Still Here

Tags

bags, cats, clothing, Columbia Park, Kennewick, Make-A-List Monday, personal, Potholes, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing, Washington

Thank you, Mr. Anonymous Cyclist Guy, for providing a photographic metaphor for my June.

OY

YOU GUYS

OY THE MONTH I’VE HAD

I just checked and I haven’t posted in a month.  That’s probably because June was a big old steaming pile of shite.

First, partner’s knee blew up, followed by many doctor’s appointments and the scheduling of surgery for late July.  This meant that basically his whole summer of cycling now had to be cancelled, including the two 1200k rides he had planned and the accompanying travel and fun times.  Fun times in general are going to be in short supply for the summer, as he can’t walk very far without pain and swelling.  A very large bummer for both of us.

This was followed by financial trouble, computer trouble, more medical trouble (mine this time, and thankfully minor), and, inevitably, relationship trouble.  Near the beginning of all this, my doctor suggested I go off my blood pressure meds; needless to say, I’m back on them.

But, as I put it to the doctor the other day, I am coping furiously.  One BIG problem was resolved on Wednesday, and progress is being made on all of them.  I apologize to my online friends for my absence and lack of comments on your blogs–I’ve been reading what you’re writing, but I haven’t always felt able to write anything positive (and positive is what I would like to be with online friends).

My life currently–some good stuff with some crap getting in the way.  (Yes, as I mentioned previously, I am not a poet.)

So let’s focus on the good stuff, yes?  Let’s see how I did on my list from a month ago.  (And I apologize in advance for my photos, which are even worse than usual this time.)

• Hack the Blanc again to make a colorblocked tee.

Done!

Observant readers may notice that these aren’t the knit scraps that I planned to use.  That’s because I had had an idea to make a sort of a muslin (inspiration), and I wasn’t quite sold on it, so I was going to use scraps I wasn’t all that crazy about.  But then I came across this post (scroll down to the black tee with the flowered skirt) and I came up with something that I knew would show off this flowered knit, which I LOVELOVELOVE.

The white and flowered knits were bits and pieces from SCRAP; the green was from the stash, a remnant of a project made so long ago that I don’t even remember what it was.

The white turned out to have some stains, including fold lines, so I used it with the wrong side out.  Also, since it was in somewhat smallish pieces, I had to piece the back again, so I made it a design feature.

I’m a bit cranky about the fact that I forgot to adjust the neckline to make it narrower after the first Blanc I did.  So it’s a bit wider than I would like, but it’s wearable.  And the quality of these fabrics is really nice, so the top is very soft and comfy.  Win!

I expect to take another stab at colorblocking when fall gets closer; I picked up some pretty cool fleece and sweatshirt knit pieces the other day at SCRAP and I’ve got some more ideas cooking (more inspiration is here).

• Finish the wallet.

Done!  And, man, is this pattern a BEAST.  Lot of seam ripper action on this one.

I had to redo the tab on the outside (picture with Shelby above) and my wrist strap turned out to be a bit messier than I would like, but the biggest problem was the final seams attaching the pockets to the zipper.  No matter what I did, I just could not catch all the layers in the seams.  I wound up having to slip stitch some of the edges by hand, and I’m so glad I did that rather than ripping it all out again.

The pattern recommends duck or denim for the “base” that all the pockets are attached to (see the black denim I used in the center of the pic above).  I think things would probably have been easier if I’d used a lighter-weight cotton for that; you don’t really need the extra heft of duck or denim with all those bajillion layers of fabric in the pockets.

And then, after all that, my phone doesn’t fit in the outer pockets!  I can just zip it inside the wallet, but I’m a bit disappointed. 

• Finish my black skirt.  I came across this tutorial for a shirred skirt and used it to re-cut the black fabric from my failed wrap skirt.

Done!  And it worked!

