Poor Gingerbread Man

My nephew came over yesterday to finish the second owl that he had started. He finished it, and wanted to make something for his cousins. He decided to make a gingerbread man. It took a while to make, and he was tickled with the results, so I think he is going to keep it. As you can tell, the gingerbread man has gone through a lot of abuse. I thought turning him inside out would be good since we used fabric instead of felt, but then we didn't leave much room for the seam allowance, so we abandoned that idea. Since he has been taking up so much of my sewing machine time, and since he wants to practice sewing on the machine, I had him make some gift bags for me. I've been meaning to make gift bags for a while - save money on wrapping paper, save the environment, convenience of bags vs. paper, and not have to worry about running out. He made three for me before he started talking about child labor. Fortunately for me, his parents have no problems with utilizing his labor.

My daughter moved out of her school this week. She's going to a different school next semester. Lots of trips up and down steps and through various hallways. I do believe a psychology professor must have designed the building to resemble a rat maze.

Eileen's Owls

On Friday, I invited my mother to go to a charity sew-in with me. They meet monthly to make quilts for cancer patients, and since I just received the newsletter, I was freshly reminded. She, my nephew and I went there. I thought the nephew would bring his homework, but he had been instructed to learn about the project. What a great idea, interview people, write a report. Actually I don't know if the interviewing and writing a report was part of the plan, but it sounds good to me! He was very excited about being able to use a sewing machine for the first time. It turns out that they had decided to take December off for the holidays. We went home dejected.

Yesterday, he came over while his parents went to a birthday party. I gave him a choice between several different options, making paper German stars, fabric owls, baking cookies, or watching a movie. He wanted whatever it is that requires sewing. I had found this cute owl tutorial on Eileen's blog and wanted to make it someday, but I thought I should focus on my gifts first. This was my perfect opportunity to work on it. He was really excited. This requires machine sewing as well as hand sewing, so he got practice doing both. He said, "sewing isn't just for girls." I told him there were many famous male quilters. The machine kept moving the fabric in a circle - which is good because the template is kinda circular - so he got a lot of practice with 1. put the needle down, 2. lift the presser foot, 3. move the fabric, 4. put the presser foot down, 5. sew. It is hard to remember those steps in order.



We used batting scraps for stuffing. Being a son of photographer(s), he is really good about freezing his pose when I was ready to photograph him. My daughter would have told me not to take pictures. He was surprised that I was taking a photo of batting scraps though, but seemed to understand when I told him it was for the blog. The eyes are made from batting scraps too.


Then while we ate dinner, we watched an Indian movie, "Chakde", which is about a has-been male field hockey player who coaches a bunch of women athletes from all over the country with dreams of winning the World Cup. I thought it would be a good tie-in for being willing to break the boundaries society puts on you. We were only going to watch it while we are eating dinner, and then go back and make another owl, but he really got into the movie. And I learned a lot about field hockey from him, since he plays soccer. And he learned more about Indian values: "First you play for your country, then you play for your team, and then if there is any time left, you play for yourself." I know a lot of sports teams in other countries have those values also, but it rarely translates outside to real life as well.

We started on the second owl, but he didn't get a chance to finish it. He's going to give the first one to his mother, because of the purple and green colors. Next time he comes over, maybe I'll ask him to make me one as well. He wants to make a pillow next, or something that lets him do machine sewing longer.

Gift #3 and #4 in Progress

Oh goodness, it is already Wednesday and I still just have an in progress post. I was busily working on Gift #4, and avoiding the pressing of Gift #3. I thought that if I tried to press the applique and it didn't stick, then I would need another crying day, and I have too many gifts to make to take another crying day. Turns out that procrastination days take as much time as crying days, and I have now run out of crying days. I guess I should have read the rule book before I started.

So here I am, still working on Gifts #3 and #4 and have no crying days left over for the rest of the gifts. I also have run out of ideas for what to make the other gift recipients. The first four ideas came easily, but the others are harder. There is one more gift idea in my head, but I don't think I have the proper fabric colors available in my stash. I'll have to think harder on that one.

