... well it feels like such a feat, such a major accomplishment. I hope the memory of that will be enough motivation the next time things are out of whack to put them back to rights again!
Monday, April 1, 2013
paper pieced pillow
...say that three times fast!
So... awhile ago, I wanted to try paper piecing and I made this:
Although it was a little difficult to get the hang of the paper piecing, I loved it. Absolutely necessary to have the Add a Quarter Ruler, which I do, thanks to my sister and brother in law (thanks, Ash! thanks, Josh!) who gave me a whole set for Christmas!
I got "creative" with my quilting. This creativity might backfire after several washes... I did backstitch a few stitches each time I began and stopped, but I think I still risk the quilting coming out over time.
I continued that creativity to the back of the pillow, where I quilted line approximately 1" apart in a diagonal grid pattern. I used my hera marker and ruler to mark my lines and quilted with my walking foot. I love the effect!
Then I installed a regular zipper and called it a day. Although I have installed invisible zips on pillow cases before, I discovered Robe Zippers last time I was at JoAnn's. They are cheaper than invisible zips or extra long zips, and longer too. I shortened mine before installation.
I love that the pillow case opens all the way, to make putting the pillow insert in or taking it out for washing easier. And, I think this is my most attractive pillow case (made OR bought) yet!
So... awhile ago, I wanted to try paper piecing and I made this:
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| the Lone Starburst |
What I love about paper piecing is that you can utilize scraps really well while paper piecing small sections, such as with the Lone Starburst pattern (free for download, too). I underestimated the size scraps I would need many times while adding a piece, but I think with practice I could get better about estimating scrap size.
I didn't want to commit to piecing additional blocks for a quilt (plus, I have several quilts in progress right now and do not need another one), so I turned my single block into a pillow cover.
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| pillow cover! |
I got "creative" with my quilting. This creativity might backfire after several washes... I did backstitch a few stitches each time I began and stopped, but I think I still risk the quilting coming out over time.
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| the stitches make it look more interesting! |
I continued that creativity to the back of the pillow, where I quilted line approximately 1" apart in a diagonal grid pattern. I used my hera marker and ruler to mark my lines and quilted with my walking foot. I love the effect!
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| imperfectly quilted grid. |
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| close up. I used white thread, because I wanted to see the stitching. |
Then I installed a regular zipper and called it a day. Although I have installed invisible zips on pillow cases before, I discovered Robe Zippers last time I was at JoAnn's. They are cheaper than invisible zips or extra long zips, and longer too. I shortened mine before installation.
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| I used a 'robe zipper'. |
I love that the pillow case opens all the way, to make putting the pillow insert in or taking it out for washing easier. And, I think this is my most attractive pillow case (made OR bought) yet!
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| Project: Accomplished! |
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