Yes, nearly a finish!

At the beginning of March I set myself the goal of finishing off half of the blocks on Wonky Wheels.  I am happy to say that this moth I have over achieved.  I finished all the blocks, made some sashing and look, I've only 2 seams to finish and I'm done the flimsy.

It's amazing what you can do when there are no ice storms, snow days and contractors in the house.  I feel much better about the failure that was February now.

I'm feeling generally hopeful all round at the moment.  The big piles of ice on the boulevard at the end of the driveway have nearly melted, the red winged blackbirds are shirring away and I can walk to school without snow boots.  It feels great to wear sneakers again.

I can't wait to get back in the garden.  I've an enormous bag of garden soil being delivered next week.  So far I've just got these teeny tomato seedlings to plant in it so I'd better get my act together and get some more stuff started.

Linking up to Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - March Finish Link-up.

Happy Spring,
Kirstin

March Monthly Goal

February saw my first failure to make my monthly goal.  I'm putting it down to the weather and the short month but if I'm honest there was a certain amount of enthusiasm lacking too.  I've caught up a little now, have just got hand sewing and hemming to do to finish my jacket and I went out yesterday and bought the fabric to finish Wonky Wheels.  Here it is.

And so to my goal for March.  I am going to stiffen my resolve and get the final outer layer done on half of my Wonky Wheels blocks, that's 10.  This is ambitious, especially given last month's efforts (or lack thereof) but I am hoping the fact that I already have the materials and have only set myself one goal will help me achieve it.

Linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal March Link-up.

Happy Sewing everyone
Kirstin

Goals for February

I have quite a lot of things I'd like to achieve this month so I'm going to list all of them then prioritise a couple for my monthly goal.  But first...

In the last couple of days when all my January goals were finished I made a shirt and a scarf.

I'd had the fabric for the shirt since Fall but hadn't got around to it.  I used McCall's M7331 by Nancy Zieman, I've already made the pull on pencil skirt from this pattern and both the skirt and the top came together with minimal faffing about, in fact I can't believe it took me so long and I'll more than likely use the pattern again.

The scarf is for Rose, inspired by an idea in Lotta Jansdotter's book "Everyday Style" and made with leftover fabric from the cosmetics purses I made as favours for her party last October.  It's a little stiff but wearing it and a trip through the washing machine will probably see to that.

So here is what I would like to achieve this month (not all of it is sewing)

• Clear out and organise the pantry
• Put the basement back together after the renovations
• Make something that I can put in my Etsy shop
• Choose fabric to set the Wonky Wheels blocks
• Figure out a layout for Wonky Wheels blocks
• Make myself a jacket
• Dye some old bath towels, cut them up, bind them and re-purpose them as hand towels for the kitchen

I don't think all this will be fitted around daily life so I will choose 2 as my February goals, then at least I'll get something done and anything else is a bonus.

So without further ado, my February goals of the month are ...

1. Choose the fabric and figure out a layout for Wonky Wheels, thus getting one step further down the path of UFO busting
2. Make myself a jacket

Now I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal February Link-up and going to and see what everybody else is up to.

Happy sewing,

Kirstin

OMG finish, sort of.

I am happy to say that I have completed both my goals for this month, sort of, see what you think.

First off I made the final 5 basic blocks for my Wonky Wheels UFO.  Here they are.

That makes 20, now I need to find 1 or 2 background fabrics to build up the blocks in order to make the flimsy.

That is a definite completed goal.

At the beginning of January I also set myself the challenge of making a sleeveless winter dress to wear over a turtleneck.  This is the photo showing the pattern and fabric from my goal setting post.

This is my finished dress.  Many apologies for the terrible photo, I was only allowed 1 shot as my daughter had to get back to whatever socialising she was doing and wouldn't come back so I could try to look less cross and tired.

As you can see, right dress, wrong fabric.  What happened?

In short, when I made up the muslin I decided that sleeveless really doesn't suit me and the sleeves on this pattern come in 2 halves with a seam right down the middle that I didn't think would work with the thicker winter fabric I'd chosen.  Fortunately I had this slightly stretchy, cotton in my stash that I never got around to making into a skirt last year, I'm really happy with the result but does it count as my goal finished?  You decide.

I made quite a few alterations in order for it to fit me properly so for anyone who's interested and for my own reference here's what I did.

1. I cut the pattern for size 14 at the chest and 16 at the hips.
2. I decided not to have a seam down the front so I cut the fabric pieces on a fold allowing for the 5/8 inch seam allowance.
3. I shortened it at the waist by 2 inches when I copied the pattern, then a further inch after I tried on the muslin.
4. I altered the bodice to adjust for my 'hollow chest' (thanks Vogue Pattern's fitting guide, that term is really good for my self esteem) by pinning out excess fabric across the chest from arm hole to arm hole and adjusting the pattern accordingly.
5. I also made the curve in the side of the hips more gradual as it looked a bit lumpy on the muslin.

