I'm not sad to see 2011 go... in truth, it wasn't a fun year. And it ended pretty shittily with me having my gallbladder removed last Wednesday. Now I have a week off of work and a lot of time on my hands and no energy to be creative. I have, however, used the time to become OBSESSED with Pinterest. OMG. It's a horrible, debilitating addiction.
Anywhos... I'm generally not one to make resolutions (too much pressure) but I am one to make lists... and so here's a craftish to-do list for 2012:
1. Revamp spare bedroom making it craft AND visitor functional. A new desk. A paint job. A quilt for the sofa bed. Re-worked shelving. A new, brighter, more functional light. Curtains. Twinkly lights and a garland. Lots of white. Maybe green or grey walls. Sofa is still red... TV?
2. Complete quilts - one for our sofa downstairs, finish the one for my sister, one each for my sister's girls, a Christmas one for my in-laws, one for my sister-in-law and her husband, and several baby quilts... just because. One for the dog? A t-shirt quilt? A mostly black and/or dark grey one for the hubsand?
3. Learn to crochet. Complete a project.
4. Complete a knit project.
5. Make Christmas cards EARLY - by August or so.
6. Finish the photo book for my brother... it's only been in the works for 2.5 years.
7. Make a calendar or two.
8. Redecorate the living room - new sofa, curtains, slip cover for chair, new pillows, scrapbook paper tree for the spot above the fireplace, new coffee table OR re-paint coffee table, paint walls... Red, white, black and grey color scheme sounds right.
9. Make totes - two for me (a knitting one, a non-knitting one), one for my sister-in-law (a knitting one with a roll-up for her needles), one for my niece.
10. Advanced start on Christmas gifts this year... cushions and quilts in particular. Make ornaments to gift. A table runner for mom? Christmas placemats? Coasters and potholders. Body scrub.
11. Decorate bedroom. Find bed-side tables. Find shelves. Ponder quilt or duvet cover. Curtains. Definitely curtains.
12. Open an Etsy store? Offer to commission quilts for family/friends?
13. Blog regularly. Learn to Flikr.
14. Make a light/white box and learn to take a decent photograph.
15. Go to IKEA.
16. Fabric wants - Anything new by Kate Spain, Half Moon Modern, Pezzy Prints, Daiwabo elephants, Kona color card.
17. Remember birthdays; make/send cards in advance. LOL - so hilarious.
18. Make polaroid magnets.
19. Make a crayon/coloring roll-up for my baby niece.
20. Engage in some sort of nerdy, sci-fi craftiness.
Seems ambitious. My inspiration is off the rails right now with this Pinterest obsession... plus a handful of quilty books were gifted to me for Christmas. I need to be organized. I need the list. I need cash flow. :)
Merry New Year!
January 2, 2012
December 17, 2011
Let's Get Started
Well... after creating my blog (finally), tidying it up a bit and finishing the first post (with a pic of my puppy)... nothing else happened. Problem is my computer is upstairs and I never go up there to use it anymore. I use my smartphone for everything... except have you ever tried to write a blog post on your smartphone? o_O
So fast forward to now... Merry Christmas! My loving husbers celebrated his new job with a new laptop for yours truly! My computing is no longer tied to my desktop all the way upstairs and away from the quilty madness. Woot!
I started quilting back in May and have completed three quilts and one quilt top since then. I'll post some (crappy) pics of each over the course of my next few posts along with this big lessons learned along the way.
Here - the first: a baby quilt I finished in July for a friend of mine, Gayle. She had a girl and while the colours on this are quite boyish, it matches the jungle-themed nursery perfectly.
I started with the zoo print (Robert Kaufman) and added blue, yellow, green, white and black fabrics to coordinate. The back is a solid turquoise (greener than this picture indicates) with a couple of scrappy strips. I used clear nylon thread to quilt this... I sewed about 1/8th of an inch inside each full square. The pattern is a standard disappearing nine-patch.
