summer, or: how much i love sundresses

a LOT. i got a cute one for $16 at the grocery store, and it is just adorable, especially for only having set me back $16!





problem: no pockets.
remedy: got crafty on that sundress' ass! well, you know what i mean.
lesson learned: pockets are MUCH easier to put in while you're making the garment than after it's already sewn together and lined.





but all in all, i think that they're cute, and i got them both in the right way (definitely have sewn pockets upside down before and had to rip them out. :( ) so i'm pretty pleased with myself. mr. man, however is getting better trained. he didn't even flinch when i barged in on his computer time and asked him to take a photo of my pockets. he just turned around, took the camera, took a picture of my pockets and gave me a kiss. AND, he then (a bit later) came downstairs to commend me on my nice pockets and tell me how clever i am. :) huzzah!

and now off for the weekend. if all goes well, i shall be able to stop at an ikea which carries FABRIC! hopefully i won't be too tired to really take it in, since everyone's fabulous ikea fabric items are adorable, and ours isn't big enough to carry fabric (yet!).

if i make it through the next few weeks with any shair, i'll be happy...

because it's at that annoying length (in the growing-out process) where it is just long enough to ALWAYS be in my eyes, but not yet long enough to tuck in behind my ears. :( (so i might chop it all off with the kitchen skizzors, although my hair darling would KILL me)

also, my allergies are annoying.

and finally, i've been eyeing (eying? anyhow) a cathedral windows tutorial for some time now and figured out that it would really only take me 13 yards or so of fabric to make...and i kind of might have picked some out. because i don't have enough projects on the go.

also, progress was made tonight and will be made tomorrow night during my forced stitch n' bitch n' trashy tv nights on the february lady sweater, which i will reiterate had better damned well be fabulous when it's finally done.

i want to say that i'm a clever monkey since i managed to make my puppers two beds for about $20 when one dog bed at the store is $50...AND i made my dad a SUPER CUTE clothespin holder for father's day (yeah, i'm pretty sure it's exactly what he wanted...but whatever. he didn't make any specific requests, so he gets what he gets!) for about $20, plus free stolen (from my dad's closet-HA!) hanger...but i forgot to take a picture of it when it was done, but it was SUPER cute.

so you'll just have to see pictures of the dog's super cute beds. the first one is for at my parent's house since the puppy got diamond's old bed, and diamond is WAY too much of a priss to sleep on the floor:





she dosn't look so impressed because i woke her up from her lazyboy nap to get down and try out the bed because i'd finished it. but she liked it ok in the end:





the second one is for my sewing room since she likes to be RIGHTTHERE in the action, but again..won't sleep on the floor. so far it's been a fine balance between her annoying the crap out of me and me caving and going to get her real bed from the bedroom and dragging it in. but no more!





my dad's clothespin holder came from a pattern on living creatively, which i thought was super cute. i ended up making it in blue and red plaid oilcloth which turned out well. and now i have an extra half-yard of oilcloth which needs some purpose. :)

today: working on my bedquil in white and green. possibly napping. possibly house cleaning on some scale, although that's definitely lower on the priority list. ;)

busy like woah!

i've been busy, and crafty busy, and then just regular busy again. but i'm happy with it all. the february lady sweater is coming along nicely thanks to several layovers in...well, just in toronto, but still! and hopefully it fits because i've managed to get the pattern going and everything, WITHOUT any major losing stitches fail.

and i've started a random kaffee fassett designed quilt which i'm doing in plain but starkly different colours with minimal quilting. the whole thing should come together quite quickly except that i decided last minute (this morning while sewing together the first blocks) to make it a teensy bit bigger than planned, which means that i'm about a half-yard short on the white fabric, which is frustrating. but typical. so i guess i'm just going to run with it as planned. :)

and tomorrow brings: the making of the father's day gift! it's going to be pretty cute, i think...i hope at least! i will post pics tomorrow of everything as it comes along. :)

xo

le sigh take two...

this should NOT be a le sigh moment, but is: just finished up the last of the blocks, almost. three still need to be finished, but they were the ones that i screwed up the original pointy bits on, so THOSE strips need to be fixed up before i can finish the last blocks, and to fix up the pointy bits, i need to ORDER MORE FABRIC! :( stupid having *just* enough to begin with, then not quite having enough scraps to make do because i didn't read the pattern closely enough.

off to pack up because i'm in dc for a bit. also have to figure out my knitting dilemma and PACK, which i can only kind of do because i really left laundry to the last minute (it's in the machine now) and still have to decide what i'm going to wear. oh my!

le sigh

so had a convo with mister man last night about creativity and making things and appreciating creativity. it turns out that we have very different views: i love the things that my friends and family makes just because the products are extensions of the people that i love, but he doesn't get that and only really loves the item if he finds it aesthetically pleasing. he also said something interesting about how his family doesn't really make things, so he has no point of reference because that's not how they were raised, which i hadn't thought of and found really interesting. don't really know where i'm going with this, except that i expect him to love the things that i make because i've made them, and he isn't going to unless he actually loves them. unfair? unfair for me to demand that he loves my output whether or not he likes them (or *i* like them...?)?

clearly i'm feeling sorry for myself. cuz i'm not feeling well. and because i'm home from work. blah. nap and food and getting over myself. :)

because i need variety...

i've been working on several things at once, all in a half-assed willy-nilly fashion.

i've been ploughing along through the wedding quilt, which is good since it's not going to get done on its own. look, the piles are getting reversed, and i've got less than 40 squares left. which i only just realised isn't *that* impressive considering that there are only 90 in the whole quilt. still, more than halfway!







and i've finished this quilt top. it was pre-cut squares which is a LONG story, but was supposed to be done at christmas. either way, it's done now, and i quite like the white border. and, i don't want to jinx it, but this is the quilt that's going to take me pro! a friend liked it and offered to pay me for it. but i think that i might still keep my amateur status for a while. :)





finally, i've gotten some fabulous oilcloth for my dad's father's day gift, which is going to be a hanging bag for his clothespins, since that's the job he's decided on since his retirement and having to pick an around the house job. :) hopefully he'll think that i'm as clever as i think i am.





and, no pics, but further progress on the scrappy quilt: 25+ blocks! 110- to go. :) i LOVE this quilt already, and super adore other people's scraps.

the february lady sweater has been temporarily abandoned due to a lethal (for craft projects, anyhow) combination of laziness and needing to work something out. i've got to figure out how to measure my own armpit (possibly with string) and compare it to my armpit stitches on said sweater. but, never fear fls, you will be mine. she'll come with me on my trip (the long way) to washington dc this weekend/next week and i'm sure to get a lot done there. :)

garrrrrr!

and not even in a fun "like a pirate" way. i'm working on the fabulous (hopefully!) february lady sweater in apple green, cascade superwash and it's taking a while because i'm clearly distracted, and i got to the part where counting was involved (hey-o! not my strong suit) and counted wrong SEVERAL times last night and again today, but got it all sorted, then got to this part... "Continue to work
garter stitch until, when you try on the sweater, the sleeve stitches almost meet under your
arms" which was all fine and good when first reading the pattern, until i actually GOT to this part in the pattern and then was like "***...the work is on round needles...how the hell am i going to try it on??" still working on that one. :( so, while not a total fail (yet), definitely a failstall.