Spring and Libby's Crafting Journal

Throw Pillows

2008-05-23T19:16:00.004-06:00

So, I finally got around to taking pictures of the pillow covers I made a couple of months ago. These were made using the same technique as the striped pillow cover for Christmas. I purchased both the pillow forms and the material from IKEA. These look great in our front room, especially since we also got a new black ottoman (also from IKEA, probably in the same trip). It's also nice to have pillows around. I wish I had more pillows.

Guitar Hero Cakes

2008-05-20T16:33:00.004-06:00

We made a cake for Max's school carnival's cake walk. Max was in tears because he didn't win a cake so we made another one. I didn't have black icing coloring so he decided to make a Wii version.

I'm in love with this new blog!

2008-05-20T16:23:00.010-06:00

Check out The Crafty Crow, an amazing kids craft website.
I tried the rainbow cookies and playdough. Both were great.

Martha Stewart Rabbit Finger Puppets

2008-05-20T16:00:00.001-06:00

I made an army of these after seeing a snippet of her show. They were fun. It was right before Easter. I gave most away. (Pattern here.)

More Little Fabric Bags

2008-05-20T15:38:00.001-06:00

I made two more... one for Gretel and one for a friend in my ward. She makes jewelry and traded me an awesome necklace for a bag for her soon to be eight daughter.

Monkey Cake

2008-03-15T18:20:00.003-06:00

This is a banana cake with chocolate buttercream frosting from Martha Stewart Kids. I thought the frosting was gross with the banana bread-like cake, but others liked it. Are you impressed?

Spring Sewing by Spring

2008-03-12T13:41:00.003-06:00

Booties I made from this tutorial for an upcoming baby shower.

Scripture bag or just a little tote. I reverse engineered a cute brown velvet one my sister in law made me for Christmas a few years ago. I made this for a Relief Society Service Auction.

Amy Butler Portfolio. Free pattern here. Also for the service auction.

Crocheted Snowflakes

2008-01-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

I made several of these for Christmas 2005, but still have a goal of making more each year and trying new patterns. I made one and one-half this year. Maybe I'll finish the second one before next Christmas.

Snowflake in progress.

Finished snowflake and starching supplies. I have a box of pins dedicated to this purpose because they get all crusty with starch.

Snowflake all starched and stretched out to dry.

Finished snowflake on the tree.

Another finished snowflake on the tree.

Gingerbread House

2008-01-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

This is the result of my attempt to use my Williams Sonoma 3-D gingerbread house cookie cutters set. I actually did make a really cool tree, which collapsed before I got the camera out. I think it absorbed too much moisture from the frosting. I used ready-to-bake gingerbread dough from IKEA, and I think it just wasn't stiff enough. I also made really crappy frosting that was too wet and runny.

Dave's tree. You can see my collapsed tree in the background.

I stole Libby's Card Wreath

2007-12-17T17:10:00.000-07:00

Yet another Martha Stewart idea. I had wanted to make one of these for a few years and then Libby left for Africa and I inherited her unfinished craft project supplies, which included the materials to make this wreath. The ribbon is gorgeous, but I'm not great at tying bows and can't figure out why this one hangs to the left despite all my fussing with it. Thanks, Libby! I hope you are jealous.

Homemade Christmas Ornaments

2007-12-17T17:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry this photo is blurry. This is Libby's gumdrop snowman made from Martha Stewart Kids instructions. The candy ornament project proved to be a huge (and EXPENSIVE!!) failure. We did get this one cute one that is now (2-3 years later) rock hard.

Another Martha Stewart Kids attempt made from old Christmas cards. This project was a success, but sadly, the ornaments don't look good on the tree.

I made some fabric strip covered styrofoam balls ( I saw the idea in a craft store). They turned out, but they are too country for me. When my baby is a little older, I'll have no excuse not to have a rockin' tree, so I've be contemplating what my decorating scheme might be.... I still have no leads.

I Love Advent Calendars!

2007-12-17T11:16:00.000-07:00

I made this paper Advent last year.

I made this one from a free JoAnn's pattern.

This one is from a Homemaking Meeting years ago.

