http://facebook.com/lindsaykatherinebags

Sprocket Pillow

Sprocket Pillows have been popping up everywhere on the sewing blogs I read lately. I have a ton of scraps around that I've been wanting to use together but didn't know what to make with them. But after seeing the different versions of this pillow I couldn't resist:

The white with purple leaves, the middle border, and the backing are from remnants I found at WalMart last night.

The blue is from a fat quarter I got at JoAnns the first week I got my sewing machine.

The sparkly pink is actually a cotton jersey (which yes, was not all sunshine and rainbows to work with when mixed with such crisp, pressable cottons...but it was screaming to be included in this) and it's a remnant from a yard I couldn't resist buying awhile back and am in the middle of making a shirt from.

The dark purple rose print is leftover from the Pseudo-Amish-Quilt I made for a class project last semester.

I absolutely love the backing fabric. Occasionally WalMart has good prints, but unfortunately the one WalMart here I could count on for a small, if not very good, fabric selection is cutting it all back and there was only a 5/8 of a yard scrap left of this print.

You can find the free tutorial for this pillow at Cluck Cluck Sew.

Easter is Sunday and it's the first weekend day I've had off of work since Christmas/New Years weekends, and before then... since last summer before I started this job. Much needed. I'll actually get to go out Saturday night with friends and act like a young adult. An oddity in my world.

My mother mailed Alex and I some Easter goodies. And of course she couldn't forget her grandbabies. Hiroki annihilated most of his within an hour or two. He usually saves some of the end for the next day.

And even though it's too dark to take pictures outside right now... I can still share that my tomato plants have two decent sized tomatoes on them at the moment. One is probably the size of a golf ball, the other a bit bigger. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of tomatoes, I love watching my apartment-garden grow.

A project of a different kind...

These past few weeks I've been working on a project at work. The end result is that we opened an entirely new section of our store at the flea market, a t-shirt shop with custom and plain t-shirts of every color and size. And an e-bay store to go along with it.

Not the best photo, as it's a hurriedly snapped picture from my boss' iPhone, but the general idea of things. Instead of having the heat press and t-shirts stored in my vinyl shop (we make decals and custom license plates, yard signs and banners... etc) now it has its own home in a little closed off cubicle. And obnoxiously bright signage for all sides.

Yesterday we got in our last shipment of shirts to fill out the place, and tomorrow will be the first day that all signs are up, ebay shop has items in it, and shirts of all colors are lining the aisles. Better pictures to come.

So who needs a custom t-shirt?

Behold... the most even edges to have ever come out of my machine

My mother got me a gift subscription for American Quilting and Patchwork magazine. And as soon as I saw this quilt I wanted to make a miniature wall-hanging of my own.

And so I whipped out some scraps, made a promise to myself I would pay attention to every seam and cut edge... and wala.

The most lined up and even square centers that I have ever created. Ignore the fact that the light purple and burgundy are slightly shorter at the ends, because as you can see...

They get cut off anyway, and I only had 4" squares of this material to work with.

And then came my first ever curved seam that was intended to lay flat. And it worked out.

I promise, promise, promise I have been sewing these past few weeks. I've got two shirts completed, one shirt almost completed, and a dress that is partially constructed and in that awful stage of limbo where I have no motivation for it.

And then, of course, this little four-squared wall hanging I started on a whim last night.

As soon as crazy projects and papers for this semester are over (next week! and then there's only finals left to go), I will have pictures and updates.

Florida Spring

Spring is definitely here for Florida. We haven't seen a chilly day in over two weeks. Above is an amaryllis that decided to bloom early. And a Hiroki that is pretty excited outdoors lately.

Last night I took a trip to Joanns and decided it was time to venture into jersey knits. This is the outcome:

I like the length, color, and simplicity of this. I'm probably going to make another one, possibly in cotton.

The pattern isn't for jersey, so a zipper was in order for the back. But after cutting all the pieces and trying it on in its half-constructed state, I decided it didn't really need a zipper. That is why there's an unnecessary seam down the entire back middle of the dress.

I finished it today and wore it to a LAN center where the guys are all used to me wearing jeans and t-shirts. Entertaining reactions to say the least.

Spring break is next week (though I'm done with classes for this week, so I guess technically today was my first day of spring break). I intend to finish a cotton dress I started ages ago, sew a hook and eye on a skirt that's been waiting for one forever, get a head start on some papers for the second half of the semester, and maybe work on my quilt a bit.

And get a tan. My legs are ungodly white for being a Floridian.

Quilting

This is the start of my first big quilt. I'd say full-size, but I don't know what the quilting world considers "full-size" and I don't know exactly how big this is going to come out. I think it'll be in the neighborhood of 5.5' x 5.5'

The center will be 9 of the squares you see here (Summer in the Park style, a la Missouri Star Quilting Co, but not quite as matching as theirs). Then around the border will be rectangles that are half the height but just as wide as these squares, then a 6" border of the folded up light blue/green birds you see there, and a binding made from the leftovers of the jelly roll.

I've been using Fabric Central's Aerie jelly roll, a mix of bird-esque things. Instead of doing white strips in-between, I found a crackled looking tan fabric that seemed to work well with the jelly roll. All of the fabric is from JoAnn's, as my brother got me a gift card there for Christmas and I decided it was hi-time I make something large.

It will probably be quite some time before this is finished, as my sewing buddy and I don't have time for a regularly scheduled sewing night this semester as we did last fall.

slow and steady... takes forever

Yes, yes... it's been more than a month since I've posted. Suddenly school and work decided to both take up an extreme amount of time all at once. This is probably going to be my most time-consuming semester so far. Combine that with working three days a week now and that's not a whole lot of knitting or free time.

But! I have been working steadily on my Tibetan Clouds Shawl. The middle panel is done, and I've got two of the eight repeats of Chart E complete on one side. I didn't realize how wide this thing would be, but maybe that means I'll actually wear it. I'm not beading it, I really just wanted something large and lacy to work on.

We also have a new neighbor. A hungry neighbor.

I heard him/her (?) start talking to Sakura as she sat on the patio one day. No collar or anything, but really friendly. Definitely not scrawny as you can see from the picture, but hungry all the same. Sakura is not happy with this new cat and hisses at him/her through the windows and patio screen as the cat circles our place. Of course, I fed it and gave it water. Because I'm a sucker.

the start of 2011

I am officially headed to Russia for two weeks this summer. I applied for and got accepted into the program that's a combination of history tours, cultural sights, and a lot of justice system studying.

I didn't really make concrete resolutions this year. I guess in general I just want to try to eat healthier and exercise more. And so far so good, we bought a cart full of groceries of real meals with vegetables and fruits and such rather than just snack foods. Today Alex and I even went to our apartment's gym.

Classes start next week. I've got Monday/Wednesday classes and will be working Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That leaves Tuesday and Thursday for going to the gym, sewing, knitting, etc.

My boss told me yesterday that starting this coming weekend I get a raise. Hurrah! This year will also mark me starting to work on Fridays for a few hours instead of just Saturday/Sunday, so hopefully I can save away all money from Fridays for Russia spending money.