Traveling Through my WIP Pile!

I am slowly getting things out of my WIP pile. In the past two weeks the pile has shrunk from four projects to only two projects and that is only because I almost immediately cast on another scarf after casting off my Noro Striped Scarf.

I decided to take a leaf out of the Yarn Harlot's book and wet block my scarf. It is a shorter scarf that (as my fiance has pointed out) is going to be perfect for spring and fall when I don't want to be wearing my longer scarf just yet. It is also the perfect length to use to tie around my head and wear it as a headband/earmuffs.

I am trying to decide if I want the stripes to be all the way up my next scarf or if I just want the two color striping bits at the ends of the scarf and keep the rest in the main color that I started with. But other than that, I am on a 1x1 ribbed scarf kick for some reason. It is easy and fun and always looks good no matter what you do with it, so I think that is part of the reason why I can't stop knitting 1x1 ribbed scarves at the moment.

I am also back at making my scrappy crumb blocks again. My mom's old sewing machine is acting up again, so I am back to hand sewing the blocks. The top two on the right were completely done by hand while most of the others were done either by machine or half by hand and half by machine.

Ironing the blocks really makes a difference with how they lay. The last block I made was ironed before it was trimmed down to size to make the cutting easier (and it was).

 I also did a very loose Jelly Roll Race Block (the one on the upper right corner) where I took scraps of fabric that were about the same width and sewed them all end to end. Then I folded the ends in half and sewed along one side and cut the fold then repeated that until it was a square block. It sounds complicated, but it really wasn't. I understand why people would like to buy a precut jelly rolls of a fabric line to make a quilt with. It really doesn't take that much time and I imagine that if you were doing that on a sewing machine that it would fly by.

My cotton is growing quite nicely. They finally sprouted and the seedlings are growing nice and tall. I'm not sure a couple of them will make it, but my dad (who gardens a lot) thinks that they might all survive to be strong cotton plants. Hopefully in another week or two they will have their true leaves instead of the seedling leaves. When that happens then I will transfer them to other bigger pots to grow up the rest of the way.

This makes me hopeful that I can actually grow things and that my dream of having a small garden one day will come to life. I mostly would want a small herb garden with maybe a couple of veggies, but I haven't had anything grow like this before. I will report back with their progress in about a week.

Mending & Mistakes

I never thought that I would ever end up liking to sew. On top of that, I never thought that I would end up enjoying hand sewing so much because it is slow! But at the end of two hours of slow stitches patching a pair of my favorite jeans using some thread that I took from my mom's sewing chest and some denim that I collected from a pair of pants that no longer fit me, I discovered that not only did I patch my pants myself, but that I enjoyed doing it.

The only thing that my mom regrets is that when I wanted to learn how to sew when I was eight, she didn't have the time to teach me. Now, I'm several years older and I am pestering her to learn how to quilt with me and teaching myself how to sew. I think she enjoys the fact that I come to her with sewing problems since she finds herself coming to me with knitting problems sometimes. The only reason that we aren't busy quilting up a storm is that the box of fabric I want to use is out in the coldest part of the house and we only remember about it when it is freezing. I will have to remember when it is still slightly warm during the day to go out and get that box so we can look through it and plan a quilt out together.

I have been slowly stitching together a teddy bear that I cut out using a very old pattern. I spent some of the afternoon stitching together the inside arm to the outside arm so that I have two complete arms for the bear complete with different colored pads for the paws. I am ridiculously excited about this and I hope that I have enough stuffing to fill the bear when it is complete.

The funny thing is that the bear has been riddled with mistakes. I didn't sew anything wrong this time, but I noticed when I was going through the pieces that I had the forehead part of the bear, but I didn't have the part for either side of the head. Everything else is cut out except for that. Not a huge mistake, but a funny beginner mistake. I am going to have to find that pattern piece and cut out those pieces before I start sewing together the body or else I will forget that I have to do it. I also have the rest of the floral fabric that I took from my mom's fabric stash sitting out on my coffee table so that I will remember to do it the next time I have some crafting time.

A lesson learned...

I have been having a big urge to sew something since late last night. I was browsing different methods of quilting and decided that it looked fun. So, this afternoon I dug the bin out that now holds my needlework supplies (I know, a bin that isn't full of yarn?) and discovered that I had cut out a teddy bear to make.

Now, I already have two bears made with this pattern. My mom made one for me when I was really little out of the same fabric she used to make my nightgown. The second one I was trying to make on my own, but my mom took over the difficult parts and ended up sewing together almost the whole bear. This time I decided that I was going to do the whole thing myself and that I was going to hand sew it because I like hand sewing and I want to learn how to do it better. The only way to do that is to practice, right?

The whole thing was going well. I already had one ear sewn together and it actually held together while I was turning it right-side out (unlike my first potholder). I took a picture to show my more consistent if loose stitching when I saw it. The mistake.

Can you tell?

I'll give you a hint: the faded flower fabric showing is the wrong side of the fabric. I was supposed to be sewing it to the right side of the fabric so that it would be facing the right way when I turned it inside out.

Now I have to figure out where mom keeps her pair of seam rippers because I don't have a set myself. My lesson? Double check what way your fabric is facing before you start sewing! Triple check even in my case. At least you can try again when you are just stitching. It is only a little bit difficult to undo.