Chemistry Couture

Mapping the Mind for Anne

Anne is a wonderful member of two bees I am currently a part of, Snip.Sew.Send and the Stitchin' Bee.  June was her month for S.S.S., and she requested that we make her a map block.  It could be any kind of map using any technique.

Mine is finally done and on its way to Anne, who hopefully will forgive me for being so very very late.  I did enjoy making this block, though, and since it might seem a little abstract, I'll give you my thought process for coming up with the design.

When Anne sent out her introduction for the Stitchin' Bee, she mentioned that she is married to her best friend.  I find that incredibly romantic . . . and I have read many many scientific articled about pair bonding between two humans, what causes it, and how it is sustained.  For instance, did you know that when you see someone you are in love with your brain sends out bursts of chmicals called oxytocin and serotonin?  These chemicals give you a sense of euphoria, and you are literally addicted to the other person . . . the process also occurs when drug users get a fix :) 

For some couples this chemical reaction occurs for only a few years, for others it can last through their entire lives.  Thinking about this made me remember a book I bought some time ago about human brain development and function: Mapping the Mind, by Rita Carter.  I love this book, its like a cool text book/coffee table book hybrid.  Very easy to read and lots of nice pictures, but very informative and interesting.

The cover of the book has a "map" of brain function.  So this is the image I chose to recreate, using embroidery floss in the colors from the "map of the states" fabric Anne sent to us for inspiration.  I didn't sketch it out first, or anything, I just kind of started working on it.  I did fold the fabric sometimes to get a straight line to follow, but otherwise it was all freestyle.  I really like it.  I think of it as an homage to Anne and her husband, as well as a nod to my love of both science and sewing.  A union of left brain and right brain, if you will. 

So there you have it.  Possibly the coolest and nerdiest quilt block I have ever made.

Forgive me, Anne!  The block is on its way.

Parcels in the Mail Box Make Me Happy!

I've decided that instead of calling packages "packages," I will now call them "parcels."  I don't know why, but it just sounds nicer.  And much more British!

My pin cushion swap parcel arrived in the mail last week on a day that I really needed some cheering up.  Lynsey, if you are reading this, I know I sent you an e-mail saying thank you, but you really can't know just how happy this made me!  It was delayed in arriving because of the volcanic eruption that closed down British air space for a week or so.  But, really, the timing was perfect in the end.

Lynsey sent me a whole mess of goodies, including this oh-so adorable chicken pin cushion in one of my favorite colors!  You can check out her etsy site if you want to nab one of your own.

These tags (which I'd seen on her blog and totally LOVE) are almost too cute to use.  They will be used, though.  One day.  For something very special.

Buttons galore!  And some trim as well that I didn't get a close-up of for some reason.  The thick trim that you can see in the first picture has already been set aside for a project.  Now hopefully I can get through everything else I want to do so I can use it.

And last, some beautiful floss and a post card!  Seriously, check out Lynsey's store and her blog.  If I had a door that needed propping open I would totally get one of her chicken door stops.  The only real door in my loft, though, is a sliding barn-style door! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  I went to a festival with my parents and my 4-month old niece (I can't believe The Bean is growing up so quickly!  She can already roll over on her own).  We went to see a pig who paints, but he was refusing to paint that day.  I watched the somewhat disappointing Mayweather v. Mosley fight.  AND I got the worst sun burn I've had in years.  Its uncomfortable to do anything but stand around in a very loose nightgown.  Urg.  Still, it was a good weekend.

April Block for The Stitchin' Bee

I finally finished!  Kelly sent out her fabrics for The Stitchin' Bee a couple weeks early, and I'm so glad she did!  She wanted us to use the comic strip fabric and the other colorful stripes and polka dots she sent to create blocks for her "Dysfunctional Family Quilt."  She is lucky enough to live near the beach in Florida and needed a beach blanket/quilt that will accomidate her family, some toys, and maybe a picnic :)  When I think of the beach I think of Mexico and tiles and mosaics, so I used little bits of all the fabrics Kelly sent to make a mosaic block!

All the little pieces were cut out, laid out on a navy blue background block, and then hand appliqued . . . hence my happiness at having extra time.  I did a few squares each night and then cut away the backing fabric behind the appliques once it was all done.  It ended up being a little larger than 12.5" square, so Kelly will just have to mark out 12.5 and sew along the line.  I would have trimmed it myself but I didn't want to compromise the applique and I wanted her to decide where the cuts should go!

