Oh for the love of etsy!

Oh how I love Etsy! If you don't shop Etsy - stop reading my silly blog and get on Etsy.com right now. Etsy's self description is "Your place to buy and sell all things handmade." Absolutely everything on the site is amaaaaaaazing. The quality and the breadth of what people can make is outstanding. So much good gorgeous stuff. Truly I could spend hours upon hours browsing through all the different shops. Sometimes I search for something random - like blue gnomes - just to see what magical things will appear. Then maybe I will sort by region so I only get local artists - I have to see what my SF neighbors are up to, you know? It makes me happy to think that just around the corner from me there is someone else tinkering away on their passion projects too (with obviously much better results).

Last week I succumbed to my addiction and supported some fellow crafters by buying a few things. Here are two of my recent Etsy purchases.

1. patchwork stroller quilt from raggedyowl. This is obviously a woman after my own heart. The simple - super soft small quilt is made with fabric showing gnomes and goldfish and dots and stripes - the photo above does not do it justice. It is so bright and cute and I can't help but smile when I look at it. And...big virtual hugs - the quilter included a handwritten card thanking me for my purchase. It makes me feel good inside to support someone else doing something they love.

2. hand printed cards from papermichelle. How could I resist a gnome jumping out of a mushroom cake?? OMG it's like this person is my gnome soul mate. I did buy 6 other cards as well - they were too perfect to not stock up on.

This is the just the tip of the Etsy iceberg.

Happy shopping my friends.

B.L.E.

THREAD - BIGGEST project to date!

I've accomplished the biggest project so far as a housewife. First off - no I am not pregnant - I'm talking crafts here - not procreation. It is a quilt and I made the whole thing myself. Even took a class. The class was me and a bunch of old single ladies - I do say - I fit in well with the spinsters.

The final product measures ~4.5 feet of pure sweat and tears beauty. I honestly shed blood over this quilt. Somehow - every time I moved my arm when hand quilting (so about 10,0000 times) I would scrape it across a row of pins. It looked like I got in a fight with a cat and lost - huge red scratches up and down my forearms.

I have no idea who this is for or what I am going to do with it but I find these projects are the best - there is a lot of pressure when making something for someone else - it is fantastic to just play around and be surprised by the final product.

things I learned and key accomplishments -
how to use a ruler - a fancy quilting ruler
how to cut a straight line (measure twice - cut once!)
needles are sharp
I cannot sit still for 3 hours (I pretended I had to go to bathroom just to shake my sillies out during my class)
pins are sharp
how to make bias strips and attach binding
hand quilting does make for a nicer/cleaner finish but it sure is a looooooooooooooong (pain in the ass) process
working with stripes is dangerous - you cannot hide any errors with them - they blow your cover with their straightness and symmetry - bastards

Like a mom with an ugly kid - I will always treasure this slightly wonky quilt as my first BIG project. Lots of time and effort went into it and I learned so much about sewing and determination and I now have a huge respect for people who undertake these sorts of projects. It was also a real lesson in patience for me too - I have lots of fantastic fabric and books and a big list of projects (nice, fast, cute, easy projects) that I was aching to get started on but I really stuck to my guns and would not start anything new until I conquered the beast. The green floral and pink polka dot beast.


Final words of wisdom - quilting is like a home renovation - assume it will take twice as long and twice as much money to complete as you originally planned.

Cheers!

B.L.E.