A Monster of a Tiny Pillow!

Big exciting news here last week: My six-year-old daughter finally lost her first tooth!

I didn't manage to get a tooth-fairy pillow made before it happened, but now. Now we are ready for the next one! Yesterday I spent a couple hours and managed to get this little gem together:



I first saw the idea for this little monster of a tooth-fairy pillow here, which includes a link to the Etsy shop where I bought the pattern. I resized it to 85% of the original size to make this one. Zoe helped me pick out fabrics, and the two main fabrics in the monster are leftovers from a pillowcase I made for her. I especially like this one because a teeny monster is just up my daughter's alley!

I don't usually do applique, so this was a learning experience for me. I used heat-n-bond to fuse almost everything, except the mouth I made from a folded piece of fabric so it would be a nice pocket for lost teeth and money:



The first tooth earned my daughter a rare $2 bill; I don't know if the Tooth Fairy will remain so flush with cash for the rest! ;P

I won! Now to February...

Hello, loves!

I'm very glad to have gotten involved in the Lovely Year of Finishes -- and what a reinforcing surprise I got this week, when I got an email that I was one of January's winners! I'm going to pick out a pattern from SewBitterSweet designs. \o/!

And that just makes me want to set some goals for February! But first, I have to share this, my very first go at foundation paper piecing: A mug rug, all for me at my office!



And yes, that IS the same mug that Greg House used to drink from -- well, the same brand and color, anyway.

Hello, everyone!

Yes, yes, it HAS been quiet over here -- I've been away from the sewing and the quilt-blog world for a while, now! But, I wanted to share my most recent projects, since I'm back in front of the machine now that school's done!

It has been a week of rainbows for me here. First up, a garbage bag dispenser for Z's kindergarten teacher (click the pictures for bigger):



I bought this charm pack of rainbow batiks for the charm hexagon quilt I'm working on, which meant I had 2.5x5" coins that worked perfectly for this little project! I am ridiculously pleased with how this turned out, and I hope Z's teacher likes it!



AND THEN!

I can't take credit for the idea for this (I first saw it here, where her pictures are far better than mine), but it's such a good idea I couldn't help but do it for myself! I finally bought a Kona color card, and then...I cut it up! *GASP*





It's OK! I velcro-ed it back together!

The board I used is a 24x30" canvas, and the lesson I learned is don't underestimate how much velcro you need! I ended up using almost 21 feet -- so if you want to do this yourself, go ahead and buy the 20-foot box, you'll save a little $ and a couple trips to the store. :P

I'm still busy with a bunch of WsIP -- most of which are still listed here -- but I'm done with the Kaleidoscope quilt and nearly done with two more, so my finish-fest is underway this year. SO, I'm hoping for more frequent updates soon!

I hope everyone's doing well?

Pay It Forward! (And a tablet computer finds a home...)

Hello, everyone!

Valiantly as I may try, it appears during-the-school-year is a hard time for me to sew and blog about it! So, I apologize for the radio silence, from here, and I'd like to note that it's likely to continue being quiet here until May, after finals are over!

But I *have* managed to get a little sewing done, to wit (click the pictures for bigger):



A tablet case! Yes, I finally, finally decided to buy a tablet computer -- long have I been tempted, but I resisted because I don't really need it. But! I'm going to be doing a big project over the summer and will get an extra stipend for it, plus I got tenure (finally!), so, Sid the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime has come home!



It's like an iPad, but running Android OS, which I'm finding I like quite a lot. Like my and my mom's Kindle cases, Sid's case is lined with flannel from one of my daughter's old receiving blankets. And the backside:



I used this tutorial at Sew Mama Sew, and you can see I didn't include the pocket. I like that tute a lot!

PLUS!

I received a lovely infinity cowl from Hollie at The Undercover Crafter, as part of a Pay It Forward:





Wonderful, isn't it? Thank you, so much, Hollie!

What's the idea behind a crafty Pay It Forward? It's simple! I have one year from when Hollie sent me my gift, and I will be making handmade gifts for three people who comment here. You won't know when you'll get it, but one day, you'll open your mailbox and you'll have something fun! Each recipient, in turn, would commit to then sending along handmade gifts to three more people, and lo, the cheer will spread everywhere!

So, I'll be using the random number generator to pick three lucky people -- please, only one comment per person! Anybody want to play?

Kindle madness!

Ahoy!

So I gifted my mom with a new Kindle for her birthday, back in December, and after playing with it while we were visiting over the holidays, we decided we needed one, too. I really like reading on it -- it's very easy on the eyes! (Although the instant gratification of purchasing books over the wifi can be dangerous, indeed!)

