So, for a few weeks, I’m going to be pretty limited with a machine.  Over the weekend, I checked out a number of machines at a couple shops— mostly Janome and BabyLock and I think I’m kind of sold on the prior.  Any recommendations/warnings out there?  I’m looking for a sewing machine with a free arm that is pretty portable— something excellent with a variety of fabrics, even tension, one-step buttonhole features, reliable zigzag stitch, sews in zippers and piping no problem, memorized needle up/down, one touch backstitch, thread cutter— I don’t need a million stitches or an automatic needle threader and I’m not looking for a machine designed for quilting at this point.  If I find that I really do love this quilting thing, I’ll look into a machine for that purpose in the future.

In the meantime though, I have a number of patterns that need to be cut out for a bunch of spring and summer pieces for Heidi.  Ugh, I can’t STAND that step.  Hate it.  So, I fully expect to procrastinate by working on Ben and Heidi’s Santa stockings that I have yet to finish and some other random handwork projects.  And scrapbooking.  And cleaning my house.

Well… I’m learning.  Incredibly imperfect, but until the last 20 minutes when I realized just how off I was on a couple points, it was the most blissful sewing of the three!  I’m loving doing this and am finding myself itching to get going on it in the evenings.  Even if I mistake the 3 7/8 inch squares for the 3 1/2′s and sew and cut all of my half square triangle blocks before realizing my mistake.  Ahem.

The little pink print is one of my all-time favorite reproduction prints.  I love it so, so much and thankfully had two fat quarters of it so I had plenty when it came time to recut all the 3 1/2 inch squares.  One-third done, people!  Wooo-hooo!

Well… my sewing got better, but I learned that I had better not use directional fabrics until I really get the hang of how blocks come together.  These little stripes were a nightmare and I found myself pulling out lots of seams, recutting the fabric, and re-sewing so they would all run in the same direction.  Grrr.  This block would have gone MUCH faster than the first one had I not had that problem to deal with!  Oh well, every time I found myself getting frustrated, I reminded myself to enjoy the process.  And that helped.

I am absolutely determined to use the fabric I have built up and not buy any for a while this year.  But I wasn’t too convinced I was going to like this floral (with a creamy-grayish background) against the white so I just about went out to buy another far quarter of something else.  In the end though, I’m glad I didn’t— I really like it.  I’m having to think about color and value differently than I have in all my apparel sewing and painting, which is really quite interesting.  It’s really fun to have a new challenge!

Holy moly.  I think I may have opened a big can of worms by purchasing this quilt pattern— both in the sense that this thing is going to be an enormous amount of work AND that it was SO much fun.  It is full of mistakes, several points are not matching up perfectly, and I’ve never spent so much time with my seam ripper, but I cannot WAIT to cut out the next block and get going on it!  This is block one out of nine in this quilt and it’s a 24-inch square— and it’s my first block ever.

It needs a good pressing and I probably won’t be able to resist ripping out a couple more seams to re-sew them to see if I can get the points to match up a little better with the center square, but… I’m happy with it for my first time out.  Both print fabrics were purchased eons ago and the solid white is left over from my mom’s stash.

What do you do when you have a looming project that is taking up all the space in your brain and intimidating you?  You hide the fabric pile that is needing to be cut out, pretend it isn’t there and that you kinda committed to it, do a 180*, and start something non-scary, right??  Right.

This is a Cozy Winter Hood from Little Things to Sew by Oliver and S… and, yes, it is yet another awesome pattern from them.  I’ve made one of these before for a little baby boy, but knew Heidi would like one, too.  The brown material is from a 100% wool GAP sweater that I picked up at a garage sale for fifty cents a year or two ago and felted by running through the washing machine and dryer on the hot settings and the bright pink is a flannel I had on hand.  Including the cutting time, this took about an hour.  It matches her winter jacket perfectly, but… this’ll be cute in the spring with a jean jacket, too.

And just in case you were wondering what her goofy faces are, here are a couple!  She was very happy to wake up to this hat!

