Merry Christmas?

I was rearranging furniture this week. I moved the bookcase upstairs. I moved the futon downstairs. I stacked the side-by-side cabinets to reduce occupied floor space in the office. In order to move the futon, I had to dismantle the mountain of fabric. I was feeling overwhelmed. I discarded the scraps I had been saving. For who knows what. I gave away another garbage bag of fabric. I felt better.

I found the p.j. bottoms that I had given to my husband - unfinished - for Christmas. I felt guilty.

Today, I finally put in the drawstring. :) 

Merry Christmas, dearest!

(If I can get my husband to pose for a photo, I'll post it, but I have a sneaking suspicion he's not going to be cooperative...)

P.S. The pattern I used was Pajamas for Everyone, from Heather Ross's Weekend Sewing. I've used her pattern to make my kids p.j. bottoms as well. As other reviewers have commented on other patterns in this book, the fit was a bit small, so I'm glad I went up a size for the kids. They are still wearing them, even though they are over a year old and now qualify as crops. :)

Overly ambitious.

Perhaps a goal of 30 minutes of sewing a day was a tad much for this mother of two. :) However, I did sew some this week, which is more than usual! I think I'll give myself a little grace and be satisfied with sewing more regularly. Things do come up, you know. Sometimes things like karate tournaments, visiting family, and helping out a friend take precedence. As well they should.

So, this week sewing was not a priority. But I was able to use my machine (a gift from my mom) to help out a friend/youth group kid/neighbor. It's prom season, folks! She needed a dress hemmed and I was available. Do you have a rolled hem foot? If you don't, you should. It makes jobs like this much more fun.

It is also much easier to do this way than to meticulously fold and iron the entire hem and then top stitch it. Hand stitching would even take longer. And this method turns out so nice and neat, too!

Just for kicks (pun intended), here are a couple of photo of my kiddos at their karate tournament. They both placed 1st in their divisions!

I've just begun.

So, I didn't start exactly on May 1. But, that's ok. :) I should look at my calendar before I start setting goals for myself and publishing them! I had an enjoyable Friday night and Saturday with about 30 women from my church at a retreat. It was a nice time away from the kids and husband for reflection and fellowship with some of my best friends. I then had a birthday party to attend, which I ducked out of at 8pm and went home and promptly to bed. I was tired! 


So, this afternoon after church, I was about to start on hemming a prom dress for one of my neighbor girls when I realized I couldn't get to my sewing machine. There was an unfinished project there which only needed about 10 minutes of my attention. So, I finished it.

An "adventure bag" for my son. It's a little (ahem) large. But, that's ok. It means more stuff that he can stuff in there when we go on adventures. I asked him if he wanted something smaller and he (knowing how long it can take for me to complete a project) told me "no." Pay no attention to the mess in the background. That's just the way I work. And how my boy plays. And, yes, he is in his p.j.'s at 3 in the afternoon. He was home sick from church today due to a recurrence of his cough. And, yes, those pants are a bit short (they were a Christmas gift from me 2 years ago) but he still loves them. And they have become very soft with repeated washings, which is very important to a child with sensitive skin. :) I love flannel. 

Speaking of flannel, that's what he chose for the flap of his bag.

Here's the back:

The only thing I purchased for this project was the strapping. The rest came from my stash. 

Technically, this was not located on my own version of Mt. Fabric (see previous post), but it counts, right? Of course it does.

For those of you who may be wondering. I did not use a pattern. I made it up as I went along. I don't even think I used a ruler at any point. I just eyeballed and ripped. That could be why it's a bit over sized for my son, ya think? Perhaps if I would have taken the time to measure the fabric, or at least him...

T minus 2 days.

Hey there, friends! If you are still there... (sheepish grimace)

This whole grieving thing is pretty strange. I just forget stuff all the time. Like blogging. Doctor appointments. But, I'm doing much better these days and trying to adjust to my new "normal." By the way, I won $100 in that contest! How about that?! Dad would be proud.

Today, my son is home from school due to a nasty cough. So, I get to stay home until 2:15 when it is time to pick up my daughter. Hooray! More than 2 hours at home at one time! My son is relaxing on the sofa watching Transformers Animated and thoroughly enjoying himself. After making sure he was comfortable and outfitted with snacks, a water bottle and the necessary remote controls, I decided to begin the process of unearthing my bedroom. Once again. I have to do it periodically. I'm good at organizing. Not so good at maintaining that organization. Thus the periodical part.

