Pretty Pictures of Finished Projects Part 2

So yesterday I lied when I said I would finish the post. I got back from lunch and the internets be done broke as our isp told us. they were having problems with thier server and it affected our ability to maintain a connection, for oh more than 30 seconds.

This Story begins on a day in April one I blogged about already. The day we took a couple quilts to the long arm quilter in Santa Fe. After we dropped off the quilts we went to the quilt store up in santa fe. While we were there the bebekins picked out this fish fabric. Feeling like I should spend alot of money and not being totally inlove with the fabric at the time I bought a fat quarter of the orange and the green color way. About a month later I get the tools to learn to crochet. and I decided rather than buying a case to hold my hooks and stuff i can make one just as easily and out of fabric I like. I decided I also need a small tote bag to carry projects in. So I pull the lovely fabric out of the stash and make a 12 inch tote bag and a crochet clutch using this pattern . To make this all fit out of two fat quarters I narrowed the width on the crochet clutch and used pretty much every last scrap of fabric I had to make the pair. the tote bag is lined with white cotton quilting fabric and includes a 7 inch pocket. Everything needs pockets.

So I carried the clutch and the tote bag around for a while and the more I carried it the more I fell inlove with the fabric. in July my aunt and uncle came out for a visit and as part of that we went up to Santa Fe. As part of the trip to santa fe I ask if we can stop at the quilting store. I ask for more of the orange and green fabric. It flew off the shelf and they were sold out. The clerk offers me some in a white background. I kick my self for not getting more of the green and orange originally. I hand it too him and ask for a yard and as he is measuring it out I change it to a yard and a half, no wait two, no wait two and a half yards. I decided it was a fabric I really couldn't live with out. I rpobally would have bought more if there wasn't another lady in the store wanting as much of it as I did.

I found some of it in Mahognay background when I was re-ordering the fabric for the bebekins pre-school project. I had been wanting to make some more project bags and a larger tote to hold my knitting and crochet projects in. but the White and Mahongany color combination wasn't motivating me to get it done.

A week and a half ago was the shop hop of the local quilty stores. Grandma, Bebekins and I went to all of the stores. At the last store . I had determined that I wasn't going to spend more money, cause I had already blown the budge I had set for the day. Damn it, we found the fishies in a black. Two and a half yards came home with me. It is so lovley.

So last week I came across this bag kit at Knitpicks. I though about the kit, thinking it would be what I was looking for for small project bags, but I don't like the fabric. Then I thought about getting it for the patterns and then realized I could from the pictures pretty much design my own bags and in fabric I really like. so I did.

I took half a yard of the white, half a yard of the black fish, white quilting fabric, and about a mile of interfacing and made the follwoign bags. First is a Fat Quarter Tote. Each side is a fat quarter. It is a very large tote. It is spacious and room to carry a large quilty project like putting binding on a quilt or several smaller projects. There are pockets on the inside a 6in pocket and a 8in pocket. I almost made a zippered pocket as well but I didn't have and regular zippers all I have are purse zippers. and I also discovered when I was assembeling this bag that I only had a yard of feather weight fusible inter facing. where did it all go. I bought 15 yards of it. did I really use it. I think I have really gone through 15 yards of feather weight fusible interfacing. I ended up using craft fuse on both the outside and the lining on this bag and while a bit stiff the double layer of heavy interfacing gives this bag a good shape. and stiffness for a bag of its size.

From the remainder of the fabric I made these three lovely bags. They are white on one side black on the other just like the totes. all three are lined with white fabric. and each has a 6inch pocket on the inside. the smaller bags are 9x12 with a 1.25 inch milk carton fold on the bottom. They are the perfect size for a skein of yarn and a small project like a pair of socks.

The larger bag is 9x18 inches and can be worn as a back pack or over. it also has a white lining and pockets.  Can you Tell I like pockets. I can't tell you how annoying it is to have a pair of pants that don't have pockets.

The larger bag is 9x18 inches and can be worn as a back pack or over. it also has a white lining and pockets.  Can you Tell I like pockets. I can't tell you how annoying it is to have a pair of pants that don't have pockets

Last but not least is done but not done. the first sock is done but the second sock is not. The second sock is on stripe 8 of 11 before I turn the heal. These socs are done toe up and just plain stockenette cause the stripes are too much for a pattern. I did 1x1 ribbing for the cuff. The bind off on the first sock is terrible. I did it once and then had to rip it out cause it was too tight for my fat ankles. so i did a sewn bind off that works moderatly well.

Pretty Pictures of Finished Projects

So here is attempt #2 at writing this post I wrote a really nice post and accidentally deleted it and the auto save feature saved the deleted version before I could undelete. 

