Assorted Finished Objects

While I may not have been here much, don't think I've not been busy in the making department. Here's a mini parade of things I've finished (mostly) recently. I could drag this out with a post for each item, but at the rate I'm going, it'd be October and I'd still be writing posts for things I did in May.

I had some leftover yarn ("waterfall" Homespun from Lion) from a previous project. I found this mesh scarf pattern via Ravelry and thought, well there's a way to use up some leftovers and get something reasonably sized out of it.

Of course, what I had made something too small so I had to go get more. The result is a scarf that's more like a shawl. I also let myself crochet this on automatic pilot, so one end is two squares wider than the other due to random increases somewhere in the middle. While I'm at it, I could wonder how I plan to wear this and with what. It's the wrong color for fall; it certainly won't go with this shirt:

This is Not A Spring Top. It's McCall's 6513 and it's another failed attempt at stashbusting. That is, I bought fabric for it in the fall but apparently was looking at the wrong view at cutting time. Rather than make the view I had enough fabric for, naturally I went out and got more (and a different pattern to use with the fabric I have). So this wasn't stashbusting so much as stash-increasing.

But it came out well, and I look forward to wearing it when it's not toasty outside. And my Wardrobe Improvement Project now has added one more Truly Long Sleeved Shirt to my closet.

This next project isn't for my closet at all:

This journal cover was a (rather late) birthday present for Lianna. I almost never give birthday presents on birthdays, since birthdays have a way of sneaking up on me. I didn't even figure out what I wanted to do about my own birthday this year until it was about a week away.

Wait, we were talking about journal covers, right? This one is based on Stitched in Color's tutorial with an added lining. And the fabric all came from Stash. I really like the subtle gold in these fabrics. If I were to make a journal cover with this pieced design again, I think I'd make my nine-patches smaller. When I was thinking it through, having my squares finish at 1 inch seemed pretty small, and I think it looks fine, but it doesn't quite match up what I had in my head. I suppose this is why one should sketch out a design first, huh?

See, self, I am finishing things!

Summer Journal: Strawberries

Strawberries from our garden. We eat them with breakfast, sometimes for dessert, sometimes when no one is looking. Caitlyn thinks our plants will make enough for jam. She's probably right, if the ripe berries from today could be held in perfection for a couple of weeks. Since they can't, we'll eat them instead.

Oh, darn.

Gathering Moss

When I was a kid, my family moved houses exactly once. I was 4, and I only remember the important bits: wrapping my plastic doll dishes in newspaper just like my grandmother wrapped the dishes in the kitchen and dancing like a crazy 4-year old around the For Sale sign in the front yard. I "moved" again, for the first time, when I went off to college.

From then on, I moved a lot, assuming you count every time in and out of a dorm room a "move". Once a year, sometimes twice. Halfway out of student housing post graduation, then all the way out a few months later into a First Apartment, shared with a friend until she left to get married. This is where Ian enters the story.

Less than a year later, we moved our stuff into a joint storage unit (co-habitating stuff!) and moved ourselves to Germany. When we returned to the States nine months later, we continued with this somewhat indecisive lifestyle, moving on average every 18 months. Sometimes only across town, sometimes much farther.

Maybe other people do "moving" differently, but we've always packed and schlepped our own boxes. Up and down stairs, on and off of trucks, in and out of storage units. It never consciously made me reflect on the wisdom of a purchase, but it did mean that most of the stuff we owned was gone through and handled reasonably (or unreasonably, depending on your perspective and how sore your back feels) frequently. Some things never got unboxed, just labeled "nostalgia" and pushed into a closet. We weren't as rolling as some stones, but it was possible to put all our stuff in a 10x15 storage unit.

We've been in the same house now going on 7 years. Some of those "nostalgia" boxes are still stuffed in a closet. We've added all sorts of things that we might not have during our more mobile period: a dehydrator, a sun oven, grow lights, more bookcases, an actual couch, a bread maker, a weed whacker, bicycles, a chest freezer, a ladder, more books, more toys, more games. Moving now is a frightening prospect. Fortunately it's not really on the horizon. Why do I think about it? Because moving was the general method of going through things, letting go of the things we were done with and making sure everything got dusted or washed as appropriate. Turns out I'm not a regular duster.

I went on a Spring Cleaning binge this year. Curtains were washed. Tops of doorways were vacuumed. Closets were gone through. I shredded boxes of ancient paperwork. I took a full car load (including a vacuum cleaner I've not used since 1999) to Goodwill and a box of dead electronics to RePC. We got the carpets cleaned. Caitlyn passed several armloads of stuff to her cousin down the street.

There's a lot I didn't do. I meant to wash the windows and the couch covers and the front of the kitchen cabinetry. I meant to find someone who would help us out with some home maintenance (replace some moldings, fill some cracked grout, etc). I meant to actually make progress on repainting our walls. The kitchen and dining room need paint rather desperately and the stairways look like a small child has dragged her hands along the walls for years. Thinking of painting makes my brain short out, though. How do you pick a good color? And everything has to be moved away from the walls or out of the room for days. It smells funny. Painting has always been the one home maintenance thing I figured I could reasonably DIY, but these days whenever I think about it, I have to sit down until I think of something else.

