Sciency office decor

I wanted a book stand for my office, but the only one I could find was this dark one at Target. The front tab used to be taller, but I had my dad trim it down.

I thought I took other photos along the way, and maybe they are on my camera, but I wanted to make the book stand more fun. I painted the outside sides red, and the front side white. Then I cut out a bunch of images from an old intro biology text book. Here is my cat after she made the final decision about what images I should use. She is always super helpful.

I did a layout to see what would fit on the book stand.

Then I decoupaged it all on there. Let me tell you, decoupaging textbook images is not a good idea. The paper is SUPER SUPER thing and becomes easy to tear and gets wrinkly. You can see the wrinkles in this image I think.

Yesterday, I finally put a clear coat on it so I could bring it in to work. It's super science dorky and great for my office!

T-shirt quilt, Part 4 - Ta Da!

MANY weeks ago, I FINALLY pinned the binding of my quilt. You can see the little pins all around it.

I thought I would want to do a stretch stitch for the binding to make it sturdier. Essentially, the sewing machine goes forward and backwards and then the seam is stretchy. So it takes a while, and I kept not making the time to finish it. I finally decided that it was stupid the quilt was sitting in the middle of the floor for weeks and I should finish it. I did a couple of test seams on the scraps of fleece and realized that a regular seam would work just fine.

It took me all of maybe 10 minutes to sew around the whole edge. I guess this should be a lesson or something about procrastination?

Here is the finished product! I am proud of it.

Also, I finished it and took pictures a week ago. It took me that long to actually post it.


T-shirt quilt, Part 1
T-shirt quilt, Part 2
T-shirt quilt, Part 3

T-shirt quilt, Part 3

I am soooo close to finishing my quilt but have not made the time to do so. I have made plenty of time for TV shows I do not need to watch, however. Oh, well.

Here are the things I have done since the last post. To refresh your memory, this is where I left off:

I finished putting iron on interfacing on all the pieces in between and then sewed everything together to finish the top. This was a little tricky because somehow the top of my quilt was half an inch narrower than the bottom. This may not seem like a big deal, but I had to work in the difference up the edges sorta evenly. The material still has some stretch to it, even with the interfacing, so it did not lay as flat as I wanted it to. In the end, I had to undo one of the long sides. I really dislike taking out seams, especially big ones. Yuck. I made sure to iron all the seams open before continuing.

In the end, I really like the top though!

I planned to just use fleece for the back and not put any filling in. I got creative at the fabric store and decided on two colors. I was good and washed and dried the fleece, then I trimmed off the edges and sewed the two pieces of fleece together using a stretch stitch. I am really glad I used the stretch stitching on the machine - it is much sturdier!

Then I remembered seeing something about how to do an easy binding for a quilt. The one quilt I made in 4-H did not have binding, as it was put together differently than serious quilters often put together their quilts. I put the quilt top on the fleece at an angle, again, just to be creative I suppose.

And cut the fleece 2 1/2 inches bigger than quilt top to give a 1 inch fleece edge to the quilt in the end (that was the plan). This is essentially what the finished quilt should look like.

Then I moved the top of the quilt. I do not recommend doing this. My bad. When I finally tracked down the tutorial I had found on doing an easy binding, it was too late. I did not understand how people bind quilts because (not to repeat myself or anything) the quilt I had made in elementary school was not put together that way. I am not a fan of hand sewing either, which is how quilt binding is often done, so this tutorial is more my speed.

Anyway, I laid the quilt top as smoothly as I could back on the fleece and pinned everything. Then I used a straight stretch stitch to quilt the long lines of the quilt (i.e., just sew up the edges of the columns of blocks). Action shot!

In the end, I had to trim more of the fleece off because I had moved the quilt top back there a few steps and it was not even all the way around.

The only thing I have left to do is fold over those fleece edges and sew all around the quilt though!

If you do a t-shirt quilt and use fleece, I do recommend using a stretch stitch for these final steps. I can tell that the material is not getting pulled as much as it would with a regular stitch, so hopefully the quilt will last longer!