This was a new technique to me and it’s pretty cool–you just put elastic thread in your bobbin, sew a bunch of rows, and press to make the thread shrink up.  Seems like it would be a super fun project to do with a kid who’s learning to sew.

I ordered the thread Melly suggested in the post and it worked just as described.  My sewing machine seemed to cope all right with the elastic, much to my surprise.  The biggest problem I had was my bobbins running out, as the thread is a bit thicker than regular thread, so you can’t actually get that much of it on a bobbin.  I wound up using the entire spool for the skirt.

I’m really liking this, though I have yet to wear it a full day.  The 3″ of shirring doesn’t feel tight or constricting, but it stays in place.  And the skirt has enough fullness to be comfy, but not enough to get in your way.  Mine hits me at about mid-calf, just where I wanted it, and I’ve left it unhemmed–it feels a bit like cheating to do that, but I really like the drape of the skirt the way it is, so I left it alone.  I’m really glad my original plan for the wrap skirt didn’t work out, as I like this much better.  🙂

 

I’m going to skip making my weekly lists for a while, as I really don’t need to add any more pressure on myself at the moment.  I will be back soon, though, to tell you about my latest project, which is another ambitious one.  I’m not at all convinced that I’m still able to follow a pattern as written.  😉

In the meantime, though, I leave you with some pictures from Thursday’s walk around the fishing pond in Columbia Park.  No birds this time, unfortunately, but there are trees and wildflowers, anyway.  Oh, and the two pictures up top are from the Cascade 1200k bike ride; since my partner wasn’t able to ride it, he helped me run the control at Potholes, a barely-there town near Moses Lake.  We set up in the 76 parking lot and fed about 80 cyclists pb&j sandwiches, homemade cake and blondies, soda, chips, and bananas.

I hope the weekend is treating you well.  Hello July!

STH

 

 

Make-a-List Monday 05-31-16

Tags

bags, Blanc Shirt, cats, clothing, Grange Park, Kennewick, Make-A-List Monday, Noodlehead Carkai Gatherer Bag, Professional Zip-Around Wallet

Roses at the Demonstration Garden at Grange Park, Kennewick, 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!

Skipped last week, but I’m back!  And I have lots to show you!

First, let’s see how I did on my 5/11 list.

• Make my new purse.

Done!

This is the Noodlehead Carkai Gatherer Bag and I love how it turned out!  Nothing purchased for this bag–fabric, piping, hardware, button were all from stash.

For the front closure, I had hoped to use one of the very cool glass beads my sister’s given me over the years, but I just didn’t like how they looked with the flap fabric, so I used a simple gold-colored shank button instead.

I modified the inside pocket a bit to use the very last of this black Laurel Burch fabric, and divided it with lines of stitching.

The pattern includes a 1/2″ strap; I kept that width for the loop on the bag, but widened the shoulder strap to accommodate my hardware.  I honestly have no idea where these hooks came from–taken off another bag, maybe?–but I like them!

The purse is a little bit smaller than I expected (it doesn’t have side panels, so the front and back pieces have to do that work), but that’s fine, as my new wallet should fit well in it.  Which leads me right into–

• Cut out my new wallet.

Done!  So many little pieces!

I’ve been working on it off and on and I’m coming down the home stretch.

You guys, this pattern is INSANE.  The designer calls it expert level, and she is TOTALLY CORRECT.  Don’t get me wrong–it’s a well-written pattern and has lots of pictures to help you out.  But the level of detail on this is just nuts.

• Finish the cat scratcher and get the class proposal ready to go.

Done!

And he loves it!

The fabric on the outside is very cute close up (looks like multi-colored confetti), but doesn’t show up very well against the carpeting.  I have lots more cardboard cut for the next one, and will use a brighter fabric.

• Do better on healthy eating and exercising.  

Doing better on this.  I still really need to get out and walk more, and it’s been hard to get myself out there, but I’ll continue to work on it.

But wait–there’s more!

