I dropped off my things this morning.

Here is my Christmas Apron

The Christmas table runner and gathered pillow:

Baby Blanket that I made yesterday:

Patterned on one side and solid on the other:

Baby bib:

Diaper Bag:

Half Apron:

Full apron:

As a student with IU, we get some good software. It’s almost worth it just to take a class to get all the perks- such as software and training. I am also taking an online  tutorial class through Lynda.com given by Chris Orwig. Here are some below and afters of the making of a birthday card on Sunday.

B:

A:

B: A:

I made one last year with the help of Soni, so I thought I could do another one by myself.

Not too bad, although I little boring.

It started with yesterday. I don’t normally take a day off work, but we haven’t really had a vacation in a long time and I was getting close to hitting the max of 200 hours accumulated, so I decided to take Friday off.

I finally made an appointment to get my eye brows done. I had been wanting to get them done for years, but was too chicken to do because they were in such bad shape (no pun intended). I went to FaceWorks, who specializes in skin care. I went to a “salon” back in high school, but didn’t feel like they knew what they were doing. I’ll post more on this later, but I am pleased.

Benjamin and I went out to lunch. I did some prep work for sewing.

We went to Fleet Feet to pick up my race packet for today and stopped at Smoothie King. We also went to the Mall and we tried to go to PF Changs, but the wait was over an hour and a half. We went to Pita Pit instead and had a fun time.

Benjamin let me open my birthday present a day early- it’s the laptop I’m typing on. I spent a lot of today getting it set up.

We also watched Kinky Boots on Netflix.

This morning started at 6:00am with my pre-race bagel. It was raining, but it was cool. The race started at 8 and by 9, we were done and back in the car. I was pleased with how we did. Lynn and I hadn’t really been training or running in this weather, so we finished in just over 44 minutes, for 4 miles so at an 11 minute mile. We stopped to walk 2 or 3 times.

Benjamin had not been feeling well, since Tuesday. He went to the Minute Clinic this afternoon and they said Strep!! Yuck! I am so glad that I have tried to stay away from his germs! Antibiotics should clear it up in 2 days.

I did some sewing on the Christmas apron.

We went to my mom’s house for dinner, cake, and ice cream.

I got a cute Fossil purse from her! Thanks Mom!

And handmade, so somewhat expensive- but considering they are handmade, it just takes a lot of time to make them.

I saw this tutorial from Skip to my Lou the other day, and I want to try to make one sometime.

I have been bookmarking a lot of things that I want to make when 1) summer school is over and 2) after the entries for the state fair are due.

I haven’t made anything since the pillow- and I still need to hand stitch the bottom closed!!

1) One Hour bag: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2010/07/how-to_one_hour_bag.html

2)  Box pleat pillows: http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-box-pleat-throw-pillows/2010/07/22/

Here is the latest project for the KY State Fair. It’s for the “Holiday Pillow” category.

Entries are due in less than 3 weeks. I only have 3 done so far!

It’s the Christmas fabric that I washed and ironed over the weekend.

Here was the project idea from Joann’s website.

But I find ironing fabric kind of relaxing. The fabric is a wrinkled mess when I begin. I can easily see progress as I go along and I am satisfied when I am done. Why on earth would I not like that?!? I don’t like to iron clothes as much as fabric, but I have found myself ironing t-shirts lately that I wouldn’t have normally ironed- just so that I can use my Rowenta. I also moved the ironing board and iron from the basement dungeon to the extra bedroom upstairs- which is so much easier and quicker to get to- so I guess that’s another reason why I iron more now. And also, it’s a good time to think and reflect. I’ve got a lot of things going on right now, so it was good to just have some quick time to think about what’s going on and what’s important to me and my family.

Back to my ironing- you’ll see a Christmas fabric. It’s a sneak peak at some upcoming sewing projects for the KY State Fair. The plan is to make an apron out of that fabric, and maybe a pillow.

I told her a had some fabric already, but would get more if she wanted something else. I went out last night and found another set. So here it what I have, but I want to go to Jo Ann’s today, because they have it on sale and they also are having a college discount day!! Yay!!

This apron project was from a sewing kit that I got for Christmas. It had 4 patterns and includes fabric to complete 2 of the projects.  The other projects are a pillow, mini wall quilt, and messenger bag.

I started cutting the fabric on Saturday evening. That always takes forever and there is always an “uh- ho” or an “oops” during the cutting process. I came up an half an inch short on one of the sides.

I woke up kind of late Sunday morning, but started working on it pretty quickly. England was playing Germany in the world cup, so I brought the laptop into the room I was ironing in. Ironing is another step (or multiple steps) in the sewing process. It really helps when you press things to start and also before you sew a seam.

The first part included doing something that I’ve never done before- basting and gathering. Basically, you sew a light seam, and then you grab and lightly yank one of the threads and it gathers on the front. I had to do 4 pieces like that- by the end, I was a pro.

Then I had to sew the ruffles (the pieces that were gathered) to flat pieces. The instructions were awful and I had to redo a few things!  There were 4 ruffles:

The next part was the most confusing. Again, the instructions were awful!!!  I finally figured out it by just guessing and playing around with it.

I finally put the back on it and the top with the ties. Then I had to HAND SEW the back seam closed. It ended up pretty nice.

Front

Back

Under the ruffle

Modeling it