projects, projects!

I'm happy to say that I've been busy: Not the same type of busy when I was in school, thank goodness. But busy like, "hey I'm busy with stuff that I actually want to do instead of stuff that I'm being forced to do while being silently judged by everyone!".

FJÄDRAR: A soft pillow that sounds like slang for vagina.

A couple weeks ago, a co-worker of mine mentioned that she had a friend, who in turn, had a bag of ties. They were her late husband's ties, and she was looking for someone to make pillows with them for herself, her mother-in-law, and her three children. I haven't made pillows in YEARS, nor have I ever made tie pillows. But of course I'd do it. Soon after, I received the bag of 32 ties and began thinking about what I would want to do. The easiest way for me to make pillows is, of course, buying a pre-made pillow. So off to IKEA I went, and I purchased 5 FJÄDRAR, 20x20" feather pillows.
 
So to make 5 pillows, I'd need to use ALL of the ties twice. And there was no way to make them double sided: I'd need WAY more ties to do that. So I found a nice black velour fabric (on sale, naturally!) to be the back of the pillows. Since the pillows were 20x20" I cut the ties into two, 22" pieces. With the ties cut down, it was time to assemble them into "sheets" of ties. Using a zigzag stitch, I alternated big pieces of tie with little pieces of tie until I had a sheet that was again, about 22" long. For the veloooour, I cut 10, 14x22" pieces. Why? So I could make the pillow covers into envelopes. That way if they ever get soiled, you can throw them into the washing machine without the inner pillow part. I know... you can high-five me, it was a great idea that I celebrated by eating copious amounts of Campbell's Chunky Soups. (not pictured.)

Here's the trick with pillows: You want the covers to be snug as hell. If the pillow is 20", you want to cut your fabric down to 20". (I always allow for an extra inch or two when cutting down fabric, you never know if you'll need more, so it gives you a bit of a safety zone.) When you sew your pillow case together, it will be about 19": This will give the pillow a more plump look. Also, it's time to admit that I was lazy as hell with the camera for this project. I kept thinking "this is the moment I should take pictures! Look at the stitches and the glorious colors!" but then was all like "the camera is downstairs, f*** that." Even now, the camera is downstairs. I will go get it, but I will also get a piece of Halloween candy, thank you very much. Take that, motivation!

 Without further ado, here are the five pillows. In no particular order.

 

 

 

 

a new... something

Heads up: I've had wine! 

After I finished up the t-shirt quilts, I decided that it was finally time to focus in on one for myself. I found this AMAZING but complicated pattern in a quilting magazine that I purchased (YES, I buy quilting magazines. Thug life.) but there was a problem: It was a pattern for a twin quilt. I don't need no stinkin twin quilt. Another problem: I already had way too many scraps left over from my first quilt, I thought it'd be a waste not to use them... but how?

So... I just started sewing. I took out my box of scraps and basically just started machine stitching them together. Since all of the scraps were tapered, they started looking like colorful fans. I had another interesting thought. What if I sewed these fans into a wave? Then what if the wave became a column? And what if I sewed these columns together to form a sort-of-painting? 

 So many questions! One final product,  though.Once I finished sewing the columns together, I quilted it with gold thread. Then stapled the s*** outta it onto a canvas. Soon I'm going to frame it. SOON... SOON.

 

 

phl -> atl

Recently a good friend of mine departed the Philadelphia area to start life anew with his beautiful fiancé in Atlanta. As sad as I am when friends leave the area, it is always exciting knowing that they are literally embarking on a new phase of life. I always wanted the balls to pick up and move. I mean... I'm only an hour away from home home, but it's not like I moved to an area that's easier to get to by plane then by driving. How cool would it be one day to be like I'M SELLING EVERYTHING I HAVE AND MOVING TO A DAKOTA OR IDAHO BECAUSE WHY NOT.

Anywho, I wanted to give them a going away present. I failed miserably getting it to them on time. The thing was... I couldn't figure out what the f*** to do. He sent me some photos of things that they liked. Which I guess I pretty much ignored in the end. Sorry about that John.... just realized that.