So back in July remember how I mentioned my purse was stolen and I was going to make a new one.  I surfed around the web and looked at patterns, thought about stuff in my stash I would use to make it.  Then I came across a podcast on felting knitted items.  so I got some wool and decided I needed to try felting.  I took to it with great gusto and knit up version 1.0 of  my new purse.  at the time I thought it would be the one.  well I got it felted and I wasn't exactly happy with the construction..

Version 1.0 I like the bag but decided I could always make a 2.0 version of the bag.  

This is a small clutch that I did between the two bags to test some different construction techniques before I started version 2.1  

I finished knitting version 2.1 and was much with it than with version 1.0. so here it is

Version 2.1

complete with a zippered pocket

and a regular pocket, cause you can never have too many pockets

my wallet was in my purse when it was stolen so that was something else I needed to make.  I searched around and for a pattern for a 27 pocket wallet.  I went through my stash and found some fat quarters I liked.  I made the center card holder and decided I didn't like the colors.  so I remade that part.  I got to the point where I didn't like the stability of the outside piece the way it was described in the pattern, it was supper floppy.  so I ended up replacing the two layers of canvas with 4 layers of craft fuse and a layer of canvas and it is much stiffer and I am much happier with it.  I ended up going back and redoing parts of this project.  I wanted it perfect and while there might be a few things here and there I would change, I like it enough that I am not going to go back and fix it.

I love this salmon batik

So many card slots

and more card slots

The more you install zippers the easier they get to do and the better the results.

I am going to stop here so I don't totally destroy this post again.  I will Start Part 2 after Lunch.  more pretty pictures to come.

Not quite sock yarn for a not quite preemie hat.

So the story behind this is I originally cast this on as a draw string bag.  I was play with textures and such.  I even made the slip cord for it.  I gave the bag to bebekins, my two year old daughter.  She then pulled out the draw cord and decided it was a hat.  and viola it is a hat.  Which is totally funny cause she hates hats. The first thing this child did in the hospital flip the newborn hat off, over and over again.

It is made it out of some left over yarn from making her a poncho so it fits the left over yarn part and bebe girls has proclaimed it would fit her cousins.  My brother has 4 month old twins that were born 5 weeks premature.   We haven't gone over there yet to see if it fits the cousins.  granted they are getting to be large bebes by now.  Maybe we will give it to cousin Alex for his Christening this weekend.

Why are you flashing me with the camera so early in the morning

so here are some pictures of a felted tote bag I made.  I am going to line it with cotton put some pockets in it  and put a zipper on it.  will put some bamboo handles on it.  I think it will look quite snazzy when I am done with it

Pre-Felting

Post felting.  you can still see the cables quite nicely.  it is still in the drying process here.

Creative Cock Block

two weeks ago my mom had hip replacement surgery.  this is indirectly related to the creative cock block.  the cock block comes in from the fact that for the past two weeks my MIL has been staying with us.  I am use to  having time after the baby goes to bed, that is mine to be creative and I have the house to my self cause hubby is at work.  Instead I have my MIL in the living room reading or playing video games.   It is hard to get everything out and start working on a project.  I did manage to get stuff out a couple times and got two blocks done but totally didn't get any admiration from her.  what did they suck or something.  more it is that I am disturbing the reading but still admire the blocks.

well tonight is crafty night.  my FIL came out and they took the bebekins camping so I have the house entirely to my self.  not even have the baby to wake up.  Not having the baby in the house is really weird.  she has spent nights at grandmas  but that has been one night and still weird.  and we have gone out of town and left her with the IL for a couple days but that hasn't involved me sitting at home with out bebekins squealing with delight.   

ok now time to be crafty 

crochet adventures

So in the last post I talked about learning to crochet and knit.  It all started cause my two year old learned how to open the dead bolt on the front door.  She learned how to open door knobs before that but as long and she couldn't go on walk about on her own, it wasn't too much of a big deal. There are several options for door knob covers and I am not a fan of the ugly plastic ones. I have friends that said ah yeah I can make you come crochet door knob covers.  I finally got tired of hounding them when bebe girl tried to follow me out the door as I left for work.    I went to the store,  I got some pretty yarn, I got some hooks and I sat down with you tube vids and figured it out.  have to love you tube they have videos for everything.  I make 4 door knob covers, figuring it was a good number of them to try.  I go over to my moms house and we put a couple on doors there we don't want the bebe going through.  10 minutes,  10 minutes I am telling you,  was all it took for the bebekins to figure out how to defeat the door knob covers.  if you pinch the door knob between your hand and you wrist and hang off the door knob the door opens.  Well that was the end of that for the attempt at crochet door knob covers.  I had to break down and go to the hardware store and get the plastic door knob covers.  It took bebekins about 4 hours to figure out how to defeat the plastic ones.   you stick you fingers in the openings and dangle off of the door knob cover and it pops right off.  Between keeping them on the doors every time she pulls them off and a tube of super glue to glue the halves together we are doing better.  so after her figureing out how to defeat the crochet door knob covers, I had yarn left over so what to do with the yarn.  find something else to make with it. crochet is pretty easy.  knitting a bit more challenging for me to pick up but I think I got it now.  just took some practice. and some diffrent yarn.  the first yarn, spa by naturally caron, is a fine weight yarn and heavily plyed so really easy to split your stiches and to keep you knitting even.  so I then tried cotton-ease by lion brand, have the back of a hooded bebe poncho knitted up for bebekins.  Cotton-ease much easier to work with initially while learning to knit.  I will go back to the spa yarn cause I love the feel of it and think it would make a wonderful knit top once I get some practice under my belt.

