Cross Stitch Just Got Real

I have a lot of math inclined friends and family, so when I found this on Pinterest, I had to make it for their birthdays!  There wasn't a tutorial just an image, which made things harder.  I decided to show how I made this since there isn't one already.  Sidenote:  If you're into cross stitch and have a sense of humor, this website is for you. =)  They also have great tutorials and detailed "how to" images for cross stitch newbies such as myself.

If you don't know how to cross stitch, and I didn't prior to this project, I recommend watching several YouTube videos on the basics of cross stitch.  I like to think that all the yarn work and sewing I do has helped me get a better understanding on most stitching/yarn crafts.  But realistically, watching several videos was very helpful.

*Disclaimer: Realistically, I didn't make a pattern. I eyeballed an image of the original project on my monitor and wildly started stitching, hoping to be correct. Here's hoping you can navigate my "tutorial."

Materials I used

- 22 Count Aida Cloth from Michaels (15" x 18" - you'll have PLENTY left over - enough to make one or two more)

- Wood Hoop - 6"

- Embroidery thread and needle (I have a 45 Hand needle pack from Singer and used the needle with the largest eye to make life easier)

Once I put the cloth on the hoop, I trimmed it off to make life easier when messing with the thread.  After looking at images of trimmed cloth, I think I went too far. Oh well - the beauty of having a large piece allows me to make mistakes.  But then I remembered that my lovely hubby bought me an obscene amount of embroidery thread from an estate sale... and there was a smaller wooden loop inside!  I used the smaller loop to help me start the project to ensure it was centered.

The trick was starting the with bottom of the S and then ensuring that I kept along the same lines when making my stitches (no marking of the cloth necessary - but does require paying attention a lot).

It doesn't look like the font from the pattern.  But I'm OK with that.

I used the same color thread because why not? But if you're craving color, use whatever makes you happiest.  One of the main reasons the font doesn't match is because I didn't make the X that's traditional for cross stitch.  I just did \ marks and it looked really good! When I tried to do the X (note the minus symbol) it left spaces.  So I stuck with the diagonal stitch because it looked better.

I had fun with this one.  My t wasn't great, but the parentheses were... and they're harder.

The squared symbol isn't too great either... but this is still cute to me.

Once I finished the actual math equation, I put the original wooden hoop on it so I could add the explaination for the joke (so those of us not-so-math-inclined can giggle too!).

Not a fan of the crease in the cloth from using a smaller hoop. 

I used the website I mentioned earlier to figure out how to remove the crease... but it bugged me.

It looks like italics.

Instead of stitching "shit just got real" like in the original, I did "..." which I thought was funnier.

For the only part that required color, I asked the birthday boy specifically what color he loved.... and he said Cerulean.  Even in my big bag of thread, I didn't have that EXACT color, but I had something that was close enough to thr crayola crayon color he wanted. Then I decided to use a different border stitch, waves didn't make sense for him, but I thought this one was up his ally... and there were instructions.  Always a plus!

The border stich up close. The side is just zig zag, but the main border is the tutorial mentioned above.  However, I winged the corners (all by myself!). 

For the corners I started by making an L shape, then stitched twice at a 45 and once at 65 degree angle meeting at the corner of the L.

Domino, per usual, isn't impresesed.  Actually, quite jealous of me neglecting her for this.

And for the finishing touch was centering it in the frame.  This is when it would have been useful to leave extra cloth on the edges... and trimming it later. 

And initialing it would be smart. Oops.

All wrapped up and ready to go!

And then I made another one and actually did traditional cross stitch (X's for everything versus a slant /). I also measured and marked where the exact middle of the cloth then started with the h.  Parts definitely came out better, but I didn't want to do the same border.  Looking on Pinterest for a second time for cross stich borders yielded a better result  than the first time around (it also fueled by my new desiree to get better at this stuff).

Since this peron's favorite color is red, the thread I selected was a rich, dark red.  I then went for something simple... since the point of this isn't about the border, but is about the funniness that is this equation.  I used this as a rough guide, but I decided to only do the bottom. I counted 14 squares in from the wooden hoop on each side to make sure it was starting equally and marked the dead center for the fancy design.