I was like, if I were them, what would I want to remind me of home? That it's not too far away? So here's what I came up with: A painting that you could flip.

I started with blocks of color, which I haven't done in years. Truth is, my hands aren't as steady as they use to be, so some lines are wobbly. <--- that could be symbolic, like "just as these lines aren't straight, neither is the road in life... HA!

Then I decided to paint the skylines of Philadelphia and Atlanta. The area in between was a little harder. I originally wanted to put a couple walking hand-in-hand to both skylines, but there wasn't enough space. So I decided to paint a PHL-> and an ATL->. One day, if they're back in Philadelphia, they can always remember the home they made in a new city. I'm happy with the way it came out, and I'm hoping that it reminds my good friends that no matter how far, home isn't that far.

NOW I JUST HAVE TO FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET IT TO THEM.

t-shirt quilts, part DUEX

From where we last left off, I had finished stitching together all of the t-shirts into two lovely quilt tops. I hate to say but I barely documented part DUEX in pictures. I was sew busy. Heh. … ok, lame joke.

SO! Choosing a batting… You want to be sure that you find one that matches the project that you’re working on. A flatter, less puffy batting is great for quilts that you want to be… well, flat and less puffy. Especially ones with intricate designs. I chose a really nice medium puff batting, because of two reasons. 1) The t-shirts and backing material had a little stretch to them. The puffiness of the batting would help this irregularity when I stitched it together. 2) WHO DOESN’T LIKE PUFFY QUILTS? You? Well, you're un-American.

PUFFY!

Luckily, the backing fabrics that I chose for both quilts were W-I-D-E as H-E-L-L. So I didn’t need to stitch two pieces of the backing together. To cut the backing and the batting to size, here is the easiest thing to do: Find a floor. Put the backing fabric on the floor, and secure it with masking tape so it stays put. Next, lay the batting on top, followed by the quilt top. Secure all that shiz together with long quilting pins or safety pins. (I use quilting pins... I have no tolerance for safety pins, plus they're too bulky.) Lastly, cut the backing and batting about 6” bigger than the quilt top. This gives you a safe zone in case you f*** up.

Here’s the tricky and painful part. You will now stick yourself with so many pins. SO. MANY. And not just on your hands. The quilt literally lays on your lap while you’re trying to machine stitch it. It’s like trying to lay down with a needle filled blanket. Very ouch. I start by machine stitching the long columns of the quilt. Then, stitch the rows. Since the rows are irregular, I usually will pick up the needle and foot, move to the beginning of the next row, and sew on. 

turns out, it's a real thing.

Next comes the binding… Binding is tricky, but once you get the hang of it, it’s… just less tricky I guess. I cut a continuous piece of fabric 2.25” wide, press it in half, then sew the raw edges to the edge of the quilt top. You then cut off any excess batting and backing fabric…. Then you have to hand stitch everything shut. It takes a LONG TIME. And your hands will not thank you. But it’s worth it, especially with wine that you CANNOT SPILL ON THE QUILT. If you're a spiller, then put your wine in one of those toddler sippy cups.

To add a personal touch, I asked my friend to send me (in her writing) a message for each of the quilts. I printed it out, then used graphite paper to transfer her message to white fabric. I then hand stitched her message and sewed this on to each quilt. So that’s it! Two quilts finished. I hope they surround their new owners in years of love and comfort. It was such a cool project, I’d be totally willing to do more of them in the future!!! 

 

necktie tree skirt

Back in December I noticed that my tie collection was getting a wee-bit out of control. I needed to make something out of ties before I ran out of places to store them. Since it was Christmas, I decided to make a tree skirt out of neckties. It was a good project, all done by good ol'fashion trial and error. 

I shared my project with a few classmates and faculty members at the college I attended, and one person expressed interest in me making one for her. She came bearing a bag full of ties! HUZZAH!

Flash forward 6 months...I'm not good with directions. I mostly, like I said, do everything by trial and error. But I'll try to replicate my goings-on so you can follow what I did. 

