Mary's Family Sweat Shop- Oops I Mean Craft Corner

So I finally got to the fabric store. Ben hates shopping there and I can't decide on a bunch of fabrics while I am trying to entertain him, so this time I had Grandma and Grandpa along, and it was a success. It took me over an hour to choose the right fabrics (I know, yuck). So once I got to the front, I told the girls what I was trying to make, and here was the huge issue: I could either get 14 yards and have plenty of fabric, but not in even lengths, or I could get 18 yards. With 18, I would be able to lay out the duvet cover in three equal length sections, but I would have way more fabric than I would need, and it would cost me an extra fifty bucks. I'm cheap. I ordered 14 and decided my husband and my mother in law would be able to work it out.

I wanted the duvet cover to be double sided, so that when you turn it down, you see the other, coordinating fabric. I was so nervous about this brown and blue floral pattern, but the light blue really highlights the colors that I like, and our drapes are the sage color (that appears grey-ish in this photo). The background is a bright yellowy cream, really cheery.

So we (ahem, they) had to work out a way to cut the fabric so that I could use the 14 yards, but in a way that would look intentional, of course. Well, apparently I created one of the world's biggest conundrums and it took them an extraordinary amount of time (and many sheets of St. Jude's notepad paper) to work it out. But in the end, I had instructions on how much to cut, in what dimensions and in what order and how to piece it together, AND saved fifty big ones. That one on the bottom right- so ugly. Scott was upset that what would work conveniently mathwise had to also pass aesthetics first. Bummer, right? Here are the final plans:

Okay, so sewing right along, and I go to pin the sides and...

 Ya. Oh well, I just went with it. Once I sewed it up, I tried it on the comforter just to make sure it was going to fit okay, and then trimmed off the excess. The unbalanced layout only shows on the underside, so no big deal. Plus, duvet covers are so forgiving because they are all... well, poofy.

Our last Pottery Barn duvet cover had ribbons on the inside to tie the corners in, and Scott really loved that. So, I ran upstairs and got some ribbon I had leftover from something and cut it into strips. It started fraying like crazy so I folded each in half and sewed a seam on there to keep the mess under control. Then I sewed two onto each corner. They work great! My perfect and beautiful PB duvet cover and euro shams are in the closet for now. Our cats actually pooped on them and I had to cut out the stain. I have big plans for a quilt in the future, but even if I had that now, kids would then have their way with it, so... it's being saved. This material is all 100% cotton (as opposed to, ahem, silk, so...) way easier to wash. Kids change your life. So do cats. Oh by the way, those naughty kitties are loving living outside, so that's a wonderful thing.

 Okay. So now for the button holes. I waited until Ben had gone to sleep because I was sooooo nervous. I sewed three sides up all the way and one side I... well first I forgot that I had to sew finished edges on the button-up side! So I ripped out a little of the stitching on each side and did that for both sides. Then I sewed in about six inches from each corner, just to make sure the comforter would stay inside the cover and not want to bulge out too much. Then I pinned where I wanted the buttons and practiced button holes over... and over. Until finally it was obvious that they weren't going to get any better and so I had to go for it. Here are the button hole settings on my machine, in red. Literally, you just lay down the button and mark with a pencil at both ends, then start with 1. Stitch the length of the button, then click over to 2, and do a couple stitches along the bottom (I did like 20, so... you may not need to be that enthused) and then click to 3, go back up the left side, and then 4 to finish the top. Two problems: going straight on steps 1 and 3. and trying not to miss the pencil mark in the light of the machine's lamp. Oops! Then when you're done, you use a seam ripper to cut a line up the fabric in the middle, to make the hole. Presto. And try not to sweat buckets of panic all over the fabric.

 Here is a button hole all finished up, and one of the buttons I used. I had six blue and cream buttons, all different kinds... so I used six buttons.

And here is the finished product, on the bed! I also have big plans for matching euro shams, when I get the energy, and hopefully a few throw pillows (even though Scott hates them.. maybe just one long one?). And I have frames leaning against the wall that are going to replace that poster, and hang above that shelf on the right.

Thanks to my mother in law for all her help! I would not have been able to power through this so fast without her. I am loving all these fun projects... My wallet is not. But, when all was said and done, the duvet cover cost me $150, in fabric. Not bad!

Mary's Saving Some Green Craft Corner

Hey guys! So I finally got around to covering our new (ish) dining room chairs. Hurray! I've seen my mom do this a million times but she used a staple gun, and after having the husband look around the garage, we couldn't find the one I had in college (oh the black hole of art supplies) so... we had to do a few different things.

