Well, it is February 28, the last day of the month, so I guess it is time to admit share my sewing wrap-up for the month. This month's sewing wrap-up is, well, humbling.
After a very successful January, I went into February with an ambitious plan for the month. We had a busy January, with a wedding and a new granddaughter being born, and February was a blank page with almost nothing planned. Of course I was going to get a ton done!
So, my February plans:
With the ONE line item checked off! Lol!!
February did not end up being the relaxed, unscheduled month that I expected. My husband and I ended up out of town three out of the four February weekends, and weekends are my time to catch up. The travelling was all for good reasons, and I am so glad we could do it, but it shortened the time I had available for sewing. So here is how that played out:
First off, February was going to be the month that I finally tackled jeans. I have fabric in my stash and plans in my head for the ultimate pair of jeans, and I can't find them out in the world so I am going to learn to make them! I had it planned out to work on a muslin, or more than one if needed, and had shortlisted 5 possible patterns. Then, I was going to use some blue denim that I also have in my stash to practise before moving on to using a special striped twill to make the ultimate pair (that was going to happen in March). But that didn't happen.
Next is the Knitted Blooms Quilt x 2. I'm giving myself a pass on that one. I joined the Knitted Blooms quilt along with Lo and Behold Stitchery, and although I am not quite on schedule, I have started all three versions (yes... not two, but three instead). The quilt along goes until April 8, so I hadn't planned to finish that this month. I would have checked it off if I had been on schedule at the end of the month, but I'm hoping to be caught up by the end of next week. :)
I am working on Week Two's task, which is these cute little blooms, shown here on the quilt I'm making for my new granddaughter:
This photo shows the texture of Kona Natural Crush quite well - a new-ish collection from the makers of Kona. It is slightly thicker than regular Kona and has this really lovely wrinkled texture that doesn't iron or wash out. A whole quilt in it is going to have the most beautiful look to it! This quilt is for my granddaughter's first birthday - so even though I'm running slightly behind on it, I still have lots of times to finish this before I am ACTUALLY late. :)
Moving on to G & C's wedding quilt. This is the Wedding Guestbook quilt for my son Graydon and his wife Christina (who works at Piece Fabric Co!). They got married in January and are being very patient with me, but I still would like to finish it quickly for them to enjoy. I shared a blog post last year about a similar quilt I made for my niece, you can read that HERE.
This one is similar in that it has larger blocks that were signed by guests and nine patch blocks that I am still working on.
After making a few blocks WITHOUT pinning every seam, I was quite unhappy with my accuracy and went back to my tried and true method of getting seams to line up perfectly - pinning both sides of every single intersection. Tedious? yes. Perfect corners? yes, so worth it! And yes, I press seams open, not to the side and I refuse to change, lol, so don't tell me that I should press to the side so that the seams fit together. I've tried it and I don't like it!
The ONE line item checked off is my grandkids' Valentine's Day outfits. Done and done and done:
Made with Fableism Queen of Hearts, I used the Fibremood Pixel Trousers pattern, the Itty Bitty Baby Dress from Made by Rae (modified at the shoulders to use buttons instead of ties), and purchased shirts from Mini Mioche (a Canadian company with wonderful organic cotton options for kids) and added an appliqued heart to the front!
And finally... the Classic Dress shirt, also not finished. I joined The Capsule Course from Modern Sewing Co. and will learn to make a dress shirt, a pair of trousers, and a jacket over three months. I am well on my way with the Classic Dress shirt, which was February's task, and need just a few more hours to finish it. It's another project that I think will be caught up by the end of next week. Photos coming soon.
Actually, this delay in schedule may turn out to my benefit, as the skills I learn while making the trousers next month should help me with my planned jean projects. Procrastination wins again!
So, how do I handle all of these unstarted/unfinished projects? Add them to March, of course! March was supposed to look like this:
With a gift quilt for someone (sorry, you don't get to know who), a Merchant & Mills/Paynter jacket for myself (my husband has asked for one, and I'd like to test the pattern first - not the sizing obviously, just the techniques), and the aforementioned striped twill pants.
So, with shifting a few things from February to March, and a couple from March to April, I'm now looking at March like this:
It IS ambitious again, but once again, it looks like March will be less scheduled. Priorities will be the quilts and Modern Sewing Co. trousers. Come back in a month to see how unrealistic this plan was!
Alright, dear friends, enough with this writing assignment. I'm going to go spend my time where I should actually be spending it - doing a credit card reconciliation. Sigh. I bet you thought I was going to say sewing, didn't you!?
Have a great March!
Kendra