Skirt Update of the Quick and Short Kind

As I'm not going to finish this in time for TGIFF I can post my skirt update just as well tonight. Skirts always look a bit boring on a hanger but please bear with me. I'll try to deliver a "worn" picture as soon as possible.

A few more things need to be done, like sewing down the yoke inside (hence the pins), prettifying the side seam allowances and, of course, hemming by hand. The pockets are all done, though.

Yay, another skirt with pockets - so useful, especially when you're someone who often doesn't know where to put her hands.

Happy sewing!

Layout Fun

Serious progress has been made on the layout front this weekend. First of all I put a lot of squares aside, all the wood and sky themed ones, and focused on the plants and sea creatures.

I sewed up two nine patches, cut them up and got working around the resulting blocks. The gaps will be filled with either a print or a solid but first I need to figure out whether I'd like the centre piece to be really fishy, har har, or surrounded by plants. I'd hoped the pics would help me to figure it out but I'm still not entirely sure. What's your take?

Either way, I'm pleased with the route this is taking and confident to be able to send it off in time for the expected January arrival of my UK-based friends.

With that I'm off to a Sunday dinner with friends. Last time I made two large lasagnas but this time around I'm responsible for dessert and have made a walnut cranberry cake tweaking this recipe by making double the dough and replacing the pecans with walnuts since I couldn't find any pecans on my shopping trip.

Hopefully it'll taste as nice as it looks and smells!


Happy sewing, knitting and a few more wonderful Sunday hours!

You Guessed It - More Knitting

So, after my last post, you've come here expecting to see my shiny new skirt? Maybe even a picture of me actually twirling around in it? Meh, I thought so. Alas, I have to let you down, sewing wasn't on the cards this weekend.

Instead I took up knitting my sister's scarf. The yarn is doing its best to drive me crazy. Well, technically that's not true but I'd rather blame the yarn than my attention span for requiring five attempts to start this thing. I kept on twisting my work when joining it in the round and only realised this after at least two rounds each. Boo. Such a waste of perfectly good time! Anyway, now that my brain the yarn's decided to behave I'm making good progress and am a little stunned how different it looks in these colours.

It's been a while since I played with the grey and blue squares. Originally I'd meant to make a second quilt for my nephew (still cute a s a button, I can assure you) but then life happened - as it does - and I struggled finishing quilt number one so I put the squares aside. However, good friends of mine are expecting their firstborn in January and this imminent arrival of another wee little boy is a great opportunity to finally turn them into something special. So I'm back to playing with the layout.

In not totally unrelated news, my laptop's graphics board is playing up and keeping me offline a lot but I hope that the husband can fix it soon-ish and I'll probably catch up with you during a lunch break or two this week.

Happy sewing and knitting!