Month: March 2008

Showing off my Completed Sewing Projects

Marie Haigh4 Comments
I’ve taken a mini break from my knitting time to sew.
Part of the blame for this diversion rests on my sister’s shoulders. She called me last month to say she found this fun Transformer fabric at Walmart. Why she was in the fabric section of the store is not clear. She doesn’t sew and she has no desire to learn.

It was decided that we (and by we, I mean I) would make each of the children pillowcases for Easter. The kids would love it; Transformers is their new favorite movie.
Well, I have one done.

As mentioned in a previous post, I decided to make the pillowcase reversible. This isn’t the first pillowcase request I’ve received. Every year it’s a different character. This year, I decided I would be tricksy. To make sure this pillowcase can be used until the children are grown and out of the house (and to hopefully reduce the number of pillowcases requested), I lined it with plain red fabric. When they no longer like the Transformers, it can be turned inside out.

Not happy with just blaming my sister (she’s too easy of a target), I’ll blame Jo too. Her recent projects of embroidery, dressmaking, and button rings have inspired me to keep the sewing machine on top of the desk rather than on the floor underneath it.

My latest project – just hung up this morning – is … well, can you guess?

How about now?

It’s a fan cover. The old fan cover (a white plastic dome with magnets to adhere it to the metal fan) was thrown out by somebody who didn’t understand what the point of a fan cover was. That person has since learned the chief role behind a fan cover: to keep the *%$#! cold air outside where it ought to be. Yeah, so it was me. Who knew?

To make yourself a fan cover like mine: First, go to Panama and purchase a traditional appliqued piece of fabric. Or do what I do. Have your dear friend bring you back an appliqued fabric from Panama during her trip to visit family. Trim the edges to remove any fraying. Cut out a piece of flannel fabric the exact same size as your appliqued fabric. Put right sides together. Stitch a 1/4 inch seam all the way around, leaving an opening large enough for your hand to fit through. Turn the fabrics right side out. Press. Hand stitch opening closed using a slip stitch. Set aside.

Root through your fabric stash until you find a complementary fabric to your appliqued fabric block. Measure your fan. Cut out a square from your complementary fabric, adding on one inch for seams (my square measured 14 inches). Then cut out another piece of flannel the exact same size as your complementary fabric. Put right sides together. Stitch a 1/2 inch seam all the way around, leaving an opening large enough for your hand to fit through. Turn the fabrics right side out. Press. Hand stitch opening closed using a slip stitch.

Lay the appliqued block on top of the complementary fabric block. (The wrong side of the appliqued block should lay against the right side of the complementary block). Move the appliqued block around until it is centered. Baste the two blocks together. Use a slip stitch to secure the two blocks together. Remove the basting stitch.

Cut four one-inch sections from both the sewing tape and the adhesive tape of Velcro Brand Fasteners. Machine stitch the sewing tape sections to the the wrong side of the complementary block in each of the four corners. Mount the adhesive sections on the wall next to each of the corners of the fan. Hang your fan cover with the Velcro strips.

Four layers of fabric should be enough to keep the cold out outside. Gosh, I hope.

A Contest and 2 Tags

Marie Haigh8 Comments
I love contests, especially when they involve yarn!

Anne is giving away Malabrigo yarn. Have you heard of this yarn? (Please tell me I’m not the only one who didn’t know about it until last week!) It’s 100% wool from Uruguay. Up until a week ago (when I started hearing the Malabrigo drum), the country name Uruguay immediately made me think of Manos del Uruguay. Manos is lovely wool. I was super excited to receive it for a bday present last year from my MIL.

According to Karyn at Knotty Stuff, Malabrigo is better than Manos. Much better. “It knits like butter”.

What better way to get your hands on some than to win it – free! All you have to do is leave a comment on Ann’s Contest post naming an unpublished designer. Easy. You do know an unpublished designer, don’t you? Of course, you do. Well, to remind you, there’s me (though I hope to change that later this year), Tracie (though she will be published later this year), Sharon (who just got word that she will be published in Interweave Knits – yay!), and Katinka. So, now you have no excuse.

Onto the tagging.

Vicki of Knitting Dragonflies tagged me with a meme on Feb 7th. (Boy, am I a slacker!) Thank you!

I’m to share 7 random/weird facts.

