quilted | 365 Days Handmade

June 12, 2015
by FC5 1 Comment

Day 162/365: Quilting The 28-Year-Old Blocks

To refresh your memory: the finished quilt top.

For the backing of my current quilt project, all I had to do was go to the fabric stash. I found three yards of a green cotton with a pretty repeating floral motif. I had to do some measuring, cutting, and sewing to make the backing wide enough for the quilt top. Then I taped the completed sheet of fabric backing to the carpet and proceeded with spraying quilt basting spray and sandwiching the layers of quilt backing, the batting, and the quilt top.

For the binding, I purchased half a yard of an orange cotton print from my local independent fabric shop. After slicing the orange fabric into strips, I went through the process of folding, pressing, and sewing them together to make one long strip of binding.

Next I machine-quilted the fabric and batting sandwich. I didn’t do anything fancy– just sewed straight lines. The last thing I did before calling it a day was sew the binding to all four edges, leaving a gap where the two ends will have to be connected.

Ahhh… almost done.

May 11, 2015
by FC5 1 Comment

Day 130/365: Quilted Laptop Sleeve for Sean

Sean’s birthday is next week. When I asked him what he wanted for a gift, he said, “Can you make me a laptop sleeve?”

So that’s what I did today, pretty much all day.

First I found what appeared to be a fairly simple laptop sleeve pattern through Google. Next I measured Sean’s laptop, did some math, and cut the pieces that I needed. Then I started sewing. Everything seemed to be coming along all right, until I got to the part where I needed to sew the lining into the sleeve. Then it became a frustrating cycle of sewing by guessing, inevitably messing up, subsequently ripping out the seams, and then trying again only to have the same results.

There was even a dark portion of the afternoon there, when Sean recognized that I was quite frankly pissed off with him and the world, and he said, “Today’s blog entry: I hate my husband.”

Finally, after a couple of temper tantrums that involved screaming as loud as I could, flopping on the couch and sulking, I got up, discarded the instructions, and figured out my own way of putting the whole damn thing together.

Now that it’s finished, I’m actually a little pleased with the final product.

And there is a part of me that’s thinking, Hmm. Maybe I could make another one.

January 24, 2015
by FC5 Leave a comment

Day 23/365: A Moment in A Day in the Life

I don’t have any photos of a handmade project today, because by the time I remembered to take a picture, the sun was setting. So instead I am sharing a photo that I took earlier this week, on Monday, my regular day off. You can click the image to enlarge, and you can see a few things that I’ve written about already. There’s the fish hat that I knitted, and the jars of iced tea instead of soda, and my first quilted placemat, and the people’s favorite, the Mexican wrestling masks placemat. There’s a pile of fabric waiting to be made into something, maybe another patchwork block table runner. And of course, there’s Sean, who didn’t know I took this photo, because otherwise he would have made a goofy face at the camera. I like this photo because it captures a lot about the way we spend our time inside the house– relaxing, hanging out, engaged in leisure activity– and definitely not cleaning up.

January 19, 2015
by FC5 3 Comments

Day 18/365: What Happiness Tastes Like

Last year, I quit drinking soda. Even though I love me some cold Coca-Cola, I made a conscious decision to stop drinking all carbonated beverages. People have said to me, “Just drink diet Coke!” But it’s not the same. First of all, diet Coke doesn’t taste half as good as the real stuff. It is a poor substitute. And second, we all know that soda is bad for you. So if I am going to consume something that will rot my teeth, make me fat, and leach out the calcium in my bones, then I might as well go all the way. If I’m gonna have a soda, it’s gonna be Coca-Cola, and if I’m gonna eat bacon, it ain’t gonna be soy or turkey. None of that low-fat, non-fat, lite, sugar-free, calorie-free nonsense for me.

So anyway, yes, I made a conscious decision to quit drinking soda. It was a smart decision, because I can’t drink a Coca-Cola without wanting some Cheetos or kettle cooked potato chips or a hamburger and fries to go with it. Coca-Cola is my gateway drug.

