I'm constantly amazed by the opportunities for real life connections that the Internet has brought me over the past few years. From all of the kind comments that are left here on my blog and on my photos, to swaps and friendships that I've made online, I cannot imagine my life without it.

So, in the newest of those opportunities, I joined a project called the 12 Squared Quilting Bee. It's interesting how it works: for the next 12 months, we'll all be making blocks for each other. One person sends her fabric out to the other 11 quilters, we make blocks to her specifications, and then send them them back to her. This month I made blocks for Valerie--month one down!

Truthfully, I was really overwhelmed when I got the fabric for May. I loved the fabric, but together they're big and bold and just not what I'm used to. Plus, seriously! It's nerve wracking to make parts for other people's quilts.

But I really didn't need to be worried, because Valerie has a great sense of color and pattern. The first one I did, I pieced like how I do my quilted totes. No plan whatsoever.

But this one is my favorite. I love the fabric in the center of the block and I really felt that it needed to be framed by a log cabin.

Looking forward to next month's set of fabric!

posted by Sarah | May 18, 2009 | Quilting | Swaps | 4 comments | link

There are those projects that are destined to be failures even before they start. This is one of those projects.

On first glance, it doesn't look like a fail. Looks can be deceiving though.

I signed up for a doll quilt swap back in March (or maybe earlier, I can't really remember), and had really good intentions about getting something started. Between the combination of lack of inspiration, other projects I was more interested in, and good old fashioned procrastination, I managed to hold off beginning this until about the last week in April. Turns out, if I had read the information (at all) I would have noticed the quilt was due the last week in April. Well crap.

In the meantime, I received my super awesome quilt from Alison. It's so fabulous. I love everything about it--the colors, the design, the quilting. She did a fantastic job, and sent along a handmade pincushion to boot. She's so talented, and I was lucky to be her recipient. Did this help me be a better swapper? You be the judge.

But finally, I managed to finish the quilt earlier this week. Since I decided to hand quilt it, it took a longer to finish, but it looked good. I ended up buying a store bought, pre-made bias binding for the edge (which I've never done before, but why cut all that fabric when I just wanted a red border?) and at that point, thought I was ready to go. A quick toss in the sink, then a run though the dryer and I've got a soft, wrinkly doll quilt.

Did you know you have to wash store bought quilt binding? Neither did I.

The red dye from the binding was everywhere. I took to the quilt with a bleach pen. It seemed to work, but at this point, I had to come up with a way to get the bleach out of the quilt. I took a chance and washed it again in colorsafe bleach. It took the dye out, but now, the water had soaked the bleach through all of the layers and dyed the back of the quilt. Splochy and overall ruined really.

I couldn't bear to take a picture of the quilt afterward. I sent it out anyway, with an apology note and a few other goodies to make up for my craptastic swap.

So....who's interested in doing a swap?? I promise it can't get any worse than that.

posted by Sarah | May 14, 2009 | Quilting | Swaps | 5 comments | link

Wee people are surprisingly easy to make gifts for. Find cute stuff, make it, and present to wee person's keeper (or mom). Simple.

I do not have wee people. I have a dog. And I work with mini people at work everyday. Although I do not currently have the desire to own my own wee person, I apparently have an intense drive to make cute embroidered onesies for other people's wee people. Monkey onesies!

Despite saving these until the last minute (and staying up most of the night before the were due) I was overall happy with them. I used a Sublime Stitching iron on pattern, and other than figuring out that I had to use an interfacing under the stretchy material, the whole thing couldn't have been any easier.

I also wanted to knit a blanket, and being that the wee person will be arriving early this summer, I went with something lightweight. I used the Baby Chalice Blanket (link here if you're on Ravelry) pattern, with in Knit Picks Comfy. It's a 100% cotton yarn, and while I'm not usually a fan of knitting with cotton, this stuff seemed really nice to work with. Plus, it should help the wee person's mom and dad when she spits up all over it and it needs to be washed about 15 times a week. No worries about felting it all up.

posted by Sarah | May 12, 2009 | Knitting | Sewing | 1 comments | link

Hello, Spring!

It feels like its taken Spring forever to get here this year. I'm glad we finally have a little in our corner of the world.

So....color inspiration, anyone?

posted by Sarah | April 18, 2009 | Life | 2 comments | link

What makes me happy these days?

Three bins full of fabric scraps to be re-sorted, cut, ironed and used.

A messy desk filled full of projects in progress.

Happy, but maybe a little overwhelmed, I must say.

p.s. A few new items are in the shop. I'd love it if you'd take a look!

posted by Sarah | March 31, 2009 | Sewing | 2 comments | link

I am so easily swayed by peer pressure. Okay, so nobody pressured me, but I still couldn't help myself.

So yeah, I've got a bit of a crochet addiction now. I kept getting caught up in all of the new crochet that kept popping up in my photostream on Flickr in the past month, but then! I found out there was going to be a crocheted potholder swap. And then I may have signed up...without completely knowing how to crochet.

