Salmon and Souvlaki

I need a new hat so I decided to make one from the book, Simple Sewing, which my friend Anne let me borrow.  The making of it was relatively easy, although sewing all those curved edges was definitely not that simple!  Unfortunately, once it was made, it quickly became clear that I was never going to wear this in public.  So unless Noah, Selah, Jonas, or Ezra decide to claim it when they’re here next week, it’s going to be consigned to a play box.  However, in looking at Nik’s hat that he wears for gardening and farming, I realized that it’s constructed in exactly the same way as this one.  So I just need to have Nik make me a pattern that actually works and I’ll be able to make plenty of hats for all who want one!  (Nik’s the spatially gifted member of this marriage.)  They’re really quite simple.

(You’re lucky I’m showing you this.)

In anticipation of family coming this summer and fall, I made this super fun curtain for our upstairs bathroom, which is in our guest room.  I used the tutorial that I wrote myself a couple years ago.  It’s basically the exact same curtain that I made for our downstairs bathroom.  I somehow managed to not follow my own instructions and cut my fabric an inch too narrow.  But, it still covers up the whole window – so family, rest assured, your modesty is safe!  And don’t you just love those ducks!?!?!?!

In an attempt to save some energy, save the environment, and lower our heating bill, I made this draft snake for our living room.  It’s filled with corn.  Right now, it’s actually in use, keeping the cold air in our bedroom at night.

I started making this baby blanket set for our baby at the storm edition of Sewing Club, where Anne, Steph , Violet, and Piper got to be the first people in Baltimore (other than family) to know we were having a baby!  Don’t be jealous everyone else – the storm certainly stifled our ability to tell everyone as quickly as we wanted to!  I had a pretty good start on this but I took a four month break and didn’t finish it until June.

(I realize the fabrics might be a little non-PC but they are so cute!)

Jason and Nikki are having a boy! In August!  Hooray!

My dear friend Katie had a milestone birthday this year. To help her celebrate, I made this market bag/tote, using this tutorial.  I love this combination of fabrics! (They’re from the same line, Ginseng by Joel Dewberry.)  This project also helped me teach myself how to make French seams, which is a useful skill.

Nik’s high school Young Life leader, Tim, got married in June to Lesley.  I had fun making pot holders for them using this tutorial.  I was able to make these with fabric that I already had and it was a fun challenge.  It was an quick, easy project and now I need to make some for our house!  (This project was also a good small-scale way for me to learning how to add binding to a quilt.)

In a burst of energy at the beginning of the crazy storms of February 2010, I decided to make a quilt for our baby.  So I took out all my brown, cream, and green flannels and got to work.

From beginning to end:

to

to and 

Then I made a “quilt sandwich” with the batting and backing material and quilted it in diagonal lines.  Then, first trimester hit me with a vengance and I didn’t sew for two months.  And didn’t pick up this again until July.  All I had left to do was to make and sew on the binding.  I finally did that this past week. And without further ado, the finished quilt!

There are a lot of imperfections in this that my perfectionist self tries to worry about.  But my more mature self tells me that it’s pretty great to have made a quilt in time for our baby to come.  So here’s to fun tummy times!

I had two reasons for making this mei tai – first, I mostly just wanted to try out my pattern on someone else before I made one for our own baby (even though we didn’t know we were pregnant at the time I was making it).  Second, and less selfishly, I thought it would be fun to make one to give to my sister!

I used this pattern which I got from Sew Liberated.  The only modification that I made to the pattern was to add a flannel lining to the body to make it more cushioned.

(I’m “wearing” a corn sack in all of these to pretend to have a baby in there!)

I’m happy to report that now that Grace is a little bit bigger, Rachel says that the mei tai wears well and is easy to use.  So I’m looking forward to making one for our baby!

Rather than do any number of other, more pressing projects, I have decided to attempt to chronicle my craft making/sewing projects in 2010.  (It also gives me something to do in our air-conditioned office while avoiding the 101 degree world.)  To do this, I have to catch up for the last 6 months.  So here come a whole bunch of sewing posts.  I promise that after this, you won’t be forced to read so many sewing posts in  a row.  (Not that you actually have to read any of them if you don’t want to, or aren’t particularly fascinated by sewing!)