Friday night and Saturday morning we got some great progress done on our individual projects this weekend already. I worked one the curtains for Aimee’s nursery (finished them by 11:30 on Saturday!) and Ryan made great progress on the built-ins for the tvroom.
Friday night he made the face frame for the right side cabinet in there, and Saturday morning he attached it and made the face frame for the left side. Then he played with his router bit that he hopes to use for the doors.
The built-ins with face frames!The router detail we plan to use on the doors, we just have to pick a type of panel to use, this would be a flat panel option.
After a trip to home depot I headed down to Aimee’s house to see her and my nephew again. He didn’t really wake up much during our visit but he did move around a bit and attempt to open his eyes for split seconds here and there, then fell into a comfy sleep (probably after he filled his diaper).
I’ll post pictures of the curtains tomorrow once they are hanging in the nursery, they don’t look like much all folded up and I can’t wait to see them hanging!
Wednesday and Thursday night this week I worked on the applique for my nephew’s wall hanging. Here it is Wed night, the giraffe is done (minus the embroidery face) and the elephant body is attached. Thursday night I also attached the sun.
Giraffe done!
The applique goes so much faster than I remember and now I know why I love applique, it’s just been too long!
I got some sewing done tonight – the valances for my sister’s nursery!
Monkey valance
I made two of them, they go with the curtains I’m still working on (one window done, one to go on those).
Valance with the curtains
Then because I won’t be home tomorrow night to sew, I got some of the animals for the quilt ready to applique and started on those – the giraffe first. This quilt will have 4 animals total.
Applique giraffe started
In only 10 minutes or so I have more than half of the giraffe body attached already so I realized I need to go back up and prepare a few more pieces to bring, other than just the giraffe or else I’ll be doing something else tomorrow night since this will finish up quickly.
In car news – the relay switch that controls the secondary fan has gone wonky and is kicking the fan on all the time when the car is off. This is draining the battery and now I need a new relay and a new battery. At least I know which relay, it’s not too difficult to get to (4 bolts), so I’ll probably get a new battery tomorrow and remove the relay when I park the car until the new relay comes in (had to be ordered). Pain in the butt having to jump my car to start it every time!
Well the cold hit hard but fast and I seem to be doing much better now. I’ve learned from past experience that the cough that persists can be cleared up with my Advaire Rx if I start it once my cold subsides and it’s been helping again. So I’m ready for the weekend (well after I get all my work done for today that is – got quite a back load from this week) 🙂
In other ‘mending’ news I did manage a little sewing. I finally finished the second panel for my sister’s curtains! 2 more panels to go!
tab top curtains for window 1
And rather than start right on the next pair I decided to pull out the fun fabrics and get a start on the wall hanging. There’s applique involved so I wanted to make sure to start early enough on this. I got the rail blocks done (only 3) and I cut the matching strips for the crip quilt which is going to need 3 or so more fabrics before it can be pieced. I also had to draw a monkey for applique because there isn’t one in the wall hanging, the zebra is going to be replaced. You can see a picture of the wallhanging and crib quilt here along with my monkey and my blocks.
Wallhanging start for my nephew
This weekend we’re doing the floor in they gym! I am So excited. That room will be done very soon now!
Well this weekend went by pretty quickly. Since we’re on hold with the insulation we have to keep the livingroom/diningroom empty. This meant my plans to move the tables out of the gym to start crown molding did not happen (no place to put the tables until we can use the diningroom again). However Ryan had to work all weekend any how so we wouldn’t have gotten much done. He stayed home Friday to clear snow off the many lower roofs but had work to make up the rest of the weekend. The snow clearing on Friday went well though and the warm spell we had really cleared things up even more.
So I mostly relaxed, did some stitching and some sewing. Sunday I got started on the curtains for my sister. I’m making lined tab-top curtains with a white/green polka dot fabric. Then I’ll make a solid green shade that matches and a cute valance. First up was the curtains and I got one panel finished, the second one close to finished. There are 2 windows in the room so I still have 2 (and a half) more panels to finish up before I can start the valance or shades.
Anyway, here are my progress pictures from this weekend:
Progress on Autumn in my GardenOne curtain panel done (hanging) and one in progress (on table).
The curtains so far have been easy and fun. I haven’t decided on the style shade yet but I did decide I don’t need blackout lining or anything. If I hold the lining, curtain fabric, lining, shade fabric all up together they definitely block out the light. So I can use the regular lining I have for both curtains and shades.
This week – friday probably – we’ll get the insulation finished hopefully and next weekend resume work on the house. I’m looking forward to it!
Halloween costumes for 2010 are finished up and dropped off as of last night. Wednesday night I finished up the princess dress no problem, then attached the collar to the Black cat shirt and the sequins to the ears. Thursday night I attached the ears to the headband.
And pictures!
Maia in Arie's pink dress Chloe the black catAll threeExcited for Halloween
I love making costumes for the girls every year. They really appreciate it and now that they get to pick out the fabrics it’s something I’m doing with them. Every year I hope we have a little more time together and they can help with sewing, but we’re all so busy. Maybe next year they can sew a bit on their costumes and learn the process. Anyhow – that’s over for the year, I didn’t get my own costume done although I could bring it back to NY and work on it Saturday at my mom’s house – tempting!