I do know how to do some basic crochet. Very, very basic. So, to work on my skillz, I thought I'd step the difficulty level up an notch and try the hexagon pattern that I found at this lovely website. They turned out a little like this:

Not so much what I was hoping for. I don't know if I'm just reading the pattern wrong or my stitches are too tight, but I added a few chain stitches here and there, and a few more stitches in the final row, and things are looking so much better.

So much better. It looks a teeny bit different than the pattern wanted them to look, but I'm happy with them. I hadn't intend on wanting to continue on with these, but I think I'm going to attempt a full afghan of them. We'll see though...I'm easily sidetracked.

posted by Sarah | March 23, 2009 | Crocheting | 3 comments | link

I know this may come as a shock but, I'm finishing a quilt. A real one! I figured it was about time, seeing as though I have my a-maz-ing new sewing machine now.

When I started this quilt (FOUR YEARS AGO) I was a firm believer in the idea that a quilt wasn't a quilt unless it was completely made by hand. No sewing machines allowed. I now realize that is a dumb idea. Seriously dumb. No freaking wonder I burnt out on quilting.

Hand piecing everything + hand quilting everything = kinda boring.

I've always really wanted to come back to working on this quilt. I put it away partially because I had a lot of trouble figuring out what I wanted to use as a backing fabric. (I ended up going with a super cute Michael Miller print--white with black exclamation points.) But the real reason why I gave up on it initially is because I was really tired of hand quilting. I had just finished this for two of my friends and I really just had enough. I thought about machine quilting at that point, but I'm glad that I waited until now. My old machine was so much less reliable about even stitches than my sexy new machine. (yep. I said sexy.)

But even with my new machine and walking foot on, I've had a hard time controlling the spacing in stitches. It's been getting better, but I've noticed that I have to be really careful about not letting the weight of the quilt pull at all while I'm feeding it into the machine. I was also really thrown off by not having tight tension on all three layers of the sandwich. When I hand quilt, I use a hoop to hold the layers tight, but when you sew on a machine, you really just leave it all up to your basting work. It's odd at first, but I'm getting used to it now.

So, just a little more quilting to go, plus the binding. I'm ready to have this four year project finished.

posted by Sarah | March 19, 2009 | Quilting | 8 comments | link

Wheee! Two blog posts and two completed knits in one whole week!

My lovely friend Allison had a birthday this past weekend, and being the lovely person she is, deserved something that was squishy and warm and red. I knew I wouldn't be able to crank out a pair of socks in just a few days so I decided to go with a Darkside Cowl. I love how defined the stitch pattern is, but yet is still simple enough to wear just about with anything. It was also a perfect way for me to use a nice yarn and be finished in less than a month.

Allison is also a knitter and appreciates good yarn so I picked out something I hadn't seen before -- Elsebeth Lavold Baby Llama. LLAMA! This stuff is super soft and squishy. I'm a little worried that it might pill and nub up a bit, but hopefully the softness will make up for any of that.

Pattern here, yo!

posted by Sarah | March 13, 2009 | Knitting | 1 comments | link

Crap. I've done it again.

I've been debating wiping the blog out and starting fresh (just because I think it's pretty embarrassing that my last post was in October...of the sewing machine I bought in August) but I think I'm going to just leave it up. Nobody's reading this pile anymore, anyway.

So, back to business. I finished a new hat.

I was skeptical about this hat for several reasons. As I knitted it, the brim seemed very odd to me. The picot edges seem a lot larger than I had expected and I thought it might look silly. I also was concerned with not having enough yarn in the end (I used two skeins Blue Sky Alpacas Sport Weight Baby Alpaca) so I decided to begin the decreases early. I think if this yarn was thicker and I was planning on using it as a winter hat, I would have ripped back and knitted it longer, but I'm satisfied with using it for a spring hat.

On Ravelry? See the details here. And hey, add me as a friend. I like friends.

posted by Sarah | March 11, 2009 | Knitting | 8 comments | link

...to the sewing machine decision! I really do appreciate all of the great suggestions about machines, and I have to tell you all that I really did a lot of investigating and checked out your suggestions. It's amazing to me how many variables there are in sewing machines. That, and the prices. I think I was a little shocked when I started looking at how much a nice machine would run. But, after debating what I wanted, I decided to pick something that would do everything. And everything is what I got.

I ended up choosing the Brother QC-1000, and so far, I really love it. I had worried about picking a computerized machine (out of fear that it might be obsolete in a number of years) but from what I found is that the power of a computerized machine is so much stronger and can keep its stitches much more even. The cool thing about this machine is that it automatically senses the thickness of the thread and adjusts the tension and stitch power to keep the stitches all the same. When I first started top stitching my totes, I was shocked at how nice and even and not messy it looked, even when going over the handles and sides.

There's so many features that I haven't even had a real chance to work with yet, but I love the fact that it will be a long time before I run out of new things to explore on it. It's such a dream to sew on, and I know that my finished products are looking a ton better. It's fast, it's smart, and it's been a quick machine to learn, despite all the features.

