who doesn't love a zip pouch??

Happy Friday! I am still working my way through a pile of feathers (12/57 done!) but I thought I'd pop in with a few more pictures of the zip pouch I made a couple weeks ago now that the gift has been given. I used the tutorial from noodlehead, but I shrunk the smallest size by an inch each way. Honestly that was because I had a 9" zipper that matched perfectly so I needed it to be small enough to use that. It was a pretty quick and easy pattern and I love the finished bag. I think I am going to be making a larger one for myself soon. This was a birthday gift that I filled with candy and wrapped up all pretty. The birthday girl loves horses (animals, really) and the color green so this was just perfect for her.

Honestly, I am hoping to have the feather top done by the end of next week, but that might be a bit too ambitious. I need it done soon though. I promised it by christmas and since we are moving right around that time, it is a pretty solid deadline. Somehow I need to sneak in some other gift making too. I have been working on my knit hat though and I love it. It is a fun pattern that is going quickly and so far looks awesome. I think I might make one for me when I am done this one.

And now I am off for some much needed relaxation followed by a weekend with the in-laws. I hope I still get a little bit of sewing time, but I guess that remains to be seen. I think I will feel a whole lot better when these feathers are all done and I can move on to quilting. Anyway, have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday {11.7.12}

Remember that time I was all calm and felt like I had plenty of time for gifts? Well that time is past and it is a good thing I have half of them done or I would be out of my mind by now. The panic is beginning already, but I am trucking along just trying to get everything done. Since I actually had some time to work on things yesterday I feel a little better, but man, so much to do.

Completed:

socks!!!

I finally finished my socks! Even though they are too big for me, I love them and my husband is already happily wearing them around the house :)


New:

husband gift

Here is my sneak peek. It is about halfway done. I don't know exactly when I am going to work on it, but hopefully soon.

hat 

Another gift. I am so in love with this yarn and I don't even know what it is. It is so soft and I know it is wool, but I lost the wrapper thing after I wound it. I think I am going to want to keep this. 

napkins
I finally went and bought fabric to try again on the texty rainbow napkins. I pre-washed this time so hopefully it will go well. When I eventually make them.


Still going:

feathers!

Finally all the pieces are cut! Today I am hoping to get them all matched up and start sewing. I am really hoping things start going a bit quicker now that the cutting is done.

lilly belle
Yep, still need a back and some batting before I can do anything with this, and then I'll need hand quilting supplies. So maybe one of these days I will get around to it. 


Waiting:

*wedding quilt -I think I know what I am going to do. But it might have to wait until I knock out some gifts....
*wedding quilt II- I know exactly what I am going to do, I just need to find out what colors would be preferred.
*baby quilt - still an idea just waiting for me to come play. Once I find the perfect fabric I will be on my way. Someday....

Coming up I have a bunch of things to make, but I need to finish figuring them out first. I know what I will be making my parents and have started slowly collecting supplies. I still need to figure out what I want to make for the little one. I am also trying to gather up some hand projects to do while we are visiting for holidays and moving. I figure some knitting and some epp should do it, maybe some cross stitch or something, I don't know yet. I am itching to start hand quilting, but I don't think that will be a good project for the car since it's pretty big. By next week I am really hoping that I have quite a few feather blocks finished, so wish me luck on that! Of course we have guests again this weekend...oh well, we'll see what I can mange.

If things seem a little slower around here....

It's because we have big life changes going on right now. We have learned this past week that we will be moving. In Januaray my husband will be starting a new job. In North Carolina. That means in less than 2 months we need to get ourselves together and move on down there.

Needless to say, things are a bit hectic around here, especially with all the holiday stuff going on. I am pretty much totally excited and totally overwhelmed. I have so many things to do and they have just been pushed to the side a lot more recently. But, I will still be trucking along trying to get everything done. Thank goodness I started the gifts so early so I at least have half of them done.

