All sewed up

I finished the bags! I was able to get three of them mailed out on Christmas eve, seven will be hand-delivered this weekend, and the last one is waiting for a companion present that is not my responsibility. Here are photos as evidence - the backs and inside fabrics are shown in the second photos, in the same arrangement as the fronts.

I had to go back late in the process to get a different zipper for one of the plant bags (bottom left in top photo) - for some reason the final zipper I had on hand was light orange, which didn't match at all. I think the blue is a huge improvement! I also ended up shifting around the plan for the recipients of the bags - I was going to send the dancer to Dancypants, for example, but I ended up thinking there was a different one that was a better match for her, and four others shifted around at the same time. I'm very pleased with the final assignments - hope everyone likes theirs!

I'm so pleased with the new interfacing - it is sturdy but not stiff, and easy to work with. Two of the bags actually make use of mistakes from my last round of making bags, where I ironed the previous interfacing to the inside fabrics, and they are not as great as the new ones (you can see the yellow one in the bottom photos is more wrinkled than the others, even after much ironing). But, I think it'll be ok.

I'm also annoyed with myself because I didn't do a great job with the zipper tabs - I should have left more space between then end of the zipper and the end of the tab so they would flip out better. If I hadn't done such an assembly line, I could have caught that in the later bags, but since fixing that would require taking apart every seam, I decided I needed to move on. Hopefully I can fix that in the next ones!

When I get home, I'll finish the two bags for my other team members, and try to stay motivated to finish the three for me. Two of those will be straightforward, but one is a bit more complicated as I had picked out many fabrics with some goal of making an extra fancy bag. However, I don't remember what my grand plan was, so I have to come back to that (and strangely, one of the fabrics that was in my prep photo has gone missing, so I either have to find that or decide not to use it). Will be good to get those finished and all the bits & pieces put away, and then I can start to think about projects for 2026! 

Related, I have started working on a cute little hedgehog - I don't know what fate this little guy will have, but it's a nice project to take on the plane. After I stitch the front (see photo, I've done the outside so far), then I sew it to the back and stuff it up to make a little 3D creature. 

Looking forward to arts & crafts fun in the new year!

- Catherine

Zipping things up

I could have sworn that I already posted about this last week, but I guess not! I have finished my first bag of the season! It was extra exciting because the middle where the zipper and front and back fabric collide was too thick for me to have the foot down, so I had to pivot a bit. I ended up hand stitching on top of the few stitches the machine was able to make with some nylon thread, so I feel pretty good that it will hold. Also, the interfacing is the perfect weight! Yay. Of course, I forgot to take a photo, but it was one of several similar bags for Team Cats, so I will have others to show you what it looks like. I actually finished that on Sunday (Dec 7). I was hoping to finish three bags that day, but just ran out of time. 

In the meantime, I have washed and dried the cross-stitch; here's an in progress shot with all the supplies for most of the pencil cases laid out together.

I sewed those together with the other fabric that will make that side of the pencil case (and sewed together some interior fabric that wasn't quite the right shape), cut the rest of the interfacing (in fact, I wasn't paying attention and cut too much; now I have to buy some more for the last larger bag), ironed it all on, and have been sewing up a storm. I had hoped to finish the three bags that I need to mail out soonest (to your house!) last Wednesday, but instead our power went out for 2.5 days and everything got messed up, so now I am just in full assembly line mode, trying to power through all 11 Christmas present bags. Here's the latest - you can see that there are: 1) three bags where the zipper assembly is done, top stitching is complete, and I just need to sew the outer seams together/close up the final opening (top left); 2) five bags that need to be ironed so I can do the top stitching (bottom left), and 3) three bags where I'm still inserting the zipper (right). 

After Christmas, I will need to come back to the other two Team Cats bags before I see my team members in early January, and I have three bags to make for myself that I'll get to at some point. Oof!

I realized that I forgot to show you the final bicycle man, so here he is:

And, we have left one piece of fabric down in the living room, as Nairo seems to think it's his new bed. See? He's so cute.

I've got three days to get these wrapped up. Fingers crossed!!

- Catherine

Whew!

Your little pieces are so cute! I think that the gardener sitting under the flower is perhaps a fairy with a white sleeve?  And their hat might be a flower?  Perhaps that would be less problematic?

Nairo is such a good helper.

I did not get much knitting time over the holiday weekend, but I have finished the front of the vest for Smallest, and I've started on the back.  In the second picture, the back is laying on top of the front.  I did talk with Middle while they were here about the Hoodola, and we've selected some yarn.  I think that will be a quick project.  We will see!

I wasn't able to work on the quilt because of table usage, but hopefully I can get some done between now and Christmas.  

We went on several outings.  We went to the Renaissance Festival, and this is from a shop we went into.  Who knew Christmas Mice were a thing?  We also went to a place called the George Ranch.  They have saved things from the owners across many generations, and this is one woman's house dress.  I think Gaga used to wear a dress like this, so it was fun to think of her on her birthday weekend.

Lauren and Sarah wanted to put up Christmas decorations while they were here, so we are decorated now.  Lauren liked the pillow I cross-stitched many years ago, so perhaps I can make her one sometime in the future.

