Cushion + Pillow Win

That’s pretty much my story for the end of March. As you can see …. TADA!

I finished the bench cushions last Sunday, and I’m terribly pleased by them! This afternoon I also finished the four pillows in celadon and lemon that coordinate with the benches.  All are made from heavy natural linen on the sides/backs/bottom alongside various coordinating fabrics from Kate Spain’s Fandango collection.

Can we talk PIPING? If I’d left off the piping this project would have taken half the time and about 1/3 less fabric than it did. I think that I had to make 54 feet of 2.5″ bias tape, then pin that to cording, then sew it, then trim it down to .5″, then pin and sew it onto the cushions and pillows. It is my hope that the projects look more crisp and more professional as a result. I think it makes a big difference, myself, and now that it’s over with I’m glad I went to the extra trouble and time. Plus, piping is a new thing for me – another sewing skill CONQUERED. HA.

So can we talk zippers next? Again, a sewing accomplishment, at least for me, because until now I’ve found zippers intimidating. No more. I installed 6 hidden zippers using a pattern I came up with myself. I find it quite tidy to have removable washable covers via hidden zippers. I was thinking I might do a how-to for my hidden zipper pattern, but … um. No. Just getting it all sewn up was enough of a travail for one lifetime.

I have 3 more small things to finish up, but for the most part that’s the end of this enormous project. All of this kitchen stuff together means that this February/March project is arguably the largest craft project I’ve ever taken on. I think that it took more than 40 hours to put all of this together so far, some of which my brother and Jeff did. The sewing by itself has taken a lot of time. For each of the four rounds of cushion sewing with the piping it took 2 hours to pin and then sew. If I haven’t posted much lately it’s because I’ve actually been really busy working on this project, and also because sewing this much totally screwed up my back. I had to take some time off.

Luckily, our resident opportunist assures me that it was all worth it.

Carpentry Accomplished

HA. BENCHES ARE DONE. THEY LOOK AWESOME. Cafe curtains are done too!  See? Isn’t it nice and bright and cheery?

I have a galley kitchen, and this dining room is at one end. It is compact, with a good layout and lots of sun. To the left  s a built-in corner cabinet for dishes (not visible).  I made curtains because the dining room is one of the few windows in our apartment where people might actually be able to see inside. We overlook an urban landscape – the interior courtyard of a busy city block. However, if you’ll believe it, you can see an urban chicken coop and garden out that end window (p.s. chickens make weird noises).

I put together an animated slide show of us putting the pieces so far into the space, to amuse myself.  If you’re reading this in an email you may not see it (MOM, AUNTS), in which case you have to go to my website to see it.  (I made the animation at Gickr). So who can spot Callie?

I designed these benches myself. I have the proof right here, in this Plan I drew up. There’s another page showing where I think the screws should go. And you know what? With the exception of a couple of board widths, these got built exactly like my plan shows.You must, however, excuse my inability to do perspective drawing. Also that in perspective drawing I forgot important pieces – the cross pieces that hold the whole thing together. That DID actually become a problem when I was trying to show Jeremy and Jeff how to build the thing.

After much dithering, sawing, drilling, screwing, sanding, painting and whatnot, it’s all finished. And my design? These things are rock solid! They’re held together by these 10″ bolts that normally hold together garden posts.  I did try hard not to over-engineer it, and I think I succeeded.

I realized while building this that the process of building furniture is ridiculously similar to sewing. They’re both

• detail-intensive in the same ways (planning, measuring, measuring, measuring),
• they require specialized knowledge (dried board sizes, width of fabric, types of screws, types of needles),
• they require specialized tools (sewing machines, saws, levels, seam rippers, clamps, angles, scissors),
• and they take a lot of time to get it all right.

In sewing you have to IRON and MEASURE before you do anything, in carpentry you must SAND and MEASURE first. Or twice. The part where you screw or sew stuff together is a minimal part of the activity compared to the prep and finish work. Not that it isn’t hard too, just prep works takes lots of time …

I enjoyed it this. It is rewarding to try something completely new and have it turn out so well. I’ve got my brother to thank for that, he has the specialized knowledge that I was missing, and also the brute strength when it turns out your drill is too weak to do the job. Jeff and I spent a lot of time painting amongst the many rainstorms we’ve had lately, and finally, FINALLY yesterday we could bring them in.

