{pretty, happy, funny, real} - needle & thREAD

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

{pretty}

I have gotten some time to sew this week and it's coming along very nicely I think.  I have 7 out of 10 strips sewen and those remaining 3 are laid out and just need sewing. 

{happy}

I'm happy to have gotten this time to myself and to work.  And Littler was happy to help a bit too. 

{funny}

Project ADD much?  There's the pattern and you can see a little of the fabric for making some shorts for Bigger.  Handmade Beginnings and the pieces for the top of the baby sleep sack.  (Note to self: renew that one online.  With fingers crossed that no one has a hold on it!)  Toe-Up 2-at-a-Time Socks is waiting there for me to be brave enough to cast on a trial pair.  If I don't start my cardi for me first.  Or maybe even if I do.  And on top the most important and the one that certainly sees the most actual use - my sewing machine manual.

{real}

How Mama really gets some time to sew with Littler's help.   

And then letting him have a turn with the camera.  He has an interesting eye, I think.  Of course I also had to delete about 7 useless photos too but we don't really need to talk about that.  That's just how it works.  ;-)



Linking up with Elizabeth today too.  I love seeing what all people can create!  As if I needed more ideas.  





Needle & thREAD

While I didn't do any *actual* sewing this week I did still work on a project.  :)  And finally got some tracing paper so I can trace the patterns so I can cut the fabric so I can start sewing so Bigger can have some more shorts before it snows.  Sounds a bit like If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, doesn't it?  Just like the Mouse I could use a nap before too long into the process  ;-)  Anyway, these wee squares are not for the shorts but for a patchwork baby sleep sack (it's in Handmade Beginnings.)  Bigger helped me pick the fabrics. 

Playing with layout.  I always get a little anxious about laying out - how to make it all look good together but random.  In dance we used to call it "organized chaos" (those big crowd scenes where everyone seems to just be milling around yet everyone actually knew where they had to end up and who to pass along the way.) 

We read a cute book this week and I thought I'd share here since a number of other bloggers are working on ballet costumes at the moment.  T-Rex at Swan Lake by Lisa Carrier and Lenore Hart.  T-Rex is tired of standing around, being the star of the Natural History Museum and over hears a couple ladies talking about the ballet.  She decides this is just what she needs so heads off down the street to the Opera House.  She quite literally crashes the performance and is a huge hit.  Both boys, who love both dinos and dance, are enjoying this one so much.  I've read it at least once a day since we brought it home from the library on Saturday. 

Linking up with Elizabeth for more sewing and reading :)  



"Process" I am not

Some crafters are process oriented - in love with the act of creating.
Some are product focused - more into their finished object that what goes into making it.

I am most certainly the latter.  Come to think of it that is probably why I have such a tough time with the repetitiveness of scarf knitting....  I love finishing things, I love that I made it, I love being able to give or use it.  Unfortunately this has a tendency to lead to rushing and shoddy work. 

And that is certainly the mess I find myself in this morning.   

As I have mentioned I am working on a quilt for a friend who is getting married in the fall, the first of two in fact.  It will be just a lap quilt but I can imagine the newlyweds snuggled up on the couch with it, watching tv, hanging out.  But not eating anything messy, that I just cannot put near my as-yet-unfinished-let-alone-given quilt even in my imagination.  Anyway, my goal was to finish the quilting this week so I can sew the binding during our trip this weekend and maybe even give it to the bride-to-be while we are away.  However, I have hit a number of snags in this plan and here is the biggest: 



There you have it.  I have actually done this on all three quilts I have quilted but this one has been by far the worst for it.  This was just one of several wrinkles (gathers?) I managed to sew into my backing.  I even managed to put some, how shall we call it... texture into the top too.  

DH had taken the boys out to the library this morning to give me some sewing time.  So after eating breakfast (I was up with the boys before 6, washed last night's dishes, put them away, put away the laundry, and dressed the boys but still hadn't found time for breakfast - there is something wrong with this picture and apparently my priorities) and getting everything set up, I set to work.  First I had to rip out the first bit I had quilted when I realized I had forgotten to change the stitch length and therefore ended up with really close, really tight, really ugly stitches.  That were really hard to pick out. 

Second try went well.  Except for the first set of wrinkles on the backing.  But I muddled on and took extra care to smooth everything out back and front for the next go.  And the second round of quilting went well, no lumpies or bumpies and even mostly straight.  But this was where I managed some puffiness on the top.  Third row was again gathered.  

So as I stood there examining what I had done and trying to figure out how to stop making this mistake and if I can just keep going it hit me.  I am embarrassed by this quilt.  The top has many imperfections like corners that don't match up and pieces that were apparently not cut or sewen uniformly and now the backing has to serious life of its own.  My anxiety over being able to finish it "in time" and about then having to show it to people is going through the roof.  So there's my answer.  Out again comes my trusty seam ripper and out go the poorly sewn stitches.   

And it's just a little killing me.  I want so to be done!  But my haste is doing nothing but bring me heartache instead of the joy of a beautiful gift to give.  So I need a break.  Not a long one, I don't think.  I'll work on the scarf for my mom, which is coming along pretty nicely, by the way.  And I'll cast on another Baby Surprise Jacket for knitting on the trip.  And a friend said she's teach my to knit hats while we're visiting.  And I'll finish up my library books before we leave and take just one book with me.  So I think I'll keep plenty busy.  But I need to stop thinking ahead to whatever comes next and just enjoy what I am creating now. 

