one stitch short

Sewwww...

I got my new sewing machine, and have been so busy using it, that I haven't even posted about it!  I ended up purchasing a Janome 4800QC, but they didn't have one in stock, so I got a 4900QC instead (yay for free upgrades).  And, it got here in two days with free shipping, an extra added bonus!




Since I received it, I've been catching up on projects that I already had the supplies to make!


A minky blanket and pillowcase for the kid


Some coasters as a hostess gift (and to practice my quilting)


And, I purchased some fabric to make a buttercup bag. I love the pattern, though I think I'm much better sewing things that aren't three dimensional (blankets, quilts, etc.). I rarely am able to make a bag that I'm happy with, so I may have to stick to quilts for the time being.

This was all in the first weekend I had the machine! I got my dose of immediate gratification and now I'm working on a quilt that will take me a bit longer. It is definitely easier to be productive and a much better experience now that I don't have to fight with my machine so much. I love the new machine, though I know I haven't even scratched the surface of it's capabilities. I am looking forward to learning the best ways to use everything. My favorite part, the fact that I can keep a lot of the feet in the top of the machine! It makes it much easier to find them when I need them!!!

New Macheen!*

I settled on a new sewing machine, thanks largely to all of the advice spurred on by a previous post, and it is in transit!  On it's way!  It will be here tomorrow!  To make it even better, we're off on Friday (kid has a school holiday so we both took off), which means that tomorrow is my Friday! 

I'm so not ready for it to arrive.  My craft room is in shambles.  It has become a dumping ground for all things homeless.  But, I know its arrival will make the cleaning go much faster as I'll be anxious to get that sucker going!

In anticipation of the new machine, I ordered a new sewing book (like I don't already have a billion projects I'd like to tackle, but I was looking for inspiration), Weekend Sewing by Heather Ross.  I thought there might be one or two patterns I'd want to make out of this book, and was really ordering it for the eye candy, but I was wrong!  There are a ton of great projects.  A couple of my favorites are below (pics from the Weekend Sewing Gallery).

Originally, I thought this dress was for a little girl.  But, no, it's in grown-up sizes!  I'm terrified of garment sewing, but this one might just sway me to try it.

I have the husband on record saying that if I made him and the kid matching pajama pants (or as we call them around here "jams") then he will wear them.  I may not make them matchy-matchy, but I do think coordinates would be super cute for the fam.

Now, I just need fabric!  Hmmm...a run to the fabric store on my lunch break may be in order!

*Spelling intentional, that's how we say it around here because it makes us laugh.  It is said that way in every respect...a bread "macheen", you are a "macheen", you get the picture.

Salina: The Recap

My first NaKniSweMoDo Sweater took me two months instead of one.  Hopefully, I can make up some ground with tanks/vests in the summer months.  Anyway, since Carolyn insists, here's the recap (day by day recap on ravelry)! 

Basically, I LOVE this sweater!  I just steam blocked it, and I definitely did a better job of pressing the left cuff (right to you) then the right cuff, so the right cuff drove me a little crazy all day. 

The only major modification I made was in the sleeves.  Instead of knitting them and then attaching them as called for in the pattern, I picked up stitches to add them because I was concerned about making sure they were the correct length.  The two things I usually miss on fit wise are sleeve length and body length.  I extended the body length slightly on this one, too, using a favorite t-shirt as my guide.

Overall, I love this sweater!  The fit is great and I really like the yarn, Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed .  I'm usually pretty sensitive to the itch factor in wool, but I wore this sweater all day with just a short-sleeved t-shirt under it and I wasn't bothered by it at all.  I think this is definitely the most wearable sweater I have made to date.

And, for your amusement, I share with you what happens when you take self-timer pics in the presence of a toddler.

Sewing Machine

A long, long time ago (way back in October) the husband and I decided that we would reward ourselves for our recent frugality once we met some financial goals.  He would get money toward a new bike and I would get a new sewing machine!  Well, the time is almost here, so I need to figure out what I want to get.  I've been doing a lot of online research, but if you have any recommendations (type, brand, features), I would love to hear them!

52 Books Update (& Review!)

Six books down, 46 to go!  I'm keeping up with this relatively well, though I may be a smidge behind right now.  I know I'll catch up with a couple of the softer books I have waiting for me!  I'm not going to go through a review of each book, you can friend me on Goodreads for that, but I did want to review Knitting the Threads of Time since I got a review copy in the mail! 

Upon reading the description, I wasn't sure if I would like this book, but it did intrigue me.  I tend to read either mysteries or chic lit (serious or fluff), and this one doesn't fit in either of those genres, but I ending up liking it. 

First, the stuff I didn't like.  The book is the story of a sweater's progression, and in this progression, the author shares a lot of stories about women of different cultures.  Not just about knitting in different cultures, but she relates lots of different cultural stories back to the knitting of the sweater.  I enjoyed learning about these cultures, but sometimes I just wanted to hear about the sweater or about her life, not so much about a historical group of people.  She also makes sure that a non-knitter or new knitter reading the book would understand it, but since I understand what stockinette stitch is, the descriptions kind of wore on me.

