A letter to me

First off, thanks to Jenn over at Knotted Thread for making me her featured follower today! So go check it out :) And all her cool projects!


On to my letter...


Dear Rebecca,

Congrats on trying the Schoolhouse Tunic again. Good for you for jumping right into it after the last one was a smidge too small. You cut out those pattern pieces like right away. And then you let it sit for over a month. What's up with that? At least you decided yesterday to sew it up, because you had nothing else to do, no other projects started, and you thought it might be cool to wear something handmade on your birthday.

Thanks to the comments from last time you took some of the advice given and just used a 1/4" seam instead of the 5/8" listed in the pattern, so as to make it a bit bigger without having to go up a pattern size.

But uh, not so good on your part to not read the pattern all the way through before you started. Who even knows what was on your mind yesterday because you messed up a LOT. It probably should have taken you about 2.5 hours to sew this up [because you're slow/still new at clothing-making], but instead it took you almost 4. Focus, girl!

Like that time right there? When you sewed the sleeve on the wrong way. And the couple times you didn't even realize you had messed up until you had sewn the seam AND zig-zagged it? Bah!

But you finished.

And then you tried it on.

And it was too big.

Cue the laughter now. *EDIT: Does anyone know if this is just what it's supposed to look like? Like I'm 20 lbs heavier / trying to hide a pregnancy? I did wear it yesterday and it was comfortable...so now I'm unsure...

Note to self: make notes in the pattern so you remember what to do and what not to do the next time around. Because Rebecca, if nothing else, you are stubborn to a tee, and will make this damn shirt until you get it just right.

Love,
 Your concerned and caring self

About the pattern: I altered the neckline so that it is lower and more rounded, because my neck is a little claustrophobic [true story] and I did not put elastic in the sleeves. I instead hemmed them and turned them to the outside so that there is a little bit of interest in the sleeves. I'm debating putting in buttons at the neckline once I size it down. 


*Linked up today with Amylouwho and Crazy Mom Quilts :)

**Linked up with Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations too!

WIP Wednesday - The Not-Much-to-Show Edition

Happy Wednesday!

Outtakes from a very windy day!

I spent much of my time this past week finishing up the binding on my friend's wedding quilt.

And then I spent all day Saturday finishing my Pillow Talk pillow.

I mailed my For the Love of Solids swap items.

So now I'm finished with my swappy obligations...leaving me free to make whatever I want!

Here's the list:

1. Schoolhouse Tunic with seersucker plaid - pattern pieces are all cut out

2. Lisette dress - needed more fabric for 1 more pattern piece, so I got that, but need to trace and cut it

3. Shoeology shoes! Wonder if I need a different needle to sew shoes...

4. Secret project - I'm not even sure if this is supposed to be a secret, but I'll wait until I've officially gotten word back to share the news

5. New pillow for the couch - this is a maybe; if my Solids swap item is a pillow then I won't need to make one!

Yay for sewing for me! :)

Back to the grind

It rained and was cold all Sunday morning. But by 3 pm the sky was clear and blue, and it was perfect.

The wedding party was all barefoot, the bride and her bridesmaids had starfish and flowers in their hair, and Ashley was absolutely beautiful.

An intimate ceremony of about 75 people, so I was honored to be included in their special day. I cried during the speech given by her twin sister/maid of honor, and cried when Ashley and Chris had their first dance and they put their foreheads together and laughed as husband and wife. My friends and I [we've all known each other since high school] ate food, drank wine, and danced into the night.

And then I came back yesterday [after only 2 days of not reading blogs] and I had a gazillion emails and posts to catch up on. It took me about 2 hours to go through it all. Crazy!

And unfortunately there is no time for sewing today, so my poor sewing machine gets another day of rest.

Until next time... :)

Modern Mini Challenge

The Modern Mini Challenge is hosted by Jennifer over at Ellison Lane Quilts, and as soon as she announced it I knew I'd be participating. I've only made one other mini wall quilt [for myself, I've made others that have been given away], and it was just recently for the Tangerine Tango Challenge. I guess I'm all about the challenges lately?

