Signs of Summer Approaching

For me, a Dave Matthews show is a sure sign that summer is near. We missed his free show at Piedmont Park last year and were not about to miss his first show at the new Encore Park amphitheater near us. It was fantastic, as always, and the new amphitheater is quite lovely. Hopefully they will have lots of good musicians visting there soon. It feels like such an endulgence to only have to drive 20 minutes to see a show instead of over an hour.

I have been experiencing technical difficulties between my camera and my computer, but I think I have things figured out and have lots to post about, so more soon!

Quilt Festival

Around this time last year, I was totally green with envy that my mom was getting ready to jaunt off to Paducah for their annual quilt show without me, and so I hosted my own little quilt show. It just so happens that this year Amy over at Park City Girl is hosting a virtual quilt show asking people to post their favorite quilt. I have different quilts that are my favorite for all different reasons, but this one remains to be my all-time favorite because it is the one that first got me really excited about quilting and all the possibilites fabric as an art medium can hold.

I went through a major phase where I was obsessed with fabric folding. It sort of became a joke among my quilty friends because it was all I did or thought about. This quilt came out of that phase and I still love it. It hangs in my daughter's bedroom and I gaze at it from time to time and still wonder about the fact that it even exists. This quilt took a ton of focus, detrmination to make a design work, and is full of techniques that I learned just to make it and have probably since forgotten. It looks totally different in the changing light throughout the day and sometimes the batiks seem to just glow. This quilt will always be a symbol to me of my fascination with manipulating fabric and bringing to life something that has been knocking around in my head. Pics are from a few different angles to capture the variegated thread quilting and all those sequins I sewed on.

This year, instead of going to Paducah, my mom and aunt are hosting Quilt Camp to work on all the projects they bought at Paducah last year, and I'm thrilled to be able to go! It will be a great chance to get a lot of sewing and knitting done, something I haven't really had time to focus on lately. And there could possibly be the consumption of a few cocktails, you just never know what can happen when a bunch of wild quilters get together!

Yes, I'm supposed to be sewing napkins...

... but I got a gift card to the yarn shop for my birthday. And my lovely mom got me one of these:

and now it is just sooooo much fun to make these:

and she also happened to mention about how this yarn would make a lovely shawl for my wedding when it gets cool in the evening. So, it's true, now there is another wedding project. She actually told me I could leave the yarn at her house and she would work on it, but I had already dropped two other projects off at her house that day. Plus, how could I leave this yarn behind anywhere? Really, just a few more weeks and then I will find something to blog about besides wedding stuff. Really!

Really?

After I posted the first pics of my little wedding napkin project I got a comment from a reader suggesting that she and possibly others would be interested in contributing a napkin to my wedding. I thought to myself, nah, no one would want to do that. Then this reader posted on Sew Mama Sew and someone else showed interest. Then I had another comment. So, since this dear person named Mary, whom I have never met or even really talked to, planted this idea in my head I have spent a lot of time thinking about how gosh darn cool it would be to have actual real people who read my blog contribute to this. So I am shoving to the side my humble quiet nature and am just going to put the details out there. Even if I was only sent one little napkin I would be beside myself with excitement! If this is something you would like to participate in then hop on over to Mary's forum post and join in the chatter or leave a comment here (if she had a blog of course I would link but apparently she doesn't). The fabrics I am using are random ones that have a combination of turquoise/aqua/spring green. I have found these colors in the Amy Butler Daisy Chain line, the Moda Soiree line, some of Anna Maria Horners fabrics and others (a few samples shown in the pic). My squares are cut 9 inch square, put right sides together and sewn around the edge with a quarter inch seam. Of course I leave a hole to turn them right side out, press the unsewn fabric straight along the edge and sew a quarter inch seam aroung the edge again. Very basic. Oh, and I am using two different fabrics for the front and back. If you want to send one just email me at katebrid at gmail dot com and I will shamelessly send you my address.

