The Life, Designs & Crafts of Marie Haigh
Life is what happens while I am busy planning my next knitting design.
While sitting in front of the roaring fire Dan made Sunday, I transcribed all my notes and tips about reading charts onto an easel. I’ll be teaching a class on reading charts at the Pottstown Knit Out this weekend.
If you’re a knitter in the Pottstown area, I highly recommend attending next year. Unfortunately, the event is sold out this year. You can learn more about the event on its website.
When I had first painted Elly’s room, I had only stenciled her growth chart up to 3 feet. I was so sure that it would be at least 3 years before I would have to extend it.
Elly isn’t even 2 yet and yesterday I had to pull out the stencils and paint.
Dan promised me that this would be the last time.
The short and sweet story behind the rag quilt is embroidered on the label.
Hand-embroidered by Quilted Lovelies because I neither had the time nor the patience.
The long and detailed story can be found on my Elly Made blog.
I love my kitchen.
True, it is stuck in the 1960’s but I think the outdated decor gives it charm. Besides the stove is to die for with extra space in between the burners and two ovens.
I have received lovely comments about the avocado green cabinets. I have tried to live with the color these past 6 years. I have even tried to embrace it by making a matching fan cover
(see it above the stove?) and lining the shelves in green.
Yet, the color just feels drab to me.
So, yesterday I decided to see what different colors would look like on the cabinets by painting small sections with acrylic paint. First, I tried red. It was nice. Then, I tried my favorite color turquoise.
I just stood there grinning from ear to ear. It made me so happy. This was the color for me!
Can you see it?
Unfortunately, some prep work has to be done before I can paint the cabinets. There are years worth of grease coating the cabinets that must be scrubbed off first. I’m hoping Dawn will make mean work of it.
Elly still talks about Santa and presents.
She was upset that we put away the Christmas decorations yesterday. She’s not the only one missing Santa.
I have an assembly line of stockings being made in my sewing room.
I found this fabric in my stash and it told me that it wanted to be a stocking.
When fabric talks, I try to listen.
Once I started cutting out the fabric for one stocking, I found more fabric that would look perfect hanging on a mantle.
Dan was surprised to learn that I was making stockings. We each have one. Elly has 2 stockings. My neighbor gave me 3 handknit stockings this year. What will I do with these stockings once they are complete? I don’t know. I refuse to worry about such trivial details.
Elly’s rag quilt is in the dryer right now!
To celebrate, Elly and I are sitting in a mound of fabric.
Some of my favorites thus far:
A patchwork quilt just waiting for batting and backing fabric
This painted fabric
I’m thinking about making a tablecloth or two or better yet Roman shades
Piling fabric up on bookcase shelves is not a good idea. It’s hard to get the piece of fabric out from the middle of the stack without toppling the whole stack over. Besides, I couldn’t find the dark finish I wanted in the price range I was willing to pay.
Enter plan c.
Shuffling is still required. The books are being relocated to the end of the bed so the long wall can be dedicated to fabric storage and sewing notions.
The china cabinet remains too small for my needs. I have found what seems like the perfect fabric storage solution: cubes. Originally, these cubes were intended for closet storage so they should be great at storing fabric. Fabric is nothing more than unsewn clothes.
The best part about the cubes is that I can expand the storage by stacking more cubes on top when I run out of room, which of course will happen all too soon.
And no, that is not the new fabric. I am sticking to my rule of no new fabric until the rag quilt was finished. All this fabric came out of the china cabinet. A lot will likely have to go back in, but I am trying to put like fabrics together. The top left cube is material waiting to be sewn into aprons. First up is an apron just for me.
I am currently using the old Kenmore sewing machine because of Elly’s curiosity. My new sewing machine has WAY too many buttons for a little girl to press and cause trouble with. On the Kenmore, she can press the backward button as much as she likes and not cause any broken needles or frustration.
This time we used homemade play dough to make a Christmas ornament.
It was remarkably simple. I rolled out the dough with an old rolling pin. Elly pressed a star cookie cutter into the dough. We both pulled away the excess dough. The ornament was then left to dry for a week. Before hanging it on the tree, I coated it with a spray acrylic gloss. I read somewhere that the gloss would help preserve it.
While it was still wet, I scratched in the words “Elly” and “2011” with a toothpick. Unfortunately, it is hard to read them now.
Thanks to my mother-in-law’s generosity and amazing good luck, the guest bedroom/sewing room is in major need of an overhaul. This is the before shot:
The trash bags piled high on the bed are filled with fabric and notions. My MIL received the goldmine from a coworker who was moving to London. She didn’t want to pay the enormous shipping fees to send it overseas and would my MIL want it? “Heck yeah” answered my MIL as would any sane woman answer!
My current system of stacking the fabric in the china cabinet won’t work; there’s not enough room.
Enter plan b.
Plan b involves shuffling the bookcases, buying a new bookcase, and reorganizing my current stash of fabric and notions. It also involves finishing the rag quilt before I open the bags of fabric. I know me. If I open the bags first, Elly might have to wait another year before she sees her quilt.
When I first sarted publishing my knitting designs, I strived to do everything myself. I sketched my design, ran the numbers, knit the sample twice, wrote the pattern, edited the pattern, took pictures of the sample, wrote marketing material, and promoted my design. I learned a lot. Over the years in an effort to focus on what I do best, such as coming up with new designs and writing patterns, I have learned to parcel out the tasks that I do not have a calling for. I now have a wonderful tech editor that I trust to fine-tune my patterns and catch any gross errors. This year, I finally admitted to myself that I will never produce professional quality photos. Below are my attempts to take photos of the baseball blanket.
I am actually proud of this photo but it focuses on Elly more than the blanket.
Now compare my photos with the ones taken by Nihart Photography.
I love this one with Elly in it. I plan to enlarge it and hang it in our living room.
Yes, I think all my future designs will be photographed by Nihart.
The Life, Designs & Crafts of Marie Haigh 