[life] adam's 26th birthday

adam and his mean balloon

On Friday, Adam turned 26!

the cake

I made this chocolate coconut cake for him, which definitely stretched my baking abilities. I had to do things like temper eggs! Also, baking this cake took approximately all day because so many elements needed to chill at various steps and I needed to toast coconut and stir things for 10-15 minutes, etc etc. I was very afraid that the cake wouldn't be delicious after all that work! And I couldn't taste the completed product until Adam got home from work.

adam tasting the cake

Adam, of course, tasted it first and made a face. I believed him! But no, he was just teasing me, and the cake was delicious. Huzzah!

Adam reports that his birthday was good.

[completed] embroidered pillow cover

pillow cover!

An embarrassingly long time ago, my younger sister embroidered a semi-original (she stole a little from Shakespeare) poem for our mother. 

my sister's hand-embroidered poem

She used our mother's favorite colors for her bedroom - dark red, light blue, and cream - and sent me the fabric to make a pillow cover. Today, I finished that pillow cover!

hidden zipper closure

I decided to try my hand at a zipper closure. I followed this Design Sponge tutorial (although there are others like it on the world wide web). I had to rip out quite a few stitches because I didn't thoroughly read the entire set of instructions before beginning. Let that be a lesson to you!

I am pretty pleased with the end result. The zipper works and everything.

the back

For the back, I used a subtle dark red polka-dot print, since there was not enough of the blue fabric to make the backing. I like the contrast of the backing against the pale blue of the front fabric.

I cut my fabric 19x19" but I found that to make a loose pillow cover for this 18x18" pillow form, even with a 1/2" seam allowance, so I stitched closer seams to give the pillow cover a closer fit. (This was a good lesson to learn, as I intend to make more pillow covers for my kitchen seat cushions).

kitten approved

This project has the Gandalf seal of approval.

[completed] tea cozy

teapot cozy and pad

For my mother's birthday, my younger sister and I decided to collaborate on a project. She had requested a new teapot and a tea cozy. So I suggested that my sister handpaint a teapot at a local (to her) paint pottery place. Which she did. She was kind enough to measure the teapot for me so that I would be able to make a snug tea cozy. Since she lives so far away, I never got to get my hands on the teapot personally.

I decided I wanted to use tea-themed fabric that would go (or at least not clash) with the color scheme in my mother's kitchen (which is yellow and green). I found this fabulous tea bag fabric on etsy, and promptly snatched up a half-yard. Which then sat in my colorwheel dresser for ages.

I finally sewed up the tea cozy and teapot pad a few weeks ago and mailed them both off. It only took about an hour to whip up both pieces. I followed the directions from a few different online tutorials, and then made the teapot pad using the leftover scraps. I followed a tutorial from V & Co for the heart block, and echo-quilted lines around the heart shape.

I am happy to report that the gifts were well-received - and the tea cozy fits (albeit a touch snugly).

This project had the Gandalf seal of approval.

[life] gandalf's love for fabric

adorable sleeping kitten... on my WIP

Gandalf in two places he shouldn't be - on the table and on my scraps

[life] loving Gandalf

me and the tiny kitten

adam and "his" cat

[completed] marriage cross-stitch

My younger sister got married yesterday and this is what I made the happy couple:

A cross-stitch of themselves on their wedding day! (This is not the best picture of it). J's dress is stitched in a shimmery white floss to capture the silk of her actual dress, and i used metallic gold to represent the hand-embroidered white-and-gold belt (made by our mother) that she wore. R's outfit was stitched with a blue floss for his shirt (which matched surprisingly well given I didn't see the shirt until the day of the wedding!). 

There are word bubbles containing hearts (symbolizing their words of love) with exclamation marks, and their initials and the date. Their cross-stitched selves have big smiles - just as they did at their wedding.

HOUSE

HOUSE ACQUIRED
SO EXCITED

[completed] sister's belated birthday present

completed embroidery!