I cut 36 ties to a length of 24" (the big fat ends) and saved the skinny ends... I arranged them into 6 groups of 6, then used a zigzag stitch to sew the 6 groups of 6 together. There are 5 ties that I cut to the length of 14". You know those skinny ends I saved? I zigzag stitched each of the 5 fat 14 inchers between two of of the skinny ends. Here comes the hard part.... assembling errrthing.

I arranged the 6 panels into a circle, and then placed those 5 smaller panels in between. Zigzag stitch the shiiiiiiiizzzzz outta that circle to form... you know... a tree skirt.

My gosh, even I'm not following how I did this.

Then I cut out 2 yards of black felt and stitched it into a big ol' circle. Then sewed that circle to the tie circle. Beeeelieeeeeve me... there's A LOT of fabric, and it takes A LOT of muscle to get this shizz through a sewing machine in one piece. If you're trying this one, do yourself a favor and get yo'self some extra needles for your machine. You'll need them! But the payoff is awesome-sauce.

Truth is, I could have taken better pictures. I kept forgetting. That's the way it is, dangit.

bears, squares, monty python reference.

So everyone knows I'm relentless artsy nutcase, and that I'm forever up for an artsy challenge. Harcum, my alma mater, is having a yearlong Centennial Art Celebration that encourages students, faculty, and staff to contribute art that can be auctioned off for their Centennial Scholarship Fund. I did three projects for the cause. Why THREE? Because THREE shall be the number thou shall count, and the number of the counting shall be THREE. Four, thou shall not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to THREE.

... That really wasn't the reason why, I just happened to have enough momentum to do THREE. The first project I did was for Bears and Squares. Basically, you get a 10x10" canvas and center your creation around the theme possibilities. Naturally, I started cutting out skeletons and brains from anatomy texts. WHY? I DON'T KNOW. I think my final creation came out pretty sweet. In typical Jill-fashion, I cut out text from magazines like a serial stalker to emphasize my message, The Possibilities Are Endless.

Next, I obtained a 12" solid plaster bear to paint. Again... I started cutting out s*** from the anatomy
text again. What's my deal, anyway? I'm noticing that this is a little creepy... yes? Anywho, I started looking for dental terms, and decided to paste them over the left side of the bear... the analytical side. The right side I gussied up in an artsy way. The right holds paint brushes, the left, dental instruments. WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT IT'S LIKE A SELF PORTRAIT OF ME IN SCHOOL. The picture on the left is before the funk is added. The right... you got it. FUNK. ADDED.

The school still had some plaster bears left over, so I decided to take another one home. It's for scholarships, after all. I just completed it today.... to be honest, I also just started it today. I really couldn't think of anything original to do to be honest. So I thought HEY. Why not paint, you know, a famous painting on it? So I chose Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night. Because it's awesome sauce. I'm pretty proud with how it came out, yes? It's not 100% like the original. You know.. because it's painted on a bear. But hopefully my creations will help someone attend the college in the future!

over-over-overdue

Like the title says, over-over-overdue!

I'm taking my national board exams tomorrow. I already completed 4 of them (clinical exam, jurisprudence, local anesthesia and CDCA/NERB). Once I complete tomorrows 350 question grueling exam, I will be OFFICIALLY DONE with my understudies to become a dental hygienist. After that, alls I need is a license to practice! Which means...


I SHALL RETURN VALIANTLY TO THE WORLD OF ARTS, CRAFTS, FREE-TIME AND GENERAL RELAXATION! HUZZAH!

LOOK! Here I am contemplating things! Like, what kind of art project will I start on Wednesday? Do these glasses magically transport me to 1980 when I'm asleep? And, if I hold this pose long enough, will people think that I'm actually contemplating something?

bag n' bread

When I was putting prices on all of my wine bags, I noticed one lonely half-finished tie purse in my bin that I started last year and just never finished. I had some free procraftination time today, so now the lonely half-finished tie purse is now a non-lonely ALL FINISHED tie purse! All I had to do was finish the inside of the front panel, create the back panel, and sew them to the already finished straps. It made for a great morning of work while I was cleaning up the house. The cat is shedding, and it constantly looks like a yeti exploded in here. Gross.