I made the little design at the bottom... just went with it on the left then mimicked it on the right. No clue what I really did.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

Scandalous Stretchy Skirt

I bought some pretty ugly (in my opinion) stretchy fabric off the "rotten rack" a while back.  Finally, I decided to try and make something out of it.  One of the reasons I held off is that the summer is my busiest time of year... and, to be completely honest, I forgot about the fabric.

Originally, I thought I had pinned something off of Pinterest that would show me how to sew properly with stretchy material, but alas, I hadn't.  I did a quick search and found this blog post show casing a skirt that seemed easy enough for me to figure out.

First thing I did was buy the correct needles.  Back in October when I made my Halloween costume I didn't bother to use a different needle and I hated life because of it. Live and learn, right?

This was SO MUCH EASIER to sew than that costume.  Seriously. It was incredibly easy to make this and stitch it together.  It's a little short for my taste, so I'll be measuring better next time I make one of these (this won't be the last one, I can promise that!).  When I first sewed it together, it looked too short for me so I tried to cut a different black fabric to add at the top.  However, it wasn't the same material, so even before I tried to sew it together it was fraying and pulling apart.  Basically, the new black fabric wasn't going to work for this project... womp womp.  But that's ok! The skirt turned out fabulous as is.  Also, it's super duper comfy. Perfect for summer!

Ignore the facial expression, I was staring into the sun. :)

Mother Day's

Happy Mother's Day to all you mommies (including you pet mommies)!

I had been knitting a lot lately so I wanted to sew a little for all the mommies in my life.  There was an adorable pattern I found on Pinterest that I had been eyeing and finally bought it off Etsy.  Totally worth it.  The best part? I didn't know anything about paper piecing and the woman who created the pattern had FREE videos on how to do paper piecing. Amazing, right? Super easy to follow as well.

My mom's gift was easy - horses.  Fawn and Jerry are the horses that I grew up with and they're still kicking (literally - they knocked Dad's dog Luca upside the head a couple months ago when he wouldn't leave them be).  

Here's Jerry, the one-eyed wonder.

Fawn's coat isn't looking too hot here, but you get a better view of Jerry's head poking out.

Since the pattern gave me two angle options, I made Jerry one way and Fawn another. Even though Jerry's a gelding, they're in love and it's adorable.  You can't put them in separate pastures or Jerry jumps over the fence to be with her.  So, I had to do two.

I'm finding that I'm not good with paper piecing and doing it the traditional way. I don't stitch to the paper... ever. I should practice but doing it the correct way, but for these pillows I cut out the big chunks and folded the paper and eyeballed the stitching. I bet all you real quilters are cringing at the thought of me doing it that way, but it worked.... sort of.

On Fawn's you can see that it didn't work out with the right eye and ear.  But the rest was pretty good.

The right eye/side is driving me nuts. But she's super cute.

On Jerry's I made a lot more cuts on the chunks before stitching them together to make sure it was even angles, etc.  It worked better.

Jerry only has one eye so it's supposed to look like this on him. But his is SO much batter!

Looking back on the horse pattern I should have added a tail. But ehhhh. I still LOVE this pattern. I might make another set for others.

Super cute. Love this pattern!

Mom in law was a bit different.  She doesn't have a specific animal that she goes "EEEEE" over (maybe cats... but not like me, obviously I'm the Queen of Crazy Cat Lady Town) but I wanted to have pillows for her that would make Dad in law happy too.  So I looked back at the sewing machine cover I made and made a pillow version of it.  The hubby seemed to think that would be the best option for them and their home.

On the left pillow I stitched Orion, minus his bow.  On the right are the dippers.

Big and Little Dipper.

Orion looks better here.

My Grandmother loves quilting items. All times.  She used to go to Lancaster, PA and buy the prettiest quilts and hang them on her wall, put them on all her beds, and give them to us.  I blame her for my original interest in quilts and mom in law for my love of attempting to make them.  When I was looking through the Etsy shop for the Peeping Horse, there was a Peeping Duck pattern. Sold - I knew she'd like them.

I made four ducks total.  One was a practice set and I took them for our couch and the better ones I gave to her.  I did the first one as the male mallard, but I wanted the second one to be different.  After Googling a couple pictures, I finally decided that I could use a cheetah type fabric to mimic the feather pattern of the female mallard.

