Finished Quilts in 2013

Finished Quilts in 2013, a photo by davenjilly on Flickr.

Speaking of 2013 sewing (as I just was - but you haven't read it yet - sorry) I did finish these four quilts. The funny thing is that only one of them is in fabric that I would normally choose. I think fabric wise my quilts were pretty out of my comfort zone.

Ah well, I have no sewing obligations or pregnant friends right now, which gives me free reign to play in 2014.

Finished in 2013

Finished in 2013 - lots of small finishes, a photo by davenjilly on Flickr.

I should remember how to post things from Flikr , but I don't. So, here is my lame from-Flikr post of everything I finished this year.

It was a bit of an odd year - I spent a lot of time planning and making things for my etsy store that I quickly gave up on, or stitching practical things. I took a forced "break" during the summer when Dave had his motorcycle accident, and have only sewn gifts or swap items since October, other than the quilt that will not end.

So all in all, not my most productive sewing year, but since it was a pretty turbulent year, I will give myself permission to be happy that I stitched anything at all. And gosh, those penguins are cute.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey, Americans!  Have a fun long weekend!

Well, it has clearly been a busy month here, as I haven't blogged at all! I feel like I am just coming up for air around here, as it has taken me a while to figure out how to insert 20 hours of work into my full time parenting role. I have ended up taking a night away from home to work for four or five hours from a coffee shop (my workplace doesn't have an office) which makes it so that I'm not always trying to either work at midnight or work around the corners of family life. There are lots of things you can do in those little pockets of time, and I manage about 3 or 4 hours of stuff during those, but some things take sustained concentration, and I can't do those in tiny intervals.

In any case, around the other corners I have been trying to knit again. I thought a simple cowl would be a good, easy project. This cowl is in seed stitch, but it has an uneven number of stitches per row, so you really don't have to concentrate at all - just check what your last stitch was and do the opposite. I have found that if I leave the yarn at the front, I tend to make extra stitches when I come back to work on it again, but as long as I leave the yarn at the back when I walk away, it is perfectly fine.

This yarn is a chunky yarn - Cascade 128 - and its supposed to make a 15" cowl in about a skien and a little bit of yarn. I guess my knitting is tighter than I thought, because I'm almost finished my first skein and I only have 5 or 6" dones. I don't know if its my fault or the yarn's fault, but I'm definitely NOT buying a third skein of yarn - when I'm done two, I'm going to be done.

Sigh. One day I'll figure out knitting. It just doesn't seem to be as intuitive to me as sewing - maybe I just forget what it used to be like when I started sewing.

In other news, I've been working away on my windmill quilt, too. I have all the rows sewn together. I finally decided to just sew them together and add a border.

The border is going to be mostly rail fence blocks, but I don't quite have enough fabric leftover, so I'm going to add a few squares of other prints. I think its fun to have a border where I mix up the fabrics and explore the colour relationships between them, after having blocks that are all single colour blocks.

I love the crazy colour explosion of this border. I think this is going to be a great winter quilt, when everything is white outside it will provide lots of happy colour inside.

Hello, everyone! Well, I've been rather busy since the wedding, and blogging has not been able to be part of my list of priorities. Do you like the ceiling at the Winnipeg airport? Its one of the only photos I remembered to take while I was there. Trekking around with a baby and trying to figure out rides, etc, everywhere was busy - so busy that I didn't end up taking many photos. One of my neices took some photos of my siblings and I, but I haven't seen then yet.

I started a job as a youth co-ordinator at my church at the beginning of September, so I've been scrambling to get everything sorted out there and figure out how to keep everything going at home as well. Between that and the disruption of my trip to Winnipeg and then (Canadian) Thanksgiving (although my American friends tell me its much more low key than American Thanksgiving), I have been running around trying to catch up with everything.