My favorite part?  The little circles I appliqued on top of some of the squares.  I think it looks interesting . . . and maybe Kelly and her boys will have fun looking at all the different parts and patterns in the block.  Oh, just in case you are wondering, the comic strip says "Benji, don't pee in the pool!"

(sorry, the colors are just a little off on the pictures above.  Everything has an aqua tinge!  Thats kind of beachy . . . right?)

Jumping the Gun

I was trying to wait until I knew she'd recieved it.  Really I was.  But I just can't wait any more!

I joined a pincushion swap that I found on swapdex.  The swap itself was hosted by Claire (she has an etsy shop too!), and I got paired up with Lynsey from the UK.  We were instructed to make a pincushion and put together some odds and ends to send with it.  I used stuff I already had because my budget is SUPER tight right now. 

The fabric for the pincushion itself is some sweatshirt jersey I had left over from a project that I have yet to post.  I used this pattern, but tweaked it a little bit and added rice to the bottom to stabilize it.  I actually tried to make my own pattern, but my mouse kept looking all lumpy and gross . . . more like a rat, really.  Nuno's site is cute, she has patterns for a lot of small stuffies and pincushions, so check it out if you have a little time.

As for the rest of the goodies, there are some bits of ribbon, a few of my favorite glass-head pins, some of my most awesome leftover buttons (because Lynsey uses a lot of buttons!), and a much loved and now gifted copy of the Bento Box quilt pattern.  She hasn't made any quilts that I can see, but this is a great one to start with if she's interested.  She has some small children at home, and I imagine it would be a lot of fun to have them help pick out fabric or match up the fabric strips and blocks, etc.

Hope I didn't ruin the suprise!

April Bee Blocks and Quilts of Valor

The first one you see here is for Heather of the Snip.Sew.Send bee.  She sent me some orange fabrics and very simple instructions for this block.  I love orange, so it was very tempting to keep this one for myself!  One of the pieces she sent was just a little too short so I substituted in a strip from my own stash.  I think it blends in nicely.  It was fun to have such a simple, straightforward block.

The blocks below are for Amy of the Pretty in Pink bee (yes, I joined ANOTHER bee.  In this one you have to use pink fabric, obviously.  How could I resist?).  She wanted those cute little wonky stars I see everywhere and she sent out some Gawjus pink and orange fabrics.  I really loved making the wonky stars. I even pieced both of the centers.  Here is the tutorial she linked us to on the flickr page if you want to try your hand at some.  You can adjust the size of the squares to change the size of the final block.  I might make a couple for the Quilt of Valor I'm working on.

So, more on the Quilt of Valor.  Some of the ladies in my Stitchin' Bee have offered to make and send me blocks to be sewn into a quilt or quilts for injured soldiers (through the Quilts of Valor program, click the link if you want to read more about it).  A few of us know people (or are married to people!) serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, and I thought it would be nice to help out in an old-fashioned sort of way.  The blocks are supposed to be 12.5 inches square in either red and white, blue and white, or red white and blue fabrics.  If anyone out there would like to help out just send me an e-mail and I will let you know where to mail your blocks!  They do recommend that you use only "mature" fabrics, so no cartoons please.  I know, it's hard.  All of my fabrics are very girly and juvenile.  I like 'em that way.

"My New Skirt" or "The One Where She Makes Something Out of a Book"

I really really want to make one of the dresses out of the new Alabama Studio Style book.  But I wanted to practice a little, so I made a skirt using the pattern from Alabama Stitch Book and combined techniques from both books to embellish it.

Please forgive my pale pale legs.  I don't tan well, and even when I do it disappears as soon as the weather gets cold . . . and it's been cold a looooong time.  Today, however, we have some pretty amazing weather so maybe I'll get some sun.

OK, back to the skirt.  I couldn't find organic cotton jersey that didn't cost an arm and a leg, so I got this cotton/lycra blend from Joanns on SALE (weeee!) for about $3 a yard, and I needed 2 yards for the skirt.  I already had all of the embellishments on hand, so my grand total for this project is $6.