Edited to Add: Forgot to mention two things... I clip the corners before turning them inside out and I don't wash my fabrics before sewing with them. I don't think it would make that much difference for the quilt I will eventually make out of these if some were prewashed, but I didn't want anyone to think that they needed to prewash the fabrics.

Mom Awesomeness

My mom (the one who likes to leave witty comments on my blog posts like, "what wedding?") is always a driving factor behind my sewing, knitting and crafting. She is the one that taught me to sew and knit orginally and the one that I ultimately go to when I am stuck on a project. Her advice, which usually starts with, "Now Kate, let's think about this..." has gotten me out of many a crafty jam, and just when I think I know it all about sewing or knitting she goes and learns something new and then happily shares whatever it is (because she knows I can't stand to not know how to do something) in her patient manner. She has finished two great projects lately, and since she has yet to venture into having her own blog I told her I was going to share her finished objects on mine. The shawl above is an example of how she can seriously rock some knitting needles, but it is the quilt below that shows the true depth of her skill and heart.

T-shirt quilts are a pain to make to begin with... the fabric is stretchy, it all has to be backed with stabilizer, you often have all different size squares from cutting around the t-shirt art and sewing it all together gets thick and hard to push through your machine. We both cringe at the thought of making t-shirt quilts, but this one is so special that there was no way she wasn't going to make it. We have a family friend that had a daughter recently lose a long battle with cystic fybrosis, and this quilt was made out of her t-shirts for her sister to take to college. My mom struggled with this quilt from conception to completion, not just because t-shirt quilts are challenging to make, but because the emotional investment and pressure to do a really great job was pretty intense. I am so proud of her for finishing this quilt and for how great it turned out. I know it was a journey for her, and I think it really shows how a quilt can be so much more than the time and fabric invested in it.

3 Down, 77 To Go

Apparently I really am crazy enough to make 80 cocktail napkins for my upcoming wedding because I actually started on this project last weekend. (There is often a large gap between thinking I will do something and really doing it). Getting started was very satisfying, you have a finished object about every five minutes with these! I have already informed my mother and Melissa that they will be cranking out some napkins too, and they didn't seem horrified at the thought, so hopefully these really will get done. I am already trying to decide what sort of quilt to make with them after the wedding. Oh! And they are a real reason to buy more fabric. It is so strange to have an actual reason...

Busy, Busy, Busy

So, not only is the new job completely kicking my butt, we are in the middle of trying to plan every detail of our upcoming May wedding. We finally got out to the vineyard where we are having it this weekend to look around the space and plan for chair setup, tent placement, etc. Definitely getting a little buried in the details that need tending to, but we got a lot done this weekend and I'm sure we will get a lot of other important things finalized this week, like ordering invitations and the final design for our rings. Getting those taken care of will make me feel a lot better. So, want to see the vineyard? It is Three Sisters Vineyard in north Georgia, the vines are all naked at the moment so you have to imagine everything all green and pretty, as if it isn't pretty enough already...

There's my Jay on the left, and our friends Billy and Meredith joined us for the lovely ride in the country.

Hopefully I will be doing some of this the day of the wedding too, we are trying to keep it a pretty laid back affair. I'm just hoping for weather as lovely as yesterday was.

My sewing ideas are leaning towards wedding stuff pretty full throttle right now, I want to make ring pillows for the girls to carry, cocktail napkins that can later be made into a quilt and since we are planning on having lots of quilts at the wedding for lounging and wine sipping, I would love to crank out a simple, pretty one for us in our turquoise-y wedding colors, we'll see.

