do. Good Stitches - February and March 2014

Time for a do. Good Stitches update.  I'm late on February and early on March - it all balances out in the end right!  I actually finished both of these during my snow day last Monday, but then I was sick all week so I didn't feel like taking photographs or writing even a brief post.

February
Swirly Dresdens for Barb using this tutorial. The template is for a 10 inch finish Dresden, but Barb asked for a variety of sizes, so I made two 5 inch Dresdens and appliqued them to a 13ish inch background so she'd have plenty of room for trimming when she pieces the top.

March
Deb requested these simple Rugby Stripes blocks based on this tutorial by Teaginny Designs, only resized to be 6.5x12.5 inches unfinished. This is going to be one awesome quilt!

AND for both months I managed to work solely from my scrap bin!

Warm for Winter

There's something about winter that just makes me crave the feel of knitting in my hands. To be honest, I have that feeling most of the time, but the sensation of the wool pulling through my fingers as I work away at the next hat, scarf, or sweater feels that much more appropriate in winter. So it's no surprise that I've been casting on and off at a much faster pace than usual. I have a few more items to show once they've been gifted, but for now here are two birthday gifts I recently completed. 

First up is a birthday gift to me. Technically the yarn was a gift from some friends, but since I enjoy the process of knitting that was a bit of a gift as well. Anywho, I bought the yarn from Purl Soho in 2012 and have been slowly chugging away on a Herringbone Cowl every since. I'm terrible at keeping track of my yarn labels, but I'm pretty sure this is Cascade Duo. Whatever it is, it's really soft.

As for the pattern, I'd been eying it for at least a year before I got this yarn and cast on (during my first jury duty session, no less), but I must admit I didn't really like it. I think the finished product on the website looks great, but I found that the stitches were so tight on my needle I could only handle working on this for short period of time before my hands - and brain - became fatigued. And if I made a mistake I had no idea how to fix it, so it's riddled with mistakes. For those reasons this cowl took me over a year to complete and I cast off well before the suggested width. Also, I somehow managed to twist my cast on stitches, so it's actually a mobious cowl. And I can't get it to flatten despite a very thorough blocking. Oh well. Despite all of that, it's quickly become the scarf I find myself reaching for first. It's just so warm and comfortable!

Next, I made this hat for Mr. T for his birthday last month. I made him a simple 2x2 ribbed hat when I first learned to knit two years ago, but a) it was made with junky acrylic yarn and b) he lost it about 3 weeks after I gave it to him, so he needed a new and better one. I snagged this Quince and Co. Osprey (in River, maybe...) from my LYS during one of their annual sales and, after much research and debate, settled on this free pattern.

The pattern includes directions for both a hat that folds up and one that doesn't. Mr. T prefers hats without fold-up brims, so I followed that version, but I should have stopped one repeat earlier because it ended up a bit too tall. It still looks okay, as you can see on the left, just a bit pointy. But thankfully he doesn't mind wearing it rolled up and that emo-style goes well with his shaggy hair and beard. Now he just has to keep track of it, which apparently is harder than you might think. We've already had one near-loss and he's only had it for a month!

do. Good Stitches - January 2014

The Bliss circle of do. Good Stitches decided to take December off to focus on holiday crafting and family time, but now we're back with a pretty awesome quilt. Linda requested blocks based off of the converging corners tutorial from Film in the Fridge. To mix it up, she asked that we use black for the background. I love this! I think the black really lets the bright prints shine. This is definitely going to be one stunning quilt.

Lemons and Limes

I MADE A QUILT!
 

For the first time in nearly a year, I actually completed a human sized quilt. Granted, it's baby human size, but it still counts. I was beginning to worry the DCMQG would revoke my membership if I didn't make a quilt soon - I've brought my knitting to last the 4 or 5 meetings....  But thankfully Mr. T's sister had a baby, so I had a perfect reason to break my dry spell. We went to meet the new niece last weekend, so the last few weeks have been a mad rush to finish the quilt so I could hand deliver it.

After much consideration and deliberation, I decided on the Tangerine Dream pattern from Issue 7 of Quilty. [Sidenote: Actually using a pattern from one of my many books and magazines felt like an achievement in and of itself]. Mr. T's sister and her husband decided not to find out the sex of the baby, so I immediately went to my tried and true yellow and green gender neutral combination. It seems so old fashioned to feel stuck to yellow and green, but I actually really like them together so I decided it didn't care.

Sweet baby Rayna. I can't wait until she's older and can come visit us! Also, she must have been burning up! It was about 70 degrees in Houston and she was covered by no less than 3 blankets. I didn't leave this one on very long - just for a few photos - but still. I was warm in my t-shirt!

