Category: Crafts

Stitch weekend?

Originally planned as a get-a-way stitch weekend with my friend Sarah, we both got busy and never got around to booking anything.  Turned out just fine however, we spent Saturday together, mostly stitching and got to meet up with some of our other stitching friends for a few hours as well.

Stitching progress on Celtic Banner:

Compass is officially done, mostly I worked on the border

Ryan had to work all weekend, although he did make it home in time for dinner Saturday and Sunday they evacuated the building (9/11/11) so he came home to work for most of the day.

Sunday turned out pretty productive for me, I watched a movie in the morning since I was up early and it was too chilly outside yet.  Then after taking Fitz for his long walk I worked on window panels.  I decided to do everything I could reach without a ladder (the ladder had a HUGE spider web on it – wasn’t touching it!).  Plus the vertical panels really need 2 people anyhow.

So I got the window sill in all around the rest of the diningroom panels, then finished the lower panels.

The large diningroom window just needed the flat panel part added in and the sill finished.
The back window just needed the sills finished, the vertical pieces put in and the panel added. The back panel I had to do entirely.

I was very happy with how long this took (not too long) but it was a LOT of back and forth (inside to cut and back out) so it tired me out.  So once I was done I decided a nap was in order (Fitz agreed), then I wandered upstairs to do a little sewing.  I made some more progress on the Tangled costume for Maia.  I re-did the top (and now it works) and started on the skirts.  I’ll post some pictures this week after I make a bit more progress on it.

Now it’s time for bed and a full work week starting tomorrow.  I’m very glad I had such a relaxing weekend!

Tangled Halloween Costume

I’ve started the first of 3 halloween costumes (last week actually, just little by little in the evenings).  So I got the top cut out and started putting it together last night.  I hit a spot in the directions where I was COMPLETELY lost and couldn’t figure out what they were trying to do – this is a first for me, sometimes I need to read it a few times but I was really lost this time.

Finally I just continued forward doing what I thought they might be saying but the ‘folding’ was throwing me off.  It involves lots of eyelets so after I got them all put in I took a look and finally realized what the directions were saying – I needed to fold the front before putting the eyelets in so they went through 2 layers of the top fabric !!! UGG!

Not a big deal to cut out the front pieces again and redo it – but the eyelets were a huge pain with this satin material – not looking forward to doing that part again 🙁  lesson learned though!  The directions are horrible, i’ll have to write some notes down in case I ever do something similar in the future!

Still Here

Seems I dropped off the blogosphere after our closet finished huh?  Well let me fill you in…

The last weekend of our vacation we went back to NY for my nephew’s welcome baby bbq.  Then Irene decided she was attending and we had to cancel so we drove home Saturday night.  That meant Sunday was actually an unexpected day at the house – did I get anything done – no.  Why?  Because Saturday night I didn’t feel well so I didn’t sleep well so I slept most of Sunday!

Monday brought work again and Ryan’s new job started up.  This means that while I’m also busy due to a new program at work, Ryan is even busier and has a longer commute (mine is tough to beat too!).  So I’m on full time dog duty as well as house everything duty.  This leaves less time for much else BUT I have been getting a start on halloween costumes!

The black cat costume was put together and tried out, it needs a little adjusting and then it needs embelishment.  That’s a quick one.  I also started the top for Maia’s dress, go the pieces cut out.  I’ll post pictures after I’ve done some actual sewing 🙂

Camping?! this weekend – depends how Knox is (is it a swamp after Irene) and how the weather is.  Either way we’ll be seeing family this weekend and Irene is not coming!

Girly Thursday

Yesterday since the cousins were over we spent the day hanging out with them.  We baked (fresh blueberry muffins!) and ate (said muffins for sure) and shopped!

The halloween costume breakdown is this:

Looking forward to this year, they picked out some great fabrics!

After taking the girls home and staying for a late dinner (and some guitar hero), we came home and I got the final coat on the closet trim!  The closet is officially ready for sanding (walls) and the closet system install.  We’re heading to home depot now!

Celtic Compass

I’ve been continuing to work on Celtic Banner when I have free time and it’s coming right along! I had to take a picture before I scrolled so I could complete the compass.  This is my progress as of Sunday night.

