Sorting Little Squares

May 3, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / 9 Comments

With all the things I *should* be doing this week, my mind is continually pulled to my postage stamp quilt. Maybe I just want what I can’t have, because I know I technically can’t start working on it right now. But those fabrics are soooo pretty!!! I keep help wanting to play with them.

Remember how my stash looked like this?

I thought I was doing the smart and right thing by keeping them all mixed up so that when I started sewing, everything would be all random and scrappy. That makes sense, right?

Well, not technically. If you truly want a random quilt, then sure, go all willy nilly. But Mary at The Curious Quilter pointed out that doing things this way could result in all of one type of fabric ending up in one area, despite your best intentions.

And that bugs me a lot. A lot.

So I’m going to go for a controlled-random look!

A few weeks ago, after reading Mary’s advice, I sorted, painstakingly, through all my squares. So far I have just created stacks of like fabrics.

One thing excluded from this shot is my stack of unique squares. I’m going to have to sort them in a different way, and make sure they are distributed around the quilt.

It was nice getting them all stacked like this because I was able to get a feel for what fabrics were going to be most present in the quilt.

I think it’s really a tie between some of my reds and a fabric I dyed orange. (One day I’ll do a post about my dyeing escapades!)

What I plan to do next is to make 4 groupings of fabrics, one for each quadrant of the quilt. And I’ll divide my color stacks amongst those. I still may go as far as to halve each quadrant.

I’ll let you guys know how that goes!

Quarantine. Boo.

April 29, 2011April 29, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / Leave a comment

Well, someone in our family now has croup. And it’s not me, and it’s not Alex. We were excited to start getting out after the crazy tornado day, but for the next several days are in quarantine. Thankfully he should be fine in time for his birthday next weekend!

In the meantime he will have to be content to play in his laundry basket choo choo train (when isn’t he??).

Speaking of Dexter’s birthday, I have been plugging along on his lion pillow! I lost a few weeks when I couldn’t find my crocheting stuff. Why am I not more organized?? But now I’m back on track and I have a week to get it done!!!

I’m on the second circle, and it’s just in a blah stage where you don’t know if it’s going to look good or turn out to be a big embarrassing mess.

Although, I’m certain he won’t care either way. He’s just going to be so excited to have his own pillow, and double excited if he can tell it’s supposed to be a lion, so that takes a lot of pressure off 🙂

On another note, I want to start a new project!!! Almost anything will do. I love starting things and finishing things, it’s the middle part that’s not always fun 🙂

But I really can’t start anything new, I have SO MANY things going on. I’m finishing Dexter’s pillow, I have his birthday party in a week, and then a week and a half later I’m having jaw surgery (boo again..), so I have too much on my plate to think about starting something new. Not to mention all the other unfinished projects I have in the queue.

I’ve also started an herb garden, and I’ve been trying to keep that alive. They really should screen better before they just hand plants over to people.

Don’t they know how much I have going on???

Still Here!!!

April 19, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / Leave a comment

I’m sorry for the lack of posting recently! Sickness has been ravaging our home!

I have barely been able to craft, although my mom and I cut out about 2000 2 inch squares while she was staying with me through my sickness. These squares will go toward my mom’s quilt… whenever that might be started…

Browsing through my pictures today, in search of something crafty to share, I came across pictures of Tiny Dexter, The Chunky Baby. He has grown and changed so much over the past year! And sometimes I feel like he is trying to outgrow being my baby. But today he gave me the sweetest, unsolicited hug, and it was wonderful 🙂

So feeling nostalgic, and longing for the time when my family is healthy and back to normal and snuggly and not cranky, I’ll leave you with a sweet picture of a then 7.5-month-old Dex and his sleeping daddy. And, to this day, he still loves to go wake his daddy up 🙂

(Re)Creating Memories

March 29, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / 1 Comment

I’ve always loved this picture of my husband with his mom. When Dexter was teeny, I always wanted to try to recreate that scene. We just remembered to try, and we didn’t manage to capture the serene moment Alex had with Karen. Dexter is a little older, a little more self-aware, and quite the ham 🙂

But thanks to the digital era, we were able to play around and were able to get lots of fun shots!

WIP: Postage Stamp Quilt (Cutting and Calculating!)

March 19, 2011March 20, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / 3 Comments

Isn’t this project supposed to be a scrap-buster? What am I doing bringing new fabrics into this house??