This here is the fabric I picked out at Beverly's in town. I am so sorry about our awful carpet. We would fix it, but... as you know from this post, we don't want to throw any more money into this house. So. I am in a rug search.

Aaand the indents are from the high chair we used to use for Ben- they are totally temporary, I just took it off, and now of course, you can't see them at all since the re-covering.

So, as you can see in the photos below, the white canvas itself was actually a cover on the chair seat, held on by elastic. So I wrapped the thin cotton fabric around that cover and used a plain old stapler to temporarily attach it until we could screw it back onto the chair.

Here is our assembly line in action. Word to the wise- if you have an OCD husband like mine, make sure the fabric is the same direction on all the chairs.

Of course, until I broke the stapler. Oops! After that someone had the fine idea of using thumbtacks, and life went forward again. There you have it! Six reupholstered (ha) dining room chairs!

Mary's Narcissistic Craft Corner

Or... easy DIY wall art for your nest. They say a picture is worth a thousand words... but should I just include a thousand words, anyway? Sure!
Okay, so here is my background knowledge on this super, no brainer method. Or in other words, this section should be titled "things you may not know about me". I have a degree in art and design from Cal Poly. Before that, I studied at Cuesta, Chico State, and the Academy of Art in San Francisco. Before that, I took every art class offered in high school and then did two years of independent study. Before that... well, my dad used to hand me paints and paper to keep me busy in my high chair. So there you go. I do actually know how to do this by hand, and I can draw from life and all that, but this is what I use to achieve a quicker, more accurate basic outline. If at any time during this post, you get all, "ya, but mine won't look like that", stop yourself and say: "self! I didn't study art for twenty years straight, now did I? I am probably trained in something that makes money!" and leave it at that. Yours will still look super awesome and will be all about you- your style, your thing, your mo-jo. It'll be great.

And ahem, if you did study art for twenty years straight... you so don't need to be reading this right now. Please.

Okay, so what you will need is a $25 projector, a really basic one, like this:

Seriously, this is what I use. Although, they have apparently redesigned it to be more...aerodynamic? I drag it upstairs in the falling-apart original cardboard box I bought it in twelve years ago, prop it on a stool or dining room chair and plug it in. I have an expanse of white wall in our bedroom, with an outlet right there. I slide the photo or whatever I have printed off the computer under it (being sure that it fits the little square you can see on the bottom there). Inside this thing there is literally a bulb, a mirror, and a little box to run the bulb. Super high-tech. Then I slide the chair back and forth (picture projected on wall is completely blurry) just to adjust the size I want. Then I use the, er, lens... I guess. Just using that word is making me laugh to myself... to focus the picture. Then I hang the canvas, or paper, or whatever I am using on the wall, and make more adjustments if necessary. Then, I trace away! If I am doing a portrait, I trace in pencil, and I include all the shadows so when I am finished it looks a lot like a paint by number. If, during the tracing, anyone or anything disturbs the projector and repositions the projection, I throw an enormous tantrum and storm up and down the stairs until I have collected myself enough to do the painful re-alignment work.

I regularly combine multiple photos, and when I do that, I make sure to do the photo in the foreground first, so that when I do the background, I know to stop that line when I run into my foreground drawing, and I don't have to do any erasing or trying to figure out later which is which. Here are some examples of what I am left with:

 For this piece, I actually received three photos. One of each of the dogs, and one of this place with the stacked rocks. So I did this outline in three separate 'drag-the-projector-and-chair-around, re-focus, and make-sure-its-straight' sessions. Perhaps one or two 'un-tape, move and re-tape the paper' sessions. Be sure to use painter's tape if you care about your walls. But there you have it.

Note: In situations like this one, if you are going to aim for realism (and not just graphic shapes and outlines, which I will talk about later) be sure to pay close attention to where the shadows are pointing. The drawing won't look right to the eye if shadows are going all different directions, or if your subjects are noticably different sizes from their surroundings.

I suggest, if you are going to do a simple line drawing (which is so easy with the projector) that you make the major subject's outlines thicker/darker around the outside, and the backgrounds and inner shadow outlines softer and lighter. Try it and I think you'll get my drift. You can kind of see that in the drawing above. I don't focus on that so much when I know I am going to put paint over it.

