Summer Stitching & Sewing Update

 There hasn't been much sewing.  I cut out the rest of the pieces for the dress I intended to make Faline back in early April (that I totally got waylaid by the death of K2 and didn't touch for months).  It's a summer weight dress and more than likely won't fit her next summer, so I really need to get it sewn up before the weather turns too cool for her to wear it. 

 Unfortunately I got through the sewing of the bodice (and bodice lining), sewed the side seams on the skirt and had intended to sew the two pieces together yesterday (including installing the side zipper) when I discovered that the second page of the instructions is missing!  ARGH!  It's been so long since I started this (like late March) and so much has happened since then, and my sewing area is such a complete mess at the moment, that I don't know where the heck that needed second page is.  (Bash head here).  

It's been a long time since I made a dress with a zipper, so long that doing the side zipper thing isn't clear in my memory.  I'm pretty sure I sew the skirt and bodice together at the waist, starting and ending either side of the zipper opening, and then put in the zipper, but I could be wrong.  I'm sure I can find that info online these days even though the pattern itself is 10 years old or more.

While my sewing area has suffered from lack of regular attention (and tidying!!), I have done quite a bit of cross-stitching in the past month.  A little here and a little there in the middle of a hot afternoon (when I'm hiding inside from the sun) or to relax after dark at night once the outdoor work has been halted and before I get into bed, has really added up quickly.

The more I stitch on it, the more I like this piece.  It's very folk art-ish and reminds me of the decor of my early childhood (1970's).  It's also going to go very well in my chicken kitchen.

See my little fox needle minder in the above picture?  Well, the other day I thought to myself how much I like it, and wouldn't it be nice to have more than one, so I didn't have to steal it off one project (the Santa that is done except for the beadwork) in order to use it on another (this chicken thing).  Which resulted in me taking a quick peek at the needle minders currently offered by the Fat Quarter Shop, where I bought the fox one.  And lo and behold, they had some really cute ones. So I just may have treated myself to not just one additional needle minder, but three.  Although I might give one to K3; she's been showing an interest lately in maybe learning to do counted cross stitch.

The Everything Update (Knitting, Stitching, Horse. . . )

 I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted anything here.  Then again, I'm juggling so many balls right now (work, riding, gardening, chickens, grandkids, kids, summer in general) that it's not surprising I haven't sat down long enough to write a blog post.

Did I knit?  Yes.  A little.  I finished sock #1 of the Trickle socks.  Sock #2 is started, no picture of that, but I am through the cuff and the first (of 5) repeat in the leg chart.

Did I sew?  No, but I did purchase fabric for a new grandbaby quilt, and will be starting that in the next few weeks now that we know grandbaby #5 is going to be a BOY!  He is due in November, right about the start of firearm deer season, so of course DH has all ready given this one the nickname of Buck.  I'm going to go with that as his official name at this little place here.

Did I stitch?  Only enough to get all the beading finished on my Early Morning Santa.  All that's left to do is cut him out, glue on a loop for hanging and a back of felt and I have a new ornament for my Christmas tree.

Did I ride?  YES!! Oh yes!  Most weeks 3x, and even 4x on the week before DH and I were gone with K3 and Toad on a beach vacation. Things are coming along nicely with Camaro.  The canter departs are developing, although unfortunately he's decided that he now likes canter so much that trot is just a means to get to canter.  *sigh*  There goes our nice balanced, supple trot.  We're back to working on not bracing through the shoulders at trot again, using lots of bends and walk/trot and trot/walk transitions. But, overall, it's progress, especially since we're cantering OUTSIDE!

Camaro is getting some nice muscling in his hindquarters

As a side note, he kept his shoes on this go-round, finishing his six week farrier cycle with no issues. His bell boots are looking a little rough (might have to get another pair before winter), but the shoes stayed put.

 

Did I read? Yep!  Books I read since June's knitting and reading update are:

• Two Thousand Minnows by Sandra Leigh. This book.  So gut wrenching in places, but so good.
• Beautiful Day by Elin Hildebrand.  A good summer read.  I couldn't quite relate to the characters and location (being much different from my personal demographic), but the basic story line fits just about everyone.
• A Cup of Holiday Fear by Ellie Alexander.  Another Bakeshop Mystery, another quickie read.  Working my way through the series a few books each year.
• The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson.  A sequel to a book I very much enjoyed, I had trouble with this one at times, almost feeling like there were too many womens'/diversification issues being packed into one story.  Overall, it was good, I just feel like I was being intermittently bombarded with 21st century ideals in a story set in the early 1950's rural America.

