It's been a rough week

Haven't done any sewing, I didn't even finish cutting the jacket out. I just have to cut the lining out and mark the pattern but when I cut the jacket out I realized that I didn't have enough fabric for the pants. It shouldn't be a problem finding something to coordinate with the jacket since it is a neutral gray but I'm just not feeling it and you'll understand after reading this, my friends grand-daughter died on Tuesday. That's the baby I made the layette set for, she was born with Trisomy 18, which is the most severe type of downs syndrome. She was almost 3 months, this has been very hard and the funeral is Monday, I suspect it will be the saddest thing I've ever had to endure and I've been through a lot. I can't imagine what my friend's daughter is going through, she has been amazing throughout this ordeal, rising to the challenge and really cared for her baby. Needless to say I'm not looking forward to tomorrow but as I always tell my kids, "you do the hard stuff" and tomorrow will definitely be difficult.



I have been knitting and baking both are very therapeutic. It was my friend Christine’s birthday and she requested this cake. My Grandmother didn’t even make this cake but I recognized the recipe as soon as I saw it as the cake my Great-Grandmother use to make. I use to love that cake and really wanted to try this recipe. I did a modified double boiler by using a mixing bowl over a pot of boiling water, it worked great and Christine just called to tell me that “I put my foot in it” lol. I had enough of the filling left so I made us a two layer cake. I didn’t want to waste my lemon filling—okay, I just wanted a cake.

The recipe is from my Taste of Home magazine, this is a wonderful magazine if you love to cook.




















I've had this yarn forever but once I finally got the knitting thing down I knew I wanted to make a sweater out of it. I’m not using a pattern, which is something I would never do with sewing, I always use a pattern for garment construction but with crocheting and knitting I feel more capable of attempting something because unlike sewing if it doesn’t work out you can always frog it and start over, if you cut the fabric out wrong you could ruin some perfectly good fabric. I am attempting to make a boatneck sweater, I don’t know if it will be short or long sleeve will decide that when I get there, I’m leaning toward short sleeves because I would be able to wear it during the Spring.

That's about it for me, I have to finish dinner, and try to fold the never ending pile of laundry. What's for dinner? Meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, greens, and cornbread, oh yeah and for dessert we get a lemon filled cake, yummy--what diet?

I am such a Geek

I am a database administrator by day and sometimes my geekyness morphs with my craftyness and I get ideas like this






















This is a database that would catalog all your patterns and allow you to have pictures of the completed garments, add notes and have the pattern stats all at your disposal. For one you would never have to purchase a pattern more than once because you would know by searching for the pattern number before going to the store if you already had it. It would be even better as an iPhone appt so you could actually search while you're in the store. I just read on Yahoo that some guy made over $600,000.00 on an iPhone game, I'm sure there's not that many geeky crafters out there but I'm just wondering.




This is strickly in the development stage and I'm just wondering if anyone would actually use it. I am also going to develop one for needlecrafts and fabric stash management, so that you could catalog your fabric/yarn stashes.





I would really appreciate your input and any development suggestions you might have.






That's enough geek for today, now I'm going to go cut out that suit.






I almost forgot to mention, the needlecraft group at the library was so much fun, I apologize for not having any pictures but I forgot to take my camera and next time they meet I plan to take the day off from work so I don't have to rush off. Thanks for all your helpful suggestions ladies, I really enjoyed the meeting. People with hobbies rock!

I'm a good Mommy

I finished all the pj's. My DD only wanted the bottoms so she got the black and white because I didn't have much of that and now me and my GS match, isn't that cute.

Really I just wanted to get them off the sewing table so I could move on to some serious sewing. I think I'm going to make the one on the right McCalls 6977. I've had this pattern forever, it's copyrighted 1994 but the notched collar and welt pockets intimidated me before but I think I'm going to go for it, with all the resources at my disposal I'm sure it will turn out great. I'm not sure which fabric I will use, either a khaki or a light weight grey polyester, probably the grey because I have a pair of black sling backs that I'm dying to wear. I have a bright turquoise that I want to use to make the one on the left, McCalls 5672. Can you tell that I'm so ready for Spring.























And I leave you with a picture of my first knitted item, it's just a dish cloth, I trimmed it with single crochet. Tomorrow I'm definitely going to the needle crafts group at the library I have to show the librarian my dish cloth lol.




















I hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy crafting, whether it's sewing, crocheting, knitting or scrapbooking just do whatever makes you happy.

