Category: Life Posts

Wordy Wednesday
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Wordy Wednesday

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My Tuesday was busier than expected. I was at the tire place getting a bulging tire replaced, Fancy demanded walks when I got home, and I hosted craft night. Somewhere in there, I took an accidental nap. I had to go back on the stronger allergy meds and they are kicking my butt. I will be so glad when the weather figures out what it’s trying to do here. So instead of “Wordless Wednesday,” you’ll get a quick sewing related post.

I put the borders on the rainbow railroad quilt a few days ago. Somehow I ended up sewing one of the strips on the wrong side, so it’s two rows shorter than it was going to be because I was super frustrated. I had a bunch of squares left over anyway, so maybe I’ll make a bonus one or something.

(Please excuse the dog toys. Someone decided I couldn’t put them away and kept taking them out of her basket.) The quilt has a red and white polka dot border. It was going to have a red flannel backing, but I don’t have enough of it. Batting and backing quilts will be the death of me. I had to run out to get more batting. The backing will be whatever cotton or flannel I have enough of that matches. I have a red batik that might work.

I also made a shirt. I stayed up way to late to finish it, but I’m pretty happy with it. It’s a double gauze jersey material, I think.

It’s less wrinkly on and feels like I’m wearing jammies. 🙂 I used a zig zag stitch and made my own neckband! The neckband fixed the problem of gaping at the neckline and I may go back and add one to other shirts I’ve made.

Because it was midnight, I accidentally had the selvage edge out, but I actually like it, so won’t be changing it. The sleeves are snug. I had made them longer, but didn’t quite get the bottom edge right. They feel good though. I’ll just widen them next time.

This was a woven pattern originally, so I was glad that it worked out. I have at least one knit t-shirt pattern that I’ll try soon, but I needed a quick and easy pattern. I made it after getting frustrated by not having everything for the quilt.

Here’s the bottom hem. It’s a little wavey, but I choose to think of it as a design feature. I may add a band at some point. It’s super soft and cuddly.

I picked up a couple of new sewing books (I know, I know!) from the book sale on Sunday. Two were Singer books, one was about different types of fabrics, and one was a sewing book for dog cots and accessories.

The “Creative Ideas” is so 80’s, but the techniques are still relevant. It has beading, different pocket shapes, seam finishes, and different trim options. The “Timesaving” book has very good instructions for sewing collars, seams, home decor, and talks about tools, machine feet, and other equipment.

The dog book has coats, costumes, dog beds, and accessories. Some of them we may not use, but there are some super cute things in it, like a princess costume. 🙂

I was excited to find the fabric book because I know very little about fabric types, which mens I generally stick to quilting cotton. If I want to grow as a sewer though, I need to branch out and get comfortable with other kinds too.

This book has everything from African mudcloth to about 5 types of wool. Each fabric has its own page with what type of needle, an example of a garment, weight, markings, thread type to use, and even how to lay it out. There’s so much info! I know it will be very helpful.

I was pretty well restrained in the craft section of this book sale. We’re going to another, bigger one on Sunday, which will be crazy town. That one is in a mall, lined up in the hallways. 🙂 We’ve gone before and they have a little bit of everything. I’m hoping for some good reads.

Now though, it’s off to work, where I will only be able to dream about fabrics and sewing. Have a great day!

Life Posts · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Book Sale Aftermath

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“A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read.”
― Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

“The odd thing about people who had many books was how they always wanted more.”
― Patricia A. McKillip, The Bell at Sealey Head

“Of all things, I liked books best.”
― Nikola Tesla

“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.”
― Bill Watterson, The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book

The Husband is an excellent and took me to a book sale for my birthday (although some of these are for him.) 🙂 I’m definitely keeping him. And also getting three new bookcases… Because I don’t have too many books, just not enough bookshelves. 😉

A Bount-tea-ful Trip
Life Posts

A Bount-tea-ful Trip

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Thank you to the Husband for coming up with that pun. My grandpa Ollie would be so proud. 🙂

I bought an Alice in Wonderland themed tea at the Food and Wine Fest. It’s an “Indian black tea with hints of ginger, peach, and apricot.” I haven’t tried it yet, but it smells nice.

