Daddy's Boxers Quilt

I love my husband's underwear.  He wears super cute, colorful boxers.  Love love love.

A few years ago, some of his boxers got old and ripped.  He asked me if I wanted them for some craft project.  Yes, I did.

I began envisioning a quilt called Daddy's Boxers Quilt.  I could picture our daughter bringing the quilt with her to college.  But, first I had to make it.

I test-sewed through many designs before I landed on the one that I wanted to execute.  I knew I wanted to incorporate a star motif somehow.  I tried some English paper piecing, but the rigidity of the paper piecing didn't work with the well worn fabrics.

Eventually, I came up with a crazy quilt design with a few stars thrown in.

The back of the quilt has a few more stars that didn't fit with the theme of the front, and it has a fabric that was passed down to me - probably from my great Aunt Ruth.

As for the quilting, I mainly did zig zags on the crazy quilt part with some decorative stitches.  On the orange accents, I did a swirly free motion design.  And, on the stars, I stitched in the ditch, and then echoed that to emphasize the star shape.  

My daughter, Star, loves it.   She loves snuggling under it, touching the fabrics and tracing her finger over my quilted designs.  I still can picture her bringing it to college with her in about 14 years. 

"Mommy, I want to be a Princess Carrying a Ladybug"

That's what Star said when we started talking about Halloween costumes. 

So, I executed.  In September, while my in-laws were visiting, my mother-in-law and I went to the yarn store.  I knew I was looking for something kind of like ribbon yarn.  I ended up buying 2 yarns, from the sale section, to hold together.  For the bodice, I basically followed a pattern with a ton of modifications.  But, it got me what I wanted.  

Here's a closeup of the dress in progress.  The knitting took a lot of work.  I knitted while commuting to and from work.  The knit stitch is a seed stitch - knit 2, purl 2 - but you can't really see the stitch through the yarn.  But, what the stitch adds to the bodice is a lot of stretchiness which is what I was aiming for.

I added a bunch of yarn overs, relatively evenly spaced, throughout the bottom of the bodice where I knew I wanted to hang my tulle.

While I was knitting the bodice, I had a few fittings with Star where I would hold up the top to make sure I was basically getting the size and shape that I was looking for.

After the knitting was done, I hung the tulle, and then I crocheted around the armholes and neck with the light pink tulle to bring some sort of cohesion to the dress. 

I procured the ladybug from a seller on Etsy.  This ladybug is a totally expertly made stuffed animal.   If I ever have enough time and patience, I'd love to learn how to create stuffed animals this well. 

At school, there was only 1 other student ("friend") wearing a homemade costume.  For some reason, that surprised me, but we all seem to be busy parents and store-bought costumes are easy to find! 

Star was proud to wear her costume.  She told her friends that I made it for her.  And, we put it in a special place in her room so she can wear it again - possibly without the ladybug accessory this time. 

Monster Family

I work at a Law School.  I am a Law Librarian and an Adjunct Professor there.  Each year, the students hold a Public Interest auction in order to raise money so that students can work in the public interest and be somewhat compensated.


Last year, when the committee in charge of this auction asked me to contribute, I was supportive, but not sure what I would do.  I ended up crocheting this monster.  I didn't attend the auction, but I think it went for $20 to a student who wanted to give it to his 2 year old nephew.

This year, the organizer has convinced me to crochet a whole monster family.  Here's what I've come up with.  A few of my students have commented on how much they love this monster family.

We did the same thing back when I was in Law School.  I remember one year I made a knitted felt hat to be auctioned off.  For some reason, there was a bidding war for my hat.  One of my classmates had a bit of a crush on me and bid way too much for it.  I think he thought that some personal services came with his buying of the hat.  Ah, my awkward law school days.

Q1 Update on New Year's Resolutions

As a refresher, here are the New Year's Resolutions that I made in January.

I thought it would be a good time for a bit of a check in.

Losing weight is not going very well.  Sometimes, I feel like I have the eating under control, and sometimes I feel like I have the exercise under control.  Very rarely, do they both feel good.  And, if they do, then I get sick, or it's a Jewish holiday, or I have late night work meetings, so everything backslides.

Blog weekly.  I feel like this is going pretty well.  It's occasionally a bit less than weekly, and occasionally, it's a bit more than weekly. 