Sewing Update, February

 I couldn't resist stitching another beaded Santa.  I know, I know, we just got done with Christmas, and next Christmas is a long way away.  But, I had a perfect Santa to make for our South Carolina girl, K2, and her birthday is in February.  So, perfect!  I could make it now, gift it for her birthday, and she'll have it to hang on her Christmas tree in December.

A beachy Santa for our coastal Carolina born K2

I finally put borders on the black, bright & batik quilt blocks (from a swap many years ago) that I'd sewed into a mostly finished top back in 2019 or 2020, I don't remember for sure when.  I also got the backing sewn.  Now it just needs to be sandwiched smoothly and quilted, then bound.  It will finish up twin sized.

I'm finding that sandwiching quilts larger than crib sized (or, slightly bigger than crib sized that I make for my grandbabies) is difficult in the space I have.  Kicking around the idea of researching how to design a portable (thus, storable) frame for stretching the layers onto and then having DH make me such a thing. Because I know I want to make more bed-sized quilts and will need somewhere to layer them wrinkle-free.

Sewing/Stitching Update, December

 In the last month, I've done quite a bit on the counted cross stitch banner that is intended as a Christmas gift. All the cross stitching is done now and I am working on the backstitch outlines.  Most of this has been accomplished during Faline's naps.  I don't foresee any difficulty in getting it completed on time.

Sewing, however, has been hit and miss.  I did make a quilt block for an internet forum quilt I'm participating in.

I have also worked on the disappearing hourglass quilt that I'm making for a Christmas gift.  All of the blue & neutral squares have been sewn into hourglasses and are ready for the next step in cutting.

The green & neutral hourglasses are partially sewn--the tops and bottoms are put together and ironed, I just need to get them sewn into blocks.

From here on out, I'm going to need to be diligent in setting my sewing time in stone on the calendar and not putting it off for other (people's) things if this disappearing hourglass quilt is going to be ready for gifting in two and a half weeks.

Sewing/Stitching Update, November

 Since last month, I made very little progress on the quilt that is intended to be a Christmas present for my parents.  I'm using the Disappearing Hourglass pattern with a size modification to make a couch sized throw. I'm also using just three colors. I did get the blue and green fabrics cut into 10" squares (the neutral fabric is a pack of precuts).  And then it sat untouched for a couple weeks.

This week, I've slowly started pairing the squares and doing the first step: sewing them right sides together with a 1/4" seam on all four sides.  I will sew all 25 blocks together like this before I do to step two, which is cutting and then pressing them open in preparation for step 3--more sewing.

Right now, there are four sewn squares, and 21 to go!

Meanwhile, I started another counted cross stitch kit as my nap-time project while watching Faline.

This one makes a small banner, and came with a little metal hanger.  It cost me nothing, as it was in with a whole bunch of crafting stuff that someone gave my mother-in-law, and she then passed along to me thinking there was mostly embroidery floss and plastic canvas stuff (I'd said yes to both) in the boxes.  This kit, unlike a few others in the same box, was complete and unopened.  It is also a perfect size to stitch up quickly and give as a Christmas gift to DS1 and K2, who purchased their first house this Fall!

It does say their last name, but in my anonymity policy for the blog, 

I edited that out of the photo

It is about 2/3 stitched at present, and I foresee no issues getting it completed and on it's little hanger in the coming month.

What are you sewing and/or stitching currently?

Sewing/Stitching Update, October

Zero sewing has been done in the past month, despite my intention to start working on a quilt that is planned to be a Christmas gift.  Nothing like putting pressure on myself to whip off a large throw sized quilt in just two months!

I do have the pattern chosen, and the fabrics pulled from stash.  I'm using 10" neutral precuts as the background, and going with just two other colors (that I need to cut into 10" squares), so hopefully once I actually get my rotary cutter slicing into fabric everything will go quickly.

