Happy Thursday!

It's Thursday.


Around these parts, Thursday means Project Runway.

I love Project Runway.

Sometimes I hate it. The judges and I don't always see eye to eye. The drama can be over the top sometime, but mostly I feel like it's not that bad.

But I love watching people create and sew and seeing what they've done come down a runway.

I wish I was talented enough to attempt even a novice version of the show!

Which reminds me, right now, on Thursday, Lifetime is also playing the show Threads. This show is kids, doing Project Runway type challenges. These 11 - 16 year olds have more talent already than I'll ever have and I LOVE it.

These young adults have a lot of great ideas and talent - I'm so impressed!

My 12 year old is enjoying watching it with me too!

I think because today was Project Runway day, I splurged and bought two sewing patterns on-line. Tomorrow (thanks to a great coupon), I'm heading over to the fabric store to buy fabric.

There may or may not be pictures. It depends on how, um, wearable these pieces turn out (and yes, they should be wearable LOL!)

Which reminds, I took some pictures of recently knitted items that I can't wait to share. But I don't like to put pictures up here until they have arrived at their forever home. So, soon! Because I have been doing quite a bit of knitting (minus last week when my shoulder didn't work).

And I've got a list a mile long of things I want to work on - they range from embroidery, to cross-stitch, to quilting, to sewing. It would be great if I could just, I don't know, not have to ever sleep so I could get more things done!

State Fair Adventures

us at 3ish am

Last Saturday, at 3 am, Miss M and I woke up and drove down to our state fair.

Yes, this was crazy. No, I don't regret it. Yes, I would do it again.

You see, Miss M is in 4H and a few weeks ago we had our county fair. She did pretty fabulously in the county fair this year and was chosen to be one of the delegates our county sent down to state fair.

Miss M with her shirt!

We thought we would head down Friday, but alas, all the hotels were booked (or had a two night minimum) and so I thought maybe we wouldn't get to go. But, she worked so hard, and this was quite an honor, so we talked over some ideas and figured out how to make it work.

So at 3am, we woke up. We had packed the car the night before, and since there isn't much else to do that early in the morning, we got on the road to head to Springfield, IL.

It's pretty quiet on the roads at that time. And so we ended up talking while driving, which was nice! I told her "take advantage of this! It's just you and I and that doesn't happen very often!"

Hello Pres. Lincoln!

We arrived at the fairgrounds a bit after 7. I attempted to nap (wait, is it called a nap if it happens that early? lol!), and we headed out.

She had to be at the 4H building around 9, and we ended up getting their early (which was great since there was a line). Since we were one of the first ones there, we checked in early, she got judged early and we had the rest of the morning to walk around.

her sewing

She showed in the Clothing & Textiles division - and did level 1 (the first level). I'm going to have a total mom moment here: I am SO proud of her! She sewed her shirt and worked really hard on it. For the side edges, she even did a french seam to make it look nicer. I was there to talk to her, to guide her (with words only) if she needed me. I stayed close as she ironed and sewed (just in case), but that girl did such a good job. Her shirt looks great! I don't think I could have done that 11. Um, actually, I didn't figure out how to do that until I was out of school!

Learning to use a drop spindle

After lunch, we were able to pick her project up, get the judges comments and see if she placed. She didn't, but it was a great experience and it's an honor just to be there (which I know sounds like a cliche thing to say, but I mean it!)

After that we walked around the fair some more. We spent some time with some other families from our club (who were also there to show a project!). And we had a lovely day.

moo!

About 3pm, we both looked at each other and declared that our feet hurt! That it was time to get going, though she wanted to do one more thing: milk a cow. So we did and we got back on the road.

She slept most of the way home, which didn't surprise me in the least bit. I was a bit jealous of her while she was sleeping! Though, we did have a plan to stop if I needed to catch a catnap. And if I felt I needed a lot of sleep, we planned to just stop at a hotel. Neither was necessary, but I think if we had stayed at the fair much longer it might have been.

We rolled up back at our house a bit after 7. Both tired, but both glad we went, and both wanting to go back next year!

