14 posts tagged “green”

A few weeks back my boss had a baby boy.  I have not worked for her all that long, but she is a really great boss so I wanted to make something for her.  I do not really know what her style is so I thought that a nice gift might be a travel changing pad for the diaper bag... so that is what I made.

I also hung a light above my sewing table today, which I officially love.  It isn't a fancy light, but I was going for function.  After a little misshap with a stud in the ceiling... all is well.

Show us something you made yourself.

Saturday, I made meatloaf.  I have not made in at least 20 years and have had a hankerin’ for of late. 

I almost never follow recipes, so I just decided to get some meat and mix some stuff in it and bake it. 

My estimates are:

2 lbs ground beef (7%)

½ C 1-minute oats

¼ chopped celery

4 cloves chopped garlic

½ C chopped onions

1 ½ t lowery’s salt

½ t ground black pepper

½ t ground celery seed

1 medium chopped sweet pepper

The baking part I called my sister for because I wanted to make sure it was cooked through (350° for 1 hour – or until 170° in the center).  It came out juicy and delicious. 

My friend Becca came over and I subjected her to the meatloaf experiment.  We also started work on the quilt for Kenny and Heather.  This one is going to be strips, so we cut fabric down into 4”x21” strips.  This one should go together pretty quickly; in over all actual time spent working on it, but it will take a while all the same.

I met my friend Becca because her sister is getting married to my friend Kenny. 

My friend Ken used to be a roommate of mine when I lived in a house with 5 roommates (the 6 of us were so Real World – or what it should be anyway – like season one.)

We were all twenty-something’s with jobs or in grad school, we had our own lives while going out on Fridays and occasionally throwing huge parties.  We were more like Friends than the Real World; we even had our Chandler and Monica – two people who were dating and thought no one in the house knew… riiight.

When I moved into the house, I did not know any of the roommates, it did not take long before we were all a family.  I lived there for a little over two years.  Some of my roommates from that house are the people who I consider my closest friends even six years after having moved out. 

So Ken is getting married to Heather whose sister lives near me.  Her mother is a quilter and she has made one baby quilt, which in my opinion makes her a quilter too if she sticks with it.  We decided that we should make Ken and Heather a quilt for their wedding.

Becca talked to her sister and asked her to send her a picture of the colors that she likes for her bedroom.  She sent a picture that looks like a watercolor of a water scene: ocean, greens and blues and dark grays; north Atlantic rather than Caribbean like my sisters.

Heather also mentioned that they like more contemporary style quilts verses traditional quilts.  This is good because I think my quilts are more of a contemporary version of the crazy quilt.  We picked colors, Thursday we start cutting.  The style will be similar to my sisters or miss. ess' quilt, but the colors will be lined up the way the pile is, with the fabric on the side being used for the binding.

more experimenting with my new toy...

09peasPorage

Show us something you're working on.
Submitted by Sephy.

This morning I was up at 4:45A because I did not pack my stuff for work up before I went to bed.  Off to work at 5:20A, first stop the gym, I am trying to get there a few days a week; then work which was super busy. 

After work I got home and chilled, I talked to my sister on the phone.  She got my Christmas box today; I included this crazy little tree that I got at Target last week.

Over IM a friend asked what I was crafting today.  I thought maybe I would just go to bed and craft tomorrow.  Then Heroes came on so I could not just sit and watch TV so I decided to finish up the pea pot holders.

I figure they also fit into the “something you are working on” vox hunt.

I stitched them together differently than I normally do, using more of a quilting pattern than just a stitch in the ditch or similar. 

I am pretty sure I know who is going to get these for Christmas, but I have not decided 100% yet.  

If I finished them, does that count as “working on”?

I have not been quite as crafty as perhaps I should be given that Christmas is quickly approaching…

Today two of my friends came over to hang out and craft, I did not really work on anything while they were here because we had a lot of catching up to do.  After they left I sewed up some potholder front and backs with scraps from a baby quilt I made earlier this year.  I need to see if I have more scrap batting before I cut any so that I can finish these ones up.  They are a little smaller than my normal ones, but they will do.

A few years back I made my first quilt.  Most of the fabrics were blues and whites I dug out of the remnant bin at the fabric store.  I had no concept to how much fabric it would take to make a quilt never mind how much when buying at a rate of one remnant at a time, given a remnant is a yard or less. 

It did not take long for me to realize that it was going to take far more fabric than I had anticipated – given the pieces were so small (triangles that were 4”x4”x5.625”) I finally bought a few yards of the fabrics that I had purchased in remnant form.

After I finished it I decided I should buy more fabric to work on a second. 

