Aaaah, summertime -- no schedule, homework, etc. It was
soooo nice. I got more sleep, enjoyed hanging out with both of my kiddos, did a lot of reading, played video games, and just had more time to relax. It is hard to believe that it is over already.
This summer I was trying to learn more about sewing as well as keep organizing/inventorying my craft room. So my crafty time has been harder to come by, but I did manage to accomplish a few projects. First, I did A LOT of mending and altering clothes. Definitely have to say that this is not my favorite aspect of sewing... however necessary it is.
I did manage a few fun projects however. I shared earlier the mini quilt I made myself on my birthday with my BFF on our Family Blog. At the time, I was trying to keep this blog more CTMH-oriented and didn't share it here. As I am no longer a consultant, that impediment is gone. So, I'll go ahead and share it again here.
I loved how it turned out, so I decided to make Delaney one for her room at school. (I was bound and determined to take a break from the mending and do something fun!) I incorporated the number 22 in the design, since that is the soccer number she has at Parkside. The base colors were black and white, which is the predominate color scheme of her room and I threw in as many little extras as I could from existing fabric I had here at home. I thought it turned out really cute.
She sent me a picture of it hanging in her room after she got it. (Her dad dropped it off with other goodies at an away game for her.)
As far as organizing my craft stuff goes, I have been trying to go through bins, boxes, baskets -- you name it, and organizing things together. I have also been inventorying things as I've been going through things with Evernote. I *love* it. I have all my acrylic stamps organized in there, and it is so easy to type in a keyword and see sets that match to select from, and then find exactly where the set is located. I have also gotten through my punches, dry embossing stencils, and even my old wooden sets. I still have a lot more things to get through, but I'm getting there. I also pulled out the many handmade cards I had everywhere and put them in one place, organized by theme to easily find a card when needed. That took a lot longer than I thought it would, but I finally finished them all up.
One other big project that I finished up was I made my first quilt! I used reclaimed denim and soccer fleece to make a rag quilt. I even had a little helper most of the time while I was working on it. It was basically, "Oh, you're working on this here? I shall sit on it." He's so cute, that he can get away with it too. He would usually fall asleep so I was trying to carefully work around him in a tiny area -- as he takes up most of the table.
The thing that took the longest wasn't the actual assembly of the quilt. It was all the cutting of the squares! I couldn't believe how long it took just to cut squares. The denim was really hard on my rotary blade too; it completely dulled it. I had to order new blades. But once I finally got through cutting all the squares, the actual assembly wasn't too bad. Delaney helped me lay out all the squares, to make sure that I had the different denim colors spread out nicely. Then I simply had to sew all the squares together row by row, then attach all the rows together. After everything was together, cutting all the seams was a tad tedious -- but then it was finished! Ta-dah!
It is currently on the futon in the soccer room -- a perfect match. All that denim makes for one heavy quilt too, I think it will be nice and toasty in the winter months.
I have a bigger "want to do" list than I actually have time to do. So I guess time will tell what I actually get to next.
Dani