Beyond this, I will say, 4H has been a great and wonderful thing for her. It was kind of dumb luck that we decided to join 3 years ago, but I'm so happy we did. She's learned so much, and had a lot of fun doing it. She's been able to show projects at the county fair, and now the state fair. She's learned some really good skills, created things she is proud of, made some friends, and has done some service projects.

I love 4H. She loves 4H and we are both eager to start the next club year!
 

Pillow!

One of my favorite things to make is a ring bearer's pillow for weddings. Ever since I discovered I love making them, I try to offer to make them for those I love if they are getting married. I've made quite a few and I love it. Weddings are so magical to me and to be able to contribute in a small way makes me so happy.

Recently a friend announced her upcoming wedding. Okay, maybe not so recently, but in the spring. I asked if she would allow me the honor of making her pillow and she said yes. That's when the questions really start: what do you want on it? What colors? Names? Dates? Nothing? What? Tell me more about your dream ring bearer's pillow than you ever thought possible!

This particular wedding is having an aviation theme, so I set to work and searched for embroidery designs and found what I thought was the perfect one. Then I looked for a few more so the bride would have some choices. Turns out, we both agreed on which one was perfect! Yay!

Then I turned to the embroidery machine (which I do not use enough at all and I need to start using a lot more!) and let it whiz away. After the embroidery, I sew up a pillow and I love how this one turned out. I hope the bride and groom like it as well. I hope they have an awesome wedding (that I will attend in spirit only). But most of all, I wish them a lifetime of happiness!

Aprons

I LOVE aprons, just love them. I own more than I should (though not enough in my book and I am always on the look out for a new one to add). Most I've bought, one I made, one I had made for me, and one (which I will never actually use) was made by one of my husband's favorite relatives when he was growing up. She is no longer with us, but I hear amazing stories about her and am so grateful we got something she made. {side note: I should take pictures of that and share!}

Anyway, all of this to say, I love aprons. About 5 months ago my mom asked if I would sew two aprons for her. They were fabric panels so all I needed to do was cut and sew. No problem!

But they sat. And sat. And sat. Um, yeah, I kind of have procrastination issues. But last month I slowly but surely worked on them and was finally able to give my mom the finished aprons yesterday. Phew!

I've actually finished quite a few projects this year and realized I haven't shown any pictures around here. So maybe my theme for NaBloPoMo will be featuring some of the things I've made. After all, that was the point of the blog when I first started it eons ago!

UFO Update

I know, I know, I missed last week's update.

For good reason, not only did I have the ablation last week, but I had my mediport removed this week. Two procedures requiring anesthesia in less than 8 days left me sleepy, groggy and highly unmotivated to blog. That said, the ensuing insomnia, which I believe is my body's way of fighting back the nearly 3 days of sleep I needed after each procedure left me with ample time to craft. And so, I did.

And whoa. Did I accomplish some pretty darn good things. My original list called for me working on a quilt for my daughter for 6 hours. I figured in 6 hours I could cut the remaining pieces that needed to be cut and make a dent in sewing the top together. But once I dove in, I couldn't stop. I was determined to finish that quilt for my daughter, and somehow I did.



I'm still not sure how I pulled this off! I machine sewed the top together and machine quilted it. I did do the binding by hand. This quilt has a lot of applique. And I've learned that I don't always appreciate doing applique LOL!



But I'm pleased at how it turned out and my daughter has actually been using it, which as I told her, is the best compliment I could get =)

the backing

Getting this finished feels amazing. I can completely cross it off my list.


I also worked on the placemats, but only a tiny bit. I think I know why I stopped where I did. I did the binding on two of them and am already bored LOL!

There are 6 of these and matching napkins that need to be finished. Then I have a set of 6 that aren't quilted yet and need to be binded (also with napkins). Although I set out to finish all of them, I think I'm going to just finish the ones in teh picture. I figured I put in a lot more than 6 hours on the quilt so we're just going to trade finishing the quilt for finishing a set of placemats. Maybe I'll get to those next year ;-)

I also finished the little bit of knitting left on the baby gifts. I can't show pictures yet because the gifts need to be sent out, but it was nice to finish those little bits (2/3 just had weaving ends and sewing on buttons. One had a little more knitting to do and then all the finishing). Well, okay, they aren't completely finished. I need to wash them and block them and then they will be ready to go. But that's the easiest part!

