Dream Chaser

To say that I love all things science fiction and fantasy would definitely be putting it lightly.  My love and appreciation for these things runs deep.  When talking about people like myself, the term "Geek" usually comes into play.  Plain and simple, these things make me happy.  And as I have gotten older that has become more and more apparent.  They have wiggled their way into my everyday life.  From the things I teach my girls, to how my husband and I spend our time together, and most relevant to this post, how I look at things from a creative standpoint.

 For the past year, I have been playing around with an idea.  It started off very, very small.  And as more time has past, I can't seem to think about anything else. I have been thinking that the Dragon*Con convention is the perfect venue for the items that I make.  My family has attended this convention the past few years, but this year when I went, I went with "new eyes" on.  I looked at things from a seller's view.  I thought about whether or not my things would fit and attract the people who attend the convention.  And by the end of the convention, the answer that I had was an overwhelming YES.  And more shockingly, it was "Yes, you can do this, Amanda"

 I have bounced this idea off of family and friends to help me talk it out, give me an objective point of view and to way the pros and cons of this endeavor.  I know that this is something that I have to try and do.

So, I have decided to put myself out there and start an Indiegogo Campaign, to help fund the cost of the vendor's fees. Asking for money is something that I don't usually do.  But without a little extra help, I know that this will not be able to happen.

So if you want, head on over to the campaign page and check out the awesome video that Yahaira put together for me, and read what it's all about and all of the rewards you can get!  If you like what you see, please share with your friends!

A Side Note

So, In other news, I have written up and released my first pattern.  It is an idea that I have been toying with for a while.  And after a little firm nudging from friends, I decided it was finally time.

The pattern is for a Knitting Needle Wallet to store you circular needles in.

The pattern features instructions with detailed pictures on how to make your own.

So if you knit or you have friends/family that knit, this is a great project that goes together fast with just a few fat quarters and some ribbon.  I have it listed over in the shop if you're interested!

Yeti

Let me start by saying that I am SO lucky to be in the Wonky Quilt Bee bee with such talented ladies.  I give them mere suggestions of things that I like and, BAM!  It's like they reach right into my brain and know the perfect things to make.

For this quilt, I asked for GIANT bear paw blocks. And man, they delivered.  I love every single block in this quilt.

Melissa started it off by taking my request for a giant bear paw and turning it into the most wonderful scrappy blocks I have ever seen.  And everyone followed suit and the results are amazing!

I didn't want to do a traditional sashing so I decided to use one of my favorite Lizzy House fabrics and I think it fit the bill perfectly.

I backed it in an Anna Maria Horner Little Folks flannel along with a little Michael Miller flannel and it is so soft and snuggly.

I sent it out to Christina for quilting, and just told her to surprise me and I think the all over leaf pattern is beautiful.

 This quilt is one of my most favorite things and I am happy that it is all mine.

5 Years

Now I usually try and keep this space crafting only and keep as much of my personal life out of it as I can. But since this is relevant to why I made this project I am allowing myself to share a tiny bit.  :)

5 years ago, on October 29th, which happened to be the day before my youngest daughter's 1st birthday and 2 days before her favorite holiday, my mom was diagnosed with stage 4 renal cancer.  The outlook was NOT good at all.  Tough times, people, tough times.  5 years later, she is still here, and she is my hero.  She has gone through a lot and I love her so very much. 

I decided to surprise and make her something to celebrate this amazing 5 years.

I went with a Wiksten Tank because I have made quite a few of them before, including some for my mom, so I already know that she looks awesome in them.

And of course, I had to use my most favorite of the Halloween fabrics.  Lizzy House's emoting ghosts print from Guising.  This fabric just makes me happy.  And I decided to do all the topstitching in a fun purple variegated thread.





I think that my mom will really like it when she opens up her mailbox and sees a surprise waiting for her!

Here is a little sneaky peek at what my next post will be about.  Two words, my friends, In. Love.