I wish the colors were truer in the above photo, the white-looking fabric is actually ecru/natural tones and the greenish is much prettier than pictured.

I'm going to use the Disappearing Hourglass pattern by Missouri Star Quilt Co., altering it a little to make the quilt slightly smaller.  My plan is 5 rows of 5 blocks each, and then the borders widths as written.

While I wasn't sewing at all, I did do a whole lot of counted cross stitch while Faline napped on my babysitting days. She's taking an hour to hour-and-a-half afternoon nap these days, so that really gave me lots of crafting time.  

I finished the Nordic Santa I was making as a gift for my Mom.

Then, since that went so quickly, I decided to see if I could start and finish another perforated paper beaded cross stitch design before DD2's birthday in early October.  Yes, I could, and I did!  And she loves it.  It reminds her of the study abroad she did in Peru back in 2017, which was what I was hoping, as it is an Andean Santa.

I have to confess that I might be slightly addicted to these little cross stitch kits.  I found many more on Amazon and Ebay, and have about 4 more waiting to be made.  There's another 4 on my wish list and watch list. . .   

At first, I was intimidated by the thought of doing the beading, but the directions are very clear and once I started stitching on the first bead, all fear went away. It really was easy (although it definitely requires me to wear my reading glasses while handling the beads!)

Sewing Update, September

 I actually finished one sewing project in late July/early August (honestly I don't remember the exact date, but it was before Aug 2nd), and then started a stitching project in mid-August.

The finished one is the red-white-&-blue wall hanging (banner? decoration?) that I wanted to make to hang on the door that goes between our garage and mudroom.  That is the door we and our family and friends use the majority of the time, so it is the one I'd rather seasonally decorate than the front door. The only people who typically get close enough to my house the see the front door, but don't actually go in the house (via the garage-to-mudroom door) is the Amazon, UPS, or Fedex delivery drivers.  I doubt they're much thinking about whether or not my front door is decorated.

So, anyway, I now have a nice Memorial Day through ?? Day (haven't decided yet, probably Fall equinox) decoration for my garage/mudroom door.

On August 10th, DD1 and the other teachers in her school district had to report back to their classrooms to do some PD and get ready for the start of school on August 16th. This school year, I will be babysitting Faline on Tuesdays and Thursdays (at her home, more often than not), and I wanted to have a small, portable stitching project to take with me to work on during Faline's afternoon nap.

It took me until the second week of school to settle on what that project would be.  I chose the Mill Hill Nordic Santa kit that I'd purchased in late Spring with the intent to make it and gift it to my Mom for Christmas this year.  It is going very quickly and I will probably be done with the cross stitching by the end of next week.  My plan is to do the actual beading at home (in case I drop the tiny beads; they'll be much easier to see on my hardwood floor than in DD1's carpet.)

I have a few more different Mill Hill Santa kits, so my plan is to start stitching a new one on 'Faline days' while finishing the beadwork at home in my spare time.  Now that we've only got maybe a month left before killing frost takes out the garden for the year, my spare time should increase exponentially pretty soon.

February Doings

February has been a beautiful month, for the most part.  We've had more sunny blue sky days than I can count.  Some of them were below-zero cold, like the morning this picture was taken of the trees shrouded in hoar frost.  The last several, however, have been above the 40-degree mark and still sunny; which is pretty unusual for this time of year.  Warm days in February are typically cloudy ones.

The first Saturday, we had a full house.  DH, DS1, DS2 and Honorary Son made about 45 pounds of sausage--breakfast, chorizo and Italian--while all the grandkids played together.  During the couple hour break while the sausage meat soaked in its seasonings before grinding, the guys got out the snowmobiles and ran them around the field.  The grandkids got to go sledding behind the 4-Wheeler.  Even Faline bundled up and went for her first sled ride, securely held by K3!

My mudroom was full of boots, coats, and cold-weather gear.  Overwhelming, but also a good full-heart feeling.

Some of the Italian sausage was made into links.  About half was packaged in bulk, for using in spaghetti sauce and on pizza.

With all the sunlight, my chickens are cranking out the eggs.  They're averaging 8-9 a day, but I've had as many as 11 in one day this week.  They are keeping the whole family well supplied, and I think I'll even have enough to sell a few dozen a week this Spring and early Summer.

