WIP Wednesday: Festivities

Tags

cats, cross stitch, embroidery, Pooh, refashioning, sewing, Shelby, swears, WIP Wednesday

It’s a stick, guys.

WIP = Work in Progress

Content warning:  Swears

Happy Wednesday, everybody!

I hope you all had a lovely week, whether or not it contained a winter holiday.  We had a fun long weekend here, with SO much good food and music and lights and presents and SNOW!

Maybe only 3 inches or so, but it hung around for Xmas, the first white Xmas I can recall in the time I’ve lived here.

And I did finish my two rude cross-stitch gifts, even if I had to stay up until 3:00 a.m. on Xmas morning to do it.

Patterns from Stitchy Little Fox on Etsy.

The one on the left was for my sister, the right for my partner, and they loved them!  My partner’s immediately went up on the front of the fridge, and my sister told me she HAD to take hers to work.  She works at a Catholic hospital, so I’m not sure how that’s going to work out.  😉

What takes me so long on projects like these is being indecisive.  How to finish them?  Took me FOREVER to make a damn decision; I finally decided to give them these borders and ties so that they could be hung like a picture or put on a doorknob.  Regular frames just seemed too stuffy for them and I couldn’t come up with a way to keep them in a hoop and yet make them look finished.

My sister’s present for me hasn’t arrived yet, but she did bring me this little item:

Another Pusheen sweatshirt!  And even bigger than last time, but this one is made of nice, thick sweatshirt fleece.  Will need to ponder how I want to refashion this.

Before I do anything, though, I still have two presents to finish up, which I’ll try to do this next week.  I’m kind of ready for the holidays to be over so that I can get back to my quilts and other projects (and make use of that Joann’s gift card that Santa brought me!)

I’m ready to move on to 2018!

Have a wonderful week, and I hope all your 2017 loose ends are getting tidied up.  Happy 2018 to all!

STH

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WIP Wednesday: Colorful Comforts

Tags

clothing, personal, sewing, swears, WIP Wednesday

Look at it go!

WIP = Work in Progress

Content warning:  swears

Happy Thursday!

Just a few pretty pictures for you today, then I have to get back to slaving over that needle.  Yep, it’s true, Xmas presents are still in process here.  I’m not sure what happened this year, but the holiday kind of kicked my butt.  The tree stood for a good  two weeks bare-ass naked before I got some stuff on it, cards didn’t get sent out until today, and at least a couple presents will be late.  Yikes!  Just too much going on this year, I think, and not much energy left over for Xmas prep.

Next week, I’ll have some pictures of finished presents, but today I thought I would look ahead to post-holiday project plans.

My beloved pink pig flannel PJs are starting to (quite literally) fall apart on me, so I’ve been waiting for the winter flannel sales at Joann’s.  Imagine my joy when I discovered the 70% off sale was online as well as in the stores, so I was able to avoid the holiday craziness and still get this lovely red flannel on sale to coordinate with the fun British print I got at the end of the summer.

Finding an appropriate pattern took a bit of work, as I wanted to avoid the unisex patterns (and their weird fit issues).  Once I eliminated all the patterns for knits only and the ones that are the classic buttons-up-the-front style (yes, I have a lot of opinions on PJs for a person who doesn’t actually wear them to sleep in), I was left with this:

Not super exciting–okay, not at all exciting–but I think some colorblocking is going to happen on these to sex them up a little.  I mean, they’re flannel, so actually sexy isn’t going to happen, but interesting might.

I also had to grab this 3-yard precut piece of flannel while on the Joann’s site, because $2/yard flannel is not something I am strong enough to resist.

I was hoping to make a Christmas top out of this–maybe with a half-zip neckline?–but it’s looking like a project for January right now.  Whatever, still a really fun print in the bright colors you need in January.

And, finally, here’s where sewing intersects with mental and physical health.  I’ve written a bit about the problem I have with my legs.  Basically, it’s a progressive, disfiguring condition that requires me to to exercise my legs (walking is best) for an hour nearly every day.  If I don’t, my legs swell, get painful and itchy, and more.  And it has made my relationship with my body even more fraught than it already was in a culture that frankly despises fat women.

So I’m trying to re-commit to that exercise program, for the sake of both my mental and physical health.  And here’s the plot twist, cause I bet you didn’t think this would involve buying myself some leggings!

I saw these oh-so-fabulous leggings come up on my Facebook feed as a new item in Mary Engelbreit’s online store, and my first thought was, “OMG I love them so much, and they have them in my size, but I could never wear those flowers on my swollen legs.”  Which meant I had to buy them, of course, because it felt like a gift to myself, an expression of caring for my body, and a big old FU to the haters (including the one in my head).

Which also meant I had to have something equally fabulous to pair with them.  So I searched on Etsy and found a yard of discontinued Mary Engelbreit fabric.  This will get paired with another fabric to make a top to wear with those leggings.   And I will do my best to keep up with that exercise and feel good in my new outfit, even if my legs are still swollen.

Okay, better get back to the present-making.  I hope everybody is having a wonderful holiday season.  Take care, don’t stress, and have a great time.

STH

WIP Wednesday: Winter Things

Tags

clothing, cross stitch, embroidery, Heidi, refashioning, sewing, swears, WIP Wednesday

WIP = Work in Progress

Content Warning:  Contains swears.

Happy Wednesday!  In the mood for some random–yet colorful–bits and pieces today?  ‘Cause that’s what’s been happening over here.

