T-shirt dress with Jersey fruit skirt

 Experimenting with more of an interlock stitch on this one.

Reversible quilted skirt

 I've had this fabric for... a long time. Since graduate school I think, so around 15 years and counting. I finally put it together. It doesn't have pockets, just loops for my keys (which is all I really use pockets for). I'm not sure if zigzag stitching the seams really worked, but it seems to be ok.

Random pillow

This is for my footstool. I like to hitch my feet up on it and the edge is hard.

Shirt dress

Updated - didn't work at all, the cotton fabric was too tight. I cut it off and put a different skirt on it that really just lengthens the shirt into a tunic.

Not quite what I'd envisioned - maybe would have been better with a blue stripe? But it's got a pocket.

Shirt dress - Jersey frogs

 This one came out more like I'd envisioned - I used a Jersey fabric, which matched the t-shirt I was sewing it to.

Remade shirt-dress

This was an experiment. I wanted to see if I could add a skirt to a shirt. It was tricky b/c corduroy is a bit tricky to sew on, so I might use more similar knit fabric next. This also doesn't have pockets, but it's just a sort of draft, trying it out, although it will be, I hope, wearable in a pinch.

Christmas quilt

I actually have enough pieces and blocks to make at least two more lap quilts, but I'm putting them aside for now since this was the main thing I wanted to finish. It's a little under 5x5 feet square.

Christmas Quilt in progress

Started March 2022, current status

Ravensburger Curious Cupboards no. 3

 

Reading buddies

 Finished a few more reading buddies for the library

Victorian Garden puzzle

 This was a puzzle for minutiae-obsessed botanists, but once I started and got the easy flowers and realized what a pain the tiny flecks of green were going to be, I had gone too far to stop.

Reading Buddies

 Um... I forgot what people-shaped softies turn into when I make them. Maybe a kid will want a swamp witch? 

Reading buddies

 Someone donated a whole bunch of terry cloth (blue and green) to the library and we used our die cuts and teen staff to cut them into shapes for take home kits to make softies. However, we ended up with a LOT left over, plus I discovered that the needle and thread kits I included had faulty needles that are impossible to thread.

So, as I was revamping our Read and Grow: 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten as well as thinking of a whole new slate of summer take homes for summer reading, I decided to recycle most of the softie sewing kits. I am working on sewing them up myself and they will become reading buddies that kids "earn" for our Read and Grow program. We've got about 5 or so that I and my staff have made and these are the first terrycloth ones I've finished.

Spinmaster Daffodils

This was actually one of two puzzles that I bought together from Amazon. Turned out to be very fuzzy and a huge pain to put together, especially the whole top sections. I've currently narrowed down puzzle manufacturers to Ravensburger, Eurographics, Galison, and maybe eeBoo. The others are kinda sucky.

eeBoo Rewilding

500 pc circular puzzle I got from a friend in trade for my paper umbrella puzzle. This was a nice, relaxing build and I'll probably keep this one for a while and do it again.

Galison Avian Friends

 The birds were fine, by matching the faint hues of the different squares at the end was painful.

Bgraamiens Queen in Mandala

 I thought this would be annoying at first, but I ended up doing it in sections with the letters on the back of the puzzle and it turned out to be quite calming in the end.

Jantens Mandala puzzle

 The best-made thing about this puzzle was the box. I'm going to use the pieces for a collage. So, first it was poorly made - several of the pieces were coming apart. This was made even worse by the fact that all the pieces were almost exactly the same size, so the only way to tell whether they were in the right place was to look at the colors and pattern (which were kind of swirly) and then peel them out and try again. There was also an extra, duplicate piece. I am not kidding. I got it done because it had letters on the back and I divided it into quadrants.

Tiger Lily skirt

Second try on pockets - this one turned out well (yes, I only put one pocket in, that's all I need, to hold my keys). The fabric is by Heather Ross, Tiger Lily Mud, and I made a longer version of the skirt so I can wear it in storytime with less chance of the kids looking up it.

Another elephant

 This one I sewed the ears first, but I think they're too small when hemmed.

Bird skirt

 The fabric was probably from Joann - brightly colored birds on a white background. I tested out adding an in-seam pocket, using a pattern from See Kate Sew. I figured out that I put the pocket too low and also that the pocket pattern is too shallow and wide an opening - I use it for my keys mostly - so I'm going to sew up an inch or two from the bottom and that will fix it.

Little creatures

 Still finishing projects. These will be added to the stock of softies I'm building up at work for kids to take as reading buddies that they can keep (as opposed to the circulating plushies).

I backstitched most of this - it's a cotton print - sewing in the yarn for the mane and tail. I then turned it inside out and whipstitched it then added the eyes afterwards. There are two little felt ears buried in the yarn too. I didn't get the legs stuffed quite right. This pattern is from a Jane Bull book but I made it into a die cut so it was easy to cut out.

This elephant is from a pattern in a Jane Bull sewing book as well - "doodlephant." I made it with leftover scraps of corduroy and felt ears. 

Flannel quilt

 I have two more that I haven't finished the binding on yet. They're all about 3.5 feet square and made from my flannel quilt blocks. I'm going to save them for presents, should any of my friends or family produce offspring.

Finished the other two

Projects in progress

 This is the stuff I haven't finished - I'll tackle it on the weekends going forward and hope to have it more or less done before I take my vacation in September, which will be for gardening and other projects.

Haven't touched this puzzle in months. There's not really any urgency to work on it.

Christmas quilt strips. I'd kind of like to have it done before Christmas,
as it's a gift, but I didn't promise it so there's not a lot of hurry.

Embroidering a flower to cover a stain. Probably finish tonight.

Bird skirt. Should be done in an hour or two, barring
the new design I want to try for a pocket.

Altered skirt - just needs to be sewn back together
and have new elastic put in. Maybe an hour's work.

Shirts to cut up - I want to try and use them as patterns.
This is a long-term project that I might not get to until next fall.