Philosophical Pfridays

OMG a button!!!

Head on over to M's to grab the code... scroll down to her side bar.

So my mental quandary of the week: learning colors. I have been struggling with learning my colors better. I tend to adhere very strictly to a color palette and don't have a lot of basic knowledge on the subject. I find myself feeling confused and constrained - especially when I see what other people are creating and the colors they choose. I know Jeni over at In Color Order is fantastic with colors and I try to read what she posts about color for help. But I guess ultimately it is either an innate skill one has or something you learn over time - and I guess I am the latter.

Do any of you have any good books you read about learning colors better, or any tips or tricks to exploring and experimenting with color?

Cheers and Happy Friday! I got paid, too! That means a PayDay is in my near future :-) This was the one from last pay day:

And a little musical styling for you today!

hasta!
-k

HUSTLE!

Do the hustle, doot doot doot doot do doo doo, or something or other? This could go very wrong very fast.

Kelsey over at Kelsey Sews has invigorated the blogging community with this 100 day hustle business. Here's the BUTTON! I don't think I will ever get over buttons :-)

Basically she is helping us all be better at probably my worst flaw: ACCOUNTABILITY! So, I am making this list, checking it twice (okay probably a lot more), and hoping I can keep up with all you awesome fellow hustlers. M is doing it too - so make sure to keep tabs on her! Although she is way better at getting things D-O-N-E than I am.

Alas here is my list:

1. Mr. Sudoku

2. HP swap - BUTTON!   

3. DWR - remember this?

4. Baby hats! - bootie fail because of this:

5. October NuBees swap       

                       

6. Make a tutorial?

7. Finish my NuBees quilt

8. Ornaments!

9. Wine totes for Christmas gifts

10. M's holiday delight (a.k.a gift)

11. Quilts for sis and bros for Christmas

Completely doable, no? HA! Well, at least we have a starting point! Good luck to you all - I will be checking in on you. Linking up to Kelsey's and signing off -

ciao!

k

and also - you knew this was coming:

Guten Morgen!!!

Happy Monday peeps of the blogosphere. I have things to report on the crafty end - but that has to wait. I unfortunately have to work.

But 2 important things. First - winning fabric! Randi at I have to say is giving you the option to win some fab fabbies through repinning on Pinterest. Read about it here. And repin mine please!!! I want some pretty fabric. Here is my pin if you care to assist me in my selfish endeavors :-) ***UPDATE!*** I got all my pins so thank you very much! I appreciate it!

Secondly - I spent Sunday drinking pumpkin beer & helping a good friend finally glue her bottle caps onto her bottle cap table. Here is a picture of it in all of it's awesomeness:

can you see the fish and the turtle?

Anyhow happy Monday to you all and will be back soon with some more posts about fabricy things.

cheers!

-k

Something cool just happened. Something VERY COOL!

Anne over at Play Crafts is featuring this palette that I made last week! Go check it out here!

This is the picture I took on my trip to Cinque Terre and using the palette builder tool it gave me some fun colors:

If you see on her blog, she pulled some beautiful fabrics that I think I just might buy and build me a quilt with. The tool is fun - you use whatever picture you want, upload it, and it pulls colors. So your fave sunset, a really great outfit you love, etc - and you can get a color palette to start pulling fabrics for.

She refers to me as mikesmunk, because that's my Flickr name so sorry for any confusion. I am one and the same :-)

Hope Saturday goes well for all of you!

cheers -

k

Philosophical Pfriday

Button, oh button, where art thou? Ahem M...

Anyhow - the deep thought for today is something I struggled with last night. Here goes:

HOW MANY F@$*?/!ING TIMES WOULD YOU SEAM RIP STITCHES IN A PROJECT BEFORE KICKING IT IN IT'S METAPHORICAL ASS AND SENDING IT DOWN THE PATH OF 'NEVER AGAIN WILL I TOUCH THIS'?