New Routine In Progress

This past week has been a bit of an end of an era for me. The last two years I have had the pleasure of working from home, my commute consisted of a walk through my living room to my office. Due to my job disappearing, lately I have been forced to put myself out there in a horrific job market to find something new. My first instinct in times like these is to go hide under the bed, but I sucked it up and with several pep talks from my Jay and my mom and pretty much everyone else that knows me managed to search out and get a great job. The only down side to the new job that I can find so far is that I have to commute downtown 4 days a week (this is a good solid hour each way). It's been a bit stressful for this chronic suburbanite, but I have been learning new things every day. I'm quite able to entertain myself during the commute with my ipod and lots of new podcasts, but it all seriously cuts into my craft time. If only I could knit and drive at the same time! I started last Monday and the new job, along with my youngest ending up having pneumonia, definitely contributed to it being very quiet on my blog. Hopefully all will settle into a routine soon and I will figure out how to fit petting fabric and yarn into my new schedule. Now, if only I could convince them to let me bring this very important desk accesory with me to my new job...

Love is...

...handmade Valentines! They worked soooo hard on these for their classes. The seven year old did the owls and the five year old did the kitties. Making our own Valentine cards is quickly becoming one of my favorite holiday traditions, hopefully one they won't outgrow anytime soon.

On the back: Whoooo will be your Valentine? Owl be your Valentine!

On the back: You are the Purr-fect friend. Happy Valentine's day!

Super Magical Pillowcase Tutorial

The day I finally understood how to make a pillowcase using this method was a total revelation to me. It is so easy and it still feels magical after many a pillowcase. Some call it the tube method, some (somewhat crazy) people call it the sausage method. The magic of it is that you end up making the whole edge of the pillowcase with just one seam (the contasting end fabric, thin accent fabric, and the rest of the pillowcase fabric) and no raw edges showing. So then, you are just left with having to sew up the other two edges.

There are lots of pictures, so I made a pictobrowser for the tutorial. The "notes" on each picture contain the directions. You will need to hover your mouse over the little "notes" word on the pictobrowser below.  Also, you have to click on the number "2" to go to the additional photos/second half of the tutorial.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Jungle It Up - Third and Final Phase

I got to work yesterday afternoon and finished up the remaining little touches I wanted to do to the 7 year old's room. I finally recovered her vanity stool with the zebra fabric she wanted. Not sure why I kept putting this off, it took all of about 20 minutes.

I also relined the little drawers on her armoir...

And whipped up a new pillowcase for her bed. I always forget how fun and easy the "magic tube" pillowcase method is.

Such a satisfying little project with big impact that takes less than an hour. Now I'm wanting new custom pillowcases for my bed. I took pictures of the way I do them and will post a tutorial soon. I'm sure it can be found elsewhere on the internet but I mostly want to post it to be able to remind myself how easy they are (and so I don't have to keep searching for that one scrap of paper with measurements on it every time I want to make one).

I think I'm done with jungley things for a while... except there is a lot of that zebra fabric left that would make some fantastic little throw pillows...

New Toy

While still feeling confident after conquering my first pair of socks, I have decided to start on a project that I have been wanting to make pretty much since I first started knitting. I'm certainly not the only one, Ravelry has 9753 project listings for the Clapotis (from Knitty). This scarf/shawl has lots of stitches that I have never used, increases and dropped stitches. It is also started at a corner instead of an edge. I think it will be just the right challenge. Between knittinghelp.com and my mom I'm sure I can figure out the stitches, I just hope it's as easy as everyone says it is once you get started. Which brings me to what I did today! I got to break out my new yarn winder that my mom got me for Christmas. This is the same little winder that is used at the yarn shop where I have sock guild and is lots of fun. There is something very satisfying about taking a twisted skein of yarn and turning it into a nice neat ball ready to be knit.

Socks! Woohoo!

