Crafting as Healing

Recently, I've been going through a tough time with the loss of a pretty big piece of my life (job). I'm struggling with being back at the job search, missing the work I was doing,  and finding somewhere where my skills and desire to help people fit. It's a process. Part of my process for dealing with change has always been healing hurts in my life through crafting, so of course a trip to visit my parents resulted in my mom and I going to a quilting show, buying some fabric (thanks Mom!) and making some fancy pillows for my couch. My partner always jokes that we don't ever just hang out, we "work' which is true in a sense, but I think that my mom and I do our best hanging out while we are tackling a sewing project or an organizing project. Or maybe my family is just weird, who's to say?

At any rate, I've wanted some of these pillows for a long time. My mom has some pillows like this on her couch and has also made some for my sister. The awesome part about them is that they're stuffed with all the scraps of fabric and batting from all of my mom's other projects, which makes them reusable friendly and super heavy and firm, which is amazing for couch pillows that need to stand up to lots of use! They're roughly 19' by 19", have a zipper so the covers can be removed to wash them, and are quilted free-hand with a walking foot on the sewing machine. My mom's good advice for the free-hand quilting was to have a plan and to let the fabric guide you as to the design that you make. I think they turned out pretty great! The inside of the pillows is lined with flour sack tea towels and the actual pillow part is also made of this flour sack material. There is just something amazing and healing about taking some fabric, gathering other materials and creating something out of nothing that is useful, taps into your creativity and allows you to spend some time creating and chatting with wonderful people.

Other things I'm currently loving for their healing properties:

• Audio books to keep me focused-especially ones on minimalism. I just finished The Year of Less by Cait Flanders and I'm currently listening to You are a Badass by Jen Singero. Hoopla is amazing and free with a library card. 
• New car! Bad timing, but I just purchased my first car and am loving being able to easily go for a family or friend visit, as well as expand the regions I'm able to job search in
• Harry Potter Rifftrax-combining my love of Harry Potter with my love of making fun of movies.
• Puppy cuddles. 
• Sunshine and things growing in the park
• Amazing and supportive friends in my life.
• "Unicorns are real" bullet journal for keeping me organized
• Remembering the amazing healing of blogging and journaling to help me document my accomplishments and actions

Making Memories: New Sewing Machine

Source: favim.com via Gillian on Pinterest

I've talked a lot lately about my grandma being ill, and part of that has resulted in the sale of her house and liquidation of some of her assets. Not to get into too many details here, but this ended up meaning that some money came my way, and I was stuck for awhile trying to decide what to do with it. There's the obvious action of paying off some bills, but I wanted to have something that I could hold, something that I could use to make me thing of her every time I used it.

Maybe I have a bad memory, maybe I need something to hold, like the locket of hers I've put on every time I miss her or feel upset that she's sick. Maybe I just like the idea of something tangible to remind me of her every time I use it. Maybe I'm just one of those people who don't like getting money even as gifts, and always want to DO something with it. Or maybe I just needed an excuse to buy a new sewing machine since mine is older than me and barely chugging along anymore.

So that's what I did - meet my new co-creator, Bernina 330:

I'm hoping to master more than the art of threading this fancy machine (I literally had to watch a video to even do that much, which made me feel pretty technically challenged)  in the weeks to come, and do some creative sewing. Best of all, every time I thread it,  I know I'll be thinking of good memories of my grandma, which will make sewing an even happier occasion than it usually is.

♥ Craftzilla

Lately...Knits, Crafty Stuff and Getting Back into the Swing of Things

Lately I  :

...got this fun package full of knitting patterns from my mom. I'd picked out some I'd wanted to copy but ran out of time to do so during my last visit. I'm excited to get knitting some new mittens!

... am getting back into the swing of things after being off for a few weeks..trying to wrap my head around all the things I have to do for my placement, school and work in the coming months. I think I need about 800 different lists to keep track of it all.