More time in the day.  This is surprisingly going well.  The co-op has created more time.  And, we're using our meal delivery person more to steam vegetables for Star's lunches. We also have 2 wonderful babysitters for Star.  We trust them both and they are fabulous. 

Judaism.  Sometimes I think this is a total fail, but sometimes it feels like it's going well.  We are currently having a quite meaningful Passover.  I read Passover books in Star's class and brought matzah for everyone to snack on.  We went to a seder at my parents' house on the first night and hosted a seder on the 2nd night.  So, maybe that's a sign of success?  I still think it needs way more work. 

KinderCycle transition.  Totally done.  Check.

Writing for publication.  I feel like this is going well.  I have a few pieces I'm working on.

SFSU.  Check it off this to do list.  I explored it fully and I was hired to teach there in April.  But, my class didn't get enough students signed up so the class is cancelled.  They may ask me to offer it again in November, but honestly I'm thinking I should prioritize other things than adding more work commitments to my life.

Commute less.  Another epic fail.  I have no idea how to do this.

2013 Craftsy BOM.  I dropped out.  I hated it.  But, I'm now working on a green and orange quilt of my own design for Scott and I.

Sew a skirt.  I'd like to lose weight first.

I haven't knit the hat for the Israeli soldier yet.

Sew for Star.  Haven't done this recently.

To sum up, these are the things I still want to work on in the months to come:

• Lose weight
• Be Jewish as a family
• Commute less
• Quilt for Scott and I
• Sew a skirt for me.
• Knit a hat for an Israeli soldier
• Sew for Star.

That seems do-able.  I'll aim for another update on this next quarter. 

Update on Metalsmithing

Back here, I wrote about the promise of a new craft and how I thought I was about to fall hard into a metalsmithing obsession.

Surprisingly, I've exercised great restraint which I am both proud of and frustrated by.  Here's what happened.  I was all ready to buy a whole new set of tools including a torch or two.  Then, I ran it by my husband who was concerned about us having "dangerous" tools in the house when I had taken no classes on how to use these tools.  I reluctantly admitted that he had a good point. 

We made a deal.  If I take a metalsmithing class and if I can use the tools safely and I like the craft, then I'll get to buy all the stuff and do it at home - if I keep all the gadgets somewhere where Star can't reach them.

I'm signed up to take an Introduction to Soldering class on April 7th.  So excited!  These are pictures pinned on my Pinterest board called Jewelry To Copy once I've learned how to solder safely. 

I went to the fabric store to get thread...

...and I came out with 2 yards of these three fabrics.  In my defense (do I need a defense?), they were each 50% off.  I'm not sure what I'm going to make with them but I love how springy and cheerful they each are!

The Promise of a New Craft

I love learning a new craft: getting and organizing the gadgets that go with it, and then trying to perfect my new craft.  I've been known to become a bit on the obsessive side.

The first craft I became passionate about as an adult was crocheting.  I moved to Israel in 1993 after I graduated from college.  I was living on a Kibbutz feeling somewhat isolated.  Someone taught me to crochet, and I was hooked (bad pun intended.)  It only required yarn and a crochet hook, so it was portable enough for my lifestyle at the time.

After I returned from Israel, I was living in San Francisco with the boyfriend that I met in Israel, and he started to get more and more religious.  I needed something to do on Saturdays while he did Jewish stuff, so I learned to knit at a local San Francisco yarn store.  That boyfriend didn't last long, but my knitting did.

My monogamous knitting phase lasted about 15 years.  Knitting was essential to my sanity throughout law school in Salem, Oregon.  I mostly knit sweaters for myself during those years - big chunky warm wool sweaters that make me a bit itchy today, but were perfect for the Oregon weather that I was living in at the time.  After law school, I knit baby hats, sweaters and blankets for my sister's kids and friends of mine who were having kids.  I knit a skirt for myself which I wore to a boyfriend's cousin's rehearsal dinner (that boyfriend is now my husband.)  And, I continued to make sweaters for myself - now in light cottons.

In about 2007, I dove into spinning.  I bought a wheel and all the accessories.  I loved starting a spinning project at a time when my new husband would be coming home.  It felt cozy and domestic to be set up with my spinning wheel peacefully spinning away while greeting him at the end of a day.

With all the yarn I was making, I couldn't knit it fast enough, so I bought a weaving loom and started making scarves and rugs.  This spinning and weaving phase didn't last long.  I sold all those gadgets within 2 years.

