A life in lists

Seven days: Seven things

1. I hadn't realised how bored I was of winter weather (which, this winter, has consisted of rain, rain, three flakes of snow and more rain) until I saw sunshine and snowdrops this week. Bring on spring.
2. I had a photo shoot with a local magazine the other day. I am attempting to make it clear that it is possible to be a personal image consultant without being a 50-something chiffon clad lipstick lady. I think the leather leggings help.
3. Holding hands is cool. I am, however, not an attractive hand-holding prospect for first born due to my propensity for cashmere wristwarmers. Apparently 'they feel funny'. Luckily his daddy doesn't wear wrist warmers.
4. That is an enormous bobble. Fortunately, my second born (for that is he) has none of the hand-holding-pernickitiness (good word) of his older brother.
5. Rooibos tea is great for me. I can drink anywhere upwards of 8 cups a day of tea, and regular rooibos and herbal tea means that I don't have an insane caffeine intake. I try to only have about three cups a day of 'real' tea.
6. We went to Killerton House  yesterday, where they have re-vamped their vintage clothing display upstairs to include a selection of modern designer garments. The avant-garde clothes work really well in the lovely old spaces of this 18th Century country house (which happens to be virtually on our doorstep, which is nice), and the whole space has been really nicely curated. Thumbs up.
7. Rita invited fellow-instagrammers to show off their Liberty stashes this morning. It took a few frames to show all of my personal stash (shop stock has to be left firmly on its shelves to prevent me purloining it), and it became apparent that while pink, purple and blue are very well represented in my personal stash, grey, green, yellow and  red are somewhat lacking. Time to stock up.

What do you mean we're almost two weeks in?

I can still write a February list if I want to!

Actually, I wrote it at the beginning of the month (with my new pen, no less), but I forgot to blog about it. And, indeed, to look back at January's list. Is it wrong that I need a list to manage my lists?

I didn't do badly on January's list, all things considered (three out of five ain't bad), and the few things that didn't get done have shifted cheerfully onto February's. Out of January's list I managed to:

1. Cast on a sweater for Teddy. Not the intended Owlet as I had nothing in my stash that would make gauge, so I've just cast on a plain crew necked sweater. I'll blog and Ravel the details when I get a moment.
2. Mend a jumper (badly, but it's done).
3. Finish the Liberty print HST quilt top I started an embarrassing amount of time ago. Hurrah! Now I need to make the backing...

So February's list contains some sewing and some non-sewing things, since it seems best to keep all my aims in one place...

1. Catch up with my Brit Bee blocks. This was on my January list and I almost achieved it, then, ermm, ran out of month. But I am only owing January's blocks (and February's, obviously) as I type.
2. Catch up with my Eeeep EPP blocks. Another January list hangover Luckily this bee took December and January off, so I'm only a weeny bit behind (in that I still haven't finished November's block, but it is over half done, so I'm not feeling too awful).
3. Finish that jumper that I managed to cast on (and knit about half of) in January.
4. Cast on a pair of socks for me (my couple of handknit pairs are almost entirely worn away at the heels, and frankly I'd rather knit new socks than darn heels). Plus Laura Jane and Amanda keep being irritatingly creative in the sock department (that sounds weird) and instagramming the results and it's making me jealous.
5. Make a backing for the Liberty print HST quilt (with what?! I suspect it will be some random amalgamation, as I am on a bit of a fabric diet).
6. Make a pair of curtains for my workroom (I am so bored of looking at the ugly ones that the landlord hung - I sit 8" from them for half of most days while I'm working, and they are driving me bananas).
                                            And now, the non-sewing ones 
7. Tidy/sort/declutter my little workroom. Much amusement among my instagram friends (I'm @lifeinlists on instagram, and post far too much) when I posted a picture of my personal Liberty print stash making a bid for freedom across the floor after spilling out of its over-stuffed storage space today.
8. Pretend Spring is here - go outside, find some bulbs that are growing, and enjoy the odd moment of sunshine. Since I started working, I've found that I can go 36-48 hours without leaving the house, and it is getting me down a bit. I am making a conscious effort to do something about it this month, even though Devon seems determined to dampen my spirits with endless rain.
9. Refine my iced biscuits (who am I kidding? Refine? Make recognisable would be a start). Did I show you my iced biscuits? I must remember to. I have decreed 2013 The Year in Which I Learn to Make Fabulous Iced Biscuits. I'm stealing book ideas from Susan and hoping to improve a lot before 2013 is out. So far no children or husbands have complained about this mission, since it results in endless baking.
10. Read a book. Any book. I seem to have no time at all for reading at the moment (this is totally self inflicted). Maybe a biscuit book will have to cut it for now, but I'd like to read something other than the Hungry Hungry Caterpillar (for the three millionth time. And every time it's a surprise when he turns into a butterfly. Oh, to be 23 months old and so easily impressed).
11. Be nice. It's faintly possible I've been a little bit stressed of late (I can picture Adam's raised eyebrows from here). I am attempting to improve. Honest guv'.

