Ginger Hendrix, Writer

"I Thought Of You With Every Stitch"

It started off as a nag in my heart--because I wanted to make something that was Just Right for my new neice-lette. I really wanted it to be an above-average showing of my love. You know: spot-on. I think it's tricky to try to achieve that perfect combo of invested-in and not overly-wrought. This is always tricky for me to pull off, and I tend to lean toward overly-wrought.

Not this time, baby. [Update: Baby Fiona. Baby Fiona. That's why there's that f. F for Fiona, see?]

I had started making Unnecessarily Complex squares out of triangles that I had a hair-brained idea I was going to do some sort of chevron pattern with (click here for the quilt that my friend Emily made that was so stinking cute she made me want to make one).

Then I sort of found myself walking a wide circle around the pile where I'd left the weird stack of hand-sewn triangle-y squares. Like it smelled bad or had a virus I didn't want to catch or something. I did this for roughly 4 days. And it was getting down to the wire, People. I was going to meet my niece-lette Empty Handed if I didn't get the sewing hitch out of my sewing getalong and start Making.

So I was upstairs staring at it like it was a dead animal that I was afraid might come back to life when all of sudden, I just picked up this other weird mod sheet that was lying nearby and started cutting wildly and I'd sewn an entirely new Top for the thing and deemed the complex triangles as Back Material.

So, this quilt took very little time to make, unless you count all the time when I was trying to get my head to figure it out and my head was refusing.Oh--and also if you don't count how I decided to HAND QUILT it like some weird Quilting Aunt Overachiever.

(I may or may not have been hand-quilting it all the way through my niece-lette's baby shower. This can't be confirmed. It's just a rumor.)

I finished the hand quilting (bloody thumbs and all, Everyone) and then I brought it home to finish. Because I needed to add this (I know: and she has a jungle room, Everybody. Come. On.)

And also to add this. . . .

Because it's what I saw stamped in my head the entire time I was making it for her. And it was true.

How I Do That

 

I'm getting a lot of great questions about the words that show up everywhere on the stuff that I make and remake, so I thought I'd give you a little heads up about how those words are showing up there.

It's because of this kooky secretary's stamp set that I picked up at a garage sale years ago. It came with a numbered set that I since can't find and there was a few little tiny stamps that said 1950, 1951, 1952, and 1953.

 I just spell a word backwards and then set it in this little base with some Official Typesetting Tweezers

 

And then I stamp it a with this. 

   

I do this a bunch of times (partly because it takes me a bunch of times to get a good one and also because I sometimes go back scavenging for words for other projects):

Then I cut it out

 

I like to do it all in this order and then sew it so that it will fray because I am Pro-Fray. Other people are not--and those Anti-Fray people could just stamp it with more space around it, do some ironing work that would probably require a combo advanced degree in Astro Physics and Home Ec and then sew it down fraylessly. 

But I'm all into the effect:

So, tips in summary:

1. Use permanent ink, then do a little heat setting. I didn't take pics of this part because it would be me running down to the dryer and throwing my big sheet o' stamps in there for 10 minutes or so on high. And because I don't have a WDT Staff Photographer, I didn't get a shot of this. 

2. Stamp onto nice soft cotton. I actually am no pro stamper, but I do mine on soft old bedsheets and it seems to allow the desired effect (and the ink doesn't squish into the cracks, so you can read the word.)

3. Plan on stamping your word on a seperate piece of fabric a bunch of times so that it's okay if you screw up on the stamping. As it turns out, you've got to hold your mouth just right, flex some special tendons in the top of your fingers, press down hard and sort of rooooooolllll through the stamp. And this fancy method takes a bit to muster and then master. So let yourself screw up on some old bed sheets and you'll have a better time than you would if you sewed up a pretty little something and then gave yourself one shot on a finished piece. You might cry if you did it that way. And by You, I, of course, mean Me.

There you have it. Stamp on, Wiener Dog Tricks Bloggish People Friends (my dear old WDT BPF's). More quetsions? Just shoot and I'll do my absolute best to explain my strange workaround to your legitimate crafting question.

Thing For Me #7: Messenger (Finished!) & Thing For You #2: Cash Envelope System Wallet Tutorial

Hello, People. Yesterday marked the very superduper last day of Sew Sew Selfish Month. So it looks like I've got to start thinking about OTHERS now. Yeesh. But first, this:

I made it, unmade it, and then remade it. 

