Showing posts with label Star Wars. Show all posts

Stuffed Animals & Star Wars

I made some stuffed animals for my kids for Valentine's Day.  Both were challenging projects, but for different reasons.
I made my daughter this corgi.  The pattern is by Fluffmonger and is a free download.  I purchased the fabrics from Fluffmonger's Etsy store.  This is the mini size and it's around 6" tall.  I had a really hard time fitting the butt onto the back fabric, but with the help of about 6,000 pins I finally got it in there.  It was a challenge to sew due to its tiny size.

I made my son an axolotl.  The pattern is by Bee Zee Art on Etsy.  I used micro fleece to sew the pattern.  I had two reasons for this.  One, I hate sewing with minky.  Two, I already had the light pink micro fleece, so only had to buy a small bit of the darker pink.  Overall the pattern was pretty easy to sew.  The only part I didn't like is that you have to hand sew the head to the body.  I would have rather had an open body seam to close up after stuffing.  For some reason my sewing machine had a complete meltdown while sewing this.  I had tons of ripping due to massively long skipped stitches.  And then, when I was almost done, I accidentally ripped a small hole near the mouth seam and had to make a really wonky seam to cover it.  Heartbreak!  The eyes ended up a bit crooked too, but he likes it and I am relieved.

On the plus side, both kids liked their gifts and my sewing machine seems to have recovered from whatever was possessing it while sewing the axolotl.

 I finished up the four Millennium Falcon mug rugs this week too.  The pattern is by Isabella's Whimsy on Etsy. I was amused while binding the first one because we were watching tv and Star Wars episode VII came on while I was binding one of the BB-8 backed pieces.  And then Han and Chewy came in.  😀

I've been trying to start sewing a kit I bought from Primrose Cottage Quilts on Etsy.  Life keeps intervening.  I finally got everything cut on Sunday, spent most of Monday resting with a nasty cold virus, then spent yesterday morning judging my teacher friend's elementary school science fair.  And yesterday afternoon resting again. Maybe in between resting periods today I can start sewing.
I've still been moving bits and pieces downstairs into the sewing room closet.  I've emptied most of the things out of the office, so it's looking quite spacious.  My replacement long arm frame pieces were shipped yesterday.  They show a delivery date of Monday, but I'm hoping they arrive before the weekend so that we can expand the frame to king size.  

 My husband spent part of the weekend working on the desk in the sewing room.  He's been experimenting with different templates to cut an inset into the desk.  The plan is to have the bed of the machine sit level with the counter.  He's going to cut a hole in the countertop and then cut a plexiglass piece to fit tightly around the machine (template at left in picture below). I think we're going to try doing the cutting tonight. We are a bit nervous about this, because one slip of the router and it's game over on the counter top!  If all goes well, I should be able to finish moving in within the next week or two.
Here's the updated sewing room to-do list:
  • wire the outlets
  • install one more light
  • install a drop ceiling in the big closet
  • install carpet in the big closet
  • install knobs and pulls on the desk and cabinets
  • clean all the cabinets and install the shelves inside them
  • finish the countertop
  • install shoe moulding along the cabinets
  • install a smoke alarm and wi-fi booster thing
  • put on the doors for both one more closets
  • install doorknobs
  • get some glass cut for one set of cabinet doors on order
  • finish up the crown molding
  • finish making the top for my cutting table
  • break down, move, and reassemble the long arm
  • move all half the remainder of my stuff in

We've had so much rain lately, mixed with small amounts of snow and ice, and most days it's been really gloomy.  I'm really hoping that spring is truly on its way.  My daffodils are coming up, there were flocks of robins in the yard last week, and this week I had some red winged black birds on the feeder--they are summer birds for us.  However, I do still have the juncos, which are winter birds. I'm gonna ignore them and go with spring's imminent arrival.

 Linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts.
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R2-D2, Strawberries, and Birds

R2-D2 is totally finished!




I also finished the top for the Strawberry Social quilt.  My daughter tells me she wants custom quilting on it and I'm not very good at that, so we'll see.  It may sit here another two years.  Sigh.


I'm trying to catch up on the Sewcial Bee Sampler blocks.  I'd gotten several weeks behind.  I'm hoping to be totally caught up today.  I'm also hoping to get the back pieced for my Snowman S'mores quilt and then onto the frame.  I made that top probably seven or eight years ago.
It needs a good pressing!

I've had pretty much the same to-do list for the last month.  R2-D2 was a big one on there, so now that it's out of the way, I have high hopes to get stuff done.  It is, however, the end of the school year, and it's a busy time.  I'll try not to beat myself up too much, but I always feel like I should be more productive than I am.

