A few from Arkansas

I decided to take off an a little weekend jaunt to Arkansas with my friend Jessa, with the result that I've eaten a lot of good food and seen a lot of bizarre stuff and not gotten a lot of crafting done. But it was a great weekend! Here's a hint of what it was like:

Finally, finally finished

This was a week of ups and downs, that's for sure. Ups: coffee with friends, seeing Julie & Julia (which I loved), Thai food, laughter, and I have a kitty on my lap right now. Downs: STILL not having a job, or even any interest, despite sending out a billion resumes, ennui, a short-lived flu virus, sleeping way too much. BUT! I'm healthy again, and willing to give next week the benefit of the doubt. Come on, world! Something good needs to happen!

In the meantime, continuing adventures in unemployment (or, as my friend Amanda insists, FUNemployment): I finished my quilt!

It's backed in the hot pink/magenta color that I accidentally use for everything. Check out that sweet hand-stitched binding:

I made a label, too, which features a little stitched kitty:

Current Granny Square count: 34.

Also it's hot as hell here. More incentive to stay inside and sew (as if I needed incentive).

Dog Days

It's that time again... the point in the summer where you just want it to be OVER, so you can go back to school and go outside again and buy school supplies. And, okay, so I'm not going back to school this year, but I did buy school supplies!

Plus, my current state of unemployment allows me plenty of time for important things like quilt-making. It's almost done, I just have to sew the binding down by hand and make a label! I think I feel a Battlestar Galactica marathon coming on.

All-Consuming Quilting

For awhile there wasn't much news on the crafting front because I was spending a little too much time snoozing and not enough time, well, making.

I did get a new oilcloth tablecloth for my craft table! I love the aqua/red/yellow combination. I ordered a couple yards of oilcloth and just pinked the edges to finish it and square it off. Hooray tablecloth!

Anyway, I recently got a copy of Patchwork Style, which is an insanely beautiful book. I really wanted to start in on some of the projects immediately, but I couldn't work on something new knowing that I had a quilting project squirreled away that I've been meaning to finish for about a year. So I got it back out....
And forced Jessa and Lissie to come over and hang out with me while I sewed...
(Jessa was working on a collage book for a friend from college. I like this page!)

And... voila! All the squares laid out prior to assembling the top. The top is sewn together now. I just need to buy batting, tie it all together, add a binding and I will have a (sort of) real quilt done!

Caution: do not start a quilting project unless you have copious amounts of time and many episodes of Ugly Betty to see you through, because you WILL NOT be able to stop working on it until you get to see it put together!

It never hurts to be prepared!

Dudes, I made a skirt!

When it gets to be this part of the summer--the long, hot, interminable part--I always start wishing it was fall. I love fall--school supplies, Halloween, campfires, penny loafers, wooly scarves, corduroys. I decided to prepare myself by buying corduroy in July.

I can't decide if this fabric is ugly or awesome. I really like the teal/mustard combination, but I think it might be weird from a distance. Oh well, too late now!

I like this pattern a lot--it's McCall's, can't remember the number at the moment. It came out a little big--I took it in, but it still sits more on my hips than my waist. I'm going to make another from this pattern, and I'm going to try to make it so it sits more at my natural waist, and hits above the knee.

Granny Squares

The past few days of my life have been about doing the minimum necessary. This has mostly involved sitting in the same chair for hours and hours, watching 30 Rock (although now I've seen every episode, so maybe I'll be able to leave the house again), and, above all, crocheting granny square after granny square.

The good thing about granny squares is, once you've figured out how to make one, you can make dozens or hundreds more without too much attention. That makes them perfect to work on while watching a movie or TV... or, I suppose, while sitting next to a pool or in a meadow somewhere, but I wouldn't know, since I haven't been outdoors since June.

So far the granny square count is around 25. I figure if I make 120 or so more I can sew them together and have a blanket! That should only take ten or twenty years. Or, at this rate, a week or so. Anybody have any good movie recommendations?

Old Table, New Beginning

Okay, so, having just graduated college and being unemployed and living in my parents' house and all, you would think I would use all my newly-acquired free time to do craft projects and then blog about them. Right? Well, so far this summer I'm afraid the allure of Watching TV and Doing Nothing has proved frighteningly strong. HOWEVER. I have been making some changes to my (bright purple, childhood) bedroom, including rearranging furniture and, most importantly, adding a... drumroll please.....

CRAFT TABLE! That's right, an actual flat surface dedicated solely to sewing and making greeting cards and felt badges and all kinds of good things. This table is kind of a project in and of itself, though. It came from my (great-great-?) Aunt Hilda's homestead in northern Minnesota. My mom inherited it and stripped years of layers of paint off it years ago, and promptly stored it in the attic to be forgotten. I rescued it, though!

I "finished" the table by rubbing tung oil into it with a soft cloth, and leaving it in a ventilated area for the odor to dissipate. The tung oil creates a bit of a waterproof barrier, and a slight golden color, without covering up any of the imperfections that give this piece of furniture character and history. I'm pleased with the result!

Here, the table serves as a place for me to display an awesome table cloth I thrifted from ViLynne's in Grinnell. Man, I miss that store.

And here's the finished craft nook! That ugly green tablecloth is temporary, I promise. I'm looking for some sort of oilcloth or other protective covering to keep my sewing machine and scissors from scratching or denting the soft wood of the table. On the bulletin board is an awesome picture my friend Amanda found for me of dollhouse rooms from the '70s.

And finally, another rescued treasure. My grandmother had this clock hanging in her kitchen since 1959. It still runs perfectly, but last time I was at her house, she had it in a box to give to Goodwill! So of course I claimed it for my own.

That's all for now, but cross your fingers that I'll actually make stuff and then blog about it! That would be awesome!