I am still cutting away at feather pieces, I have a new knitting project to work on for a gift, I have to remake my failed napkins, and I finally figured out what I am going to be making for my parents. Today I am going to be working on my husbands gift, so hopefully that goes well, and I still need to finalize what I am making for the little one. And I have to do all this before I have to pack up all my fabric, which I know will be sooner than I'd like. *sigh* I just have to try not to drown in all this and know that it will get done and things will calm down again in the new year.

So that's what's going on around here. I am super excited about all the change happening, I just have to not lose my mind.  I am crossing my fingers that I at least have all the feather pieces cut out by the end of Tuesday so I can start sewing. I really need to sit down and figure out how I can get all this done and what is reasonable. With all that said, I promise to be back Wednesday with something at least a little more exciting to show for myself.  We all know news is not as exciting as pictures of pretty things :)

Socks!!!

Do you hear me? I made socks, people!! And they are pretty and knit and wearable (not so much by me, but that is clearly not the point). And there are no holes or anything! I am pretty much bursting with excitement over here in case you can't tell! I didn't think I would ever make socks, and yet here I am. The next pair is already planned, and hopefully the next pair will fit my feet. Making 2 socks at once is pretty much awesome since I am pretty sure I would never make the second one otherwise. I made them from the book Knitting Circles Around Socks, and I used a yarn from knit picks, but I forget which one since I just stole it from my dads stash. And hubby says they are comfy and he likes them, which he might tell me either way, but we'll see if he actually wears them. He probably won't anyway because he'll be afraid of ruining them. Here they are on his lovely man feet

In other completely unrelated news, I am going on my first sewing retreat in March. Have you heard about Sew South?? Jennifer over at ellison lane quilts put it together for us here on the east coast and I am so looking forward to meeting some quilting/sewing/blogging friends and spending a weekend doing what we love most. When I last looked there were still a few tickets left in case anyone else was thinking of going. It looks like it is going to be loads of fun and I can't wait!!

What I really need to be doing today is working on the feather quilt. What I am going to be doing instead is going to a LQS and running some other errands and preparing for a weekend with my sister, which will not involve any sewing but will be pretty spectacular. It's okay though, I think the cutting part of the feathers is almost done. I hope so anyway. Not my favorite part. I guess that is something to worry about next week though. Happy Weekend!!!

WIP Wednesday {10.31.12}

Happy Halloween!! We haven't made a call about trick-or-treating yet, but so far it looks to be cold and rainy, and since my 2 year old doesn't really care, I'm not sure we'll be going out. It's alright though, she'll have plenty of Halloweens to make up for it :)  In sewing land, I didn't get much done. It was a long week with many interruptions, but I did what I could. I also appologize in advance for the horrible pictures, but I am not kidding when I say that, like much of the east coast, we have not seen the sun in days so a dark inside picture will have to do.

Completed:

chair

the only thing completed is my chair makeover. I love this and it just brightens up our office. There may be more furniture makeovers in my future....


New: I didn't really have time to start anything new. Which is probably for the best. Although I think I got a few more gifts decided.


Still Going:

feathers!

This is my main project at this particular moment. I now have all the strip feather pieces cut and the stems, so next up is a whole lot of background. I am looking forward to the cutting being done and being able to begin sewing. 

lilly belle
Yep, still need a back and some batting before I can do anything with this, and then I'll need hand quilting supplies. So maybe one of these days I will get around to it. 


Waiting:
*wedding quilt -I think I know what I am going to do. But it might have to wait until I knock out some gifts....
*wedding quilt II- I know exactly what I am going to do, I just need to find out what colors would be preferred.
*baby quilt - still an idea just waiting for me to come play. Once I find the perfect fabric I will be on my way. Someday....

So there it is. I am hoping to make some really good progress on the feathers quilt this week and maybe even pick up a back for lilly belle. I have a couple of other things being plotted, but nothing has made it very far out of my head yet. I am a bit unfocused these days, and I keep having moments of ohmygodtomorrowisnovember. It will all get there though.

a "new" chair

Wow, so it's Monday again. Well that just flew right by. I feel like I've been under a rock or something and can finally come up for air. Last week ended in some insanity in which my husband was gone for 3 days and I decided to do my chair makeover. But all is well. He is home and life feels normal again, and we have a lovely new chair in our office.

