Colorful Adventures

Tags

alterations, cats, clothing, embroidery, Pooh, sewing, Shelby

Why is thread on fabric so special, so beautiful?  It’s sort of like handwriting, isn’t it?  You can see the author in every stitch.

Happy Wednesday!

A couple of very colorful finished projects for you today!

First, the embroidery up above.  Here’s the whole thing:

The backing, border, and ties are made of leftover fabric from my Summit Pack.  There’s also a layer of batting in there, just to give it a little body.

I don’t think I’ve posted about this project here before.  The design is from a coloring page (I believe from here), traced onto a scrap of fabric, either a linen blend or a “linen look” fabric.  I started this some time ago with the idea of pitching it to the local makerspace as a potential class, but progress on it has been slow because I always have a million other things that I want and/or need to do while I’m home.  So I started bringing it with me as something to do while I’m waiting for my mother at her physical therapy appointments.

Those appointments have become a highlight of my week.  It’s become such a pleasure to sit and work on this in a quiet room on a sunny afternoon and take a break from all my to-doing and must-get-doneing.  (Why, yes, I am pretty much making up my own words at this point.)  So I was a little sorry to finish this project, but (of course), I have more embroidery projects I’m contemplating.  There’s also an OLD Christmas embroidery kit that I’m thinking about maybe actually finishing (after HOW many years?)

In the meantime, here’s my other finished project–another altered tee, and I am LOVING how it turned out.

Here’s the before, a purchased yellow tee that has been in a drawer for a few years.  I don’t think I’ve every worn it because it’s a little bit small on me.  I’m sure I bought it just because of the color and the gathering at the neck.

On this one, I wanted to change the sleeves a bit, so I cut off the sleeve hems and removed the entire side/sleeve seams.  I added a bigger wedge this time to the sides–1/2″ wide at the bottom sleeve edge to 5″ wide at the shirt hem.

For the cuffs, I pulled out my copy of “Sweatshirts With Style” by Mary Mulari and used her technique.  Basically, you cut a strip of fabric, sew the short ends together, fold wrong sides together, sew onto the sleeve, fold, and press.  I didn’t want to have to re-press the cuff every time this top got washed, so I sewed it down.

Recognize the flowered fabric?  I used it to make a dress last summer.

I unpicked the hem for a few inches to either side of the side seams, then resewed it after the wedges were added to the sides of the top.

The gathered front originally had two small yellow buttons, but I decided it needed something brighter to balance the sides and sleeve cuffs.  These are two buttons and a bead from the stash.

I’m so happy with this top!  Lots of great color, a little bit of swing from the insets, and a fun, comfy top for the summer!

Okay, gotta crawl off to bed.  Have a great week and get yourself a lounge in that July sun.

 

STH

 

 

 

WIP Wednesday:

Tags

embroidery, quilting, sewing, Social Justice Sewing Academy, WIP Wednesday

Around and around and around . . . .

WIP = Work in Progress

CW:  Self-harm

So quilting is underway on my Maybe Quilt!

I got out my “Divide and Conquer” book to refresh my memory on how to do Quilt As You Go.  The book discusses several ways to do it, but I’m using Method 1 here; basically, you quilt each section, leaving an unquilted border on the edges you’ll need to join later, then sew the tops together, trim the batting to fit, and hand sew the backing.  So I figured out which edges will need to be joined and ran a line of hand basting about 2″ from those edges.  You can see a bit of the basting at the center bottom of the picture above.  Note: if you do this, be smart and don’t make my bonehead mistake–your basting should only be through the top of your quilt!

On the first panel of the quilt, I started in the middle and did one big spiral–easy and fun!  As you can see in the picture above, I just eyeballed it; I tried to keep the left edge about a presser foot’s distance away from the last line of stitching, but I didn’t obsess over it.  I LOVE quilting you don’t have to mark.  You’d be surprised at how neat and even it looks, though it really isn’t!

As you can see here, the effect is pretty subtle, which is fine, since there’s already a lot that’s happening in this quilt.  The rainbow fabric shows off the quilting, but it’s nearly invisible on much of the quilt.

