Sickness and Productivity

I have been sick for a whole week. Isn't that just yucky? A whole week of sniffling, coughing, fever and sore throat. But I am finally feeling better today- not perfect, but better. So I'm here with updates about what I did while I was sick :)

Sadly, my boyfriend has the fancy camera at the shop where he is working on his car. He's doing an engine and transmission swap, so he wanted to document the process of giving his green monster of a car a new heart. It's a lime green Volvo from the 80s! It's pretty cool.

Isn't it? I love this car. It is getting a turbo motor to replace the non-turbo one that has over 400,000(!!) miles on it. And a manual transmission because that's what he prefers :) So I don't begrudge him the camera. 

For now, I will just upload a couple of not-so-good cell phone pictures and make another post later with better ones- including pictures of the apple pie I made for Thanksgiving that tasted as wonderful as it looked!

When I'm sick, I spend a lot of time on the couch. But I'm not good at just sitting and watching TV. I have to be doing something else at the same time. That is how these were born:

Silly hats! I absolutely love how they turned out. Especially the rainbow one- the yarn just worked perfectly with the pattern to produce the full spectrum, beginning and ending with orange. I used this super easy pattern: Holy Julie Newmar, Batman!

I actually made 3 hats with this pattern. The third uses the same fuzzy rainbowy yarn as the top picture but has a lime green trim. I'm thinking at least one will end up being a Christmas gift. Maybe two. But I just can't part with the rainbow one- it makes me so happy! Please excuse the dopey smiley faces in the pictures. It was late and I was probably feverish...

I also made an arm warmer for a friend. Yes, just one. I plan on making the other one today and will post some pictures when they're finished. They're also super simple. I don't know about you, but I don't like having to think much when I'm sick. This is why I stayed away from my sewing machine. I knew that piecing the quilt top I'm working on would require me to pay attention to fabric orientation and layout way too much for my fuzzy, fevered brain. So I set it aside and worked on simple crochet goodies instead. I'm glad I did. I wouldn't want to ruin a quilt top by being too tired and sick to pay attention!

I guess that's all until I can get the good camera and the pictures from it. I also finally caught up on reading all the blog posts! I am subscribed to so many blogs... I was almost 200 posts behind. But it made for good reading while I was sick on the couch.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday if you celebrate Thanksgiving :) If not, I hope you have been in better health than I have!

I Finished! :)

I thought I would get this done sooner, but all of the Thanksgiving prep on top of work and homework has really slowed me down. Sewing became a sort of productive procrastination. I seriously need to graduate. I have never procrastinated this severely in my life! Soon. Soon the homework will end. In the mean time I now have something pretty to stare at in my living room while I'm putting it off ;)

There it is! I just quilted straight lines all the way down the runner. Well, mostly straight. I didn't want them to be too rigid, so I didn't draw any guiding lines or anything. I just guessed where every inch or so would be and went with it :) I like how it turned out. Is it perfect? Not at all. But it IS finished! And now it is brightening up my coffee table. I love it.

This is the first time I have ever bound anything! Of course I decided to go the machine route... Hand stitching the binding probably would have ended up looking more even, but I really wanted to learn how to machine bind things for the future, so oh well. It is really not perfect. It's crooked and the stitching if often weird and wavy, but it stays on!  I am so proud! And now I know that binding with my machine is possible, if not exactly easy. Next time I'll be more careful. This time I was too excited for caution :D

I also managed to cut up all the little squares for the holiday throw from the last post. I can't wait to start putting it together! Over the long weekend my sewing machine will definitely be getting a workout. Last but not least, I started a little um, thing? To put in the middle of the dining room table. What do you call those? I don't know. But it is made from the peacock fabric from the table runner along with bright Kona cottons (that I can't remember the names of).

It's going to be so pretty on my table! 

I am super behind on reading blogs. The long weekend will definitely be full of catching up! :)

Table Runner Top!

So. I finished the top of my table runner! It's so bright and happy, I can't wait to get it all finished and put on my coffee table. I wanted to finish it up yesterday, but Operation Deep Clean is currently in progress and after 4 hours of cleaning, I just wanted to sit and look at old pictures with my sister. The picture isn't the greatest because I didn't have anyone to help me show it off- but you get the idea :)

Operation Deep Clean is my fall cleaning spree. I generally don't do Spring cleaning... but Fall cleaning? Yes. I don't know why, but colder weather makes me want to clean. This probably doesn't make sense to a lot of people. I think it may have something to do with living in the Southwest where it is hot most of the year- for me, the colder months are much more refreshing and therefore motivating.

This year it also has to do with the fact that I'll be hosting Thanksgiving for the first time O.O My whole family plus my boyfriend's family plus a few extras (because my family always picks up a few extras who have no way to spend the day with their own families) will be at my house to enjoy some great food and company. I am so nervous! I've never cooked a turkey! Fortunately, my mom will be there helping me... but still! The thought of all those people being there relying on me to cook the centerpiece of the meal... nerve-wracking for sure. So how am I coping with this stress? By cleaning my house!

I'm sure it will all be great fun, but I think I will be very happy the day after Thanksgiving.... when I can go back to just worrying about graduating and making lots of Christmas presents :)

Speaking of Christmas presents, I've decided to make my boyfriend's parents a throw blanket. They live in colder climes and they use LOTS of blankets in the winter. They have this big chest full of them. So I thought I would contribute one. His mom likes seasonal themed things, so I went with winter and Christmas.

These just came from Joann- there was a Veteran's day sale and my sister was going anyway... so I tagged along :) It will be a simple throw made out of squares, but I think it'll be fun when it's finished. 

I need to make myself a throw, too. Yesterday was the first "cold" day of the season here in the desert. Of course, "cold" here means the high was 60 degrees. I'm sure that's not cold to a lot of people ;) But we actually had to turn the heater on, so it was a big deal! And now I'm thinking I need a new throw blanket to snuggle under for the winter... But Christmas presents shall come first!

Thanks for stopping by! :)

Finished Pillow + Table Runner Fabrics

Another not-so-crafty weekend. But there were many friends and fun things going and even some homework, so I don't feel too guilty.

Kirby was taken to his new home. I hope he will be well loved.

I finished the pillow. I was going to take a picture with the nice camera, but I gave it away before I could. So here it the crappy cell phone picture.

It is a little over stuffed in this picture. I unstuffed it just a little before I gave it away. I didn't take a picture of the back, but it is made out of the cute pink heart fabric you can see at the bottom right corner of the pillow. It's just a simple envelope back- I would like to learn how to add invisible zippers, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Still, I like the envelope backs. They're easy :)

My next project is to make a new table runner for our living room coffee table. It currently has a pretty boring bamboo affair on it that came from Ross 3 years ago. I liked it then, but now I just think it's awful. I want something bright and happy! So I bought a selection of prints from the Frippery collection by Thomas Knauer. I don't go in much for seasonal decoration. I like bright colors and I will decorate with them all year round! Here they are, all laying on my craft table just waiting to be cut up and sewn into something pretty...

I love them! Especially the peacocks.

Anyway, I am looking forward to getting started on this. But I have a few other obligations to take care of first... Maybe by next weekend they will be a pretty quilted table runner :)

Thanks for stopping by!