Jazzy dozing on his playmat. Squiddle working on his fine motor skills (aka playing with playdough aka learning that no matter what colors you smush together it always ends up hideous brown). Both stockings done save for hanging loops and nametags.

Onward to victory!

Both pillowcases finished, and binding half sewn onto quilt. Did prenatal yoga this morning (have missed the last two weekends due to Comic-con and Costume College). Am trying to scrape together the energy to do anything more today. The to-do list is simple, but consists of several items. We shall see if I succeed.

ETA: Allietare-by-Moonlight quilt DONE, and in the washing machine together with its pillowcases. Pics to be taken maybe tomorrow? About half of my list for the day knocked off; the rest is all outside stuff and may also be dealt with tomorrow.

Two more crib sheets and one pillowcase sewn up this morning. I also dug out a piece of pre-quilted fabric (hot pink on one side, bright orange on the other) I got in a random grab bag and cut it to the length of the pad on the changing table. I figure I'll sew binding around the edge and a bit of elastic across the width to make it wrap, and it can be a reversible changing pad cover. Since currently we just wrap bath towels around the thing. The pad's not a standard size, so we were never really able to buy covers for it, and I already have this fabric, so why not experiment...?

My feet, ironically, feel fine this morning. But my calves are still killing me from all the Comic-con walking. And one shoulder hurts. I'm basically taking it easy and hoping the sundry aches and pains of exertion heal up by Friday.

ETA: changing pad cover experiment seems a success! (All the stuff I've been sewing is currently in the wash, so we'll see how much shrinkage happens in the dryer.) And I found in my stash some fabric that didn't look too bad with the remnant of the third crib sheet, so I did up one more coordinating pillowcase. Three new sheets, three new pillowcases, one changing pad cover, and ten yards of fabric from my stash actually used up! And I have enough elastic for another crib sheet and another pad cover, but for the former I'll wait and see if I need to adjust the pattern fit any, and for the latter, I haven't got any more prequilted fabric on hand, so....

Ever since Bonnie Hunter started making tiny "H" blocks for an eventual quilt last year, I've been doing the same. After all, my maiden name (currently one of my middle names, according to my driver's license and passport) is also a "H" name. And just because I did the traditional thing and took on Wonderful Husband's surname when we married doesn't mean I stopped being a Huntsman!

A few days ago Bonnie posted pictures of the finished quilt top and it immediately shot onto my must-make list. So as I've been plodding along on cutting out pieces for the Allietare-By-Moonlight quilt, I've also been making a few more H blocks, as well as dealing with my bag of 1.5" squares and sewing up similarly-sized nine-patches for a somewhat more nebulous eventual project. Last night I pulled them all out and counted.

217 H blocks, 115 nine-patch blocks.

Looking at her pictures of the H quilt, which are for a queen-sized quilt, the setting is six by seven blocks, times four H blocks each... 168 blocks. Now, Wonderful Husband and I sleep in a queen bed, but we use a king sized comforter. If I made another seven blocks I could do an eight by nine setting... or I could do the queen quilt and use the extra blocks (and there are plenty of duplicate fabric ones) to make a baby quilt for someone I know who also has a "H" surname....

Must ponder. And while I can get on with putting the H blocks on point, since I don't know the next step of the measurements, anything beyond that would have to wait until Bonnie has time to write up and release the pattern anyway.

And, anyway, my goal for today is to clean and oil my trusty Singer 15, finish cutting out the rest of the pieces for Allietare-By-Moonlight, put some plants in the kitchen garden, and figure out a Full Bust Adjustment for that 1960s dress.

The online sewing community has lots of themed months to keep themselves going. Stuff like "Me Made May" or "Sew Indie September." For myself, I've decided that rather than sewing from independent pattern companies, September is Sewing For Squiddle month. Thus far, he's got three pairs of pyjamas out of it, and I'm now working on a new dust ruffle for his bed. Because the one that came with the cute monster-themed bedset was good when he was an infant, but is way too long now that his crib's been lowered.

It should have been an easy project. I have a cute dinosaur print fabric that proved to be too stiff for pyjamas, and it's all mathematical. Simple, right?

Except for the part where neither of my ruffling feet will work on my Singer 15.

ARGGGGGGHHHHHH.

So here I sit, listening to the sprinkles on the patio roof, endlessly pinning pleats in along two 52" sides and two 28" sides.

Patience is a virtue, I am told....

Laundry and dishes, more laundry and tidying.

( sewing and machines )

( cleaning )

This afternoon, lacking the oomph for much else, I went back to work on the quilt I'm currently quilting on my mother's Singer 201. I got the upper tension dialed up to where there weren't great huge thread loops on the back, and it would work for a while... then snap. I rethreaded. I changed the needle. The thread is a brand new spool. I disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the upper tension. Still the same thing kept happening. I checked the bottom tension and cleaned all the lint out of the (dropped) feed dogs.

It's frustrated me enough that I've ordered a new hopping foot and put the quilt aside for now. If, after it arrives, the problem persists, I'm taking the machine in to be serviced at a local sewing machine center that I know regularly handles vintage Singers.