I wanted the quilting to be a little more interesting than one big spiral in each panel, so I tried to do a couple smaller spirals in the second section.  And ran into this:

I think where I went wrong here is that rather than starting in the middle, I more or less ended there, so I basically pushed the excess fabric in toward the center as I went, resulting in those nasty folds there.  😦

I’m not sure how I’m going to go about fixing this–maybe rip out most or all of one spiral so that I have somewhere to push that excess fabric?  Rip out part of each and hope to ease that excess in?  I’ve put this in the naughty corner for the moment so that I can ponder what to do and grumble about the unfairness of life.  One thing’s for sure–on the other two sections, I am DEFINITELY doing a spiral close to the middle, then working out from there.  Harrumph.

While I’m being grumpy about that, I’ve been putting in some time on my embroidery for the Social Justice Sewing Academy.  It’s a nice portable project to work on while I’m waiting for my mother at her various appointments.  Almost finished with this block:

Blanket stitch gives a nice finished look, but it takes so long on all these letters!

Tried to use Lazy Daisy to suggest drops of liquid here.

I did a backstitch in a sort of zig zag pattern on these letters, which I really liked.

I’m hoping to get these packed up and in the mail next week.

Then I need to get going on a little something for my sister’s birthday next month.  So many things to make!  Note to self–less time reading up on the John Grisham (or maybe Mario Puzo?) novel that U.S. politics is currently inhabiting means more time for making things!

Have a very excellent week and I hope you’re able to set aside the craziness and focus on making lovely things (at least until it’s time for the next march).  Take care.

STH

WIP Wednesday: Two Steps Forward

Tags

cats, clothing, embroidery, politics, quilting, sewing, Shelby, Social Justice Sewing Academy, WIP Wednesday

WIP = Work in Progress

CW:  Self harm.

I’m not exactly setting speed records here, but I’ve made a little progress on my projects since last week.  The combination of a lingering cold and gloomy January weather is so very un-great for your motivation to get things done.  😦

Above is a picture of my Maybe Quilt top–or 1/4 of it, to be precise.  I’ve been thinking about how to quilt it, and had to face the fact that there is simply no way to do it in two pieces.  It’s sort of grown in the making, and each half of the quilt is about 3 feet by 7 feet!  Sure, there are people who are willing to take on wrestling a quilt that size under a regular sewing machine, but I’m not one of them.  So I took a deep breath and cut each piece in half.  I’m not crazy about putting an extra seam in there, but it was the best solution I could come up with.  Next step is making a pieced back for each 1/4 so that I can finally sandwich and quilt this monster!

I’ve also taken in the sleeves on my PJ top and finished it up.  Pants are next, once Shelby is finished with them.

Also on the to-do list:  research new camera!

Poor little girl.  I accidentally trapped her in the cold garage last night, which led to a frantic search later when I was ready for bed and realized I hadn’t seen her in hours.  Cue the catastrophizing and visions of worst-case scenarios–YIKES–until she finally came out during my SECOND search of the garage.  I think she thought I’d abandoned her!  She’s been very clingy today; at this moment, in fact, she’s somehow perched on the back of my desk chair, so that she can keep an eye on me.

Anyway, I also acquired an interesting new project this past week.  I came across an organization called Social Justice Sewing Academy that holds workshops in which teens make quilt blocks about the social problems in their lives.  Those blocks are sent out to volunteers to be embroidered, then returned so that they can be combined into quilts.  I love the idea of high school kids having their concerns heard in this way (and seeing where they can take such an ancient art form), so I signed up to embroider.  These are the blocks I was given to work with:

There’s an interesting challenge here:  how to use embroidery to enhance a message that’s beyond the usual “here’s a pretty thing” point of embroidery.  How can I help the people who made these get their message across to the viewer of the finished quilt?  Between that and the actual issues dealt with in the blocks, I suspect I may learn a lot from this project.

Also in that vein, we had our local Women’s March this past Sunday; last year my partner and I went to Spokane, but this time I just drove across the bridge to Richland.

I just took a few pictures to give a size of the crowd–best estimate is about 1,000!  Not bad for such a conservative area on a drizzly, windy day.

Couple of handmaids showed up . . . .

If nothing else, it helped us all recharge our batteries a little bit, and I’m glad for that.  Because I suspect things are going to get a lot worse before they get better.

And a song that we sang before we marched:

Have a great week, folks, and take good care of your lovely selves.

STH

 

 

 

 

 

 

WIP Wednesday: Plague Month

Tags

cats, Covered in Love, embroidery, Pooh, quilting, sewing, Shelby, WIP Wednesday

WAKE US WHEN IT’S OVER

WIP = Work in Progress

So I started 2018 with all sorts of ambitions and plans and fresh-new-startedness and then . . . I got sick.