Still asking myself this. STILL. So in the meantime, I will drink my beer (sadly too empty, no?) and post this wonderful query to all you other crafters.

Cheers!

-k

WIP my quilt back and forth!

Oh yeah! Now that song is going to be stuck in your head all day! And if you don't know what song I am talking about, well, we will get there. As for now - it's button time! Thanks Lee for hosting today's WIP action.

A rough synopsis of last week:

Snowflake block pillow: remember the cut pieces I showed you last week? Well we have a pillow!

DWR: no progress... ultimate sad face.

Booties: knit a couple more rows for bootie #2.

Nubees blocks: Done! Mailing out tomorrow!

Sudoku quilt: the meat of my WIP post! I managed to baste Mr. Sudoku, and start some FMQ action on him - sounds kind of dirty, no? Just the way we like it over here at Crafternoon Delight. I tend to do this free hand swoopy loopy thing when I FMQ - it isn't super pretty but as this is my third attempt ever, well, practice makes perfect!

1/3 of the way done!

close up of swoopy loopy

artistic, no?

Well folks, that is my WIPing today. I need to finish these WIPs (i.e. DWR, booties, and Mr. Sudoku) before I start anymore things. 

And as promised:

Now you all hate me!!!! Muahahahahahahaha! Happy Wednesday all you crazy crafters!

-k

NUBEE NUBEE NUBEE

Say that title ten times fast - hilarious. Anyhow folks - HAPPY MONDAY! As per the uszh (usually shortened phonetically?) I am procrastinating work by blogging :-)

Sunday was delightful as I spent it crafternooning with M... made me some Nubees blocks to ship out to my hive peeps. I learned two things: I am not good at sewing or cutting straight & all fat quarters are not created equal. And no, I was not drunk this time. Stone cold sober. Well maybe a little drunk on puppy love, but I swear that's all. I submit for your viewing pleasure the following blocks:

for Alison aka  albearbunny

for Angie aka  sewscrappyquilts

for Michelle aka  A.quilter.2

for Renae aka  micchia

I really hope they all love them. I just kind of made it up as I went. And Michelle's kind of got sewn on backwards - but to me it is still the same! An isomer in fact - whereas my O-chem professor would say "They AREN'T the same!" And in fact Alison may call me out too because she is a chemist... eep.

Lastly I leave you with a funny clip from a show that I always think of when I say "Crafternoon Delight" out loud:

peace out peeps!

-k

Gramma's Super Secret Get Happy Present

In my first ever WIP post - still excited over it - I mentioned I had just started a pillow for my Gramma who has been a little under the weather. I have completed said pillow. This is my second pillow endeavor; the first was my NY Beauty Pillow. I have to say it wasn't much easier than the first. But don't let me get ahead of myself... let me walk you through the process!

First, trolling the interwebs led me to this super cool block - the snowflake block - and Sel at Mad Quilter's Disease (don't you love that blog name?!) made this tutorial so poor schmucks like me who need our hands held could make beautiful things too! I thought "this block would be perfect for a pillow!" Then I thought "I want to make Gramma a pillow!" My last thought (clearly not ever for all you smart asses) was "I am making this into a pillow for Gramma!"

Off to the fabric stash to find some fab fabs and this is what I came up with:

I am not sure where the navy with little flowers came from (prob Joann) but I absolutely love it so I went with that as my primary fabric. I found some coordinating fun fabrics from Connecting Threads - Love Strand in Olive and not sure about the pink dot - and got to cutting. The backing fabric (green paisley on navy) is also from Joann. You can also tell from my sewn together bits that I had some issues - the white space between patterns should be wider. Something very important about this pattern/tutorial: quarter inch seams are vital! and I would err on the side of a little wider piece than 3/4 inch strips the tutorial calls for. Also: pay attention to the proper placement of pieces; i.e. which side to sew on a strip and whether to cut when pressed open or not. You can see below there are some issues with lining up the snowflake bits and it doesn't look nearly as awesome as these ones in Sel's Flickr group.

