diamond's people

science is fun useful!*

2011-04-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

so i have this lovely silver tea service that was my grandmother's, which i've been meaning to polish since high school (which, if we're generous, was 10 years ago...)

and i've decided that i'm finally going to get it done, but hate polishing stuff, and it's super yuk to be around, so i took to google to see if there was a way to make my own (non-toxic-y) silver polish, and google did me one better...i can make my own silver DIP! so i don't even have to polish, i can just soak. which is exactly my speed. tested it on a small scale with my bracelet last night, and it seemed to work relatively well, so i'm going to go big tonight...

so, it totally worked, right before my eyes, score! the coffee pot still needs some work, but i think that this is good enough for now. better than a half-assed attempt, but not quite full assed. also, as i was doing some (very slight, let's be honest) buffing, i thought "this would have been the better part of some poor woman's job back in the day" and that made me VERY happy that it wasn't even slightly part of my job description.

*while the watching it un-oxidize before my eyes was kind of fun, this was also work, so more useful than fun. although i do recognize that science is, in fact, fun...just not in this instance.

i feel like a legitimate sewer today!

2011-04-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

sewist? sewer? anyhow! this morning, i patched the knee of my favourite jeans. just decided that i really actually needed to finally do it, and that i wanted to wear them, so i bit the bullet and patched them up, bam! look:

exciting

2011-03-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

i got this today:

sock theory

2011-03-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

SO, i'm sure that we've all heard of the infamous "second sock syndrome" whereby one gets bored after the first sock and then still has to make a second sock to end up with a pair. i was telling a colleague the other day that i'd come up with (during my insane sock knitting for everyone at christmas last year) for circumventing the sss. so here's my theory:

1. knit sock one (pair one).
2. knit sock one (pair two).
3. by the time you get back to pair one to knit the second sock, it's new and interesting again.
4. by the time you get back to pair two, ditto.
5. you end up with two pairs of socks, and aren't bored.

so. it works, in theory. it was working for my co-worker-knitter, until she was sidetracked by another sock that she just couldn't resist. and being the good person i am, i definitely made fun of her.

confession: i'm really no better. i'm most of the way through a pair of socks, and have a work project, the wispy cardigan, and somehow still managed (in a day and a half), to start a knitted tutu, a pair of baby booties, and another pair of socks.

sigh. my name is katrina, and i have a problem. :) my problem is that i have a christmas' worth of sock yarn in the basement. and a short attention span. at least they will get done well in time for christmas...?

2011-03-16T18:08:00.001-07:00

buzzzzbuzzbuzz. finally finished some long overdue bee blocks, which means that up next i really need to get my butt in gear to ge my bee quilt blocked and sashed ASAP for our quilt show in 8 weeks. it needs to be finished at least enough to be measured for registration by april 10th...less than a month from now. totally doable, right?

textured block

book shelf block for our (other) bee-brarian :)

and two square blocks round out the set and catch me up to date and even a tiny bit early!

and here is my quilt non-progress. same place it was about 8 months ago:

pintucks, here I come!

2011-03-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

our february challenge chez beehive (yes, that would be *last* month's challenge) is to create a textured block. so i'm going to pintuck.

and, because i still needed ravelry pics for some mittens made AGES ago, and my blog is about 80% ridiculous animal photos, i present the animals minding their own business:

and then the one that gets me on the radar of the spca...

successful party, and the cat licking his bum.

2011-03-07T20:09:00.000-08:00

it's been a full day. the man's birthday, and thus party, and the cat was so stressed, he hid under the bedsheets the whole time. but now he's leaned up against me cleaning his bum. mister man says that this shows that he's so comfortable with me that he can clean himself, and wants to be near me. i'm not sold on the idea.

anyhow, lovely party. tired, but happy. my friends are awesome, and happy moment: boys in the living room with beer and loud nerd talk, girls in the kitchen getting things ready to eat. and the boys are all capable cooks, and the girls are all modern-y career girl types. but it just made me really happy in that moment to have the house filled with noise and everyone just around, and even to be kind of weirdly traditional through no real design of our own.

introducing....the PITA twins!

2011-03-06T07:59:00.000-08:00

bah-bah-da-dahhhhhhhhh! it's:

handout

and THE KITTEN!

i swear, this morning, they hatched a plan that went something like this:

handout: hey, i'm locked out!
the kitten: shit, me too. they lock me out all the time.
handout: well not me! so here's what we're going to do: i'm going to sit outside and whine for a half hour or so. then, come back after an hour, when they're good and asleep again, and start up again...
the kitten: ok. you know what i finds works well for me, batting at the door. sometimes, i even jump or thow myself against it.
handout: GOLDEN. i'll paw at the door and maybe throw some small barks in with the whining.
the kitten: ok. and once you're in, i'm going to jump up on the windowsill. OH YES. i will jump onto the windowsill *scheme-y paws*
handout: done and done. then i'll get on the bed and lick them a lot.
the kitten: YES! and i'll wander aimlessly and meow, then jump up and down onto the windowsill and the bed and the windowsill and the bed, and then meow some more. AND THEY WILL WANT TO PET ME SO BAD BUT I WON'T COME.
both: MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

*end scene*

they then proceeded to carry out this plan STARTING AT 7.00 ON SUNDAY MORNING. today, i have honestly no idea why we have pets.

non-crafty

2011-02-27T18:56:00.000-08:00

but fun. look!

flea market'd today, and it was AWESOME. i've been thinking a lot about wedding registries, and about how the only thing that i really want is a mix master, and VOILA. i even bargained. cleverly, since i'd only actually brought $10 in cash with me. muahahaha! it works and everything, and has TWO different bowl sizes. i'm in business! so long as i can find somewhere for it in the cupboard, since mister man has already given me notice that it won't be staying on the kitchen table. *pout*!

ps--sorry for the crappy photo, too lazy to go find an actual camera, and my cell phone doesn't love the indoors.

i ♥ my serger

2011-02-25T17:17:00.001-08:00

it's teensy and cute and it makes me feel like a real sewer to even actually have a serger. i inherited it from a friend's mum on long term loan. and it just makes me happy. fixed up a few shirts today (with the serger, obvs), and put my sewing room more or less back together, which is nice. i might even get back to some actual sewing time in.

so this one time, my LYS totally tricked me

2011-02-05T13:20:00.000-08:00

by having this 20% off sock yarn sale. which would normally have been fine, but one of the girls from work called me after work, and left me a voicemail message at work (she leaves before I do) to tell me about this sale, which i otherwise would have missed completely. and being that my plan for next year is that EVERYONE on my list is getting socks, twenty percent off isn't a bad deal. in fact, it's such a good deal that i bought yarn for about 15 pairs of socks. because i'm clearly completely insane. but at least now i'm all set for christmas. in the first week of february. teehee!

2011-01-23T07:18:00.001-08:00

so i've been thinking that a really funny post about how i've clearly hit rock bottom--i'm sick, and have been so pathetic that i've been eating pogos (corndogs) and watching jersey shore ( :( ) and screwing up mister man's stupid koolhaas hat AGAIN, and how i'm clearly pathetic.

and then i woke up this morning thinking about a darling friend of mine, and felt that it must mean that she was gone. and she is. not unexpectedly gone, but really, finally gone. and although i'm still sick and pathetic, i'm also sad, and feel stupid about feeling so sorry for myself. because her new little family has such a gaping hole, as to all the rest of us. sigh.

oooh baby, it's cold outside.

2011-01-18T14:22:00.000-08:00

let's be realistic. it's also really cold in my house...stupid still no furnace. :( but, at least it isn't wet. and thankfully all of my bee-girls are ok, but australia is having a hard time. and crafters are helpful sorts. there is a TON of stuff up for auction:

it is mind boggling how many amazing, skilled, lovely people are offering up one of a kind, amazing, creative items for auction. so if you're so inclined, it would help a lot if you checked out what was out there that maybe you would like. and if that isn't really your bag, you can also donate directly.

reason 5039548 why i love my man

2011-01-11T04:18:00.000-08:00

i got home from my quilters' guild meeting to find my socks and underwear all clean (which keeps me from having to go to the laundromat for another little bit...) and nicely folded on the bed. i don't know why this got me, possibly something to do with the huge pink sock pellets, but loves it. :)

update, but no pictures

2010-12-29T19:19:00.000-08:00

SO, swatched, and am almost bang-on for gauge, and i am casting on sleeve stitches tonight. and this malabrigo lace with the slightly-oversized needles makes such a lovely loft of fabric, the cardigan (if it fits, of course, i don’t want to tempt the knitting gods) is going to be freaking GORGEOUS. srsly. i’ve also been encouraged by my lys (not having the needles i wanted, but having lovely staff) to try the magic loop method. the girl was adorable. she was like “youtube videos. you’ll learn it in two seconds and save a bundle on needles!”, so that’s good. but in looking it up, i actually came across this traveling loop method, which the girl says she “unvented”, which i think is adorable, and seems more my speed than two loops and stress. so i’m going to give it a whirl with my LURVELY chiaogoo needles (which, btw, i will be buying exclusively from now on. not only is the cable the nicest i’ve used (including addi and hiyahiya), but it’s RED! you can’t get better than that) tonight! :)

in other news, i may have added every single knitting pattern ever to my ravelry queue, and i’ve cast on for a baktus scarf in recycled sari silk yarn, which is gorgeous. despite the misgivings of one of the knitting crew at work (she did one similar and said that it made a scarf that’s annoyingly heavy), i’m going to keep plugging away on it, because, dammit, i’ve already started! plus, i’m honestly not sure what else this sari silk yarn would be nice for if not a scarf. so a scarf it is!