This is my practice duck. The nostril is killing me. She's hooked on quack. =D

I love how the female mallard is taller than the male.  These were the better two. Sigh. Need to practice more with paper piecing!

Thoughts? Hope your Mother's Day is a great one!

Ya ain't nothing but Houndstooth...

Since I've gotten Nina, I've been drooling over different projects on Pinterest that I could do.  Watching YouTube and Craftsy videos didn't help my desire (but will help with my technique and final products eventually).  I've decided that I'm going to make a throw quilt a month (or try to) to either give away to friends or to sell on Etsy (given the pattern I use allows me too).

Anyhow, one of my friend's bought their second home (check out her blog about it!) so I wanted to make them something to celebrate.  My friend is rather modern in her decor and I tend to mock her for it as I prefer comfort.  However, when I found a free Houndstooth pattern online I knew I found something that I could make her and she would like. It was rather easy pattern to follow.

My one complaint is that when cutting the 21 2.5" stripes into triangles, the pattern recommended making my own 6.25" triangle pattern to make my life easier when cutting.  In theory, that worked on some of the stripes.  I recognize that it was probably due to my own undercutting (I prefer to have too much fabric rather than the exact amount) that created my issues but I was able to fix it.

As is the blanket is as big as my pool table. If I had added the other rows it would be bigger.

Also, I didn't make it as big as it claimed it should be (otherwise it would be a HUGE throw).  But I noticed that the template had me making an excess of squares... even with the correct dimensions   So I have a bunch left over.  Maybe I'll make matching pillows eventually... who knows.

As for the colors, my friend has two dogs, two cats, and I forget how many chickens.  I didn't think white fabric was the best choice for her house.  I went with black and a medium grey as they're more forgiving with pet hair/stains.  The grey fabric has a design on it because I can't will myself to buy solids. I know solids are a quilter's friend but... arrrggh sooooo boring.

Love the orange stripe with paw prints.

The fleece on the back is a darker grey than the front color and the stripe of orange with paw prints gives it a little flare that I think looks rather nice.  I know her tastes in favorite colors changes regularly, so I was going for a blanket that would stand the test of time (or at least match a season!). Originally, I was going to use an  orange binding to tie in the stripe.... but I remembered her mentioning something about neon colors/zebra print and decided to use pre-cut strips from a jelly roll the mom in law sent me. It made it so much easier.

I used a fancy stitch on the binding to help prevent it from ripping apart too easily. Still a real possibility though.

I used four different zebra/cheetah prints.  I think it adds a nice BOOOM to it.  Quilting it might have been too much with the houndstooth pattern.

Also, I didn't do any quilting on it.  I had found a couple tutorials on how to add straight diagonal lines on this pattern, but it just seemed too busy for me (I would have used black or white thread).  So I opted to not stitch it together and to use a fancy stitch on the binding for strength.  I purposely used a different thread color to stand out.

Klaus approves.

Thoughts?

When I dip, you dip, we dip.

I've been working on Nina a lot lately, so Pinta has been glaring at me in judgement the whole time.  Since she's older and needs more love, I decided to make a cover for her (something I've been meaning to do but kept forgetting) to keep the dust out.

Remember those KitchenAid Covers I made? Well, I used the same principle for it but I didn't want to make it the same boring one fabric.  I wanted to make it similar to this, but not exactly the same. So it inspired me to do a quilted block for the cover.  But I did use maxi piping again (I kind of fell in love with that stuff).

I found a really cool bear tracks block on Pinterest and modified it so it was tracks walking up and over my machine.  I added a solid stripe next to it so it would be a bear walking under the night sky.

I only did four but looking at it now I could have done six or eight and it would have looked better. Oh well.

Originally, I was going to use this as an excuse to work on my machine quilting skills with Nina, but I opted to be SUPER nerdy.  Can you tell what I did? No? Well... maybe you tell what they are from looking at the side piece of the cover ....

The dork inside me is giddy. (It's Orion the Hunter).

I started in the middle and pinned the heck out of it with the piping in between the two pieces.  Seriously, the more pins the better for this.

See the Big Dipper? I know, there's about an inch gap from the bottom.  I'm OK with that, but I'll have to add an inch next time.

