A Little Imagination and a Pile of Junk

coming soon

We managed to come in from the Spring-y outside long enough for me to piece together this quilt top. It's for a lap quilt I've been planning for the living room and it's the biggest quilted piece I've attempted so far. The squares have been sitting around for a while as I put off actually spreading them all over the tile floor to figure out the arrangement. You know, with the dog skidding into first on my precious arrangement about the time I have it just so--which was pretty much what happened. Finally, I just decided to go row by row and it all came together rather quickly. Now, I'm putting off sandwiching it together and working out the backing. The quilting part I'm actually looking forward to, but I haven't decided what kind of design I'll use. I want something not overly quilted so it will stay pretty fluffy and snuggly, but I don't want to just stitch in the ditch either. Any ideas?

There won't be much crafting going on tonight, though, as my sweetheart has been out of town for a few days and I am eagerly awaiting his return. <insert groovy 70's love theme music here> But, I'm working on a little surprise for you that I'm super excited about. A fun new tutorial! These things take an amazing amount of time to put together and I'm always super grateful to find them. Especially the PDF files--geeezzz! I wish I was half that organized. So, while I can't promise some pretty little thing you can print out, if you like step-by-step photos and know how to follow directions, I've got something just for you! For now, here's a sneak peek to get those creative juices flowing...time to oohh and aahh....

now you know what we're really like

I just have time for a quick post to show off my new pillow. I worked on it a few weeks ago but didn't get around to putting it together until today. I love these fabrics so much. (Don't I always?)Everything but the bird print was thrifted in Memphis. The floral is a vintage napkin--aren't the colors wonderful?

The color of the backing fabric looks a little off in the picture and the vintage buttons definitely seem to coordinate better in real life. Here's a close-up of the stitching and then I'm off to practice my knitting snuggling next to my sweetheart as a silent support while he watches the Final Four Championship game. I learned my lesson after I apparently spoke the wrong words during a big game and abruptly shifted the momentum away from our team causing them to lose the game. Really. A big Texas/Kansas State game about 2 years ago. Yeah, that was my fault. I really do have the sweetest husband in the world but the Longhorns are his team and, although he did apologize later, at the time all he could say was, "I know it is ridiculous, but I just can't talk to you right now." And he actually didn't speak to me the rest of the night. Yep. And he thinks I get crazy about my crafting. Speaking of crafting, here's the detail of that stitching.

I'll share one last shot that usually wouldn't make it to the blog but I'm deciding to get real and give you a peek into what it is really like in my home, at least while my attention is on other things.

Oh, who am I kidding? This is everyday life at the Cooper house, except I had just spent all day cleaning and you can't see what the dog just puked up in the corner. (Let's keep a little bit of mystery here, please.) But there behind the couch is my child. The one with the underwear on her head. The underwear she had previously been wearing...elsewhere.... Yeah, well. I'd better be off to tend to my knitting. For real this time.

not just knitting

It's done! Last week I cut out the fabric for a knitting needle case but didn't get around to sewing it until this week. I think it's one of my favorite things I've ever made. I want to sleep with it.

I'm madly in love with this fabric. It is one of those fun looks-like-it-is-already-quilted designs, but I had to go and actually quilt the thing. This is a metaphor for my life. If something is made to be easy, I have to go and make it more complicated and time consuming. I do like the look of the extra decorative stitches. And nothing feels better to me lately than quilted fabric. I prefer a little bit of flannel to actual quilt batting. I'll probably even go this way with my blanket quilts to keep them nice and light for our overly warm climate.

I realized while taking pictures that I only have two sets of knitting needles and both are in use, so I stuck in a few paint brushes to get an idea how it will look. I love that it makes my cheap and poorly mistreated paintbrushes look almost pretty. I waited a good long time (for me) before making this. I determined not to spend a fortune on this new hobby of mine until I knew I would keep it up. I've used some major self-control so far and have only bought what I needed for specific projects plus a couple of skeins of yarn to get a feeling for working with different materials--cotton, wool, and blends of both. The cotton is by far my favorite. Of course, that may have something to do with the 90 degree heat we've been having. There's something not right about knitting with wool and sweating at the same time.

pillows and a torture tool

A couple of new pillow covers I've just added to my Etsy shop.