First, my honey and I spent last weekend in Bellevue, a suburb of Seattle.  He spent Saturday on his bike (of course), and I spent it with my bestie, the lovely and talented Heidi (I clearly got the better end of that deal).  She presented me with the Amaryllis bulb above in its cheerful red wax coating.  I’d forgotten how nice it is to have something growing (and hopefully blooming) inside in the winter.  That little green shoot has doubled in size in just the last few days . . . .

Among other things, Heidi and I went to the Columbia City Gallery for an exhibit of art made from old Eileen Fisher clothing, and I bought myself a couple of new Xmas ornaments for our tree.  Then we went next door to the EF Renew store and admired the pieced clothing made from old, worn out items.  You’d better believe there was some inspiration happening!

I can’t decide if the felted wedgey thing is the cross-section of a planet or some sort of extra-terrestrial fruit.  Cool either way.

 

Also, I wanted to show you how the Pusheen top refashion turned out.

If you recall, this was the sad, sad before picture:

Can I just mention here that I hate hate hate ribbing?  It just always feels too tight on my wrists and comes up too high on my neck and is just generally terrible.  My mother calls sweatshirts with ribbing at the hem “potatoes” because she says they make her look like a potato.  I know I’m not glamorous and sexy, but I feel like I could probably achieve something better than “potato,” you know?

So off came all the ribbing, the body and sleeves of the shirt were shortened, and I added hem vents, a slit at the neckline, and binding on the neck and hem.  I also took in the side seams at the bust and upper arm a little, as the arm pits of the shirt were weirdly low.

For the neckline, I got some help from this book I picked up when SCRAP closed.

(See here also for more recent Mary Mulari sweatshirt-related creativity.)

Lots of good ideas in this book, though this is probably not one of them:

Just say no to epaulettes.

THIS, though, is something I would totally do.  Reverse applique and cowl neck!

Oh HELL yes.

So here’s what I ended up with:

Yep, I cut the sleeves a little too short.  It actually worked out well, though, because I don’t like a lot of extra fabric at my wrists.

Split neck technique from the book.  I machine sewed the binding, as I suspect I won’t get too many years of wear out of this not-super-amazing fabric.  A bit wonky, but fine.

I definitely had my doubts about how this was going to work out, but I’m very happy with the results.  I only wish it was a little warmer so that I could wear it more often!

And, finally, I am working away on presents.  I’ve set the wall quilt aside for the moment, as my partner assures me that late is perfectly fine for his sister’s present.  Two others are in process, but I finished this one today for my sister:

This was my first cross stitch in about 8 years, and it was so fun!  Pattern is here.

I was working on the backstitching this morning while waiting for my mother at her physical therapy appointment, when an elderly woman patient asked me about it.  I wasn’t sure what kind of response I’d get, so I hesitantly said, “well, it’s pretty rude . . . ” and showed it to her.  She just laughed and laughed!  I mentioned that it’s for my sister, but my mother won’t approve.  Her response:  “Well, that’s okay, it’s not for HER!”

Have a most excellent week, friends, and I hope you enjoy the season you’re in and the people you’re with.

STH

WIP (Almost) Wednesday: Still Here!

Tags

cats, Pooh, quilting, sewing, WIP Wednesday

Yep, it’s this dork again.

(WIP = Work in Progress)

Yep, still kicking!

I’ve just been sick, and have had a hard time getting over it.  Many things that needed to happen the last couple of weeks just haven’t, because I haven’t had the energy to get them done.  Hopefully that will not be the situation for much longer!  And so many apologies for not responding to your lovely comments for so long–I do always appreciate them so much.

I have various things in process–Xmas is looming!–but I’ll just focus on one project today in order to avoid writing a massive tome of a post.

This project started last Friday, when I asked my partner what we should send his sister for Xmas.  Well, he says, maybe you could make her one of your wall quilts?  Hmmm . . . okay.  But I don’t know her very well; what’s her style?  He says she likes modern things, minimalist, dark colors, and Asian influences.  I did some googling and showed him a variety of quilts that I thought might work; that wasn’t a very helpful exercise, but he did say that one of them that I liked was boring because it wasn’t very “dynamic.”

Okay, I can work with that.

I eventually came up with this as inspiration:

Free Stylin’, Spiralin’ & Flyin’ Geese from Piece, Love & Happiness

I love the asymmetry of this, the motion, and, of course, the colors.  But she used ombre fabric, which I don’t have.  What to do to get some depth and complexity in the triangles?

I wound up combining this idea with a second piece of inspiration:

Beads on a String from Orange Dot Quilts

Scrappy triangles, of course!

I pieced strips of fabric together, trimming each one into a rough triangle before adding the next strip.

I chose pretty similar scraps to keep the variations subtle.

Then I used Steam a Seam to cut out my triangles and fuse them to my backing fabric, a piece of white linen from the stash.

And here is the top assembled:

Well, more or less, as this was the point at which Pooh decided he was being neglected and needed to roll around on all my handiwork.  #BearsGonnaBear

I did eventually get everything in place and fused down and I started to sew on the appliques . . . and half of them promptly fell right off.

Harrumph.

And then my sewing machine decided to go on the fritz.

Sigh.

I’ve cleaned and oiled it, but it’s sort of sticking, then releasing, over and over, as I sew.  Which is kind of a pain on these teeny weeny little triangles (the larger ones are 2 1/2″ square), and is not going to be workable when I try to quilt this thing.

I’m headed out of town tomorrow, but will fiddle with the machine next week and see if I can’t fix the problem.

Have a great week, and I hope you’re getting full cooperation from all your mechanical friends.

STh