SewAmazin

Sweet Liberty "Backdoor Quilt"

2010-09-01T06:51:00.011-04:00

In my Summer Update post, I failed to mention this mini-quilt, a kit purchased from The Cozy Quilt Shop sometime last year. The pattern for this wall hanging is from Cottage Creek Quilts' "Backdoor Quilt Series"; its the third design from this series that I have worked on. Almost two years ago, I shared my version of the Winter Blessings and Be Thankful designs.

I worked on this just before July 4th and finished it just in time to display for Independence Day.

This was a kit and although I used some of the fabrics included in it, I just had to substitute for the rest of them. First off, I'm not a fan of yellow sunflowers, so mine are purple coneflowers, just like those in my garden. Other than the background white fabric and parts of the American flag, I replaced almost all the fabrics used for the appliques with fabric from my stash. Most of the 'scrappy' sections were kit fabrics.

Similar to other applique projects I've worked on, I used Steam-a-Seam Lite to fuse the shapes to the background fabric, then machine sewed a blanket stitch around the raw edges.

The lettering for Sweet Liberty is machine embroidered - I used 4D Embroidery Design Creator to digitize the lettering using a double running stitch. Missing from this photo is a star-shaped button that I plan to add later to dot the 'i' in Liberty.

When it came time for quilting, I stitched in the ditch along the horizontal seams of the background fabric and scrappy borders, stitching through all the layers. Then I used my machine's dual feed foot and attempted to echo quilt around the various shapes. I didn't plan ahead where I was going, so this ended up being somewhat free-styled and meandered a tiny bit. Last, the stars on the watering can are stitched through all layers to add more quilting and as a design addition. The quilting is a little easier to see in this photo:

There are more photos of this project in my Quilted Banner & Mini's Flickr Set

September is National Sewing Month

2010-08-31T17:37:00.000-04:00

September is National Sewing Month and this year's theme is Sew a New - whether you're new to sewing, used to sew in the past or currently have a long backlog of projects like me, this is the month to indulge or rediscover your passion for sewing.

The Official Home of National Sewing Month promises articles, projects, links and more.

This year's contest is Accessorize Your Life - sew up an accessory and submit it by September 30 to win a gift certificate to JoAnn Fabric & Crafts.

Do you like giveaways? Then pop on over to the SEW-lutions blog, take a short survey and be entered to win a prize. The National Sewing Month sponsors have donated prizes that they’ll be giving away every day throughout September. The giveaway of the day will be announced on the SEW-lutions blog each day.

So - what am I planning to work on this year? I never did get around to making the projects I wanted to work on last year during September, but I'm hoping to get at least one of them started this month - I really, really need a new bag for carrying all the 'stuff' needed for a visit to the Bark Park (or a long walk on the local bike path) with Keli and Penny. I'm planning to recycle freebie nylon bags to make something that will contain everything comfortably.

If I do manage to complete it this year, maybe I'll enter it in the Accessory contest? Hmmm......

Also on the agenda for the middle of the month is a Material Girl/DKnJ road trip to the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza XVII at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center. Last year was our first visit to this particular show and it did not disappoint! One of my stitching friends recently won first prize in the Hoffman Challenge for her doll, The Dragon Slayer which will be on display at the show; the photos are amazing, so I'm looking forward to seeing it in person.

Now - let's get sewing!

Crochet/Knitting Odds & Ends

2010-08-30T08:46:00.117-04:00

My goodness, this blog is starting to look like a knitting and crochet blog ... the truth is, like most sewing and craft enthusiasts, I tend to go through phases of interest and this summer was a yarn-y phase. Blame it on Stitch 'N Pitch and the Guinness World Record attempt at Citi Field last June. Anyway - I'll post this one last entry to wrap up that phase and then I'll get back on topic for September, just in time for National Sewing Month.

In my Summer Update post, I listed several projects and linked each of them to a public page on Ravelry. Since then, I've added some photos, so I'll show a few of them here.

Gentle Waves Coin Purse

from Crochet! magazine, July 2010

Amigurumi Wiener Dog
from Lion Brand Yarn free online pattern

Since I intended this to be a dog toy from the outset, I didn't make legs for this puppy, just ears and nose. The eyes were french knots in yarn ... he's already lost one, thanks to Keli. The Pesties love to rip the stuffing out of their toys, so he's filled with scraps of fleece from an old sewing project, a recycled "quacker" in the body and a squeaker in the head. (I don't know the official name of the noise making device that sounds like a duck quacking, that's why I call it a quacker.)

Felted Hedgehog

from the book, Felted Crochet by Jane Davis
This was another dog toy, filled with fleece scraps and another recycled "quacker".

Stash Basket

from Bernat/Lily Sugar 'n Cream free online pattern
finished size is about 6x6 inches; using it to help organize my sewing room

Swirling Bag

design by Kathy Merrick for Knitting Daily TV

free download pattern on Ravelry

Not shown anywhere is the most hideous orange mitten anyone has ever seen, LOL. I wanted to use leftover wool yarn to knit mittens, but since I've never made mittens before, I started a sample using leftover acrylic yarn and following instructions from a book exactly as written. It turned out much too big and extremely ugly, so it's destined to be another dog toy someday. Since it was a practice piece, I experimented with various methods of increasing and decreasing so there were lots of holes in the thumb area. About halfway through, I found Knit Picks mitten class video on YouTube which was enormously helpful, so I will try again and eventually I hope to have some human sized mittens to show off.

I have one last yarn project in process - it's a knitted cardigan sweater with a shawl collar. So far, the back and right front are complete, leaving the left front (started) and sleeves to be finished. I hope I can maintain my interest until it's done ... my fascination with yarn is starting to wane a bit as autumn approaches. I have quite a long list of embroidery and sewing projects I wanted to work on this year.

To see more of my yarn-y projects, see my Crochet, Knitting & Yarn Flickr Collection

Finished: Felted Westie Sweaters

2010-08-25T18:22:00.001-04:00

Back in June, I started this pair of felted sweaters for my Westies. The knitting pattern is from a book called Dress Your Dog - Nifty Knits for Classy Canines. One of the designs in the book is for felted sweaters, modeled by a pair of black Scotties.