I cleaned out my tiny scraps and had only 450 of my proposed 4096 squares. And I get a little impatient sometimes, and do impulsive things. I went to Joann’s looking for Thomas fabric for a birthday gift. I didn’t find any Thomas the Train, but I did find LOTS of fabrics that would look great in my postage stamp quilt.

My rationality: I planned on getting a few fat quarters. But it occurred to be me that 4 fat quarters would come out to $8. so, why shouldn’t I just get lots of 1/8 and 1/16 cuts of lots of fabrics for the same price? Yes, this is very sound logic indeed.

But it turned out to be a great choice. For $5.50 I got 13 different fabrics (just over 1.25 yards) as opposed to 4 for $8 (1 yard).

I loved all the fabrics I chose, but I was really excited about a few. This green fabric was around 60% off because it was a St. Patrick’s Day print. Awesome!!!

Novelty fabrics were 30% off so I threw in some mushrooms and owls! (BTW, somewhere along the line, I decided this quilt is definitely for me. I’m apparently not interested in sharing a “Big Hug”.)

I fussy-cut the owls, which is something I’ve always wanted to do! But, as they were almost 2 inches tall, they’ll still get a little cut off at the edges.

So I’ve been cutting up a storm, between other projects, “cleaning” (ha!), and going to birthday parties (2 this weekend). And I’ve now reached 1104 pieces. Proof:

I’m doing my calculations right on the box, lest I lose them and become desperate and frustrated later. It’s a lot of gibberish, but I know what it means. For now… (Update: I took down the picture of my “calculations” because something was way off.)

My quilt will be roughly 74”x90”, modeled after a quilt that I already use all the time. I’m currently planning to do 1/4 seams, because that’s what I normally do when sewing, unless a clothing pattern calls for something different. So that means my finished squares will be 1.5” ~~instead of 1”. After all my calculations, I will need 2296.875 squares… as you can see, my calculations still need to be tweaked 🙂~~ (Update: I have done some crazy-bad calculating it seems… As Mary says on her blog, you should have 64 squares per 12” block. For some reason I came to the conclusion that she was using 1/2” seams, but she is also using 1/4” seams. NEVER TRUST MY MATH 😛 ) But I’m excited to have a semi-functional plan!

The Transformation of Mr. Hunny Bear

March 4, 2011March 4, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / 7 Comments

Dexter has finally chosen a comfort item.

When I was pregnant, my husband sent me a beautiful (and yummy!) fruit bouquet for Valentine’s Day. A soft white bear happened to be attached, so I just added it to the tiny but growing basket of Dexter toys. In the first 21 months of his life, he barely paid attention to it.

Then he became socially aware.

He now recognizes that his cousins, Ty and Micah, sleep with bears. One day we were talking about it while I was rocking him (Actually, I was singing about it. Yes, we have a Ty and Micah song.) and afterward Dex really wanted a bear to sleep with. I pulled out the girly white bear and he has slept with him ever since.

A few days later, we were having lunch with my friend, Lisa, and her daughter, Alex. Alex’s favorite toy is a bear named Sunny. Dexter was really excited about “Sunny Bear”, and talked quite a bit about her. And eventually he started calling his own bear Hunny Bear.

Since the attachment is growing stronger, I decided I’d risk ruining Hunny Bear early on in order to make him more boyish. And less dorky. Let’s face it, random bears that come with bouquets aren’t made with aesthetics in mind.

Here is Hunny Bear’s journey:

Meet… Anya.

I really think my least favorite part is the ugly floral embroidery on the foot. But we’ll get to that. Easiest first step: Lose the bow!

What I really wanted to do next was get away from the white fur. If this becomes Dexter’s permanent buddy, white is going to look gross fast. I was hoping to warm it up to a honey tone, but a few things were in my way. 1. I know almost nothing about dying. I knew the tone I wanted, and I knew it needed to be child-safe. But I didn’t really know what would work on the mostly synthetic fur. Which leads me to my next point… 2. I am IMPATIENT and I wanted to start dying NOW. So my options were pretty much limited to a tea bath.

I boiled a bunch of tea bags, added some vinegar for good measure, and gave Hunny Bear a bath. Dex enjoyed watching the process from his high chair 🙂

(Ok, so I just took one picture of him, and it only proves that he enjoyed playing with the discarded ribbon and playing with his ears, and that I haven’t cleaned off my dining room table in a while… but I promise, he enjoyed watching Hunny Bear get dyed!)