Sleepy eyes, funny faces, cute hat or none, she is so stinkin’ sweet.

]]> http://heirloomfarmhouse.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/cozy-winter-hood/feed/ 1 Sarah DSC04776 DSC04793 DSC04812 http://heirloomfarmhouse.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/1590/ http://heirloomfarmhouse.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/1590/#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:12:08 +0000 Sarah http://heirloomfarmhouse.wordpress.com/?p=1590 ]]>

One of my goals for the New Year was to try a quilt — and all of our beds actually need them— and so when Katy said she was going to host a Swoon-A-Long, I decided now was as good a time as ever to give it a whirl.  I think I’ll need as much support and pressure to finish it as I can, so I joined the flickr group, too.  There are loads of pictures already popping up— and lots of people have joined in!

After two hours of pouring over my stash of fabric, this is what I’ve pulled together for the nine blocks — a pretty bunch of tiny florals and small scale prints for my little girl who won’t always be so little.

Wish me luck— I’m used to long seams and quick, one-night sews!

]]> http://heirloomfarmhouse.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/1590/feed/ 2 Sarah SwoonStash http://heirloomfarmhouse.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/lttsa-january/ http://heirloomfarmhouse.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/lttsa-january/#comments Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:04:51 +0000 Sarah http://heirloomfarmhouse.wordpress.com/?p=1583 ]]>

Heidi has been waaaaaay into her dollies and stuffed animals lately so the timing of this project in the Little Things to Sew Along was perfect.  It’s the perfect doll carrier and should fit her and her “babies” for a long time.

The pattern was perfect and super easy— I have not had a single bad (or even frustrating) experience from any Oliver and S patterns!

All supplies were left-overs from previous projects or have been in my stash forever so that feels great, too.

It has been great to be sewing in the New Year— not working on projects that I had been planning for months for gift giving at Christmas.  I got the pattern book Sewing for Boys a little while ago and this Easy Linen Shirt (size 6/7) is the second project I’ve tackled from it.  Even though this fabric is just a plain quilting cotton I have had forever and not a linen, it IS a super easy pattern to follow.  I did some fussy cutting to match up the plaids— which aren’t perfect, but it was good practice.

Ben isn’t really needing any clothes, but I thought this would be a good one for his line-up of school clothes as he goes back this week from his holiday break.  The plaid was purchased at least two years ago at the little quilt shop in our town— it is Farm Play by Shopgirl Fabrics/Ruth Derksen for Blue Hill Fabrics.  I had just barely enough.

I wish a plaid line went right down the middle so the print would be perfectly centered but… oh well.  There’s always next time!

It is really strange not to have any kind of snow on the ground up here in northern Minnesota in the middle of December!  And in most ways I miss it.  I love how pretty it is, all sparkly and promising of cozy time indoors. Ordinarily, I’d be chomping at the bit for some snow— but the lack of it it sure makes for wonderful skating out on our lake!  This is Heidi’s first year of figure skating lessons and she loves, loves, loves it.  Thinking that this might become a regular thing for her, I ordered myself a pair of skates so I could take her on off days if she wanted— and it is so, so fun and different to skate out on a lake in the fresh air.  My skates arrived yesterday, were sharpened last night, and tonight was our first time out— and we both had so, so much fun and only came in as the sun was going way down!

Being out on the lake on skates brings back memories from when I was a kid taking lessons myself and from a Christmas break when my brother came home from college with his then-girlfriend and I peeked at them kissing and skating out on the lake from one of the windows.  Not more than a few Christmases after that, when I was in junior high as most of my friends and classmates asked for CD players and fancy sweatshirts, I asked for new skates for Christmas and they were all plastic and pink-lined.  I have no idea what became of them, but they are one of my all-time favorite gifts that I received.  I wonder what she will remember from it.

We’ve been doing a lot of baking in this house this weekend.  The caramels were an absolute flop.  (Maybe I should try using a candy thermometer next time!)  But these sandbakkles, made in my grandmother’s tins from her recipe, turned out awesome!