Once you get the six wedges made they go together real quick to make this beautimus block! But you can see how teeny tiny it is due to my piecing issues. Trust me - my tomato is not about to take over the world - it is a normal sized tomato. 

As for the rest of this pillow endeavor, I had limited pink and I wanted it for the piping, so I kind of just improv'd the rest of the face of the pillow and did some real simple quilting. And below is what I ended up with:

I like how it came out. This isn't a color palette I would really ever have picked out - I love bright punchy colors but I think it works. I know Gramma will love it. And that is what is important. An aside: my hexagon was not equilateral - this is most likely due to piecing error. I noticed one wedge was much shorter than the others.

Piping is not my friend but I used the same tutorial over at Sew Mama Sew! and I only really had this one hiccup:

I won't show a picture of the back because I did not appropriately calculate the length needed for the other half of the envelope back so it is gaping a little. But you can see that pretty paisley fabric above :-)

For those of you who read all my rambling till the end instead of a little tl:dr action I give you the Happy Present Pillow - 

Hope all of you have had some fun so far this weekend. We submitted MO's application for residency today so life can go back to somewhat normal. Hopefully I can make some headway on Nubee's blocks and Sudoku face tomorrow when I get to CRAFTERNOON DELIGHT WITH M!

cheers cheeky monkeys!

-k

Philisophical Pfridays

Linking up to M over at Sew Hungry for Philosophical Pfriday (I NEED A BUTTON!). I think this is a legitimate quandary: Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island, discuss amongst yourselves...

Look for pillow updates very soon! Happy Friday!

-k

WIP Wednesday

Holla! This is a first for me - normally I suck, and never have anything moving. But I feel this Wednesday I can partake. And I get to use the button! I love buttons.

Thanks Lee for hosting!

WIP 1 - the DWR

We will call this number 1 - but it is the bane of my existence - remember this post? Yeah still feel that way. This is where the quilt pieces lay - under MO's fancy pants and templates for a Go Anywhere Bag from Anna over at Noodlehead:

see the arcs under all the rubble?

Maybe one day I will crank some out - I need a good rainy weekend. But fortunately it has been beautiful here, which never happens, so I am not wishing for rain at all!

WIP 2 - the Sudoku

So as I have prob mentioned before, my Gramma got me this sudoku charm pack in Kate Spain's Central Park line for Christmas last year. I pieced the top together real quick, realized how tiny it was, and then it just sat and sat. But finally we have made headway and elongated it over the weekend to prepare for quilting this weekend! See the difference? It is still only 44 in wide, but I added an extra 28 inches to the length - I like to make sure my feet are covered! Keep your eyes peeled (gross saying) for some pretty pictures early next week.

itty bitty living space

better sized for a genie

WIP 3 - Nubees

Last month I had so much fun doing my first swap (tired of hearing this yet?) that I signed up for round two. I like how it is a monthly swap - immediate gratification! I had seen a lot of awesome stripey/strippy designs (here & here & here - clearly I am a fan of Elizabeth's work), so I set out to satisfy my urge for symmetrical strips. This is what I came up with:

Now to make four more in these color schemes:

does the second from the left count as jewel tones?

WIP 4 - Snowflake Block Pillow

Lately my Gramma has been under the weather, getting old and getting cancer kind of has taken the wind out of her sails. Being so far away really sucks but I talk to her all the time and send her photos of M and I's craft shennanigans and she loves it. I have been wanting to make her something but I wasn't quite sure what. Then M's constant pillowing was whispering to me, calling to me, and I said "Fine, I will make the damn pillow!" I decided to make this diamond blossom block by Madame Parfait at The Parfait Cafe, then incorporate it into some pillow action. As it turns out, Sel over at Mad Quilter's Disease wrote up an awesome tutorial here calling it a snowflake block. So I went back to the stash and pulled out this and got to cutting tiny little diamonds! Here are some pics - check back later in the week to see the finished project!

back of the pillow is paisley (on left)

clearly my quater inch seam is not a quarter inch :-/

WIP 5 - baby booties

A coworker just had some grandbabies and I bartered favors for booties :-) I am using just a soft snuggly baby yarn from Joann and the pattern for Saartje's bootees. C'mon bootie fairy!

one more to go!

