The point is that now that I'm halfway through being pregnant, the crafting bug is back! And in full, nearly overwhelming, force. Of course, with pregnancy apparently comes all sort of unexpected aches and pains in places that don't really have a right to hurt as much as they do. My left shoulder is one of those places, so knitting is out for the moment. Good thing I have a sewing machine!
So I made baby's first quilt! And some other stuff!
I actually used a pattern this time from the book Last-minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. Frankly, this book is fabulous. The patterns are divided up by how much time one can expect to spend on them, and having completed five of the projects it's officially the craft book I've used the most of any I own. Back in November, I made this little elephant for Lucy from this same book.
Aaaaaawwwwwww.
So anyway, this time the project was for me! (I mean my baby...) And it's a quilt!
Step one: Assemble fabrics. A few of these I actually bought a solid year ago, just because they were cute and I thought I might make baby blankets out of them. The others I bought to match the theme. It's funny how you can find all of the rocket ship and space-y patterns one year, but the next it's nigh impossible. Fashion. Pah!
Step two: Assemble supplies.
Allow me to explain why a squirt bottle is on the list of necessary sewing supplies:
Step three: Measure and cut your fabric.
Step four: Get discouraged because you measured and cut your fabric wrong. Mope around on the floor a bit to express your displeasure.
Step five: Recover from moping session. Fight with cat.
Goddamn cats.
Step six: Begin sewing. Maybe. If you can get the cat to move.
Oh yes, much better.
Step seven: Forget to record the other steps. Pose with finished product!
It's possible that I sewed some permanent wrinkles into it. And the binding is definitely a little wonky. To be entirely honest, any seamstress worth her salt would be horrified by the finished product. But I'm not a huge fan of salt and frankly, I am quite proud!
Okay, so then I had all these fabric scraps. And I was thinking, what can I do with all these fabric scraps? I made about two and a half times more binding than I actually needed. Seriously, I could bind another whole blanket with the leftovers. It's cut into a very long 4-inch strip. So... what to do with 4x4 inch blocks? Blocks.... BLOCKS!
Having not had nearly enough of sewing yet, I went through all my fabric scraps and made maybe 7000 (estimated number) 4x4 squares while watching a really, really stupid TV show that later gave me nightmares.
What was I talking about? Oh yes, scrap fabrics!
And 4x4 squares!
So let me tell you how to make fabric blocks. Because I'm sure nobody in the history of the internet has thought of this before...
First, you sew your blocks into a flat shape that will hopefully not be confusing to you when you start to get to the really complicated stuff.
Then you get confused and sew your blocks into a horrible noneuclidian mess.
Then you rip out way more seams than you really thought should be necessary, and sew the squares into an actual cube shape.
Turn inside out, stuff, and seam.
Get better and better as you practice more!
These blocks are cat-approved!
And there you have this month's sewing adventure with cats! Next up, things made out of felt that will hopefully entertain a newborn! I think. It's hard to predict what I'm actually going to get around to accomplishing, though, so don't hold your breath.
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