It says that it works for real birthdays too. 🙂

My father in law took us to Vital Tea Leaf in Chinatown while we were taking a rainy tour of San Francisco and it was so cool. https://vitaltealeaf.net/index.php/

I wish I hadn’t been shy and had asked to take pictures. There were so many different kinds of tea! I’m still new to this blogging thing and feel weird sometimes about asking to do that.

The tea was in big glass and metal containers along the back wall. They had black/red, green, white, and oolong teas. They had plain ones and mixes. The front of the store had a long counter with tea stations where you could pour out your sample if you didn’t like it disguised with pretty screens. One of the staff people was giving out tea samples and providing all sorts of information about the teas.

One thing that I learned is that you are supposed to rinse the cup, teapot, and the tea leaves themselves with hot water before drinking. Chinese tea isn’t supposed to be served with boiling water either as it takes away the healthy properties. I tried that tonight while making my tea. Yes, that is a flamingo tea infuser. 🙂

You are also only supposed to brew the tea for 30 seconds and reuse the tea leaves 3-4 times for most of the teas. One of the green tea blends we sampled could be reused up to 8 times! You were supposed to drink at least 5-6 cups per day to get the full benefits. I believe it was the Blue People tea.

Black tea is referred to as “red” tea in China because it brews up with a red tinge. Here’s the water from rinsing the leaves, which you then throw away. It does have a little red in it and this was just the rinse water!

Green tea is more bitter and the white tea has the least amount of caffeine. I had wanted to try the green ginger tea, but the tea lady suggested I try the red ginger instead. The red ginger has a smoother taste and more ginger flavor and the green is more bitter.

More about this tea from the website- Ginger Red:

“Yingde “Hong Cha” is a black tea from the area Yingde in Guangdong province. These tea leaves have natural cocoa like aromas. Blended with ginger flavoring, resulting in a smooth spicy beverage. Reputed to alleviate migraine, motion sickness, reduce heartburn and inflammation.”

I like it and have a huge bag, as my father in law convinced me to get a whole 1/4 pound. I need to drink more tea!

My father in law knew what he wanted and I tried a couple of his choices too. I normally don’t like jasmine tea, but this Jasmine Silver Needle was much less perfumy than regular jasmine tea. It’s the tea on the left. The right is regular Earl Grey.

The silver needle is the “most highly prized” of China’s white teas, as they only use the tops of the buds. This version has jasmine petals with it. It has a low caffeine content and is high in antioxidants. It can be drunk all day for a refreshing drink.

I liked the name of this one and I think it’s this one on the website, but am not completely sure. I have no idea if it is actually picked by monkeys. 🙂

https://vitaltealeaf.net/index.php/monkey-pick-4-oz.html

Also, purchased were a cake of 10 year pu-erh tea, jasmine pearls, and a mystery set of tea balls. I’ll have to find out what they are from my father in law.

Pu-erh has been aged and has undergone a micro-fermentation process after the leaves were dried. It is good for heart problems, digestion, acid reflux, and constipation. Some of this type of tea is actually aged underground. It is a very dark, smooth, earthy tea, with no bitter taste.

Jasmine pearls are made from white tea leaves from the Fujian province blended with sweet jasmine petals from the Guangxi province. Each pearl is hand rolled. Can you imagine your job being to roll these tiny pearls? I might go crazy!

It was neat to learn about all the different types of tea and the many uses. I had no idea there were so many! I definitely need to drink more of it.

The Vital Tea website is a wealth of information and is where I got all the info for this post. I’d encourage you go poke around on it, if you are at all interested in teas.

Now, I need to go finish my second cup of ginger tea and put the sleepy puppers to bed. She won’t go to sleep in the bedroom unless one of us is already there and is currently snoring on my foot.

Have a good night!

Wedding and Trip Wrap Up
Life Posts

Wedding and Trip Wrap Up

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Well, I’m ready to go back on vacation. I came home to a bigger tire bulge, a note rejecting my professional disclosure for my license, snow flurries, and a car that refused to shift for half a mile or so on my way home tonight.

I handled the snow by defiantly wearing Christmas socks in April.