finally, sad news: i’m going to have to spend all weekend packing up my laundry room/crafting space/spare-spare room. and it’s all going to have to go somewhere else in the house. it’s a basement space, and we’ve got mold. :( so yeah. all the yarn, the fabric, the sewing machine, the spare couch…all has to find a new home somewhere else in the house. and no access to the sewing machine for a few weeks. thankfully christmas crafting has come and gone, and all the babies are (currently) accounted for with gifts. and mister man? he hates clutter more than anything else EVAR. it’s going to be a super awful couple of weeks of crap crammed all over the place and me maybe having no dressing room, and so him being woken up when i get up to go to work so that i can get dressed. the only upside: we rent, so we don’t have to pay for any of the cleanup ourselves. oh, and the guys said that they could work around the washer and dryer so that we could leave them in the laundry room. because really, i was NOT impressed with the idea of having to move them our of the basement and having to find somewhere else to put them in the slightest.

i know that this is bad, but don’t judge me.

2010-12-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

i’ve never swatched before. ok, well a couple of times, but not properly. (clearly, since these garments have since been frogged...) le sigh. so now i’ve gotten some delicious yarn for christmas (malabrigo lace), and would like to make an actual sweater that fits. (i know, crazy talk. but still.) so i’ve decided that i really, really need to just bite the bullet and swatch.

problem number 1: i don’t know how to swatch properly…thankfully google’s got my back. go first result!

problem number 2: i’m knitting with lace yarn, and all i want to do is really start my project! but i persevere. and may have a swatch done sometime this week and i can cast on for reals...

and on a less whiny note: christmas crafting was a success. everyone seemed to like what they got, and there was only SLIGHT being made fun of, courtesy of my dad who got some special socks last year, since they were the first pair i'd ever knitted...

2010-12-23T20:41:00.000-08:00

so crafting fail. spectacular fail. long story short. my stupid effing february lady sweater from a gazillion (two) years ago, FINALLY got finished, but with a dropped stitch somewhere that spidered over a HUGE area, and so i'm SO frustrated with the whole thing, that i'm going to just pull the whole thing up! take THAT february lady sweater*.

i also started a raglan sweater ages ago, but CLEARLY didn't swatch well enough (AT ALL!), and so will also be frogging that. merry christmas me!

*the pattern is actually quite, QUITE lovely, it's just not happening in this particular instance...

(detour from crafting)

2010-12-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

but only so far as the pets, which is pretty much my secondary mandate, so i feel like that's ok.

so i bought this cat cylinder-like-bed-thing, back when we had sophie, and neither of our cats has ever shown the LEAST interest in it, which annoys me an unreasonable amount, because i think that it's pretty awesome, and i would like it if i were a cat, dammit! so i keep trotting it back out to try and make sequoia love it, because EFFING LIKE IT YOU STUPID CAT, essentially.

and we seem to have taken a turn:

but i shouldn't complain, because at least someone likes it? although i could REALLY do without the constant dirty look because REALLY, i could have thought of someone other than myself and gotten a reasonable size so that she doesn't have to curl up into her tiniest little ball to sleep IN the stupid thing...and also, her interest in it has increased the cat's interest, since he likes anything his big dog-sister is doing, which is also pretty adorable.

oh christmas tree...

2010-12-21T17:01:00.000-08:00

not that we have one. we have a kitteh instead. but anyhow. i'm not really feeling the spirit, to be totally honest. but, i got the christmas lights up, have only one more gift to finish with, ~~as well as one gift to finish knitting,~~ (BOOYAH) and i'm finally DONE baking stupid cookies for the work cookie exchange. and i only burnt myself once. :)

nothing particularly crafty to report. sick of socks.

the best part of having too many projects started

2010-12-16T18:51:00.000-08:00

is getting to see them all come together and be finished.

a bee block, which is quite nice looking, but only from a distance. this block was just awful for me, not too sure why, but i was nowhere near getting it to lay flat. :(

another bee block, which turned out much better, and had FABULOUS fabrics. i have to do something in gray and yellow!

two sets of maplelea doll blanket and pillow sets for my nieces, to go with the beds that we got them:

and i'm hoping that every day will bring something more done: a cowl, two pairs of socks, and a hat are still on the list for christmas, and are all in various stages of completion.

reasons why i should not start projects on friday evening:

2010-12-10T18:26:00.000-08:00

1--i'm tired and consequently, and without fail, fuck them up and end up spending the better part of the evening with the seam ripper, which is NOT good times. this has been true ever since i was a little sewer on my mom's old singer in the basement of our house back in the day.

and tonight is no different. i'm nothing if not consistent.

i couldn't bear to look at another sock, and have decided to make doll blankets for my neices. i had decided on pinwheels, which means half-square triangles. which i'm totally familiar with, and love. so in looking at sizing (add 5/8". five-eigths of an inch?? GUH @ quilters! but onwards.), i found this grid pattern thinger. so easy! FRIDAY EASY!

cut my pieces. drew my grid, sew, sew, sew. snag. out of bobbin thread, fine, move on. snag: i'm an idiot. harder to get over, unfortunately. instead of these lovely half-square triangles:

i managed to make a stack of quarter-square-good-for-nothings:

and of course, the inevitable date with my seam ripper. good times.

what a bunch of whiners over here

2010-12-03T04:23:00.000-08:00

so i had started a koolhaas for mister man, but somehow managed to screw something up about three rows back, not notice, then notice, then think "maybe it'll be ok" and cable another row, and that somehow magically didn't fix it. so i was so angry that i needed to just put it down.

but i made the mistake of telling him that the hat was for him, and he's fresh out of hats presently (he's lost them all, somehow), so everty time he sees me knitting something, he looks sad and asks if it's his hat (because he has no hat, and it's cold out). and i have to tell him again that i screwed up his nice project and still can't bring myself to look at it, but he'll have a hat soon...

so last night, it finally occurred to me that i could get my brother-in-law gifts (hats) off my needles really quickly if i just made the yarn bulkier (DUH!), but then mister man noticed that there were hats, and was all "what about MY hat, i don't have a hat..."

so now he does:

and, it was all tucked up next to his pillow this morning when i got up, so he clearly wore it to bed! it's nice to be loved. or at least for the knitting to be loved...

also, on my way to stealthily (more or less) photograph the hat in its new natural environment, the cat was also being a big whiny baby, and kept throwing himself in front of me to play:

ps--sorry for such grainy photos, not sure what my problem last night was...

i ♥ my work(place)

2010-11-29T15:43:00.000-08:00

well, i ♥ my work too, but still. my workplace is just adorable. we've started knitting twice a week, and we're going to start a knitalong. and even though i'm at home watching columbo (for reals) and knitting with the dog curled up with me and the cat watching for his opportunity to git my yarn, i was thinking of my work knitting cuties. and it makes me happy. especially with all of our mounting christmas knitting.

knitting like a fiend

2010-11-28T17:14:00.000-08:00

so i've finished stockpiling bibs like it's 1999 (assuming, of course that y2k had more to do with spit up than mass chaos...), and now i've moved onto the insane christmas rush. which i was determined to avoid this year, and so started knitting christmas socks (6 pairs) for stocking stuffers in august. AUGUST. so that i wouldn't be rushing like last year.

and then, the group gift for mister man's family didn't work out, and now i've got 5 more adult gifts to figure out, and four gifts for our little neices. oh my! BUT, this *did* mean that i had good reason to get to a yarn store! :D and a craft show.

hit up the ottawa guild of potters annual christmas sale. and got some fabulous wine tumblers, as well as some mugs for mister man, which he didn't expressly say that he wanted, but i wanted to get for him, so that's what he's getting. and then the girls and i hit up wabi sabi, FREAKING FINALLY. none of us had ever been, and i got the last of the yarn that i needed for the adult gifts, including a cowl, a scarf, and two boy hats.

still not sure what the girls are getting. they are 5, 7, 9 & 11, so quite a range. maybe i'll sew something, since that's faster (unless i have to have to pull it up and start again...).

so yeah. no pictures, but lots of plans. good thing that we're knitting two days a week at lunch at work. PLUS, so exciting: there is talk about starting a knitalong in the new year. i've always wanted to be a part of a knitalong, but somehow have never managed to get on board with one...

so i've been doing stuff...

