Monday, May 31, 2010

Curses!

This is what I was thinking while sewing the baby booties for Dear Son's baptism outfit tonight.  The first bits weren't bad . . .
but then we got to the actual shoe construction and, well . . . doesn't this look awkward??? 
(There's a lot of material stuffed in the middle of that fabric sandwich.)
And then - oops! 
But no, wait, aha!
And then you have to do it twice!  (Two shoes, remember?)

Finally, all finished. 
Now I have the romper, Sis' fleece blanket, and my skirt to go before Thursday.  And lots of house still to clean and cookout to plan . . .

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Projects

First things first, I've added a button - the "process pledge" button from Rossie.  I kind of already do this, so taking the pledge works for me, since I think it's important to know what goes on in our heads as we do all this creative work.

On to what's going on, I've already deviated from my "finish UFOs" plan and my "Farm Gal's Folly" plan for the rest of the year.  I am still trying to finish some UFOs, and I have definitely been sewing a lot of geese, but I have some other things to squeeze in.

I need to: get more fabric for geese, order Aplix and PUL for some cloth diapers and wet bags, and finish 3 projects before Thursday.

The 3 projects are: baptism romper and shoes for DS (very simple pieces), fleece blanket for Sis, and skirt for me to wear to baptism(?).

I've got them all cut out, but I need to switch over my sewing machine and just get cranking.  Did I mention we also have to scrub the house down this week, since our extended families will be here over the weekend for the baptism?  Yikes!

Since I need to get cleaning and sewing (and the little one is down for the night), I'll leave you with a picture from a few days ago.
 How cute is that?!   :cD

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Chained Geese

It's the beginning of the process, but I feel like I'm making good progress.  Today, I made 36 geese and cut 50 more rectangles.  I'll probably cut quite a bit more while watching TV this evening.  Geese-making goes a lot quicker with chain piecing.
At this point, they were just half-geese.  Sad as it is, I am almost out of fabric to cut and need to find more.  Although I am behind on my geese-per-day quota, I still feel good because there is a lot of prep work that needs to be done - finding and washing fabric, cutting patches, marking the squares (you think I can sew a straight line without a straight edge?), all before the actual sewing takes place.

I do have a couple of other projects I have to do within the next two weeks (before June 4).  Dear Husband's baptism outfit just barely fits Dear Son, so I am going to make a simple white romper and use DH's vest, hat, and blanket.  And Sister's graduation party is coming up; I'm making her a Nebraska fleece blanket.  Both should be simple, but they're still projects.

Okay, off to get goosey with the rotary cutter.

TTFN  :-)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Farm Gal’s Folly (aka – the insanity project)

I bought the Winter 2008 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting for the quilt on the front cover.  I have always wanted to make that quilt.  
Then a week or so ago, I decided it would be great to make matching quilts for my ladies at work (there’s six of us that are very close, we have become good friends in addition to being coworkers) as a Christmas present.  I needed something fairly simple, but still wanted the Christmas look.  Ta Da!  The Fly Away Home quilt from the cover (designed by one of the Fig Tree Quilts designers)!  I made my decision after checking with just one of the girls (who had also been my sorority sister in college), who promised to keep it a secret.  
Here are the details:  one quilt contains 348 flying geese units.  That means for 6 quilts, I need 2,088 flying geese.  I also need border fabric, binding fabric, and batting for 6 throw size quilts.  And to make them special, I decided to add a row of variable stars as signature blocks, so each lady will have all 6 signatures (her own plus the other 5).  So I need fabric for the back of 6 quilts as well.  I was able to shop my stash, but only found a piddling yard or so of fabric (2 FQs plus a BIG scrap of red fabric and some cream scraps) that would work.  This means I’ll have to accumulate another 79 yards or so of fabric.  I found 2 FQs at JoAnn’s and bought them with my 40% off coupons, plus I got a yard of cream fabric for 30% off.  So far I have spent $5.44 total on fabric. 
 
My plan is to work on this as leader-enders with a couple of other quilting projects in addition to piecing a couple geese a day.  Hopefully that will help it go more quickly and less stressfully than forcing myself to work on it as my only project.  When I did the math, giving myself until Dec. 1 to complete the quilts and leaving 60 days in there for quilting and binding, I have 136 days to sew.  That amounts to about 15 flying geese per day.  If I set aside a dedicated hour for sewing, that’s not bad, and on the weekends I usually try to get a couple hours a day in, so I think I can do it.  Now that I’ve committed, I have to!  I may lose my mind in the process, but if I can pull it off, it will be great! 
 
