Happy Review Year 2012

The year 2012 in review, collage style (click to enlarge).

Four of these are UFOs to be quilted in the New Year, but all in all, considering what else occurred to divert my attention, I'm happy with this picture!

Red, Red Wool

Earlier in the year, I bought a red wool jacket at Goodwill for the express purpose of cutting it apart. 

I did that recently.

The idea was to try to felt the wool.  I envisioned making all sorts of cool Christmas things, like gift tags or ornaments or little stuffies resembling Santas and stockings and poinsettias and cardinals and such.  As you do, when you think the entire year stretches before you like an empty road and you have all the time in the world.

But all of a sudden, here it is December and there is that red wool.  I should do something with it.

So first I washed it in the washer on hot setting and dried it in the dryer.  But it wasn't quite felt-y enough afterwards, so I decided to boil it on the stove.

Simmer is probably a better word.  About 20 minutes later, I drained the boiling water off and gave the pieces a brief soak in cold water so they could be handled.  Rolled them up in a towel to draw off the excess moisture and then hung them to dry.

Felt-y goodness!

This morning, I drew a little ornament on paper and then traced and cut it out from one of the pieces of wool.  I cut out the middle circle and replaced the felt with part of one charm square of Blitzen, which I Elmer's Glued in place from underneath and pressed with a dry iron to set dry.

I glued another little piece of fabric over the top.  Then I set the whole thing on another piece of red felted wool which was bigger all the way around than the top piece (basically a square).

I threaded my machine with some sparkly metallic Sulky thread (which my machine did not like at all), and I quilted through all the layers, first in a straight line star pattern, and then around the outside edges and finally around the inner circle.  Then I trimmed it, following the shape of the upper piece as a guide.

It was an afterthought to add the hanging loop, and I really should have sandwiched in between the layers as I was quilting it together, but hindsight is 20/20.  My machine rewarded me by jamming with the very last stitch, and because I thought I could sew past the jam (ho-ho-ho), it proved just who was boss and broke the needle with a flourish, as if to say "FINITO!"

Oh, the drama.

I added a little red button in the center as a final step.

This may or may not be the only red felted wool item I produce this season, but better than nothing.  And it's kind of cute, if I do say so!

Update:  I made another one last night. This one went together faster.

November NewFO Wrap-Up

I feel like I got a lot done in November, and all of my NewFOs for the month were actually finished, thanks to holiday pressure.

Here's a quick summary.  Click the captions for more details.

Carpenter's Wheel Christmas Wall Hanging

Serendipity Table Runner (Tutorial)

Pin-up Holiday Pillowcases

This Thing*

This Thing Too*

*I am not naming these items because I made similar ones for Christmas for friends who read this blog.  They have been advised not to click these two Flickr links.  Everyone else, please feel free to look!

Have you finished decorating for the holidays?  We don't do it up big here, but I've got a few things out so far.  I had to laugh when I saw this video of someone's house lights synced to South Korean artist Psy's "Gangnam Style."  I think I've watched this a half dozen times.  Then I had to go watch the original music video, because I am apparently one of the last people on earth to see it.  THAT made me laugh even harder! 



I'm linking to Cat Patches, sponsor of the 2012 NewFO Challenge.

A Busy Wheel

My sister admired the Carpenter's Wheel wall hanging I made around the holidays last year, so I put one together for her last weekend.  She likes jewel tones, and I had a couple of older Christmas fabrics left over from Mom's stash that I thought would be nice to use.

Instead of a plain lighter background, I used a text print with seasonal greetings that a friend gave me.  I'm not sure if it works or just makes the whole thing too busy.  It's a horse apiece, in my opinion.

But if Sis doesn't like it, I'll make her another one, and this will either become a gift or I'll hang it in the hallway.

The backing is a thrift store fabric find from earlier in the year.  I love that shade of vintage-y green.  All the Christmas fabrics have a metallic bit to them.

Although I haven't (and can't yet) show pictures of everything I've been working on, I am happy to have knocked out six wall hangings/minis/table runners, a half dozen pillowcases, and a few pairs of jammy pants over the past several weeks, and all that while the sewing room has been in a state of flux.  I feel pretty good about that!

