Tag Archives: LAFS

29

Mar. ’20

Day 17 at home

Today is day 17 and I’m finding it difficult to stick with a schedule. I normally work from home so that’s not my problem. My kids are home all the time but they are older and do not require as much from me as they would if they were younger.  Last week I was supposed to be on vacation. But with everything going on with the stock market I worked for most of it.  I was able to get off early in the day and do various things but not nearly as much as I wanted to.  I’m okay with it. But life will be more hectic next week as we finish up one quarter and start another. So I need to figure out how I want things to be.

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve been working on:

Knitting – I’m still knitting on my morning socks and almost daily I’m able to knit a couple of rows on Ricky’s Weasley Sweater. But those pictures are no fun. Just a little bit longer and bigger than the last picture. I will try to take pics this week since the month is ending and I want to take end of Month pictures. My real knitting love is this hat:

Harriet’s Hat
3/29/2020

I ran out of the white yarn and luckily I have a friend who’s knitting the same hat with me. As soon as she is done, she will be dropping off (social distancing being kept) her leftover white.  In the meantime, I just love looking at it. I am still working on my mix wave cowl, water lily top, etc. Basically I’m doing my daily and weekly knitting. Mostly.

For cross stitch, since I finished Mama’s Bukid I started working on Titania by Mirabilia. I started this a long time ago – 2018 – and only did a bit on it. I hated working on it. Really hated it. I had never worked on linen before. Before this, I didn’t realize that there were different fabrics and every Flosstube I watched was talking about how great linen was. So I kitted this project up with linen and did not like it. I couldn’t see the holes and they were uneven. It was awful and sat in a box for 2 years. Every once in awhile early on I would take it out and try for a bit but it’s been in complete timeout this last year. This time I started working on it again and while I can’t say I love working on it, I am better at it and it is now doable.  I am loving what I’m seeing and it was my focus xstitch project for this week:

Titania
Mirabilia
3/29/2020

Here’s what it will grow up to be:

 

I finally finished this dress:

LAFS: Megan Dress

I’m not totally in love with it but it makes a great house dress. This is my second real dress but the first time with set in sleeve, gathers, my first time with darts, and a bunch of other things, I am really happy with how it turned out and how I can wear it. I plan to make skirts and other dresses one of these days.

On the quilting front: It’s harder to take pictures. I finished putting together this inner top –

2012 Southern CA
Quilt Run
Area One
Mystery quilt

I know the picture is not the finished top. It was harder to take a picture it because it is just too big.

2012 Southern CA
Quilt Run
Area One
Mystery quilt
3/29/2020

Here it is on my bed. I plan to do a small border – maybe about 5 inches all around.  I am loving it but put it away for now.

Here are some other things I’ve been working on here and there…

I bound a few mats that I had practiced quilting on the Q20. Here’s a table runner. I picked up the top at one of our guild’s treasure hunts for, quilted and bound it. Now it’s gracing my table.

More practice on the Q20

Fun stuff.

Hope you are doing well during this time. I’m up and down and tend to stay offline when I’m not doing so well.  I also try to remember that things are not so bad, people experience and survive much worse than being stuck at home with all the crafts, and I try to be very grateful for what I have and where I am.  It’s still hard and there are a lot of sad things going on. Stay strong, friends.

Love always,

Melanie

Posted by . Categories: 2020 Crafty Goals, Cross Stitch, Knitting, Quilting. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a comment

18

Jan. ’20

My weekly update, 1/18/2020

I’ve done very little this past week.  It seems to have gone in a blur.  Last Saturday’s post I complained about being sick and not getting as much done as I wanted to and this week I do not even have the excuse of being sick.  I just had a lot of family and other obligations that kept me from crafting to my heart’s content.

Monday was my quilt guild meeting and it was a good meeting. I’m co-membership chair so I have a bunch of duties I needed to do to prepare for the meeting.  At least I was able to knit on my socks during the meeting.

On Tuesday, we went to the Los Angeles Clipper game and had a blast.

Wednesday, I was in Century City, and went with a friend to a yoga class.  Which was awesome!  I haven’t gone to yoga for almost a month and while the class kicked my butt I was very glad to go.

Thursday was knit night and it was my daughter’s last night with us before she headed off to college. So I went to knit night for a couple of hours before the family and I went to sushi for the girl’s last night.

And on Friday, we woke super early to get the girl to the airport for her early flight.  It was fine and at 1pm my parent’s called to say they were on their way to visit for the weekend.  I love that they are here visiting but my plan was to spend Friday sitting on my butt stitching.  Instead I had to run around getting them dinner.  I’m okay with it.

