Pressure!!!

I’m bummed. Every craft I’ve started lately has failed. Well, “failed” is a little harsh. Every craft I’ve started lately has been glitchy. So I have all these unfinished projects: the puppy with a lazy eye, the night mask with the holes in it, the skirt with the wavy seams… When did I get so bad at this??

Part of the problem has been scheduling. I’ve been insanely busy for a few weeks, travelling on weekends. So when I work on a project, I think I’m trying to rush through it so I’ll have the rewarding experience of a completed project.

Another problem is THIS BLOG! I feel like every project now needs to be blog-worthy. And I’m trying to get things done faster so I can post more frequently. For example, I’ve been working on that puppy for ages, and I plan to put up a tutorial. But I wanted to put it up in one post. I should really do multiple posts because it will be long. That would take some of the pressure off. Especially when pressure=sloppiness=screw-ups=no blog posts.

One thing that will also help is getting together a list of all my unfinished and future projects. That way I can see what I’m up against and tackle it one item at a time. I get overwhelmed and I have a hard time staying on track. Maybe this will help!

My new purse!!

I love when something totally unexpected and awesome comes your way! I was visiting my family this weekend and my sister-in-law (and fellow crafter), Alisha, gave me a beautiful bag she’d made! I love it and I can’t stop looking at it 🙂 It’s almost like she picked out the fabrics just for me. (She didn’t, hence the “almost” lol)

                   

The fabric is Amy Butler (I’ve never even seen actual Amy Butler fabric before, so I am beyond thrilled! I know… I’m the sad little crafter…) The bag has all sorts of pockets around the inside, which will be great to help keep my purse junk a little sorted!

Alisha has just relaunched her blog and her Etsy shop, Verbose Boutique. Check them out! Her blog is going to also feature desserts, including some amazing Oreo Balls she made this weekend. I must have had 10 lol!

Tutorial: Turning onesies into shirts

These were done for my awesome twin nephews, Ty and Micah. My sister loved the shirts, but neither of us really like onesies for our boys now that they’re past the tiny baby stage.

This was a really easy modification. It probably doesn’t even require a tutorial; it’s more to show how something you don’t like as much can be recycled into a piece you’ll use. For example: you don’t want your baby to look like a dork with his polo shirt tucked in.

In picture, the shirts are already complete. But I cut as close to the legs as possible so the shirts would be long enough.

This up-close shot shows how I just turned it under and zigzag stitched the hem. As you can see, there is a little waviness to the bottom. It’s hard to tell how much is because of wrinkles and how much is because of warping. But I read recently that you can run a steamed iron over the wavy hem and it will help it relax. I’ll know more after they’re washed too. However, I feel like the shirts are fine for the little boys 🙂 They actually turned out better than I expected. The only thing I’d change if I could is to be able to fold the hem again for extra unraveling security, but I was just afraid I’d lose too much length. Hopefully I’ll get a picture of them wearing them this weekend!

Tutorial: Half Hour Skirt

This is *sort of* a repurposed project. I started a skirt a few weeks ago using the Angry Chicken 5 Minute Skirt formula. But for some reason it didn’t work out at all. Maybe I did my calculation wrong, but the skirt was HUGE. (However, I LOVE Angry Chicken 🙂 I feel confident that I did something weird, or my body shape just didn’t work for the pattern, because a lot of people really like that tutorial and I have no ill will toward it 🙂 )

This tutorial can be done using new fabric, or too-big skirts or dresses. The fabric needs to be stretchy, as this is a pull-on.

The I used fabric is odd. It’s cheapie Wal-Mart fabric, I think it was $1.50/yard. I thought it was a knit, but after I started sewing, it turned out to be a stretchy woven. I have no idea what it’s content is…

So, what I decided to do was use a recently purchased skirt as a template.

I cut slightly bigger than the skirt. I left a little more at the top because at the time, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do about the waistband. I’d originally planned to cut a band and sew it on like the neck of a t-shirt. It turned out not to be necessary, but I plan to try that with a skirt in the future.

