Process.

These are the things my hands do when making stuff.
(Yeah, I know, I have been lame lately, and only posting about tote bags which frankly, while fun to make, not exciting. But I am planning a party, and doing some freelance work, and applying for jobs, so. By the way, does anyone know if I can use a generic walking foot on the Viking? Because while I would like to buy a Husqvarna one, 100 moneys is a lot to put out for a tiny foot, and I don't want to start quilting stuff until I have one again.)

More Patchys.

Seriously, these patch things are fun to make. I just put a new one in the shop and have two more on the way. I LOVE the fabric on the back of these, it is a really soft woven striped fabric, and it makes me think of fancy people on boats. You know, the fancy kind of boats. Yeah. Also, as a special summer bonus, I have decided to include a 4"x5" "Yarn Love" print with every tote bag!Also, Happy 4th of July! Also known around here as Brian's birthday, so we went to a Royals game, and ACTUALLY saw them win. It was amazing. Right now there are a ton of fireworks going off in our neighborhood, and Baxter has NO idea what's going on. Yay America!

Remember When I Said

...that I was going to take more pictures OUTSIDE of my house? Well, as part of that resolution, several Saturdays ago, I participated in the Urban Photo Safari, a fabulous event put on by some fabulous people who put this thing on every year just for fun. Anyway, the jist of it is, you get four hours, after you sign in with them, to go around and shoot your heart out. At the end of those four hours, you meet back up and they download all your photos onto their handy little laptops. Then, you have a few days to pick out your best 10 pictures, and you send in the filenames. Note that you just send in the names of the unedited files, you get NO EDITING, and NO CROPPING. Which is tricky. I never really realized how much I depend on photoshop for levels, a bit of cropping, a bit of color correction, etc, until I was forced to shoot knowing I would be without it.Anyway, long story short, it was extremely fun, and by an crazy amount of luck, one of my photographs won in the voting! (Oh, yeah, everyone who participates gets 10 votes to use on everyone elses' pictures, and the photo with the most votes wins. Duh.) Anyway, I thought I would post my ten photos, to prove that I have been attempting to keep my resolution. Also, if you want to see my top 36 photos (I am indecisive, what can I say) you can look here.

Patchy McTote Bag!

In high school, my friend Morgan and I used to make up nicknames for people by picking one or two of their characteristics and using the ingenius formula ______y Mc _______ ______. Blanky McBlankblank. I think everyone did it though. We also made up new lyrics to the Taco John's jingle, which isn't really newsworthy but sure makes me hungry for Taco Johns. True story: One time I met one of the Taco John's test kitchen chefs. They're based out of Wyoming or a Dakota or something. She was really nice and left a sweatshirt here in Missouri and we shipped it back to her. TRUE STORY! There are some days when I just should not be allowed to write a blog, and this is one of them. The point of the story was: Patchy McTotebag.
I think I'll just post pictures and we'll all be happier, k?

PS: Etsyfied.

Summer Nonsense, New Plates.

Ah, I love you guys. Thanks for all the input on the last post. I am going to take your advice and email her, but I will wait until I have actually MADE some more of the pillows. I am all over the place this summer, hopping from one project to another, and I get behind on posting them here. This past week was husband's vacation, so most of my time was spent enjoying his presence, and not a lot of creative work got done. We bought a bed! We got Rufus to swim! We did some other stuff that will be mentioned in subsequent posts! But no sewing. Whatever.Today, however, I did manage to get out my old friends the paints, and do a few plates with a design I had been working on. I have a few quilt-related sketches that are probably going to make their way onto plates, and these are the first two. Typically I do the black outline and then paint in the colors, but after I did these I realized I really liked them without color. I might do a few more and rainbow them up, but I thought the lines were really enough on these.Anyway. They're etsyfied, get them while they're hot. Or something.
PS: Does anyone else physically drool when Made by Hank puts new bags up? Especially the big ruffly shoulder bags? I do, but since they are always gone within, like, the half hour, I do not have time to be tempted by things my unemployed self can't possibly afford.

Make Pillows!

Yay, I'm glad I'm not the only "free-spirited" (ahem) quilter out there! So, you know when you learn some new sewing trick, and you just can't wait to do it and so you drop all other projects that you really SHOULD finish to do the new thing? Yeah. Check this out. Seriously, immediately had to drop everything and make a patchwork pillow.This one has already been given away to someone whom I owed a pillow, but I am going to make more. What I haven't decided though, is whether to put them in the shop. I feel like it is a bit of an ethical dilemma, because, yeah, I know Alicia Paulsen (who, by the by, is the reason I started reading craft blogs, and then started my own craft blog, and is a minor deity in my eyes) didn't invent the patchwork pillows, and I know mine will be nothing like hers, and I know that probably I won't even sell any, but I feel WEIRD taking something someone else sells, and showed me how to make, and then trying to profit on my own version. Is this kosher? Is that sentence even remotely understandable? Opinions?

Anyway. I loved making this, I loved picking out and arranging the squares, I loved quilting it (though I think I might do some wilder quilting on my next ones,) so I am a happy happy crafter. Pillows!

Production!

I pieced it! It was hard.I don't know if I've mentioned this before, and I am too lazy to check and see if I have, but I am a sloppy, sloppy quilter. Or, anyway, a sloppy quilt-piecer. I don't really cut anything super well, I never square anything off, and I never, ever use pins. I used to, and then I got lazy and decided that if I couldn't pull it into place it didn't deserve being there. Or something like that. Really, I'm just lazy. But anyway, all this is fine and good, until it comes time to shmack the whole giant quilt top together, and then, my friends, I pay the piper, all day long. Anyway, I wish I could say I learned my lesson, but I seldom do (learn lessons,) and I am sure it will be the same next time, but kiddies, remember this tale, and heed my warning:
Uhm. Do things right, and your back will hurt less than mine does now.
I like to play ghost with my giant quilt top. Doesn't everyone?