Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic

I've got the BLUES...

But, they're the good kind of blues! I had two finishes in May that I had to hold until June to share- because they're blue, and June is Blue for Project Spectrum. It's sort of cheating, but the main blue project was a birthday gift due 5/20, and so, I made it in May, but my heart was in June!

Finish #1 is a lovely purse- frequent readers may recognize the style as I've made 2 this way before.   This was a birthday gift for a wonderful friend- we met when our now 5 year old daughters were about 6 months old, and have been very close ever since- even surviving the Fancy Private School debacle when hers got in and mine didn't.  If our friendship can survive that, I say, we're good for life!  Blue is her favorite color, bar none, and when I learned she was expecting a 2nd baby, I put the lovely blue Kaffe Fassett floral aside in case she had a girl.  We both had boys the 2nd time, and so, I made her son a lovely, but more masculine quilt.  I saved that blue floral for ages and in my head, it was always "Rachel's fabric".  So, when her hubby threw her a huge birthday bash this year, I finally used Rachel's fabric for Rachel, and made her this purse.

I don't know if you can tell, but the buttonhole is MUCH better than my last attempt...  And, although I never ever use blues, or so it seems to me, I was able to make this 100% from stash!!  Yippee!

I also put the (blue) binding on this quilt for Train Boy.  I bought the fabric before we realized trains, not cars, were his true passion.  It's a yellow brick road, ugh I know, everyone has made 2 million of these, but, the pattern works SO well for novelties and kid quilts!  FYI, this is also a stash project, except for the cars and flames.  All the other fabrics came from stash, even the entire backing!

Look how blue the back is!  As always, click any photo for a larger view...  I finished binding this a few weeks back, but my quilt holder and I have such varied schedules, I wasn't able to snap it outside in good daylight until yesterday morning!  Sheesh...  FYI, this one was quilted by Bonnie back in December, along with the kids' xmas present quilts, and since this one was not time sensitive, it  waited until I had a pile of quilts ready to bind. I love to do bindings in a big ole bunch- seems less tedious somehow.

Life goes on and on here.  This is the weekend of insane birthday parties- 2 kids invited to 4 parties between them, and the rub is, all 4 kids are good friends (we try to say no to a lot of the invites we get, as the daycare pushes an "invite everyone" policy that can be overwhelming, and also have you breaking your budget on birthday gifts for kids your kids barely even play with...)  Princess Girl has 3 classmates turning 5 next week, and all 3 invited all their classmates to their parties, all within 36 hours of one another!   Yikes.    So, The Hubby and I will once again be ships passing in the night as we divide up the parties.  I'm making him do both the pool parties, as I learned last year- the other mommies do that so they don't have to wear their swimsuits in front of one another!  I was the only mommy stuck in public in a bathing suit last year at one of these, and I have learned!!!  The other mommies also often try to out-skinny each other at parties, loudly declining offers of cake or ice cream... Ugh.  It's not all about the kids, though. Tonight while The Hubby is at work, 2 or 3 great friends are coming over to hang out :-)  And drink margaritas :-)  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

 

Life is like a bowl of...Sushi

Sometimes, life just keeps throwing stuff at you.  The bowl below can almost be a mascot for the last week or so of life here at Casa Fabriholic...  (By the by, as I have run out of steam on my "tequila sunrise" Project Spectrum April quilt, this bowl, with it's peachy-orange base and yellow thread, plus yellow and orange sushi and chopsticks, will have to serve as my April Project Spectrum finished object...)  The bowl was inspired by my long love affair with sushi fabric, as evidenced in last week's Stash Sunday results:

 

Doesn't the bowl look lovely?

Ha, it's a LIE!  A lie, I tell you.  From a distance, and in a tiny photo, the bowl looks fine.  Get a little closer.  Oh, look, two colors of thread. I ran out not once but twice while making this bowl. That'll teach me not to buy the cheap spools of Guterman's at JoAnns!  They're a reason they seem so cheap...  Not as much thread.  Ooops!  Also, I tried making the biggest bowl I've attempted yet, and that was not such a hot idea.  As it turned out, it was hard to manipulate thru my machine, and I did a lousy job fusing, too.  So, the seams are lumpy, and multi colored, and in at least 2 places, the fabric is loose from the Timtex.

Live and learn.

