On January 1st of this year, I made a few resolutions to myself. In addition to the typical stuff...try to yell less, eat better, sleep more and lose 20 pounds...I included several goals to learn a few new things...crafty things: sewing and knitting. I vowed, by the end of the year, I would a) make a quilt b) learn to knit and make both my girls a scarf for winter.
Well, it's the end of September and as of the beginning of this month, I have begun the process of completing both...much to my surprise and pride. I never meet all my resolutions, of course. But these two goals were important to me. Last Christmas my family bought me a sewing machine. In the months since I got it, I have turned it on ONE time. Shameful. It's not that I didn't want to. I've looked a patterns for projects, bought fabric, etc. But every time I thought of sitting down at the machine to "make" something I was griped with fear. On the knitting, a friend of mine tried to teach me last year, and I made an attempt, fruitfully, at making a scarf. Didn't work out so well. So, I resolved myself to do the proper thing one should do when they desire to learn something new...take a class!
And that's what I did and am doing. I took my first knitting class a month ago. I learned quickly and am well on my way of working on the first scarf, for Sarah. I will take another class to learn how to finish it off and expand my skills soon. Last week, I took my first quilting class. Boy was it both fun and very, very imtimidating. I will say now that sewing, in general, is not as easy as one would think, and for sure, making a quilt, is VERY MUCH not something that you can just sit down and do. I learned alot in the class. Mostly I learned that if I had sat down to try and do this on my own I wouldn't haven't gotten very far.
So, that's what I'm up to...attempting to expand my knowledge, skill set and aspirations to make things myself. I'll keep you posted on how it's going. Here's some shots of my progress so far!
Here's me cutting the strips for the small quilt I'm making. I went with vintage styled prints, 1930s prints. Cutting EXACT is crucial in making a good quilt. It's WAY harder than you'd think, even with the nifty gadgets available to speed up the process, especially for a math illierate like myself!
Here's the fabric choices I made in more detail. Love these!
Here's the pattern for the quilt we are making in my class. Though I could have opted to make this larger, I stuck with a wall hanging size just to get my feet wet. I made a slight change to my quilt and will have the stars on the center of the quilt each be a different fabric instead of just alternating between two.
This is my new little gift to myself for starting my sewing hobby. I saw a girl in my class with a bag like this. It is the coolest idea...basically the part you see on the table is a weighted pin cushion that holds the bag in place. The bag is meant for scrap thread and pieces. There is also a little pocket to hold your snipping scissors. After just cutting a few strips of quilt fabric, I quickly saw what an ingenious idea this is...I was covered in little pieces of thread and fabric at the end of my class. Not any more! I got mine at the Etsy shop Nstitches4u.
Here's the scarf I'm working on. It's slow going for sure, but the fact that I am actually making it is very fulfilling. This one is for Sarah (it started out for me until I realized that making an adult scarf for a beginner takes ALOT of time, lol). She would have rather had some brighter color, but she's making do with this. I do love this yarn though and it will look cute on her for the cool weather.