So, I managed to get my futon cleared off. Well, most of it just got transferred to my bed for a more detailed going-through later. Preferably before I hit the hay tonight. I have always had trouble focusing. I flit from one task to another without really completing anything. The curse of a right-brainer. But I digress. See what I mean? Back to original thought: While I was in the process of returning some of the inhabitants of the futon to their rightful and proper place, I decided that I really should do myself and my husband a favor by finding a new home for the pile of fabric in our office. Now that the weather is getting nicer, it would be nice to be able to access the back door. To possess the ability of walking through the office without tripping over anything would be nice as well. Aren't I thoughtful? :)

After collecting all of the fabric from said office and other various corners of my home, this is what I now have sitting in my bedroom, looming oppressively and mocking me:

And I have just realized that this isn't even the whole of it. I just spied a bag of scraps waiting to be repurposed in the corner of the office. Rats. The main pile, shown here, is 6 feet wide. 4 feet tall. That's a lot of fabric. I'm not nearly as accomplished as my mom, who harbored Mt. Fabric in her basement for years. :) We daughters gave her quite a hard time about it. It's an illness. Genetic, I'm sure. Grandma has it, too. And Mom mocked her. See? You shouldn't mock your mother. Look what can happen to you. 

While I know that my collection is not nearly as expansive as some, it is just not practical for me to have so much in my itty bitty home. Someday I'll give you the brief tour. But not now. It's a wreck. Because I'm focusing on unearthing (well, not anymore) my bedroom. 

Anyway, I need to get rid of this stuff. I'm tired of unfinished projects and clutter. So now it is all moved to a central location, where I can't ignore it and must see it when I rise and when I'm on my way off to dreamland. I already de-stashed last year. I only kept what I loved and couldn't bear to part with. Or that I had specific projects in mind for. I also added some new things from the clearance bins of fabric/hobby stores that I haunt occasionally and  that I rescued from Mom's de-stashing efforts. Another illness that I have inherited from my mom and grandma...we are a crazy bunch, I tell you! But we are fun! 

So, finally, I get to main point of this post. (Sometimes it's fun to ramble...) Beginning May 1, I'm going to begin my efforts to craft this pile into oblivion. Much of it will be gifts. Some donations. Some will be sold to raise funds for favorite charitable organizations. I promise lots of pics. I'm not going to do one of those crazy one-project-a-day type deals. I'm too realistic for that and I have too many other responsibilities to my family, church, etc. But, my goal is to work on something for a minimum of 30 minutes a day until it's all gone. And I will post progress regularly. Probably not on weekends. But you get the idea.

Then it's on to my yarn stash. Oh my.

P.S. Dear Mom, I'm sorry for the grammar mishaps that occur throughout my posts. I'm sure the English teacher in you is cringing. Sometimes incomplete sentences are just more effective in communicating my thoughts. Because, like I said, it's hard for me to complete anything, fully. There I go again...

For a (sorta) new mama.

I am finally able to blog about this gift, as it was given this weekend!

It's the Nappy Bag - an Amy Butler pattern. This bag went together very smoothly. As usual, Amy's directions are straightforward and easy to follow. The construction is solid and super roomy for all of the necessities we mamas need to carry around for our little ones.

My favorite part: lots of pockets!

Oh, and gotta love the fabrics...by my favorite designer, Anna Maria Horner. These two patterns are from her Good Folks line. Love, love, love!

I also made a hooter hider (that's what they're called...) to match the lining of the tote. I used the tutorial here.

The fun part about this gift was that my girlfriend and I picked out the fabrics together. She loves that she got to design her own bag, and I love that she loves it. :) The unfortunate part was that we picked all of this out this summer...the baby was born in September...oh, well. It is done and it is loved. 

Crafting for friends.

One of my son's friends is sick with the flu, so he wanted to make him a "Germ Monster" - to scare the germs away. How cute is that? We just delivered him. I think he will be well loved.

Hippety Hop

Was busy making these little guys last week for my daughter's Brownie troop:

It took me a little longer than I planned...but that usually is the case, isn't it?

Maybe next time I'll give myself more than two days. :)

Plodding through.

This morning, it's technically still morning, I've been trying to work on a few things while I'm home with my sick little boy. First, a Christmas gift for my daughter from One Skein Wonders. I've been wanting to try some of the patterns from this book for a while and had some leftover yarn from her hat, so she's getting a matching scarf. :) Knitting is always nice while snuggled up with my little guy.

I also drafted a pattern for a project for my daughter's Brownie Troop. They are putting together shoe boxes of goodies for Operation Christmas Child. This is something I've wanted to participate in for some time now. So, we're making 15 little stuffed creatures that some children will get to snuggle and love on. I've just drawn up the pattern and picked out fabric from my stash. My daughter will help me sew, embellish and stuff!

See you Friday!