Swapping joy...

First, my beautiful apron...


I signed up for the One Hour Craft apron swap a while back, and have been bad about posting pictures. Shari sent me the most beautiful apron! It is so, so pretty. I love the contrast of the flowered fabric with the dots and the stripes - so well done! Here are a couple of pics, including one of me looking quite dorky...





I made Shari an apron too, from Butterick, B4945 I had fun with it... contrasting fabric with more crazy pom-pom trim...



Onto, Post Karte. Gina sent me such fun stuff!






The most beautiful yarn, an orange (my favorite color currently) journal, kittie notecards, pretty notepaper, and so much more! I was very spoilt.

I like swaps!

And the giveaway winner is...




Angie! Angie, please send me your address and I'll send you a bag. Thanks for commenting, everyone! (And sorry about the delay, I'm vacationing in Montreal.)

Sewing adventures...

While I'm a fairly competent maker of patchwork and bags and misc. stuff like that, I've never been able to sew clothes. I've found pattern instructions gibberish, and complicated, and I don't understand notches, markings, or any of that stuff.

But seeing all the cool clothes people make really inspired me to try again. (I once made a sack-like dress in some sack-like fabric, which I promptly threw away. Lesson learnt - I must like the fabric. Complete waste of time otherwise.)

I was especially inspired by this shirt...

So, I re-dipped my toe into the sewing clothes pool. I started with a skirt, Simplicity 4036. And it worked! (Mostly. Can I insert a gripe here about pattern sizing vs. clothes sizing in retail stores? I mean, I know its the retail stores that keep changing the sizes, but still. I measured and guessed at a size... the skirt is a tiny bit snug, but more or less ok.)

Inspired, I made more. One for my friend Jeeva, shown here.



Which I was very pleased with.

So, I kept sewing. A couple of disasters, (not in my sewing, I don't think, but in the fitting? see above gripe about sizes.) I don't have pictures of these, but they are worth sharing. I should take pictures of these.

Ok, conclusion to this long, winding story, I promise. Being a little ambitious, I thought I'd tackle New Look 6672 (view C)

And I'm actually fairly pleased with the way this turned out. If I had to do over, the only thing I'd mess with is the bodice, I'm not super happy with it, and its drawn a little tight, making my arms look fat. (They don't really need extra help.)

Plus I don't really think I should do gathered skirts (hips - I have them.)

But all in all, nice. (Fabric note: I used some cotton I bought in Jo-Anns a while back. Its a little thick, which made the dress easier to sew, but a thin cotton would probably drape much better.)



Oh, and taking pictures of myself is very hard.

And I wish I could say my house is a mess because I'm moving. But the unfortunate truth is, my house is mostly always a mess. The only difference is that right now, I have an excuse.

Post Karte

I signed up for this fun swap a while back, and I've been quite awfully procrastinating about it. (And the apron swap.) Gina was my partner, and sent me a ton of pretty stuff, which I'm yet to take a picture of. (Bad, bad Reethi.) Tomorrow, I promise.

Anyway, one of the parts to this was to take pictures of 5 things that made you happy. I cheated and sent this to Gina electronically. (Bad, bad Reethi.) Still, it was worth sharing, I think. (I tend to share more projects here, and less about me in real life, mostly because I like to keep them separate, and besides, my life isn't really that interesting...)

Ok, onto my 5 things that make me happy:

1. Coffee. In particular, this coffee, both because it reminds me of a vacation where I sat in the tent at Café du Monde and ate beignets and drank this very good coffee, but also because this is very good coffee. Also, the tins make me happy. They are so colorful!



2. My new bag – especially the colors, and the pom-poms. This bag is a bit of a departure for me, since the goal was to make it from what I had lying around, but also just play with it. I love how the colors ended up working together, and the pom-pom trim just added a bit of kickiness. (I also like saying pom-pom, and making up words like kickiness.)



3. My cool dining table light. A find at the clearance table at Urban Outfitters, $10, and its given me three years of pleasure. At night, it casts this beautiful orange glow, and my apartment looks warm and inviting. Looking up through the window, I want to go in and ‘be in’ my life.