List of the week: WIPs

I started out taking photos of every WIP, but quickly realised we'd be here for the rest of the actual week if I did. And also they're not that interesting what with being, you know, in progress. So let's just get stuck in with the list, shall we?

1. The Single Girl/Boy quilt. Quilted! Oh yes. Finally. But not bound.
2. The Farmers Wife quilt. As I said the other day, I'm giving myself downtime on this. Partly to decide on a colour scheme, but partly until I've been to the Festival of Quilts in August and decided when it's really the sampler I want to commit to right now.
3. Elbow patches on my mother's cashmere sweater. I started to sew one on, I got scared, it's sat in my mending basket ever since. Should probably get it mended before I've had it a full 12 months, I suppose. However, I've just gone to look for it and it's disappeared. I suspect my mother has given up on me and taken it back, so maybe we can cross this one off?
4. Mending the cuff on a stripy cashmere jumper of Teddy's. Well, Jasper's actually. I let Teddy wear it until he grew out of it, since I knew I wouldn't get round to mending it. My mission now is to mend it before Jasper grows into it.
5. Silks dyed and waiting to be hemmed and turned into play silks. I know that Teddy would get a huge amount of use from these if I would just get on and hem them. But I keep looking here and here and basically anywhere here and think can I really be bothered when I could just buy them? Answers on a postcard.
6. A charm quilt that's been in progress for over two years. That's ridiculous. I know exactly how I want to make this, I just need to actually do it.
7. A Summersville quilt. For some reason, I haven't put a single photo of it in progress up on here, but if you follow me on Instagram (I'm Lifeinlists, unsurprisingly) you might have seen the odd peek. It's turned into a bit of a mix of english paper pieced, straightforward hand pieced and machine pieced, and it's coming together rather nicely, if a bit slowly.
8. My Brit Bee block for Trudi. Again, you'll have seen this pop up on Instagram, but it is my first proper attempt at foundation paper piecing and it is going somewhat slowly. Especially because I ran out of backing fabric (thanks to some rather over-generous cutting while getting to grips with the foundation paper piecing) and had to beg Trudi for more. Hoping to get this finished by the weekend.
9. My Brit Bee quilt, which I posted a very sneak peek of the other day. I'm in no rush on this one though.
10. A blazer, still looking much the same (i.e. still only a muslin) as it did in early April.
11. The Liberty quilt I posted the other day. I want to expand this, partly because I want my very own Liberty quilt, and partly to see how far I can make the charm packs go!
12. A portholes quilt which I started after learning the technique at FQ Retreat a few weeks ago.

Right, I've lost my nerve. I'll start tackling those and worry about anything else that comes out of the woodwork after I've finished.

Ooh, it's actually made me all twitchy and anxious writing all of those down. That's a lot of time and money (in terms of fabric) sitting there not being useful or particularly beautiful. I'm off to get tackling.

Does your WIP list make you anxious, or do you like having 300 projects on the go at any one time?

List of the week

I've written at least once before on my love of menu plans. We're still big fans of them, although of late they have become rather move vague (i.e. seven days of 'cereal or porridge' for breakfast and a list of seven dinners. Lunch is basically whatever you can find). However, in the past week we've begun a bit of a health kick, broughy on partly by my determination to finally kick the last bit of baby weight and also by me completely failing to take care of what I was eating and ending up really very run down and rather anaemic a few weeks back (turns out that looking after two children is even more knackering if you don't watch your diet). Naturally, my boys are perfectly healthy, but I was spending so long rushing around making sure that they were ok and eating the right things that I wasn't spending nearly long enough ensuring that I was doing the same.