The first sweater was too big for both Keli and Penny, so I used it as a guideline and made adjustments to the pattern before knitting the second sweater:

Sweater #2, before felting

I used the same process for wet-felting as for the first sweater, hand washing and agitating in hot sudsy water, then rinsing in cold water until the entire sweater was transformed from a knit to a semi-solid fabric. The entire process took about an hour. When it was dry, I tried it on Keli and it was a very good fit.

It took me some time to get around to adding the last finishing touches to consider these complete ... first, I had to measure and cut off the excess length from the first sweater so it would fit Penny:

Sweater #1 after felting

pieces cut off of Sweater #1

The neck straps fit Penny well enough, but the belly straps needed to be trimmed. I also trimmed and rounded the back edges of each sweater. I was nervous about cutting into the sweater; the felted fabric gave up a few fuzzies, but didn't unravel.

Before I could declare these sweaters complete, I needed to machine stitch black velcro onto the neck and belly straps of each sweater, then get both dogs to pose for a few pictures.

Penny (left) and Keli (right)

Aren't they cute? It wasn't easy getting the Pesties to pose in their new sweaters, especially in August in 90 degree heat; fortunately they focus like lasers on lamb jerky treats and forget everything else. Maybe next February we'll get pictures of them in their sweaters while running around in the snow ...

Ravelry link

Finished: Two Tone Tote

2010-08-25T17:26:00.002-04:00

Last week, my list of projects worked on in my Summer Update included this Two Tone Tote, a free crochet pattern from Caron. I decided to make it in Mets colors, orange and blue, as one of my crochet projects for Stitch N' Pitch at Citi Field this past June.

The yarns I used are TLC Essentials No Dye Lot worsted medium weight 100% acrylic in Persimmon and Lion Brand Jiffy bulky weight 100% acrylic in Denim. The pattern calls for using two strands of yarn for all stitches.

The crocheted handles in the original design seemed too flimsy for the size of this tote bag, so I decided to attach a pair of purchased rattan handles instead.

The lining is made from an orange cotton remnant I've had in my stash for several years. I was saving it for just the right Mets-themed project.

The lining actually has two 'right' sides - the inner part of the lining is reinforced with Decor Bond fusible interfacing to help support the pockets. The outer part of the lining faces the crochet and barely shows through the stitches. I tried machine sewing the lining into the bag, but couldn't get it to work, so it had to be attached by hand.

There are two pockets. On one side, there's a zippered patch pocket; on the other side there's a single pocket divided into narrow vertical sections for keeping crochet hooks and scissors. You can see this pocket better in the photo below:

The finished size is about 11h x 15w x 4d (inches) which is a pretty generously sized project tote.

Ravelry link

Summer Update

2010-08-19T22:35:00.001-04:00

A butterfly in the garden

It's the dog days of summer and I just realized its been well over a month since I've posted anything here and even longer since I've shared what I'm working on. I could list the reasons why I haven't posted, but that would be boring (and just a bit whiny), so I'll just say I've been busy doing stuff instead of writing about it.

One of the ~~excuses~~ reasons I haven't posted is that I haven't bothered to transfer photos from my camera to the computer to Flickr. Why? Because I'm lazy and haven't taken photos of everything yet and I don't want to download/upload multiple times, and now there are so many other photos to sort through, I'd need half a day to do it in an organized manner. And I'm still trying to eradicate the weeds in my garden and paint the kitchen before summer is over so spending half a day on photos for the blog just doesn't seem as important. See, I told you it would sound whiny.

This entry is going to be a list of sewing and crafting items I worked on this summer and hopefully I'll get my act together and write real blog entries for each one soon. The photos included in this post have nothing to do with sewing ... they're photos of my garden. I just hate blog entries that have no photos.

Let me start by mentioning this year's batch of Cool Ties for the Mahwah Marine Moms. I forget exactly when I worked on these; it was probably late June/early July. It was in between painting and weeding and other projects, but I remember I spent a couple of evenings cranking out about 30 Cool Ties. Not as many as previous years, but at least I got a few done. You can read a nice article about the Moms here: NorthJersey.com: N.J. moms have lots of love to give. I hope I'll be able to do more next year.

Planted cucumbers on either side of the white trellis this year

Remember when I was working on some crochet projects for Stitch N' Pitch back in May and June? Well, the baseball scarf is unchanged, but the two tone tote is finally finished. Then there was the La Boheme Scarf kit that I finished in May (see my Ravelry link) as well as the felted Westie sweaters - those are done, too. I just finished sewing the hook and loop closures on them over the weekend, but I'm having a hard time getting Keli and Penny to pose for pictures wearing them. I don't really blame them; who wants to wear a wool sweater in August in 90 degree weather?

I was on a roll with yarn projects and kept going; they were mostly quick and easy projects I could work on while watching the Mets or when I was too tired to sew. Here's a list with links to their corresponding Ravelry page in case you're interested in a few more details. Some have in-progress photos and some don't:

Gentle Waves Coin Purse
Dog toys - Crochet Wiener Dog and Felted Crochet Hedgehog
Crocheted Stash Basket
Crocheted Swirling Bag
Autumn Afternoons Cardigan - currently in progress

This year's tomato garden in May: Grape (L), Brandywine (C), Ramapo (R)

In July I ignored all my other projects and started making some shorts. I had only one good pair of RTW shorts that fit me well enough to wear in public and I couldn't stand wearing long pants in the heat any longer. I bought McCalls 5857 last summer after reading a number of reviews on PatternReview.com that suggested this pattern would be a good fit for my shape. The reviews were right. I finished 3 pairs of shorts and planned on making 3 more, but I had a little accident that sidelined me from doing much of anything for a couple of weeks. I'm still trying to get back into shorts-sewing mode.

Before I could get back to the shorts, I started making insulated water bottle carriers. I needed one for myself and it occurred to me that they'd make good birthday gifts, so I bought a bunch of reusable water bottles and started making customized carriers. So far, I've finished 6; two are mine and 4 were gifts. Before the year is over, I may make half a dozen more.

Last on the list are personalized beach towels for several nieces and nephews. This was a quickie; I just purchased a few towels at Bed, Bath & Beyond and embroidered names on the ends.

Almost ready Ramapo heirloom tomatoes, July 2010

That brings me up to date - thanks for hanging in there with me!

