Pink Swap Received

My partner for the Pink Swap received today. She loved everything so much, here is her actually post. She did such a fine job displaying everything.

Okay here it is, from my best-Craftster-friend:
(I love you so much Deanna!)
A super cute pj set with log cabin applique on the shirt and wide legged pants (which I love).

closeup

2 awesome 12X12 log cabin style pillow covers. I love log cabin blocks. They are backed with white minky dot chenille, so soft and feminine.

And................ ......a SUPER AWESOME log cabin quilt backed with super soft and warm pink fleece to go on my bed! I have made tons of quilts for people in swaps (cause I'm a super overachiever) but have never received one so when I saw it in the box I ripped it out and started jumping around with joy and ran straight to my bedroom (actually I danced and pranced to my bedroom) to put it on my bed screaming for joy like I just won the showcase on the price is right. It is so gorgeous and beautiful and I love it so very much.
Look at how pretty my bed looks now!!!!!!!



You are so awesome Deanna. Thank you so much for being the BEST!!! And thank you Malisha for partnering me with her and hosting this swap. I will definitely cherish this quilt forever.

I am so happy that she likes everything. I cried with joy from her reaction. I have never gotten such wonderful feedback from a craft project I have made, from anyone. You made my day.

Crafty Wants and Wishes

Fabric:

My wist has a ton of fabrics that I really like/want.

• 4.5 yards of Laminated cotton in 'brown carnival bloom' or 'brown daisy dreams' or 'black dandy damask' by Michael Miller to make a rain coat (big wish for any or all three) The pattern I want to use requires 4.5 yards though, so it would have to be a continuous cut.
• Any holiday fabric (I want more holiday themed stuff around the house)
• Any quilting cottons (I prefer bright bold colors/patterns)
• Any cute bright print flannels
• Thermal
• Stretch Lace (pink or leopard)
• Corduroy (in solids or fun prints)
• Fat Quarters (I would like 2 of any print)

Patterns:

Any of these listed patterns (I’m a 10-12 so please buy the smaller sized patterns). I know some of these may be out of print, but I still love them and maybe you can find them.

• McCall’s: 5804, 5144, 5538, 5717
• New Look: 6557, 6787, 6858
• Simplicity: 2932, 4531, 2701
• Amy Butler

Notions:

• zippers (any length, but really need some long separating ones for coats and stuff)
• buttons (I love big decorated ones that I can use as embellishment)
• thread (any color)
• sewing machine needles (all sizes)
• ribbons and trims (I really like the bright ribbons and very girly colors)
• Iron on Appliqués
• elastic (all sizes and types, I really need underwear elastic)
• interfacing (all weights, and preferably iron on, but I don't mind sew in)
• cotton or wool quilt batting (I love the warm and natural 100% cotton)
• Pattern making paper (I don't ever cut my original patterns, I trace everything)
• Muslin
• The heat proof batting (I don't know what it is called, but it is the stuff you put in oven mitts)
• Rotary Ruler (Fiskars makes one that I like)
• 6”x24” clear quilting ruler

Yarn:

• 100% cotton
• Handspun
• Wool

Other:

• I really would love a screen printing kit. I love to make freezer paper stenciled t-shirts but all that cutting is wearing me out.
• PVA glue for book binding. I want to start making my own notebooks and journals
• Jerzees fitted t-shirts (Adult Size M/L, in pink, white, grey, black, blue, or green. Either long or short sleeve)

I need to craft up a storm

I have so much sewing to do in the next month. March is so full of birthdays, it feels like Christmas sewing. I have 6 people to give gifts to, and I want to try and make everything. I have some ideas, but I am still lost for some of the other people. After I finish my Kitchen Swap stuff I will focus on what I can make everyone, and start with that stuff.

I finished all my Pink swap stuff and I am quite pleased with how it all turned out. I loved everything so much, I am making it all for myself as well. When Kaymadben receives this week I will post pictures of the goodies.

I have received two of my Sweat Shoppe Swap goodies. The 'Scrabble Tile Pendants' and the 'Cris Cross Coasters'. The pendants are very cute and will make cute charms. The coasters match what Kaymadben made for me in the Christmas in July Swap (an apron and placemats). I can't wait to see what else I get. The other three things are sort of surprises. I know what they are, but not what colors I am getting.

  

I sent out cloth lunch sacks to my five swappers. I really like how they turned out, but there are some things I might change if I make more. I made them all interfaced and lined for extra stability. They are all cotton, except for the flannel Mickey. I want to make some more for quick and easy gifts. They were great for using up smaller pieces of fabric. Each used up less then 1/2 a yard of each color. I will probably do these for quick gratification projects.

