Hello Wednesday, we meet again.

Alright ladies and gentlemen, sewing is kinda kicking my ass.

My love of solids swap is coming to a close. The big item has been one challenge right after the other. Its not that its a hard project, but I went at it with out a pattern. Why oh why did I think that was a good idea?! It started out waaaaay to big. Solution? Cut it down. After quilting the outside and, I thought, squaring it up and sewing it together it is no where near the same size as the inside. How.does.that.happen.

This is a small view of the outside. I don't want to show too much in case I burn it in a fit of rage change my mind at the last minute.

This was easy. A little TOO easy. I'm wondering what went wrong with it. Hmmm...

The small item is done and has been done for a while now. It was the 2nd made because the 1st one had a small case of the fugly.

My Goodie Swap members were assigned! One person has done zilch as far as introduce herself, likes mosaic, anything! The other one has limited amounts of stalkworthy stuff. I've picked out fabrics based on the colors Miss No Info gave on her survey so that's an extra challenge. I think the fabrics are cute, but now to decide what to do with them. Hmmmmm...... Nothing has spoken to me for my second one just yet, but she is active in the group, so we shall see. All the active ladies in the group make me giggle. I have no idea what a cuppa is or half the other little funny things they say. Being American, shouldn't that be in my brain, somewhere deep in the back? I know Europe is where the history comes from, according to Eddie Izzard hehe.

Remember half square triangle madness? Oh, its worse. Much worse.

See that stack on the left? Those still need to be paired with solids. Along with being sewn, cut apart, pressed, and trimmed. Christmas after next is looking a lot more likely as time goes on.And yes, that is Dopey. He is the patron saint of my sewing adventures. Seemed only fitting :)

Best joyful thing this week? VACATION!! Hubs will be turning 30 next month and we randomly decided to go to the coast for a few days! I'll be loading up on SPF 900. I work next door to a tanning salon and the leathery chests of 20 year olds has frightened me beyond anything else. Plus I don't want to buy new makeup. We've never been on a real vacation together. When we were planning our Honeymoon to England we found out I was pregnant. As in, were about to book flights and had gotten our paper work to start passports planning. I'm glad we didn't spend all that money on a trip. This time however, fruity drinks and sandcastles! EEEE!

As per usual, I'm linking up with other sweetheart sewers at Lee's Freshly Pieced. Go check them out, there are some super cute projects going on in blogland :)

Wednesday is here again!

Let me just say, that despite not always having a picture for MofJ 365, I always think about the day and what has made me happy. Usually its right before bed.

For the last week it has been the following:
- A sweet Roman Solider hat made out of felt. I love silly kid hats.
- Chairs for sitting in. The back to school crowd was the worst ever this year. Everyone was terribly grumpy.
- Cream cheese cinnamon rolls 4/$1. Yes, I was eating my feelings. Those feeling sure did taste delicious :)
- Cuddling with my sweet Little Man
- The Hubs for putting up with my craziness and supporting my craftiness.
- Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Lattes. Seriously folks, best way to start the day.
- My friend Jake for stopping by while home from Austin. He is the shiz and brought me tasty fancy beer.
- Today we found out a wonderful friend of ours is expecting her first baby! I'm so excited! I can't wait to make them all kinds of sewed goodies!

Now for the sewing!

After fighting with the bottom seam on the lining, I realized i put it in on the wrong side. I was FURIOUS! After a long string of swear words, I took the pocket out and put in a new one, right side up. Now I need to quilt and piece the outside, make a strap and I'm good to go.

I also have a gajillion of these. 3.5" half square triangles. Everything has been from my stash. This is my in between project. I work on this when I'm pissed at a different project have downtime. I'm hoping this will be good to go by Christmas or the following March. I'm thinking March...

Something got finished! I even finished the binding by hand. It looks so nice, but man oh man was it annoying to do. The thread kept knotting up on this one and it was only because of it that I went the hand sewn route. It made me really sleepy working on it. Is that normal??

As per usual, I'm linking up with other sewing extraordinaire at Freshly Pieced.

8.17.11

I braved the sun and went out on the boat. Little Man had a blast when he wasn't having a total meltdown over not catching any fish. I can't wait for it to cool off some more so I can take some of the girls out on it.

8.16.11

I was tracking my shipping and fedex said they would get here on the 17th but they came a day early! I LOVE when that happens. I did a happy dance and ran off to the post office. Now I need to find a perfect project to go with them.