Over several weekends, DH and I pruned all the fruit trees in our little orchard, as well as the trees in the yard (any low-hanging branches that were nuisances while mowing the lawn), the bushes around the house, and a large majority of the wild apples and crabapples along the north fence line and where the field meets the woods.  

I found some grapevine growing in one of the lilac bushes near the house, and pulled it out. As I was winding it to better be able to throw it onto the brush pile, I had the thought to try to make a wreath out of it.  Twisting and turning the length of the vines around the original loop I made was incredibly easier than I'd thought it would be.  And just like that, I have a free grapevine wreath to decorate with!

On Wednesday this week, I went out and tapped some of the maples in our woods.  The extended forecast is for just right temperatures for the sap to begin running.  I hereby declare maple syrup season to be underway!

Next comes Mud Month (March), and you can tell that Mother Nature is getting ready to transition to Spring.  In the last week we've seen many robins and bluebirds, as well as flocks of starlings (DH's nemesis).  We've also, in the last two days, lost the majority of the nice snow that had finally built up to a useful (ie sledding, skiing, snowmobiling) amount.  Our driveway and all the plowed areas around this little place here are down to bare earth; bare muddy earth.  

Time for me to get my tender veggie and flower seeds started indoors!
 

February Sewing Update

 I'm going to try something new, and on the second Wednesday of each month, post about what I've been sewing lately.  I joined a group doing a quilting UFO challenge this year, where each group member makes a list of 12 unfinished projects or projects they've been wanting to sew, at the beginning of each month a number is drawn, and you work on whatever is on your list under that number.  So, hopefully, I will be doing more sewing than I have in a few years, and therefore, have something new to talk about here on a regular basis.

For January, my project was a paper pieced wall hanging that I'd bought the pattern for at least 5 years ago.  At that time, I didn't realize how tiny the pattern pieces were, and I got rather overwhelmed at the thought of tackling a paper piecing project that was so intricate.  Add in chaotic family changes over the next few years, and this became a UFO that was never even started.  

As fate would have it, the number drawn for January coordinated on my list with this fearsome little wall hanging. This year, however, I was determined to get it not just started, but also finished.  After making photocopies of the paper pieces in case I really messed up, I jumped into sewing little pieces of fabric to little pieces of paper in numerical order.

I messed up alot.  As I kept sewing, I eventually got the hang of lining up my fabrics with the lines on the paper in the correct manner.  However, every time I took a break, say from one day to the next, I had to teach my brain all over again.  There was lots of seam ripping, repositioning, and resewing just to get the first little section done.  The next section was a repeat of the learning process.  And the next, and the next. . . 

As you can see, my stitching didn't always make the colors join smoothly.  But, for a first (and second and third and tenth. . . ) attempt at paper piecing on such an intricate scale, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

This little guy wasn't too bad.

It took me probably close to two hours to do each of the three penguins.  And they are small.  The tallest one is about 6" tall. 

This was totally a love-hate kind of thing.  I love the end result, but the process itself I rather hate.  Yet, as a perfectionist, I know that this probably won't be the last paper piecing project I ever do. It's challenging, and the end result is rather pride-inducing.

Speaking on end result, this is the completed wall hanging.  It is slated to be given later this year as a birthday present to my penguin loving daughter.

There was also some embroidery involved (French knots for the eyes, back stitching for the skate blades), which has me itching to do some sort of needlework--either embroidery or counted cross stitch--in the near future.

February's official UFO number matched a bunch of blocks from a 'south-west color' Jacob's Ladder swap I did back in 2013.  I had 14 blocks from that, and had decided last summer that I wanted to use them to make a throw-sized blanket to have picnics with the grandkids or to take to the beach. I would need 2 more blocks in order to make a layout of 4 blocks by 4 blocks.  Those, I whipped up a week ago.  A few days later, I came up with a layout that was not perfect, but would do.  Interpretation of 'south-west colors' kind of varied from block maker to block maker, so it's kind of a mish mash quilt. 

 As I write this, the quilt is a completed flimsy, awaiting sandwiching and quilting (hopefully this coming weekend).

