Journal Cozy

I love my patchwork Moleskine notebooks so much that I dislike writing in plain ones anymore -- to the point that I will avoid making notes until I have time to decorate a new notebook.  (I know that's ridiculous.)  Then inspiration hit, in the form of an embellished Ann Taylor sweater from the thrift store.  Why not make a journal cozy that I could reuse?

It took a lot of improvisation to get to this design.  Some things I learned:

• Don't try to machine-sew over beads and sequins.  Just don't.
• It might be a good idea to use some stabilizer if you're going to sew satin ribbon to sweater fabric.  If you plan to do this, make sure ahead of time that you have some on hand.  Otherwise, you might have to change your plans.
• Sometimes you end up with a significantly different-looking finished product than you envisioned.
• From my young friend Miss R. -- ‎"Don't be afraid it won't be perfect, the only thing to be afraid of really is that it won't BE."

Instead of binding the edges with pink satin ribbon or hemming them, I had to opted to zig-zag them with pink and purple thread.  Rather than try to get the stitching "just so," which I knew I couldn't do, I went over the stitching several times in different colors for a layered effect.  I like the way it turned out.

To finish, I zig-zagged a double length of grosgrain ribbon into the back my new notebook for place-holders, letting the stitching go a bit wonky once again.

What a fun project!  I will be interested to see how useful this turns out to be.

Wonky Blocks

I'm sorry for disappearing these last few months; it has been a crazy summer, with trips to visit aunties and Alma Maters, a lovely vacation at the beach and many weeks of driving long distance to (totally worth it!) day camp in the Pinelands.  Thankfully, school starts up again tomorrow and things are settling down again.  I have many projects to show you! Let me start with my latest passion, the "mystery quilt," to which I will give the working title "Wonky Blocks."  (An appropriate homemade gift will go to the person who can guess the actual name of the quilt before it is finished -- I will be dropping hints along the way!)

I am working entirely with pieces from my scrap box and from pre-cut (homemade) charm squares and jelly roll strips so far -- I will need to purchase fabric for a border, backing, and possibly for binding as well.  The process of making the blocks has been quite liberating -- I started making geometrically precise little blocks with the pre-cuts, and finished by sewing the tiniest scraps together in any way they would go and cutting the results into squares.  I'm loving the results!

Putting the quilt-block puzzle together is exciting and hurts my head, and is taking up the living room where D will want to set up with his computer as he is working from home today, and I am not half done yet.  There may be turf wars to come.

Still to do:  piece quilt; determine a size for the quilt (how wide do they make quilt batting, anyway, and can you sew two lengths of batting together to make a larger one?); determine type of border to use and amount(s) of fabric to buy; and so on, and so on. 

What she said

Earlier this week, on Soulemama's blog, I read a post that truly inspired me. You can read the entirety of it here -- and I would encourage you to do so if for no other reason than to drink in the glorious photographs she includes in every post -- but the comments below do a great job of summarizing how I'm feeling without my adding a thing:

Sometimes these things - our passions and our projects - get done in simple, yet miraculous ways: in the two-minute increments of time that may appear at a time; with the help of a sweet husband who carries a little extra weight for a moment so I can do something as silly as knit a sleeve in silence; or as the chosen priority for a day over a pile of laundry/bathroom cleaning/bill paying. Sometimes we go to extreme/comical/ridiculous measures to make our passions happen in the everyday. Because the way it makes me feel - the way it feeds my soul - well, that fuels me to be a better person. And a better mom.

One little stitch at a time.

Mishmash: On the Fritz Edition

All of our appliances seem to be going berserk at the same time -- the freezer is leaking water into the fridge, the washer isn't draining properly and the dryer doesn't seem to be getting the clothes as dry as they used to get -- and I'm not going to say anything at all about our plumbing issues. I suppose that, 8 years into our marriage, it's reasonable that something would stop working, but does everything need to go haywire at once? The fridge repairman is coming tomorrow, and at a minimum charge of $75.00 we will learn to live with the other inconveniences for a little while.

I had been going to say that I hadn't accomplished much creatively yesterday, but that's not entirely true. I simply did not have much success in my creative endeavors yesterday. The chocolate-chip cookies came out well, but the felted-recycled-wool-sweater-hat was a complete bomb -- three times. First I failed to follow the directions properly and cut the thing out wrong, then I used the wrong color thread, and then the brim wouldn't set and the whole shebang looked more like an inverted sweater-bucket on my head than actual headgear.

Besides that, I made a version of the hooded towel/blanket using a linen/rayon blend in place of the usual terry cloth (the pattern in the book calls for 100% linen, which I've had trouble finding) and was very disappointed when the results were neither warm nor absorbent nor cuddly. The big Jo-Ann Fabrics in Mount Laurel has finally started carrying toweling in colors other than pink and blue, so I may experiment with that next -- if I ever use up the terry cloth I have on hand.

In other news, D and I went to Ikea and bought a bright red computer desk and chair and a floor mat that will work in the front hall and closet. I love red! Among D's most important specifications were that he have storage space to stack three plastic shoe boxes and that he be able to close the closet with the desk inside. I'm ok with anything that requires him to be minimalist with his belongings -- the less stuff, the less mess. I'm concerned about why he felt so strongly about being able to close the door, though. What's he planning to keep in there, and is it going to breed?

Winter woolen

There is something to be said for doing some work every day that does not involve picking up someone else's socks.

There is something to be said for doing work often that results in a satisfying finished product, although this cannot necessarily be done every day.

There is something to be said for trying new kinds of work and experiencing new processes that can lead to new kinds of success.

I think what I would say is that I am enjoying making the time to do some of my own personal work every day, taking on new types of projects and being amazed and thrilled as I complete them, and giving myself permission to reflect and write about the thinking and feeling that happens around the work I do. It's not much, but it helps give my life a little more meaning and structure, and makes me feel better when I am picking up my ten millionth sock of the day.

Yesterday's project was a buttery-soft wool scarf with a melty alpaca fringe, which was truly a joy to create. I had no trouble working with the wool, and the yarn went through the gigantic tapestry needle with no trouble at all. I have enough leftovers to make two more of these scarves, and I had planned to give them as gifts, but I'm not certain I'll be able to part with them all!

Edit 12/8/08: I forgot to mention that the idea for this scarf was adapted from the book Last Minute Fabric Gifts by Cynthia Treen and Karen Philippi.