 My husband filled our bird feeders over the weekend after leaving them empty for around a month.  We immediately had rose-breasted grosbeaks.  Usually we only have them for a few weeks in late spring, so I guess he timed that well.  I learned yesterday that the males have a rosy pink under their wings that you can see when they are flying.  The females have an orangey yellowish pink under theirs.

We were watching some red headed woodpeckers inspect a dead tree with many holes on the next lot over.  Hopefully they will nest in it.

 Our flowers are putting on a show.  I'm still waiting for my favorite iris (Crater Blue Lake) to bloom.  Fingers crossed.
Caesar's Brother Siberian iris
Clematis
Iris Batik
I can't believe the roses are blooming already.
The side garden. 
Before tying up the clematis, but much better lighting.
Can you see my son's rock collection?
Until next time...
PS--I've lost 10 pounds now.  :)
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Finally, Some Progress

I've made a good deal of progress on my unfinished Strawberry Social quilt.  We've agreed on a layout (which I spent a ridiculous amount of time on yesterday), so now I just have to sew the columns together and finish the top.  
I had set this one aside for the longest time because I got hung up on one part of the instructions.  It truly wasn't difficult and I'm not sure why I waited so long.  One thing I was really surprised by was one of the trimming steps.  I cut off a good deal of fabric!

Top row is before trimming, bottom row is after trimming!
I also have finished quilting R2-D2!  I'm going to machine bind this one.
In other news, we discovered that something, probably a squirrel, has chewed up three separate sections of our composite decking.  This does not make me happy.
I also discovered fire blight on both my newly planted pear trees, so we spent an evening trimming off and burning the infected parts.  Hopefully this takes care of it, but I'm feeling rather pessimistic right now.  The Moonglow variety is supposed to be more resistant and it's the one that had it the worst.

 The potatoes are coming up pretty well, and I'm starting to see some growth in the broccoli rabe and the cabbage.  My lettuce seems to be faltering.  I was really hoping for a harvest by now, especially since there are signs at the grocery store saying there's a lettuce shortage!  (What???)

 Anyway, I feel like I'm finally making some progress sewing-wise, so that's good.  Have a great week!




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Jinx!

Last week I was talking about how the R2-D2 quilt had been a series of annoyances.  I also mentioned that I had it on the frame and hoped quilting went smoothly since nothing else about this project had.  Well, I jinxed it because quilting is currently at a standstill while I pick out a 9" by width of quilt row of stitching.  (I offered my daughter $10 to pick it out, but she quit after a few inches.)  Somehow I managed to get a huge ruffle in the border.  I'm hoping that removing the one row will allow enough where I can go in and somehow fix it.  I've never had that happen before, and I'm not really sure what caused it.

 Since I'm quite annoyed by having to rip out a giant row, I moved on to other things.

 I bought a B & C Clambake kit on Etsy and cut and sewed that.  I changed the pattern slightly by omitting the solid strip along the bottom.  I was thinking maybe I'd make this into a pillow cover instead of a mini, but it's not square, nor is it a common pillow form size, so it's hanging around on my design wall until I decide. (And yes, I know I can make my own pillow form, but ugh!, more work!)

I also cut out a mini Bobbin Box quilt, but have not yet had time to start sewing.
I really need to make some new short sleeve shirts for myself now that it's warm again.  I bought all this fabric last summer and have yet to do anything with it.  Fitting oneself is a scary prospect. I used the same pattern to make some shirts for my daughter last year and perfected her fit, but we are built quite differently.  I just need to take the plunge and cut one out and try it.  Wish me luck!
In other news, we got part of the vegetable garden planted.  This year we are growing lettuce, broccoli rabe, red cabbage, potatoes, green and purple beans, and ONE cucumber plant.  We planted all but the beans and cucumbers, but nothing has sprouted yet.  To be fair, it's only been three days.  :D

 If the weather is decent this weekend, I really need to clean out the dead stuff from the flower gardens and get some new mulch put down.  The deer have already decimated my tulips and most of the day lilies.  I'm sure the newly emerged hostas will be next.  Have I mentioned how much I detest deer?

Oh, I've gotten half of the pumpkin quilt bound and am a block behind on the Sewcial Bee Sampler.

 Something I'm proud of this week is that I had bloodwork done and have lowered my cholesterol over 40 points since last time it was tested and cut my triglycerides in half!  This was the best result I've had in 10 years!  I attribute this to all the walking I've been doing since the last test.  It's good motivation to keep it going.  I alternate walking outside and on the treadmill, 3 to 3.5 mph pace pretty much daily.  I'm going to add in a rowing machine next week for some variety and to spare my poor feet.  Now to lose 30 or 40 pounds......
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What I'm Working on This Week

I made a tablecloth for a DJ table, but that is not an exciting project to look at.  It just looks like a pile of black fabric!

