In The Blue House

This is so a last year or so ago

I'm sure am late jumping on to this bandwagon. Everyone was making these for their kids last year ( or was it the year before?) and it took me this long to get around to it.  I did embroider a couple of M.'s t-shirts, but this is much easier and faster. I can't believe I didn't try it sooner. It's instant crafting gratification and all the skill you need is the ability to cut and iron.

M. was so fidgety when I was trying to take her picture that I finally just told her to go ahead and move all she wanted. That's why she's doing that little shimmy.

This morning I made another one (I'd already cut out the fabric awhile back). A little green tree to iron over a stain on her blue-green t-shirt. It took all of ten minutes (which is still quite a bit longer than the only 8 seconds of pressing  promised in the directions for the HeatnBond Ultra Hold iron on adhesive).

Next I want to try freezer paper stencils.

UfOs to WIPs

I have so many unfinished projects around my house and it depresses me. Every time I see one sitting around, I feel guilty. So I generally shove them in a drawer and keep them out of site. I'm surprised I ever bother to start any craft project when I know that eventually the site of that abandoned quilt or bits of half finished acorn cap fairy are going to make me feel like a wastrel and a shirker.  I've decided I need a little change in perspective.

I've noticed crafters will often post WIP's in their blogs. Seems like putting it out there helps motivate them to follow through with their projects so they can eventually post the end product. So from now on, instead of "unfinished objects", I'll think of them as "works in progress". Hopefully I'll lose the guilt and get to work.

Here's what I'd like to finish over the next four weeks:

Applique for M.'s t-shirt

Scarf made for M.E. from the yarn I spun last April. Needs a lining because M. thinks it's too itchy.

Yarn spun from roving I dyed last spring. It's too electric for me, so I'm spinning some white to ply with it. Looking at it here though, I'm thinking it might be cool to ply with black instead and make it Halloween yarn.

Katy Jump Rope lap quilt. I love this fabric so much. Denyse Schmidt has made a line of fabric that both reminds me of the dresses I wore as a little girl in the late 60's as well as the old 1940's aprons and and house dresses I saw in my Grandmother's farm house. I don't think you're actually meant to use all of them together, but I'm using almost all the fabrics in the blue color way anyway. It makes me happy to see them and also my living room has a lot of blue, green and brown, so even if the quilt doesn't match itself, it will match the room.

It's nothing crafty, but I'll also be painting this little antique chest my mother gave me. It belonged to my grandmother who "antiqued" it before it became an antique (meaning the old pine look  of it is actually painted on). I'm afraid she antiqued a lot of the furniture that was handed down to me. I don't like the look, but I don't mind because it means I can paint it without guilt (the other alternative is stripping, but I'm way too lazy to ever do that) For this chest I bought some jadeite green paint, which you can see I tried along the edge of the top. Now I'm not so sure I like that color afterall. Maybe a deeper green or a nice pumpkin would be better. Though I didn't like the blue I chose for the chest that Katy Jump Rope quilt is hanging on, and it's really grown on me. It takes me so long to get round to going to the hardware store, I'll probably go with the paint I have rather than wait for another color. No matter what color I paint it, it's got to look better once it's cleaned off. Look at all that crap! Shameful! (I'm only pretending to be shocked by that mess. That's pretty much how our whole house looks. I've got a little problem called "I can't stop buying books")