A Very Cool Project in the Making

While frolicking in the water, Craig found a HUGE birch tree that had fallen into the lake. Upon closer inspection, he discovered that the bark was all coming off in huge sheets, revealing an amazing deep orange and red underside in addition to the beautiful textured white exterior. He carefully removed all the bark, cleaned it with a scrub brush (with assistance from Mira) and tenderly set it out to dry. We are still in the brainstorming stage, but we think we are going to try and figure out a way to affix the bark to the risers on the stairs in our new house. Other creative ideas?

A New Baby Quilt

Our dear friends Len and Ani welcomed their son Azulik Vesak Castanos-Davis into the world last Tuesday. Below are some shots of the quilt I made for baby Azulik. The second one (the quilt that is) was so much easier than the first. Still not perfect, but I am learning more with each attempt. I can't wait to post a photo of the baby and quilt together. Stay tuned.

Back in Action

Nothing major to report yet, but I am in the process of making two new quilts. I've been feeling somewhat stalled in the creativity department, so breaking the inertia was awesome. Given the current weather, I figure I should try and use this forced nesting to get something fun and satisfying done versus lamenting all the things I can't do.

I am still essentially designing the quilts as I go versus using a pattern (although I did consult a couple books this afternoon). I'm really trying to use fabrics I have acquired over time...the ones that were just too amazing to pass up but were purchased with no project in mind...hence a massive plastic tub of fabric that is taking up 25% of a storage closet. The downside of this haphazard method is that I never have exactly what I need to complete the project, so I did have to breakdown and place a stealth fabric.com order. More photos to come...

Felted Bunny

When my mom was here earlier this month we joint-crafted a felted wool bunny to add to Maceo's collection. We are now up to an owl, a turtle and a moth/butterfly. I think it came out pretty great - especially since we did not have any pattern. The best part may be the carrot! The green top was all my mom's idea. So clever. As you can see from the photos below, the bunny has taken up permanent residence in Maceo's man cave.

Crafting Update: Felted Quilt

A long time ago I posted photos of a felted wool quilt I was in the process of making. It lay in an unfinished state for quite some time because I was not sure how to proceed with backing it. After buying a lot of orange fleece for the back, I was advised by several quilters not to give it a backing as it would be come far too thick and difficult to clean. In addition, the prospect of affixing the back to the quilted front was incredibly daunting as the material was too thick and inconsistent to sew with the machine.

In the end, I used extra thick binding tape in four different colors and simply bound the edges to make them finished. Overall, I am happy with the finished product. I actually wish that it had a heavier weight - it is too thin for a winter blanket and probably to warm for something in the fall/spring. I also wish that the actual sewing on the edges was more clean - the machine had a hard time with the varying thicknesses of the fabrics (the biding tape and pieced wool) so it created a somewhat ruffled edge which is inconsistent with the bold square pattern. I did enjoy the process and think I would try to make another one in the future. However, I think something more the size of a lap robe would be more practical.

Beginning a New Project: Felted Wool Sweater Quilt

Invigorated by making the baby quilt for Meredith and Rico, I decided to embark on a new quilting adventure using recycled wool sweaters. I was inspired by some similar baby quilts I saw this summer in Vermont and was convinced it would not be too difficult.

Since I had a bunch of scraps hanging around after making some animal-shaped pillows, I figured it would be a fun project to work on as winter approaches. I quickly discovered that I needed way more sweaters than I had, so I made a couple of trips to Goodwill and Boomerangs to diversify my supply. I had hoped to find more funky patterns, but aside form some stripes here and there, the pickin's were slim. I had to settle on the majority of my stash being solids but since the colors are nice, I'm satisfied. I will note that the idea of this being a fully recycled and cheap project is somewhat misleading as I am pretty sure I spent about $50 on the thrift store sweaters to begin the project.