Actually, my honey got sick first, right after Xmas.  And he’s STILL sick, which will give you an idea of what sort of ugliness we’ve been dealing with here.

so . . . very . . . droopy

I SEEM to be getting better in a sort of two-steps-forward-one-step-back way, but we’ll see.  I’m hoping to avoid the second act–starring antibiotics and Prednisone–that my honey’s going through.  😦

I have managed to sew a bit during the plague, though, so let’s talk about that.

I had two Xmas presents to finish up, so those were my first priority.

The first was this embroidery for my buddy Heidi.

Terrible lighting on this is not doing it justice, but I was in a hurry.

Here’s a slightly less shadowy one I took before I bordered and framed it:

This design was a coloring page over here and it immediately made me think of Heidi’s lovely back garden with her cats peeking out of it.  I did this in more muted colors to (hopefully!) suit her taste; most is backstitch, with a little lazy daisy on the smaller leaves and outline stitch on the outline of the cat and the yellow flower.  Very fun to do, but I deliberated too long on starting it and so it wound up late.  She loved it, though!

And I also finished the wall quilt for my partner’s sister:

Finished size is about 16″ x 20″.

I did sort-of-but-not-quite matchstick quilting on this to enhance the sense of horizontal motion.  I skipped over the triangles with the quilting because I didn’t want to obscure the piecing in them, which is really my favorite thing about this quilt.  I used the tip here to start with drawn lines 2 1/2″ apart, then fill in the space between them.

Close-up on the piecing here, because I really need to try this again sometime.  I love the balance of simplicity and subtle detail in this quilt.

I finished the quilt up about the time I got sick.  So what to do now?  I wanted to make something but I didn’t trust myself to manage anything that might require brain power.

I decided to take a stab at some charity quilt blocks.

These are for the block drive happening over here for a charity called Covered in Love that provides quilts for the families of people who die in the hospital.  I’ve been wanting to do some charity sewing, and easy string blocks like these are a fun way to do that.  I’m using some old pillowcases (came in a box of random linens from my Buy Nothing group) as the foundation and lots of bright scraps for the piecing.  I’m up to eight blocks now and have barely made a dent in the box of strings I collected for this, so we’ll see how many I can churn out in the next six weeks or so.

There’s also been some progress on my flannel PJs, but I’ll leave that for next week.  Until then, wash your hands and stay safe, friends.

STH

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

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

Make-a-List Monday 03-29-16

Tags

cats, embroidery, Make-A-List Monday, Othello, Pasco, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing, Wade Park, Washington

Nature Refuge in Othello, WA

Make-A-List Monday is an idea that I borrowed from Sarah Craig over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and I thank her for inspiring me to try it!

A little late, but still in there swingin’!

Let’s see how I did on my list from 3/15:

• Top priority:  make my sister’s birthday present. 

Done!  Took about forever, but look how cute these cat coasters turned out!

Somebody posted the link for these on one of my Facebook sewing groups a while ago and I just KNEW I had to make them for my sister.  She just got new furniture for her living room, so I made them in coordinating colors.  The fabric is hand-dyed wool felt from the stash, and the picture doesn’t do it justice–it is gorgeous stuff.

Lots of TINY bits of felt here; I used Tacky Glue to hold things in place, then used a blanket stitch on the larger pieces, running stitch on the tiny ones (the instructions just say to “stitch” without specifying how).

• Make the Kaffee Fassett dress. 

Almost done–just need to attach the bodice to the skirt, sew hems, and do buttons and buttonholes.  And I’m not sure how I feel about it yet.  Might have been better if I’d used the collar??  Hmmm . . . .

• Do a Make-a-List Monday post, hopefully on Monday. 

Well, I got to it eventually.

• Stretch goal:  do last few bits of spiffing up in my sewing room and take some pictures.

Nope.  I usually clean up the sewing room after I finish a project, and I’m still in the middle of working on that dress, so it’s a bit scary in here right now.

 

Goals for this week are mostly to tidy up unfinished business as the quarter is ending and I’ll need to link up my finishes.

• Finish the dress.
• Do a post about it.
• Do a post about the cycling jacket (still don’t have pics!)
• Work on some more Splendid Sampler blocks.  I’m really longing to get to some of the blocks that have applique and embroidery!
• Test at least one of the circle skirt tutorials I’ve found online in preparation for next month’s class at SCRAP.

