Finish It Up Friday 1 - The Selvage Pillow

 So this is actually a finish from late February/early March, but I'm just getting around to sharing it now.

This is my scraptastic pillow that lives in my living room on my fabulous Ikea chair. It basically came about because I wanted to start sewing some pillows for my living room, I had a bunch of scraps, and I really just wanted to finish...something.

I've had a lot of bigger projects (quilts and the like) on my ever-growing to-sew list, so it's nice to have a smaller project every now and then. 

 I absolutely do not believe in throwing away scraps, even the little teeny tiny ones. Some people do and that's fine. But me? No.

First, I love scrappy quilts. I think they're fun and they can be kind of funky depending on how you do them.

Second, fabric is expensive. Especially if you get quality stuff. Trust me, it's worth it to get the quality stuff. It behaves better when you're sewing and it looks better when you're done. It just lays better and irons better.

I just can't bear to throw them out.

So I save all the bits. Even the selvages. And while that's kind of trendy in the sewing/quilting world right now, I also think it's smart. Why throw out something perfectly good that can become something else?  Especially when that something else is both pretty and functional.

 I mean, look at this pillow. The top is mostly selvages plus some larger scraps I had.

Also, it gives me the chance to play around and experiment a little bit and if I screw it up, it was just scraps, right? Especially since I tend to screw it up a lot.

Those white corners with the colored stripe alongside the selvages? Yeah, I definitely intended those to be reversed. Oops. Better next time, although I don't think it looks bad. My husband was glad of this. He's rescued a few projects from the garbage. :) Bless him.

 I foundation pieced the selvages onto scrap paper, e.g. paper I tore out of a phone book we'll never use. Then, I did the corner bits and sewed all four blocks together. I quilted it primarily by stitching in the ditch, although I did also outline the border.

At some point I'll write up a little tutorial, although I think you could figure it out pretty easily. My selvages have multiplied since I sewed up this little project. I need an excuse to use them up, right? :)

 For the back, I just did a simple envelope enclosure using leftover fabric for when I sewed the valences in my kitchen. Waste not, want not, right?

 Mr. Gardener kindly took these photos when he took photos of my first quilt. I very much appreciate him and his willingness to support my craft.

Enjoy your weekend!!



I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts and Finish it Up Friday. You should, too.

Pumpkins!

Remember how I mentioned that I was growing something fun in the backyard?

Well, I am...pumpkins! They're sprouting up beneath the tomato gallows.

And I desperately need to thin them out before they crowd each other out. I'll probably have between 2-4 plants by the end.

My Dad on his 60th birthday, holding his AARP card above his cake. He's so special.

They came from my dad and my brother (pictured above and below). See, in my family, pumpkin carving is an art.

There are rules:

1. Always use a sharpie first to plan your pumpkin

2. Thou shalt never carve a pumpkin with triangles for eyes and a mouth

3. Good pumpkins have ears

4. You must carve a chimney at the top

5. Your pumpkin should have character

So, my parents have some woods behind their house and I guess that's where the jack 'o lantern went to Halloween heaven last year. This spring, ol' jack evidently wanted to make a reappearance and seedlings started sprouting everywhere. 

They would have died (from lack of sun) in the woods, so naturally my dad just had to send them home with me.

And I just had to plant them. :)

So it looks like I might have pumpkins this year.

My brother is not usually super smiley, so of course, I had to share this picture.

It's never too early to start thinking about pumpkins.

Are you growing anything fun? Or anything at all?

WIP Wednesday 1 - Baby Quilt

Thought I'd share one of the many things in the queue.

I apologize, the pictures aren't awesome. I took them inside last night after it had already gotten dark (I wasn't home before that, so unfortunately, it is what it is).

This is another baby quilt that I have in the works. It's pretty close to being done; I just need to finish the back, baste it, quilt it, and bind it. I've already made the binding; it's just scrappy pinks leftover from the pinwheels. I think it'll look nice against the gray.

This baby quilt is also long overdue. She's getting close to celebrating her first birthday, but I'm hoping to have it finished and gifted before then. 

