Seed Stitch Scarf Bunnies

Hello!

This trio is the first part of a hopefully successful series of bunnies that I like to call the Seed Stitch Scarf Bunnies for the very simple reason that they are bunnies with seed stitch scarves.

First we have Alice, the sweet little girl of the bunch. 

Next we have James, the rowdy little boy with an earful of stars and a brain full of mischief. 

And finally Basil, the calm and quiet boy who makes sure James doesn't do anything too stupid. 

They are all up for adoption on my Etsy and would be delighted to be scooped up as late holiday gifts (don't lie, we all need some) or as a perfect gift for a baby shower. I will most likely be making more of this cuties, so keep your eyes peeled. In the meantime, have a wonderful week and if I don't talk to you before the 31rst, have a fantastic new year!

Merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful colorful Christmas!

Gifts gifts gifts

Hello!

Now, before I start, can I just say that I know that Christmas is not all about presents and all that, it's about family and happiness and yes I know that. But that is precisely why I just spent the last three weeks making a lot of things for my friends and family. I'm just going to show you what I made for my friends because I'm pretty sure that they don't check this blog.

First, a hat made of thick super chunky yarn. I didn't think it would need bigger needles than what I had, so I fought my way through the whole thing but it worked out. In true Blue Cat Creations fashion, I made it up as I went along. 

 Next, a tricolored scarf. This took much longer than expected, but I really enjoyed making it. Very simply, just cast on about thirty stitches (I can't remember exactly) and made 4 row stripes.

I just included this picture cause I thought it was really cool.

Up next, a present I made for a Secret Santa I'm going to tomorrow. I made a batch of cookies (and ate approximately half) then put as many as I could in a cardboard cylinder that is supposed to be used for shipping paper things. I lined the inside with aluminum and put the cookies in it. Cookies, cardboard and a Sharpie snowman: easiest Secret Santa gift ever.

And these pretty cards that I found yesterday. 

I also bought a bunch of presents (by a bunch I mean like three or four not fifty) but these are the handmade ones. 

Happy Holidays my friends and it's almost winter break, we can do it.

The Foxes Hunt the Hounds

That's from a Fall Out Boy song, by the way, I did't make that up.

Hello!

Last night I made this little guy. Instead of making an order that I have to ship by Friday, I decided to make an order that I have until Christmas to make. I'm really good at prioritizing. 

To be fair, how could I resist the prospect of making a little guy like this? My only guidelines were "My daughter likes foxes and I want to give her one for Christmas." 

This pattern follows one I made this summer, expect that one was a sheep, so I had to make a few alterations. 

Super simple, just a fleece back, ears and tail, as well as a cotton belly and inside of the ears. A few white and brown details, a good movie, and there you have it, an adorable little fox.

Here you can see the cotton I used, isn't it cute? I bought it a while ago cause it was too adorable to pass up, but I didn't know what to do with it until now. 

I want to keep him for myself. 

Have a great end of weekend, and tomorrow is December woo!!!

It only took about a year

Hello!

Do you all remember this cardigan? I started it in December last year, kind of dropped it for a few months because I messed up the back, and picked it up once more this summer with the expert help of my grandmother.

It is complete.

Today was Daylight Savings and so with my extra hour I did homework. I'm kidding of course, I sewed the remaining sleeve onto the already completely sewn sweater. I ran out of yarn when I was in France and was only able to finish it earlier this month, but my grandmother had sewn the rest of it this summer. 

Other than that, yesterday, my dad and I went into the city and although we went with the goal of thrifting, we mostly wandered through expensive independent shops filled with things we wished we needed.

I got a candle in a gorgeous little box.

I'd say this was a good start to November.

Have a great week and stay warm, cause I don't know about you, but we're definitely starting to feel the cold around here. 

Hello bunny my old friend

This is Garfunkel.

He is my new buddy. 

I was feeling very stressed and overwhelmed the other day, and in my mind, making a bunny was the only way I was going to relieve that stress. So I blew up the pattern I usually use for bunnies, got the proportions all wrong, and made Garfunkel in about four hours. 

He is made of fake fur that is amazingly soft and fluffy that I got this summer in Normandie. The ears are made with scraps of fabric that I had, and the scarf is made from some of my many yarn scraps. He is a very organic and adorable companion. I call him my stress-relief bunny. 

