Quilted Placemat

I wanted to make some placemats to go with our new-to-us "big-people table", so I did an internet search for inspiration and found this.  It really is very simple.  I started with a square, and then I sewed fabric to one edge, and then cut it.  I continued in a spiral until I made it as big as I needed it.  To save fabric (and time), I kept track of how big it needed to be and started only making the corners bigger once I got to that point.  (You can see how each corner has a few strips that are isolated from other corners.)  One it was big enough, I used my rotary cutter to cut it to the proper size, cut a piece of fabric for the backing (white fabric from a sheet that I used for another project), did a little quilting, and then did the binding.

I want to make a few more like this but with different color schemes, and then I might do a few with just vertical stripes.  I'll hopefully make more time for sewing once it gets blistering hot in the summer and it's too warm to do anything but sit in front of the sewing machine.  Haha!

Crafting!

Knit headband.  Now I can stay warm without
abandoning my standard ponytail.

Lamp before-ish!  (I added the blue ribbon
on the top and the bottom before I took the
picture... oops.)

Lamp after!  Some glue, some yarn, and some
crocheted circles (or closed disks, to those
of you who like to keep your mathematical
definitions straight...), and you have a super
cute lamp!

OWL PURSE!  Wicked awesome.

The pattern for the knit headband can be found here.  I made my owl by making up a pattern after admiring the owl purse found here.  If you aren't comfortable making up your own pattern, you can buy a pattern at that site.

Birdie pillow

You know what makes me happy?  Sweet little colorful birdies. Very happy indeed.  Can't you hear their hand-stitched beaks shyly peeping?

You might not realize it, but you've seen this pillow before.

Like here.  See that burgandy pillow there?   That is what has been birdified.  (The birdie pillow really is just a sham I made for the burgandy pillow.)  The pillow actually has a snowman on the other side.  The snowman gets to cuddle with the loveseat for all but two months of the year.  At some point early in our marriage, we kind of thought that we would be navy, burgandy, forest green type people.  Now I am realizing that those colors were really representing what I thought I wanted (don't they just seem like blissful middle class colors?).  However, I'm really attracted to brighter colors, and I really love having a handmade look in the home.  I have also learned that I prefer not to have much of a color scheme.  I like having things work well together, but I don't like being confined to specific colors.  A pillow full of colorful birds is perfect for me.

Do you have a color scheme in your living room?  What is it?

A quilt

 I finished a quilt yesterday!  Since I have time these days, I figured I'd make a small-ish quilt for when we have kids.  I made it small enough for a baby to play on, a toddler/young child to sleep under, and an older child to adult to wrap around them.  I think it will be easy to find used baby blankets, but I wanted to make something special that will last and be usable for a long time.  So, here you are, Not-Yet-Existent Child!

If you are interested, I used these instructions only without the gathering. I just cut out 4" squares.

This is a good project for small scraps, too.  The squares don't take too much of any fabric.  I used some scraps of my own, and I also used some given to me by a friend's mom who quilts for charities.  (Thank you!)  For the off-white borders and the blue binding/backing, I needed a fair amount of fabric, so I got a couple of sheets from Goodwill.  I had a bag of batting that was supposed to be used by a friend but ended up not being used, so I didn't have to go out and find that this time.  Hooray!

Knitted quilt... Part II

 Remember this guy?  I knitted him, and sewed him together... and he lasted about a week.  I just wasn't happy with how the colors blended when they were in blocks like that!  So, I untied all of the knots, unraveled all of the squares...

... and made this guy!  Granny squares to the rescue! It took some extra effort, but I'm glad I did it.  I am much happier with the results.  

The colors still look a little funny in the picture... the red really isn't that weird looking, I promise. :)

Here's where I got the tutorial for the granny squares in case you're interested!  I used a pretty big crochet hook because I wanted big squares, and I wasn't worried about having a bunch of big spaces in the blanket.

Cooking without plastic

I recently decided to ditch our nonstick pans.  Teflon, which is the coating that makes the pan nonstick, is a plastic.  While it is generally considered safe to use these pans at a medium heat, I decided to just go ahead and get rid of them before they figure out how unsafe they are.  It just seems like plastic and food don't go together, and especially as I consider having kids in the next few years, I figure I might as well do my best to play it safe. Fortunately, many people do want nonstick pans, so ours sold quickly on Craigslist.  I found some used Revere pots on ebay, I already had a big stainless steel skillet, and I borrowed (stole?) a couple of cast iron skillets from my mom since she said she didn't really use them anyway.

If you have nonstick pans, you can't use metal utensils on them!  As such, we also had a set of plastic cooking utensils that we put up on Craigslist yesterday.  We found the replacements for the essentials at Goodwill for a couple dollars each, and we already had some of what we needed in bamboo that we didn't have to replace.

Our old set came with a plastic bucket thing to hold the utensils.  When I knew I was going to make the switch, I got a coffee can from my mom so that it could hold our utensils.  Of course, an added benefit of this was that I could decorate it however I chose!  Today I got around to painting some adorable little birds onto my can.  I'm very pleased by how it turned out!  What a cheerful container of utensils!

So there you have it, we've made the switch!

Sunny Side Upcycle - July

 It has been a slow month of crafting here.  I recently completed a project that will be a wedding gift which I will share after the wedding!  I also have been recreating a blanket for our living room that I will hopefully finish this summer.  I completed the two projects that you see here.  One is a bright and chunky baby hat, and the other is an adorable pair of what-nots in love.  I have a pink lace knit scarf in the works, and it has been a fun challenge.  I have never done knitting quite this complicated, and it's fun to see something so pretty unfold from the needles.  Hopefully that will be done by September as well!