Previous steps:
Part 1
Part 2

T-Shirt quilt, Part 2

I'm getting there on the quilt! I went to the fabric store a couple of weeks ago and replaced the nice sewing scissors I misplaced in my last move. I also went to get fleece that was on sale for the back of the quilt and found some great red and yellow fleeces that should go well with the designs on the shirts.

The woman was helping me decide on how much fabric to get and started asking me about what I was doing. She asked how I was stabilizing the t-shirts, so I mentioned the interfacing I ironed on. I had brought the pieces with me and pulled them out. It was nice to impress the Joann's lady!

Without further ado...She whipped out some numbers about how big a lap quilt is, and it was much smaller than my measurements. So I increased all of the in between strips to 4" final measurement. I also decided to use more t-shirt material for the in between strips since I had it. I spent a lot of time cutting more t-shirt material...then cutting more interfacing...then ironing on the interfacing...

I have been good about pinning things before sewing so they stay in the right place and ironing my seams open so hopefully everything will lay flat in the end. One thing I did not do was stitch the edges of the interfacing and t-shirt material. You can see here that it is coming apart after I sew it and iron it together. Hope it does not end up matting in the end!

I had been working on the quilt on Saturdays, then had to come home early one day last week to meet the plumber here and got a good chunk of the work done that you see above. The top is almost all put together now, so if I make the time this weekend, I might get it close to finished!

T-Shirt quilt, Part 1

I do not know how many parts this project will take, but you will be lucky enough to read about all of them. :-) I have done the New England MS Challenge Walk 8 of the 10 years they have organized it. I get a t-shirt for training and a t-shirt on the last day. I do not wear this many t-shirts often enough to keep letting them take up drawer space, and thought a while back that I could make them into a quilt. After talking about it for a while and getting some quilting supplies for Christmas, I finally started the quilt. I figured I should document the step-by-step because I told my Mom I would make one for her if mine ends up looking good! Plus I can fix the mistakes I have made if I do another.

[Just skip to the last picture if you want to see how far I have gotten but do not care so much about the process.]

An initial search on the internet and Pin-terest provided good guidelines of co-opting stretchy t-shirts for quilts. I planned my own layout because the t-shirts have different sized designs, but am an organized person so went with nice columns. The approximate final measurements of my quilt should be about 24" x 51". I think that might be a small lap quilt? I can still play with the measurements by changing the pieces in between the blocks.

ANYHOO, here is the step-by-step to date.

Last weekend I took my sewing machine out of its box and put all my supplies on the table next to it. I have a new cutting mat, ruler, and rotary cutter. I have been unable to find my good metal sewing scissors, but luckily still have the mediocre orange-handled pair. This is not important to know at all, but I am including the details anyway. I mean, this was step one - unpacking my sewing machine!

Second step was to decide how I wanted the t-shirts organized. I measured all the designs and put little pieces of paper on them so I could figure out how they would fit in two columns. I ended up with chronological order, as if you were reading a book, row by row.

I planned on equal column widths and different heights for each t-shirt.

On to the cutting. When it comes to sewing, cutting is the part I like the LEAST. If you make a mistake, it is possible that it is not fixable. With the t-shirts, you have to remove the sleeves and backs. This is the first t-shirt I did, and figured out the most efficient way to get them cut after this.

The t-shirts did not have any side seams, and the left sleeves have 'ALUMNI' printed on them. So I first removed the left sleeve to use later, then just cut the front off the rest of the shirt, leaving the neck, back, and right sleeve attached - less cutting! I made little white lines on the shirt to help with the cutting.

VERY IMPORTANT: I planned for a 0.5" seam allowance on all sides by adding an inch to each measurement on the little piece of paper you can see in the picture below before cutting so I had the correct numbers in my head. Ironically, this first t-shirt I did that I was super careful about was the only one I cut incorrectly.

After this first shirt, I did the the top cut first, then used the cutting ruler and the lines on the mat to make the process more efficient. That little pile o' fabric under the table grew with each t-shirt. :-)

Because t-shirt material stretches, you need to use fusible backing so that the fabric sews evenly and the final product is sturdier. After cutting all the t-shirts into blocks, I had all the final measurements and cut pieces of fusible backing/interfacing the same sizes.  I did not really want to plan out the entire quilt before buying any fusible backing, and luckily Jo-Anns has these small 10 yard bolts of lightweight fusible interfacing!