And of course I want to carry it with me, so I needed to make a case. And then I needed to make one for Mom, too! (Click each picture to make it bigger, with much more detail...)


I used this tutorial at the Sometimes Crafter, and I had to adapt the size for the new Kindles. To get the shape for the flap, I printed the template and used the highly scientific method of folding and scrunching the paper (and growling at it) until it was big enough, since I didn't have access to a photocopier to shrink the template. *g*

For our Kindle case (the first two pictures), I used some leftover Origins jelly roll strips and the lining is one of my daughter's flannel receiving blankets -- I really like the way the flannel is so soft on the Kindle.

I decided that the first case was a little big, so I made Mom's rainbow case smaller, although the next one should be a hair bigger. The rainbow is from a Kona brights charm pack, and the gray is Bella stone. And I had a much longer rainbow than I needed, so I used the leftover to make a mug rug to match!

Linking with:

Sewing Ironically

Hello, lovelies!

This week saw me at an online-teaching workshop (to help me learn how to teach online courses), and our typical schedule allowed an hour for lunch--which, in true professorial fashion, meant we would sit around talking. So naturally, I brought my sewing (I'm putting the final borders on the spring wallhanging, and oh, what a joy to sew such long seams!).

At one point another young prof said something about a thing she'd like to do in one of her classes that was a bit outside the norm and many of us laughed about it being scandalous. I did a whole 'clutching my pearls' gesture--which caused a bigger uproar when J pointed out that I did it complete with a thimble on my finger!


He backpedaled a bit, saying that I know I look like an old lady while sewing, so it's okay: I'm sewing ironically.

Which then sidetracked the whole table into a discussion of how 'old lady' crafts are making a big comeback among our generation. I got to talk about how my tattoo-artist younger brother knits his own socks--and no, I have no clue how he does it. He has a bunch of little needles and giant meaty hands, it's just amazing to watch. :)

What do y'all think? Does it ever bother you that the 'image' of the craft is solidly in 'grandma' territory? (Of course, if you are of the 'stereotypical quilter' generation, do you feel hemmed in [ahaha, punny! *groans*] by expectations?)

As for me, I feel quite proud to be carrying on this tradition, and learning how to make such beautiful things with my hands. And I can get so much done, even while chatting with friends--I kind of wished I could sew while in session, too. :) I kind of feel sorry for my students who give me weird looks when I mention that I quilt, like they don't understand the satisfaction that comes from creating something.


Here's a finished project! This little counted cross-stitch took me forever to actually complete. The fabric is ivory, and the pale pink and pale ivory half-stitches were impossible for me to see what I was doing unless I was practically in sunlight, so I stalled at several points. Ah, well, it's done now! And looks lovely on my wall.

Linking up with:

Value in Repetition

Hello, lovelies!

I figured I'd reveal my Super Secret Sewing Project once it arrived at its destination, and today I heard that the package made it safely, so: Here it is! (Click for bigger!)


These are comfort pillows for a dear friend who has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. She's headed in for surgery on Monday, and I hope she finds these useful and cheering! (The bone-shaped pillow is from this pattern on Connecting Threads, the bird is from this pattern by Pillow and Maxfield. The rectangular one was half-mistake, half-late-night-crazed-inspiration, and I really like the baffling baffled box pillow I ended up with. *g*)

I also attended a Rock River Modern Quilt Guild meeting this week, and had a lovely time chatting with everyone! Jeanne of Grey Cat Quilts talked about being in a 'sampler quilt mood,' as opposed to making the very same block over and over, and it got me to thinking.

Sampler quilts can be a lot of fun--I'm in the middle of my first two, right now, and it's nifty doing so many different blocks! There also seem to be lots of sampler quilt-a-longs going on in blogland right now, which is also great.

But.

I think there's a lot of value in doing the very same block over and over, too, especially for beginning quilters. (I think Jeanne's a long way from a beginner, let me be clear!)

For me, I don't think my skills particularly improve in one block, but across many--I would be far less confident with my kaleidoscope quilt if I hadn't had sixty-seven blocks of pinwheel practice with my Tweetygigs quilt. I'm finding my kaleidoscope blocks are getting better, too, and I'm only a third of the way through putting them together.

So I urge you, if you're a beginning-to-intermediate quilter, not to dismiss single-block quilts. Sometimes repetition really is the best way to learn!



(Linked with Fabric Tuesday, check out all the goodies there, too!)

Finish! HouseCheering

Hello!

This week I got just enough time in the sewing room while Z wasn't feeling well (thanks for saving it for spring break, Z! /sarcasm) to finish the housecheering gifts I got so close to finishing during last weekend's FNSI. Here they are (click for bigger), presented with a little help from Z herself!