I hope that you enjoy looking at my happy crafties!  Feel free to visit my Etsy shop to see more!

Silly Sun Hat

 It's summer.  It's Corvallis.  Thus, the sun occasionally makes an appearance!  Last year I learned that most sunscreens on the market contain ingredients that scientists believe cause melanoma (!!!).  This made me not want to put on sunscreen so often anymore.  I try not to spend too much time in direct sunlight, but it does happen on occasion.  This summer we gave away our collection of old sunscreens on Craigslist (if they're going to buy the same stuff anyway...), and we got a tube of Badger sunscreen which uses zinc oxide (but NOT nano-particle!) as the active ingredient.  This stuff seems to work well, and non-nano zinc oxide is believed to be safe, from what I've read.  Plus, the sunscreen has some cocoa in it, so it has the added benefit of smelling kind of chocolate-y.

Despite finding a decent sunscreen, it's still fairly expensive and it comes in a plastic tube.  Clearly I needed a HAT!  Not just any hat, but a slightly silly looking sun hat!  I found instructions here, and I made this super simple hat using leftover fabric from an apron and from a dress that I made.

The hat is reversible, which is kind of cool.

You can add a bow for ornament...

And there's nothing like making silly faces while wearing a silly hat!

Sunny Side Upcycle - June

Here is this month's Etsy creations.  All except for the whale and the bunny still remain for sale at sunnysideupcycle.etsy.com! :)

Dress Shirt Shirt Dress

It's a shirt dress!  Made out of a dress shirt!  The dress shirt was a large long sleeve men's shirt on its last legs at Goodwill (its tag color was the 50% off color this week), so I made this for $4.  It's hard to see it, but it has little white, dark blue, and light blue stripes.  I got the idea from here; however, I pretty much just changed things around to suit me.  I wanted a tie in the back and thicker straps/sleeves, so I did that.  I also found that adding darts in the back added a nice touch and kept it from poofing too much.  FUN!

I Heart Produce Bags

This is my latest, greatest version of a reusable produce bag.  While I have made a number of drawstring bags, I like this style because it is easier to see the produce inside of the bag.  It is also very fast to make thanks to the fabulous properties of knit shirts.  I made this out of scraps of a shirt, and it took about 10-15 minutes.

Here are the instructions.  It's a very forgiving process.  Enjoy upcycling your worn out shirts into produce bags! :)

Crocheted Stars

Crocheted stars make me happy...   Especially when they are made into a garland.  I just love a good garland.

I'm now Sunny Side Upcycle on Etsy!

You may have noticed that I like making things.  Like whales.  I like to make whales.  The thing is, I like making more things than I can use.  I have given some things away, too, but there is always more to make.  So I finally took the plunge.  I opened an Etsy shop.  I feel my self-confidence waning as I offer my crafts to the world's scrutiny.  However, I hope that people enjoy what I do, and I will be happy if my scraps can become someone's treasure.

If you are curious, you may visit my little shop here.  More items should be coming in the future, but I have put up my inaugural whale!

Bedroom wall before and after... again

You may remember that I changed our bedroom wall to look like this.  I liked this alright, but it wasn't my favorite long-term wall decor.

However, recently I discovered Pinterest online, and I found the cutest idea for wall art.  Did I ever mention that I love adorable birdies?  I do.

I didn't have canvas, so I used an old cardboard posterboard that Matthew used for his senior project.  I chose to buy one piece of scrapbook paper so that I would have a special design for the birds, but otherwise this was a great project for scraps!

Maybe I'm done with this wall now...

Another bitty bird!

This one is crocheted.   I used the instructions from here but made modifications to the wings and eyes.

Little birds are just adorable...

The day I became hooker...

On Saturday, I went to Goodwill, and I found a bag of crochet hooks of various sizes.  Monday night, I got around to sitting down and figuring out how to crochet.  After a period of puzzlement while establishing where exactly the hook  is supposed to go, I then quickly pieced together a few of the basic stitches.  Next I needed a project.

On the left, you can see a hat that I knit a long time ago.  I was never very happy with the crinkly top and the brim that rolled, so  I decided to unravel it and make a crocheted hat.

I crocheted on and off all day today, and the picture on the bottom left shows the results of my efforts.  I used the pattern here, and I think it turned out well!

I learned to knit on my 16th birthday, although I didn't dare branch aways from the garter stitch until this past year.  As I crocheted today, though, I wondered why I never bothered learning how to before.  It's surprisingly simple, and I really adore the way it looks.

So, there you have it.  I'm sold.  I'm now officially a knitter and a hooker.

Knitted quilt

After about two years of working on and off on this blanket, here it is on our cozy loveseat!  I still need to sew in few dangling strands of yarn, but I feel like I've made it!

Bitty Birdy

I had bitty balls of yarn leftover from a blanket that I made (pictures to come when I get the lighting right so that the colors don't look crazy).  A bitty knit bird seemed like a pleasant use for some of the yarn.  Add some t-shirt scraps as stuffing and embroidery thread for the face, and we're on our way!  I started with the instructions here, but I wanted a less clunky bird (and I didn't have the right size of needles...), so I played with things a fair amount as I went.  To do this project, I learned how to increase using Knit Front and Back.  I think that learning new things is like crack to me.  Especially when creating things is involved.

Just chillin'.

Finally a bird to accompany the bird house I found on the side of the rode and brought home to paint!