Everything has been just a wee bit annoying this week.  Work has been tense.  I'm freaked out beyond belief about the thesis, which needs to be DONE in just a few weeks. Short seeming weeks.  My folks flew into town today to help celebrate Princess Girl's birthday this weekend.  My cleaning lady bailed on me yesterday, leaving us with a messy as all hell house to clean yesterday after work...  This is the 2nd time she's done it to us, and we ended up firing her.  Oh yeah, I have to throw a party for 12 or 13 five-year-old girls this Sunday.  I don't know how many because the one mom who really doesn't like me couldn't be bothered to RSVP- I don't like her either but I can still be civil.  And the girls are friends, and really, shouldn't WE act like adults?  Princess Girl's teacher/favorite sitter was going to help us out, but she got confused and thought it was Saturday, not Sunday, so she can only come for part of the time. 

The funk extends even to my crafting.  I already told you about the bowl.   Well, the cupcake was even worse.  I spent parts of Saturday and Sunday, while waiting for the thesis feedback, attempting to knit a cute little cupcake from the One Skein book.  I was using (cheap) Susan Bates metal  DPNs, and no less than three times, all my stitches slipped off of one needle.  Since I am working in some crazy chunky novelty yarn to make the "icing" section of the cupcake, I had a nightmare time getting the stitches back on the needle.  I realized this when the top was done, and had a big ole hole in it...  After the 3rd time, I learned from my mistake and went to JoAnns, where I bought not only enough matching thread to finish the bowl, but also needle tip protectors.  Maybe that will keep those pesky stitches from slipping free?  But now, with the fam in town, the par-tay to pull off, and that pesky little thesis to finish, the cupcakes will have to wait.  At least, unlike cake batter, they won't go bad waiting for my attention.   

This is also my mea-culpa to my blog ring buddies.  I have not made it around to visit, comment, and read in the better part of a week...  And I am SO sorry.  If I survive this birthday weekend, I'll try to get back to normal ASAP...

And the envelope, please...

The award for most old UFO tops finished this weekend goes to... ME!  Two tops ready to go off to be quilted- these are far to big for me to even pretend I might do myself!

Haunted Log Cabin has a border:

It only took 3+ years for me to get around to finishing this top.  World record?

As does Whacked-Out Wives:

This one took even longer.  How terribly embarrassing.  But done.  Best part was, I seem to have planned ahead- each one of these had enough fabric leftovers to make nice, pieced backs!

Now, to present the award for cutest felted bag made this week, Johnny Depp.  Sigh, if only he'd pop on over.  Now, where was I?  Oh yes- the award for cutest felted purse completed this week goes to... ME!

And I never expected to win, so I don't have a speech or anything.  I'd like to thank my agent, and um, oh yeah, The Hubby.

And the purse- here it is!

For those that might be interested, made from pattern All Squares in book Pursenalities.  Used cascade 220, also two random novelty yarns.  Can find the info if you need me to, but, that requires going up two flights of stairs, and after a morning at the park with kids, Hubby, and friends, I'm not doing it.

Now, if you'll all excuse me, I'm off to watch the Superbowl of Fashion!  LOL.  I always dream of throwing a killer Oscar party, but I'm starting to think it will never ever happen.  One year, I invited just a couple pals (we had a tiny house) and word spread to others and feelings were hurt.  The next year, a friend lost her sitter, and I talked her into bringing her kids. While we were, um, well, ignoring them to watch the Oscars, one found some baby nail scissors and cut everyone's hair- including Princess Girl's and a lot of stuffed animals.  One year was quiet but fun.  tonight, will also be quiet but fun.  A lovely friend is coming over, we will eat California roll salad- to die for- and sip champagne.  Plus, we're using Tivo to skip the boring parts :-)

Balls to the wall

Oh my lord.  I cannot believe how hard it was for me to wind two lousy skeins of Cascade 220 into balls.

 

Let's just say, tangles.  Knots.  Time spent winding, untangling, and watching TV.  The 2nd ball was much easier than the first, after I figured out SOME of what I did wrong the first time.  I am certain all you seasoned knitters are laughing SO hard right now.  I'm not.  At least, I could do this sitting.  Some exciting new stuff with my foot- it turned a weird ashy color yesterday (after about 2 hours of ice and elevation it went back to normal, but it freaked me out).  I have to go to the dr tomorrow to try and figure out what made that happen.