You can see the Little Dipper now (that thread is from the piece of fabric place holder, not my cover).  Get why the tracks had to be bears? The original constellations (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor) are shown as bears, not cups or anything dipper-related.

Orion didn't come out as well he should have. My mistake when sewing them together.

Technically, this is reversible but I really made this side pop so... no need to see the other side. =) Happy sewing!

OK.... fine! Here's the other side. But there are no fancy stitches or piping, just plain crazy cat lady fabric....

Feedback welcome!

Knitting Supply Revisited

Remember the crochet supply bag that I made for Jesse's Birthday?  Well, when the hubby came back from  visiting his parents, he brought with him a bunch of knitting supplies from his Grandma.  I inherited 10 pairs of needles and a bunch of skeins of yarn.  I needed a place to store it... and soon. Since I already knew how to make a crochet bag, I set to making myself a knitting supply bag.

I used the 9" pie pan as a template for the bottom of the bag and measured the circumference for the long tube. I made it stand as tall as a typical desk because of how much yarn I had inherited.  I wanted to hide it all from my yarn gobbling kitties.

Notice all the pins? I pinned the hell out of this project. Made it a lot easier to sew.

Again, as I mentioned in the previous post, I used fusible batting and made two straps in lieu of the one strap that the blog that inspired me used (two is more sturdy).  I then used Nina's fancy built in stitches to jazz it up a bit an have fun.  Using a zig-zag stitch to ensure that the needle pockets wouldn't rip/fall off was rather fun. Nina made this project FLY by. Thoroughly enough making it.

It can hold size US 19 needles (the pink ones) and cable ones and scissors! I tried to make it hold everything you could possibly need in your knitting projects (not the embroidery needle - they're really tiny... need to find a good fix for that).

It only stands up that much because it's full of yarn.  When it isn't, it flops over all sad. Hence... reason to buy loads of yarn!

HIDE YO KIDS... HIDE YO... Kitchen Aid Mixer?

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaave ya met Ted my beautiful KitchenAid Mixer?

BEHOLD - A TEAL GODDESS

She's pretty epic. I adore her. I've made a couple things with her, but I'm finding more and more things to use her for all the time (MASHED POTATOES?! NUTS).  C'mon, I cleaned my itty bitty counter to put her on display. So, WHY, on earth, would I hide her teal beauty? Because my house is dusty and I don't want to clog her motor.  

I found an image of a really cute Kitchen Aid mixer cover and it linked back to an About.com tutorial.  Not going to lie, I used it as a rough guideline. I ended up measuring it with a tape measure and making my own paper templates.  I think mine came out pretty nicely (I didn't have a use for the pockets, although, looking back, I should have done them. Pockets are always a nice thing to have.)

The main side (a lovely teal) with canary yellow piping (first time using piping... fun!!)

The other side... no piping, no love. Just there. Eh about this fabric.

Now... here's the fun part. I used my lovely new machine, affectionately named Nina, to make this project.  It actually was Nina's first project with me (*tear* they grow up so fast).  I played with her various built in stitches and had a blast. I never knew sewing could be so swear-free (but cursing like a sailor is half the fun for me). 

And, as always, Domino tried to help me.

But these went so well I might make more for others! =)  Stay tuned...

Ladies and Gentleman.... Nina, the newest member to this sewing family.

Many of you don't know what I've been sewing on the past two years.  I learned on my Mom's 1970's something when I was little, but three years back I inherited my Grandma's sewing machine. An early 20th century White built-into-a-piece-of-furniture-collectible.  It's a great machine, got it up and running by a local sewing machine witch doctor out here, but I didn't like using it too much (the feed dogs and I didn't get along -- I now know that it was probably the low quality thread I was using that was the issue).  So I conned my dad into buying me an even older Singer.

Me happily fixing a cornhole beanbag for a friend... see my lovely Pinta? She's sitting on top of Santa Maria.  You'll get the names in a second.

All Pinta does is a straight stitch, which worked wonderfully for many years on many newbie projects.  But my mother-in-law (which is awesome) noticed that I needed a little more.  She's the one to blame for my interest in sewing and crafting and she has this vast amount of knowledge and experience.  It's pretty epic to have only a phone call away when I can't figure something out or when I need to dork out on a sewing thing. 

