Pillow Lessons

The whole reason I got my new, unused, sewing machine out in the first place was to make a pillow to match the cute valance I made for my basement. Turns out, sewing is much harder than I thought, and I needed a few lessons before tackling a pillow with trim. Mom started me with a mini-pillow that Synnove now uses with her babies. I then went on to make my fabulous pot-holder thingy that was actually quite difficult! After that, I took a long break from the sewing machine...then started back up again last week. Mom came over and we made a fun pillow for my brother.

And this week she came over again, and we finally made the pillow I had been wanting to make since the beginning. I used the $3 upholstery fabric I had used for the valance, matching rope/cording/trim, and some stuffing from old couch pillows. The whole project took about 2 1/2 hours! Next, I plan to make matching drapery tie-backs.

Nice trim job...for a beginner

Way too impressed with myself. My pillow is 2nd from the left.

THANKS MOM!!

When I Find a Spare Moment...

Back in my early high school days, my mom got me started on cross stitch. At the time, we were living in a tent/trailer while my parents built their house. It was fall and the weather wasn't that great. We also didn't have TV. So, my mom tried to find some fun activities for us kids to do. Mom gave me a little Christmas greeting card kit to complete. The kit she gave me wasn't really for a beginner, but I attempted anyway. I remember I found it very tedious and frustrating. I would do a few stitches and then find something else to occupy my teenage brain. I kept it and worked on it over a period of several years. It still isn't finished...it needed some fancy stitching that I didn't want to figure out how to do. Anyway, I dug it up...

Then, one day a few years ago I was doing some Christmas shopping. I had this coupon for Michael's craft store for 50% off one item. I drove ALL the way to 185th (25 minute drive from my house at the time) with Synnove just to look for a particular gift that I was hoping to get at 50% off. Of course, I couldn't get it, cause it was already on sale...as was any other gift idea that popped into my head. I was ticked, and gosh darnnit, I was gonna find something to buy! I wandered to the cross-stitch section and found a birth announcement kit that I thought was alright...so, I bought it. Just so you know, I've grown to very much dislike Michaels's for their sneaky/misleading ads, and rude customer service....but on with my story.

When I purchased the kit, I knew that I was going to be trying to get pregnant within the next month, so I bought one that could fit a boy or a girl. It wasn't my favorite, but I tackled it anyway. This was my first real cross-stitch project and it was bigger than I had expected. I worked on that thing for hours at a time and finished within 6-7 months. Of course, I was pregnant at the time, so I wasn't able to completely finish it till Soren was born (had to put in name, and info). In the meantime, I had felt bad that I didn't do one for Synnove, so I found a really cute one online at Brooke's Books Publishing (check out her "Sunshine Lines" collection...she has quite a few!) and started it up immediately. It only took me 1-2 months and it turned out smashingly!

I finished Synnove's just before Soren was born, so I didn't have time to start anything new. When we moved in with my parents I had some free time and decided that I wanted to do a different birth announcement for Soren that he might want to keep in his room a little bit longer. The one I did from Michael's was so generic and babyish. So, I ordered another one from Brooke's Books Publishing. I started it up in November of 2007, quit, and got ready to move. While I was still living at my parents house, I decided to order a couple of wedding cross-stitch charts. My sister wasn't engaged yet, but I knew it would be soon, so I ordered one for her and one for myself.

Within a week of us moving, my sister got engaged. And, as soon as I was able to get all of the materials, I started up the project I picked out for her and Chris. I hadn't stitched on linen before and it took some adjustment. I also used hand-dyed thread that has variations of color for a vintage effect. The linen was also "aged" for effect. I worked non-stop on that project for at least 4 months. I was able to get it framed and have it ready just one month before the wedding. I don't have a photo of it, but this is the chart I used...and it shows exactly what mine looked like with different initials, of course.

After that, I was burnt out on cross-stitch for a while. I finally picked up the birth announcement that I had picked out for Soren and began to finish it a couple of months ago. I'll be picking it up from the frame shop next week. I love the way it turned out.

I have now started on the "wedding row" that I ordered for myself back when I got the chart for Elise. I haven't gotten very far yet...but here's my progress...

For anyone who wants to find some great cross-stitching sites...here's a FEW of my favorite:

La-D-Da

Bent Creek

Heart in Hand

Blackbird Designs

And for the ultimate selection in old-fashioned/antique stitching: Wyndham Needleworks

Construction and Deconstruction

Construction:
I was finally able to finish my first sewing project yesterday with my mom. Apparently, we took on a fairly advanced beginner project, but I think I did OK. I would say that this project took at least 5-6 hours. Granted, there was a lot of learning involved, so I went a lot slower than the average joe. I made a large two-handed potholder for taking things out of the oven. The pattern said to use pre-quilted fabric...but we pieced together scraps the old fashioned way with fabric and batting and I quilted it MYSELF!! I know...impressive =) I suppose the hardest part was putting on the final trim, but I managed OK. So, with 3 mother-daughter tutoring sessions, this is what I was able to make...and NO, my mom did absolutely ZERO sewing to help me out!

Deconstruction:

We purchased a travel trailer with some of the money we got from selling our house in Cornelius. We were so excited to bring it home and put it in our "new" 6-bay shop. The previous owners of our new home stored their travel trailer in the shop, so it seemed we could do the same. Well, we brought it home, backed it up, and realized that our trailer was probably a foot taller than the bay opening! So, here we have this HUGE shop, and we're not even able to store our trailer in it. We were bummed, but we weren't lacking options. We toyed around with a handful of ideas and finally resolved to just adding a lean-to onto the already gigantic building. We figured we would start building in the early spring. Then, while our dear friends the Carrolls were staying with us a couple of weeks ago, Jeremy suggested that we turn our animal stall into the new bay for the trailer. Duh...brilliant!

This was taken almost a year before we purchased the house. Left is the tree we cut down, and the animal stall is on the right.

I think we were just keeping the stall there because it was nice, and because maybe we would use it someday. I guess we just didn't see that as an option for us. That same day (all on Novie's birthday) my bro-in-law cut down the large alder that was in the way of the path to get the trailer into the shop. So, everything was coming together. We had a plan, and now we just had to figure out how we were going to convert the opening. Anyway, Adam began taking the stall down last weekend. It's quite a chore since it's put together with lots and lots of large nails. While he did that, I began clearing the fallen tree. Hopefully, we'll be able to have a nice home for our trailer by the end of spring!

The stall with about 90% of the roof taken down

We plan to use the lumber from the stall to build a loft in the shop, as well as a shelter for the goats we want to get someday!