tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71204305097712929682024-03-18T23:50:37.890-04:00Balanced on the Razor's EdgeA collection of my ongoing efforts to stay sane through crafting and follow in the footsteps of three generations of creative and useful women. With luck, I'll even be amusing in the process. SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-5682063589497189002013-03-31T16:50:00.000-04:002013-03-31T16:50:46.460-04:00<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Happy Easter everyone!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sorry there has been so little going up on here lately. My boss has made a new rule - if I work until 11pm, I am not allowed to work on the weekend. I think that sums up how nuts things have been.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I will post the wine charms tutorial and progress on the quilt in the next few weeks and then I think I'm going to once a week posting. No matter what my intentions, a few times a week does not seem to be happening. Perhaps if I win the lottery and can quit my job someday...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hope everyone hunted colored eggs and gorged on chocolate!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Anna</span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-82346072101205919632013-02-23T15:18:00.000-05:002013-02-23T15:18:00.114-05:00Space Invaders Quilt - Progress!<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hello Again, </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have finally made some more progress on the Space Invaders quilt. All that cutting of black fabric took forever! I was really excited to move on and make some progress, so honestly I still have a whole bunch of cutting to do on the background. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have a small table, so I use a sheet on the ground to lay out the pieces. I laid out the first few rows (there's a mistake here, but I fixed it).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then I divided them up into pairs and pieced those together. There were once pictures of those, but I had a memory card debacle and lost all the photos of the piecing process. I had these very pretty chains of pieces, which I got all out of order when I cut them apart. Silly of me, huh?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I then had this mess to put back in order:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8d_a5-uB6rrxV_EqNh4B3oOWIRmE_U-TtsucjeGvztVqsv2OEhGe-jYngbG6y1w2KugwmoGwxYRHu2Dy2Dv5VFDOu_TfqDinGe9h1wq5Ksma1XITv1mC6VXjemedHS8mqVWskVN5q5quZ/s1600/1-DSC_1331.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8d_a5-uB6rrxV_EqNh4B3oOWIRmE_U-TtsucjeGvztVqsv2OEhGe-jYngbG6y1w2KugwmoGwxYRHu2Dy2Dv5VFDOu_TfqDinGe9h1wq5Ksma1XITv1mC6VXjemedHS8mqVWskVN5q5quZ/s320/1-DSC_1331.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It wasn't hard, just a little annoying to sit down and figure out what should go where (annoying only because I had already done this part). </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKnBqWVUvYw6DBH_F5IpIqhF7D89Qtq50muC4Wk_sLcGvLZsrnHOuTXEP7jE_tGUOQ6jjFY3un5VCC-APsufJw2IcXi-rAQP0RAJoj0jrEg8lo5RSbiKtCOCQdxSkCg78Q-oxlOscXHXSh/s1600/1-DSC_1332.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKnBqWVUvYw6DBH_F5IpIqhF7D89Qtq50muC4Wk_sLcGvLZsrnHOuTXEP7jE_tGUOQ6jjFY3un5VCC-APsufJw2IcXi-rAQP0RAJoj0jrEg8lo5RSbiKtCOCQdxSkCg78Q-oxlOscXHXSh/s320/1-DSC_1332.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">See that missing top corner piece? Casey is <i style="font-weight: bold;">not</i> a good quilting helper. While I was sewing, he made off with one of the pieces and happily pulled out the seam for fun. (Weird dog.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I was very please with myself about putting these all in order, so I went to grab a cup of coffee from the kitchen and Casey decided to help again.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9IlDDBqT4Boy8eD_UpJ5Xh123o0ZDhoWEbeeaRWC9FOmmsMB9PvlWS6YlflMej_m9WKsFQerhwG7nC6jYo0FFMY2cW1elVWd4mGDG6PgnFmFrhIkLVKH7qessZh56dCMHPx1FZwx7Bxlb/s1600/1-DSC_1338.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9IlDDBqT4Boy8eD_UpJ5Xh123o0ZDhoWEbeeaRWC9FOmmsMB9PvlWS6YlflMej_m9WKsFQerhwG7nC6jYo0FFMY2cW1elVWd4mGDG6PgnFmFrhIkLVKH7qessZh56dCMHPx1FZwx7Bxlb/s320/1-DSC_1338.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">He was very confused by my walking back in going "No, no no!!" and then thought he wasn't allowed to chew on his bone. We had a minor crisis. Note to self: make sure never to leave the room with quilt squares on the floor! (And poor Casey.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Up next - a quick interim project I did one evening.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Till next time, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><i>A</i></b></span></div>
SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-22671449067017399802013-02-20T07:00:00.000-05:002013-02-20T07:00:10.134-05:00Anne of Green Gables Cross Stitch #2<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hello Again, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Last time, I started a cross stitch project and this time, I'll show you the final product and the intermediate stages. Hooray for regular posting again!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">When we stopped last time, I had just done the first night's stitching. The next night, I had a bit of time to do some more and got the text almost finished.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7gB_TmmuHu9cA8IlMWtBJcMBeyJYZP3BxDp8kQz_BQo5kZMsOV3CnktLqPwK-FvIJNuy_cqdUhe1HRAZ8s8T_wuw_1pVHuedbGKtgjZiuil4EI2LXe-5HzgE6rmHE_D9r1tDNMO8oZ-l/s1600/1-DSC_1289.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC7gB_TmmuHu9cA8IlMWtBJcMBeyJYZP3BxDp8kQz_BQo5kZMsOV3CnktLqPwK-FvIJNuy_cqdUhe1HRAZ8s8T_wuw_1pVHuedbGKtgjZiuil4EI2LXe-5HzgE6rmHE_D9r1tDNMO8oZ-l/s320/1-DSC_1289.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Silly me, I didn't get a photo of just the finished text, but that's OK. I had to wait a few days to get some time to work on the rest, but I did eventually get the leaves in. (In this pic, almost there!)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIXgT0y4LzsAOXAqabQ60l6pZgVbJWk8qy9E7RionEw9pZy5BsjXitAUMIuyfm4txhRBfTzM90cQAJgThFzJ6st2fh_ZBFvAzhIvAfhXjrOjUnZbHkB_G6kQ9Qt_4xLXqlV14l7g57zHkK/s1600/1-DSC_1294.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIXgT0y4LzsAOXAqabQ60l6pZgVbJWk8qy9E7RionEw9pZy5BsjXitAUMIuyfm4txhRBfTzM90cQAJgThFzJ6st2fh_ZBFvAzhIvAfhXjrOjUnZbHkB_G6kQ9Qt_4xLXqlV14l7g57zHkK/s320/1-DSC_1294.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then came the flowers in two shades of purple. I think I did, in the end, pick well for the colors.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3fQ7RZoShFID0yLQF7ggUH1NzC6H-cYIxjbNnLT7VbVrf66tfLieqPG1_cbQ9XInVVGdT5DrjOY-NxrESjnoBWNFsTGtuZDTiHndeZW4jL3Hd2-iihyL3CQRsP86gOzAmfMGxlteRg4b/s1600/1-DSC_1297.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim3fQ7RZoShFID0yLQF7ggUH1NzC6H-cYIxjbNnLT7VbVrf66tfLieqPG1_cbQ9XInVVGdT5DrjOY-NxrESjnoBWNFsTGtuZDTiHndeZW4jL3Hd2-iihyL3CQRsP86gOzAmfMGxlteRg4b/s320/1-DSC_1297.jpg" width="306" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The last part was the vines and they always make the back look terrible on mine. My mother always checks the back to see how neat I've been and laughs at me (kindly, of course)!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So the final product:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A closer shot of one of those lovely borders. I wish I could remember which book I got these from! (If anyone knows them, please let me know, I would love to post the reference and be able to find similar ones in future.)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzIwyfm2ydsk9qpGaARhq1MhkoEK4WfjST9kSI6mf701OIejGtPZF8_0RFSktdCGyaUHFYi5rq6B9vvyrolX55jYFGkja83VYZeqR3dOO8t4TMiBIJnZ0vUkZ_HyL2LPdgehjblfS2UhSG/s1600/1-DSC_1324.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzIwyfm2ydsk9qpGaARhq1MhkoEK4WfjST9kSI6mf701OIejGtPZF8_0RFSktdCGyaUHFYi5rq6B9vvyrolX55jYFGkja83VYZeqR3dOO8t4TMiBIJnZ0vUkZ_HyL2LPdgehjblfS2UhSG/s320/1-DSC_1324.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Isn't that lovely? Now I just need to get a frame for it and stretch it. No idea when I'll have time for that, but I'm planning a little embroidery gallery for my house, so I'll have to do it eventually. I'm in the process of re-doing everything in my house and I think that will be a nice addition.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Till next time, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><i>A</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-23150215257704242652013-02-17T13:16:00.002-05:002013-02-17T13:24:19.685-05:00Anne of Green Gables Cross Stitch #1<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hi Everyone, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sorry for the long delay. I've been running around like crazy, but I really have still been crafting. I just haven't gotten anything up on here! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ages ago, I made a cross stitch pattern out of a friend's favorite quote and realized I wanted one for myself. So a few weeks ago, I decided I would make myself one with different colored flowers and only got around to it recently. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I again made the pattern in Excel, though I had to draw in the diagonal lines by hand once I had printed it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As always, I cut the fabric 2" larger than the final size I wanted (in this case, 8x10).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Then I fold in quarters and mark the center with one of my sewing pencils. I can wash it off just a damp paper towel if it's visible through the embroidery later. (These fabric pencils are one of my favorite things!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For this one, color selection took forever. I wanted the leaves about the same color as last time, but I wanted to do purple flowers. Apparently, my inability to make small decisions conveys to picking colors for embroidery!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KpTPbbtto6TkzhdaDQCO9govjsLwBtkkZF8e2ZYWOTYapiuFR85zQ3HHAqL6JgKWBnBm_ZVoZkZxzy7-t-zV9bM9yTTHN7KpwX4u6A8vrqfYEvophuL8S0207B90IBz9z1OQt3GTOxk9/s1600/1-DSC_1284.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4KpTPbbtto6TkzhdaDQCO9govjsLwBtkkZF8e2ZYWOTYapiuFR85zQ3HHAqL6JgKWBnBm_ZVoZkZxzy7-t-zV9bM9yTTHN7KpwX4u6A8vrqfYEvophuL8S0207B90IBz9z1OQt3GTOxk9/s320/1-DSC_1284.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Finally, I could start stitching!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXFukaDIEdYo-2o7QUk01-adROVlh2RUXmeEy3b-ehztljsQZCMEVwSkWigcE9YKDH23z7bhAeNsiMIu0Dmn_YTrBy1ezJLKXLNZfrxw3SsM9IZLjd-J8xhMoHRb1N_l2aT6RrsyQ9YOuu/s1600/1-DSC_1287-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXFukaDIEdYo-2o7QUk01-adROVlh2RUXmeEy3b-ehztljsQZCMEVwSkWigcE9YKDH23z7bhAeNsiMIu0Dmn_YTrBy1ezJLKXLNZfrxw3SsM9IZLjd-J8xhMoHRb1N_l2aT6RrsyQ9YOuu/s320/1-DSC_1287-001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And yes, all of that took an entire evening. Unbelievable how much time I can spend setting up just one project!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The final version will be in the next post.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Till next time, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><i>A</i></b></span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-1348350877380003142012-12-22T12:41:00.001-05:002012-12-22T12:41:13.139-05:00Happy Holidays<div><p>Hi Everyone,</p>
<p>Just a note to say that I will not be posting until after New Years. I'm baking and putting up trees and generally being Christmassy. </p>
<p>I'll have some new projects and house updates in January. Promise!</p>
<p>Have wonderful holidays, crafting, and family time!<br>
A</p>
