fabricologist

fabricologist

Monday, May 9, 2011

Back to Monday already

Boy the weekends sure go by fast!  I always try to cram too much in, but there are just too many things I want to do each weekend.  There's sewing, of course and crocheting and baking and cooking and crafting with my grandson this weekend.  And now as I am writing this the dishwasher finally run after the big mother's day dinner and laundry is spinning around so the must do things are also getting done.  I let myself do the fun stuff for every must do I accomplish.  Here are some of the fun things: remember the pillow above?  It was from the Moda Bake Shop.  I hate doing zippers so I did an overlapping back.  Because of the width of the pillow, it tended to gap.  My solution....buttons!

I had to learn how to do buttonholes on my Bernina.  I had never used that feature since I got this new machine.  Think I've got it now.
 Then time out to try out this little pattern.  It is from Little Red Hen I didn't know she did crochet too!  I had to rip out 7 times to figure it out, but the first one is done and I love it!!  I am still a novice in pattern reading I guess. 


I started piecing the back to my Sunkissed Squares quilt finally.  I can't wait to get this one done and start quilting it with the cotton floss!  And while all this was going on, V was working on some projects of his own for mother's day and just because he loves crafting like his momma and I.
craft sticks and glue

some great pictures...he's very prolific.
And that was our weekend.  One more thing; I am contemplating this fabric and trying to decide what it should become.  At first I thought curtains, but now I'm not so sure.  Any ideas?

I just love this!  Have a great week!

Monday, May 2, 2011

A Productive Weekend

Well I must say I'm pretty happy with the way my weekend went.  I did some babysitting Friday and Saturday nights and my husband and I helped our daughter with some house projects Sunday morning, but after that.....it was sew, sew, sew.  I knew I was out of time to finish the April Birdie Stitches block.  But I got it done.

Then, I worked on finishing the front of my second Cathedral Windows pillow taken from the Moda Bake Shop tutorial.  I had thought about blues and greens for some contrast with the first one, but after looking at it, I decided to go with something from my stash that I loved Cloe's Imagination.  I paired it with some Moda Sunkissed and I loved the way it came out.

my first hat

V models the hat.  He loves that it's reversible.

bucket brigade
Then it was on to my bucket hat project.  I bought a copy of Liesl Gibson's Little Things to Sew.   What a great book with lots of projects I want to make for my grandsons.  So I started by making a bucket hat for V.  I then made another one for J in a smaller size.  When I posted the first one on Facebook, I got several enthusiastic comments from family and friends with little ones.  So I made one for my great niece and one for a friend's little boy.  She had been looking for one and couldn't find one.  I was so pleased at the way these turned out.  I cannot wait to try some of the other fun patterns in the book.  Liesl really knows how to come up with wonderful things that kids can use that are fun to make.

Don't know how I can top all this, but I still have lots of projects to do, so here I go again.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Busy Monday

two big buckets worth!
 This afternoon we will run a bunch of errands, and we still need to make our shortcake biscuits for the shortcake for dinner.  Yum!
biggest berries                                                                                     


  

As promised the new IKEA cutting table

unfolded

from below

ready to cut

cute pillow from the Moda Bake Shop tutorial

two extra squares made great art!

That was my weekend project that brought me to Monday.  Hope you're having a great start to your week.

Monday, April 18, 2011

My New Sewing Room

Well it has finally happened.  I have a sewing room again.  Well, sewing, crocheting and crafting room.  Maybe now I can keep the rest of the house cleaned up from all my supplies.  We'll see.

I spent Sunday moving all my stuff from the corner of the kitchen to the newly emptied room.  I have to laugh when I thought that it wouldn't take as long as it did.  I got the desk set up and the shelves and books.  I want to spend some time organizing it soon, so that I can find everything.

I bought the Sweetwater print just for this room.

The sewing desk

New IKEA bookshelf.

Lots of fabric!

More books and stuff.

The windows face south, so lighting is minimal.
For now, It is like some of my quilts; a work in progress.  I am finding UFOs I forgot I had.  This is gonna be great when it is done.  Have a sew-full week.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Sometimes

My sister with Babette
Sometimes when you start to make something for yourself, along the way it becomes obvious that it was always meant for someone else.  Enjoy Babette Sue.  I'll start another one soon for myself.  I hope for myself.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Monday, Monday sometimes it just turns out that way

I can't believe, or maybe I can, how busy life is right now.  Time is flying with so much going on.  Only 4 days left until my daughter and grandson move.  I am as excited to help them with putting their new home together as I am in redesigning my sewing room.  We made a trip to IKEA this weekend to get some storage items for her new house and some for me.  The only deal we had was that it all had to fit into her car for the 2 hour trip home.  And may I say, we are masters of packing.

I got a couple of book shelves to store my quilting books and fabric and the coolest table to use for cutting.  It attaches to the wall and folds down when not in use, so a space saver too.  I will post pictures when I get it put up next week after the move.

In spite of all the crazy, I did finish two projects last week.  Babette and the Sunkissed Squares quilt top.
Love this, can't wait to quilt it.

Here's Babette in all her glory.       


Now I have to quilt the top and I am making two cathedral window pillows that I found in the Moda Bake Shop to go with it.  I will make the time for these projects.  Plus I need to get started on my Birdie Stitches BOM for April.  Looks like another busy week ahead.  Happy stitching y'all.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Best Laid Plans...

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.  And so mine did.  I was supposed to take a mini vacation this week; four days off in a row.  I was going to sew a lot and finish crocheting my Babette Blanket.  Then, life stepped in.  Fate laughed at my audacity to try and schedule such a thing.

So instead I flew to San Diego to help my sisters with moving my mother, who has Alzheimer's, to a new facility.  When asked to help, I immediately said yes.  No thoughts of anything else, this is family after all.  So I packed up my Babette Blanket pieces for the plane trip and off I went.


Was it hard?  Yes.  Was there some fun too? Yes.  I love seeing my sisters and one of my brothers was their too.  We did what needed doing, but also did some things for ourselves.  Mostly cooking dinners and talking to make up for the years and miles that we have been apart.

I did get to do some work on my Babette, which my sister is seriously coveting right now.  She kept telling me how good it looked on her couch.  I found out some new information about our family history to help me with the family tree I am building.  And I loved spending those few days with my family.  Again, time was too short.

this is what I am working on today

here's Babette
Now I'm home and back to work.  I don't know when I will be able to take some time off for just me again, but I don't want fate to find out if I do, so I can really get some projects done.

Happy spring everyone!