Painting Continues: Great Room Wall and Powder Room

2010-07-08T13:06:00.002-04:00

In my previous blog post, I shared the photos of the dining room wall that needed to be repainted after the kitchen remodel, and I was just getting ready to start the next touch-up area: the great room wall. Here's what it looked like before I started:

There used to be a sliding glass door here, but since we never used that door to access the deck, we had it removed and replaced with windows as part of our kitchen remodel. The contractors added the new drywall area under the window and did the original taping and joint compound. As I prepared to start painting this area, I noticed a few areas that needed sanding and patching so that slowed me down.

Eventually, this entire great room needs to be repainted. It has a cathedral ceiling that I'm not willing to stand on a ladder to patch or paint, so we'll have to hire someone when we can afford to do it. So this touch-up project was just a temporary paint job to cover up the drywall and patched areas.

The previous owners of our house had painted this room and when we moved in, there was a little less than 1/2 gallon of paint left for us to do touch ups. Somehow, I must have used up that paint, because I couldn't find it after I had primed the wall. The closest match I could find in my paint "collection" was the Behr flat Navajo White - the same paint I used in the dining room touch up.

The Navajo White is a bit lighter than the original wall color, so I painted from wall to wall across and picked a height that I was comfortable reaching up to, and taped across a horizontal line, so that it would look like a deliberate design choice.

If I had been able to reach the peak of the ceiling to paint the full wall, I don't think anyone would even guess that its a different paint, because it blends into the corners quite well. I didn't bother painting the trim; it's already primed and we'll get to that later.

Once the paint was dry, I needed to add the shade and window treatment. I got the cellular shade at my local Blinds to Go and it's a very close match to the other shades in the room.

The curtains are from Bed, Bath & Beyond and match the rest of the room, too. They claim to block out 99% of light to help keep the room cool in summer, and they've been doing a great job this past week. I chose a shorter length for this window because we put the Westie crates underneath. The Levelor rod is from Home Depot and I had to visit two different stores to find the color finials and brackets to match the rest of the room.

After the great room was done and cleaned up, it was time to tackle the powder room. As part of the renovation, I'd stripped the wallpaper and primed the walls; our contractors removed all the old fixtures, patched some of the walls and installed the new cabinet and fixtures. Back in May I spray-painted the frame for the medicine cabinet mirror (see my previous post: Hammered).

These are just a couple of the photos below. If you'd like to see more photos from various angles visit my Flickr Kitchen/Powder Room Renovation set.

The paints are all from Benjamin Moore; the walls are Natura eggshell in Breath of Fresh Air (blue), the ceiling is ultra flat Waterborne ceiling paint in Bavarian Cream and the trim is Natura semi-gloss in White Chocolate. The Natura paints really do not have any bad odors, cleanup was very easy and I'm very pleased with the results so far.

I didn't paint the window trim yet; I'm planning to do one big trim painting when I finally start the kitchen. I don't know if you can tell from the photo above that I've applied a rice paper patterned window film to the glass on the window. It was less expensive than a new shade, adds privacy and light filtration and turned out very nice.

I'm planning to make a valance for the window from this fabric:

It's from my remnant collection and I've had it forever. But the color match is perfect for this room - the beige/gray background goes with the floor tiles and countertop and the blue flowers are just the right shade to pick up my rugs and other accents.

I just need to pick a valance style and get started sewing.

More Painting: Dining Room Touch-up

2010-06-10T09:00:00.022-04:00

I hope to be sharing sewing projects again before too long, but until I manage to clean up my sewing room and actually work on something, I'll share some of the other projects occupying my time. For the next month or so I'll be focused on painting.... the kitchen, the powder room and a few other "touch-up" areas that were affected by the kitchen remodel. So the crochet and knitting projects will continue for a while, too, since I can work on them anywhere.

Before the renovation, this was the view from the dining room into the old kitchen. The lower wall is painted a solid eggshell finish and the upper wall is a faux finish using glaze and was intended to resemble woven fabric such as denim or linen. I painted this room several years ago and fortunately, I had sufficient leftover paints and glaze for this repair project.

The archway from the kitchen to the dining room was widened and relocated to the center of the room. The contractors cut a new entry way and patched the old one with new dry wall. It would have been too easy if they'd been able to reuse the cut out section, wouldn't it? At least they were able to salvage and reuse the chair rail molding.

I spent one afternoon covering the moldings with painters' tape and fixing the patched areas before priming the drywall. Because it's been several years since the original paint job, it took a while to remember how to create the woven fabric look. Finally I found the right brush and used a light tack tape to create new "panels" to glaze.

Here it is all finished - the lower wall is a really good match and the upper wall is close enough. The good thing about this technique is that it is supposed to be textured and irregular.

Paints used: Behr Premium Plus latex paint from Home Depot, Neptune Blue in eggshell on the lower wall, Americana in eggshell mixed with faux glaze on the upper wall over a base coat of flat Navajo White.

see more photos in my Kitchen/Powder Room Renovation Set on Flickr

Up next: the Great Room Wall - needs to patched, sanded and primed. I may paint part of this wall with some leftover neutral color so I can put up some window treatments until the rest of the Great Room can be painted professionally.

Stitch N' Pitch: The Happy Recap

2010-06-08T12:15:00.005-04:00

Scroll down to the bottom for links to posts by other bloggers, articles and any other tidbits I find online

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Our little group met near the old Home Run Apple well in advance of the gate opening. And yes, it was a very windy day indeed. The weather forecast was for temperatures in the high 80's and possibility of scattered thunder storms. We were prepared for both sun and rain, armed with sunscreen and hats as well as rain ponchos and umbrellas, which pretty much guaranteed the rain would miss us.

We stood in line for about half an hour waiting to enter the stadium through the Jackie Robinson Rotunda. One of fans in line ahead of us was wearing a customized Mets jersey that read Buckner with the number 86. Die hard fans will understand why that is amusing.

It was Sports Bag Day, and the first 25,000 fans received these "lovely" bags. Once inside the turnstiles, we were on a mission to find Promenade Section 531 for the Guinness World Record Event, so we headed up the escalators to the left and kept going until we reached our destination.

The organizers kept everyone moving efficiently - handing out the special Stitch N' Pitch bags, yarn and crochet hooks and getting us seated. As we were nearing the end of a row they asked for a couple of people to head up to the back of the section to fill a pair of seats, so Rich and I volunteered.

