Posted on by

Flannel Blankets

I love flannel blankets for babies. They are so warm, cuddly and comforting. These three were made for baby boys with their bright colors and woven plaids.

My favorite a Stewart plaid. #612014-03-01 13.30.15

This beautiful blue, black and white plaid. #622014-03-01 13.32.39

#63

2014-03-01 13.31.57I love the black in this plaid. These are pre-washed for softness and hemmed for durability. They are woven with the different colors so both sides are exactly the same print.  The shop has bibs to match and would make a great baby shower gift set.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

60 Items and Counting

I never thought that I would reach this number quite so quickly. I wondered if I would be able to create even 50 items. Here I am sitting at 60. Here is a quick look at them all.

I am glad that I challenged myself to the 100 items in 100 days Challenge. I have used quite a few supplies. I am also a little staggered at how much I still have. While I have run out of a few key elements like the batting I use in the coffee cozies, pot holders, and cup sleeves. I have used up three spools of white thread and quite a few buttons. I have given to a teacher friend my rubber stamps, stamp pads and card stock for use in her classroom. I removed several vintage tea towels to use in my kitchen. I still have an excess of supplies sitting in my studio. I am wondering if I could continue the challenge to use up even more supplies in my shop. I would need to buy the batting I need though, I would NOT need to buy any yarn for quite awhile. I have enough yarn to last until June, August or even October, barring any flights of creativity.

I have been challenged to think outside the box and to use what I already have rather than rush out the store when I am low on creativity. While, I do pin ideas to my Pinterest boards, I try to use those ideas as a spring board for my own creativity. I have three or four  several things in the works for the next couple of weeks.

  • I still need to baste and quilt the quilt top
  • I have at least two or three crochet blankets in the works
  • I have three or four crochet patterns that I need to write up and publish
  • I have the supplies to create another weekender bag and the pattern free from the internet
  • I can crochet a ton of fingerless gloves, scarves and maybe hats! I am not fond of hats as everyone’s head is a very different size.
  • I have some small sewing ideas floating around in my head as well.

We will see what happens as I will have a full house next week as it is Spring Break for the college girl and she is bringing her room mates home for the week. The other kids also have Spring break at the same time so it will be a  busy week full of food, fun and laughter. I hope the weather cooperates as a hot dog roast/marshmallow toasting are in the works, along with some trips to museums in the area and of course bargain shopping! May you have a great week! It is icy and snowing here today as I write this, but by the time you read this it should be warm and sunny.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on by

Scarves, scarves, scarves!

When cleaning out the studio last week, I ran across a bunch of lovely silky fabric. It wasn’t anything that I would sew as it tends to spit out the pins as you sew. It is way above my comfort level to sew with and was given to me by both my Mother in Law and my Mom. I had been on a recent shopping trip with my teenage daughter and noticed that infinity scarves and scarves in general were the latest thing. (They have probably been the latest thing for quite awhile.)  I had enough to create a variety of different scarves. Some are infinity and some are not. I am counting these for the challenge.

I made an infinity scarf out of the beautiful green, black and blue optical print.

2014-03-01 13.36.16

I made two of these long rectangular scarves with this lovely black fringe from my supplies. They came out quite nice.

2014-03-01 13.37.41

2014-03-01 13.39.22

I also made an infinity scarf out of the same fabric. It reminds me of storm clouds.2014-03-01 13.40.48

This is a beautiful silky feel window pane plaid of purple, green and red on a blue background. While I was taking the photos I found an alternate way to wear it. A simple pull through knot.

2014-03-01 13.41.44So five scarves would be numbers #56, 57, 58, 59, 60! I haven’t decided if these will be in listed in the shop or for personal use. We will see!

talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

100 Items in 100 Days Challenge: The downhill slide!

I bought a ton of these embroidery hoops on Ebay last year. They have been hanging around the studio cluttering it up. It was time to make some cute hoop art with them and move them out of storage into my shop. When I was cleaning I found some beautiful largish vintage linen scraps, non-vintage linen, and some white cotton fabric. So they are:  #51 Snail Mail

2014-03-01 11.14.57

#52 Red Tulips2014-03-01 11.15.52

#53 Sing for Joy!

2014-03-01 11.17.19

#54 Another Snail Mail

2014-03-01 11.18.03

#55 A little Sunshine!

2014-03-01 11.18.19

 

They are cute and should do well in the shop. They will be listed in the shop this week, so keep checking back. www.chocolatedogstudio.com They were fun to make and my favorites are the red tulips and the snail mails.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on by

The New Blanket

The new blanket! I have been admiring this pattern around the internet. I know that Lucy of Attic 24 is making a variation of this same pattern. Her blanket is beautiful as always.  I have posted bits and pieces of my blanket on facebook so if you follow me there then you have already seen a little of it. https://www.facebook.com/Chocolatedogstudio I started this blanket back around the middle of February.

2014-02-19 14.32.57

Here it is at the very beginning. It is a perfect scrap afghan pattern as you can use any colors you want. I am using a complete stripes worth of each color.

2014-02-20 18.47.39

It will be a great blanket as there are no holes for air to get through. It is taking me a bit to get it finished as I keep setting it down to work on other items in the 100 items in 100 days challenge! I am using my stash for this so it counts as well but the sewing machine has been calling these days.

Talk to you later,

Karen

You can see Lucy’s blanket here: http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2014/02/creative-happiness.html

 

Posted on by

#49 and #50!

