Rebecca Danger

WIP Wednesday {Hexi Progress}

I've been working on my hexi quilt, and have actually gotten to the point where I had to stop since I am waiting for the backing fabric, batting, and binding fabric to arrive. I laid it out on the floor of our downstairs playroom/bonus room and was horrified to realize it took up THE ENTIRE ROOM. All I kept thinking as I was laying the hexi's out was, "Oh good gravy, what did I get myself into with this one?" Definitely some re-thinking of the queen (+) size when I started to see how big it really is. You know, the numbers in my brain did not line up with how big those numbers meant in real life. How the heck am I going to quilt this thing?

I managed to get over the size and sat down to sew the top together over the weekend. At which point again I thought to myself, "Oh good gravy, what have I gotten myself into?" since it took FOR-EV-ER. But it is done, and it looks awesome, and I am back to thinking, "No, no, I got this. This thing is going to be awesome. And why not use your favorite fabric to make the biggest quilt in the house? Just more of it to love."

I suppose we will just have to see how I feel as I try and smoosh this thing through my machine.

Since I had put this guy on hold while waiting for the quilt parts to come, I decided to get started on the mail holder from Patchwork, Please! today.......only to realize I needed foundation paper that could be left in once finished. So, after putting in an Amazon order, I decided to take the day for some knitting instead. Then, I immediately put my knitting down and decided to start on these guys:

They're the Drunkard's Path Flower Placemats from Mollie Makes Patchwork. So I spent the afternoon digging through my scraps and cutting little squares for these guys and plan to get started on sewing them in the next day or two. 

All in all a fairly successful day of crafting. Especially since Mr Danger thought he had to go into work, but then ended up not having to go.

Thanks for visiting me!

Slippers! {A Finished Sewing Project}

Finally! Some finished project photos. I have been terrible about taking them, just never seem to find a kid free/lightning friendly moment right now.

My slippers!

They came out great! Just what I needed. I used the Candace pattern purchased from SewingWithMe5 on etsy. The fabric I picked up about 5 years ago (I remember because I was pregnant with P) that I have been wanting to use for something fun like this. I made mine in a 9, which is a pretty snug fit. I for sure could have gone with the ten. I generally wear a 9-9.5 in shoes.

Instead of interfacing, as called for in the pattern, I used leftover batting bits. I used one layer in the top part and 2 layers of batting in the foot part. The top is great. I could have used another layer, or two even, in the foot part to make them squishier and comfy-er.

To keep myself from wood floor skating I decided to put some fabric paint on the bottoms (some Tulip Slick I had on hand). I went with hearts, since I decided trying to draw anchors would end in blobs and I have confidence in my fabric paint heart-drawing abilities. Works like a charm!

Overall the project was nice and easy and came together well and quick. I got them done in one day, with kiddos. Started during nap time, finished after the kiddos went to bed. The pattern was the shape I was looking for, and was a decent pattern, but it didn't include seam allowances on the pattern pieces (which is a huge pet peeve for me). Other than the pattern, everything was from my stash too, which I have decided to give myself a crafting gold star for. I should really make a star chart for myself.

Yeah, finished project! I keep showing in-progress photos but no finished photos, so go me. 

Thanks for visiting me!

 

TGIF

 

Fridays have become just about my favorite day of the week recently. P's therapy appointment is the earliest of the week, we leave at 10am, he has OT from 11-12, we're home by 1.P is tired by the end of the week and Wee misses his morning nap, so when we get home at 1, we eat a quick lunch, and both kiddos are down for a long nap/quiet time by 1:30-2. Since it is the end of the week and I am thinking about craft time on the weekend when Mr Danger is home and can keep his eyes on the kiddos, I seem to manage to get into my sewing room just about every friday now. Friday is great!

P and I (and Wee) went to see P's behavioral therapist yesterday, and with her help we are going to start trying time-outs when we are out in public places. Talking with her about options I decided to use a time out mat for this, which means I decided to sew one (of course). So, I got started on that this afternoon.

I also had a plan to make Wee a little lovie sized quilt at some point since he really loves carrying things around (he always stops and picks up a toy and then toddles around the room) and I think he would love a little snuggle blanket. Actually, he likes to grab the towel off the oven and drag it around and the other day I thought to myself, "I should make him a little mini quilt and see if he would like that better than the towel." So I ordered this fabric last weekend to make a lovie with, and since it got here wednesday here, and I would hate to leave Wee out, and they are basically the same sized thing, I'm going to make his lovie at the same time. So the quilt will have to wait, but hopefully these will be a couple of quick little projects.