2010-11-21T16:46:00.000-08:00

i swears!

started a knitting club at work! yay! so i'm getting my christmas sock knitting all finished up nicely. huzzah! thankfully, no one on my knitting list reads my blog. teehee. :)

and i've been getting baby things done up the wazoo. stockpiling bibs like it's 1999. and then the y2k was more about spit-up and less about computers. (no picture, they weren't turning out nicely.)

and i've been baby blanket'ing it up. unfortunately, no stockpile. that's my plan for the next year since a lot of people i know are getting married and knocked up. it's a bit surreal. but it ends up with cute knits and baby blankets:

this was my first dresden plate, which i made from amy's tutorial and a pattern that i made up out of bristol board. the part about pinning it flat was ESPECIALLY helpful.

and this is my first try at a values quilt, and in the sunlight it looks like it REALLY worked out well! :) i will for sure be making another one of these...

and i'm out. (like elvis.)

2010-11-11T12:54:00.000-08:00

ooh, i forgot! i have cute pictures of the cat (who is pretty freaking awesome when he stays away from the yarn and stops meowing in the morning) from halloween. the dog got locked in the sewing room with me all night, barking her face off, and the cat spent all night here:

because he was afraid of the barking. poor little monkey!

sharing the yarn love

2010-11-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

i've been knitting a lot lately, and have been able to share the yarn love a LOT--we've got a knitting group at work, i've got great ladies to knit with at home, i dragged a few people to a recent fibrefest, and i'm even getting the cat and the boy into it. it turns out that in another life, the cat and i would have been fast friends, what with our mutual love of yarn. sadly, in this life: the cat is a complete a-hole who rips my yarn apart if i leave it anywhere lower than the top of the bookshelf. SIGH. i'm figuring it out, but not without frustration, sadly.

BUT, i've been getting all kinds of things finished, and even more started. the girl at the yarn store has started making fun of me for turning up so often! i've uploaded some photos, but don't really have anything interesting, since i just remembered that i forgot to photgraph the two baby quilts that i just finished.

more soon!

2010-11-04T17:29:00.000-07:00

oh blogging...how i have missed you. same old same old, with an added whinge about my computer giving out again a bit. managed to miss blogtoberfest, which makes me a bit sad. i've also been missing writing.

but, i've been crafting up a storm, and will have tons of pics soon. :) baby things galore, and i've started christmas knitting, and i just found out that almost everyone at work is crafty too, so we might start a lunch-time knitting club, which i think would be simply divine!

all for now, mostly a post for myself to assuage some of the guilt and get myself back here.

2010-08-20T14:43:00.000-07:00

i am up to date on all of my committments, and am ahead on the baby gear that i've been knitting. have a ton of bibs to make, but they're easy to whip up. and i've got a whole weekend to ease up and do not much. and by "not much", i mean "a whole lot of crafting". it's going to be great.

ho.ly.hell.

2010-05-15T09:24:00.000-07:00

that's how i'm feeling. i've been traveling a lot for my new job (as if a new job wasn't busy enough, but i've been on three trips in the last month and a half, and have another one coming up in june), and i'm tired. not to mention unkepmt and not-at-all crafty.

PLUS, it's wedding central here, and frankly, that's tiring me out too. i don't feel like i've had any time to just be at home. and we got a new kitten (who is freaking ADORABLE, even when i want to kill him at 5.30 this morning when he was trying to play with my hand. with his claws.), and he didn't want to come say hello when i got home last night, and he's gotten bigger, and the dog is all freaked out that i've been gone so much (maybe this time she won't come home...? every time i leave the front door), and i haven't been seeing the boy, and the sewing machine is WAY at the bottom of the list, which makes me sad.

but, not to be too whiny: i've seen some amazing stuff, and my job is challenging and great, and i'm thinking that i might even like owning a cat. once he learns to sleep through the night, and i train the boy to not get mad at me when i tell the cat to shut up in the middle of the night.

i think that i might have some pictures to post tomorrow. because i will have time tomorrow to craft a bit (YAY!) and also to FINALLY upload pictures from my camera. :)

thanks for listening to my whining, internets.

kind of quilting bee fail recovery...

2010-04-21T17:16:00.000-07:00

SO, i'm not quite so behind on my bee blocks. although EVERY block that i tried today was some kind of fail. possibly something to do with being home sick for the last FIVE days, and still not being 100%. at least, that's the story i'm telling. i finally, FINALLY had some energy back, and thought that it would be good to catch up on some sewing. not catch up on laundry or house cleaning, no, no. the sewing machine. :)

first up was what i thought would be the easiest, a monkey wrench and a shoo-fly block:

if you notice, there's just one block there. yep. i managed to run out of fabric. and i swear that i followed the directions *exactly*! :( off to an excellent start.

on to an epic block fail. my genius...cut the fabric for paper piecing and THEN realised that i couldn't just mirror everything, because fabric has a right side and a wrong side. enter S,M,S and some more fabric, and the block FINALLY came together, althoguh not without some seam picking because i sewed the blocks together backwards. BUT, i REALLY like the block, and the fabrics Catherine picked were just gorgeous.

then on to what should not have been a block fail since all it consisted of was sewing scraps on a pre-cut template. but there was seam-picking here as well, and i'm not sure that i love the end result. i think that i didn't do a super job on the fabrics, but she wanted it to be scrappy, and no matter what i did, it won't match what everyone else did, and that's the point, right? or something. but i *do* love the spiderweb blocks, SO cute! i will definitely be doing this block for something. something small-ish, i think...

and then, since i was on a roll, i started cutting for some pillowcases for our throw pillows to go with our new couch. didn't get very far since i only had so much of our fabric pre-washed (since i wanted to test washing the upholstery fabric, and only wanted to possibly ruin some of it, not all of it). they're going to be cute!

and now for the best news: i think that i'm feeling well enough and sounding well enough that i can re-integrate with society tomorrow! :D my shadow will be sad, since she's spent the last 5 days napping with me and insisting that we dog park RIGHTNOW...hard life.

spring to finish...?

2010-04-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

jacquie's hosting another "blank-to-finish", and i'm usually pretty enthusiastic. but i'm not today. i should be, but i'm sick, and i haven't been sewing much, and i'm behind in my bees, and yeah. i have one top that needs to be sandwiched and quilted, one wedding quilt that needs to be start-to-finished, a baby blanket ditto, and now two sets of quilting bee blocks from my lovely bee'ers that need to have something done with them. i'm not sure why i'm not just independently wealthy so that i can spend all day at my sewing machine, srsly.

plus, my little blog is terribly neglected.

also...

2010-02-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

i accidentally effed up the stupid formatting for my stupid blog, and that's at least half the reason why i haven't been here at all. SO.ANNOYED.

oh.mai.hell.

2010-02-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

so i've been ages. and i haven't really been present here at all. or a lot present in craftiness. but i'm here for the moment. i've had a bit of crafting sucess. i'm at least monstly caught up with my bees:

and i've been getting some baby stuffs done...

these bibs are SO tiny! i can't believe that i know people who are going to be in charge of people who are going to be small enough to fit into these bibs.

and i'm getting some wedding stuff done for my bride. and i just realised that next month is my month for one of my bees, so i'm going to have to start cutting up fabric and making out instructions. exciting, but scary!

and so ends another weekend.

2009-12-06T17:41:00.000-08:00

and we're a week closer to christmas. and i didn't get "enough" done on my gifts, whatever that magic total would be. BUT, i did get blocks done for my bee!

*untrimmed because i didn't want to screw it up by accident*

not so sure i love this one

and i got the bias tape onto the baby quilts, and some of the edging sewn down.

the preemie quilts

another baby quilt made up of the same blocks.

and i even had a bit of help from the dog.

yes, that would be old polyfill batting that she is sleeping in. :|

still no pictures!

2009-12-05T09:04:00.000-08:00

i'm so boring lately. no, really, i am. almost all the crafting i've been doing has been gift-related, which necessitates a lack of blogging pictures. :( but never fear, tonight i sew, and that can definitely have pictures. i've got the baby quilt and the three preemie quilts basted, and lots of bias tape to bind with all ready to go. the holdup: i have to wind bobbins again. bleh! and, i've also got some blocks to make for my bee, so that should keep me out of trouble tonight. and, i've got LOTS of time to craft, since i have to be up until at least 1 to pick up mister man and his mummers from the airport. not ideal timing, but i'll take any chance i can to get more crafting done, really. and, tomorrow is gloriously all mine for crafting, minus a bit of time to be spent putting snow tires on the car, with the (hopefully!) gracious help of my brother. :)

i'z be crafty biotches.

2009-12-02T16:01:00.000-08:00

that's right, plural. that's just how i'm rolling. going to quilt, and hopefully it will calm me down a bit. bad day at work. over work. independently wealthy please?

winter's coming...

2009-11-29T14:22:00.000-08:00

there is snow in the forecast for EVERY.DAY. next week. thankfully, i have enough projects to allow me to hunker down and never.leave.the.house.again. ideally, of course.

yay intarwebs again!