That wasn’t too hard – I got the overskirt for Maia’s princess dress all done tonight. I’m going to locate the pattern for the underskirt and maybe even cut the fabric tonight but otherwise I’m pretty much done for the night.
I don’t know if this will end up really looking like Ariel’s dress but I think it’s a very cute pink dress and I think Maia will love it since she picked out all the fabric and embellishments. Tomorrow night – finish the dress and do some hand sewing to finish up the Black Cat! Thursday is my backup night but I’d like to drop the costumes off Thursday night.
Overskirt done!
The overskirt is “hemmed” with a matching pink wired ribbon Maia picked out. I think the wire is actually a neat idea because we/she can kind of form the overskirt however she wants and it should stay put.
Just getting an idea for what it will look like with a pink skirt underneath and the daisy embellishment.
I love making dresses like these! Of course I say that before attempting to put in a zipper (it’s been a while) 🙂
On Saturday we had quite a busy day. We had some visitors as well as my sister and her husband who came up for the night.
We worked a bit on the deck and used up the rest of the decking, we didn’t quite close up the gap but it’s down to about 12 inches.
Some new supports to help get rid of the sag.New decking down!stained
We had our night visitor again so we have little critter foot prints across the wet stain AGAIN. Next time I’m putting up barbed wire for the night!
Aimee and I spent the evening up in the sewing room after dinner working on halloween costumes. I got Georgia’s Gypsy costume finished up with Aimee’s help on the belt. I was quite happy with this one, it was fun. The only problem was that the belt is made of a plastic-y material that can’t be ironed which was a pain. It looks like fake leather though so it’s a nice affect.
Gypsy costume finished.
Sunday was the girls’ birthday party so after breakfast we headed over to Uncle Pete’s house for lunch, presents and cake. Georgia got her costume – the other two will get theirs on Friday…
Georgia the Gypsy for 2010
I’ll post pictures of Maia and Chloe when they try their costumes on later in the week.
When we got home I started right back on the costumes. Chloe’s black cat is just about finished after some planned hand sewing. I wanted to get it ready to bring with me to Becca’s house tomorrow night (I’m staying the night) so I can finish it there.
Black Cat costume - ears and collar left to finish by hand.
Then I started on Maia’s dress. I decided to just cut and sew the bodice, leaving the skirt for Tuesday and Wednesday night.
Pink princess dress top done
So the costumes are on track to be finished by friday at least. It’s a little late this year but they’ll get to do trick-or-treating friday and sunday in them. Then the real question is if I’ll get to working on my costume at all 🙂
Well time to call it a night, I have to get in to work at a decent time since I’m leaving early to watch the nieces – I can’t wait!
Last night I decided to get a start on the Gypsy costume for Georgia. I would really like to have both Georgia and Chloe’s costumes done for their party on Sunday. Knowing the Black Cat costume is pretty easy (just a shirt/ears/tail left) I decided to see how hard the Gypsy costume would be.
I cut out the pattern, then cut out the fabric and got the dress all sewn together. The only part of the dress left is to sew the ribbon details on the bottom. Then I have to make the scarf and belt which are both pretty easy (the scarf is already cut out, just needs fringe added to it.
The dress - this thing could fit me except for the arm holes! It's like a mumu.
This dummy is larger than me so it’s also not formed exactly how it will look on an 11 year old – it should drape more on her. Then I decided to cut out the scarf (it’s just a square) and use the material that will be a fitted belt to get a closer look at how the costume will look when finished. So here it is with a little more shape. The scarf will have red fringe at the bottom and the belt will have gromets and be tied in the front with yellow ribbon – this will be quite fun to make!
A better idea of what it will actually look like.
That was it for my night! The roofers showed up nice and early this morning. We got to talk to them about the extra hole we saw up there and they’re going to fix that hopefully. I also wanted to verify they would be putting ice shield under the copper now that we could see it’s just bare wood up there. I can’t wait to see what kind of progress they make today!
October is a month of sewing! I have to finish up Emily’s birthday quilt before this weekend when we see her and then I have to get 3 halloween costumes done for my cousins as well as maybe one for myself this year?!
So Tuesday night I squared up the quilt and made the binding. Last night I attached the binding (still have to do all the hand sewing).
Binding attached ... ready to finish up!
Then I started on costumes, opting to start with Chloe’s costume first. Chloe is going to be a Black Cat which is the simplest of all the costumes (hence the reason I’m starting it first) – it’s all one fabric plus some embellishments. I don’t have an actual pattern so I am just winging it. I started with a pair of pants – going with the pirate pattern I’ve used for 2 costumes already as a base. Since pirate pants are short I had to adjust them but I got the basic line from the pattern. I whipped up the pants in an hour. Next up is the top and some ears and a tale!
Black cat pants all done
I will probably do Georgia’s costume next – a Gypsie – which has a pattern so should be easy and she picked some really fun fabrics and embellishments. Then I’ll do the princess dress for Maia, again, following a pattern and it’s lots of pink fabrics!