As a Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, Good Job finishing your Master's gift, my hubby and her went in together and got me a Bernina 1230 machine.  IT HAS SO MANY BUILT IN STITCHES.

I'll call her Nina. So I've got three sewing machines... the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria... BOLDLY SEWING INTO A NEW WORLD. *a-hem*

You have no idea how thrilled I am to have this machine. LET THE SEWING HARDER AND CRAZIER STITCHES BEGIN!

Punny Pot Holders

I'm trying to improve my general machine quilting skills.  To do so, I decided that making a bunch of pot holders would be an easy way of doing so.

Well, I found this gem of a tutorial and wanted to do something similar.  I made two, one for me and one for my mother-in-law.  I didn't like the "You are so hot!" on the pot holder - it wasn't funny enough for me.  So I googled heat related puns until I found two that I really liked.

Behold!

This one says, "If that pure rump roast? Nothing butt..."

You can see the back splash fabric a little better in this picture.

Mine is already stained from using it (whoops). For the blue fabric I used rotten rack fabric (the stuff people return and it's much cheaper). I loved it. So... tacky. I didn't put a loop on mine but that's because I didn't care. The hubby likes theses because they're big enough for his hands (I didn't follow the tutorial on the sizing... otherwise it would be too small).

For Valentine's Day I made my Grandmother a pair of Heart Shaped pot holders.  I used a tutorial that I can't find now (ARRRRGH) but made some minor modifications.  Even then, I think the Martha Stuart Heart  Shaped Pot Holder pattern is easier than what I did...

You can slip your hand in and just grab away (I definitely played with them for a while like duck mouths... because I'm 5.)

BEWARE - they come out small.  My hands aren't that large, but hubby's hands don't fit at all and mine barely do.  Lucky, my Grandmother is tiny and they should fit her just fine.  If not, they can double as heat pads (which I left a note letting her know that).  I didn't do the other weird material in between, but instead found some lace that I liked as a way of spicing it up.  However, it was hard to properly sew it together, so it didn't come out as well as I'd like. =\ Also, the way the tutorial has you sew them together then just flip them inside out made them bunch up at the tip of the heart and look weird.  It could be how poorly I cut the heart halves, but I doubt cutting it better would solve this issue.

Those are the only ones I managed to do before getting distracted... woot!

Jessie's B-Day!

For those of you that know me, I've had a wonderful person attached to my hip since Winter of 2006. She is an amazing person and I am lucky to have her in my life.

With that mushy crap out of the way, I can show you what I got to make her for her birthday (yesterday).  Now, I sew and knit, but she does crocheting.  She made me this AWESOME pincushion holder for my birthday, so I wanted to make her something equally useful and awesome.

Isn't he adorable?!

I found this awesome crochet/knitting supply bag holder on Pinterest, but, like most links on that damn website, it didn't show me how to make the bag. It was just bragging about. Grumble.  So I used my knowledge of bags (since I've made two already) and bugged my hubby for ideas how to properly make the bag.  He suggested for the circular bottom to use a pie pan (9") and then from there I measured the circumference for the tube shape of the bag.  

The straps have fusible batting on the inside as does the tube-like part. 

See the pockets? This is reversible too, I just gave it to her with them on the inside.

As for the height, I winged it. I wanted it to be tall enough to hold a bunch of yarn (I was pretty sure she was just stuffing her supplies into a box... I know I was shoving mine into a plastic bag).  The pockets were the part I was hesitant on. I had one crochet hook, so I was able to use it as a gauge to see how big each pocket should be.  From there, I pinned the hell out of the solid fabric to the tube one (which I didn't stitch together until AFTER I stitched on the pockets). Then took FOREVER stitching those stupid pockets down.  For the crowning touch, I went to a fancy yarn store nearby and bought her two skeins of gorgeous yarn which I made sure she understood was to be used on a project for her... not anyone else.  

She loves hers. I loved hers. So... I may have to make myself one....

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

FINALLY... I can share with you my Christmas creations (now that I've given them all away to people).

Everyone Got this one

I made an army of wine cork reindeer.
(Notice the newspaper that I used? It's clippings from the Battle of Antietam... reindeers attack!)