</div>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-996810235982848652012-12-12T07:00:00.000-05:002012-12-12T07:00:01.050-05:00Organized Sewing Space - Finally<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I finally decided my sewing space need to a) be organized enough that is doesn't make be curse and b) not take up my entire dining room table. I have a sewing table in the bedroom, but since I like having music or movies on while I'm working, I always end up bringing the sewing machine out to the living room anyway. Sadly, I did not take before pictures, but just imagine total chaos and not being able to see the table top. Not conducive to sewing at all! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, the whole table looks pretty again!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFvqLxXYZ1Htks_apncV2E_6lIlQKDXFcGTjE_w70l95T0mzBDCX-zskAV7Cv5Jxa7G7-q1dvelpSxqCE7NMGRe_3DvHK5I8nGnD0pXybkBZfnDRb-3rnSyiMI8NJvbD6zbT9GqU4jjMt0/s1600/20-Sewing+12-1-2012+097.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFvqLxXYZ1Htks_apncV2E_6lIlQKDXFcGTjE_w70l95T0mzBDCX-zskAV7Cv5Jxa7G7-q1dvelpSxqCE7NMGRe_3DvHK5I8nGnD0pXybkBZfnDRb-3rnSyiMI8NJvbD6zbT9GqU4jjMt0/s1600/20-Sewing+12-1-2012+097.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then when I want to sew, I just do this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKQgLNZrmmNYUl4jHKXhkpTxHShsnURjG0spsxyFPUBy3ghk6pzutf5irn0c5bcjHf-wgH8gr7je40l8wzNh8mqugAdVNl8K1ePM-Ncmryn4FfS2_DYecC9hCyjfesqu-DwLu1ruNnaKi/s1600/19-Sewing+12-1-2012+096.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzKQgLNZrmmNYUl4jHKXhkpTxHShsnURjG0spsxyFPUBy3ghk6pzutf5irn0c5bcjHf-wgH8gr7je40l8wzNh8mqugAdVNl8K1ePM-Ncmryn4FfS2_DYecC9hCyjfesqu-DwLu1ruNnaKi/s1600/19-Sewing+12-1-2012+096.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I bought those plastic drawers in the corner to go under my bathroom sink, but my house is strangely designed, so they don't fit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">They are, however, the perfect size for organizing my sewing stuff so it's not all over the table anymore. All the many small things are in the bottom drawer, like the pin cushion, rotary cutter, extra blades, etc. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaYlB27FfK5Xhy-B7XC_47jsTcp_zoATdzc7jjsa96JIO3ZvfhWSw6jsgp16HExglYOeJlE_-hLxsfX1JL8rnAN4jiSQZYkm8zhuySKUb8JxLC_thRpOEoV-5y_EeSihgTh62dWZTDTGwm/s1600/16-Sewing+12-1-2012+093.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaYlB27FfK5Xhy-B7XC_47jsTcp_zoATdzc7jjsa96JIO3ZvfhWSw6jsgp16HExglYOeJlE_-hLxsfX1JL8rnAN4jiSQZYkm8zhuySKUb8JxLC_thRpOEoV-5y_EeSihgTh62dWZTDTGwm/s1600/16-Sewing+12-1-2012+093.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The top drawer holds finished quilt squares for the old clothes quilt, cut squares for the Space Invaders quilt and old clothes quilt. At the moment, it's also holding patterns. I'm sure there is a great way to organize patterns - I just don't know what it is yet. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZuobeMAXk1oUqSrzhlgIioktQO22PQRa86qEkCnlRt3l6TPzCBQCIQg7CD2ZgVA8q_bFRLds7tUbFmw1bruWj4iBk2AxvMVguZZT5rk1-TzG7D1mVL5dcab_J4XZzXGoEXddFp1cD6Xt/s1600/17-Sewing+12-1-2012+094.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguZuobeMAXk1oUqSrzhlgIioktQO22PQRa86qEkCnlRt3l6TPzCBQCIQg7CD2ZgVA8q_bFRLds7tUbFmw1bruWj4iBk2AxvMVguZZT5rk1-TzG7D1mVL5dcab_J4XZzXGoEXddFp1cD6Xt/s1600/17-Sewing+12-1-2012+094.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those plastic packages on top are actually the packages sheets come in. I bought a couple sets of sheets, because I had many guests coming in a row and two sets of sheets - I was about to throw out the packages and realized they would be perfect for fabric.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqQ-4x-LxNoWy-gS8c9yo4W7Gog7KsxcIx3cYvP0t1Hy9_-xLycPoKRV0z_0QB69BzFSKVS5aAnCmqIjzy1YVAeAQpcwUNG01qd8hQgDIGmEVfzkx4ezqx4K-H6on7vTEh0NVX0gZjaJeV/s1600/14-Sewing+12-1-2012+091.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqQ-4x-LxNoWy-gS8c9yo4W7Gog7KsxcIx3cYvP0t1Hy9_-xLycPoKRV0z_0QB69BzFSKVS5aAnCmqIjzy1YVAeAQpcwUNG01qd8hQgDIGmEVfzkx4ezqx4K-H6on7vTEh0NVX0gZjaJeV/s1600/14-Sewing+12-1-2012+091.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Recognize the colors? That's the fabric from the Space Invaders quilt! Once I've cut all the squares from it, I put it in there to use for whatever I do next.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjkMVyhyphenhyphenxrxglAmfAlW7FxtU1EhBo1-mMtQl0cfmt2HbhBxaHU1p_dSqdbpisvvu6vapQuriU-KAyVU9DqoO3o-qHVJf0ySXLGyjHACSghHW7cTkEVkpJO97XRY53UJ6YKtLCyLHe-XOkn/s1600/15-Sewing+12-1-2012+092.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjkMVyhyphenhyphenxrxglAmfAlW7FxtU1EhBo1-mMtQl0cfmt2HbhBxaHU1p_dSqdbpisvvu6vapQuriU-KAyVU9DqoO3o-qHVJf0ySXLGyjHACSghHW7cTkEVkpJO97XRY53UJ6YKtLCyLHe-XOkn/s1600/15-Sewing+12-1-2012+092.jpg" width="281" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is the fabric I've been using for the old clothes quilt. I have a ton of quilt squares cut from these already, so they get put to the side while I actually put the ones I have cut together. There will be another post on that one soon - there has been progress! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There is another one that holds scraps and small pieces that's a smaller container. (I think it must have been one sheet or pillowcases or something else little. I do not remember at this point.) Overall, they stack nicely, keep things organized, and protect it from the waves of dog hair that float over my house every time I brush Casey.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, just so no one thinks poor Casey gets ignored while I sew, the other benefit of moving my sewing space is that his living room bed is right next to me:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDwUoChWbp3ShyphenhyphenM3nOg-PfRIMBwhDo9ryR2y-KGFkuz-qLwJ6zQZG3ZJS7GMtElaqKEgqo41Hn-tfZs1xM-aJC1MtPlQh9ttwmKzg-wtT7f5450-6uVLAsXTJ1CDU9xeSFWmPnV3zORR68/s1600/21-Sewing+12-1-2012+098.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDwUoChWbp3ShyphenhyphenM3nOg-PfRIMBwhDo9ryR2y-KGFkuz-qLwJ6zQZG3ZJS7GMtElaqKEgqo41Hn-tfZs1xM-aJC1MtPlQh9ttwmKzg-wtT7f5450-6uVLAsXTJ1CDU9xeSFWmPnV3zORR68/s1600/21-Sewing+12-1-2012+098.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That gray thing on the left by the radiator is Casey's current bed covered with his favorite blanket and that pile in the corner is his toy box. (Yes, there will someday be a project to make Casey an attractive bed - I should stuff it with the shredded pieces of toys he leaves all over the place! Hmmm...) He has a tendency to come sit with his head in my lap while I sew, which is alternately adorable and really annoying, depending on whether I'm using the foot pedal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is so nice, though, to have my table back and organized again! And my house looks about 10 times less chaotic now too. Bonus!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Till next time (when there will be more sewing), </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><i><b>A</b></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-32090330409072360172012-12-08T10:20:00.000-05:002012-12-08T10:20:00.270-05:00Excel Quilt Planning<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hello Again, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So several of my friends have asked me to give more explanation on my use of Microsoft Excel to plan my quilting and cross stitch patterns. I'm not sure how much information I have to give you, but I'll be as useful as I can. Feel free to ask for clarification in the comments too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Basically, Excel is wonderful for anything that is based on squares - perfect for the kind of block designs of my video game quilts or the quotes I do in cross stitch. I learned to design my own cross stitch patterns from my wonderful Mother when I realized at about 15 that most patterns are way, way too cute for my taste. (And yes, <a href="http://www.subversivecrossstitch.com/" target="_blank">Subversive Cross Stitch</a> is one of my favorite things.) Back then, however, I spent hours taping together pieces of graph paper and would get really frustrated really quickly. I am not patient enough for that! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">So being the giant geek that I am, I was working on data in Excel one day and suddenly realized it would be perfect. The first pattern I did was this one:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTM9Au9xHAoKnVRQo_d0L1Njy-KUUdIhL9RoIZw3IK53ZXs4pYh72A3uLdgBWf84x1x9faeg3xoHzRZRMETAmkKud2uWzTvmE9ywn7W9z4Ird6GYkrCfg5RX0kNIvmWCH1w8170T0lUWx3/s1600/AureliusQuote.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTM9Au9xHAoKnVRQo_d0L1Njy-KUUdIhL9RoIZw3IK53ZXs4pYh72A3uLdgBWf84x1x9faeg3xoHzRZRMETAmkKud2uWzTvmE9ywn7W9z4Ird6GYkrCfg5RX0kNIvmWCH1w8170T0lUWx3/s640/AureliusQuote.bmp" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And yes, that border was evil to do and to put in Excel. I actually copied it off a costume a friend had made that just sat on my desk while I painstakingly put it into the cell borders. Obviously, each cell is a block on your fabric or an X if you're making a transfer pattern. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>The first step</b> for this is making all the cells a uniform size. If you click that empty square in the top right corner of your sheet (or press CTR-A on the keyboard), you highlight the entire sheet. Either drag your cells so they are the same size or right click and go to properties and set them to be the same size. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>For cross stitch, I use two methods:</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1) For full stitches, I just shade the entire square - the button that looks like a paint bucket. (Half and quarter stitches don't work nicely in Excel - I usually put in an X in the color the half stitch will be and try very hard to remember what I'm doing when I go to stitch the pattern.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2) For back stitch, I use the "draw border" function and click on the edge of the cell where I want the line to be. (Click on on the little arrow next to the "Borders" button -> "Draw Border")</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3) For something like a motif or a border, once you have the initial horizontal or vertical iteration done, you can copy and paste it in to make life faster. So much better than drawing it over and over!! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><b>Moving on to Quilts </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Creating block quilt patterns is not much different, though I do a few different things to make life easier while I design the pattern. Do the same first step, so the squares are the same size. In my case, I make them 10 pixels wide, because it's easy - they can really be any size. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1) Decide the size of your quilt and figure out how many inches that will be. For this method, each cell on the spreadsheet will represent one inch. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">2) Leaving a few blank rows above and to the left, highlight the correct number of cells across and down. You can do this in landscape or portrait direction - it doesn't matter for the program - whichever is easier for you to work with. (In recent versions of Excel, when you highlight many rows and columns, it will tell you next to the cursor how many you have highlighted.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">3) Click the little button next to the "Borders" button and select "Outside Borders". I will sometimes also go to the "Line Style" option at the bottom of the menu and make the border really thick, so it's easy to see no matter what colors I'm working with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">4) This lets you mess with the size of your squares as well as your layout, so you can try your design in any size you like. To insert the lines that represent the edge of your blocks, you can either use Draw Borders again or highlight 3 squares for 3" blocks and hit Outside Borders again. Play around with it to see what method you like! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">You should have a grid that looks like this if you did 3" squares. (In may case, I put a 1" border around the edge just because - it eventually turned into a 3" border in the final design stages.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeiwiSAStTMYkp8J5aCeudedMF4tIw60qHp92WtGkO_Kqp2VmibVAs6NDURmIplUIIxMyyoy2vXUjA-w2lExAnKxUj4IEMkrW5MKpZyoSuwav3l2p9WgHFckh1l89SCMLXNwufJAAOC4Cd/s1600/3InchGrid.