More Dear Jane blocks...

A6 - Uncle Homer

B13 - Four Corner Press

D13 - Field of Dreams

M12 - Hopscotch

I'm clearly doing all the easy blocks first.

Since the last post, I felt some guilt about my WIP list. So I added interfacing to my mom's bag, getting that off the list. I made this bag last Labor Day weekend, but without interfacing. My mom said she wanted it, and cooperatively took the seams out, so I could add interfacing. But yet, its stayed on the list for months and months and months. Ah well, finally done.

Yesterday was all-craft day! I ignored the zillions of things I should have been doing, and crafted instead. Which is mostly a good thing, except those zillions of things don't really go away, and now I'm behind.

I made...

This market bag: One of the resolutions I made at the start of the year was to not use any new plastic bags. I've been mostly good at this, diligently keeping a bunch of paper bags in my car, and using them everywhere. (Except when it comes time for leftovers at restaurants. I should make a bag just for that.) This bag is either a bag for me, or a bag for the Sweatshop swap at craftster (plug: my favorite swap!), or a bag for my mom. (Who has already claimed it. Hmm. We shall see.)

These scrappy stringy quilt blocks, made with stray leftover fabric. I have a complete inability to throw away fabric, and this was the result. Its remarkably fun to do, there's no matching, you just pick a piece of fabric, and sew it onto a muslin back, and repeat. I made 5 yesterday. I see this as a one of those projects where you make a block every once a while, and eventually piece together. Another entry on the WIP list. (My friend Brian pointed out I'm very good at starting projects, not so good at finishing them. Its true, but I have only this to say - so what?)

This easy block: In a complete bout of insantity, I decided I wanted to make the Dear Jane quilt. Even though I have no patience. Even though I don't like fiddly little blocks. Even though each block is 4.5 inches, and there's 169 of them. Not to mention the ridiculously intricate triangles in the corner. I figure I'll be done with it in 10 years.

I started easy though, this is block M10 - Simple Simon.

Was this supposed to take an entire evening?

My friend Anu is having a baby girl. I thought I'd make a whole bunch of baby things. So I started with the shirt D from McCall M4280.

And here it is...

I bought the fabric from JoAnn's remnant bin, figuring I'd someday have a use for it. And here it is...

I'd like to think I'd be faster making it the second time around, but I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm a slow sewer. Plus, despite the many zillions of sewing patterns I own, sewing clothes baffles me. I'm convinced the instructions are written expressly for the purpose of getting me to a sewing class, moaning pitifully for help.

(Yes, it needs snaps. I'm off to buy a snap thingamajing at JoAnn's tomorrow.)

I'm the world's worst blogger.

I think I like the idea of blogging far more than the actual process. Plus, for some reason, I've never figured out how to take low-res images on my camera, so I need to download images to my computer, shrink them, and then upload to the web. All in all, this means my blog gets updated roughly once a month.

Despite the lack of blogging, I've been crafting. On craftster, I signed up for an apron swap, and made this apron.

Close-up of cross-stitch - I found the pattern here, after searching everywhere for a free pig pattern that was easy to do. (Tight deadline, of course, as always.)

I'm very pleased with how it came out.

And here's a picture of the apron Julie made me in exchange. Makes me feel like I'm about to do the cha-cha, or something. Fun! (I've a mental image of me in retro-getup, dancing New York, New York. Go figure.)

This post has become all about aprons, I see. The rick-rack on the apron Julie made me reminds me that I really wanted to make an apron for Tie One On. And at the start of March, I bought a ton of rick-rack, fully intending to make an apron for this. Hmm. I have 7 days, so perhaps this will indeed get done.

Getting off the apron subject, my birthday was on Thursday. Yay! Happy birthday to me! I had the most amazing day (week actually), with good thrifting, dinner and drinks with good friends, yummy wine and dessert, and a glorious, sunny day.

And these adorable cupcake placecard holders! I've been fairly immune to the cupcake cuteness sweeping the blog world, but here, I had to give in. Brian bought me these on Tuesday as a birthday week present (birthday week presents, what a brilliant idea!) and I love them. Too cute!

(Yes, I should clean my sewing machine.)