Cotton Constellation

Cotton Constellation

My little quilt galaxy is complete!

This weekend I completed the final two "test blocks" of the Texas Star template and pinned them to my shades in the back room for a colorful constellation. A few things I learned:

Allowances

The seam allowance contraption was incredibly helpful at keeping the seams to 1/4". Training wheels, I suppose, but well worth it.

Get to the Point

Sewing on the bias is tricky. Much easier if the fabric is starched and precisely pinned. I also learned you can burn starch, and in turn, burn the fabric. Following the written instructions are important; someone took the time to write and illustrate them for a reason. On the last two blocks (the green and blue and blue and yellow two, on the left) my seams were much straighter and the blocks went together a lot easier when I followed the pressing, pinning and sewing directions.
 

Reality

I am a messcat. This isn't news, but I had barely finished trimming, pinning, sewing and installing before my work table was a complete mess. My next two projects are scattered about, waiting impatiently for me to get on with it.

Three Wishes

The experiment was a delight! Now I'm ready for the real thing, with some favorite fabric pieces. Stay tuned!

XO Terez

Parasol Pendant Lamp

Parasol Pendant Lamp

It's finally finished! Parasol Pendant Lamp. I saw the lamp on an Etsy post a few weeks ago and because I had all of the raw materials (100+ drink parasols, as Mamacat calls them), 10 glue sticks and paper globe lamp, I had to give it a try. (Also because it goes splendidly with the tropical colored walls in my apartment).

A few tips:
1. Be very careful when cutting the wooden picks out of the parasols. Do not do this around children, pets, or frankly, anyone else. The sticks are incredibly sharp and they ping right out of the scissor blades when you cut them. I also advise glasses or goggles--seriously these things are dangerous!

2. Do not hotglue 100+ parasols to a paper globe on a day when the temperature is above 85. Just don't.

3. It helps to glue the umbrellas if the lamp is hanging from the light fixture (not on or plugged in). It gives greater flexibility in turning the paper globe just so and you can place the colored parasols easier.

4. On the video on Etsy they glue just the centers of the parasols, but I found it more effective to do quick dots of glue between each of the spokes near the rim--and then gently press the colored paper on the lamp base. I think my parasols would have popped off, otherwise.

Now, the big decision: what room do I hang this lamp in? I've tried the kitchen, the living room and the bedroom and I can't decide. Until then I'll continue hanging it wherever I want a little mood lighting.

Go forth and craft!

XO Terez

Hot Like Fire

Thermometer Still Life

What? Don't you keep your thermometer in an abandoned Lady Buxton jewelry box with random photos from your childhood, Wizard of Oz Dolls and antique licorice tins?

In case you didn't know, we're into the second full month of summer, and this is one of the two critical points during the year when it is miserable to live in Boston. The humidity is high, the mercury is higher and tempers are short. (The other time starts March 1st and goes straight through the Spring Equinox. The last three+ weeks of slush, sleet, ruined shoes, frozen fingers and pilly wools sweaters...ugh. But we're New Englanders. We're hardy people.)

In short, this is why I've been on crafting hiatus. It's just too hot. I can't go into the studio. It's 90 degrees in there, at night time.
 
Thankfully, I did add to my stained-glass curtain a few weeks ago to give my full-West facing kitchen window some additional protection from the direct rays of the setting sun:

Stained Glass Curtain 100% More Free!

I lined it with white felt and pinned it up--the shade and gentle colors it bestows on my kitchen space is very welcome indeed. Now it is so big I wonder if I shouldn't just back it, bind it and turn it into a quilt. Maybe in the fall when it's not too-darned-hot.

I do have another little crafty project I'm preparing, here's a hint:

China Fair Shade Sticks: $3.99 for 200

If you've been perusing the craft blogosphere you can probably guess their fate. I'm determined to work on them this weekend--but it will involve a hot glue gun, and it's supposed to hit close to 100 on Friday and Saturday, so crafting might have to wait.

Until then, stay hydrated.