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeiwiSAStTMYkp8J5aCeudedMF4tIw60qHp92WtGkO_Kqp2VmibVAs6NDURmIplUIIxMyyoy2vXUjA-w2lExAnKxUj4IEMkrW5MKpZyoSuwav3l2p9WgHFckh1l89SCMLXNwufJAAOC4Cd/s320/3InchGrid.bmp" width="212" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">5) Now, you can just highlight the cells inside those squares and use the fill button to make them any color you want. If you need to undo your work, just select all and hit "No Fill" on that menu with the little paint bucket. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The initial plan for the Space Invaders Quilt looked like this before I made it pretty:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WPYIkGYYY-nkGW_smfszteuSIFu90G0yTH9YbPr8-syfNI7bN2ZmxGSFY4culQsx8gt5jIypxrY8VpT3xiWeDz64K79n_taGYRODN8uQOS2GkO6WKN08TMimcdWaXYhZqXQDoAfihcxs/s1600/SI+First+Set.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WPYIkGYYY-nkGW_smfszteuSIFu90G0yTH9YbPr8-syfNI7bN2ZmxGSFY4culQsx8gt5jIypxrY8VpT3xiWeDz64K79n_taGYRODN8uQOS2GkO6WKN08TMimcdWaXYhZqXQDoAfihcxs/s320/SI+First+Set.bmp" width="223" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">There was really never any question that the background was going to be black for this one, so I eventually filled it in and made it pretty. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKewsvAyAqOy9rlk-ihGCp6_DnbGk-6qMjSacHj6dsMQvjK0GqY5Keir-b9m1H6bcKtIzTs6JpOcgfYg4KbGEnRrbPh-JzLBZ-CbqpAYOKBY6hcNpZ2z36PX6tooNqBTxqMCix0kBRMtk/s1600/WithGrid.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKewsvAyAqOy9rlk-ihGCp6_DnbGk-6qMjSacHj6dsMQvjK0GqY5Keir-b9m1H6bcKtIzTs6JpOcgfYg4KbGEnRrbPh-JzLBZ-CbqpAYOKBY6hcNpZ2z36PX6tooNqBTxqMCix0kBRMtk/s320/WithGrid.JPG" width="230" /></a></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Hope that is a better explanation. If it's not clear, leave a comment and I will do another post or respond to your questions.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Using Excel for quilt planning and cross stitch design has been a huge help to me. I hope it is as much fun for you!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Till next time, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><b><span style="font-family: "Courier New",Courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></span></b></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br /></span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-86686392602435660542012-12-05T08:00:00.000-05:002012-12-05T08:00:09.161-05:00My First Patterns!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I got an awesome package in the mail yesterday - my first ever dress patterns! :) I ordered them from the simplicity website and I was a little unsure it all worked alright, but here they are.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7eiUXfT7_cZFMqusNmXJHK6wlMYsfK4jafiZk6EV-k4-uXkhblyKsOQyILPBWkXtBkLck-xyxGjD5bqHH_yDf6WmX84sHoH3fXwtmeUYK4FUtK9SUqEqXCdgEhuAyjidZw0o7wAIALoOP/s1600/05-Sewing+12-1-2012+082.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7eiUXfT7_cZFMqusNmXJHK6wlMYsfK4jafiZk6EV-k4-uXkhblyKsOQyILPBWkXtBkLck-xyxGjD5bqHH_yDf6WmX84sHoH3fXwtmeUYK4FUtK9SUqEqXCdgEhuAyjidZw0o7wAIALoOP/s1600/05-Sewing+12-1-2012+082.jpg" height="210" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I need to learn to make my own work clothes desperately. Apparently I'm an odd shape - who knew? And while buying very expensive clothes is awesome, I need to find a way to make things that are my kindof retro style, in colors I like, and that don't cost me crazy amounts of money.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I bought a whole bunch of patterns and it's not easy to see them in that picture, so here are the actual envelopes.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-GcCTTc_BXw3oDyS-b8sTu6I_CVuNLPkZlmm_I9rk3rLjW0Bc9phBfuQk58R8jyNgXU574YWLcdBH5CQz9pa3xvIQkDORJK9klszqtBu4K7L0yZ4B17NQeSHB1Lecq_DJr6_t4wW2Pz41/s1600/08-Sewing+12-1-2012+085.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-GcCTTc_BXw3oDyS-b8sTu6I_CVuNLPkZlmm_I9rk3rLjW0Bc9phBfuQk58R8jyNgXU574YWLcdBH5CQz9pa3xvIQkDORJK9klszqtBu4K7L0yZ4B17NQeSHB1Lecq_DJr6_t4wW2Pz41/s1600/08-Sewing+12-1-2012+085.jpg" height="320" width="236" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZRyLZIrIXKfOYhy5O2RPH4-c3KBRALbWzxm4uGMC1czGeV6IeWDp8G-GNqaUUG3x-sl4614HSBZ-nNdJtH97qaXvgSQVi8UO75dTZXcP-sIRzDgJGo5zdADHWMS0NAX2tlL8skiTu4tr/s1600/06-Sewing+12-1-2012+083.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIZRyLZIrIXKfOYhy5O2RPH4-c3KBRALbWzxm4uGMC1czGeV6IeWDp8G-GNqaUUG3x-sl4614HSBZ-nNdJtH97qaXvgSQVi8UO75dTZXcP-sIRzDgJGo5zdADHWMS0NAX2tlL8skiTu4tr/s1600/06-Sewing+12-1-2012+083.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These two are just about my favorite dress patterns - that second one I can make in a million fabrics and where to work with little sweaters. It will be so cute! The first one is a perfect summer dress and with a cardigan, I can wear that one to work as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These two are a little more basic in style, but both will be super useful:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzVm0M7r_6ibQlHZBitIbzWCk5iVKORmgVna0ANUCfXKHHiH9CHpOo_IJfvH5deBtjQ35z1Fno-YXnnLvNw5NerqdBBJe6o3TaxboIts4siXgncm-_YUBg5FwLIpRNwKwqEcSzBZ5gz-5x/s1600/10-Sewing+12-1-2012+087.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzVm0M7r_6ibQlHZBitIbzWCk5iVKORmgVna0ANUCfXKHHiH9CHpOo_IJfvH5deBtjQ35z1Fno-YXnnLvNw5NerqdBBJe6o3TaxboIts4siXgncm-_YUBg5FwLIpRNwKwqEcSzBZ5gz-5x/s1600/10-Sewing+12-1-2012+087.jpg" height="320" width="242" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjQFdtIwXbQb17F01RbCnEjdc_7tSIt-IUIRz-EoQCA5hV8VlFiaTxvSM4q4Sh7dlzS8tvPzkLPAIlh5xBMRKX3X2FoWiIqzhYvh0DgdIfFgmXOLti9Q2xDtQYU1qh-Nb1zuCKiXSaBxK5/s1600/09-Sewing+12-1-2012+086.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjQFdtIwXbQb17F01RbCnEjdc_7tSIt-IUIRz-EoQCA5hV8VlFiaTxvSM4q4Sh7dlzS8tvPzkLPAIlh5xBMRKX3X2FoWiIqzhYvh0DgdIfFgmXOLti9Q2xDtQYU1qh-Nb1zuCKiXSaBxK5/s1600/09-Sewing+12-1-2012+086.jpg" height="320" width="244" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I mean, how can you go wrong with knit tops and pencil skirts? I will have to get some fancier knit patterns, but for now these will help a bit. And pencil skirts are never, ever a bad thing. I just need more and more and more of those. Here's hoping I can pull off some of those.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And, of course, I had to buy a pattern for a sheath dress and see if I can make these. I wear these almost every day - there is no way I can ever have enough basic, princess seamed, sheath dresses!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjascyV7qmDxrjDjHfXVhFyRQG4WFNA_2wn3YOvV41W4xeQOPisuWakvEMUxBOEgHDMKNPiPBRxxW4BOaTr52eAM4GjYD89bR2J8NjolfsO89Sd137TwPn5kICzNZwtwsKNgewTis-5-e_v/s1600/07-Sewing+12-1-2012+084.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjascyV7qmDxrjDjHfXVhFyRQG4WFNA_2wn3YOvV41W4xeQOPisuWakvEMUxBOEgHDMKNPiPBRxxW4BOaTr52eAM4GjYD89bR2J8NjolfsO89Sd137TwPn5kICzNZwtwsKNgewTis-5-e_v/s1600/07-Sewing+12-1-2012+084.jpg" height="320" width="217" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I guess the next step is trying to find fabric I like that seems easy to work with for my first attempts at these.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I do have one random using on dress patterns - the sizing in these is strange. The sizing runs miniature in comparison to even expensive dress sizing. I'm usually an 8 or a 10 at Macy's, but I'm a 16 in these. I find this odd.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Till next time, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><em><strong>A</strong></em></span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-56042097098862359782012-12-01T14:48:00.002-05:002012-12-01T14:48:49.089-05:00Quilt Progress <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sorry it's been so long! Everything has been a little nuts and blogging was the thing that got cut to make life calmer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I did finally find black fabric that will work for the space invaders quilt - hooray! So the color scheme will be:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh12YvCnXN4znQdSbE9uzzILvJQT9E6p0s4tiI6hX4cOGK-RFHSTp-ssw4zDpP_ls44I_8es7AjzUcIXXvx4HO12kmgz5cEqaZzbhMU2-RKlgDAGeQ2ldQPe3FPx-LE2Yf3i2zkySbwIEGa/s1600/02-Sewing+12-1-2012+077.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh12YvCnXN4znQdSbE9uzzILvJQT9E6p0s4tiI6hX4cOGK-RFHSTp-ssw4zDpP_ls44I_8es7AjzUcIXXvx4HO12kmgz5cEqaZzbhMU2-RKlgDAGeQ2ldQPe3FPx-LE2Yf3i2zkySbwIEGa/s1600/02-Sewing+12-1-2012+077.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">See? That's going to be perfect! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also cut the squares of the blue fabric and then had way too much fun just playing with all the squares on the black background:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2YHsTnkfO1piNwhZS2l7Rl7GLIi6MvUnSBmslE8TFK_SDaPSsLg63bXOedTGn2Bg7GSwLHg9bspf9I4nLTy_dOY3rzktfpxjiJQkz5yY71I-pg_fNL4Ccf8MEgM6BdGlwPgF5y3ugVLk/s1600/03-Sewing+12-1-2012+080.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr2YHsTnkfO1piNwhZS2l7Rl7GLIi6MvUnSBmslE8TFK_SDaPSsLg63bXOedTGn2Bg7GSwLHg9bspf9I4nLTy_dOY3rzktfpxjiJQkz5yY71I-pg_fNL4Ccf8MEgM6BdGlwPgF5y3ugVLk/s1600/03-Sewing+12-1-2012+080.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have begun to think this is going to look amazing when it's done. And given how frustrated I was getting trying to find really black quilting cotton, I think I get a few minutes of playing with it to make myself happy.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQexv9Uq26mkLbye51FHzvySuB44AFnqVD4Hk8neXaVDtupYMzo4TaFzCKdXpyIAYOURBQm7aI6NnUDyqr39dlGP2OgEIjtbCWE5eFwy_o01B37ooPFmylCEsbSuIToHW1hiN1pcHPII_B/s1600/04-Sewing+12-1-2012+081.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQexv9Uq26mkLbye51FHzvySuB44AFnqVD4Hk8neXaVDtupYMzo4TaFzCKdXpyIAYOURBQm7aI6NnUDyqr39dlGP2OgEIjtbCWE5eFwy_o01B37ooPFmylCEsbSuIToHW1hiN1pcHPII_B/s1600/04-Sewing+12-1-2012+081.jpg" height="212" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So - progress!! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Someday this might actually become a real quilt. :)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Till next time, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><em>A</em></span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-39843790470855141902012-10-29T08:00:00.000-04:002012-10-29T08:00:09.544-04:00Project Planning & Goals<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I realized the other day that I am working on projects as I remember I'm doing them and I think that means I need to do a little goal setting. It may be that some of these don't happen, but these are my somewhat ambitious goals for this blog for the next few months.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">#1) Finish E's Space Invaders quilt (and, of course, show you the whole process)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">#2) Finish the clothes quilt for my bed (this one is the one that might get bumped)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">#3) Buy my first pattern and make myself something I can actually wear. I'm short on work clothes, so I think this will probably be something totally boring and practical. (Though super exciting for me if I succeed!)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">#4) Find a pattern I like and make my first pencil skirt. Then make a whole bunch more. (Remember that thing about needing work clothes?)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">#5) Do something about the masses of too-big T-shirts in my life. I have a whole drawer of these that I want to try to fix or alter or turn into something else.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">#6) Make Casey a dog bed as pretty as he is. It's going to be in my living room. I would like it not to be ugly! My puppy is <b><i>so</i></b> pretty - he should have a dog bed that does him justice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think those are pretty adequate goals for the next 3 months. I suspect that quilting those two quilts will be the thing that breaks me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We'll see how that goes! I have ideas and I'm scheming at least. I'm always happy when I'm scheming! :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Till next time, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><i>A</i></b></span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-27059833584355344032012-10-26T08:00:00.000-04:002012-10-26T08:00:08.533-04:00Making a Bar: Part 2<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I left you last time, we had just stripped, sanded, and primed a dresser and gone off to procrastinate with beer and video games. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Painted white, the dresser was actually quite pretty and there was some discussion of really making it white. White, however, would not go very well with the rest of my decor and in a house with two dogs, would probably only be white for about a week. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We spent awhile going through the colors in my apartment, because I am horribly indecisive about color. That might explain why my walls are still white even though I've lived in this apartment for two years....</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiky-mgVj_fW4kWwU2waC0wY0xt0fiUVd3iV-mVXVXDiriCgh8D3GUucx9XV4hPXxEXVOu0aKFNn1F7L1VgOe-hpL9WTbWFAWoy7NvGazsVcO-CKOzaEk4CpknEC0o8QdRCO8lGUtXMN0PA/s1600/Red.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiky-mgVj_fW4kWwU2waC0wY0xt0fiUVd3iV-mVXVXDiriCgh8D3GUucx9XV4hPXxEXVOu0aKFNn1F7L1VgOe-hpL9WTbWFAWoy7NvGazsVcO-CKOzaEk4CpknEC0o8QdRCO8lGUtXMN0PA/s200/Red.png" width="173" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtieJg1PSucK1cQpNZ6X-svUiTLJwy9dHL46lOexFgAjh_dEwL_h1rrfoJOBlGsfc9z8W2NY-5AkXMhD1ZJGyW7Z5ujs9h1Zdbubj3AePFvY9jCHjADQMQqL3hVPomLbWrfepl67_w0ti1/s1600/Black.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtieJg1PSucK1cQpNZ6X-svUiTLJwy9dHL46lOexFgAjh_dEwL_h1rrfoJOBlGsfc9z8W2NY-5AkXMhD1ZJGyW7Z5ujs9h1Zdbubj3AePFvY9jCHjADQMQqL3hVPomLbWrfepl67_w0ti1/s1600/Black.png" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMYbs-4iaVHD__XQBL6rd3ZDkzGa5Y_7e2u0pAGuWlcq6n_trgicYOPfaZfW-YXsrKDBIhLiE2uMHm6CFA064ChlYUFTo-83R6YyTCi-JonD07IJUl6ggTDplFL0SWQ-mooLozSHEH2xL/s1600/Blue.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMYbs-4iaVHD__XQBL6rd3ZDkzGa5Y_7e2u0pAGuWlcq6n_trgicYOPfaZfW-YXsrKDBIhLiE2uMHm6CFA064ChlYUFTo-83R6YyTCi-JonD07IJUl6ggTDplFL0SWQ-mooLozSHEH2xL/s1600/Blue.png" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you can see, most of them were pretty dark and solid. This piece is going in a corner all by itself and I want it to stand out as a strong piece. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was not a huge fan of the black and Q was not a huge fan of the blue for this piece. We thought the grey would be incredibly hard to get right and so discarded it. I might do a rubbed blue when I find something to put the TV on. (That's another story all together!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That left us with a nice, rich red, which I loved the idea of. We decided to go fairly dark and try for a somewhat shiny finish.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That was all well and good, but then I went to my local hardware store and made this mistake of telling the guy who was at the paint counter what I was going to do with the paint. He decided that since it was going to be a bar, I should use deck paint, which he said would be the same consistency, but dry harder. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That seemed totally fine until I got home and discovered that he had given me concrete floor paint instead, which is not the same consistency. It's more like stain. But, of course, we didn't quite realize that until we had already started and the hardware store was closed. Sooo...we did what Q and I usually do and went for it anyway. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, one cool thing about the super-thin paint, Q was painting with a foam brush and it left lines in the paint that looked like wood grain. I think it took quite a bit of concentration, but she made it look like this piece was actually made of wood! All those spots where the laminate was damaged came out looking like knots in the wood. Awesome accident!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I wish I had taken pictures of the colors as it evolved, but sadly I did not. Coat one - coral pink. That's right, really, really pink. For those of you who know me, you will understand why this required a drink. I do<i><b> not</b></i> do pink! The second coat was a kindof magenta-like pale red color that I couldn't describe accurately.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The third coat, however, started to look red. Like fire engine red. Or maybe cherry red. At this point, it was 2am and we decided it was time to go to bed and see what it looked like in the morning. Sadly, Q's flight was in the morning, so she didn't get to really see the finished product.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzvXgPlvwQiygucfG8Y1j6o34sVryh6rACpdKdQn-6wSyA1w4Mgku7d1DQFUWGMr7MWUyVldLY3B9NN6sv3Crk0MY2REL_2QLKExDOhmnEB9gLGYmepacZGJuiEXGU9bcUYhd0GdN4xTQ/s1600/3-Dresser+2+005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYzvXgPlvwQiygucfG8Y1j6o34sVryh6rACpdKdQn-6wSyA1w4Mgku7d1DQFUWGMr7MWUyVldLY3B9NN6sv3Crk0MY2REL_2QLKExDOhmnEB9gLGYmepacZGJuiEXGU9bcUYhd0GdN4xTQ/s320/3-Dresser+2+005.jpg" width="212" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once it dried, it looked awesome!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had bought these fabulous knobs for the top drawer:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTSlth19J2410ekpPe5iaDMRcZ3AppBSYtqu-uXtehcCkXOCltc09EIPhrIOpbTfg_KZoDQvInzcv7zljghqM7xbzWKCovGmjjnXZNWdYWQPjnWVq5nX69SkVwk0O8ufMNo3_C3Ax9KUk/s1600/7-Dresser+2+012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTSlth19J2410ekpPe5iaDMRcZ3AppBSYtqu-uXtehcCkXOCltc09EIPhrIOpbTfg_KZoDQvInzcv7zljghqM7xbzWKCovGmjjnXZNWdYWQPjnWVq5nX69SkVwk0O8ufMNo3_C3Ax9KUk/s320/7-Dresser+2+012.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I love them. What? I'm Irish - the knot-like quality appealed to me. </span><br />
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<span lang=""> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had planned to only put them on top drawers, but then I realized something important - the holes drilled for hardware on these were 96mm, which apparently doesn't give me lots of options. My local hardware stores had nothing and I am not a patient woman. I wanted it done now!</span></span><br />
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<span lang=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I did something I thought was going to be a little odd. I put knobs down the front in both holes instead of wide handles. And, lo and behold, it looked fantastic!</span><br />
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<span lang=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really thought that would look strange, but in the end, I absolutely love the double row.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And this is where just going for it benefits Q and me - I ended up loving the bright red too. I realized once I put it in place that it is exactly the same color as the roof I can see out my window and it is beautiful in that space. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only problem - now it makes the rest of my furniture look shabby! Clearly, I need to step up my game in the rest of my house.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once I really set it up and get glass shelves to go above it, I will post again about the first finished corner of my house. For the moment, I just keep stepping back to admire it. :D</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So once again, before and after:</span></span></span><br />
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<span lang=""><span lang=""><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Aya-esLhe2iBuMeUNjv7vBIlP_vC0nf9TKyr8LzlMhDWZ1Ar0Cnet2cXHSrwGNqcE6YCAa1Mlg7Zu0WQPaB30yXBA2v_DfMvr2zIdZZfbBKtptp-kZM7OuI0F1YH1eSAZNY_R29YkTX-/s1600/1-Dresser+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Aya-esLhe2iBuMeUNjv7vBIlP_vC0nf9TKyr8LzlMhDWZ1Ar0Cnet2cXHSrwGNqcE6YCAa1Mlg7Zu0WQPaB30yXBA2v_DfMvr2zIdZZfbBKtptp-kZM7OuI0F1YH1eSAZNY_R29YkTX-/s320/1-Dresser+004.jpg" width="270" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMyyVa5gLcZbOfPykopr1r4b6ppoqCzvDK-W1DV_xPYgFcaBi8Lrwq8BegcLs-WqdJOkCv_gLT4v6Zm9YcfMP-ExWxCxJekrYu335n-izh33RJvFoIBySauEL_kbk7vF7GB-n-BBHkzRIS/s1600/5-Dresser+2+007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMyyVa5gLcZbOfPykopr1r4b6ppoqCzvDK-W1DV_xPYgFcaBi8Lrwq8BegcLs-WqdJOkCv_gLT4v6Zm9YcfMP-ExWxCxJekrYu335n-izh33RJvFoIBySauEL_kbk7vF7GB-n-BBHkzRIS/s320/5-Dresser+2+007.jpg" width="232" /></span></a></span></span></div>
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<span lang=""><span lang=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hope you love it as much as I do!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Till next time, </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><i>A</i></b></span></span></span><br />
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SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-73198530729908327982012-10-24T20:32:00.004-04:002012-10-25T12:24:45.458-04:00Making a Bar: Part 1<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Apologies for the break in broadcasting. My best friend Q was in town and we did a big project that took over the quilt making time. So rather than the usual, here is the project we worked on in two parts.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I recently found out I didn't get an apartment I wanted that was much bigger than mine, so Q kindly decided to help me start fixing my house to make me feel better about this. And now, I have plans! Lots and lots of plans. :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Step 1: replace my weird kitchen cart in the corner of the living room with a functional bar that I can really use. And Q had an awesome idea - take the icky dresser I got for free that is not really being used in the bedroom and turn it into a bar. Brilliant! And, because the universe smiled on me, it fit perfectly - like 1/32 of an inch perfectly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only problem? It looked like this:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Aya-esLhe2iBuMeUNjv7vBIlP_vC0nf9TKyr8LzlMhDWZ1Ar0Cnet2cXHSrwGNqcE6YCAa1Mlg7Zu0WQPaB30yXBA2v_DfMvr2zIdZZfbBKtptp-kZM7OuI0F1YH1eSAZNY_R29YkTX-/s1600/1-Dresser+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6Aya-esLhe2iBuMeUNjv7vBIlP_vC0nf9TKyr8LzlMhDWZ1Ar0Cnet2cXHSrwGNqcE6YCAa1Mlg7Zu0WQPaB30yXBA2v_DfMvr2zIdZZfbBKtptp-kZM7OuI0F1YH1eSAZNY_R29YkTX-/s320/1-Dresser+004.jpg" width="270" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yeah, the starfish and pale blue do not work in my living room. Also, those handles slide back into the dresser really easily and that is frustrating. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So Q had the awesome idea of stripping and painting this thing a color that I would love and making it a bar. Brilliant, obviously!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While she was visiting, she decided to start stripping it. Now, we didn't actually realize this thing was not going to be easy. It was made of laminate and had been painted with one of those special, unpleasant primers that makes paint stick to laminate. Yeah, it looked simple to strip in the beginning:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu83uJGoZ7dinAVa-9gXXJn8UC-AWDnBH18l7910xoc5MN2pPyILNAsIEKDfs8H0Rboux3uY6T1WSTe2Ma3gHxQ68PMG2C0mqvQ41jSY-IRvOKsPS1VJ3qiDL66zskJMk_pkGjiv8L6TEV/s1600/1-Dresser+010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu83uJGoZ7dinAVa-9gXXJn8UC-AWDnBH18l7910xoc5MN2pPyILNAsIEKDfs8H0Rboux3uY6T1WSTe2Ma3gHxQ68PMG2C0mqvQ41jSY-IRvOKsPS1VJ3qiDL66zskJMk_pkGjiv8L6TEV/s320/1-Dresser+010.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So.... Apparently laminate with primer on it is made of evil. Pure, un-remediated evil. Q started the stripping while I was at work around 2 in the afternoon. She was still going when I got home at 6 and started to help. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, Q knows what she's doing. Since I had two dogs in the house, we were using the indoor-safe primer, but she's used it many times before. Our supplies were:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuyY9eAXNKdXvhgVGUIIAYfPAwHx0cz9FGk42MabuwefKxeLvMkS4pbvZ4vT3diiKnvC-J4w_JhQOI5o2q3pnpp5IJFguadLKUqpPcXZB8UwDqrMdQj5TcmMxb6rgvs8GhWiLb541kMWzB/s1600/2-Dresser+005.