Bad Blogger

I have been a very very bad blogger, and I don't have a good excuse.  though it has been summer and hot and it is fun to watch the bebekins play in her wading pool or taker her swimming.  I also have been learning to knit and crochet and that on some levels is easier than breaking out the sewing machine and make a huge mess in the living room.  I have made a couple crochet bags.  they have turned out fairly well  this doesn't count the fact that I have unraveled several pieces I was not happy with..  I am making a little knit poncho for the bebekins.  the pattern is written for a 3t size.  and  I am looking at the fact that I have to go buy new shoes for the bebe girl half way through summer.   I went ahead and enlarged the pattern a big and hopefully come fall when she can use it, it will fit her.  bebekins is the youngest in her preschool class and the tallest in her class.  if the poncho comes out like I hope it will i may make two smaller ones for my niece and nephew for when the temperatures might one day drop below 100 degrees at mid day. my daughter has the most abysmal taste in yarn.  she likes the super soft and fluffy stuff like mohair or red hear butter cup of the fur yarn.  how the heck am I supposed to learn with it.  she will grab a skein while we are in the store and cuddle up with it like a stuffed animal.  or she will shake it to death and being thre responsible parent working on the you broke it your bought it philosphy the skein comes home with me and  I spend the hour untangeling it and balling it up.  while it is fun to play with the ball of yarn I need to work with it and that is hard.  I finally came up with a really really simple afghan pattern for the stupid mohair yarn.  and now that I am on ball 4 of the afghan and I will need something like 18-20.  yeah  it might end up a baby sized afghan when I get tired of it.  it is quite lovely so far and I have 10 skeins of yarn for it so it will end up that large at least.  last project I am working on with the yarn is a tank top for me.  I love the naturally caron spa yarn.  I love the reflectivity of it.  and the sock weightness of it.  I am not a big bulky yarn person.  but when you use a really fine yarn it takes that much longer to make said project.

that doesn't mean I haven't been sewing.  I finally found the binding for the bebekins quilt.  and got it sewn on  I still have to sew the hanging tube on the back down but we are making progress.  I have made several insulated lunch totes for the bebekins to take to preschool and the husband to take to work.  eventually I will get mine done as well.  Preschool has also been a big change in june.  she started preschool and it is a big transition for wee ones.  and cold after cold that she has brought home.  I made a lovely applique block carrier as well.  I had some problems with the binding on it, but I also learned putting binding on when you are really stressed you break alot of threads. Stash busted for carrier, used up alot of scraps.   I started a quilt for my husbands cousin son who was diagnosed with leukemia back in may.  I was doing really well on it  even after he started to have really really bad reactions to the chemo.  I have lost motivation to finish it when he died.  it is very very tragic to lose a 5 year old in such a terrible way.  I feel I need to finish the quilt and give it to the family. but it hard to work on it.

I guess in the end it is hard to blog about quilty goodness when I am not feeling quilty goodness.

though I am going to have to get some sewing mojo going.  I had my purse stolen this morning with the current block I am hand piecing. and my nook and the sewing project for bebegirls preschool and my quilting design note and and and like everything else important.  so items I need to make/redo to recover from this.  need a new purse.  need to find a pattern for a purse. preferably one that I don't have to order as it will be 7-10 business days till I get a new card.  I think I will stash bust for my new purse and I have a stash I might as well  use it.  then I need to make a new hand sewing carrying case.  so I can carry my thread and scissors and thread heaven and block pieces in it.  then I need to get more castle peeps for bebekins preschool project.  then after than I need to cut out new pieces for the block that was in my purse.  I can say this about my missing purse.  1) my cell phone wasn't in it.  2) my ipod wasn't in it.  3) my small lappy wasn't in it  they took the purse out of the car when I turned around to stop the bebe from running into traffic but left the laptop in its case sitting right next to it.

the BIG dilemma

so I took the quilt top I made for my niece out to the long arm quilter.  and they just called to say it is done.  so do I drive out at lunch taking a long lunch leaving my client to figure out how to not break the copy machine, do I leave work early to drive the 45 minutes from work to get to the quilt store before 5, or do I wait until tomorrow and go get it then.     ARRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHH, the choices.  I really really really want to see it that I am not sure if I can wait till tomorrow.