The majority of the fabrics are from my stash, but I did pick up a couple more during a guild meeting at Capital Quilts, including the pearl bracelets, the lady bugs, the bees, and, my personal favorite, the trees.

I really wanted to free motion quilt it, but I was on a tight deadline and I'm not a very experienced FMQer. Plus, I think I need a lesson in adjusting my machine's tension for free motion. No matter what I do, I inevitably get pulls on the back when doing a curved design (which is pretty much all of them...). Rather than waste time being frustrated and unhappy with the end result, I picked out the little sampling of FMQ I'd done and stuck with a wide crosshatch following the lines of the top.

In the end, I decided the quilt needed another little pop of color. Since she was born by the time I finished (err...started working on) the quilt and we obviously knew her sex, I added two little pops of pink to the binding. I tested a few other colors, but I really liked the way the bright pink contrasted with the top.

Blerg for blurry photos. Unfortunately I only took one, so it will have to do.

I also added an embroidered label for a little personal touch. I almost didn't have time to include this bit, but I'm really glad I managed. I think it makes the quilt just a hint more special.

On the back, I REALLY wanted to use this print from Anne Kelle's Urban Zoology print (so perfect!), but Mr. T gently reminded me that I'm watching my fabric budget and didn't I have anything in my stash that would work. Turns out I did. I'd bought this animal face flannel to back a quilt that I never ended up making, so I put it to use here. It's actually pretty cute, and the yellow and green coordinate nicely with the front. Some of the animals are a bit difficult to recognize (there's one that I can't decide if it's a cat or a chick), but maybe wee baby Rayna will have fun learning animals with her quilt...

I'm really not much of a baby/child person, but I kind of like this one. Especially those super pinchable cheeks.

Quilt Stats:

Quilt Name:  Lemons and Limes (sticking with the citrus reference from the pattern)

Quilt Size:  41" x 41"
Pattern:  Tangerine Dream -  I sized each block down 4 inches and left off the borders

Fabrics used:  Miscellaneous from my stash. A few that I know are: Ed Emberely, Dear Stella, Pearl Bracelets, Cloud 9 Birch, Kona Chartreuse and Iron

Binding:  Sketch Zig Zag in Gray, with pink pops of Crosshatch Sketch and Dear Stella
Backing: Animal face flannel from JoAnn

Quilting:  Straight line cross hatch done by me on my home machine with a walking foot

Cat shelves

There's been a lot of crafting around the Roach Motel lately, but not too much finishing or photographing. I should have a few things to share in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here's a little cat organization DIY project. (Apologies to those who follow me on instrgram [I'm @thecraftyroach] and have already been overloaded with these photos).

Mitchell on the left and Cashmere on the right

 We saw something similar to this on an episode of My Cat From Hell several months ago and since then I haven't been able to get them out of my head. As cats are wont to do, they climb everything, which for us mostly means the bookshelves and desk chair. We've been considering getting a cat tree for awhile, but a) they're expensive! and b) we live in a small one bedroom apartment already stuffed with belongings (mostly my fabric and yarn stashes and mini library), so we really don't have room for something that large.  Thus, CAT SHELVES!

We'd installed the top shelf a few years ago to house our projector, but since we upgraded our TV we never use it, so mostly that shelf (and the projector) were just collecting dust.  So, we cleaned it off, got a few 10x12in boards from Home Depot, spray painted them a cheery color, and hung 'em up!

I thought it was going to take at least a week or two for the cats to get used to them and use them regularly, but the next day Cashmere was running up and down like a champ. We used treats to coax them up there and teach them what to do, but it really only took a couple of tries. Plus Cash's favorite game is fetch, so she's thrilled to dart up and down after a toy (I really need to get a video of this. It's adorable and amusing!).  Just beware if you're sitting on the couch underneath because she may drop the toy on you!

Mitchell isn't quite as sure about the new play area as Cash is. The first shelf is a bit of an odd angle, so it's a difficult jump (poor Mr. T received several scalp scratches when Cash accidentally landed on his head on her way down), and he's much bigger and not quite as agile as the kitten, so it's more difficult for him.  But he's getting it. Also, Cash is a possessive bully and it's clear he's nervous about entering what she's claimed as her territory. The other night she was up there and Mitch tried to join her and she wopped him on the head! When we're home, we've been trying to manually rotate them in the hopes that they'll treat it as a joint space. Must be working a little...

Mitch looks deer in the headlights and Cash is clearly plotting our demise...

Yesterday, Mr. T had the genius idea to put a blanket on the long shelf, and Cash couldn't be happier. She spent most of the evening lounging and sleeping up there.