Anyway, that’s my busy week.  So what was I able to actually do?

First up – morning knitting on my socks for 15 minutes every Monday – Friday.

last week – 1/11/2020

 

I checked this off for 5 of 5 days.

1/18/2020

The cuffs are done and I’m working on the heels.  I have about 2 or 3 more rows on the heels and then I can kitchener it and call it a finish!  woohoo…

Second, my evening knitting on Ricky’s Weasley Sweater every Monday through Friday.

Ricky’s Weasley Sweater
1/11/2020

I checked this off for 1 of 5 days.  I only did about 2 – maybe 3 rows during knit night so any picture I take today will not be much different than what I showed last week.

I had dropped a stitch on my Fairy Hill Shawl and spent some time trying to fix it. Mindy spent more time on it but I didn’t get anymore done on it than that.  And I got another small blip done on my mix wave cowl.

Mix Wave Cowl
1/11/2020

For Cross Stitch, my goal is to work on it every evening Monday – Friday.

Mama’s Bukid
1/11/2020

I did nothing on this project all week.  🙁  So it looks the same. I wanted to finish up those columns last night but it will have to wait until my next free xstitch moment.

And finally Quilting! I was able to finish Glam Clam last weekend and posted about it during the week. But here it is again!

Glam Clam
Finished Top
1/13/2020

And finally for Sewing, the top and bottom of my Megan dress is put together and my next class is tomorrow. I’m excited to get that to the next step.

Megan Dress
1/11/2020

I guess I made small progress on some projects and no progress on others.  That’s okay. And I have a finished top so that is reason to celebrate.  I hope life calms down a bit over the next few months so I can get back into the rhythm of crafting, creating, and relaxing.

I hope you all have a happy crafty week!

Melanie

To see the full 2020 crafty plan, click for quilting, knitting, cross stitch, and everything else.

Posted by . Categories: 2020 Crafty Goals, Cross Stitch, Knitting, Quilting. Tags: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

30

May. ’17

LAFS: Margot Pyjamas

 

Margot Pajamas
Still not done…

I’m still working on my pajama pants.  I was feeling a bit overwhelmed with the next steps and was unsure as to how to proceed.  I just followed what was written even if I didn’t truly understand what it meant and whether I was doing it right.  ;0

And I didn’t take the best pictures. I sewed the pant legs together.  First I sewed each back piece to the front pieces to get 2 separate single pant legs.  Once you’ve pieced them together, you’re supposed to do a zig zag stitch.  I don’t have a serger so I did the zig zag stitch. I don’t know if I did them correctly.  

The instructions said we could press to the back side or press open. I’m not sure how I could press this open so I just pressed it to the back side.

Then I sewed the right leg to the left leg by sewing the crotch part together.  I left an opening for the drawstring but for some reason in my head I needed two openings so in the end I had one in the front and one in the back.  I realized what I had done and then sewed the opening in the back closed.

The last thing I had energy for was to sew a rectangle around the drawstring hole to reinforce it.  It’s not the best work but this is just practice so it is what it is.  🙂

I have to sew the top, put the drawstring together and then sew the bottom.  Then it will be done.  I hope I get this done before I head out to my parents house in a couple of weeks.

Happy stitching!

 

~Melanie

Posted by . Categories: love at first stitch, sewing. Tags: , , , . 2 Comments

23

May. ’17

LAFS: Margot Pyjamas

Here’s my learning lesson this weekend – look at next week’s project when I’m done with this week’s project.  That way I can gather my materials before the day I actually want to work on the project.  Again, I needed 2.5 yards of fabric for the pyjamas and again I didn’t want to dive into my stash to find 2.5 yards of something.  This time, I actually trekked it to my LQS.  I considered going to the big box store since I didn’t want to spend the money on quality quilty cotton but I decided to spend the money.  I love my LQS and while I don’t have a lot of money, I was feeling generous and have a bit more burning a hole in my pocket.  I look at it as donating the funds to keep my LQS open.  Obviously, I can’t do this all the time.  But when I can I will.

I wash my fabric before I use it.  I’m not going to into whether I should or not.  I know a lot of people don’t and it probably doesn’t matter one way or another. But I choose to wash my fabric so before I can use it I have to put it through the wash.  So I spent my sew day this weekend looking for fabric at my LQS, washing and prepping it.  On Sunday, I was able to get some things prepped but I didn’t actually get to any sewing –

Of course, I forgot to take pictures until the very end when I packed everything up for my next sew day.  Which I hope will be this upcoming weekend!

