Wedding extravaganza

Right now I am procrastinating. In less than a month, my sister is getting married. So far, I have sewn two bridesmaid dresses, a jacket for the bride, a fabric flower for her hair, a wedding quilt (99% complete), little cakes for her shower and have done countless other "maid of honor" duties. Don't get me wrong, I offered to make all of these things and am happy to do it, but it is consuming my sewing/craft life. I am currently procrastinating on making her purse.

See, this is the problem with being crafty... Your sister says, "I really want a green jacket but I can't find exactly what I want" and you say, "I can make that!" You can look at something and think, "if I made that, it would be cheaper... and the right color!" and this is why I am currently working on a purse pattern for a green purse with fabric flowers on it.

Unfortunately, I have not taken a picture of a single project, but I'm sure I'll have some after the wedding :) I still need to write my speech too! I think this wedding is more stressful than my own wedding was!! But I am having fun providing my sister with what she is envisioning in her head and not with what she has to settle for because what she wants doesn't exist. Though we don't like to admit it, every woman wants to feel like a princess sometimes, and my sister's wedding day is good excuse for those of us around that her to make it happen.

So my ability to work on UFOs (which desperately need to be attended to) or bedding and pillows for our unfinished guest room, or even the quilting on two quilt tops I've had finished for over a year will have to wait... at least another month. As for helping my neighbor learn how to quilt, that will have to wait too. I'm sure she'll understand.

I do however have a good first few ideas. Martha Stewart had a pillow pattern in her sewing encyclopedia to create this design on a pillow. This might seem a little complicated for a novice sewer, but I think having the ability to finish just one block and then being able to use it is quite rewarding. I started with an entire friendship quilt, but I had someone pushing me every step of the way, even when she wasn't there anymore... I think this pillow will be a good first project.

Next time, more wedding craftapalooza and sewing lessons for the noobs.

teaching??

My husband and I purchased a house in Late October of last year. With the winter, all of our neighbors were in hiding from the snow and cold. Recently, Spring has come out to greet us and the neighborhood is back in full swing.

Yesterday, our neighbors were having a cookout and invited us over to spend some time. Sitting there, my one neighbor noticed my new tattoo (pictures to come) and commented how much she liked it. My tattoo is a bird (sailor jerry style) holding a piece of thread with a needle on it and the spool falling down. I thanked her and then she asked if I sew. I said I did and then she asked what I sew. Well, this is somewhat of a difficult question to answer, since I do a lot of sewing, but said that I am currently really into quilting, which is true.

My neighbor got very excited and said, "I would love to learn how to quilt. Could you show me?" I said I could. Only twice have I shown someone how to sew. The first was my sister and she tried it once and gave up. The second was my husband who, after the lesson, stated "this is more difficult than it seems." Sewing seems like such an easy task to me since I have been doing it since I was 10... Which makes me wonder if it's me who can't teach?

Oddly enough, my job requires me to teach adults how to use computer software and then re-teach them when they've forgotten something. I seem to do that well since I have many clients tell me how much they appreciate me. So what am I doing wrong when it comes to sewing? Something I hold so dear to my heart?

I think in the next couple of weeks I am going to re-evaluate my past "sewing lessons" and see if I can't come up with a program I could give my neighbor to help her learn how to sew and learn to love it as much as I do.

Almost a Year has passed

Wow... time flies!

It has been almost a year since my last post and so much has changed! First off, I have a new job that I LOVE... which doesn't leave me time during the day to blog (I'm currently at lunch). My husband and I bought a house in October and have been painting and fixing things all winter! My sister is getting married in May and so I am working on a wedding quilt as well as bridesmaids dresses... along with shower gifts, wedding jacket, wedding purse etc... Crazy but I want to do it all!!

I also finished her cross stitch. It took me a year and a month but it's DONE... so I have to post pics of that as well. Life has been good and I love my new sewing space! So I guess I need to take pics of what I have been up to and make time to post a little more frequently.

Due to spring weather coming, I think I want to make some cotton skirts and start dressing a little girlier!

Stay tuned!