I switched to iced tea, which wasn’t so hard because Sean grew up in the South and he makes the best pitchers of fresh-brewed tea. We drank gallons of the stuff, cold and unsweetened, and so much of it that I started buying different brands and flavors of tea bags for variety. Then I discovered Lupicia. If you have never tried fresh-brewed Lupicia loose leaf tea on ice, you are missing out. Come over to my house, and I will pour you a glass. Seriously. This stuff is so good that it is worth the significant portion of my grocery budget that I pay for it.

Since I am such a regular customer, Lupicia sends me their newsletter every month with a Fresh Tea Sample. Our pantry shelf of assorted teas includes several of these tea samples. Sean was washing dishes this morning as I surveyed the shelf, trying to decide what flavor tea to drink next. There were a lot of choices. Then the tea sample packets caught my eye. Among them were Muscat Decaf, Matcha Kirara Rice Tea, and January’s Tea of the Month, Happiness.

I picked up the packet and looked at the label. “Sean, what do you think Happiness tastes like?” I asked.

He didn’t bother to look up from the bowl he was rinsing. In his typical dry, deadpan manner, he replied, “I think there’s your answer right there.”

January 10, 2015
by FC5 2 Comments

Day 10/365: Stitched

The sock model called last night for evening check-in. He was three hours ahead in Florida. He said, “What are you doing?”

“Sewing. I’m taking a break from knitting. What are you doing?”

“Oh, not much. We just got home a while ago. We went out for oysters.”

“Oysters! Damn it! I want oysters.” I could picture them in my mind, a platter of a dozen raw fat oysters on the half shell, served chilled on a bed of ice. “How were they?”

“Yeah…” By the tone of his voice, Sean didn’t sound too thrilled about his experience with these oysters. Sometimes, you just get a bad batch. Not bad like food-poisoning bad, but just bad like bottom-of-the-barrel, end-of-the-season, so-sad-no-more-good-oysters-until-next-year kind of bad. He said, “Remember when sometimes we’d get them, and they’d be all small, and kinda stringy and not so good?”

“Yeah, I remember.”

“Remember when they’d be really good. Like that really fresh, fat kind of oyster.”

“Yeah…” I remembered. I waited to hear him tell me that these most recent oysters weren’t as good as the ones we used to have. “And… ?”

“Oh, no, that’s all. These were that really fresh, fat kind.” Then he started laughing. “They were really good.”

“Ha, ha,” I said. “I’m going back to sewing.”

January 4, 2015
by FC5 5 Comments

Day 4/365: Mexican Wrestling Mask Quilted Placemat

What’s this? They made a fabric with pictures of my family on it?

When Sean and I ran the Ventura Half Marathon back in September, we saw a guy running in bare feet and a Mexican wrestling mask. We had about half a mile left in the race, and I was tired. Seeing this guy effortlessly skim by in bare feet and wrestling mask, I was impressed. And inspired. We’d been running for two hours and thirty-five minutes at that point, and it was the half marathon. This guy’s race bib indicated that he was finishing up the marathon. That’s 26.2 miles, people. In bare feet and a Mexican wrestling mask. Finishing in under two hours and forty minutes. Sean and I looked at each other, and we were like, There goes a badass motherfucker. And then we started sprinting like crazy.

For part of my Christmas gift, Sean surprised me by choosing assorted yards of fabric from one of my favorite local independent shops. This Mexican wrestling mask print is one of those fabrics. I knew I had to make something that we’d use and see all the time. A dining table placemat made sense. Doesn’t everybody want to eat a meal with a badass motherfucker?

The easy part: You sew your blocks together and quilt them the fast and lazy way.

The harder part: Preparing the binding and then sewing it on.

Ta-da! Finished quilted placemat.

This guy says, “I like it.”

January 3, 2015
by FC5 2 Comments

Day 1/365, One Day Later: Quilted Patchwork Placemat

This is a cheat entry. I finished this project yesterday, but I didn’t start the blog until today. Oh well. Anyway, this is a quilted patchwork placemat that I made out of leftover blocks from earlier quilts. These colors and prints make me happy. I think it’s a sweet little placemat to make eating a meal that much more nicer.