2009-11-28T17:30:00.000-08:00

so FINALLY my intarwebs seem to working again, which is AWESOME. i've been waiting to upload a bazillion pictures, and finally get back to blogging, it's been SO long!

i have this lingering photo of the kaffee fasset-esque quilt as it was just finished on our bed. it's keeping us nice and warm. :)

all the junk IS on mister man's side of the bed, but not by design. probably the only time ever this will happen, so good thing i caught it on film...;)

DE-linquent!

2009-11-26T05:41:00.000-08:00

oh well. i'm here now, so what more do you want?

i'm doing well with jacquie's challenge . my wedding quilt is finished, and my friend was up this past weekend, so already got to enjoy it:

the baby blanket is basted, with an ADORABLE old sheet on the back, which i'm glad that i got to use in a cute setting...and with the leftover wedding quilt blocks, i've basted three preemie quilts for my guild's charity stuff. i'm hoping to have the quilting done on all three of these this weekend, and i have more than enough bias tape from the bias tape extravaganza of '09 to be able to bind all of these as well. YAY!

christmas knitting is also coming along: two projects finished, two more on the go, seven more waiting in the wings and then i'm DONE! sounds like it's going well, right? ;)

in other news, upholstery [class] has finished, although upholstery is not quite finished. le sigh.

2009-11-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

the quilt, she is quilted. the binding is sewn on, and the night will be spent in pursuit of finishing hand stitching it down.

and, the socks march on. and i'm half done my mother-in-law's gift, and my mum's gift is done. still up, both sister-in-laws, both brother-in-laws, mister man, my brother, and crowns for two little nieces. but i think that it will come together quickly, so long as i keep my head down and keep going. and the next couple of weeks are going to provide a LOT of extra crafting time, which is quite exciting. :D

PLUS, for jacquie's joy in the new year challenge, the wedding quilt will make one finish, and i re-pieced the baby top with the leftover blocks from the wedding quilt, so that's almost ready to go, and next up there will be a border for the vintage sheet quilt, adn then i'll be ready to rent long-arm time and try my hand at that, which is pretty exciting.

finally, november is my month for bee addicted 3, and the girls are just making THE MOST AMAZING blocks. see here!

ketchup..

2009-11-07T08:54:00.000-08:00

so i've been crafting a bit, but mostly secret, christmas-y sort of crafting. so no pictures of that, because you really never can tell who is lurking about. ;)

i also need to commit to my UFO project for jacquie's joy in the new year challenge. i've got four ufos that i'm committing to, in pretty much every stage of un-finished-ness.

the wedding quilt, which will have to be done by november 21st, which is when my bride is coming to visit. it's half-quilted, so this is at least feasible, especially now that the lights in my sewing room work again.

then, there's the vintage sheets quilt, which will need to have a border added to it, and then will need to be quilted. i'm not totally sure what i'm doing with it yet, but i think that it might be a good candidate for trying out the quilt shop's long arm rental.

the third is the baby quilt with the leftover blocks from the wedding quilt, which was all ready to go when mister man had an unfortunate bleach incident. now it's picked to pieces waiting for replacement blocks to go in. thankfully i have a TON of replacement blocks, so it should be pieced in no time.

finally is the whirlygiggle baby quilt, which is still in the same states as last time i thought about it--i have a few blocks done, but need to figure out what fabrics i would like to use for the rest of the quilt. so far, i have no inspiration, but we'll see.

and this will take care of my ufos for a while. i've still got jane in the back of my mind, but i'm in no particular hurry there. and, after all, there is a lot of christmas crafting to be done.

blogtoberfest: the post-mortem

2009-10-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

the thing about blogtoberfest was that it started out fun, and i was posting all kinds of fun things. and then it got to be a bit of an obligation. and then i was still doing it, but it wasn't fun. and then i wasn't doing it at all. but now i feel like i'm ready to come back. and i've got stuff to say. lots of pictures after this weekend. i've started christmas crafting, and have some birthday crafting to get done, and some wedding quilting and some regular quilting, and i'm pretty excited for this weekend!

holy bias tape, batman!

2009-10-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

the girls came over this morning for some crafting. we were planning on making it an uber-productive morning of getting our christmas crafting underway, but it ended up being a lot of chatting and eating and less crafting than anticipated. although i have little voice left, i call it a success!

i also finished up with my bias tape adventure of yesterday afternoon, and that was a success. extremely time consuming, but i now have (hopefully!) enough to finish up the two queen-sized quilts i have waiting, so that's good. going to get at binding one of them, since hand sewing the back of the binding is an EXCELLENT way to spend a damp saturday evening. ;)

my new bebeh...

2009-10-23T11:38:00.000-07:00

i got a new iron today. it has some weird special cord, which i haven't figured out yet, and auto shut-off, which i know is hotly debated, but i definitely need because i've come down several mornings to find my iron still plugged in and on, and happy for auto shut-off because the house isn't burnt down. and, it even came with its own little water pouring container, which is way cute!

plan for tonight/this weekend. i'm going to give the dread pirate rodgers' continuous binding technique, which seems highly recommended by the intarwebs. i've got two quite large quilts to finish, and a full day of crafting on tap for tomorrow, hopefully.

me and my shadow.

2009-10-22T19:34:00.000-07:00

the dogfink is just LOVING having me at home, especially because i've been knocked out, which means LOTS of napping, which just so happens to be her specialty.

this is how i found her draped over me when i woke up this afternoon.

the only downside is that she's pretty sure i'm going to sneak off ATANYMOMENT, so has to follow about 6 inches (no really, she's RIGHT there) behind me wherever i go.

i'm a crankface.

2009-10-21T16:35:00.000-07:00

i'm sick. mister man didn't walk the dog (LIKE HE SAID HE WOULD) because he was "busy" playing on the computer. and then i tried to baste my stupid quilt for the stupid wedding and I AM COMPLETELY INCAPABLE OF GETTING THE BACK TO GO ON NICELY. but now it's all spray basted with small little wrinkles all over it, and I AM SO ANNOYED. in fact, so annoyed that i threw my iron, and now it's broken, which is beyond moronic because i loved that little iron, and it worked so well, and it didn't make me feel better and now i'm sick and annoyed and have to replace my iron. adsoiagrhreajafds;lfdsaldsa

some people's children

2009-10-20T16:23:00.000-07:00

long story short, i just don't know what is wrong with people. and i know that thinking that big businesses should have ethics is the naivite incarnate, but STILL, this is just SO.WRONG.

i'be sick. :(

2009-10-20T16:03:00.000-07:00

the hat, she is done. i think that it's huge, but mister man said "she's got a huge head and a lot of hair. it's fine". with those encouraging words, i give you the hat.

now i'm going to veg in front of the tv until it's an ok time to sleep. hopefully sleep off the cold.

2009-10-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

i just *hate* balling yarn. but at the same time, i can't bring myself to pay to have it done at the store. finished a hat for my SIL, so now i just have to weave in the ends and sew the button on, and post it. next up: starting christmas knitting. i've got quite the list, but am hoping that it will come together quickly, since i don't have a TON of time left before christmas...excited to try out so many new things though as well!

blogtober fail: i blame the booze.

2009-10-18T16:06:00.000-07:00

so my plan was to blog last night just before bed. but instead, we went dancing. and, as it turns out, i'm too old for clubbing anymore. but, i ran into some random people from my highschool, and we had a nice time at the concert we left the house for originally.

but it was a LOVELY weekend with my bride. we checked out some possibilities for my bridesmaid dress, and we tried some ideas for centrepieces, and i've decided YET AGAIN to get my ass back on the gym/eating well bandwagon, because the dresses were definitely not altogether flattering. but we *did* find some cute ones! and, lots of food was eaten and lots of laughing was had. :)

xo!

a fun-busy weekend ahead!

2009-10-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

this weekend might be my blogtoberfest fail moment. i've got my bride coming in from l-town, and we're DOING STUFF. hahahaha. yay! i shoulds till have time to knit some stuff, but i'm not sure about blogging...i got my hat cast on last night, and tomorrow there's a fabric flea market with notions, buttons, fabric, and knitting supplies, so i'm hoping to find a fabulous button! also, going to drag my non-crafty friend to this--she doesn't know it yet, but i'm going to bribe her with the delish goat-cheese-crack-croissants. and by bribe her, i mean: i want the crack-croissants. ;) then, TRYINGONDRESSES (me). mebbe i'll post pictures if they aren't terrible. and if we remember a camera. sometimes we're clever like that. and then friends coming over and a concert. and then mebbe brunch. a lot of our activities seem to centre around food! i'm pretty looking forward to the weekend, even if it means that my scale will be a B on monday morning!

i'm glad that my mom doesn't read my blog

2009-10-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

because when she sees i've been up "too late", she calls me to admonish me for it, usually after getting an 11.30 email from me (like last night). it's cute, but also makes me feel bad. and i'm blogging late AGAIN, while madly (ok, half-assedly) trying to cast on a cute little hat so that i feel like i'm doing SOMETHING crafty with my life! also, i've got a last-minute birthday gift to make for my SIL, because mister man recently told me that she had apologized for still not having sent me MY b-day gift. me, being the ungrateful brat that i am promptly was like "crap, that means i have to get her something!" and then felt guilty because the whole time she was here, she kept saying how much hand-made gifts meant to her and that she liked them so much more than bought gifts, and any time i wanted to make her anything, etc. so after that, i can't NOT make her something, you know? so i emailed a few crafty friends with a desperate "what can i make FAST" and they pointed me here, which is perfect because it's way cute, and my SIL is in edmonton, and it's bloody cold over there already, so it will be functional too! :) and with that, i'm going to CO 80, and sleeeeeeeeeep.

blogtoberfest: just under the wire!

