Decision Seize

I've stalled in my crafting for a while. I knitted for a couple weeks, then had a straight pin get taken to the underworld of my sewing machine. The nice man at Midwest on E. 14th  told me how to fix the machine, and I'm ready to sew now. (It took a _long_ time to file out that nick.) I have a flannel quilt I'd like to make since I conceived the idea several months ago. I even dreamed about it last night, and considered cutting fabric this morning, but this other idea keeps coming to mind. Since I first saw it Sunday, I LOVED IT. It's T-shirt material! Both sides of the quilt top look divine. I think I would stitch it by hand. I'm frozen in my decision!

Crafting this week

I'm currently working on a rather boring dishcloth. I find the easy pattern to be a great thing while sitting with hubby. He has to watch his crazy "Lost" show, so to turn his TV time into "couple time," I am knitting next to him on the couch.

I've also sewn a few merit badges and one more crazy quilt patch. It isn't finished in the photo, but you get the idea.

I planted my salad this week. With the +80 degree temps and the upcoming showers, it made sense to put some seed down. I would photograph the dirt, but I don't know that anyone, including me, would find black dirt very interesting. I have placed a bunny fence all around the garden box -- it worked well last year, and I pray that it keeps the critters out this year. The new location I chose will hopefully keep the slugs away, too.

The most exciting news of the week is that I WON A LAYER CAKE from ADVENTURES IN DRESSMAKING!!! I am super-excited (if you follow me on twitter @threesisjulia, you know that I was hyperventilating -- haha) to touch and feel and smell the fabric once it comes from the Fat Quarter Shop. Look here and drool over everything when you get some time.

You can also read Suzannah's posts -- she is quite the crafty one. As in, when you look at her work, you think, "spectacular and wow." If only we had more time and less responsibilities, we all could sew all the time.:-) Ah, but now my youngest calls for me as I type....

Sewing interrupted

Here's what I've been doing. On top of the really  busy week, take this photo times two and add two sashes (now full of merit badges). I've still got G's jean quilt, which should be fast once it's pinned. I trimmed the batting already.

And that darn blog hopping that I do -- I looked at the Sew Mama Sew! blog because October is scrapbuster month. I've pretty much cleaned out my stash of scraps, but there are a few that I've kept in a box. (But not the small ones. They are gone.) Well I dumped the box out on the floor. Now I have ideas.

However, my efficiency my increase soon -- youngest dd just got a sewing machine for her birthday. It's fancier than my sewing machine. With two machines in the house and a wide open schedule due to our home schooling, my little ideas may get passed on to my dd. ;-)

crafting interrupted

current crafts got pushed to the wayside as more urgent crafting came. as in, a birthday.

I was working on a really cool  project,"G" of GAIN's jeans quilt. He finally got all the ties finished, and I was trimming the batting. Then I realized that the quilt can wait. What's another month? LOL We have a birthday next weekend, and this weekend is super-busy. So I gotta make a gift now. Looking over all of my crap fabric stash, a call to the birthday boy's mom, and consulting our inventory of floor models, an apron was made. The progression --

'traced' with a pair of shears. why don't we ever say 'scissors' when we sew?

hemmed, bias tape in place, pockets sewn down

finished with straps. This is probably a one hour project, but of course, it had to take longer in my house. Why? We needed a new iron. Call me picky, but I cannot sew without an iron. We got our iron as a wedding gift, and I think the thermal stress and mechanical stress of being dropped and knocked over took its toll yesterday. It still works. Some times. I might turn it on and have no heat. Then two minutes later I'll try again and have steam galore. Enough was enough. I felt that I could spend $15 and have it last over another 16 years. That's less than $1/year. (There are $60 irons out there!) Here is the new iron. It heats every time I turn it on. :-)

Crafting this week

Notable crafting this week follows. I have no control over the picture orientation -- they rotate on their own.

"I" of GAIN Academy's first venture with the "big" sewing machine -- a baby hat. Go, girl! It's modeled on a handy ceramic Garrrigan figure. (We think it's supposed to be high school aged Uncle Andy. We are giving it to him on Monday.)

I used another T-shirt (how did I get so many?) to make a bib. This goes along with the checkerboard bib that I began the night before. Construction is much faster when the fabric is all ready to go :-)

Tomato sauce and grape jelly. Verdict: I'll probably never can tomato sauce again. Freezing tomatoes and making the sauce the day I need it is more efficient with my time. Grape jelly? YES, I would make this again. Less labor than elderberries, flavor is much better (awesomely tangy!), very easy to make with little time at the stove.

Finally, I made a drying rack for dehydrating food today. I made a cardboard box dehydrator and it is hard to use -- cumbersome to move, awkward to put into position, little area for food (I was using soda can cases), just not working for me. I found a wooden frame of some sort in the basement. It must have been in the basement when we moved in. I cleaned it off, reinforced with string, and stapled fiberglass mesh (window screen) to it. I had apples on it this afternoon. I'm thinking two more days and I should be able to decide if it's working for me or not.

New FO's

FO. That's crafter blogger talk for "Finished Object." Have I use that term here? I remember taking forever to figure out what FO meant on all the craft blogs.

Our current FO's were inspired by BIL's expected arrival this Friday morning. "I" of GAIN's first machine sewn project -- a baby hat. I found this place, and had "I" try it. The pedal for the sewing machine works better on top of a thick phone book, and could use more height for her short legs, but she made it go just fine.

My project was made with inspiration from Mr. TellBlast (sometimes called Mr. GAIN) I'd had a bib pattern from nested chosen for a long time. At least four months. But what about the fabric? As we walked fruitlessly through (chain store that used to carry only fabric), him getting a headache due to lighting, me getting a headache from the lack of good choices, Mr. GAIN says, "What do you have for scraps? Maybe you could make a star or something in the center. Let's leave this place."

So we get home and I find a LOT of 2" squares in a drawer of my sewing desk. I have no recollection of cutting these. They're all gray. I pieced together a bib front, cut it; cut the bib back. The pocket still needs to be made. Decisions about the pocket will come later.