This is Max's Advent calendar. He says it used to be even longer, but he had to rip off some rings. He's bummed because I didn't buy a chocolate window Advent for him this year. By the time I made it into Cost Plus (it was already after Dec 1) they were sold out.

Knit Stockings

2007-12-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

I just finished Jack's stocking.

The first one I ever made (and my first real knitting project) is the crazy colored one. I crocheted the other two.

Gingerbread House

2007-12-17T10:57:00.000-07:00

Max and I tried out our new Williams Sonoma 3D Gingerbread Cookie Cutter Set. I thought their recipe was good and this was a lot less stressful than the method I've used in the past of cutting the still hot cooked dough into shapes with paper templates.
I ate half the roof off when we got home from church. I was cooking dinner and starving. Max was disappointed in me. I cooked a new roof and replaced it.

Christmas Pillow

2007-12-11T08:53:00.001-07:00

I had some pillow forms kicking around with the idea that I would sew covers for them some day, and also this cute striped Christmas fabric kicking around with the idea that I would sew something out of it someday, and as I was looking at our couch and fretting over the problem of our only throw pillow being turquoise and clashing with our Christmas decorations, I had the great idea to make this pillow cover and solve all three problems in one easy project. Some days are good.

The red pillow was purchased as-is.

For instructions on making a pillow cover, I used the tutorial here. In the future, I would cut my fabric only 1/4" bigger than the pillow all around instead of 1/2" bigger all around while still using 1/2" seam allowances. That way the cover would be very snug. Mine seems a little baggy and I don't like that. I also think I might round off the corners a little.

My piece of striped fabric was not large enough to cover the whole pillow, so I attached a piece of plain white fabric to one end, which covers the back side of the pillow.

More Card Making

2007-10-29T20:30:00.000-06:00

Here are some cards I made using a sticker book and some supplies I had laying around.

Way Ugly Booties

2007-10-29T14:52:00.000-06:00

What do you think of my attempt to make Saartje's bootees (look for the free pattern on the right).

My first try was humungus (see the giant green bootie) thanks to the yarn lady's advice at Craft Warehouse. I ran out of varigated yarn (I had a remnant in my stash that was the right weight) and switched to a red yarn I'd purchased meanwhile.

So these are hideous. Should I bother trying again with the solid red yarn or call it quits?

Quiet Book

2007-10-07T12:22:00.000-06:00

This is the 4th quiet book I've made. This one still needs a cover.

Experiments in Oilcloth - Bibs

2007-10-07T12:10:00.000-06:00

I (Spring) found some cute Dick&Jane oilcloth in Boise and made some bibs for myself and gifts.

Bib 1 - Oilcloth front, terrycloth back. Small reversible bib. I traced a purchased bib and added a seam allowance, sewed right sides together, turned and topstitched.

Bib 2 - One sided, large bib with vinyl pocket.

Humanitarian School Kits

2007-08-10T10:58:00.000-06:00

I bought a fabric remnant for $1 and was able to make 4 bags (with the addition of some fabric scraps for 2 pairs of handles).
Bags ready for handle attachment.

Supplies and finished bags. I only bought enough supplies for 2 kits so I'll just donate the 2 extra bags empty.

Max prepares to fill the bags. He says he wants to sew one for him. Hopefully, he'll be satisfied with a backpack instead.

Spaceboy

2007-07-27T21:17:00.000-06:00

Libby encouraged me to purchase this wee wonderfuls pattern. I quickly made Spaceboy, but Robot doesn't have a face or control pannel yet. I don't really love this fabric. I was at Joann's and quickly chose some just to try out the pattern. Spaceboy pieces.

Completed Spaceboy with 'J' emblem instead of a button (choking hazard issues).
Baby with Spaceboy. I should note that Spaceboy needs new goggles. I should have tacked them down everywhere, not just a tiny bit. The felt stretched out when baby pulled at them.

Basket Quilt for Me

2007-06-25T19:13:00.000-06:00

Quilt in progress.

I decided to make myself a basket quilt out of all the fabric I had left from making Lena's and Frankie's. I decided to make mine a little cooler (that's fair, right?). I got the idea for doing the flying geese border because the method I like to use for flying geese makes four identical flying geese at a time and since the quilt is scrappy I had a few pairs leftover (see how each basket uses a pair of flying geese for the points on top?). So, after laying out my finished blocks on the floor with what geese I had, I decided the border was going to look good, so I went ahead and made about 60-something more flying geese and sew them all together into four long strips.