Looks like we've gathered some moss in our stationary, more rooted years. I'm trying to keep it regularly trimmed so at least we are tidy in our mossiness. And maybe next year I'll make it a bit further on my list. Maybe the moss will get painted. Someday.

How is it the End of May?

Sure, I know I've been busy, but gee whiz already, surely Father Time could slow down a little bit?

Well after KCW wrapped up, I finished this pair of shorts for Caitlyn.

I used up some stashed denim of unknown vintage and a fat quarter in red, so it's definitely stashbusting even if I'm not on theme for May. I used the pants portion of McCall's 6389, changing the waistband, shortening them up and adding the cuff detail. No pockets, though, which I might regret if Caitlyn keeps collecting rocks when she wears these. Guess who gets to carry the rocks home?

I love this red fabric. I think it came in a fat quarter bundle I received for Christmas about, oh, something like 10 years ago (thanks, Mom!). It's always made me think of bandanas, even though it doesn't really look like one. This was a perfect use for it.

I used the same red for the inner waistband. The pattern wants you to just fold over the top of the shorts to make your waistband casing, but the idea of doing that with denim seemed unpleasant. It'd make for a thick, stiff, hard to gather, probably uncomfortable-to-wear waistband. I trimmed off the top of the pattern 5/8in shy of the fold line, added the red fabric for the casing, and did a lot of topstitching. I'm pretty pleased with the result, if I may say so.

Caitlyn likes them, too, despite the lack of pockets. She's seriously into tree climbing these days, preferring to terrorize all the adults she knows by climbing as high as possible and then staying there. As an added bonus, she likes to teach other kids how to climb her favorite tree, so yes, that's my kid who's teaching your kid how to give you a heart attack. Pants and shorts are the preferred tree-climber's wardrobe. I'm going to need to get more familiar with pants-making, I think.

On a unrelated note, I did manage to finish my blocks for Sew.Quilt.Give. this month. Barely.

We did farfalle blocks from Film in the Fridge's tutorial. I'm seriously behind on working on March's quilt for the bee and am feeling somewhat envious of the just-sew-the-received-blocks-together assembly that's going to go with this quilt. Notes for next time I'm queen bee: Keep it Simple!

Not Here Now

So, I've not been here lately. ::hangs head::

I've been doing a lot of work for Stash's website and online presence lately. If quilty things are your cup o' tea, stop by and check it out.

I'm also taking an online class right now... more on that later, probably.

The rest of it is just regular, ordinary life stuff (laundry! meals! mowing! bookkeeping!). It seems that lots of bloggers lately have been writing about how their lives are not as perfect as their blogs make it appear ("Look! My sewing corner is a mess, too!"). Kudos to those who can make the ordinary compellingly readable.

Me, I'll be back when there's something to share that won't bore you fine readers to sleep.

Little Red Dress

I thought I'd kept my KCW list to something reasonable. A dress, a pair of shorts and some iron-on transfers on some t-shirts. Not a long list, especially when you compare it to other lists from other years. I totally should have finished last week.

Perhaps I should stop mentally signing myself up for things that have a fixed timeframe. I'm starting to think I'm just tempting fate when I announce that I'm going to do something within a set time line. Work gets busy with crises; I throw my neck out of alignment; the sun comes out and suddenly the back lawn is a foot tall.

I suppose I could have started my KCW projects early, but that would have felt like cheating.

So here I am, almost a week late, with my Kids Clothing Week finish:

This is view C of McCall's 6389, with no changes or adjustments. First princess seams! (Hers and mine.) The fabric is a red cotton (acquired from someone's stash cast-offs) with large, gold-etched tropical flowers. I have no idea how long I've had it, but it's been filling up my bin of red/pink fabric for a while now. This project definitely counts as stashbusting!

I'm particularly fond of the rolled sleeves. Caitlyn kept trying to roll them down this morning and learning that buttons on your elbow are awkward. The collar seemed temperamental when I put it in but maybe that's just because it's smaller than the collars on Ian's shirts.

And it passes the Active Kid Test! Although I may suggest she not climb trees in it...

Here's my other KCW finish:

Calling these shirts "sewing" definitely feels like cheating. I bought some blank t-shirts from JoAnn (4 for $10), picked out some iron-on transfers and - ta-da! - shirts! Brainless, really. We'll have to see how they hold up to washing and wearing. If they are durable in any reasonable way, there may be more of this in the future. Then again, given the number of transfers that are emblazoned with "I'm the Princess, that's why!" themes, maybe not. Caitlyn loves the bright and shiny, but I refuse to stamp my kid with "I'm a girl and therefore I am all about shopping and getting presents!"

But that's another rant, that shall be ranted on another day.

Collecting Blocks

These beautiful things have been sneaking into my mail box for the last 6 weeks or so as the ladies of Sew.Quilt.Give. finish their block assignments for March. I'm waiting on a few more, but I've already collected 24 blocks. With my current layout plan, this is either going to be a redonkulously huge quilt or potentially two quilts. No way is this project going to be done by the end of June!

In the meantime, I've finished the April blocks.
These are super easy and quick! We're doing a version of the Lemon Squares quilt, which isn't that far off from the Square-in-Square blocks we did for March.
See, I even made extras!

In related news, the bee blocks from October are all assembled into a completed quilt. My blocks, of course, are the over-saturated ones. I hope I'm the only one bothered by this!