In any case, before I went to Winnipeg I thought I needed one more cute, comfortable blouse. So I pulled out some linen/cotton that I had laying around and Pattern 2 from Simple Modern Sewing, and I whipped up this blouse:

I could put this together in two nights because a) its really simple and b) I bought the bias binding from Fabricville last fall just because it was cute. Fabricville occasionally has these cute bias bindings for sale by the metre, and whenever I see them I always pick up two or three for occasions such as this.

 I lengthened the pattern a few inches, and did not gather it as much as instructed so that I had a wider neckline. I love this shirt and wear it at least once a week. It is linen, so I can pretend it is wrinkly on purpose, and I feel cute and snappily dressed in it with skinny jeans and just about anything else.

And it covers the pernicious post-baby / approaching middle age tummy. So what is there not to love? I think I might actually make another one in a mini dress length with pockets to wear with leggings. I have navy blue plaid binding, I just have to figure out what to pair it with . . . stay tuned. Or perhaps instead I will find some drawers for Owen's clothes instead of the change table and declutter my bedroom.

In other news,we rescued a lost / abandoned kitten that had hidden under our shed a few weeks ago. It is very patient and tolerant of the kids during the day . . .

 and much, much, much loved . ..

 and often reminds me of that book Olivia, because it looks like and gets carried like the cat in that picture book . . .

 and it gets is revenge every night, by attacking the children's feet while they are sleeping. He he he.

Ruby Dress Finished!

Its done in time! Whew.

 This is the Ruby Dress I stitched up for my nephew's wedding. It is a casual outdoor wedding, so I think this dress with heels and a sweater will be just fine. I don't know if I can swing the blue tights for the wedding, or if I should get a less dramatic / casual colour. Hmmm . . .

 I lined my entire dress - the top was a little see through, and the bottom was sheer, so it was pretty necessary. Rae made a great tutorial about how to line the dress, and it all worked out fine. The dress fabric was a little fussy, so the largest amount of time with this dress was taken just to get that fabric reasonably even.

The pattern was great - easy to follow and it went together flawlessly. I did add an inch on either side of the side seam to acccomodate my beefy arms and hide my post-baby (even though he's now a toddler) waistline.

I'm pretty happy with it (and will pretend the hem is not wonky - that's me being speedy with fussy fabric, not the pattern) and I think it will be a fun little dress for wearing around town, as well as working out fine for the wedding. There may be more of these in my future.

Also, as a side note - check out my new boots! They are a present to myself for my birthday / congrats on the new job. Dave got them about half price on ebay, and now that I've finally got them on my feet, I have to wear them all day to break in the leather. Thus the photos and the reason why I am still wearing blue tights under my pants to pick Emma up from preschool . . .

Should I perservere, or make someting else?

So, my nephew is getting married in two weeks, and I decided about a month ago that I was going to make a dress. Then I got a 20-hours a week job where half of the hours are on my own time .  . . so that would be my sewing time gone.

I'm determined to make myself some clothes anyway, since clothes sewing is not as slow as quilting, and so I've started a dress from the Stylish Dress Book. Well, I've traced pattern pieces and started a muslin. But the muslin of the bodice is WAY too short - think 2 - 3 inches too short - and I've heard the bottom is box-y and will probably need adjusting, too. This is what happens when you are 5'7" and none too slender and you try to make a pattern meant for someone Japanese.

So now I'm trying to decide whether to just make the alterations (I am experienced enough of a garment sewer to make them, its just fussy and time consuming) or to bail before I run out of time and make something quick and simple instead. Like maybe the ruby dress that I just bought the pattern for, with a cardigan and blue tights, or this blouse lengthened with a belt (or just blouse-y?). Hmm.

I think the Ruby Dress might show off the fabric nicely, and the brown voile would make a nice contrast (or possibly a brown corduroy? Would that be going too far in my corduroy obsession?) or some white linen. But then I wonder if it would be dressy enough for a wedding. Since its an afternoon in the park with a potluck reception wedding, I think it might be.

So I have between now and bedtime to think about this, as I'd like to start cutting then.