I also have to take Princess Girl to her dr tomorrow.  Turns out, she's been complaining of headaches a lot at school, and her teacher does NOT think she's faking- faking was a distinct possibility with this girl.  I talked to the dr's office, and they said, better safe than sorry. I'm trying not to worry- I am hoping she had a headache, liked the attention it got her, and then talked about it a lot.  But it's also worrisome- are headaches normal for preschoolers?  So, most of tomorrow will be lost to waiting rooms.  Hey, at least I have a bag to knit, right?   **edited to say: I can't figure out the next step.  If anyone reading knows how to PU in the round, email me or leave a comment. I'm stumped.  Whine.**

  This is "All Squares" from "Pursenalities".  CUTE book.  I totally splurged and got it from Half.com.  Love half.com.  It's a teensy purse, but sooo cute. I thought it would be good for some of those infrequent nights out.

Speaking of which, dinner #1 was amazing.  We stuffed ourselves, but it was worth it!  I had one Lemon Drop, and 2 hours later still felt it, so we left my car at my office and The Hubby drove us both home (we had 2 cars downtown due to work...)  Tomorrow is dinner #2, after my day of Dr visits.  I'm sure I'll be needing it by then! 

She's in the bag...

I made a purse!  While I was in bed last week, I knitted up this Arctic Flower purse from 25 Bags to Knit. I used Lion Brand Bulky yarn, and was too lazy to swatch it- I figured it's a purse and I can make it whatever size I want.  Nyah Nyah!  Seriously, I was so worn out from trying to figure out how to do the seed stitch that I blew off the gauge swatch. The purse is sized a little bigger than the original pattern, but it makes a GREAT tote.  Just the right size for a few skeins of yarn and a pattern.  When my foot is better and standing for a while isn't a pain, I'm going to go back and block it- the shape is a we bit uneven. "Wee" meaning a lot in this case.  And my seaming sucks. Please be kind and remember- this was my first try at anything aside from garter stitch, and anything requiring seaming.  I'll get better as I go.  Really!

  For anyone dying to see my "ankle progress" here's a shot exactly one week later...The fabric underneath is being auditioned for my little cousin's baby quilt...

Pilgrim's Progress

Okay, I'm not a pilgrim, but I have been making progress.  A new pile of hexagons are cut, but not pieced in case I do them Evelyn's way. 

And, I finished the bag made from ties. I did go with the pinkish tweed- overwhelming support from all y'all.  Whaddya think?

See how the inner pocket is also from the ties? Just don't look too closely- I'm still not amazing at sewing stuff aside from quilts!  Not amazing at quilts, either, but better skilled at hiding mistakes ;-)

And I have made knitting progress as well:

Decisions, Decisions. What's a Girl to do?

Yesterday, The Hubby and I were both off from work, and for once NOT because we were sick!  We have weird floating holiday schedules, and yesterday he took his New Year's and I took my Christmas, and we had a date.  Did I mention the kids are back in daycare??  We went to a movie, which I loved, and had breakfast out with no annoying kids at our table.  Wow.  I had almost forgotten what that was like. 

And because The Hubby is such a good guy, we hit my favorite store in the world, where I scored some good books and some great sweaters, as well as a LFS.  I wanted to get some non-100%-cotton-quilting-fabric to play with these bags and purses I'm so excited about.  So, Denver Fabrics has an "annex" where they sell remnants, blot ends, etc., for fantastically low prices.  I got some great deals from the $1 and $2 per pound tables, as well as some pre-cut pieces.  And now, I need some help deciding what to do next. And I know you guys will be willing to voice opinions, so...  I want to make this neato tote bag  (from Making Handbags by Goldstein-Lynch, Mullins and Malone)using old ties.  Got some fun purple-y ties at ARC and Goodwill the other day...  Yesterday I bought two pieces of fabric I am considering for the body.  At the store, I was 100% certain I would use the pinkish tweed ,

but then at home, I think the grey suiting

looks better.  What do you all think?

I also bought these fun fabrics for other bag projects.

The silky lavender is the perfect match for lining the purply tweed.  The grey leopard stripe is very velvety feeling, and the other two were simply too good, and cheap, to pass up.

FYI, after all the wonderful comments about the zipper quilt top, and what to do with it, quilting-wise, I am thinking I may just brave trying it myself.  Nothing elaborate, just long vertical, slightly gently curving lines.  I'll be sure to post when I'm brave enough to try.

Adventures in copyrighting...