When I was pregnant with our daughter in 2009/2010, my fingers were too swollen and stiff to knit comfortably.  So I got into mosaics.  I loved breaking the tiles.  I made the house number for our home.  I had visions of making a belly cast when I got hugely pregnant and then mosaicing the belly cast, but my daughter had other visions and was born early - before I got around to doing the belly cast.  I haven't done any mosaic projects since then.

Once my daughter was born, sewing became my new craft of choice.  Knitting, my fall-back craft, took too much time that I no longer had, but I still wanted to produce cute things.  I've sewn skirts, dresses, tops, pants and now quilts for my daughter. I bought a special ruffle foot for my sewing machine which I love a bit too much.  My next sewing goals are to make some things for me. 

Then, I got into beading - basic wire wrapping and jewelry making.  I bought many tools for this new craft and have created some pieces that I love.  Sewing and beading are both quicker than knitting, but not as portable.  My commuting time is no longer productive crafting time. 

Now, I feel the pull of a new craft.  Metalsmithing.  I feel myself about to fall in, but I'm hesitating a bit because it's going to be a financial investment to get started.  At a minimum, I'm estimating a $200 initial investment to get some basic tools (including a fire extinguisher!)  I've already been watching videos and reading books, and feel beyond excited about making my own rings, pendants and clasps.  My guess is that I'm about to fall over this new craft cliff.

Pinterest

On June 15th, 2012 at 2:32pm (I only know this because I looked back), I posted on Facebook:

           "Am I the only one who doesn't understand how Pinterest works?"

A number of people replied many of whom also didn't understand it, and one friend who had never heard of it.  But, a few people wrote about how great it is and what they use it for.

A few hours later, I was hooked; today, I am still totally hooked.  Here are some examples of how I use it.  

• My biggest Pinterest obsession is pinning pictures of jewelry and quilts that I want to eventually copy.  
•  I've been working on reorganizing my craft area (hopefully a blog post is coming soon about that), and one way I cut down the clutter in my craft room was by using Pinterest to pin things which I had previously printed.  Printing stuff hasn't been a great option for me because inevitably, I can't find print outs when I need them, and they create way too much clutter in our house.   
• For some reason, I'm pre-worrying about after school programs and summer camps.  My daughter still has 2 and a half years left of all-day preschool, but once she starts Kindergarten, I'll need some solutions so that my husband and I can work at times other than when her school is in session.  To keep track of options I hear about, I've created a board on Pinterest that I can look back at when the appropriate time comes.   

So, if you're on the fence about trying Pinterest, consider this an endorsement post.  I love, love Pinterest. 

WIP - Amelie

Crazy Mom Quilts kicked of 2013 by discussing her works in progress (WIPs).  As we move further into 2013, I'm inspired to follow her example.

I'm actually quite good about keeping my WIPs in check, I generally don't have too many projects going at once and I'm somewhat disciplined about not starting too many new projects until I finish up existing projects. 

But, there's an exception.  Meet, the Amelie Crochet Floral Throw.  I fell in love with this pattern in 2007, I believe.  I bought soft cotton yarn in springy pastel colors and crocheted all of the little flowers.  I envisioned reading a book on the couch which keeping warm under my beautiful crocheted blanket.  All was going well at this point. 

Then, I connected the flowers, and the whole thing started to look horrible.  I think the stitches I did to connect the flowers were too far apart?  Now it is so airy and open, it would not keep anyone warm. 

Here are my notes on Amelie from Ravelry. 

This project has changed directions many times.

(1) After I finished the first “square”, the one with silver sage in the inside, green-apple in the middle and the red/purple on the outside, I decided that I didn’t like the look of the 3rd motif - it felt too floppy and didn’t seem like it would be comfortable as a blanket with all those big holes. So, now I’m doing each “square” with just the first 2 colors.

(2) Then, I got the whole thing done and connected all the squares together. I just needed to do some border to make it a blanket.

(3) But, then, I realized that I’d rather have this as a scarf. Stay tuned.

(4) August 27, 2008 - I’m officially putting this in hibernation.

(5) March 26, 2009 - I finally have an idea about how to revive this project. Now, I have to find the UFO… It went so far into hibernation that I can’t even find it. And, my house isn’t that big!