I know how to fix the paperwork and it will get sent back tomorrow, and my car will get looked at on Friday. I have long days at work to make up for my week off, so that’s the soonest it can get fixed. Send help. Or new cars…

We had a fairly uneventful trip back. We had to wait for what seemed like forever for the plane to take off and then again to get our bags. Fancy was super wiggly and excited to see us. Fancy got a cute new collar and a new chew toy, a red stick. This one crinkled by means of a tube of plastic sandwiched between two soft rubber tubes. There are no pictures because my ever so smart dog ripped off the top and pulled out the inner tube to completely dismantle it. Here’s her collar though. 🙂

We had a lovely time at the wedding. Here are a few pictures from the event. It was at a vineyard and luckily, was just dry enough for the ceremony to be held outside. The vines weren’t ready and I was honestly too short to get a good view without a huge fence in the way.

It was a very joyful and fun wedding. The Husband’s cousin got married to a lovely girl and they had a couple of Jewish traditions that I hadn’t seen done before, including the chair dance and the breaking of the glass. The chair dance was crazy to watch and I was very glad it wasn’t me! The chair holders were strong though, so there were no worries.

Another thing I’ve never seen before was a painter painting the first dance live! I wasn’t sure we were allowed to take pictures of that though, so I didn’t. It was a beautiful sight though! The happy couple will have the picture hanging in their stairwell.

There were candles everywhere and everything was gold, pink, white, copper, and shimmery.

I found a Pixar playset at Disney and I put it in my office today. Some of my kids have already enjoyed it.

I also went to the Renegade Craft fair in San Francisco with my MIL, SIL, and cousin in law and her mom. There were so many cute things there. I got a cat toy shaped like a wine bottle for our dog sitter who’s cat also had to put up with Fancy for the week. 🙂 I came home with some vintage earrings and these adorable popsicles that I thought might make my summer much more fun.

I kind of wanted this entire booth. She had these enamel jewelry pieces that included stars, hot air balloons, “happy pills,” and adorable lightbulbs that you plugged in to close them. They were the cutest thing! Here’s her website. Try not to buy everything!  I should get to bed though. Have a good night!

http://virginiemillefiori.com/

Travel Food
Life Posts · Recipe Roundup

Travel Food

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I am a newer social media convert and still think it’s still silly to take pictures of restaurant food, but the desserts I’ve had have been so delicious and adorable, that I tried to get over it. 🙂

On our Disneyland day, we were lucky enough to attend the California Adventure Food and Wine Festival and it was so much fun.

We fell on the food like starving beasts though, so I didn’t get pictures. We also had some friends of my sister-in-law with us too and I didn’t want to be weird. I should probably work on that…

We tried to have something from every booth, but missed a couple. My inlaws had wine, but I was too thirsty for that.

Here’s a list:

– Korean BBQ beef short rib tacos from LA Style, which were delicious! I think they had pickled cabbage on top.  The meat was so tender!

– White Cheddar Lager Soup in a Sourdough Boule from California Craft Brews. I didn’t eat this, but apparently it was good. The Husband didn’t enjoy it, too much beer flavor.

–  Jalapeño Popper Mac and Cheese, Sustainable Salmon Peruvian Poke with Cucumbers and Salsa, Lime Margarita with Jalapeño Garnish from Peppers Cali-Ente.

The drink was not the greatest and not worth the price. 🙁 The poke was delicious, according to the inlaws, and the mac and cheese was lovely and creamy. It had bacon!

– Sparkling Wine Tropical float from California Uncorked. This was interesting, but also kind of weird. My sister in law thought it was too sugary. My MIL got the wine flight too.

– Strawberry Pineapple Float with Strawberry Popping Pearls from Strawberry Patch. This was very refreshing drink. It didn’t taste heavy at all. I was surprised that I liked the pearls, but they had a little extra strawberry juice in them. My SIL and the Husband also liked it too.

– Crispy Orange Chicken & Rice with a Garlic Cracker and the world’s biggest Meyer Lemon Macaron from Citrus Grove. Seriously, this cookie was about 4-5 inches across and had raspberry jam in the middle as an extra surprise!

– Grilled and Chilled Artichoke Hearts with Romesco, and Fried Artichoke Carbonara from I ❤️Artichokes.  These were both good. The carbonara gave me heartburn. I think it might be time to admit that bacon and I are not friends… I had it tonight again and it gave me some trouble.