I've got to come up with a better place for taking pictures. Have you seen Malka's amazing designs? Her fabrics and quilting are drop dead gorgeous but her photos make me want to redesign my entire house around one pillow.

The top pillow cover now reminds me of this bag, but I had almost forgotten about it. Actually, I woke up in the middle of the night with the idea to chop up this wonderful vintage Swedish dish towel/table cloth I had just found. This same person who hoards stacks of fabric and paper too pretty to cut into chopped up the thing without a second thought. And I'm glad I did. I really love how it turned out, but it doesn't go with a thing in my house. Plus, we might be getting close to the exceeding the appropriate number of pillows you can have without making your home look like a fluffy showroom. Not quite there, but almost.

Speaking of not quite there, but almost: behold my second completed knitting project. I call this one washcloth. Don't you love her? Beautiful (okay, I admit, that might be pushing it) and functional.

She made her appearance last week and has been caressed by every member of the family. No one seems to mind her less than perfect appearance or the fact that this is a freaking washcloth, people, that took me a week to make! I don't know how I'll ever be able to knit an actual sweater or blanket for another person. Unless I tie them down and make them watch the entire process (I'm picturing something like A Clockwork Orange here) so they know exactly how much hard work went into it. Even that, maybe I'd have to poke them in the eye with the knitting needle every few stitches so they can really feel how hard I worked. Sounds fair to me.

more pillow love and a journal

You can now find these new pillows and a fabric art journal along with a few other things over in my Etsy shop. I hope you like them. I am crazy into the pillows right now and have several more in the works. These first two are complete pillows because they kind of developed on their own, but my future pillows will be removable covers only. I'm thinking this will keep the cost of the pillows and the shipping as low as possible. This way, if you want to recover a pillow you already own, you will only have to pay for the cover. I hate paying for things I already have plus, as you know, I'm all about simplicity. Here's a peek at the art journal which was featured in Stampington & Company's special publication Sew Somerset. Check out the Etsy listing for more pictures.

*ETA: Art journal is now SOLD. 

go ahead and say it.

Behold, my most recent purchases. I must be crazy to take up a new hobby when I don't have enough time to do a fraction of the things I'd like to do to keep up my current hobbies. When the to-do list overfloweth...take on something new, I like to say. I fell in love with this Japanese crochet book at the bookstore last week and couldn't leave it behind--it was the last one!!--even though I don't have a clue how to crochet. (Have you seen Vintage Crochet by Susan Cropper?? I got all geeky over it in Borders a few months ago but managed to make it out of the bookstore without spending retail on this beautiful--but useless, to me--book that I certainly didn't need. Now I wish I had splurged anyway.) I got all confused trying to figure out whether I should learn to knit or crochet first and which book to get, but since the husband was buying and I might not get this chance again for a while, I just closed my eyes, played eenie, meenie, minie, moe and walked out with these. So far so good. I'm trying the knitting first, but crochet will be hot on its heels I can tell you now. Actually, this is a perfect addition to my hobby repertoire. I hate to sit without something to do with my hands and love detailed oriented, repetitive projects that are more like puzzles to solve. Yikes, what a geek. But I'll be a knitting geek soon enough! Any tips for the newbie, please, or know any books that could help?

I did manage to finish up some pillows last week and thus justify my spending a wee bit. In a certain sense. Sort of.

These pillows are for the house but I'm working on some more for the shop which needs a good update. The bottom pillow is machine quilted inside the squares but hand quilted around the edges. Way too time consuming, but very enjoyable I have to say.

I have lots more to share, but my family needs to be fed at least once a day. I can't wait to show you more pillow love, so come back tomorrow, please!

work in progress friday

Friday's a good time for evaluating the week's work in progress.