One more thing to leave the sewing space last weekend was the 20-year-old TV.  It took both of us to haul the old behemoth up the stairs and finagle it into the back seat of the car because it wouldn't fit in the trunk.  We drove it immediately to Goodwill, where a stocky 20-something young man at the drop-off door came out to greet us.  After watching Norm labor to get it out of the car, he took it from him and then in one fluid maneuver rolled the whole set up onto one shoulder and walked into the building with it, saying, "Oh, it's not that heavy."  Norm and I walked in behind him, eyeballing each other and thinking the same thing: Show-off.

Serendipity Table Runner Tutorial

Did you ever do an internet search for quilt ideas and be led back to your own blog?  Well, I can check that one off my list now.

I was looking to do something with a beautiful Moda Swiss Holiday charm pack I'd won in a giveaway earlier this year.  I Googled charm pack quilted table runner ideas, and after following this link and that, I ended up on somebody's Pinterest page where I saw that this nice person had pinned my own Scrap Challenge Block.

This block is pinned in real life to my design board just to the right of my sewing table, but you know how it is when you look at something so often you don't even really see it anymore?  Or how you can miss the forest for the trees, or, in my case, the trees for the forest?  Yeah, I'm kinda good at that.  I have had people I know wave at me from five feet away, but I didn't see them because I was looking over their heads to a vantage point 20 feet beyond.  I did that on election day to my neighbor.  I've done it to my niece at an adjoining restaurant table.  And try explaining that you aren't purposely snubbing someone, just being your usual preoccupied/absentminded self.  So embarrassing.

At any rate, it was nice to be reminded of that block in however roundabout a way.  Let's call it serendipity.  No really, let's call this table runner Serendipity.  (My first idea was to call it Triple X, but on thinking of the kind of traffic that might generate, it seemed appropriate to reconsider.)

I started by taking the charm pack apart and separating the squares by pattern and then by light and dark, large scale print and small scale, etc.  I determined that I could make a runner three blocks across using the Scrap Challenge Block as the basis.

Here is how it went together (click on photos to enlarge).

Each block will have a grouping of 2 light fabric squares and 2 darker squares.  I picked the large scale prints for my darker ones.  I'm calling these the background squares.

In addition, each block will use 4 other squares for the corners.  I used 2 almost "solid" squares and 2 small scale prints for these corner pieces.

You will make 3 X-shaped blocks for the table runner.  In the below photo, you can see the groupings I used for each block, arranged in 3 columns from left to right.  (Note that there are 2 identical charm squares stacked one on top of the other, which you can't really tell from the picture.  Just remember to use 2 of every fabric shown.)

Next, cut your background squares in half on the diagonal:

Then take your corner squares and cut a 1.5 inch strip off the side of each.  From the section that's left, cut a 3.5-inch square.  Further trim the 1.5-inch strips you initially cut down to 1.25 inches and set these aside.  These 1.25-inch strips can be used when you assemble the strip sets later on.

Take the 3.5-inch squares you just cut, and cut them in half on the diagonal.

This is what you should have so far:

You will also have a bunch of uncut charm squares left over.  Select about a dozen of these.

You will then cut your selected charm squares into four 1.25-inch strips.

Combine all your 1.25-inch strips, in a pile.  Well, really there's no law that says you have to make a pile, but I am a piler so that part makes me happy.

Now you can start reassembling them into strip sets of 4 strips each.  Mix it up, vary your strips, and have fun with it.

You are then going to sew your 4-strip sets back together to make 12 strippy sections for your blocks.  (You will have some strips left over, which you can use for something else, like a mini or get creative with your backing perhaps—or toss 'em; you won't hurt my feelings.)

At this point, I laid out all the pieces into 3 blocks, just to make sure I had it fixed in my mind how to sew these together.  I fiddled with the layout a little bit, swapping strip sets here and there until I was happy with the overall look of each block.

Block 1

Block 2

Block 3

Now it's time to sew the units together.  By unit, I mean one strip set, two background triangles, and two corner triangles:

First, take a strip set and sew the larger background triangle pieces along the long sides of the strip set.  Your strip set and triangle pieces won't match.  In fact, your background triangles will seem way too big.  They are.

