The tiniest pillow!

I have finished the cutest little pillow ever - I had it mostly sewn and stuffed yesterday, and sewed up the final seam during a call this morning. I have put it in Nairo's window seat, where he likes to sleep while we're watching TV; now we just have to see if he'll use it! So exciting. 

I also finished up the last two pencil cases - I had to redo both after I ironed interfacing to the interior fabric, rather than the exterior. I naively didn't realize how much of a difference it would make, but it was a big one! Unfortunately, for Nina's bag (the green checkerboard), I didn't have enough of the interfacing or the interior fabric left to make a single big square, so each is kind of its own checkboard of interfacing bits and yellow seams. I think the seams inside are pretty invisible - the top half of the yellow fabric (closest to the zipper) is one bigger piece. The structural support from the interfacing is also a bit lacking, but I think it'll still get the job done.

You may notice the aspect ratio of Darren's second fish bag is a bit different - he asked for a deeper bag so he can put his little notebooks and calendars in. I didn't have enough fish so the swirly ribbon is just extending the fabric. It doesn't really match the interior green, but close enough? 

Yay for my first three projects of the year wrapped up! I've even already mailed the pencil case out to Nina, bonus points. 

- Catherine

25 for 25

Happy new year, seester!

One of my big aspirations for this year is to keep the momentum going with all of my sewing projects, including: 

• Finishing Darren’s second pencil case 
• Finishing Nina’s pencil case 
• Finishing the pin cushion and scissor keep that Mom did (I found a taker!) 
• Doing my first experiment with long-arm quilting 
• Making two little Japanese sashiko samplers into a tiny pillow for Nairo 
• Some mending/remaking of clothes 
• More work on the grandmothers garden quilt  
• And other things! 

Obviously, if I am to have any dream of succeeding with this goal, some of the projects will have to be smaller in scope than others, but I think the list above has some good easy things to pair with the more ambitious efforts. 

Speaking of smaller: last week for Arts & Crafts with Mom, I picked up this little cross-stitch again. The fabric is so small I have to take off my glasses to see properly! I need a plan for what I’ll do with this once I’m done. Perhaps another pencil case in my future?

Also, I didn’t get a picture of three pencil cases I made in December for my team at work - here they are, along with Martha's pencil case (the one with the crazy fabric)! The superhero guy is an inside joke that I turned into custom fabric; my first time trying that and it was definitely a success!

Excited for more fun this year!

• Catherine

I got some... satisfaction!

I know Mick Jagger was unlucky when it comes to getting satisfaction, but I have just done the MOST satisfying thing I've done in a while and wanted to share it.

I have taken over as the head Administrator for our group.  There were two other people who both retired in December.  I am now the boss of all of you.  

The first thing I did last week was to change the passwords for our email listserves from things like !9Gr33N18 to something that is easy to remember and type.  No one is going to hack our listserves.  There are four of them, and I made them all the same!  Aaaa - feel the power!!

Then, earlier this week, I was getting something out of a storage cabinet and the thing I wanted was blocked by a bunch of those silverware packs that you get from caterers/to go food orders.  We have those all over our area, because we get catered lunches a lot.  Not box lunches, but stuff that has multiple annoying boxes and sauces and bread, etc, and they always bring us those silverware things.  I realized that I now have the power to Throw Things Away!  So today I did.  Oh so satisfying!  There were four big paper bags (bigger than a grocery bag) worth of silverware in packs, plus loose plasticware.  All gone.  Big styrofoam cups?  Gone.  Random assorted paper plates/styrofoam plates/plastic plates?  Gone.  Old lids for coffee cups with no cups?  Gone.  I consolidated four cabinets down to two, one for food and one for drinks.  It was delightful.

Now I'm wondering what I can do next!  

We have a whole bunch of mailboxes in the student office area and no one seems to use them anymore.  There's lots of mail in there for people who have left.  Maybe that's the next thing to clear out!

Other exciting news - back on Monday I reported a water leak on the city website.  There was water bubbling up from the ground in two places near a fire hydrant.  I walk past this leak every day as I come to and from work, so I've been interested to see if they're going to fix it.  Yesterday when I left, I noticed that there was a lot of silt coming up with the water and getting carried along the gutter.  That didn't seem like a good sign.  Sure enough, this morning when I was heading in, this was what I saw:

This is from the far end of the block.  You can see the water in the street closer to the corner where the leak is.  I'm guessing that something ruptured more significantly overnight.  In the next picture, I've put a circle where the fire hydrant _should_ be.  I don't know where it went!

Later this morning, I saw a city repair vehicle come and now the water is gone from the street (I can see it from my office window) so I'm curious to see what will be there when I go home!  I will take another picture to share.

Otherwise, I got a notification that the yarn for my cowl has shipped, so hopefully I'll get it early next week and I can get to work.  I'm past halfway done with the second sleeve for Smallest's sweater, so that's encouraging.  I got to talk with her yesterday and hear some good ballet drama.  Maybe we need scandal sheets for ballet companies.  There's got to be a lot of good gossip!

Margie

The time - where does it go?

I keep meaning to post more frequently, and then I don't.  Alas.

So... my last post was before Thanksgiving!  Shame, shame!