Quilting Table made by Dave

2007-06-25T19:03:00.000-06:00

Dave made me this quilting table out of a piece of plastic we bought at Lowe's. It was already the right size; he just had to cut out the space for my machine and round off the edges, which he did with his Dremel drill. Then he made the legs out a dowel. Each leg has a screw in the top and an adjustable foot on the bottom. Dave had to spend quite a long time designing and building a jig to hold both the drill and the dowel perfectly level so the holes would go in straight, but after that it went pretty smoothly and now I have a great quilting table that didn't cost a hundred bucks. Seriously, the Bernina dealers sell them for $99.

Butterfly Quilt

2007-06-25T18:58:00.000-06:00

I did this whole-cloth quilt to practice my freehand machine quilting. I actually made three of these, but got the first two done in time to give to their intended recipients and didn't take pictures. There were several different butterfly prints in the line and this is not the cutest of them. I just quilted around the butterfly outlines. It looks really neat on the back.

Scottie Dogs

2007-06-25T18:31:00.000-06:00

I originally undertook this project as an alternative to the "Love Bears" after the first few turned out so ugly. However, I resigned myself to just doing the "Love Bears" anyway because the scottie dogs are too time-intensive and somewhat fragile in comparison. I am happy that I did these because I now feel I have officially entered the world of softie-making and I'm ready to try more challenging projects. The scottie dogs were pretty simple and fun to make.

I got the (free) pattern here.

Cutting out the pattern pieces. I finished this red scottie dog before I started taking pictures. I decided to try making the blue one a little bigger.

Demonstrating how even the larger scottie dog pattern pieces can all still be cut from just one piece of 20-cent craft felt. This looks a little tight, but I got them to fit even better the next time.

Using flour on my finger to mark the location for the eyes.

Sewing one together. This one I used black beads for eyes. On the others, I used a silk stitch to embroider the eyes on. I'm sewing this one together using a navy-colored embroidery floss.

The head gusset in place.

Finished dark blue scottie.

Finished light blue scottie (not my favorite).

Finished charcoal scottie (my favorite).

Charcoal scottie in hand. I might go back and do bead eyes because the black stitching doesn't really show up enough.

"Love Bear" Project

2007-06-25T18:12:00.000-06:00

This is a project I am doing for our ward's Relief Society. The original pattern came from the LDS Humanitarian website.

Cutting out the first bears.

Sewing faces on. Dave finds the bag of bear parts disconcerting.

Detail of nose and mouth embroidery.

The bear project as it now stands. I still have eight more bears to finish for a total of fourteen bears. It's too bad they got ugly when I sewed them up. I've fiddled with the pattern a little as you can see. I took it from legs-coming-out-of-it's-armpits to obese to I think as good as it's going to get on the lower right although I am fine tuning the ears just a little. They went from rectangles to Martian-man antennas.

Churn Dash Quilts

2007-06-25T18:09:00.000-06:00

These quilts are not done and I'll post more photos of them when I've put the bindings on (and when the lighting is better).

I made two quilts that are basically identical except one is a little smaller than the other one. The first one I made was the first quilt top I had ever made and I did a lot of things wrong. Fortunately, one of the mistakes I made was to cut the triangle pieces (the entire set of them) too small, so that gave me a good excuse to make a second, better quilt top using the extra set of triangles I had already cut out and do a better job.

The colored sketch is my original conception for the quilt. (You can click on the photo for a larger view). The center of the block was the dark brown square, with the finished block having four small gray squares in the four corners. The other pencil sketch shows how I compared the original plan to the new plan, which was to make the center of each block be the large gray square. I sewed a gray square inside white triangles and then sewed that inside triangles of four different colors, then sewed strips to the outside of these that included the little square pieces which had been the centers in the original plan. I took a little class on using the Square in a Square ruler and it made my blocks come out really sharp.

Some triangle math.