  1. My bicycle is my main form of transportation during the work week, since we are now a 1-car family. Dan takes the car to work. I run any errands with my trusty red bike. Yesterday, I piled two big boxes on the bike rack and pedaled down to the post office.
  2. My favorite gardening task is pruning. Jake’s favorite gardening task is breaking up the pruned sticks into kindling for our fireplace. He’s extremely quick and efficient.
  3. There are only 3 candles in our entire house and they are kept behind glass doors. Since I quit smoking 6 years ago, candles, perfume, smoke, and other strong smells give me an instant headache. I avoid them like the plague. Around the holidays, I carry Ibuprofen with me and drink a lot.
  4. My favorite fruit is apples. I wait all year for the fall harvest. Then, I go batty. Apples are cooked into everything for a solid 2 months. By the end of it, I am sick of apples and won’t touch them again until next year’s harvest.
  5. I fell in love with cooking when I was 9 years old. I would wake up early in the morning and cook my sister breakfast. Breakfast is still my favorite meal of the day. I eat two breakfasts; one before I take Jake on his walk and one after while he is eating his only breakfast.
  6. There is lotion and chapstick in almost every room of our house. Dan doesn’t touch the stuff. It’s all for me.
  7. I am not a big fan of fresh cut flowers. I would prefer them to be planted outside in my garden. It would never occur to Dan to bring home a vase of flowers. Instead, he keeps my chocolate supply well stocked and drives me to the garden center for seeds and starter plants. He’s a good husband.

Jo of Blissed Out tagged me with a You Make My Day award. I’m so glad to know that she doesn’t view me as a stalker.

Now I am to tag 7 people for the meme and 10 people for the YMMD award. That’s 17 blogs and/or websites. I’m not sure I have the stamina. We’ll see how far I get.

Amby – Fantastic sewer and knitter. I love seeing her new creations. She’s a bit crazy about her cats, but I try not to hold it against her.

Creative Apples – Perhaps my favorite card seller on Etsy. I started out with her cupcake photo cards. Now, when I want a new pack of bday cards, I go straight to her Flickr album and pick out the photos I want her to print.

Letterary Press – My next favorite card seller on Etsy. I gave this card to Dan on our anniversary.

The Dip Lady Knits – The Dip Lady has undergone surgery on both her hands for tendinitis and still she knits. She was actually chomping at the bit the day after her surgery. I’m not sure I would jump back into it quite as fast.

The Knitsy Bitsy Spider – Though it’s supposed to be two friends blogging, it’s really just Marti. It started out as a knit blog but has morphed into a needle felting, dog loving, and travel bopping blog. Oh, and Marti is hysterical.

Sew Spun – A new blog I just found. She’s a spinner and a sewer. If my MIL is reading, this is for you … Sew Spun posted a tutorial on how to get great corners on your quilts.

Kitty Grrlz – Long have I read her blog. Well, truth be told, I’m not sure how much I read it as I just scroll down and drool over all the beautiful yarn she spins up. I’m an avid fan of her Navajo plied yarns. Exquisite.

Glorious Hats – I love hats. There are no hat shops around me. The last one I went to was 9 years ago. So, it’s wonderful to see and read Jane’s blog. Not only does she make hats, but she’s quite the sewer too. I suppose the two do go hand in hand. I feel like I should stress that Jane’s hats are amazing. We’re not talking bucket hats. We’re talking fancy hats.

OK. I’m sorry. I ran out of steam. I made it halfway. That’s good, right?

If you are still looking for blogs to read, check out my Blog I Read list. It’s updated (well, it was two weeks ago).

Thanks again to Vicki & Jo. I truly appreciate it even though I’m slow as molasses in January.

Mailing the Afghan Today

Marie Haigh3 Comments
I talked to Dan about just keeping it. And kept it I did for a week, nicely folded, in our guest bedroom. It sat there all week long. It was never used. I never even touched it, except to occasionally pet it.

I thought of all the people I could give it to. It would make a great baby blanket until I realized that it would have to be hand washed and air dried. The chances of either my sister or my SIL hand washing a 36-inch afghan are not good. If I were a betting woman, I’d put a good thousand on it becoming a felted afghan.

I thought about keeping it myself. I wouldn’t use it; that’s for sure. I would want to display it, but we have no room for such displays.

Since I can’t think of a good home for it, I am sticking to my original plan. It will be shipped off to Syracuse, NY where it will join 800 other panels on an abandoned gas station. It can serve a purpose rather than sit in my cedar closet for months.

A final picture of it:

At the last moment, I crocheted a border around the outside. It was my neighbor’s idea. She recommended that I single crochet a border on all the edges. I inquired about doing a double crochet, but she was hesitant to agree. Not because she didn’t think it would look good, but because she is a one-crochet-stitch-kind-of-a-woman.

It appears I am too. I could only remember how to do a single crochet stitch. So, that’s what the afghan got. I should know better. I was taught how to crochet by both my MIL and my Aunt. It’s just different from riding your bike. You do forget if you don’t use it.