The best thing

I help people make things every day, but one project in particular this year has meant more to me than all the others combined.  A friend and former co-worker lost his battle with ALS on February 20 this year.  For the past few months, I've been helping his young widow make two patchwork duvet covers for their small daughters from his t-shirts.  Today, she finished, just in time to wrap them up for Christmas.  I can just imagine the girls snuggling under their daddy's shirts as their mom tucks them in at night.

I am so happy for her, but I'm also feeling a renewed sense of loss.  I've enjoyed getting to know her better during our hours together in the shop.  I've enjoyed reminiscing about Tony.  I've enjoyed spending time with their precious daughters.  I'm sure I'll still see her around, but I'm going to miss our time together.  When I got home tonight, I couldn't stop thinking about Tony and the family he left behind, so I visited his blog, www.dontshrink.com.  I hadn't visited since a few days after his death, so I hadn't realized that Amanda had picked up writing where he left off.  I've been reading with tears streaming down my face for hours, partially from missing Tony, but even more from heartbreak for my new friend, Amanda.  Life has dealt her a tough hand, but she has played it with strength, dignity, humor and humility.  I am honored that she let me be a part of this project, and hopeful that this is the beginning of a new friendship.

Lots of little things

This week was eaten up by lots of little projects, mostly for other people.

• I transferred 11 patches from one boy scout shirt to another.  Pure tedium.  I hate using invisible thread almost as much as I hate sewing things onto sleeves.  Put the two together and  - UGH!
• I hand embroidered a recipient's name onto a quilt her grandmother made her.  Fun, but fiddly.  I prefer to do hand embroidery BEFORE a project is finished, sandwiched and quilted.  I had to be careful to make sure I only went through the top layer of the quilt, not all the way to the back.  I turned out really nice, but, of course, I forgot to take a photo.
• I made some tooth fairy pillows for my nephew since he has his first ever loose tooth.  They chose the brown one, so I guess I'll sell the green one since all my other tooth fairy pillows have sold out.

Tooth Fairy Pillow

Back of Tooth Fairy Pillow where tooth/money goes

They chose this one for my nephew

I wonder how much teeth will cost in their household.

However, some of my finishes were for ME!  I finally wove in the ends of my Isadora Cowl - I've worn it twice already this week; it is so warm and cozy!

We all know by now that my favorite color is orange, right?

I sewed together these orphan pinwheel blocks that were in a bag of donated fabric.  Now what to do with them?

It currently measures 16" x 22".

Do they want to be a mini/doll quilt?  This is about the right size for an American Girl doll, right?  Or are they the start of an Orphan Quilt since I somehow lost the Orphan quilt I finished in July 2010.  I don't even have photos of it anymore.  :(

I have some other little things to get done before heading back to work on Tuesday.

• The person I knit the Little Avery Sweater for, along with a matching hat, has now asked for another hat for a friend.  I'll try to get that done today and in the mail tomorrow.
• Next week's project with the after school program kids is an apron.  We've done some full aprons in the past, so part of me wants to make half aprons.  Anyone have a half apron pattern that they love?  I hope to whip up a sample on Monday.
• And just because no weekend is complete for me without some quality reading time, I want to finish my current cozy (A Novel Time To Die - A Black Cat Bookshop mystery) and spend some more time with Claire and Jamie in Dragonfly in Amber (the second of the Outlander series).  Last weekend I read The Cat, The Sneak and The Secret, the latest of the Cats in Trouble mysteries.  If you like cozies and you haven't read those, the protagonist is a quilter - BONUS!

Well, and then there's that holiday sneaking up on me, the one for which I have done NO creating, NO decorating and NO shopping.  I need to get on the ball!  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, y'all!

Getting into the spirit of things!

I'm that mom who is always too busy to decorate for the holidays, the one who buys the Christmas tree on December 23 (but on the upside, it is usually only half-price by then!).  I promised my kids that it would be different this year.  I still refuse to decorate before December starts, but I'm trying to catch the holiday spirit earlier this year. (and by holiday spirit, I mean decorating spirit.  I believe in holding onto the real "holiday spirit", the spirit of loving and caring for one another, all year long)  So, true to my word, I'm getting started.  I'm teaching a Magic Christmas Stocking class at the shop in a couple of weeks, and a trio of girls from W&L stopped by this week to make some while they were on break from classes.

As I cleaned up our fabric and batting scraps, I got to thinking...what if I made some little stockings, too, for decorating or for giving gift cards?  So, rather than add to my scrap bins, I starting cutting and sewing and before I knew it, I had made 12 mini stockings!!!  I may be slightly addicted.  I still have fabric scraps picked out to make more.

Tomorrow, I plan to put the tree up in my shop window.  I'm pretty sure I'm the only store in town that isn't decorated for the holidays yet.  But usually, I have some vendors who bring in ornaments for sale that I use to decorate the tree, and this year, they are behind schedule.  I can't put up a tree with no ornaments, right?  And I'm too cheap to go out and buy some.  What's a gal to do?  MAKE SOME!

Oh, happy day!  I knew all those plastic thread spools would come in handy!  Using just scraps of ribbon, fabric and beads that I already have on hand, I whipped up 7 ornaments already, and have the fabric strips cut and the paper peeled off the tops/bottoms of the spools to make another 40 or so.  I kept getting interrupted as I did this at work on Small Business Saturday (people are SERIOUS about getting their shopping done! which is GREAT for me, as a shop owner), so I hope to finish them up tomorrow while the shop is closed.

Any other quick and easy ideas for me to decorate using what I have on hand?  I am open to suggestions.  What are YOU doing to decorate this holiday season?

