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We are moving again soon. And this weekend is the last weekend that I don’t have plans before the move, so I’m getting my last hurrah out of my system because all my crafty stuff has to go in storage as soon as possible.

I started going through my craft stuff and decided to finish off some UFOs this weekend.

I started with some bags …

(pink little zippy pouch)

(geometric little zippy pouch)

… and some more — 17 to be exact — quilted cards …

… but then I found a whole mess of white fabric, which I had no idea I had — my granny had left it in a bunch of unfinished projects she ultimately didn’t get to finish and her craft supplies were gifted to me.  So, I decided it was time to finish my vintage scrap fabric (courtesy of Adria) strip quilt.

I’m still in progress today. I could have finished last night but I really don’t have room in our tiny apartment to lay out the quilt, and this is one that I have to lay out and think about.  Here’s a photo of the progress. I’ll post a tutorial once it’s finished.  It’s really quite easy, but takes a bit of thinking.

Here’s what I’ve done so far:

• Decided I wanted to do a strip quilt that kind of zig zagged with the scrap fabric Adria gave me — this, but without the border and with more variation in width and length of fabric.
• Cut all the fabric scraps to 2″, 1.5″ and 1″  wide pieces. One inch is probably too small, but to get the most out of this fabric, I had to go that small.
• Sewed all of the 2″ wide scraps together to make a really long strip, and did the same with the 1.5″ and 1″ scraps. Did this last year and pulled out the finished rolls of strips yesterday to start putting this together.
• Figured out that I wanted to make a 50″x50″ quilt. Originally I was going to go with twin size, but I realized I wasn’t going to have enough vintage fabric to do what I wanted to do.
• Cut 50″ wide strips from the long strip of each width I’d sewn together.
• Laid them on the floor to make 50″ wide — this required cutting the strips in halves and thirds.  See above — the bottom piece is the full length that I want and is used for measuring.
• Cut 2″, 1.5″ and 1″ strips out of white fabric and added them to the ends of the vintage strips to make up the width difference so they measure 50″ again.

Here’s what I’m doing today:

• Deciding where I want the vintage strips to line up in the quilt, then cutting the end of the white off (where it goes past 50″) and adding it to the OTHER side of the strip (so there’s white on both sides).
• Trimming everything to 48″ or so wide since inevitably there will probably be a math error on my end.
• Pinning 3 strips at a time together and sewing them into a wider strip.
• Repeating until the quilt top has been finished.

And that’s my day today! Patchworking and probably running 6-8 miles.  If I finish the quilt top in just a few hours (hoping so — I got where I currently am now with this quilt top in 3 hours yesterday), I’ll work on some more bags. I found the motherload of scraps I was saving of Wonderland …

… so I’ll probably be making some more zippy pouches out of that.  I’m loving the zippy pouches.  I need to make some more wallets, but I like to make the zippy pouches so much more.  I figure I’m doing this for fun and not for money, so if this stuff sells, great, if not, I’ve got Christmas presents taken care of.  Or maybe I can keep something for myself for once.

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I thought I would share with you the tutorial I used for my clutch wallets. I made a few modifications (obviously), but this is the tutorial I used to make my first wallet (pictured below). It’s from Purl Soho.

Get creative and make as many modifications as you want. I started by changing the angle of the fabric to create more visual interest.  Have fun!

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Um, I may have gotten the t-shirts for this in the spring of 2009.  Like March 2009.  Regardless, I finally finished it.  It broke my sewing machine twice.  Twice.  Therefore, not making any more quilts (at least quilting them).  So if you want a quilt, I’ll make the top, but you’re on your own for getting it quilted.

I also hate t-shirt quilts. I think they’re boring and stupid and I am not sure why people love them so much when there are so many beautiful quilting fabrics or vintage fabrics out there to make a quilt from instead. I’ve made 3 t-shirt quilts now — but the first 2 were really deconstructed. And the first 2 were because I wasn’t sure if I was going to like quilting, so I didn’t want to BUY fabric until I knew if I liked it or not.

Anywho — the twist on the regular t-shirt quilt here is adding the lyrics to Lateralus by Tool on the back of the quilt.  I just quilted straight lines to make it easy.  And I used scrap fabric that coordinated for the binding.

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Did I mention that I make onesies?  I think I did a couple of other times.  I do, but I don’t sell them.  Just for gifts.

Check this cutie out! This is my friend Dani‘s niece.

She is TOO cute!  So cute, that I used the last of my wonderland fabric for her tie in the 2nd pic.

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I’m going to be doing Craft Saturday this month on April 30th, so I’ve been working on some crafts.

I made a rule for this show — I can’t buy any new supplies — only use what’s in my stash and scraps. That way I can reduce the clutter and save some cash.

