Week 1

{all sewing done by machine unless otherwise indicated}

• Jan 1: by hand, felt owl ornament inspired by Juicy Bits 131 {completed}
• Jan 2: by hand, felt mistletoe {begun} 
• Jan 3: by hand, felt mistletoe {continued}
• Jan 4: new hair clip/band holder for MiniDork; and a hanging bookshelf {from the Penny Carnival tutorial}
• Jan 5: a bed pocket, and a cloud pillow for MiniDork’s room; a failed attempt at a doll dress
• Jan 6: Pajama pillow; doll skirt, begun working on Lucy’s i-Spy quilt
• Jan 7: continued working on Lucy’s i-Spy quilt

I almost forgot to sew last night. I was drifting off to sleep when I remembered. So I dragged myself out of bed and sewed together a few squares for Lucy’s quilt. Today I was smart and sewed not long after getting up. I’m working on a post about the pillow I made for her. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to finish and publish the post next week. Right now the sewing is more pressing than the blogging. I’ve got a few more days before I’m back to work so I want to spend my time getting projects done.

365

2011 will be the year of sewing. January 1st marked the beginning of my “official” attempt to sew for 365 days straight. I will make a note each day regarding what I did and will post my notes {ideally} once a week. So far, so good. I’ve got some free time before I go back to work and I’m using it to sew all sorts of things {mainly items for MiniDork’s “big girl room”}.
In the meantime here are some snapshots of some sewing I did for the holidays {including my very first quilt, a gift for my mother}! I used this tutorial (though I made plenty of mistakes…measure twice, cut once people)! The tutorial was written by Melissa Mortenson (of The Polka Dot Chair) for Moda Bakeshop.I used a Lumiere de Noel layer cake from fabric.com {which they no longer carry, but as of today you can get the same fabrics here} for the quilt top, and cream colored snuggle fabric for the back. I skipped the inner batting because the snuggle fabric seemed plenty warm enough for a lap quilt. The snuggle fabric is hard to work with, even when using a walking foot. So I ended up with an uneven border (I used the self-binding method). But holy cow is it soft!

I also appliquéd a tracing of Lucy's hand to one of the squares. Getting her to sit still long enough to trace her hand was probably the most difficult part of the appliqué process!

The other sewing project I finished up last month for the holidays was a set of doll diaper changing accessories to go with Lucy’s new doll {a Christmas present purchased from Nova Natural Toys}. I made a changing pad, two diapers, and a wipes case with three wipes. Lucy loves to tell us that Eleanor’s bum is wet.Now, and here’s where I reveal how spacey I can be sometimes, I thoughtlessly deleted the bookmark for the blog that inspired this project before I had a chance to put the link in this post. And now I can’t find it. I didn’t follow her tutorial, but I got the idea to make it all from a specific post. I’m really sorry I can’t give credit where credit is due {and I’m sorry I can’t send you there to see it because hers were very cute, and she made a diaper bag to boot!. If you think you know what blog I’m talking about, tell me in the comments please. I know I’ll recognize it when I see it.

And now, here is a gratuitous picture of my offspring:

   Here’s to 2011, The Year of Sewing!

Hiatus

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve been missing lately. I’m really sorry about that. I started a “real job” and it’s taken a while to get used to my new schedule.

Also…I totally haven’t been sewing every day because of it.

I have been sewing {working on my Mini’s Halloween costume most recently} but not daily. So here’s my plan…with the holidays and Nanowrimo coming up, and my to-do list being the overwhelming length it is I’m postponing my 365 experiment until the start of 2011.

I don’t plan on completely abandoning this blog until then {after all…I do have sewing projects I’m doing for the holidays, might as well show them off right?}. But I won’t be posting regularly again until January.

I apologize, but I gotta do what I gotta do. And what I gotta do is not drive myself crazy trying to do everything at once.

But, I’ll be back {you may take that as either a promise or a warning}. ;P

 

Life Happens

OK, so traveling two weeks in a row, starting a new job, having a house guest living in one’s sewing room, beginning a new workout routine, and scrambling to find a day care for one’s offspring? NOT conducive to daily sewing. I so totally screwed up my daily sewing routine that I’m starting the countdown over one more time. After this if I screw up I screw up and that’s just too bad.

I still need to take some pictures of a few mini-projects I hand stitched. I embellished a t-shirt and a headband with fabric yo-yo flowers and made the front half of a little owl Christmas ornament. I also have started working on a quilt. Fabric.com messed up my Christmas fabric order so I’m waiting for the correct print to arrive before I begin working on my holiday quilt. But I’ve got plenty of projects keeping me busy in the meantime.

Sorry for my absence and all that. I’ll be better, promise. ;)