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| That rabbit is so cute! |
I'm still very much in the planning stages of an attempt at a postage stamp quilt, but I loved looking through and sorting these little pieces!
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
More mail!
I was so surprised to hear I won!
Mary at The Curious Quilter sent me these 2" squares to add to my collection. They really help round out what I've got so far!
I'm still very much in the planning stages of an attempt at a postage stamp quilt, but I loved looking through and sorting these little pieces!
I'm still very much in the planning stages of an attempt at a postage stamp quilt, but I loved looking through and sorting these little pieces!
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thrifted Thursday (my sporadic feature!)
Err... Wednesday? I found these last night.
These were only $3.99 each! And they're in better shape than the one I already had. When we have a house of our own I think I'll display them somehow in the kitchen.
I bought this Apple Pie plate last Sept ($6) since it matched the one my mom has. It's not perfect, but I still like it. And I really like having the set! I'll still be on the lookout for the Cherry Pie and Pecan Pie plates. I've also seen a Cheese Cake plate in the same style, but that one perplexes me. Who makes cheese cake in a pie plate?
 |
| I might just eat my strawberries straight from the basket... |
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| I'll need to try this recipe... |
These were only $3.99 each! And they're in better shape than the one I already had. When we have a house of our own I think I'll display them somehow in the kitchen.
 |
| This recipe is pretty good. |
I bought this Apple Pie plate last Sept ($6) since it matched the one my mom has. It's not perfect, but I still like it. And I really like having the set! I'll still be on the lookout for the Cherry Pie and Pecan Pie plates. I've also seen a Cheese Cake plate in the same style, but that one perplexes me. Who makes cheese cake in a pie plate?
Sunday, February 19, 2012
A New Winner!
As I did not hear from the original winner of my fugly fabric (I guess she had second thoughts? regretted putting her name in?), I have drawn a new winner!
Congrats, Richard! I will be emailing you shortly for your address. Hope you still want the batik and the bricks!
Congrats, Richard! I will be emailing you shortly for your address. Hope you still want the batik and the bricks!
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
The elusive 1/4"
I spent a remarkable amount of time sewing over the weekend (while my husband spent a remarkable amount of time frying his brain playing computer games). I'm nearly done with my Mouthy Stitches swap pouch! I hope it won't take more than a couple hours longer, but I'm hand stitching so my estimate isn't really worth much.
Before I began sewing the machine portions of the pouch, I decided I'd use up what was left of my white bobbin thread and get on with sewing the star blocks I've had cut and stacked for many days (or should that be moons? No, I'm not quite that far behind...)
It worked out perfectly! There was not more than 6 in of thread left on my bobbin when I finished the last seam of the 8th blue block. I was a bit disappointed during the pressing phase though to find many a wonky corner piece. This stems from my difficulty with the 1/4" seam. Cue: dramatic music. I believe the problem is that when the 1/4" foot is on my machine, the right-most line of feeddogs pushes up against nothing! And so the fabric tends to either bunch up into knots as I start sewing, or get pulled at an angle. To compensate, I tried sewing with a slightly wider seam so that the feeddogs have more to grab, but this has the obvious problem of using up too much fabric in the seam and causing finished blocks to be smaller than intended (read: necessary for the pattern!).
Anyway, I told myself I could live with it and just try to even it out with a smaller seam opposite when I assemble the blocks later. (Please ignore the pencil marks, I'd initially marked the right side of my fabric instead of the wrong side... I think they'll come out in the wash when I finally get to that point.)
I moved on to the pouch.
As I was rumaging through the little box of attachments for the screwdriver to change my needle (perhaps its dull point also contributed to my difficulty with the machine eating my fabric...) and my zipper foot, I came across another foot that looked similar to the 1/4" foot. I think it's the blind hem foot? It has the advantage of covering up those feeddogs while still being rather more petite than the regular all purpose foot. I'm going to try using it next time I piece star blocks. It worked well for 1/4" seams around the lining fabric - no bunching up at the beginning!
Another thing I plan to do is tape a 1/4" guide to my machine, again. It's cumbersome to change the bobbin or get out another foot when the tape is down though... Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe I should just use a sharpie and be done with it. What would you do?
 |
| Still to go: complete the zipper sewing and more handstitching. |
It worked out perfectly! There was not more than 6 in of thread left on my bobbin when I finished the last seam of the 8th blue block. I was a bit disappointed during the pressing phase though to find many a wonky corner piece. This stems from my difficulty with the 1/4" seam. Cue: dramatic music. I believe the problem is that when the 1/4" foot is on my machine, the right-most line of feeddogs pushes up against nothing! And so the fabric tends to either bunch up into knots as I start sewing, or get pulled at an angle. To compensate, I tried sewing with a slightly wider seam so that the feeddogs have more to grab, but this has the obvious problem of using up too much fabric in the seam and causing finished blocks to be smaller than intended (read: necessary for the pattern!).
 |
| An unintentionally wonky star... |
I moved on to the pouch.