2009-10-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

huzzah! blogtoberfest win. upholstery: good, although not as productive as i'd hoped. book sale at work: good, except for some co-worker whining. back slightly sore. weather: obnoxious. snowing. :( bed now.

booktoberfest

2009-10-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

today was the sorting session for our work's annual book sale (for charity). it's AWESOME, although it's only my second year doing it, i just love it. a change from the everyday, pawing through a million books, many of which i probably want..you get the idea. i actually only found 2 that i wanted, but so much fun! and it's going to make the week go by super quickly, which is awesome cuz this weekend miss a comes! so yeah. that's all. :)

clever-like-a-fox-toberfest

2009-10-12T18:03:00.000-07:00

today's post is brought to you by my hilarious incompetence! so i'm blogging from mister man's computer because he's in bed not feeling well watching a movie on my laptop. and blogging about my quilting bee blocks wouldn't really be that much fun without...pictures of my quilting bee blocks. hilarity ensues. long story short, i managed to set one of my bee blocks as his desktop photo. and i can't figure out how to change it back, so giggling, i changed it to me and him tiled across his screen. now to see how long until he notices/calls me out on it and i have to fess up to my crafty-nerdiness.

so my first block comes from belinda at the beehive. she was so organized, and her instructions were wonderful--she'd even made a pdf and emailed it and included a print copy in our packages. and i still think that i fucked it up. mind doesn't look at ALL like the others (well, it kind of does. i mean, i pieced it right, it just looks...off...)

i don't know why i had such a hard time piecing this, but i laid it out with different fabrics in different places like 10 times, and it just never looked quite right. i hope that it isn't terribly out of place with all the rest. :(

i also had enough left over for a 9.5" log cabin-y block, as requested.

and then i started on the wonky star block for brioni at bee addicted 3. this bad boy started out as one of those "seemed like a good idea at the time" ideas. Brioni had asked for wonky stars, and made the mistake of saying that she didn't care what the configuration was, so long as the block came out to 12.5"...so yeah. my block was ambitious, and looks great, but has a LOT of seams! which, in retrospect, i should have pressed all open, but i really wanted the ones IN the blocks to be perfectly matching, so i pressed them in opposite directions, but that made things quite bulky. ANYHOW. it'll be fine once it's quilted, it's just doing its own thing right now...as well, i feel bad because everyone here seemed more than able to make two blocks with the fabric bri sent, but i only managed to turn out one, with VERY little leftover. i'm not sure that i'm up to snuff with these bee ladies. next month, i suppose!

in other news: the man is sick, the dog has been limping and is a suckface, and i don't think that i've eaten a vegetable all day. sigh! better tomorrow, although with less crafting, i suppose.

blogtoberfest, lazy sunday edition

2009-10-11T09:52:00.000-07:00

oh my. we had our thanksgiving dinner last night, and i ate far too much, and now i'm feeling bloated and lazy...still. but it IS sunday, and so a lazy day. except that i've got to clean a bit, and i'm going to get going on the blocks for my two bees. i've started on a HUGE block for belinda. they're going to be 18.5" square, which is by far the biggest block i've ever put together, and despite several explanations of the VERY SIMPLE directions for the block, i'm kind of confused. i've got it laid out and it's according to the pattern, but i feel like it still is different from everyone else's blocks....will post pics later, and see. :)

also, i just can't believe how lovely everyone at the quilt festival are with their nice comments. i can't wait to start checking out everyone else's and getting some more inspiration, which is just what i need!

blogtoberfest, NOMtoberfest

2009-10-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

this weekend is canadian thanksgiving, and i'm already starting in on the food. diamonddog and i started out early this morning to get park'd, wine'd and going early enough to beat the crowd, as well as to come home and bake before heading to the rents' place for dinner tonight. so far, i've got a spinach, feta & bebeh shrimp quiche done, and pumpkin spice cookies in the oven. but it turns out that the cookie recipe that i had was more of a cake-cookie recipe, so i'm going to just make cake out of it, and hope that it turns out to be yum. yum with cream cheese icing.

i'm also hoping that this weekend will have some good crafting in it as well. i HAVE to get started on sandwiching the wedding quilt for the wedding LAST APRIL. sigh. and, i really need to get started on figuring out what i'm making people for christmas. :P

blogtoberfest: oh yeah!

2009-10-09T16:11:00.000-07:00

i kind of forgot to update re: my birthday weekend. i went down to l-town to visit with my lady, miss a (aka bride numero two) over my birthday weekend, and much fun was had. she asked me to be her maid of honour, which of COURSE, i said yes to (silly monkey, of course i would say yes!!), but i'm also stressed about, cuz i might have to speech, and i'm not a good train fluffer, and you don't get much practice time with that. it's like a one shot deal, day-wise. i gather that in that one day, there are many opportunities to hone the train fluffing skillz, but still. i digress.

ANYHOW. much fun was had. we bridal show'd. the only photo i took, which had to be done, was of this lovely cake topper:

and yes, that WOULD be the bride dry humping the groom. on top of your wedding cake. dream? i think so! it kind of upstaged the "classic" bride-dragging-groom-to-the-alter behind it. also noteworthy: the amount of camouflage wedding things you can get. like a guest book. saw that. why you would WANT that tho, escaped me.

next up, we birthday partied with all of the lovely crew down in london--her friends are just DOLLS, and i took this photo. it's a self portrait. of me. grasping her cat like i'm an over-eager 5 year old. and the cat is thrilled to be wearing the tiara that i got because i was the birthday girl. and because i spent the week leading up to the weekend of bridal shenanigans talking about how i really needed to get a tiara just to wear around places. anyhow, here's jel, the most patient cat ON.THE.PLANET.

also, the group was amazed that the cat put up with all this (although he IS a bit of an attention whore) and that i didn't get bit. i think that adrian actually offered to bite me for the cat, since he thought i really deserved it.

this post takes care of a shout out to my lil' bride, and a lovely weekend, and totally justifies the RIDICULOUS photos i took on my cell phone camera, and have subsequently saved as my background photos for my phone. :)

2009-10-09T12:35:00.000-07:00

here is my quilt submission. i meant to submit it last spring, but then missed the date, and felt silly about it! so i'm starting early this time around.

this quilt is more or less a denyse schmidt quilt, and it was a gift for one of my bestest girls. it was also one of my first forays into lovely designer fabric--amy butler in pinks and oranges. the orange especially is out of my comfort zone, but it was SUPER easy to choose because the colours were all in the one fabric range, and i just love how the colours come together here.

i had the quilt professionally quilted by one of the women in my guild almost right after i decided to join the guild, so that was a good way to meet people. and she was even extra nice to me as a new quilter when she had to call me to tell me i'd measured the backing wrong and would need to bring her an extra 10" strip of fabric (the pink fabric that isn't striped), which was actually pretty hilarious because now the back has this stupid stripe at one end, because i can't count, and i certainly cannot add. but i think (and my friend whose quilt it is also thinks) that this just adds to the charm of the quilt. and, i guess, it was a good learning lesson...

2009-10-08T05:06:00.000-07:00

upholstery class marches on. :)

emily's ACTUAL words "i can see you *muffled giggles*" while i'm trying to have a serious discussion with the teacher about how i'm pretty sure that i've effed up my cutting...which i had, but not that badly.

blogtoberfest numéro 7.

2009-10-07T14:34:00.000-07:00

today, i'm going to discuss my insanity at the orthodontist. i've been back and forth (long story) to my orthodontist recently. their records indicate that they haven't seen me since 1999. at which point, i was 17. IN-SANE. but the other interesting part that i've found is that going there, i totally morphed back into my 17-year-old-orthodontic self. i keep forgetting my purse--first in the waiting room, then beside the chair because when i used to go, i didn't have anything, i just went from the waiting room to the dentist's chair and my mom or dad looked after everything. and then i have to remember to pay (boo-urns!), which my parents always handled. and then deal with the appointment (and my 17-year-old self had today forgotten her agenda, which actually, my 17-year-old-self would not ever have done.), and the stupid claim forms and my jacket! all the while the staff is just shaking their head at me, because really, i guess it's not just me that this happens to, but i'm amusing about it.

and i'll leave you with this little bit of intimacy:

yes, that would be my very own teeth, plaster-casted. in fact, i already have a set of these bad boys from circa 1999 in my drawer at home. i should start a collection on a mantle or something. i just find them SOOOOOOOOO creepy, i'm not sure why. so i figure that everyone should have to look at the creepiness courtesy of my orthodontist. who isn't creepy at all, by the way.

ps--i definitely texted this photo to everyone i know with a cell phone! because today, i'm obsessed with my teeth.

blogtoberfest, dogtoberfest

2009-10-06T04:43:00.000-07:00

the dog has inspired today's blogtoberfest post because of her current insane crunching (she gets kibbles) and the fact that recently, she's been all over the map in her behaviour. she's been refusing to get up on the bed because she doesn't want to jump, and now she's taken the guesst bed to be her own personal queen-sized dog bed. she's been behaving just terribly towards other dogs while she's leashed, she's extra pathetic (even more than usual, if that's even possible...) when i'm doing anything that isn't paying 100% attention to her. i'm beyond frustrated. i think that mebbe he just needs some more attention, since i've been really quite busy lately, which makes me feel like a terrible pet owner, which i'm not, but still! at least it isn't monday, i suppose!

blogtoober: moving right along...