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuyY9eAXNKdXvhgVGUIIAYfPAwHx0cz9FGk42MabuwefKxeLvMkS4pbvZ4vT3diiKnvC-J4w_JhQOI5o2q3pnpp5IJFguadLKUqpPcXZB8UwDqrMdQj5TcmMxb6rgvs8GhWiLb541kMWzB/s320/2-Dresser+005.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Really - it didn't<b><i> look</i></b> like it was going to a combined 14 hours of labor to strip! It really, really didn't.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Finally, we got it stripped after delivered pizza and a fair amount of beer...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikcn4Ama5tlqfXva3F1NL49jta2MMMfwjI4NU5pgNmi9xrndprNKwlWgJxa3rk6mFKvP4dJCbGZ7CdBNA04MeQOjZSRecH99h05BsHZzaLYWLalevybo5SlucUPJRvxFvC5g0QmWoSTdmy/s1600/2-Dresser+012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikcn4Ama5tlqfXva3F1NL49jta2MMMfwjI4NU5pgNmi9xrndprNKwlWgJxa3rk6mFKvP4dJCbGZ7CdBNA04MeQOjZSRecH99h05BsHZzaLYWLalevybo5SlucUPJRvxFvC5g0QmWoSTdmy/s320/2-Dresser+012.jpg" width="228" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yeah, it looks awful, doesn't it? And there were places where we just couldn't scrape the paint off, so we had to do way more sanding than expected. Those little curves on the drawers? They make it really pretty, but they are also annoying as all get out to strip and sand.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">However, with more beer and more pizza, we got it all ready to be primed and it started to look like a real piece of furniture finally!</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieq40gkKNla0iWZMg3b3AJPbi_Us7PhlhDdveaen2Ql-8MaoRTHn7Hprpx5gNwZWCI_vQGAEKoXGJHzRUqlgDH7al26CO5MTHQ8VJapNvlIFzXk0M7y1hhGxV1sDkXTLZGUYC5995NIWB3/s1600/3-Dresser+006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieq40gkKNla0iWZMg3b3AJPbi_Us7PhlhDdveaen2Ql-8MaoRTHn7Hprpx5gNwZWCI_vQGAEKoXGJHzRUqlgDH7al26CO5MTHQ8VJapNvlIFzXk0M7y1hhGxV1sDkXTLZGUYC5995NIWB3/s320/3-Dresser+006.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now isn't that prettier?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once it was all primed and looking like a real piece of furniture again, we took a night off and played video games....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hooray for high scores in all the version of Pac Man and Qix and Space Invaders and Galaga. That's right... We are video game queens! :) (If you live in DC, the bar that has all of these is the Board Room on Connecticut, by the way. It's awesome!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Part Two coming up, where we have some problems with paint, color confusion, and a beautiful finished product!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Till next time, </span><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><i> </i></b></span><br />
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SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-26527655800047779682012-10-15T08:00:00.000-04:002012-10-16T16:09:18.449-04:00Space Invaders Quilt: Cutting Endlessly<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I have finally started cutting squares for the Space Invaders Quilt! I was having some difficulty getting even strips to do mass cutting, so I took my mother's suggestion and stopped trying to be efficient. "Accuracy over efficiency, dear." was the comment, I believe!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I pulled out my materials and started with purple, since it was on top.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjip_e4nIT99XQDBebFvD0UtwAAN1nmQ9ogRtnsFyEvCThyphenhyphenUoOnIdEP4dndZ49Ct3-lGNEvpfEurd6W2lgjFvJi1ysXdqAl6HiOBggddrAr8bLbObsBO4YMl0WO9HKBsg2RPF5Fo97xwc12/s1600/1-Quilt+Squares+%25231+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjip_e4nIT99XQDBebFvD0UtwAAN1nmQ9ogRtnsFyEvCThyphenhyphenUoOnIdEP4dndZ49Ct3-lGNEvpfEurd6W2lgjFvJi1ysXdqAl6HiOBggddrAr8bLbObsBO4YMl0WO9HKBsg2RPF5Fo97xwc12/s320/1-Quilt+Squares+%25231+001.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As you can see, I finally cleaned my table to make this easier!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once I started cutting, I'm pretty sure I cut for about 4 hours straight. I needed a feeling of accomplishment. And I most definitely got it! I discovered that once I cut a straight line on the bottom, I could just line up the template and only cut two sides of it to have a square. Sometimes I messed up and there was more cutting involved, but at least I'm confident my squares are all 3.5" and will not do anything odd when I go to piece them together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A very nice commenter told me about strip piecing (Thank <a href="http://3hourspast.com/" target="_blank">StephC</a>!) and I think for the next quilt I will definitley use that. I'm feeling a little uncertain about getting the strips right on this quilt. I'm hoping I get the hang of cutting nice, straight strips soon, because that would be really useful for my next quilt!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I cut 40 squares in a few hours, which was way faster than I expected and then I had to stand back and admire my handiwork....</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi626Xr2es7fr84MFuxpjJbLYevTLybhUtp8tqiq2XI-eg0UzkNDNgAWry1LIQdChUIFSluyVqymmaMs7gmGgiOJGubgJ9SnQ9reSGB64SMDImWxrpLTu-55a0LKl_3VoKCfamU3Ft01E45/s1600/4-Quilt+Squares+%25231+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi626Xr2es7fr84MFuxpjJbLYevTLybhUtp8tqiq2XI-eg0UzkNDNgAWry1LIQdChUIFSluyVqymmaMs7gmGgiOJGubgJ9SnQ9reSGB64SMDImWxrpLTu-55a0LKl_3VoKCfamU3Ft01E45/s320/4-Quilt+Squares+%25231+004.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And.... Then I cleaned my house, because my arm hurt. :P</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When I stopped avoiding finishing my task, I came back and cut <b><i>another</i></b> 40 squares. Then, shockingly, I was done! I'm still a little amazed that I cut 80 squares in a day! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also realized that somehow, my math on how much fabric I would need was off by about a factor of 5. I have 2 yards of this fabric and I used less than half a yard. It's a pretty purple though, so I will just use it in something in future!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hooray for having a fabric stash! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Till next time (when I get to cut 80 blue squares and about 100 black sqaures.), </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><i>A</i></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Update: </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">After looking at my pattern again, I realized that I am very silly and cut way more squares than was necessary. Anyone have another child who should get one of these? I'm pretty sure I doubled all the numbers! </span></span><b><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"></span><i> </i></b></span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-21188268088585987072012-10-12T08:00:00.000-04:002012-10-12T08:00:08.703-04:00Space Indavers Quilt: Fabric<span lang=""><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again, </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since the plans for the quilt are now complete, it is time to talk fabric. I have no real idea what I'm doing, so I decided to go with all quilting cotton of the same type. I was worried that they would match up strangely or wear differently over time otherwise. I needed solid colors, which surprisingly hard to find in quilting cotton in the right colors. I also need black, which is turning out to be a trial - but more on that later!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I went online with a general idea of the colors I needed and found fabric.com, which had Kona Quilting Cotton in a pretty wide range of colors. I ordered the three that I thought would work best and they finally came! (Who knew getting fabric in the mail would make me giddy!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I got these three:</span><br />
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<span lang=""><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryq8wFYwxdfz1_u6lSzrDHhRMqR9mAy_aXZUXPYcUwARaTKDvlV3KtLSJVUyVblqVhX01EwU7W05WJ85HD1pno2y2R_CfbWh935Wwb83Aj6j0vdoKSpry3rI1H_IPYHVEvkkhvAdhtDdU/s1600/34-10-8-2012+036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjryq8wFYwxdfz1_u6lSzrDHhRMqR9mAy_aXZUXPYcUwARaTKDvlV3KtLSJVUyVblqVhX01EwU7W05WJ85HD1pno2y2R_CfbWh935Wwb83Aj6j0vdoKSpry3rI1H_IPYHVEvkkhvAdhtDdU/s320/34-10-8-2012+036.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since, as always, these were taken at night with a flash, the colors are a tiny bit off. That one on the end that looks black? Yeah, it's not black - it's a very dark brown. Now, it's a pretty color and all, but it is not going to work for this quilt. Space Invaders absolutely must have a really dark, black background! I like the color, so I'll keep it anyway and use it in something else someday - an excuse for more sewing. :)</span><br />
<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I knew I had to pre-shrink fabric, but I had no idea what I was doing, so I found<a href="http://www.blogforbettersewing.com/2010/01/preshrinking-fabrics-methods-and.html"> this awesome post </a>on Gertie's Blog for Better Sewing. I just threw mine in the washer with some dark sheets and dried like I usually do. </span><br />
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<br /><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Only thing I forgot? Those instructions on serging or zigzagging the edge? Those are a good idea! My edges look like this in the good spots:</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUY-C29YZTi-sIzpoQkWriUjwM0tebTDQglhLiWPQFPVUkm4sJ1nXRu6HNr_Lv1i7faxQRA84ah4p3DymEW5xgeyUsxcn_1mQ83bMrVBWZCAjUDKW0I20j-FJPDTHzNneD3dHn76z5sHL/s1600/1-10-8-2012+036.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoUY-C29YZTi-sIzpoQkWriUjwM0tebTDQglhLiWPQFPVUkm4sJ1nXRu6HNr_Lv1i7faxQRA84ah4p3DymEW5xgeyUsxcn_1mQ83bMrVBWZCAjUDKW0I20j-FJPDTHzNneD3dHn76z5sHL/s320/1-10-8-2012+036.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Not a big deal, but it mean that I had a ton of clipping frayed threads to do! Yes, yes I do now have a million purple and blue threads all over my house... And a long-haired black dog. Who is (of course) now finding every loose thread and getting it tangled in his hair. But hey, he loves being brushed, so it's his latest excuse to get groomed every night!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It took forever to iron all of these and I learned a couple of things:<br />1) My little tiny ironing board is not going to work for quilting. I need to buy a full-sized one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />2) The fact that my iron has no auto-shutoff makes me nervous and is annoying cause I keep having to unplug it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) Steam. Steam is really important. Why didn't I know this? Apparently, I'm just kind of a slob who never irons things. (Sorry Mom!) I had to iron everything twice, because this first time did not take without steam!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4) When I put my iron down, it hisses out a little cloud of steam. This should NOT be pointed at my own arm, my dog, my wall, or my table. Obvious? Why yes, yes it kind of is. Now.<br />So, 4 hours later, I have fabric ready for cutting! And a sore arm from ironing for hours. <br />Next up: Finding truly black fabric and cutting quilt squares, both of which may take awhile. But I'm having so much fun, I really don't care.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Till next time, </span><b><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"> </span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">A</span></i></b>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-72625227499874979172012-10-10T08:00:00.000-04:002012-10-10T09:54:42.687-04:00Old Clothes Quilt #1<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello Again, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since my first quilt square, I have decided I need more practice at this
before I take on the Space Invaders Quilt. Since that one is a gift, I need it
to come out right!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Practice seemed like
a good idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since the dogs have been