Yes, you read that right - After weeks of telling me no, he decided to grab a hook and help break the record. He was lucky to be seated next to another husband, who said he felt he was discriminated against because they asked if he was here to crochet, but didn't ask any of the ladies the same question. The nice lady next to him helped instruct Rich how to chain and he even tried some single crochet.

I was in the row in front of Rich and a few seats away from me there was another young man who was reluctantly chaining. Kudos to the deputized Guinness record observers for gently convincing him to keep going. It might have been easier to sell the guys on crocheting if the hooks had been blue or orange instead of light pink. The observers were very diligent in making sure that everyone in their assigned rows crocheted for the entire 15 minutes.

*UPDATED 6/28/2010*

I don't have any pictures of me other than this one taken by the Mets photographers (I paid way too much for a single print and scanned it to add here). Rich was supposed to be in charge taking pictures during the event ... but we know how that turned out, don't we?

The rest of our group was about mid-way up the section:

Deborah Norville was the celebrity emcee and started us off. She also gave a quick demo on how to crochet for the beginners in the crowd. And so we crocheted for 15 minutes while listening to that typical, 70's style, time elapsing music (tequila!) and at the end we all counted down the final seconds and cheered.

When it was over, we crossed over to our ticketed seats in Section 528. We were in the last row, but enjoyed it. The wind, though a bit strong, was cooling in the hot muggy heat.

We had more than an hour before the first pitch of the game, so the younger girls in our group went to explore Citi Field and to try to get a player to sign a baseball. The rest of us relaxed and continued crocheting and knitting until just before game time.

In addition to the Stitch N' Pitch tote bags, everyone with a SNP Ticket received a special Mets Skyline keychain. Can't you just picture this skyline image as a pattern for a quilt block? or a cross stitch design?

The Mets scored early and often, and it seemed as if every rally started with a hit from Ike Davis. It was very appropriate that they played the Rolling Stones' "Start me Up" before each of his at bats. We all cheered for David Wright's home run in the 3rd inning and sang along to Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the 7th inning stretch.

The game ended with another Mets home win and as we were making our way down the exit ramp a fan who'd obviously had a few Budweisers during the game was offering to buy somebody's sports bag. He'd arrived too late to the game and was bitterly disappointed to have missed out. Considering our vast array of Mets freebies at home, Rich gave the guy his bag and told him to keep his money. He was so thrilled to get that bag, he shook both our hands twice.

Now, if he'd asked for the Stitch N' Pitch bag, he wouldn't have stood a chance at one of those -- I'm keeping them both!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ Read my previous Stitch N' Pitch blog entries
~ See more of my photos in my Flickr Stitch N' Pitch Set

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Here's a list of a few blog posts and articles about this event from around the web:

Stitch N' Pitch at Citi Field: By The Numbers

2010-06-07T17:22:00.001-04:00

Stitch N' Pitch at Citi Field: By the Numbers

Event: Guinness World Record for The Most People Crocheting Simultaneously (if you don't know what this means, read my previous blog post)
Date: June 5, 2010
Time: 2:15pm (approximately)
Seating: Promenade Section 531
Capacity: 427 Crocheters breaking the record
Duration: 15 minutes
Swag: 2 Mets bags, a keychain, yarn and a crochet hook
Total Stitch N' Pitch ticket holders: not sure about this one, but heard there were over 600 tickets sold; I'd guess it was about twice that number on game day
Number of Years Mets have Participated in Stitch N' Pitch: 4
Number of Stitch N' Pitch Games I've attended: 2

Final Score of the Game: Mets 6, Marlins 1
Mets Hits: 10, 4 from Ike Davis
Home Runs: 1 from David Wright, his 10th of the year
Home Record after the Game: 21-9
Weather: 89 degrees
Wind: 16 mph, out to RF
Total Attendance: 37,165

This is a shortened post - I'm working on a more detailed recap that should be finished soon. I've been reading lots of blog posts about Saturday's Stitch N' Pitch at Citi Field; thought I'd change it up a little with my post. If you're familiar with this page on Mets.com you'll get it. :-)

You can see my photos in my Flickr Stitch N' Pitch set.

In Progress: Felted Westie Sweaters

2010-06-04T10:52:00.001-04:00

Started another knitting project recently ... this is from a book called Dress Your Dog - Nifty Knits for Classy Canines. One of the designs in the book is for felted sweaters, modeled by a pair of black Scotties.

I thought the sweaters would look sweet on my Westies and the yarn was on sale ... so I started out the first sweater intending it to be for Keli. The pattern includes stitch counts for Medium and Large sizes; Keli is a little big for a Westie, so I followed the instructions for the Large length and width.

It took me a little over a week to do the knitting (I admit I was a little obsessed with finishing) and yesterday I spent several hours working on the felting. I had to do the wet felting by hand, as it seems that my new HE washing machine doesn't agitate enough to felt the fibers very well.

This is my first real felted project (I know -- technically, the term is called "fulling" but the books call it felting and so will I). It turned out rather nice, but I think I will do a little more research on the technique. It was interesting so watch the knitting morph into a semi-solid fabric.

The finished sweater before felting was a little larger than necessary, since the wool is supposed to shrink a bit. All the yarns are 100% wool; the black is Berroco Peruvian and the colors are Cascade 220, and they're all labeled 100% Peruvian Highland Wool.

I left it to dry flat overnight and tried it on Keli this morning to check the sizing. It almost fits -- the belly straps fit and it covers her well from side to side. BUT -- the neck straps are too short and the back length is about 3 spots too long. So the amount of shrinkage from felting wasn't quite as expected.

Penny tried it on next -- the neck straps are just right, but of course, the belly straps and back length are too long. But the good thing about felting is supposed to be that you can cut it without worry of unraveling, right? So I guess I'll be doing some trimming .... maybe I'll need to add some machine felting to the cut edges, too, just to be sure it stays together.

This is definitely a work-in-progress -- and now I need to do a second one for Keli, with a few modifications to the pattern.

Of course, both of them are looking at me cross-eyed for making them try on sweaters in June when it's 80 degrees outside!