I also made a muslin this past week.  This is the Blanc Shirt pattern from Blank Slate Patterns (available for free when you join their Facebook group).

It’s a simple tee pattern, sized for knits, with only two pattern pieces.  However, me being me (read: DIFFICULT), I made it with a soft, stretchy rayon that I got at Goodwill the other day for $ .99.

And, of course, OF COURSE, I was 1/3 of a yard short on fabric, so I hacked the back.

I cut the back pattern piece in half at the waist, cut the bottom part on the fold of the fabric, and cut two separate pieces for the top part.

I sewed the two top back pieces together, folded over to make a faux band, topstitched, and sewed buttons on it.

I also added side slits, as the fabric didn’t have quite enough stretch and the fit at the hips was a bit tight.

Result?  I’m very happy with this blouse and it will be SO nice when the weather gets hot, which will be this week–95F predicted!

So, plans for this coming week.

• Hack the Blanc again to make a colorblocked tee.  I’ve been pondering this for a while, but it’s time to just do it.  Here are my knit scraps that I want to use:

• Finish the wallet.
• Finish my black skirt.  I came across this tutorial for a shirred skirt and used it to re-cut the black fabric from my failed wrap skirt.

That ought to keep me busy.  I have some outdoorsy photos for you, but I think they may need their own post.  Have a great week, everybody!

STH

 

Make-a-List Monday 05-11-16

Tags

bags, Make-A-List Monday, Multnomah Falls, Newberg, Oregon, Portland Women's Forum, Rowena Crest, ScraptasticTuesday, sewing, travel

Mossy trees near Multnomah Falls, Oregon.  Scroll down for more green.  😉

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!

Busy week with everything BUT sewing!  I didn’t even bother to make a list last week, but this week should be better.  Here are my plans:

• Make my new purse!  I’ve been wanting to make myself a new cross-body purse for a while now, and I finally settled on this one:

Photo from Noodlehead link above.

I’ve already got mine cut out–using fabric scraps from the stash, of course–and I’m using this super cool nylon jersey (stabilized with interfacing) for the front flap.

LOVE THIS FABRIC SO MUCH OMG

The outside will be this black textured fake suede and the lining a Laurel Burch fabric.

I suspect black piping and some nifty glass beads will be involved, as well.  😉

• Cut out my new wallet.  Also something I’ve been pondering for a while, as I’ve been wanting a way to grab all the essentials quickly when I want to go out for a walk.  This one is exactly what I had in mind–I can just stick my phone in the outside pocket, snap a strap onto the wallet, and go.  This could be quite the challenging pattern; it actually comes with a long list of warnings!

Photo from Craftsy link above.

• Finish the cat scratcher and get the class proposal ready to go.
• Do better on healthy eating and exercising.  As I’m hoping to be employed soon (should find out how my job interview went at the end of the week, by the way), I’ve been thinking about what I might need to sew to complete my work wardrobe.  Then I realized that I’d have a lot more work clothing to choose from if I could get rid of that extra 5 or 10 pounds I picked up over the winter.  Hmmm . . . .

 

And now on to the tree pr0n!

I spent the weekend in Newberg, OR, while my honey rode his bike for 600 kilometers.  We took the scenic highway home and took a few photos on the way.

The Columbia Gorge, taken from the Women’s Forum viewpoint.  All kinds of dramatic sky and cloud stuff happening.

We hiked up to the little bridge part way up Multnomah Falls; this is the top half of the Falls.  (So beautiful, but it’s in all the Oregon guidebooks, so the area’s always so crammed full of tourists that there’s no room to move.  We were there on a Monday morning, so it wasn’t too bad.)

Near the base of the Falls.

Columbia Gorge, taken at Rowena Crest.

Another angle of the view from Rowena.  Not shown:  the gale-force winds trying to knock me over as I took the picture.  They were kind enough to blow away the clouds, though.