I’m going to put a stats box up on the sidebar for those who want to keep track of my progress.  Hopefully it will help keep me motivated as well.

Here's the first goose . . .
. . . and I'm stitching an extra seam to make little HST's as well.  I'll probably make a secondary project out of them later on.



Sunday, May 16, 2010

Strawberry Love

I got this fabric last week to make a little apron and miniature potholders for my cousin's preschooler M (she has a play kitchen that she loves).  I thought to make her a late birthday present, and since I made the nursing cover for my cousin, I decided to mail them off together.  I LOVE the three fabrics.
Here is the apron . . .
And the potholders . . .
I was going to do a quarter square triangle block but didn't feel like doing the math, so I just used the scraps from the apron and made it work.  I especially love the potholder with the skinny pink strip and skinny binding.  I wanted to keep the little 4.5" blocks for myself!  But, I have a good bit of leftover fabric and am already working on some little blocks using the scraps.

I told DH it's fun to sew with cute fabrics.  I wouldn't have thought to go buy these without this project (I was trying to find something cute, bright, and food-related in my local JoAnn's).  But now I'm in love with the bright combo and wanting to work more with these.

I hope little M has fun cooking up a storm with her accessories. :-)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Good Girl

I have been so good!  I haven’t bought material in over a month, except for one project.  I bought a yard of gray fabric with blue and what I thought was red flowers for my cousin’s nursing cover from Etsy (Gray Woodland Delight collection by Paula Prass).  Turns out the red was actually pink (my cousin hates pink).  So I went back to JoAnn’s and found some fabric that would work and purchased it (with a trusty 40% off coupon).  That is the only fabric I’ve bought!  I have so much that I purchased over the winter when I was on maternity leave and newly back to work (not to mention the ri-dunk-ulous stash I had before all that fabric buying). 
 
When I sorted and organized last week, I found that I have a box (think value pack of baby wipes box) of fat quarters, a box of holiday fabric, another two (diaper pack size) boxes of cottons for quilting (plus probably some more hiding in various places around the house), fabrics for fall dresses, summer dresses, the list goes on.  I have fabric for fancy party dresses, patterns to fill two dresser drawers, and several UFOs.  The closet is full, and there is still fabric in the kitchen and on the guest bed . . .
 
So my goal for the remainder of the year is to finish the UFOs and then use what I have!  Some of the UFOs are clothing that I never finished for myself – not sure I’ll ever be that size again, so I’ll see if Little Sis wants them.  I have several projects planned, so I just need to go down the list and do them!  I know I can’t completely banish new fabric or trips to the store completely, but I can cut them way, way back.  The remnant bin in JoAnn’s was full with new things last week, but I was a good girl and only got the boning I needed for the nursing cover. 
 
Speaking of the nursing cover, it's all finished.  This one is a light color and is not lined because Cousin lives in a hot spot. 
Here's a close up of the fabric.
Next up, I’m going to make some miniature potholders and a little apron for my cousin’s little girl as a late birthday gift (to go with her play kitchen).  I found the cutest watermelon print and a coordinating green swirl and hot pink solid for it (for $3.80 - one yard total - I really didn't have good stash to pull from for that).  And then I have to make my little sis’ graduation present (I’ll need to buy black fleece for that one, but I need to figure out my design first).  After that, I can sew for me on fun things for a bit.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

New Sewing Space

Here is my "new" sewing space.  
 Little one is beginning to eat like a big boy, so we needed to reclaim the kitchen table for eating.  So the sewing machine is in the guest bedroom/computer room/sewing room on the vanity once again.  It's not an ideal space, but it'll have to work for now.  I just hope I can actually get some sewing done again soon.  I hate that I didn't do a quilt in April, but I did do some other projects.

The most pressing projects of late:
  • Nursing cover for my cousin (ASAP! in progress)
  • Mini potholders and apron for her daughter (late birthday gift, ASAP!)
  • Graduation blanket for little sis
  • Something for me?  Ironing board cover, perhaps?
  • Work on knocking out UFOs discovered during fabric closet organization

Thursday, May 6, 2010

This is why . . .

I don't get as much sewing done as I'd like these days.

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