Western Floor Pouf

July 30, 2016July 30, 2016 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ 2 Comments

A month or two ago, I got this western themed duck fabric for $6 a yard! SCORE. I bought 3 yards of it because I knew I wanted to make an Amy Butler Floor Pouf with it. I finally got around to doing this last Saturday Afternoon – it took maybe 2 1/2 hours total (including a trip to the local craft store to buy 10lbs of polyfil). I forgot how easy this pattern is – remember back to 2+ years ago when I made my first AB floor pouf. Go ahead, click on the link and imagine the wavy lines and harp music as you travel back in time…..

Okay welcome back to 2016. So I remembered one of my greatest complaints about this pattern was that you a) have to hand sew it shut and b) can’t really do anything once you get it dirty. Sadly the floor pouf from 2014 was thrown away in the great migration west in 2015. Well, to solve that issue – I decided to sew a zipper on the bottom of the pouf to prevent that from happening again. Now if I need to wash it, I can just remove the polyfil and wash the pouf easy peasy!

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27963550413_4abdde591f_b — is that a cactus or are you just happy to see me?

28507588815_f45d447b64 — zipper with polyfil coming out

28295122120_b176c23840_c — he’s sticking his tongue out at me.

28295125320_5497fe3d00_c — pretty boy and floor pouf

Quilt the day away

June 13, 2016 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ 3 Comments

I have a fever and the only prescription is more quilting!

Okay corny jokes aside – I finally made the leap into quilting this month and it may or may not be why I haven’t been updating my blog. (Sorry I’m not sorry!)

I first made two no-piecing quilts and then I dove right in to something that was actually made with squares. I am having a blast. I can’t believe how much fun it was.

27538330186_83f4ba6576_c 26963963293_7c8bc70041_c 27637964435_174a6eedba_c 27491725391_ba6d021b3c_c

27027710534_63916ec80f_c — it’s always nice to see the things you make being used

27369687440_2c6c0d175a_c — table runner for lois!

yay quilting!

Baby Quilt Fabric

April 22, 2016 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ Leave a comment

Since I’m officially losing my mind at the Farm House, I decided to take some time to talk about another hobby I have in the mix. Baby Quilt or as it shall be used in my home CAT QUILT! I signed up for a class at the end of May with Lois and I am just counting down the days.

I have never taken a class at Fancy Tiger – but they do have a … well, fancy, set up. Here is the class info.

I have been hoarding quilting fabric for years, so I figured starting off simple would give me the motivation and interest to dive into real fabric piecing and traditional quilting.

Here is the fabric I got for my little baby blanket! EEEE PUGS! Fabricworm is a super cute site with TONS of quilting fabric. This fabric is high quality and I can’t wait to get started.

In the past I have also joined a ‘fabric of the month’ club with Pink Castle Fabrics. I really love their ‘Kawaii’ or Japanese fabric. They have a lot of different ‘fabric of the month clubs’ and they are really well priced.

Here is some past fabric I have received from Pink Castle:

Anyways! I can’t wait to get my craft room all set up and start sewing more than just curtains 😉

This is my current state of mind at the house:

Yay! Friday!

August 14, 2015 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ Leave a comment

Scuba Lee

August 13, 2015 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ 2 Comments

My pug leopold loves to swim. And when I say he loves to swim it’s a gross understatement. This little guy has been swimming since he was about 6 months old and has always been obsessed with the pool. When we moved to back to Colorado, I found that there was an indoor dog pool literally across the street from our house so I decided to take him.

This must be what having a child and being proud of them is like, because I’m so proud of this little shit I could just cry.

Life Around Here.

April 1, 2014 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ Leave a comment

the hipsters are restless in Logan Square.

Life has been so busy lately. I’ve been studying for the GMAT, knitting the Heliopath KAL, running/working out, and taking care of my tribe.

First things first, the GMAT. I have to say I’m enjoying working through the workbooks for this exam. I have never studied for a standardized test before so all the strategies and methodologies are fascinating. However, the testing material is intense. Nothing is ‘complicated’, but the way the exam is designed is to make sure you know the basics in-and-out. So I’m re-memorizing my geometry proofs, my algebra rules, basic grammar skills, and reasoning strategies. I have faith I’ll get the score I’ve set as my goal, but these next 9 weeks will be full of practice problems, practice exams, and workbooks.

The Heliopath KAL is coming along – I’m about to start the arm shape-ing. Honestly, I’m pretty tired of the cables so I took a few days break from working on it. Tonight I’ll get one side done and hopefully start on the back-piece/make head way on that. I did however rearrange my entire house/address my clay cat-litter ‘situation’ I ended up switching to World’s Best (again) so fingers crossed my asthma/Boris’ allergies are improved.

DIY face mask I made to clean/rearrange my space. Asthma, suck it.

The gym has been great. I got an outdoor run in on Sunday since the weather was lovely. I also ‘splurged’ and bought new running shoes, which I desperately needed. These New Balances are great. I honestly feel like my momentum and speed are soaring in them!

The Ugly Tribe. I spend so much time at home, these guys really make me so happy. Although during my first full length practice exam on Saturday, Vladimir would not leave me alone and would not stop fussing with stuff in the kitchen. I don’t think the GMAT people had a pesky sphynx in mind when they designed the exam. I may start going to the library to take those exams since I had to get up three separate times to sternly warn my eldest cat to GET THE EFF OUT OF THE SINK / QUIT KNOCKING OVER CLEAN BUT DRYING DISHES. Anyways here’s some photos of my weekend with them.

dont’ go run mom, just stay here and hold me.