(I am linking this post up to Scraptastic Tuesday over at She Can Quilt.)

Have a great week, everybody!

STH

 

 

 

Make-a-List Monday 05-03-16

Tags

bags, cats, Columbia Park, Kennewick, Make-A-List Monday, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing, Washington

Columbia Park–fishing pond is behind me, Blue Bridge to Pasco just visible on the right.

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!

The week has been something of a mixed bag, productivity-wise.  Let’s see how I did on last week’s list.

• Make a tote bag for SCRAP.

Done!  Took much longer than anticipated, though.

Here’s what I started with, a Fabric Pack consisting of a focal piece (an embroidery sampler, in this case) and some coordinating fabric scraps:  some dark brown wool suiting, green polyester felt, yellow and white striped cotton, gold synthetic drapery-type fabric, blue stretchy nylon (yuck), pink cotton knit, green and white striped cotton with animals on it, some yellow and white fabric ribbon, two blue flannel quilt blocks, and about half a yard of pink cotton with lighter pink stripes.  My goal was to use at least a little of everything, but what a motley assortment of stuff!

And here’s what I came up with.

I washed everything first–I never make bags that aren’t washable, so all the components had to be–then cut the sampler in half and trimmed the halves to be even.  The gold drapery fabric was already cut in strips, so the wider one became the bottom and sides, and the thinner one became the handles.  The pink stripe was the only big piece I had, so that became the lining, and I set the pink knit aside for the bottle holder.  All the other scraps were cut into 1″ strips and pieced together.

The quilt blocks–just two layers of flannel sewn together–became the pockets and were bound with leftover strips of the pink stripe.  (The colors are a bit wonky here; the pink is more accurate in the other photos.)

The bottle holder came out so cute!  This is two layers of cotton knit, with the ribbon used to cinch it tight.  The stretch in the fabric is side to side so it won’t droop.  I am definitely going to use this idea again!

The only supplies I used from the stash were thread and a little bit of white cotton that I cut into strips and used to stabilize the blue nylon and make it opaque.

This was a fun project!  It was an interesting challenge, trying to get all those different fabrics to work together, some of them fabrics I’d never normally use.  I think in some ways I chose the safest possible project for these materials, partly because I am planning to use this as advertising, so I wanted it to be appealing to lots of different people; I’d be very interested to see what somebody with a different crafting background than mine could come up with to combine them.

• Make the skirt. 

Hmmm, well, yeah, about that . . . .

This is a bit of a mystery, but it appears the skirt is too small.  The pattern is meant for woven fabrics, but I used a knit, and cut the size that corresponded to my hip measurement.  And somehow it’s too small?  What?  A Big 4 pattern cut to your measurements and it’s too small–when does that ever happen?

Given the style–it’s basically a big rectangle of fabric that you wrap around and button–I could probably just sew a strip onto it to make it long enough.  At this point, I’m not sure I want to expend the effort.  I’m going to ponder that, but I’m onto my next obsession at this point (more on that later!)

• Finish the cat scratcher.

Sigh.  Nope, haven’t had time to work on it.

I think I’m going to skip making a list for this week.  Partner and I are headed to Oregon again this weekend (600k bike ride for him, exploration of those amazing Oregon parks for me!) and won’t be back until Monday afternoon.  And there won’t be much time for crafting before then; if I do find some, it will be spent on the scratcher.

Hopefully, I’ll be back next week with some fantastically GREEN park pictures for you, but until then, here’s a pic of Shelby with her new friend.  This gray cat has been coming by in the evenings, and the two of them sit together for a while until she goes home.  Every once in a while, one of them will hiss at the other in the laziest, least-threatening manner possible, the other one will ignore it, and then they’ll go back to sitting quietly together.

This picture is from a few days ago.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get one this evening when Shelby was rolling around on her back with her friend there.  It seems that the friendship is progressing.  😉

Have a great week, everybody!