 

 

I also made a really cute 'Market Tote' this week. I found this great gray corduroy fabric with light pink polka dots at Joanns when I was looking for Pink Swap stuff. I couldn't resist buying it. I also bought some pink and gray ribbon to go with it. I knew when I bought it I wanted to make this bag, but I didn't know when I would get around to it. I went roller skating with the 6th graders on Thursday and needed a new cute bag to take my stuff in. It was a very quick project, as it only took me 45 minutes from cutting to finish. I lined it with some super cute bright pink polka dot fabric I have had for awhile, which made the lining super fun. The ribbon on the front and back are only sewn partially so that I can adjust the size of the bag. the ribbon can be tied in the front or around the sides. This bag is huge, measuring 18"x18". I love how it turned out and have lots more planned for the future. I think I want to add pockets to the next one. Or maybe some pouches to match. All the choices.

I have to work on the Kitchen Swap today, so hopefully I will stay motivated enough to finish that up before evening. So, I sew.

Weekly To Do January 25-31

1. Sew 2 placemats
2. Sew 2 singlet grocery bags
3. Sew 2 lunch totes
4. Sew a workout bag
5. Sew a picnic tote
6. Kitchen Swap Stuff

I finished the Pink Swap stuff and it is in the mail for Kaymadben!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

I have the day off of work to celebrate a great leader. I am going to spend the day getting our other computer back from the virus doctor and grocery shopping. I also really want to finish the Pink swap stuff so I can send that out. I don't really have very much to do with it, maybe 3 hours left. I also want to work on some of the Kitchen swap stuff. I finished one small item last week, now I have at least 6 points left to craft.

I have a long list of things I need to do and I never seem to have enough time to do it in. I probably would be able to finish some of those things if I didn't start new projects before the others were finished. Or if I didn't get angry with the project and just stop working on it for the day or week. Yesterday I was trying to sew a button hole into the doggie coats I was making and the fabric wouldn't feed, so I just stopped working on it. I refused to sew at all yesterday because of it, which means I didn't get anything done. Instead I decided to watch House Season 1 and crochet. I got another 1/4 of my blanket done and I am now up to 3/4 finished.

Yesterday I found a great pattern for a basket weave crocheted blanket. I was so excited, because I taught myself how to knit so I could make a basket weave blanket and that didn't work out well. Now I will be able to do the blanket in crochet, which I am much more  comfortable with. I think I know just the yarn I want to do it with too. I have this great pink baby soft yarn that I originally bought to make a baby blanket with. Now I have the stitch to do it with. I can't wait to get started with it. I am going to finish this other blanket first because I am so close. So, I sew.

Weekly To Do January 18-24

1. Sew 2 placemats
2. Sew 2 singlet grocery bags
3. Sew 2 lunch totes
4. Sew a workout bag
5. Sew a work portfolio
6. Sew a picnic tote
7. Pink Swap Stuff - 90% done
8. Kitchen Swap Stuff

I finished the doggie coats, the sweat shop swap stuff, and Nick did the fence for Nibbles.

I need a break

So I know I just got back from winter break, but I need another one. I am so bored with work. I get really frustrated while at work, and I am getting headaches easily because of it. I am not used to being stuck in the same boring job for so long. I normally get to move around more and do other things to make the job more enjoyable. I guess I will just have to do what I can to stick it out until June. When Nick and I will be able to just go and do stuff together without stress. We have lots of ideas for camping and hiking planned. I really want to go to New York or California this year too. We will have to see how that goes.

I haven't gotten too much sewing done lately, and the sewing I have gotten done is stuff that I probably shouldn't be doing. I really need to focus on the swap stuff that I am working on. I am so close to being done with the pink swap, I just need to finish and send it. Then I can start on the kitchen swap full heartedly. I signed up for the Sweat Shoppe swap and I have to make 5 lunch sacks, similar to a brown paper bag. I am almost done with those, it won't take me long to finish up with them. I probably won't get much sewing done at least until Friday night, if not until Sunday. I have Monday off so I should get a lot done by then. Hopefully I will be finished with a lot of my swap stuff, so I can go back to normal sewing (not that I haven't been doing other sewing instead anyway). So, I sew.