 
In other Saturday news, I made Lou's Dad famous bread, and I thought I would share it since I finally got to make it this afternoon. It's a super simple recipe that requires only four ingredients. I used a spicy salt and whole wheat flour. Yum!

 3 cups flour

1-1/2 tsp salt

2-1/4 tsp yeast

1-1/2 warm water

Spray the inside of a large bowl with cooking spray. Sift all the dry ingredients into the bowl, then add the warm water. Mix until combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm spot for four hours. Turn the dough onto an oiled surface and cover again for thirty minutes. While rising again, preheat your oven and dutch oven to 450°. Add dough, cover and bake for thirty minutes. Take the lid off the Dutch oven and bake for another ten minutes. Let cool on a cooling rack. Or devour immediately like I do. 

finished!

I can't believe how productive I've been the past couple of nights! I completely finished all 23 wine bags. ALL 23 BAGS! Each one is stamped with my little "Nodyl's Noodles" stamp, and has a cute little tag with the price. Over the weekend, I'd like to make a price sheet that I can frame for my crafter table. I have a really nice black tablecloth to use, too. I'm so excited, I really hope I can make new friends and customers next weekend!

FINALLY SOME PICTURES!

I didn't realize how cray I look in this picture.

culmination

It seriously took me a couple days to put my thoughts together to write this post. You could say this post entitled culmination is the culmination of thoughts, but it's mostly about the culmination of one of my most difficult projects. Actually, it's all about the culmination of my most difficult project. I never thought I could use that word 4 TIMES in the same post!

I FINISHED THE QUILT.
That's right... The quilt is finished! Der Quilt ist fertig! El quilt está terminado!

As you might recall, in my last quilt post I noted that I needed to hand stitch the open seam closed to the backing fabric and officially 'sign' the quilt. I began by pinning the binding in place with my super long 1-1/2" flat quilting pins. Then, since I'm not a very good hand-stitcher, I thought it would be wise to do some research on which stitch would be best to finish the open seam. (PS: Typing which stitch would be best is just as hard as saying it three times fast.) I ended up choosing the blind stitch thanks to the awesome instructions and description on this blog called Quilting in the Rain. <--- If you have a couple of minutes, please check out her blog: It's unbelievable, plus it's so bright and cheery!

It look me a little while to find my stride when it came to blind stitching, but over the course of a week, I diligently sewed the night away. I pricked my fingers.. and legs... and arms a couple of times, thanks to those super long 1-1/2" quilting pins. But with every stitch, I knew that I was getting closer and closer to finishing my first quilt.

On Saturday night, I sat down on the couch and began stitching away, knowing that within a couple of hours my project would be finished. I thought about all the work that went into making it. I thought each strip of fabric that I pieced together, sewing them onto the muslin blocks, pressing them flat and fashioning them all into rows and columns. I thought about how I almost convinced myself to send it out to get finished, and the moment it dawned on me to just give it my best shot. I thought about all of my family, and the signatures that they added to different blocks of fabric. And then I thought about the one signature that was missing. Adelaide Ruess. 

So, I added it myself. 

I was emotionally and physically exhausted after finishing it, and ended up falling asleep on the couch wrapped up in my new quilt. I was so happy that I accomplished my goal of making a quilt, but I was also quite sad. It's cruel to me that I can't show it to Audi. But in my heart, somehow I think that she has seen it. I hope she's as proud of me as I am of myself.

If you'd like to look back at all of the quilt related posts, you can find them right here.

obligatory wedding craft DIY post part 2

So on to the place cards. I accidentally purchased ones that are more like business cards, and less like the tenty-ones that I thought I was buying. My bad. I wasn't going to return them back to Vistaprint, so I had to find a solution to my little problem.

 

So I did what anyone else would have done: I Google'd it! I typed in place card holder and the one solution that caught my eye was a holder made from a wine bottle cork. Can you believe though, that some people on Etsy are selling them for upwards of $1.00 each? You and I both know that's a whole bunch of bologna. I can do that for way, way less. Actually... maybe I can ask Lou to do it for me since he's handy with tools and loves spending time in the garage...