Next I zigzag seamed the sides.

I only turned the hem under and zigzagged it. I’ll watch how it reacts to washing and then reevaluate. But as of now it seems good enough 🙂

For the waistband I turned it down about 2 inches. For a better fit, the fold is wider in the front than in the back. I wanted it wide enough so I could put a drawstring in if (I mean WHEN!!) I lose weight. I didn’t want to bother with that now because the skirt stays on just fine as it is.

Ta-da! Finished skirt in roughly 30 minutes. It’s more or less straight at the top and bottom, I’m not skilled enough to round things without a pattern 🙂 I plan to wear this to my husband’s birthday dinner tonight. I’ll have him take some pix of me wearing it and I’ll try to post them tomorrow!

Pattern: Owl Appliqué

This quilt will be my sister’s Christmas present. It’s not a surprise, she’s an active participant in the process 🙂

This pink square is in bad need of ironing, but it’s a good example of how I currently piece my crazy quilts. I sew the strips onto muslin, a habit I hope to soon break. I’m going to eventually try true paper pieces, but I’m just scared and I’ve been relying on the stability of the muslin.

The finished quilt will be 12 12”x12” blocks sashed with dark brown. The back will be from a pink and brown sheet (you can see that fabric in one of the squares). I’m going to attempt a birch tree on the back similar to Elizabeth’s at www.ohfransson.com (one of my favorite sites!) I’ll have a little owl peeking out of a hole in the tree 🙂 This will be the first time I’ve attempted to make the back of a quilt worth looking at 🙂

Well, I’ve pledged to show my process, and the roughly sketched owl pattern definitely shows that! The odd smaller owl shape across the center is where I started working out my owl but decided I needed a bigger one. I saved paper by just flipping it and starting again 🙂 I didn’t bother making a template for the eyes and beak. I just eyeballed them and cut!

When it came to sewing on the appliqué, I just sewed around the edges with a tight zig-zag stitch. I left some raw edges showing because I want a worn, loved look for this quilt.

One day I want to try appliquéing the owl pattern onto a t-shirt or something.

I think you can just click to enlarge the picture to print. If you save the picture onto your computer, you can resize it! Leave a comment if it doesn’t work well and I’ll see what I can do to make it more printer-friendly! Also I’d love to see anything made from the pattern, so feel free to leave a link in the comments!!

*This pattern is free for personal use. Please link to the pattern on my blog if you use it and post it. Thanks!!

Awesome Find: Vintage Sheets

I was so excited to find these sheets the other day! I plan to use the pink one for a Strawberry Lemonade quilt (While I work on it I’m also going to make Strawberry Lemonade and Strawberry Lemonade Cake—these things *do* deserve uppercase. I’ll probably also paint my toenails pink… it’ll be a super girly time 🙂 ) I’m pretty sure I’m going to use the blue sheet to back my denim quilt, and then I think I’m going to make an owl quilt with the earthy floral sheet. I’m excited to see what I come up with!

Process Pledge

Rossie over at http://r0ssie.blogspot.com has started a Process Pledge to get crafter/bloggers to start sharing the work they put into their pieces. Because, really, the process is at least as important as the finished product! After all, that’s what keeps us artists up at night, working through all the details in our minds, fixing problems and trying out color combos…

So I’m joining the initiative! My goals in this are to blog more often, and hopefully be able to help other crafters with similar problems.

Check out the link even if you’re not a blogger. There’s a list of links to some great crafting blogs!!

I, Rebekah Robson, pledge to talk more about my processes, even when I can’t quite put them in the in words or be sure I’m being totally clear.   I’m going to put my thinking and my gut feelings out there. 

Moving to WordPress!

This is technically a test blog. I’ve moved my blog over to WordPress to get a few features I wanted and to update the look of my blog. I wanted something a little less busy.

Anyway, here’s a first look at my grumpy quilt I made a while back! I will eventually take better pictures 🙂 But for now a few blurry phone pix will have to do 🙂

This is my grumpy quilt.