I'm Back!

Back from my blogging hiatus with a new husband and a new name :)

It was, in all honesty, the most perfect day of my life. It was absolutely wonderful to be surrounded by all the people we love best and celebrate the beginning of our life together. And it's so funny to think that now, I am a Mrs! I keep giggling when the kids at school call me Mrs. P :)

Then, I was surprised when I got back by a lovely crafty wedding gift from Carol Ann at Connect the Dots Crafts! You can check it out here. Carol Ann even made herself an incredible dress to wear to the wedding! Check that out too.

I actually have been doing some crafting, too...I'll post soon!

A few little things...

Ever since coming across this tutorial I have wanted to make one of these adorable clutches! Well, I finally did it. I love the little whales - they came from my Grandma's stash. For some reason, the lining came out a little bit too big, so it bunches inside the bag. I want to try this one again and see if I can do a little better. Also, I learned how to shorten a zipper!


It is nearly impossible to take good pictures in my dark apartment!

This little sweater is for a friend of mine who just had a baby. Found the pattern here. This is my favorite kind of knitting - completely seamless, all you have to do is weave in the ends and you're done!

Quilt #3 is in the process of being quilted - the end is in sight!

Tah-dah!

This weekend, my wonderful friend Debbie hosted a bridal shower for me. I couldn't think of a good enough way to thank her, so I decided to make her a thank-you gift!
I followed this tutorial.
And here's the back, with a little help from my dear husband-to-be (I really like the stripe):

My dear friend Carole Ann of Connect the Dots Crafts came to celebrate with me and she made me a beautiful clutch for my wedding day! It is absolutely wonderful and even more special because she made it herself! You can see lovely pictures here. I was inspired to make this quilt by seeing the one she made a few months back!
I am feeling a little overwhelmed (in a good way) by all the kindness people are showing as my wedding approaches. Just a little over a month left! I will have two more finished quilts to show off soon.

More blog silence...because I am, sadly, very far away from my
sewing machine AND my knitting needles, and instead devoting my time to study. Lame. However, in about a month I will graduate (hooray!), go back home, and quickly (hopefully) finish the three WIPs I left behind...three quilts for some very special people who are helping me plan my wedding. The first one I have already sh0wn pictures of, and that one actually traveled with me to Vermont...I am slowly but surely hand-finishing the binding in my off moments, which are sadly few and far between.

However, I now know an awful lot about deixis, especially in Chinese. I'm still not sure precisely how that will help me do my job better, but knowing is half the battle, right?

I decided to take a study break and revisit my crafty goals for this year.
T-shirt quilt: done! yay! Want to make another one for my dear husband-to-be, who owns more tshirts than anyone I have ever known.

Fusing plastic bags. I did do a brief experiment with this, but had trouble finding the right iron heat to make it really work. I could only succeed in very small pieces...I will have to ask my friend Carole Ann, who I know has had some success with this. On a side note, I really want to make one of those gathered clutches she has on her blog...

A new hat for the boy...definitely a necessity. Any good suggestions for hat patterns? Maybe this one...or this one...or pretty much anything listed here.

T-shirt tote bag: again, tried this, but had a hard time with sewing the tshirt material. Grandma suggested I needed a different kind of needle, but by then I was already distracted by something else...

Sigh...back to learning about speech act theory...

I have been following along one of the BEST TUTORIALS EVER at Obsessively Stitching:
I suppose that, technically, this is not my first quilt ever, but the t-shirt quilt is so unique that this is a whole different type of project. This tutorial (really, set of tutorials) is amazing! The whole process is laid out step by step, from what fabrics to buy straight through finishing it off...any questions you might have had about making a quilt, answered. I have the top almost finished. I'm so glad there are people out there in the world so willing to share their talents! Many thanks to Care!

Tah-dah!

This is so satisfying!Since it is so nice and springy outside, and my condo has almost no natural light...I decided to venture outside to take a few pictures of my work. I love the finished effect! I was partway through this project and trying to figure out how to do this on my own, when I saw this post from Maiden Jane and decided, like my boss always says, there's no use reinventing the wheel...so I bought a wonderful pattern from her and learned from her experience! I'm really glad I did, because her way was SOOOOOO much simpler than what I had been planning on doing. I won't give away her secrets, but it was definitely a worthwhile purchase.

And the final result? I have comfortably napped under it several times already, and found it to be very satisfying. Is it perfect? No. But it's mine :)

A (failed?) experiment

My trip to China went amazingly well. The kids were well-behaved, the tour guides were knowledgeable - altogether, I loved the tour, the company, and the experience.

On the crafting front, I've been making good progress on my quilt. The top is almost done!

I love the effect - it's like my life story in a quilt! Of course, cutting up all those t-shirts left me with lots of scraps, so I tried to come up with some ways to use them, including these coasters below.
Last week, I saw this tutorial at an amazing blog called Adventures in Dressmaking. The tutorial explains how to turn a man's shirt into a skirt. The attempt was not flawless - I didn't make the waistband wide enough, so there wasn't enough space to fold it all the way over, so you can see the unfinished edges on the inside. I also attached the waistband backwards, so I had to do a quick switch with the button and buttonhole to make it work.

Despite it's flaws, I think it's really cute, and I would love to wear it - but, sadly, it's WAAAY to small for me to every dream of wearing :( Next time I'll have to get a much larger shirt to start with!!! At least now that I've done it once, hopefully I'll be able to attempt it again and get a wearable result. Not sure what I'll do with this one!