North, West and East done.

My goal is to finish the compass before putting this piece down and getting back to Autumn (probably just in time for Autumn).

Herb quilt

Yesterday I worked from home because I had a cold, in the evening ryan had ZBA so I pulled out my herb quilt which just needed borders and got that finished up.

Herb quilt with borders

Borders are my least favorite part of quilting so it’s nice to have it done enough to plan out the quilting part now. Since this piece has stitching I’m not going to do much more than in the ditch quilting, although the border has lots of room for some free-style. This gives me the perfect excuse to buy the walking foot for my machine though 🙂

Feeling much better today so I’m taking advantage of the extra hours at home (no commute today either) to catch up one work.

Celtic Banner

Finally a picture of what Sarah and I worked on Saturday.  We are both stitching Celtic Banner, using a green color scheme but she’s using pinks for contrast and I’m using just purples, not being a pink fan myself.

Celtic Banner Recap

We started stitching Celtic Banner in August of 2006 on a long weekend in Maine.  I continued to work on it about once a week through 2006, finishing up the alphabet in December.

In August 2007 we went back to Maine for a long craft weekend where we continued working on Celtic Banner, I finished up the next 2 motifs after the alphabet there…

Motif 1 after alphabet
Second motif (love this one!)

In 2008 I did not go up to maine due to the wedding (and I didn’t really stitch due to wedding preparations) so Celtic Banner sat on the side lines waiting for my life to slow down a bit again.

In 2009 it was back to Maine for our long weekend of stitching!  And stitch we did!  Lots of progress was made.

Lots of bands finished up
Final progress in June 2009

And that brings us to the present unfortunately.  I did actually stitch more than what is shown above, that big knot was almost finished when I picked up the Banner on Saturday.

So after our Saturday stitch I finished up that big knot in the center and Sunday and Monday night I worked on the border and then started just a bit of the compass below it.

Current progress!

Once that compass I’m working on is done I’ll be done with page 3 and started on page 4 (4 page pattern!).  The end really is in sight.  I’d like to keep working on this piece for a while, at least till I get ambivalent to it, right now it’s the only thing I ‘want’ to stitch so i’m sticking to it!

A day off with my nephew

Yesterday I took a half day off of work and went down to visit my sister and nephew. He’s just over 2 months old and he’s such a cutie. He’s tiny but he’s very alert and was looking around at everything all day yesterday. It was a great time to visit because he decided to stay awake all day again for me.

Say Hi Jason!

Let me help you, take that pacifier out so you can say hi.

Waving hi 🙂

It was a hot day so he spent the evening in just his diaper to cool off a bit and then it was on to muscle shirt number two for the evening and some tummy time (at which time he promptly fell asleep).
Tummy time!

And he's out 🙂

I even got to spend some time with him this morning (he was hungry though) before heading in to work.
Bye bye little jason, I will definitely see you soon!
bye bye for now

While I was over I added the tabs to the wall hanging for Jason’s room so they can hang it up. I also remembered to take some pictures of it finished since the only time I did it was with my dad’s camera.
Wall hanging for little Jason

Closeups - I designed the monkey based on one of the fabrics in the quilt.

The rest of the animals were part of the pattern.

Just one last thing to sew, a skirt for the crib. Should be a quick one and I was tempted to do it last weekend but it was too hot to go up and spend time in the sewing room!

Sewing while flying

On Monday I flew out to CA for work, I almost missed my flight, waking up at 5am instead of 3:30 as planned but somehow made my 5:45 flight thanks to being packed the night before and Ryan driving me to the airport.
I had planned on working on the flight but couldn’t VPN the night before and download the documents I wanted to read so that was a bust and I was up much later than planned trying (hence the over sleeping). However I can’t complain because I got the applique on my nephew’s quilt all finished! They look a little funny without faces (that’s next) and it’s all beads and embroidery. Most of the animals are from a pattern but I drew out the monkey based on the monkey in the fabric to match.

Applique done!

I didn’t get any other sewing done this week, just worked every waking hour and then took a red-eye home (during which i attempted to sleep which was almost impossible). I’m finally home and ready to work some more but Ryan has plans tonight so if work goes well I hope to work on the quilt some more tonight!