Weekly To Do January 11-17

1. Sew 2 placemats
2. Sew 2 singlet grocery bags
3. Sew 2 lunch totes
4. Sew a workout bag
5. Sew a work portfolio
6. Sew a picnic tote
7. Sew 2 doggie coats (Already did 2, now I have more)
8. Fix our backyard fence, so Nibbles can go back outside and get out of our garage
9. Pink Swap Stuff - 80% done
10. Kitchen Swap Stuff
11. Sweat Shoppe Swap - 60% done

Rain, Rain, Rain

So the rainy season has really begun. In my experience, here in Western Washington the really heavy rains happen in January and don't stop until February (when it freezes for the whole month, but that is a different topic). The rain has now threatened to close roads and flood lots of areas. Unfortunately, Yelm is being severely affected by this. One of the communities in Yelm, Clearwood, is at risk of being blocked off by flooded roads. They re-did the road that leads out there, but apparently didn't plan very well, because for the first time in years the road is about to flood. If the road does flood then about a 1/4 of the school district's students won't be able to make it to school, which in turn means they will probably cancel school. I have no problems with the no school, I just feel bad for all those stranded people.

Another note... I have been working on my swap stuff. I am nearly finished with the main piece and I am completed with the smaller portions of what I am sending for my pink swap. I have my ideas set for my kitchen swap, but I may have to change those just a bit...hmmm. I really like my ideas, but my partner has hinted to something else, but I don't know if I want to make that or not. I haven't decided for sure. I haven't made anything yet for it so I will have to see how I feel.

Wrestling starts back up for me starting tomorrow. I am excited to get to do some more wrestling stuff. It feels like months since I did anything. I can't wait. Until then I have some serious crafting to do. I still have some Christmas gifts to finish and lots of swap stuff to work on. So, I sew.

Weekly To Do January 4-10

1. Sew 2 placemats
2. Sew 2 singlet grocery bags
3. Sew 2 lunch totes
4. Sew a workout bag
5. Sew a work portfolio
6. Sew a picnic tote
7. Sew 2 doggie coats (Already did 2, now I have more)
8. Fix our backyard fence, so Nibbles can go back outside and get out of our garage
9. Pink Swap Stuff - 80% done
10. Kitchen Swap Stuff

Swapping Fun

I have been working away on swap stuff. I am so excited for the Pink, girly swap I am in. I am crafting for Kaymadben, and Peppermom is crafting for me. I am more then half way done with the stuff I am making. I think she will just love what I am making her. I hate to keep everyone else in suspense, but I know she reads my blog.

We are still in sign-ups for the Deck out your kitchen swap, but I have asked Classy Broad to be my partner. I love the embroidery she does, and I think that we could easily craft for each other. I have lots of great stuff planned for her. She loves 50's theme stuff, like pin-up girls, boomerang, and sparkle vinyl. I don't where I am going to find sparkle vinyl, but I do have other stuff in mind that she might like. She collects aprons, which are my favorite thing to make right now, so she is in luck. I am off to work on more swap stuff, I want to get as much done as possible this weekend. I have to go back to work on Monday and wrestling will be full force the next couple of weeks. So, I sew.

Books to Read

I found this great list on Habitual's blog. I really like the idea of reading the classics so lets see how I do.

Instructions: 
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read. 
2) Underline those you intend to read. 
3) Italicize the books you LOVE.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (just book 1)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare 
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

I didn't do very well, but now I know what I should be reading... A great resolution for the new year.

January's To Do

So for each month I am going to do my to do list so I know where to go with my weekly to do list.

• Reorganize Fabric
• Pick 15 projects
• Green Oven mitts/potholders
• Picnic set-Bag, placemats, napkins, blanket
• 2 Lunch totes
• 2 Singlet bags
• 2 PJ bottoms
• 2 Pillows
• Crocheted blanket
• 2 Market bags
• OSU Dog coat
• Placemats
• Napkins
• Casserole carrier
• Apron
• Oven mitts/potholders
• Crocheted Moebius
• Cut and prepare fabric for those projects
• Find a new home for Nibbles (if anyone wants a 3.5 year old black lab she is available)
• Clean Garage (Nick is never going to get to it)

New Year's Resolution

With the new year everyone tends to make resolutions. Most of which never last past the first month. I have fallen into this rut for many years. When I was younger I refused to make a resolution, I thought what a waste of time for something that won't be followed through on. I would just make goals for the year, but they were small and attainable. I caved and started to fall into this ridiculous tradition of resolutions. This year I think I am going to continue my younger ways. NO Resolution, just goals. I feel that if you fail on a goal you are affected more. So here are my goals for 2009:

• Attempt to have kids (I would say get pregnant, but that hasn't worked out for me so far)
• Not buy fabric (at least until June, then I will reevaluate)
• Go on a fun summer road trip with Nick (with all the money we saved from me not buying fabric)
• Read more
• Sew at least one project a week, hopefully 3-4 though
• Sell some of my projects

With me posting this in my blog, now I have to follow through and update as needed. So, I Sew