Firstly, I am feeling significantly better today- apparently the mere threat of a visit to the dr was enough to start the healing process.  So, The Hubby has the assignment of calling the insurance company to find out why the kids and I don't have cards, but meanwhile, I am at work. Actually, very peaceful today.  No one is here, practically.  I am reveling in a newly purchased album download on my iPod, and working away.  Really.

On New Year's Eve, I did 2 more rows on the zipper quilt.  What a glamorous life I lead ;-)  It's starting to actually look like a zipper!  I hope to have the top done this week, and then to answer the ultimate, eternal question: quilt it myself or send it out??

There's a new ring in town, ladies!  The Quilter's Lounge is open- and so far, it seems like a great place to hang out!  I've joined the web-ring, which is aimed for ALL quilters regardless of art/traditional/etc. boundaries, and the discussions over at the Lounge site itself look promising as well.  Check it out!

Yesterday I had an adventure at Kinkos.  I took in 2 of my lovely new books of bag patterns, and wanted to get the patterns enlarged to the actual, workable sizes.  The sizes printed on the patterns that said "copy at 200%" etc.  But the lovely, conscientious gentleman at Kinkos refused to make any copies for me since I didn't have a waiver from the publishers.  Um, hello, these are pattern books. I do own them, and I did purchase them with the intent of making the bags inside.  I have no desire to sell them- these are going to be bags for myself, or for me to give as gifts.  I am doing exactly what the author of the book intended with her stuff.  Mr. Kinkos did offer to set me up on the self service machine (so basically, the Kinkos policy appears to be that *I* can use their machines to break the law, with their help even, but they won't do it for me), but I had about 20 pages to copy and enlarge to odd sizes (167%. 110%. 400%, etc.) and I was in a foul mood (my mouth was still screaming in pain at that point).  I had planned to drop off the books, with instructions, and pick up my enlargements on the way to work today.  So, I left in a fouler foul mood.  Then, when I got home, I noticed that the copyright statement on one of the books did actually state "Permission is granted to reproduce these patterns for personal use."  Which was exactly what I wanted to do.  But, I was too crabby to go back to Kinkos.  I'll try again later this week.  I know some of you lovely readers are pattern designers and have copyrights on your work.  And some of you must have tried to reproduce patterns in a larger size to actually use them?  Did I do anything all that wrong?

Mama's got a brand new bag- and a new year, too!

Happy New Year!

A new year, and a new bag!  I finished my first ever purse, and well, it looks like my 1^st ever purse.  But, I made it, and I can do it again, but better.  Here is the stash-purse of 2005:

Tonight, I am sitting at home, slightly sulky, as my mouth still hurts (have so far today managed to eat some soup, and a PB&J on white bread), and also, The Hubby is off at work, even though he is also ill.  I realized something this week- I have become what I used to think of as OLD.  As in, I’m staying in on New Year’s, and that’s really where I want to be (just wish I had The Hubby with me for that New Year’s kiss!) And, I warned my cute little assistant to be careful of all the drunks out tonight.  Sheesh.  Who knew I’d grow up??

But, while home and lonely, I am trying to reflect on some New Year’s Quilting, Knitting, and Crafting goals.  Maybe even some life goals, too!

Quilting:

1)      Finish at least ½ my UFOs.  Whacked Out Wives, T-shirt quilt, Strips N Curves, Day of the Dead wall hanging, and a few others will be done this time next year.  Plan: for each new project started, finish an old one.

2)      Use up stash fabric as much as possible.  I will endeavor to buy only for backing.  (I admit, this foray into bag making is tempting me in whole new stash ways…)

3)      Learn one-step binding (what is this actually called?)

4)      Branch out and become more individualistic- maybe try a few projects without patterns- ooooh, scary! 

5)      Find more TIME for quilting.  Though, realistically, with a 4.5 and 2 year old, this may not happen.

Knitting:

1)      Make a felted bag

2)      Learn how to do ribbing, and maybe cabling.

3)      Have SEX.

4)      Oh, yeah, and learn how to read a pattern without having to flip to the abbreviation glossary every 2 seconds.

Crafty:

1)      Make cool bags.

2)      Make more interestingly shaped bowls.

3)      Embroider things all over my house (tea towels, pillow cases, napkins, etc.)

4)      Cover the old bookcases in oilcloth.  I’ve even got some picked out already.  (That does not count as violating the stash-expanding rule.  I don’t own any oilcloth yet, so I can’t use stash…)

Blog:

1)      Custom design the site

2)      Get buttons!  I love buttons! 