Well I plum ran out of time to make the mini I had planned. Which I will still be making. But later.

So lately much of my thoughts and sewing time have been consumed by my pillow for round 7 of the Pillow Talk Swap. So I emailed Jennifer and asked if pillows counted, and she said sure why not, they're still mini! Yay! [And if I'm being honest, I've made this into a pillow, but if I were keeping it for myself then it would just exist on my wall, so that no crumbs or boy germs would get on it! Maybe my partner won't like it ;) ]

So I present to you:

"Twirling Clamshells"

Size: 20" square

The clamshells are made of 54 different blue, green, gray, and a single yellow fabric[s]. There are 18 clamshells total, and the hardest part about this was trimming it down into a square. I don't think I breathed the entire time I was cutting!

I also had a really difficult time quilting this. Or rather, deciding how to quilt. I thought I had the coolest idea when I decided to use a tracing wheel to trace out my clamshell template and quilt those shapes over the borders. But I hated how it looked, so I ripped it out after I did a side.

The center has to be the focal point, of course, with all that fabric deliciousness happening, so I kept it simple with straight-line quilting in the gray. And then I tried out several more quilting ideas. And then I spent over an hour ripping it all out. Finally I decided to do some free motion triangles in the top portion of the clamshell and pebble quilting in the next portion.

I'm utterly pleased with how this turned out [actually, I'm a little terrified that the quilting ruined the great piecing design], and both happy and sad to send it off to my partner in a few days. After it sits next to my sewing machine for a bit :)

Ps, I finished this at night so had to wait until this morning to take a picture. Well, I woke up to freezing rain, so I got soaked, and the pictures aren't even good because of the terrible lighting out. Figures!

And now I'm off to a wedding! :)

These are a few of my favorite things [from the past week]

Double posting today, because I'm heading out of town for a wedding, so you get some of my favorite things AND my Modern Mini Challenge entry :)

 My sewing space was clean for about 0.5 seconds earlier this week.

The free birthday stuff is starting to pour in :)

Some good news came out of this pillow, but you'll have to wait a bit for it :P

Went out to dinner for my mom's birthday!

Got my Pillow Talk swap and it was a complete surprise since it's so early!

A finish for Friday - The Wedding Edition

LOVE me a striped binding :)

Hi all!

I'm finally showing off the quilt I made for my good friend Ashley who's getting married on Sunday. As you will recall, I got sick at the most inconvenient time for a last-minute quilt for her bridal shower at the beginning of February and couldn't quilt this baby. I got it finished up a bit later, although I just washed it last night and took pictures today.

I'm sure the wedding will be a beautiful celebration, and I fully expect to cry [I'm a sap for weddings].

 It's 11 blocks by 15 blocks, finishing at 55x75". I wanted to make sure the colors and prints were "man friendly" as well. 

The entire thing is stippled except for 7 stars, which have no stippling inside them and are instead echo quilted. I wouldn't have been able to do that if I had given the quilt to her on time. And while I love the effect, especially on the back, it was a beast to get this quilt through my machine with a whopping 5.5 inches of throat space; pivoting for all those star points made me rethink my decision many times.

The back features the cute little pinwheels from the Children at Play collection in the middle, with lots of solids to show off the quilting. And actually, the dark green was not intended for the backing. I was originally going to use the other 3 colors plus the gray, but I miscalculated how much of each color I'd need, and so had to add in additional yardage, so I ended up with the gray strip. I'm not entirely sure if I like it...

Mmm it looks so nice on the back! And although you certainly can't tell from this photo, or really even looking at the quilt, I had the worst time quilting this. My machine really hated some of the bulkier seams, and I lost my FMQ groove for some of the time. This was my first time quilting a large object on my new table [I've quilted all my quilts on my coffee table; bad for my back, but good for control over the quilt]. My machine moves on the slippery surface while I'm wrestling with the quilt. Not ideal.

Laugh. Trust. Love. Until the end of time. 03.04.2012

Celebrating finishes with Crazy Mom Quilts and Amylouwho today! :)

End of the month resolution accountability check!