STH

Make-a-List Monday 04-25-16

Tags

bags, cats, clothing, Make-A-List Monday, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing

Extremely helpful sewing assistant bear.

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!

Pretty productive week, I think.  Let’s see how I did on my goals from last week.

• Cut out a black knit skirt.

Done!  If you’ll recall, I’m planning to do view G here.

• Cut out this blouse (or attempt to).

Done!  That’s the blouse I was cutting out in the picture at the top of the post.  And I actually finished sewing it, sort of by accident.  Was puttering away slowly on it Friday afternoon, then felt like sewing again on Saturday, and suddenly it was time to attach the top half to the bottom and only the hems were left to do.  Post coming soon!

• Try making a cat scratcher.

Done!

This is about 18″ x 10″, the same size as the store-bought scratchers that Pooh loves so much.

This took many hours–and most of the glue in the house–but the basic scratcher is done.  Now I want to see if I can’t class it up a little bit.  I want to put together a sort of frame for it and cover the sides with fabric, which I think will be a very cute addition.

Exciting process shot featuring glue and catnip.

So . . . goals for this week:

• Finish the cat scratcher.
• Make the skirt.  It has just one piece–a big rectangle that you wrap around yourself and secure with a couple of buttons.  I’m not at all sure it’s going to work on me (the big question is whether I have enough of a waist to get it to stay up?), but if it does, it will definitely be the fastest skirt in sewing history. And I’ll be whipping out another one in a camel color.  I’ve got a job interview next week (EEK!), so I’m thinking ahead to getting the closet stocked with more professional-looking secret pajamas, just in case.
• Make a tote bag for SCRAP.  We’ve been putting together fabric packs to sell–one orphan quilt block or other focal piece and a bunch of fabric remnants that coordinate with it.  They haven’t exactly been flying off the shelves, so I thought I would use one of them to make a bag and show what you can do with a mess of scraps.  Here’s the fabric pack I chose–a very cute embroidery sampler and some fabric scraps.

Should be a fun project, and I’ll get to test an idea I have for a bottle carrier on a bag.

And one more item of good news–one of the winners of the Q1 Finish Along didn’t claim their prize, so the organizers drew again and I won!  (The updated FAL prize post is here.)  My prize is a PDF of a book called “DIY Block Design,” which is interesting, because I have had a thought or two lately about taking a shot at designing my own quilts.

Have a great week, everybody!

STH

Make-a-List Monday, 04-19-16

Tags

clothing, Crystal Mountain Resort, Make-A-List Monday, Mud Mountain Dam, Olympia, quilting, sewing, Washington

Will you just look at this cute little guy?   My mother and I took her dog, Regan, over to Columbia Park to meet the squirrels.

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!

Had a short list last week, as I was out of town for three days.  Let’s see how I did.

• Try a circle skirt with a woven.  I’m thinking the same technique with a little extra ease should work.

Done!  I should have grabbed a pic before I disassembled it, but it was made with a fairly hideous fabric from my Freecycle haul.  I also wrote up some instructions for the circle skirt class I’m going to teach. I’m pretty happy with the process I’ve come up with–it works with either knit or woven fabric, it doesn’t require a zipper or a waistband, and no math is involved.

• Get my hand work done while I’m in Olympia over the weekend.

Not quite, but made some good progress.  One block done, one about halfway, one not started.  I had SO been looking forward to getting together with a new friend for a crafty evening, but she bailed at the last minute, so I kind of lost my motivation and didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped.

 

So, this week’s list of to-dos:

• Cut out a black knit skirt.  I had been planning to use this cotton knit for leggings, but realized it’s 2-way stretch, and I’d need 4-way for leggings.  So I pulled this wrap skirt pattern out of the stash (it’s dated 2001) and plan to make view G.  This will be a nice basic to wear with tunics.  More secret pajamas!

