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Once upon a time I kept a blog regularly.  I wrote every day or every other day at the least.  I tried to be funny and insightful.  I tried to write the things that I wanted to read.  And then LIFE happened.


When we moved down here I bought a sewing machine and two books recommended by my awesome (and madly skilled) sister.  I was determined that I was going to learn to sew.  And I was convinced that I wouldn't make any friends so I would have all kinds of spare time.

HA!

Well, as it turned out I did make some really awesome friends and my time was soon filled up with play dates and service projects and mornings at the pool and trips and my fabric and patterns and sewing machine languished.  Oh, I still used it, but for simple things:  baby blankets for my friends who were (or ARE) with child.

We're staring down the barrel of another move (probably not until the end of July, but you never know), so I'm starting to gradually purge our stuff.  And in the purging I arrived at my bin o' fabric and patterns and I felt horrible for neglecting it for so long.  So I got down my machine, I sorted through the bin and I made a list and it looked like this:

1. finish quilt for the Boy--I repurposed the flannel of 9 little receiving blankets and 1 slightly bigger receiving blanket, I cut them into 5" squares and pieced them together to create a quilt top.  All it needed was batting and a back and then some ties. 
2. finally make reusable grocery bags from my friend Heather's tutorial.  I had bought all of this light-weight cotton in bright fun colors to make lounge pants out of and had never made them so I was going to use the fabric for something I would USE and something that would help me regain control over the plastic bags taking over our apartment.
3. repurpose some more flannel to make cloth wipes.  I have reached the point where I am DONE throwing money away in the form of wipes.  I know.  This will seem extreme to many of you...but what with the cloth diapering, it's really not that extreme anymore.  We'll use water to wet them down and I have an inkling that the Boy may be potty training in another 6 months or so...
4. Make one more baby blanket and matching burp cloth for my friend Celeste who is due the end of July.
5. Make some super soft pajama pants from a whole pile of homespun that I inherited from Chris (it's a long story).
6. Make up some cozy flannel pajama pants for the Boy.
7. Make up a few new fun summer skirts.

And here's a list of supplies I needed to pick up (I've made one run to JoAnns, and I need to make one more to finish off the list):

• 2 yards of flannel to back the Boy's quilt.
• a piece of batting for the Boy's quilt.
• some flannel for the blanket for Celeste's babalah.
• some fun cottons for those skirts (I didn't get these on the last run, I'm going next week in search of them...)

So.  With all of that, here's what I've been working on this week while the Boy whined for his paci and learned to climb all over tarnation!

1. FINISHED HIS QUILT!  YAY!  It turned out super cute!  The color palate for the quilt top is a variety of soft creamy blues so I backed it with a chocolatey brown and it turned out MUCH cuter than I expected.  The batteries in the camera have died and I have not yet replaced them so if you want to see it, you'll just have to come over.
2. Made up a cute-cute gifty for Celeste.  She's an amazing woman and she's been a thoroughly wonderful friend.  It makes me happy to have something so cozy and cute for her little one.
3. Made up 12 (TWELVE) reusable grocery bags!  Having now used them, I can safely say that I needed about HALF that amount.  They're much bigger than the plastic grocery bags and they're so much sturdier that you can really load them up.  Heather's tutorial is clear and makes it super easy, you should definitely check it out!
4. I'm halfway through finishing the wipes.

Which brings me to the revised To Sew list:

1. cut out pajama pants for the Boy
2. sew pajama pants for the Boy
3. cut out lounge pants for Moi.
4. sew lounge pants for Moi
5. purchase cotton for skirts
6. cut out and sew together skirts

We're off to a long awaited wedding reception tomorrow so I'll probably do a run to JoAnn's next Tuesday.  I might also get around to replacing the batteries in my camera by then, so I can post pictures of the fabric for the skirts.  But then, you know, I've got a fun pool play date already set up and then it's Memorial Day weekend and some friends are coming for a visit and then we're off to Durham the next week for the Grand Family Reunion so who knows when I'll actually get the sewing done.

(I might be able to get the Boy's pants cut out at least...and maybe the lounge-y pants for me...they're pretty simple, I could maybe get that done tonight...)

I have learned something through this whole week of obsessive sewing.  I don't mind it.  And it makes me feel good knowing that I can sew for my family as we need it.  But I am not likely to ever have one of those amazingly beautiful homes or uniquely well-dressed children.  It absolutely exhausts me...all of it.  Choosing projects, picking fabric, cutting, pinning, piecing, sewing, finishing...all of it.  Have fueled myself with diet coke to get this far and will likely continue the trend until the projects are DONE.

I just love crossing things off of lists.  It's VERY satisfying.