XO Terez

A Quilt for Grandpa-Grandpa on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday

One More Row to Go

Yesterday I spent some quality time stitching in the studio with the Norwegian Knitter. Now that the new window treats are up it is so much cooler and enjoyable to be back there this time of year and it's really hard to pull myself away.  For all of the hours I spend in there,  I can never seem to finish anything because I am too distracted/discouraged by the Black Hole Craft Closet.

This abyss holds all of my fabric...and most of my beads...and most of my carving materials...and all of my holiday decorations...and all of my empty shoe boxes I might need someday...and three unused yoga mats...and a broken Hello Kitty sewing machine...you get the idea.

At 7:30 a.m., after an hour of birding, I was fed up with the looming closet.  I was getting sucked in by the magnetic-color-wheel-explosion-pull and order needed to be returned.

I pulled everything out of the closet and was determined to regoranize so I could actually get to my fabric stash. That left me facing this:

Reality

What a mess! I post this to show you I am not Martha by a long shot.


And then I unearthed a real treasure.  Something I had started last summer.  Something that I had been meaning to finish and never got to after Hello Kitty gave out:  A Kaffe Fasset charm quilt.  I had five nine-patch blocks finished and just needed to complete four more to have a finished top. I dusted off and oiled the Singer 301 and got to work.

One More Row II

I kept sewing and sewing...and guess what? I came to the conclusion I am not a great sewer...yet.  My seams are crooked and I have no idea how to nest properly when I iron, but once I got the top up in the window to take a look, I was thrilled (big reveal in a moment).

I love how the colors and the prints play, and the way the rows trickle down like the seasons--pale winter/spring bursts at the top, failling into bright spring/summer patches and finally the saturated summer/autumn tiles complete the cycle.

I was pretty happy with my 81 patches. And then I got to thinking...Grandpa Grandpa is going to be 90 years old next Saturday. If I added one more row of nine patches, I'd have 90 squares. And I have been wanting to make him a lap quilt.

Bam! Brilliant! Of course--this will be a lap quilt for Grandpa-Grandpa on the occasion of his 90th birthday!

I got to back to work. Brewed a pitcher of Passion iced-tea for sustenance. Ate some yellow and chocolate cake. Got back on the sewing machine (oh how I have missed her!)

Passion Tea

A few more pins, seams, tucks and 'oh shoot' s later, I finished this:

Grandpa Grandpa's Quilt

Now: I have to beg Mamacat and HH to back and bind the thing, because I have no idea how to do that...yet. I've got to get to the Post Office and Priority Mail this sucker! I'll keep you posted. And for the record, I hauled down about 20 cubic feet of junk to curb-cycle, and it's all gone. But the studio is still trashed, and that's ok.

XO Terez

Morning Devotional

Morning Devotional

Erie--and beautiful--classroom window reflections Marathon Monday morning at the unusually empty Devotion School Playground. 

Window Treats

Living Room Flower and Flounce

It's a beautiful thing to live on the top floor of an apartment with a black tar roof and loads of full-sun windows...in the winter. In the summer it swelters and I've been on the lookout for some inexpensive but classy looking window treatment options. Luckily this weekend I hit the jackpot.

Powder Room Detail

Friday night I had a few guests over for dinner and I wanted to jazz up my blue dated bathroom before they descended. I can't do much about the faux wallpaper linoleum walls (don't ask, I'd never seen it before either) but there is a beautiful deep-silled window with elegant day-time light. I like to keep some sort of shade up in addition to the frosted glass for a bit more privacy.  I dug through my fabric stash and found the turquoise yard remnant and threw it over the tension rod. Pretty, but not enough substance. Then I remembered the beautiful tea towel from KimKitch and tossed it over the rod to layer and I kept adding and subtracting ric rack and star headed pins and freshly potted plants and a vintage cigar box until I had this:

Powder Room Privacy

The best part: I already had all of the elements so it cost me nothing.

(PS the "shade pull" is actual a single vintage clip on earring! It's a giant pink pearl and it matches the dress of the cigar box lady perfectly, yessss! I knew there was a reason I was hanging on to it!)

Saturday I was on the prowl, determined to put up the rest of the curtain rods that have been gathering dust and meant business about taking care of the sun problem in the sun-room/studio.

