Whimsical Repose

Busy last few days. I should be asleep right now since I have class in the morning at 10:35, but I needed to center myself a little, so I took some time to iron the growing stack of new fabric sitting on my ironing board and cut out the pieces for a little cosmetic-sized bag.

What is it about ironing that leads to a state of calm? Is it the repetition? The soft hiss of the steam? The smoothing of the folds that feels like completing a gentle favor to the fabric? It seems terribly domestic and 1950 of me to find such quiet contemplation from a household task, but I like embracing my inner homemaker. (Of course, in many ways, I kind of have to, seeing as Dane doesn't even know how to boil water or brown hamburger meat. If it weren't for me, that man would starve...)

The Supr Top Sekret project I mentioned in this post is finished, so I can post about it. I bought a simple journal, tore out two thirds of the pages, decorated another portion of the pages, then gave it to Tanya for her birthday. The idea is that she'll be inspired by some of my collaging in the book and add her own. Once the book is filled, along with info written in it by her friends and family on "Why Tanya is Awesome", she'll hand it back to me and I will make her a quilt based on her images. The quilt probably won't be done until her next birthday, but at least I'm honest about my procrastination. She thought it sounded pretty cool and vowed to tell her dyslexia to take a hike long enough for her to scribble some thoughts in it herself.

And of course, I failed to get scans of the book, and I'll have to borrow it back from her before I can post some of the pages here. I really am quite a shitty blogger... But then I only have an audience of like, five. Bed now! School tomorrow. Craftiness this weekend and Monday since I have that day off!

Now I have little foam bits all over my rug...

I finished my journal cover a few days ago and I must say I'm really quite happy with it. I did a simple whip stitch along the border in the same brown thread that was used for the handquilting.







So, the other thing I started working on is a seat cushion for my sister. She bought this chair that, I swear, looks like a medieval toilet. It even has a compartment in the seat where she stores photos. I'll try to get a photo of it soon, since I find this chair hilarious (and a ridiculously expensive impulse buy). I have the cushion mostly finished aside from a few extra details. But now I don't know what I'm going to do with the extra pieces. Anyone have any ideas?

Guinea piggin', can you dig it?

I decided that white quilting thread on the journal cover wasn't showing up the way I like. The prints on the front are just too busy. So, I picked out the stitching I'd done and redid it all in brown thread. I don't have any quilting thread in that color, so I used regular all-purpose thread. (And I've discovered that Thread Heaven is one of the best products on the market!) Here's how it looks:



And on the front:



In other news, I picked up my books for the Spring semester yesterday. $300 later, and I'm lugging home a textbook and a study guide for each of my three classes. I spent last night flipping through my Microbiology book and looking at the different bacteria. Rather interesting, and some beautiful ideas for art. Those false-color scanning electron microscopes can produce some pretty awesome images.

I'm giving this post a procrastination tag since I said I would post several days ago and didn't.



So, this is my Christmas present. A new sewing machine! My old one was a good machine, for what it was. My grandmother bought me a Brother XL-6562 as a high school graduation gift, and it's been a pretty good starter machine. But I've finally reached the point where I needed one with more capabilities. I originally fell in love with the Janome Memory Craft 4800QC, but seeing as it's an $800 machine, I could easily tell myself I didn't need nearly that many fancy features.

After shopping around a bit more and looking wistfully at some great machines that were several hundred dollars over budget, I found the Singer Quantum 9910. It has basic features, and a few little snazzy tricks that I like, such as the Needle Up/Down button, a computerized display, Drop Feed capabilities for free-motion embroidery, and it's very quiet. The old machine had to be repaired for something a few years ago and forever afterward, it made a loud banging-type sound when I sewed with it.

With my new machine I started making a little journal cover for my art journal (or one of my art journals, since I have about five...) I'm using a variety of vintage-y prints, some that I acquired from the quilt shop in town, some that came from my stash (which means I don't know where I got it...) The little bit in the corner that's green with white letters came from the Quilt Haus in New Braunfels.



The backing I'm using is a cute red fabric that I found at IKEA when picking up my table a few weeks ago. I'm handquilting around the edges of the hippos and should be finished with it pretty soon. I've been working on the stitching while watching Season 2 of Bones.



I think my next project after this will be to finally get prints of our wedding photos and get them framed. It's hard picking from over 300 pics! When eliminating all but my favorites, I still have about 80 and that may be a few too many to print...