slowly destroying the pretty quilt on my bed, I thought I would make something
for myself first.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At least then it
doesn't matter if it's a little off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like with people, a few imperfections make quilts interesting, right?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since I've lost a ton of weight, I have many, many clothes that no longer
fit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of them are good for donation,
but others have stains or tears that would make me feel bad sending them to
Good Will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I decided to pull those out
and see if any of them were fabric that would work for a quilt and, happily,
some of them are!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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pulled apart a shirt and two pairs of pants that had tears at the hem and ended
up with these:</span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That one in the middle is a dark blue, not black as it looks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, this would work better if I ever took
these pictures when the sun was up!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I cut several quilt squares of each and got my pinning, sewing, and seam
pressing process on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wanted to do some experimenting
before I went all-out making millions of squares!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I ended up with some very pretty quilt squares, including the first one I made a few days ago:</span></span></span></div>
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></span><o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjelwMsBnOCdlCzb-c_-4hcZZZcfFAWXC_tVHULZseZTr06KaE4x8un9AvSn1noOrj_C3KUBRp7zrzfBx3Zq6aXeXRBEXFCRko6kkDvlrGIFWgXnTDrvnhmkyrAIGOM45msMto15zob_PxF/s1600/04-10-8-2012+004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjelwMsBnOCdlCzb-c_-4hcZZZcfFAWXC_tVHULZseZTr06KaE4x8un9AvSn1noOrj_C3KUBRp7zrzfBx3Zq6aXeXRBEXFCRko6kkDvlrGIFWgXnTDrvnhmkyrAIGOM45msMto15zob_PxF/s320/04-10-8-2012+004.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From a distance, these look awesome. I think the quilt is going to end up
being really pretty!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It's the right
colors for my bedroom right now too - I have a thing for blue clearly.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While I love these and will use them in the quilt, there are
some...um...issues to work out in my quilt square-making skills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had some trouble getting the squares to line up right, which I think is
mostly due to not perfectly cut squares.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I think? Having the seams not perfect on the first batch led to problems
later on and some of the squares look like this if you look closely:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7v9cqVdVw4vLiCSq1jwAfFhU3z_CjF0-21OW9hN0ywiJFiMIjeIiuVS34VmCqrKoDFsfi_Nu1ceBgmhs3noiUMYLQOjRq9a85MJtR0rk7Pq9RC9iGDexYK11EE2MUgGfTXKJoo_W9F3ZP/s1600/07-10-8-2012+007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7v9cqVdVw4vLiCSq1jwAfFhU3z_CjF0-21OW9hN0ywiJFiMIjeIiuVS34VmCqrKoDFsfi_Nu1ceBgmhs3noiUMYLQOjRq9a85MJtR0rk7Pq9RC9iGDexYK11EE2MUgGfTXKJoo_W9F3ZP/s320/07-10-8-2012+007.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In some ways, I think it kinda looks cool, since all 4 corners were off by
about the same amount on that one, but I need to figure out what I did wrong so
I don't do it on the Space Invaders Quilt!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It looks fine overall:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8VAM8AKZ9C1hDzI00Eqsy71eslXaZMkhalDipgqovr3L3-p53fkpzHuazvfeC801colP9yjk57OFo2FQ68OREczwdIh3dfU54cXJWytO3HlfCY2gsTdX72SjptOInEW8GEzv2CmMw86zp/s1600/06-10-8-2012+006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8VAM8AKZ9C1hDzI00Eqsy71eslXaZMkhalDipgqovr3L3-p53fkpzHuazvfeC801colP9yjk57OFo2FQ68OREczwdIh3dfU54cXJWytO3HlfCY2gsTdX72SjptOInEW8GEzv2CmMw86zp/s320/06-10-8-2012+006.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">OK, yes, that one seam is off still, but I honestly don't think I will
notice it once it's in a big quilt. Probably other people are not crazy perfectionists like me. And I would be a little creeped out if someone spent enough time staring at my bed to notice a few off corners on the quilt, come to think of it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end, I think I will end up doing a 60" x 80" quilt with these.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I can just do 5 across with 6" strips
in between (makes each square a good) and it will look pretty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will need to be white or blue to go with
the blue/grey/white theme I have going at the moment, but that shouldn't be
hard to find. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I already have 4 squares, so it's almost a row!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have begun cutting individual squares with
my template instead of strips, since it seems to work better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(There must be a trick to cutting perfect
strips, but I haven't figured it out yet. Gotta work on that!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So look for more quilt squares to come in
future.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think this is going to be
awesome when it's done. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Till next time, <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><i><b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
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SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-59983126807531033422012-10-08T22:57:00.001-04:002012-12-03T10:27:51.725-05:00Space Invaders Quilt: Planning<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It looks like I might actually be able to post often enough to make this blog a thing for me. I'm not sure I'm terribly worried if anyone other than my Mom and Grandma read it, since really I started putting crafts up here so they could see them. Perhaps someday it will entertain someone else too!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I said in my last post, the real purpose of getting my sewing machine was to try to make a baby quilt for my friend E. We chatted about designs that she would love and things I thought I would be able to do with my limited machine sewing experience. We are both complete geeks and love old video games, as does her husband. I thought and thought and hunted around through the crafty blogs and I just wasn't seeing quite what I wanted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I had a brain flash: Space Invaders! Eight bit games are totally easy to make into quilts because they are already just blocks. And Space Invaders is the ultimate original geek game. I talked to E. and she loved the idea as much as I did. She said her husband even did a little happy dance when she told what I wanted to do.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I should probably have been more intimidated by designing my own pattern, but it doesn't seem that different from designing cross stitch patterns, which I do all the time. I spent a ton of time sketching out characters on graph paper and then remembered that I have the magic power of technology. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinyOxjGcRvnWQiYrYqLyNUU3dZlNKcDc2LBXyrfhw4tTAj-OsmL1EqwMCumtcOQ24KoQJjLXvJjF_c4wqvbVHD4Jaf2DB4r3TAp_qr6oqxGNN-VfofXh2hxrspbRrThp9dySIhehcxkKGM/s1600/22-10-8-2012+022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinyOxjGcRvnWQiYrYqLyNUU3dZlNKcDc2LBXyrfhw4tTAj-OsmL1EqwMCumtcOQ24KoQJjLXvJjF_c4wqvbVHD4Jaf2DB4r3TAp_qr6oqxGNN-VfofXh2hxrspbRrThp9dySIhehcxkKGM/s320/22-10-8-2012+022.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtp7KpZVS3jDGR03hAJ0T5aCc6pof5X7DK_-MQW776SK9j8zSOkfg2K-JLweb-5xS-3nHxJWvumqOfWH3VNKv6IrG_gnVdzyJja3-4IG6hD_v4wyY7IO55KtBQzq_vkGufE6MFQSPzmoHg/s1600/25-10-8-2012+025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtp7KpZVS3jDGR03hAJ0T5aCc6pof5X7DK_-MQW776SK9j8zSOkfg2K-JLweb-5xS-3nHxJWvumqOfWH3VNKv6IrG_gnVdzyJja3-4IG6hD_v4wyY7IO55KtBQzq_vkGufE6MFQSPzmoHg/s320/25-10-8-2012+025.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Excel is awesome for doing cross stitch patterns, so why not quilts too? I can make that work! I just select all and set each column and row to 20 pixels, so I have totally perfect, even squares to work with. I redid the characters in there and it was all much easier to plan! It took quite awhile to choose which characters I wanted to use. There are actually four characters, but I could not figure out how to fit all of them on a baby quilt without having to use 1" or 2" squares and that sounded like a lot of really small sewing!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It took awhile, but I decided these two were the cutest:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXsHs0yWk8umm5-7pNGgeP8h-cW4b9FAIX_wnI3YuqytNNeMIQLMBycvDT1aE83PSwvYoSFnZ4A8JHhGkA1kMJRozvUNa6tCP-aYEAwhduAfpO88kgdXHPrWmJ7pIydwvxinizkUjf7M9/s1600/SI+Characters.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigXsHs0yWk8umm5-7pNGgeP8h-cW4b9FAIX_wnI3YuqytNNeMIQLMBycvDT1aE83PSwvYoSFnZ4A8JHhGkA1kMJRozvUNa6tCP-aYEAwhduAfpO88kgdXHPrWmJ7pIydwvxinizkUjf7M9/s320/SI+Characters.JPG" width="201" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I spent days playing with different ideas and arrangements and sizes. I thought about doing smaller characters and laying them out like the game itself, but I realized it would a) take for ever and b) be likely beyond my skill set.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After days of playing around, I decided on doing two large characters and making the quilt slightly larger than a normal crib quilt. In the end, I ended up with this fantastic design that I am completely excited to make.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With the grid of where the squares will be:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKewsvAyAqOy9rlk-ihGCp6_DnbGk-6qMjSacHj6dsMQvjK0GqY5Keir-b9m1H6bcKtIzTs6JpOcgfYg4KbGEnRrbPh-JzLBZ-CbqpAYOKBY6hcNpZ2z36PX6tooNqBTxqMCix0kBRMtk/s1600/WithGrid.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoKewsvAyAqOy9rlk-ihGCp6_DnbGk-6qMjSacHj6dsMQvjK0GqY5Keir-b9m1H6bcKtIzTs6JpOcgfYg4KbGEnRrbPh-JzLBZ-CbqpAYOKBY6hcNpZ2z36PX6tooNqBTxqMCix0kBRMtk/s320/WithGrid.JPG" width="230" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I pulled out the grid, so I could see what it would look like and be sure I was really happy with it. I have no idea how I'm going to quilt this so that it still looks like Space Invaders, but I will find a way! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now - to get the many, many squares cut and measured, so I can get moving before E's daughter makes it to 6 months!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wish me luck.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i>A</i></b></span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-30222243430285356882012-10-05T14:00:00.000-04:002012-10-09T13:13:16.430-04:00Project Three: First Quilt Square<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello again!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I realized that no matter how many amazing projects I want to try from the crafty blogs, I did actually buy this sewing machine for a purpose. I promised a friend of mine who was having a baby that I would make her a baby quilt. (I say was having because I am so behind that she has now had said baby!) Since that's the plan, I needed to get on the learning to make quilts part!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I decided to use some of the fabric Mom so generously brought me on her visit and see if I could make a very basic quilt square. The quilt I have planned for E. is all squares, so I have already bought a 3.5" square template. </span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yMoJ9qUXmlY/UGpkyBz1m3I/AAAAAAAAAH8/oBwPx0MZW74/s1600/First+Quilt+Square+006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yMoJ9qUXmlY/UGpkyBz1m3I/AAAAAAAAAH8/oBwPx0MZW74/s320/First+Quilt+Square+006.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had some trouble getting 3.5" strips to be even, maybe because my cutting mat isn't that big? I need to work on that! There is a LOT of cutting in my near future. Either way, I did manage to get a bunch of squares out of the fabric eventually.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I laid them out in a grid on the cutting mat, so I could see how it would look in fabric and not just in my head. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once I decided I liked the layout, I started pinning everything together as instructed by my little sewing manual. And yes, today's lesson is that pins are sharp! Who knew? :P</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It took a surprising amount of time to get everything pinned so nothing buckled and everything lined up right. (I forgot to take a picture of the first pinning set. I sewed the first batch of pairs together and then did this part.)</span><br />
