lisa’s place

As a strong believer in immediate gratification and what I like to think of as efficiency (but might actually be described by some as impatience), projects that are quick to start and move along steadily and easy to finish are the most likely ones for me to actually convert to FOs. Oh yeah, turning out exactly as I had envisioned no matter what the pattern predicts is also a plus

With sewing, I find that this strategy often backfires. I’ve been trying to increase my level of patience when sewing so that some day I might be able to get to the point that I could make one of these (yeah, yeah, I know there are 225 different blocks and they require a TON of hand sewing and obviously a quilt of this nature must be quilted by hand… but still, maybe after I retire). More pictures from the adventurous souls beginning this journey can be found here.

Back to reality… In one of my moments requiring immediate gratification, I made this bag the other night. It is far from perfect, but there is something that I really like about it.

I spent a couple of hours tonight working on a baby quilt top (it will probably will become a Project Linus donation). I purposely chose something that wouldn’t be likely to show a lack of accuracy in sewing my 1/4″ seams. For the most part, it fit all my criteria for a fun project that is likely to get finished… quick and easy and looks pretty much like I had imagined it. It could have used a better ironing, however.

I suppose that in a perfect world, I would have used a solid color cotton instead of the green polka dot flannel strips. This seems minor and I was trying to use what I had on hand. All in all, I really like it so far. I’m thinking to get something in red for the binding and maybe something really soft (like Minke or something similar) for the backing. I must keep in mind that something stretchy like that could really cause a turn in my feelings about this little blanket when it comes time to actually quilt it.

And… because I can’t pass up a 40% off sale on almost all of the quilting cotton at JoAnn’s, a little fabric stash enhancement:

The 2nd from the top and 2nd from the bottom are not a part of today’s foray, but I thought they looked pretty cute with the others. I’m thinking maybe something like this… we’ll see, though. All right, off to bed now.

I recently purchased this awesome little book by Amy Karol.

This book is geared toward beginners, but the projects just beg to be expanded upon. While I have found quite a few typos in the book, most of them are so incredibly incorrect, that there is no problem. The author also has a Flickr group devoted to the book and she seems really, really quick at answering questions.

So far, I’ve finished a couple of projects… as is always the case, some have turned out much better than others. My poor old sewing machine just doesn’t care to sew through multiple layers of fabric and she seems to have a REAL problem if there is cotton or polyester batting involved. Needless to say, I will be making a trip to JoAnn’s to get more needles (they seem to break if you just look at them wrong).

My favorite project in the book to make so far was the “Easy Lap Quilt.” I only wish I’d used nicer fabric… it was a really quick project, but still. Why, oh why, do I always do this? Prepare to see a recurring theme here.

My apologies about the color (I think the bottom photo is closest) and the not-so-appealing backdrop. As it turns out, there is only one place in my entire house/yard where you can get enough light to take pictures – yup, the trunk of the car when you can catch glare off of the paint job. Wouldn’t you think there would be some benefit to having weeks of 95+ degree days… like sunshine?

I’ve also made a couple of bags featured in the book. My favorite is the Charming Handbag.

Again, the color is way off… in reality, it is much more pastel and pleasing than these pictures show (maybe the bottom photo is close-ish).

Last night, I started on the Pleated Beauty Bag. This is where all of the sewing machine trouble really started. There are a few “blips” in the sewing (every time an effing needle broke), but I decided that it is just a bag… well, maybe I didn’t really decide that. Until next time, though.

I used the same green fabric as for the Charming Handbag (got a really good deal on a remnant, but I am not such a fan… but now it is gone It turned out a little gaudier than I had intended, but the shape is great and it holds a lot. I did make one change to the pattern: the reinforcement that should be sandwiched between the lining and the outside of the bag is a little flat piece that sits on the floor of the bag so that it can be removed for carrying different kinds of loads. I’ve found that certain things (laptop, books, etc… many things I always carry around) tend to put permanent creases in these types of reinforcements. We’ll see how this works.

That’s all for now… back to work.