Sleepy Morning

Good morning!

I don't know about you, but I don't feel very awake yet. There isn't really a good reason for this. By my calculations, I got about 8 hours of sleep. And I didn't even wake up because of nightmares like I did the night before last. Maybe it's the cold weather? It seems our annual week of winter has finally arrived in southern AZ and it's less than 40 degrees outside (I know, shocking!). It is set to freeze the next few nights, which probably means pipes bursting all over the city because we are never prepared for winter. Really. Two years ago we had a hard freeze and when I went to class in the morning, pipes had burst all over campus. There was a geyser of water outside the building I had class in that day. It was weird and kind of funny. Winter always takes us by surprise.

So what have I been working on? A bit of sewing, a bit of crochet. Well, maybe a bit more crochet than sewing. Although my crochet projects take less time than the sewing projects, so maybe it's about even. Anyway...

I finally finished some arm warmers for a friend for Christmas... Yes, I know. It's January. And I started these in November. For shaaaaame.

I also made myself a pretty scarf. I haven't woven in the ends yet, though, because I used a whole skein of yarn and it still doesn't feel long enough... now I'm debating whether I should be lazy and call it good or if I should just suck it up and go get another ball to make it the length I really want. Right now I'm leaning toward lazy because I feel sleepy. But I think I'll hold off on the decision making until I feel I've woken up properly.

What about sewing? Well, I did finish cutting strips for Mr. Hounds Tooth. But I won't bore you with more pictures of strips. I got distracted from Mr. Hounds Tooth by this:

This is the January block for the Sisters' Ten BOM over at Gen X Quilters. I don't know that I will follow along the whole year, but I had some time on my hands and a pretty fat quarter bundle of La Dee Dah, so I decided to take a break from cutting 2.5" strips. Since I only made one, I think this might be destined to become a pillow. But how nice will it look as a pillow?? I'm kind of excited about it. I'm also pretty pleased with the piecing. I'm getting much better with the accuracy thing :) 

But the most exciting thing I've done? I FINISHED A SKIRT. And it even FITS. 

I can't prove that it fits. Because no one was here when I needed to take pictures and I didn't want to mess with trying to set up a times and anyway... my hair is a mess and I haven't shaved in a couple of days because it's winter and my legs are hiding under jeans most of the time anyway and... Well. You get the idea. So you'll just have to trust me ;) I used some super cheap Joann fabric that I got on clearance. Because it was my first attempt at making clothes, I didn't want to spend a lot of money in case it all went horribly wrong. 

With a Christmas Amazon gift card from my sister, I bought a book called Sew What! Skirts by Francesca DenHartog. It's a nice little book that goes over the basics- how to measure yourself, how to make a variety of cuts and waistlines for skirts, how to add buttons and zippers, etc. I did an easy elastic waistline to start because I didn't want to attempt a zipper on my first ever skirt. That and I forgot to buy zippers. Next time I think I will use wider elastic (this is 3/4" elastic I actually bought for a costume a long time ago and forgot about- it tends to roll easily) and add more flare to the skirt. But I'm still so pleased with the results! It was so much easier than I thought it would be. Definitely a good introduction to garment making, which is something I would love to do more of in the future. I already bought a couple of yards of blue and white gingham that I plan to use on a simple dress. Maybe I'll start working on that this weekend :)

I'm feeling a little more lively now. Time to cut the coffee umbilical cord and face the day, I suppose.

Linking up to Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts!