D296: Toy bells!

No, not bells that are toys, but bells that go into toys.  I need cases to put around my bells so that they're not muffled by the stuffing.  A friend of mine has them - they're like big pill capsule cases. I went to my local spotlight this morning after having called to get something like these...

They were there, apparently, but after looking and looking their local craft lady said they didn't have them.  They had squeakers, but not bell casings.  Humph.  So I bought some cheap plastic shot glasses instead and thought maybe I could get some sticky tape or glue involved...

Poxy, I know, but desperate times... 

D231: Here we go

First colour strip:

Two strips sewn up...

...then sewn together.

Some points are near-perfect in their matching.  Others, not so much.

The next step is to sew it up block by block and see if it's a more consistent system.

Tip of the day: Fitting your craft time around your baby time

When they nap, you craft.  

Do the desperate must-do tasks* - chuck on the laundry or whatever is time dependent, do the baby's dishes, feed yourself - then skip the emails, the book, as well as anything you can do while Bub is up (i.e. other housework).

Then start your craft.  Start as soon as you can.  It doesn't matter if it's thinking, planning, organising, doodling, actually putting needle to fibre - start.

And here's the antithesis of that advice:  Don't put off starting because the baby 'might wake soon'.

This hesitation is the Achilles Heel of all Bubbamummas.  It's a furphy, a ruse, a con.  

Of course she might wake soon, but she might not...  What if you knew you had a solid 40mins guaranteed?  You'd start, yes?  Well, pretend you do and begin.  Even if she does wake in 5 mins, which she sometimes will, you'll have made a dint in something. And that's something!

That's the best advice I have about productivity with babies and toddlers.  I'm not sure at what point craft time can realistically overlap with their waking time.  I've done some simple knitting while she's pottered around me.  I've been able to sew while Bub lunches by me in her high chair, but I wouldn't try it when she's running about.

The only other thing that makes a difference to my productivity (besides sleep) is space.  I'm fortunate that Bub shows no interest in my craft stuff that's around the living areas.  It's not laid out, pins exposed with scissors in reach.  However my machine is on the table, out of reach but handy to me, and there are boxes of fabric about and snaplock bags of quilting squares.  But! I would love to have a room I could close behind me where the work actually is laid out, pinned and ready to go.  If you have such a room please stop reading this and go use that glorious box you lucky thing.

Here are some other posts I've enjoyed along the way of this blog... Maybe they have the magic recipe for you.

Check out guest blogger Kathy Stowell, and her post about Sewing with Kids, hosted by Sew Mama Sew.  She follows 6 steps to fit it all in, including using any 5mins you can get every day!

See if Abby Glassenburg's One Touch Rule, over at While She Naps, is for you. 

Or maybe Sara of Sew Sweetness has your style.  I call it 'going hammer & tongs': "Even though I take care of my family during the day and work a part-time job on the weekend, I devote every spare minute and stay up until midnight every night, so that I can work on my bag designs and blog. I have found my calling, and I'll do whatever it takes to make it happen."

*I write this under the premise that you're reasonably rested.  Sleep trumps everything, especially in the early days of mumming.  If you have to choose between sleep and food, have a bowl of cereal and go to bed. For the love of all things cheesy, sleep if you need it.  Can you name the day in under a second? No? Go to bed.  Trust me: I didn't and it was often a mistake.

D229: Humans can't do random

From what I understand, it's really hard for humans to do random things, even moreso to organise things randomly. We're just inclined to create patterns and repetition, make links and meaning. And it's hard to clear your head and just...blaaah.

With these colours, I want the appearance of random. But I'm pretty sure if I actually tried to do it randomly (i.e. without planning) I'd end up with an imbalance or pattern in there somewhere. So this is me planning random.

Each pattern has been labeled A, B, C or D and I made a sequence that mixed them up fairly evenly.

A B C D  A D C B  D C B A  C D A B  A D B C  A C B D  B C D A  C A D B

My four-patch chevron 'phrase'.

It's a four-patch phrase: The chevron pattern uses four colours make one 'point' as a set. (I'm calling mine upwards points.)

And then I realised something. Colours will reveal patterns much better than letters! So I drew out what I had and realised it was horribly clustered. I redrew it twice more, using the sequence above in various ways. Then twice more using colours.

It was relatively easy to get a balanced pattern for a short 16-piece strip, but with a longer set it was hard. I instinctively want to have 'one of each' in each point to balance the patterns along the strip, and even wanted an equal number of each pattern in the top and bottom rows. (Yeah, I soooo wanted random.)

However there are only so many ways I can mix up with phrase without creating repetition across the points. I even thought of repeating the short phrase, but that's not random enough for me. The best I can do is evenly space the pattern clusters.

The bottom line of all that is I stumbled back at the starting gate*: creating 'randomness' and evenness is pretty much impossible when you've got four things in a four-part phrase. The real solution for me is to have more patterns. But we're beyond that point. Decisions must be made.

So tip of the day, folks: when planning a 'randomly-coloured' geometric quilt pattern, begin with noting the number of units in your pattern (your tile). The number of colours you want to work with should be a different number.

We have a winner!

My solution for this was to make a eight 4-square units. Each colour appears in each position twice. I shuffled them around until I was happy with the balance. And there is, in the end, a pattern. Can you spot it?

I've already sorted out the patterns in their row/colourway order to see if there's any clumping of plain colours, stripes or spots across the As, Bs, Cs and Ds. So hopefully it will balance vertically as well as horizontally.

Hopefully, when it's all sewn up, it will look like a serendipitous, carefree mess of oh-gee-I-just-threw-it-all-together-a-ha-ha.

*Hub and I agree: there must be a language somewhere that has a word for accidental self-sabotage.

D211: Getting traction

A bit more planning.  Think I'm ready to break ground!

Update: 9 colour ways, four prints in each, and a white square for each of those will give me about 134 squares. Or something.

D210: Getting a run up

I feel my mojo returning.

Baking is not yet on the cards, but fingers are itchy...

Seriously thinking of asking family for $$ to go towards a new machine for Christmas.

D180: WET WEATHER GEAR!

A little jump here - I've been working on my secret project so shall clock the days but here's not much to say for them. 

Thursday, however, was eventful!

It was raining gently, with no wind, and I was desperate to get out... But no wet weather gear for bub meant I was hesitant.  How dodgy would it look if I cut a few holes in a garbage bag?... Would someone call the Welfare dept on me? (In our area, quite possibly!) 

Then I remembered I had some waterproof fabric from another debunked project... CRAFTARAMA!! Snip, snip! Fold, trace, snip! Knot, twang! Trim, stick, restick, test, restick... And TADA! CAFE AND PARK AHOY!! Stay tuned for a tutorial. 

Yeah it's a bit big...

 

 

Still a bit big... But better...

 

Off we go!!! (She wouldn't let me put the bonnet back on her.)

 To the cafe!

I didn't get any pics of us at the park, but it was lovely.  Down the back of the oval we found some logs and looked behind bark to check out the bugs and slugs, poked the dirt with some sticks, pointed at all the birds who we're out to scavenge after the rain.... It was grand!

D172-3: Designing trial & error

I'm trying to create a table runner with the left over pieces from a previous project.

Current design

The design is built from a squashed diamond shape made from a motif in the fabric.  This motif, together with the shape of the fabric scraps, has determined the size of the whole thing, in a way.

Design idea doodle...

There's some plain-coloured contrast fabric remaining too and I hope to use the pattern fabric as two patterns - parts with birds and parts with just flowers - and sort of get three 'patterns' but I still wish I had another pattern to contrast...

This doodle is my ideal, but it has fat lines and I need something specific.  I was thinking I'd be able to create a leaf shape from the negative space made from tiling the motif piece, which didn't quite work out. The motif shape doesn't have the right kind of symmetry or depth in the curves and, thanks to the scraps, it's not that flexible.

Yesterday's effort, trialling negative space shapes

At the moment, I'm working on splitting the motif shape to create that sweeping line in the doodle, the one that breaks it into three levels, and then extending the design to capture the full motif at least twice.

I might end up paper-piecing this project (here's a how-to), which I haven't done before but I'm willing to try!

D165 & 166: Sashes!

I'm making some curtain tie backs, which I'm calling sashes, for my MIL.  It's with the fabric left over from some cushion covers and will be used on two baywindow curtains and one larger curtain.
These are a work in progress from my own pattern.

So far, I've made a shape that works for both the shorter curtains and the long one, cut out and joined the fabric and cut out the calico backing.

I wanted the pattern to be the right way up, which was tricky with the way the remaining fabric was shaped.  To avoid any upside-down birds, this required making the sash into a front and back rather than cutting on the fold.  So there's a seam in the middle, which will hopefully be rather unremarkable, and I'm hoping it adds to the strength of the sash and helps to keep its shape.  

I considered interfacing but once that creases (which is not unlikely) or comes away it's not very helpful at all.  I also didn't want to do any quilting, so didn't use any batting.

I plan to work the loops from the top edge of the sash so that the upper edge takes all the weight.  Hopefully this will keep it from bunching up while it's holding the curtain.

D159-161: Slow goings

I know linen stitch is slow to work because of the weaving between rows, but for some reason I'm extra slow these days.  Maybe it's that Bub has been coming down with a cold, so by the time she's settled and things are done there's not much time left for knitting.  Anyway...

Here's how my experiment looks now:

Now, fingers crossed while I weigh this and hope what remains on the ball is at least as heavy, so that I can make two booties...

Nnnnope. What I've knitted is 18g, and what remains is 9g.  Booo!  

So, do I go buy more wool? (I was trying to use up these left-overs!) Or do I run with just doing a single bootie as a prototype? Ugh.

D156: Fathers' Day Fare

With a last minute message about a Fathers' Day arvo tea at my folks' I still managed to bake an Apple Cinnamon Teacake!

Bub slept on the way home (made complete liars out of us on that front, bless her socks) and I managed to get some more of my linen stitch idea worked out.

D135&136: Construction & notes - A Shawl Collar Sweater

Yup.  I'm not particularly experienced in knitted garment construction, so was a bit lost on the skeletal instructions provided in the book.  Here are some notes on the different parts about what I did and the results.  For tl;dr go the blue text.

Since this gift should be being delivered right now (brain is calling you Hub - give the gift! Give the gift!)  I can reveal all and use proper pictures.

Pattern: Shawl Collar Sweater
Source: Debbie Bliss Essential Baby
Yarn: Debbie Bliss Chashmerino Aran in charcoal (decorated with leftover DB Baby Cashmerino in Light Blue)

Body neck edge

I was worried about the neatness of this area.  I used a slip-stitch edging to create a smooth edge on the neckline of the body front.  You can see in the images below that one of the edges is a smooth knit-style pattern, which is the slip-stitch edging. 

For a slip-stitch edge, knit the last stitch of the row and slip the first stitch of the next row.  It will create one 'knit' stitch for every two rows and does not affect the row tension.

I left long tails when casting on or off near the shoulders.  I used one of these to sew the neck on the right side as well as back & forth across the neck front.

Shawl collar - Side seam

Below are two angles of the same work - sewing the right-side neck edge to the shawl collar.  To manage the ease, I pinned and held the shawl collar and neck edge and stretched them while I worked.

I used a whip stitch and picked up two 'beads' of the slipped stitch from the neck and whichever shawl collar stitch matched it best, while under tension.

Picking up the slip-stitch from the neck edge to whip-stitch it to the shawl collar.

Same again from another angle

My goal was to ensure a neat and pleasing line on the front, which was a little tricky with the decreased rows.

The inside of the shawl collar side seam - whip stitching.

The outside of the shawl collar side seam.

Shawl Collar - Front seam

The pattern says to place the right collar in front of the left.  I chose to attach them one at a time rather than sew through three thicknesses.

On the body front edge, there's a little purl bump behind each bound-off stitch.  They sit at the back of the work and I used this purl row of stitches when attaching the left collar edge.

Picking up the purl bump behind the cast off edge.

To attach the left (rear) edge, I pinned the point of the collar of the opposite corner and stretched them gently to match the lengths.   I began at the pinned end and whip-stitched towards the left side.

The left collar edge whip-stitched to the body front.  Note the row of cast-off stitches in front.

To attach the right edge, I pinned its corner to the opposite side stretching the lengths even and I whip-stitched the collar edge to the upper 'bead' of each cast-off stitch. I did this for two reasons:

1. I felt this way would create the least bulk and was most likely to provide a flat seam. 
2. I liked the idea of the lower bead creating a border that was consistent and neat. 

Whip stitching the right collar edge to the front using the upper bead of the bind-off row.
Note the lower bead is exposed. I like how that pattern leads from a rib in the front all the way to the right.

The completed shawl collar

Shoulder seams

The book's directions describe how to join bound-off and selvage edges (p.33), which is what's required when joining the bound off sleeve to the shoulder's selvage.

The length of the sleeve that's joined to the body goes a few stitches beyond the bound-off edge on both sides.  I aimed to get the corners of the sleeves into the corners of the bound off rows.

To manage the ease into the shoulder, I skipped every fourth stitch (a purl) from the sleeve. The skipped stitch was always a purl stitch because it tucked into the seam better than a knit stitch.

Sewing the sleeve to the body.

Sleeve and side seams

The side seams were the easiest to sew because they matched and have no increasing or decreasing.  Conversely, the sleeves were hardest because of their irregular edges.  I have no advice here - just do your best to match up the changes on each side! :)

Cuff seams

The cuffs on this garment are turned out.  I've written before about being aware of this during knitting.  When sewing the cuff seams, you must work on the opposite side for any seam that will be turned out.

I recommend giving yourself a long tail when casting on the cuffs.  This can be used to neatly join the seam and you can easily hide the end near the elbow, or wherever if goes.


So there are my tips for constructing this garment!  I hope they have been helpful.  :D

D101: Quick Tip of the Day: Gadgets!

Today's creative thing is a short Tip of the Day...

Kitchen aid thingy plates

USE YOUR GADGETS!! (Creatively too!)

In the last few months I've used my kitchen aid thingy - I don't even know what it's called - and it's been marvellous.  Capsicum, mushrooms, carrots, fruit - so quick.

From slicing apples for the Apple Roses, to doing all but the broccoli in our dinner meals, to grating apples again! This thing has become very handy since I started pulling it out more.  My thumb says to remind people that the slicer plate is also very sharp. :(
I'm sure one day I'll use the zester, as well as that other plate for something other than grating when the grater needs washing...

Tonight, while cutting pears for baby food, I thought I recalled a corer in our drawer.  It's not the kind of corer I prefer for apples, so I've ignored it for ages (not even sure how it got there). But for soft juicy pears it was pretty much perfect, and way better than a knife.

Corer, spring mixer, parmesan grater

The spring mixer looks useless, but it's actually quite robust and excellent at fast mixing.  I usually use it for cake batters, but have used it to cream butter and sugar for other things too.

And the cheese grater... do you know you can grate frozen butter?  Well, not that neatly, BUT STILL!  I gave it a go!*

So I encourage you too - dig through your utensil drawer and remind yourself of the bits and pieces you've got.  I'd love to hear of any second uses you've found for what you have!  :)

*I also tried using the slicer to chop cold butter for faster melting, but frozen butter really is like a kind of stone - brittle yet changeable.  Oh well, now I know.

D100!: Ursula finds her book

Yesterday was the 100th official day of my doing-something-creative-each-day effort.  They haven't been consecutive days, but the ratio isn't too bad, so I'm very pleased with how it's gone so far.  I fully expected to bow out much earlier, or change the rules somehow, but here I am, sticking to something... Who knew!  Regardless, I began this for the good of my wellbeing and it has certainly made a positive difference to my happiness :D

Yesterday's effort was to finish a story for Bub which I called Ursula asks for help. [SPOILER ALERT!]  It's a gripping tale of Ursula, the bear, broken hearted over the loss of her favourite book, thwarted at every turn, surrounded by fools, until, at last! Dad comes to the rescue and discovers the book secreted away on the top shelf (coz it's totes a top shelf book). Balance is restored to the universe, all is well again.

My original title, "Ursula finds her book", was much more upbeat and comforting but mired in controversy because Hub was fairly sure it was HE who found the book, not Ursula.  It was only my inclination for accuracy which changed my mind and nothing more. 

Upper panels: building context - Lower panels: resolution - Made on StoryCreator Pro for iPad

I showed it to Bub yesterday arvo and she almost lots her beans looking at Ursula on the screen and listening to my voice automatically read the story.  She may have been a bit tired too.  It's made on StoryCreator Pro.

Hopefully there'll be more tales of high adventure for Bub's toys.  I thought we might have a series of how the toys got their names, because most of them have ea good reason.  For instance, Ursula got her name from being a bear, which is of the Ursidae family of mammals.  We have Camella, so called because giraffes were once known as Cameleopards. 

Clearly, I have a melancholy* streak about such things, since I've always wondered how I'll resolve the issue of carnivores being in the same toy box as their prey... Maybe my next story will be explaining how Leonardo and Ursula are so harmless.  Or why we have a separate toy box for the herbivores. 
OR, how about one explaining how Hiccup always has hiccups yet is quite a happy chappy and somehow not a tortured soul, dogged by the relentless hopping of his chest, robbed of all continuity of thought, slipping into psychosis with every passing hour.  Hmmm, maybe the tale of how he got hiccups should come first.

* As opposed to sanguine, choleric or phlegmatic people, melancholy folk will do things like change the lyrics of a nursery rhyme so that it sticks with generally agreed-upon scientific beliefs.  That's me.

D99: Precious Creativity

When creating, be generous, not precious.

Give a large seam allowance.

When measuring, cutting and especially buying: round up.

Prototypes can be close enough.

Treat mistakes like turns, rather than dead ends.

Look for what it is and can be, not what you wish it was.

Give the benefit of the doubt: assume best intentions.

Forgive everything.

Give wholly and without reserve or possession.

Let your ideas be like children, not pictures of your children.

D98: Hide and Seek

Today I made this little flap thing. It's part of a project I mentioned a while ago here and here.

The closed flap with a button on the front, and the inside with a piece of appliqué.

I got LOTS of sleep today - thank you Hub and Mothers Day! - and so was able to string enough of my thoughts together to nut this out. It doesn't look very complicated, and it's not, but it's part of a larger project and I've been trying to map, plan and problem solve this idea for a while, with little progress.  

With pattern marking and creating, you have to plan forwards and backwards, beginning with the end and noting the sequence of layers, joints, the way things will interact, as you work backwards and towards the materials you're starting with. (See, I couldn't have made that sentence yesterday. I'm that well rested.) Trying to create in the fog of sleep deprivation is like doing a coin rubbing with the wrong end of the pencil.  Or like making really effective similes.

Either way, I'm at, like, 65% capacity and it feels awesome :D

D97: Quick Tip of the Day!

Today's creation is regular dark chocolate brownies from the Donna Hay chocolate book.  I haven't made these yet, somehow.  

Quick Tip!

