Checking in

This is just a quick post to let you know that I haven't disappeared off the face of the Earth.  We have returned from our vacation and are still setting things to rights, and I am working on a major project (to be unveiled here soon) and have many smaller projects in the works.  Also look for updates on SCI knitting and Christmas bazaar crafting.  Hope you are all well and doing whatever you love with whomever you love!

Holiday weekend treasure!

Memorial Day weekend is the official start of Yard Sale Season for me, and D and I kicked it off this year by heading to a 40-family yard sale in Lancaster, PA, where the pickings always seem to be a little more exciting than they are at home.  

(I'm especially loving the blue rosebud cotton print that you see in nearly all of the pictures below!  There's enough of it to make myself a pair of summer pajamas...)

Those big needles are called "Jumbo Jets."  The little ones beside them are size 17!

Yard-sale notions are practically free! To heck with Jo-Ann Fabrics! 

That big hoop is 17 inches across -- huge!  I'm going to use these to make a wall display of my favorite fabrics.

I love vintage greeting cards. Six different kinds in this box!

A souvenir tablecloth with cocktail napkins. I don't really know what to do with this, but I thought it was interesting-looking.

I have so much fun on these adventures, and I am so lucky to have a husband who enjoys them too (even if we did end up with a copy of Men In Black II.  Ugh.)  Thanks for a great day, D!

Ten Things: Three

I am a poet.  At the moment, my poetry is dormant, but I have made a decision to wake it up.  Look for it here. 

I wrote pretty good poetry as an elementary-schooler, pretty typical (read: angsty and obscure) poetry as a middle-schooler, and pretty decent (if somewhat controversial) poetry as a high-school student.  My eleventh grade teacher was a wonderful mentor, and I was published multiple times in the school literary magazine, Pen and Ink -- admittedly I was literary editor my senior year, so there was some serious nepotism going on there.  I spent a summer learning about the ins and outs of life as a poet at the Pennsylvania Governor's School for the Arts, and I wrote prodigiously in my journals and read constantly.

To start off, here's the last poem I remember writing:

In the studio -- Thrifted, etc.

Treasures from a birthday jaunt to my favorite antique and resale shops in Lancaster, PA -- a mason jar, some tapestry wool, a painted wastebasket.

From The Lancaster Yarn Shop, because I was there:  four skeins of New England Highland Wool, #67 Marigold, and one skein of Kettle Dyed Wool & Mohair Yarn, Heirloom Tomatoes colorway.  Totally irresistible.

The current state of my cream-and-gray blanket -- behold, The Princess and the Pea.  I hope to get back to this ASAP, but I am currently so engrossed in my knitting that everything else is on hold.

 

 

And there's knitting class this morning!  TGIF, and Spring Break for K as well -- the Aunties are coming to visit and she is hoping to have some Girls' Only Craft Time.  I have an idea brewing; look for it soon!

Emerging

My, it's been a long time!  I've missed sharing my work and ideas with you and have made a resolution to do those things more regularly in 2011.  (Actually, I was intending to start back in on Monday, but you know how those things go...)

Back in the studio

I took a break over the holidays and mostly worked on knitting mittens -- finished a pair for myself and nearly finished a pair for D, which he may yet get by the time the cold weather is over. But I'm back in the studio with a new sewing machine and plenty of new projects in the works.

Before Christmas I went through my stash of thrifted sheets and readied them for projects galore... They're not just for pajama pants anymore!

I spent most of today working on a long-overdue birthday present for my nephew J, who turned The Big Oh-Three back in November. I had fun making his superhero cape, though by the time I was done it had me singing my high school's alma mater (Crimson and gold, triumphant evermore!) and wondering whether J might look more like Ronald McDonald than a powerful crime-fighter. I think he'll probably enjoy it just the same.

My notions bin has yet to recover from the ransacking it received when I was looking for just the right trim for an improvised doll's dress that K's hand-me-down baby could wear to show-and-tell last Friday. It was constructed and donned with haste and I have not seen it since, or I would show it to you here.