BINGO.

I found some pretty cool online tutorials, but I thought I'd share my own below.

Wine Cork Place Card Holders
1. Buy 100 bottles of wine (remember, you'll need one bottle per guest!)
2. Open and drink 100 bottles of wine. Save the corks if you're not too drunk to remember this step. Keep drinking until you have enough corks!
3. Take 4 weeks to sober up, and/or be released from the hospital.

Or you can...
1. Go on EBay and purchase a bulk bag of 100 corks for $10.00.

I wouldn't recommend the first set of instructions unless you want to spend a lot of money or become a raging alcoholic.

Now, take your corks one at a time, and set them up in a vice-grip if you have one. It is much easier than trying to hold all the corks while trying to cut them. Cut off the bottom 1/3 of the cork and discard. Run a piece of medium grit sand paper over the cut surface. Finally, make a slit in the top of the cork deep enough for you to insert your place card.

VOILA! YUR DUN. And all for $10! With that extra $90, you can go buy many cases of vino from Total Wine!

finally, some new etsy s***!

I added seven, yes SEVEN! new wine bags to Etsy today! I finished three a little earlier in the week as you may have read, but I finally was able to take pictures and post them. Somehow, I then got another rush of craft-fever, and finished sewing another four bags! I figured, HEY! Why not take a couple more pictures and post those, too?

The last four I finished were the new design I created, which is basically four ties on the outside, and a thick liner fabric for the inside. I used the zig-zag stitch to secure the four ties to one another, which adds some cool contrast to the exterior, if you don't mind me sayin'!

sew whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

I had an amazingly productive craft session last night thanks to the stimulating combination of getting my sewing machine back from the shop, sweating it out in an awesome gym session, and being scared s***less from watching The Walking Dead. Between the feelings of excitement, exhaustion and adrenaline, I was wasn't even friggin' blinking.

Yes. I do step aerobics.

No lie, I was like a kid in a candy store yesterday when I picked up my machine at Modern Vac & Sew. They literally restored my machine to factory condition. The tension is perfect, the stitches are even and quite divine.... AND! It sounds like a sewing machine again! No more k'chunk k'chunk k'chunk .... it's more like a rrRRMmmmrrRRMmmmrrRRMmmmrrRRMmmm. It's a thing of beauty. If you need repairs, go see them. <--- Look, I made a recommendation!

Word to the wise, if ever decide to take your machine to the shop, I'd recommend cleaning and wiping down your machine first, before you start sewing any important project! Oils and lubrication added to the machine during the tune-up can leak a little at first, so do a couple test runs on scrap fabric, then wipe the machine down with paper towels. You'll thank yourself for doing this. Besides, you gotta treat that s*** nice, yo.

I completed three 'original design' wine bags, complete with tiny ties and brand spankin' new fabrics! Plus, I also sewed the looped handles on seven (SEVEN!) 'new design' wine bags. I think between today and tomorrow, I'm going to write up my Etsy listing for them, and hopefully take pictures of the finished products. With any luck, they'll be online for sale by the end of the week!

And of course, I did not forget the most important part. THE STAMP. I'm thinking this should be my new slogan: "If it doesn't say Nodyl's Noodles, then that shit was ripped off."

Glasstacular!

ALRIGHT, now I don't know what my problem is, but I've been having an awfully hard time updating this blog lately! Especially when I was all like "I'm going to upload pictures on Saturday!" Sad. That Saturday was 3 WEEKS AGO. Jill Fail.

So, to go back in time a little... Here is a post that I started and I totally planned on posting. But I didn't. ONWARD!


I can't lie. I'm so proud. I finished that glass, and I friggin' dominated it. I was all like, I'm totally going to finish you on time, and it's going to look so ga'damn professional that even you'll think you were made by a professional. And it was all like I'm glass so I can't talk, but OK!. It's probably one of the best one's I've completed to date. Alright, I'm done with my horn tooting. OK one more. TOOT.