Poor Hunny Bear really went through a lot. I hope for his sake that Toy Story isn’t true.

The pre-dye soak:

Into the boiling hot water:

The “Poor Wet Rat” stage (btw, THIS is the color I hoped he’d be.):

Rinsing and wringing:

After this, I realized that the dye was just barely taking and that the tea bits were not going to come out of the fur with a hand rinse. I think Dexter’s favorite part of the whole process was to personally throw Hunny Bear into the washing machine 🙂

While he was washing and drying, I made a tie. If I had to do over, I’d research the actual proportions of ties and plan the length a little better. But remember the impatience we discussed earlier? I decided to just go for it. I cut a folded length of fabric into the approximate shape of a tie.

I didn’t want to put a lot of effort into it, and I didn’t mind if the tie frayed, so it is just a single layer.

I unfolded the tie and machine-stitched around the edges. I did two rows to help ensure that the fraying didn’t get entirely out of control. I really like the way it looks!

After failing to understand several diagrams, I used a tutorial video to learn how to tie my necktie. I stitched at the knot so the necktie wouldn’t come off. I think, since I made a weirdo little tie, that it almost looks more like a scarf than a necktie. But it’s way better than that purple bow.

After he was dry, I could tell the dye was just *almost* a waste of time. But at least now he is a gentle vanilla shade instead of stark white. So ultimately it was worth the effort.

Dexter was happy to see Hunny Bear again and didn’t seem to mind the new changes.

Phase Two involved covering all traces of purple. I used scraps of chocolate brown fleece to patch over the nose and feet. So so cute!!!! This was my favorite change!

One last step… Goodbye forever, Anya!

And officially hello, Hunny Bear!!

Tutorial: Easy Robot Appliqué

February 6, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / 1 Comment

This story begins with a Bert and Ernie marathon. My son loves Ernie and talked us into watching probably 30 clips on YouTube before nap. He’s very persuasive 🙂

I started thinking how cool it would be to surprise him with an Ernie shirt, and in my search for Ernie inspiration, I stumbled across an awesome it’s-already-been-done tutorial over at MADE. It’s almost exactly what I was hoping to do! But I realized that I didn’t have all the colors I need, and I’m also hoping to do some textures, especially in the hair. So we’re shelving Ernie for later.

But I still had the crafting itch, and it’s been a while since I’ve made something for our family. I’ve been on a steady diet of car seat ponchos (separating zippers, AAAGH), so I really needed something to cleanse the palate.

Dexter has also been deeply immersed in a robot craze, so it didn’t take long for me to change directions.

Step 1: Sketch an awful picture of a robot that you will quickly scrap.

Step 2: Cut out trapezoids for the head and body, rectangles for the legs and feet, and then shapes for the arms and hands. I used a pincher-type hand, and then I wanted the arms to broaden near the hands. The fabric I used was gray t-shirt scraps.

Step 3: Place and pin the pieces. I liked the way the pieces didn’t quite touch.

Step 4: Sew around the edges of the pieces. I used a black thread, about 1/8” away from the edge. I didn’t use backing, adhesive, or stabilizer, but it might make it easier to keep the pieces in place if you’re nervous. I didn’t take pictures of the sewing process, so hopefully that’s pretty simple to figure out. Just remember to not sew through all the layers!! You want your shirt to be wearable 🙂 I know this sounds obvious, but it’s exactly the sort of thing I might do without thinking. My robot is still messy in this picture, but eventually clip the threads.

Step 5: Add features! You can use buttons, fabric, stitching, or paint. Be creative! I took a minimalist approach and I love it! I love that I had a deep red button to sew over the “heart” area 🙂

When Dexter saw the shirt this morning, he cheered, “Robot!!!” and I knew it was worth the work 🙂

My little photographer was pretending to take pictures of me with the lens cap. He kept saying, “Cheese!!”

I also like how keeping the pieces separated allows the robot to have a little movement. It’s funny how he looks slumped over when Dex is sitting 🙂

Dexter is not a fan of photo shoots these days. Even though I don’t force him to do anything, besides stand at least 10 feet away from me, there is something in him that just makes him resist having pictures taken. It must be the genes he got from his dad!! Here’s where we had to break so he could crawl at me, growling like a monster.

