Holiday Making

Christmas is such a pretty time of year - and the perfect pretty crafting excuse.

I happened to be at my parents house when they bought their tree this year, so I snagged one of the extra branches - perfect for my tiny apartment. And then decorated it with all three of my christmas ornaments that i own. Maybe not a christmas tree, but a Christmas branch is festive enough for me!

One of my favorite christmas activities is wrapping presents. Ok, it's one of my favorite anytime activities. merry christmas, family!

that tiny box in the middle?  animal butt magnets!

:)

And I made this cute bag.

Matt and I had christmas this past sunday, so I made a fancy dinner and decorated my table with all the christmas-y ish things I could find in my house. I think that was mostly a procrastination method from work I should have actually been doing, but it turned out nice! 

On an unrelated note, my etsy shop reached 100 sales before new years!  Here are 3 packages ready to ship to Singapore, Israel, and Norway! It's fun to know I have my work all over the world.

Here's to a wonderful new year full of making!

Quilts are wonderful

A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend Jaclyn and her husband Matt had a beautiful baby boy, Liam Andrew.

I've never made an actual pieced quilt before, but I thought it would make a great baby gift, so I tried it out. Turns out, it was the worst/best idea ever. It was super fun, but now all I ever want to be doing is quilting. It's so satisfying! You can see your progress as you go and it's pretty every step of the way. It requires some serious perfection, and your perfection pays off in corners that meet perfectly and seams that lay flat. I'm not so much a fan of cutting out the pieces, but I think it might be easier if I had better tools than an x-acto knife, an 18" cork backed metal ruler and a 11"x17" cutting mat.

perfectly baby sized.

I have a decent stash of fabric, and was able to use only fabric I already had.  Maybe it's bigger than a decent sized stash...  I'm super happy with the color and pattern combo!  

Even though I've never quilted before, I decided to just make everything up. Following directions isn't always my favorite thing.  I went with a simple triangle pattern, and the quilting is just a straight machine stitched pattern following the lines of the triangles.  I think the whole process took me about 2 days.

So much fun. Hopefully I'll get to meet the little guy in a few months!

Patterns, drawing, and bags.

I have recently become the owner of a wacom drawing tablet. I don't know why I've never used one before, what with my love for drawing type and all, but i'm a little in love it.  It was tricky getting used to watching the screen instead of my hand as I draw, but i'm catching on.

I've also been really interested in making textile patterns lately, and I love screen printing and sewing and I have a huge bag of colorful vintage metal zippers.

So this happened:

(UPDATE: they're on etsy, HERE!)


Last week I was out at school to talk to a typography class about things they should be doing in school to get ready for the real world, which I am so not an authority on, but Ellen told me I was inspiring.  Anytime I'm at Trinity for any reason, I make sure I bring a screen printing plan with me, and the cranes won this time.  The print studio is probably the best room on campus, it has huge windows that face the prettiest view of Trinity and it's sunny all afternoon. Theres an old radio that happily and loudly plays The Drive all day long, and I don't think anyone is using that room this semester, so I take advantage of that when i'm out there.

Those of you who know me know that I don't really draw anything other than letters (it's just best if I leave that to MelissaPeterson), so to draw these guys I folded a crane, took pictures of it, and then drew over the photos with my wacom.

I like them.
The little zipper bags will be on etsy soon, and I hope to be printing larger scale pieces of fabric as well!





Side note: this is my first wacom adventure. It was for a poster for a Pantene Beautiful Lengths hair donating party that the nurses at Northwestern are putting on.

What a cute ponytail! Who knew I could draw those? Not I!

Craft Time.

Hey friends! It's been a busy month, I've been freelancing at Abelson Taylor since Halloween. In case you were wondering, Halloween is a hilarious day to start working somewhere.  And I've making pretty things.

I've been needing a new wallet for about 2 years, but I'm too cheap and also too picky, so I finally decided to make one. I'm pretty happy with it. Vintage zippers, awesome fabric combinations, and all the right pockets.

I also crocheted the warmest scarf I've ever worn.  I used the afghan stitch, so it's literally a mini blanket that's appropriate for me to wear in public.  It may suffocate me, but at least it'll hold out the chicago winds!

I finished the scarf on the train ride home for Thanksgiving, so I tested it out at Saugatuck Dunes. It worked pretty perfectly.

also, my parents dog is awesome. not very good at posing for pictures though. 

and a few of the first snowflakes of the season!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Happy Halloween!

Check out this sweet owl costume I made for my cousin Rachel of Hyde Creative!

Front. (and mask)

Back.

She was attending a West Michigan AIGA costume party. Doesn't she look awesome?

Cathedral Window Process

I have a lot of travel coming up in the next month and half and so, and I always need a little project to work on for long hours in cars.  I've been wanting to try the cathedral window quilt for quite a while, so I got some pieces ready for my trip to Baltimore about a week and half ago.  There is a fantastic tutorial at the Hyena In Petticoats blog.

It's perfect for me, all hand stitched, I can use my pretty vintage fabric scraps, it incorporates some origami folding, you stitch the squares together as you go, and it's not backed, so I can stitch squares together until i'm bored, and then it'll be done!  I'm thinking my first attempt will end in pillow size.

Here are a few process photos, it's great fun!