Category Archives: Random acts of craft

What I’ve been dreaming of…

fabric printing

Sometimes I get obsessed with a project and get it out in whirlwind fashion.  Actually, I think that’s how most things I make get done because with me it’s all or nothin’.  Once in a while, though, the idea has to germinate and get made in my head over and over and over again.  That’s how it’s been with printing fabric.  It was almost three years ago that I found an article in Better Homes and Gardens (while sitting in the orthodontist waiting room, I am SO glad I’m done with the whole braces thing) about Galbraith & Paul.  That’s when I knew that I absolutely needed to make block printed fabric of my own. I’ve been studying fabric designs I love, figuring out how to make design repeats, trying ideas with my gocco on paper, dreaming up the best ways to register prints next to each other.  It’s been a long process.  Lots of dreaming, sketching, and graph paper.

rolling it on

The best method of registration really had me stumped.  I tried an elaborate set up when I gocco printed my first repeat pattern on paper for journal covers.  Then I found Lena Corwin’s Printing by Hand this summer and she just says to draw the registration lines right on your fabric.  DUH!  So, that’s what I did with these linen curtains destined to be hung up between the front room and my art/ sewing room mess.  That way people will have something pretty to look at when they come to the front door and not just piles of paper and fabric and stuffed animals with holes in them.

working on curtains

I’ve got two panels to do.  I’m printing this design in brown first– which I’m 3/4 of the way done doing– and then I want to do an aqua-ish color in between the browns.  Who knows when I’ll get that done, but I know that I’ll love them!

block carving

But, before I could finish big fabric printing project #1, I had to get #2 underway.  This is the block to print the fabric for Brenna’s (after) Easter dress.  This I’m really excited to get to.  I will try to make myself finish the curtains first, though.

(photos by Barry)

One of those days

I am super tired and was feeling like I hadn’t done anything today– like it was one of those wasted days– but now that I’m sitting down and thinking back over our day I realize it wasn’t half bad.  School didn’t go quite how I had hoped.  Laundry is clean, but not folded.  The kids were bored, so I let them all have extra computer time, but didn’t get around to helping anyone make their first blog entry.  There are dirty dishes in the sink because I couldn’t fit them all in the dishwasher…

But I came downstairs this morning to find this:

I came downstairs this morning to this...

a table set with a table cloth and real dishes and spread with hot pancakes and scrambled eggs.  They made them ALL BY THEMSELVES.  There was cheese in the eggs.  The pancakes were made from scratch from a recipe in a cook book.  All the dishes they used were stacked neatly by the sink.  There wasn’t a trace of egg shells on the counters.  Amazing.  (That, and poor Brenna has broken out in an itchy rash from head to toe–a reaction the Amoxacillin she’s taking for strep throat. )

I think they were feeling bad for their poor, humongous mother who couldn’t even walk by the end of the day yesterday.  I ran errands all day and I guess all that being up on my feet helped the baby sink even deeper into my pelvis and pinch a nerve in my left hip.  Even this morning I wasn’t able to put much weight on my left leg without it hurting really bad or just giving out all together.  I need crutches or something.  It’s ridiculous!  There have been stretches of time when it was all just fine, but then I feel the baby move and I’m a cripple again.  Geesh.

So, there was a lot of sitting on the couch for me.  I knit and got a little further on my doll.

toy swap WIP

toy swap WIP

Now she’s a head with arms.

So what I hung out in my jammies all day and nearly everything on my list of things to get done went out the window?  I have an 8, 6, and 4 year old self sufficient enough to make a real breakfast.  I got to snuggle and enjoy my little baby, who won’t be a baby much longer, and watch him coo over and hug and kiss and feed his Boy and his Baby (an old doll he found over the weekend that Brenna never played with, but he has grown completely attached to).  I got to sit on the couch and watch my kids draw and play legos while I sewed and knit.

It’s all okay.  It wasn’t a wasted day after all.

the homemade Christmas gifts :: 1

So, has it really been since December 11th that I last posted?  Sheesh!  I’ve been so caught up in creating stable scenery for the ward Christmas pageant, a husband with Strep throat, sleepless nights with puking children (and parents), other intestinal problems of which I will spare you the details (they’re not pretty, let me assure you), gestating of course, and last minute holiday preparations and gift making, that it never even crossed my mind to make a blog post.  There have been several days that I didn’t even take a glance at the computer.  So, now I’ll play catch up, posting this week about the handmade gifts we gave this year.

These are my favorite, and the last ones finished.

Julie

 boy

I have wanted to try my hand at making waldorf dolls for ages and ages, but Brenna has never been much of a doll player and it always seemed frivolous to just make one for myself.  But, this year I decided I’d make some for Brenna and Ian whether they’d really like them or not, just to indulge myself.  I ordered my pattern and supplies, and then got underway.

Good news is, they are some of the favorite gifts this year!  Ian’s Boy has been a constant companion since it was unwrapped.  He snuggles him, sleeps with him, feeds him, and just carries him around.  Brenna has left me little thank you notes all around and on Christmas day she kept telling me, “I just want to keep telling you thank you.  I can’t say thank you enough times.  I love her!”

thank you mommy!

So, I was up late on Christmas Eve stitching and trimming hair and finally realized that clothes just weren’t going to get made by morning.  Barry had been saying the entire week that I shouldn’t stress myself out and just give the kids naked dolls.  So, that’s what they got Christmas morning.  But– the nakedness didn’t last for long.  Look what I got for Christmas!!

proof of how incredibly spoiled I am

A sewing machine and a serger!!  Can you believe it?  I’m still in shock.   I quickly got to work and made some panties, diapers, and clothes.

Julie's clothes

Brenna even knit a hat, and made a coat and mittens for Julie so she wouldn’t be too cold here in Colorado.

friendswinter clothes

JulieBoy goes everywhere

I just can’t even put into words how excited I am at how well they’ve been received.

But, this isn’t all.  We were hard at work on some other hand made gifts as well.

Stay tuned!

February crafting catch up :: the apron

Since my blog was occupied for the month of February, I have some catching up to do.

emmiline apronemmiline apron

This was Barry’s Valentine’s day present. He loves coming home to a yummy dinner and often comments that I need an apron to go with my domiesticity. When Meg published this pattern I knew it would fit the bill! I tried to work on it as a surprise, but when my best sewing time happens at night, well, he knew it was coming. We still had a fun Valentine’s day. We just had soup and grilled cheese (because I spent the day sewing this apron!!), but the kids made us a restraunt– set the table with a table cloth and fancy napkins, took our orders (for soup and grilled cheese, of course) and served us while they ate at the kid table in the other room.

It is so hard to buy presents for my husband. The things that he wants but doesn’t have are too tricky for me to buy. I just do not have mountain bike part expertise. I have come to accept that fact. Anyway, all he really wants doesn’t really cost me any money. Just being happy and forgetting the sewing machine, book to be read, blogs to surf, etc. etc. after the kids go to bed. Focus on him, and all us right with the world.

Good excuse to make an apron? I think so!