I want to make this pillow.

And I want to own this whole shelf.

So another month in 2012 has come and gone. I'm awake past 1 am because I got one of my frequent urges to bake at a late hour. Making bread that requires rising not just once, but twice, means that you have to stay up even longer. Bonus? My apartment smells heavenly.

January saw me recording a respectable number of successes already in my resolutions. What did February bring? 

Sewing and life goals for 2012:

• Find a job that I love! Or just a job that pays me :) Um. I'm still unemployed. It's still very upsetting, as you might imagine. I'm trying to stay positive!
• Be ok with possibly having to move away from family and friends for that job. I am pretty sure that I won't be moving, as for the past month all of my job applications have been in the area that I live in. However, I will be moving out of my apartment in 2 months [I've moved every year since I started college...plus a lifetime of moves from a dad in the Army...I am tired of boxes]
• Make a king-size quilt for my bed [got some design choices]. I think I'm leaning way more traditional on this...maybe an Irish chain in modern fabrics?
• Get better at FMQ other than stippling. Ok so I've been FMQing, but not anything other than stippling. I think I might try something on my Modern Mini Challenge piece!
• Make some clothing [already have a dress pattern and the Schoolhouse Tunic pattern!] I have another Schoolhouse Tunic pattern cut out, and I cut out the fabric for my Lisette dress. I'm just waiting for more progress to show it off. Although, I think it's too big. I wish I was a perfect size across the board, because that would make this clothing thing way easier.
• Bake more. Not just desserts. Because I do that plenty. Breads and healthier stuff. I promise I didn't plan to be baking healthy bread while I was typing this! I've made lots of muffins recently, and my boyfriend and I were very health-conscious at our only grocery outing in February. Neither of us is overweight but we would both like to start making smarter choices food-wise. 
• Have a smoothie in the morning at least every other day [almost to this frequency!] And add things like spinach to them. Darn, I forgot spinach at the store today! I think my boyfriend planned that [note to self: do not tell people you're going to add spinach to smoothies if they are not veggie fans to begin with]. But we still drink a lot of smoothies. I always make them with Carnation Instant Breakfast for added nutrients. And now that it's getting hot we will be drinking even more smoothies!
• I'd love to learn to knit, but have tried many many times, and it hasn't clicked yet. I just discovered that Craftsy has knitting classes on video...any thoughts on this? Do you think it would be hard to learn via that method? I'm seriously thinking about it because I've wanted to be able to knit for so long.
• Purchase all new living room furniture. Yeah, until my first goal is complete this isn't happening.
• Join a sewing bee [this is amusing, because almost every blogger that I've read has said they want to decrease the number of bees and swaps they're in. Makes room for me I guess!] When do sewing bees start? How do you find them? Am I out of luck for 2012 already?
• Would absolutely love to be able to attend the Sewing Summit. And hopefully by October I'll get over fears of going somewhere to meet people that I've never met in person :) So I know registration opens in early March, and I believe they're announcing it later today. My boyfriend offered to buy my actual Sewing Summit ticket for my birthday, meaning I'd just have to pay the $500 for a plane ticket and then $99 a night for the hotel...I'm currently weighing my desire to go against an unbiased assessment as to whether $1000 for 3 days is worth it.
• Project 366. I've become a lot more comfortable with just pulling out my phone and taking a picture, and the camera isn't half bad, so I'm hoping that a combo of phone and real camera photos will document 2012! Check! I've only forgotten one day, and luckily I went to the movies that day so I took a photo the next day of my ticket stub. So I have my 59 pictures. I am pretty bad about loading them onto Flickr...I used to do it once a week, but I haven't really done it since February started...good thing they're all date stamped!

Ok so I've really only done the same things I did last month. I'm going to call this a 3.5 out of 12 [the half a point is for the clothing, because they're not finished items yet, but I am working on them]. I guess it's good that I'm still working on the resolutions that I can, and hopefully the ones that I have no control over will fall into place. 

And now, as your reward, I'll cut you a virtual slice of English Muffin Toastable Bread:

 Enjoy!