As I was rumaging through the little box of attachments for the screwdriver to change my needle (perhaps its dull point also contributed to my difficulty with the machine eating my fabric...) and my zipper foot, I came across another foot that looked similar to the 1/4" foot. I think it's the blind hem foot? It has the advantage of covering up those feeddogs while still being rather more petite than the regular all purpose foot. I'm going to try using it next time I piece star blocks. It worked well for 1/4" seams around the lining fabric - no bunching up at the beginning!
Another thing I plan to do is tape a 1/4" guide to my machine, again. It's cumbersome to change the bobbin or get out another foot when the tape is down though... Does anyone else have this problem? Maybe I should just use a sharpie and be done with it. What would you do?
Winner!
Hope you had a Happy Valentine's Day!
My darling husband took my out to a restaurant I've been wanting to try for the last year! It turns out, we like other places better, but it was sweet of him to make reservations and trick me into a romantic walk through the neighborhood to get there. It's a good thing the weather was cooperative. He also surprised me with a new chain for my Tiffany's charm and chocolates!
So, that's why I didn't get this announcement posted yesterday.
The winner of my fugly fabric is #5!
(I couldn't quite figure out why the result didn't show when I used the Random Number Generator... You'll just have to take my word for it I guess. Sorry.)
Congrats Olivia! Please email me with your address! I will be so happy to pass along fabric to someone with plans for it! If I don't hear from you, I will draw a new winner on Friday.
My darling husband took my out to a restaurant I've been wanting to try for the last year! It turns out, we like other places better, but it was sweet of him to make reservations and trick me into a romantic walk through the neighborhood to get there. It's a good thing the weather was cooperative. He also surprised me with a new chain for my Tiffany's charm and chocolates!
So, that's why I didn't get this announcement posted yesterday.
The winner of my fugly fabric is #5!
(I couldn't quite figure out why the result didn't show when I used the Random Number Generator... You'll just have to take my word for it I guess. Sorry.)
Congrats Olivia! Please email me with your address! I will be so happy to pass along fabric to someone with plans for it! If I don't hear from you, I will draw a new winner on Friday.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
25 Things
1. Sarah's list inspired me to try this.
2. I still feel new to this blogging thing, despite the fact that it's been months and I thought about it months before that.
3. I'd really love to move this summer so that I can get away from little things that irk me about our current apartment and possibly have a pet again. Also, I'm not used to living in the same place for so long anymore.
4. Caffine isn't helping as much as I thought it would this morning.
5. Last night I finally took the tree down; I've been meaning to do it for weeks now. That corner of the living room now looks bare, almost to the point of desolate.
6. I'm thrilled that one of my college friends will be visiting this month! I wish I saw all of them more often.
7. Our bathroom floor is being fixed today. Back in Dec my scale make a hole in the linoleum. (No, I don't weigh that much! In fact, I weigh less now than when I got married.) I suspect there is/ has been a leak that rotted the supports beneath. I don't think it's a coincidence that the downstairs neighbor reported a leak spot on her ceiling.
8. It's been a very mild winter for my area this year; it has spoiled my plans to go snowshoeing.
9. People (me) really do listen to those calls. You know when you call a company and the automessage tells you it may be recorded?
10. I think when I am part of a sewing bee, my month would be bottled rainbow blocks.
11. Stay tuned for more about said bee this spring.
12. I make a lot of notes to myself. Maybe it would be easier to keep track of things with a smartphone. It would certainly cut down on the slips of paper stored in my purse.
13. Yoga isn't as relaxing for me as it used to be. This makes me kind of sad.
14. My husband and I are going to play volleyball (just for fun) with some of his coworkers this spring.
15. I've recently caught up on my blog reading. I just keep finding new ones I like! There are about 60 new posts waiting for me now, but in early Jan it was well over 1000! Yeesh!
16. I put things on hold at the library all the time. It's so much easier than searching for the titles I want on the shelves and way cheaper than buying everything that looks interesting.
17. Speaking of, I need to go pick a few up soon. And I need to finish reading the ones I have.
18. Maybe I should blog about some of them and the inspiration I find. Most of them are sewing/ craft related after all. Do you think that would be interesting?
19. Sometimes I wish I'd been born with a trust fund so I could afford to travel more and be free to pursue things as they caught my fancy. I got a taste of this daydream while studying abroad in Italy and Russia.
20. Next I want to go to Germany. My sister has talked about a birthday trip in a couple years; I'd like to take my mom to the village her grandfather came from. Maybe that's two trips?
21. In opposition to the day dream in #16, I'd also love to have a country house with a huge garden and eat mostly my own produce. I might even consider raising chickens.
22. Raising chickens might not actually make sense for me unless I sold a lot of the eggs. As a child I was allergic to egg whites; I'm pretty much fine now, but still tend not to use very many.