An Oldy But a Goody

Since I was pretty happy with my last bag project, I thought better go on and strike while the iron is hot.  I have been wanting to make myself something with the amazing Indian Summer fabric line by Sarah Watson.  I did start a quilt with it a while back and it is almost complete, but I wanted something that I could use on a more regular basis.  I seem to have gotten my  knitting mojo back so I thought that a new knitting project bag may be just the thing.

I decided to go with an older Amy Butler pattern that has been collecting dust in my obscenely large pattern stash.  (no seriously, I may actually need an intervention for this problem, but that is a whole other blog post) 

 

This print is one of my favorites.  All the animal faces make me so happy.

 I stuck pretty close to the pattern.  The things I changed were that I used Pellon fusible fleece for the main body of the bag because I wanted the bag to have more structure and then I only added one pocket to the inside instead of two like the pattern calls for.  I also decided to use a 3rd fabric for the handles to add a little of my favorite color.  :)

I think that this bag is pretty happy and my knitting will look quite happy in it.

Pretty good way to start off Selfish Sewing Week methinks.

Happy Saturday!

Bag O' Tricks

Sometimes it's just nice to make something.  No reason for it.  You just see something and you think, "Hey, that would be fun to make!"  Usually if this happens, I try to conjure up a reason to make it, like finding someone who wants to do a swap or something. 

Are you guys familiar with the online workshop site, Creativebug?  So many good things on this website.  With workshops from instructors like, Anna Maria Horner, Cal Patch, Heather Ross, and Natalie Chanin.  And for September, you can lock in your subscription price for only $10 a month.  Score!

So, one of the most recent workshops is this travel kit from Betz White.  She says in the video that it would make a great little bag to store you toiletries in when you travel, but of course when I saw this, my brain saw the cutest knitting project bag EVER. 

So I got to work, plotting and planning.  Pulling fabrics and rummaging through "the horde" to see what kind of precious things I could use to make this bag.  Since the bag is so small, the fabric requirements are minimal and therefore I thought cutting into some precious things was warranted.

Now, I did change some things from the original.  I knew I wasn't going to want to cover up any of my precious fabric so the handles would have to be moved. 

I also decided that I wanted this little bag to be super sturdy, so I first fused all of the pieces with   SF-101 and then fused the fusible fleece on top of that, on all of the pieces.  And then SF-101 on the lining pieces also.  On the bottom piece, I used fusible Peltex, which I trimmed to be about a 1/4" smaller on all of the sides so I wouldn't have to deal with sewing through it.  BAM!!! Bag of superior sturdiness accomplished.   It would take a bomb to destroy this thing.

The fabric that I used is an Echino quilting cotton from a few years back and paired it with a natural linen.  I then decided it would be pretty neat if the webs on it were sparkly.  So I quilted over the straight lines running through the web on all of the pieces.  And then just did random straight line quilting on the bottom linen part.

I added a little punch of color to the handles with some plum-y shot cotton that I had.

Along with a pretty purple zipper.

And of course, it wouldn't be one of my projects if it didn't have a little Lizzy House fabric included somewhere.

 

Emoting ghosts are the bestest in my opinion.   :)

Add in a handmade bag charm with a matching zipper pouch and stitch markers, and you have one pretty cute little knitting project bag.

This bag was so great and satisfying to make, I know that I will be making several others for holiday gifts for knitting friends.

Stash Match September

I am a little late on this post.  But better late than never, right?  I swear those words will be on my tombstone.

A few months ago Ali started a fun little game called Stash Match.  She picks an inspiration photo and 6 bloggers to rummage through their stash and pick at least 10 fabrics, but no more than 20, take a picture of them and send them to her.  The fabrics have to be at least a Fat Eighth cut (no scrap diving), and you can't go out and buy anything new.  Make sense?  Good.

Then your job is to check out the pictures on Ali's blog and match up the pictures to which blogger they belong to. If you guess all of the pictures right you will have a chance to win an Awesome prize!! 

This month, Ali chose a print from Rashida Coleman-Hale's Koi line (love this fabric) as the inspiration photo.

So head on over there and give it a shot, and see if you can tell which one is mine.  I made sure to include some geeky goodness in the stack (hint, hint)