Unfortunately I had both quilt tops finished before I started this blog, or I would have photos of the construction (which I'm sure would make things a lot clearer about the difference between the two tops). As it is, I only have photos of the quilting and then the semi-finished quilts. So here's the quilting:

Preparing for quilting the better quilt. I quilted in the ditch around the churn dashes and then chose this little pattern for the gray squares. I traced it onto some tracing paper with guidelines showing the blocks of my quilt.

Then I taped it to my quilting table.

Then I used my quilting table like a light box with Dave's headlamp underneath.

Tracing the pattern onto the quilt top.

This is how it looks after it's been traced.

Planning the design for the border. (Sorry for the weird blue light).

Final border design traced onto tracing paper and affixed to quilting table (for tracing onto quilt top).

Pink Beret

2007-05-30T20:12:00.001-06:00

I bought this really cute book called Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss. There are a lot of things in the book I want to make, but I started with this beret because I thought it looked easy and I could make it using things I already had lying around, like pink yarn. And I did a pretty good job knitting it, I think, but now I'm not so sure pink was the best color choice for this pattern.

I'm a little bit nervous about the path I'm headed down. Am I turning into one of those aunts who makes really ugly knitted things?

Really Ugly Baby Sweater

2007-05-30T20:07:00.001-06:00

This was my first knitting project. I took the advice of a woman in a knitting store to use her self-designed pattern for this really ugly sweater. Oh, well. I actually learned a lot from doing the project. It was good practice and a shivering toddler in Afganistan will be happy to have it after I donate it to humanitarian aid.

10-Cable Baby Hats

2007-05-30T19:46:00.001-06:00

Cabling while switching from circular to double-pointed needles. I decided not to do this at the same time on future hats.

Detail of one blue hat.

A rainbow of completed cats.

I made these hats using this free pattern that Spring showed me. She made a couple of these for Jack and they were very cute. I've been knitting a lot of these in my free time or while pretending to watch the Jazz in the NBA playoffs with Dave.

All the hats are the same except for variations in yarn and needle size. I experimented with making the rib on a smaller size needle than the rest of the hat, hoping for a snugger fit. Some hats were done with size 6 rib and size 7 or 8 hat, some are all size 7 some are all size 8, some are size 7 rib with size 8 hat. I also did single rib on the light blue thinking maybe it would be tighter, but I really can't tell. I can't tell a difference really between any of the hats, but I also don't have a baby to try the hats on, so who knows.

How I Design Quilts

2007-05-11T12:34:00.000-06:00

I don't like to buy patterns or kits. I see something that I like and I get out my graph paper. I like the quilt to be my own from start to finish. I will make exceptions for really cool designs, like the Winding Ways, but this is how I do it most of the time.

Dave's Quilting Project

2007-05-11T12:16:00.000-06:00

This is my husband Dave's quilting project.

It is a bitmapped alien graphic from the original Space Invaders game.

Fake Floral Arrangement

2007-05-10T23:03:00.000-06:00

I'm not big into fake flowers, but occasionally I do this. I do this because sometimes fake flowers aren't all bad, especially if you keep them from collecting dust and cobwebs (which I do by occasionally spraying them with that canned air stuff for cleaning electronics). I also do this because the arrangements available for sale are so tacky and expensive most of the time. The first time I did this I did it because I saw some amazing orange silk poppies that I just loved, and so I found a pot for them and discovered it was really easy and really cheap and looked nice if I just stuck them in the pot with some moss on top. That arrangement is in a box in storage right now, so I'll post a photo of that when I get it out.

For my mother for mothers day to go in her rose-colored bathroom I made this arrangement. I saw some arrangements at the craft store and considered buying one, but then thought, no, I won't. For less money and more fun I can make one that is nicer.

So here it is. Just pick out some flowers you like and a pot, get some foam and moss and there you go. Nothing to it.

Crocheted Pincusions

2007-05-05T14:39:00.000-06:00

I crocheted one granny square multicolor and one granny square gold. Then I made a teeny sandbag of muslin just smaller than my granny squares and I stitched my granny squares together around it.

As you can see in this photo (upper right), I experimented with just sewing the top granny square directly to the muslin without crocheting a bottom piece, but it wasn't looking so hot, so I abandoned that idea. You can also see I have a lot of little squares to finish making pincushions out of.

