Now playing: 02.29.2012

Well, hello there! Sorry about the silence - I didn't really plan on taking a break from the blog, but it just sort of happened. February has felt like a quiet month to me - I've just had my head down, going through the days, doing lots of things but not really feeling the need to talk all about them. But now I'm back, so here's what I've been enjoying lately!

Eating:
I didn't remember to take a picture, but on Friday I cooked roasted tofu and vegetables, mostly following this recipe from Vegan Dad. We're not vegan, but this is a blog I enjoy quite a bit - I either will get ideas from his recipes or will make them but just de-veganize them if I don't have the vegan options on hand. I've made several of his recipes, always with success, and this was no different. I chose to marinate my tofu in veggie broth and some seasonings, but otherwise I followed this pretty much straight through. It was pretty tasty! I think I would have preferred it with seitan for a bit more texture, but otherwise it was quite delicious. I love pot roasts, so it's nice to find a suitable vegetarian replacement.

Reading:

I am sort of simul-reading White Noise by Don DeLillo and Bossypants by Tina Fey - essentially, I turn to the Tina Fey book whenever White Noise starts getting kind of heavy, which is frequent. This is a book that one of my co-workers lent me in a book swap that we're doing, and I know I tried reading it years ago but couldn't really get into it, so I'm trying again. Bossypants is quite cute though.

Listening:

My new favorite song has got to be this: "You, Me & the Boatman" by Quiet Company from Austin, Texas. The handsome gent singing is the husband of Leah Muse of Vacant.cc, a blog I've been reading for literally years and years and years. This is one hell of a catchy tune, and I have enjoyed dancing to it in my kitchen quite a bit. You can get a digital download of their album, We Are All Where We Belong, for only $8 - and it is super worth it.

Crafting:

I haven't been doing much embroidery lately - I've been really trying to make dresses for the Dress A Girl Around The World program. Here are four I made on Saturday in the very uncooperative wind. I love the little fake patchwork fabric - I got that from the thrift store a while back in a random fabric bag.

I've also been working on a big chevron quilt for our bed. I've never done a quilt with triangles before, and I'm already discovering my lack of precision sewing skills are making them match up a little wonky, but I think I've just decided to accept that.

Crafting/Watching:

When I do feel like embroidering again, I sketched up this little design, inspired by Eric watching Twin Peaks for the first time last week. Or, at least he watched it until he found out who killed Laura Palmer, causing him to declare the show stupid and stop watching.

I've got good news! That gum you like is going to come back in style.

A Photo an Hour: Saturday

12:00 AM: So, this photo-an-hour actually starts at midnight - Eric and I both typically work second shift, so we're night owls - I'm usually awake until about 3am everyday. So Saturday started with me ironing some fabric I picked up on Friday for a new quilt.

1:00 AM: Cutting fabric, but now I have some company. After watching the newest episode of The Office (which I just can't stop watching, even if it's not that great these days), we actually went to bed a little early around 2:00.

10:00 AM: Wake up to take Eric to work, discover some of the most snow we've had this winter. Balls!

11:00 AM: Breakfast.

12:00 PM: Getting my oil changed. Yes, I live the type of exciting life that can only be read in internet blogs.

1:00 PM: Lunch. Black bean soup left over from Thursday night's dinner.

2:00 PM: I went over to my friend Heather's house for Dress A Girl Around The World mini-sewing party, where I got to hang out with some of my old derby leaguemates.

3:00 PM: Dress #1 (the green one) finished! Under it are some other dresses I made at my house and brought over - Heather's aunt is trying to get together 200 dresses to send overseas soon, so we've been working together and teaching friends to make them too!

4:00 PM: Dress #2 finished! I also snapped my picture for the day, a sneaky shot of Heather's super crafting utility belt she made for herself:

Sneaky elf!

5:00 PM: Cutting triangles to make a chevron quilt.

6:00 PM: Planning!

7:00 PM: Dinner! Eric made couscous with a vegetable stew.

8:00 PM: FRUIT NINJA

10:00 PM: We tried to go to a local bar that has karaoke to sing commemorative Whitney Houston songs, but the karaoke guy didn't show up due to the snow (which, quite frankly is bullshit, because the weather is never too bad as to stop karaoke from happening... they should be like mailmen...), and then the jukebox only had this ONE song on it. For shame!

Aaaand, that was my day!

Finally!

I finally finished the baby quilt that I started back in September (you can see how long it's been just by looking at the plantlife in each picture)! I used spray adhesive this time rather than doing the basting by hand, and let me tell you - I am never basting a quilt by hand again. In the past it has always been my least favorite part of quilting, and now I don't have to do that? Amazing! I used 505 Spray and Fix, and I did all the spraying out in the Hall of Kegasus, although I was surprised that the smell really wasn't too bad.

I took some inspiration from Ashley of Film in the Fridge (who is kind of a quilting hero of mine... is that weird?) and did a pieced back, which I really really like. This is the first quilt I've made that I didn't handmake the binding, but I also don't like making binding (sooo tedious), and I happened to have a bunch of storebought bias tape in this nice berry color that matched one of the fabrics I used... so I was lazy and used that.