K3 and I Foray Into Clothing Design

In August, DD1, DD2, K3 and I took a trip to Shipshewana.  My daughters and I like to go once every year or two, mainly as a quiet getaway and to do some shopping.  Our favorite places are the Amish grocery E&S Sales, Yoder's Meat, and Lolly's Fabrics.  We visit pretty much all the shops, and the flea market too, but those are our can't miss favorites.

This year, we invited K3 to go along.  The thought process was that now that she's 8, she might enjoy seeing all the horses and buggies, plus it would be a special girl trip that she didn't have to include her brothers in.  We also thought she would love digging through all the fat quarters of fabric in the wooden boat at Lolly's.

Yep, she loved it.  She did get a little bored waiting for her aunts and I to look at fabric (I was shopping for a few future gift projects), so I told her that if she wanted to pick out some fabric, I would make her a nightgown or something out of it.  Well, after that it was hard to drag her out of the store!

Turned out that she wanted a skirt, not a nightgown.  Which was fine, as I've made skirts and dresses in the past, when my girls were little.

Not only did she want a skirt, she wanted it made out of many fabrics, not just one.  The girl had an armload of fat quarters that she had chosen out of Lolly's boat.  Way, way, more fabric than it would take to make a skirt the size of an eight year old.  I talked her into paring her choices down to eight fabrics.  Which I let her take to the counter and pay for, and carry in her very own shopping bag.

She liked that very much.  

In late August, we sat down together and I asked her what kind of skirt she had in mind with all those eight different fabrics.  Vertical stripes? Horizontal tiers?

Patchwork.  That's what she wanted.  Squares sewn together patchwork style.

Okay, that I could do.  It would be loud, but heck, she's eight.

But wait, that's not all she had in mind! The squares couldn't be random.  I had to sew them together in rows that would make diagonal stripes when they were a skirt.

And, she wanted a high-low style.  Knee length in front, brushing the ground at her heels.

I sketched as she talked.  Mainly so that I made sure I understood what she envisioned.  It was apparent that she had given this custom skirt a lot of thought, and I wanted to get it right.

Once we had a design, I had to figure out how to bring it to reality.  This was the first time I've ever made clothing without using a pattern created by someone else. Took me most of a month (the garden was going hot and heavy, so I really didn't have a lot of time to contemplate skirt making), but finally the light bulb in my head went off, and I knew exactly how to do it.  All I needed to do, since this was going to be a skirt with a simple elastic waistband, was make two rectangles of fabric that were big enough to be loose fitting around her legs.  Then mark the center front at the correct length based on measurements I took of K3, as well as mark the center back to the right length, and connect those marks with a curved line (around the sides).  Sew the skirt together at the side seams, make and sew a waistband onto the skirt fabric, thread elastic through the waist, hem the skirt, and be done.  

All the cutting and stitching of the patchwork took a few more weeks of spare time, and I realized after it was together that I should have made a lining so that the underside of the patchwork with all it's seams wouldn't be visible on the low part.  To do a correct lining, I would have to take the elastic back out of the waist and make a second skirt, also sewn to the existing waistband.  Which I not only didn't want to do, but didn't have enough fabric left for.  So I cheated and sewed in a liner (of one color fabric) on just the inside back of the skirt where you might be able to see when it's being worn.

But the skirt is finally completed and ready for K3 to wear.

To Find Order, First You Must Make a Mess

At least, that's how it seems to go for me. Whenever I'm doing a deep clean, or reorganization, or just plain trying to get things back into the system that works for me (versus reacting to everyone else or everyone else cramming their stuff willy nilly into my system. . .) things get messy before they get clean.

DH has been working long hours again lately, including days away traveling. So, I took that opportunity to trash our living room.

Well, destroying the living room wasn't really the intent, but it was a side effect of the project.  What I really was focused on was cleaning out the closet in the 'sewing room' aka my sons' old bedroom aka the bedroom Toad sleeps in when the grandkids are here overnight.  Through the last several years that room and closet have become increasingly crammed with stuff.  Most of it intended for sewing or knitting or quilting, but yet, it was a jumbled chaotic mess.