...was back at Brownies for my first meeting! I got asked who's mom I was about four times and received one hug from one kid who decided that would warm me up (it sure was cold in the gym!)  Ate popcorn and watched some of Diary of a Wimpy Kid with the kids- super fun!

...finished up some new knits for sale at a local shop (hat modeled by Beth, one of the owners)

  ....worked on a picnic bag carrier to go along a custom picnic blanket order in my shop. I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out!

.... sold my first set of these cute pin sets in my shop - there are some more available if you need a cute heart pin for Valentines Day.

... started sitting on a cultural board for the city. I went to my first meeting this week, and am hoping to be involved in some cool things this year (and have a reason for attending all the cultural events I already do)

...have been feeling a bit sad - my grandma's at that point of her battle with cancer where it's winning. In case you had forgotten,  cancer sucks. I'm hoping to get up there for a visit very soon to see her.

...could use a new robot foot. I think I've done something to a tendon or something in my foot, and walking has been a bit ouchy. I ordered some new shoes and am trying to rest up, stretch and wear some comfy shoes, so hopefully it starts feeling better soon.

What have you been up to lately? I'd love to catch up!

♥ Craftzilla 

Apartment Update: Custom Shower Curtain

I was inspired my my friend Shawna's awesome shower curtain to make one of my own for the claw foot tub in our apartment, rather than suffering through a bunch of shower curtains hung haphazardly around the shower.  So I headed to the fabric store, and ended up settling on this yellow striped outdoor fabric, and some brushed metal grommets.

In order to figure out how much fabric I needed, I measured the length from the top of the tub to the shower rod, as well as assuming that I needed the coverage of two regular shower curtains, which usually measure 70 inches by 70 inches. So, I ended up getting 6 yards of fabric that had a width of 54 inches.



I think it turned out pretty well, and my downstairs neighbour didn't even come upstairs to yell at me after I spent an hour banging the grommets into the fabric with a grommet tool and a hammer. I count this a great success, don't you?



I think I also solved one of the problems we were having with the tub as a shower, namely this weird hanging down piece of wood that the shower caddy is screwed onto, and the awkwardness of having a shower curtain close properly around it. I ended up making the shower curtain in two pieces--a smaller piece to deal with this section of the shower, and a double wide piece for the rest of the shower. I'm looking forward to a lot more showers and a lot less water sprayed everywhere!


♥ Craftzilla

Scrap Busting - Pin Cushion Jars

I saw this great DIY for pin cushion jars over on Mel's blog, Needle and Nest, and knew that my new sewing space (more on that later) could really use some of these! And with the added bonus of being another way to use up some of my fabric scraps. I love how mine turned out --thanks for the idea Mel!



Using just a little circle of fabric, some quilt batting and some hot glue, this was a totally fast and easy project, and would make a great gift for your crafty friends, either filled with candy or baked goods, or fancy sewing supplies.

Happy crafting!

♥ Craftzilla

Things I Made and Saw: Decorating, Skirts & Quilting

I've been having a pretty low key weekend here, and have mostly been trying to organize a few things around the house including putting up some pictures and finishing up some sewing. We also had a few friends over, and had some tasty food like burgers and home made chocolate pudding.

I finally am making some progress with hanging up some of embroideries and other art around the house:



I also finally hung up my set of embroidered hoops in my bedroom, along with my collection of dream catchers. I recently finished the green one, and the others were given to me as gifts.



I've been wanting to get back into making some clothes for myself again, so decided to practice making a skirt or two in a smaller scale with some larger scraps of fabric from my stash. I think this one turned out pretty cute:



Knitting a long skinny scarf for a custom order:



I'm also making good progress on quilting the baby quilt I'm working on:





And as always, a sleepy puppy by my side:



♥ Craftzilla

Scrap Busting - Fabric Fish Cat Toys

I've been meaning to work on some projects to use up tons of fabric scraps, and a day off today was the perfect opportunity. I grabbed some fancy fabric scraps and set to making some fish shaped cat toys that I promised a friend awhile ago. Didn't they turn out cute?