Flipping the script

Have you seen that gorgeous plaid string quilt in Julie K's blog header?  I've been wanting one just like it ever since I first laid eyes on hers.  This fall, I finally started it.  I am using phone book pages as the foundation for my 8" string blocks.  I have a ton of homespuns I have collected over the years for just such a project.  I was sure it would be a quick project; after all, I've made string quilts before.

I was wrong. It's been two and a half months since I started, and this is all I've got.

I've got a LONG way to go!

For some reason, I just haven't been inspired to go down to the sewing room and work on it.  I've been scratching my head about this, trying to figure it out, and I think I finally have an answer.  Even though I am using a variety of plaids in this quilt, and even though I am so excited to have the final result of all those wonderful plaids playing together, working with plaids just isn't all that exciting to me.  Part of the reason I love making scrappy quilts is that I love not knowing what scrap is going to come out to the pile next - a repro? a novelty print? a calico? a geometric? a floral?  With this quilt, I know - whichever piece I pull out will be a plaid.  Ho hum.

So today, I flipped the script.  I'll still work on this quilt, but as a leader and ender project while I work on something else.  Have I finished my log cabin quilt yet? Nope.  How about my Carpenter's Wheel?  Nah.  Instead, I pulled out a baggie of shirting & shirting-like neutrals that I've been wanting to play with, and started making a variation of Bonnie Hunter's Smoky Mountain Stars quilt.  With my significant stash of pre-cut squares, I picked out a bunch of red and blue 2.5" squares, cut my neutrals to 4.5", and got to work.  Quick and easy, just what I need to feel productive again!  Here's what I got done in the hour or so I spent in the sewing room today PLUS 2 sashing strips and a 9-patch cornerstone for the plaid quilt AND a pile of bonus triangles, already sewn up.

Oops!  That top right square is oriented wrong.  I love how a photo helps you really see your project.

I know I should focus on some finishes, but I find the siren call of new beginnings too strong to resist!  Besides, I do have SOME recent finishes under my belt, mostly class samples for the shop.  I'll be teaching a beginning knitting cables class this week, and this cabled cushion is my class sample.

the front

the back - removable so I can change out pillow covers

I'm also teaching 2 sets of kiddos to make turkey potholders this week, just in time for Thanksgiving.  I'll encourage them to use darker fabrics for the turkey bellies, though.  You can see right through this yellow belly to the darker background fabric - oops!

Here's hoping my productive streak continues!

Work that doesn't seem like work

Last weekend I hosted a sewing birthday party at my shop for a group of 10 year old girls.  They made matching ruffled aprons for themselves and their American Girl Dolls.  Fun, but whew!  What a lot of ruffles!  Here are the dolls, all dolled up (I didn't ask the parents permission to post the girls' photos on my blog, so all you get are the dolls.  The kid aprons were identical, just much bigger.)

Yesterday I received the sweetest Thank You Card from the birthday girl.  I have it hanging on the bulletin board in the shop.

I've been a teeny bit stressed lately, just money worries, you know.  Like just about everyone these days.  I could be doing something else and making more money.  But would I be this happy going to work each day?  I seriously doubt it!  I had to take some work home with me last weekend to finish up.  At my last job, that meant piles of files to read.  In my current position, here's my "work at home" work, which I did while catching up on some shows on Netflix:

Little Avery sweater, made size 6-12 mos from Superwash Worsted Deluxe in Nitrox Blue. The person I made it for will pick out the buttons now that it is completed.

I may not be making a lot of money, but I think I might just have one of the best jobs in the world.

Indecision

I went down to the sewing room to finally piece this log cabin quilt together, but I couldn't decide on a layout.  I can't believe how much time I wasted rearranging the blocks; I didn't sew a single seam.  Help me out, will ya?  This is destined to be a baby or lap quilt, 54" square.  I don't want to make more blocks, I just want to sew them together.  Which layout would YOU choose?

Layout 1

Layout 2

Layout 3

Layout 4

Layout 5

OK, after seeing them all on here, I think one has emerged as my favorite.  Let's see if you feel the same...

Birthdays and yarn bombs!

Last Thursday was my birthday, and oh, what a fun birthday it was!!  First of all, I had a sale at the shop, 44% off all yarn since I am now 44.  Nothing brings people in like a sale!  There was a cluster of five women waiting for me when I arrived at work, and they starting singing to me as I crossed the street, and then started shopping as soon as I unlocked the door.  At no point was I alone for the rest of the day!

Second of all, I got lots of deliveries of wonderful stuff!  A carrot cake, a chocolate ganache cake, two cheesecakes and a pan of brownies. Good thing there were plenty of folks in the shop with which to share it, not to mention growing boys at home!  In addition to edible goodies, one friend brought in a bundle of vintage fabric and rick rac (all orange - yay!), another brought me a pair of her handmade silver earrings (she's a silversmith), and yet another made me a gift of anything in the shop that I had been coveting but not allowing myself - I chose this handmade reversible hobo bag.

When the work day ended, however, the fun didn't end.  A local knitting group of which I am a member, The Wednesday Night Knitting Society (WiNKS), had been asked to yarn bomb a particular block downtown in preparation for an Arts of Lexington Block Party.  The Block Party was Friday, September 25, so the yarn bombing was scheduled for Thursday, September 24, as soon as it got dark.  We hung out at my shop until the agreed upon time, then donned our dark clothing and hit the streets.  Rather than post all the photos, I'm embedding a link (Click here for AWESOME yarn bombing photos) - it's worth clicking through to take a peek.  The Winksters worked on this project for about two months, and did a fabulous job!  I wish I could take more credit, but all I found time to do was the trashcan monster. Don't you just love his furry feet?

Word on the street, though, is that the bike may find a permanent home outside my shop - won't that be cool???

Our yarn bombing was even featured on the morning news broadcast and written up in a local paper.

Life has settled back down now, which is good.  After all, I have baby quilts to finish!