First, I pulled out all the bags and boxes and piles of old jeans (worn out at the knees, or in the thighs, or with broken zippers) that my grown children have graciously bestowed on me in the last handful of years.  They knew that no longer wearable jeans are the base material for denim quilts, and that I'd also mentioned maybe trying my hand at throw rugs made from jeans, so of course they would gift me with this resource rather than tossing them in the trash.

Except that with the exception of the quilt I made DD1 & Honorary Son for Christmas, I hadn't made a jean quilt since 2008.  For the Christmas quilt, I used part of a bin of old jeans that have been around that long.  Ones I'd already cut the unusable parts off of.  So the 'new' old jeans that have come in since 2014--when I cut up the other batch and put them in the bin-- ended up in a hodge podge of piles, cartons, etc. Where ever they could be stuffed at the time that the sewing room/bedroom needed to be usable for an overnight guest.

What I ended up with, once I'd rooted around and found every last pair of jeans, was a pile more than knee deep on my living room floor.

whole lotta jeans

 A pile that I commenced to reducing by cutting off the unusable parts, and setting aside the legs, which are what I sew with.  That tallied two 13-gallon size trash bags of scrap to throw away, and an entire 18-gallon tote of denim for future quilts or rugs.

trash

denim fabric

Once that task was done, I moved on to my stash of fabric.  Again, I rooted through the closet (and piles here and there about the house) until I found every last piece of fabric.  All of it went to the living room where it was sorted by type: cotton for quilting/sewing, canvas/duck, flannel, corduroy, fleece, etc; and by color.  I have so much fabric!!  Way too much fabric.  But, that's what happens when things become a disorganized mess and you don't know what you have.  Plus, well, I have grandkids and cute fabric is cute fabric and I can't resist buying fat quarters and entire yards with the intention of making it into something the grandkids will love.

It's a good thing I did this while DH was out of town, because I had fabric everywhere while I sorted it.  The living room really wasn't usable for sitting or watching TV for a couple of days.

DH definitely could not have sat in his chair

or on the loveseat

or the couch (except for note "my" spot is clean, so I can knit, LOL!)

Even the ironing board got brought down to the living room temporarily.

While the sewing room and closet aren't totally done yet, all the major stuff in them (jeans, fabric, and old stained & outgrown knit shirts--for future rag rugs), have been sorted through and organized by kind.  It's a good start on reclaiming use of my sewing room.  Although, honestly, I've been thinking for over a year now that maybe I should move my sewing space into the basement (maybe once DD1 has moved all her belongings and household goods from it to her own house) and set up the sewing room with bunk-beds, toy box and bookshelves and turn it into a grandkids visiting space.

Quick Sewing Project

A few years ago, while on a layover in some airport somewhere (Atlanta?  Detroit Metro?  Minneapolis?), DH commented that he'd like "one of those pillows" as he pointed into an airport shop we were walking past.  I glanced really quick in the direction he was pointing, but pretty much forgot about it once we were to our gate.

January 2018, when we again were traveling by plane together, he pointed out the U-shaped pillows again as someone walked past us with one attached to their suitcase handle.  "Get me dimensions, and I can make one," I told him.

Time passed.  I didn't give it another thought.  Apparently, neither did DH.  Scratch that.  He thought about those little travel pillows every time he flew, whether he saw them in airport shops, or in possession of other travelers, or just because he fell asleep in his seat and woke up with a crink in his neck.  But he didn't bother to get close enough to one to gauge how wide and long and thick it might be, so that he could relay that info to me and I could turn it into a sewing pattern.

When he got back from yet another work trip via airplane a few weeks ago, I decided that he was never going to actually do anything (other than complain about not having one) to facilitate the manufacture and acquisition of one of those pillows.  So, I did a little googling, a little printing, some purveying of my fabric stash (which turned up nothing suitably manly for DH to use in a professional capacity), and then some shopping.

Normally I'm not big on shopping.  Fabric shopping, however, is another story.  This shopping was fun; it was a good excuse to go to a quilt shop about a half-hour from this little place here that I haven't been to in a few years.  A quaint, cute, shop with high quality fabrics in a vast array of colors, patterns, and age range.  It was a nice excursion that netted not only fabric for a travel pillow for DH, but also one for DS2--who also flies frequently for his job and has a March birthday.  I also came home with 11 assorted fat quarters of fabric for random future projects.  Because the fat quarters were buy 10 get 1 free, so. . .