It has been awhile since I posted in my 100 items in 100 days. I have been working on it nearly every day. I have just not had time to post photos of my work. It will be another couple days until I can sit down and take some great photos. It has also been overcast and cloudy, which makes for drab and dull photos. I will leave you with these quick pictures I took of some embroidery hoops I am working on. I am in the process of using up these embroidery hoops. As you can see there are so very many that need to be used!

IMG_1359

 

 

2014-02-26 12.46.20

 

2014-02-26 11.21.55

 

So these would numbers 49 and 50, which makes me half way there and on the downhill slope of the Challenge. I never thought I would be able to get this far but this is working out quite well! I have been forced to think outside the box and work on bit and small projects for my shop! It has been exciting to sit down and sew everyday.  I have made about 10 or more items that I need to photograph so I can show you.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on by

Scrap Busting with Quilts

IMG_0994-001Quilts are a time honored way to use scraps. These quilts were made by the women in my family, Grandmothers and Great- Grandmothers and I think one Great-Great Grandmother.

IMG_1044

 

IMG_1032-001

This sun bonnet sue is one of my favorites.

IMG_1002-002

 

IMG_0988-002

IMG_1008-003

 

My Grandma was a member of a quilting group. They would meet once a week or month and quilt the top of a member’s quilt.  It was a social time and also a time to get much needed work done. These quilts were made for use and they kept the family warm on the cold winter nights.  My Aunts can sit down and tell you where each piece of fabric came from. They came from a time when women made their own clothes and skill with a needle and thread was valued. My Mom taught me to sew and I am teaching my girls or at least making sure they learn the basics.  Sewing is expensive  these days unlike my Grandmothers’ days when everyone had to have some skill at sewing.

I have been thinking about sewing some quilts with my scraps. I have sewn one quilt top that is just strips of fabric but the more complicated patterns are calling to me. I need to baste all the layers together but I keep putting it off.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

The second challenge

I have been thinking of a second challenge. This one has to do with crocheting  and granny squares. I have seen so many beautiful squares and I want to make them all. Did you know that the average granny square blanket uses at least 100 squares? So if I make 100 different squares I should have enough for a blanket. If I make a couple of each design I would easily have a nice sized crochet blanket. I am not going to give myself a time limit on this challenge but I am going to make 100 different granny squares and then make them into a blanket. Here is my first square. It looks a little wonky and needs to be steam blocked.  This pattern is found in the book The crochet Motif by written by Edie Eckman.

2014-02-24 14.41.15So this is number 1 out of 100 Granny Squares!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

Posted on by

Cleaning

I’m starting to make headway on the cleaning job. I can really see some differences and I have been able to finally let some things go. Some of the things I am letting go are some rubber stamps, stamp pads, and a bunch of scrap book paper. The scrapbook paper is going to a teacher friend of mine for her classroom.

2014-02-22 17.21.34

 

I have these really neat scrapbook storage drawers that are perfect for projects in process. Can you see the one labeled buttons.  2014-02-22 16.54.16

 

I am in the process of putting the buttons into other containers. I am using these drawers as project holders. So I have one labelled cup cozies, coffee press cozies, and bibs. I can pull the drawer out take it to the sewing machine and work on the project, when I am done I can simply close the box and put it away! It should work like a charm for most of the smaller projects I do.

2014-02-22 14.40.36

 

I did a size and shape sort of the embroidery hoops . I have gone through four of the fabric tubs and managed to empty two. The fabric under  peg board is a variety of linens that I pulled from all over the sewing room. I just need to put them away and it will look much better.  I sorted out the larger fabric scraps from the smaller ones and have started some color sorting of the medium scraps. The ones too small to fold and too large for scrap piecing.

2014-02-22 14.41.15

So it is starting to look better. It just takes time to make order out of chaos, and it was definitely chaos! This studio has had two moves and umpteen moves within the house. The moves really took their toll on any organization I ever had, which wasn’t much.So I am getting excited. I have so many ideas of new things to sew that it is all I can do to force myself to finish it up!

I am showing the parts that look the best, but I am still working on it.

Talk to you later,

Karen

Posted on by

Friday!

I have several ideas rolling around in my head to sew today. A couple of receiving blankets, pot holders, another coffee press cozy and then some things to finish up. I have a quilt to layout and baste. I have some other wrist warmers I can crochet, grey, yellow and brown and maybe navy. I want to make some place mats for the shop and more potholders.  There is decidedly too much to do and not enough time to get things done. I am feeling overwhelmed. It seems no matter how much I use up what I have there are still tons of supplies to use. Here are a few photos to prove the point. Yes, it is really a mess but I have been cleaning and these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago.

 

This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg of supplies in my studio.There are several laundry baskets of yarn, 6-7 large plastic tubs of fabric. I have received 5-6 large plastic tubs and drawer units of fabric from my MIL’s long term stash of items. It is overwhelming me. The little things that I keep making only seems to be making more scraps that take up more and more room! I need to clean the studio this weekend and make order out of creative chaos! So, that is my plan for the weekend and hopefully I will also get some items cut out and ready to go! The good news is that I do have enough of what is needed to make another weekender bag, maybe two!

talk to you later,

Karen

NOTE: So that you know I am human and weird things happen to us. We now have a water leak that requires repairs. So, I will be cleaning up the mess today and probably tomorrow after the repairs are done.

NOTE: I am cleaning the studio and why oh why must it look worse before it looks better….? 2014-02-21 13.10.26But it is improving…slowly but surely. The house is repaired and running properly.

The cleaning is coming along slowly but it is getting done. I am trying to integrate my MIL’s fabric with my fabric so I am not buying things I don’t need. I would rather just sew it all up and get it out of my hair. Cleaning craft supplies drives me crazy.