getting around (to it)

So, the grass is green again, the road is black and the snow is all but gone except for some piles of grey slush. It's almost as if it were never here. And I am back in the car (and out on foot and in the bus) again - so relieved.

I did also use the indoor time of the past week to get around to some hand stitching that I have had in mind for, oh, quite some time. I have way more in mind to do than I ever get around to (which I'm sure is not a unique story). I'm kind of on top of the knitting at the moment but the sewing ideas/projects/flights of fancy that I have piling up is almost overwhelming. Part of it is a psychological barrier about getting out the sewing machine. I'm trying to get over that by setting up a space where I can leave it (and scissors and stitch rippers and pins) out and out of reach of little hands but it's not quite ready yet.

In the meantime, every now and then I pull out the hand sewing. I have mended seams on two of baby bear's toys (both new and already splitting - good grief!), mended the vintage linen that is being used as doll sheets, completed the patchwork quilt for the doll bed and made a mattress. Neither of these last two are as impressive as they might sound.

The patchwork doll bed quilt is actually a pillow sham, which there seem to be a lot of around here. I'm talking about oversized decorative pillowcases, not for actually sleeping on just for piling on the bed I think. Anyway, Value Village is full of them and sometimes they are really nice, like this sweet patchwork one. I bought it always with the intention of being a doll quilt and finally stitched up the opening in the back to make it more, well, quilt like.













The mattress was a bit more work (and for a different, smaller doll cot). For this one I cut four layers from an old blanket and wrapped them in some fabric, much like a present, and sewed it up. Took precisely one Scrabble game to complete. Isn't this lovely old-fashioned fabric? It came from, would you believe, a shower curtain? Something else that is popular in these parts - fabric shower curtains. I gather that you are supposed to have a waterproof plastic one underneath as well. Odd.

Admittedly, these things have been waiting for months to be done. I hope that it doesn't take until the next snowfall for me to do some more. By then I'll be buried beneath ideas/projects/flights of fancy!