Archive for November, 2006
* calendar
Posted on November 28th, 2006 by maitreya. Filed under Wants.
Geez, there are so many good calendars out this year. I’ve used the Nikki McClure one three years running now by my desk at lab, and I always use seamripper‘s computer desktop ones (the December one is uber cute, and don’t forget the matching gift list download), but I like to collect a couple more for around and about. I joined applehead‘s handmade calendar swap, so I’m looking forward to what I might get for that one, maybe for the kitchen. I’m responsible for January 2008 (it’s a 14 month calendar). And for my craftroom I just bought+downloaded this by lovexevol. I only found her site in the last couple of months, and I absolutely love everything she does. So, a whole calendar to print out, for just $2, such a deal! This is my favorite page from it.
oh, and here she is on lj
eta: was rummaging around on my sewing table tonight and uncovered yet another calendar that I had forgotten about, by snow & graham. It has a different lovely pattern for every month. The only thing that would make it more perfect is if it were letterpressed. (The link is to Luxe Paperie, but I bought mine at peek keep, which appears to be out of them at the moment.)
* felty
Posted on November 26th, 2006 by maitreya. Filed under Random.
My cheery clover web theme got annoying awful quick, especially with it getting colder here, so time for a redesign. Doesn’t it seem warmer already? And look, I finally made a banner. It only took me, what 3 and a half years? I liked cutting out the little letters; now I want to make a font of them to go with my redwork font that I finished but never fontified. One of these days…
Oh, and I updated my bloggy links. Enjoy
* bloomer bear
Posted on November 23rd, 2006 by maitreya. Filed under Sewing/Fabric Crafts, Toys (cat and kid).
A friend of mine is having a baby soon, which calls for my baby shower gift of choice lately, a Wee Wonderfuls doll. I made a kitty last time, so now it’s on to the bear. While sewing him shut, I accidently cut one of the dress corners a little funny, which fortuitously created this bloomer effect. Since the parents don’t know the gender, I like the little extra gender-neutrality of the bloomers vs a dress. The bloomers are Denyse Schmidt cotton, and the rest is wool-blend felt. I ended up not having quite enough felt, so he has little stubby legs, which I also like. My friend Becket, who is going to start guest blogging on craftlog any day now, made a matching baby quilt that you are just not going to believe. It’s even got a pocket to stow bloomer bear. We’ll get that posted as soon as a photo shoot can be arranged, believe me.
I’m at my sister-in-law’s house for Thanksgiving, which means seeing my niece, which means props for the photo! :)
* Built By Wendy Skirt
Posted on November 21st, 2006 by maitreya. Filed under Crafty Review, Sewing/Fabric Crafts.
After my last improvised attempt at a skirt, it became clear that I should try one from a pattern. Enter Sew U, the Built By Wendy book that you have no doubt seen elsewhere in blogland. I really really like the book. It is a perfect combination of complicated and simple, by which I mean that the instructions are easy to follow and well written, but the techniques range to the more complex. I felt like I was really learning to sew how you *should* sew, not some oversimplified way that was bound to disappoint in the construction. This is in contrast to how I felt about the Sew Fast Sew Easy book, which also has a skirt pattern that I have never made because it seemed so lame (and that was before they turned so evil).
Anyway, back to the skirt. It only took one night, and it has everything: nice zipper, darts, finished seams, facing, little button-loop to close the top of the zipper, everything. The fabric is a slightly stretchy, thin wale cordoruy that I got on sale at Reprodepot. The instructions were really good at every step. The book is organized with a kind of abbreviated 1 page recipe for each item (skirt, pants, and shirt), and more detailed information about particular steps and techniques organized in chapters, plus a bunch of reference information on sewing machines, patterns, fabrics, etc. I like this because I could flip to the long description for steps that I wanted more info about, but the big picture was all in one place. Also, as I learn the steps, I won’t need the long directions. Incidentally, I use the same system in writing my lab protocols. :) The only place where I felt the book had insufficient instructions was how to undersew, which I’d never seen before but is the magic that keeps the facing folded over just so. It fits great, and I am confident it will survive the washing machine.