So now I'm dragging it around full of heavy books and tablets and list-making notepads. And it gives happiness to my insides.

I also made another one of these (the much-loved Cash Envelope System Wallets):

  
And I like it even better because that bottom pocket is functional now and not attacked by the buttonhole and the zipper is also on the outside. Two nifty upgrades.

And here's the part about you: I'm putting the final touches on the tutorial for this project, and I'm going to offering it up as my very first FOR SALE tutorial. (Oooooooohhhhhhhh. That's faaaaaaancy.) It'll be 3 bucks--not bad, not bad.

But before I start selling them, I want to offer them FOR FREE to a big handful of you who are regular friends over here at Wienerdog Tricks. So if you're interested, just send me an email today or tomorrow (gingerhendrix AT charter DOT net), and I will very happily email you one. (I like to share.) Then in a couple of days, the tutorials will be for sale--good plan, good plan. UPDATE: Hey there--I sent a big handful to some of you good WDTBPF's, so if you'd still like one, just click right over here.

I think you guys are great, my Wienerdog Tricks Bloggish People Friends. (WTBPF's).

Thing for Me #7: Messenger (Mid-Way)

This is a Sew Sew Selfish Month update.

I made this:

 

(Think of this next shot as on the setting that Barbara Streisand used to have photos taken of herself during her Star Is Born years):

 
Something's not right. And I think it's the edges that are bothering me. And the straps, maybe. So I took it apart:

This isn't my first messenger bag. I made this one for the Man Spouse for Christmas:

 

(The innards):

And this one at Christmastime for a dear friend:

 

(The innards):

I think I want the edges on the one I'm making right now to look more finished. So I'm going to try some sort of piping or something when I put it back together. And I'm going to make it skinnier so that it's DAINTIER.  Might even cut the whole bag down so it's just a little smaller. Hmmm. Haven't solved the straps problem yet, but might go back to what I did here with an old seatbelt (a trip to the junk yard's not such a bad idea, really.)

Sometimes Making involves Un-Making. And if you're not sure what I mean (or, really, even if you are), go over here and see this. You'll nod. You'll gasp. You'll shake your head. And then you'll think deep thoughts about Making including Un-Making that you never thought before. 

And of course you'll be the first to hear when I stop all this Un-Making and put the messenger bag back together.

Thing for Me #1: Envelope System Wallet

(This just in--for those of you interested in making one, the PDF pattern for this CASH ENVELOPE SYSTEM WALLET is available from Weinerdog Tricks right over here.)

A Sew Sew Selfish Month Update

 

We do the cash envelope system over here. Why you ask? Why not just keep accurate track of your spending utilizing the multiple technologies currently available as a result of the industrywide availability of banking's willingess to interface with personal budgeting softwares?

Yeah, it's because if I have .37 in my checking account, I just have a hankering to spend it. Or maybe spend it twice sometimes. Good one.

So, in an effort to remain solidly planted in Marital Mostly-Bliss, we do the cash envelope system.

But I need a cuter way to pull it off. So, I am thrilled to move from this:

 

 

Which has been an upgrade of sorts from this (which made me feel like a 7th grader for some reason):

 

 To this!:

 

 

It has a lot going for it, and a couple of kinks I'm going to work out before I write up a tutorial for how to do it (because it is SHOCKINGLY easy, people.)

GOING FOR IT: 

1. It's made out out of old polyester. As I've mentioned and mentioned and mentioned, I love old polyester. It is agreeable, funky, and available everywhere. This particular fabric came as a surprise gift from my friend Banana. 

2. It's marked with the names of categories that make me much happier than I would be if they said office-y sounding things like FOOD, GAS, ENTERTAINMENT, PERSONAL.

 

3. It has a handy coin purse thingy designed right into it. Haaaaaandy. This was a workaround for a wallet just like this one that I made for a friend for Christmas. I cut the fabric too short and needed a way to piece it together. "A zipper!" I said to myself. Handy. Handy. Handy mistake-turned-good-idea.

 

KINK

1. It's wonkier than some other polyesterprojects I've done.  I have a pretty high Wonk Threshold, but I think I'll need to come up with some How to Handle Stretch answer to this reality. 

2. The bottom category spot turns out to be too short because of the topstitching. Hmmm. Back to the drawing board. Right. 

This is my report. I was up early this morning finishing it up because I just am absolutely ready to carry it everywhere with me.

And I'm trying not to take it too personally that the just-under-2 yr old picked it up and blew her nose with it. Right.