What I did like...the stories about the yarn shop where she got help with her pattern and about her life with her family.  I tend to read to dive into other people's lives, so ultimately, I wanted to know about her and about her experience knitting the sweater.  Like Rachael, I tend to like the memoir part of the book better than the history.  But, I appreciated what I learned after I read it.  So, all in all, I would recommend this book not only to knitters, but also to people who are interested in learning about different cultures and about some aspects of women's history. 

Now, what to read next.  I've kind of started a nice light read, "Can You Keep a Secret?" by Sophie Kinsella, so maybe I'll go with that.  I need something light since my upcoming knitting will not be - I'm almost to the point of finishing on Salina!

NaKniSweMoDo Update - Sweater 1 (still)

Clearly, this is more of a challenge for me then for other knitters, since it's month two and I'm on sweater one.  At any rate, I made great progress this weekend.

I finished the sleeves!  I knit them both at once which made them seem to take forever, so I wasn't exactly motivated to work on them.  On top of that, I made it through the decreases for the front.  I'm hoping to finish the front by the end of next weekend.  I'm going on a trip from work and it would be the perfect time to work on seaming since I'll have some time to kill in the evenings in my hotel room, and won't have a 1.5 year old with me to climb in the middle of all of it.  :)  I'm motivated again, which will hopefully make the rest of this sweater just fly by!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here's a re-cap of the valentine's crafting that has been going on around here.
We made valentine's for the kiddo's teachers from the outline of his hand (left) and the grandparents from his "artwork" (right).

I made fabric flowers from Wisecraft's tutorial for the girls from work from my recent scrap stash acquisitions.  I'm particularly proud of learning how to make fabric covered buttons.  I always thought it was really hard, but, um, it's not.  I made all of these in one night, from cutting the fabrics to completed!

Add to all this the heart shaped tea cakes for the kid's teachers, the valentine's for the front of sweethearts boxes for other peeps at work and making the kid's sandwiches into little hearts and it's been a very busy valentine's week.  But, fun! 

Week in Review - 1/26-2/1

Gleek does these, and I like seeing what she's been up to, plus I'd love to be able to look back at little snapshots of my life a week at a time.  No promise that I'll do this consistently, but here goes!

Monday, I was tired all day!  Could have been that I had a super fun weekend with a photography class all day on Sunday, but it was a rather unproductive day, other than the work I did at work.

Tuesday was a normal Tuesday...I'm on kid duty and we do swim lessons.  He did better with swim lessons this week than I expected since we had missed a week with him being sick.

Wednesday, I don't even remember.  Isn't that sad?  Jason didn't get to do his normal Wednesday evening bike ride because it was super cold, so he came home and we got to eat dinner as a full family, which only happens once or twice a week.  Oh, and the kid had fun playing with the dad's flashlight.

Thursday, I tried Kashi pizza for the first time.  It was really good and may become a staple type item to keep around for the nights when it's just the kid and I.

Friday, I just wanted to take a bath, read some and go to bed, so once the kid got to sleep, that's what I did! 

Saturday was an event at work, that went really well!  But, meant getting up early and being on my feet all day leaving me tired (have you noticed a theme?).

Sunday was all about the super bowl!  I made homemade pitas to be eaten with hummus and a bread bowl with spinach artichoke dip.  We had three other couples over and consumed way too much food while watching what turned out to be a pretty darn good game, despite the Cardinals abysmal first quarter.  And, we laughed really hard when Bruce went crotch first into the camera at half time.  Mature, I know.

Pin Cushion Caddy

I really have been knitting toward my first NaKniSweMoDo sweater, but I'm stuck on the sleeves which is BORING!  So, I am showing what I've been doing in the sewing room.  A few weeks ago, I ordered some scraps from WiseCraft off of etsy.  It was a fun challenge to get some "surprise" scraps and decide what to create from them.  This is just one of many projects that I think I'll create from those scraps. 

A while ago, I had seen the Pin Cushion Caddy project in "Seams to Me" that I really wanted to make for Shauna as she is going to start sewing soon.  She appreciates handmade things and is one of the most creative people I know.  It was fun to give it to her.

All of that to say, this project was made from those scraps (and a thrifted pillowcase I found a while back) and that pattern.  I think it was a great pairing!

Diaper Cake!

Those are probably two words that should never be said together, but in this case, the combination turned out pretty well!  I made a diaper cake for the baby shower for my boss.  It was my first attempt and I used the information found on another first attempt to help guide me.  The outside layers are receiving blankets that I made from this tutorial.  They aren't finding out if the baby is a boy or a girl so I went with sage green and animals.  I folded the blankets back on the back of the cake, so that the mom could see the prints on the receiving blankets without taking it apart.

The shower was today at lunch and I am sufficiently exhausted from all of the festivities! It was fun and now it's done. Now to find my knitting and my book!