Enviro-Napkins

For Christmas, my little sister made us a set of cloth napkins. At first, I didn't think we would use them very much. I mean, look how pretty they are.



As it turns out, we use them all the time. And they wash really well. In fact, we've pretty much stopped buying paper napkins and paper towels. That's a lot of environmental savings. The only problem? We need more!!!

It started with these.



Purchased from Purl. Perfect for napkin edging, I thought!

I did go to Joann's and picked up 3 yards of super cheap muslin for the main panel. A lot of cutting, some edging using Alicia's brilliant tutorial, and a few hours later... Voila!!!



Reusable napkins- 6 green and 6 red. I'm still working on my binding skills. I figure these will get so much use and so many washings that they don't have to be PERFECT. They were really good practice for future quilt binding projects.



Lots of handy cloths to have around the house.

The Sewing Bug

I've caught it. My little $55, Post-Thanksgiving sewing machine is seeing a lot of action lately. I'm slowly learning and working on improving my sewing skills. This has me wanting a new, fancier machine. But that will have to wait. No extra wants around here!

The immensely talented Heather Bailey had put out a new line of fabric. And it's GORGEOUS!!!!



This will be a Barcelona Skirt by Amy Butler. I made a basic A-line skirt last September and I love it. I'm trying to push myself into dressing more girlie. Plus people are so impressed when you tell them you made the skirt yourself. (no matter how simple it is!)

I'm also starting to pull together fabrics for a queen sized quilt.



More Heather Bailey in brights.



Heather Bailey pastels.

I'm thinking a little brown will set off these perfectly. But who knows...

All of these were purchased pre-CTC. And just because I'm not buying more things at the moment doesn't mean you can't!

Too Cute to Pass Up

When I saw this post on Alicia's blog, I knew I'd make the dish clothes. They are just too cute! And completely functional. I started thinking about Mother's Day gifts. So I'm making 4 for my mother-in-law and 4 for my grandma-in-law. That leaves 2 for me. (I bought a 10 pack of flour sack towels.)

There's only one trick to this.... I've never embroidered anything in my life.



This is my first attempt. Not too shabby. Sure, some of the lines are wiggly wobbly. But they are definitely nice enough to dry my dishes. (Might as well practice on my 2 first.)

Here's the color combo I picked for mine.



Embroidery thread and cotton fabric from Joann's for binding. I'm also going to use Alicia's Binding Tutorial as pictures speak 1000 words for me in crafting.

This combo is for Grandma.



This one for mother-in-law.



By omitting the day of the week from the embroidery designs, I can get away with only doing 4 for each person. I'm hoping to get the binding done this week and embroidery can follow as I can watch TV while stitching but not while sewing with my machine.

Last thing- Happy Birthday to my little sis!!!!!! She gets everything green on her birthday- cake, beers, and (since she lives in Chicago) a river. I hope you had a wonderful day!

MIA

That's me. I've been submerged in school and planning for life beyond school. I even submitted my first job application today. Yikes! It's happening pretty fast. So I really hope things go well.

On the crafting side, I'm making a baby blanket for a friend's first baby. They are having a little girl. The nursery has an elephant theme.



Now I just have to figure out how to quilt it. Ideas? The pattern called for little scalloped "ties" every few inches. My machine doesn't really do that. So I'm undecided on what to do.



Aren't the little elephants cute?!?!? I'm making a whole elephant themed box since I probably won't make it to her shower in Texas.

That's all for now. I'm not too exciting. Just trying to check off the never ending to do list! Happy Leap Day!

Fall Down. Go Boom!

I fell off the wagon big time today. This is a pic heavy post. Sorry!

I had the day off from school. So I had lunch with a friend from my old job and caught up on all the gossip. Then, I went to Yarn, Paper, Scissors. I heard about this store from the Bay Area Knitters Group on Ravelry. What a great store!!!! Colorful, well lit, full of yarn, paper, and fabric.

Well, I left relatively unscathed with 2 yards of this...



To make this...



I've been wanting to try this pattern for awhile. And since it was there staring me in the face, well, I gave in.

Since I was on the peninsula and Nine Rubies was only a mile or two away, I popped over there. On the way I made a deal with myself that I would only go in if there was a parking spot. Of course, there was a spot right in front of the store. Shoot! Now I HAD to go in! This is such a cute store too. And the people working there are super helpful. Here's where I made the fatal mistake, I picked up a skein of malabrigo. It was all over. The delicious soft yarn sucked me in.

I think this...



and this...



Will make a nice scarf and hat set. So, so soft!

Finally, I scored some Zuluknitty from Scout before she went on vacation...



Aren't the colors great?!?!?!?!

I'm so glad that I don't have too many days off!

Going Green

So back in February I finished the Green Quilt Top. And I set it aside for other projects. (I can't believe it's been since February but Flickr's dates don't lie.)

I finally got around to deciding how I wanted to do the back. And once that decision was made, finishing the whole thing went lickety split!



Green Quilt (with a curious Eva kitty)
Pattern: Flock of Triangles from Denyse Schmidt Quilts
Fabric: I got a 1/2 yard bundle from Purl before I even knew how to sew. That's the front. Then, I realized I needed a back and ordered that from Hancock's of Paducah.



I took the easy way out on the back. But I think it balances the busy front pretty well.



Instead of machine quilting this blanket, I tied it with 100% wool yarn. I like how it looked until I washed it. You guessed it! My cute little ties felted. Now they look like little wool nipples. I still think it's cute but it was cuter before. Trust me.



Here's the semi-artsy shot of the front and back.

I did some things wrong with this project. The batting shifted when I washed it. So it's a little lumpy. The ties felted. And it's not quite square. But as the weather gets nicer, this crib sized* blanket will be a perfect study/picnic blanket.

*There are no announcements to be made. I simply made a crib sized piece because that's all the fabric I had and didn't want to commit to more of a project than I was ready for. After all, it's the first sewing project I started when I got my machine.