I diligently cut everything into triangles.  I was planning to make a crazy quilt with lots of different fabrics.  That is where my diligence ended.  The triangles ended up in boxes. 

One time when I pulled them out a few times they inspired me to make a red and pink quilt.  So I took the triangles and then added rectangles and squares of additional fabric I had purchased.  I used more reddish pinks rather than Barbie pink, but I also did not want it fire engine red.  After a number of trips to the fabric store I found just the right colors to add to the triangles of fabric that I had selected from the box.  I cut and sewed trying to avoid having the same fabric touch anywhere.

When this was complete I decided that I really like the pattern (or lack there of) that I had used on this one and headed to the box of triangles for more inspiration.  I found some lavenders and greens that I like together.  I purchased more fabric and over the course of a few months finished it while house sitting.

Once I had finished this I decided that I would see how much time it really takes to make a quilt since I had hardly spent time just working straight on one. 

I went back to the box of triangles and found some pinks and yellows.  I did not use much of the pinks and yellows in the box and instead decided that I would make the squares bigger this time to make the whole thing go faster.  I also bought a second machine that was lighter than the one I had been using and easier to cart around.  I was house sitting so it was nice having a machine at home and at the place I was house sitting.  Over the course of about a week I was finished.  I decided that although I would say that pink is my favorite color, this one was too pink.  I am not sure if it is the yellow with the pink, but while I really like it, it is a little too bright for my room, so it sits in my living room with my pile of quilts.

I then decided that I wanted to make a corduroy quilt.  I was sad to learn that corduroy did not seem to be “in” at the time, so I scavenged the remnant bins and closeout shelves at the fabric store; bit by bit I had a pile of fabric.  I used a quilt pattern from a book as inspiration and got to work.  I got about two thirds done and was showing signs of running out of fabric.  I headed back to the fabric store and found more pieces, but it was more difficult that it seemed.

It also so happened that my friends had decided to start popping out babies and a slew of baby quilts followed.

Earlier in the year I had signed up for a year long craft swap through getCrafty.  My craft partner and I have birthdays not far from each other and we get along super well, so I decided that I would make her a quilt for her birthday.  She likes blues.  With a house full of boys I decided I would use floral blues and throw some pink in there just to add some girliness to it.  Between baby quilts and work I put it together.  For the first time I even put a binding on a full sized quilt.  When I finished it, I liked it so much I almost kept it for myself.  One morning I got up stuck it in a plastic bag which I placed in a box taped up and went straight to the post off and mailed it.  I did not even include a birthday card.  I wanted to make sure I was not going to change my mind.

After I mailed it I was able to find more corduroy and finally finished piecing it.  A girl I carpool with had this huge 8’ piece of navy corduroy in the trunk of her car that she had used to cover a couch which she gave me for the quilt.  It was perfect for the back.  Unfortunately we then had a heat wave.  I mean it was great that it was so hot, but a heat wave is not the time to sew up a quilt that weighs about 20 pounds, easy.  So I folded it up (which is the state it is still in today even though there is not a heat wave right now).

Anyway sometime during the heat wave I was talking to my sister who has this whole sob story about this quilt that she never got from my mother, it is comedic almost if you do not know my mother.  Anyway so she finds out I am making quilts and begs me (honest) to make her one.  I say maybe which turns into telling her on a regular basis just how expensive her birthday present is and how much they cost to make and how much time.  I mean really if you cannot guilt your sister who can you guilt.  It is not like I do not go fabric shopping on a regular basis and have a delightful stash, or even mind making a quilt, because like I said what is a kid sister for if not bugging the older sister?

So after I finished her quilt I realized I had bought and cut a ton of fabric so I stitched up another top piece; which is the one I am working on now.  Although today I pulled out the triangles again; I am still convinced that one of these days I am going to make a quilt with all of them since there are so many freaking pieces.

I even had enough extra to make a bunch of squares for my super crazy quilt that I am making with my quilt square swap squares.

Maybe I should make an orange quilt…

[edited to add baby quilt pictures]

I would say my thumb is fairly green, except on really hot days when I forget to water my plants; but give the multitude of peppers I get from my garden every year and the fact that I have had the same plants for about 5 years, I would say I have done a pretty good job.

One thing I do not get however is flowering plants.  I like them, but I just cannot be bothered to deadhead them, so I found a solution.  I buy decent quality fake flowers and put them in real plants.  People even sometimes ask if they are real before their brain corrects them because the leaves are not right. 

Anyway I like the way it adds a little more color to the plant and I do not have to worry about them dying.

[usually I take the fake leaves with the flowers off but in this case they create a nice green cover for the fishtank bubbler that sits in the plant]