But, like I said about the last quilt, as long as she's not 18 yet, I'm good, right? 

How about you? Any projects in the hopper?

I'm linking up with WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. You should too, especially if you have as many WIPS as I do.

Backyard Bliss...Well, We're Working on It

So, we've been in our house for two years now.  Time flies!!

And little by little, we've been working on making it ours. Adding decor, making improvements...discovering the previous owners' "fixes" and actually fixing them. You know the drill.

So, slowly, slowly, slowly, we've been working on the backyard.

Here's what I hope will soon be the "Before" picture. It looks terrible, I know.

First, Mr. Gardener worked on the drain. Previously the downspout fed pretty much right into our window well to our basement. Which is, basically, an invitation for flooding. Given that the first summer we lived in the house, it did pretty much nothing but rain and last year included the Derecho and some outlying rain from Sandy, we didn't think this was a very good thing.

We have gathered, based on many unusual things we've discovered in our house and on neighborhood commentary, that the previous owners were interesting people. Yeah so about that...

Last summer/fall, our friend, Matt, helped us tear down the deck.

Tear down the deck?, you say (you among other people).  Why would you do that?

Remember those interesting people?  

I'm pretty sure they hired kindergarteners to build that deck using scrap wood they found on the side of the road. It was a hazard to humanity. While tearing it down, Josh and Matt found many places where it wasn't attached to the house or itself. Because structural soundness is clearly more of a desirable feature than a necessary one.

Also, we live in a townhouse. Which, I might add, I love. But that leads to some inherent features, including small yards. This deck? It took up most of the yard making our not-so-big yard look itty bitty.

Remember that neighborhood commentary I mentioned?

Among the "It's so good to see people finally taking care of this house" comments we get while working in the yard, we also learned the "history" of our deck. 

Our house was flipped. So we didn't buy it from the people who lived here last. So there were a few (nice) modifications made. When they flipped the house, they actually removed part of the deck, so while it took up most of the yard before we tore it down, it actually used to take up the entire yard.

Now, I would like to show you a picture of our yard in its current state (changes coming, hopefully soon, it won't look this terrible forever). Do you see the air conditioning unit in the left hand corner? Do you also see how low our doors sit? 

Yeah, so this wasn't a tall deck.

Apparently the deck sat directly over the air conditioning unit and they had a little hatch that they opened on really hot days to allow air flow.

Because that sounds like a brilliant idea.

So, we're working on getting a new, patio-style deck. We've hired a contractor who is working on the design, filing permits, and working out the details with the HOA. Which, I must say, I'd far prefer for him to deal with the HOA than do it myself. :) Then we'll fill the rest with gravel or something similar and, of course, plants.

Cherries ripening on our cherry tree

Grass and a traditional patio isn't really feasible for our backyard because we have this really lovely cherry tree, which is well-rooted into the ground and will throw bricks or that type of material into upheaval shortly.

Our previous owners did not take good care of said tree. Due to improper pruning, they introduced a lot of potential for infection and disease. They also opened the door to infestations by ear wigs and carpenter ants. Mr. Gardener and my dad did a lot of work on the tree when we moved in and we're hoping that it will be healthy. It looks pretty good, but only time will tell.

 

The birds and I have to share the cherries. I leave them the top ones (my ladder doesn't reach that far) and I try to snap up the low ones before they can.

And naturally I needed a place for more tomatoes. Mr. Gardener built me what we call a "tomato gallows" to hang my topsy turvys on.

Three varieties - Super Sauce, Super Sweet 100, and Better Bush Boy.  I think Super Sauce is on the left, Super Sweet 100 in the middle, and Better Bush Boy to the right.

I hope to have an update to this here soon.

Then we'll be on our way to backyard bliss!

My First Quilt!!!!!!!!!

I finally finished a quilt! Finished. Finished. Finished!

As in quilt top? Done. Quilting? Done. Binding? Done. And gifted.


