A New Look

My sewing area has gotten a new look courtesy of an old shelf I repainted and hung. This shelf hung in my nursery when I was a baby; it's original colors were pink and green. I've moved all my John Clark prints to display above it and I think it looks great! Plus, finally I have a way to store my thread where it's out of the way but I can still see it. I also put some of my more commonly used sewing accessories up there. The plastic water bottle holds my pins for sandwiching quilts and the little round tin holds bobbins.

I also had a small finish this morning. I made another of the "thingies". As you can tell from the colors, this one is for an adult.

I hope you have a great day!

Thingies

I've made a new batch of thingies for Christmas baby presents. (A video of the folding blocks in action -- not my video.) My method for making them has definitely improved with practice.

I am still quilting, somewhat irregularly. The long hiatus has been due to several things, mostly a shift in focus. For all of September, October, and November I was busy with a large writing project that absorbed all my time. I'm taking December off from major writing before I edit that project so expect a few more quilting projects to go up this month.

Introducing... the Thingy

I made a couple of these in January, and I had started to post this once before but didn't because I couldn't figure out a way to accurately represent what it is. This time, though, I've found a video of one in action!

What it is is a toy. A highly addictive folding, rotating block toy. There are apparently patterns available at some stores to make these. I developed a pattern from a photo of a completed one someone posted on their blog and my memories of playing with wooden and plastic ones. If you follow the links through from that video you'll come to a tutorial for making one of these completely by hand. My method is almost completely machine stitched, allowing for stronger and nicer looking seams. If I can ever figure out how to render the pattern into something two dimensional that someone else could actually understand I'll post it here.

I've made a couple of these and have the pieces for a third cut out. As you can see, I'm still in the prototyping phase. I need to get a different foam to fill the blocks so they will lay better. Even so, it's downright fun! This is actually one of the quilt-y things I am most proud of.