Karen Stewart, Author at Grid and Bloom

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Karen Stewart

Use Your Stash Challenge-2015 Numbers 8-13

It has been a really busy week, I have been working on the Use Your Stash Challenge-2015! I have gotten several projects done and I might even be out of the single digits.

#8 I have finished this scarf/shawl combo.#9 I made four of these for a friend. Since they used stash yarns I am counting them as one item.

#10 This crib springs recycle to wall storage. I know it looks half finished but it is ready to hang and painted bronze.

#11 I finished this baby blanket.Â #12 I also sewed up about 20 cup cozies but I am only counting them as one. I have tons to sew that are already cut out. I am going to call a group of 20 cup cozies as one item for the challenge. I will get them all sewn that way and I won’t have them sitting around as WIPS. Here they are at the half way point.

#13 I also sewed some child sized reversible superhero capes. These two are blue and silver. I have a ton more to sew and it is just a matter of time to sew and the willpower to see it through.

This is what is next on my list of things to do.

Â Baby bibs: 6 done, 2 in the photo and 1 in the mail and 3 others.

Â Baby blankets ready to iron and do the top stitching: 3 sewn and complete, 1 left

Â Finish quilting the striped quilt!
Â Put the binding on the stripe quilt
Â Cut out and sew Â more super hero capes
Â Sew cup cozies that take red thread
~~Â Deconstruct some jeans so they are ready for cutting.~~
~~Â Pack some orders~~
Clean the studio

I have some fun things planned this weekend and the weather is promising to be rainy. This is good, it will encourage me to get some serious sewing done. I have so much to do. I will need to get some more navy thread, but I can sew with other colors until I get a chance to pick some up.

This year the Use Your Stash Challenge seems to be more about finishing what I have started. I like it. It is encouraging me to actually complete some things that have been hanging around for ages. I hope I can keep up the momentum and my mojo for getting things done. Â I have some custom orders that are in different stages of waiting so I must get back to work.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on February 2, 2015 by Karen Stewart

Crazy Weather, Spray Paint and Crib Spring repurpose!

The weather here has been crazy good. It is January and it is 70 degrees out yesterday and today. Wow, 70 in January. It is beautiful. I am going to repurpose a pair of crib springs.

I Â also need to work on my squares for the 4 blocks a week. I am behind and I try to stay a little ahead on that challenge. I also feel behind on the Use Your Stash Challenge. I guess last year I really worked quickly. This year I am doing great projects but I also have some custom work that is slowing me down and I am doing some big projects at the start rather than at the end.

So I got out theÂ spray paint. I have been waiting for a warm day with low wind. You noticed that I didn’t say no wind. I live in Oklahoma and that wind really does blow,Â every single day!

I have been wanting to spray paint these wooden Christmas trees gold, ever since I asked the kids their permission. They wereÂ painted to look like Christmas trees complete with ornaments. So, I yanked them out of the Christmas decorationÂ box and got the gold spray paint out. I am afraid I will forget and lose the gold spray paint before Christmas season next year, besides the Christmas season is always so rushed.

I also wanted to prime this baby crib spring. I have done one side with primer and now I am waiting to do the other side.The timer is set and I am hanging out on the couch until time to jump up and put another coat on.Â The trees I want to put on my mantel at Christmas and the weather at Christmas time was just not right. Since I had the tarp out I decided to do it last weekÂ and then pack them away for the year.

This is what I am going to do with the crib springs, but I’m painting mine dark bronze. I have two and actually I mayÂ give one to my daughter in law. She said she might want one.

Crazy Weather, Spray Paint and Crib Spring repurpose! — http://www.diyinspired.com/repurposed-bed-spring-craft-storage/#_a5y_p=2052817

Here is another one.

I should have some Â great progress to chart this week. I am still working on my To Do list and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

It is time to get out and paint some more.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Karen Stewart

Fabric Bin Tutorial

Today’s tutorial is brought to you by breakfast cereal! Really, I love to use these magazine holder style fabric bins to help me store and sort my fabric. If I put my fabric away in boxes I can’t see what I have and tend to buy more. Since I am trying to stay in my budget. I decided to store my fabric out in the open on shelves. so that I can actually see what I have. I am pretty visual and I need a constant reminder of what I have. The problem with shelves is that the fabric stacks get sloppy and tend to fall over.