Here are the pre-washed fabrics for the preemie quilt I'm making as a sample for the craftivism group I'm trying to get together at my church. I've been wanting to work with 30's reproduction fabrics for a long time, and I had a good excuse to buy some last week at my quilt store's Fat Quarter Friday -- they will be perfect for a baby, and they mix seamlessly (no pun intended) with some vintage scraps I bought when we were antique-scrounging in Michigan last summer.

So my hands are full and busy, and I must say I am quite happy with the whole deal.

For my sick chick

Poor K has been home sick from school for four days now; it's getting kind of old for her though she's been a real trooper about not complaining. Mainly she's sad because she's missing the fun activities her friends are getting to do -- not the least of which is the Halloween parade tomorrow, in which she was to have worn her K-Cat costume and marched with her friends (and her proud Mama.) I hope she'll still get to do that, but hope is getting slender.

So last night I made her this comfort object from Amanda Soule's Handmade Home. With an average temperature of around 100.2, she hardly needs a hot water bottle. But there's something so soothing about having something warm to cuddle, and this sloshy little thing wearing Daddy's old comfy flannel shirt from college, that I wore for years after Daddy "outgrew" it, brought a smile to her face this morning.

Saying goodbye

I have had to set my mitten, sweater and other fun projects aside for a few days to work on a prayer shawl for a grieving friend. A week ago her husband came down with the sniffles as she was recovering from a bout with the flu, and early yesterday morning he passed away from complications due to H1N1. He was my age, and they were close to each other in a way that most couples wish they could be. Rodney is at rest and at peace, but my sadness deepens for his wife as the stitches and rows add up and I struggle with the new design.

I have been casual about flu shots in the past but will be scheduling vaccinations for myself and K (D's is already taken care of) this afternoon. Please make sure you get yours too, if you're able.

In the works

I have way, way, way too many projects in the works these days, and I have been admonished several times by my daughter to stop buying new craft supplies until I have used up some of my existing ones. I have only been bringing home thrifted/foraged/secondhand materials with the exception of some wool sewing yarn, but it does add up.

So this weekend I finished two felted wool baby blankets, which I plan to send to a therapist friend who treats women with postpartum depression and likes to give handmade gifts to her patients who deliver. I hope she likes them, because I could happily supply her with many more! I'll tuck a few cashmere bunnies in the package for good measure.

Projects I'm working on include:

• A hand-sewn felted wool blanket done in 5" squares, truly beautiful!
• A "cobbled" felted wool pullover sweater -- more on this later
• A huge tied quilt made entirely of thrifted pillowcases and backed with a thrifted bedsheet
• Finishing up the second edition of the beach blanket
• A new pattern for pajama pants that I hope will fit me better but that I'm a little afraid of
• My alpaca sweater
• Various things I won't mention because they're perpetual works in progress

Not to mention trying to keep the mess in order and finish decorating!

A full plate

What a fun day we had yesterday!  The sun finally came out and we took a friend to lunch, then bought tulips at Trader Joe's and met a new 5-year-old friend who lives two doors down and has a lovely family and a fun swing set to boot.  I think this could be the beginning of Something Good.

While all that was going on I was busy not planning my week, so now it is Free Play Friday and I have yet to Think It Through.  I'm afraid that, this week, I have extremely high hopes and dreams and may find it difficult to stay realistic, but I will give it a shot:

Free Play Friday is a catch-up day and will probably see very little crafting -- I need to pull the house together as best I can for the busy week to come.

Studio Saturday means getting my old desk moved into K's room once and for all!  Then D and I will empty the closet and do proper measuring for custom shelves, which we will purchase at a later date -- maybe in a week or two.  Not sure if we should install them before or after painting.  Suggestions?  (Will also be purchasing fabric for a large new project -- what fun!  I'm being deliberately cryptic about the nature of the project, except that it's a full-sized quilt, because it is a gift.)