Moments of Joy

This is more about life than sewing, so feel free to skip this one if you want.

Diane of from blank pages had a wonderful idea. 365 moments of joy.




The reason this appeals to me? I'm not an optimist. I consider myself a realist, L, the bestie, calls me a pessimist. Its always been in my nature. I suffer from depression. Throughout the years I've taken medicine and sometimes I don't. Mental illness has a certain stigma attached to it. No one gets crap for having diabetes or asthma, but mental illness is the same. The chemicals in my brain aren't what they should be so I take something to make it function properly. Prior to getting married and getting pregnant I was off of medicine. Pregnancy was very hard and post partum was terrible. I had PPD and didn't want to deal with it or admit it.Finally at about 8 months PP I went to the doctor and I got help.

While doing hair I encounter pregnant women and new moms a lot. Sometimes I can feel their energy and know they feel like I felt. I want to scoop them up and hug them. I will openly tell them about my struggles and not enjoying pregnancy. Too many people don't understand and look down their nose that you don't feel like this huge blessing is upon you. A friend of mine had the same experience years prior and hearing that I wasn't alone made me feel like I wasn't a freak and gave me hope that I wasn't alone.

I wish like anything I could take it back, that time I lost. I missed so much joy and happiness of having a new baby. I missed a lot of joy in my life for those years I wasn't honest with myself and didn't take care of my illness. This is me not missing life. This is me forcing myself to see the good in life even when a day kinda sucks.

Thank you Diane. I don't know if you can understand how I hope we can inspire each other a thousand miles apart.

Tastes of cinnammon

My blog from last Sunday magically disappeared again. What the deuce blogger?! Why must you gobble up my Sunday stuff?



This is the view from my front porch. It's a monster heat wave and I refuse to go outdoors. Or spend money watering the yard. I expect to see tumble weeds any day. I haven't sewn as much lately for the sheer reason that the iron being on makes a room too hot. God bless you Sonic Drive In, and you're wonderful pellets of ice.

I looked at what I had made for my swap partner and realized it kinda sucked. I liked it at first, but then the more I looked at it the uglier I thought it was. I made a whole new small gift and it looks a lot better. I'm a little nervous about posting it to the group and her saying she didn't like it. I'm not sure my ego could stand the blow right now.

I had started a tote a la Tetris from back in the day. I charted it out on my handy graph paper, cut the pieces and sewed them into strips. When trying to join the strips, I don't quite know what happened. I don't know how everything ended up so wonky and crooked! Nothing matched up right at all! How does that even happen?! That may end up being scratched as well. I have some more solids coming in soon so hopefully that will kick me in the rear and find something that doesn't come out looking like technicolor dog poo.



This is the New Wave quilt I'm making for my sweet mums. There are 3 more rows and its turned out pretty big. I had to rip apart a lot of the sashing pieces. For whatever reason I sewed them on, and then trimmed them down without realizing there were big gaps where I hadn't done it straight. Thankfully I bought tons of the fabric I'm using. Once those got fixed its coming along swimmingly :) The 8 rows have now turned into 4 2row pieces.



I spent Sunday doing this all day. Just Between Friends is a big consignment sale that I somehow manage to sell stuff at in the Spring/Summer, but not Fall/Winter. These are Little Man's newborn - 2T winter clothes. It's hard to imagine him ever being that small. Some of my favorites aren't going though. I don't plan on any more kids, but I guess I'm a sentimental sap and love me some onesies.



As per usual, I'm linking up with the lovely ladies at Freshly Pieced.

Wednesday? So soon??

If you're here from Freshly Pieced, welcome!

I finished piecing and quilting this lil fella. The little one it goes to will be starting Kindergarten this fall, possibly in NYC. I thought of putting a label on it. He is more than meets the eye, that's for sure.

I made some binding, now it just needs to attach itself. I need to buy a bigger bias tape maker. I'm thinking about when I top stitch it using a wide zig zag. I'll try it and see how it goes.

This is the outside to the small object for my solids swap partner. (Click the photo for details.)

Here is the inside of it. I tried to put a snap on it the other day. Apparently I suck hard at attaching snaps. I may try again later this evening after a glass of wine once everything else is done. I'm not sold on the design I used. I've got plenty o fabric left to make another.

This came in the mail this week! First time I ever bought a FQ bundle. It was on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop so I took the plunge and got it! Thank you Visa :) Now to decide on a pattern. That is the reeeeally hard part for me. I've loved this set for so long and I want to find something juuuuuust right.