If you really want to feel my excitement, you should read Molli Sparkles' write up about his first finish. I don't think anyone can really explain it like Molli can. You can just hear his voice in his writing. And naturally, he will make you smile.

Quilt Front

Yes, I did start quilting (sort of) over a year ago following Rachel from Stitched in Color's Beginner Quilt Along. And yes that quilt top still sits unfinished.

But this one had a little bit of a deadline...that I definitely did not make.  But it lit a little fire to finish it.

Actually, this one was finished back in March, but I've not really gotten to sharing it until now. 

Quilt Back

If you can't tell, based on fabric choice, it's a baby quilt. It was made for my friend and Phi Mu sister's son. She was also one of my bridesmaids and I made the guest book for her wedding. 

I don't remember the finished dimensions (I may have written it down, I'll look), but it's close to a twin size. I like the idea of a quilt that can grow with the baby and has the chance of being used longer. They can drag it around with them as they grow, make a fort out of it, or play ghost wearing it over their heads. (Other people did that right? Not just me?)

 

It was supposed to be "gender neutral." Marty and her husband decided not to find out the sex of the baby until it was born.

Fortunately, Henry was a boy because I definitely think it reads more "boy" than "girl."

I definitely did not finish it in time for Henry's birth. 

 

In fact, Henry was born in July and I finished it and gave it to Marty in March. I tried! I promise!

That darn broken sewing machine and just running up against time got me. But at least Henry isn't 18, right? :)

I really enjoy the chance to make something handmade for someone. First, I think it really shows them that you care and love them to take the time to make them something.

Second, especially with quilting, which can take awhile, it gives me the chance to slow down and remember to pray for them. This is not me saying that I am the world's best "pray-er." I'm not. At all. But it reminds me to take some time to spend with God and pray for the health of the baby, and the health of the family, for the strength marriage that created this baby, and just for my friends.

Plus, it gives me the chance to reflect on some of the things that God is teaching me through this love of crafting He gave me.

This quilt is far from perfect. It is my first quilt. There are plenty of mistakes.

But when I gave it to Marty, that's not what she saw. She seemed so genuinely excited that I made it for her, for her son. (Which really touches my heart, by the way.) She saw the love I put into it, not the places I messed up.

That's how God sees me.

He doesn't see my imperfections, my mistakes, all the ways I could be better (and there are many, believe me). 

That's because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for me. He makes me perfect in God's sight.

So now for the quilty stats:

I made the quilt using: various fabrics from the Urban Zoologie line by Anne Kelle for Robert Kaufman, Large Chevron in Orange from Riley Blake, Lion Roar by Robert Kaufman, and some random orange fabric I picked up from Joann's

The binding is: Bermuda from the Remix line by Anne Kelle for Robert Kaufman. I quite like how it looks.

My quilt design is based on this quilt by Holly DeGrout at Bijou Lovely. She has a pattern available now, but in the comments section, she also tells people that they can probably figure it out mostly for themselves, which is what I did. It's not a difficult pattern, but it shows off big prints quite nicely.

 I quilted it with a wonky chevron pattern. I can only straight line quilt so far - no free motion, yet. And sewing perfectly straight is still being perfected. A wonky chevron hides a lot of things and matches the chevron fabric. :) I used a variegated yellow thread from Gutermann. 

I have a serious case of what my family would call "squinty eye" going on in this picture. It runs in the family. My grandma had it, my dad has it, I have it. 

Mr. Gardener felt it necessary to take a picture of me attempting to hang the quilt on the branch.

Man, it feels good to have a quilt done. And I have to say that I'm pleased with the results. I have a couple more getting close. :)

To celebrate, I thought it appropriate to link up with my friend Molly from Still Being Molly's YOLO link-up. You really should, too.

Also linking up with All Things Pretty at My Fashion Forward

P.S. I Changed my Blog Name One Last Time

I'll explain the story more soon....

Garden 2013

Okay, so let's face it. I'm not the greatest at keeping us with this blog, although I do really enjoy doing it. I think I just need to work it into my schedule, you know?

Either way I'm glad to be able to share with you the fruits of my garden labor for this season.