23. I used to hate chocolate cake. Espesially if it had chocolate frosting.
24. I have a fledgling cookbook collection. The next one I want to add is All Cakes Considered.
25. I love irony. And puns, but don't go looking for one of those. I don't think I've made one.
Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share?
Link up here:
25 Things @ Perfectly Imperfect
2. I still feel new to this blogging thing, despite the fact that it's been months and I thought about it months before that.
3. I'd really love to move this summer so that I can get away from little things that irk me about our current apartment and possibly have a pet again. Also, I'm not used to living in the same place for so long anymore.
4. Caffine isn't helping as much as I thought it would this morning.
5. Last night I finally took the tree down; I've been meaning to do it for weeks now. That corner of the living room now looks bare, almost to the point of desolate.
6. I'm thrilled that one of my college friends will be visiting this month! I wish I saw all of them more often.
7. Our bathroom floor is being fixed today. Back in Dec my scale make a hole in the linoleum. (No, I don't weigh that much! In fact, I weigh less now than when I got married.) I suspect there is/ has been a leak that rotted the supports beneath. I don't think it's a coincidence that the downstairs neighbor reported a leak spot on her ceiling.
8. It's been a very mild winter for my area this year; it has spoiled my plans to go snowshoeing.
9. People (me) really do listen to those calls. You know when you call a company and the automessage tells you it may be recorded?
10. I think when I am part of a sewing bee, my month would be bottled rainbow blocks.
11. Stay tuned for more about said bee this spring.
12. I make a lot of notes to myself. Maybe it would be easier to keep track of things with a smartphone. It would certainly cut down on the slips of paper stored in my purse.
13. Yoga isn't as relaxing for me as it used to be. This makes me kind of sad.
14. My husband and I are going to play volleyball (just for fun) with some of his coworkers this spring.
15. I've recently caught up on my blog reading. I just keep finding new ones I like! There are about 60 new posts waiting for me now, but in early Jan it was well over 1000! Yeesh!
16. I put things on hold at the library all the time. It's so much easier than searching for the titles I want on the shelves and way cheaper than buying everything that looks interesting.
17. Speaking of, I need to go pick a few up soon. And I need to finish reading the ones I have.
18. Maybe I should blog about some of them and the inspiration I find. Most of them are sewing/ craft related after all. Do you think that would be interesting?
19. Sometimes I wish I'd been born with a trust fund so I could afford to travel more and be free to pursue things as they caught my fancy. I got a taste of this daydream while studying abroad in Italy and Russia.
20. Next I want to go to Germany. My sister has talked about a birthday trip in a couple years; I'd like to take my mom to the village her grandfather came from. Maybe that's two trips?
21. In opposition to the day dream in #16, I'd also love to have a country house with a huge garden and eat mostly my own produce. I might even consider raising chickens.
22. Raising chickens might not actually make sense for me unless I sold a lot of the eggs. As a child I was allergic to egg whites; I'm pretty much fine now, but still tend not to use very many.
23. I used to hate chocolate cake. Espesially if it had chocolate frosting.
24. I have a fledgling cookbook collection. The next one I want to add is All Cakes Considered.
25. I love irony. And puns, but don't go looking for one of those. I don't think I've made one.
Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share?
Link up here:
25 Things @ Perfectly Imperfect
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Brace yourselves...
*Giveaway closed!*
Thanks for entering!
See the winner here.
Here I am, fashionably late to the Fugly Fabric Party.
This is my proposition:
In a comment, tell me which of the following fabrics you would/ could use. On Valentine's Day, I will draw a winner and happily send along whichever fabrics were specified. (If you are not in the US, you can still win, but I would need some help with postage...)
So... if any of these happen to appeal to you, please don't be shy! At one point, my mother or I thought they were nice enough to buy (some, in rather large quantities even)!
*Giveaway closed!*
Thanks for entering!
See the winner here.
Thanks for entering!
See the winner here.
Here I am, fashionably late to the Fugly Fabric Party.
This is my proposition:
In a comment, tell me which of the following fabrics you would/ could use. On Valentine's Day, I will draw a winner and happily send along whichever fabrics were specified. (If you are not in the US, you can still win, but I would need some help with postage...)
 |
| 1. Batik (folded to show colors, cotton) measures 28" x WOF |
 |
| 2. Hawaiian (poly-cotton blend) measures 15" x WOF |
 |
| 3. Flamingo (no selvage) measures 1.8 yds |
 |
| 4. Bricks (cotton) 1 fat quarter |
 |
| 5. Snowmen (no selvage) measures 2 yds |
 |
| 6. Christmas (no selvage) measures 2 yds |
 |
| 7. Coffee (Concord Fabrics) measures 1 yd |
*Giveaway closed!*
Thanks for entering!
See the winner here.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Sew Out Loud
I've seen this starting to pop up here and there...
It's a QAL and a contest and a giveaway!
You can find the details on Kirie's blog.
I can't wait to see what kinds of word play the designers have come up with! I'm one of those people who enjoys puns and other such jokes. I hope there's something a bit cheeky!
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