Sewing Mood

I've been in a sewing mood, but my energy level has been a bit low lately. I have lots of things on a list to do, but just can't find the oomph to get things done. I have managed to do a few things that I feel need to be done. On my list of things to do:

Nursing covers
Bedding for used moses basket I found at a consignment sale
Quilt for my cousin's new baby (the top is done, I have a walking foot and I just have to be brave and quilt it on my machine)
Blocks for the same baby
Tag blankets for various babies, including mine

(I love doing the strike through thing. It makes me feel like I've accomplished something!)

So I finally did a few things these past couple of days and took a few pictures. Here they are.

Nursing covers
I found the tutorial at Sew Much Ado. I had a question about the boning. I've never used it before and I didn't want to ruin things. So I asked the author, Abby, and she was so nice and sent me a really good explanation!

I made the first one with Mirabelle from Alexander Henry. I bought the fabric while visiting Esther's Fabrics on Bainbridge Island during a Seattle trip. I fell in love with it. I didn't know what I wanted to do with it until now.



I made the cover, but the fabric is very thin and so it doesn't keep it's shape as well as recommended home decor fabric would. But since I'm having an August baby, and temps have been in the 100s here since July, I thought it wouldn't really hurt to have a thinner, cooler cover. So here it is.


I decided that I needed to do a heavier weight one and I found some fabric at JoAnn's. I cut it out and finally finished it yesterday. But then I found fabric I like better. So I have a friend who just told me she is pregnant and I think I'll give it to her as a gift.



A few weekends ago, my friend took me to a shop called Quilting Adventures. I wish it were nearer to me! I found Its a Hoot home decor fabric by Alexander Henry. I made a baby blanket out of the same print in cotton. I love it! I found a yard and took it home. I was so excited, I started right away and cut it wrong! Thank goodness for Etsy! I ordered another yard and finished the cover yesterday. Yay! I have extra fabric to make a bag thanks to my mistake. Not so bad. If I can find the time.





I'll post other projects soon. This post has gotten longer than I thought it would. I'm going to stop for lunch and post the rest of the projects later.

More blocks

This time for my baby. Truth to tell, I'm pretty sick of blocks though. This is actually the first set of three sets of blocks. I made some for a baby girl too. I might have one more small set in the works for another baby, if I have time (I'm on the countdown and my time is becoming limited). The fabric is from the Love U collection by Deb Strain. A very good friend also made a quilt out of the same fabric for the baby and I'm so excited to wrap him up in it. Here are some of the blocks. The pattern came from The Soft Baby Cube Tutorial on Flickr .


Not a great picture I know. They are cuter in person. I've also made a few bibs and a nursing cover. I'm in the process of making a quilt for my cousin's new baby. It may be finished before she goes to college.

New projects

Baby Blankets - The idea came from Sew Much Ado except I didn't add rickrack or an appliqué. These were fun to make, except trying to get the flannel and cotton straight. That was hard and I needed a bit of help. I made three for me and five for gifts.

Knitting - I've been working on a baby blanket for my baby. I'm over halfway through it. I made this scarf in between. The stockinette got to me a little, but once I began the lacy part, it was more fun and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel.

More sewing - these baby blocks are fun to make. I'm making some from a fabric with owls. These are for a friend. The idea came from this baby block tutorial on flickr.

These have a bit of cellophane wrapper inside to make it crinkly when squeezed.
These have a bit jingle bell in them. I tried to get the biggest one so hopefully, should baby manage to tear into it, it will not be a choking hazard.

I wanted ones with tags as well.
I like them and they are lots of fun to make!

Simple solutions

I bought a cute little calendar from Barnes and Noble. It was 75% off, so I paid something like $1.75. I needed a small calendar to keep up with my all the appointments that are coming up. Something that would fit into my handbag.



One thing that bugged me - flipping pages. How silly is that? But I needed something to hold back the pages from previous months, especially since the calendar goes all the way back to August 2009 (so far back in history!). So my solution? Raid my ribbon drawer, find a bit of elastic and plug in the sewing machine. I cut the ribbon so that the ends overlap the pages, but don't touch. Then I cut a small piece of elastic. I sewed the ends together and bazinga! Ribbon book mark. Simple, but effective.

Changes

Things are going to be a bit different around here in a few months.

Cleaning out the guest room

During the school year our guest room / my craft room /mom's bedroom has become a dumping ground for yarn, odds and ends and fabric. We are going to have a guest next week and I needed to do something, otherwise he was going to have to sleep with yarn. He will already have to sleep with the cats since I suspect that they use this room as their sleeping quarters as well.

Before


After




I cleared out a lot of stuff and took a haul to the charity shop. I also weeded my cross stitch patterns. I had 17 binders full. These are from various magazines. 17 binders!!! Even if I stitched every night for the rest of my life, I couldn't get through all of those patterns. I scaled down to 8 binders. Still too many, but by then I was exhausted. I've come to realize that I have too much material. I raised the bed with those big plastic risers. This not only raised the bed to make it easier to cut out patterns and use a nice worktable - kind of like my grandmother always did, but it also allowed me to store fabric under there. So I have to go on a fabric, yarn and food diet. ARRRGHHH.

and of course...
the girls approve.

projects

Here are some recent projects that I finished these past few months. Balint asked me to make an iPod holder, something padded, with a zipper and a pocket to hold ear buds. It's not perfect, but it works.


Then I needed one since the holder I used for my mini was too small for my touch. I used this tutorial from Sew Mama Sew.

You can't see it, but I added a pocket inside to hold the ear buds and the microfiber thingie. I carry it everywhere.


This little sweater I made for a quick gift for a colleague's grandchild. It was super easy and I'm thinking of making another for a friend. I added snaps underneath the buttons instead of a button hole. I thought it might be easier to work on a wriggly baby instead of trying to do up an odd shape button. The pattern is called Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss.

Projects I am working on now -
* February Ladies Sweater
* Scarf with No Name
* Two swing bags

I'm busy, busy, busy.

hello little blog

Sorry I have been ignoring you. Life is busy as usual, but things have gotten a bit slower now that school is out. Hopefully I'll post more often...but I doubt it.

Monticello

Our 7th anniversary fell on the first day of my spring break. Unfortunately, thanks to the lovely little darlings I work with everyday, I didn't feel well and wasn't up to doing much until Wednesday. So on Friday, Bal took off from work and we took a trip to Monticello. I've been wanting to go for a very long time. We left early in the morning and even though it was very warm at home, Charlottesville was a bit cooler. We still had a lovely spring day with only one April shower. It started while we were walking the trail from the house to the visitor center.



Everything was starting to green up and the dogwoods were just blooming. The red buds were still in bloom too and everything was just beautiful! I love that first bit of green that starts to burst forth. It always seems so long in coming and just when you are about to give up, there is just a hint of green.

Here are a few more pictures from our trip.

What pleats?

This is what I did this weekend. The pattern is the Swing Bag by Amy Butler. It's reversible, but I couldn't get a good shot of the other side. I altered the pattern a bit by putting in zippered pockets and a key fob. I love pockets.

Oh yeah, I left out the pleats on the straps.