As for his name, whenever I need to think of a name for a stuffed animal, I think "Simon". I don't know why, but it has resulted in my having a lot of bunnies named Simon. So I thought, what goes with Simon? The obvious answer is Garfunkel. So there you go.

Have a great end of the week and end of October!

I can't believe it worked

Hello!

I'm going to start off by saying that I really should either be studying for a history quiz or writing a biology lab report right now. Instead I'm going to write this post because I'm really excited about it.

I made a skirt yesterday. 

I wanted to test drive my machine, and I've been wanting to make a skirt for a while now, so this was the ideal project. Also, I've been trying to keep my Saturdays sacred and homework free for as long as I can, so I was able to block off the whole day to do this. 

I went into town yesterday morning with the intention of just getting fabric and to use a pattern I had found online, but as I walked into the shop I found a pattern that was exactly what I was looking for. So I got it, as well as some adorable fabric with carousel horses on it. I did wonder for a little bit if I would be able to pull off a skirt with horses on it, and I decided that yes, yes I would be able to. 

So I spent a solid five hours working on this yesterday, occasionally yelling at my machine because the thread wouldn't stay in the needle (I'll have to figure out why at some point). Overall, the process went smoothly, but I did have issues with the waistband, which wasn't quite as long as the skirt waist. I gathered it a little bit at the back and it worked out well. I also had issues with the zipper, which is weird because I'm usually pretty good with zippers. But it wouldn't be a Blue Cat project if something didn't go wrong. I also burned my hand on the iron as I was ironing. Don't do that kids, it hurts.

There you have it, one of my most successful projects to date, I would say. The size is right, the pattern is very cute and the skirt is what I wanted. I'm not sure what to wear it with though, but I'm going thrifting next weekend so I'll try and find something.

You also get photo proof that sometimes I do go outside. Especially today, because the fall weather is absolutely gorgeous.

Have a great week!

P.S. To anyone who wants to make this skirt, I used the Sewaholic pattern 1206, view C (the shortest one). 

Lil' newbie

Please say hello to the newest member of the Blue Cat Creations family.

Isn't she pretty? This is my new sewing machine that I got for my birthday and I am in love.

She is a Viking from Husquvarna, and although I've only had time to try her out a tiny little bit, I love her. She's much nicer to me than my mom's machine is. The stitches run smooth and neat and she makes a wonderful sewing machine sound. It took me a while to figure out the bobbin, but that's because the newbie in this situation is me, not the machine. The machine is already very good at sewing while I'm still figuring things out. 

I'm so excited, I already have a few projects in mind that I'm just itching to try. 

Sorry for the dark pictures, it's getting darker earlier now (the sun sets at 6:30 now and I'm just about ready to enter full hibernation mode). You should probably get very excited about the numerous anecdotes that are sure to come along with this new machine sewing adventure I've just set myself on.

Too much listing not enough doing

Hello there!

So, I'll just be straight with you. The only thing I have made in the last two weeks is a bunny and his scarf isn't finished so I don't have a picture for you. I was going to sew a bunny this afternoon, but instead I cleaned my room, which turned out to be a much better idea. I did work on my Book of Inspiration and Happy Thoughts a little bit, I added pictures and several lists, which brings me nicely to my next topic.

Lists.

If you've been keeping up with me for a while (in which case hello, thank you for your loyalty and continued interest) you will know that I love lists. I love making them, and I love reading lists that other people have made. I have lists of everything: lists of things to do that day, to do in the future, of books to read and books I've read, of music, of movies, of countries I want to visit.

However, it has come to my attention that making lists is definitely my most pronounced form of procrastination. Sure, I have several methods of procrastinating things, I'll go on YouTube or Tumblr for a while (several hours), I'll eat, I'll clean my room, I'll cuddle my cat... The list goes on. However, what I do when I most want to fight off actually doing things is that I will make a list of things that I should be doing. It motivates me to a certain extent because I have a moment of realization where I tell myself "This list is getting too long to justify writing it". So I get up and do things. Other times, and this happens a lot, I write the same list many times. Sometimes in a different order, sometimes copied basically word for word. It's a huge problem and I'm working on doing rather than listing.

I'm telling you all this because I started this post thinking "I'll just write a list of upcoming projects" and then I realized that I never abide by my lists anyway, so I wrote a whole spiel based on that thought instead.

