Happy Anniversary Chicago Stitch, Bitch & Brew!

It was a little over a year ago when love of crafting collided with fondness of hanging out with good friends and chatting over cocktails, and the Chicago Stitch, Bitch & Brew was born! We've had many productive and chatty evenings sitting and stitching (or knitting, or crafting...) in the back room of The Gingerman, listening to whatever Damien is throwing down (the 80's called...and the 80's need those Boyz II Men tunes back), and have even had a brush-in with fame in the form of a US Air Guitar Champion "Dry Ice".

Thanks to all who have come from near and far to craft with us over the past year, and here's looking forward to another great year of getting together for some camaraderie, cocktails and crafting! If you'd like to join us, find out about our monthly meet-ups at our Facebook group, or get the dates from the Stitch, Bitch & Brew page right here.

See you soon, and don't forget to bring a craft!

The Yellow and Blue Quilt

 

I just took the finished yellow and blue quilt out of the dryer.

This was an experiment in improvisational piecing. I did a great job with piecing at the start, but once I started adding larger pieces of fabric to the design I think my accuracy in cutting started to suffer - which means it is a little wonky towards the edges.

 

I quilted with straight lines, or should I say mostly straight lines! Although, after taking it out of the dryer the lines don't look nearly as crooked as I felt like they were when I was quilting.

So, a few lessons learned about cutting, piecing, and stitching when it comes to larger pieces of fabric in a quilt design. And a not-to-shabby job of some improve piecing to boot. All in all, a good exercise. And now it's on to the next project...

Binding the Yellow and Blue Quilt

I'm still trying to finish this "practice" quilt I started weeks ago. The practice part was about piecing, and it was a really great exercise in improvisational patchwork. However, once that part was done, I just wanted to finish it up in a hurry so that I could move on to my next project (I'm trying desperately to stick to just one thing at a time right now). So. This is absolutely not my best quilting work ever, but I'm on the last step of binding and should be completely finished later this week.

I am really looking forward to my next project which includes hand dyed fabrics! I need to do a quick inventory to make sure I have all the supplies I need to get started, which I hope to do later this week - the instant that the binding is finished on the yellow and blue quilt. I can't wait to get started!

Little Recycled Boxes

Last week I needed containers for some small handmade gifts, and couldn't find anything around the house. I decided to make my own simple gift boxes from pretty printed cardstock, experimented a bit, and here's what I came up with:

 

The top fits right over the bottom, they were easy to put together, and worked perfectly for my gifts. Mission accomplished!

 

But then I got to wondering, couldn't I use this technique to make boxes from recycled junk around the house? Hmmm....so last night after dinner I hunted down some crap made from cardstock or thin board to do a little research.

 

First up - old greeting cards. The front of the card makes the box top, and the back becomes the bottom. Any writing on the back of the card ends up visible on the bottom of the box - as in the second one down. Tiny cards, like the thank you note, make tiny boxes.

 

 

 

And then I gave an old cracker box a try. It made a really sturdy box, but I'm not sure about giving a gift in a Cheez-it box! Fidget took this one to play with the millisecond I had it finished, and she's still playing with it today.

 



 

And finally I tried out a few Loteria boards, I think this box has to be my favorite. The back of the boards are printed with games, which look pretty cool on the inside of the box.

 

 

Yeah, I just had to try making a box from Loteria cards as well. This one is teeny tiny!

 

 

Cute, huh? I'd love to share a tutorial for this technique, but you'll have to wait for me to catch up with life a little bit. When I have time, I'll definitely share this with you!

 



Cell Phone Camera Puke

I was snapping pics with my phone over the weekend...

 

 

...and this happened. A total accident - it looks like the phone camera puked, right? But are you kidding me - I absolutely love this! Because you know what it looks like, right? Yes. A modern quilt!