• Cut out this blouse (or attempt to).  I’ve been thinking I need some more tops, and pulled out some T-shirt type patterns.  But then I saw this post from Lynn and this one from Gayle Ortiz and I thought, you know, I can do something more interesting than a T-shirt.  So I looked through my sewing stuff again and came up with this pattern, recently purchased from SCRAP, and this very cool quilting cotton.  I’m a little short on fabric to make the top, but I’m going to see if I can make it work.

• And now for something completely different:

This is Pooh’s cardboard scratching box and he loves it more than anything except the Mama Bear.  I recently came into a large amount of cardboard (partner ordered a new plastic mat for underneath his desk chair and, rather than being shipped rolled up, it came packed flat in between two huge sheets of cardboard), so I went a-googling and found instructions on how to make your own scratching boxes.  So that’s going to happen this week, and may become another future SCRAP class.

While I’m working on that, here are some more pictures from my week!

Another one from Columbia Park–baby geese!

This past weekend was the Seattle International Randonneurs’ Fleche ride–the 11 teams participating had 24 hours to ride 360 kilometers ending in Olympia, WA.  My honey’s team started in Portland, OR, and I drove up to Olympia to meet them at the end.  They had great weather the whole way, as you can see in this picture of the Olympia waterfront.

On Sunday, after the Fleche banquet, we drove home, taking the scenic route to see if we could get some good shots of Mount Rainier.  “The mountain is out,” as they say in Seattle.

We took a brief stop at Mud Mountain Dam for a little stroll.

And another at Crystal Mountain Resort, where I had a hard time believing I was looking at snow–and lots of people skiing on it–when the temperature was above 70F.

Have a great week, everybody!

STH

 

 

 

 

Make-a-List Monday 04-11-16

Tags

cats, clothing, dogs, Kennewick, Make-A-List Monday, quilting, sewing, Zintel Canyon Park

A lovely, sunny spot in Zintel Canyon Park.

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!

And will you look at me doing my Monday post ACTUALLY ON A MONDAY?!?

I can hardly believe it.

Okay, settle down now, let’s see how I did on last week’s list.

 

• Do the post about the cycling jacket. 

Soon!  I threw a quick snap up on Flickr for the purposes of the Finish-Along, but now I actually have some better ones; now I just need to remember how I made the thing.  😛

• Figure out a circle skirt method that actually works.

Done!  At least, I think so.  I did manage to successfully make one using some cheap synthetic knit from SCRAP.  Now I’m wondering how taxing it would be to modify the technique slightly to make it work for a woven fabric.  Hmmm . . . .

• Prep at least one more hand-applique or embroidery block for our next trip coming up on 4/14. 

Done!  I’ve now got three blocks ready to go.

Now for this week’s goals:

• Try a circle skirt with a woven.  I’m thinking the same technique with a little extra ease should work.
• Get my hand work done while I’m in Olympia over the weekend.

Yep, that’s all I expect to have time for this week.

But I have a few more pictures from last week.

I whipped out a simple tote bag.  I’ve been thinking I could use another grocery bag, and then I remembered I had this Craft Warehouse kit, a gift from a few years ago.

And tomatoes are on the way!  If you look carefully near the bottom left, you can see a tiny little green tomato forming there.  I’m hoping this summer won’t be quite as hellish as last and that we’ll get some homegrown tomatoes.  Afternoon temps are already up around 80F, so the plants are happy and thriving so far.

And another couple of shots from Zintel Canyon Park.

Have a great week, everybody, and hang in there–spring is coming!

STH

 

 

Make-a-List Monday 04-06-16

Tags

cats, Kennewick, Make-A-List Monday, quilting, sewing, Washington

Pooh has had just about enough of this “staying awake” business.

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!

Busy week here!  Let’s see how I did on my goals:

• Finish the dress and do a post about it.

Done!  Post is here.

• Do a post about the cycling jacket.

OY NO.  I’m going to have to do this tomorrow if I want to link it up to the Finish-Along.