And, they happened to throw in a full-sized Hershey bar with my purchase!  Bonus!  Perhaps I should frequent this shop more regularly.

Once my new fabric was washed, dried and ironed, I set to work making travel pillows for both DS2 and DH.  They were super easy to make. (Even though I picked the seam out of the first one twice because I forgot which side of the fabric to attach the strap to that I wanted to add to each of them so they can be fasted to a suitcase and not get lost in transit or dashes from one terminal to another at airports.) 

This is the tutorial and pattern I followed, with the exception of adding that strap (the pattern does not include one).  The strap is easy to make though: cut a 2" x 8" strip of fabric.  Fold in half the long way and sew right sides together with a 1/4" seam allowance.  Turn right side out, fold one end in about 1/4" and then iron flat.  Sew shut the turned under short end.  Attach to the center top of your pillow, with the strap sandwiched between the right sides of the fabric and the raw edge even with the top of the pillow.  Then just sew it down when sewing the pillow front and back together. When you turn your pillow right side out, the strap should now be on the outside and sticking out of the seam at the top of the pillow.  I sewed the female part of a large snap about 1/2" from the pillow end of the strap and the male part of the snap about 1/2" from the finished (turned under and sewn) end of the strap so that when the pieces of the snap are connected, the strap forms a flat loop (make sure to sew the male part on the same side as the female so there will not be a twist in the strap).

I'm pretty happy with the resulting pillows.  Hopefully their owners will find them comfortable on their next trips via airplane.

DS2's professional, manly fabric

DH's professional, manly fabric

 (it nearly matches his luggage)

DH's, showing the strap for attaching to his carry-on

Christmas Makings

For the good part of the past two months, when I've been home I've been working on making Christmas gifts.  I've talked about a few of them in recent yarn along posts, like the oodles of dish cloths that manifested on my knitting needles, and the ninja mask that Toad requested. I also found yarn in appropriate shades of orange and purple to make K2 a messy bun hat in the colors of her favorite college sports team: Clemson.

 But there has been so much more than just knitting going on.

I've also been cutting and sewing (and all the ironing that goes along with that).  And DH did some cutting and sanding in preparation for me to do some waterproofing.

What we ended up with was a whole lot of handmade gifts, some of which were planned out as far back as the Spring of 2017.  That is when we trimmed some branches from one of the black walnut trees that grow on our road frontage.

After aging a chosen branch for a good 18 months, DH used his miter saw to cut it into 1/2-inch disks, creating one of a kind wooden coaster sets for each of our kids, and even a set for ourselves.  It was my job to seal them on all sides, to help preserve them.

with first coat of polyurethane

(which freaked me out at first, because it went on milky white)

a finished set, sealed on all sides 

My sewing machine literally lived on the dining room table after Thanksgiving, when I went into full-on sewing mode.  The preliminary cutting had been completed, and now it was time for assembly. First off was a denim quilt for DD1 and Honorary Son.

It consists of 306 6" squares cut from old worn out jeans.  Those squares were then sewn into strips and the strips joined together to make the top.  It is queen sized.

aerial view from the stairs

flannel backing 

(chosen by DD1 this summer, when she though she was helping me choose fabric to repair my own denim quilt)

remembering how to do daisy stitch, 

I embroidered the year on one of the denim squares

That quilt was the largest sewing project I did this year.  After that, I did much faster items.  Like sewing up a plethora of microwavable bowl potholders.  Each child and their spouse/significant other got one, and no two were the same.  I tried to customize the fabrics to the intended recipient.

Once those were done, I made two sets of oven mitts; one I had cut out (but not sewn) a few years ago for DD1, and a set for DD2.  I forgot to take pictures of the pair for DD1 before wrapping them, but I did get a couple quick pics of the set for DD2.

front sides

back sides

I also made up a couple of hot pads for DD2, out of some fat quarters she'd admired the day the girls and I were at a large fabric store last summer.

front

back

It feels great to be giving so many customized gifts this year.  It feels even better to not be working on them tonight--I finished the last one yesterday!  Now it's time to relax, concentrate on the reason for the holiday, and to enjoy getting together with my family.