See the post - Finished: Felted Westie Sweaters

Ravelry link

Finished: Perfect Pup

2010-06-01T09:49:00.002-04:00

I am officially removing this from my UFO list and am considering it finished, even though there's a little jacket that's not quite done. It's time to finally share the story about this little guy.

The last time I wrote about this project was in February 2008. A few weeks before that, I'd written about some crochet and knitting projects that inspired me to pick up this long unfinished Westie pup.

This knitting design is Alan Dart's Perfect Pups Westie pattern, a leaflet I purchased on eBay in early 2002, shortly after our first Westie girl, Wyndi, had left us for the Rainbow Bridge. Even though I'm not a frequent knitter, I just could not resist the cover photo for this pattern and I had to at least attempt to make this little Westie pup. (This OOP pattern can be found on Etsy or eBay listings or as a PDF on Alan Dart's UK website.)

It took me a few weeks to find the yarn supplies and I made a number of substitutions. I could not find the Sirdar Snowflake yarn, so the body of my Westie is knitted using Berroco Plush. The ears, feet, nose and eyes are knitted using Plymouth Yarn Dreambaby DK yarns in appropriate colors.

Each of the body pieces were finished fairly quickly. Before too long, all the parts of the Westie were complete and I was working on finishing the jacket. Of course, at the time, I had to change all the colors to pinks and purples for my Wyndi.

Around the time I was working on the knitted pup, we brought home our new 8-week-old Westie puppy, Keli Angel and all knitting, sewing and other crafting projects were put aside while we enjoyed all the excitement and commotion that having a new puppy in the house creates. And then six years passed before I picked it up again.

I still can't believe that so much time had passed -- and it wasn't due to a lack of interest or time constraints. I was very motivated to finish this puppy. So what kept stopping me? That silly little jacket. Or rather, the edging for the jacket -- it's a 4 stitch ribbing that's knitted separately and is supposed to be attached to the main part of the sweater and I just can't make it work. I've stitched it on and ripped it off at least twice already.

In January 2008 I decided to forget the sweater and focus on putting the Westie body together.

It wasn't long before it started looking like a real Westie:

The pattern photo was a fair guideline for shaping the body parts, but I used my own in-house Westie model to get the details just right. As I was stuffing and shaping each body part, I found a few spots where I dropped a stitch -- remember, I never claimed to be a great knitter -- I just stitched up any holes or loosely knitted spots with pieces of the Plush yarn and buried the loose ends inside.

The last remaining step was to add strands of yarn around the head to create that famous rounded Westie head. And that's around the time when Penny joined our pack. She was a five month old rescue puppy with no manners whatsoever, and once again the knitted puppy was put away for safekeeping. Now, at 2-1/2 years old, she's still quite a rascal, but she has learned to behave nicely when I'm working on projects (she chews her own toys, not my supplies -- most of the time).

Last November (during the kitchen renovation), I pulled out this knitted Westie to work on for a day and managed to get most of the headpiece finished. But it wasn't until I started working on other yarn projects for this year's Stitch N' Pitch that I decided to put this puppy to rest once and for all.

I wasn't able to get a big, full round head, but I think it approximates the look of a pet Westie head - or at least it looks a lot like my girls.

That tail makes me giggle - it almost looks as if it's waggin!

Oh, I almost forgot -- the pattern calls him Wesley, which I think suits him. And Keli keeps telling me that Penny was supposed to be a little Westie brother, not a Wauzer sister. So he's a boy and his name is Wesley. That pink jacket won't work now anyway.

There are lots more photos of Wesley in my Knitted Westie Set on Flickr

By the way, I've joined Ravelry now. I don't know how much I'll be hanging out there, but it looks like a great place for inspiration and help, in the same way that PatternReview is a great resource for sewing. To find me in either place, look for sewamazin.

Needlework Flashback: Grand Old Flag

2010-05-30T14:31:00.000-04:00

Please take time this weekend to remember all of our service members who have given their lives in the name of protecting our freedom.

* * * * * * * * *

In honor of Memorial Day, I'm sharing this photo of a sampler I stitched back in 2001:

The design is by Lesley Rudnicki, Hillside Samplings, published in Just CrossStitch magazine, 2001.

Stitched on natural linen (looks like 32ct) using over-dyed cotton threads (probably Gentle Art Sampler Threads). The blue ground and stars of the flag are stitched over one thread, the stripes of the flag are a diagonal satin stitch - I know this stitch has a different name when done this way, but I'm writing from memory and it escapes me now.

Don't forget to RSVP for the Mets Stitch N Pitch

2010-05-27T07:04:00.001-04:00

Last week I emailed my group's RSVP for the Mets' Stitch N' Pitch Guinness world record attempt at Citi Field on June 5. Today, I received a follow-up email from the Stitch N' Pitch Team -- they need 250 minimum to set a new Guinness World Record for the Most People Crocheting Simultaneously. They've sold plenty of tickets, but haven't received enough RSVP's for the Guinness event yet.

They need more people to RSVP! If you're planning to be part of the world record attempt, don't forget to send an email to Guinness@StitchNPitch.com and let them know you are coming.

You can purchase tickets up until the day of the event and you must have a Stitch N' Pitch ticket to be part of the Guinness event.

Tickets are available online at Mets.com. Use the sign-in ID STITCH and password METS. Or you can get them through a local shop: See the list of participating shops on StitchnPitch.com

If you participate in the Guinness "Most People Crocheting Simultaneously" you get free yarn, crochet hook and Met Project Tote Bag (first 500 people)!

If you're going, make sure to RSVP ASAP!

Hammered

2010-05-25T21:30:00.000-04:00

I'm finally caught up on the blog with my sewing projects to date, but still not back to sewing anything yet. I have a good excuse (or two).

One of those excuses is painting -- as a result of our kitchen renovation, there are a lot of walls and other objects that need to be painted or touched up.

The first finished touch-up was the powder room medicine cabinet. We opted to keep the old cabinet rather than spend money on a new one. Besides, we couldn't stand the idea of throwing away something that was perfectly useful, just the wrong color. So we refurbished it.

The frame around the mirror is a hard plastic and it used to be shiny metallic gold. I never liked the gold. Before the renovation, as I was prepping the room by taking down the old wallpaper, light fixture and outlet covers, I decided to try removing the mirror and frame of the medicine cabinet. That's when I discovered it was just like a regular picture frame and could easily be painted a different color.