• Work on some more Splendid Sampler blocks. 

Done!  I got these two finished; I’m in the process of cutting out fabric for the third, and a fourth is traced and ready for hand applique.  That purple fabric is from a project I did many, many years ago, and I only have a few small pieces left, but I love it so much.

• Test at least one of the circle skirt tutorials I’ve found online in preparation for next month’s class at SCRAP.

Done!  And boy, has that been one big fustercluck.  I think the instructions were screwy on the first one I cut out and the waist is HUGE on it.  Then I mangled the second one because I broke my one ironclad rule of sewing–NEVER CUT FABRIC AFTER 10:00 O’CLOCK AT NIGHT.  Every time I’ve broken this rule (coined by my sister), I’ve regretted it.  The pieces of the skirt have been wadded up in a ball of shame ever since last weekend.

Goals for this coming week:

• Do the post about the cycling jacket.  Maybe I’ll take pics of it on me?  Probably better than nothing, but not by much.
• Figure out a circle skirt method that actually works.  I’m really appreciating that hideous fabric I got from Freecycle right about now.
• Prep at least one more hand-applique or embroidery block for our next trip coming up on 4/14.  And–best news of the week–I have a new friend that I’m going to be meeting up with for crafty time while I’m in Olympia!

 

And I’ve got a few pics from the week’s activities for you.

My mother got a new dog, named Regan, a rescued Chihuahua from the local Humane Society.  She’s got a great personality–easygoing, affectionate, calm.  My mother and I took her to the park and had a fun time.

Took this pic on a different walk–things are greening up!

Shelby assisted me with my sewing this week, as usual.

Have a great week, everybody.

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 03-15-16

Tags

clothing, Make-A-List Monday, SCRAP Tri-Cities, sewing

Taken at Howard Amon Park in Richland, WA

So it’s taken me 3 weeks or so to finish my 1-week goals.  😛

Needless to say, I am feeling a tad bit sluggish and unproductive these days.

But I am pulling hard on the old bootstraps and we’ll see if I can do a little better this week.  It helps that I have a firm deadline that I need to meet.

Goals from last time–

• Finish the jacket.

DONE DONE DONE!!  W00t!

I don’t have pictures yet, but will definitely get that done soon so that I can do a post and count this as one of my finishes for the quarter.  The good news?  My partner loves it and wore it the other day to ride his bike to work.  The bad news?  He came home with his head full of plans for THE NEXT JACKET he wants me to make him.

Sweet Jesus, give me a minute to recover from the stress of this one first, will ya?

Luckily, he wants another wool one and suggested I wait until some suitable fabric shows up at SCRAP for it.  So that should take a while.  Whew.

• Cut out my Kaffee Fassett dress.

Done!

If you recall, my plan is to make the long version of B6760, but incorporate the angled pockets (love them SO MUCH) from B3569.  After the challenge of the make-it-up-as-you-go jacket, I was really tempted to skip the pockets and just make B6760 as is, but then I read the instructions on how to do them, and decided they were just too easy.  I didn’t even have to move the pleats on the skirt.

I am so deeply in love with this fabric that I cut the dress facings from a plain black cotton so that I would have more bright, beautiful pieces of the dress fabric to use in future scrap quilts.

Goals for this coming week–

• Top priority:  make my sister’s birthday present.  Needs to be done by Monday afternoon at the very latest, and there will be a fair bit of hand sewing involved, so I need to get on this ASAP.
• Make the Kaffee Fassett dress.  I need to get this done while it’s still cool enough to wear it.
• Do a Make-a-List Monday post, hopefully on Monday.  😛
• Stretch goal:  do last few bits of spiffing up in my sewing room and take some pictures.

I actually have SO MANY things I want to get done this week, but these are the ones that feel the most urgent at the moment.

Have a productive week, folks, and take good care of yourselves.

STH

ETA:  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!