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One I had everything pinned, I sewed the 1/4" seams and I am very proud that they are pretty much straight! They're not perfect, but I have no illusions about my beginner status with getting really straight seams. <br />
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Then I had these three sets of squares and I pressed the seams so they would all lay flat. Is there a direction you're supposed to press seams? I pressed mine so the edge faced left for some reason, but then I realized I didn't know if there was a right way to do that part.<br />
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Once I won the fight with my iron and got all the seams pressed, I pinned one set together, sewed it and pinned the next. I am getting better at the seams - these are closer to straight! (I am so proud of myself.)<br />
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And then, all of a sudden and much faster than I expected, I had a quilt square! It's so pretty. :)<br />
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This only took me about an hour and half from beginning to end. I honestly thought it would take me much, much longer. Apparently, I'm cooler than I think? Haha, or this is easier than I think!<br />
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I actually love the way this looks. I think I might find a similar fabric and make a quilt for my bed that's just very simply squares alternated like this. It's basic, but somehow I like the look more in person than I do when I lay it out as an idea.<br />
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Next up: Learning to cut straight strips, so I can start cutting for E's quilt! It's going to be SO cool when I'm done. <br />
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Wish me luck, <br />
<span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><i>A</i></b></span>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-66290089536751849032012-10-03T14:00:00.000-04:002012-10-09T13:12:39.400-04:00Project Two - Success!<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I've had this vision in my head of a blanket I wanted to make for awhile now, but I wasn't willing to do all the embroidery by hand. There was a piece on Etsy of an airplane with just the loop line behind it that stuck in my head. I don't really have much space left on my walls for more art, so I wanted to do this instead.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found a big piece of fleece on sale and it turned out to be the perfect size! 2 yards of 60" wide fabric makes a perfect blanket to curl up in on cooler nights. I had this plan of cleaning Sunday night, but the piece of fleece thrown over my chair was taunting me....</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1KISB3Rv16o/UGpHKFf3duI/AAAAAAAAAE4/WwOL23mVu2E/s1600/Airpane+Blanket+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1KISB3Rv16o/UGpHKFf3duI/AAAAAAAAAE4/WwOL23mVu2E/s320/Airpane+Blanket+001.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So instead of cleaning, I decided to make my first attempt at overlock stitching and see if I could make the blanket I could see in my head. I spent a good bit of time reading the manual to my machine and it looked pretty simple. I called Mom and asked if I could really just overlock stitch the edge of fleece and leave it. She said yes, so I went for it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Trying to deal with the giant piece of fleece was...interesting....</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-slUC-obJzbg/UGpHNARtoSI/AAAAAAAAAFA/lRtKT9olxfA/s1600/Airpane+Blanket+002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-slUC-obJzbg/UGpHNARtoSI/AAAAAAAAAFA/lRtKT9olxfA/s320/Airpane+Blanket+002.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think I might need a bigger sewing table if I'm going to keep doing things like this! (Or at least somewhere else to put things like the manual, so I'm not pushing them to the side while doing the sewing part. OK - perhaps just some organizational skills would probably do the trick, but we're pretending.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had the tension a little too tight (still getting the hang of that part...) and it made this awesome, slightly scalloped edge that I ended up loving.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It looks a little better on the large scale, but then you could see the dog toys shredded all over my floor!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I made a paper airplane and laid it out so I could see what the outline would look like. I drew it out on paper and messed with it until I liked the look</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I really had intended to stop there for the night and clean up those shredded dog toys, but I was having so much fun I couldn't stop myself! . Then I killed the blade of my rotary cutter cutting around the template - silly me.</span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s8i0jp6lpzc/UGpHW_PPt6I/AAAAAAAAAFo/nxceeGZFpEc/s1600/Airpane+Blanket+007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-s8i0jp6lpzc/UGpHW_PPt6I/AAAAAAAAAFo/nxceeGZFpEc/s320/Airpane+Blanket+007.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I had some white cotton I had grabbed for this purpose, though I hadn't really thought I'd use it so soon. I laid my template on top of the fabric and held it down with the ruler while I cut around it. I tried pinning it, but it made it hard to keep the ruler in place and made the fabric buckle a little too much. It worked in the end, but it involved a fair amount of cursing and impatience on my part!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I had a paper version and a fabric version. Hooray! I tried to rub the pencil lines onto the fabric, which was a total failure, so I just drew them on with a mechanical pencil and ran a straight stitch in black over them. It worked perfectly. :)</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2VkAoZFBtsE/UGpHYhEa-mI/AAAAAAAAAFw/sB2rF8-s534/s1600/Airpane+Blanket+008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2VkAoZFBtsE/UGpHYhEa-mI/AAAAAAAAAFw/sB2rF8-s534/s320/Airpane+Blanket+008.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think I did pretty well! The tip of the plane came out a little curved, but I actually liked that in the end. It made it look more like it was flying somehow. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I should have cut allowance to fold under the edges, but of course I didn't think of that until after I had gotten to this point. (Oops! Rookie mistake!) I decided to just go with it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once I had the plane cut, I needed to mark the line to sew in it's path on the blanket. I laid the whole thing out on my bed and used some white chalk to mark the line I wanted to sew. It sorta worked, I guess. Let's say it worked enough to do the sewing, but not so much that I would do it again. I need a better method to mark the line on fleece! Once I'd drawn in the line, I placed the airplane and stood back to make sure it looked like I wanted it to. </span><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-380gKScgZ8Y/UGpHaQKIggI/AAAAAAAAAF4/G1AVeqBo2kg/s1600/Airpane+Blanket+009.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-380gKScgZ8Y/UGpHaQKIggI/AAAAAAAAAF4/G1AVeqBo2kg/s320/Airpane+Blanket+009.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Please ignore the total disaster that is my house right now. I pulled everything out to organize it and it's not going well!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I brought it back to the machine and got completely tangled up in the fleece trying to find the starting point of the line. The puppy thought this was hilarious and tried to make off with the blanket while I was fighting with it. (Thanks, Casey.) </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I used a zigzag stitch 7mm across and made it fairly close together. I will confess the beginning of the line is a little funky, because I was messing with how close together the zigzag was. In the end, however, I got it right and it went pretty smoothly. I even used my machine on the high speed setting for the first time! I felt magic. And there were only a few moment when I panicked because I couldn't find the line too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Once the line was done, I placed the plane and basted it down with dark thread. I used the white thread to applique around the edge. (Can I just mention that I LOVE my new sewing machine?!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And then it was done!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And there we go - my second fully successful project. In fact, so successful one of my friends has asked me to make him a more manly version for his couch. Since my dog steals his blanket every time we come over, I think that seems only fair! I guess that gives me a chance to remember things like folded edges on the applique too. I am scheming presents for more people already....</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But anyway, hooray success!</span><br />
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: large;">A</span></i></b>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-75057513494433813522012-09-30T16:52:00.002-04:002012-10-09T13:12:13.086-04:00First Sewing Project - Tissue PouchI have been playing with my sewing machine and having masses of fun seeing what all the stitches are and how they work. I now know how to adjust tension and change presser feet and all that good stuff. And, of course, I now feel like a genius! <br />
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I was trying to think of something completely simple to try as a first project, since I don't know anyone here who can help me learn all of this. Of course, my mother and grandmother are both fantastic sewers, but neither lives less than 4 hours away. <br />
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I have had this nasty cold that leaves me needing tissues every 4 seconds for the past week or so and my bag is covered with the little bits of tissue that come off when I fold the new ones and put them in my purse. So I decided to make a little tissue holder to protect them! (Yes, obvious I know, but I'm pleased with my self anyway.)<br />
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I started with a piece of fabric my mom sent me to learn with and cleaned up the edges with my rotary cutter. (Best tool ever!) I pinned a 1/4 hem on the long sides and then ironed it down, so it would stay.<br />
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It looked like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg88_QeQGqhfz38iwfPUfMMrjAnka3Ym8AuMbU6648ai_Jw3kImisRvvjXIqHnQv0DBlSzL5q2KqrcUJTIgxTpNpD2HXtGHWDTBZ4sb8wKHMUMFGhVdCh0QXzPQfHFGSeBILLUgLxWlyJvD/s1600/02-9-30-2012+Import+075.NEF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg88_QeQGqhfz38iwfPUfMMrjAnka3Ym8AuMbU6648ai_Jw3kImisRvvjXIqHnQv0DBlSzL5q2KqrcUJTIgxTpNpD2HXtGHWDTBZ4sb8wKHMUMFGhVdCh0QXzPQfHFGSeBILLUgLxWlyJvD/s320/02-9-30-2012+Import+075.NEF.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Yes, I know I should iron first. My iron was being grumpy about those last few wrinkles. <br />