– Salt and Beer Vinegar Parmesan Chicken Wings from Cluck-a-doodle-moo. I didn’t eat these, but was told they were very good.

– Shrimp Boil Tacos with Andouille and Caramel Corn Crispy Treat from Off the Cob. The crispy treat was not satisfying. It was a little too bland for me. I didn’t think and ate the tacos, so the andouille may have contributed to the heartburn. They were good though.

– Creamy Mac and Cheese with Garlic Bread Crumble and a Black Garlic Soy Braised Pork Belly Banh Mi. I liked the jalapeño popper mac and cheese better. This one wasn’t as creamy. I looked on sadly while other people got to devour the banh mi. It smelled amazing and was delicious according to everyone else.

I also got these cute macarons from Kayla’s Cakes. 

I picked six flavors to try. The unicorn was vanilla, the grey starry one was salted caramel.

I also got an oreo cheesecake one, raspberry, peach Bellini, and of course, Belgian chocolate. So far they have all been delicious. I’ve been eating them for breakfast. 🙂 We also had ice cream, but I don’t have that picture yet. 🙂

Today it was raining and gross while we explored San Francisco, so we stopped for an ice cream break at Ghirardelli Square.

I had the small one in front- Muir Woods Black Cherry sundae, the Husband and MIL had the Ocean Salted Caramel sundaes, and my FIL had a Salted Caramel Shake.

My goal is to eat ice cream as often as possible. We have a gelato place picked out tomorrow already. 🙂

Our dogsitter told us Fancy is being very good and is a fantastic snuggler, so although we are missing her, she is well taken care of. We also have a dog place picked out and will probably being home treats. 🙂

Tomorrow is a big day, so I should probably head to bed. Have a great weekend!

Recipes and Adventures!
Crafty · Life Posts · Recipe Roundup · Sewing

Recipes and Adventures!

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I only made two new recipes last week and then we went on an adventure! I did help make a new ice cream recipe on our adventure, but our friends did the cooking, which was so nice.

I have one picture of the three recipes I made before we left. I redeemed myself from the chicken potpie that we don’t speak about, using leftovers from a roasted chicken.

The chicken recipe was from The Family Recipe Keeper. We had roasted potatoes from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I threw some carrots in with the chicken.

Here’s the potpie and Fancy, being so jealous.

We also had Meatball Marsala, from one of the Food Network magazines. I’ve misplaced it, but when I find it, I’ll post the edition number. It was good. I made fancy mashed red potatoes to go with it. It wasn’t a very pretty looking dish though.

Fancy was very concerned that we were leaving her behind and started laying on our bags or sticking like glue to one or the other of us. She also didn’t let me finish the quilt I needed for this weekend.

I ended up attempting to car quilt, which just made me a little car sick and then finally finished it while everyone else was napping.

I believe it’s a split 9 patch from Bonnie Hunter, but set on point instead of regular. The pattern has something funny with it, but still looks okay. Baby S loved it and spent at least a half an hour rolling around in it. This is what happened when I first attempted pictures.

Fancy loved her time with the tiny human and was so concerned about him that she spent the whole weekend following him around and whining when he cried.

She was very gentle with him, although she did try to chew on almost all of his toys. She shared hers, for the most part, but did very nicely take the ball back from him when he grabbed it. She was a spoiled dog and got a tennis ball of her very own, but chewed some holes in it instead of playing nice.

K made some lovely baby and dog friendly treats and S didn’t like them cold, so he shared them all with Fancy. She quickly learned that his highchair  meant delicious dropped things from up above.

The Husband and I ate very well too. There was beef stew waiting fir us when we arrived. We had homemade butternut squash ravioli and beef and parm ravioli for lunch.

The squash were cooked in butter and sage and the beef had a homemade golden marinara sauce over it. Mmmmm…. K gave me  ravioli maker to play with, so I might be making some pasta on Friday.

We had the traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage, with roasted veggies and carrots. Traditional soda bread too. It was all delicious!

We made Irish Whiskey Salted Caramel ice cream for dessert. One of the coolest things about K and A is that they have chickens and ducks! We got to use extremely fresh eggs for the ice cream. Guess which egg yolk is a duck egg yolk…

The ice cream was a little soft and a lot boozy! It was delicious though. Had it been harder, we probably would have made ice cream sandwiches with the giant homemade cookies that were made for the Husband. 🙂

I think we used a Pioneer Woman recipe for the Caramel sauce.