I used the leaf pattern from the first book and stenciled a repeat of the leaves around the bottom of the skirt.  I used a gold paint pen that started out very gold and then kind of burnished into this bronze-y color as I handled the fabric more and more.  Thats fine by me, actually, because it matches my little bronze flats.  I chose to do reverse applique on the design, so I stitched around the outside of the leaves with a three-ply embroidery thread in cream and cut out the center of each shape.  Since I used two layers of this red jersey, the effect is kind of subtle.  I assembled the pieces using the embroidery thread, and finished it by creating side-felled seams with a simple running stitch.

When it came to embellishing with beads I was a little bit lost.  I started out with black bugle beads, but they looked to stark.  Then I tried a pale gold bugle bead, but that just wasn't doing it for me.  I tried beading around the outside of each leaf, then the inside, then random placement, and on and on.  What I finally decided on is what you see above.  I used a running stitch to run the beads in a line between the leaves to look like a stem.  Then I filled in a few leaves on each stalk to add some shimmer.  I used a combination of the pale gold bugle beads and a mixed bag of gold and brown beads that I used on another project a while back.  Overall I think it looks fun but not too overwhelming.

This took about a week to finish, working on it a little bit each evening.  I finally finished it up last night by adding some elastic to the waist.  Natalie Chanin reccomends using fold-over elastic, but as I had none on hand and couldn't find any at the store the last time I looked, I kind of improvised the waist.  I simple made a loop of 1/2 inch elastic and placed it against the inside top of the skirt.  I folded the top of the skirt over the elastic to cover it, and then stitched the folded fabric down with a stretchable herringbone stitch (from the Studio Style book) that encased the elastic, but did not stitch through it.  You can kind of see what I am talking about in the picture of the skirt above.  The herring bone stitch is visible on the inside of the waist-band, while the outside has two parallel lines of stitching.  The elastic fits in between those two parallel lilnes.

I am quite happy with the skirt.  I think when I make the dress I will shorten the length a tad so it hits just above my knees.  I've got the fabric all ready to go!  Have you guys ever made anything from the Alabama Stitch books?

SSS Block for March

 

March's Snip.Sew.Send block is for Tina.  She wants to make a quilt for her daughter, so she sent up lots of pink white and blue strips of fabric and asked for "squares within squares."

I must admit that I really really wanted to take the little kerchief girl square for myself and just "forget" to include it in the block, but my conscience got the best of me.  I included lots of very thin 1/4" pieces.  I've used them in some of the other blocks and I put them in my own quilts, so I feel like it makes the block sort of mine.  Definitely my style.  Overall this block was improvised as I sat at the sewing machine.  Sort of a sew as you go kind of thing. 

I tried to include a few little suprises.  Something you wouldn't see unless you really studied the block.  I hope Tina and her daughter love it!  I'll be putting it in the mail on Monday.  By the way, Tina is doing a quilt along over at her blog.  It just started so check it out and join in!

The Birthday Suit

A friend of ours in Texas just had what she called "a horrible etsy experience."  She ordered bloomers and a bib for her little girl's first birthday party TWO MONTHS ago, and has yet to recieve her order.  So I whipped something up for her:

I know it's not exactly what she originally ordered, but dang if it ain't cute!  The bib features a hand applique cupcake with a number one birthday candle, and soft pink minky fabric on the back.  The bloomers, which I think turned out better than I ever expected them to, have four little ruffles in pink and brown on the backside.  The only thing I am really worried about is the fit, since Katelyn wasn't here to try on the bloomers, but I think it will be fine. 

The applique on the bib was super easy to do using the pin turning method, and you know I can't resist hand stitching.  Even Randy thought it was cute!  I did cheat and buy a package of bias tape to finish up the bib, but I just hate making my own when its that tiny.