2009-10-05T04:51:00.000-07:00

i've finished my very first "domestic machine quilting" quilt...ta-daaaaah! (sorry it's so cell-phone-y...)

the lines aren't *perfect*, and i definitely gave up on all of the stitching that was in the original kaffe fassett quilt, but i'm quite please with how it turned out and QUITE pleased that it's done!

next up: getting the wedding quilt done. i would like to try out a long-arm machine at one of my local quilting stores so maybe the long weekend would be a good time for that. :) i just have to get the pattern all set up on it.

ooOoOOh!

2009-10-04T16:55:00.000-07:00

lovely dresden plate tutorial posted by the lovely amy over at badskirt. definitely on the to do list...

blogtoberfest: lazy sunday interrupted

2009-10-04T16:45:00.000-07:00

today would have been a perfect day for a lazy sunday: drizzly, medium cool out...sunday...but instead we took on the race, and then the sunday breakfast lineup of insanity as 10 000 people descended on ottawa breakfasteries, and then my mum and i tackled a local quilt show. i was hoping to get a kit for something easy for a stag and doe raffle quilt, but didn't find one, but i was inspired by this:

and then napped, and then finished quilting our bed quilt, and then, and then...hahaha. if i'm particularly inspired, i'm going to try and tackle this month's beehive block. :)

blogtoberfest: the one in which i've turned into my mum

2009-10-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

but in a good way, you understand. got all our team stuff ready and our shirts done up. my black marker ran out a bit more than halfway through though, so i improvised. i can remember my mum being up late doing exactly this sort of thing my whole life so that things would be unique and crafty and special. and now i'm my mum.

blogtoberfest number two:

2009-10-02T04:49:00.000-07:00

so i got home later last night, from an extra shift i picked up, walked downstairs, turned on the bedroom light and found this waiting for me.

and it creeped me out enough that my first thought was "where is my camera, people need to see this..." mister man had evidently gotten through his laundry (why we each do our own laundry is another story, nevermind) and had had some of my things in there, which he left all nicely on the tidied bed. but just one set of every type of clothing i own really did not do it for me...

so i'd just been thinking that it's been a while

2009-10-01T07:52:00.000-07:00

and this pops up! so being as i'm taking on MORE things, i thought "hey, that seems like fun..." and now i'm blogtoberfest'ing. :)

a good topic today, maybe jocktober: me and some friends and family(ies) are going to be running/walking for breast cancer on sunday, which should be fun. the more i run races, the more i discover that i love, love, LOVE me a 5k race surrounded by inordinate numbers of strangers. :) doing another 5k run at the end of the month as well, which i'm quite looking forward to! will post pics of our team (yes, we managed to organize a *team* and we're going to tart up our race tees, hopefully!) on sunday.

i'm [finally] learning patience!

2009-09-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

because the bed quilt is making me its bitch. no joke. but i'm learning patience and actually found some zen in the quilting. but not after some REALLY un-zen. i started with a hot pink on the top to contrast with the white fabric (this would be a lovely colour i chose after changing the yarn twice) and white on the back against the deep purple backing. well, the pink looked TERRIBLE, and the lines weren't straight, and I didn't like the piecing. so i started another line with white top and bottom. it looked much better, but somehow my bobbin tension was WAY off, and the back was a huge tangle. so i spent an hour and a bit picking out three and a half times of 104" long stitching. YAY! anyhow, gave up, slept, gave the quilt some room, and now am doing white top and bottom, VERY slowly, and it's coming out beautifully. 4 rows down, 50 or so to go. :)

2009-09-18T21:08:00.000-07:00

bought me some quilt basting spray, and it is THE SHIT. i'm not stellar at basting, and don't really have enough room to lay the quilt out on the floor like everyon says, especially for a queen+ quilt like i've got on the go. it took me a bit of forever, but my quilt is basted, pinned, and rolled, all ready to go for tomorrow.

AND, mister man and i managed to pick a new mattress! it's lovely, and we totally agreed on which one we liked without any major discussion--this would be a total first. our tastes kind of run a bit different. and, they're delivering it tomorrow, which is perfect because my neck is SO sore and now stinky of tiger balm.

oohoohooh!

2009-09-17T18:24:00.000-07:00

sent of my packets for my bees. hopefully they won't be too long in getting home!

next up: i've been to the 50% off sale at the fabricland, since it's a really good time to get batting and thread, both of which i desperately need. i got a bright fuschia for the quilting of the kaffee fasset-y quilt, so:

i'm making this quilt, but huge...with apple green centre squares, and white in between the squares, and then am using the fuschia thread for the plaid style quilting. on the back is going to be a royal purple with white thread. i'm hoping that it's going to be fabulous! :)

then we'll have a nice new quilt for the nice new bed we're (hopefully!) getting tomorrow. long story there, involving mold and sadness, and eventually, cricky necks...

so that's my plan for this weekend: quilting and running a 5k race that i keep forgetting about.

i just love my guild

2009-09-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

my aunt, who encouraged me to join her guild, makes going to my monthly guild meeting just adorable! she's super encouraging and thinks that i should get started trying EVERYTHING that i express interest in, which i find VERY like me and my dad (her brother), which also amuses me. she's got some patterns for some lovely things that i can try (i could TOTALLY do *that*), and some hand frames, and is always like "well, if you want to learn to hand quilt, you've got the best hand quilter in the guild sitting two seats down from you" and stuff like that, then makes me little notes about their names and stuff. it's adorable. and now i have several more projects lined up, including learning to hand quilt some things on some small frames she's going to give me. :)

bees, staples and a whole lot of chocolate

2009-09-13T17:13:00.000-07:00

today was a day for odds and ends, in addition to naps. i just love lazy sundays.

started off with some bee blocks. for mel, from the beehive, i made these three:

and then, for becca from bee addicted 3, i made some houses. becca made the mistake of telling us that we could do whatever we wanted, that she wanted any size we wanted and that we didn't need to square up the blocks because she wanted to see about putting them together. hopefully she isn't terribly annoyed when she finds these from me:

took a bit of a break for a nap and some homework from my upholstery class. i just cannot believe how many freaking staples are in this freaking chair. but it's coming along, as you can tell from the photo, probably. doesn't it look great? and i'll be all ready for next week, hopefully!

next up was a bit of gearing up for the fall. we had been given a hand-me-down full-body raincoat for the dogfink, but it needed to be pinned up a little bit because she's got stumpy little legs. she was THRILLED with the whole pinning and trying on process.

that about sums up my day today, except that i'm going to have to get back to the last of the chocolate, and maybe try to clean up around a bit, since i have no clean clothes.

2009-09-11T17:09:00.000-07:00

this weekend is going to be bee-tastic! i got my two fabric packets, and have cabins and houses to make. i've started drawing up some log cabin ideas for the beehive and i'm going to have to really think about how is best to make some little houses for bee addicted 3. happy!

also, the upholstery class has started, and what a start. emily and i have managed to have the most ambitious projects. the dog was very sad to watch her chair disappear and has been wandering the spot where it was all sadfaced. the lazyboy was extremely disgusting, but is now in pieces getting ready to be beautiful. hopefully the dog likes it when it's ready. :)

yay!

2009-09-08T19:08:00.000-07:00

i refuse to let the whole day get me down, so i'm going to post about tomorrow's excitement: e and i are embarking on a 12 week journey into the world of upholstery! i shall try to remember to snap a "before" pic of the projects in question so that the after will see all the more fab. :)

dear jane!

2009-09-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

i've started on a dear jane! i'm paper piecing it, which is going pretty well except for a few minor major setbacks last night which involved seam ripping on paper piecing. not that fun. but the blocks turned out super well:

A-1, Pinwheel gone awry

A-6, Uncle Homer

J-6, Granny weaver

working at it in no particular order and with no particular plan for colours. it's going to be scrappy and colourful with white kona cotton for the background and sashing. best part: the blocks are the same size! YAY!

ahhhhh!