I don't know much more.  I did ride the bus on Monday and Tuesday.  I gave my bus card to a homeless guy on Monday night, so I need to get a new one.  I don't like using the app on my phone.  The scanners for the tickets on the buses don't work so well.

Oh! Jeff finished the fireplace before everyone arrived.  It looks very nice.  He did a good job.

That's all I know!  Here is a silly for you!

Margie

Christmas is a' coming

I finished the final cross-stitching for the pencil cases - see? Here is the gardener for my sister-in-law and girl-on-scooter for the youngest niece. 

I changed my mind about this last pattern (below) because when I looked closer at the second gardener scene that I had in mind, I realized that the person didn't seem to have a middle part of their body? See also below. Very strange! Also, this book is from 1962 and upon further assessment, I started to worry that the "gardeners" are racial stereotypes (I think the one gardener in isolation (above) doesn't give the same impression, hopefully). So I went back to the potted plants from a previous pattern book; I had already made the other two of four, so here is the second installment! 

I also bought many zippers and some interfacing (have yet to test if it is the right weight), and have washed/ironed all of the fabrics that I had picked. Nairo is helping me keep some of them flat. :P

Next step: Testing the interfacing and starting to make bags! I will see three of my bag recipients in person next week, so will prioritize finishing those first. I'll also use an assembly line approach to get all of the fabric cut (allowing us to reclaim the living room). I also need to figure out a new pattern for some of the other presents I had in mind, due to some behind the scenes complications. 

Hope your crafting is going well! :D

- Catherine

Decision fatigue

You are having so much fun!! I can’t wait to see the wild goose quilt, and I am jealous of all the fun you will have next week with the kiddos.

I have too many fun fabrics. I’m trying to pair up my little cross-stitch images with fabrics for the pencil cases, and it’s exhausting. Here’s where I’m at, in terms of the mess I’ve created. Still, I will persevere. And actually, I’ve picked many of the combinations - maybe half?

Once I finish with the fabrics, I also have to go buy zippers and interfacing so I can actually make the bags.

Oh, and I still have three cross-stitch designs to finish. Oof! More updates to come.

- Catherine

Switching things up!

 And now for something completely different!

I am so impressed with the fancy penguin and all the tiny things you're making!  The bicycle man makes me think of Monty Python.

This weekend I had a big to-do list and I got almost everything done!  So satisfying.  Jeff was busy tiling our fireplace so I was free to do whatever I wanted.

One of the things was to start on the quilt for Smallest's ballroom coach and his wife's baby.  The baby was born way early - 27 weeks? - and she just came home from the NICU a couple of weeks ago, close to her original Nov 4 due date.  I cut most of the pieces a while ago (did I post that?) and have been ignoring them, thinking this was going to be complicated.

Well I was very wrong.  This is an easy-to-piece Wild Goose Chase.  I sewed together the first two pieces, trimmed and ironed them all on Saturday and Sunday.  Then last night I sewed on the third piece.  It took me an hour and a half to sew on all the third pieces last night.  Tonight I will trim and iron them, and then it will be time to assemble the geese!  Very satisfying.  There will be sashing between the strips of geese, and then a border.  I think I didn't buy the backing yet?  I'll have to go look at what I bought.  Perhaps I can finish piecing it before the weekend?  We still have some batting the right size, so now I'm having delusions of quilting it before Thanksgiving?  I'll have to think about the pattern.

This was almost halfway through piecing the first two pieces

Post-piecing

Trimming finished!

Submit to my will!

Ready for second piecing.

Pieced, ready to trim and press.

All dressed up and nowhere to sew

We had a weekend trip come up somewhat unexpectedly last week, so I packed cross-stitch thread for a few different things I was working on. Sadly, I somehow did not pack the actual fabric I needed to sew on. I didn't notice until I had finished Loch Ness monsters #2 (the first one was so cute I decided to make another), about halfway into the first flight. I was telling Evil Twin on the plane that I needed to manifest something to work with, and he magically pulled a clean handkerchief out of his bag! Even better, one of the designs that I had brought thread for was a present for him! Amazing. 

Even better, Evil Twin had the brilliant idea the next day that we could stop in at a local superstore while out picking up dinner to see if they might have fabric. They did not have any cross-stitch fabric - that would be too much to hope for - but they did have 1-yard cuts of regular fabric! I hadn't been happy with the design I chose for one of my nephews, so I had asked him what animals he liked, and we landed on penguin. So I picked some fabric that I thought would be a nice complement - actually, there was a lot of snowflake-ish fabric, but that seemed too busy, so I just chose grey. But then I had something to work with on the plane home too. Yay! 

In the intervening week at various silly meetings plus regular arts & crafts time with mom, I finished the penguin and started on a new one. I haven't quite finished the bicycle man for Darren, as I need to find some new colors that I hadn't quite appreciated previously. Here are all the photos! 

I'm seeing Darren's family again for Thanksgiving, so I have a goal to finish as many of their presents as possible; if I pick fabric this weekend, it can be cleaned and pressed before next weekend, to go on a sewing extravaganza. But I also have more cross-stitches to make as well... may be a busy week. 

- Catherine

The cute Loch Ness monsters!

 

Nearly complete bicycle man

Penguin is done!

Beginning of gardener for Beth