This was super easy to cut with the rotary cutter. Next step was ironing all these pieces together. The bolts of interfacing do not come with directions, my 4-H years ended 14 years ago, so thank goodness for the internets. I put the t-shirt pieces face down on the ironing board, the bumpy side of the interfacing down on top of that, then a thing cloth napkin, sprayed that with water, and ironed with a HOT iron pressing down and moving the iron from spot to spot without rubbing. When it comes to applying interfacing, rubbing is bad.

Okay, so the columns were supposed to be 14 inches wide, so the pieces were cut 15 inches wide for the two side-seam allowances. Apparently that first t-shirt with the big 3 on it was cut to be 2 inches short. Then I mis-cut an "ALUMNI" sleeve that I was going to use to fix it, so I had to cut a different sleeve to make up for it (see photo below). :-(

I was going to put the "ALUMNI"s between the designs, but have two fewer now after a couple of mistakes. I think I may just use random pieces of blue t-shirt to fill in all those strips.

At the MS Walk, there are red (or orange) colored shirts for people who have MS and are comfortable disclosing that. The other walkers get blue shirts. I plan to use a red/orange/pink fleece to do the backing and not fill the quilt. Figuring I make one for my Mom, I will probably do the reverse - red and orange top with a blue backing.

This pretty much covers the necessary steps, I think, to prep t-shirt material. I will probably post again when I decide how to fill in the spaces and put the top together.

The Day to Day

Nothing too exciting around here really. CF's moved 17 days ago to start his new job. A seven-ish hour drive or a $400 flight (and 40 minute drive on either side of the flight) away. What have I been doing to try to keep busy? Some random stuff of which I thought to take pictures...

CF gave me a crock pot for Christmas. He bought it when he was with his family, and apparently his mother was not so sure about this as a gift. I have used it quite a bit though! I made apple sauce Saturday morning, then a beef stew (secret ingredient = a beer) for the evening when some friends came over, then chicken and dumplings Sunday to get me through most of the week. Here are the chicken and dumpling ingredients for the most part.

The soup part of the chicken and dumplings was good; the soup part was not hot enough for the dumplings, so they ended up a bit mushy. Still delicious though.

The cat tried to swat at me and ended up sitting like this. Hah.

Amaryllis that CF bought is in full bloom now.

I have been quite straightforward when talking with CF about how I am not all that happy with life right now and it is not very exciting. I received a dozen of these yesterday from CF with a note that hopefully this would make my day exciting.

Stuff I did not take pictures of?

I did not shave my legs for two weeks. TMI? I figured there was not really a point. Then I did shave because I had a massage coupon to use the other night. I had a massage.

I have been to the church's "young" adult bible study a couple of times. I keep thinking about what to write about this, and I surely will at some point, but really what this has made me realize is that I am not versed in the Bible at all. I did not really expect to be, but the other people who come totally are. Last week, I resolved to call friends. I called one who had called me two weeks ago. That is apparently my current turn around time. What am I so busy doing? Nothing really; just don't feel like talking about me at all.

I got a new work-study student to train who will help do some of the non-data-generating work I have to do.

I now check Pinterest obsessively when the blogs to which I subscribe do not have new posts. I tried a banana bread scone recipe I had pinned, that turned out okay. The freezer step did not freeze it enough or the texture was not right; regardless it was more like flat non-quite-cooked banana bread. I still ate it, of course. I also made this delicious smoothie. I highly recommend it!

I keep working during the day and vegging out in front of the TV at night. This is not conducive to getting my paper done. I am having a difficult time feeling like I need to work harder though.

I got out some t-shirts and picked up some supplies to work on a t-shirt quilt. I will have to take pictures as I go for some final post about it. These are t-shirts from an MS Walk I do every year. My Mom offered her t-shirts, but I said if mine looks good, I will make her her own quilt. SO, photos along the way is a GOOD idea.