Stick-with-it Sunday will have to be forfeited this week, as my sister and nephew will be visiting and family comes first.  Any available time will be spent making the current sewing room as functional as possible for making a full-sized quilt.

Mix-it-up Monday will of course include a menu plan for the week -- the wheels are starting to turn about that, and I hope to include at least one meal that K can help prepare now that I've bought an electric skillet to help make things easier for her.  Will continue to prepare the sewing room for the new quilt -- I want this project to run like clockwork!

Try-it-out Tuesday is the day the beginners' knitting group meets at the county library headquarters, so I hope to attend that.  Otherwise the day will be completely given over to the full-sized quilt -- sewing the panels together and beginning to pin the sandwich.

Works-in-progress Wednesday looks like it will be an exercise in will power -- I may need to set a timer so that I'll be working half time on the new project and half time on older ones, just to keep myself on task.  I want to go through my Crochet-WIP basket to see whether there is some yarn I can give away to buy myself some space; I may have mentioned this before, but it bears repeating that I just don't enjoy working with yarn the way I once did.

I'll include Think-it-through Thursday because it's a no-brainer:  I'm just going to work on my full-sized quilt until I'm done.  The project instructions say to give it about 10 hours, so I'm figuring on about 24 of my own working hours to get it done properly.  I think I have enough time to get it done -- I'll keep you posted!


What's on your plate for the weekend to come?  Got any plans spilling over into next week?

Checking in

Ok, I am totally swamped but having the time of my life!   I admit to giving up this week's plan back on Saturday when I realized that I had not cleaned out the closet, let alone measured it properly, and we never did make it to IKEA.  And there was nothing to "stay with" on Sunday, so I let that slide, and Monday I woke up sick and went back to sleep for the rest of the day.  So I am now doing tons (if only I were exaggerating) of laundry and catching up on cleaning and still fighting this nasty bug and trying to carve out time to cook and craft and shop for the holiday. 

Despite all the misery, Try-it-out Tuesday was a rousing success.  I whipped up a cute drawstring bag to hold my quilt, which I've been toting around with me in an unsightly paper sack for a few weeks now -- that was an absolute necessity -- and an adorable head scarf from the remnants, both projects from Weekend Sewing.  I also spent some time yesterday at a beginner's knitting group at the county library headquarters, which was an absolute blast -- and with some help from an excellent teacher and this handy web page I think I may have finally figured out how to purl!  Next Christmas, socks for everyone! 

Of course, in my spare time I am still whipping out felt rabbits.  I promise to snap a photo of the whole bunny family before it goes in K's Easter basket this Sunday -- for the moment, I must go tend to the housework and shopping in the hope that I will have some time to sew something before the end of the day. 

Like bunnies

Today I've been making wool felt rabbits in marvelous colors: baby blue, vanilla latte, pink, pistachio green, buttercup, lavender. They are charming to look at but take nearly an hour to complete, so they are not really multiplying like bunnies, much as I wish they would -- I've got big plans for these little guys involving certain small persons' Easter baskets.

As for the week to come:

Free play Friday will probably see me making more wool felt rabbits.

Studio Saturday will definitely involve a trip to IKEA to purchase shelving for my fabric-storage-closet.

On Stick-with-it Sunday K will be home, so no rabbits. I plan to cut out dawni's quilt that day and start piecing if there's time.

Mix-it-up Monday is also Menu Planning Monday; K would like to do some recipes out of the Sesame Street Cookbook so I will plan my mix-up accordingly. She has marked a couple of no-bake cookie selections that look, um, gross to me, so I may have to discuss some compromises with her.

Try-it-out Tuesday is being difficult for me this week -- there are so many things I want to try. I'm committing right now to trying "Jane's Head Scarf" from Weekend Sewing, but I reserve the right to give other projects a go as well.

Works-in-progress Wednesday was a bust last week. There was simply no time to do anything, so I worked a few rows on an afghan I started last summer. This week I want to take a serious look at my crocheting works-in-progress and be brutal with my surplus yarn: What am I really going to make? The rest can go to the Goodwill.