Choosing a new color was a minor challenge. Most of the other metal accents in the new powder room - the cabinet hardware, light fixture - are the currently popular "oil rubbed bronze" finish, but the faucet is a victorian nickel.

First we tried spray paint in a matte finish, metallic nickel color, thinking it would disappear against the glass mirror, but it didn't look right. The second choice worked better - it's Hammered brown paint from Rustoleum. In the close-up above, you can see that the paint dried in a slightly textured finish with both gray and brown tones. I really like this look - I'll have to use it again on something else.

See - it looks much better now:

Of course, the walls still need to be painted ... it's on my to do list. I have a few other touch-up projects to finish first.

Crochet Projects for Stitch N' Pitch

2010-05-12T13:39:00.035-04:00

I'm planning on going to this year's Stitch N' Pitch event at Citi Field and we even found a local NJ shop to buy our tickets - Creative Knitworks in Westwood.

I just needed to find a crochet project to work on for the attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most people crocheting simultaneously. The project had to be something that would hold my attention long enough to finish it....

Searching the web for pattern inspiration, I came across this free Baseball Scarf design by Lily Chin. The PDF pattern can be downloaded and includes instructions for both knitting and crochet versions. This probably won't be news to most Stitch N' Pitch fans, as it looks like it's been available for several years. Since I don't work with yarn too often, it IS new to me. I was pretty sure I could handle it.

Actually, I've already sort of finished it:

I used white and blue yarn from my stash and bought the orange at JoAnn Fabrics. After the photo above, I added the detail work between the individual baseballs. Before adding the baseball stitching, I thought I'd finally set up the Huskystar ER-10 felting machine that I bought several years ago and see what it could do. The yarns are all mostly acrylic, so I wasn't expecting perfect felting, but the effect is somewhat interesting.

It's going to take several days to felt all 11 sections of the scarf and afterward I may try either machine or hand embroidering the baseball stitching and maybe a few other Metsie details.

So the next question is, what am I going to work on at the Stitch N' Pitch event?

How about this free crochet pattern from Caron for a Two Tone Tote in orange and blue ..... here's the front of the tote, finished a day or so ago:

This is the same orange yarn from the baseball scarf - it's TLC Essentials No Dye Lot worsted medium weight 100% acrylic in Persimmon; the blue is Lion Brand Jiffy bulky weight 100% acrylic in Denim. The pattern calls for using two strands of yarn for all stitches. I'm finding that it makes the crochet process a little slower, but the result is a thick piece that should make a nice sturdy bag when its finished.

I started a few rows of the back and now that I understand the pattern better, I'll probably put it aside until Stitch N' Pitch so I can work on it at the event. I plan to make the bottom and the straps of the bag in the blue denim color, then I'll add some sort of lining.

I don't know what I'll do with it when it is finished ...

Westie Applique Bib

2010-05-10T10:00:00.044-04:00

A few weeks before Easter I purchased several machine embroidery designs from Planet Appliqué, one of which was this Westie appliqué design. Actually, they call it a Yorkie Terrier Puppy, but it looks too much like a Westie to me.

For a sample stitch-out, I thought I'd try embroidering the design onto a bib for my nephew RJ:

The appliqué fabric is a scrap of blue quilter's flannel and it's embroidered onto a purchased blue bib (from Babies 'R Us). I used a sticky wash-away stabilizer, so the only stitching on the back of the bib is the bobbin thread.

Shamrocks! Mini Quilt

2010-05-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

This was a quickie project finished just in time for St. Patrick's Day:

On a spontaneous trip to The Cozy Quilt Shoppe in March, I picked up this Shamrocks monthly mini design by Patch Abilities. At first I was drawn to the cute little leprechaun hat hanger; after a few moments of hesitation I decided it would be a nice little project for an afternoon. (The finished piece measures 6" x 21".) Since I haven't had much time for sewing yet this year, I was looking anxiously for a quick 'fix'.

The fabrics are all from my stash, and I did need to get creative with fitting the small shamrocks to some of my larger scraps. Even the binding was in the scrap pile -- originally I had cut it for a different project, but measured wrong so it was too narrow for it's intended purpose. It was just the right size for this project.

The shamrocks are fused to the pieced background, then machine stitched around the raw edges with a blanket stitch through all the layers, quilting at the same time. I added a little more stitching in the ditch quilting around the border, too, before attaching the binding.

It turned out great and it was wonderful to finally be able to start *and* finish something new.

Ryan's Cars-Decorated Pillowcases and Gift Card Holder

2010-04-30T08:00:00.000-04:00

Still catching up on posting projects; at least I'm working on the current year now!

January was my nephew Ryan's 3rd birthday. Have I mentioned that he is a fan of Disney's Cars??? Maybe once or twice ....

To go with his quilt and fleece pillow, I thought I'd embellish some purchased pillowcases with more bits and pieces of leftover Cars fabrics. There were just enough fabric scraps to cut out a handful of characters. I used leftover pieces of Steam-a-Seam light sheets to fuse the cutout characters onto the pillowcase side hem, then zig-zag stitched around the raw edges using invisible thread.

On one of the pillowcases I machine embroidered his name on the hem, using one of the fonts in 4D Embroidery. I undid the seam first, so that the back of the embroidery would be hidden inside.

In addition to the pillowcases, we gave him a gift card which, of course, had to be wrapped in something special, so I made this gift card holder:

It's a modified version of one of the designs included in Embroidery Library's In-the-Hoop Christmas Gift Card Holder design pack. I used more leftover Cars fabrics and skipped the Christmas greeting steps of the embroidery design. I remember putting a snap closure on the flap, which didn't go on perfectly straight, so the holder is a bit wonky. But I don't think Ryan minded a bit.

Stitch N' Pitch 2010 at Citi Field: Setting a World Record

2010-04-26T11:53:00.002-04:00

The Mets' 4th Annual Stitch N' Pitch event is scheduled for Saturday, June 5, 2010 @ 4:10 pm vs. Florida Marlins. At this year's event, they are attempting to break a Guinness World Record for the most people crocheting simultaneously.(see these links at the Craftzine.com blog, and Crochet Today blog)

I am not fond of the Marlins, especially after the last game at Shea in 2008; however since I do sometimes work with yarn, I'm planning on attending this year and hoping to round up a few other crocheters. I just need to find a good blue and orange project to work on that won't end up a UFO.

