You have laboured on it, since. It is a ponderous chain!"

Well, hell! I may never finish this "simple" chain for the Christmas tree. I feel like I've been working on it forever. Christmas is over and it's still not finished. Tried the chain on the tree and am twelve feet short. : P Ran out of white Christmas fabric. Oh rats! another trip to the fabric store.

J

My First Swap

I registered at swap-bot in the hopes of finding some fun swaps. I must say I'm a bit disappointed and frustrated by the place. Almost all the swaps you have to have ratings and these stupid hearts, newbies need not apply. They all say they are sorry but they're not or they'd offer a seperate swap where newbies could get experience, it's an old girl's network and will take forever to get in. It's a real catch 22, they say get experience before you can do "my" swaps but few will let newbies in. And I really don't want to do pointless swaps just to rack up ratings and hearts so I can play.

However I have found a few generous people who are willing to assume positive intent and let newcomers in. So my very first swap is making icicle dolls for two swap partners. I finished then and packed them to be sent today. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. It was a lot of trial and error and I learned a lot. (unfortunately the blue one didn't photograph too well. : ( )

J

Burda Style

While searching the internet I found Burdastyle , which is an open source pattern website. Most of the patterns are free and they're cute! There aren't a ton of patterns but I think over time there will be more and more.

You just download the pattern and either print it on your printer or take it to a copy shop. When I printed the pattern there were 29 page! I wasn't sure how big of a project it would be to put the pattern pieces together, but it wasn't too bad gluing the pieces together.

J

Fiddly Bits

This is our tree this year. The majority of it is homemade. We didn't feel like getting out the boxes of ornaments and decorations so I've been adding bit by bit. I think it's turned out quite nice, if I say so myself. : ) It's been so much fun, that we might do it again next year.

I don't seem to have gotten any real sewing done for a while. Too busy with the fiddly bits I guess. Bought a new Babylock serger a few weeks ago and have been busy experimenting and learning new things with it. I bought the "self-threading" one but it or me doesn't seem to be working properly. I have a lesson tomorow so we'll soon find out which is at fault. : P

J

Hinamatsuri Dolls

When my Japanese friend visited in September she had some parties to celebrate her Japanese culture. At one of these parties we made Hinamatsuri dolls. Hinamatsuri is celebration for girls where they put out a display of their dolls. These dolls are handed down from generation to generation, and the real thing can be quite expensive. We made a prince and princess.

We had so many people at the party, we could only make one of the set. So finally today, I got around to writing up some instructions and pattern for future use and making the princess. Not too bad. : )

J

The List

Since I plan on having a major sewing /craft adventure this coming year I think it's only proper to document it along the way. What better way then starting with a list of all the things I've made? : )

The LIST:

1. Dec 2 - white satin slip with cute pink rolled hem
2. Dec 2 - paper chain for x-mas tree out or origami paper.
3. Dec 4 - 3 pairs of fluffy soft pink polar fleece socks.
   
4. Dec 4 - snowflake ornaments made out of qtips - darling on the tree.
5. Dec 5 - finished hinamatsuri dolls - finally!
6. Dec 9 - more snowflakes
7. Dec 12 - redid the pink polar fleece top. Took off five inches in length and six in width on the sleeves!
   
8. Dec 20 blue icicle doll
9. Dec 23 white icicle doll
10.