ONWARDS.
xxx
GFK.

My Favorite Pug

Image ~ September 24, 2013October 1, 2013 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ 2 Comments

My Favorite Pug

I just needed to post this photo. I love this little guy so much, even when he passes out on my patterns, knitting bags/tools, and gets my brand new expensive yarn all pug hairy. I love him. He will forever be my first furry baby.

The Pug Meet Up. I’m a Loner Dottie.

September 16, 2013October 1, 2013 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ 2 Comments

Leopold and I had a little adventure on Sunday. We both branched out from our feline friends and tried to meet new pugs/pug people. The Pug Meetup – organized through the great website MeetUp – was held at an actual animal events center. It was pretty nice to have a space that is dog ready and friendly. I had tried to attend a larger Pug Event here in the early summer, but that was when Leopold was sneezing blood so I opted out of taking him. This event was smaller, but still quite full of pugs and pug people.

If Leopold had a motto it would be “I’m a loner Dottie, a rebel.” Truly.

(source)

On our way to the Pug Meet up – don’t worry I was parked outside.

So we arrived at the pug meetup. (Note to self – next time bring sodas/water for myself because it was a serve yourself alcohol bar.) Leopold looked cute in his Halloween bandana I made earlier that day. Since it was raining in Chicago I opted for a “Seattle-themed” outfit which basically entailed a beanie and my canvas Doc Martin’s. PREPARE FOR BLURRY PHOTOS!

Cue up “Lonely Boy” by The Black Keys starting now.

Leopold was interested, but didn’t wander more than five feet away and he kept coming back to ‘check-in’ every thirty seconds. That was fine with me though, because we were the ‘new kids’ in the group. Everyone was very friendly, but I had to approach and start talking with people. Then they were all smiles and full of pug info, questions, and answers.

Leopold primarily wandered around alone. The photo above was a general descriptor for his mood as ‘woe is me here at the pug meet up.” No surprise since this is how I operate in real human life. (It may come as a shock – or not – that I do 85% of the things I do alone so he has only been provided this example). I could tell he was getting unsettled – I felt weird saying this out loud when I noticed him looking agitated, but I know him okay?! I asked him if he wanted to leave and he jumped on my legs, which is out code for “GET THE EFF OUT!” Again – I know Leopold, we’re family.

All in all it was fun. I would definitely maybe try to drag a human friend along next time just to break the ice a little better. I’ll bring some tasty drink mixes for myself and to share too. Plus, I know the more often we go the better Leopold will feel there and me too.

Till the next pug event!

Let’s Talk About Sew bay-bee.

September 15, 2013October 1, 2013 ~ ghostfaceknitter ~ 9 Comments

I always get the song by Salt N’ Pepper “Let’s talk about sex baby – let’s talk about you and me…” stuck in my head. Today at Joann’s I was walking around humming it to myself and ad-libbed my own version.

Speaking of Joann’s, I obviously love to support local sew/knit shops, but sometimes I find myself at Joann’s for the selection and the ‘instant gratification’ feeling. I do shop for vintage fabrics and patterns on Etsy and online all the time though (you can tell I have chain-support guilt). Plus, unless you’re the first in line at the fabric table you have to wait FOREVER and I’m sorry most (not all) cut the yardage so uneven it makes my soul hurt.

Anyways! I show a lot of the knitting projects I work on, but I also sew. What’s that? Yes I do do it all! Kidding! My levels of skills varies greatly from each craft though. I’m just getting into intermediate sewing, because I just don’t keep up with it as much as I do my knitting. I don’t know why either because I have a beautiful sewing table that was my great grandmothers! I also have Carolyn Mary’s Pfaff machine that I am in love with already after only a few short projects.

So to inspire me to sew a little bit more, especially with the Holidays coming up I have prepared for a few fun projects. Today I kind of felt like it was even getting late to start for Halloween, but you know crafters are on their own hyper time-table! It actually reminded me of this:

(source)

PS Stanley Tucci is a GOD. Any movie he is in is pretty much my favorite.

Okay now on to the crafts:

Here is WIP door panel for Halloween – isn’t so cute?! I ordered it from Etsy and I just have the interior stitching and then border to do.

Then, here is fabric I will have to go back and get for Lois for Christmas.

Get excited! The holiday bolts are here!

Flannel is on sale for $2.99/yd at Joann’s so I’m gonna make a ‘quilt’ with this and sew along those dotted half-circles I think it will be ADORABLE. Plus, with this craft I finally got to buy FLAMINGO PINK thread…. once in a lifetime purchase I swear.

This pattern is dark, but I am going to make the Christmas tree center-piece.

(source)

Then I got this cute cat/halloween fabric so I made Mister Lee a bandana for his pug meet up today. 🙂

I did not buy this super cute Halloween fabric even though I was squealing when I saw it. I just don’t have a project for it and I don’t want to waste it.

Here is all the fabric I got today – the Christmas themed ones are for the table trees.

Yay! Sewing! Do you do multiple crafts? Do you find it hard to balance time and interest in both at the same time?