Oh, and, I can't believe I almost forgot! I finished the big photo project I was working on. I considered literally jumping for joy with that was over, but decided not to.

I am feeling mighty accomplished at this point. Which is good, because even though there are technically 3 weeks left for me to meet my goals, over the next few weeks I will have not much time to be crafting. And I wanted to get a bulk of it done by this point.

Here's where things stand:
*Finish photo project - I am scanning a lot of pictures in. I started, oh forever ago. This is top priority to finish.
* Spend at least 6 hours on the rock'n'roll quilt I started for daughter over a year ago

* Spend at least 5 hours on needlepoint I started for my son. Done some work on it.
* Mend 5 items
* Finish placemats started something like 4 years ago Amended to finish one set
* Pick 3 items from my UFO box to finish (But I'm not sure which 3 yet) Haven't started. May not even get to.

* Speaking of my UFO Box, I need to go through and decide if there are any projects I don't want to ever finish, so that's on my list too.
* Finish 3 baby items I have started. That are so close, but just need to be finished! 
Overall, not to bad if I do say so myself!

Hope you are all well. Some of you have shown me what you're working on over on twitter and I love it. If you're blogging about it, don't forget to leave a comment so I can come check out your work and say hi!

UFO Update

Things this week went a little slowly. Okay, I take that back. This week was extra hectic with a lot to do, so progress on the UFOChallenge went very slow.

However, I fixed 2 pillows. For the first time in several years, my two couches now have all four pillows they came with. This has made all of us very happy and has eased the fighting over who gets the pillows LOL!

This means, I've officially finished one thing on the list (Mend five items). Although the pile is still pretty big, I'm happy with being able to cross that off the list. However, I hope I can keep this momentum up and maybe fix a few more things and maybe, just maybe get that particular pile gone!

I did some work on the photo project .... I think it will be finished soon and that makes me VERY happy. I've been working on this for an extremely long time - several, several years.

I also cleaned out my UFO box and got rid of a few projects I know I'll never go back and finish. That is a good feeling for sure. One less thing to carry around thinking about how I should-of finished.

Even though I didn't finish much this week, I still feel like this challenge is exactly what I needed to get some things crossed off the list. And that feels wonderful!

UFO Challenge

Alright. Today's the day. It's time to kick this UFO Challenge off!

So, I've been thinking about what I want to accomplish. And at first I had a pretty long list. But then I had to remind myself, it's only 7 weeks. And during that time I have kids activities, a county fair to help my 4-H'er get ready for, doctor's appointments, vacation and the whole the family wants to eat every day and have clean clothes. So, I kind of had to scale back.

Here are my goals for the 7 weeks:
* Finish photo project - I am scanning a lot of pictures in. I started, oh forever ago. This is top priority to finish.
* Spend at least 6 hours on the rock'n'roll quilt I started for daughter over a year ago

Some of the pieces for the quilt

* Spend at least 5 hours on needlepoint I started for my son
* Mend 5 items
* Finish placemats started something like 4 years ago

Corner in my craft room that holds items needing to be mended and some UFO's (including placemats)

* Pick 3 items from my UFO box to finish (But I'm not sure which 3 yet)

Yes, I have a box, labeled and everything for UFO's for when I want them off my counter space!

* Speaking of my UFO Box, I need to go through and decide if there are any projects I don't want to ever finish, so that's on my list too.
* Finish 3 baby items I have started. That are so close, but just need to be finished! 

So, what's your plan for the next 7 weeks? Tell me in the comments, or link back to a blog post with the details! And, for those of you on twitter, feel free to use #UFOChallenge





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Happy finishing crafting my friends!

Your questions: Knitting

First up:

MrsSudz said... Ok there chicky, how old were you when you decided you liked knitting? My mom is crafty and my sisters me not so much. Mom tried to teach me several times to knit and i just plain suck at it. So when did you know you liked it?