And, of course, I embroidered my name block for it.

Now I just have to get it in the mail before the baby's actually born... CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

Pop-in

Hello hello! Sorry it has been all crickets n'at around here, lately if I am not at work I have been crafting my butt off. I have been spending a lot of my free time just trying to make stuff to sell at Handmade Arcade. Like this little diptych I made:

I found some images from a book about making shadow puppets, and I thought they would look great as an art piece.

The hand features a rarely-seen second stitch: satin stitch (pretty much everything I do is in backstitch). The shadow is an applique that I stitched around the outside. Also, how hard is that hand position? I tried to show it to my girls at work today and they were all, "What is that?" And then one of them made her shadow puppet monster mouth eat the poor bunny.

PS: Totally unrealted to my own crafting, but check out this amazing quilt I found at the thrift store the other day:

I love the bright pink on the white, it's so punchy and high contrast. Also, it features some really lovely hand quilting (click that picture and check it out really really big - it's a very neat design). It always bums me out a little bit to see something so awesome that was obviously handmade by someone with a great deal of love and care at the thrift store. Sadly, it was $100, so it was out of my budget.

A quick quilt

So, I finished the quilt top Wednesday morning - I ended up having to add a few more strips because after I pieced the whole thing it shrank a little bit due to seam allowance and such. The top itself is 39" by 42", so it would probably also make an adequate play mat. 

In this quilt I finally used a fabric I have been hoarding for at least five years. I found some strips of this yellow/orange/green apple fabric in a mixed bag of fabric scraps from the thrift store. I have a tendency to horde fabric that I really like and have a hard time actually using it. It's like I'm intimidated to use it and afraid that if I use it then later a better use for it will come up and I'll regret having already used it. Wow hey, that's a normal train of thought, right?

Ah, you know what it is...

(black&yellowblack&yellowblack&yellowblack&yellow...)

This weekend the Steel City Derby Demons are hosting an art auction fundraiser called A Black Eye Affair featuring art made by both local artists and some of the Derby Demons! Not to let my crafty skills go to waste, I made a contribution myself:

 

I made a quilt in this tahn's favorite colors! I have been dabbling in quilting a little bit lately - this is technically the second quilt I've ever made! It's just a basic strip quilt (which is already becoming my favorite basic I-want-to-make-a-quilt-in-a-short-amount-of-time quilt pattern). My mother was quite instrumental in acquiring all of the supplies for me - there was a Joann's going out of business near her so she went and reaped all the benefits of the sales. Fortunately, my mother is a native Pittsburgher, so she knew what I meant when I said that I needed gold fabric, not just yellow.

For the backing, I just decided to go with black, but I quilted the whole thing in gold thread so there's some interesting contrast on the back. I embroidered a little name patch - using a supposedly washable transfer pen that was, in fact, not washable (grrr!) - that I think came out well. Lots of tiny details = lots of tiny stitches. The whole quilt is roughly 42" by 55" - it's the perfect size for sitting on trackside at the next bout or perhaps huddling under during a December game of that football team everyone here seems to like so much.

So, if you're a local reading this and you're looking for something to do on Saturday, come on out to the Black Eye Affair! Good food, drinks, arts, derby folk - and you can feel awesome knowing that your contribution goes to helping out a group of amazing female athletes and the rest of the crew of the Steel City Derby Demons!

Now Playing: 08.22.2011

Now eating: I literally twenty minutes ago just finished cooking this summer chowder. It's pretty alright - I didn't have any nutritional yeast to add and in hindsight I would add another ear of corn or too. But it was good, and surprisingly creamy for having no dairy! I love my immersion blender. 

Now reading: I finally finished Game of Thrones! Now I need a little break away from the Seven Kingdoms, although I will read the second book soon. The last time we were in Dayton, I saw this book - The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes - on my friend Travis' bookshelf. You may know Daniel Keyes as the author of Flowers for Algernon, and I wasn't aware he had other books. This is a non-fiction book about Billy Milligan, the first person to attempt to use his multiple personality disorder as an insanity defense. I haven't actually started reading it yet, but I am going to start it tonight.

Now wearing: This sort of doubles as a now playing and a craft mention, because this is a shirt I stenciled on a while back for a special Lady Gaga vs. Prince themed scrimmage. I designed the little hybrid The Artist Formerly Known As symbol / rollerskate wheel hub and cut out a stencil using freezer paper. The back (which I couldn't get a good picture of - apparently it's difficult to get a picture of your own back) features my temporary derby name for the night - Puss E. Control. I also made some sparkly purple hotpants, but I shall refrain from posting those.

(I must admit to some falsitude - the mustache is Photoshopped. No matter how hard I try, I just can't grow a decent one.)

Now crafting: Yesterday I cashed in a horde of Joann's coupons and picked up some fabric to make a quilt for an upcoming baby of a friend. This giraffe print is my inspiration piece and I tried to pick some solids and prints using all the different colors. The mom & dad are not finding out the sex, so I tried to use all the colors to avoid leaning more towards one end of looking too "girly" or "boyish" or whatever. I'm really excited to get this started!