I had half a mind to get rid of ALL of my crafting supplies when I moved last month, but I decided to keep some of it. I might have gone insane without it, but I was getting kind of burnt out. I needed to find something new and interesting and fun. No more crafting for OTHER people. It’s okay to craft for yourself. Sometimes. And the stuff you make doesn’t have to be useful (these are actually useful things I learned from Amy Sedaris’s book).

I present to you — little zippy pouches.

These cute little pouches are perfect for makeup bags, emergency kits for your purse, travel crafting supplies and many more uses. I’ve had one that I made a LONG time ago that I used for my makeup in my gym bag.  They were also a great project for scrapbusting. I’m a big fan of wonky asymmetrical patchwork and I made myself use ONLY what was in my scrap bag for these — so no cutting any new pieces.  There are 3 here, but I’ve got 5 made and will be making a few more. They’re kind of time consuming, but I enjoy making them, so I’m going to have a few for the show at the end of the month.

And yes, I’ve also decided my label is going on everything. It will go on the inside of most of my stuff, but I thought it made these pouches look a bit more finished and since they’re scrappy to begin with, I thought it was a nice touch.

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A long time ago I created a TON of blocks for what was going to become my ugly string quilt. I quickly realized that entirely too much work goes into making a quilt for me to purposely make an ugly one. And my blocks weren’t turning out as nice as I hoped (ie. nothing was lining up because I have no patience). So instead, I used the blocks I’d made to make potholders using this tutorial.

In case you’re extremely curious as to how to make string blocks, I used this tutorial to create these blocks.

EDIT (December 2011): If you’re going to make potholders that work, be sure to use Insulbrite instead of regular batting.

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This is definitely an F-O Friday. F standing for a very naughty word that for the sake of my bloggity-readers and my facebook friends, I will edit out.

My friend Lora (who doesn’t have a blog that I know about so I can’t link here) recently went through a very traumatic time. Her mother passed away after battling with cancer for several years — the most recent battle was (obviously) the hardest.

I wanted her to know that I was thinking about her. So I made her a lovely cross stitch in the style of subversive cross stitch. Warning: link to their website is NSFW (or small children).

Anyway, here is an edited-for-blogland version of what I made her. It’s her birthday tomorrow too!

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I HAVE AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!

As of today, I will no longer be crafting anything (to sell) except my handpainted vintage ceramics.  I will still be taking commissions for other items — such as wallets, camera cases, greeting cards, t-shirts and quilts —  however, I will no longer be producing them on a regular basis.

What does that mean for you lovely people in Des Moines? It means that you have TWO more chances to obtain my fantastic wallets and camera cases. I’m selling today (RIGHT NOW actually) at Market Day from 9-2 and next Saturday at Craft Saturday from noon-6.

It also means that not only do you have two chances to get these things, but I am selling my camera cases at a reduced price — 2 for $10 or $7 each! Camera cases make fabulous stocking stuffers, and the holidays are less than 2 months away.

Anyway — sorry for the shameless plug, but I wanted to let you know that I’ll be focusing on dishware from here on out and that the rest of my lovelies have to sell like hotcakes.

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This week’s humpday blog love goes to my friend Adria, who ironically thinks I’m mad at her because I haven’t had a chance to talk to her for a couple weeks. But no, I am not! And I realized my blog love post was about her blog this week (I schedule them all in advance) — so I’ve edited to include this blurb!

Anyway, my friend Adria and I go way back — all the way to 7th grade when she came to my school. That’s right. MY school.

Adria is SUPER crafty and she’s the one that got me into quilting and sewing last year.  She and I also went through terrible breakups at about this time last year and are both with fabulous men currently. She also has a weiner dog … well, he’s a chiweenie-min pin mix — McGruff!

Here are some of the fabulous things she makes … I’m lucky enough to get a lot of her fabric scraps, which is how I’ve made such lovely things on the cheap.

So you should probably go check her out, and leave her some lovin’!

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Yay!  I finally finished it.

A while back my grandpa had given me a bunch of quilt blocks that my granny (my great grandma) had made some time ago before she died in 2002.  She was kind of the queen of WIP, so I’m still collecting some random crafty things she’d started and going through to see what I can do to finish them or turn them into something else.

Mom and I went antiquing in March and found another set of blocks that went well with the ones my Granny had made since there weren’t enough to make an entire quilt. Even with these, it’s a pretty small lap quilt, but it’s really pretty anyway.  I ended up tea staining all the blocks since some were more aged-looking than others — they’re all about the same now.

As you can tell by the crappy quilting, I did it myself on my machine. I have a ton of quilt tops waiting to be turned into quilt sandwiches, but I need to send those off to somebody professional to do them. I probably should have done the same with this one, but I was impatient and wanted it to be finished — not to mention, I wanted to be the one to do it since my Granny had hand-pieced the blocks.

I have a couple more blocks she’s done, but I’m trying to figure out what I want to do with them still. This is a really neat quilt, and I’m really glad I have it.

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