wip – georgette’s dress

I have no idea why I give names to the critters I stitch up.  But I also give names to non-stitchy critters.  Like today I’m wearing a t-shirt today with a dog on it and a long time ago I named the dog on my shirt George.  But back to my embroidery WIP.  I have named my stitchy mouse Georgette and here is some stitchy progress on her darling dress.  This is a nice relaxing project, but I really also need to start tackling my sewing to-do list.  I need to draft my pattern for my elastic waist skirt and get that project rolling….  Have a great 4th of July!

an embroidery WIP and a surprise carpentry WIP

A big thanks to flickr member Bunsakura for sharing this cute mouse from a vintage Alice Brooks pattern.  I love picking out the colors of floss I plan to use before I begin, but I’m having some trouble deciding on the mouse’s fur.  I’m leaning toward 3782, light mocha brown, because it’s a light color and neutral-ish so hopefully any color I decide to use for her dress and bonnet will match.  But 3864, light mocha beige, just seems to have a cinnamon-y warmth to it   Oh I’m so indecisive!  What do y’all think?

 

And speaking of WIPS, I think my hubby decided to make me a homemade birthday gift……a sewing table/desk!!!!  My hubby just surprised me with this camera phone picture sent from his phone to my e-mail.  As you can see, the table isn’t done yet, but that’s okay because my birthday is still a few weeks away   I’m so excited to have my own workspace!  I won’t have to haul my machine (and even though it’s a Brother, I swear there can’t be any plastic parts in there because the machine is heavy!) to and from the kitchen table anymore.  We have a 3 bedroom house, and one of the bedrooms we use as a “library” and now my crafty embroidery sewing stuff is in there too.  I don’t “work” at the card table I have set out in that room, but that’s where I keep my sewing machine when it’s not in use, and put other stuff on the table like my embroidery and sewing WIPs and such.  It will be so nice to put the card table back in the closet, and eventually have this nice sturdy desk out all the time.    

goodies from joann’s sale

The JoAnn’s sale started today and of course I was there with a couple of coupons and a lovely 10% total purchase coupon   I stocked up on embroidery floss, and have a picture of my lovely new flosses below.  I also bought “refills” of colors I use often.  It’s funny that when floss goes on sale I buy some new colors and “refills” of colors I use often, but yet, when stitching, I still mostly stick to my favorite floss colors.  What about y’all?  Do you try to use new colors for every project or stick to your faves? 

But it will be a lovely evening tonight.  The Fashion Show comes on and I plan to wind my new  flosses while watching   And as side note, did y’all catch the new episode that aired last night?!  I had no idea BRAVO was going to air a bonus new episode on a different day than usual, and thankfully saw the little “coming up next” icon in the lower right hand corner of the screen while flipping around last night. 

I also picked a McCalls skirt pattern, M3341, for 99 cents.  I do have the Sew What Skirts book, and while it talks about how to sew darts, it really doesn’t tell you where to place them on your pattern.  So I thought it would be helpful to have a proper pattern as a guide, but seriously folks, now that I have the commercial pattern, this is probably what I am going to use when it comes time to sew.  This pattern is so awesome because it only uses 1 yard of fabric for view C & D!  Which is awesome because now when I see fabric I like, it won’t hurt the wallet to buy the fabric to make the skirt!  I think it is good to have M3341 on handbecause the other McCalls skirt pattern I bought have pleatdetails and such, which are lovely, but some patterns on fabrics aren’t suited to pleating, and this new pattern I purchased, M3341, will be great for those types of fabrics.  YAY!

I am also excited about an embroidery project that isn’t even a WIP yet.  I just can’t help thinking about this cute mouse pattern that flickr member Bunsakura shared.  She will defiinitely be stitched soon.  Once I decide what color I will stitch her dress in, I would like to get coordinating ribbon to stitch along the hem of the towel to jazz up the plain ol white towel a bit.  And speaking of ribbon, I bought a nice roll of blue ribbon at JoAnns so I can make my own blue stripey towels — myfirstbambina bought the blue stripey towels from Colonial Patterns and the blue bled a bit when she washed them   I’m making my own blue stripey towels because I’ve had it stuck in my head that I must stitch the cute Dutch girl pattern that barncat1 sent me on blue stripey towels!  The ribbon is polyester, do I need to soak it in the sink in hot water to allow for any shrinkage so there isn’t any bunching when the towel eventually gets laundered? 

Anyway, enough rambling from me, enjoy the 4th of July weekend!  It’s one of my favorite holidays!  I <3 hot dogs and fireworks!

 

fabric to swap

Hi y’all.  I uploaded the photo below to flickr.  If any of y’all would like to do a fabric swap, please leave me a comment on flickr.  All fabric is from a non-smoking home and has already been prewashed and dried to allow for natural shrinkage to occur.  Have a good evening!