For my older sister's fourth 29th birthday, my younger sister and I decided to collaborate on a present for her using our respective talents for hand embroidery and sewing. The embroidery portion was competed while I was visiting my younger sister in Canada, and was finished in advance of the birthday date. I, however, was nervous about cutting into this precious hand-embroidered fabric, so it took me awhile to gather up the courage and make a pillowcase.

completed pillow (front)

But I (obviously) eventually completed it! I did actually finish it quite awhile ago, but I had to mail it to a far-off location, and it has just now arrived.

completed pillow (back)

Overall, I'm pretty pleased. I used a 18x18 premade pillow form and muslin to finish the pillow. We had decided on a pillowcase with a flange to give the pillowcase a little added interest, so I incorporated a 1" flange.

Hooray for handmade gifts!

my sewing buddy

a cute nuisance

thread holder

all set up with the thread in color order

Awhile ago, right around Christmas, Adam and his father (who was visiting) did a little woodworking and made me a thread holder. Adam and I had attempted to make it before and failed, but Adam and his father were finally able to make me my very own thread shelving unit! It's a bit wonky, but I love it all the same.

I've wanted a way to keep and organize my thread for ages, and was inspired by similar thread holders I'd seen around the internet. For months, the shelving unit sat in my sewing room with rows of disorganized thread. When I decided to paint my most recent dresser project, I grabbed my thread holder to paint as well. That meant I had to remove all my spools of thread, which made a bit of a mess.

pile of thread

I decided to use two mistint samples I bought ages ago from Lowe's. I love buying mistints because they are so much cheaper - and the random aspect appeals to me. I don't have names for these colors, since they were mistints, but I still have plenty of paint leftover if I ever want to paint something to match.

I used a lavender color for the interior of the thread holder, and then a bright pink for the exterior. It took about two coats of each color, plus primer. I tried a spray primer for the first time on this project, with disastrous results. So it was back to good old Kilz for me!

before organization

The thread holder currently sits atop the color wheel dresser I painted awhile ago (which is getting lots of good use!). The colors of the thread holder don't match at all to the dresser. I could have used leftover paint from the dresser for the thread holder, but I decided against it. I like the purple and pink, and I don't mind a few mismatched pieces. Gives the room character!

after organization

I'm going to be very sad to undo and redo the thread organization when we move. But at least I get to enjoy the rainbow of thread for a few more weeks!

so pretty!

happy birthday to Sassy!

five years of terror

[life] big news!

stylistic representation

I have big big BIG news! We are buying a house! We found the perfect one after a not-so-perfect one fell through. We close in May, and I just cannot wait to move in and set up home. I'm not looking forward to the actual process of moving, but the house is great and I am so excited for it to be mine and Adam's!

You'll probably see a lot of home-related projects coming up in the next few months, as I simultaneously try to purge my household of unnecessary items and stock up for the new house!

here fishie fishie

45 gallons of awesome

Meet the newest addition to our household: a beautiful 45 gallon fish tank with a black stand!

Adam has always wanted a big fish tank, and when I saw this tank/stand setup complete with fish and accessories for a steal of a deal, I decided to get it as a surprise present for him. (Sadly, he guessed the present before I actually got to surprise him with it - but he was thrilled, so it was okay).

Moving it in my little hatchback was easier than I had anticipated, although sound of the water sloshing around and the stand's door banging was a bit unnerving. Then, after I got home, I had no way to moving any of it into the house (Adam was at work), so I had to move all the fishies into a large plastic storage box and then crossed my fingers that they wouldn't get too cold. All went well, though - they are swimming around the tank now.

For now, we've set it up in the corner of the "dining room", under my favorite picture of us. When we move into our new house in two months (assuming all goes well), it will probably go in the corner of the kitchen.