 Here are blocks 1 - 7 of the Sewcial Bee Sampler.  I feel like my photo looks almost fish-eyed.  How strange.    I was standing directly over the blocks with a regular camera.
I'm very, very, very slowly binding my pumpkin quilt.  I only have about 24" done so far.  :/
I have the R2-D2 quilt on the frame.  I'm using BB-8 fabric for the back.  If you look closely, you'll see there is no batting.  My husband kindly finished loading the quilt for me while I got my son into bed.  He left out the batting though.  :)  
This one has been full of frustration.  When I originally finished cutting out the pieces, my son informed me that he wanted a different pattern.  Then it took me over a year to finish sewing because it was so tedious.  Then it was too small, so I had to buy border fabrics.  Next, my son told me he doesn't really like quilts.  He did pick out the backing and I bought what was left on the bolt, which I thought was a half yard extra.  Somehow I calculated wrong because there was not enough backing.  Then I remembered that I'd bought a piece of it when it first came out.  Luckily it was two yards, just enough to very carefully add to my other yardage, but it's going to be really close side-to-side.  Hopefully the quilting goes more smoothly than the rest of the project has gone. 

 I have a Thimbleblossoms Mini Clambake cut out and arranged on my design wall.  I'm toying with leaving the solid strip off the bottom.
Last week was our spring break.  It was super cold and blustery and we even had snow--more than what we'd had most of the winter.  Since it had been unseasonably warm many of my plants were emerging, only to be partially frozen.  The birds didn't know what to make of it.  I had flocks of robins in my yard and a lone red winged blackbird at the feeder.  Today is absolutely gorgeous and I happened to spy a towhee.  I got a really grainy picture through a screen before he hopped out of view.  I rarely see towhees in my yard.  I'm hoping this means spring is here to stay.
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Sewcial Bee Sampler Weeks 1 - 4

First off, here is what I found on my sewing work table this morning:
Here are the Sewcial Bee Sampler blocks I've made so far.  These are way out of my normal color scheme.  I'm not really an orange person, but it goes well with aqua.  And, if you recall, I'm using only fabrics I had on hand.  If I could have bought new, I'd probably go with my favorite hot pink and navy.

Week 1--this is my favorite so far.
Week 2 
Week 3--this one is a bit intense.
Week 4
I decided it was time to make the backing for my pumpkin quilt and get it onto the frame for quilting.  Then I realized I'd never bought the correct size batting.  No!  I made a baby quilt top this week.  I bought a batting for that without looking at what I had on hand.  Not only did I already have the proper size batting on hand, I could have actually fit it onto one of my batting scraps.  Double NOOOOOO!  Where is my brain?
Simple baby quilt top
I finally got R2-D2 off the design wall after a year and a half.  However, my son has grown quite a bit since I originally cut out the top, so I needed to add borders.  (As a side note, the squares were cut at 2".) After going to two different JoAnn's, I got the small amount of black fabric I needed to make the inner border and the proper size batting for this one.  And we bought a backing of his choice since I no longer had enough of what I'd originally planned--that will be BB-8.
Top minus outer borders
The outer border will be this R2-D2 print.
Once the backing for the baby quilt and the batting for the pumpkin quilt arrive, and once I finish adding the borders and make the backing for R2-D2, I will be spending some (hopefully) quality time with the long arm.

 In other news, my mother in law sent me a pressure cooker.  I am kind of scared of it.  If you have any tips or great recipes for me to try, let me know.
Random tidbits of the week:

  • My son informed us that he likes babies because they have huge heads.
  • I have a B.S. in Mathematics, but I think I've forgotten most of what I learned--if you don't use it, you lose it!
  • The lot behind my house sold.  I have to get some type of window coverings now.  Sigh.
  • Still looking at making a compost pile; husband is on board too.  Just need to get it set up.





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Lots of Project Updates

I don't seem to be able to work on just one thing at a time.  Anyone who's seen my WIP list knows this already!  I've been working to finish up my last few swaps, catch up on all my 365 Challenge blocks, make more progress on the R2-D2 quilt, and start my Fig Tree Quilts Mystery BOM kits (I received the first one at the end of January, but it had a missing fabric, so I waited to start until I received February's shipment).  Oh, and my husband has been working to get the walls built in the sewing room.  Here are a few photos of my progress:

Finished rainbow mini--more photos and color information coming after I send it to its new owner.
First blocks of Fig Tree Mystery
Sewing room progress--I need to go clean up after him again.
R2-D2 pixel quilt--what feels like the never-ending project.
What are you working on?  Do you do one project start to finish or jump around on many projects?
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