Went to see the new Sherlock Holmes with a college classmate who just moved here.

That is all the randomness I can think of at the moment. I have been eating healthier, thanks to large batches of healthier crock-pot meals. I still have toooooo much candy and chocolate around the house. I am bringing the non-chocolate candy into work tomorrow.

Holiday-crafty

I debated about inviting people over in December to decorate cookies. After seeing this post of homemade ornaments, though,  I am thinking that would be fun and involve less monotonous cooking. (I would clearly still bake, because I like to, but just not bake a whole bunch of the same shaped cookies.)

Maybe a good compromise for CF and I to do a tree together is to not use any ornaments from either of our stashes, but to make them all! This could seriously end up being a problem because his tree is always white lights and red and/or silver ornaments. Mine is not.

As an aside, if anyone has a good way to convince another person that light colored curtains and light colored walls and light colored wood and pale flooring and white lights on a tree with no color other than red can get BORING, do let me know.

The out of doors

I have some work I need to do, but have taken advantage of the high 60s and sunny weather we are FINALLY getting. Yesterday, CF and I finally went for a bike ride (~15.5 miles, actually). I think this is the first time I have ridden a bike since the summer of 2003 when I went to visit my friend in Africa, not counting the test rides on the driveway after CF gave me the bike for my birthday. I think he probably rides a little faster than we did yesterday, but that is fine. My legs are fine, my butt hurts a little, my hands were red when we finished but are fine now, and despite putting on spf 70 sunscreen, my arms are burned. It was my first real sun exposure of the year, but still.

Today, I came back home to do more garden stuff. I have new neighbors as of a couple days ago, and they totally cleaned out the flower bed on their side of the duplex and started planting flowers! I decided I should not half-ass the planting of my fire pit, so I put sunscreen on that burn and headed out back. I don't have a before picture of the fire pit, but this one has it in the foreground. There were uneven bricks, some broken cinder blocks, fire remnants, and weeds.

I had started half-assing it by planting some sunflower seeds and starting some marigolds in the house that I planned to plant around the edge without cleaning out the pit. The marigolds did well, and I may have planted them a bit early outside, but I am impatient. This picture is from about a week after I started them. They had two sets of real leaves today before I planted them.

 

So I dug through the weeds and around the sunflowers that were already coming up. Threw out all the melted metal that was in there, got rid of the cinder blocks (they're behind the shed), made the circle a little smaller, and put the bricks back! Then I planted a few more sunflower seeds and marigolds around the edge. OH, and I found an acorn that was sprouting when I cleaned up the stones below, so I planted it in the middle of the pit.(My lease says no fires allowed in there, so I figured red and yellow flowers would look nice.)

This is the raised bed behind the house. Last year I planted tomatoes, squash, lettuce, marigolds, and herbs. There wasn't enough sun for the veggies. The stones in the foreground were all full of grass and starting to sink into the dirt, so I pulled them out, pulled the grass, laid down some newspaper to prevent grass/weeds from coming back quickly, and put the stones back. I only did the left half because the part closest to the house was fine (and I am just a renter). In the flower bed, a lot of the green is perennials that a former tenant planted. They are WAY behind on flowering with the cold damp spring we had. I have planted spinach and lettuce back here that are coming up. They don't mind shady, so they grew well back here last year. You can't tell in the picture, but my chives came back, my parsley lived all winter under the snow and is perking up and growing, and the cilantro and dill reseeded themselves.

The seedlings are all over, so I gently pulled up a bunch of cilantro and planted it together. I will have to do this with the dill after the plants are a little bigger.

In the front, I decided pulling up all the mini clover in the top of this photo was not worth it, but did use my dandelion puller to get all of those and other pesky ugly weeds. I planted sunflowers here that are coming up (I suppose I really should have labeled pictures, but trust me...or click to enlarge and play the find-the-plants game), and a rosemary plant in the foreground. One of my friends showed me how much rosemary they had at their house that the previous owner had planted. It had become a ground cover and smelled great as she was cutting it all back while we visited. I am leaving the little label next to in in the event that later tenants will use it. Hopefully it will survive winters - I got a plant that already had strong woody stems.