The embroidery has been in process for about a month now. (I started it on the way home from Tennessee.) But it is likely to be several more months before it's done. Maybe it is a little too ambitious of a project, but after seeing this, this, this one, and this I am determined to make 2 or 3 more. I may even buy one of those crewel kits from the craft store, maybe something like this one but on a brighter background and minus the ruffles. I should probably actually finish at least one thing first, though. But there's no time for projects today. This afternoon we'll be doing crafts and making cookies at a friend's house, but I can definitely see some time with a needle and thread in my newly arranged living room in my future. Oh, yeah. And the last few episodes of Carnivale. I'll be so sad and sick to see it end, but a little season one of 30 Rock might just ease the pain.

see, i still sew

I finally took some time to work on something a little more creative than dusting and organizing. It is all about balance they say. I don't know, but it feels sooooo good to create not just order but beauty out of the chaos. And it still feels too much like chaos around here. So a few patchwork panels with no other purpose than to look pretty and be fun to make were called for.

I've also got my heart set on making some new pillows for the living room since going out and buying a brand new couch would kind of defeat the purpose of this whole downsizing/being-content-with-what-you-have thing I'm going for, so I set aside some fabrics that make me happy.

I mean, who cares that there is a giant hole in the couch that's Spiderman's secret hiding place for jumping out and surprising the bad guys? So what that I could fill the pantry full of food from the crumbs underneath the cushions alone?? (I will be keeping the vacuum.) New is not necessarily better, right? Let's hope some pillows do the trick.

ready or not

Well, I've finished all I'm going to finish and tomorrow we are off to wind our way back home. We'll be taking the scenic route so we can get an up-close glimpse of the Ozarks, visit some friends and family, and finally cross the entire gigantic state of Texas. Did you know it takes a day of driving to get from one end of Texas to the other? Well, let me tell you, it does. And those last 150 miles from Corpus Christi to the Mexico border are brutal. Absolutely brutal. Flat, ugly, nothing. Nothing.

We all have mixed feelings about returning home. Glad to be going home, sad to leave everything behind. Even the kids have been going back and forth, excited to see their friends, sad to leave Memphis and the trees. I'm not sure how I'll feel pulling into all-too-familiar-territory, but I'm glad we'll be taking the long way home.

I wanted to use up some leftover Christmas fabric and miscellaneous scraps I've accumulated, and I came up with this bag for a friend. I was pretty happy with it, but now that I see the picture, it seems to be missing something. I wish I had added a mix of trims among the strips.

I guess I'll see you in a few days. Ready or not, here we go.

feathering the nest

I'm trying to hit all the good thrift stores one last time before we leave town. I've been thinking January should be a good thrifting month after all the bingeing of the holidays and then new year's purging. So far, I've been right on. Sunday's thrifting uncovered these goodies. The art deco-ish bird calendar dish towel is my favorite. And the rhinestone shoe clips. But yesterday's spree was even better and I came home with a giant rocking sack of fabrics that are still going through the laundry so no pictures yet, but take a look at these.

I came across a sewing project online using Tracy Porter's fabrics from Joann's and fell in love them. Aren't they pretty? I haven't been this excited about a line of fabrics in a long while but the best part is actually the price: $5 a yard! So I bought a yard of everything. Well, not everything, but a lot. I'm going to use them in a lap quilt for the living room. A kind of welcome home gift for the family. Or, you know, for me. Whatever.

I've saved a special piece of this pretty print for an embroidered pillow. I've been freaking out over Anna Maria Horner's needlepoint pillows and wool rugs so I'm seeing something kinda like that to keep me calm until I can get one of Anna Maria's for myself. I'm trying to save the embroidery for the trip home, but we have less than a week of cable left--no cable TV at home, thank God--and I need something to do while I watch just one more episode of Law & Order SVU into the wee hours of the morning. Then I'm going to bed. For real this time.