to do list

missliz is back. yaaaaay!

Going all handmade this year for the Christmas gift exchange-o-rama.  Lucky for me, no one I’m giving gifts to reads this site, so I can post about the gift-making without abandon. Watch out!

Here’s a quick breakdown:  Grandma hat, Grandma scarf, Mom bathrobe, Dad bathrobe, Brother bathrobe, BF pajamas.

(Bathrobes: no buttons, no zippers, large pieces, don’t have to fit well. ding ding!)

Four days until Christmas Eve.  Six projects to make.  One completed.  Another in progress. Feelin’ good.

By the way, I am asking for a new camera for the holiday. Mostly because of what follows:

Project in progress, the Grandma scarf:

stupid camera

This is how the Grandma hat and scarf project was born:

• ring ring 
• Me: Hi Mom!
• Mom: Hi missliz!  So somehow Grandma heard, or you told her, that you were knitting her a hat for Christmas.
• I immediately start narrowing the list of offending family members who could have told my lovely Gran this lie.  Then I realize that I spoke to her over the phone on Thanksgiving evening…after my family had powered through two bottles of champagne, pre-dinner cocktails then triptophan laced turkey accompanied by wine.
• Mom: So I think that would be a great idea.  And then, I can buy a matching scarf for her.  Blue is wonderful with her eyes. So there you go.
• Me: uhhhh
• Mom: And the yarn can’t be itchy.
• Me: Well, I don’t think that you’ll be able to buy her a scarf that would properly match the hat I want to knit her.  So I should just knit her the scarf too.
• Mom: Perfect! Bye!
• Mom hangs up immediately knowing full well what her daughter just got herself into

To do as of today:

1. finish – bind off Grandma scarf
2. cast on – bind off Grandma hat
3. cut pattern pieces – sew Mom bathrobe
4. wash fabric for Dad bathrobe & BF pants
5. cut pattern pieces – sew Dad bathrobe
6. cut pattern pieces – sew BF pants
7. wash Brother bathrobe to rid of chalk marks
8. try not to panic at ‘to do’ vs ‘time’ ratio

One more bad pic:

god i really hate this camera

Ahhhh.

Work is done for the time being.  That particular project took a bit out of me, so I’m looking forward to, at least, a week of sewing.  I have some projects I’d like to work on, in particular, an Irish Chain quilt I’ve had sitting whole cloth on my sewing table.

While I was working, my coworker brought up the topic of cat toys.  And how you never see a toy with the face of an angry dog.   Grrrr!  And how it would be funny, because the cat could take it’s revenge out on the neighborhood dog on a toy made in it’s likeness.  As the conversation went on I found myself volunteering to make a cat toy for his kitty.  Well. . . toy makers out there I salute you!! I started to make the darn thing last night, and ended with me on the sofa, glass of wine in hand, laughing.  I invite you to laugh as well.  (Note: the seam ripper in the background)

 

 

I think it’s just the small scale of it. Trying to turn the little paws inside out, and keeping the sewing straight.  I found myself hunched over, sweating profusely. So comical.  I have a toy pattern and fabric I bought from Crafty Planet, which I will try to attack today or tomorrow.  If I start from a pattern I might have a better chance at making something that resembles an angry dog. Grrrr!

Dust Cover

Haven’t been spending as much time with my sewing machine as I would like. Been a little preoccupied with the yarn arts. My machine is feeling a little neglected, so I made her a dress to wear when I’m not using her. Really simple! I made some measurements and used super firm fusible interfacing on the sides to help it stand up. The Amy Butler fabric I scored at the Road to California quilt show back in January. I want to add some trim to fancy it up a little bit, but for right now it works and she feels pretty. Awww. . . I miss my little Swiss Miss.

A post will be forthcoming about the pile of granny squares sitting behind my machine. Or as I call it when I see it, ‘The Pile of Ugh.’

Photo-a-Day is coming along. (Wooo! Three days!) But there is a slight learning curve. For example, yesterday I went to the farmers market and Ikea and saw my brother and his new car. Didn’t take pictures of any of those things. Just forgot. So I took a picture of the dahlias I bought at the farmer’s market. The deepest red I’ve seen. Really beautiful. Also, I’m not the most fantastic photographer around. My wonderful cousin Sabreena seems to have gotten that DNA. Part of the experiment is to improve my photography skills. We’ll see how that goes.

autumn hat

I know that the title of my blog suggests I’ll be posting mostly about quilts, but for my first show-and-tell I wanted to post about the sewing project I worked on this weekend. Whipup.net is absolutely one of my favorite sites, and I was inspired by their recent hat construction contest, (check it out here), especially that beautiful La Femme Fedora. So while being indecisive at JoAnn’s about some quilting fabric, I found Vogue pattern #8308, a nice wool blend and some satin. I’m a beginning seamstress, so with cutting, sewing, seam ripping, cussing, more seam ripping (seriously) and pressing, it took me about ten hours. It droops in the photo, but when you put it on, it has a little more structure.
I’m proud of it, especially since I’m a beginner. I call it my ‘Fall Shopping in San Francisco’ hat, because that’s where I imagine I’ll wear it. Bundled up in a jacket and scarf, traipsing through Union Square.
Lessons I learned:
1. Sometimes the pattern is wrong. (In the cutting section it called for one piece of something, but in the sewing section it called for two pieces.)
2. Stabilize lossely woven fabrics, even if the pattern doesn’t call for it.
3. Don’t press hard with the iron when pressing satin, you’ll have an interesting pattern where you weren’t particularly wanting one.