Cross-Stitch Barn Owl

I think I promised people a blog post about the Barn Owl I cross-stitched for my mother's graduation.
So here it is.

I started stitching this with what I thought would be plenty of time before the graduation. Turns out I was wrong, especially since I was also going to make a cross-stitch sampler of Alpine Flowers for my father (which I at least started) and horses for my sister (which I didn't).

I did take it to Michigan with me for the graduation at which point the owl itself was done, I just needed to add the foliage, the mouse (detail above), and the mushrooms. I almost finished it too. I literally had some grass left to sew the night before we left to drive back to Maryland. I had even bought a frame and matting while I was there. So instead, I dragged the almost finished piece back home with me along with the frame and matting.

I finished it a few days after we got back and then it sat in my craft room closet for ages. I finally framed it at around midnight the day before my sister-in-law and her husband were due to drive back to Michigan after they came to visit us. It was several months late (as a graduation present), but at least it's no longer a UFO sitting in my craft room.

Bug Crib Quilt

I started the Bug Crib Quilt a little over a month ago. The basis for the quilt was from the book Baby & Kids Quilts (Baby Blessings by Diane Tomlinson), although I knew that fussy cut center blocks just weren't my thing (even if I could have found them in my local fabric stores). Instead I decided to jump into the deep end and design my own center blocks. To the left are the fabrics I got for both the piecing and applique (along with a bunch of ribbon for the shinier bugs). 

The part that took the longest was definitely the 12 center square bugs and the 4 slightly larger corner square bugs. In the picture to the right, black ladybug with red spots, the blue beetle with black spots is Gibbifer californicus, next is a metallic wood-boring beetle or Sternocera aequisignata, bottom left is a gold scarab, followed by a rhino beetle, and a painted grasshopper.

In the left-hand picture, we have the following: Top Left: Large Milkweed Bug, Top Center: Weevil (unknown type), Top Right: Fiery Searcher (Calosoma scrutator), Bottom Left: Unknown, Bottom Center: Ladybug, Bottom Right: Blue Beetle (Chrysochroa mniszechi)

Finally, the 5 inch corner squares show the following: Red Dragonfly, Green Snaketail Dragonfly, Green Morpho Butterly. Rhetenor Blue Morpho Butterfly. All bugs were a combination of hand appliqued body and embroidered detail. Then I cut them down to the correct size. I think my favorite would have to be the Black Ladybug with red spots and the "regular" Ladybug as well as the Blue Beetle.

Next came the piecing on a variation of a traditional log cabin block with a bug at the center. I grossly overestimated the amount of fabric I would need for this process and ended up cutting all of my fabric into 2 inch strips. After finishing the blocks and seeing that I had almost half the fabric left over, I could have kicked myself. So much wasted scrap material. You live and you learn, I guess. Next I added the border strips and corner squares. Another life lesson learned: always test your fabrics to make sure they are heat resistant before you use them. The wings on the white and green dragonfly melted and I had to buy more fabric (organza instead of ribbon this time) and redo the wings and the center of the body. I heat tested it first this time on my iron's highest setting, not a singe.



I pieced rectangles using the 2 inch strips of fabric from the front as an off-center stripe for the back. I used a new technique for making the quilt sandwich (a huge thank you goes to Elizabeth Hartman over at Oh, Fransson!) which involved taping down the back piece before pin basting. I've never had such a nice, smooth back (my OCD couldn't be more pleased). I outline quilted the squares and log cabin blocks and straight line quilted the border pieces. They were originally going to be a 1/4 inch apart, but my laziness trumped my OCD in that case and they ended up being rather randomly spaced, which ended up making it more organic. Happy accident. Finally I used yet more of those 2 inch strips for the binding. Again a thanks goes to Elizabeth Hartman for the new technique I used, although next time I do that, I'll have to try it with 2.5" strips. That will probably make the mitered corners even better. Finished off the binding by hand sewing and then embroidered my initials and the year into the bottom corner.



Finished Quilt Front



Circles Crib Quilt

My friends seem to be having babies one after the other right now. As soon as I was done with the Jungle Crib Quilt (from my last post), I moved onto a Circles Crib Quilt. I got the pattern out of Baby & Kids Quilts (Dots for Tiny Tots by Sharon Smith), but put my own twist on it with the color combinations I chose.

The whole design reminded me of bull's eyes. And I knew that my friend's only firm decisions about her nursery at the time, was that they would hang up maps and possibly letters. Since maps are usually in nice bright colors, I decided to go with that as well. I bought the varigated color sets from Joann's Fabric in blues, oranges/yellows, greens, purples, and pinks. Each set comes in five colors organized from lightest to darkest (1, 2, 3, 4, 5). I decided to use each color combination four times, which left me with the following sets from smallest circle to largest: 1234, 2345, 5432, 4321. That is a total of 80 circles that I cut out from fusible backing, fabric, sewed, and quilted around.

Another friend helped me find the backing fabric and also pointed me in the direction of the psychedelic butterfly fabric I ended up buying for the border. After setting the blocks into white sashing, I added the border. After pin basting the quilt sandwich I started quilting. The instructions said to quilt along all of the sashing, but I decided the circles were close enough together that quilting around them would be plenty. Trying to sew decreasing sizes of circles with a regular foot was difficult. I finally found a free-motion foot for my machine and the little plate that covers the walking feet, so next time I get the hare-brained idea to quilt around 80 circles, I'll have the proper tools to do so.