Next up?  Cushion covers. Not easy! That mess above is what I’m referring to. Why, people, WHY did I put a zipper end next to a fabric end next to a corner while inserting piping? Am I trying to make myself crazy? Oh well. I only had to redo … never mind. I’m not going to think about how many times the seam ripper has made an appearance until I’m done.

Knives and Earthquakes (not together, one hopes)

Whew. What a week. I know I said that on Friday, but I thought I’d elaborate a bit. First up: KNIVES.

A week ago Friday I finally did something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time – I took a knife skills class!  I was super excited. After some persuasion I managed to get Jeff to come as well, because I knew he would be willing to be my sous chef if he knew how to be a pro about. I think we’re both getting new knives.  He wants the Shun you see on the left, and I want the middle knife. I have a chef’s knife already that I’m quite fond of, but I liked the flat edge of that one. I took the class (3+ hours jam packed with info) at Berkeley’s Kitchen on Fire with chef MikeC. I wish I could pass on every last bit of information to you guys, but um … well, he DOES have a DVD, I suppose. Seriously, it was a great class, the guy’s a great teacher, funny and yet very seriously knowledgeable about his subject.

I will say, after learning the techniques, that I don’t think I know anyone who wields a knife properly. Which is sad, because it’s so much faster and safer!

I spent today helping my brother move out of his apartment. He’s experiencing a few major life changes, both positive and negative, and I’m very happy to be able to be nearby so that I can help. I’m super pleased to report that he is going to graduate school next fall at the University of Nevada Reno to earn his master’s degree in environmental planning and policy, specializing in GIS use.  The cherry blossoms in the picture above are from outside his window in Placerville – it’s spring!  I will miss going up there to visit him, but I am really happy he’s going in a positive direction in his life, and I’m sure I’ll make it back up there on my own anyway.

I continue to spend time finishing items for the kitchen/dining area. As you can see above, the benches are nearly done, and I have a lot of commentary on building furniture in my head for another post. We have one coat of paint to apply and they’ll be ready for use. I’m sewing with piping for the first time for the bench cushions, which is giving me palpitations. I’m terrified I’m going to do this terribly wrong, but I’m forging ahead anyway. I have a seam ripper, after all. I don’t know how to build furniture either, and that seems to be going well despite all the many things that could go poorly. I’m definitely ready for these projects to be over, though. I’d like to move onto something else.

I, along with many others, have been watching the news from Japan about the earthquakes and tsunamis with horror and sadness. The news just isn’t getting any better. Like many others, I’ve donated to the Red Cross, and it’s really all that I can think to do. I went to bed Thursday night extremely grateful to be living in an earthquake-safe apartment building and working in a retrofitted earthquake-standard office. It’s not everything, but … when you live less than a mile from the not-insignificant Hayward fault, it’s hard to hear about massive earthquakes and not personalize those thoughts just a wee tiny bit.

Flickr user Dr_Speed (via Berkleyside) caught the photo above of the tsunami rolling through San Francisco Bay on Friday. That’s SF in the background and the Bay Bridge crossing the water. The Alameda docks are on the left and Emeryville (just south of Berkeley) is in the foreground. There’s also a video from the same vantage point. Not so big, right? Kinda slow. Now realize that wave has traveled more than 5,000 miles. Unbelievable.

With the exception of the tsunami photo these pictures are from Instagram – three weeks ago I decided to start a 365 project, and those photos are from that series. For those of you unfamiliar with this phenomenon, I watched several people on Flickr do one of these in various ways. Basically you take a picture every day for a year, often of yourself, and post it. Some people do a 52-week version. I’d wanted to do one, but never thought I’d keep up with it until I started using with Instagram on my iPhone. You take a picture and it applies an effect to it (or not), imitating a lomography camera or a 60s or 70s picture, or various other vintage and color filters. Since I usually have my phone with me, it’s simple to remember to find something worth looking at from my daily life and photograph it.

I’m hoping that this project reminds me to keep a sharp eye on what’s amazing and noteworthy around me in my daily life, instead of just letting the increasingly familiar landscape fade into sameness. Moving to a new place opens your eyes in so many ways, and I’d like to keep the magic of that viewpoint with me as long as I can.

Off to bed! I’m sure with the time change the morning is going to see unbearably early for this night owl.