2009-09-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

home again. although a long weekend, it's going to be a busy one. family affairs this friday and saturday, and a bit more tomorrow, and then monday, free as a bird. so far, so good. got some good crafting in on thursday night (a secret project for a housewarming gift), and some group knitting with mister man's family last night, which was cute, and productive!

tonight, finishing up the housewarming project and sleeping.

can't talk, sweater.

2009-08-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

the february lady sweater progresses. this makes me happy.

2009-08-29T20:17:00.000-07:00

my plan for a weekend of crafty goodness has been put into effect. hooray! so the whirlygiggles were the result of thursday evening's work. i need to get a few more fabrics to add to the quilt, which is destined to be a baby quilt for a january baby shower. i'm thinking that it needs a vibrant purple, a yellow, and some more blue. and possibly some green. definitely no more red, pink or orange. this comes from a pattern given by crazy mom, and the perusal of MANY a whirlygiggle quilt and tutorial, but all in all, SUPER easy to piece, i was pleasantly surprised.

today was spent hermit-like in the craft room, and not all in a good way. the morning brought me brown crud spewing from my iron and some mad iron cleaning and the lasting stink of hot vinegar, but it seems ok now. no more brown, but starting to get drippy, which i had noticed before. hopefully i won't need to replace it, because it's really quite a good little iron.

break mid-day to venture out into the pouring rain for this, which is my fall project, and e's fall project. more on that later:

also, just ignore that junk in the corner. and that other junk in that other corner.

next up was charm squares cut for a hgtv swap, which is excellent because i can swap around 200 and this will bring my running total up to about 800, which will be almost enough to start on a charm quilt!

the big finish today was the baby blanket made from the extra blocks from wedding quilt number one:

i'm kind of thinking that it might actually be MUCH better with the same sashing as i used in between around the border. i'm finding the white around the outside a little yuk.

and finally, just before bed, i ~~finished~~ FINALLY started and finished ironing all the fabrics which have been patiently waiting on my drying rack to be ironed. definitely going to bed happy thinking of this lovely stack of fabricy goodness, some of which is destined for wedding quilt number two.

i've already decided it's going to be a crafty kind of weekend.

2009-08-27T19:28:00.000-07:00

and so it begins.

2009-08-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

a year of meeting new people, i have just heard, is on its way to me via the australian and canadian mail systems! (hopefully playing nicely with one another) and i just kind of had a heart attack. someone else is going to send me a set amount of precious fabric and i'm going to have to make something lovely out of it AND NOT SCREW IT UP. that's kind of pressure. but i've already kind of got an idea. kind of. maybe just an inkling.

also, i still have to twist a few arms or throw in a few more "ehhhh?"s cuz it IS a good idea, but i think that i might have a plan for a real live bee in real life. to make a blanket for a good cause. yes e, baby bro is a good cause! (i will be testing you on this post later, as previously discussed)

i just HAD to tell SOMEBODY!

2009-08-23T18:41:00.000-07:00

preggers news!!!! one of my best ladies (actually, the aforementioned lovely bride #2) just called to share some fab news she'd gotten for the weekend--one of her good friends (whom i simply ADORE!) is preggers! she was like "so i know that maybe you need some lead time on baby thingers, so of course i called you first. ANDYOUHEARDNOTHING" hahahha. YAY! so tomorrow will be the start of the search for THEPERFECT pattern for a baby quilt. i'm stoked. and a bit nervous--i only have until january(ish) for to produce something for the baby shower. although TECHNICALLY she isn't due until march, so yeah. oh, and another friend of a friend (who is also one of the most lovely women of all time) is due in november, and i need to get in gear on something for that soon-to-be-little-one as well, but i've already got something in the works there, so i'm not SO concerned about it.

also, also--i won't drink the water, no fear there!

inspiration!

2009-08-22T16:16:00.000-07:00

so i spoke with bride #2 about wedding quilt #2, and i've got it sorted, and a pattern ordered. i'm going to make i do, which she really liked (of the options I gave her, HA!) and i really like, and it's kind of fitting since it IS for a wedding...so that's one thing taken care of, and i won't really need to order MUCH more fabric, REALLY....

next up: move #3 was this morning and went quite well, although really makes me dread ever having to move my own junque again.

and finally: i've joined another bee! bee addicted 3. it never rains, but it pours. i'm pretty excited. will announce my inspiration to the wider world once it's my month for each bee. very excited! beyond that, tired.

i'm lacking in definitive inspiration

2009-08-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

or maybe i'm just whiny. i've got to really start thinking about wedding quilt #2, which although is still about a year away, i'm stressing over. i've started collecting fabrics (browns and blues, which i LOVE, was the request), and they look great together. i was planning on staging a values quilt. but now i'm just not feeling it. not sure why, since it will be stunning. then i was thinking maybe a log cabin-y sort of quilt, but i'm feeling that even less! maybe i should actually iron the fabric, finish collecting possible addition fabrics and then see what i come up with...in the next YEAR. silly!

time for a bit of a break

2009-08-17T15:14:00.000-07:00

this week will definitely be more craft-focused than last week. i've started mapping out the pattern for the quilting of the wedding quilt. hopefully i can get it finished tonight ~~and i can also get the vintage sheet quilt squared~~.

then i'm hoping that this weekend or next, i will be able to get to my local quilting store to get some time in on the longarm machine on this and the wedding quilt. AND we're bringing back the stitch 'n bitch tomorrow, so i'll be able to get some knitting done! and watching charm school. hoo baby!

family v. crafting v. my waistline

2009-08-16T15:24:00.000-07:00

so i had good plans for getting crafty and other things done this weekend. i really did. instead, i napped (although not enough because i'm still exhausted), visited a lot, and ate out a LOT. oh, and didn't gym once. :P tomorrow i'll be back on the wagon. this evening, i'm hoping to carve out a bit of crafting space to plan out my quilting plan for the wedding quilt. because...my lqs now has a LONGARM MACHINE TO RENT! yay! i will be playing with this a lot, i think. especially since i did the tumbler quilt on my machine, and honestly, i just do not know how people manage to quilt things on domestic machines without killing someone. for reals. i had a less-than-double sized quilt going and was FRUSTRATED even with the minimal quilting I was doing, i can't imagine doing something big. and i like BIG quilt tops since mister man and i are both severe bedhogs.

also, the girls are too cute. they've been a bit much since it's been hot here and we have no air conditioning, which they aren't used to, but still. adorable. and it turns out that i have a lot of dvds that kids like. last time, it was he-man (AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE) with the other little neices, and now these ones are upstairs GLUED to the smurfs--it's the first time they've seen the smurfs. i'm thinking that maybe after dinner, it may be a good time for fraggle rock!

off to eat more food. chinese! and cuppie cakes--it's the oldest's seventh birthday. and then craft.

the house is set...

2009-08-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

or at least almost set. we have GUESTS coming this weekend. already we have one little monkey here, a good friend of mine who will be here for the better part of a month. and then this weekend and next weekend my sister-in-law will be here with our little neices, which will be adorable. they'll be here for this weekend and next weekend, but for the week in between will be with the other brother in montreal. and the house is set, more or less. the kitchen is clean and the fridge is stocked. the beds are made, the floors are washed and vacuumed, and mister man is picking up a borrowed bigger vehicle tomorrow (child seats. :P) and doing the bathroom. should be a good time, but maybe not a very crafty time...we'll see. if i don't get to my machine too much, i'm definitely going to be checking out the crafty porn around the intarwebs and start gathering inspiration for MY MONTH IN MY QUILTING BEE. ahem...i'm ok. just a lil excited. :D

xo

this is how much i needed to craft tonight

2009-08-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

my makeshift ironing board since i was too lazy to haul up my big board from the basement, and i didn't have much ironing to do...

i have a friend staying in my craft room. well, not IN my craft room, but in the space that was our spare room, and will be my craft room, but it's connected to my craft room, and it means that i can't really craft in there while she's reading and getting ready for bed and stuff...so i took over the dining room table. mister man LOVES it when i do that, although i left it in pretty good shape mess-wise. PLUS, it means that i got all four of my rows for the olive-rose-esque quilt finished, and now i just have to figure out how on earth i'm going to square them up, because they REALLY need it. darn shifty vintage sheets! (that's my story and i'm sticking to it.)

diamond would LOVE it if my crafting would take place near her new couch all the time.

OH.MAI.GOD.

2009-08-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

I HAVE TO TYPE THIS ALL IN CAPS, I'M SO EXCITED. k, not really cuz i find it kind of obnoxious, but for serious, i'm that excited. I'M IN AN ONLINE QUILTING BEE!!!! the lovely sheridan has opened her sanity to a quilting bee, and since i've been stalking her for sometime, i was in on the ground floor. well, not really, but i was in under the wire, and now i'm in a quilting bee! my first quilting bee. i'm excited and scared at the same time. hi future bee peeps (maybe if you're checking me out), i promise to not screw your blocks up and send it out on time, i swear. i'm hoping that at least some people will want some cute kicky little moderny blocks, and then even if i'm not stellar, it will look like i made it like that. but also, i swear i can sew a straight line. i promise. for reals. now i've got to go and try to sleep because yesterday was hell without having slept for more than 3-4 hours.

xo!

holy inspiration batman!