We had a great time and it was fun to meet the baby. He definitely helped wear Fancy out. She slept for most of yesterday.

Now she’s out basking in the sun. If we would let, her, she would probably stay there all day. 🙂 Hope your day is as sunny as her day!

Fancy and Sewing
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Fancy and Sewing

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Fancy has decided to monitor my sewing and bedtime in a more active capacity lately. She decided the quilt in the quilting hoop was actually a dog tent and a wonderful place to nap.

She doesn’t try to bite it or anything, so I thought it was funny, but then she decided napping on my lap wasn’t good enough and proceeded to climb up my torso until she was tucked in under my chin. That made it very hard to keep quilting, so I just had to stop and cuddle the dog. This quilt is a secret, so I can’t show much of it yet. Oddly, it matched my leggings perfectly. 🙂

Last night, I was quilting again and she decided that 11:30 pm was too late and I should be sleeping, so she did this. It’s a little blurry, because she was moving, but she kept pawing at me until I put down the quilt and then she took over my lap and wouldn’t move.

She will also hang out by my sewing machine, especially when the Husband was out of town. I thought the machine might be scary for her, but even my Grandma’s machine doesn’t seem to faze her. This was her from last week.

Luckily, she didn’t try to guard the pedal.

I got the fabrics for all the quilt tops I need to finish last Friday and since we were dogless, I was able to get the two bigger ones pinned. Here is the second one.

I have started putting the Rainbow Rail Fence quilt together. It’s on the machine, so no pictures yet.

Fancy is currently snuggled up next to me on the couch with her paws draped over my feet, so I can’t get up. 🙂 She’s snoring as usual.

I’ve been working hard on these couple of quilts and haven’t really sewn anything else. I did get grey satiny fabric to go with my grey and purple lace. I think I might make that into a dress for the wedding. I have enough for a fancy slim fitting dress.

In other news, I’m excited to say that I was included in a roundup post about sewing and mental health on the Sewcialists blog. I have been reading the blog for a little while now and when they put out a call for stories of how sewing has helped your mental health, I knew I had to write my story. Check it out if you are interested! There are some inspiring stories out there. I’m planning on writing a longer post about this issue as well.  https://sewcialists.wordpress.com/2018/03/12/who-we-are-sewing-with-and-for-mental-health/

Now, I’ve got to get some quilting done before work. It’s my late night at work, so I won’t have a lot of time tonight. Have a great day!

Rainbows And Motivation
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Rainbows And Motivation

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The featured picture was from the “Science of Pixar” exhibit. The Husband and I went this weekend and it was absolutely fascinating to see how they make all the effects and movies. This picture is a digital painting from Brave! The Pixar people actually made a new program for the cloth in the movie because they didn’t have one they liked. How cool is that? I’ll show more of those pictures later.  (Sorry about the lighting. It was a bit dark in there.)

In other news, think I may have figured out where my motivation to make things has gone. I’ve been taking stock of my stash and realizing how much fabric and how many unfinished projects are just hanging out. I have some that don’t fit because they are years old! It’s a bit embarrassing actually. 🙁

Take this quilt, for example. The night I finished this, I didn’t want to start anything new. The thought of cutting out more fabric.. ick. Trying to decide which project to start… Ugh.

So instead, I pulled this quilt top and the backing fabric with it, gave it a little iron, quilted it, and bound it. I used a zig zag stitch with a pastel color changing thread. Tada!

It has an owner, but they don’t know it yet. 🙂 I was quite excited to finish something.

So much so that I started to put together another quilt that was waiting.

This one also has a home. 🙂 It’s going to take me a little to finish it though. I only made 8 of each color before deciding on this pattern. I need enough for 1 1/2 more large squares. Back to the sewing machine!

I also fixed a pair of flamingo leggings. They said they were one size, but that size was a little smaller than me sized. The band stretched, but it wasn’t the most comfy and I had a yoga pant waistband hanging out, waiting to be used.

I just chopped the original band off and sewed the other one on with a regular zig zag. Now they are extra comfy!

Other than a dress for the family wedding in April, I might see how far I can go on finishing things. Maybe my motivation for new things will come back, if I can get the other stuff from off my project list.

