I'm Still Here!

Just busy.  Lots of life happening.  Let’s see . . . Kiddo had some sinus/allergy head cold last week, this week I had the same thing. 

 

I got all the rest of the fabric for my clamshell quilt – I actually had tons of cream and green and not enough red.  Extra clamshells will be made into another little project once I’m done with the throw quilt.

 

I worked on organizing my patterns by type (and weeding out ones I don’t want anymore to sell).  I started an Excel sheet to keep track of them and help avoid double purchases (it doesn’t happen often, but it has happened in the past), so I’ve been working on that.

I got the crab quilt basted, marked, and finished quilting it last night.  I should finish up attaching the binding by machine this evening, and I'll hand stitch it in the car tomorrow. 

I cut out two little fleece baby hats from leftover Celtics and Patriots fabric.  I’m hoping to get them sewn up early next week.

 

This weekend is a ladies’ weekend with women from my mom’s side of the family.  It will be the first time I’ve been away and having fun by myself since Kiddo was born (and he’s almost a year old).  We are just going to hang out and work on crafty projects, so I am taking: the crab quilt to bind, clamshells to work on, and the fabric for the guest room quilt to cut for my next leader-ender project.  Plus a couple of romance novels for when I’m tired of fabric . . .

 

Lots of other things going on (including a butt-load of new and continuing projects), but that’s for another post. :-)

Easter Dress

Here is the fabric and pattern at the beginning of the project. I used View B of Simplicity 3503, and the blue (although it seems purple in some lighting) and white fabric is from JoAnn Fabrics, purchased with a trusty 40% off coupon.

 According to the pattern envelope, I was about a size 20 (makes sense, I usually am two sizes larger than in ready to wear, and I’m a 14-16 in that currently). Once I finished the dress though, I realized those measurements don’t mean jack. I may be a little larger than normal, but I was not THAT large. I had to take in the side seams quite a bit, and while it worked for the day, I need to make some alterations to the dress. I think this is going to entail taking apart the bodice (joy, joy) to move the gathering under the bust in towards the center. This is my problem. I’m carrying some extra weight, but I’m not super wide. I have an average to small frame, especially on top. But since I’m nursing, I am a D cup, which means I have to make the bodice bigger to accommodate the bust, but the rest still needs to be narrow so the arm scyes and shoulders work (my boobs don’t hang out under my arm, they tend to sit front and center . . .). Not a big deal in wovens, but with a knit dress that’s gathered over the entire front bodice, this makes my alterations a bit of a pain. In addition to the front being skewed, the back was gaping a bit when I straightened my shoulders (when I wasn’t slumping), so I need to take that in as well (increase the overlap) to get rid of the gaping. Once I remake the bodice, the remainder shouldn’t be too bad. I just need to take in the sides a good bit. I think next time I make this dress, I will cut the bodice to the size 20 length to accommodate the bust, but make it size 14-16 width to keep it narrow and correctly aligned with my body.

I finished the dress just before midnight on Easter Eve. It took longer than expected (I didn’t want to have to sew it at the last minute) because I had a nasty cold all week and just didn’t have energy. And when I did work on it, I hated the gathering on the first shoulder and decided to rip it out and redo it.

Here is a picture of the dress, taken on Easter. I look so . . . round, I guess. I’m not happy with this body, so I really need to find time to get back on the exercise wagon. Happily, warm weather usually makes healthy eating much easier. But the dress looked nice, and I know once I rework it, it’ll look even better.

 Next up, I’m not sure. I have tons I need to do, but I’ve just been a bum lately. I have a half-finished burp cloth that needs to be completed, an ironing board cover that’s cut out and needs to be worked on, and a nursing cover to find fabric for and make for my cousin. Not to mention the master bedroom quilt that has been patiently waiting in its tote bag to be worked on. Of course, I would rather start on some blocks for my Farmer’s Wife Sampler quilt. Or write a pattern for my version of a nursing cover and the new quilt I was designing during choir practice last night.

And a random picture - Miss Dixie likes to help make sure the fabric (interfacing in this case) doesn't run away . . .

An Old Surprise

This weekend when we were traveling to visit my husband's family, we stopped to feed the little one and say hi to my family.  I told my grandma that I’d have to show her pictures of the quilts I’ve made, and she said to wait a minute, she had a bunch of old quilt patterns and maybe I’d like them.  I know she crochets a lot, but I had no idea she would have ever quilted anything.  So I ended up with this manila envelope full of patterns torn from old magazines.

 I went through it on the second half of our trip, not expecting to find much of interest (my grandma has some “interesting” taste), but to my surprise, there were actually some good patterns in there!  Quite a few were appliqué (not really my thing), but there were several patchwork patterns that I liked.  I think there are enough to mix and match into a sampler-type quilt.  Here are some of my favorites:

And then, after going through all the pages (and reading some of the other articles included on the pattern pages), I found these at the bottom of the envelope.

They’re not exactly what I’d call beautiful, but they are special since my grandma made them, and I feel like I need to do something with them. 

There was also this unfinished butterfly block.  I think I like the red accent better than the green, but I hate the tan body.  I feel like I should finish this up and maybe find some coordinating material and use the green accent pieces to complete a companion block.  But again, not sure what to do with them after that.

I was thinking of taking the appliqué patterns and others I don’t like and putting them up for sale on Etsy.  What do you think?  If I’m not going to use them, I hate to throw them away if someone else might like them.

Any ideas of what to do with these blocks?

Mommy Daycare

The little one's daycare is closed today (snow + wind = no fun), so I'm at home with him until lunchtime when Daddy will take over.

Looking back on my last post, I didn't get very much of that list done that night, but at least I gave it a shot.

Last night choir practice was cancelled for sleet/snow (do we see a pattern here?), so I was able to quilt another row on the Baby Beahr quilt (2 more rows/14 more butterflies to go). The butterflies and I were not friends, but that's another 7 done. Introspection: Why do I always pick complex things and make my life hard?

This morning, Mommy Daycare has been washing some fabric (it doesn't always get done right away when purchased), designing a new quilt from scraps/stash with EQ6 (a secret project, and yes, I know, I have many other things to do right now), and making a sleep sack pattern from the current lone ranger. All in the midst of feeding and playing with Little One. Another hour and I'm off to work.

No pictures today, maybe soon (if I ever get these dang butterflies done).

TTFN