sewing

My Lard Butt Jacket!

October 31, 2021October 31, 2021 Sewtropolis1 Comment

Every once in a while I make something that I am super proud of…. This jacket is one of those items!

It started out a gray hoodie that was 2x too big and had Lard Butt XXXL written across the front. Let me explain…. There is a fun run here in Seattle called ‘Lard Butt’ because it’s only a mile and they serve donuts and beer. Sounds fun right? Well it was and I got caught up in all that fun and decided to buy a sweatshirt 3x too big to memorialise that fun!….. and then never wore it because … well…. Having a XXXL “Lard Butt” sweatshirt really isn’t that funny outside of that fun run.

So the sweatshirt went in my sewing room because I thought one day I would make Sweet Grace a dog sweater from it. However, after I came across my 100th bin of scraps while cleaning out my sewing room I decided I would sew some of the scraps to the hoodie and make a quilted jacket that are all the rage in the Quiltisphere these days.

I REALLY wish I would have taken pics as I went along but it’s one of those projects where I wasn’t sure what I was doing until I was doing it! I started by cutting the hoodie up the Center to open it up…. And then I removed the pocket(s) (there were now two of them since I cut it open), took off both sleeves, and finally the hood, so that I could lay everything flat.

I then started sewing cotton scraps together until I had pieces large enough to cover the different sweatshirt pieces. I then quilted the scraps down to the sweatshirt pieces and trimmed them down to size.

I used the new pieces to cut out the lining fabric which was some knit fabric I had for a few years… I think at one time I was going to make t-shirts, but decided that the fabric didn’t have enough stretch in it…. But it was perfect for this project. Finally, I added a zipper, sewed all the pieces back together and attached the lining!

I decided to leave the hood gray, as it reminds me that it was once something I was embarrassed to wear outside the house…. And now it’s not!

Sample Seahawk T-Shirt Quilt

February 8, 2020February 24, 2020 SewtropolisLeave a comment

I posted earlier that I am taking custom orders for t-shirt quilts. I’ve done a few in the past, but unfortunately didn’t have pictures of them to post on my Etsy site to ‘advertise’ my work. Unfortunately, I don’t own a lot of graphic t-shirts … so I took a trip to Goodwill and picked up a few Seahawk t-shirts to make this Seahawk themed lap quilt.

I think it turned out okay considering some of the t-shirts were “V” neck and I didn’t think of how hard it would be to ‘center’ in a block. I also included some kid-sized t-shirts that needed some ‘building up’ to make the block larger. The quilt measures 45″w x 50.5″ L … so not quite square, but plenty big for a lap quilt.

I had the green fabric used in the sashing and the binding in my stash, and the Seattle/Seahawk themed blue fabric was purchased from JoAnns.

I’ve taken pictures and listed it on my Etsy store as an example of my work AND listed it for sale here. As much as I like it, I have a house full of quilts and like I said – I’m determined to get out of debt.

Happy Sewing

Athena

The RV Living is Good!

July 17, 2016July 17, 2016 Sewtropolis6 Comments

This past week I moved out of my apartment. I spent a year there and even though it had a great view of downtown Seattle, was close to the sound and had all the amenities one could hope for … it just wasn’t for me – and it was expensive to boot.

I came to Seattle without a job, so I wanted to live someplace centrally located – and West Seattle seemed to fit the bill. I landed a job in a suburb south of the city which is about a 30 minute drive from West Seattle on a good day. Over the winter I did try to commute more – but having to catch two busses and a light rail ride added 2 hours commute each day. When I started attracting prisoners on work release – no joke – I pulled the plug on commuting). I also didn’t like leaving the dogs in the apartment for 10 hours each day.

After I decided to move out of my apartment I started looking for a house to rent closer to work that would have a yard for my dogs. But, even though some places accepted dogs, finding one that would accept 2 big dogs proved to be next to impossible. Housing here is tight… and when it started to look like I wasn’t going to find a place in my price range, before my lease was up, I started to think about living in my trailer – at least till the end of the summer – give the housing frenzie time to simmer down and take my time in finding the right place. But then the more I thought about it – the more advantages I started seeing for living in my trailer long term.

You see, I once owned this business, Sewtropolis, and even though I loved, loved, loved it…. it seriously wreaked havoc on my finances. I am now in the process of paying off that debt so when I ‘ran the numbers’ I saw that there is some serious financial advantages of living in my trailer for as long as I can.

So, here I am …. at the KOA and you know what …. I f*king LOVE it! I love that my dogs get to sun themselves in the GRASS outside my door. I love that I live within steps of a river with a trail that runs for miles along it! I love that when I walk around the campground people say “Hi”!!! Can you believe it!?!!? People f*cking say ‘Hi ‘here!! NOBODY says ‘Hi’ in West Seattle!!! I love that people stop by and ask me about my big a$$ potted tomato plant! (seriously it’s huge) I love that there is the laughter of kids playing (I didn’t realize I missed hearing kids laughing) I love that there are no sirens 3-4 times a night – every – f*cking- night!!! Ugh! And I especially love that my commute to work is only 10 minutes and I don’t even have to get on the freeway!

When I posted on FB that I had moved into my trailer people couldn’t believe it! I guess I had been living with the idea for so long that I no longer thought it was a big deal. I also saw that the advantages FAR outweighed staying where I was at. So, people can think what they want – I’ve never been one to live a boring life and now I can now get serious about digging myself out of debt and that to me, is all that matters.

Projects

Quilts Gotta Go

November 2, 2015 SewtropolisLeave a comment

It used to be that when I made a quilt I had a recipient in mind for the quilt. But after a few years most of my friends had at least one of my quilts, my kids had multiple quilts even my animals had their own quilts… and yet I just kept making quilts.

When I left Minneapolis I got rid of so much stuff, but what I couldn’t get rid of were a few of the more recent quilts that I had made with no recipient in mind. I did donate some of the smaller quilts to the children’s hospital, but some of the larger ones I just wasn’t ready to part with.

Now that I’m settled in Seattle I don’t quite have the room for all these quilts! So I decided it’s finally time to part with them. I’ve had a few quilts listed on my Etsy store for a while, but I recently listed these three quilts in the hopes of making more room in my closets:

This quilt was a Block of the Month sew along from the Minneapolis Modern Quilters. It was a mystery sew along, which means you are making blocks for 10 months with no idea where they will end up in the quilt. On the 11th month you get the layout pattern… Even though I do like this quilt, it is not my favorite and had I seen this pattern before I started I might have passed. But, here it is… and it’s for sale here!

Now, this quilt is one of my favorite quilts! I started this quilt during a workshop with Jacquie Gerhring from Tallgrass Prairie Studios! I love the colors, I loved working on it, I love the way it turned out…. I’m just very happy with this quilt, but now it’s just hanging in my closet… so it’s for sale here.

Of all three of these quilts – this one is definitely my favorite one! Before my move I had to sort through my stash and decide what fabrics were going to come with me and which ones were going to be left behind. During that sort, I realized I had a TON of little scraps of fabric that I just couldn’t part with… so I cut them into 2 1/2″ squares and sewed them together. I think this is one of my favorite quilts because it is a good representation of some of the fabrics I had in my store. But unfortunately I don’t have the wall space to display it, so it’s for sale here. I’m hoping someone will fall in love with this quilt as much as I have and the bed or wall space to let it shine!

Since moving to Seattle I finished four other quilts that where in various stages of being finished. Two are for my kids, but the other two will be listed as soon as it stops raining and I can get out and take pictures of them.

Happy Quilting!