Some day I'll come back through and document what size crochet hooks and what type of thread or yarn I was using on all of these projects.

A note about sand for pincushions: I found sand at the craft store in a section where they had sand for doing sand art and sand paintings.

Baby Quilt

2007-05-05T14:09:00.000-06:00

Nothing very exciting. Just a baby quilt.

Birthday Cards

2007-05-05T00:45:00.001-06:00

Aren't these nice? I just bought one stamp, two stamp pads, some paper and a bunch of blank cards. I kept the cards simple, because that's how I like them.

This is an example of how I don't like cards. I got roped into making these with some friends. First, you punch out the snowflake out of blue paper. It comes in three sections, and you thread them onto a brad. Then you stick that brad through a square of paper, mount that onto another square of paper and punch rivets through it. Then you sponge-paint it. Done with part A. Then you cut strips of ribbon printed with the phrase "Celebrate the Season" and mount them on paper with brads and glue that paper to another paper. Done with part B. Then you affix parts A and B to a blue backing and mount that on the actual card. Then you tie a length of fuzzy string around each card. Voila.

My birthday cards, on the other hand, involve stamping "Happy Birthday" on strips of paper, cutting out some colored paper strips, and affixing them to cards. Plus, they're way cuter.

Multicolored Crochet Hat

2007-05-05T00:43:00.000-06:00

I was inspired by a hat worn by a little girl in a boat in the movie Dear Frankie. If you follow the link you can see the hat in the trailer. Incidentally, it's a really good movie. After I saw it, I went out and bought a bunch of different colors of yarn and made the hat. I can't figure out exactly what stitch hers is done in or if it's even actually crocheted or if it's something else, but the main thing I liked was the colors and I think I did okay. I just used Red Heart Super Saver yarn, which I ordinarily hate, but made sense economically for the number of different colors I needed for this hat.

Mini Tote Bags

2007-05-05T00:38:00.000-06:00

All I did was buy pre-colored miniature canvas tote bags at a craft store along with some iron-on embroidered flowers, then ironed them on. These were birthday presents for my nieces.

Strawberry Pincushions

2007-05-05T00:34:00.000-06:00

Again, an idea from Martha Stewart Living. Basically, you just cut a half-circle of felt for the strawberry, sew the straight sides together to make a cone, then fill the cone with sand or cotton and gather the top together. Then you can embroider seeds and leaves however you wish. I used Perle Cotton for the leaves and regular embroidery floss for the seeds. I actually (obviously?) found that it was better to embroider the seeds on the flat piece of felt before assembling. You can see the difference on the two strawberries with seeds: the one on the left is much neater.

Holly as Gift Topper

2007-04-30T10:55:00.004-06:00

Christmas 2005 I discovered that sprigs from the holly bush in my back yard make a brown lunch sack look like really classy gift wrap. It also worked well for boxes wrapped in brown paper.

Crochet Handbag

2007-04-30T10:48:00.000-06:00

I made this handbag using a pattern from Stitch n' Bitch Crochet. I don't know what to do with it now because of its awkward shape. It also needs to be lined somehow with something stiff, but I don't know how to do that. The end of the pattern directions just say "and line it!"

Monogram Handbag

2007-04-30T10:38:00.000-06:00

I got the idea for this project from Martha Stewart Living. I bought some simple plain canvas bags plus some extra twill tape and several colors of rit dye and went to town. I dissected the bags, died parts of them different colors and put them back together. For the monogrammed bags I printed out large initials from my computer on regular paper and cut them out to use as templates. I changed the font style to "outline" before printing to save ink. I first cut a square out of the striped material just larger than the letter and ironed it on to one side of a square of fusible webbing. Then I used the template to cut that fabric-web square into the letter shape before ironing it onto the bag. After the monogram was affixed, I then stitched around it on my sewing machine using black thread. The monogrammed bags were gifts. Eventually I'll do one like that for myself. I enjoy having a lot of bags like this around so I'm not constantly unpacking and packing the bags. I can have one for knitting, one for church, one for the library, one for the swimming pool, one for whatever, and it's always ready to go.

Winding Ways Quilt

2007-04-30T09:57:00.000-06:00

Version 1.