Do you guys have big sewing plans for the weekend? Or maybe big knitting plans?

Thanks for visiting me!

Thursdays are for knitting....

For years I did a weekly knit night on thursday with my girlfriends, until I moved away from Bellingham a few years ago. And whenever I do a knitting pattern release, it is always on a thursday. I started releasing them thursday in the beginning of writing patterns (6 years ago!!!) and it just stuck.

Now I am lucky if I can get in one monthly knit night, and it generally is not on thursday. And I am not getting patterns out like I used to. But, from those years of thursday knit night and pattern releases, I have to say I feel like thursday is my day I think about knitting the most. On my new schedule with P's therapy sessions, thursday is our double-day where we have 2 appointments, one morning and one afternoon, so I don't get much actual knitting in on thursday anymore. Just lots of thinking about knitting!

Here's what I'm working on right now:

I happened across Volga by Jenny Faifel on Ravelry the other day, and was intrigued by the wrap/cowl/connected shawl idea. The yarn is from Jill Draper, from my stash (yeah!). I picked it up when I taught at Chicago VK Live a couple years ago. I am on the final decrease now and really looking forward to figuring out how to wear this once finished.

Thanks for visiting me!

 

WIP Wednesday {More Hexi's}

Good gravy, I'm still sick. This stupid cold has been hanging on and I have had it a week and a half now. I had no voice, and I mean no-voice-had-to-whisper-everything, from friday to monday. Fun. It is just barely back now and comes and goes. I have gotten a good bit of knitting in, but not so much sewing for the last week. Which I sit and think about while I have been resting and have really missed.

But today I felt OK enough to get up and get some sewing in, which felt good. Felt good until the room started spinning and I realized I still wasn't feeling so great and decided I needed to sit back down. Stupid cold.

Do you have fabrics in your stash that you just adore, to the point where you wait and wait for the "perfect" project to use them? And then as you start the project you don't actually want to cut into the fabric because you love it so much? You feel like you might mess up, or maybe the project isn't perfect enough, or something like that. And once you use that favorite-est favorite fabric ever, then you don't have it anymore. Which seems almost worse than having it sitting in your stash not getting made into anything.

I started on a quilt today with one of those fabrics. (This same feeling applies to special yarns in my stash as well, I'm sure you all can relate).

I have had a half yard bundle of 23 different prints from the Comma line from Zen Chic for like 2 years now and I just adore these prints. I love the colors, I love the designs, I love the combos, I just love it all. Like I said I have been waiting for that perfect project, and I decided while doing Baby Trey's quilt that the hexi's would be a great way to showcase this fabric, especially since many of the prints are hexi-like already. So in my mind this was perfect, and finally I would be getting this fabric out to enjoy daily instead of hiding in a bin in my sewing room. But I tell you what, I went to start cutting, and stalled like you wouldn't believe. Finally I got going and I am really excited though. 

Initially I planned on making a lap/twin sized quilt for our couch since we don't have a quilt for our couch yet and I often steal one of P's 2 quilts to snuggle under. But then I realized if I could get 8 hexi's per half yard, with 23 prints that meant 184 hexi's. I only needed 90 hexi's for my original size, so with a bit more math I realized I could make a queen size quilt and use all of the fabric. So that's what I am doing.

So this is great, using up ALL (although there are lots of scraps with the hexi shape) of the favorite fabric, filling a "need" in the house for a couch snuggling blanket, using stash fabric, AND tackling my first queen sized quilt. Win-Win-Win all around and a project I am now super excited about. I will keep you updated on how it goes! But now that the hexi's are cut, I'm going back to bed. Did I already say stupid cold?

PS: I was pleased to see you can still find some of the fabrics from this line if you search through etsy.

WIP Wednesday {Slippers}

After having a few busy days after my last post, I managed to come down with some dumb cold that has kept me in bed until today. Boo. Thankfully Mr Danger had vacation this week so he has been home and I have been able to rest. Not awesome that his vacation is taken up with me sick though.

But today I am up and in my sewing room again. I ended up throwing out my slippers back in like January because even after washing several times, they were gross and falling apart. I threw them out with the plan to just whip myself up another pair. So, I am whipping up another pair, just 4 months later than I planned. I can't wait until they're done, I have really missed my slippers!