Be Still My Heart

Or, More Bang for the Buck

It helps to really hate your carpet, and have hated it for a really, really long time.  When our living room carpet and I first met (twenty years ago), it was a simple case of dislike on my part.  Over the years, dislike grew into antipathy.  Antipathy grew into virulent hatred. 

If it weren’t against laws of both state and common decency, I’d take the carpet we just tore out, throw it into a bonfire in the back yard and dance around it.  Naked. 

You will be spared pictures of that. 

Instead, you get this.  First, my hero, a manly man with power tools.

The first boards down.  Oh, really – be still my heart.  It is love, love, love.

And more love.

Working hard under watchful eyes:

(Are those stair railings a dead giveaway that this house was built in the seventies or what?)

We’re not there yet, but this is making me very very happy.

Why “more bang for the buck”?  I’m thinking there are people that take their wood floors for granted.  Ho hum.  Not me.  Who says you can’t buy love?

Last Days

Of freedom, that is.  The semester officially starts on Tuesday.  My classes begin on Wednesday.  I’ve been doing a lot of work this last week on preparing syllabi and assignments, but I’ve  had a goodly amount of sewing time as well.  Though I can hear the count down . . . Tick-tock!

Still . . .

How about a new Kindle Touch sleeve? 

I wrote up pdf directions for the tutorial on making these that I posted on the blog a few weeks ago.  You can get it for free over at PatternSpot. 

I made up a couple more sleeves as well.  Like this:

Pretty fabric and a vintage button.  I made two of these, so at least one of them is headed over to the Etsy shop.

And, hey!  I sold a Kindle Touch sleeve!  My first sale!  For all I know it might be my only sale.  Still, very exciting.  And here it is a Sunday, with a federal holiday tomorrow.  I was all set to show what a good Etsy provider I would be by rushing over to the post office to get it in the mail – alas, it will have to wait till Tuesday morning. 

And now that I’ve spent the better part of the day sewing up the sleeve, taking pictures, and writing up the new set of directions, I do believe it is time for me to get back to finishing up those syllabi. 

Whew!

Whew!

Once again stocked with fusible fleece – meltdown averted.  Due thanks to Hobby Lobby and 40% off coupons. And aren’t they just perfectly ghastly?

I think this has to be one of the best fabric lines ever.  Now here it is, my latest iPad 2 sleeve.  Like I mentioned in another post, I don’t even own an iPad, though I’m warming up to the idea, and when I get one, the Ghastlies might just be the cover I need.  In fact, I see a new Kindle cover in my future.  Meanwhile, here’s more of the iPad version.  From the inside:

For those of you getting tired of my posting things that are going in the Daisy Fair Etsy shop, not to worry – the semester starts next week, so my fool around sewing time is going to take a major hit.  (It always does – alas).  But meanwhile, here it is, in all its ghastly glory – my newest addition to the shop.

And, I’m pleased to say, I’ve added three rows to my Asian Pyramids, so progress is being made.  Yeah, me!

The 11 Project Progress Plan

Doesn’t that sound official?  Downright corporate.  But it’s only just us – us being my Kindred Spirits quilt group (or whatever we are calling ourselves these days – Quiltie Buddies Extraordinaire).

So, here’s the deal: since we all have a few (ahem) unfinished projects stuffed here and there, we decided on a plan to work on them this coming year.  We each made a list of 11 projects, making sure to number them.  At the first meeting of the month, we pull a number at random.  That’s the project we work on some during the month.

We’re a user friendly bunch.  You don’t have to finish the project.  You can work on other projects, too.  (Well, of course).  Just  a little progress.  That’s the plan.

The number for January?  #9

For me, that is the Asian Pyramid Triangles, a project I worked on with a friend quite a while ago.  Last year this time, perhaps?  In any case, Vickie, who is approximately a gazillion times more efficient than I am, finished hers.  I got the top assembled as far as you see in the photo above.  But I also had these bits ready to go.

And these:

So, more rows to the top.  That’s the plan.

Meanwhile, I made up another iPad 2 sleeve using the pattern I posted over on Pattern Spot.  I posted it in my Etsy Shop.  I’m really impressed with how the button for closing the flap lined up with the circles on the fabric – pure serendipity.

And because I love making these (and I don’t even own an iPad!), I’ve got another ready to make up.  Because who doesn’t love the Ghastlies?

I’m getting held up because I am out of fusible fleece.

Really.  This is unheard of. 

Our local Joann’s is moving to a bigger store – and I’m all for that.  But it’s meant months of them not having anything left in stock (as they went into clearance mode months ago).  I really underestimated how much of certain things I would need.  Which leaves me out of my favorite linen and out of fusible fleece.

I could drive to the next town over and visit their JoAnn’s.  In fact, I know I’m going to have to.  Meanwhile?  I’m just whining.

But it’s not like I don’t have anything to do in my sewing room, right?  I mean, there is the 11 Project Progess Plan!

Tally Ho!

I did it.  I finally put together an Etsy shop – Daisy Fair.  I have NO idea how that is going to go, so it’s a bit of an adventure.  (I live a quiet life.  It qualifies as an adventure for me). 

What’s in it?  Well, for starters, some of those Kindle Sleeve covers I got addicted to making over break (still there on that).

Then I made up some more linen bookmarks – vintage  lace and vintage buttons:

Also in hot red:

Some with pictures:

A little about the shop name –

One of my absolute favorite books is Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald.  LOVE this book.  A little bit of perfection.  In it, our lovely young heroine, Daisy Saunders, meets our loveable young hero, Fred Fairly.  Daisy Fair.  Also, the name conjures up hints of a Renaissance fair – I see potters and wood carvers; I hear wooden flutes; I’m pretty sure there are jugglers.  And fire eaters.  In my  imagination, I’m almost certainly twenty years younger and twenty pounds lighter.  So, there it is. 

Because we all can use a little magic in the air.

What’s Next?

That’s a quote from one of my favorite West Wing episodes, but it seems a good thought for the day, looking forward to this new year. 

So, first off, I have a new pattern for sale at PatternSpot.  Jeff wanted me to make a case for his iPad 2, so that came first.

With a front pocket to hold his stylus.

I really liked it and decided it could be pretty, too.  With a little GO! applique – because, why  not?

And, as I look at the coming year, well . . . I have plans, which, as Jennifer Cruise says on her wonderful blog Argh Ink, are far better than goals. 

And I have quilt groups to help me out because my groups have plans, too.

In one group, there’s the 11 Project Progess Plan.  Of course, there are twelve months in a year, but we considered it and said, “December?  Really?  Let’s be serious.”   So 11 it is.  More on that later.

That same quilt group has declared this the year of the pineapple, so we’re each going to make a quiltie pineapple something.  It could be big.  It could be little.  It could be several pineapple projects or just one.  (I’m thinking if I make up a pineapple pincushion over break here I can slide through the rest of the year and not do any more pineapples unless I’m really inspired).

Another quilt group is starting up a block of the month sampler.  Here’s my first block:

It’s a good thing this first block had that ever so forgiving outer border.  After making up a bunch of little projects where absolute accuracy isn’t a concern, it’s always a bit of a shocker when I come back to precision piecing.  Which, as I think of it, is exactly what I was writing one year ago.  Points for consistency?

And my plan for this week?  To have an Etsy shop up and running by the end of the week.  We’ll see . . .

Meanwhile, I hope you are all enjoying a good start to the New Year – be it with goals, plans, or crossed fingers hopin’ and wishin’.