Now onto logistics. After my last post, I evened out the seams at the 45 degree angle with wood filler, and let it sit until it was totally dry. After a quick sanding with my trusty mouse-sander, I gave it a light coat of primer. I knew there would be imperfections, and the primer totally told me where I needed more wood filler and sanding. After filling and sanding again, I gave the frame 2 more coats of primer, let it dry, and then rolled on 3 coats of a satin interior/exterior paint. The slight roughness of the roller pad gave the frame a great finish. I removed the protective papers, cleaned it up a little and set onto my next task.



Joints filled, awaiting it's first sanding!

Joints filled, sanded, primed, filled, sanded, primed, then painted! Waiting for the paper removal!

I began to think... how would I hang this? Should I do it, or should I let them do it? Just to cover my bases, I decided to write up detailed instructions. Not only about how to hang them, but how to clean them also. I decided to use two evenly placed rubber coated eyes-hooks on the top of each frame, which would hang neatly from a linked-chain, which I attached to screws.

When I got to their house, it was decided that I would hang the glass. Hell, I had the directions to follow, so why not!? After measuring and marking, I carefully drilled four pilot holes and screwed in screw-eyes that had the chains attached. After some slight adjustments, we carefully hung the glass. With my job complete, I snapped some photographs and bid my friends farewell for the evening.
 

You can see the eye-hook and chain detail a little in this picture.

Thanks, car. For photo-bombing me.

 

framed! part duex

finished frame, sans stain

I now have two... TWO! paintings that are properly framed and ready to ... well... HANG for lack of better words! Over the weekend, I finished building the frame that I was working on by cutting pieces of 1"x2" and securing them to the back of the frame: It added much needed depth and sturdiness to the piece. Once the glue was dry and set, I ran the sander over the frame one last time to ensure that all the surfaces were smooth and even. A dark walnut stain was applied soon after, and once it was dry, I secured the three paintings inside and sat back to admire my work. To say I'm happy with the result is an understatement, since I'm famously HORRIBLE at woodwork. I always wanted to design a frame for those paintings that would become part of the piece, not just an accessory to it. The horizontal flow makes me swoon. Iz uber prowd.

On Monday, my super cool frame from PictureFrames.com came in, fully assembled and ready for Material Experiment #1! The painting fit in it perfectly and was secured with canvas clips: The ornate bright silver frame complimented it quite nicely.

The last step I needed to take with both frames was to finish them off with paper backing, wiring and labels... which I've never done. But, after watching about ten minutes of You Tube videos on the subject, I had brown paper, double sided tape, wire hanging supplies and spray adhesive in hand and ready to go. First I applied the double sided tape to the back edges of both frames. After cutting the paper to size, I pressed it onto the tape and went over it with a fid to make sure it really stuck. Then, I screwed in the hardware and twisted on the wiring. Finally, I sprayed the labels with a little adhesive, and stuck em' on.














So both paintings are ready to be displayed. Look at me, finally finishing something! With any luck, Sunset at the Beach will sell at the MRAC-RDC Silent Auction on Thursday, May 3rd: I'm donating it for the their fund raising effort. And hopefully, Material Experiment #1 will be selected to be displayed at MRAC's May show, which opens on May 6th. Maybe you'd like to come visit and see them in person...?

make it look sorta professional, or something

The one thing that I've never really mastered is woodwork. As careful as I always am with measurements, I seem to lack a certain-something when it comes to finessing angles together into something that doesn't look like a woodworking acid trip.

That's where I enlist the boyfriend to help me. I needed to make a frame for the Time to Eat? painting I completed last weekend. The painting itself wouldn't hang over the phone jack, so I needed to make a frame that would give it extra length and depth. Since Lou has scrap wood, a better eye, and a compound miter saw, he was the natural choice to ask for help. He was willing and able, which made my pleas for help less pathetic.

We found a really old piece of wood, full of character, that was just big enough to cut four equal pieces to make up the frame. A couple 45 degree angles, wood glue and a band clamp set up the frame, and the piece was complete! Since the phone jack is finally covered, I don't have to constantly remind myself about how I can't use my phone purse.