I learned to knit when I was 24 years old. I remember at a much younger age, an aunt tried to teach me to crochet and I just didn't get it, and probably wasn't too into it truthfully. But when I learned to knit, we had just learned a friend was expecting a baby and I just decided I needed to knit some booties to give as a gift. So I learned to knit. And I ended up giving her 3 pairs of booties and a baby blanket!

But oh my - if you could have seen my first couple of attempts! At the time my oldest was 3, almost 4 and I swear it looked like she knitted up my first few swatches.I almost wish I had saved them just so I could see how far I've come! LOL!

I was hooked as soon as I made something that didn't look like a mess! I do admit that I sometimes go through phases where I absolutely do NOT want to knit at all, in any way, shape or form. That can be hard to deal with, but I also take a break and don't force myself to knit at those times. 

SortaSuperMom said... 

 

What's your favorite thing about knitting/ sewing and what's your favorite thing you've made? Is there a story behind it?

 

 

My favorite thing about knitting and sewing is just how cool it is to take yarn and fabric and turn it into something else. I mean you take this string and can make bags, purses, scarves, sweaters, toys ... well, so many things! It's so fascinating to me. 

My favorite thing to do is to make a lined bag. If you haven't done this, I'm not sure it will make sense .. but, you take the outside layer and the inside layer and you sew them together with the inside part actually inside-out and on the outside and the outside part right-side out but on the inside. Then you turn it and it comes out perfect. It almost feels like you are performing a magic trick. It still amazes me every time I do it. 

I'm not sure if I can pick a favorite thing I've ever made. That's such a tough question to answer. I suppose it's a lot like asking me my favorite child! I'll pick one thing to share:

So these socks were the first socks I ever knit. Which is a HUGE deal. Socks are scary and required some new techniques for me. So it was a big deal. I knit them at the time for my now 11yo. She requested socks and picked out the yarn (I want to say she was 5/6 at the time?). So that made it super special. The socks have since been worn by the other two kids too. And every time a child wears them it makes me smile. I love it. =)

Jessie said... I would like to know if you are working on any current projects. I also would like to know what one thing you enjoy eating or drinking right now, or has all enjoyment of food and rink temperarily gone away?

 

 

I am currently working on a sweater (for me) and a scarf for my oncologist - who has been so amazing to me and retires at the end of the month. The knitting is slow going. The current chemo is causing lots of issues with my hands/fingers. It often feels like I'm wearing a much too tight pair of gloves. My fingers feel stiff and the insides feel much to big for my skin. I know that must sound weird. It's almost like feeling swollen, but I'm not actually swollen. It is making it tough to knit (among other things). Everything is slow going. I admit, this has put me in a foul mood. I am finally in the mood to knit (the first medicines took away all my desire to do anything crafty at all) and my fingers don't work. I've complained. A lot. About it. 

 

 

As far as eating goes, my stomach is still picky, but s-l-o-w-l-y getting less so. I've been craving a lot of salad lately and grapes. I could eat salad and grapes all day. And cheese, but only mild-sharp cheddar. No other kind. So strange. That is mostly what I've been eating though. I figure it's not that unhealthy so you know, I'll run with it and see where it takes me! 

 

Christmas 2

Alright, a few more Christmas gifts.

First up another shawl I made for a friend. Which I also loved. And would totally take one for myself ;-) It comes from a pattern available on Ravelry.

(Again I say, don't I have awesome models!) And she says it's nice and cozy ;-)

The curling on the edges I debated blocking out or not, but you know, I kind of like them honestly. Of course, I hope my friend liked it like that (and if she didn't, I know she knows how to block LOL!)


I made another friend of mine a knitting bag. No pattern just from my head. I do like the bag and the design and all of that, but I already know some ways to improve it. I've joked that I will give her the improved model for her birthday LOL!

 This detail is my favorite! I just knitted a little swatch and sewed it in! =)

Not much, but that's about all I did this year. I wish I had done more, truly, but on the other hand, we had so many other memories we made during the month of December, so in  the end, it all turned out alright! But this year, I hope to get everything done before December so I can have the best of both worlds! =)

Random Stuff

For lack of much to write about, I'll share some random notes with you all!