At this point, I have no idea what my vision was in March of 2009, but I now know where my Amelie is.  So, one of my goals (I guess I'm adding this to my resolution post), is to revive Amelie.  I still really do love the flower pattern.  I think I can make something work.  A blanket?  A scarf?  Talk to me Amelie; what do you want to be?

Preschool Quilt

My daughter is starting at a new preschool on Monday.  The head teacher told us that we need to bring a blanket for our daughter to have during nap times.  I'm guessing that most parents pick a blanket that they already have at home, or went out and bought a blanket just for school.  Some days, I wish I was that kind of parent.

I made a modern quilt - building on my recent quilting success.   The front has 2 strips - a scrappy paper pieced hexagon strip and a scrappy pink strip.  The back is a flannel star pattern.  Have I mentioned that my daughter's name is Star?

The Top

A Peak at the Back

Close up of the scrappy hexis

The Binding

2013 New Year's Resolutions

Ah, New Year's Resolutions.  I like the opportunity to look at my life - figure out what is working and what isn't and try to make some changes.  Instead of a list, this year I created a visual showing 3 areas of my life, each with 4 goals.   Expect some follow up posts on this.

Kitty Pillow

I blogged earlier about a quilt I recently finished.  I think the only fabric that I bought to make this quilt is the light pink that pops up throughout the quilt. Other than that, I used scraps that I already had in my collection from years of sewing and not-sewing.

Quilt makers know that when you make a quilt, you end up with scraps.

So, the scraps that I used to make this quilt created even smaller scraps.  What to do with all the scraps?  Some of them are usable; I'll talk about those in a future post.  There are also a bunch of un-usable scraps - threads and tiny little fabric pieces.

But, I felt like they would be good for something.  So, with Star "helping", we decided to sew a pillow for a kitty.  Star loves kitty cats.  The big front and back pieces came from my "stash" of large sized fabrics, and the stuffing is all these tiny unusable scraps, threads, and torn pieces of Star's old clothes.

Once the pillow was done, but still in the house, she would look at the pillow, snuggle on the pillow and think about the kitties who would sleep on the pillow.  She decided that 2 cats would share it - one of whom would be named Raincoat.  

This weekend, we brought the kitty pillow to the East Bay SPCA.  Star was so happy to meet the kitties who might sleep on the pillow.  Because of the SPCA's policies, the kitties couldn't get the pillow until after they washed it.  It's a good and logical rule, but it was sad to not get a picture of the kitties enjoying the pillow.  We asked, and there were no kitties named Raincoat.

Adventures in Quilting

I didn't grow up in a crafty family.  But, somehow, I got a crafty gene, and as soon as I learned to crochet while living on a Kibbutz in Israel in 1993, crafting became a big part of my life.  I took my first knitting class when I got back to California from Israel when I was about 22 years old, and knitting became an obsession.  Since my knitting phase, my passions within crafting have moved around quite a bit.  I got into spinning yarn and weaving for a while.  I was passionate about mosaics while I was pregnant.  Now, I seem to be (temporarily?) settled on sewing and jewelry making. 

Around 15 years ago, a mother daughter quilting group was announced at my parents' synagogue.  My parents and I were living in different San Francisco neighborhoods.  The flyer said that "quilting is a metaphor."  We never figured out what quilting was a metaphor for, but we joined the group. 

We got a supply list and my mom and I went to a quilt store to buy needles, thread, chalk and fabric.  I can't remember how many weeks the group met for.  We learned how to hand piece and hand quilt a table runner.  The colors we chose were burgundy, black and gold.  Our family used that table runner for a few Thanksgivings.  I'm not sure where it is anymore.

The front

Crafting with my mom didn't persist, but my own passion for crafting did.  I recently returned to quilting (after a 15 year hiatus) and made a Twin Size quilt.  I joined a block of the month group in January of 2012 (thanks, craftsy!), and I stuck with it.  Honestly, there were some months that I didn't think I would.  Quilting seemed so much more exact than knitting, sewing garments or sewing bags.  In quilting, an 1/8 of an inch in one block can multiply to disastrous results!

The scrappy binding which I LOVE

My finished quilt is totally flawed.  Experienced quilters would notice, but would be too kind to point out, all the places where my seems don't match up and where my quilting stitches are uneven.  But, I love it and I'm proud.