...there is sewing

Last night I went through my pattern box (well, one of them, anyway).  I have way too many patterns that I bought intending to make them and then forgot about them.  So.  I am going to start sewing.  My goal is to make one piece of clothing every month until I am caught up - or as caught up as I can be... since there are still more patterns out there.  Some of them I may make more than once if they look good on me.  We shall see.  Oh, and this does not include faire garb or costuming - those are completely separate.  If I only made one of those a month I would be in serious trouble come spring!

So, the first pattern I will make is a Burda pattern - 8627.  I am going to start with the jacket/top.  It's a nice unfitted piece that I might actually already have fabric for!

It's a single button jacket, kinda pretty.  I am tempted to do it in multiple colors of fabric on the one jacket.  We'll see.  It shouldn't be too difficult - the hard part will be determining if I will line it or not, since I get cold very easily.

I am still working on the quilt.  And other things, of course.  :)

The Non-Boring Times

So... there are times when I am not bored, when life happens.  When there's too much to do to sit and be bored (and thus make more unusual things).  So far... two family members (one more distant than the other, but still family) died on one day, my uncle has health issues, and my father has health issues after surgery.  Wheee....  Nope.  No time for bored.  Not much time for anything else, it seems, either. 

I've quilted a little and wandered aimlessly a lot. 

It seems when I get stressed, I want to go something different.  Something new.  NOT the same old same old.  Not the same food, same stores, same places, same conversations.  They get boring.  And I don't do boring well.  But when I stress, things get magnified, like they do.  Not unique to me, by any means.  When I stress, I want out.  OUT.  I don't care about the things I am currently working on.  I want OUT.

So I wander aimlessly, looking for a goal, a new thing, a new event.  Something new.  Or even something so old I've never done it before.  I want to learn new things.  Lots of them.  Remake myself into someone new.  Not that there's tragically much wrong with the current me - I know that, and am generally satisfied with who I am and where I am and so on.  But...

So that's where I am right now.  Still sewing - some - and still out there.  Mostly positive - don't get me wrong.  I just want something different.

... she plans

I want to go to First Monday in Canton again this month.  (Well, beginning of next month-ish).  That should be Labor Day Weekend.  Sure, it will be hot, but I want to go.  Anyone interested in going with?  Last time I got two metal goats and a handful of other things I wouldn't have found other places. 

I want to go to the coast in November.  So I am going to plan for it. Stay on the coast, watch the water, wade in it, beachcomb for nothing much in particular... be a tourist.

There are other things I want to do, so I am planning.  Road trips, learning Japanese....

I have a bunch of craft projects planned as well.  The drawback is that so much of my stuff stays in the planning stage.  I need to move past that and actually DO some of this stuff.  Quilts, canning, baking, painting, weaving.  Learning to spin my own thread/yarn.  Make costumes.  Re-write a few books. 

I just have to plan the time.  And my lists, nice as they are, are not helping!  I can always re-write lists!  I need a better way to plan out my time.

On the plus side, the bargello quilt is moving right along now, and I am working on a wish bird (pattern from Valori Wells).  It's cute, and if I do it in reds, oranges and yellows, it can be a phoenix.  Then again, I might make one in black and make a raven.  We shall see.  Maybe I will shrink the pattern and make a flock of birds to hang from the ceiling.   The test version is in purple.  First thing I pulled out of the cotton fabric drawers.  :)

Surrounded by little things

So in the last few days I've made almost a dozen lace and ribbon rosettes of various types and two small change purses.  I should be working on my quilt.  I should be.

I shouldn't be thinking about dolls - three more of them.  I don't CARE how cute/creepy/cool/all of the above they might be.  I don't need to make more dolls!  I don't have room for the ones I have!

*sigh*  My inner crafter isn't listening.  Stupid inner crafter.  I have too many other things to do already!

Besides that - yesterday we went to an estate sale - I picked up a small table loom for $7.50 with a project on it already - don't need the project, but I will tie it off and do something with it - and a whole host of books and other stuff.  Got a tub of misc. craft stuff cheap - sight unseen - because I like prowling through stuff like that.  Wound up with a LOT of stuff - extremely varied stuff, too.  From instant papier mache (without asbestos, according to its label) to pointy knitting needles to ribbons to wire wreath frames to... to... an entire cross stitch kit.  It was cool.

More ribbon rosette things

Two new flowers of felt and ribbon.  The top is a smaller Tudor rose - I think I like this size better, really  The bottom is made of ribbon and lace.  I have so much lace it's not EVEN funny anymore.  I am not allowed to buy any more until I use up some of what I've got.

So... any other uses, folks?  I am working on more ribbon/lace flowers, but there's got to be more.

I am working on a pale purple version of the blue one right now... with wider ribbon and wider lace.

My evening project is still the bargello quilt.  It's moving along - I finished the first 8" wide strip of quilting and advanced the quilt in the frame last night.  Hopefully it will start to go faster, now that I've figured out what I am doing!

The Tudor Rose and a Quilt Top

A finished Tudor rose.  In felt.  it's not perfect, and there are several tweaks I intend to make.  But I promised pictures, so here you go!

It was a simple project - the part the took the longest was actually finding a yellow button for the middle.  I dug through the stash of buttons last night, though, and here it is. 

I could certainly post patterns and a tutorial if there is interest.  I may do it anyway, just for my own amusement.

I am still working on the Halloween wreath, and started an autumn wreath last night while sitting in bed with the cat in my lap.  She liked the yarn.

I have finished the top of my bargello quilt (the PLANNED project), and have it in the rack so I can start quilting.  It's surprisingly nice - I look forward to the end product.  Which means I need to get quilting!

It's approximately queen sized, and here it is laid out on the floor for pin-basting.  It's now safely racked and out of the way of little feline feet.  Tonight, I start quilting.  I have debated this with myself for a while, and I think I will quilt in the ditch along the "diagonals" between colors/shades.  That should hold everything together while emphasizing the diagonals instead of the vertical stripes.

The other thing on the list for tonight - the Halloween wreath, probably.  I need to spin more cobwebs for that one....  yay for having wool roving to spin into cobwebs (yeah, it was going to be yarn.  It's now cobwebs).

So much to do, so little time to sit and do it.  (Not really.  I just don't seem to be able to make as much time).

... she makes things

Good morning!  I am Shay.  I am unmarried, living with a roommate in oh-so-hot Texas.  I make things.  Not professionally, but for kicks.  I have a cat - just one, about 12 years old - and she's plenty.  I work in an office as a drone, carry an elephant-shaped lunch kit to work, and in my off time do all sorts of things.  Most of them are reasonably planned out, if not in great detail.  However, when I get bored I tend to go off the rails and do other things.  Just... other things.  Not necessarily weird or bizarre, but not the things I normally do.

Oh, and I get bored easily.  My friends tend to duck when I get bored. 

I was bored yesterday.  So I made a rough pattern for a Tudor rose.  Yeah, making felt flower things.  I'm not even a flowery sort of girl, and here I am making Tudor roses.  *shrug*  So be it.  Boredom makes me do things I wouldn't otherwise think about.

I'm about halfway done with it, and when I am done, I will post pics.  And maybe a pattern or two.  We'll see. 

Oh, and I started working on a yarn wreath for Halloween.  May make one in autumnal colors soon, as well.  After I go by the craft store for another foam wreath.