The good news is that Gift #3 is progressing quite nicely. I pressed the applique, and it did stick very well. I mounted it on the frame, and everything looks good. I got stuck when my staple gun didn't work. I think some old staples have rusted inside it, and all the shaking and shooting and banging isn't restoring it back to it's glory. My sister has one that I can borrow, so that gift is almost done. It does look like is missing something. I would appreciate it if you would please let me know what it's missing. I don't like the bird's eye, but I figure I can get my Sharpies out to fix that.

Gift #4 is progressing very nicely without any setbacks. Well, I still wasn't able to free motion quilt it, but the end result looks good. It is pieced and quilted. Just have to bind it, and I'll show you the grand finish.

Gift #3 and #4 of 10 in Progress

I didn't feel like doing any sewing on Friday. My brother hurt his back at work, so I needed to spend some serious quality time at the hospital with him on Saturday. At least it is a muscle sprain and not a broken bone. Apparently it is a family trait. Or maybe it's an old people trait. Don't know, don't like it. I called my sister to let her know, and she was in a talkative mood, so Saturday was a sewless day as well.

Notice how I am moving on to Gift #4 even though I haven't shown you finished Gift #3? That's because it isn't done yet. Since I decided to make the project bigger, I had to think of something to add to all that empty space. First, I decided to switch backgrounds - from white to purple. That meant that I needed to change the purple on the applique to something else that wouldn't blend in with the background. Since I was using Heat and Bond instead of Steam A Seam (I ran out), I thought I would test out all those rules about using the reverse side of the pattern, etc. for you all over again. Yep. They still apply.

Then I decided to add a bird. After tracing and playing around with different bird shapes, I managed to get a feel for how to draw a bird, and cut a pattern piece bigger, since I could always trim. It looked great the size it was, so I'm leaving it the way it is. The Heat and Bond glued just fine to the applique pieces, but it is having trouble sticking to the background fabric. I tried sewing, but it does gum up the needle, and that messes up the tension, so sewing is out of the question. Right now, I am washing the background fabric, in case it hadn't been done before, and tomorrow I'll apply extra heat, if necessary. I don't want to burn the fusible, but this thing has to stick. Hopefully it will be kinder to me tomorrow.


Okay, for Gift #4 I decided to make another warm wall hanging. I bet my family members are afraid to tell me what they want, because they will get the same thing several times in a row. This will be Warm Wallhanging #3. I have a batik Bali Pop, which is like a jelly roll, which means the strips are already cut. I was thinking simple squares would be good, but then decided on bricks. Rectangles would be even faster than squares. Not staggered bricks, which would require lots of sewing, but rectangles sewn in rows, which could be strip pieced.

Then I got the bright idea that I could make a bargello. I've never made one before, and it's been on my to-do list for a while. The rectangles are smaller instead of bigger, but I don't think it will be too much added work. I wish I could imagine quilts in my head better, so I could see what would have been better, random rectangles, or a bargello, but all the strips are sewn together now, so randomness is out. I think a bargello would look better with both vertical and horizontal symmetry, but I'm not sure if I have enough fabric in one strip to do that, plus I already sewed the strips together. I think it will look fine though, just squares and rectangles in a pattern. I need to sew the rows together, and hopefully things will go smoothly on that quilt.

A Year in Review

I'm not making any goals for the New Year, because I'm not done with the ones for 2008. I'm sure you have been wondering what I've been up to this year, and were hoping I'd give you a recap so you don't have to slog through old blog posts. I'd be happy to oblige.

It's been a good year for me overall. There was some drama this summer with relatives which caused me to start a new blog, and now we aren't talking to each other anymore, but since we didn't talk before anyway, the repercussions are bearable. I'm happy we are finally getting a new president. The big issue that is worrying me now is the economy, but I'm young and healthy enough to work and have job(s), so we will be able to ride it out.

The photos that follow are the finished projects, as they appeared on my blog. A lot of my posts are about the Shakespeare in the Park which won't show up in the finished category.















So what's next? I'm going to quilt today and tomorrow, to properly bring in the New Year. I'll be working on the orange crazy quilt. It's been calling me the loudest lately.

Have a Happy New Year, and best wishes for 2009!