(please disregard my goose bumps, it was quite chilly this morning)

I feel as if I have finally made great progress on my knitting journey, I finished my first pair of socks! Now, I was impressed with myself when I whipped up Jay's hat for Christmas, but I am really a bit too excited about this whole sock thing. It is strangely satisfying even though people keep asking me "why don't you just go buy a pair of socks?". At least if modern industry completely melts down I know for sure that my family will continue to have warm feet. These socks were just a basic pattern provided by my local yarn shop at sock knitting lessons and they are knit with Sheep Shop Yarn Company yarn in sheep number three color G152. They actually have quite a few free patterns on their site I just discovered, you have to click on the different yarns (the different sheep) and then they have a button for free patterns using that yarn. Oh, and last night I came across Knitting Pattern Central which lists tons of free patterns from all over the web and I also found an awesome Sock-u-lator that if you put in your measurements it gives you a basic pattern for whatever size you need (you can customize how long you want your sock and other stuff). I was looking for child size sock patterns because of course the girls want socks and I have a lot of leftover yarn from these ones. She also has all kinds of other calculators here.

So, lots of beginning knitters say they will never knit socks, I have to admit I kind of scoffed at the idea at one time, but they really are fun. Also, you look really cool using four needles at once. I also just bought a book about how to do two socks at one time on circular needles and am very interested in giving that a try, I think finishing two socks at once would be downright joyous! Socks are also a very portable project. I knit these:

-while watching movies

-at sock guild

-at the bus stop

-on the chaise bird watching with the cats

-while the girls took very long baths

-at Melissa's dinner party (I was cramming for sock lessons the next day)

-at quilt guild

-while driving Jay to work when the squirrels ate his car (well, he drove, I knit)

-in the drivethru line at the bank

and who knows how many other random places.

One row takes me two and a half minutes, so really they are easy to pull out and get a bit done just about anywhere.

Jungle It Up - Phase Two

When we first moved into our current house two years ago, my oldest daughter wanted her new room to have a "jungle vibe" to it. I let her pick her wall color, which of course turned out to be a very vibrant green, and I made some kind of meager efforts at bringing in the jungle feel like letting her have a jungle themed canopy over her bed, some pictures and some animal print bed stuff. Also, Grammy made her a perfect jungle fabric pillowcase. Well, fast-forward two years to me receiving the Hancocks of Paducah catalog a few weeks ago. They were featuring the cutest Laurel Burch jungle animals panel and accent fabrics. Finally some fabrics that actually inspired me to "jungle it up" some more in her room. I sat the child down and really discussed with her if the whole jungle theme was a passing whim or something she was committed too. After her reassurances that she was still all about the jungle look (and reminding me that I had bought zebra fabric to cover her vanity stool and never got around to it) I ordered the fabrics. I have been so pleased with them. I finished up the panel wall hanging last night and got it hung today. I tried to get pictures of all the hot-fix crystals I put on it, but of course they are almost impossible to photograph. Also, it was cloudy and overcast all day while I was trying to get pics and then when I sat down to do this post the sun came streaming out. It was hard to not go take down the wallhanging and retake pics, but in the interest of actually getting a post done today I resisted. Here are some closeups of a few of the great animals (the snake is by far my favorite):

Here is where it now lives (her walls are much greener than the picture conveys, the cloudy light kind of washed them out)...

Phase three will involve finally covering her vanity stool in the zebra fabric I already have, another pillowcase made out of coordinating fabrics to the wall hanging, and I am also going to put the same fabrics in the glass fronts of her drawers on her armoir, they currently just have a kind of generic green fabric behind the glass. Then I think I will be done! Even though some jungley storage cubes to go in those top squares of her bookcase would be cute and help hide clutter, and there are soooo many good tutorials online...

Change I Can Believe In!

Ok, the day's festivities were great fun and wow can our new president deliver a speech, but I have other very important change to talk about here people! Mainly, a new recipe that has forever changed two of my most beloved desserts... brownies and chocolate chip cookies. Did you know that you can actually combine the two?!! I came across this post at Bakerella and have been dreaming about it ever since. Then, after seeing the patriotic cupcake medallions on Crafty Crow I came up with a perfect excuse to make Chocolate Chip Cookie Brownies. Festive occasions always deserve festive desserts in my book (and champagne). Seriously, I don't know if I will ever make the two separately again, they were that good. I highly suggest throwing your new year's resolution out the window and indulging in these as soon as possible!