18 April, 2011

April Stitchery

I really did sew this month.  I finished two projects, although I have pictures of only one of them right now.

For Christmas gifts, I made several of these journal covers . They were fun and easy, and I loved working out the color combinations and scraps to use for each one.  I vowed to make myself one, as well, but of course that didn't get done during the Christmas season.  Nor directly after that, either.

But I did finally get around to it.  Here's mine:

I made a few modifications to the original design, and I also took a shortcut.  I didn't have the time to make the patchwork fabric strip, so I simply found an interesting print scrap and used that instead.

As for modifications, I wanted an inside pocket to hold my planner, as well as a little pocket to hold a pen.  I can also tuck my Kobo e-reader in behind the planner:

To add more decorative detail, I tried out some of the fancy stitches on my sewing machine:

I'm very pleased with the finished product and carry it everywhere. :)
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Posted by Sherry at Monday, April 18, 2011 0 comments
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03 April, 2011

March Wrap-up

Forget the whole "in-like-a-lion, out-like-a-lamb" business--this year March dashed by like a furtive, racing bunny.  Suddenly I find myself in the dreaded month of April; the end of my maternity leave is looming, and I'm faced with the nasty prospect of missing my little girl all day when I return to work in two weeks.  Not exactly the kind of thing to motivate a lot of ditching OR stitching, but I've been trying to keep at work on both, nonetheless.

I have to confess, after a great start in March, my ditching slowed down for a bit, partly because I had gotten ahead.  However, I do have some things to add to the list: a book, a shelf we were never going to use, some magazines, and countless papers.  In the coming months, we're really going to focus on sorting out our basement; I'm hoping most of what's left down there is to be gotten rid of!

On the creative side of things, I was involved in the poster creation Sherry mentioned, got some more work done on the murals (hoping to finish them and get the room back in order soon!), and made a little dress and kerchief for baby C.  The pattern is New Look 6578, and I was very pleased with how it went together.  It was easy to work with and made up nicely, although I think it would be good if the pattern included differently-sized appliques for the different sizes of dress--these are maybe a little large on size 1! 
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Posted by Krista at Sunday, April 03, 2011 1 comments

Create -- March

I actually did a number of creative things in March, although they were all outside the more literal "stitch" interpretation.  I did continue to work on my sock-knitting, but it's a slow process and I'm not finding much time to sit and work on it.

During March Break we did our usual "imaginary vacation" day, when we pretend to visit some exotic locale or country.  This year we went to Hollywood for the day, which of course was very glamorous and included rather posh food, a movie premiere, and a fashion show.

On the creative side, I thought it would be fun to make movie posters for imaginary movies.  I printed out a lot of good movie title words, from which we each picked at random or put together something we liked.  We also had a huge pile of pictures which I cut from magazines, and made poster collages to suit our titles by gluing the titles and images on half-sheets of bristol board.  With markers everyone could add taglines, actors, etc.  It was huge fun!

You can see all the posters by following this link: http://on.fb.me/gfWOio
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Posted by Sherry at Sunday, April 03, 2011 0 comments
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Catalogue Ditch Blitz

In March I ditched more catalogues and old magazines than I could bring myself to count.  However, they were heavy enough that I had to separate them into two recycling bags--one bag was stretching and tearing under the weight.

This is a ditching project that should really be undertaken twice a year, and doesn't take all that long--but makes a big difference in the piles of catalogues stashed wherever you keep such things.  Culling them from time to time also makes it much easier to find appropriate ones when you need them.

I feel lighter!
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Posted by Sherry at Sunday, April 03, 2011 0 comments
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