I am really pleased with how the fit has turned out and might make another but I shall wait until summer and see how it wears first.  I'm also thinking that I can create a well fitting basic princess line pattern by cutting the muslin up.  All in all, it's an easy pattern to follow with only 6 pattern pieces and I think I'm going to use it again.

That's all folks. Tuning into Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal - January Finish Link-up.

An Apron, a Onsie and a January Goal

And a Happy New Year to everyone, may it bring you happiness, peace and good health.

I cannot believe that I totally missed the Elm Street Quilts, One Monthly Goal end of December linky party.  Honestly, December was completely bonkers here.  Since I last posted we have had the basement framed out and insulated and Christmas has been successfully completed which all the ladies out there reading will know does not just happen by magic.

I even quilted and bound Whoo Hoo and sent it to England where it actually arrived on time.

Because it is for 2 small boys I added flaps in the corners for making it into a fort.

And hooks for guy ropes for constructing shelters and play tents in the summer.

Anyway, if its OK I'm posting my finish for Elm Street Quilts as well as my January Goal, just to show off.  Here is Jacob's baking apron, finished in time for Christmas Day.

He doesn't look very happy with the modelling job does he!  Oh well, I'm happy with the apron outcome and it will keep him clean while he's making a mess with his new mugcakes from scratch recipe book which came with it.  The pattern is by Martha Stewart, I have it in her Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts book but you can also find it online here.  I made it about 4 inches longer than the paper pattern to accommodate my 6 foot son, it came together easily and I like the adjustable neck strap.

I also found time to make Rose a new Onsie, she has 2 others but the pink cat has got a bit short and very ratty so enter the snow leopard.

I'm definitely very pleased with this result.  I used Kwik Sew K2704 and added the tummy and ears, this is a size large with 2 inches length added to the body.

And so to my goal for January.  I've been um-ing and ah-ing over this one as I'm not sure what and how much to set myself, it's easy to be over enthusiastic in the New Year and I don't want to set myself up for a fail in the first month.

So I've decided to go with finishing off the basic blocks for my Wonky Wheels quilt.  This is what I have so far.

I am thinking about making another 5 so I have 20 blocks, that should be doable.

I'd also like to add this dress.  I've had both the pattern and the fabric for over a year so it would be good to get on and sort that out.

It's a very basic pattern with bust darts on the front and a zipper and darts at the back.  I'm thinking of making view A and wearing it with a turtle neck.  If I can make it fit just right I think it will be a really useful pattern.

So here I am linking up to Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal January Link-up.

Whoo Hoo quilt back and an Apron

Today I have a  Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts and my December goal for One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts.

Firstly, Whoo Hoo train quilt is my Finished or not Friday.  Remember the puffs of steam shown on my goal setting post here that disappeared?  I didn't want to waste them so I have sewn them into stepping stones on the back which is now finished.  My dining room was the only place light enough for a photograph today so I may have just invented a quilted tablecloth with built in runner!

It is all sandwiched up (you can probably see the pins if you look closely) and my binding is pressed and ready so although I am not quite finished I hope to be by next Friday.

My One Monthly Goal for December requires a little back story.

I have recently embarked on a campaign to teach my 14 year old son some useful life skills.  He is very intelligent but has no common sense at all and although a good working knowledge of calculus and multiple programming languages may help get him into a good university it will not keep him well fed with clean clothes.  Honestly, I love him to bits but some day I'd like him to become an independent person and not live in my house anymore.  Here he is with my daughter on the night of his middle school graduation.

Since the summer I have taught him how to do his own laundry (which he does each week) and vacuum his own room (which he does when he can find the floor under all the unsorted laundry) and I have begun teaching him the rudiments of feeding himself.

We have started with learning how to read the instructions on a packet of instant food and so I have introduced him to 1 portion microwave mug cakes.  There are many varieties out there so every time he tries a new one he has to correctly interpret the instructions, this has worked really well because he enjoys eating them.  Here's what he has learnt so far:

• Microwaves come in different sizes and powers
• There is a difference between tablespoons and teaspoons
• It helps to read the instructions properly before you start
• Size matters when it comes to mug capacity
• Metal does not go in the microwave

Now he has got the hang of packet mixes we will progress to making mug cakes from real ingredients.  To celebrate his new skills and help keep him clean I am going to make him a nice new apron for Christmas, this Martha Stewart pattern is my goal for December.

Linking up with Finished or Not Friday at Busy Hands Quilts and Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal December Linkup. at Elm Street Quilts.

Garage Miscellany

Last week I cleared out the garage.  I put all of my gardening equipment in a big plastic deck seat/box, relegated outdoor toys to tubs outside the backdoor and stowed away the fold-able deckchairs in the cold room.  There was an alarmingly large collection of never used cleaning products (mainly speciality stuff that had been left by the previous owners) that went to the dump and quite a lot of odds and ends of timber which was donated to the next door neighbours, I hope they find it more useful than I did.