Version 1 post wash.

Version 2 with blue ribbon.

This is a quilt I made for the 2006 Quilt Challenge at the Utah State Fair. The way they run it is they give you a fat quarter of the "challenge fabric" in exchange for your $3 registration fee. Then you make a quilt for the next year's fair following their guidelines, which include restrictions on the dimensions of your quilt and a minimum amount of the challenge fabric that you must use in the quilt top. I used the challenge fabric for the border of my quilt, which was kind of a cop-out, I know. But I really had fun with the project and I got the blue ribbon for the "best use of color" category.

I made the quilt using techniques and patterns from the book Winding Ways Quilts by Nancy MacDonald. It's a great book and a fun pattern. Curved piecing is not as hard as it looks.

You'll notice there are versions 1 and 2. The first one I made I decided to wash (don't ask me why, I can't remember) before submitting. Even though I had not pre-washed any of the incredibly dark and bright fabrics, I did a little test by soaking scraps of them in hot water and laying them out on paper towels and determined erroneously that they were not going to bleed, so into the wash it went. And it bled. And after washing it over and over and over again with various products and chemicals much of the bleeding had faded, but so had much of the color and the quilt was looking overall a little worn. So I made a new one. And while I was at it I made the blocks slightly smaller and the border slightly wider.

Sampler Quilt

2007-04-30T09:55:00.000-06:00

This is the first quilt I made from start to finish using the Start Quilting book by Alex Anderson.

Crochet Hats

2007-04-30T09:51:00.000-06:00

Flowers for hat decorations.

Doodles on hat designs.

The basic idea for these hats came from patterns in the Stitch n' Bitch Crochet book. I learned the patterns well and then messed around with them. The four pictured together are for children. I especially had fun making the little flower for the blue one. I made my own design for that and if I remember what I did, I'll update this post.

Newborn Layettes

2007-04-30T09:41:00.000-06:00

These are some newborn layettes I sewed with donated material for a humanitarian aid project for Relief Society. They were very simple to make using the church's pattern. I did this with a group of women who worked together to assemble "newborn kits" including many other items we made (booties and receiving blankets) or purchased (cloth diapers, diaper pins, soap).

Ohio Star Quilt

2007-04-30T09:29:00.000-06:00

i

This is a quilt I made for my dad for Christmas 2005. My dad is a rancher and does a lot of work outside no matter the weather. I thought he would like a nice thick quilt for warming up while watching the news after finishing his evening chores.

I used two layers of lofty polyester batting and the quilt was so thick there was no chance of machine quilting it (at least at my skill level), so I just tied it with embroidery thread--DMC Perle Cotton.

Again I came up with the pattern myself. It's just a simple Ohio star that I sized to make a good-sized lap quilt with twelve large blocks. You can see in the upper left of my sketch it says "green throw = 48 x 72". I just measured a fleece throw I had that I liked to use when watching TV and adapted those measurements to fit the quilt block.

I was inspired by the Alexander Henry print flannel I found because it had really great colors. If you can't see, it's got a little fly-fisherman on it which was perfect for my dad. I didn't fussy-cut the squares for the front; I just let them fall where they may and I only made sure they were all right-side up.

Little Basket Quilts

2007-04-30T09:19:00.000-06:00

These are two quilts I made for my mother and mother-in-law for their Christmas presents in 2005. I designed the pattern myself after seeing a similar quilt in a Buggy Barn book. I'm pretty happy with the way the quilts turned out. Some of the color combinations are better than others, and I wish I had quilted something in the large empty squares, like an acorn or something. I've been thinking someday I might borrow the quilts back and do that. I machine quilted them myself, just following the outline of the squares. I have a lot of fabric left over with the idea that I'll make myself one someday.

I found a very helpful flying-geese technique at this site that I used to make parts of this quilt and the Ohio Star quilt.

Post Number One April 30, 2007

2007-04-30T09:12:00.000-06:00

This is my first official post and welcome message to my crafting blog. I decided to make this blog as a way to organize and share my crafting history. My first few posts will be a back-tracking history as I go back and catalog some of my past crafting projects. I've tried a lot of different things and I've taken pictures of most of them out of a compulsive need to catalog my productivity. Enjoy.