I did have a creative funnel this week though, because I planned my birthday party. I made invitations a few weeks ago to send by mail. I love getting and sending mail, so I thought, why not? Then I planned the menu (and made part of it) and some of the minimal decoration. Let me tell you, stringing up twinkle lights on our back porch is one of the best decisions I've ever made. They look beautiful. I'm hoping my parents will forget to take them down. The only decoration thing I got a picture of were the candles in the Mason jars which were largely inspired by Tumblr but looked really adorable.

On that note, I hope you have a great week and that I will have a more interesting post next time!

My Book

Hello!

The school year is now officially underway, which of course means that my brain is just about bubbling with equations and monomers and the Civil War and the present tense of Spanish verbs. I have never really been overwhelmed by school, because I genuinely like learning and gaining new knowledge. However, this year, we are three weeks in and there are days where I feel like I'm drowning in school-work, which is never good. So, last week, I decided to start a new, on-going project that would have no deadline and would serve no purpose other than to distract me from school and to give me an accessible creative outlet for the days where it all gets to be too much.

This is My Book, or My Book of Inspiration and Happy Thoughts. Basically, it's going to be a compilation of things that make me happy. For the outside cover, I took pages from a book of poetry I bought for $0.75 at the library (if you ever need books for a project, hit up your library they always have books for sale for really, really cheap) and used Mod Podge to glue them to the book's front and back cover. There are a few air bubbles, but really it isn't that bad and the Mod Podge also acts as a varnish so it's all nice and polished. 

For the inside cover I cut out a road map and glued it on to hide the mess of the book pages. 

I found a bunch of pictures that I've liked over the last few months on Tumblr, printed them out and made a collage across the two first few pages.They're pretty and they make me happy, so they fit. Over time I think I'll also add pictures of myself, my friends and family. I'm also going to have poems and quotes written in. The page after this one has the list of my recent music obsession, which I will link you at the end of this. 

If you want a fun, stress-relieving project, I suggest this. It was inspired by my journal for art class (yes, I'm finally taking an art class and it's amazing). You can get an 8.5x11 notebook at a local arts and crafts store for about $10 and everything else is either printed or thrifted, so it really doesn't cost much. The best part is that there are no rules and no deadline, it's basically a visual brain dump. It's a lot of fun. 

I hope you have a great week!

Here is the link to my music love: http://8tracks.com/deadsoulsx/look-how-the-autumn-leaves-fall

I'm back in the game

Hello!

How have you all been this summer?

I know I was gone away for a (really really) long time, but now I'm back and the good news is that I have had time to make a lot of cool things that I'm super excited to share with you guys.

The first is a huge project that I gave myself a stupidly short amount of time to do, but as it was a gift for a (relatively) newborn baby, I had a deadline.

I made a whole baby quilt. In about two weeks.

I didn't think it would be such a huge project (because I'm naive and also because I've never made a quilt before) but boy was I wrong. Wow, this was such a huge thing to get through.

Picking the fabric is obviously the first step and being the unorganized sewer that I am, I only had a vague idea of what I wanted. I knew it was going to be for a girl, so I thought "pink", but then I thought "I don't want to indulge the stereotypes that all presents for girls must be pink, so maybe gray" and then I realized that pink and gray is one of my favorite color combinations and hey, there you go, that's my color scheme. Then my mom and I started looking for fabric, which was a challenge in itself because it's surprisingly difficult to find gray fabric that is cute enough for a baby and pinks that are all in the same tone. Then we found elephants and I was sold, so the official theme for this blanket is pink, gray and elephants.

The actual sewing process was not hard so much as time consuming, it's all straight lines but when you have a quilt that's going to be nine squares by eleven, it takes a while. I'm still amazed I didn't mess up in the pattern. I actually based it off a quilt my mom made me when I was a baby. 

The batting was a battle, which I won, but it was all twisted and pulled and didn't fall into place correctly, but the mistake isn't visible so how much of a mistake is it really?

So it turned out kind of massive, and I can't really say the process went smoothly because I did spend a while pulling out stitches and then sewing things back up, but the result was, if I do say so myself, quite nice. I'm very proud of it, but I'm not sure I'll be making another quilt anytime soon. I'd never made one and I wanted to, now I have and I'm good. 

What really matters is that the gift was well-received (which it was) and that it will be put to good use (as you can see by this little cutie, it already has!). I'd say she's pretty happy with it, wouldn't you?

Hope you all had a fantastic summer and I look forward to sharing more projects with you this year!

- Blue Cat