3)      Learn more of the technical side of stuff…

4) Learn how to podcast, so I can invade your lives on an auditory level, as well as a visual one!

Life:

1)      Become more confident at work.

2)      Finish my freaking thesis.  Even if this means, which it very well may, scrapping the old one and starting anew.  (The old one was one contemporary American Indian quilters, and well, I had tons of trouble getting people for interviews.  Choices: include racial issues behind this as part of my thesis OR start over.  ACK!)

3)      Have more quality family time (sort of at odds with quilting goal #5…)

4)      Make it back to Boston for a visit.

That’s not really it, but…  I can’t seem to make myself delve any deeper while my mouth hurts this much.  I think I am sort of forcing the whole “2006 Goal Thing” so that I can have a relevant New Year’s Eve post.  So, let’s just say, these goals subject to change, amendment, or deletion at the whim of the Mad Fabri-Holic J

Oh, took the family to "Noon Year's Eve" at the local Children's Museum.  There are 3 ball drops (11am, noon, and 1pm) plus "fireworks" of bubblewrap to jump on, and great crafts.  We made our own balls  (glitter all over my house now), got cool balloon animals , saw the ball drop, and also played in the playground .  So, I've celebrated!  I can go to bed now, right?  (Ack, the "old" me is sneaking in again!)

Hope everyone is having a safe New Year’s Eve (yikes, there’s that sensible older woman again.  Someone kick her out!)

Zzzzzzzzzzzzipping along!

Okay, I managed to squeeze in a teensy bit of quilting this week, between the virus from hell, and the end-of-year rush at work (people racing to make their charitable gifts by the end of the tax year...  Historically, the busiest week of the year in my line of work...)  Speaking of work- an awesome blog/real world thing happened!  I "met" a fellow blogger, Lisa, a few weeks ago.  She lives not so very far from me at all, and she is quite an amazing quilter/artist.  She and her kids had worked on some Katrina quilts, but for various reasons, needed to finish them up later, and were looking to find a good home for them locally.  So, drumroll please, Lisa stopped by my house last night and donated them to my work.  Hooray!  We will either use them on the beds in the nap room (a place where women can safely and comfortably get rest away from the streets) or, if that's not right, we will give them to a housed woman in need of nice bedding.  Either way, the generosity of a quilter made the world better today!  Go, quilters!  (I imagine us jumping into the air, fists pumped, like some 1970s cartoon...)  FYI, I didn't think to photograph them myself, but Lisa has them pictured here on her blog.

So, I worked a wee bit on the Zipper Quilt., when not feeling like I was going to burn up, freeze, or die.

I got 2 rows pieced.  It's a bit more time consuming than my usual work as the zipper teeth are so small.  But, it's such a nifty effect.  For anyone interested, you can click the button on the right hand sidebar and go visit many many other Modern-Quilt-Alongers.  Cool to see what is coming out of this quilt.

Also began to make a Margaret bag from this book.  (It's the one on the bottom left side of the cover).  The wild fabric is the outside, the orangish is the lining- 100% stash!  This is a test bag to see how it comes out- I have some lovely Amy Butler stuff waiting until I am certain I won't mess it up. I am dying to make about a million bags- but of course, I haven't got the time right now.  Oh, and I was offended slightly by one of my new bag making books.  The author suggests buying pre-bundled fabric, as the people in the store can make it match better than you can. How very un-Mavericky!  And potentially dull, as well.  The book itself is fantastic, though, so I guess I can forgive her for catering to a nervous audience.

I also might maybe have done some on-line fabric shopping at some of the year end blow out sales.  Maybe ;-)  Here's my pride and joy purchase- perhaps the weirdest novelty I have ever succumbed to...

Meanwhile, your heroine has been fighting of the Skanky Virus.  That's what I want to call it, cause that's what it is.  Skanky.  I had the worst sore throat and really fun hot/cold flashes for a few days, and now have the most painful canker sore in history (TMI?  Sorry!).  I can barely eat, but I am starving.  Not really fair.  Wah.  Maybe I'll lose some weight this way, though.

Hope the rest of you are going to ring in the New Year with more vim and vigor than me.  If my mouth heals before 2006, I'll be so happy!  (Oh, and for those of you wondering, my back is doing fantastically- healing up really well, and now just itchy.  I have been lifting the back of my shirt all over the place to show it off.  I love the fact that I work in a place where I am treated like a professional, I raised $100,000 in the last few weeks, and yet, my CEO enjoyed checking out my new tattoo...)