And then he rests…

Picky Kid Tip: Hidden-Veggie Bread

January 27, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / Leave a comment

My sister and I have been making veggie pancakes for our picky boys for a while now. I always make a big batch and freeze them, but it just takes so long! It occurred to me the other day to attempt spreading the batter into a cookie sheet and baking it. It worked, and it shaved off as much as 45 minutes of work!!!

I always just throw leftover soups or veggies into these mixtures, so I really have no set recipe. I’ve played with the consistency a lot, so I’m learning what works best. But I start with a base of 1 cup of dry pancake/waffle mix and add an equal amount of soup or pureed veggies. Then I add any meats, cheeses, or chopped veggies. The consistency needs to be about the same as normal pancake batter, so you can add a little more liquid or puree to get it there. I kept it just thicker than pancake batter in order to spread it into the pan. This particular batch includes leftover tomato bisque, stage 2 baby food peas, and chopped spinach.

This is my batter after it was spread into a sprayed cookie sheet. I had to take the pan to the living room to get any sort of decent lighting lol.

Then, I baked it in the oven at 350. I do not know how long I cooked it, as I was distracted by a 20 month old who was screaming for bread. I would estimate 15 minutes, give or take. I just kept checking it until I was certain it was cooked through.

I cut it into squares and set it out to cool before serving and freezing.

And, as usual, Dexter was a fan 🙂

Mammoth Bag (Jennifer’s Craft-It-Forward Prize!)

December 10, 2010 / lemonwoodclock / 4 Comments

This year I participated in a Craft-It-Forward chain on Facebook. Basically, you copy and paste the details, and whomever replies receives a craft from you, made in 2010 and sent by the end of 2010. In turn, they must also copy and paste the status and send a craft to whomever replies! On and on… 🙂

I had 2 repliers, Jennifer and Kristen! I just completed Jennifer’s craft not 1 hour ago. I decided to have my girls create a wish-list so I could tailor their prizes to them. A few of Jennifer’s favorites were green, purple, and elephants, and she also mentioned she’d like a large tote bag to haul around her son’s stuff.

Well, wish granted! Meet… the Mammoth Bag!

Named not only for the elephant appliqué, but for the fact that it’s unreasonably large 🙂 I made this pattern once before and I forgot how huge it actually is.

Dexter really liked the button eye.

Someone did not like being put inside the bag. I can assure you, however, that this bag will, in fact, hold a whole toddler.

Toddler Hoodie Tutorial

October 26, 2010February 15, 2011 / lemonwoodclock / 13 Comments

Time for my long-awaited return to the blogging world! This past month has been full of sick family members and other craziness. After my nephew recovered, my son got sick. That was a 2 week ordeal (Thankfully not as intense as it was with my poor nephew!!) and just when it felt like Dexter would never be Dexter-y again, suddenly he was! So things are slowly coming back around to “normal”, if that term can be applied to my everyday life.

Now, let’s get down to business.

This tutorial will include a walkthrough of how I created and assembled my new toddler hoodie pattern. What it does not currently include is the pattern (boo), but as soon as I figure out how to create and attach printable files I will do an update! Until then, you can create your own pattern the way I did: Take one of your child’s shirts and trace all the pieces, adding about a half-inch seam allowance. Don’t forget how much your seam allowance was (maybe write it on your pattern) because if you don’t sew enough your shirt could be a little big, or worse, too tight if you sew too much. I did choose a roomy cut because I wanted my son to be comfortable and for this shirt to last for several seasons. The sleeves are a little long, but we cuff them.

If you don’t have a shirt that has everything you want, then use multiple shirts to get your pieces! I used a jacket of Dexter’s to trace the hood for this pattern.

Choose your fabrics, and have fun doing it! You can make the shirt entirely out of the same material, but this pattern is perfect for using up scraps! (In another blog I’ll show you just how scrap-friendly this pattern can be!)

You will need 5 total pieces: 1 front, 1 back, 2 sleeves, 2 hood halves. In the following pictures, you can see that I originally planned to just use a regular neckband, but decided to take a chance and make my first hoodie!

I have LOTS of scrap knit fabric, so I cut the front out of the graphic area of one of my husband’s old tees, and then used a fabric for the back that was similar to the front. Then I used the dark green for all the accent pieces.