Keeping it Weird on Wednesday

As a treat to myself, I sometimes buy a bag of DOVE chocolate.  The chocolates inside are wrapped individually in foil.  I usually eat 2 or 3 over the course of an evening, usually while watching one of the rare t.v. shows that we actually follow.  I carefully unwrap the chocolate and smooth out the chocolate wrapper.  Then I fold the wrapper in half.  Next I’ll fold the “raw” edges of the wrapper toward the middle and then fold the other edge over.  I end up with a nice smooth foil skinny rectangle.  Now once this rectangle is folded up properly, I never unfold it.  Yet, I will fold this rectangle up on itself and unfold it, many many MANY times over the course of the evening.  At first it annoyed Jason a bit that I was potchki-ing  (Yiddish slang, means dabble or play with) with the wrapper so much, but now, on ocassion, he will make a little ”paper” airplane out of his foil.  I think my weirdness may be contagious

bar-b-cute tea towel + mile long stitchy to do list

Whew, I finished up my bar-b-cute tea towel!  Thank goodness for ANTM (america’s next top model) marathons; it’s the one mildly “trashy” show I allow myself to watch, a guilty t.v. pleasure I suppose   And goodness, while I try not to get sucked into the shows on Sunday afternoons, it unfortunatley does happen sometimes, but I got a lot of stitching done at the same time!  Pattern here and close ups on flickr.

My fingers need a little stitchy break, but my stitchy to-do list is a mile long.  Are y’alls?!  However here are some projects that have priority:

• My sewing machine’s throat plate does not have engraved seam allowance guides!  Do y’alls?  It’s not the biggest of deals, but it sure would be swell if it had the engraved markings!  I’ve been using painter’s tape to mark 1/2″ and 5/8″ and a magnetic seam guide, but someone on craftster gave me a good tip on making something to tape to my throat plate. 
•  I do plan on making a pot holder later this week.  I got some good pot holder assembly advice here that I will tweak and make my own   And hopefully everything I stuff between the cotton fabric will help make it a functional pot holder that CAN take things out of the oven! 
• I need to make a muslin mock-up of top from Simplicity 3835 and if all goes well, make the real thing using my green floral fabric. 
• I also need to draft a skirt pattern and make a muslin mock-up using Sew What Skirts  as a reference, and if all goes well, make the skirt using my fishie fabric. 

swap from lovestitches received

I received my swap package from lovestitches today!  I was surprised the package only took a week to arrive since it was traveling all the way from New Zealand!  I sent Steph this: a zebra FQ, kitty aunt martha pattern, and some kooky kitty fabric.  In return, Steph sent me 4 New Zealand postcards, a New Zealand magent, and a little squeaker that I can put inside a handmade squeaky toy that someday I’ll make for Benjamin.  Thank you Steph!

Here is a picture of my most favorite postcard Steph sent!  Isn’t the lamb adorable?!

thanks for the stitchy advice

Thanks y’all for the stitchy advice!  How do y’all think the glass of lemonade came out?  I did use a different shade of light blue for the ice cubes but I don’t think you can really tell.  No big deal.

A tiny little part of me wants to fill in the glass solid yellow using the long and short stitch (or random seed stitches), but I am holding myself back because if I fill in the glass than that means I’d have to fill in the other patterns, and I don’t want to do that   It’s not that I’m being lazy, it’s just that I guess I want this to be a more relaxing “quick” embroidery project rather than having to keep at it for so long because I am filling everything in. 

I’ve also stitched up the watermelon and I like how it came out.  I used backstitch, split stitch, and lazy dasies.

bar be cute pattern by wild olive

 

  

bar-be-cute WIP – stitchy advice needed

I’ve started a big embroidery WIP.  I transferred nearly every image from Wild Olive’s bar-be-cute pattern onto a red stripey Aunt Martha towel. 

But I need some stitchy advice. I was thinking of outlining the entire glass (you can see I started a little bit around the rim and down just a bit on the left hand side) in DMC 747 very light sky blue and then extending my line of DMC 445 light lemon all around the sides and bottom of the glass to show that there is lemonade inside the glass.

OR do you think I should outline the rest of the “glass” in yellow (except the wee bit on the right that I missed with the blue)?

What do y’all think????

Keeping it Weird on Wednesday

I’m 31 years old and I think I am beginning to turn into my parents since I’ve picked up some of their odd quirky habits.  Just like my dad, I’ve started blowing my nose into my napkin (even though my hanky is in my pocket) when I’ve finished my lunch or dinner.  I have no idea why I have to blow my nose after eating!  And just like my mom, I have a poor sense of direction as I do not remember how to get anywhere unless I’m the one driving.  For example, I’ve always been the passenger in the car when driving to visit my in-laws and thus I have no idea at all how to get there at all.

What about y’all?  Do y’all have any quirky habits/behaviors/inclinations that you’ve picked up from your folks?