Here's my tip for lining your pan: once you trace around your tin on the grease-proof paper, cut your corners like so - parallel to an edge and then inside the curve - and tuck the long flap under the shorter edge.  It captures things quite neatly.

D96: Making the Most of Your Jaffle Toaster Part 2: Apple Jaffles!

Mmmm, supper!

These ones are super duper easy and ding dong yum! (Apologies in advance for the povo photography.)

Apple Jaffles!

You need:

• 1 good sized apple of any type; 
• 1 sheet of puff pastry; 
• cinnamon; 
• a squeeze of lemon juice; 
• sultanas if you like.

To make:

1. Peel, cut and grate the apple.
2. Add as much cinnamon as you like and the lemon juice.
3. Prepare a sheet of puff pastry by cutting it into square quarters.  Cutting it into triangles - as described in step 3 of the French Toast how-to - would be fine too.  Create cutting lines by pressing the pastry onto sandwich maker before it's warmed - the pastry will melt very quickly upon contact with the hot surface, so no do-overs here.  
4. Warm toasted sandwich maker and smear butter on the surfaces.
5. Lay down the bases in the sandwich maker.
6. Roughly divide your grated apple into four. Squeeze out the juice before you put it in each sandwich triangle.
7. Sprinkle some sultanas over each sandwich triangle if you like.
8. Lay over the other two squares. 
9. Lower the top of the sandwich maker. (Consider putting some paper towel or some such underneath, to catch apple juice.)
10. Do the dishes.
11. Check on the jaffles.  Simply wait until they're as brown as you like, but make sure the pastry is cooked through on all edges.
12. Prise out with a knife and present.  Some cream on the side would work.  Some folk might like to brush with melted butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Tip:
Wipe down the surfaces while they're still hot - much easier to get off the sticky apple juice.

This recipe doesn't really work with bread.  Maybe some croissant-like pastry-ish bread would do, but with regular bread it just soaks through.  I think I recall trying something like this with a shortcrust pastry and, in general, it worked but was very difficult to get out of the toaster - lots of breakage.

I think this would work okay in a flat sandwich press, or a rippled one, if the lid was not heavy and you sealed the edges of your sandwich before putting it in.  I don't think I'd recommend it though...

So I hope you're somewhere comfy, enjoying some steaming apple pockets, wondering what else you can do with your marvellous sandwich maker... :D

D87: Preparations

I'm having people around for an arvo tea tomorrow so thought I'd take advantage of a spare Saturday to get in a few baked items ahead of time.

First, two-tone brownies. I've made them before, but this one isn't as good I think. The dark choc layer was very stiff and I'm not sure why. I clearly remember it pouring last time, but today it needed pushing. At least the white choc layer won't have sunk into it though.
On the down side, I burned an edge in my effort to ensure the middle was cooked. Note the sunken centre. Humph.

Second, double choc cookies, also a reliable go-to. No messing with the recipe today and they look pretty good.

Two containers filled with cookies :D

Third! Apricot slice from Cookery the Australian Way. It's actually a Lemon slice recipe, and the apple variation asks for a cup of apple purée, so I've drained can of apricot halves meant for pie, and puréed it to bits. Oh so yum.

How will I not eat any when I slice this up?

Perfectly breadcrumbed butter & flour

In other news, I discovered something a little awesome.  I don't love breadcrumbing butter and flour.  I usually start with frozen butter, which is preferable to soft butter when breadcrumbing, but still tricky.  So today I cut it up quite small and nuked it on a defrost for while, hoping to get it at least a little manageable.  Of course I got distracted and over did it, melting most of it.
But! If you chill it, whip it with a fork and chill it some more, it becomes a cold, light cream and oh my goodness just mix it all up with a fork and voila! Perfect! So even, so quick and easy to make into a dough. Deeelighted!
Rather pleased with the even end result too.

I would list my plans for tomorrow, but I wouldn't want to tempt fate.

D83: Resume enhancing

Carpenter.

Event planner.