I needed to find a way to store my fabric that would keep it in sight and keep it neat. I have open shelves or I would have rolled all the fabric on little bolts. So I needed to find another way to store my fabric. I had an old magazine holder that I had cut from a larger cereal box and decided that I would try that. It works perfectly. Now I can see my fabric and keep it neater. Â I can pull the whole bin down from the shelf. The sides keep the fabric from toppling over. It keeps the stacks of fabric neat and contained. I can also see what I have so I don’t over buy. Fat quarters fit perfectly into each bin or I can fold larger amounts of fabric smaller and file them away into these fabric bins.

We recently went through two of the large boxes of cereal from Sam’s. I am going to show you how I make these bins instead of buying them from the shop. I would rather spend my money on supplies rather than Â craft organizers.

Tape the boxes shut with packing tape.

Measure down three inches from the each long end. You can see the brown mark I made.

You can see both of the marks that I made above. Join them with a diagonal line between the two marks.

Do the same on the back.

Join the diagonal marks with a line straight across the edge of the box on both sides.

Then cut on the line. You will end up with something that looks like a magazine holder when you are done.

I ended up with 4 magazine holder style boxes. Now you can paint them, or cover them in craft paper or decoupage them with paper or fabric. Put them on your shelf and fill them with nicely folded fabric. Perfect fabric organizers for free or at least the cost of the cereal.

Yes, these count for the Use Your Supplies Challenge- 2015

These are numbers 4,5,6,7!

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Karen Stewart

10 Stash Busting Links to Read

I feel like I have a super slow start to the Use Your Stash Challenge – 2015. I needed some inspiration and I found these lovely links to challenge and encourage me to keep going. My stash just seems to keep growing and growing. I have completed some bit fabric and yarn busting projects but I need something for the little bits of yarn and little bits of fabric. This list is a great place to start when it comes to stash busting those little pieces of fabric and yarn.

1.A great stash busting article from Quilting daily!

2. This lovely blanket from Spincushions

10 Stash busting links — http://spincushions.com/ive-been-stash-busting/

3. Yarn Stash busting idea round up by Making it Home!

3. The cutest toddler sweater by Tricksy Knitter that I have ever seen!

4. A paper embellishments stash busting e-course from A Beautiful Mess Shop

5. Crazy Mom Quilts has some great fabric scrap busting ideas.

She has some great ideas so check out the rest of her blog. Here is another post full of wonderful scrap ideas. I really fell down the rabbit hole in her blog there are so many great ideas and I love her use of color!

6. This Groovy Gahn by JustbecauseIcan on Ravelry would be a great scrap blanket.

7. Â Then there is this beautiful woven fabric basket from MarshmallowsandPickles.

8. For the Knitters…I love this blanket. It is superb. The colors, the pattern, I just like everything about it! It is fromÂ https://cauchycomplete.wordpress.com.

9. Â For the Crocheters, there is this option! It is from Dream a little bigger.

10. A great stash busting quilt is the ticker tape quilt. There are so many options out there. I simply went to Pinterest and searched for ticker tape sewing and came up with so many different options. Here is a great ticker tape style doll quilt. This one is from Teaginnydesigns. She got the pattern from Amanda Jean Nyborg at crazymomquilts.

There 10 great stash busting projects to give you some inspiration for the Using Your Stash Challenge – 2015!

I am not sure what I am going to do right now. I have some blah projects to work on but they aren’t as beautiful as these stash projects. So, I am torn, should I start a new stash busting project or simply use the larger pieces of fabric for the more routine sewing.

Do you have any advice? I sure would love to hear it!

Do you have any stash busting projects or links to share with me? I would also love to see those!

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Karen Stewart

4 Blocks a Week Sampler Blanket- Week 5

This is week 5 but when I count the blocks for the sampler blanket there are only 18 in my bag. Two blocks have escaped. I need to take Â minute and find them. Here is the next installment in the 4 blocks a Week. These are a variety of different styles from 100 Colorful Granny Squares to Crochet.

I have included affiliate links to Amazon and I will receive a small percentage of the any purchase you make.

A flower block.An An An octagon that ends up square.

Another floral block

A texture block. I think I forgot to count this one and it looks wonky. I will need to go back and fix it. The problem is right at the beginning of the square, as always. I guess the tv was too interesting or was it when one of the kids had huge questions. I did count louder but it didn’t seem to help! :0)

You can find last weeks blocks here!