I fell in love with this owl as soon as I saw him peeking at me at my LQS.  The pattern called for 2.5 yards but I wanted to make sure I was able to fussy cut the owls and foxes perfectly so I purchased a bit over 3 yards.  Here’s where I diverged from the instructions detailed in LAFS (Love at First Stitch).    The pattern wanted me to cut on the grain which would have been had the length of the pajama leg parallel to the selvage.  If I followed this, my owls would be sideways on my legs.  Not the image I wanted.  So I cut it from selvage to selvage.  Since I’m short – just about 5′ – this was fine.

I had big post it poster paper that I used to trace over the pattern.  This time around I cut with scissors on the line and the fabric.  There were three options listed in the book.  The second option was to use the pattern to trace on the fabric and the third option was to use tailor’s chalk or something on the fabric and then cut with that.  I think I’ll choose the third option next time.

Here are the front of the legs.  I have the back cut too.

I’ve got a bunch of bits to add to my stash and use in quilts and other projects.

Very important – I labeled the front legs and the back legs before I put them away.  If I didn’t do that I would totally forget which was which and I would spend time trying to figure it out.

~ Happy sewing!

~Melanie

Posted by . Categories: love at first stitch, sewing. Tags: , , , . 2 Comments

15

May. ’17

LAFS: Brigitte Scarf

I started reading Love At First Stitch (LAFS) the night it arrived.  My goal is to work through the book and I hope by the end I’ll feel more comfortable with garment sewing.  I have no plans to do more at the moment but I hope to be able to make myself dresses, skirts and tops that fit appropriately.  I have a short torso and I often have to take dresses in for alterations.

The first project is the Brigitte Scarf.  Immediately I hit a snag.  The fabric requirement was 60 inches in length.  That’s a bit under 2 yards.  I’ve got a pretty large fabric stash (as compared to myself really).  I consider it large only because I have no more room to have more.  All my bins are stuffed full and I need to use it before I can buy more. 🙁  AND I can’t buy more bins because I would have no place to put it.  🙁  I say this because I should be able to find something in my stash but I don’t have a lot of fabric that’s over a yard.  When I go to my LQS I generally buy one yard of something if I don’t already have a project in mind.  So, that’s my first dilemma.  I know I have fabric that’s 2+ yards but that could be anywhere in the bins.  I wanted to use fabric I loved but I didn’t want to hunt through my bins wasting valuable sewing time.  I went through a stack of fabric that I had recently washed and placed aside (remember no room in the bins) and found an older piece of fabric that seemed thicker than a yard when folded up.  I unfolded it, and it was enough!  I didn’t love the fabric.  It wasn’t one I bought.  If you remember, I was gifted quite a few yards of fabric from a lady in my mini group whose mother passed away recently.  It was one of those.  I decided to use it.  I may never use this scarf but the goal of this project is to start and learn the techniques so I can move on to the next project.  I do not want to get stuck in my sewing room with piles of bins around me looking for the right piece of fabric.

Fabric chosen for Brigitte Scarf
5/13/17

Dillema #2 – the instructions have me cut a paper pattern that is 25 1/2 inches in length.  I do not have paper that is that long.  I ended up using freezer paper that I had on hand.  Sidenote – I’ve used the same roll of freezer paper for the last 10 years! Those things go a long way!  And it worked fine!

Mistake #1 – I was supposed to cut 25 1/2 inches.  I actually cut 25 inches.  I’m pretty sure in garment making that 1/2 inch would matter but in scarf making, I didn’t think so.  However, I’m reminded that that’s why we check twice, thrice and sometimes 4 times because once cut, you can’t do anything about it but find another piece of fabric and cut again.  Since I’m making a scarf, I’m going to leave it. 🙂

Note – step #3 has us put right sides together long wise but the instructions are a little confusing.  I think it’s because I’m a quilter and had I not been a quilter but a real beginner the long instruction given would have made more sense.  In addition I think I could have skipped the step of cutting the paper pattern.  I have the tools (ruler, rotary cutter, cutting mat) to figure out how to cut the fabric without the paper pattern.  However I never know when I can skip a step or not so I will continue to do all the steps as I learn.  I love how the writing is geared towards the beginner sewist because a lot of times these kinds of books assume the reader knows things that they may not necessarily know and cause confusion and heartache.

LAFS: Brigitte Scarf

I would call this a headband than a scarf but the book is written by a UK sewist so they must call it a scarf there.  I love it and even though I don’t love the fabric so much as a scarf – I prefer brighter colors for a scarf- I think I would still wear this.

~ Happy sewing!

~Melanie

Posted by . Categories: Uncategorized. Tags: , , , . Leave a comment