If you want to do something like this in your home, my main suggestion is to check the maximum weight the shelf supports can hold. Most should be fine, and our steps are small enough that only one cat can fit, but I still made sure they can bear the weight of both of them at once just in case. The supports on the yellow shelves were 50 cents each at Ikea and, paired with long screws, seem to be holding up to all the jumping just fine. Also, we experimented with gluing small carpet samples on the yellow shelves. The purpose was two-fold: 1) add some intrigue and give them something to scratch and 2) provide some traction and calm my nerves that the cats would slide right off the shelf, but it failed. Mitchell was just tearing it up and eating it, so we took it off.

Overall, it's a been a great area for them with minimum investment (time or money-wise) on our part. Win-win!

Chuppah

Mom: Jess, can you make a chuppah?

Me: Yeah, I could probably figure it out.

Mom: Well, will you make one for my wedding?

That is how my mother told me she was getting married.  By roping me in for a huge project!

The wedding party and guests during the ceremony.

If there ever was a labor of love, this chuppah is surely it.  Never having made one before, I didn't know what I was getting into when I agreed to make it, but I like a challenge...  I began by scouring the internet for photos and pretty quickly settled on a lattice design. Though the wedding ending up taking place in a synagogue, it was originally supposed to be outdoors, so I thought the spaces in the lattice would be nice to allow the sun to come through.

AGF Pure Elements in Appletini, Light Grey, and Fresh Water

I wanted fabric that draped nicely, so we chose Art Gallery Fabrics Pure Elements. We debated using some of the other elements, but decided that simple solids would be best.  I did the math for this thing so many times, it's unbelievable. In the end, I used 12 yards of fabric for this project!

Maneuvering 4 yard strips in my tiny apartment was the most challenging part!

To create the lattice, I cut 4 yard by 4 inch strips of each fabric (thanks to the DCMQG for your cutting advice!), then folded them in half, sewed the raw edge shut, then turned them right side out and ironed them flat, like you would do for a bag handle. I originally tried to use my rolled hem foot to turn the edges under and keep the strips wide, but it was not working. I was practically in tears before I decided to jump ship and revise my approach.

To finish it off, I wove all the strips into the lattice, working one side at a time and securing each strip with two lines of stitching to only the outside edge (the gray strips at the top of both of the above photos). The entire inside is loose. This was quite a feat because there was no space where I could fully stretch the strips out, so I was having to construct it rolled and folded which affected the measurements and evenness a little bit, but not so much that you would notice. Thankfully everything still turned out pretty straight and lined up.

Mr. T, Mom, and I hung the chuppah about 1.5 hours before the wedding, right after Mom and I had finished our nail appointment! We were rushing around like crazy trying to get it up so that we could get back to the B&B and change. It ended up being the perfect size (somewhere between 80-86 inches square, I'd say) and looked beautiful draped over the frame.

The fam, post vows.

The next step is to turn it into a quilt so Mom and Eddie can actually use their chuppah, rather than just shoving all my hard work into a closet for no one to see!  Hopefully I'll have that done by their 5th wedding anniversary...

Me and Mr. T, looking fancy.

This finish counts towards FAL 2013 Q4!

All above photos located in the synagogue with the completed chuppah are courtesy of Holli Lauren Photography.

Date Night Envelope Clutch

Last week, for the first night of Hanukkah, Mr. T and I went on a fancy date. Even though we don't have kids, etc., date night is a relatively rare occasion for us. We're both home bodies at heart, so we often prefer a delicious home-cooked meal (Mr. T is an amazing cook - I really lucked out!) and a movie on Netflix. But since it was Hanukkah and the day before Thanksgiving, we went all out!  He treated me to a fancy and fantastic meal (if you're local or visiting DC, try Cedar. So good! And the service was outstanding) and I took him to the theater to see one of my favorite shows, A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum (the lead we so good. We were practically rolling on the floor laughing at some scenes. If you've never seen this show, go! Or find the movie with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder. Also amazing).

My clutch supply is in dire straits - it really only consists of this one I made over the summer - so I whipped out my Noodlehead pattern again and got to work. This time I made the smaller size and left out the credit card slots. I used Robert Kauffman Yarn Dyed Essex in Black for the exterior and Sarah Watson's Menagerie from her Indian Summer collection for AGF for the lining. 

I added a pop of red with the zipper and pocket lining. I also embellished the flap with some simple embroidery using a silver metallic thread.

As with the first clutch, this one came together really easily.  Mr. T's company holiday party is this weekend at a shnazzy restaurant, so this clutch will be making another appearance, as will the dress I wore to my mother's wedding!