dontcallmebecky

2008 Finished Projects

In keeping with last year's tradition, here's a mosaic of the projects that I completed in 2008. Although I was busy with school for half of the year, I still managed to complete a lot of projects.

And, what's on tap for this year? I've been stocking up on some yarn for knitting projects, so I hope to finish a few sweaters and my zig zag afghan, and learn how to do stranded/fair isle color work. I've found that knitting and embroidery are the two most compatible projects with my school and work schedule, so look for lots more of those projects in 2009.

Happy New Year!

while I was away

in no particular order...

• I watched Jon learn lots of new knitting skills. So far he's finished his first scarf and is working on a set of handwarmers, Dashing.

• I worked on my NaKniSweMo.

Here's the progress on November 30,

and here's the progress today. I'm hoping to finish the sweater up by Saturday.

• I successfully cooked my first Thanksgiving dinner for Jon's family (turkey and all) and sewed these napkins for the table.

• I found the perfect stuffing recipe for said Thanksgiving dinner: Sourdough stuffing

• I finished up the semester (well, about 98% finished)

• I watched and was inspired by Craft in America

• I saw an incredibly inspiring, deaf percussionist, Evelyn Glennie, perform with the DSO.

Now, I've got a month of free time and a long list of projects to do and books to read. Hopefully I won't be taking long breaks again any time soon!

baby gifts

My friend and knitting/crochet buddy, Janie, is expecting a girl this December. She always teases me about preferring to make baby projects rather than having my own baby, so I had to be sure to make a few different baby projects to live up to her expectations. Her shower was on Sunday, so now I'm able to share the projects I've been working on for her for the past few months.

A baby afghan (yarn and pattern here)

Appliqued onesies

Bibs (pattern here)

charm square quilt top

About a month ago, I sorted, ironed and folded all of my scrap fabric. Along the way, I cut out 5x5 squares to make this quilt. The border is 3" wide when cut and 2.5" after sewing.

This fabric has been staring me in the face for the past three week and I finally got around to making the quilt top last night. I've been admiring these patchwork charm square quilts forever, so I'm glad that I got to jump on the bandwagon!

messenger bag

In honor of my return to school, I, of course, had to make a new book bag for myself. I used the Mischievous Gnome Messenger Bag pattern from Montessori by Hand and some Anna Griffin Sierra collection fabric from Sew, Mama, Sew (along with corduroy from Joanns).

It took about five hours to finish this project, most of which was spent cutting out fabric and trying to figure out the directions. The directions and photos for the patterns are clear and well laid out. It just takes me forever to figure out a new pattern. Next time, though, I'm sure it will go much faster.

I do have one suggestion that I'd recommend if you're going to try making this pattern yourself (one that I wish I had thought of before I finished the bag!). Use a zipper foot to do the top stitching. This will help you to sew closer to the bulky seams around the straps.

The bag is big, sturdy and roomy! It fits my laptop, 2" binder and two textbooks comfortably.

potholders

a little birthday present for my Mom, who is celebrating today! Happy Birthday, Mom!
patterns from Lotta Jansdotter Simple Sewing
embroidery design from the Sublime Stitching book

She'll be debuting her new blog soon. We started setting it up together tonight. Once she starts posting, I'll let you know.

little gifts

I recently finished up these two projects and was able to give them to their recipients on Easter...

a pillow for my sister

My sister saw this pillow and requested that I make her one. I love having a functional way to display embroidery that doesn't show the messy back side. The pattern is the Kurt Halsey Artist series from Sublime Stitching. I finished the pillow off with a patterned fabric border and backing. This fabric is from a Kaffe Fasset line, but I'm not sure of the exact pattern name.

and a purse for my aunt

I don't think I'll ever tire of making these cable knit purses. They're such a classic pattern and I really love using the Lamb's Pride yarn. I have to hold myself back from buying more of this yarn in different colors whenever I'm at a yarn shop!

Pattern: Cable Knit purse pattern from a class I took at a local yarn store
Needles: 10.5
Yarn: Lamb's Pride Bulky - Persian Peacock

finishing up loose ends

Remember this quilt from last summer? Yeah, the one I had intended on using instead of our down comforter during the summer. Well, the good news is that I'm hoping to have it finished by this summer instead. I pulled it out of hibernation last weekend and assessed the damage. I had to pull out all of my basting pins (sad!) and rip out the little quilting that I did do. I washed the top to get rid of the lines and re-drew parallel vertical lines (as seen here), re-basted it and have been quilting a few lines here and there in the evenings. I will definitely be glad to have this project out of the way!

And, here's a set of bibs that I made for Oiyi's daughter, Melody, who was born back in January. I used the now famous bib pattern from Chick Pea Sewing Studio, some japanese character prints that I bought in Japan last year, and the side view of the pig from the Christmas ornament freebie at weewonderfuls (my attempt at hand sewing a stuffed golden pig was quite laughable, so I went with the two dimensional version instead!).

a bag and a softie

I made this little lunch bag last weekend and have had a few days to test it out at work. So far, it's worked out great and because it has a flexible bottom it fits all types and sizes of tupperware containers. While I really love this lunch bag book that I posted about last year, I just couldn't settle on the perfect size for my lunch and have been carrying around my lunch in a dilapidated paper bag (yes, the same one) ever since.

I saw a link for this fabric shopping bag last week and thought it would be the perfect solution to my ever-changing lunch containers/content problem that made using a square bottomed bag difficult.

I ended up having to sew the bag twice because the handles were just too short the first time around. I lengthened them significantly the second time, but they're still not big enough to slip comfortably over my hand. So, if I end up making another version of this bag, I'll definitely add 3-4 more inches to the handles. But this is definitely 2 steps up from my torn paper bag with one broken handle so I'm sold on it for now!

And, I never shared this little treasure, Carmen the Zaubermaus...a Christmas gift from Jon...my very own softie from Soto Softies! He signed up for the mailing list to make sure he could get one and everything! I was so excited to open her up on Christmas and she has been watching me craft in my sewing room ever since.

baby gifts

Catherine and I were busy last week making some cute little baby things for our friend, Linda's shower on Saturday.

Catherine made these little bibs with a pattern from Chickpea Sewing Studio:

She also made these burp rags with cotton fabric and chenille (11" x 17")

And I made this chenille blanket that was an enlarged version of the pot holders that I posted last week (36" x 24")

It was so exciting to see Linda open up all of her gifts! She is always such a gracious gift receiver. The look on her face when she opened up the bibs was so adorable. I can't wait to see how much joy her little bun brings her when he or she arrives in a few months!