Here is a tip for the arms: Cut along the length of an already hemmed tee if you want hemmed sleeves. You’ll learn later that you don’t have to hem at all, but if you want that finished look (and don’t have a serger) this is an easy way to cheat and get it.

I did the same thing with the hood, laying my pattern piece so the hem created the part of the hood that frames the face.

Then put the front and back right sides together, and sew (ZIG ZAG!!!) along the shoulders and sides.

Next, sew down the length of the sleeves. Do NOT sew around the shoulder curve. You would sew the upper arm of your sleeve shut, rendering the sleeve useless, and making you a big dummy. It’s possible I might have done that one a shirt recently, but I will neither confirm nor deny it in this particular blog post.

Also, if you decide to go with the pre-hemmed look, I suggest that you start your stitches at the wrist side of the sleeve, that way it will definitely match up and look a little neater. (Side note: don’t freak out that I’m using 2 different thread colors. It means nothing other than that I was too impatient to wind a matching bobbin.)

Attach your sleeves to your shirt. Keep the body of the shirt inside out, but turn the sleeves. Place the sleeves inside the shirt. Match seams at the shoulder first, and then at the underarm if things work out well.

I did have a problem here. And if upload my pattern and you use it, you will possibly have the same problem. The shoulder of the sleeve was a little bigger than the armhole for the body. The way I corrected this is not ideal, and if you’re OCD about these things, the following truth-bomb might make your head explode: I just folded the excess fabric at the armpit and went on with my life.

It might be a little hard to tell, unless you click to enlarge the picture, but you can see where I’m making about a half-inch overlap here. I just pinned it with the fold toward the back (I’m not OCD enough to care about the fold, but my seams WILL face the same direction. Always toward the back.) and sewed right over it. I never even see the gather when my son is wearing it. If you’re making this hoodie for a girl and this problem pops up, use the excess fabric to make subtle gathers at the top of the shoulder! It will be a cute addition, and no one will ever know you didn’t plan it.

Take a minute and admire your almost-finished shirt! I always love this stage because you can see that it’s really happening! Also, it never hurts to model the shirt at this stage to make sure no adjustments are needed! if it’s just way too huge, you could always put a seam down the middle of the front or back. it might not work with every design, but this particular shirt is pretty forgiving. My next blog about the pattern will show how seams can be used effectively when working with scraps, so I’m certain it would work for sizing issues and be just fine.

Next sew the 2 hood parts together (right sides together). Remember to match up your finished edges and sew from there if you want to be certain there won’t be weird overlap.

Ok. There comes a time in every tutorial where I’m so focused on the finish line that I forget to take pictures. This is that time. And I’m not happy that it’s the hood-attachment part, because that took some time for me to figure out. I’ll do my best to explain it verbally, and I apologize if it’s just too unclear.

With this pattern, the 2 sides of the hood will overlap. I marked the center of the back of the shirt and matched the hood seem up with that. I didn’t explain earlier, and when I upload the pattern it will be marked, but the hood slopes down toward the face. the short part is the back.

So, your shirt is right side out this time, the hood attached on the outside, with the right side facing the shirt. Start pinning the neck, matching the centers of the shirt and the hood. When you get around to the front, overlap the sides. This might be preferential, but when the hoodie is on, the left side overlaps the right side. If that’s what you want, pin left side down first, and lay the right side over that. Then sew all around the neckline.

Here you can see the slight overlap of the finished hood.

Lastly, evaluate any unhemmed areas. (Check the bottom of the shirt, the sleeves, and the hood edge). Either turn those areas under and stitch (I hope you’ve been zig-zagging. Always zig-zag when sewing knits with a regular sewing machine, or your seam will pop when stretched!!) or, you can leave them raw. In a lot of cases it’s perfectly fine to not even stitch, but if you’re worried at all about unraveling, go ahead and stitch near the edge.

And there you have it! A finished hoodie! Clip the treads and trim any really wide seams, and you’re done!

Put it on your kid and take some awesome pictures 🙂

Dexter wasn’t extremely pleased to model immediately after nap, but he did what he could!

Thanks for making it through the excessive Dexter pictures! I could claim that I included so many so you could see what you could expect your hoodie to look like, but really I was just showing off my baby lol. Send me a link if you try the tutorial!!! I’d love to see other people’s interpretations of the design!

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