Let me start by saying, I have really not done much in the way of furniture makeovers. Ever. And the couple times I have tried it, it didn't go particularly well. But this time I am super happy with the results. It is not without problems of course, but I am proud of this little chair.

Last time we were visiting, I asked my in-laws if they had a chair we could have for me to redo and to replace our broken folding chair that we had been using. It turns out they had one that the cats had gotten to and really messed up the cushion.

I wanted a nice bright color and opted for spray paint, what with so many nooks an crannies. I got a super bright yellow (after I was told no aqua/turquoise) to match a lovely print I found at Joanns. It was crazy taking off the old cushion. A million or so staple later we had a look inside and saw the springs/foam/batting. After a discussion with one of the ladies at joanns, I was on my with with a pile of supplies. I think the foam I chose was a bit higher, but I can't be sure if that was because of the old one being compressed by use. It is super comfy though and you can no longer feel the springs when you sit. I had a bit of a problem when I just traced the old cushion and it was a bit small with the added height, but we made it work. I just love how it turned out. Such a happy chair!

In other news, I didn't make a halloween costume since there was no tiger fabric to be found, but it turns out that it probably doesn't matter since it is supposed to rain for the foreseeable future and this mega storm is supposed to hit up here on Wednesday. I am still working away on feathers and hope to have all the strip pieces cut out today. Then I just have to cut out a gazillion background pieces and I can start sewing :) I really want to get going on this one, but we also have visitors coming the next two weekends, so that will drag it out a bit. I also really need a new purse. One thing at a time I suppose.

WIP Wednesday {10.24.12}

It just occurred to me that I only have week until Halloween. Hm, I didn't realize I was in crunch time already. Hopefully I can find what I need and get it done. Really I spent this week working on my new quilt project, and it feels like it is pretty slow going. It's fun though.

Completed:

texty geese pillow

Done and in the gift pile. I do still kind of wish I could keep it, but I am going to be strong.

New:

feathers!

This is my commissioned quilt. I made 2 blocks to see how it went together and how it looked and honestly, I love it. Now I am trying to do the rest more assembly line style so I can get it done more quickly. It is going to be queen size so I need 57 blocks. I am pretty excited to see this one grow. I am hoping by next week to have all the strippy feather pieces cut out so I can start cutting out the rest of the pieces. It is a pretty long process though, so we'll see.

halloween costume
I have no picture because I have no fabric. But, I do know what I am going to do and it should be quick. She already has a tiger mask and tail so I am just going to make a vest out of tiger fleece {if I can find it} and she can wear that. I just hope I can get what I need.

chair redo

I got this chair from my in-laws because we need a new desk chair {our folding chair broke} and they had this one sitting around. The cats obviously got to it so it needed work. It is already taken apart and it is waiting for a paint job and new cushion. I think it is going to be pretty fantastic. This is going to be my project for the second half of this week while the weather is nice. I have never done anything like this so it is an adventure.



Still Going:

lilly belle
Yep, still need a back and some batting before I can do anything with this, and then I'll need hand quilting supplies. So maybe one of these days I will get around to it. 


Waiting:
*wedding quilt -I think I know what I am going to do. But it might have to wait until I knock out some gifts....
*wedding quilt II- I know exactly what I am going to do, I just need to find out what colors would be preferred.
*baby quilt - still an idea just waiting for me to come play. Once I find the perfect fabric I will be on my way. Someday....


So really just a chair, a halloween costume and a quilt to work on right now. The husband will be away for a couple of days this week/weekend so I am hoping to have the chair done by the time he gets back so he can use it at his desk.  I may or may not also start working on the husbands gifts while he is gone. If I have time. Either way it should be a crazy week, and hopefully not a bad one alone with a toddler for days. Wish me luck!