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Then I hemmed the rest of the way around and it looked like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjagJe2Nqoi9Ostqq_35TUTSYRFuk5Ikguwf5ikFjUJUoY9nsrNpgTrh73BeEmsrqe0Gf6kS8mgV9rlx9wdGjlmSRzJsBz97DYjAN-d7tnoU4zhmIsm4qmzwtjW7TscqxXijdNuwh1UXz_/s1600/05-9-30-2012+Import+078.NEF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjagJe2Nqoi9Ostqq_35TUTSYRFuk5Ikguwf5ikFjUJUoY9nsrNpgTrh73BeEmsrqe0Gf6kS8mgV9rlx9wdGjlmSRzJsBz97DYjAN-d7tnoU4zhmIsm4qmzwtjW7TscqxXijdNuwh1UXz_/s320/05-9-30-2012+Import+078.NEF.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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And I ironed it again to make sure those last wrinkles were gone. Also, I learned something important while doing this: the pins I use with awesome tops that are hard to lose in my rug are also NOT iron resistant. I did absolutely melt one ot my iron and spent 20 minutes figuring out what to do about that. Yup, sometimes I'm an idiot. <br />
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Then I took the easy, no measure method and folded some tissues the way I usually do, put them on top, and folded the fabric around them the way I would want it to close. I had not really intended to put a closure on this, so I didn't do the smart thing and mark the velcro and sew around it at this point. I think that would have been the right method. Probably?<br />
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I folded and pinned the bottom sides to form the pouch and sewed them on. I did not manage straight seams, but I'm giving myself a break here as it's my first real project. I swear I can sew straight seams by hand! Really.<br />
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Then I had a really cute pouch:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd4bMTDQ52XPJmXWdwmZKdVVChER5dBgRlgTloJgE6Wu4W7PXw30oXTp-yTRHEXVwW7TO9BZ2KZWf1dWqCKJXybkHOmKGUMu0uT29JllT8IcKPECBm83ame8zgEOWGTZyex9bEtJ0PyNUJ/s1600/06-9-30-2012+Import+079.NEF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd4bMTDQ52XPJmXWdwmZKdVVChER5dBgRlgTloJgE6Wu4W7PXw30oXTp-yTRHEXVwW7TO9BZ2KZWf1dWqCKJXybkHOmKGUMu0uT29JllT8IcKPECBm83ame8zgEOWGTZyex9bEtJ0PyNUJ/s320/06-9-30-2012+Import+079.NEF.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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At this point, I just folded it over to where I would want it to bend and ironed it down. Then I decided I should add velcro so it doesn't come open in my bag. I have this sticky-backed velcro and I was just going to depend on the sticky, but decided to see if I could sew around it. It was, um, well not very neat. I guess you can't really see the messy, uneven sewing around velcro on the finished product.<br />
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But look! Tissue pouch for my purse. :)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5WqVfnwEX4UXKDXfamE5hQ4rxf2STSOG32lbJhaAdcVJ1s2t7AS2ACRLkqKrmzSWNJMUrbUk3O-50xt5h08en8mq51-C-jTn05N6z-bqzT_xhtOZ1Ars049_94FsCr_Ba-tK8yBNpOgDL/s1600/11-9-30-2012+Import+084.NEF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5WqVfnwEX4UXKDXfamE5hQ4rxf2STSOG32lbJhaAdcVJ1s2t7AS2ACRLkqKrmzSWNJMUrbUk3O-50xt5h08en8mq51-C-jTn05N6z-bqzT_xhtOZ1Ars049_94FsCr_Ba-tK8yBNpOgDL/s320/11-9-30-2012+Import+084.NEF.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
And closed:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzDivmmLhM3nkxeCD-nw3rMtwPTMUZ8nIWV1R3DOHTRckJoSLhpO8InUtkQyASKH_UPQA6eBfqeZvqd3mnuJ2fgYWmvZSqppSFSf30zzhyphenhyphennMe3cpNu2O0dzuGvoR1i6AcAXKXV3nymAGH/s1600/10-9-30-2012+Import+083.NEF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQzDivmmLhM3nkxeCD-nw3rMtwPTMUZ8nIWV1R3DOHTRckJoSLhpO8InUtkQyASKH_UPQA6eBfqeZvqd3mnuJ2fgYWmvZSqppSFSf30zzhyphenhyphennMe3cpNu2O0dzuGvoR1i6AcAXKXV3nymAGH/s320/10-9-30-2012+Import+083.NEF.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I feel so accomplished! It's my first real sewing project all on my own. I didn't even have to call Mom and ask for advice. My seams aren't straight and there's a point where I had the tension wrong and the thread bunched, but I don't care. I made something <b>all on my own!</b></div>
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And that's all my happy project news for the day. More to come soon!</div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">A</span></i></b></div>
SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-38013914412312386112012-09-17T15:10:00.001-04:002012-10-09T13:14:05.284-04:00Exciting NewsWell, I finally bought myself a sewing machine, so there will be more projects coming up on here. I have a few things I need to post. Of course, I killed my camera, so things are taking awhile to get photographed and I know posts are better with in progress photos! Note: I absolutely get to blame the puppies for the broken camera, but they were so cute in progress that I can't manage to be mad.<br />
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Anyway - my Brother CS6000i should be getting here today and I will get to play with all the many, many pieces while I try to channel 3 generations of quilt makers! :)<br />
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Wish me luck!<br />
<br />SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-60079608009950986452012-05-30T16:00:00.004-04:002012-05-30T16:20:36.220-04:00Royal Icing Bone Decorations<div style="text-align: justify;">
Well, after all this time, I have decided to come back to the blog with a new purpose. I think I am turning this into a craft project blog, perhaps with the occasional infusion of the zombie project I'm working on. Sound like fun? Good! I think so too. So without further ado, my latest success:</div>
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Ta da!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZxlusulA3GwUrdutIDDw61v1L3hx8Ys4YxMiCgBz5R-SSTTRas4P7DAl0OTUT44af8-dFUUAhF0dGXWjecn_tdYoGgDST-lMcBPogE_f5OlnBPgvcv8Nnicx5citPZzPSpL16vh1xEgld/s1600/Bones.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZxlusulA3GwUrdutIDDw61v1L3hx8Ys4YxMiCgBz5R-SSTTRas4P7DAl0OTUT44af8-dFUUAhF0dGXWjecn_tdYoGgDST-lMcBPogE_f5OlnBPgvcv8Nnicx5citPZzPSpL16vh1xEgld/s400/Bones.jpg" width="400" /> </a></div>
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Those, my friends, are royal icing dog bones! No, I'm not crazy. Let me explain.</div>
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I have a puppy, whose name is Casey. Casey has had a very rough first year of life - four homes before he found me, a pretty serious infection, lots of shots and vet visits and unhappy weeks for the puppy. He is the sweetest dog and ridiculously well behaved for the amount of time I've spent training him. And he's turning one this week! That's right - soon, he will be a man! So I'm throwing him a party, because I never turn down an excuse for a party! </div>
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So now - how do you do this? Well, I didn't think this through, so I don't have a good picture tutorial, but I will make one at some point. It might be a minute, since it's going to take awhile to use these up! But that doesn't mean I can't explain.</div>
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This is a closer shot of a few of the bones:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkizYHW0PFHVJ9UMpntjKBbZNS6-w5j8FhVyMibssiGniUUN5V4RV_gP59A30enBzTwo94Z_55KXxcxeMPRPwjvVheHJGFaLROdkuDrux9zD3iMbFlezbT2PcNRsklJdwQvHjfB1lAa84/s1600/BonesZoom.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkizYHW0PFHVJ9UMpntjKBbZNS6-w5j8FhVyMibssiGniUUN5V4RV_gP59A30enBzTwo94Z_55KXxcxeMPRPwjvVheHJGFaLROdkuDrux9zD3iMbFlezbT2PcNRsklJdwQvHjfB1lAa84/s400/BonesZoom.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Sorry it's a little blurry! I took it with a phone. Like I said, better versions will appear in the future. </div>
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I tried many methods to make these and finally settled on the one that got me those. I used the royal icing recipe on the side of the meringue powder and added the extra 1/2 cup of powdered sugar to make it pretty stiff. (Heads up, that recipe makes a crazy amount of these! I only used about half of it and I have 3 full cookie sheets of bones drying on my dining room table.)</div>
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I used the #1 tip (a little circle) and a medium-sized pastry bag. I always put the pastry bag in a pint glass and roll the sides over it, to make filling easy. Remember not to overfill the bag! (I totally forgot this and had icing all over my right hand by the time I was done.) Twist the end of the bag, push the icing down, push a little out to get the air gone, and you're ready to go! </div>
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Essentially, you make this shape with royal icing:<br />
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Here's how:</h3>
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<b>First, make the two dots on each end, touching each other so the icing meets in the middle. </b></div>
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<b>To Make Dots:</b> hold the tip a tiny bit above the board (between 1/8-1/16 of inch worked for me). Gently squeeze the bag without moving the tip and the icing will pool into a little dot. When it's the size you want, stop squeezing and lift the bag away.</div>
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<b>Then, place the tip where the dots meet on one end and slowly (while squeezing gently) make a wide line until your tip is touching the other two dots. Stop squeezing and lift up the bag.</b></div>
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Amazingly, that's it! I tried for a bit to not have the little peaks on the dots, but decided in the end that I kinda liked them. I suspect if my icing had been a little less stiff, I would not have seen them as much.</div>
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I also made these in a bunch of sizes, ranging from itty bitty mini dog bones that look more like they should be sprinkles to 2 inch long ones that I'll put on top of cupcakes.</div>
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Hope they entertain you as much as they do me! </div>
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<br /></div>SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-67627837452047706722009-04-21T14:33:00.003-04:002012-10-11T10:34:43.708-04:00Spring at last!Apparently I went into hibernation for the winter, but now I'm back and feel like writing again. I do this every winter. Maybe a sun lamp would help? Ah well. Life is no fun if you're predictably happy.<br />
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Let's see. This is more a collection of the things running through my head, but we'll see where it goes.<br />
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1) There have been sirens everywhere these past two weeks. It sounds like the city is a grumpy teen repeatedly hitting snooze on the wailing alarms. You hear them at night, echoing off the buildings and they are the first thing I hear most mornings. I don't live near a hospital. It's strange and a little unnerving.<br />
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2) I have discovered a data analysis program and I'm having way to much fun. I am contemplating making questionnaires to give my friends, just to see what strange results I get. It's too easy to hunt for patterns if the software makes it simple. I can't help thinking I'll eventually find a pattern I don't want to see.<br />
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3) As another round of classes ends, I find myself wondering how the people around can be satisfied with their own thought processes. It has never occurred to me that failure is an option, not in grad school, and it seems strange that it has to them. If I'm doing that badly, I just assume I need to work harder. Don't you?<br />
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That's it for now. Someday I'll post something more coherent. Promise.SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7120430509771292968.post-17156028878040329352008-11-12T13:08:00.001-05:002008-11-12T13:09:57.161-05:00WelcomeWell, it looks like I've finally caught the blogging bug, but I'll try to keep under control for now.<br /><br />This is truly a test, so there will be a better post in my future, probably tonight.<br /><br />For now, welcome!SunriseSkyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05809156220848904499noreply@blogger.com0