In Progress: 3/23/14

Friday, March 28, 2014

Fluffy Mail

I'm not sure exactly when it started, but a long while ago my boys started referring to yarn and fabric mail arrivals as "fluffy mail". I don't know if it's the squishy feeling package or the fact that the contents are often actually fluffy, but the name stuck and now we all look forward to fluffy mail.

I ordered from Hawthorne Threads on Monday morning (after winter mocked us AGAIN) and my much needed spring sewing fabric arrived yesterday.

The boys each picked out fabric for some new pajama pants:

Hoot Main fabric for Ezra- "I'm picking it because it's pretty much a whole zoo" he said.

Ender agonized over choosing between the whales and the jelly fish. He ultimately went with the whales, but I went ahead and added the jelly fish fabric to the cart as a little surprise.

And of course there are a few things in here for Miss Ellie too:

Pink and purple for spring/summer dresses, and the grey chambray for a skirt or two for this next fall. I'm hoping the spring and summer dresses will carry into fall as well layered over a long sleeve t-shirt and leggings.

I particularly adore this Joel Dewberry fabric with the beautiful white swallows. Now to decide precisely what to make! There are so many adorable girl patterns out there, but I particularly love patterns that can be used over and over again. I've been adding tutorials and patterns to my pinterest board for little girl sewing, but haven't made final decisions yet. I need to work on that for sure this weekend if I'm going to have patterns in time for the next Kids Clothes Week.

Our weather isn't looking up yet- so I'm going to cut and sew this afternoon while the boys are off doing boy things and Ellie naps. I'm sure I can force spring to appear with sheer willpower, right?

Thursday, March 27, 2014

A Little Bit of Purple

Don't these purple sashing strips for a t-shirt quilt look awesome all cut and labeled and ready to go? I sewed the strips onto the prepared t-shirt quilt blocks and finished everything up- 72" x 52". Such a sense of accomplishment!

Just imagine the whole thing finished, purple sashing sewn on to all the squares...

And now you might notice a little problem. Where is all the purple sashing? Well, I misread the order. I made it mostly purple with a little black trim, instead of the other way around. ARGH! So.... I spent a whole day ripping and re-sewing (Never fun. NEVER FUN!)

If it had been a t-shirt quilt for me I would have decided to love it just as it was, but being a customer quilt I needed to rip it all out and re-sew. It DOES look very good as ordered, all BLACK with a little bit of PURPLE.

These little hearts appliqued onto black fabric is one detail I really love on this quilt. It is a great way to add small t-shirt art work into the quilt and make the quilt even a little more special.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Itchy

These socks would have been done ages ago if I wouldn't have been such a chicken about the toe-up construction. Now that I've gone through it it really wasn't difficult at all- it really is just thinking through the heel shaping in reverse.

I also really got moving on these socks once I started working on them while I walk on the treadmill. My left foot is still dropping part of the time so I'm taking it slow on the treadmill- slow enough that I can knit and walk at the same time. Talk about motivation to walk- now that knitting is involved I'm a little more excited to get on the machine. It's a guaranteed 30-40 minutes of knitting time depending on how my leg is doing! I'm making 2 miles in about 40 minutes right now, but I'm hoping to work down to 30 minutes over the next few weeks.

Just the sewn bind offs left for each sock... and another pair done.

Amazing.

I'm currently reading a strange assortment of books, because of the season. I've tried and tried to think of a classier way to put it, but truthfully, this is "itchy" season. Basically we all want everything to be different than it is right now. We want it to be warmer and cleaner and more organized and more fun... and this season is none of those things. It's cold this last week of March, the house is in need of spring cleaning, but it isn't warm enough to throw wide the windows and make hard work of each room. Everything seems to scream to be re-organized in March and the boys want to spend the day outside when we really need to march forward with school so that we can actually have a break at some point.

We are itchy.

And my current reading list reflects it:

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles Lamb

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

The Core by Leigh Bortins

D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths

Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon

The Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler

What Happens When Women Say Yes to God by Lysa TerKeurst

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

A Little Spring Sewing

It snowed a little on Sunday. It was like winter poked me in the eye when I woke up early Sunday morning and went down to make my coffee only to find white stuff on the back porch. I seriously thought I might be hallucinating, but no. It was just a little more snow to make me stomp my feet and start the morning with a grumble instead of a praise.

Then it snowed again yesterday. I may have yelled and thrown something. Then I went to the computer and ordered fabric.

And when I saw a little bit of snow on the back porch this morning I couldn't make a sound. What can I do? Winter is mocking me and I'm not in any position to realistically fight back.

I will do what I can, though- it's officially spring according to the calendar, so I refuse to put off spring sewing. Forget about late snow and freezing temperatures. We WILL be ready when spring weather actually arrives!

I have a stack of fabric at the ready (and now more on the way) and I've been working on cutting things out for a few projects that I can sew over the next 2-3 weeks as I find time. I started with cutting out fabric for a skirt for myself- I haven't made anything for myself in quite awhile, plus I want to save some of the kid sewing for the next KCW event. I saw the Gathered Girly Skirt tutorial on pinterest awhile ago and planned in my head to make it at some point this spring or summer, but after looking through my "Want to Make" list over the weekend I thought it was best to make it now. It will be a quick sew with simple construction, which is exactly what I need to get back into sewing mode for awhile. Now to find a few hours to get it sewn up!