Scant updates

I've been working on several projects, but not posting. I'll catch up a little this week. First, some house work- we put the radiators back online just in time for the cold snap. Phew!


This is the quilt I made for my brother & his wife- their first baby is due in January.


The fabric is an ebay purchase of precut reproduction 1930s prints. I randomly sewed them together, put blue binding on it, and did some machine straight-line quilting. I forgot to take a picture before I gave it to them, but it was pretty cute when it was done.

Updates

The entrelac scarf is going well. I've had to stop and rip back a few times when I didn't pay attention to the end squares, but I like it. The yarn is Rowan Colourscape by Kaffe Fassett and this pattern is nearly perfect for showing it off. I'm hoping this scarf will be finished in time to block and bring to my mom at Thanksgiving time. She doesn't wear scarves much but I can imagine this would be a nice addition to her fleece jackets (she lives in Maine, wearing a winter jacket require some seriously cold <20F weather!).


The baby blanket is coming along somewhat slowly. Work has wiped me out this week, and I've not done much crafting in the evenings. As you can see, the patterns are reproductions. Again, I'm not much of a fan, but it'll be a quick utili-blanket.


We went apple picking two Saturdays in a row. The apples are/were delicious- my sweetie made pie crusts and I took one pie into work. My staff didn't believe I made it at first *grin* being as they are used to my husband cooking for them! I found a new favorite apple this fall, the SunCrisp.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Canadian part of me wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. The American part of me will celebrate again next month.


I've been working on some projects from the stash. This is a baby quilt in progress for my brother and sister-in-law, expecting their first little one in January. I'm not crazy about the fabric but since they live in Western Pennsylvania, an extra blanket will be handy. The machine is my Singer 237, the appropriately named Fashion Mate. It was a $15 estate sale find this spring, and I've been enjoying using it as my machine at the house.

...and back

Hmm, I guess I unintentionally went on blog holiday. There were lots of crafted things, and lots more going on now...so let me show you a few (all the finished projects have been mailed to their intendeds) in progress.


I haven't done any stamped needlework for over ten years. That pair of pillowcases is in heavy rotation and holding up well. I decided to break out this bib I've had to work on for about eight years (ever since I was first an aunt). It's kind of fun. It looks as though the colors might not be right, because the difference between "pink" and "light pink" is pretty strong, but whatever. For something that will just get baby food on it, it's good.


This year's presents for boys will be ribbed caps with stripes. I'm using Lion brand Thick & Quick and it is true to it's name.


And finally, the entrelac scarf project I've been planning since, er, December 2009. That's the base triangle you see so far.

Finished quilt

Machine quilted around the stars and tacked with embroidery floss in crucial spots. The backing is one of the fabrics in the Verna line, edged with another fabric in the collection.


Binding is plain strips from two quarter yard cuts of fabric from the collection, machine sewn on one side and hand sewn on the front.


After a run through the washer and dryer, the quilt is properly rumpled and ready for the wedding on Saturday. Such fun to work on projects for people who will love a quilt!


Speaking of fun projects, here is a recently completed pair of baby mitts for my brother & his wife's anticipated baby arriving in January.

update without photos

I'm machine quilting around the stars and didn't take any pictures...back next week (off to a conference tomorrow early morning). It's getting there.

Quilt top

Most of my work lately has been of the house/construction variety. But we have a cousin's wedding coming up in a few weeks, so I finished this quilt top tonight.


Pattern from Pam & Nicky Lintott's Layer Cake, Jelly Roll, and Charm Quilts.


Once I settled in, this was fast & easy. And amazingly, when I slowed down and pinned all the corners to match...they mostly did! I may have finally turned a new leaf in sewing slower.

For the backing I am putting strips of the dark pink on the sides of the prettiest fabric in the Verna line. Show & tell tomorrow!

Lovely lilies

It's been hot, and rainy, sometimes both... But look what happened this week!


Now I am ready for some normal 70s days. Work on the house has slowed due to excessive naps due to heat tiredness. Oh the irony- we need to finish the house insulation in time for winter, yet cooler days would allow more work to happen!

Found fabric

We are finding some interesting things tucked away in the house. Recently, we found a whiskey bottle (empty) wrapped in a 1910 (corrected by my sweetie, thanks) newspaper and this fabric.


I like a lot of vintage fabric, but not this one. *sigh* Maybe after a nice handwashing and drying outdoors it will look better. At least it will smell better! Tonight we found a bottle of sewing machine oil, from the 1940 or 1950s (I think). One of the first things I moved in was a sewing machine from the 1950s so the house must be feeling loved again. :)

Love is...

...moving a saw with my sweetie.

Over 500 pounds of saw. Wowsers. I'm glad it was going to the cellar, not upstairs!

What I've been working on

Layers and layers of neglect had to be scrubbed off the cabinets, but it turns out they are solid wood (maple?). The stove was a cast-off from a colleague who put in new appliances- and now that we fixed the gas leak in the upstairs bedroom and turned the gas back on, we have a working stove, and hot water from the taps!

ps If you are wondering why/how- the house didn't have electricity originally when it was built about 102 years ago. When they put in electrical wires, they pulled them through the gas lines. Haha!

Stash growth or a wise investment in the future? (and, my farm)

In Portland, we visited the Pendleton Woolen Mill outlet store. In addition to wools from blanket weight to lightweight suiting, they had a huge box of zippers. All you could fit in a sandwich bag for $1. I packed three bags, because really, that's a great bargain.


Meaning it is quite likely that some distant great-grandsomething will one day go though my stuff and say "why did Aunt Sarah have seventeen bright coral invisible zippers?" Foolish child, because I might need them!