These photos show the quilt in process - labels below to explain the specifics. At this point, I am about half way through sewing up the primary side. I was able to machine sew the initial cut pieces into rows, but I have been hand-piecing the rows to each other (meaning Row 1 attached to Row 2, Row 2 attached to Row 3, etc.) so it is pretty slow going. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it might be done in time for the New England winter. Stay tuned.


This is a close up of the individual squares laid-out in the final pattern.


This is the full quilt laid-out as it will be sewn-up. The index cards indicate the order of the rows, so once I put the pieces away I am able to keep the exact order (sounds simple but seems to be a challenging task).


These are each of the rows of the quilt assigned to their own ziplock bag, along with a general legend to insure that my N/S/E/W orientation does not get mixed up.

Final Product: Upholstery Project

This entry is very tardy, but I realized that I never posted the final photos of my re-upholstery project. Overall, I love the chair. My only two regrets are 1) the repeat of the fabric was a bit large so I think some of the "drama" of the print is lost because you can't see the pattern in repeat, and 2) the chair REALLY goes with nothing - and I mean nothing - in our house. As you can see from the close-up photo of the back of the chair, I am especially pleased that the covered buttons were able to perfectly integrate into the pattern. It was actually not at all hard to do, but somehow it makes it seem very professional!

It is a great piece of furniture that one day will look nice in a [maybe even our] living room, but not until we distribute the lipstick red chairs, mandarin orange/tomato red rug, and grey-blue sofa that currently make up our living room decor. Since our condo is 1,100 square feet, there is not a lot of space for rearranging. In the meantime, it is sitting in the dining room to be admired and occasionally sat in.

Quilting!

Inspired by the awesome quilt that Aunt Mira made for Maceo when he was born, and a general surplus of fabric scraps that I can't bear to throw away, I decided that I was going to try my hand at making a baby quilt for Meredith and Rico's baby-to-be. I have always admired quilts but never imagined myself as someone with the patience or time to take on a very multi-step craft project that requires so much precision and cutting. I guess my foray into blogging - and reading other crafty blogs - got my juices flowing enough to decide to just give it a try. I am also pretty allergic to patterns and have a hard time interpreting sewing and knitting related instructions that have so many intricate steps and processes for something that seems fairly intuitive. Anyway...Mira lent me a book about basic quilting, and I spent a long evening picking her brain about the basic idea of how to make a quilt. I also consulted with my friend Neema's mother Rita who is a serious quilter. After my mom and I had made 12+ pairs of elastic waistband pants for Maceo, I had a lot of little scraps of fabric left over that were too cute not to repurpose into something baby related. After getting sufficient feedback to suggest that the process is not hard but simply time consuming, I took matters into my own hands and starting cutting.

Despite my best intentions, I didn't really take photos of the process along the way, so all I have to share is the final product. I am posting this here since Meredith and Rico both helped me pick some of the fabrics and gave input into the layout when we were together in New Hampshire at the beginning of July. Hence, the quilt is not a surprise. I wish I had done a better job of documenting how long it actually took me to complete it, but because I did it in so many stages and steps it remains a mystery even to me.

I am very pleased with the final product, and feel inspired to keep trying. I can see how quilting might be a great project to do with a small child since you can do tiny bits here and there. I am afraid that I have a pretty compulsive personality so once this quilt started taking shape, I was hell-bent on finishing it. Perhaps now that I have one under my belt I will be able to approach future projects with less intensity?

PS. Mere and Rico - I will have the quilt in the mail by the end of the month!

Upholstery Update

Some recent shots of the progress I have been making in my upholstery class...I keep forgetting to take my camera to class so I don't have any documentation of the the "internal" work that went on. Even if I did, it would not really be a good representation of all the various steps I completed to shore up the infrastructure as many were quite small, painstaking and invisible to the naked eye.

Choosing a fabric was excruciating, but I waited until the very last possible second so I had to make the choice last Saturday. I bought that fabric at a store called Zimman's in Lynn, MA.