I also feel like I actually learned something about sewing. I now understand facings, and what ease is, and all these little things that seemed kind of mysterious before. I already have the fabric for the cute shirt I’m going to try next. Thanks Wendy!
* gocco pinecone ornaments
Posted on November 12th, 2006 by maitreya. Filed under Gocco/L Letterpress, Holiday.
My ornaments for a number of swaps I signed up for: one on Swap-bot, ornamental, and Holiday Ornament Swap. The first one has a deadline of November 13 for some unknown reason, so now I’m nice and early for the other ones. They’re gocco on felt, much like my yeti ornament from last year. This time I did 2 layers of wool blend felt plus a fabric backing, all fused together. I wanted the tags to look like specimen labels, with the scientific name of the tree on one side and my URL on the other in this cool typewriter font called Ghostwriter. I am very pleased with them. My yeti swap last year yielded all sorts of cool ornaments, so I have high hopes that I’ll get some good ones this year too.
* pine cone prints
Posted on November 11th, 2006 by maitreya. Filed under Experiments.
I’ve had pine cones on the brain lately. I believe it started a while back with Karen Gelardi’s pinecone prints (which you can buy at ferdinand.)
The last week I’ve been seeing them everywhere:
and these 2 beauts from blissen
I signed up for some ornament swaps and decided pinecone prints it is. First order of business is doing the drawing. I found a nifty website for a cone collection. Who knew there were so many types of cones? Fascinating. Anyway, I printed out a bunch of different ones and tried tracing them with a sharpie (one of the 29-pack I got for my birthday!) I kind of like the effect, although you can see this method worked better for some than others.
The gocco prints are drying now, so tune in later for the finished ornaments.
* needle book
Posted on November 5th, 2006 by maitreya. Filed under Sewing/Fabric Crafts.
I finally finished the matching needlebook for the pin cushion swap. It’s 4 panels of the same fabric, each backed with felt, satin stitched around the edges. It folds accordian-style and closes up with snaps.
* red-black-white-gray-brown
Posted on November 1st, 2006 by maitreya. Filed under Wants.
I seem to have come late to the red-black-white (plus some gray-brown) party. Remember backtack III, when that color scheme was everywhere? It didn’t do a thing for me at the time, but suddenly I love every print I see in this range. I have aspirations of a quilt, or at least some patchwork placemats or something. Here’s the pile I got at Joann’s today:
If anybody has some fabric along these lines that you’d be willing to part with, I’d love to do a swap.
books I’m in
-
This week, I’m in Jaipur, India, starting my second teaching stint with Ritchie Ace Camps. Last year’s Jaipur experience was amazing (lots of pics here), and I can’t wait to meet everyone who is coming on the 2015 version (although I’m going to miss last year’s group like mad!). I hadn’t used block printing techniques a lot …
Categories
- Art
- Blythe
- Chickens
- Craft Room
- Crafty Links
- Crafty Review
- Crochet
- Cross Stitch/Embroidery
- Experiments
- Felting
- Fun with Lab Supplies
- Gocco/L Letterpress
- Holiday
- Home and Garden
- Inspiration
- Jewelry
- Knitting
- Martha
- Paper Crafts
- Projects with Instructions
- Random
- Resin
- Sewing/Fabric Crafts
- Toys (cat and kid)
- Uncategorized
- Wants
Blogroll
- a Stamp a Day
- Becca Stadtlander
- Cool Season Gardening
- ericamulherin.com
- Feeling Stitchy
- Frocks and Frou Frou
- Garden Mentors
- garden therapy
- Gardening in Seattle
- Hip Chick Digs
- Karen Barbe
- King County Seed Lending Library
- L I S A ‘ S – M U S I N G S
- Little Big Girl Studio
- Little Green Doll
- Lopez Island Kitchen Gardens
- Noodlehead
- Northwest Edible Life
- not martha
- Osborne Seed Company Variety Trials
- perdi o fio à meada
- Purl Soho
- Rake and Make
- Raspberry
- Salty Oat
- Seattle Urban Farm Company
- Sky Nursery
- Wee Wonderfuls
- Windy and Friends
- Wise Craft
Archives
- June 2019
- December 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- December 2017
- September 2017
- February 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- January 2016
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2013
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003