I am incredibly late crocheting these and I must head to bed.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Karen Stewart

Jam and Jelly Making

Last weekend we made jamÂ and jelly. The jam is cranberry cinnamon and the jelly is apple. It is a family job with pretty much everyone pitching in. I started the cranberries in the crockpot. Here the cranberries have just been added to the crockpot with brown sugar and cinnamon. The big lump in the middle is the rock hard brown sugar. I have to admit that I didn’t measure it out but just dumped it in.

We used our son and daughter in law’s juicer to skip the big long process of cooking the fruit down and then hanging the fruit in the jelly bag. It sure simplified the whole process. We bought a case of apples together and split the jelly and the leftover apples. It all worked out super easy. I was showing my daughter in law how to make jelly as this was her first or second time making jelly. She loves apple jelly so the first batch was apple. We had a leftover pomegranate that we juiced with the apples so that is the lovely rosy-yellow colored jelly.

Isnt’ it beautiful. The deep purpley red is the cranberry jelly. I tweaked a recipe to come up with it. The basic recipe is this one for cranberry butter. I doubled the recipe, sprinkled 2 tsp of cinnamon (instead of using a cinnamon stick) and then cooked it on high in the crock pot for 5 hours before we put it in the juicer. Then I prepped it just like any jelly. I added 6 cups of sugar and the sure jell. I’m pretty sure that next time I will leave out the sure gel as it is pretty firm but still good.

I don’t own a juicer but I am going to think about purchasing one. It simplified the jelly making and speeded it up by several hours. It is not the way my Grandma made jelly but I know she would approve as it sure saves a bunch of work. We didn’t have to peel the apples before we juiced them, or boil the apples until they produced juice. The flavor is fresher and tastes more like fresh apples.Where did we buy a case of apples in the middle of January? We bought it through Bountiful Baskets.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on January 27, 2015 by Karen Stewart

The New To Do List

This to do list has so much marked off as I have been super productive this week. It has been good to finish up or get so much done on several of my projects. I am pretty happy about following my to do list. I started work on several super hero capes that I am working on for a show this summer. It is on the To do list as it will use up a ton of satin that I bought two or three years ago.

I also finished these little Valentine envelopes that I crocheted for a friend. She has a booth at a craft/antique mall. So, it was a whole sale order for her booth. These are a perfect size for gift cards.

I finished up this shawl/scarf. The colors are wonderful. I am pleased that it is finished as it only lacked about three rows and the red border.

I have added 8 inches to this blanket and will probably finish it up later this week.

I am pleased that it is working up so quickly.

I still need to work on these items as I haven’t gotten to them yet.

Finish the quilt (there is probably only 2-3 more hours of work.)
Sew 3 coffee press cozies
Sew 20 coffee cup sleeves
sew 3 bibs (already cut just need to be sewn)
sew up 4 flannel blankets (already cut just need to be sewn)
sew 10 more paper pieced quilt squares

If I break this list down into easy to accomplish steps. I would rewrite the list like this.

~~Â Iron flannel blankets and pin~~
~~Iron satin~~
~~Iron quilt cottons~~
arrange sewing by color thread
sew items by thread color: blue, white, red, black and pink thread
cut out capes
~~cut out quilt cottons~~
Press all seams and completed projects for photography

I hope all of this helps. I tend to be easily discouraged by the mountain of work standing in front of me. I am still wishing for some snow. It would be nice to be snowed in for a day or two.

talk to you later,

Karen

You can visit my shop here:Â https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChocolateDogStudio

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Karen Stewart

4 Blocks a Week – Week 4!

Another installment of 4 crochet blocks for the crochet sampler afghan! I love these 4 blocks from this book 100 colorful Granny Squares to Crochet. This bobble block has such a different look to it and was really pretty easy to crochet.

Block 13

Block 14

Block 15

I like the flower center in this one but the block needs blocking terribly as it looks a little wonky.

Block 16

This one also has a flower in the middle. The petals on this one stand up from the back of the square. The directions on this one was a little difficult for me to understand but with the chart and the written directions I finally figured it out.Here are is week one, week two and week three.

It has been a busy week with some appointments and new projects in the works. I am working on a new sewing pattern for some satin that I bought last year. I have been afraid to branch out in this new direction but fear is just a stupid reason to not try. So, I have been making some prototypes and trying them on the family. I know that I would have thought they are fun when I was a little person and our kids would have loved them when they were small. So, we will see if they make it to the shop. I am not real thrilled about some of the finishing that is happening and I think that they could be improved before they make it to my shop.

