Gifted: Quilt for my husband

And finally, the last of the Christmas 2009 gifts! And possibly the best, too: a lap-sized quilt for my husband! I'm sure you other crafters know how difficult it is to surprise your spouse with a handmade gift. It's not that it would be impossible for me--in the past I've shut myself into the sewing room and told him not to come in--but then he knows that I'm making him something, even if he doesn't know what. So I planned ahead, big time: this entire quilt was made in July, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Rob was gone all evening teaching a night class.

The pattern is my go-to one: Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson Designs. The fabrics are all Katie Jump Rope by Denyse Schmidt, except for the skinny border, which I think is a Dimple. As usual, the quilt came together really quickly. And those Free Spirit fabrics? So soft!

The quilting design actually took the longest--a good 8 hours! I think it took me a lot less to hand-stitch the binding on. For the quilting I chose to mimic the plaid of the rest of the quilt and pull in all of the colors. I drew a grid 5" apart and then quilted it with brown thread. Then I switched to green and quilted lines 1/4" away from the brown on each side, then orange, then blue. I stopped at the brown inner border and did one full line of quilting in the outer border so I would have squares at the corners. Even though it took a LONG time, I really like the effect. It's subtle, but it pulls in all the colors and adds a great texture.

The result? I completely surprised Rob on Christmas Eve with a handmade quilt that he (and Iris) totally loves. Sweet.

Lantern Bloom dress

When I bought this fabric a while ago I had no idea what I would make with it, but I did know that I wanted it to be something extra special. Then I started working through this book from the library, and a plan came together: The Back-to-School dress! 

I loved everything about this pattern: the neckline, the sleeves, the pockets! But I was so nervous about cutting into that amazing Laura Gunn fabric that I went beyond my usual muslin-making and made a sleeveless version of this dress to wear as pjs. For two weeks. Just to test out the pattern, you know, and see what I thought. 

I'm glad I did. After wearing it for a while, I realized that the arm hole was too low, and if I added the sleeve, that would be a problem. So I made some adjustments. I had made my muslin and pjs in the pattern's size medium, and had then given the book back to the library, so I don't know if moving down to a small would've fixed these issues or not. Anyway, I removed 1" from the middle of the front, back, and neck pieces. I also moved up the inside of the arm hole by about 1" on front and back pieces. And for the pockets, I used this tutorial again. L-O-V-E! Seriously. I am considering adding pockets to ALL of my dresses because pockets on dresses are the best things ever! 

So, there you have it: The dress that Rob says is my best ever. If I could do it over again, the only thing I would change is adding another 1" to the elastic in the sleeve casings, as they're a little snug to get into, but once it's on it's fine. I made this dress on August 2nd, just in time to wear on our anniversary date in Providence, RI. You can check out pictures here. It was a great weekend trip; WaterFire is definitely worth seeing! And 6 years of marriage? Wow--how did that happen so fast?! 

On the crafting front, last weekend was a wash and the weekend before was packed and was when I made this dress, so I don't have much else to document. I'm still working steadily on a replacement apron, and I need to get moving on my August swap minis, so I hope to have more to share soon. 

What I've been up to

I'm just back from a long weekend in Maine and a week spent with my parents, who are visiting from Wisconsin. I have a ton to catch up on with work, etc. and may be quiet for a few days, but here are some pictures of what I've been up to for the last week or so. First, I was in Camden seeing beautiful foliage, like in the photo above. Then I was on the beach...

With this pensive writer-guy.

The weather was beautiful and we had a lot of sunshine through the changing leaves. I loved the orange trees right next to the ocean. I am definitely turning into a coastie girl...

I also made some progress on my hand-quilting, as you may be able to see below. The thread is brown, and right now I seem to be at 6-7 stitches per inch. Any tips on how to improve, other than practice?? I'm using the technique outlined in Jinny Beyer's book (at least, I think I'm interpreting her instructions correctly!)

And I just had to include this cute picture of us looking happy and relaxed. Aaahh, vacation!

What have you been up to?

Five years...

Okay, this is definitely NOT going to be a crafty post...

It's pretty amazing how much can happen in five years. Five years ago tomorrow Rob and I were married, in a church, in Wisconsin. Since then, we've moved to Boston and then to Salem, adopted two lovely kitties, gotten our master's degrees, jump-started our careers, made some new friends, traveled the East Coast, visited old friends back home... We've also endured some difficult times and some hard losses and health scares, but we've done it all together.

When we got married we were young and fresh out of college. People on the East Coast don't marry nearly so early as those in the midwest, it seems, and though our friends back home were all married or engaged, our friends in Boston were mostly unattached. People remarked, often, on how young we looked, too young to be married. I used to scoff. But now when I look back at those pictures, I do think yikes! We sure did look young.

But we've never looked back.

So on the eve of our fifth wedding anniversary, I'd like to publicly state that though I don't have the traditional gift of wood or the modern gift of silverware for you, Rob, I do have more love for you than I ever could have imagined. It's gotten us this far, and I truly believe we have a long way yet to go.

Happy anniversary, Bert. I love you.

A break from crafting

So, I didn't do any crafting last weekend because we were at my friend Jeff's wedding in Connecticut! It was a lovely wedding ceremony, and we had a really nice time with our friends Grace and JJ, who were generous enough to drive our butts around all weekend! 

I guess there is a little craftiness that went into this weekend. First, of course, I made the (sort of) crazy quilt as our wedding gift. I came back to work Monday morning to a lovely thank-you email from the couple saying how much they appreciate the gesture and that they are going to hang it in their (tiny Brooklyn) apartment because it's art. My heart just swells when my gifts are appreciated like that! 

Second is the work I did on my dress. It was a total splurge purchased by me during our "spring break '07" trip to Portland, Maine. It was $60, but Rob talked me into it (and actually, those red earrings were from that trip, too! $12, made from vintage beads). It was strapless, and a little too loose for my comfort. So, I added the grosgrain ribbon straps, and I took in the sides of the top at the seams, about an inch or so on each side. The dress is so amazing and fun, with a bunch of tulle in the skirt, so it looked (and felt) like a Miss Muffet dress. So fun! I got a lot of lovely compliments, which was so nice. And I wore my new red Payless Mary Janes, which were surprisingly comfy (no blisters on my first-time wearing them!) and looked so matchy-matchy. 

Okay, and I also forgot that I crafted my red handbag for the wedding, which is another post. I also stitched up a quick felt envelope for cash and ID, but that's another entry, too. The last bit of crafting in that photo above is my lovely work tying Rob's bow tie! We finally figured it out. He was the only man there rocking the bow tie, and he looked so nice in it!

This last photo is of us in front of the hotel on Friday night before we headed to a brew pub for dinner. I just think it's a sweet picture of us. There are lots more on my Flickr page! 

There probably won't be much crafting this weekend, either, because from Thursday until early Monday morning we will have three Vikings staying with us, including the little one. It's turning out to be a busy summer!