Craft Challenges Archives -

Year of Making Update

January 9, 2015 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

It’s been two weeks and I am so loving the Year of Making (listen to episode 018 of the podcast for more info about this, and also see the show notes for that episode). Here is what I have made so far:

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Day one – I finished a mini quilt

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Day two – making ornaments with the kids

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Day three – triangles for a baby quilt

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Day four – strips for a starquilt

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Day five – beadwork for my niece

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Day six – appetizers for dinner

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Day seven – using thick cotton thread to cover the earbuds cord

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Day eight – my sewing room was a big mess so I cleaned up!

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Day nine – I made my hair awesome.

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Day ten – a tote bag, flying geese for a quilt, and strings for drawstring bags

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Day eleven – doodles while I was interviewing podcast guests

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Day twelve – editing a podcast – laughter

I do have my own hashtag so I can see these all at the same time just by searching that hashtag. I can’t wait to get these all printed! My thinking has been deliberate around making stuff and I really appreciate that. I have always made something, and usually every day, but this process has made me think about it in a new way. I am not just looking at sewing or finishing a project as me making something, because making cookies or dinner is also making. I loved making ornaments with the kids, even if my oldest son complained because he wanted to sew his own way, his own way being as fast as possible. Are you doing the year of making? Where are you sharing pictures? Find me on instagram.

A List to Cross Things Off

October 10, 2014 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

Ah lists. So many of us love making – and then crossing things off of – lists. I have always loved lists, and I love it even more that I passed that along to my kids. When they were little they would write lists and bring them to show me. I still make lists, and I don’t always rewrite after I cross things off.

And what a rough week! I had lists on Monday and Tuesday but little got done due to no energy thanks to being sick. But I am glad I realized that the fourth quarter Finish Along over at The Littlest Thistle is open for signing up. I have four things I’m going to work on this quarter – and I am excited to finish everything.

First up – the advent calendar kit I started. I need to finish the little puffy ornaments and complete the calendar itself. This is for a gift and first on my list to finish so I can mail it. Mail to the US hasn’t been taking too long, but I’m sure the closer we get to the holiday season that will change a little. I love advent calendars (check out my advent calendar pinterest board!) and want to make a couple more over the next couple of months.

Next -Â a baby quilt.This one is for a friend here, she is due at the beginning of the year, maybe February. She’s a nice young woman and really is the friend of a close friend here. I am happy to be able to finish and give her a quilt for her new baby. I am planning on using the Dot to Dot Quilting class quilt patterns for these blocks since there is so much space. I like this pattern, and I really like how I arranged the layout. It’s the Sea of Squares pattern, which I found as a quilt along over at Christa Quilts, and the fabric is Ty Pennington’s Impressions fabric line. I am a huge fan of quilt alongs, even if I tend to find them after the fact. I like having patterns broken down into steps like this, something I always do anyway, which is how I end up with so many projects in various stages in my sewing room. The top is done and I have backing fabric already picked out and ready to go, so just need to baste, quilt, and bind it.

Third – a starquilt for my Dad. A Lonestar quilt actually, but I have always known this type of quilt to be a starquilt. I cut the strips a while back and really wanted to give this to my Dad when he visits, though I’m not sure when that will be. The hardest…maybe I should say most frustrating part…of a starquilt is the square corners and edge triangles. Doing the math to figure out the size is always a bit challenging, and definitely something I do two or three times. That saying “measure twice, cut once,” well that was made for starquilts. Hahaha This is my most ambitious on the list because all I have so far are the strips sewn together! Technically this is a started project, but whew, that’s just the first step.

one strip set for starquilt — One strip set for starquilt

Fourth – oh another baby quilt! This one is a bit over due and I feel bad about that. I hate to tell someone that I want to make a quilt for them and not deliver. Or not deliver “on time” – whatever on time is. This one is from City Stitches baby quilt a month club and it was really so super fast to put together. I want to make like seven more of these. And yes, that’s a white background for a baby quilt. I hope it gets drooled on and food smeared into it and drawn on when the baby gets to have fat chunky crayons. The top is done so I need to baste, quilt, and bind. Oh and ship!

I think four is a good number to start. I do have a lot of free time to sew but for some reason this fall I’ve been sick more than usual, I think the change in the weather affected me more than I figured it would and I’m looking to boost my immune system now. I don’t want to spend the entire cold season sick or not feeling fully well! I probably also need a good day of resting because I just feel so not energetic.

And so, what are you working on?

Â (Disclosure: The links above are affiliate links, this means I may profit when you take action on my recommendations!)

Nametag Swap

April 24, 2014 by Tsoniki Leave a Comment

I joined the Nametag Swap hosted by Rachel at House of Pinheiro, and I realized I haven’t been posting so my partner can learn more about me! I am teamed up with Jen at Tea for Two. And then I recall high school newspaper and my teacher being frustrated with me, saying that using bullet points in an article wasn’t acceptable and I knew that, so why did I do it. But in this case, when I still need to take pictures for the blog posts I have planned, seven bullet points it is –

I love to sew. I know how to embroider, crochet, cross stitch – but at the end of the day, I love to sew.

I love bright colors – when I sew. I don’t dress like I love bright colors – my wardrobe is full of dark dresses and tops.

Okay there are some exceptions. (forgive the lighting!)

Since moving overseas I wear cowboy boots every day. It’s like I’m in high school again! And my hair is halfway down my back, another high school throwback. I am getting a haircut as soon as I can make an appointment, but the boots won’t go away. Fashion here is far from my jeans and sneakers, but I’m not that evolved so I merely wear jeans and boots. Comfy and though I’m sure I don’t look French, I wonder if I still look super American. Probably.