4. Vacation - I’m always dreaming of vacation, or planning a vacation, or basking in the glow that comes from a good vacation… Recently, I was able to sneak away to Key West for a weekend, this was in early April, when Michigan was experiencing a super-cold weekend, which made this extra special. I stood at the water’s edge, and took this photo to remind me of how warm the sun felt, how welcome-cool the water was, and how lucky I was to be there.




5. And last, but not least. Harry Potter. (The book, not the movie.) For years now, I’ve been reading the series, waiting with huge anticipation as each book comes out, devouring it in instants, and then waiting again… And now, less than a month to go before the final book is out! Hugely excited!



That's it. 5 thing that make me happy. Although, to be honest, a ton of things make me happy. Coffee's probably always number 1 though. (How did shoes not make it to this list, anyway? Shoes make me happy too... very, very happy. Even when my toes are in agony, happy.)

Woo hoo!

So, I noticed today on bloglines that I have 7 subscribers. How did that happen? The 7 of you - thank you for putting up with my almost-never posting... And hey! This will be my 25th post!

I should have a give-away. (I have to warn you though, I'm not one of those super-neat sewers. My work does not hold up under close scrutiny.)

Ok, giveaway. I'll give away this tote, inspired by my Simple Sewing book to a random commenter, if you comment on this post. The tote itself is a combination of new and thrifted material. I think its kind of cool and funky.

EDITED TO ADD: Oops, forgot to mention, I'll draw names next Monday, July 2nd...

Old stuff

I think I've mentioned here before that I used to quilt (or rather, just make the patchwork tops) a lot, once upon a time. And I would sell stuff on eBay, and get heartbroken when stuff wouldn't sell well, and my hours of effort, not to mention fabric, would get bought for $20. Or less.

Anyway, I was browsing through an old backup, and found these pics, so I thought I'd share.

My grandmother's birthday quilt...

When I saw this beautiful quilt at Amanda's blog, I was choked up a little by the post and the thought. I also filed it mentally away...

Until last week, when I made a similar quilt for my grandmother's 90th birthday. She's my only living grandparent, this birthday is a big deal, my parents will both be flying to India for it, and I wish I could be there too.

The quilt... (apologies for the ridiculously large picture, but I'm too lazy to resize)



I twisted my family's collective arms for the pictures, with me calling my parents in Canada to ask for pics, and they calling across the world to India. Sheesh, you would think collecting photos would be easier.

Close-up of my grandparents...



Thank you for the inspiration, Amanda. And the entire blog world, that is so generous in sharing everything that they create. I'm very grateful.

I'm making stuff...

in an attempt to avoid job-hunting, something I truly, truly hate doing.

This quilt - from the Roundabout pattern in the Piece and Play book by Judy Martin. Its small, and for a friend's new baby. (I'm actually not going to quilt it, since I loathe quilting, but am simply going to attach a back to it and call it done. Woo hoo!



A week or so back, I also made this quilt (or whatever you call patchwork with a back and no batting) for another friend's baby. I really didn't like the way this turned out, it didn't do anything for me at all, but in the spirit of better done than not, I sent it off anyway.



I also sent the same friend this bib, my first ever bib! I liked it a lot, especially the patch of the boy - the fabric was a great thrift store find.



Also making...

This messenger bag for a friend's 10 year old boy. I think he liked it!



This tote-bag for a friend's mom's birthday... (I really, really like this bag...)


This cushion cover for a craftster swap...


More stuff for a different craftster swap...




Last month, for the first time, I actually made an apron for Tie One On! I took awful pictures of this apron, this is a close-up of the pocket - the best picture I have. However, I sent it to my friend Shirin, so maybe she'll send me an action shot...



And a preview of this month's WIP for Tie One On... I found the house, half finished, in a thrift store, and added the trees... Hopefully, this will also make it off the WIP in time...



Just realized that the apron is not due until the end of June. Yay!!!! I thought it was the end of May. Stress for nothing.

And now, back to the job search, or the avoidance thereof...

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.)