By George, I think she's got it

Look at all those purty garter and stockinette stitches, still need to work on the seed stitch.

I remember receiving this issue of my beloved Crochet! magazine and feeling like it was a slap in the face with the Knit N Crochet section, although I love the car coat on the cover. What was that about! With the exception of Sheila, I know very few people who do both. I think knitter’s secretly look at crochet as knitting’s ugly cousin lol and feel kinda sorry for us poor souls who just can’t master those intimidating needles.

Maybe after several more hours of practice I will try this sweater, I don’t like the sleeves so I’ll change those but I don’t need to be afraid of those twin needles any longer and this week I will shop for knitting tools of the trade. I wasn’t going to invest anymore than I already have until I was able to do the basics. I’m happy to say that perseverance paid off and I learned a lot about me and the way I learn. It’s not enough for someone to show me how it’s done, I need to understand WHY it has to be done that way. I wish I had figured out this little personality quirk sooner I bet I would have done a lot better in math lol.

Well that's it for the knitting update. I am so proud of myself, it took awhile but I figured it out. Just so you know I like both crocheting and knitting. I just didn't want to limit myself by not being able to knit there are some things that crochet is far better at, ex. afghans but I really like knitting for sweaters and other wearables.

Knitting

I know those are some funky looking stitches but I'm so excited. Now I just have to learn how to purl and then the sky's the limit lol.

Look What I've Started

Isn't he cute! Everything you go through getting your kids grown is so worth it when you get Grandkids. I only have the one so of course he's spoiled rotten and when he said, "Grandma, I really, really want some of those pj's." You know I had to get busy, he waited up last night until I finished so he could wear them. They're a little big but will shrink when they're washed and he's growing like a weed so I'm sure he will fill them out in no time. I don't know what the deal is with the color, his are the orange/white polka dot. I was going to make him the black/white polka dot but he wanted the orange and it matches his red hair lol.

My DD will get the black/white and I'm making me another pair to match my GS. So much for that jacket that I've been wanting to cut out, it might miss this season and be made in the fall. The weather is warming up so I might make a few transition outfits.

I probably won't get to sew today but I've been cooking a good old fashioned Sunday dinner that would make my Grandmother proud. She had 11 children and would cook Sunday dinner for all of them and their kids, and their kids, every Sunday. How she fed so many people on a cooks salary baffles me. On the menu today is Roasted Turkey Breast, garlic mashed potatoes w/gravy, and brocolli with cheese sauce. For dessert I finally made a key lime pie, can't wait to cut it. Just so you know, all diet bets are off on Sunday that is my one day to eat whatever I want. I hope everyone has/had a great weekend.

Like I need more patterns

But I did tell my friend to pick up the phone if she saw McCalls patterns on sale, after Vogue they are my favorite. Hobby Lobby had them on sale for $1.99 and don't you know that out of the 7 that I bought 4 are for jackets--what is my problem. I guess there isn't anything wrong with loving jackets, Suze Orman does so I'm not going to feel bad about it anymore lol. And if you don't know who Suze Orman is check out some of her books or watch her tv show, it's good to know how to handle money.

I got McCalls 5712, 5718, 5526m 5527, 5670, 5393 and 5817. Like a lot of post I've seen this
past week, I'm tired of winter and want to start sewing for spring but I won't sew for spring until I can wear the clothes but I can be ready to sew.

And I felt guilty for not making my DD some pj's, she only wanted the bottoms but the fabric had a flaw so I didn't have enough, while at Hobby Lobby I found these two pieces and my GS wanted some too, so I think I will make them some this weekend. It wasn't .64/yd but $2.00/yd is still a good deal. I got enough of the orange/white to make me another pair, I really like the ones I made.

I have had the hardest time finding calendars for 09, everywhere I went they didn't have any but I was really blessed because I stopped in Brerean Christian store and they had all their calendars and planners marked down to 90% off. I saw this one and knew my GS would get a kick out of it. I got this corkboard at a yard sale years ago and had the bright "parenting" idea to create a "Weekly Wonders" board. Every time the kids got a good grade on a paper or some award at school I would make a big deal about putting it on the weekly wonders board. The kids really got into it and now my GS does the same so of course his artwork is displayed on the "Weekly Wonders" board.

Under the Weekly Wonders it says, and other things worth mentioning.

Here's a parting shot of my grey turtleneck, I really like this simple little top, since I doubled the fabric on the entire top it's quite warm. I think I will get a lot of wear out of this.

Almost there, it's almost the weekend. Have a happy Friday and a great weekend.