I have also been working on an order for a friend. It is a wholesale order and takes very little time to make so I am pretty sure that these are going to be great additions to my Etsy shop and since I am using up my stash they count to the huge Use Your Stash Challenge that I started in January. I feel that I have been slacking off but the days are filled to overflowing and I have finished quite a few large time commitment projects.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Karen Stewart

The Neverending list of to dos

Here is my to do list for the week.

I am working on my to do list and all the WIPs that I have accumulated over the year. I am getting quite a bit completed but nothing new or earth shattering. Thisneverending list of to dos just has to get slimmed down by a bunch of work. Here is the list so far.

Yarny things:

Crochet shawl

Â I love the colors in the scarf/shawl. It will be big enough to be a shawl Â and yet small enough to wear with a coat. It matches my winter coat and most of my clothes so when I take off the coat I can still wear it.

blue and whiteÂ Stripe

I have added four white rows and will probably take it tomorrow to work on while I wait for classes to be finished.

multicolor granny stripe

I haven’t touched this one yet. I love the colors and it is only a matter of time.

Sewn things:

Various cup cozies – I have made 2 batman cup cozies
coffee press cozies
hot pads or pot holders
2-3 aprons
a quilt that needs the machine quilting I have worked on the quilt and just lack the long sides and bias binding in order to finish this up.

I have been cutting and sewing some satin that has been sitting in the studio since 2013. I am glad that I am finally sewing on it. I am still in the process of drafting a workable pattern so I have some prototypes. I am probably going to take them with me tomorrow and see how they work on real life kids. Since I am lacking little kids in my house any more.

As far as being organized.

I have made a menu for the week
I am planning to make some jelly this weekend
I have checked my appointments to make sure that I am missing nothing.

I read this great blog post by Michael Hyatt and I am breaking my tasks down to smaller pieces. This will help me be more organized. I am also going to set a time and date for myself to go and sit at the sewing machine to sew. I am also going to decide which project to work while I wait for kids at various activities. Cooking dinner and the clean up that goes with it add all kinds of stress to my day. I am making a menu and then setting an alarm to remind me to start dinner at a certain time every day. I tend to work up until the last minute and then dinner is unhealthy (no vegetables or salad), sandwiches, or fast food. All of which are bad for the budget, and add stress.

Things I am going to work on to whittle my neverending list of to dos down to a manageable size.

Finish the quilt (there is probably only 2-3 more hours of work.)
Sew 3 coffee press cozies
Sew 20 coffee cup sleeves
sew 3 bibs (already cut just need to be sewn)
sew up 5 flannel blankets (already cut just need to be sewn)
sew 10 more paper pieced quilt squares
Finish the crochet consignment pieces
Finish the crochet scarf shawl ( I think I am only lacking 6 more rows and then a picot border)

Here is what I said last week.Â http://www.chocolatedogstudio.com/2015/01/06/tuesdays-project-progress-week-one/

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on January 19, 2015 by Karen Stewart

Pink is finished!! #3 in the Use Your Stash – 2015

I finished Pink (the crochet afghan) this weekend. I am so pleased with it. It looks so cuddly and warm. I found some lovely yarn at the shop. It was soft and washable. It is variegated with a long color change in the yarn. It was really similar to a Lion Brand wool yarn that I love to use. It is primarily pink and red and the colors called to me.

I started it in the Linen stitch but it turned out horribly stiff and thick. It looked lovely.Â I was also having some problems seeing where to put the stitches. I may need new glasses. I have named this blanket Pink but you can see the other beautiful colors in the yarn. I love working with variegated yarn. You never have to change or sew in many ends. It makes a nice change from Granny Squares that change color every row.

I love the bobbleÂ border. It adds a little whimsy to the whole blanket. I added a nice gray border on either edge of the bobbles. It adds some definition to the edges. Pink is a bit larger afghan than I normally crochet. It is 51 x 62 inches long. The stripes run lengthwise. I think it will make a great Valentine’s Day gift to someone special. It is available in the ChocolateDogStudio shop!

I am also adding this to the Use Your Stash Challenge – 2015! This is #3 for me to have finished this week. It is a huge project and I spent a bunch of time on it. I am really pleased with the finished product. I just knew that yarn would make a beautiful blanket.

Talk to you later,

Karen