The binding is my favourite part - scrappy and fun.
Overall I'm still quite please with this one - though admittedly it's rough around some of the edges. In retrospect, though, I would have switched out some of the fabrics - in particular the white and black florals - and maybe the yellow and turquoise dumb-dot.
Lessons learned:
1) Quilting is a passion.
2) Don't piece with black thread. lol :)
3) If you're going to pin baste... use a lot of pins.
Sorry for the crappy pictures. I'm no photographer and all we have is an inexpensive - albeit pretty decent - point and shoot camera and we have fairly terribly lighting in my house.
The quilt was very well-received by a very good friend. She was touched that I chose to give my first completed quilt to her. And her little baby is a doll. :)
So fast forward to now... Merry Christmas! My loving husbers celebrated his new job with a new laptop for yours truly! My computing is no longer tied to my desktop all the way upstairs and away from the quilty madness. Woot!
I started quilting back in May and have completed three quilts and one quilt top since then. I'll post some (crappy) pics of each over the course of my next few posts along with this big lessons learned along the way.
Here - the first: a baby quilt I finished in July for a friend of mine, Gayle. She had a girl and while the colours on this are quite boyish, it matches the jungle-themed nursery perfectly.
I started with the zoo print (Robert Kaufman) and added blue, yellow, green, white and black fabrics to coordinate. The back is a solid turquoise (greener than this picture indicates) with a couple of scrappy strips. I used clear nylon thread to quilt this... I sewed about 1/8th of an inch inside each full square. The pattern is a standard disappearing nine-patch.
The binding is my favourite part - scrappy and fun.
Overall I'm still quite please with this one - though admittedly it's rough around some of the edges. In retrospect, though, I would have switched out some of the fabrics - in particular the white and black florals - and maybe the yellow and turquoise dumb-dot.
Lessons learned:
1) Quilting is a passion.
2) Don't piece with black thread. lol :)
3) If you're going to pin baste... use a lot of pins.
Sorry for the crappy pictures. I'm no photographer and all we have is an inexpensive - albeit pretty decent - point and shoot camera and we have fairly terribly lighting in my house.
The quilt was very well-received by a very good friend. She was touched that I chose to give my first completed quilt to her. And her little baby is a doll. :)
November 6, 2011
Awkward First Post
Hello to uhmmm... no one!?
The first post is always the most awkward. I *know* no one is reading but it has to be done.
A few words about me and this blog…
My name is Karen. I'm married with a loving, cuddly pup named Bella. You'll probably hear a lot about her even though this blog is supposed to be dedicated to my crafterly pursuits.
I'm Canadian but I live in Seattle. I work in the banking industry but I'm not evil. Promise.
I started this blog because I think my family and friends might get tired of seeing my quilts on Facebook. And because I've been inspired by the oh... I dunno... 50+ quilty blogs I've been reading religiously for the last six months. I wanted to play!
These days my crafting is fairly limited to quilting though I've been known - in the past - to do paper crafts, card making, cross stitch... I've even kinda sorta learned how to knit and there was one time when I knew how to crochet. It's been a loooong time but I think a few minutes with my mom as my teacher, I could prolly pick that back up pretty fast should the fancy strike.
I'm not a very good crafter... I mean the things I make are nice. I like them. Others like them. It's just that... I'm not good at finishing things. AND I'm kind of type-A so when things go wrong, I get pouty and quit. It's for these reasons that I am shocked that I have actually completed *gasp* THREE quilts - plus a handful of smaller quilty projects - since I picked the habit back up in May. I have a fourth quilt top finished waiting for a suitable backing. This is the first craft where I actually enjoy the finishing details! I *love* putting a binding on a quilt... enough so, that I force myself to do the actual quilting part which I kind of hate on account of the type-A-ness and my lack of skill. But I'm improving...