For those of you that have ANY interest in fabric, this place is nirvana. Truth be told, I couldn't actually make the choice between two fabrics while I was at the store so I bought them both. The one I did not go with for the rocking chair is going to turn into four cushions for the chairs in the dining room. At least that is what I am telling myself. While I doubt I would have selected this fabric for any other project, my goal was to find something that was traditional enough to work on a Victorian rocking chair but still retained some funk/flair. The color is what really sealed the deal for me.

Back to School for Mama

For the next eight weeks, I will be heading off on Tuesday evenings all by myself to take an upholstery class at a local Jamaica Plain craft school. While at first I was apprehensive about committing to something for 3 hours a week in the evenings (read: bedtime for Maceo) I realized that it would be a great opportunity to 1) learn a practical skill, 2) have some quality time by myself, 3) create space for something creative and productive to happen weekly, and 4) give Craig and Maceo some solo time.

We went on a mission in early April to find the raw material for this class. I found a late 1800's mahogany rocking chair for $30 that was in need of some serious TLC. I had fantasies about finding a Victorian ladies dressing chair with a full skirt, or even a mid-century Eames inspired chair, but no such luck. One of the challenges was finding a chair that was small enough to fit into our place. We don't need any new furniture, and perhaps more critically don't have the space, so the compact size was essential. I am still unclear where this chair will actually go when it is done, but at least if we have to store it somewhere it will not take up tons of precious storage space.

Despite multiple post-its and reminders to myself, I failed to take a photo of the chair before the first class. How idiotic. As a result, the before and after pics are going to be much less dramatic than I had hoped. Just to give you a visual picture, it is (technically, was) a narrow rocking chair with a fully upholstered seat and high upholstered back. The frame was a lovely deep red and the upholstery was a nondescript and mildewy heavy red canvas type material with two of the very large and dangerous looking springs protruding form the seat.

I also failed to take photos of perhaps the most impressive part of the project which was ripping off the old upholstery. Last night was the first class, and the main objective was to rip off all the old fabric and stuffing and get things "down to the studs" so that we could do any repair/reinforcements to the wood. The photo below (again, poor quality with the blackberry) is the chair taken down to the skeleton.

I was somewhat skeptical of the time-dating of the chair when I first bought it: labeling if from the late 1800's seemed like it might just be a ploy to make it more attractive (read: vintage) to the buyer. However, that dating was confirmed when I started ripping off the old seat and back. I discovered that the chair had been reupholstered once before, so much like stripping wall paper you could see the various life spans of the chair as reflected in the fabric choices. The original fabric was a mustard yellow with small blue and red bouquets embroidered into the fabric. Sweet. When I got down to the original stuffing, it was hay! Seriously. And as if that was not Little House on the Prairie enough, the primary nails that were used in the construction of the frame were square. The instructor said that they were essentially tiny railroad ties. Wow. There were also several sections where the frame had been constructed with wood notches at the corners so that each of the sections fit like puzzle pieces.

Unfortunately, the authenticity of the dating was also confirmed by the terrible condition of the wood. Once I got everything off, one full corner of the frame was splintering and almost rotting away. I made a joke about needing to post a weight limit on the chair, but the instructor seemed convinced that some wood-fill and furniture glue was going to be sufficient to hold things together. And so we re-glued all the joints, recreated about a 4 inch section of the frame, and got everything into vices to dry for the week. Next week will be all about re-tying the springs in the seat, removing all the tacks, and beginning to build the frame back up.

I plan to add future posts over the next couple months to show the progress of the chair. I must admit that I had a touch of chair envy as there is a guy in the class with the mid-century chair I had been dreaming of, as well as a few other groovy pieces. However, my project is by the far the oldest and has the potential to be the most transformed. Stay tuned.

Back to Crafting - Jambo Pants

Check out the baby pants I made for Maceo with a pattern my mom drew up for me. A perfect way to use remnants of fabric that are not big enough for anything else. Clearly his legs need to grow in length to fit into a couple of pairs, but the palazzo style works well for his ample thighs. We have coined these "jambo pants" - jambo means hello/greetings in Swahili. I made the first pair with some West African fabric, hence the name.