In my humble opinion, I think it looks slightly less like a jungle than last year.  Not that I really care. :)

These are actually leftover from last season. Since I'm in Zone 7a, violets and pansies can overwinter outside.  These are my Amber Kiss violets that I planted (from seed) last August/September or so.  However, the cold came pretty early last fall, so these actually didn't appear until early spring this year.     They look great, although it's starting to get too warm for them, so I don't think that they have much longer. Hence why they're starting to look a little droopy.

I am so glad that I started my plants indoors this year. (Post about starting seedlings indoors coming soon.) Everything is really healthy (so far, fingers crossed!) and they're definitely producing fruit much earlier. I have a few tomatoes growing on some of the plants and all of my tomatoes have started flowering. Tomatoes didn't start until at least July last year and then it was way too hot for them to do much of anything.

I think this is my Patio Princess. Everything got a little mixed up during the transplanting process. Next year's goal - plant markers.

The light's a little weird in this picture (and please, I don't edit the pictures, it's all I can do to get them on the blog), but I kind of like it.

Flowering tomatoes. I think this might be one of my Super Sauces. I think I have two. I had three or four, but one definitely died. A couple of tomatoes went to go live with my parents. I was a little overzealous when seed starting. 

I did direct sow the Nasturtium, which is starting up. Last year hardly any grew, but I learned that you need to soak the seed (or nick the seed coats) to get them to germinate because they have this really hard shell - almost like a dried chickpea. But just toss them in some water the night before you plan to plant them and they'll do just fine. Just don't leave them too long, so they don't rot.

Peppers are growing, too! I have big block ones and little teeny mini ones. I have no idea which one this is. Oops.

Lettuce growing right alongside the flowers. We're trying to gobble it up before it bolts, which with this heat wave could be soon. Lettuce, kale, and peas are really my only cool season veggies that did much of anything. I may stick to those from now on.

See? Flowers and veggies living in the front yard in harmony. Personally, I think they look quite nice. 

Yellow squash is starting to grow. Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully no squash vine borer destroying the plants this year.

So, plants are both ladies and gentlemen, too. The top picture shows you a lady flower growing on the yellow squash (see how there's a baby yellow squash on the underside of the flower?). The bottom is a dude flower (no baby = boy). You need them both for the baby to actually do anything; otherwise it'll just fall off and die.

Also a good reason for planting both flowers and veggies. Having lots of flowers attracts pollinators (butterflies, ladybugs, bees, etc.) who then pollinate your lady flowers = veggies for you to eat. :)

Marigolds are doing really great, too.  See this one starting to open up? 

Marigolds are the queen of companion planting. They get along with pretty much every plant, but a lot of the bad bugs (i.e. the ones that destroy your plants) don't like them. They have a strong smell, so they're stinky to a lot of those pests.

A win all around - adds color to your garden, pretty, and purposeful.

I've loved snapdragons for a long time. As a kid I had two little windowboxes attached to our front porch. I think there were other flowers, but I specifically remember the snapdragons. I thought they were so cool and I completely manhandled the blossoms. You know how you can gently pull them apart and they can "talk?" 

You didn't? I bet you're going to try it the next time you get the chance.

These will bloom until around early July. Then I'll cut them back to about 6 inches and they should bloom again come fall.

 

This is my little friend from the Occoquan Craft Festival last fall. Isn't he cute?

I clearly need to trim the bushes. Please don't judge...too much.

 

More marigold. Different variety - this is either Crackerjack or Taishan Yellow. Time will tell.

 

Kale and lettuce growing alongside zinnia and marigold.

So far, so good. I've got a few more tomatoes and something else fun growing in the backyard, but I'll show those later. :)

Also, I definitely tried to get pictures of the cicadas because, well, they're just kind of cool. And while those buggers are EVERYWHERE, I couldn't find one to get a picture. 

Well, I did find one, but I scared him away.

I for sure could hear them, though and their weird almost mechanical sound.

Thanks for joining me, enjoy your Sunday!