The ruffles on the bloomers were easy as well.  I used a pattern to cut out the body of the bloomers and then added the ruffles using the following steps:

1. Cut four strips of fabric, two inches wide and the length of your bloomers plus three inches.
2. Narrow hem along one long edge of the fabric strips.  Or serge, or whatever finish you think looks nice.
3. Baste along the other long side of your strip, a 1/4 inch from the edge, leaving long tails at either end. 
4. Pull one of the threads on either end to gather your fabric and create your ruffle until it is the length of your bloomers.
5. Mark with chalk lines where you want your ruffles to lay on the right side of the back of the bloomers.
6. Place the ruffles face down on the bloomer along your chalk lines, narrow hem side closest to the waist of the bloomers, ruffle side closest to the legs and along your chalk line. 
7. Baste along the same stitching line you used to create the gathers.
8. Fold down the ruffle along your basting stitch line so that the right side of the fabric is now showing, and the narrow hem edge is closest to the leg holes.
9. Stitch along the top folded edge of the ruffle, 1/8 inch from the fold, to secure the ruffle in place. (you can see a close-up of my stitching above.)

You'll want to start from the bottom layer and work your way up so the ruffles don't get in the way of each other while you sew.  Note that you will be attaching the ruffles BEFORE you sew up the side seams of the bloomers.  Essentially you will be working on a flat piece of fabric.  This way, when you do finally sew up the sides to create the bloomers, you can catch the short edges of the ruffles in your seam all nice and tidy like.  There my be a more efficient way of doing this, since I kind of made this up as I went, but the results are nice.

Katelyn has a whole outfit, but I can totally see a little one year old (or six month old etc.) wearing nothing but the bloomers and the bib with a face covered in cake and ice cream.  Thus I have dubbed it "The Birthday Suit."  If you want more info about making them drop me a comment or send me an e-mail.

Jen, the package is on it's way!  I really hope you and Katelyn like them, and I hope the has the best first birthday party ever.  Miss you guys!

 

I See London . . .

Be warned, you may see more of my legs than you ever wanted to see.  But I had to show you my Madeleine Mini Bloomers.  You can find the free pattern for these at the Colette Patterns blog.  I haven't tried any of her other patterns, but now I really want to.  The instructions were very clear and simple, and best of all her sizing was true.  I hate buying patterns from the store and having the sizing chart tell me I am one size when in reality I am two sizes smaller.  Am I the only one with that problem?  Her measurements and sizes were spot on, though.  Big plus in my book.

I wanted to make these becaues I LOVE pajamas and lounge clothes.  And Randy HATES it when I wear baggy t-shirts and sweat pants.  So this is a wonderful medium.  Cute comfy clothes.  I won't be wearing these outside, no way, but I have a feeling Randy won't mind a bit if I wear these around the house.  OK, last warning.  I have very pale legs.

I used a silky navy blue fabric that I had in my stash.  It only took a yard, and a yard is what I had.  I already had the 1/4 inch elastic I needed, and I went out and bought a spool of red ribbon for about fifty cents at Joann's, so I would like to think these shorts cost me mere pennies.  I would show you how cute the back is, but I couldn't take a picture that didn't reveal too much.  These are very short shorts. 

I've heard bad things about these print at home patterns, but I had no problems.  All of the lines on the paper matched up perfectly.  I didn't use a whole lot of tape (I only taped at the eges and one in the middle), and it only used about 24 pieces of paper, give or take I can't remember.  So keep that in mind before you go a-printing.  Maybe print at work if you won't get caught.  Also, remember to make sure that your printer isn't automatically resizing the images on the pdf file for printing by checking that the Auto-Scaling box is listed as "none."  You'll be able to check that when you click "print" and the print conformation box comes up.  Go make these, and have fun!  I will be making a couple more, myself.

SSS Block for February

February was Kris's month for the Snip.Sew.Send bee.  She wanted little trees and houses and, I must admist, I was totally intimidated by this block!  That's why I kept putting it off.  It was silly of me, though, because it was a lot of fun to make.  I kept holding the pieces up while I was working on them, showing them to Randy, saying "Look!  Isn't it cute!"  Randy didn't say they were cute, but he did say "Oh" every time I held them up, so at least he was sort of paying attention.

The tree is based off of the flower tutorial that Kris posted on her blog a little while ago.  I didn't have enough fabric to complete the block, but Kris can add more fabric to it when it arrives.

The house is my favorite.  It's a dog house!  And just in case you couldn't tell it was a dog house, I appliqued a little dog onto the block.  So there you go.  If you recognize the colors, I used the scraps from the fabrics I used to make the Zakka pillows.  I love these colors.  Love them.  Hopefully Kris will like them to.

This was fun fun fun.  I think I need one of these neighborhood quilts now!