Honoring Grandma

My grandmother passed away earlier this year. In fact, she died two weeks before my wedding. It was a very harsh reality to face that she wasn't going to see me walk down the isle. The whole time period is a bit of a blur. After I got back from seeing her in Colorado, I had finals at school, and a bunch of last minute wedding preparations. I did not have time to grieve.

My brother, me, and our grandparents... 1985-ish.

All of this caught up with me after the wedding. I ended up having a melt down and decided to take the summer off to process and heal. Today is the last day of my summer vacation, or The Summer of Sheay as me and my husband have been calling it. Coincidentally, my family also decided to do a memorial service for my grandmother this weekend. I wasn't able to travel to Colorado for it so I decided to honor her in my own way.

For me this meant I needed to do two things. First, crochet something. My grandparents lived in a isolated mountain home that my grandfather built. We spent many summers up there enjoying the silence and seclusion. Some of my favorite things were listening to my grandma talk about astrology (a.k.a. her telling me how stubborn I was and me thinking "So, what's wrong with that!") and learning to crochet. I started learning when I was about five. I'll never forget sitting there for hours fumbling around with the hook and yarn. Then taking my little swatch to my grandma for her approval. "Too tight!" she'd say... then rip it all out. "Try again." Back I would go. Brilliant way to keep a kid entertained. Second, was to make something with rhubarb. My grandmother had a huge rhubarb plant that grew by their house. Anything rhubarb instantly reminds me of her. It was the one thing I think she really enjoyed cooking with. She was a bit of a reluctant domestic :)

Yesterday, I finished a crochet project in her honor. It's going to be a Christmas gift so I can't post any photos of it yet. I also made a Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp. While I was crocheting on our patio some wondering airplanes from the Chicago Air & Water Show flew overhead. My grandfather, who passed away about two years ago, was a lover of flying. He was obsessed with it from the time he was a boy. It was such an amazing and honoring moment. I felt like both of them were there with me.

After my summer off can I say that I've processed and healed? Well, I'm not really sure. I've cried, relaxed, laughed, quilted,  done lots of yoga, and I've honored my grandparents. I've also started this blog and a facebook page to share my creative side. Although emotions still come up every once in a while, overall I feel rejuvenated and ready to start the next semester of my life. 

Quilted Pencil Case

One of my favorite things to do is combining fabrics. I like to think that I have a knack for it. When I start a project for a person I usually get a intuitive feel for, or image of, what to do for them. This pencil case was no exception. I had made one of these earlier in the year for myself. When a friend at school wanted one, I immediately had a color scheme in mind for her. Browns and blues. I went through my remnants searching for the right fabrics. This project doesn't take much yardage, so scraps work great. Below is what I cam up with. My friend happens to be an animal lover so I added a little bit of the paw print. I love how it works with the rest of the fabrics. A little fun/cutesy, but still chic.

This pouch tutorial comes from Terrabyte Farm. Her directions are great and she even has a link with 46 photos and steps. I cut out my pieces and organized them the way I wanted them. Sewed everything together per her instructions. Layered, pinned, and quilted. I decided to use a different color thread on the inside, or bottom, so that the quilting pattern would stand out. Very easy to do, simply change out your bobbin thread. I love the added touch.

As I mentioned this was the second time I have made this. The first one was for me :) However, after using it for a while there were a couple of things I wish I had done differently. They both center around the zipper. She says that you can zig zag stitch along the inside of the zipper to prevent fraying. I didn't. She also suggests top-stiching over the zipper once it's installed. Again, I didn't. The result is that my first pencil case is fraying on the inside and without the top-stitching you can see the inside of the zipper when it is open. These were the only two things I did not like about mine, so I changed them on this one. Hopefully you can see it in the photo below. The top left photo shows the top-stitching. I tried to stay in the same stitch line as the quilting, however it was a little too close to the zipper. I would recommend stitching about 1/8 to 1/4 away from the zipper. The bottom right shows the zig zag stitch along the zipper, which worked great. No fraying on this one!

I love the way that it turned out! Can't wait to give it to her. Hopefully she loves it as much as I do.

Coming Soon....

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