Planters

I decided to start a garden this year in the small plot in front of our apartment. My boyfriend's aunt gave me a great urban gardening book for Secret Santa this year, Grow Great Grub, which has handy tips on how to make the most of small spaces. I especially love this book because it has great do-it-yourself ideas and environmentally friendly ways to garden - making your own planters rather than buying plastic ones, composting (even with limited space) instead of using chemical fertilizers, natural pest remedies instead of harsh pesticides, etc.

I recommend!

I wanted to start as many things from seed as possible, which meant starting some plants in indoor planters. To start the seeds at the very beginning, I poked holes in the bottom of old takeout containers and put the lids underneath to catch drained water. This worked but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it. The seedlings outgrow the trays pretty quickly and need to be transplanted when they're still small and fragile.

Tomatoes in tomato cans

The better solution, which I used for the first round of transplanting the seedlings indoors, is to use big aluminum cans with holes poked in the bottom with a hammer and nail. This gives the roots a lot more room to grow compared to the trays. I tried it first with my tomato seedlings, and so far they are thriving!

Enjoying the windowsill herbs (be careful, tomato plants are poisonous to cats - I was monitoring her closely)

One important thing to note, which the book also points out, is that you will want to be careful what types of containers you use for this. Certain types of plastic can leach into the dirt and make their way into the plants, which is a problem if you plan on eating them. I suspect the same might be true for BPA in some tomato cans as well.

Patchwork Cushion

A few years ago, my grandmother got a new comfy couch. When my sister and I visited, we all went shopping to choose fun new cushions to decorate it. She chose pretty and colorful pillows, including a nice one with butterflies on it.

So when October rolled around and I wanted to make her a birthday present, I decided to add to her cushion collection. I relied on my tried-and-true patchwork approach, using alternating squares for the front and stripes for the back.

Nestled with the others

I accented it with four of the fancier buttons from my collection. A while back I bought one of those baggies of random assorted buttons that the fabric store was selling for cheap, and I always manage to find just what I need from it. In this case, I went with blue-gray buttons that matched the fabric nicely, with a subtle gold accent for a touch of class.

Rear view

Note: the pillow looks a little overstuffed in the pictures because the filling I used compacts quite a lot over time, so it will get flatter with use.

Upholstered Perching Blocks

About a year back, the leg on our old Ikea couch that we got off Craigslist snapped. (Surprise!) We held it up with a pile of books for a while, but wanted to think of a more polished-looking long-term solution. I decided to try upholstering some cinder blocks to use as supports to replace the two front legs.

Staking a claim

As luck would have it, each cinder block was just about the same height as the couch legs. I wiped down the surface of the blocks with a wet rag and glued the fabric to the block, one side at a time giving the glue time to dry. For the small faces, I wrapped the fabric around like gift wrap.

Blocks next to the sturdy new couch

Before I could finish the project though, we found a perfect, affordable couch that was just what we wanted. Since Neeti had expressed interest in the blocks when we first brought them home, I finished upholstering them to see if she might play on them.

Enjoying the finished product

She did not disappoint!

Decorative Folder

I have been meaning to get my personal paperwork in order for some time, and as a first step needed some folders. Since I really hate buying things that could be made with scraps that would otherwise end up in the garbage, I decided to use some leftover board I had used for matting a poster to make a pretty folder.

Front view

I cut out four pieces to make the basic folder and glued down the inside flap on each of the sides. I used fabric strips to make ribbons to tie the folder together. The matting was too thick for a basic hole punch (I don't have one anyway), so I used a push pin to make two small holes and then twisted a screw through them until they were just big enough for me to pull the ribbons through. For a final touch, I glued a couple hastily cut fabric strips to the front for a rustic floral look.

Some papers filed away

Patchwork Wedding Quilt

As mentioned in previous posts (here and here), I have been slowly plodding away at a patchwork quilt as a wedding gift for two of my friends who got married in June. I am happy to share the news that I have finally, finally finished!

Belated present hoping for a grace period - note the Christmas tree in the background

This was my first quilt, and even though I was inexperienced I don't like working with patterns and wanted to see if I could do without. The fact that it was just patchwork squares made it really straightforward. For the filling, I found some fleece material at my new favorite craft supply store, Scrap, here in DC. They have all sorts of secondhand supplies, which gives it the double benefit of being super-cheap plus cutting down on waste, a big plus in my book. Here's a view with somewhat better lighting:

Reverse

Since I don't really know proper quilting technique, I was afraid to sew across the surface to hold everything in place. Instead, I decided to finally use one of the fancy stitch settings on my sewing machine to accessorize the blank blue squares, which also sewed the two sides together. 

Pleased with the stitch!

After more than six months of delay, I was so happy to finally hand deliver the quilt to my dear, understanding friends.

My Little Quilting Apprentice

As mentioned in my last post, I made a patchwork quilt as a (belated) wedding gift for a couple friends. To start, I just cut out a ton of fabric squares. For big undertakings like this, I often like to work on the floor, which aroused the interest of my cat Neeti.

Neeti helps with the tedious square cutting process

I had a bunch of light blue fabric, which I used as the sort of "base," i.e. every other square. For the rest, I used squares from random fabric scraps that I had accumulated and tried to arrange them in a pretty pattern. When I was laying out all the squares on the ground to figure out the pattern, Neeti came over to investigate and see if she could lend a paw.

Taking stock of the plans

I eventually decided on a rainbow-ombre pattern, fading from green to blue on one side, and then picking up the blue and fading through purple and pink to red on the other. While I was pleased with this plan, Neeti remained unconvinced.

Taking matters into her own paws

Luckily, we eventually reached agreement!

Lavender Sachet

Two of my best friends got married this past June, and I had big plans to make them a wedding quilt. The idea was inspired by the love of the Canadian children's book series Anne of Green Gables that I share with the bride - in one of the books a gossipy but beloved neighbor makes a quilt as a wedding gift for Anne's best friend.

Unfortunately, I can be a pretty big procrastinator when it comes to crafting - a procraftinator, if you will - so I was months behind on giving them the quilt and wanted to send a small holdover gift in the meantime. I had some lavender that I'd bought at the farmer's market a few weeks earlier that had dried nicely, and decided to make them a quick little sachet as a teaser gift, using a couple spare squares from the quilt materials. For an extra touch, I sewed on a little bow using some ribbon and a button I had lying around.

Completed sachet

Before I got around to mailing it, my mom came over to our apartment for dinner and I showed her the sachet because she loves the smell of lavender. In a moment of confusion, she thought I was giving her the sachet as a little gift, and I couldn't bear to take it back - sorry Ben and Erika! Thankfully you guys finally have your quilt now.