Month: February 2011

How the mighty have fallen!

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 21/02/2011

I  sure wish I had been there when it crashed to the ground. I mean, not under it, HA HA! but near by.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking: Caitlin must live in one classy building if people can afford to throw away such beautiful couches. Well, it’s true, I do live in a class encrusted building. Don’t be jealous, don’t hate. That couch is still there AND it has a friend if you’ve got a truck or a couple strong friends. For free.

Oh, and I posted more ducks a few days ago. I have a pretty crazy back log of submissions to go through, it’s forcing me to be picky. If something doesn’t look like a duck or it’s blurry or stupid, I delete it. With no reply. I know, so mean, huh?

Leggo my Lego

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 21/02/2011

The art supply store near work sells these mystery minifigs and I got addicted to them on their second run. They come one to a package and you never know what’s inside. Or do you? On the second run there were special bar codes on each pack and you could look them up and you’d be guaranteed not to get a bunch of doubles. That was good, thanks Lego.

This time, on the third run, they don’t do that. I’m not being anal about them, I don’t feel the need to get every single one, so I’m happy with the group I got, my favourite being the Beastie Boy guy with a boom box.

I also love the fisherman, the nice girl working at the cash register helped me feel up every single package until we found him. The witch is holding a maraca as a poison bottle (the Mexican guy came with an extra).  I also really like the elfy guy, sort of Link, I guess.

If anyone has extras of any I don’t have I’d be thrilled to get mail!

Secrets! Revealed!

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 14/02/2011

And other stuff too, I haven’t stopped being busy this week, not even once.

First, as we know, Ali had her baby, who goes by Baby Clay. Or Babby Clay. And because she refused to tell anyone the gender before he was born, I was hoping for a girl so I could pass on the pink/orange/black zigzag quilt I made a while ago. Well.  The good news is that she had him on a Monday, which is also my day off from work, so as soon as I got the good news, I got to work on a baby quilt. I had limited options but navy, green, black and grey seemed good for a boy.

There. Completely made in one day. It’s already been mailed and received.

Next up was my dear friend Libs’ birthday. I’d already made myself a pincushion using a block from knitty.com so I made a second and put a small quilt block on the back and called it good. This one is hers, front and back:

The yarn is mini mochi. It’s nice and soft and very cute. This one is mine, front and back:

Koigu yarn is the bomb. Ditto echino fabric. Delicious. And both were gifts from Libs!

Also, I made throw pillow covers to match my green quilt:

Made with scraps, mostly, a little new (the centre blocks) and the fabrics I’m using for binding (the orange pieces). The backs will be purple batik.

ALLLLLso, I made a couple toys out of an Aranzi Aronzo book, the middle 2 fellows:

Shannon got me thinking about toys and I’m glad I gave that book a second chance. I had to get new poly filler stuffing and I’m not in love with the new brand. I just don’t know where to get decent stuffing around here.

Valentine’s Day snuck up on me, so I hastily made a gift for my Valentine:

If you can’t tell, it’s a mini quilt, about 2′ by 3′,  of an 8 bit picture of him. We’d been very much enjoying 8 bit art by Andy Rash and so I used his formula as the starting point. I mostly used scraps I had laying around here, but also got a couple fat quarters from Walmart (the blue backgrounds and the beige sand, dark brown beard/hair).  I spent a lot of time looking at it and laughing my head off. And yelling at everyone to stop spying on me and my secret presents!

(Also an apology about flopping around and switching blog themes. I hate that,  I get all confused when a blog I frequent suddenly looks different. The one I used for about a day-almost exactly like this one but purple and green-I loved and wanted to stick with but it didn’t have categories or a blog roll so I switched back to this one. Yes, I’m sure there’s an easy way to add those to a theme but I’m too old to start learning tricky stuff like that).

Green quilt

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 05/02/2011

Well, I’ve been a busy bee, it’s true. And much busier and productive than I can post about. Here’s what’s poo, when you make something for someone as a gift and it’s finished and you’ve taken pictures but you can’t post them because they haven’t received them yet. Ali, I’m talking to you. And Libs. It’s torturous.

So between them and the shirts I’ve also put together a scrappy back for my green quilt. It’s not quite finished, I’m planning on getting some yardage tomorrow at the workroom to put a band at the bottom to fill it out to the right size. Or maybe a strip at the top and at the bottom, who knows. I’ve also made the binding for it, it’s also scrappy (surprise surprise!) different orange pattern fabrics.

The bottom edge has been evened out too. I’m very psyched for this quilt to be finished, then I can start thinking about my next big project.

I also organized my sewing area a little. There was peg board laying around here, in the laundry room, so I hung it up and Shannon got me a bunch of pegs and it’s fantastic. So nice to have easy access to thread and bobbins and everything useful.

Now I want more thread. MORE THREAD PLEASE!

On aging.

Posted by Caitlin Jane – 05/02/2011

I noticed the other day that if I lean my arm on my bent leg it squeezes the veins and makes my hand look scary/old. I was trying to pretend that it’s from lifting weights but even my imagination is limited.

Pretty, eh? Pretty SCARY. I am almost 40. And no, if you wondered, that’s not the hand that was injured. Although, at this point, they do look remarkably similar. Not a scar in sight.

The last couple days I have been hacking and slashing at tshirts. I own a shit-ton of tshirts and I wish I liked them more but I’ve finally admitted that I don’t. The best ones, the ones with a cool silkscreen on the front, are always tight and binding and they ride up on my gut and drive me crazy.  I was saying to Shannon how much I wished that all those shirt printing guys did them on tank tops so he suggested I cut a couple tshirts up and see what happens.

So this is what happens:

Yes. I suck at self portraits.

It’s a Threadless shirt, I think I got it for $5. And I love the print (“I’ve wanted this for so long”) and I love it even more now.  I used an existing tank top I like for a pattern and literally just laid it on top and snipped around the edges. And then I let down the hem, which adds about half an inch, and voila! I think I’ve done this to 6 shits so far.

Ooh, and if you’re in Toronto, City of Craft is having their third annual Love and Rummage Trunk Show at The Workroom tomorrow. It’s also the last day of a 4 day sale on fabrics, so I’m checking that out too. (I’m at a birthday party in the late morning and will try to get to the wr by 2pm. And I mean it when I say let’s have coffee if you go and you know me and all that jazz). I’ll be wearing my snakeskin leggings.