The Refashioning of the CD Holder

Thanks to several readers suggestions - namely Lindy's and my mothers - I ended up turning the CD holder into a victorian ladies "medicine cabinet". Translation: a fancy name for a place to store the run-off toiletires that don't fit in the normal medicine cabinet. I even made-up the victorian part but given the ruffles, I thought it was a fair label. I think I will be using this same idea to create a mini bookshelf in Maceo's room, but this particular cabinet was not sturdy enough to be on the ground without falling over (and we didn't want to screw it into the wall in his room). The little spring-sash curtains were really easy to instal and would be a super easy and clever way to make a puppet show stage. I am pretty sure there are several of these college dorm room throwbacks in the basement, so this summer I will go rummaging around again and see if I can find a larger version more suitable for a stage.

I would like to give my husband public credit for not only accepting this girly creation into the bathroom (which is already the color of a ripe peach), but actually installing hardware so it could get mounted into the wall. As if that wasn't enough, he claims he likes it! Wow.

Side note: One thing I realized after Craig installed it was that the little curtains are just begging to be opened so you can peek inside. We don't have much scandalous in our bathroom, but unlike a hinged medicine cabinet that can ward some people off with the possible squeak when snooping, this little number is an advertisement for visitor peek-a-boo. I suppose the worse case scenario is that someone might be tempted to try some of the Origins lotion I bought as a post pregnancy splurge.

I need your creative suggestions

Maceo is starting to take some consistent afternoon naps, which means that I am beginning to have a bit more time to dive back into crafting projects. Initially when he was taking smaller naps, I ended up spending lots of time trolling various DIY, before-and-after, and design blogs looking at all the groovy things people do to reuse and transform ordinary objects. So, on a recent trip to the basement, I came across this old CD cabinet that was begging for a makeover. Without any real planning or vision, I made an impulsive trip to the hardware store where I purchased some pretty intense fuchsia paint. Our house has just about every color under the sun represented, but fuchsia seemed to be the missing link.

So...now I have a fuchsia college-dorm style CD rack that needs to be turned into something amazing. Craig has noted that unless something somewhat dramatic happens, it will just look like a hot pink CD holder which is neither clever or cool.

I am relying upon all the creative readers out there to give me some ideas...you know you are (HINT: Lindy, Mira, Hana, Ila, mom). I have imagined building glass or fabric doors to turn it into a chachka cabinet; doing something clever to turn it into a craft "station" to organize all my rubber stamps and collage materials...What else can it become? I have plenty of other paint to play with, along with stencils, fabric, beads. Pretty much you name it. Please submit all ideas. XOX Sarah

Just when you thought I was done...

I made a few more booties...the ones with the little wings remind me of the John Fluevog brand of shoes that I used to covet in high school.

And then it came to an end.

With the family arriving for a Thanksgiving celebration in < 24 hours and hopefully the baby arriving shortly thereafter, I have put an end to the crafting madness. While some people may have figured out how to contain sewing projects to one room, my creativity is apparently so large and relentless that it requires spreading itself throughout the entire house. So, I deliberated about what my final project would be, whipped it up, and have retired (temporarily) the buttons, beads, thread, sewing machine, fabrics, polyfill, needles and anything else strewn about the house.

I'm not sure what inspired this butterfly, but it was fun to make - especially the reversible part. I was excited to use the cool beaded detail that Judy had given me nearly a year ago (removed from the dress she wore to Meredith and Rico's wedding) to add some sparkle to the body of the animal.

I think we are going to hang this above the changing table - a little something to bedazzle and distract the baby. When I showed it to Craig, he noted that this baby is going to be experiencing regular psychedelic visions. Between the baby bumper on the cradle, ocean mobile and now glittering butterfly, we are grooming a future lalapalooza-goer.