 

In the meantime, here a little bit of what’s been happening here:

New fabric!  I did some house-sitting for my mother and sister while they were in Oregon last week, and they brought back this Kaffe Fassett jelly roll for me.  According to my sister, she had to talk my mother out of getting the pastel cabbage rose fabric–TOTALLY dodged a bullet there.

I also got this lightweight border print (well, it’s actually embroidered, but you know what I mean) denim at SCRAP the other day.  I saw this post and knew this fabric would be perfect for that pattern. It’s a little wrinkly in this pic, but not bad considering this is after two days sitting in the dryer (hey, I’ve been busy).

I went to the Sandhill Crane Festival in Othello the other day, thinking I might learn something about the local birds.  What I actually learned:  birders are very nice people, but I will never, ever be excited enough about which sparrow is which to be one of them.  Also, you get some pretty premium swag when you go to the Sandhill Crane Festival.

And spring is here!  With the accompanying allergies and gale-force winds!  Here are some tiny flowers I found in Wade Park, next to the walking path.

Have a great week, everybody, and I hope you’re getting some spring wherever you are.

 

STH

Make-a-List Monday 1-11-15

Tags

2016 FAL, Bateman Island, clothing, embroidery, Kennewick, Make-A-List Monday, sewing, Washington

Took a frosty walk on Bateman Island on Saturday

(Make-A-List Monday is an idea that I borrowed from Sarah Craig over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict and I thank her for inspiring me to try it!)

Okay, so last week was supposed to be my organization/administration week?

I’ve now decided I much prefer sewing weeks to organization/administration weeks.

I was really fighting my natural tendency toward procrastination, but I did it, because, to be honest, I didn’t want to have to write a bunch of lame excuses in this post.

So let’s see how I did.

 

1.  Do a blog post on the Willara tunic.

Done!  Post is here.

2.  Link up finishes to the 2015 Finish-Along–6 finishes out of 10!

Done!

(No word yet on winners for the prizes, though.  I did all that work and now I want a cookie, dammit!)

3.   Do a post for the 2016 Finish-Along.

Done!  Post is here.  And I cannot tell you guys how happy I am to be making progress on getting some of these seriously ancient UFOs done.  I like the mix of old and new projects on my list.

4.  Deal with another pile of mending.

Oy.  Done (okay, all except for one sweater that I need to find a button for).  Bleh.

5.  Reorganize this corner of my sewing room/office/world headquarters.

Done!  All clean and organized and lovely!  And I went through all my craft books and craft ideas torn out of magazines and weeded out all the junk–a bag of books is going to SCRAP and two bags of paper are getting recycled.

Here’s the before:

And the after:

I’m still fine-tuning where I’ve got things, but at least the crap I don’t use is gone and the huge pile of filing on the right is put away.

So, the goals for this coming week.

1.  Put the damn button on the last damn item of mending.  Dammit.
2.   Make the boxes for my desk drawers and get all the stuff in there.
3.   Finish the cross-stitch clock.  The more I think about how old that is, the more I want it done!
4.   Check the fit on the wool jacket and cut out the lining.  I’m a little bit nervous about dealing with the silk and making the lining, so I’m just thinking about it one little step at a time.

Okay, I think that’s enough to keep me busy this week.

Have a great week, everybody!

STH

 

 

Plans and More Plans

Tags

2016 FAL, bags, clothing, Cool Cottons, embroidery, quilting, RSC15, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing

Okay, it’s time to get all planned and organized and signed up for the 2016 1st Quarter Finish-Along, so let’s do it.

Here, in no particular order, are the projects I want to get done in the next three months.

1.   The famous wool cycling jacket, now that the uber-fabulous silk map lining fabric has arrived.  I should probably do this soon, so there’s still time to wear it this winter.  Shell is done; lining, pocket bags, elastic in the sleeves and hem and the back pocket need to be done.

2.  The flannel quilt, a leftover from last quarter’s FAL.  Sandwiched and pinned, just needs to be quilted and bound.  I plan to make the binding from a plain white sheet.

3.  Another leftover, the shark pencil/glasses/whatever case.  Just needs finishing and a fix of the zip.

4.  The black jumper that I’ve been planning for about forever.  Needs to finally happen.

5.  Purple jersey top.  Can you believe it–a pattern that isn’t 10 years old!  I got the jersey at SCRAP (some outrageous amount, 7 yards or something) and can’t wait to get this done.  I’m planning to make the gray version on the right.