2009-08-11T17:18:00.000-07:00

so checking out a variety of bloggy inspiration and i found some amazing inspiration. WOW. i need to get to more and bigger quilt shows. i especially want to make a hex quilt, a cathedral window and i LOVE the teeny tiny boxes at the bottom. it constantly amazes me how good people are with colour.

maybe some time for creativity this weekend, although I'm not convinced since my SIL will be here with two small ones.

whoops!

2009-08-09T18:51:00.000-07:00

so finished the tumbler quilt, bound it, hand sewed it, washed it, dried it (it didn't fall apart! :D ), folded it (it's square, more or less, which is a pretty big shock considering how much squaring up i did) and sent it on to its new home...without taking a picture of it. super. i will probably get better at this? maybe i can get some action shots, cuz it turned out pretty darn adorable for something that i didn't really like and had little motivation to finish on my own. i'm glad that j liked it enough to want it or it would have sat forever in the waiting pile...

"$120?! i could make that..."

2009-08-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

a phrase my friends are coming to know and love...or at least know and then run from the room before i rope them in to help. so had the day off (from work at least--not from family or moving, apparently. ANYHOW) and i wanted to get some things sorted around the house since we've got a month's worth of guests starting next week, and my now-ex-roomate (sad! but it's ok too) left us her mattress (queen, YAY!) and old metal bed frame, but we would either have had to wrangle a box spring (which hadn't worked out so well in our place in the past) or get those wooden slat things.

thought process: wooden slats it is. start where everyone [i know] starts, ikea.ca. wooden slats for a queen sized bed are $120. A HUNDRED AND TWENTY DOLLARS. for a bunch of 1 x 2s strung together. me: "i can make that!" [somewhere my dad's heart overflows with pride at this exact moment] mister man: "i don't have to come, do i?...i mean, i will, but i would rather not" (he is the main proponent of running from the room when he hears "i could make that", although he's supportive of the making and the fabulouso finished products).

so anyhow, an hour and a half later, i have conquered home depot and the bed frame, fixing the whole show up for under $20. take THAT ikea!

then this evening, i got back to the tumbler quilt which i have been guiltily watching sit in the pile for some time now because i have lacked inspiration for the backing. long story short: i found a cute sheet at value village, and the quilt is backed, quilted, and the binding is sewn on, and now i just have to flip the binding and hand-sew it, which i actually SUPER love doing. and now that it's all cute and together, i REALLY like it, and am kind of sad to see it go. pictures tomorrow at the snb reunion tour.

also started last night was an olive rose-esque quilt that i have had pieces of vintage sheet swap fabric cut for for AGES. i say olive rose because clearly i can't follow printed directions to save my life. i didn't like the busy-ness of olive rose, so cut down the numbers of fabrics. then i redistributed how i wanted them to go. then i started sewing and realized i hated one of the fabrics i had. then i realized that i wasn't piecing it really according to the pattern, but that once it was finished, no one would be the wiser anyhow, so i stopped worrying. then i realized that my rows weren't entirely the same size, and decided that i would cut them down (or not) when i got all four of them done. i'm hoping to get all of the top pieced this week (i'm halfway there) and then quilted this weekend VERY quickly because i realized that i have guests (a lot of them) coming this week, and no blankets (how embarassing!) because i gave a bunch to charity in the spring. oops!

so tired now. headed to bed after a long, kind of frustrating, kind of nice, kind of productive day. xo!

moving take 2 and 2.1

2009-08-02T12:23:00.000-07:00

move #2 went well this morning (at least on our end, which is the only part i was a part of). j got off safely in her van o' stuffs, despite the weather's best efforts and some late help arrival. and then we have started move 2.1, which i smoving more crap in (a couch, a dining room table, a lovely antique china cabinet that will house my fabric) to fill the gaps where j's stuff used to be. so far, so good. we got the couch in, and my mum's going to bring a kitchen table tomorrow.

diamond-dog also arrived home from purgatory (aka that place with that puppy--the rents' place) happy to have been invited, and completely exhausted. we've moved things around a bit in the spare room and in the living room, and she's spent all afternoon testing various spots for their nap potential. so far, i think everything has passed since she's been asleep around the apartment for several hours now.

she also clearly misses j already. she used to hid her bone in j's closet, and she went to move it (from where it had been found in the living room while she was gone), and instinctively went to her usual stomping ground, which just ended up being a bit pathetic...

tonight, i think that i return to the february lady sweater. my sewing room is in a bit of a state of flux, and before i can start anything else down there, i will need to iron all the new fabric i got from pink chalk's sale last week, and i just don't have the energy for that.

moving, moving...

2009-08-01T18:54:00.000-07:00

one down, two (possibly three to go!) to go. my gran's move was this morning and went well. at least no one killed anyone, so that's good. tomorrow: my roommate is moving out and we're helping there, and then at some point, we've got to get to my parents' house to bring home some furniture to fill out our place. it's a long weekend here, and i don't want to spend it all trying to house it up. :P i would like to craft it up at least a bit. i was also hoping to get in some runs. a lot of things that i would be looking forward to doing and then a lot of things that need to get done. i'm thinking that it may end up being another weekend where my projects get a bit shelved, sadly.

ripped stitches...but no spilled milk.

2009-07-17T20:26:00.000-07:00

(at least) i hate, hate, hate ripping stitches. i know that it ~~usually~~ always means that i've made a mistake, but it also goes hand in hand with "i'm too tired" and "i don't have the patience for this", which is usually what precipitated the ripping stitches. even when i was little when i sat at the machine too long, my mum would have to come and be like "nope, you're too tired, this is enough for today". clearly, lessons were not learned. BUT, i do have a cute new *secret* project underway!

OH, and pinkchalk is having a loverly sale and i got in on the ground floor, to start wedding quilt take two. for another wedding. for another person. not that i've screwed up wedding quilt one. WHICH IS FINISHED BY THE WAY. at least the top. dunno if i mentioned. and it's huge. but mostly: the top she is finished. hooray!

and now to bed.

xo

yay!

2009-07-11T20:15:00.000-07:00

no more sewing news to report, but mister man is home from a week away. diamond is so happy. she spent all night following him around and being generally completely in love with him, and is now all settled because the house is back to normal. oh, and i guess i'm pretty happy he's home too. :)

argh! then yay! then argh! again.

2009-07-10T21:07:00.000-07:00

tonight was semi-productive in my little crafting world. less productive in my exercise and not eating everything on the planet world, but that's not the point here. so skipping exercise, and getting some pizza (gluten free, yum!) out of the way, i decided that the wedding quilt would not make itself and would just have to be smaller because i was no longer interested in remaking 6 or so blocks. good, i have lots of blocks and tend to way overshoot sizes anyhow because we (in my bed) are both coverhogs, and so quilts have to be HUGE to adequately cover us both, and still we manage to steal all the blankets from one another.

but i digress. counted my pile. 86 blocks, excellent. i'll make it 9x9 and that'll still be 108" square, perfect, fine, let's go. start randomizing the blocks. HOLY HELL THAT ONE HAS IRON MARKINGS ON IT FROM THE WATER. not sure where that came from because i was VERY careful with ironing them...because the blocks are white. k, k, it'll be fine, shout that shiz and keep moving, sew up a row...then come across another one with iron stains. YUK. quickly stop sewing to investigate further, hopefully there won't be more than 5 with iron stains since i only really need 81/86. thankfully there were only 3 in total, and so i managed. dog hassles for a bit, and finally settles in, sewing goes into full-on mode.

1/3 of the wedding quilt, all hanging nicely pressed!

i got three rows put together, seams pressed open, ALL of my threads trimmed (i assembly lined most of the piecing and didn't trim all my threads close--never again), happily putting things in order to get to bed, go upstairs and i notice the pizza box (the one with the leftover half of the expensive, yummy, gluten free pizza) tipped onto the floor. yeah, that would be the EMPTY pizza box on the floor. between the boy and the dog, i just am NOT destined to eat pizza for breakfast. she would not even come near me. i actually wish i'd gotten a picture of it. she sat on the third top step and had her head RIGHT at the edge of the stair and was just looking at me with one eye. VERY hard to keep my angry face on and not burst into giggles. such a self-satisfied little jerk.

literally a minute before i discovered the pizza carnage.

yay i finished something!

2009-07-08T18:22:00.000-07:00

a fun little flopsy beret that i ~~made for the spring~~ started with the intention of having a cute little spring beret. it is now mid-july. it will be perfect for the fall. that is all.

we came, we sewed, we napped.

2009-07-04T10:50:00.000-07:00

diamond and i have been busy with no one around to whine at about being sick (me), wanting to go out and play (diamond) and wanting attention (me and diamond both).

we dog parked, ate, ran errands, sewed up some rows, napped, ate, dog park'd some more, and FINISHED THE QUILT TOP!!! i'm now kind of thinking that it might be nice to finish the whole thing for when the man's return. i mean, i have until friday, so it's doable, but i'm not sure that i want to rush that much...