Projects: completed!

It’s Friday (good), but I’m up early (bad). Shawn had to go to work early this morning, which means that the dog got up early, which means that I needed to get up early. His early departure also meant that Shawn did not make the coffee this morning (really bad), so forgive me if I’m not exactly coherent. I also woke up this morning feeling like I got too much sun yesterday – like my skin is stretched too tightly over my body (also bad). I firmly believe that you should never really feel your skin. And as much as I like having a “healthy glow,” that’s countered by the fact that I’m terrified of looking like a piece of worn-out leather when I’m older. That and skin cancer.

Wow. I really digressed there. Anywho…the point of this little entry was supposed to be to show you what crafty goodness I’ve been working on. So let’s go.

I finally finished the quilt that I feel like I’ve been working on forever! It’s currently covering the bed in our guest room. I have a matching quilt top pieced, but my fingers need a break before I start quilting that one. Sometimes I wish I had a machine that could do the quilting for me, but that just doesn’t seem as special as hand quilted ones.

While trying to get this house organized, I also put together a set of bedside organizers from this book. They’re pretty spiffy – a set of pockets for each side of the bed. They’re connected with a piece of fabric that runs across the bed, under the mattress. Ingenious!

Shawn had requested a new bag for work that didn’t “look as girly” as my other bags. So after many discussions about color/style/features, I came up with this design for a Man Bag. He claims to like it so far. And it goes to work with him every day.

No photo, but a few days ago I made a pair of yoga pants using this pattern. I didn’t really check the measurements on the pattern to my body before I started, which was a little bit of a problem. I know it says it’s an “adult” size, but I would call it an “adult small.” So I ended up adding some gussets in the center front and center back seam after the fact. However, it is also important to remember that the fabric will stretch while you wear it. Which I learned when I wore the pants yesterday and they were practically falling off me by the end of the day. So I think there’s going to be a little more fidgeting with them – perhaps removing the gusset in the front (it looked a little weird anyway). Since I’m using my serger to do all this, it’s not really a big deal to make these adjustments. Overall, I really like the pattern and it’s a good way to use an old (extra large) t-shirt.

That’s all I’ve accomplished for now. As you can see, I was pretty excited to get my sewing machines back (in one piece!) after packing them up in April. But don’t you worry – there are more projects in the works.

(And Laika loves to help.)