For now, I think I’ll take a page from Fancy’s book and head to bed. Maybe I’ll dream of new quilts!

Sewing Confessions
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Sewing Confessions

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I have no one to blame but myself for this spree. I had told Kayla about the magical discount fabric store where everything is $2.99 a yard and we finally managed to go on Friday. It coincided neatly with a pattern sale at Joann’s and the rest is history.

Here are the patterns I bought:

L to R top: Dress with shawl collar, sweetheart neckline with button accents, tunic and cardigan

L to R bottom: Peter Pan collar for my dragon dress (fabric is the featured pic,) Wrap dress that wraps from the back to the side. It looked so interesting, I had to get it. Plus, the Simplicity patterns were all .99.

The good news is that I have plans for the fabrics I got from the discount store and it will hopefully help me get more comfortable with knits. I have an irrational fear of them, but also several different knits waiting for projects already.

Kayla was very excited once we got there. She and I both had projects in mind. I want some more tunics and she wanted some raglan shirts. It was fun to introduce her to the store. They had moved recently into an even bigger place.

The Husband knew I was going and when I came home with black fabric with tiny beach umbrellas on it, he said “Well, of course, you needed that. You can make a sundress with it.” Oddly enough, that’s exactly what it is going to be.

How cute is that?! I tried to resist, but it lured me in. I sort of have a style in mind for it, just have to find the pattern.

This lace for $2.99? I probably should have gotten more of it. I got 3 yards to make an overlay on a dress. I got grey material, which I thought would work underneath, but I think I accidentally got rain poncho fabric, which is fine. I need a rain poncho.

I think this is the back of the lace, but I like the grey part showing.

This is apparently double knit. I have no idea what that means, except that it has another knit on the back. The owner was excited by it while she was cutting it. I’ll have to do some research. It was going to be a casual, kind of slouchy tunic.

Navy polka dot knit. I resisted buying a $42 dollar maxi skirt from a semi-famous fancy clothing company last summer and have been on the hunt for a polka dotted fabric ever since. This will be a $4 maxi skirt, which I’d say is a win.

Tunic! It’s hard to see, but it has little shadows of the colors in it. I like it and it will be a very nice tunic.

This will be a dress like the strawberry dress. It’s actually a deep Kelly green and a deep navy. They are both very vibrant colors, but got washed out when I took the picture. I think it’s a cotton rayon blend. It’s got nice body and drape and is slightly heavier.

We will be going back, I’m sure, but not for me at least, until I get some more projects done. I have probably three or four more knit fabrics downstairs waiting to be made into something useful.

Lest you think I frittered my time away unwisely in a grand shopping spree, I’ll show you the projects I have finished lately.

Christmas Lily zippered Pouch for Etsy/Twinflower Fancies.

Two tea wallets because I had black thread loaded.

These were from a random Halloween batch that didn’t get finished. I have a couple more too, but am waiting to see what I get back from what I had at Hawthorne and Vine. Obviously, I still need to get the threads cut and a button added to the cats.

I self-drafted this curved hem on the tunic. I used a familiar shirt pattern and extended it. The sides are split and turned under. The neck and sleeves are finished with a thick black bias tape. I’ll add a tiny bit more room if I use cotton again. Knits would be fine with the same dimensions. It’s got a cute silver sun or starburst pattern.

Here is an in process shot of the fabric:

I also finished my castle shirt!

This is the fabric I ordered with the dragon fabric. I made the sides flare a little and added some more pleats to the neckline and back. The original line is too wide for me, but I need it that size elsewhere. I gathered the sleeves, so they look a little better. I kept thinking I had put them in upside down, but they just needed to be poufier.

I’ve also been organizing up a storm. We got a nightstand for my side of the bed yesterday and I was able to clear out some of my dresser. I was pretty ruthless with my closet stuff too. I put several things in the giveaway pile. My winter sweaters are now hanging in the closet in a sweater hanger thing. I’ve still got a bunch to do, but at least it’s a start.