The Group Ticketing page at Mets.com contains info about this year's event at Citi Field. The ticket price for Promenade Reserved seating is $19 and all participants will receive a Mets Skyline Keychain and a limited number will receive a special edition Stitch N' Pitch bag (with advance ticket purchase). FYI, we paid $19 for parking at one of the Citi Field lots earlier this month.

For more information about the Guinness World Record part of the event, read or download this PDF file from Stitch N' Pitch.

Briefly, anyone wishing to participate must:

• Purchase a Mets Stitch N’ Pitch ticket – details at www.StitchNPitch.com
• Let them know you will be attending – RSVP to Guinness@StitchNPitch.com
• Arrive early - gates open at 1:30PM.
• Check in outside Section 531 to receive your complimentary crochet hook and yarn.
• Be seated no later than 2:00PM in Section 531 with crochet hook and yarn.
• Guinness Record event will start promptly at 2:15PM
• Crochet for at least15 minutes non-stop in order to set the record!

*****

From the Stitch N' Pitch home page: What is Stitch N' Pitch?

Stitch N' Pitch brings together two wonderful traditions — Baseball and the NeedleArts. Come to a ball game and knit, crochet, embroider, cross-stitch and needlepoint. Sit among friends, family and colleagues and cheer on your favorite Baseball Team. Beginners, intermediate and experts are all welcome."

Most of the emphasis is on knitting and crochet, which makes sense since most projects using these techniques are very portable, and TNNA, the force behind this program, is a trade organization for professionals in the knitting, crochet, cross stitch, embroidery, needlepoint and embellishment industries.

More general information about Stitch N' Pitch:

Buy Tickets to Stitch N' Pitch at Citi Field from local shops in CT, NY and NJ and direct from mets.com
Follow Stitch N' Pitch on Twitter
Shop for Stitch N' Pitch merchandise at Cafe Press

Another Vintage Treasure

2010-04-24T14:27:00.001-04:00

Since I haven't been sewing anything new lately, I thought I'd share a recent addition to my collection.

Earlier this year I found this tin at the Scranberry Coop:

The image of the antique Singer sewing machine looks exactly like the machine I inherited, right down to the detail on the drawers of the cabinet.

The tin itself looks old, but there are no rust spots, scratches or other blemishes, so I doubt it is an antique.

Perhaps I should have dusted it before photographing. :-)

I haven't had much luck identifying the original purpose of this tin or what it may have contained; if anyone has information about when and where it was originally distributed, please leave a comment.

Still Playing Catch-up - Christmas 2009

2010-04-18T21:02:00.001-04:00

In my last entry I attempted to catch up on posting about my projects for 2009 through November.

I'm behind in posting because last November we started renovation of our kitchen and the project restricted access to my office and desktop computer. The kitchen was finished in January, and since then I've been spending my time cleaning up, unpacking and reorganizing. I'm still not back to sewing every day, but visiting my blog and trying to get caught up is beginning to inspire me -- after all, the kitchen needs new window treatments ....

Anyway - in this post I'll cover all the sewing projects I finished for Christmas gifts. Usually I prefer to write about one project per posting, so I can note specific details about the materials used in a project or the particular challenges encountered, but since I worked on these nearly 5 months ago, I'm combining them in one posting. There are a lot of photos in this entry, but I've tried use a few of the best shots for each item. There are more photos of all of these projects in my 2009 Sewing & Crafting Set on Flickr.

About a month before the kitchen remodel was scheduled to begin, a good amount of my time was split between packing boxes of dishes and food and setting up the temporary kitchen in the basement and organizing my sewing area, pre-washing, cutting and organizing as many sewing projects as possible. While the guys were downstairs tearing down walls and reconstructing my kitchen, I was upstairs sewing and keeping Keli and Penny out of their way.

Let's start with RJ's Nursery Rhyme Crib Quilt & Soft book. Fabric panels of 6 old-fashioned Mother Goose nursery rhymes (Faye Whittaker for Elizabeth's Studio pattern #1443) were the inspiration for this quilt. I didn't want to repeat any of the panels so chose to alternate blocks of the nursery rhymes with humpty dumpty fabric on a yellow background (Faye Whittaker for Elizabeth's Studio pattern #1446)

The panels, yellow humpty dumpty and blue sashing fabrics were all purchased at The Cozy Quilt Shoppe. Later, I found the humpty dumpty design on a blue background at one of the quilt shows. The backing fabric has the nursery rhymes all over (Faye Whittaker for Elizabeth's Studio pattern #1444).

I used Nature-Fil bamboo batting from Fairfield on this and on Ryan's Cars quilt; it's made with 50% bamboo fiber and 50% organic cotton batting. Before assembling the quilt, I prewashed and dried the batting.

For quilting, I stitched in the ditch using a matching thread around each block and along the sashing and borders. It didn't look finished so I added some wavy lines using Superior Threads' King Tut #986-Alexandria on the horizontal sashing.

For the outer border, I searched through the motifs in Follow The Lines Quilting Designs, Volume 2 before finding this design, called Deviled Eggs, which seemed appropriate. I traced the design onto Sulky Solvy, used temporary adhesive spray to fix it to the quilt, then set up the Fab-U-Motion for some semi-free motion quilting. Some areas are smoother than others, but overall, it turned out pretty well and it was fun. But I definitely need much more practice.

The quilt binding is sewn on by machine using a blanket stitch and the King Tut variegated thread.

For the matching soft book, I used each one of the fabric panels padded with leftover pieces of fusible batting and some scraps of the humpty dumpty fabrics for backing. I ended up with 3 finished page layers that were sewn down the center spine (I omitted some of the batting in that area to reduce the bulk a tiny bit).

The next project is my nephew Ryan's Cars Quilt. Actually, I worked on this one first, but it was less complicated to piece and quilt than RJ's quilt.

I had a bunch of Cars fabrics left over from a quilt I made for my nephew, William back in 2007 and since Ryan is such a fan of Lightning McQueen, I thought this would be a good stash-busting project. The quilt design is from BH&G's Quilts and More magazine, Winter 2008 issue. The pattern is a simple design of 10 inch squares arranged in 6 rows and 6 columns. I used the same design for my niece Lauren's purple quilt last summer (I wrote about that one here).

