August Sewing Thoughts and Plans

It's the middle of August! Can you believe it's the middle of August already? Every year around this time I start thinking back to early spring and all the things I was excited about sewing then and all my ambitious plans. This year I have not done well at sticking with plans. I'm not terribly concerned about it. I got distracted by some other pretty fabrics and made a few things. I also altered and remade a few old things to make them more wearable and I made a few dresses for my little granddaughter, some of them using small leftover pieces of fabric. Oh, and a couple of shirts for my husband. (Zero chance I can ever get him to model them.) So really, not a bad summer so far.

Still, I'm a little disappointed that I haven't gotten around to this yet:

Or this:

I also have this set of companion prints that I've been thinking about.

I'm not going to go to the effort of photographing all of the fabrics I'm thinking about right now, just one more because I'm seriously thinking this might be next. Or I might make another shirt for my husband; I don't know. (Right now I'm working on another lovely little dress for the granddaughter.

I have had that piece for several years but just recently got freshly inspired.

The good thing about living in Oklahoma is that summer weather can last a month or more beyond the "official" end of summer so I still have time to sew these and more. I think what I am most disappointed about is that I haven't worked on a quilt this year. I started a quilt top that I had hoped to have nearly finished quilting by now but I've barely started sewing the top so I might spend some time working on that. I have so many quilt ideas. The hard part of that, for me, is getting the top done because I don't enjoy that as much as I do the quilting.

So how have your summer projects been going?

Two Finished Projects

Hello? Hello? Anybody out there?

Now that Christmas is over I can show off the two quilts I've been working on and yes, I did finish both of them in time to give them for Christmas. I don't have a good place to display quilts for photographing so I got just a corner of each. This first one was a gift to my grandson. (age 17) He loved it.

And this one went to my brother-in-law (husband's brother) and his wife. This is the one that took me forever to finish and I wasn't entirely happy with the way it turned out but they loved it and were very impressed. (It's easy to impress people who don't quilt.)

And now it's time to get back to regular sewing and start the next quilt. After being so busy for weeks I hardly know what to do with myself now but at the same time I don't feel really motivated by any particular project or idea. It might take me a few days to get started on something.

Someone once called the week between Christmas and New Year's "the quiet week at the bottom of the year." I like that - a week in which it's okay to just do nothing, (or as little as possible) to reflect, to re-group, to read a book and drink hot tea, or just sit back and watch the Mythbusters mega-marathon. (or whatever series you like to binge on) It sort of seems like a bonus week. So, whatever you're doing with your bonus week, happy new year and happy sewing and crafting.

Creepy Christmas Cards

Hello all. No sewing to show off right now. Sewing clothes has recently taken a back seat to quilting as I try to finish two(!) quilts by Christmas. I have successfully completed one. The other? Not looking too good right now.

Anyway, I really just wanted to share this collection of weird Victorian Christmas cards. (50+) Some of them are cute but most are like "What the H__?!" and a few are seriously creepy. Which is your favorite and which one most creeps you out?

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone.

Still Here, Still Sewing

Oops. It's been ages since I updated this thing. I have been sewing; (when I haven't had my face in a really awesome science fiction novel) the problem is that I haven't been photographing. I mentioned the long sleeved t-shirt. I also finished a little pink bolero style jacket but I kinda want to wait until I have something else new to show off with it at the same time. I'm in the middle of making a little outfit for my granddaughter.

I have also been working on a long neglected quilt. See, here's what happened. My husband has three brothers and two sisters and I got this brilliant idea that I was going to make a quilt for each of them and their spouses. I got two done and started a third but that one didn't go well and I started to not like it so I lost motivation to work on it. It's been - I can't remember - three or four years since I started it. I recently went back to working on it and I'm getting close to finishing it. I have lots of ideas for other quilts so that's my main motivation right now - finish this one so I can move on to the next.

I love hand quilting. I want to say it's "so zen" but I think we Americans probably don't understand what that word really means. We have a habit of picking up any word we like the sound of and giving it whatever meaning is convenient for us. That's not entirely a bad thing but sometimes it makes us look like idiots to the rest of the world. But anyway, there's something about hand sewing, doing the same stitch over and over again - some people find it unbearably tedious but I find it relaxing and peaceful.

So, since I don't have any new pictures to share right now, I'm going to go deep into my Flickr account and find a couple of old quilt pictures, just to have something to post here.

This is one I made for my sister-in-law. I don't have a picture of the whole thing, just this close-up.

And here's one I made for my younger son. He picked out the colors. This was, I think, the second quilt I ever made. I have always loved the tumbling blocks pattern. This is one of two that I have done.