Adam is very excited (although I'll be doing all the work). The tank came with two plecos (one huge one and one fairly small one), three mollies and a large rainbow shark. I am giving away the small pleco and the mollies today so that we can add Adam's favorite fish: angelfish! His brother has giant gorgeous angelfish, and I think Adam is a wee bit jealous.

Adam is excited, I'm excited, and Sassy is certainly excited.

a rose for emily

rose!

My darling little sister has been crafting beautiful watercolor-painted coffee filter roses (check out her first one here!), and she graciously agreed to make me one so that I can have an everblooming rose of my own. We agreed to have it fade from red in the center to white outer petals, but the watercolors dictated a more pink rose. Which is fine by me, I love pink!

closeup!

The roses are carefully assembled with lots of little petals - you can see how she made the inner petals a darker pink than the outer petals. I love that effect!

leaves and a floral tape wrapped stem

I love that the rose also has leaves (which conveniently hide the tape used to secure the rose petals) and the white floral tape wrapped stem (made of a wooden dowel) is the perfect finishing touch. It's so elegant and lovely - I can't wait to display it in my home. I just have to figure out how to transport it safely...

a rose for emily

I feel loved!

[completed] love you bracelet

hearts!

For the past two weeks, I've been residing in the Far North visiting my younger sister. We've been doing a lot of crafting together (check out her new blog!), and I've made a bunch of random things - the banner for her blog, paper napkin flowers, and lately, friendship bracelets. I haven't made any friendship bracelets since I was wee pre-adolescent, and lately such bracelets have been all the rage around the blogosphere. So I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

I had a number of miserable failures, but I finally followed this Purl Bee tutorial and successfully made a few bracelets. I am wearing a hot pink and yellow-lime heart number at the moment, and my sister immediately requested a similar heart bracelet in more subtle colors.

So, of course, I made her one.

Isn't she cute?

 She chose a peachy-pink and a mauve purple for her version. I followed this tutorial for attaching the clasps, and she chose a toggle clasp.

action shot!

pretty clasp!

just because...

devil kitten

[completed] v-day masks

his & hers

To celebrate this past Valentine's Day, our local paint pottery place threw an awesome VDay event and posted details online. Adam and I immediately registered to be one of the limited number of couples present and paid a small deposit to ensure our seat. The event featured a buy one piece get one piece half off promotion - and there was even champagne, cheesecake, and chocolate covered strawberries!

We had a lot of fun, and it was a lovely way to spend Valentine's Day together. We spent our usual ridiculous amount of time trying to decide what to paint. Adam loves Venetian masks, so when I saw two different masks available, I knew we had to choose those to paint. We decided not to consult each other on how to paint the masks, but we still (accidentally) chose very similar color schemes.

hers

The above mask is my creation. I went with a solid red background, and painted on details with little squeeze bottles of cream and black paint. My mask is supposed to be feminine - see the eyelashes on the left eye? - but not too girly. I googled a few images while my background coats were drying to get inspiration, but tried not to be too literal. Overall, I'm really pleased with my mask!

his

Adam went in another direction entirely, and made a very abstract mask. He used the same red I did for the top portion of the face, and painted the lower portion of the face pink. Then he used sponges to dab on red for the checks and used foam shapes to do the black heart and question mark. I painted on the black teardrops for him, at his request. I think his mask is super fun and whimsical, and I love the punch of black. I made fun of him for his imperfect painting, but secretly I love it.

I can't wait to be able to hang up these masks somewhere (hopefully in a new house!). I think they will look great, and will always be a reminder of a romantic yet fun date night together!

[wip] scrap quilt

sassy and the quilt
ignore the dehumidifier in the background

Today I finished quilting my scrap quilt and trimmed off the excess batting and backing in preparation for binding. I laid the quilt on the floor (reason #87 why I always wash my quilts after completion) to measure the sides to determine how much binding I need to make. Sassy immediately decided to sit on the quilt. She loves quilts - and anything that isn't the floor.  

sassy's distain for the camera

I decided I had to snap a few shots to document Assassin's love for my quilts. Sassy and her lovely black fur is reason #88 why I always wash my quilts.

sassy's suspicion of my presence

But she's just so darn cute!

