And the Kitchen Sink: An Update/ Year in Review

A Pretty Good Year.

I have tried to keep up here with all the things that I have made and what it took to actually get them made. For the most part, I have done really well. Due in part to the fact that I didn't make that much stuff this year. Instead, it was about me and Dexter getting out and doing our thing.

We made great strides in agility this year and it is something of which I am very proud. We attended a couple of seminars which I think really helped me gain confidence in my skills and in my dog.

Ditching Dexter to get in position for a blind cross.

I had the opportunity to run a friend's dog on some very advanced courses which taught me a lot about myself. Plus, Dexter and I started competing at the Master's level ourselves which really pushed us. All of this culminated in getting four tournament Q's in one weekend (Grand Prix, Steeplechase, Master's Challenge Biathlon)! Lastly, I was awarded best new member by my agility club at our Annual Christmas/Awards dinner. I was totally shocked and honored!

On the Family Front

At the end of July, after copious amounts of begging, cajoling and pleading with the Husband and a slight scare with the US/Canadian border, we brought this guy home.

Cute doesn't even begin to cover it!

At nine months, I am hoping he is almost all done growing. He is quite a bit taller than what I expected!

He really is a handsome guy.

He will be my future agility partner. The husband did an awesome job helping with teaching him good manners and now we are working on baby dog agility stuff. Three dogs makes for a very full house but we figured we could manage until our move in Spring 2016. Then, only five days after bringing Fractal home, we found out that we will be adding a two legged member to our family!

So the time quickly flew by, helped along by the fact that I slept through most of August and September and then BAM! it was the holiday season. And now, just like that, Spring is upon us.

Sewing Whirlwind

After a first failed attempt, we found out that we are going to have a little boy! I was so relieved to finally know the gender. So much planning could finally start: names, nursery and, of course, things to make! Let me tell you, gender neutral is a myth people. I have a lot of respect for families who wait to find out what they are having. I couldn't do it.

Me at 31 weeks and Fractal at 8 months old

I went on a total fabric buying binge at the Black Friday sales but when I got home I didn't actually dive in to sewing things from those giant stacks of fabric. Instead, I made the decision that I was going to try and sew up nearly all of my works in progress. Eep! The goal was to be done by the end of the year and while that didn't happen, I made darn good progress. I knew that there were a few things that I wasn't going to include in my list, for various reasons. Still, this was not a short list. However, I figured that since I would have a long break from agility over the holidays (Dexter and I did our last competition two weeks ago when I was 35 weeks along), that I would have plenty of time to sew. And sew I did. Here is what I have made/finished between September and mid-January (bear in mind that most of these were already started):

Zombie blanket

This was originally going to be a crate blanket for Fractal, but it was just too cute to give to a dog!

Triangle quilt

This is for sale in my Etsy shop

Drawstring tote

You can read more about this project here.

Penny patch

You can read more about this one here and here.

Critter quilt

This was one of those quilts where I decided I could no longer resist the fabric line. The critters were just too darn cute. I bought fabric and backing with NO pattern in mind. It's always a little tricky coming up with something that will use only what you have, but this one came out great! I can see myself revisiting this pattern in the future.

As you can see, my pattern was a little off in the sense that my top ended up just a little too big for my backing. Luckily, I had plenty of scraps to use to stretch the yardage.

Originally, this was going to go up for sale in my Etsy shop, but my mother was desperate for me to keep it. In the end I caved in and it is now at her house.

Cherry charm baby quilt

Some friends of mine also recently welcomed a little boy into their home and I wanted to make Mr. Hayes something.

Echo Star pillow

This little 10" x 10" pillow gave me lots of trouble but I do like the pattern. This is one where you want to think very carefully about the values of the different colors you use. Mostly, for a quilt, I think monochromatic would work best.

I was pleasantly surprised when this pillow blended in beautifully with my nursery color scheme and it now lives on the glider.

Mostly, pillows are not my friend because the backing and binding process does not go well. I won this round, but just barely. I am sworn off pillows for the time being.

The BEAST

So the truth is, I never got a finished pic of this one. With pretty good reason. I finished it in the dead of winter so photo ops were few and far between. But mostly, it is SO big that I needed two people to hold it up. Fractal is a good helper, but not quite what I needed.

At any rate, it was delivered at Christmas to Brother and , let's be honest, his dog. I think Cormac may use it more than he does. Although I requested a picture of the quilt from him, my guess is, that it isn't real high on his priority list!

Thread catcher

I randomly decided that I really should have a thread catcher. I was completely inspired by this Pin and had this done the very next day.

As you can see, I really did need one and quickly put it to good use while I continued to churn out the finishes!

Mom quilt

This was another Christmas delivery. As you can see, not the kind of thing I would normally make. Beautiful, but not my style :) My mom chose the pattern and most all the fabrics. I really struggled with how to quilt this one. In the end, this was my second quilt with free motion.

