Lookit!

Remember this post?

Well, the other day I got my "Pay it Forward" presie from the awesome Andrea of Stitch Parade.  Look!

Isn't it just too perfect?  A sweet little coin purse in yellow, with birds!  Lovingly hand made by Andrea!  She even put a little pocket inside, and one of her super-cool labels:

I love it so much!

I didn't get any takers on my original post about the Pay it Forward project, but since I won't have any time to make anything until September (post-niece), I'm considering it still open.  So if you want to play, leave me a comment here!

Me Too!

I'm going to join Zoe's

Yay!  

I got back into sewing and started reading a lot of sewing blogs in June, in the middle of her Me Made June challenge.  I really loved seeing everyone's posts of their self-made outfits, and was hoping there would be another challenge soon.  For me, I think it will be a great way of making me wear some of the sweaters my closets (and dressers) are stuffed full of.  I have a tendency to make things and then never wear them, or wear them only rarely.  A little less so with the things I've sewn, but I still have a couple Sorbettos and a Ginger I haven't worn yet . . .  So here's my pledge:

'I, Gail of  Today's Agenda, sign up as a participant of Self-Stitched-Sept '11. I endeavour to wear at least one item made by me each day for the duration of September 2011'

I'm not sure yet how I will be documenting this (whether daily or every few days), and I think laziness about 'getting dressed' will be my biggest stumbling block.  Since I spend many of my days at home doing cleaning or laundry or other equally exciting household tasks, I don't often make it out of my yoga togs, let alone put on any makeup or do anything with my hair.  So some of my photos may be rather frightening . . .

My items will include my handknits, clothing I've sewn and also jewelry I've made. For the handknits especially, I'm planning on focusing on things I've never worn, or hardly worn.  Zoe is also starting a flickr group for the challenge, and I'll probably be posting more pictures on flickr than I do on the blog, so I'll try to remember to post the link as well.

Will you join too?  Here's Zoe's original post, where she fully explains the challenge. Hope to see you there!

Oops. My bad.

In a combination of not fully understanding the concept, tiredness, and over-enthusiasm, I signed up twice for the "crafty pay-it-forward."  I get it now.  It's not a swap.  I will receive one package from the person I left a comment for, and make something for five (other) people who leave me comments wishing to participate.

SO, since I signed up twice, I will commit to making something for ten commenters. If I get that many!

Handspun yarn, a piece of former craftiness.
This was a holiday gift for a co-worker a
few years ago.

Something fun!

Some of you may read my friend Andrea's blog, Stitch Parade.  The other day she posted a fun swap-type-thingy and I decided to participate!  I've never taken part in anything like this, but I just couldn't resist.  Who doesn't like receiving a fun, surprise package?  And so much the better if it includes hand-made items!

Andrea has the link back to where she got the idea from, but here's the basic idea: in choosing to participate, I agree to make for and send something to the first five people who comment on this post that they want to participate, as long as they agree to post it on their blogs as well and do the same for their first five commenters.  I know some folks are blogless and that would seem to exclude them, but I'm wondering if this could somehow be extended to those who use things like Facebook (which I don't), Twitter and the like.   So if you have ideas about this, please to chime in!

I looked at the blogs of a few of the people who have participated so far, and it seems to me that it has mostly focused on sewing.  Andrea mentioned that she had some ideas about what she would make for her buddies, and while she didn't say what those were, it got me to thinking.  She and I share a love of lists, and recently I began making a list of different arts/crafts I have done throughout my life.  Want to see?  This is what I have so far:

FIBER

knitting

crochet

spinning - drop spindle and wheel

weaving - inkle

weaving - tapestry

weaving - four-shaft

basket weaving

temari

sewing

quilting

rug hooking

tie dye

silk dying

fiber dying - natural and chemical

cross-stitch

PAPER ARTS

silk screening

paper making

paper marbling - western

paper marbling - sumi nagashi

calligraphy

small books

GLASS

glass bead making

glass fusing

glass blowing

JEWELRY

precious metal clay

metalsmithing

bead weaving - loom

bead weaving - off loom

wirebending

You may have guessed that I get bored easily!  Some of these things I had just a passing interest in and tried out, like tapestry weaving and rug hooking.  Others I was intensely involved in for quite some time, like calligraphy and glass bead making.  But knitting is the one hobby that I've done my whole life and never gotten tired of.  And I don't see myself ever tiring of it!

So all this is to say that as I've thought about what I might make for my swapping buddies, sewing is not the first thing that comes up.  I'll leave it at that!  Since I'm busy with my nephew and niece this month, I'm going to ask that if you decide to participate and are one of the first five, that you email me with your address.  I'm adding a page of contact info under the header.  I think this will save me having to scramble for addresses later on.

In other news, I'm having a great time with my nephew!  We did indeed take the water taxi downtown on his first day:

view from the Chicago River

and ended up at Navy Pier, where we played mini-golf!  Yesterday we took in a movie.  And today I'm thinking of taking him to Millennium Park to see the Bean:

Fabric Fun

I wandered into one of my local fabric shops the other day (I'm lucky to have 3 very near by) looking for buttons for my Jewel sweater, and saw an adorable silk panel hanging as a display, along with a sign advertising each panel for $2.99.  Well, how could I resist?  This is a super cute floral print on silk, designed by Anna Sui.

Black, green and red tulips on a white ground, bordered in black with large white daisies, on a gingham-like plain weave.  Each panel is 45" square, so it makes a nice, large scarf.

It's so sheer, you can see the texture of my duvet through it!

I'd originally thought I would do a rolled hem, as demonstrated in this tutorial at Colette Patterns.  I've done this a couple times before (with silk from the same fabric shop!) and while it's rather tedious, it does give a very nice result.  But once I got it home, I decided that the print is so simple and informal, I ended up doing a frayed edge instead.

I'm so happy with this scarf, and am daydreaming about what to wear it with!