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sewing

So much accomplished today!

by Carol Browne on April 25, 2010 · 5 comments

in Crafts,Family and Buddies,General

The tea party was a big success. It’s not often you get good company, great treats and a fun project all at once. Our project today? Fancy photo frames. We painted, modge podged, glittered and adhered decorative pieces on those plain old boring wooden picture frames you get from Ikea. There were babies and pets and toddlers, too. All and all, a good time. While I was there, I got some sewing advice for those little birds I was trying to make last week. Cynthia and Bea (the sewing geniuses) showed me how to do it. They also showed me how to read a pattern – as in, fabric 2 means, the second piece of fabric, not cut two pieces of this fabric. The reason why I couldn’t figure out the pattern was because I had cut out 3 pieces instead of 2 pieces. Yes. I was stymied on a pattern with 2 pieces. Good one.

A big thank you to Cynthia for the party and to Cynthia and Bea (from Texas) for the sewing hints. Here’s one – when you sew in a curve, it’s best to clip the fabric on the seam allowance side so it gives when you sew it.

But, as you can see, I followed their directions and got the bird together. It’s not quite perfect (there’s kind of a lump on the top of the head I don’t like) but other than that, I think I can whip together a bunch of them. Oscar and/or Donner seemed to have enjoyed the bird, too. Mysteriously, I found the bird on the opposite side of the room a couple of hours after I finished making him.

PSST…I think it was Donner.

After my crafty, busy day, we settled down to watch the Canucks (thankfully) beat the Kings, which means they will move on to round two of the Stanley Cup. Hallelujah. The third period was terrific and then Luongo‘s interview immediately after the game was pretty sweet – especially this quote:

“That’s how I play. I only play when it matters.”

Oh Luongo. I really like you when you win. I really do.

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The beanbag and the table runner

by Carol Browne on February 7, 2010 · 5 comments

in Crafts,General

I had a day of sewing that started off with a little beanbag for Mike’s spacephone. We’ve been listening to his iphone as we drift off to sleep at night and thought it would be nice to have a little dock for it. Mike also uses it for his alarm clock. All I did was cut two six-inch squares, sew around 3 1/2 edges, filled it about 2/3 full with dried lentils and sewed it shut. Instead of laying it flat, I made a fold in the bottom so it kind of sits like a triangle.

Since I had the sewing machine out and after seeing Cynthia’s and the Ookie’s quilts, I thought I’d try a mini-quilt. But opted, instead, to make a quilted table runner. And instead of making a bunch of fancy blocks, I make 1 log cabin blog and two additional “blocks” that consisted of 3 strips sewn together. I didn’t think I was ready for lots of math and all that measuring. So I sewed my three blocks together, made a quilt sandwich and did a big whack of freestyle stitching. Turned out that’s my favourite part. I just doodled on the quilt with the sewing machine and I really like how it turned out. I think I should do more of that. Here’s the photo:

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