And then, Bang! Holy Week begins with Maundy Thursday. So, as usual, I have my work cut out for me. What will you be working on in the week to come?

Thinking it through

It's always good to have a plan. I'm doing very well with my meal plan for the week -- I can't say it's been perfect, but dinner's been on the table each night with a minimum of fuss, and I have a good sense of what I can serve for next week as well. So I'm providing a plan for my creative work week with Think-it-through Thursday. Here goes:

• Free Play Friday -- By definition, I don't need to put anything down here. I will speculate, however, that I may spend some time finishing the "My House" quilt and working on the coordinating pillow slips. Since K has the day off from school, we may work on some "'broidery" together, or possibly sort through some photographs.
• Studio Saturday -- My plan is to have all of D's books downstairs by Saturday. Then I want to empty the drawers out and clear off the top of my old desk, so that we can move it into K's room, thus freeing up needed space for my cutting table.
• Stay-with-it Sunday -- Since I expect to be done with "My House," this will be the day I plan and choose fabrics for dawni's Friendship Star quilt. If I have time I will cut and maybe start piecing.
• Mix-it-up Monday -- I want to make the Quiche Lorraine that didn't get made last Monday, so I will do my menu planning and grocery shopping around that. Since K will be in school I will also work on felt rabbits.
• Try-it-out Tuesday -- This will be my chance to make the drawstring bag to hold K's rabbits in. With any extra time I will work on finishing up the rabbit family and piecing dawni's quilt.
• Works-in-progress Wednesday -- There is a poncho that needs about 30 minutes to finish up; there are some journal covers with a little work left to do on them; a baby afghan that needs finishing; and any number of projects that need to be noticed and prioritized.

For the rest of the day, I'm putting ties on "My House." I hope to finish the ties and embroider my name and the date on the back by bedtime. Then I can run it through the wash to give it that antique-y look and spread it on the bed -- at last!

Welcome

Hi to anyone who is visiting Magnificasti for the first time, and welcome! Check out some of my earlier posts, view photographs of past projects, and follow along with my progress as I work to transform my husband's old office into my new crafting studio. If you like what you see, become a follower or subscribe to the RSS feed and come along for the ride! And do leave a comment with any feedback you have to offer, or just say hello. I'm so glad you stopped by!

Separation anxiety

So I took my sewing machine into the shop to get cleaned and serviced today. I like the Vac 'n' Sew man a lot; he's just friendly enough without drawing customers into long involved conversations that hold up the other customers so they can't get their vacuum cleaners back and get out already. I handed him a long list of special presser feet I wanted and he was nice about saying he'd try to get them for me rather than laughing at me for wanting things he couldn't get for my pathetic simpleton machine. And he said I could have my machine back in about a week. I must have looked perfectly aghast at him, because he quickly added that he'd try to move it along so I could have it Monday or Tuesday instead. What a nice man!

Meanwhile I will tidy up my (temporary) craft room; I will continue to do work toward claiming my new craft studio; I will try to do some general decluttering around the house; and I will attempt to finish one crochet project. Excellent plans, I think; we'll see how many of them I can accomplish.

Gone quiet

I haven't had much to say these last few days, partly because I've been feeling sleepy and sluggish and partly because I'm trying to keep a couple of secrets, but I'm still working and thinking and creating and producing in the background here. I'm trying some new techniques, and I'm sewing with some fun fabrics from my stash that I've never found the right quilt for because the yardage was so short. And the wheels are always turning about my craft studio, whether or not I'm actually plugging away in there. I've taken to carrying the Ikea catalog with me when I go out in case I have a spare minute to browse.

So expect to hear more from me by the end of the week. I intend to finish my current project, re-cover the ironing board and then take the sewing machine in for its supposedly regular maintenance, which I hope will spur on some serous activity in the craft studio, or at least some general cleaning around the house. It's all good!