The thing is, it sews regular seams just fine. It's just the quilting that the machine is throwing a hissy fit over.

So I'm switching to a project that involves regular seams. Namely, a Regency corset. I have two short stays from the Simplicity reprint of Sense and Sensibility's pattern, but I tried them on tonight and remembered why they don't work for me. Not only are the straps right on the edge point of my shoulders, but the cups are in no way big enough. My breasts end up squished behind the entire short stay, all the way to the bottom. I look at Jennifer Rosbrugh's review of the Laughing Moon pattern, however, and note that (a) she's about the same size as me, and (b) holy cow, the cups actually fit her right.

(Despite the fact that the Sense and Sensibility short stays don't work for me, the chemise in the same pattern does. I'm wearing it right now. So there is that.)

I found a few yards of quilting cotton I won't desperately miss, as well as some cotton cording, and tossed it all in the wash on hot to pre-shrink so I can do a test version. Then I'll order a few yards of cotton sateen, since although Joann's allegedly carries it, I can never find it in-store, and make a "proper" version out of that.

All this being for Costume College, of course. Packet stuffing is next month, which means I really need to start thinking about what I'm going to wear. Some people have been working on their garb practically since last College ended. I don't go to the Gala, so I don't need something fancy to wear. Last year I didn't wear any costumes at all! But this year I'm not going to be toting a pump and cooler for breast milk around, so I want to wear something pretty.

Fabric toy bin #3 completed. OMG there is so much floor room in here again!

Also, the darning/quilting foot I won off eBay arrived today. So tomorrow I'll probably use my Babylock to finish off a couple five-minute projects, then put it underneath the sewing table it's on. I'll then delint, oil, and grease up the 201, move it so the (much smaller) desk it's in is front of said sewing table, and thereby have a nice large surface to support the quilt's weight as I shift back to free-motion quilting....

Wonderful Husband and I celebrated our anniversary on Monday. Eleven years, hooray! We went to see Big Hero 6 before it left theaters, and very much enjoyed it. I think this is the first Disney film where I want the artbook not for cosplay purposes, but just for looking at the world Disney created. OMG, such gorgeous backgrounds and art and concept and everything!

I'm giving my mother's 201 a workout by piecing a quilt top on it. I've won an auction for the quilting foot I need, but given that it's coming from the snowed-in section of the country, it may take a while. A couple days ago I also found this tutorial, and it spoke to me. So I cut strips from all my green Christmas fabrics, and raided my box of 2.5" strips for more, and sewed them to various white/cream strips and cut and cut and cut... and still only had 362 of the 480 white/green sets I need. Grr. Back to more cutting and sewing, as needed.

I've also started this year's jam-making. Thus far I've done a small batch of lavender pear jam, and one of chocolate pear jam. I have plans for a habenero kumquat jam batch as soon as I get some more lids. Giving jars of jam as Christmas presents neatly cut down my oversupply of half-pint jars, to the point where I'm raiding my mother's oversupply for this year's. ^_^ I also need to start another batch of sauerkraut going, as it turns out the Squiddle likes real kraut as much as I do. (Wonderful Husband is less on board with the lactofermented flavors thing. I'm working on him.)

Last night we went through Squiddle's oversupply of toys and winnowed out the ones he doesn't play with, and the ones that are too young for him, and boxed those up. There's so much more room in the office now! But I still need to make a couple fabric baskets for storing things like his Megabloks.

And, lastly, yardwork is slowly getting accomplished. I've pruned all fifteen rosebushes at our house, and need to find time to go over and do the ones at my parents'. Weeding of the kitchen garden is a slow, steady task, but at least I've finally tossed the contents of the weed-ridden pots, and tossed as well those plastic pots in less than great condition. I need to move my succulents up into bigger pots, and now I have some free. And I've started starting seeds. I've got three flats of two kinds of corn (one had weevils so I'm expecting a low germination rate), and another flat filled with soil, ready for other seeds to go in.

And that's the news from Chez Greenwood. How're you all?

My sleep pattern seems to be drifting closer to normal, which can be nothing but good. I've hit a roadblock on one of the stories I was working on and so shifted to the handwork projects I brought with me. I packed three, all "finish ups" from this year's Costume College. My Regency reticule is now done, so the next time I need a 19th century purse, I'm set. I also finally finished beading the two sample bags for the beaded fringe evening bags class I taught. There is a qualitative difference produced by running the beading pattern horizontally versus vertically, so now I can show that. And while I've been working with my hands, my brain has produced the solution to my writing block, so tomorrow I'm planning to switch back to that.

Wednesday we're going to London for the day, so I'm making a short list of places we want to go. Harrod's, Hamley's, Liberty of London, a quick pop in at the V&A just to see if they have a gift shop outside of the pay entrance, because there are a couple of books I want, and because I am a dork like this, tracking down a Chipotle in London for lunch, to see if their fare is of any greater or lesser quality than the branches back in the USA. (It happens. Ask my husband about the difference between UK and US Burger Kings, KFCs, McDonalds, and Pizza Huts.) Maybe also going to the London Eye? We shall see.