Category: Making

sewing, Wardrobe Improvement Project

Everyone needs a Plan

 

I have a closet of clothes that are either showing their age or don’t fit me well. It’s already known that shopping and I are not friends. I thought I’d written up a more recent rant than this one or this one. The short version: I’m tall, I’m reasonably narrow, I tend toward classic/minimalist style with a touch of romantic/bohemian, I’m excessively practical. End result: very little ready-to-wear clothing actually fits me and I’m endlessly frustrated by poor quality and trends that assume I have nothing to do except look pretty. My clothing should not require special handling (no regular …

Introspection, sewing, Wardrobe Improvement Project

Appearances Matter (news only to me)

I’m a freelancing, work-from-home techie mom, a crafter, and a gardener with small-scale urban homesteading tendencies. I cook, I clean, I do a lot of laundry. I’ll usually make the first attempt at various home maintenance tasks. I tend three gardens: the ornamental front yard, the edible backyard, the p-patch plot down the street. I can spend a large part of my day at my desk with my computer or at my other desk with my sewing machine. Most days, the farthest I travel is all the way across the street to the mailbox. When I travel further, I’m usually …

crochet

Something finished!

 

I learned to crochet when I was a kid. I probably made some pot holders, although mostly what I remember is really coarse yarn (I think it had a high synthetic content) and squares that wouldn’t stay square. Interest waned, and I eventually took up my fabric habit instead of a yarn habit. But my particular fabric habit doesn’t travel well. I don’t piece by hand, quilt tops are generally too big to carry along on outings, and the embroidery and cross-stitch I do isn’t something I can do while in conversation. I needed small projects that I could pick …

quilts

More Half-Square Triangles

 

The theme for the month at the Craftsy BOM this time around is Half-Square Triangles. Instructor Amy Gibson covered the traditional “drawn-line” method (layer your squares, draw a diagonal line, sew on either side, cut apart) and the alternative “magic” method (layer your larger squares, sew around all four sides, make two diagonal cuts). A little funny that I’m HST-ing twice this month. This block is a traditional design, a Windblown Star or a Balkan Puzzle. Favorite block this time around, and perhaps of all four so far (January’s are here). I’m also really happy with my color selections, although …

quilts

Pass the veggies

 

As mentioned previously, I’ve gone a little sampler/block of the month crazy. It’s like my eyes being bigger than my stomach at a buffet or something. Like one handful of chocolate chips is good, so two must be better. Just to prove I don’t know when to say “Enough!”, I was almost-seriously thinking about joining an online quilting bee, although that was more about making connections with other people than with participating in a dozen more quilts. I probably should find a way to work on the social thing without giving myself more to do…. Anyway, I’ve finished the first …

quilts

Catching up with the Bloggers’ BOM

 

With a little sunshine here, I’ve finally gotten some photos of the Blogger’s BOM blocks from the last three months! November’s block, a “Split Star”. Part of me wishes that I’d done a little deviating so that the patterned fabric in the third row from the top was vertical and matched the other instances of that fabric.  Not really sure I’ll tear out the seams and make that happen, though.