At TJMaxx I was scouring the isles for sheets, tablecloths, shower curtains--anything I could use to help cut the full-strength afternoon sun in the back room. I had a few dining room tablecloths in my arms but they just weren't quite it. On a last go-through I discovered a hidden stash of light-blocking curtain panels, and just my luck they were white and there were four of them and they were one quarter the original cost! The studio now looks like this in the afternoon sun:

Studio p.m. Sun: Full Strength

Hooray! I ironed the 84" long panels and threw them over the long curtain rod that spans the three windows that was left behind. The great thing about the panels is that because they are not attached through the loops I can pull on one end and either raise or lower them. Hooray! I can still bird-watch in the morning and be cooler in the afternoon.

With the studio taken care of I had three white fabric shower curtains left over from last year's attempt at blocking the afternoon studio sun. Even though the living room and bedroom windows have light-blocking roller shades, it was a bit stark...until I got smart and doubled the shower curtains, poking holes in the bottom hems and pushing the silver hooks through both the top and bottom slivers to give me a nice, puffed flounce:

Living Room Window Re-Treatments

With one white curtain left I made a bee-line for the bedroom. Even with the light-blocking shades the sun is so strong in the summer the temperature inside runs about 10 degrees hotter than whatever is happening outside. I pulled out the trusty power drill, put up the rod, put up the curtain and pulled the shade and came up with this:

Afternoon Dream

Just looking at it makes me want to curl up with a good book on a Sunday afternoon and slip into an easy sleep.

Wondering about the stained glass curtain from a few months ago? It's been refashioned into a kitchen valance:

Stained Glass Redux

And there you go. Everything was under $100 total.

I'm off to bake so I'll have something sweet to eat while I watch Upstairs Downstairs on WGBH.

XO Terez

Winter Bloom

Winter Bloom

Well, it's cold outside, and we're under Winter Storm Watch 2011 {10-14 more inches Tuesday night!}, but I will say this: today it was clear, crisp and sunny. I'm so happy my poinsettias are hanging in there. Wishful thinking but I hope they can see me through to daffodil season, which is in May in Boston, by the way ;).

XO TEREZ

Stained Glass Curtain

Stained Glass Bathroom Curtain

Well, sad news in my electronic universe. Just when I thought my curse was over with electronics (modem, wireless, BlackBerry, ipod all killed in one week in December) I received more bad news: trusty Cannon PowerShot A720IS is dead. Kaput. Gone. It's served a faithful four years but I dropped it one time too many and...lesson learned: always use a camera strap. While I'm saving up for a Cannon PowerShot SX130IS to replace it I have to rely on the old camera phone. Which isn't the end of the world but... sigh. It was a good camera.

On to better news! The doll quilt was a success, little niecy loved it and I sewed up the leftovers to make a stained glass curtain for my bathroom, just like I wanted. Hurrah! My seams are crooked and you can see where the piecing is off and the colors are much better than what translates up there--but now the bathroom is my new favorite room.



XO Terez

Sunday morning and the Christmas Eggs

Celtic stained glass heart from SewardStreetStudios on Etsy

Oooh how I love Sunday mornings. Especially brilliantly sunny Sunday mornings when the temperature outside is falling and I can snuggle deeply into the down and drift off for a few extra minutes.

Eventually I drag myself to my favorite chair: le chaise lounge:

My first grown-up furniture purchase!

Nestled right against the living-room radiator it reminds me of napping in front of Mamacat and HH's wood stove back home. It even makes the same clink-clunk-clanks as the metal expands and retracts with the blasts of hot steam and when it settles in after cooling off.

I finally made my way to the kitchen to get ready for Challah-Bailey's-French-Toast brunch guest of honor the Fabulous Anne T and to whip up some pumpkin-walnut-cranberry bread for a later visit with C &P across town. I opened my eggs and came across this:

Christmas eggs!

Well, no, they really weren't staged like that, that WOULD have been a miracle, but yes, they were stamped with little dates, Dec. 24. Hurrah! Puts me in the spirit already.  Hope your Thanksgiving weekend-kick-off-to-the-holiday was wonderful.

XO Terez

 

Walk to work Wednesday