Here's a tip:  The ends will overlap the strip set by one inch on the top and bottom edges.  I lay it on my cutting mat so I can equalize the overlap (centering the triangle placement) and pin at top and bottom.  Sew along the long edges, being careful not to stretch the bias of the triangle piece.  Just let it flow under the presser foot, nice and easy.

Press these triangles out and then trim the overhang even with the strip set.  I have rotated the block in this photo for trimming, but don't let that throw you.

Now take your corner triangles and sew them onto the remaining edges.  This time, your triangle pieces will fit better.  No need to stretch or pull to make anything match, just center the point of the triangle using the center of the strip set as a guide.  Easy peasy.

Press the corner triangles out.  And what's this?  It looks wonky, oh dear!  Never fear, we're going to whack it down to 5-7/8 inches square.  It will be okay.

Yeah, that's a weird and seemingly fiddly number, but your corner points will match really nicely this way, assuming you use a scant 1/4-inch seam allowance.  Just pay attention, especially with the first edge you trim off, that you have left a 1/4-inch seam allowance at the corner pieces.  See the asterisks on the photo below (which I magically cropped in my photo editor because I forgot to take a picture of the actual trimmed block.  I think you get the idea.)

Once all your units are sewn together and trimmed, you can then sew each of your three blocks together, then join the blocks into your table runner.

Ain't she purdy?

Quilted and bound, it measures about 32 x 11.25 inches.

If you have any questions or if something isn't clear, let me know.  And if you make one, I would love to see it!

Assembly (Disassembly and Reassembly) Required

Scene:  The basement on a Saturday morning in November.  The husband, clad only in his tidy-whities, sits in a black leather office chair, watching his wife, clad in fleece PJs, pound nails—lots of nails—into the backing panel of a bookcase the two just spent far too much time assembling.  

Assembling incorrectly, that is.  The realization dawns on the wife as she notes the pre-drilled holes for the shelf supports on the outside of the bookcase, the one she just pounded lots of nails into.  She is a peace lover, this wife, but give her nails to pound and it becomes apparent that she enjoys the task perhaps a bit too much. 

Words are uttered, first by the wife and then echoed by the husband.  Some words have four letters.  None rhyme with "good" or even "okay" because they mean, in fact, the opposite.

Disassembly ensues.  This involves tools not on the instructions included with the bookcase.  Tools which include a pry bar, an exacto-knife (not pictured), a fork, and an ancient putty knife from the last millenium, which breaks under the stress.  Some of these tools would probably not have been necessary had the wife not been so zealous with her nail pounding.  But what's done is done, and now must be undone.

Wife methodically works the exacto-knife around each nail head, trying not to imagine other things she would rather be cutting out at this time.  She proceeds cautiously with this fussy cutting, as she does not wish the events of the day to include an emergency room visit, thus adding insult to injury (or vice versa).

Reassembly ultimately occurs as the errant board is righted.  Husband wears wife's garden gloves because his palms are sore from turning the screwdriver.  He is wearing garden gloves and tidy-whities.  It is a sight to behold.  Or not. Wife is sweating, and not in a good way.

No more bad words, the couple is joking and laughing.  The wife says she will have to blog this.  Husband offers his two cents for the post.  Wife does not listen.  She is happily pounding nails again—lots of nails.

* * * * * * *

And, um...voila?

I started folding fabric earlier in the week.  I have much more to fold, but this is a start.

The tchochkes are placeholders for now.

One bookcase down, one to go.

In addition to shelf construction/deconstruction/reconstruction, there has also been some sewing happening in the sewing room this past week.  For example, I made his and hers pillowcases for the holidays.

Alexander Henry's "Hurry Down the Chimney" for me, and "The Great Outdoors" for Norm.

I also started a table runner from a Moda "Swiss Holiday" charm pack I won earlier this year, using my Scrap Block Challenge idea.

I may do a tutorial for the table runner, if there is interest.

Linking up with Sarah today, ready to share the whoop-whoop-ing with others!