[completed] owl always love you

finished quilt!

For my younger sister's 24th birthday (can you believe it?), I made her a quilt. I was a little late getting it to her, but better late than never, right?

The idea for this quilt came about when I showed her the two snail baby quilts I made over the summer. She loved them and requested a birthday quilt from Boo Davis' awesome book. I showed her the options over Skype (which is basically the best invention ever!), and she chose the owl pattern shown on the cover. Through conversation, we decided that a snowy owl on a dark background would be neat.

This is the result!

closeup of the front

I took some artistic liberties and incorporated a range of white-on-white prints as well as one gray print for the owl's body and eyes. My sister did not like Boo Davis' mixing of prints, but I think a variety of prints helps give the quilt some depth and interest, so I chose to go with the more subtle white-on-white prints as a compromise. I added the gray print just to give the quilt a little more of a scrappy feel. I chose a rich dark purple solid as the background.

The quilt top came together surprisingly quickly, given all the many pieces. I had a lot of fun piecing it and watching the blocky owl shape emerge from the piles of carefully labeled strips of fabric.

quilt detail in the owl's head

I am really happy with how I chose to quilt this project. I stitched in the ditch around all the edges of the owl to begin with, and then filled in the owl's face and body with straight lines. Then in the owl's head, I quilted a herringbone pattern to suggest feathers. It took approximately forever, and my quilting got less precise as I went along. For the body, I just quilted the straight lines - I decided the herringbone "feathers" were more important in the owl's head, and continuing the pattern in the body would be too busy and too time-consuming.

So after I finished all my straight lines and herringbone quilting, I got to the fun part: the purple background. I decided to free-motion quilt stars, so that it would look like the owl was sitting against a starry night sky. I practiced the stars (inspired by this tutorial) in both white and purple thread, and decided I vastly preferred the stars in purple thread. The white would have made more literal sense, but would have dominated the quilt and I really wanted the owl to be the focus. So I quilted hundreds of stars in purple thread on the purple background. For the "whites" of the owl's eyes, I used stippling. I wanted the eyes to be different than the background, but also soft and not densely quilted.

The technique I used was pretty easy - I just created a star shape and then echo-quilted around it a few times before branching off and creating a new star shape. There were a few instances when I sort of forgot how to draw a star, especially when I was doing it at a weird angle, and so there are a few wonky stars. But since there are so many stars and no one star stands out, it doesn't much matter if a few are odd.

super wonky star

I backed the quilt in a super soft navy blue flannel. The white stitching of the owl's head and body stands out really clearly on the back of the quilt - so no matter which side is showing, the owl is present. There were about a million little threads to clip on the back, due to all the stopping and starting I had to do when straight-line quilting. Hopefully I got them all!

owl ghost on back of the quilt

The stars show up on the back of the quilt as well, but are not obvious. The purple blends nicely with the navy blue, and the texture created by the star shapes feels great with the flannel.

quilting on the back

The only thing I don't love about the quilting is how dense it all turned out. The quilt is still soft, but it isn't as pliable as some others I have quilted. I don't mind a slightly stiffer quilt, but I hope this one softens up a bit as it is washed and used.

I bound the quilt in a homemade navy and white striped binding. I chose the striped fabric because it coordinated nicely with the back of the quilt and the white owl, and it added a little visual interest. Once again, the binding was my nemesis on this quilt. Due to the inconsistencies of cutting, piecing, pressing and binding, the stripes got a little warped (as you can probably see above). I still love the striped binding - and overall I had an easier time attaching the binding to this quilt than I usually do - but it isn't perfect.

look at that tail twitch possessively!

sassy is going to miss this quilt!

I am happy to report that the quilt was well received!