*I finished all the Harry Potter books. Definitely worth the re-read. There's so much I forgot from them, especially teh earlier books. Today I start watching all the movies!

*I bought all our tickets for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 already and am going tomorrow at midnight. Yes, I'm very excited. Yes, I'm a nerd and I might be wearing a Harry Potter shirt because, well, I can LOL!

*I've been knitting away like mad, but can't show you any pictures until after Christmas! Maybe I'll try to do some sneak peek shots if I can.

*My oldest has discovered sewing and is loving it. She's working on her second bag as I type! Very fun! And I'm glad she is enjoying it!

*My 8yo also took a sewing class and loves it too - not into it as much as 10yo though. Which is fabulous too. As long as she's happy, I'm happy ;-)

*Craft Day Saturday was fabulous! Another one is coming up in December. If it goes as well, I will definitely make this a regular occurrence! I think more people need days like that, so if you can host one, I think you should! =)

Okay, that's a good summary of what's going on around these parts for now. Watch for some fun news on Saturday - and a GREAT give-away if I do say so myself is coming up! Yay!

Sneak Peak ..

One of the projects started for Christmas ... can't give too much away, but aren't these fun fabrics?

 

Hmmm ...  wonder what it will end up being? Me too! Nope. Just kidding. I know, but I can't tell you yet! LOL!

Happy Halloween!

Well, a few days late anyway! We had a great Halloween ourselves. First I must show off the costumes.

First up is my little firefighter:

While the original plan was to make his costume for him, we ended up running out to buy this so he wouldn't be the only kid at school not in a costume because mom got sick and couldn't finish sewing on time. If he didn't need it Friday morning, I might have been able to finish, but once we bought this, the pressure was off. One less costume to worry about - which given last week, was a-okay!!

Next up, my 50's girl:

Seriously though, I think the glasses are absolutely the cutest part of her costume. I was able to make her poodle skirt. Luckily for us, the white shirt we owned the sweater came from Goodwill. Here's the close-up (kind of) of the skirt:

I learned while making this I really don't like applique that much. But it wasn't that horrible. I might try to avoid it if I can in the future though! LOL!

Anyway, last, but not least, my 80's girl (for the record, I tried to convince the boy to go as a 60/70's hippy, but he didn't want to. I thought it would be funny to have 50s, 60/70s, and 80s though LOL!)

I thought her costume turned out so cute - and it was super easy. The only thing I "had" to do was put the tulle on the bottom of the skirt. The jacket and skirt came from Goodwill. We bought the leggings and everything else we had. Awesome. And cute. She and two of her friends all dressed as 80's girls and they went out trick-or-treating together and so if you asked her she would say her night was absolutely perfect!


She also wins child with most candy at our house ... look at this loot (but don't try taking any, she's very protective of her candy LOL!)

New Project ...

Because I needed a new project just about as much as I need another whole in my head ... (meaning I have a billion unfinished projects, still no Halloween costumes, and still not working on Christmas gifts yet) .... I went ahead and started a new project this week.

So we had this laundry basket of clothes that don't fit. I pretty much always take old clothes to either goodwill or pass them on to other families. This year though I changed things up again. Mostly, because well, just because I could!

So I started cutting things apart. I can't lie ... I didn't start with a plan. I just took things apart and then looked at all and figured out I could do a quilt. So more cutting took place to get some squares.

(5" squares if you are curious)

Interestingly enough, at about this point the kids started to get excited and wanted to help. So I told them 1. No two pieces the same touching and 2. No two pieces with patterns touching (because we didn't have as many of them so I wanted to make sure they were spread out). And set them off to the living room floor.

And after not too much time the floor looked like this:

I've carefully pinned things and kept them in order of their row. I haven't started sewing. I hope I get to it soon because they seemed excited about it and so I want to finish it soon!I promise to keep you all updated as I work on it. And soon I will have some other finished projects to share (yay!!!)