what a struggle

What a struggle indeed. Mostly to do with my stupidity and lack of attention paid to details. I've been working on this quilted heating pad cover for a swap. And it was looking so pretty, with its variety of pink fleece and flannel prints! and I measured and measured again after my fiasco with making a shirt that I clearly didn't measure at all and which ended up not coming anywhere close to fitting me



So all that was left was to add the zipper which I bought today, even though I had made the actually item like 1 week ago. This is when I realize...I've sewed 3 of the sides shut already...Needless to say it was a huge HUGE struggle and ended only after I unstitched the whole zipper after 1 try, added in more fabric and broke my needle (!!!!) because I forgot I was in overlock stitch and it hit the zipper foot and flew in my FACE!!!!!!!

It still looked a little weird because it was a 12" zipper for a 15" length. So after trying a couple of things I finally arrived at what I feel (read: hope) is a suitable solution.

nice weather :(

Well I have a ridiculous amount to do over this next week starting with a lot to do today

This morning was my first morning at the Eglinton Community Centre Heritage Garden at Eglinton and Avenue Road...It was also really sunny and definitely in the 20s temperature wise. Plus side: beautiful, amazing day perfect for gardening. Down side: i'm pretty suree I got heat stroke. I could hardly walk to the subway station which was a block away. and then when i got home I just lay in bed for a couple of hours. Not conducive with getting a lot done like originally planned...

but at 5:30pm i'm kinda getting back on my feet and out of the groggies...hopefully at least.

i'm working on a graphic design project that I had hoped to finish last night but was way too tired last night to even begin to do anything about. And then I'm going to post some pics of my WIP for the OWS21 happening on craftster.org. Hoping by tonight to finish that and a 1920s inspired shirt I'm making for this jazz thing i'm going to tomorrow evening (Sonic Bloom - spoken word to jazz).

Then after i'm done that I can start working on the communications plan I'm supoosed to be meeting about tomorrow at noon.

GAH!!!!! back to work!

swap swap SWAP!!!!

Got my package for the Heavy Music Swap yesterday and it's completely, truly AMAZING!! Thanks Peihan17 sooo much!!

She made me this amazing NIN purse out of FELT and a really cool logo t-shirt. why is it that there's nothing i love more than band logo shirts...am i the only one in that boat?

Of course the cats got to it first so I took on my designated role as photographer of them enjoying themselves...

block party!

Wow what a cheesy post title, I know.

Here are the first set of blocks i've ever made! I'm so excited about them
one more and I can send them off to my swap partner



The one to the left is quite upside down in that it's, well upside down, and the pink stripe-y fabric shuld be on the left hand side.

This was great as a way to test out quilting and see how I feel about it. I'm sooo inspired to make a quilt for myself now! Although I'm concerned it'll take my whole life considering how long these took me. Though I guess by the end I was going much faster. I'm thinking a quilt in the green/blue fabrics (that I posted earlier with the ones I made these blocks out of) will go great in my bedroom as a summer blankets. My bedroom feels very unfinished or something as of now. The walls are a minty type of green, navy/off white bedding situation and white/birch furniture. I've been thinking fabric pieces canopy-esque from the ceiling. But rather than a canopy that comes down, it'll be more a billowy, multi layered and textured covering of my ceiling - in a variety of prints and chifons. though i'm a bit concerned about dust buildup because of my weird allergies I seem to have developed. Also been wanting to do a mural for a long time. Trees budding in the spring with birds and butterflies or that flow-y, curly line style.

...

where was I going with this? Right, the quilt will add a nice touch of something to the bedroom, hopefully helping to make it a bit more finished. and will go well with the other decor plans I have in mind. Especially if some of he fabrics are included in the ceiling refashioning.

GAH!!!

What a day!
It's 10am and already this morning I've managed to:
1. burn a pot on the stove very badly
2. burn the linoleum floor when i was freaking out about the pot and put it on the floor so i could open the door to let the smoke out
3. burnt my finger on the iron

I'm really seriously scared to do anything else today that requires anything that's capable of burning something/someone

On a chirpier note, I made my first quilt block ever!!! I'm a little concerned with the seam allowance around the raw edges and how that'll work out. It also was weirdly difficult to get the block to be 6"x6" (weirdly so because the template i used WAS 6x6)...

Fabric!!!

So I'm in a swap and I'm going to be crafting some quilt blocks for my partner. Which is cool and exciting since I've never quilted before, yet also kinda terrifying for the same reason. I sketched a bunch of ideas but think that I'm going to settle on something relatively simple involving stripes.

But the really exciting part was the uber fun fabric I got today at Fabricland fabricland. So pretty and colourful. I've been eyeing it for a while but didn't have anything to make with it. I was toying with the idea of a circle skirt esque type of creation...perhaps after I do these blocks...

clean, clean, CRAFT

Yep. THAT'S my bedroom/where I keep all my sewing supplies. That photo with the floor by the radiator? That was all just garbage. How disgusting is that??? I blame the Space Bunny and the cats. The cats tend to chew the blinds up and the Space Bunny has taken on my disgusting habit of leaving used tissues everywhere. The black cat is Pixie who likes to get in the way a lot and did a nice job of blending in to the chaos. Let me tell you, when your crafting stuff looks like this? When where you LIVE looks like this? You don't really feel like doing much. Really zaps the life and motivation out of you. I cleaned up a bit but it's still in process. Will show pics of how clean and organized I'm sure (read: hoping) it'll look when i'm done :)

I had plans, really I did. But then it turned out that my walls didn't support shelves so...in a small apartment that really doesn't help organization matters at all.

I HAD steely resolve to only buy what I needed for an immediate project, finish that project and then start over. No UFOs, no long standing WIPs, no NUMEROUS WIPs

...

then Fabricland Fabricland kept have "once in a lifetime sales" (note the 2 Fabricland bags on the floor, strewn amongst the mess) and yeah...
you'd think I'd have figured out by now that they have such sales every other week...but they won't always have the fabric I want right NOW right? right?

riiiight...

Tool swap!

Through Craftster.org I joined the Heavy Music Swap. My partner wanted Tool items. It was kinda frustrating because 1. how many band-related items can you really make? I mean other than the standard t-shirt right? 2. I rely heavily on wists to figure out what my partner will like and, well, she didn't have one.

So yeah, hopefully she'll like what I made. I like it at least. Well I like the wristlet (I freaking love wristlets) and the cuff the best. I tried some fancy stitching detail on the cuff. Had serious issues with the button hole though as I forgot how to make one (i've only really made one before) and it took a couple of tries and redos. I went for a frayed look on the button hole fabric, a style I'm into and taht I felt Tool-ized the cuff a bit...(you have to click the pic to see an actual good version of the photo - sorry bout that)

The doll is meant to be Maynard - I copied the idea of a doll from someone who did a tool swap previously. Her's is more Maynard like though and can be seen here. My doll looks more Howard Stern-esque sadly. Based off this pic. The wig and clothes are removable
But yeah, really unhappy with how his face turned out. like at all. sigh. well i guess it's way too late to make another since I'm sending out in the morning...