For the border, I bought a half circle cutting template and used it to draw half circles along the border on all four sides in tailor's chalk pencil and 3/4 circles at the corners. I also sewed along the outside border of the sashing strips. Finally I added the black binding, cut from the same fabric as the background of the squares. On the right, you can see the finished back with the black quilting showing. I really love how colorful the fabric is, and it pulls in the oranges from the front and adds a touch of red which seemed to be missing from the front. The quilt was well received at the baby shower.

Finished Quilt

Jungle Crib Quilt

The fabrics I used for the quilt

I am happy to report that I have actually finished not one but two projects. The first was a barn owl cross-stitch for my mother (perhaps I will have the time and patience to do a post on that with pictures in the near future). The second was a crib quilt with a jungle motif for friends of ours who were having a baby of indeterminate gender (as in, the parents didn't want to know before the birth).

The first hurdle was getting DH to agree that I absolutely needed more crafting supplies and that I was actually going to finish this one. The second was overcoming my own fears that I wouldn't finish it. I had never finished a quilt except a tiny little doll quilt when I was taking a sewing class. So I figured a baby quilt was the place to start. I found an applique pattern I liked in a library book and set to work.


My first issue came up because I wasn't sure which stitch to use around the outside of the animals. I was relatively sure that I did NOT want to hand-stitch the whole thing, but my sewing machine didn't have the stitch the book recommended. So I experimented with different stitches and different widths and lengths until I settled on a loose satin stitch. Not the really tight satin stitch that most machine appliquers use, because I really didn't want that look for this quilt, but something that looked artsy. I did the animals first because they were relatively easy to do. Then I started the laborious process of adding on the "branches" in between the white strips and the 72 leaves.

I also added the two little birds to the top and bottom panels. All of this went fine, faster than I could have hoped for, actually. Even with having to individually stitch around 72 leaves. But the part I was dreading most still lay ahead. The little doll quilt I had made, was hand-tied. No actual quilting, certainly not machine quilting. So I was rather apprehensive about the whole process. I'm also a perfectionist, so I knew that any bulges in the backing fabric would drive me nuts.

Making the quilt sandwich and pining proved to be one of the most time consuming processes (see perfectionist comment above). Even after I had pinned it I was not entirely happy with how bulgy the back was in places. But I started quilting from the middle out, and although the fabric in the back still bulged in some places, it wasn't as bad as I had thought. I love the backing fabric, it's so wild and so African safari. I really enjoyed the project and I proved to both myself and my DH that I could in fact finish a project and finish it on time. A few weeks later I happily watched the soon-to-be parents unwrap my quilt and was gratified to hear the assembled friends and family ooh and ahh. After all what better way to know your craft is appreciated.

The finished product

Craft Room - Complete and in Use

So, I worked to complete my craft room from the moment we moved in, but it ended up taking a lot longer to complete than anticipated (almost five months). I still don't think it's quite done yet, I would love a row of white boards above my cork boards, but it is functional. My sewing machine and crafting supplies are hidden in the shelves to the back left and right, the closet, and the two-drawer filing cabinet usually tucket between the bed and white shelf as an end-table for guests (in the picture at the top you can see it next to the desk because I had to move the bed more into the center of the room).

The bed folds from a twin daybed into a king sized bed for guests. My parents tried it out in October and loved it. I was a little worried that it wouldn't be comfortable when pulled out, because the mattresses are a bit on the thin side, but apparently that was not a problem. We've also had several people crash overnight. So it definitely serves its purpose as a guest room admirably.

As for crafting, I have started several sewing projects in there to date. The first of which was a new pair of pajama pants for my DH, which he loves! I'm currently working on a crib quilt for a friend of mine (pictures of that to follow in the next few days, because I need an opinion on how to finish the edging around the jungle animals.)

Waiting!

So yesterday I finally got an answer about a few last questions we had about the offer. I sent our realtor all the paperwork and we've officially submitted our offer. So kind of scary, but also extremely exciting. I'm already mentally gardening and moving in. I started packing in my mind while looking at our living room last night. But I hate waiting for something to happen! I want to know. I'm thinking the seller will come back with a counter-offer, but I want to know.

In other, more geeky news, the printer I ordered on Sunday arrived yesterday. It's an all-in-one, large format (it prints 12"x12" paper) wireless Brother printer. It's huge! And the box it came in was even bigger. But I got it out of the box and got it set up. Our wireless internet stopped working a few weeks ago, so we haven't been able to use our Wii to watch Netflix. And the printer couldn't find our wireless network either. So I finally figured out what was wrong with it. Our router's wireless was turned off. I'm not sure how it happened, but I turned it back on, and our network popped up again. I got the printer onto our wireless network and printed a test page from my computer via the wireless network. I was so happy and felt so wonderfully nerdy! That also means I'll be able to watch Netflix while playing on my computer. It's funny how the little things in life make such a difference.

One of the biggest reasons I'm so excited about moving into a house of our own is that I'll finally have a craft room to which I'll be able to shut the door and just leave my projects laying out whenever I want. Leaving out my projects usually leads to me actually finishing or at least continuing to work on them. The problem is that our cat has a love afair with paper and plastic. He has chewed up several photos before I finally became wise to his ways. Another thing a craft room with a door will accomplish is that I will have a place to put houseplants without having to fear for them disappearing in between my cat's teeth. Eric insisted on buying a large potted palm at our local Giant the other day, on the theory that the cat wouldn't be able to destroy it all in one day. So far he's been proven correct.