And as far as features go, it threads itself, it cuts the thread at at the end of the seam, it sews front to back, side to side, and diagonally, it came with a walking foot, plus several other quilting feet (I have to get some practice with those soon!) and has more stitches than you can shake a stick at. Then, if I couldn't find a stitch that I wanted it to do, I could upload a pattern to the machine and it would add it to it's stitch library. It's seriously, freaking cool!

posted by Sarah | October 7, 2008 | Sewing | 9 comments | link

So, I think I'm unofficially, officially shopping for a new sewing machine. Anybody got any suggestions?

As much as I really, really love my sewing machine, I think the problems that I'm having with it are outweighing the good. Emma, my machine, went in for a tune up earlier this year, and she ran much better for about 2 months. I'm having the same problems that I did about this time last year though--sloppy, uneven length stitches, sliding out of tension in the feed dogs, and weird jamming up problems. I would consider taking her back in to be serviced again, but I they had her for almost 2 months because they had to re-order a broken part. With Renegade coming up, I can't be out of a machine for that long. Plus, I just can't justify spending $150 every six months for a tune up. Buying new just seems to make more sense.

My next step is to start shopping. I'm looking for a machine that can be used everyday and not be worn down quickly. I think my current machine was meant much more as a hobbyist model and I'd like something a little tougher. I'm also looking to do quilting with it, but I don't need any of the fussy embroidery stitches and functions. Emma is a Husqvarna Viking, and I've been really happy with the ease of using the machine, but I'm certainly not committed to that brand. I want to test driving some models, but if there's something super good that I should look at, I'd be interested to know about it! I need any help that I can get.

posted by Sarah | August 6, 2008 | Sewing | 19 comments | link

Who's tired of looking at my dorky face? How about some pillows instead? Would that make you all happy?

I was asked to make these for a custom order this past week. She wanted them done the same way that I make my patchwork totes. I hadn't really thought to make pillows like this before (duh) but I like them way better than the log cabin style ones that I've made before. I think I may make a few more like these in other colors.

I've also been taking pictures like it's going out of style because I bought a new camera. The new Nikon D60 and I are joined at the hip. It's a fabulous camera, and I still don't know how to use it all. Hopefully there will be many, many quality photos to show off in the coming days.

posted by Sarah | July 29, 2008 | Etsy Shop | Quilting | 7 comments | link

Why am I smiling like an idiot? Because I found out today that myself and my friend Amie Miller of Enamor have been accepted to vendor at the Renegade Craft Fair this September! I'm seriously excited.

These next two months are going to be full of lots of sewing!

posted by Sarah | July 12, 2008 | Crafting | 6 comments | link

I know that it seems like I've yet again, abandoned the blog, but alas, I am here. Sewing my brains out!

I'm getting ready for a show next weekend, and these are the latest edition to my goods that I'll be bringing along with me. Journals! For as much as I'm obsessive compulsive about writing everything down, these have been perfect for me to make. Once I fill up one notebook, I can slide it out and put a new one in.

I've been using different colors of linen to line the outside, with three pieces of cotton to make it all pretty-like. I've also found a bit sturdier of an iron on interfacing that seems to work really well. I'm not sure of the name; so far I've been able to pick it out based on feel.

**Side note: Am I the only one who does that with interfacing? All the women at the craft stores don't believe me when I ask for other interfacing than what they have on display, and they'll tell me, "Oh honey, these are the only kinds they make. I'm sure one of these are what you need." And I'm all like "no, I can tell the difference by touch, and this isn't the same interfacing you had last month when I was in the store. I swear there's a conspiracy.

So, these, along with oodles of pouches and bags and other sewing have been keeping me busy this month. Next Saturday I'll be back in Ypsilanti, Michigan for the Summer Shadow Art Fair at the Corner Brewery. It's always a really fun day, so if you're in the area, stop by, look at crafts and have a beer! (You'll have to buy your own, though.)

posted by Sarah | July 9, 2008 | Crafting | Etsy Shop | Sewing | 6 comments | link

Oh.My.Goodness. I love having the summer off!

Let's just discuss a few of the reasons why I love summer and my days off.

I dare you to deny that this is the best and weirdest tongue you've ever seen before. Who wouldn't want to spend time getting soaked by something so full of chocolate-y love? I love being at home with Hudson.

Knitting socks on a weekday in the middle of the afternoon--another wonderful perk to having the summer off. Do I need to do laundry instead? Probably, yes, but we can wear old undies for just one more day this week. I've got plenty with holes that I've been hanging on to for just that reason.

Need I say more? Totally acceptable to have this in the middle of a hot day, while lounging on the patio, knitting socks that I won't wear until October.

I'm sure I could enjoy all my flowers even if I had to work in the summer, but not in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle of the week. (I'm just pushing it now, aren't I?)

Thank you for joining me as I list the reasons why I love summer, and why I love working for the public school system. Happy first day of summer to everyone!

posted by Sarah | June 20, 2008 | Life | 3 comments | link