I stopped working on the sweater for Smallest to make the holding hands mitten.  I looked at some patterns online, and it's basically two wrist cuffs attached to a double-sized mitten.  I gave it a try and completed it before Xmas.  Yay!  Sarah was very excited, no report back yet about what they think.  I didn't have time to give it a bath, and I also made a second regular mitten for Javi to wear so his other hand won't get cold.  I do want to make a hat for Sarah out of the same yarn, as I think her hat from last year is too tight.  We will see.  I'm not sure if I took a picture of mega mitten or not? (nope, I'll wait for Sarah to send me one)

Smallest's professional dance debut was lovely.  Here are some far away pictures of her.  We had a lovely, short visit.

Here, she is the third/fourth from the right, facing the left with her leg up behind her.

Here, she is the front of the line on the far left.

I also have a picture of Middle in a knitwear appreciation post.  Makes me happy!

It was so fun to have you visit!  Ginny enjoyed all the lap time.

Since the mittens are complete, I have started back on the sweater.  I've finished the first sleeve and am processing on the second.  I also finished the hem on the bottom, and sewed in ends, so it will be quicker to complete.  After the sleeve, I'll just have the neckline to finish.  On the first sweater I made like this, I did not like the way I did the ribbing around the neck, so I'm definitely going to take the time to do it correctly this time.

After the sweater is done, I have some yarn coming for another project.  Middle told me that their partner, who is not a scarfy person, borrowed Middle's cowl (the one I'm making here: http://sewingforsalsa.blogspot.com/2019/10/wonkatronic.html) and liked it.  It was suggested to me that they might like to have one of their own.  How can I resist?  I can't find the printout of the pattern, which is unfortunate, as it would have my notes on needle size and the like, and I didn't put it in my Ravelry projects, so no record there either!  Alas.  I am so glad I put it in the blog with the yarn as well!  It's nice yarn, and super soft, and has held up well through heavy use.  Middle wears it a lot.

After that, I think it will be back to Catherine's sweater.  I have delayed long enough!  And maybe some smaller travel projects.

Margie

Flowers finito!

I have done it! Here are the last 7 flowers, plus a showcase of all 64 + 8 half flowers (plus one with my helper as I was trying to lay things out). I ended up taking all of the flowers with me on my trip to help build momentum - it was fun to have two finished almost right away. One of the orange flowers has that little iron-on patch I mentioned last time - I think it turned out to be very innocuous! 

I actually finished sewing on Sunday morning, so have been luxuriating in the last two days of not having to sew things. On the other hand, I am going over for arts & crafts tie with mom today, so it was funny having to find a new thing to work on!

It's so fun to see all the flowers together. There are definitely some that don't really fit in to their category (the final "yellow" one is almost white, and there are some "light blue" that are really grey), and some that really fit better into another category - some of the "orange" and "pink" are sorted with the reds in that picture above and fit right in. So I'll have to think carefully about the overall layout. 

Now the plan is to take a real break and make a totally different quilt, so I can test out the long-arm quilting people/process. I got some fun (and easy to execute) quilt designs while picking up zippers at a lovely new (to me) sewing store, and a fabulous quilt book from Margie while visiting (thank you!!), so I need to look at my fabric hoard and see what would work well. I also, in the spirit of this blog, need to return to my projects in process and make a plan to finish things up. A good project for tomorrow, to decide my 2025 aspirations. :)

Full flowers: 64/64!! 

- Catherine

Lucky 7

More flowers! I am so close. I changed my last flight from Thursday to Wednesday so I could sleep in my own bed a day earlier, and it meant that I had a lot of extra time in the airport, so things are cooking along!

I forgot that I actually finished the green flower before my last post (so there are only three newly finished ones in the first image below), but I decided not to retake the photo because it's fun that they ended up in the same orientation as the last one! Clearly that is The Right Order.

You can see in the second photo that I'm making good progress on the next set as well. I will definitely plan to leave the orange one at home when I leave again tomorrow, since there's only one seam left, and I will definitely plan to take the red one (3 seams left), but I'm on the fence about the yellow one. 

I also fixed one hexagon that had a big cut in it (see last image), by ironing on a little patch. It will make the sewing a bit harder going, and I thought a bit about sewing it up instead, but I think the patch will be nicely invisible. That cut had relegated the whole flower to the end of the envelope pile, but now that there are only 4 (!!!!) envelopes left, there's nowhere to hide. 

Excited to see how far I can get in the next 13 days (until I'm again back at home)!

Full flowers: 57/64 (3 started)

- Catherine

A new help

I am officially traveling now - I've got two full days at home next weekend but otherwise will be on the move for the next 20 days. It's a lot, but all good stuff! And then I'll have a quiet weekend/week to crash afterwards. Whee!

Thanks to time on the plane and a very friendly lap cat (my new helper, see?), I have finished a new flower and am one seam away from finishing the blue one I had started last week. Plus two others in progress. I also only have 7 envelopes of hexagons left!! I really can't believe it.

I am enjoying the new rhythm of threading my many needles with one long thread, using those to close up the big seams between hexagon strips, and then using the short remnants to create new strips. This strategy will also be helpful to make sure I'm finishing flowers rather than just starting new ones over and over, since the short seams are unsurprisingly easier, but then I have more and more bits to carry around. Hopefully I can finish these three and leave them at home when I stop by!

Full flowers: 54/64 (3 started)

- Catherine