I give you almost done bootie #1

This is all the WIPing (ha!) I can share with you today. I hope it wasn't too lengthy - I like to give a little explanation... maybe it is me trying to rationalize my lazyness? Anyhow - what have YOU been working on?!

ciao bellas!

-k

ps - word of the day: bootie! Say it out loud - I guarantee it will make you smile.

Mission accomplished!

Happy Monday blogosphere! I am amped because I got a few things checked off my to-do list this weekend :-)

1. Almost finished my moustachioed block:

Mustache Flickr Group

FYI, Applique is a BITCH. Now I just need to embroider in "LHC" on the bottom right of the white. You see, this is for the Can't grow a 'Mo, sew a 'Mo group that Danielle of DJ Coolbear has put together - BUT this is not my mustache creativity! My good buddy of forever - GT - runs a company called Love Handle Clothing (LHC) and the sell some awesome stuff. Every year GT also does Movember, which is one of the places Danielle will be sending proceeds of the raffling of these gorgeous mustache quilts. Here is GT (left) and his entrepreneurial partner J at one of their booths:

So.... THREE CHEERS FOR STACHE!

2. Finally finished the face for my Sudoku quilt... I had been wanting to lengthen it for a while because it was itty bitty living space (imagine this in the Genie's voice). So I purchased some loverly Trees in Orange from the Central Park line and had some fabric from my LQS and sashed on some length!

Beautimus, no? Now its time to do the quilting! Stay tune for a possible WIP...

3. Nubees blocks. I knew I wanted to do something stripey/strippy (?) for this month, but I also loved having a bit of a diagonal involved. So M helped me tool around with some fabrics and we came up with this - which I have to say - I am enjoying it more and more. Here are the practice runs - mine is first, M's is second:

Now just to pick out all the fun colors for all my new hive mates - hopefully soon to be crafty friends!

Cheers peeps!
k

Bee Blocks Bitches!

Finally got a picture taken of all the awesome blocks I received during my very first block swap! They are the beginning to an awesome quilt. Met some new people, got some good fabrics, had some fun times... in fact so much fun I am doing it again! Keep your eyes peeled for new block construction - and in the mean time - here they are in all their shining glory:

I have to say - if you want to get into a swap - this Nubees group was awesome to get your toes wet with!

hasta!
k

WIP Wednesday?

EEP!!!! Folks sad to say the list is still quite the same - and so FRIGGIN LOOONNNGGGG!!! I spent the past holiday weekend at the lake water skiing and kayaking and catching some rays. I did manage to finish a cowl I had been working on - but I had lent my sewing machine to some friends to make some t-shirt quilts for themselves over the weekend. Unfortunately, the camera is at home and I am at work - but maybe tonight I can load some pictures up for you to see  DONE! The quilts turned out great and they finished them in less than 48 hours!

The lake!

First time on skis in 11 years - I might be swearing right here :-)

Puppies help sew!

Finito

There is a puppy snuggling under there - I think they work!

cowl I finally finished

I won't be adding Lee's button because I don't feel this is a legit enough WIP post. Next Wednesday will be totally legit because I get to do my favorite thing this weekend - a crafternoon with M (Sew Hungry) - heaven :-) Plus it is M's birthday Friday so there will be left over birthday cake to eat!

And lastly I leave you with my own personal WIP - me! I won't be getting too much into life outside crafting on this blog- but I had my first check in with my personal trainer 7 weeks after starting and things are looking good people!!!! So I am pretty amped and that means we have the 80's baby station on this morning...

Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen by trashfan

Cheers!

-k