6.  Cross-stitch clock.  Oh man, I don’t even want to think about how long I’ve had this UFO.  I pull it out every 5 or 10 years and work on it a little bit more, but somehow it never gets finished.  It’s actually pretty close to done now–it just needs to be assembled and put in the wooden case.

7.  Black leggings.  I really need these!  I wear my lone pair of black leggings all the time, and they are ratty.  I need to find a TNT leggings pattern and make 10 pairs.  I like that this Greenstyle pattern has an option for a yoga waistband, which sounds SO COMFY.  Black knit is from SCRAP (yes, I am seriously stalking their knit fabrics and grabbing the good ones!)

8.  Boxes for my sewing desk.  I need some way to organize the drawers in my desk, and I haven’t found a tutorial for what I want, so today I drew up a pattern for small fabric boxes custom made to fit the space.  They’ll be made from these Mary Engelbreit sewing-themed fabrics and I’m going to use interfacing and plastic canvas to stiffen them.

9.  Turquoise shirt for my honey.  This is his current favorite color, so we picked up this lovely fabric from Cool Cottons in Portland, and he asked for a henley.

10.  Dress for me!  This Kaffe Fassett print also came from Cool Cottons; the plan is to make the long dress on the right, but with the pockets from the pattern on the left.  I also have black piping for the bodice edges.

11.  Finish the RSC 2015 quilt.  This is a pretty ambitious goal, but I’d like to at least continue work on the blocks so that maybe I can get it done next quarter.  I think I’m about halfway done on the star blocks, so there’s plenty more to do.

First priority here is probably to work on the little boxes, since I’m reorganizing my sewing room right now.  Then it’s on to the jacket.

I’m off and running!

STH

ETA:  I have linked this post up to Scraptastic Tuesday and WIP Wednesday.

 

Sunday Sevens 09-06-15

Tags

bags, cooking, embroidery, recipe, sewing, Sunday Sevens

If you’re new to Sunday Sevens, welcome and come on in — we’re celebrating one year since Our Fearless Leader, Natalie of Threads and Bobbins, got the whole thing started.  Many thanks to Natalie!

This has sort of been home improvement week here.  I don’t know, maybe it’s the change of seasons that makes you want to clean up and start over, but there has been much hanging of pictures and washing of wall quilts and sorting of things to take to Goodwill.

One of the pictures that still needs to be put up–a comforting phrase in sunshiney yellow, my favorite!

The biggest accomplishment was sorting through and organizing all the bike mess in the garage.

This is my partner’s work table and I really wish I had a “before”picture–this was a big job and took both of us most of Saturday to sort out.  You never saw so many nearly-identical brackety-things in one place as we had in here when we started.  Now much more manageable and he can actually find things!

Also:  BONUS SEWING STUFF!

I scavenged this pile of hardware from bike bag straps my honey threw away.  Some of it is a bit mysterious, but some will definitely be put to use.

After I finished my Summer Crush dress, I was itching to get back to my scrap quilt blocks, but decided to be a RESPONSIBLE ADULT and take on this pile of mending before I ran off and did the fun stuff.

Then I remembered how much I hate mending.

So the pile is still sitting there . . . and my partner keeps adding to it.  😦

Made a little bit of progress on my embroidery, but I’m not exactly burning through that project, either.

I did cook some nice things this week, though (maybe that’s why I’ve been so tired and unproductive?)

I’ve been tinkering with this recipe forever, and finally feel like I’ve got it where I want it.

I added sliced onion, bell pepper, and mushrooms to the marinated chicken and cooked the whole mess in a grill pan on the barbecue.  I put the chicken and vegetables on some brown rice and seasoned black beans, then topped it with some chopped tomato and green onion, a little cheddar, and the sauce.

SERIOUSLY good.

And this–a Greek bread called Ladenia–was part of tonight’s dinner.  I also made a Potato, Squash, and Goat Cheese Gratin and added some grilled sausage at the last minute to make the resident carnivore smile.

I’ll take another shot at that mending pile tomorrow.  Then I want to make a valance for my tiny and very bare bathroom window.  And maybe get back to those neglected scrap quilt blocks.

Have a wonderful week, everybody.

STH