I didn't have quite enough of the Cars fabrics to make all 36 squares, so I filled in with prints of vintage Corvettes and other cool cars from JoAnn Fabrics. The backing fabric is all flames and reminds me of Hot Wheels. This one was quilted simply in long diagonal lines across the blocks.

Lauren's Pillow Sham is based on a similar purchased pillow sham and was another stash-busting project. I used scraps of purple fabrics left over from her purple quilt (see a slideshow of it here), made for her birthday last summer.

The front of the sham is cut from a remnant piece of matelasse and the purple fabrics were pieced in a scrappy border. The back was made of a single fabric with button closures.

Of course, the pillow sham needed a coordinating personalized pillow case. I don't think Lauren could ever get too much purple.

And last, but not least, this in-the-hoop gift bag was a quickie and contained some chocolates, a gift card and an IOU, since I had run out of time. The embroidery designs for the poinsettia and bag are both from Embroidery Library. I used a blank gift bag design combined with Positively Poinsettia from A Wispy Wonders Christmas design pack. The fabric is a metallic cotton from my stash.

***********

Now we're caught up through the end of 2009; I have a few new projects for 2010 to share, but those will have to wait for another day.

Catching up - Sept/Oct 2009

2010-04-07T21:30:00.002-04:00

Well, it looks as if the last time I recorded a finished project here was back in August 2009 ... I can't believe it's been that long! I'm going to try to catch up a couple of projects at a time.

First up, some gifts for my newest nephew, RJ, born late last September. I made a couple of diaper burp cloths, bibs and minkee and flannel blankets. One set featured sea turtles:

The initials are machine embroidered appliqués and the starfish and sea turtle embroidery designs are from Embroidery Library's Baby Nursery Design Pack. They may look familiar; I've used them on other baby items.

I forgot to take photos of the second set, but the fabrics I used are below:

For the second set, I scanned the turtle, enlarged the image and then used it as a pattern to make an appliqué stitched onto a pre-made bib. I thought it turned out really nice, and really wish I'd remembered to take a photo!

In October, I worked on a cape for me - New Look 6658:

Luckily, I wrote a review on PatternReview.com shortly after I finished this one, because I don't remember all the details now. To see more photos of the cape, visit my Garments Set on Flickr.

Here's a recap of my review:

Pattern Description: Pattern envelope includes a lined Cape with or without collar and toggle closures as well as a vest, scarf, hat and bag

Pattern Sizing: I made size 12 to fit my narrow shoulders. Normally, I'd start with a 14 or 16 to fit bust.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it? I made the cape View A with the collar and toggle closures and yes, it looks very much like the photo.

Were the instructions easy to follow? This was my first experience with a New Look pattern; the instructions seem a little less detailed than some other brands. They were concise and logical in the order of construction.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
Like: I really like that the only area I needed to fit well was in the shoulders.
Dislike (minor): the pattern calls for toggle closures but does not include instructions for making them. I could only find knotted frog closures locally, so had to figure out a way to make my own toggle closures.

Fabric & Supplies Used:
Polyester/Rayon blend woven tweedy fabric from JoAnn Fabrics' Indian Summer "collection", I used the 'wrong' fuzzier side of the fabric as my 'right' side, so it looks a bit wooly. I opted to use Brown Zeus lining and I'm so happy I decided to use this instead of a lighter weight lining.

The closures were made from purchased wood toggle buttons, loops were recycled cording saved from Bare Escentuals shopping bags, and the 'appliqués' (or whatever they are called) are faux leather. close up of closures

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
I measured the pattern waist and lower edge circumferences before cutting and found the difference between size 12 and the largest size 18 was less than 2 inches, so decided to test the size 12 in muslin. The shoulders fit nicely but I lowered the arm openings about 1.5 inches which felt more comfortable.

I'd like to add a button-on hood if I can find the time -- I'd have to copy a hood from one of my RTW coats for size and placement, though.

Conclusion:
Overall I'm really happy with the way the cape turned out. This is my first attempt at real outerwear, and I consider this somewhat of a practice piece before attempting a coat.

I don't know if capes are in or out of fashion right now; I made this one to have something a little nicer for running errands and quick and easy to put on when I have to take out my two terriers on a chilly day. For really cold weather, this would need a heavier lining/underlining (or a big sweater).

At the end of October, I worked on this mini quilt, Westie Halloween Treats:

The pattern for this appliqué mini quilt can be found at FreePatterns.com; the link can be found on my Westie Quilt Pattern Links page. The original design features a Scottie and Chihuahua, but I made a few changes so that they resemble my Westie and Wauzer, Keli and Penny.

The larger dog pulling the wagon is Keli, and I added a black button for her eye. The smaller dog is Penny; her nose is another button and her eyeball is a french knot. I digitized and machine embroidered the text on the moon and side of the wagon. The pile of bones in wagon includes a few ceramic bone buttons from my stash. The yellow circles on the wheels and Keli's hat are fabric yo-yo's. Each appliqué piece was fused to the background with Steam-a-Seam light, then blanket stitched around the edges by machine. I quilted in the ditch along the borders. The details are visible on the original size image.

*********

That catches me up through October 2009; in November we began the kitchen remodel, so I was only able to work on a few other items for Christmas. I'll include those in my next post.

A little Spring Cleaning

2010-03-18T19:05:00.004-04:00

I've been away from my blog for quite some time. I'm hoping to be back soon.... haven't been sewing much anyway because of the kitchen project.

Since it's almost springtime, I've spruced up the layout using the Blogger in Draft new Template Designer.

I kind of like it; there are still a few bits and pieces that need fixing, so please excuse the mess for now.

Be back soon ....

And if you haven't seen these yet, here are the photos of the kitchen project (slide show embedded below):

Taking an extended blog break . . .

2009-12-04T20:03:00.002-05:00

It's been a couple of months since I've posted here, but I have not abandoned my blog . . . I just haven't had time or opportunity to keep up to date due to our current kitchen remodeling project and other issues.

Hopefully, I'll be able to get caught up and back to posting on a regular basis again in January . . . until then, I'll upload sewing project photos on Flickr and I'll share links on Twitter if I can get to it.

I do have several Christmas gifts in process, but can't share them now anyway.

Merry Christmas!