Here is another:

In the background photo, they were only about as big as those red parentheticals, but it still worked. I imagined them celebrating their engagement sipping champagne on a balcony somewhere,
overlooking the lake. Sigh... it helps me to make up stories
about these sorts of things while I'm painting.

I was super nervous about this job because I didn't know the people and had never seen them in person. It wasn't the first time I had done that, and it probably won't be the last, but it always puts me a little bit on the edge of my seat while I'm working. You won't have this issue, as you will probably be creating art of your friends and family for your own walls and theirs!

One more example of this paint-by-number look:

 This one is done from a friend's wedding photo. I did the background paint first and then laid down the foreground outline and the background outline...I don't know why I forget to do that sometimes.

So, this is how they all turned out in the end:

 I tried a more modern approach with the second one (you can pick up those graphic stamps at a craft store and work them into your piece, or use them as a background pattern). I have to say, this last one is my all-time favorite. By the time they are at this stage, my outline is long gone and I am flying through the air with no safety net. I usually have at least one or two major freakouts (see the knuckle area on her hand in that last one? Huge freakout). But this was more to satisfy your curiosity than to suggest that from step #1 to step # 457 is a short hop. Just try step #1 and see where your imagination leads you.

Here's a fun one: you can blow up a profile photograph and trace the outline, for a look that is similar to an old Victorian silhouette portrait. Instead of making it black, use it as a template and cut that shape out of fabric, or patterned craft paper, and frame it. Or adhere it onto a background of colored cardstock. Here's an example that I did up in Photoshop:

digital paper by designer mItsybelle. See more products here.

You can use a template like that for anything. I mean, you could stitch a cut out piece of fabric onto a pillow, or turn it into a stencil. The ideas are endless.


I will leave you with a little progression of one of my portraits from start to finish:

One with glare, and one without. Can't wait for that awesome camera.

Hope you have fun with it! Comment if you have made something beautiful, I would love to hear about it!

Surprise! More Nesting

Not much to say besides everything is awesome, I love being home, and I had a bunch of material and ribbons left over so I made.... something.

I think of it as kind of a baby lounger-slash-tummy time mat. Its smallish, but I wanted something taggie for Ben to look at, pull on and try to eat. Most of the material was from my crayon costume a couple of years ago, and then some of that cute polka dot stuff is from the bear I made him, that you can see sitting in his crib a couple posts back. Really, I am gearing up to make some valances and curtains with this pile of blue dot material that I bought the other day. So much less complicated than the poofy taggie thing, but somehow more intimidating...

Day 29

Ok... two negative tests and no period... I finished another painting! Yay! This one is of Kris' son Wyatt, I thought it would be a nice Christmas gift since I had all the materials out already.

So... definitely cramps... just waiting on the green light here, so that I can refill my prescription and all that, but I really hope this late period thing doesnt become a trend. Its hard enough waiting for day 28...

Day 24

So, on Dec 2, it will be another round of pregnancy tests, unless my period does me a favor by coming early (which would be great but never happens lately). I guess its the clomid working which drags my cycles out to normal length. My period used to come every 3 weeks, which was terrible except when youre trying to have a baby, because you don't have to wait as long through that anxious part.

Scott and Chubba were enjoying some sports on TV before we headed over for some Thanksgiving grub.

This month has been really busy, with travelling everywhere to see friends. It was really great to see the Puccinelli's and the Schmalbach's. Holding little kids makes my world go round. And the parents are pretty great, too.

Scott dug up the front yard and is trying to rake all of the leaves and rocks out before he digs trenches for the sprinklers. However, he got pretty overwhelmed by the whole process and basically just left it as a dirt hill. Left it for so long, that it began to grow its own lawn, in bright green patches. So... I guess at least it looks better than it did before.

Our deal is that he needs to finish it by the time we have a baby. And I'm not required to do anything to it, which is why I allow it to be totally ignored... so I'm not called out to do it.

I also did a painting this month! My uncle asked me to do a painting of his friend's dogs as a Christmas gift. They had both passed away and my uncle wanted to do something for him, to commemorate them.  It came out pretty well, and really got me going! I mean, half the battle is setting up and cleaning up, so once you have all the materials out to do one... it really makes sense to do more. So, we will see what I bust out with next! I included a photo of the watercolor for you.

Well, Scott and Steph are both out of town today, so I am hangin by myself until tomorrow. I am planning on doing some reading, sleeping (hopefully some exercise but my motivation is way low) and just general relaxing. Hope you all are having a great Thanksgiving weekend!