All that left was bikes.  Gary has reclaimed Jacob's bike because he never uses it and today we donated mine and Rose's old one to Recycle Cycles, a community project in downtown Kitchener.

I now have a weirdly empty garage.

While I was clearing out I discovered that we had managed to collect a whole load of car window cleaning implements:

• 4 snow brushes (1 broken)
• 3 squeegees (that spelling looks really weird)
• 5 ice scrapers

We only have one car.

Again I ask ask how does all this stuff creep up on you, I know we used to have 2 cars but still that's an implement to clean each window on each car.

In order to put a picture into this post I am now going to share a quilting innovation...

Can you guess what these are for?  All will be revealed on Friday, or whenever I get my quilt sandwich finished.

Whoo Hoo

I really actually feel like I need a whoop whoop for this one.  At the beginning of this month I discovered the great One Monthly Goal linky party at Elm Street Quilts.  The timing was apt because I'd just got my dreaded box of UFOs out of the basement, sorted through them and decided to make myself accountable for actually finishing a few.

I chose to set the goal of finishing a scrap quilt top that I began making for my nephews around 4 years ago and despite having been super busy clearing out the basement and the garage and fitting sewing sessions in between child minding and trips to the thrift store and garbage dump I have done it.  Here it is, I am really pleased with how it's looking.

Anyone who saw the previous post will notice that the design has undergone a bit of a change, before there were puffs of smoke where now there are trees.  Basically I decided that the smoke was too hard (sad I know) but also I remembered another UFO lurking at the bottom of the box and decided to kill two birds with one stone.  I deconstructed this even older project

I made these trees around six years ago, I think they were inspired by this Anna Maria Horner 'Feather Bed' pattern.  I'm very happy with how they turned out as background, I like the feeling of the deep, dark woods that they give, maybe there's a Gruffalo in there.  Also the train has changed direction!  This is because when I looked at the pictures of the design my kids originally came up with it was this way around.

I used lots of fairly haphazard techniques for the different blocks.  The train is appliqued with blanket stitch, mostly by machine with a bit of handwork.  The sleepers are strips that were sewn together then sliced length ways and flipped with the background inserted to represent the tracks.

So what of the smoke puffs?  Never fear, I think I will use them on the back for a stepping stone type effect.  I'm thinking something like this.

I'm really hoping to get the back finished over the weekend and the whole thing quilted and bound by next Friday.  If I do I can get it in the mail and with a lot of luck it may reach England in time for Christmas.  Fingers and toes crossed for that one.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict and One Monthly Goal (OMG) at Elm Street Quilts.

One Finished Top and a UFO Inventory

If you read any other posts on this blog you will notice that there isn't a whole lot of sewing going on.  This is because Mrs Parker's Blog is a motivational exercise for me as I try to clear out my house.  So far it's working quite well.  I post twice a week; on Tuesdays and Fridays and for each post I must have cleared out and organised something (be it big or small) in my house.

Today's organisational challenge is my big box of UFOs.  I have decided to get them all out, post them here and set myself a time limit for finishing them, so here goes.

Here is a top I finished around 5 years ago and this is my Finish it up Friday.  It's made from a batik jelly roll I bought because I loved the earthiness of the colour pallet and is supposed to be a sort of abstract representation of satellite images of Southern Ontario that you can see on Google Maps, the black lines are roads, small green blocks are wood lots and the strips are fields.

The reason I never got further than this (apart from laziness and lack of staying power) is that I couldn't decide whether to put a border round it or not.  I had the idea to use a mitred border to almost make it look like a framed map on a wall, I even made the fabric pieces for the frame.  If I do that it will look something like this...

So what do you think?  I am still really not sure what would look best and would be very grateful for any feedback.

My next UFO is actually leftovers from another quilt, you can see the original one in this post from The Parkers Abroad.  It is based on Elizabeth Hartman's Xylophone quilt pattern in her book A Modern Patchwork.  I totally over estimated the fabric I would need for my xylophones and ended up with all these strips to use up.  I'm pretty happy with them and I love the happy yellows but I've not found a background I like yet.

Third is this scrap quilt I started for my nephews, I'd better get on with it or they will receive it when they're teenagers and not be impressed.  The train blocks were designed all over the floor by Jacob and Rose one day when I left my scrap box out.  This quilt is my One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts, my goal is to finish the top by the end of November.

And finally, this is my most recently started quilt, I blogged about it here.  It is also inspired by an Elizabeth Hartman design, Bird Bath, from A Practical Guide to Patchwork.

So now I just have to get on with finishing them all up.  I am going to see if I can motivate myself to finish some aspect ready for Finish it up Friday each month.  My aim for November is to have the scrap quilt top done.  If my 'proper' sewing machine is back from its spa break I would like to have the whole thing completed so I can post it off to England in time for Christmas but that might be a little ambitious.

So now I'm all done I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts , Can I get a Whoop Whoop and One Monthly Goal then I'd better get sewing!