I dress fairly conservatively so I wear flashy jewelry. I wear almost only Native American jewelry – beaded, cooper, silver, quill, etc. The majority of my jewelry is handmade by someone, maybe I know them, maybe not. I do wear other jewelry not specifically Native though! I just love jewelry in general I suppose.

I have just as many WIPs as I do finished projects. Since moving here, I have easily seven quilt tops – to be honest I haven’t counted. I am quick to start a new project without finishing, to get the idea out of my head, to cut the fabric to have it ready to sew.

I love binge watching tv. We gave up on conventional cable when we moved to Pebble Beach over a year ago. Moving overseas we do subscribe, but of course it’s in French – which is great because we need to learn, etc. – but the truth is we don’t watch much of it. We have Netflix and Hulu and watch a show a night when we are interested in catching up on a show we forgot about (Revolution!), and I have a few tv shows on DVD to watch/listen to while sewing. Grey’s Anatomy is a favorite, but sometimes I fall back on oldies like Friends or yes I admit it, Dawson’s Creek.

I love to read. If I love a book, I will stay up late to finish and focus on only reading it. If I don’t love a book though, I’m quick to toss it to the side. We left so many of our books behind, in storage. We have ordered some from Amazon here and there, and I have yet to jump on the e-reader bandwagon. Books and magazines may take a lot of space but I’ve always been okay with that.

And with that, I am off to take pictures of a quilt back I finished, and another quilt top I finished, and a bag I made, and whatever WIPs I have covering my sewing and cutting table! My room, it is a mess.

A Finish for March

March 6, 2014 by Tsoniki 1 Comment

I have been wanting to join in A Lovely Year of Finishes for ages now, so glad I came across the site again! I am great at finishing quilt tops. I love cutting fabric, I have a lot of tops in various stages – fabric cut up, some blocks sewn, some rows sewn, and a handful of tops finished since moving here. But actually finishing a quilt – quilting and binding – that I am not so great at. It’s because I don’t feel comfortable doing free motion quilting and I don’t always want straight line quilting on something I make. I need to make practice sandwiches and just do it, but it is of course more fun to sew than to practice sewing.

For March I pick this quilt –

Forgive the bad picture, the lighting in my sewing room is not great.

This is my HST BOM (Half Square Triangle Block of the Month) that Jeni Baker did in 2012. Yes, two years ago. I finished the blocks each month as they were published – I sometimes make two blocks when something calls for one, it’s not that hard and I can make something extra with that block. In this case I used all 24 blocks I made to make a larger quilt.

I love the blocks. The fabric and colors that I picked out, I still love two years later. I just didn’t have anything I loved for the sashing. I went back and forth debating if I wanted to have sashing, but that also added to the size so I knew I wanted something. I didn’t use white for the white in the blocks, I used a white on white. I didn’t have enough to use it for sashing, but I wasn’t sure I wanted white anyway. I wanted a color. I don’t have too many solids in yardage in my stash (something I need to fix!) so I picked this orange. It matches the orange in a few blocks, but that’s it! I didn’t love the orange when I sewed the strips into rows, but it’s growing on it.

But this is so old. And I am so close to being done! The real test will be actually finishing the quilt completely.

I also need to figure out how to label my quilts, I don’t label anything and I know that is a bad practice.

Blogger Bundle Fabric Contest

March 19, 2012 by Tsoniki 2 Comments

I have been in the thick of sewing and quilting and cutting fabric – and buying fabric. I joined three swaps that required ten yards of fabric. I took advantage of a local quilt shop sale and bought all ten fabrics during a sale last week. Of course we all justify when we buy fabric and my reasoning was we (my Mom and I) are missing the tri county shop hop at the end of the month, so I bought all of my fabric that I would have otherwise bought, just in one swoop.

So I joined the over the rainbow charm swap (my color for this one is red), 5 yard color wheel charm swap (AKA monster charm swap) (black and white for this one), and the rainbow fabric charm swap (green for this one). I cut all ten yards over the weekend and have my stacks sorted and hopefully I’ll be able to mail all three out tomorrow! I’m excited to have this done already, I have a couple of trips planned and don’t want to get to close to the deadline. Because of these swaps, I discovered a couple of new (to me) etsy fabric shops and fell in love. I have already made a couple of purchases from Pink Castle Fabrics so you can imagine the thrill I got when reading about the blogger bundle fabric contest over at I’m a Ginger Monkey.

Here is my fabric bundle! My kids named it “Colorful Collision” which I think is perfect. The hardest part was grabbing the images and putting a collage together. I wanted to crop the largest pic, but decided not to so I could get my choice out there. I may do another because it was fun! My fabrics are:

Left, top to bottom:

Prairie Rose in Fiesta Hope Valley by Denyse Schmidt
Modern Meadow Napsack in Lake Blue by Joel Dewberry
Free Spirit Designer Voile Solid in Sky Gray

Second column:

Bursts in White – Fruit Slice for Anthology Fabrics by Khristian A Howell
Hello Pilgrim Pearl Bracelet in Green Lizzy House
Modern Meadow Herringbone in Berry Pink by Joel Dewberry

Third column:

Sea Garden in Ocean – Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda
Hop Dot in Tangerine Nicey Jane by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit Fabrics
Sea Garden in Summer – Salt Air by Cosmo Cricket for Moda

Fourth column:

Washi Tape in Charcoal by Rashida Coleman-Hail for Timeless Treasures
Metro Living Lattice in Dusty Blue by Robert Kaufman
Summer Totem in Grapefruit Pink Floral louLOUthi by Anna Maria Horner AMH Quilt Fabric

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