Fancy is giving me this look and whining. We are 15 minutes past her bedtime and she is terribly unhappy. I’d better go put her to bed.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the sewing! I’ve got a pretty good momentum going that I would like to keep up. I’ve got to beat my 67 project record, after all. 🙂

Auto Show and Evil Fairies
Crafty · Life Posts · Sewing

Auto Show and Evil Fairies

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The Husband and I went to the North American International Auto Show yesterday. I haven’t been in several years because I’m mostly indifferent to cars and I don’t need to push every single button that is in a car. I like to look at the shiny ones and then sit in a corner with a book while the Husband does his thing. This year though, we are looking at getting new cars in the spring and thought it might be a nice way to check them out without having the pressure of a salesperson haunting us.

I of course, don’t think I got a picture of the two we were looking at. I was too busy trying them out. We think the Husband is going to get a new Escape and I will probably get an EchoSport. Or the Escape, but I like the Echo better. It’s smaller, more me sized.

I kept saying that about the smaller cars at the show and people would giggle. The Fiat was one of the me sized cars that I liked. It’s so cute and dainty looking.

The Husband requested that I sit in a new F150 and I think I was the only girl around that truck.  I felt like I was 6, but it did have adjustable pedals, so theoretically, it could have worked. That’s assuming I didn’t take out telephone poles while driving, of course.

I like looking at the shiny new cars and I kept taking pictures of front ends because it’s funny how some look so predatory and some look adorable. Case in point: The Alfa Romeo vs. the VW Beetle

Shark:

Sweet:

There was also a couple of Hot Wheels style cars. The Camaro had a hot wheels one on display, but there were too many people drooling on it for me to get a picture. This one is from the Ant Man movie.

I had to take a picture of a Jeep for my friend, who has her own rough and ready yellow Jeep.

There were some cool displays and details in the cars too. The Hellcat has its  symbol in the headlights.

This display was in the Michelin booth.

It’s a 3d printed tire. Surrounding it are ideas for things that it could be made of including wood fibers, plastic bottles, cloth, and orange peels. Also, the Michelin man was there and the little kids were so excited that it was cute.

I have lots more pictures too, but they’ll be posted on Wednesdays probably.

Now for the sewing/evil fairies part of this post… My deal is that I have to finish something from the UFO box before I can start anything new, since I want to get halfway through the boxes in the next year.

I’m running out of tea wallets, which are, of course, the easiest, but I did find four more red ones that were almost completely finished. They just needed outlining mostly.

Three of them are complete. The one that has a button loop will get finished when I do the button. It’s a fall themed one, so I don’t have to rush. I also tied off the ends of more of the brown ones, so those have been added to the stack.

So in addition to the red tea wallets, I had a fairy bag, which is the last of this fabric that I have. It’s pretty adorable, with fairy mushroom houses, mushroom lining, and cheery red background fabric.

I’m pretty sure it wasn’t finished because it may have been infested with evil fairy vibes…Let me list the things that went wrong…

The straps were already sewn, meaning I would have to exactly match the stitching, or sew them on differently. Then, because they were made to go across the pockets, they were super duper long and I had to cut them down twice. I had two zippers that were too small and one that was five inches too big..The fabric got twisted up while I was sewing the corners:

I unpicked the wrong seam and had to sew it twice. The backing fabric was a weird size and I ended up ripping strips off of it. Fancy doesn’t like the sound of ripping fabric apparently and almost took a header under my chair trying to make sure I was safe. Poor dog, running on slippery floors doesn’t go well for her.

I ended up with 5 pocket bag, because I sewed the pocket sem in the last place and one of the times I cut the straps, I cut my new slouchy sweatshirt sleeves as well.

Oh, and there were missing threads on one of the pockets and a strap, which took me about six tries to fix. My thread kept nesting on the strap.

Like I said, evil fairies.

I did get it finished finally, but I probably should have stuck it back in the box and worked on something else. I was so frustrated by the time I was done with it that I wasn’t up to doing anything fun. Plus, it took me at least three hours, for what should have been an hour tops. All of the pieces were already cut out!

It needs to leave my house. I’m still mad at it. If anyone wants it, I’ll give you the “possible evil fairy” discount. 🙂

In a related note, this fortune came up in our “Make Your Own Fortune” book and I’m slightly concerned what my day will be like, considering what I do for a living..

Eek. I only have four appointments today, so hopefully they all go well and this wasn’t a sign of things to come. Send peaceful thoughts!