The arches were the free motion part. Some of them look good, others, not so much. However, the overall effect of the quilting turned out even better than I imagined. I dare say it looks fancy!

Make-up bag

Another make-up bag for my Etsy shop. One day, eventually, I will actually make one for myself.  I really like the color/fabric combo and was almost sad that all I had were tiny scraps to work work with.

Hourglass quilt

I love this quilt! The colors are so bright and fun! It is for sale in my Etsy shop.

I'm not actually sure if I started this quilt before this one or not. At any rate, this one, though much smaller, took me a lot longer to finish. I struggled with my design choice to use the newspaper print as my background fabric, especially when I realized I didn't have enough of it and couldn't get more. Eventually, I decided to just go with white for the rest of the squares. I love the effect that having both created in the end.

I knew I was going to do simple outline quilting on this one. It only took about two hours!

This backing may look familiar. That's because I also used it on my Penny Patch quilt. I love prints like this that are tone on tone but so much more interesting than a solid.

Phew are you tired yet? I know I am. BUT, now I get to do my sewing for the little boy guilt free! It is an amazing feeling to have made all this progress and really lifts a huge weight not having so many projects hanging over your head!

Here's to a productive 2015!

Up next, the baby makes! Hooray for more pictures!

The Almost Hat

Originally

I wrote this post around March of this year. One of the biggest hurdles I have had in regards to blogging is getting pictures taken, uploaded, edited and then in the right place at the right time.  Truthfully, it is also a challenge when it comes to getting items into my Etsy shop.  I mean, you take ALL that time to make something and you feel so good that you got it done, Hooray! but yhen, there is still. so. much. work. to do.  Anyone else out there know what I mean?

So I have been working on some solutions (by which I mean whining to the husband that my life is too hard) and think that things are coming along nicely.  We still don't quite have a handle on this whole cloud thing, but once we do, I think it is going to be great!

Anywho, this (almost) project is still a fun little story that I wanted to share, even if it is a few months out of season :)

The Presenting Complaint

Here's the thing, I have a small head.  This means that hats are a challenge for me and given that I live the glorious Pacific Northwest, they are often necessary.  I have been finding particular need for them lately during agility practice and trials.  Given my small headedness, I have two choices: have a hat that covers my ears (my preference) but is too big and sinks down over my eyes, or a hat that doesn't impede my vision, but also does not cover the ears.  Booger.  Generally, I have been opting for the latter since not being able to see doesn't work out so well when you are running around an obstacle course :-P

The Proposed Solution

To make my own hat of course!  I had been eyeballing a pattern for a cute pilot hat in a book I recently got, Sewn by Hand, but I needed an excuse to make one.  

This definitely counts!  I set about gathering materials.  I didn't really want to make it out of recycled sweaters, truthfully, I am not really a big fan of upcyling used goods.  Plus, I wanted to line the inside with fleece to make it a little extra cozy.  Overall, I was thinking of a bit more polished look for my hat.  I was with my mom and brother at a super cute local fabric store, Bolt, and found this great home dec weight plaid by Joel Dewberry.  Then there was a trip to Fabric Depot for fleece and trim :)  I got home with my goodies and set out to get started.
 

First, I traced the pattern pieces onto a sheet of paper.  Trying to maneuver a book around in the printer/copier and not get a contorted image is pretty challenging so I avoid that if I can.  I took my tracing and enlarged the pieces the 200% that it called for in the book.  Then I cut out.

Cute right?

Next, I traced the pattern pieces onto my fabric and cut those out.  Yippee, the plaid is going to be awesome!  The ear flaps looked like the were going to be just the right too.  The even better part was that I would have a new hat TODAY.  I love quilts, but they take time to come together.  I need to be a little better about interspersing these little projects that can be completed in a single afternoon. 

The Not So Much

I started sewing my pieces together (yes, according to the directions) and this is when I started to get a little worried.  The hat was looking small and since I already know I have a small head, that's not good.

I pretty quickly got the rest of it completed and here is what I ended up with:

Wha, wha.  Not so much on the one size fits most there.  Maybe one size fits most kids . . . even though that isn't what is pictured in the book.  Perhaps I didn't enlarge correctly?


And then I was stuck.  Do I just enlarge the whole thing and then trim down the ear flaps so they aren't gi-huge-ic?  Do I just try and draft my own pattern so that I am sure it will fit even though that sounds difficult and the proportions might be off?  Hmmm, not really sure.  Disappointed, not enough brain power, so, no hat for Whitney today.  I went back to working on my Hopscotch quilt.



As for the hat, the next step, when it happens, it to make a muslin mock-up of my next pattern, whatever that may be.  I have enough plaid to make the actual hat but I don't have enough for several more rounds of mistakes.  I will make to sure to post an update on the process once I return to it.  Depending on what the weather here does, that could be awhile.

If anyone has worked with this pattern, let me know!