 I think this will be really, really beneficial in my quest for peace.  Learning to enjoy the here and now is probably something I struggle the most with - I think most of my other challenges (in attitude or however you think of it) come either from not enjoying where I'm at or lead to not enjoying where I'm at.  A "which came first" kind of cycle.  So I am going to enjoy this scarf project, gosh darn it, not just the thought of giving the scarf.  Even knowing there is another one in green waiting in the wings.  I'm going to be in the process not rushing on to what I can finish next. 

So here we be.  It's gently folded and stashed away from small sticky hands.  The threads are thrown out and the pins and seam ripper are safely stored.  For another time when I can get back to imagining the happy couple snuggled under it and I can take my time putting the care and love into it that they deserve. 

Small Successes

Time to take stock of those small successes in the past week.  Some don't seem like much but each is a victory.  Head over to share yours with Sherry at Chocolate for Your Brain. 

*I survived a camping trip that I should have said no to.  But I was a good sport and we tried.

*I finished sewing a skirt that I have literally been working on for a year.  Yeah, bought the fabric last summer and here it is.  Not the most flattering shape but comfy for kicking around in.  :)  Next I have to decide about hemming.  I used the salvage for the bottom "hem" so I wouldn't have to hem but I'm not sure I like the way it hangs.  And it's maybe longer than I'd like.  But maybe it's just for kicking around the house and doesn't really matter enough for taking that kind of time and effort.  I mean really, at the rate I work it'll be another year before it's hemmed ;-) 

*This morning I cleaned the dish drain.  You would not believe how nasty that can get. 

*I've been decluttering, sorting, organizing, and purging all week.  It is feeling so good.  Need to do more but I suspect that there will always be more to do. 

Mama's Summer's Cool

 It's going to be a summer of awesome - for a nerd like me :)  I've got a stack of books picked out.  I've got a stack of projects to work on.  I've got a list of day trips and hikes to go on.  I've got big plans for working out and stretching out.  It's gonna be like mama summer school, but cooler :) 

First books to read will be Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook by Maria Montessori and Signs of Life by Scott Hahn because, well, they're library books.  Most of the other books are ones I've been meaning to read or wanting to read for a while now.  The Magic Years by Selma H. Fraiberg was given to us by an aunt-in-law when Littler Boy was born and needless to say I haven't had much time for reading on early child development despite how appropriate the topic is.  I have been slowly working my way through Home Education by Charlotte Mason for the last year and would really like to finish it.  Yes, it will be a summer full of early childhood education/ development with some history and theology thrown in.  Like I said, fun for a nerd like me. 

For projects I have two quilts to make for wedding gifts for the fall.  A dear friend from grade school who I was able to reconnect with thanks to Facebook has just had a beautiful baby boy and he and his two big brothers are on my project list.  I have retirement gifts to make for my own Mama who is retiring this fall.  I have a couple quilt blocks that I am dying to try to make - including a Big Bird block from the book Quilting with the Muppets.  How awesome will that be? 

 Since our computer is giving attitude currently I'm posting these fabric pics here because I can't seem to get them into an email.  Miss Clare, what do you think?  What I have in mind for the top is lots of neutral cream with bits of the bright colors.  The bottom would be blocks in an assortment of these colors/shades.  I'm really excited about both.  Your pick :) 

And now I better go because the not-yet-2-year-old just unplugged the fan and put the child safety cover on the outlet.  Cute, but a tad on the frightening side.  Yeah, I might be aiming a little high with these plans. 

Small Success

Here we are celebrating the week's accomplishments, big and small.  Head over to visit Sherry at Chocolate for Your Brain to share yours :) 

*Mount Laundrymore has again been vanquished.  Maybe this week it wont reach the epic proportions that it has the last two weeks.  I'm not counting on that though.

*I made a little sewing space in our bedroom.  It isn't much but it has let me get more sewing done than I have been able to lately.  And by that I mean I've actually gotten some sewing done this week.  I'll try to post a picture later.

*I've just about got planned out what I want to do this summer in terms of reading and sewing/ knitting projects.  Again, I've got to get my act together to write it up and post it but I'm counting it as accomplished because I know what I'm doing. 

*I did not just kill the Boy who climbed his naked butt up onto the bathroom counter to get down the bottle of vinegar cleaner and took out my eye liner as long as he was up there and proceeded to draw on his own moustache and beard.  I also did not kill his brother when he took the bottle of cleaner that was abandoned when the Boy was taken to put on his undies and wash his face and used a dish towel to clean the dining room chairs.  Or when he followed Daddy into our bedroom and climbed all over the cut pieces of fabric I had laid out on our bed to work on a quilt top.  Never a dull moment.  And when it's been quiet too long, that's when there's real trouble brewing. 

Done!

 Here's the finally finished quilt.  I've only been working on it since last summer.  Sadly for projects (and me) in such a small apartment with two curious boys the sewing machine has to live in its case which makes it very tough to work on things.  Most evenings it's too much hassle to set it all up just to have to pack it all away again.  :(  On the list for the next place we live is a safe spot where I can keep projects and the machine out, so maybe once in a while I can sew. 

 If I were to do it again I would switch around the Ohio Star block with the orange - the animal print in place of the white, orange where the animals are now, and blue where the orange is.  Live and learn.  But it really doesn't look this stark, the photo does wash out the animals when they are in such a small piece. 

This is my favorite :)