In other news, my home farm is progressing slowly. This year I only planted about 1/10000000th of an acre (not to scale). Things are popping up quite impressively!


This is lettuce (you can tell where), nasturtiums, and um, something else. A flower that looks pretty and I can't remember the name, but I had to nick the seed pod and soak the seeds overnight before planting. You know, that one!

Portland things

I liked Portland. We went to the International Rose Test Garden. It was pretty, but also early in the season. We saw five roses in bloom. (please note the coffee- I'm practicing in case we move there)


Then we went on to Bolt. If you haven't been there, you should go.


After reading about it for years, I was very happy to finally go in and find it was just as described- cozy, loaded with beautiful fabric, and the people who worked there were friendly. I wanted to buy everything but realized space was an issue, so I settled for some fabric and ribbon.


Liberty of London lawn, of course.

And some ribbon that I liked. Just a few things to tuck away, because I'd already made a haul at the Pendleton Woolen Mill outlet. I'll show you that tomorrow.


In parting, a modeled shot of the hat I made on the trip. Pattern "berry basket" from the Oomingmak store in Anchorage, with Qiviut yarn also from the Oomingmak store. I didn't go on this trip, but my sweetie brought back some yarn (yay!) so I made him a hat.


He's not really a hideous faceless person...or is he???

Back in town

April was a traveling month. I went to Maine, my mom came out to visit (yay!), and my sweetie & I went to Oregon. Soon I'll post properly with details, because Portland Oregon is awesome (much like Portland Maine that way) and I want to move there. I managed to buy enough fabric at the Pendleton Woolen Mill outlet that I went over weight on my suitcase and had to put it in my pack.


There was knitting on the trip.


And a huge fire to curl up next to while knitting. We spent two nights in Silcox Hut and one night in the main lodge at Timberline. I can't wait to go again. It turns out that I really love skiing, especially when there are almost no other skiers on the mountain and we have fresh powder!

Back to sewing news

A long time ago (wow, maybe three years or more!) I made my sweetie some curtains for his apartment. When we got married and he moved in to the apartment here, I folded up the curtains and saved them. I really wasn't sure why, but they went into my stash. Today I pulled them out and hung them in the new house.

(yep, that's the wall- like I said, some work to be done!)

They are wrinkled and bagged out of shape, but from the outside (this is the second floor) they look just great. And since each curtain cost about $3 in materials, I won't be upset when they get filthy with construction dust. By upset, I clearly mean, feel like I should launder the curtains. (heehee)

I forgot to bring over curtain rods, though, so I had to improvise. A quick rummage in the trunk of my car brought up my emergency bungee cords. Turns out they are perfect to hang a curtain! I just have to hope I don't have any bungee cord requiring emergencies before tomorrow after work when I can bring over the real curtain rods. Moral of this posting: stash is really really useful.

The new project (can you guess?)

The rose tree is planted...


The light is on...


and we changed the locks.


We bought a house! Naturally, it needs some (ok, a lot) of work. But the first thing we did after getting keys Monday was to change the locks, and plant the rose tree and some bulbs. Now I'm off to bring some stuff over (towels, soap, lots of bleach for the scary refrigerator). Projects abound.

A larger project

Tomorrow we (hopefully) will start on a rather large, expensive, fun project. All I can give you for a hint is a photo of one of our purchases yesterday at Costco:


In other news, I attend my first Chicago American Sewing Guild neighborhood meeting on Friday. It was inspiring to see the work these talented sewers have put into the Glass Slipper Project dresses, and really fun to meet other people interested in garment sewing. In June the meeting will focus on unfinished projects and if nothing else I'll have the high-waisted skirt for a UFO. I just don't like the high waist so much and I'm glad I made a muslin instead of using the nice wool gab I was originally planning to use. A normal-waist skirt will fit the gabardine much better.


I was pretty excited about using one of the Amazing Fit patterns from Simplicity until I realized I took the instructions out to read and can't find them now. So I guess I'll go with a normal straight skirt pattern from McCalls for now.

Sock finished (or, socks 1/2 finished)

Tonight I tried the sock on, and I decided it was nearly done.

So I finished it. Yay! One more to go. They might even match. Although with this yarn, who could tell?


In the famous words of my beloved father, "good enough".

ps- I am typing with the sock on. My other foot is a little chilly.

Try, try again

Many thanks to Julia R who left a lovely summary of how to fix the skirt in comments yesterday:

Sorry, but first you have to unstitch the higher facing, but only where it is sewed down to the zipper tape (and the lining on that side too). You don't have to unstitch where you have sewed the facing to the upper edge of the skirt. Once the facing is free of the zipper tape, with the zipper zipped up, fold down the higher facing until the top of it is level with and matches the other side, pin it and restitch. Don't worry about folding along the line where you stitched the facing to the upper edge of the skirt. No one will see it as it will be folded to the inside. Press it in place, re-sew the lining to the zipper tape on that side and you are done.

That works...the facings match and the lining doesn't look so stressed. Not only is this lady an amazing seamstress, she is a great teacher. Thank you Julia!

Mild sock tragedy

The sock is a perfect length for my foot. That must be because I was so careful to try it on during the process!


On the other hand, I neglected to check the width.


So, of course, I'm pretending it isn't too wide and I'm on the ribbing for the leg! In sewing news, I hand-stitched the lining in place. It doesn't look quite right, but...well...learning experience!


Er, this might explain why the lining doesn't hang well. It's all about learning, right!

Quilting along

The top of the quilt is shockingly close to being finished.


The triangles will be made with these fabrics- the deeper pink will be the stars (that middle fabric is actually pink).


And in other sewing news, the poly blends made it through the washer just fine and are drying on the shower rod in the bathroom.