A coworker gave me a bag of small strawberry plants. I did just plop them in the ground in front with some coffee grounds and I keep them watered. The dirt is rather clay-y, so who knows if the plants will survive. One has flowers that are open though! Again, not the best picture, but here are three of the ten I planted. I gave the rest to CF for his garden.

There were some other random things I noticed while outside, like the little pine cones growing on the tree in the back.

And some mushrooms.

Any one have any gardens started?

Crafty

A groupon I bought was for a local paint-your-own ceramics store that also does fused glass projects. I used Valentine's Day as an excuse to make CF go with me. I also did not tell him what exactly we were doing until a couple of hours before hand because I did not want to listen to him make fun of it. I told him that there used to be a show on TV called 'Blind Date', and that what we were doing is an activity that they would have done on that TV show.

Guess who did which one.

When I did tell him what we were doing and he gave me a questioning look and said, "I'm not very creative." I told him he could do something manly like a sports-related project.

When we were finished with out projects and leaving the store, he admitted it was fun.

Then we went to the hardware store where he bought and stocked a toolbox...Even though I already have all the tools he wanted to buy, but that is another post.

Brick red

When I moved into my own apartment my last year of grad school, a fellow grad student picked this side table up on his walk to campus because he thought I might want it!

The finish on it looked like it had clearly been wet a lot, because it was bubbly/cracking. I always thought about refinishing it. Then I found red paint I really liked and was going to use on a dresser. I was clever and started small though. After the mini bookcase, I moved on to the table.

I sanded down the table a bit just to get the top smooth, used the primer tinted with the paint, and applied 3 coats and the verathane finish. I basically would do a coat or two of whatever step I was on when I got home from work. I had some help along the way too.

This is the finished product. I do like the color! While I am tempted to paint one of my dressers this color, I do not know if I have the dedication for multiple coats of paint on a dresser. Sanding, cleaning, staining, and sealing seems like fewer steps.

I did not really "stage" the table. I moved my living room around so it is on the end though. Makes getting at the power strip and hard drive "hidden" under there much easier! I also cheated a bit - that drawer pull in the first picture? I just took it out, did not fill the holes, and have that side facing the wall (there is no drawer in the table, sadly). I need to measure how far apart the holes are and get a pull I like better. :-)

Whassup?

I have been doing all sorts of stuff and thinking about all sorts of things to post about thanks to life and NPR. For now, I'll bombard you with what I have been doing that is not all work or thought-provoking. It is Friday and my brain is tired after all.

Earlier in the summer my strawberries came in the thin wood quarts instead of the green papery ones that fall apart. I felt like I should do something with them, so I tried out the paint I bought intending it for furniture and then found useful spots for them.

 

I have been looking for something to put my salt & pepper grinders in so they do not make a mess of the counter.

And all those travel games would be easier to dust around if I could move them en masse.

I like the red color, so I went ahead and tried it on a small piece of furniture. My bedroom furniture is on the list to redo, but a couple of the pieces I decided to stain. I think I will use the red on one of the dressers though. This was some inexpensive small shelf that I use as a nightstand now.

A little primer and paint later...

Lessons I learned from painting this: it is difficult to cover white primer with a dark paint. I will totally tint the primer next time. Definitely use a real brush, not a foam brush, for painting. I learned this early enough for coat two of the paint, but ended up with four coats to evenly-ish cover the white primer.

I have also been making fun stuff in the kitchen. When I was working on my grant, I made some tea with flowers (I think maybe hibiscus) that my friend brought me back YEARS ago from the Peace Corps in Africa.

I made it iced and drank it while working on my grant.

I also made refrigerator pickles. You just mix all the stuff in a jar and let it sit for a couple of weeks in the refrigerator. No need to boil water and seal the jars. I love these jars, and will likely get more at some point for storing kitchen stuff.

For the first time I have eye insurance and it covers a pair of glasses a year. So I finally got some prescription sunglasses. I feel fancy because they are a designer I have heard of. They make such a difference driving in the sun, and I am sure I will be happy to have them come winter with the sun reflecting off the snow.