If you have ever had the burning need to know how many cases of girl scout cookies can fit into a 2005 prius, the answer is 50. I'm told if you really pack it, you can get 315 cases into a suburban. You won't be able to see out the windows, but you'll get your cookies moved.
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Tags: girl scouts

A belated posting of the harmonic convergence quilt I finished in January, 2016. The quilt is made from one piece of kona cotton that I ice-dyed using instructions from dharma trading and procion fiber reactive dyes. This was a truly serendipitous project. I got a beautiful result from the ice dye and the harmonic convergence treatment made it really spectacular. The outer edge was the left over fabric after I had cut a 40" square. The fact that the colors splayed out into a sunburst pattern was all luck.

I finished this in October, 2016, for my 7-year-old pink obsessed daughter. I have never used pre-cuts before so I decided to try out the step-in-time pattern with 2 jelly rolls. I have to say, I will never buy pre-cuts again. The cuts were so out of true that I ended up having to go back and trim every square before sewing them together. Instead of 5x5" squares, I trimmed down to 4.5" inch squares. I originally tried to talk my daughter into a jelly roll with aqua blue contrast, but she really wanted the fabrics that she picked. I didn't like it. Happily, I tossed some of the border fabric onto the surface and realized all could be saved with a few appliques.



Pink Hearts Stitch Detail

The Great T-Shirt Extravaganza!

I've seen a lot of wonderful t-shirt projects posted to pinterest. I decided to try my hand at some of the techniques out there and see how I fared. Hence the great t-shirt project. These t-shirts were made for 2 7-yr-old girls.

Materials List:
t-shirts - all shirts purchased from Dharma Trading. The plain white t-shirt is particularly nice — very soft and a more stylish fit than what you might buy at the local craft store.
dyes - all dyes are Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion dyes.
Createx Airbrush Colors fabric paint
Tulip Glitter Dimensional Fabric Paint in Diamond color.
Clorox Bleach Pen
Bottled bleach (generic brand)
Tumble Dye spray dye
Silver Sharpie
Tulip Metallics Dimensional fabric paint
Stencils, both plastic and freezer paper
Various bits of cotton jersey, lace, buttons
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"Lemonade" finished July, 2016

Lemonade, as in, when life gives you lemons… This is a modern quilt block style which is surprisingly difficult to do. Blocks were constructed individually. Once done, I laid the blocks out and then pieced white strips to make the blocks a size that could be more easily sewn together.

I just finished knitting this mermaid tail couch blanket for my daughter's 7th birthday. It is knit from a free pattern by Dawn Hamilton available on ravelry. I used Lion Brand Hometown USA in color #208 Phoenix Azalea, 12 skeins. This yarn is bulkier than what the original pattern calls for. Turns out my daughter wanted something that would fit her for years to come, so I sized for a teenager. I cast on 90 stitches. This is a stitch increment that is supported by the pattern although all of the row counts are off. I went with "that looks about right" in determining rows. The yarn is really a beautiful choice for this pattern and produced a thick and cozy blanket.

When I had my daughter, we got a bunch of cute baby outfits with matching bibs. My husband and I were like "why is everyone giving us bibs?" At 4 months we found out why all the bibs. And for the most part they were really lame. Cute but lame. They hung down too low. They were cotton jersey mostly and would immediately soak through. Once wet, she would cry because her chest would be coated in wet cloth. Once the food started, the bibs with food pockets didn't work for us because she didn't drop food. Instead, she was a juice spiller. The day care center had this massive supply of plain terry bibs. When the babies arrived in the morning they would get bibbed up and stay that way all day. The bibs were big enough to cover their clothes and tight enough to catch whatever dribbled off the chin. I took that bib and made a pattern and started making my own bibs. Fast forward some years and a friend is having a baby. And yes, I am the bib goddess. Below the pile of bibs. There are smaller "drool" bibs. Those are 100% cotton terry or cotton jersey backed with PUL so they are absorbent and won't soak through to the clothes. Then there are the food bibs. Those are cotton laminate on one side for the messy food smear-ers. On the other side they are cotton jersey or polyester micro-fiber for soaking up juice spills. The collar portion has been extended to accommodate extra snaps so that they are adjustable. If you are going to the trouble of hand making bibs, you want those bibs to last until you don't need them any more. I own a snap press and am able to affix a high quality snap. I prefer snaps because velcro closures get stuck on everything in the wash. But velcro is easier and more accessible. Sometimes you have to go with what you have. Sewing with pul and laminate can be difficult. The laminate sticks to the presser foot and the pul shifts terribly on the side that is slick. Couple this with jersey and you can end up with a mess. I found it's easier to cut out one bib and then sew it to a square of fab ric (last photo). This gives the layers room to shift without actually distorting the bib. Once the layers are stitched together you trim away the excess as you would normally.

I am a recent Alabama Chanin fan and finally worked up the nerve to make one of their projects. This is a poncho from the "Alabama Studio Sewing & Design" book. I had a tough time doing the embroidery they way the book suggests (2 strands doubled over to make 4 strands). Once I switched to my old 3 strand embroidery, I was off and running. The whole project took me about a month from start to finish which included printing and cutting a stencil.

Looking at my photos, it is clear that I need to have a blank wall and decent lighting if I'm going to keep posting photos.

This is a baby gift for a friend. It's knitted from the crystal palace tri-corner baby hat pattern. Here I used Blue Sky Alpacas dyed cotton. It's a bit big for a baby and should have been sized down just a tad but will be ok if it goes over one of those stocking caps they give you in the hospital.

Here is a little bit of craftiness I did with my daughter for teacher appreciation week. The idea came from a craft post on making easter basket carrots. It sort of looks like an apple. Inside had a little bag of lemoncello almonds from Costco (which are really quite yummy). An easy way to dress up a little something.