What I don't like about sewing...

Is new fabric.

I mean, I love new fabric, though it might be better if I didn't because then it would not cost me so much money. But there is something about new fabric that I don't like, and it is the washing. I wish it were as simple as you buy the fabric, you cut into it and sew it into something fabulous - or at least decent! But the process of washing all of it before and having to face it all wrinkled and mingled in its own thread is distressing. It always gives me a pang in the heart when I take it out of the washer and it looks like nothing but a pack of threads.

By the way, does anyone know how to avoid this mess when washing cottons? I've read somewhere that you need to cut the corners, but I haven't brought myself to do it yet. How exactly should it be done anyway?

So, this is how I spent my afternoon, washing, cutting thread and then ironing it all. But as a reward, I now have all this pretty fabric ready to use. And what fun am I going to have with it!

Have a great weekend!

Sylvie

Easy weekend

We did a lot of this over the weekend. For once we did not have a thousand errands to run and so we had time to just hang out at home in our pajamas, play outside in the snow and obviously do some sewing (I did, Patrick did not!). I finished my winter placemats so that we can use them for supper tonight. It was a fun little project to make.



Now getting ready for another week of work. Hope everybody has a good one.

Sylvie

Is it too late or way too early for Christmas stuff?

Honestly, I think it doesn't really matter as long as I enjoy what I am doing.

I realised, a few weeks before Christmas, that it would be nice to have some placemats for the season. Problem was, I did not have any holiday fabric and anyway I was much too busy with getting everything else ready for Christmas. Still, I ordered some fabric and received it during the holidays, but it is only now that I have time to sit down and sew what I had in mind.



My boyfriend wanted something very traditional as far as colors go, so he chose solid green and red fabrics to go along with the penguin pattern.



I, on the other hand, have a thing for the Be Merry fabrics, so I opted for brighter colors. I still need to quilt and add the bias, but I already am pretty satisfied with how it turned out, knowing that I did not use any pattern.

I am hoping to have time to finish them during the weekend, but today on my day off from work, I will definitely go play outside as the sun is finally back for a visit with some warm temperatures.

A NEW START AND A LITTLE LOOK BACK

A new year has come, with all its hopes. We are quite glad to put 2009 behind us and start afresh around here. My boyfriend has taken the road to school this week and I am confident that this will be a brighter time for him.

I started this blog in March of last year, full of good intentions and postings ideas, but most of them got lost somehow and my blog remained bleak and sparse until I almost deleted the whole thing in December. I felt that nothing I had to say could ever be of interest to anyone, or that my English was not good enough to truly reflect my thoughts and who I am.

Then my boyfriend - thank God I have him! - helped me realise that I should not view my blog as an advertisement of what I can do, but rather as a journal of my own crafting journey. He told me to do it for my own pleasure and remain true to myself without stressing about what people might think of me, and that that's what would appeal to those with similar interests as mine.

So, I am starting a new blogging year with a more open mind, and about a thousand of projects to try. As a personal reminder of my proposed agenda for the new year, here are a few of my plans:

1. Learn how to properly use my new camera. I've had it for six months and still cannot make one good picture, unless it's taken outdoors.
2. Stop buying so much fabric and start using what I already have.
3. Get a new cabinet to store all of my fabric, which is currently located in some very unpractical plastic containers.
4. Finally rearrange my studio. We repainted in November, and it still looks like a complete mess in there.
5. Explore new territories for a chance to meet new-to-me bird species.
6. Prepare new flower bed in my backyard and plant bird and butterfly-friendly flowers.
7. Sew a few items of clothing for myself, or at least try, even with no guarantee of the result.
8. Read more classics (currently reading Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë.
9. Get back on the cooking scene now that I can not rely solely on my boyfriend to get all the meals done (although I enjoyed it very much!).
10. Obviously, write more often on my blog and report progress on my plans.

Ok, ten sounds to me like a reasonable number, at least for a start. One of my main problems with posting last year was that whatever project I had accomplished, I never felt like it was worth mentioning to the world. I may have been very proud of myself for sewing a nice little bag, but I thought it looked nothing compared to all the beauties out there in blogland, and so I finally gave up showing any of them. Confidence problem, one would say.

I am still proud of my humble accomplisments, however, and took the resolve not to compare myself to anyone but myself in the coming months. And just to recap what I have been up to when I was so quiet, here are a few, though rather bad (remember I can't use my camera just yet) pictures of some of my little projects of 2009 that did not make it to the blog:









This is it, the "kid" is back from school now. I'll be back shortly with what I am currently working on.

Good week-end to all!