The skull and cross bones one is made out of an old sock, and the others are just cotton and flannel fabric scraps from previous projects. I basically just drew a fish shape onto paper, cut it out, and used it as a pattern to cut out 2 pieces of fabric for each fish. I sewed half of the fish together using a zig zag stitch (including the whole tail , which I left un-stuffed ) and then stuck in some cotton batting and a liberal sprinkle of catnip before sewing up the rest of the fish, which made me feel a bit like I was sewing up some sort of fabric cigarette and made me think a little bit of this episode of Arrested Development.

I'm off  to give these to some kitties I know :)

♥ Craftzilla

Mending - A Lost Art?

Confession: Today, I had to mend or sew four things to get dressed.

Does this not seem silly? I mean, I can sew, I make things all the time, so how is it that my clothes are all not in perfect repair all the time?

The Answer: The mending pile. It grows. It towers over all living beings. It is difficult to tackle and let's face it, it's much easier to get inspired to sew a pretty purse than to fix some holey jeans or mend some ripped socks, and mending clothes and darning socks is often not done these days. How many of you have seen clothes at the thrift store with the most superficial of undone seams or tiny rips that can be easily mended?

So, I've decided  it's time for me to get some mending done, so I looked around for some mending inspiration to help me tackle my giant mending pile, as well as get some new ideas about how to mend different kinds of clothes.

 This mending tutorial is pretty helpful--is a good visual step  by step of the darning process which seems to usually be used for socks and knits, but could  have other applications as well.

Source: blog.karenbarbe.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Such a creative fix for this rip!

Source: daintytime.net via Gillian on Pinterest

This will definitely help some of my ripped jeans to last a bit longer!

Source: blog.craftzine.com via Gillian on Pinterest

So very adorable:)

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Good visual of sock darning

Source: blog.karenbarbe.com via Gillian on Pinterest

I love both of these ideas--I have a much loved sparkly blue hoodie that might get a similar treatment.

Source: us.asos.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Source: abeautifulmess.typepad.com via Gillian on Pinterest

Source: blog.karenbarbe.com via Gillian on Pinterest

I hope this post inspired you to tackle your mending pile! I know I'm inspired to tackle my growing pile now, so hopefully I'll be a little faster getting ready to go out in the near future!

♥ Craftzilla

Crafty House Tour: My Mom's Sewing Room

My mom is one of the craftiest people I know and has a lovely sewing/craft room. While I was home on the weekend, I decided to take a few pictures of her crafty space. I hope you enjoy!

Here's the door to the sewing room--she made this fun wall hanging and hung it up with a piece of trim from their old kitchen:



A few shots of the room as a whole--pantry cupboards both covered in and filled with fabric! Ten kinds of scissors! One of those fancy UV lights so you can see your sewing when it's dark out! So many kinds of thread!




I also wish I could fit the vintage wooden sewing box (on top of the bookcase) in my suitcase to steal and bring home with me. No fair that my dad scored it for a sweet $5 at Value Village.


This is a wall hanging that was actually made by my great grandmother--isn't it awesome? I love the details?







Her Baby Lock sewing machine makes me full of jealousy--look at all the room to sew! All the stitches to use! *dies*



Some of the various fun cross-stitches around the room. I definitely share mom's love of alphabet samplers--I may have to start one of these sometime soon.






And here are some cross-stitches around the room that I made--apparently my mom inherited a lot of them:







Stay tuned--there's more crafty goodness from my parent's house to come--there are fancy things everywhere there!

♥ Craftzilla

Guest Post : Quilt Mending 101 on Pixie Mama's blog

Hi all,

Just checking in quickly to let you know that I have a fabulous guest post up on Pixie Mama's blog on how to mend a quilt quickly and easily.

Check out the post here and see how to go from this quilt with a torn square....

 
..to fancily mended quilt!

♥ Craftzilla