Sunday Serenity #135

This was taken from our picnic tables at Touville Park on the Rogue River today. That is not actually the other side of the river showing but the edge of the island splitting the river in two--into an oxbow is it? Anyway it was a pleasant site not to mention full of pleasant sights. Breezy, sun-dappled.

My nieces parents were there and I expected her to go home with them but she returned to her grandparent's house with us and she and I holed up in my room and watched several more Gilmore girls episodes before Ed needed the bed and then we moved into the front room and watched more. We quit at 3AM (Monday) She to sleep and me to finish the sewing project I've been focused on for the last several days.

A birthday present for my sister whose birthday was Saturday. Ed said he would get it shipped overnight for me if I had it ready by 7:30 Monday morning.


I guess it is ready. I'm not as thrilled with the result as I was with the concept. I could not for the life of me keep my stitches going straight or of similar size. For most of the time I was taking out more stitches than I left in until I finally gave in to the reality that I wouldn't have it ready for her next birthday if I kept holding such a high standard for every stitch.

I consoled myself with the thought that most people would not be looking as close as I was--through magnifying lenses from two inches away. Or at least let's hope not considering where the design will be setting once she is wearing the tank top.

I used the embroidery stitch known as the back stitch to create at diamond shape traced by rows of color in the approximate positions of the colors in a rainbow.

Oh, well. I guess the important point to focus on is that I actually started a project for a specific gift occasion and finished it within a week of the occasion. Even more amazing, I finished a project inside a week of starting it. More amazing still, I gathered the materials for, started and finished a project inside of a month of first conceiving of it. All of these are significant WINS. Big time pluses worth kudos and back pats and victory Vs.

I also dressed two of the naked crochet bookmarks today and then gave them to my sister-in-law (my nieces mother) in recognition of her having just graduated with honors from college. I took both the tank top project and the portable bookmark wardrobe with me to the park but I forgot to take something to use as a backdrop for the pictures of the finished bookmarks. I improvised with a paper plate which wasn't ideal. But better than no pictures at all.

Read more...

High Priority Sewing and Craft Project in Progress

Several of the sewing projects I've got going which. These and more will be described individually below.

I am embarking on a finishing project for the several sewing and craft projects I have going. I'm hoping that by posting about it here, I will be more motivated to stick to a plan to wrap most of them up in the next six to eight months.

As you can see my working environment in this room is often compromised so its nice to be able to take a project elsewhere. I also like to take a project with me whenever I leave the house. I never know when a free minute or two might be available. And pulling out a needle or crochet project is more acceptable socially than pulling out a book. :)



Below, in no particular order, are the in-progress sewing and craft projects I currently have in portable condition and which are also high priority:

• The sixteen naked bookmarks discussed extensively in yesterday's post. I'm planning to offer several as prizes for the next Read-a-thon in October. And more are slated for birthday and Christmas gifts over the next year.
  
  This picture is not current. It was taken over a month ago in Longview and a few of those have been finished and given away. And many more added.
  
  
  
  
• The sweet pea vine embroidery on my Mom's sweater which I've promised her she'll have by the time it is cool enough to wear it in Washington--early October.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The tank top I'm embroidering the neckline for my sister's birthday--this week!! Not even started yet!!! But I want her to have it for a road trip she is taking later this month. The design I have planned is very simple and shouldn't take me long.
  
  
  
  
• A needlepoint three panel Bible cover with room for a note tablet for my niece whose birthday was also this week so I'm aiming for Christmas.
  
  Again--sigh.
  
  I started this for her sixteenth birthday and she just turned 25.
  
  But at least I finished the needlepoint step while in Longview. Now I need to turn the edges in and cut out the cloth for the lining and sew it on.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A needlepoint three panel notebook and file cover for myself. Still have several hours of stitching on the front and then sewing on the lining. No time pressure I guess though I did start this a year before I started the Bible cover for my niece. Sigh.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Several embroidery, needlepoint or cross stitch bookmarks and book covers slated for Christmas or birthday presents in the coming year.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A needlepoint on plastic canvas cover (front and back) for a writing tablet. It's to include space for filing loose pages and carrying writing implements. Maybe stamps and envelopes as well.. Not begun yet but planned and all materials gathered for it.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A needlepoint on plastic canvas cover for a small spiral notebook like the one I made for my traveling writer's notebook.
  
  I always intended to make a second one either for a different purpose notebook for myself or for a gift. I bought the materials for two when I made the first one in 2005. That one only took a week from the day the materials were bought because I was highly motivated by the fact the original covers on my writer's notebook were falling off.
  
  
  
  
  
• A 10x10 inch petit point mandala. Petit point is needlepoint that is more than 16 stitches per line inch. I believe this one is 18 count but I didn't stop and count while taking the picture. This will probably be a wall-hanging but possibly something functional like a notebook cover or purse. I started it once but there are no patterns or pictures with it and I can't remember my plan except the concept 'mandala' though possibly I was going to try free-form--make it up as I went. I'm not currently loving what I see here so I'm probably going to take out what is already there and restart it. Maybe I'm not cut out for free-form? But maybe I should make myself give it a whirl anyway. As an exercise in trusting the creative process.
  
• A long sleeved red blouse needing mending at the seams in several places and one sleeve's hem. Would be nice to have it wearable by October.
• A short sleeved blue and gray shirt needing mending on the shoulder seams.
  
  
  
  
• A long sleeved white blouse with over long sleeves which I wish to blouse with elastic at the wrist. I want it wearable no later than October 1st.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• A blue table cloth with a white geometric design embroidered around the edge. It's too small to be a dining table cloth and probably not of the right fabric for it either. I was picturing it as a runner for a dresser, upright piano, or lamp table.
  
  I've also considered making it into a throw by backing it with fleece or flannel. I was excited about it when I bought the thread for it ten years ago but I've packed it around with me ever since and keep dithering on design and function. It was once meant as a gift but I may choose to make it for our future home. We are going to be more bereft of the furnishings and decor for our next place than we were as newlyweds seeing as there won't be a bridal shower and wedding presents and we are starting from nearly scratch. So if I don't settle on what and who in time for this to be a Christmas gift this year, I'll aim for finishing it for our home sometime in the next year.
  
• The knee length wind breaker which my sister scorched with the iron across the left breast in 2007 while trying to iron on one small butterfly to cover a small tear and then ironed on a bouquet of butterflies to cover the scorched area but the edges of the iron on pieces keep curling and starting to peel off after washing so we brainstormed the idea of sewing an outline of sequins around tha edges. I would like to have that ready to wear by the time the weather permits--probably mid to late October.
  
  
• The dolphin cross stitch which is 90 percent finished. The only cross stitches left are the decorative metalic gold ones framing the picture. I've got one of the two rows going around about a third done. Then there are a lot of other decorative and enhancing stitches that need to be applied--more akin to embroidery than cross stitch per se.
  
  Neither the dolphin nor the orca project (below) are small really but they are compact and portable to the extent I could work on them here on my side of the bed, out in the yard or in the living room when there is company as long as I have the necessary light source.
  
• The orca cross stitch barely begun. Both these cross stitch kits were bought the year Ed got his Silicon Valley job 1999-2000 and started before he lost it and we were forced to move in with his parents in 2001. I was making them to hang on the walls of our beautiful double wide mobile home in Sunnyvale. I lost heart for the projects when we lost that home. But Ed thinks we are less than a year from being able to have our own place again. In light of which I would like to put my heart back into them as a token of my faith that will really happen this time. I'm picturing them gracing the walls of our new place.

Read more...