I used the following tutorial to make them.  The whole post gives you a ton of ideas of what to do with your spare wine corks.  I just think the reindeer were so cute.  Mine are a little different (the picture isn't very good, sorry).  I used brown pipe cleaners to make their rack more impressive.  Also, the bulb for a nose wasn't doing it for me so I used red jingle bells.  I added a string of green sequins so they could be hung on the tree or just to look like their reins.  I had WAY too much fun making these.

The Men's Gifts

Domino poses with Dad's Phillies wreath and Mike's Orioles wreath.

I bought 40 baseballs off Craigslist for about $30.  The seller was super nice and a huge baseball enthusts.  I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have sold me the balls if I hadn't said I was making wreaths for huge baseball fans (he required that I send finished product pictures. Nice guy!).  So I used this blog post as a guide on how to do it. I didn't use softballs because I had so many baseballs it wasn't necessary.  However, the coat hanger... ehhh not that great. These all kind of sag when on the door.  Makes me sad. I would use two coat hangers the next time or loops of metal wire... something more sturdy.

Now, the Braves one for Jason's Dad was a different story.  All the letters I got were from Michael's and I had to paint them the correct team colors.  However, I wanted a little tomahawk to make it look exactly like the Atlanta Braves logo.  Do you know how hard it is to find a pre-made one?! I ended up using scraps from Home Depot (they're really cool about it - just ask the guys at the back by the cutting station if you can have anything left on the floor).  I glued it together using wood glue, painted it red, wrapped yellow ribbon around it and glued it to the back of the A. It looks pretty cool.

The Mother-In-Law's Gift

She got me heavily into sewing so I wanted to make her something special.  She, and most of my husband's family, is a big fan of reading. When I found this bag pattern I nearly cried from joy.  However, I hate paying for patterns. I think everything should be free. So I ended up using this free wall hanging pattern as a starting point for the book leaning side of the bag. As you can see below, it came out very nicely.  The fun part was using scrap fabric for the books or fabric that she had given me to "play" with earlier in the year.

The pockets were the hardest part for me. I knew how to make a bag from an Easy Quilt's free tutorial on laptop bag making that I had done for my mom last year, but it didn't have pockets.  I used batting in between the library book theme fabric, which I don't recommend because it got way too thick and my old Singer couldn't handle it (I broke a needle at one point... whoops).  Also, the fabric I used for the interior was from a fabric website that I LOVE. 

The Knitting Obsession Begins...

So I found a cute pattern on Pinterest, which links to Ravelry.com a knitting/crocheting website, but I had no clue how to knit or even how to read the stupid pattern. Determined to figure it out, I decided to teach myself with YouTube videos how to knit a scarf, which everyone claims is the easiest place to start.

The Mistake...

Yeah. Easy. This stupid swatch shows you how "easy" it was for me at first. That took me about 3 hours of cursing, hissy fits, and wanting to chuck the needles out the window.   Eventually, I calmed myself down and tried again. I got it right, but to knit a scarf in garter stitch took me forever it felt like.  But I now know what I did wrong in the beginning. I was picking up stitches from the row before and increasing every, single row by 2-3 stitches. At least. So, when you're teaching yourself to knit, take your time to see where the needle is going or you're going to be VERY frustrated... very fast. 

Bailey liked to help me along the way (shocking).

See? I eventually got it right.  I finished this one and started on another one pretty much the next day.  

Same stitch, same needle gauge (US8), and same exact boring style.

Ladies!

Now, for some stupid reason, I didn't take a picture of what I made for all my female friends (arrrrrgh, bad Laura).  I made each of them a rice heating pad. I feel that at my old age *cough* all my friends are finding they have random aches and pains. So, I asked for their favorite scents, bought a bundle flannel fabric from Hobby Lobby and essential oils from Amazon, and sewed away! The tutorial I used wanted me to break it down into sections, but I ended up making three long tubes (instead of just a sack of rice that would bunch up and annoy my friends).  I used ziploc bags for different scents, dosed it all, and shook away! Now, some scents faded faster than others I recommend "touching up" the scents before giving them to others to ensure they still smell nice. The smell of burnt rice is vile.

Well... those were my Christmas gifts! Yes, I had to plan in advance, but it was well worth it to see the look on my friends and family's faces when they opened them. Merry Christmas!