Anywhos... my tendency to NOT finish is one of the reasons that I'm starting this blog. I hope it keeps me accountable. It's also the reason that I've called myself a "Super Procraftinator" - a play on "procrastinator" if'n that wasn't obvious. And I went with Super Craftastic not because I'm "super" tho... honestly... I am all that and a bag of popcorn (kiddin')... but strictly because it made me laugh out loud when I thunk it up.
I'm very easily amused.
My other hobbies include web design (tho I haven't had time to figure out how to edit my new blog yet), Photoshopiness, video games (the violent kind), cursing and swearing (those last two are almost always synonymous), spelling words badly (I had to look up synonymous… pathetic, I know), reading occasionally… books even!, television, television and more television… I really need to get off my ass but of course my newest habit entails sitting on mine for hours at a time – much like every other hobby I have. Sigh.
And then there’s the dog, Bella.
She’s the apple of my eye and my favourite thing in the ‘verse. She’s the best thing my husby and I ever did together. :) I will do my darndest to make sure this blog doesn’t become about her… tho… that’s a good idea for another blog… which would be my fourth blog… so maybe not.
Well, so... now... tell me about you. If you’ve read this, I assume you’re probably related to me somehow… but if you’re not, say hi, tell me about yourself and enjoy my show!
- Karen
The first post is always the most awkward. I *know* no one is reading but it has to be done.
A few words about me and this blog…
My name is Karen. I'm married with a loving, cuddly pup named Bella. You'll probably hear a lot about her even though this blog is supposed to be dedicated to my crafterly pursuits.
I'm Canadian but I live in Seattle. I work in the banking industry but I'm not evil. Promise.
I started this blog because I think my family and friends might get tired of seeing my quilts on Facebook. And because I've been inspired by the oh... I dunno... 50+ quilty blogs I've been reading religiously for the last six months. I wanted to play!
These days my crafting is fairly limited to quilting though I've been known - in the past - to do paper crafts, card making, cross stitch... I've even kinda sorta learned how to knit and there was one time when I knew how to crochet. It's been a loooong time but I think a few minutes with my mom as my teacher, I could prolly pick that back up pretty fast should the fancy strike.
I'm not a very good crafter... I mean the things I make are nice. I like them. Others like them. It's just that... I'm not good at finishing things. AND I'm kind of type-A so when things go wrong, I get pouty and quit. It's for these reasons that I am shocked that I have actually completed *gasp* THREE quilts - plus a handful of smaller quilty projects - since I picked the habit back up in May. I have a fourth quilt top finished waiting for a suitable backing. This is the first craft where I actually enjoy the finishing details! I *love* putting a binding on a quilt... enough so, that I force myself to do the actual quilting part which I kind of hate on account of the type-A-ness and my lack of skill. But I'm improving...
Anywhos... my tendency to NOT finish is one of the reasons that I'm starting this blog. I hope it keeps me accountable. It's also the reason that I've called myself a "Super Procraftinator" - a play on "procrastinator" if'n that wasn't obvious. And I went with Super Craftastic not because I'm "super" tho... honestly... I am all that and a bag of popcorn (kiddin')... but strictly because it made me laugh out loud when I thunk it up.
I'm very easily amused.
My other hobbies include web design (tho I haven't had time to figure out how to edit my new blog yet), Photoshopiness, video games (the violent kind), cursing and swearing (those last two are almost always synonymous), spelling words badly (I had to look up synonymous… pathetic, I know), reading occasionally… books even!, television, television and more television… I really need to get off my ass but of course my newest habit entails sitting on mine for hours at a time – much like every other hobby I have. Sigh.
And then there’s the dog, Bella.
She’s the apple of my eye and my favourite thing in the ‘verse. She’s the best thing my husby and I ever did together. :) I will do my darndest to make sure this blog doesn’t become about her… tho… that’s a good idea for another blog… which would be my fourth blog… so maybe not.
Well, so... now... tell me about you. If you’ve read this, I assume you’re probably related to me somehow… but if you’re not, say hi, tell me about yourself and enjoy my show!
- Karen
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