And so, after a short absence, sensible quantities of red meat, fish, duck eggs and fresh veg aplenty are back on the menu. And that menu is rather more carefully thought out for everyone in the family than in recent months.

Oh, and if you're thinking of having your own mini-health-kick, I got a lot out of reading Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels and can recommend pretty much any of her workout videos (I particularly like Shred and Ripped, mostly because they're very short, so the pain doesn't last too long. I am not a fan of actual proper exercise, so I like it to last as little time as possible).

List of the week

The last couple of items left to get as I upload a whole swathe of new fabrics to my etsy store. I'll do a proper blog post when all the new fabrics are up, but feel free to take a look at what's trickling in already!

Some more things, in the form of links

• If you follow me on twitter you may already have discovered Summerfete, but I'm liking it so much I thought I'd better send of many of you over there as possible. Although I'm slightly worried you'll like it so much you won't come back. Her paper piecing is just wonderfully wonderful.
• It's that time again! I love Meg's Kids' Clothes Week Challenge. I've participated twice before (with varying degrees of success), and am determined to make this season's my best yet. Never mind that I've got half as much time and twice as many kids to sew for.

• Some things in life are cruel, nasty and unfair. Cancer is one of those things. Manda McGrory of Treefall Design, is doing something good in the face of the hammering it is giving and has given members of her family. If you have even just a pound or two to spare, please think about donating.
• On a lighter note, I have about a billion cakes and sausage rolls to bake before 11am today, for Teddy's birthday party. it is now 7:50am and I am not entirely what you could call showered and dressed.
• I actually worked out how near the sunshine quilt is to completion (of the quilting, anyway). It's actually not too depressing. A couple more long films over the weekend and we might actually get there.
• I really need to go bake now.

Winter sewing (and knitting) plans: Teddy

Irrelevant photo. Teddy admiring Grumpa Rog's motorbike (one of several).

Planning my own winter wardrobe last week got me thinking about what the boys needed to bulk out their wardrobes this winter. Teddy's need is greater, due to the absence of hand me downs in his life. And so, I have created a list that bears absolutely no relation to the amount of free time I actually have.

This is what I'd like to make for Teddy before the cold season really hits:

1. Lined trousers. He had some lovely cosy ones last winter that he wore practically every day, but they now hover somewhere around mid-calf length. I'm thinking of adapting and sizing up the quick change trousers from Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner, but I'm open to other pattern suggestions.
2. Colourwork sweater. The one from This month's list.
3. T-shirts, a handful thereof. I'd love to make some in super cool colours, but am rather obliged by budget constraints (and the look on Adam's face when yet more fabric enters our house) to use up my stash of random jerseys and thrifted men's t-shirts first. Incidentally, does anyone have any top tips for hemming jersey without a coverstitch machine? I just can't settle on a good technique.
4. A waterproof hat, using (for the billionth time) the bucket hat pattern from Little Things to Sew and some laminate fabric.
5. Knitted socks. Lots of cosy knitted socks.
6. Pyjamas. I have a whole load of brushed cotton ready to go, and I'm holding out great hopes for the pyjama pattern in Sewing for Boys (which should be arriving any day now. Hooray!)
7. A dressing gown (robe) for staying cosy in winter. With fuel prices the way they ae I think I'm going to be insisting on a bare minimum of 14 layers before I'll agree to turn the heating on this winter.
8. Woolly hat, mittens and scarf. Although last year's scarf might actually still be up to the job.

And this is what else he needs to complete his wardrobe. I may need to admit defeat and buy some of these:

1. Another sweater. He currently has a whopping one sweater that fits (this one, as it happpens. Turns out my fit prediction was right, even though he's actually been wearing it all year). I'd like to knit one, but am aware that there's optimism and then there's just plain silly. And you haven't even seen Jasper's list yet.
2. Wellies. I am prepared to accept not making these. I have found the perfect ones online with pull on handles, just need to measure Teddy's feet again before ordering (the child just keeps growing)
3. Some heavy weight trousers, probably involving a synthetic fabric in some way, for nursery.  His (Montessori) nursery are big into being outdoors whenever possible, so he needs some warm but easy to care for clothes for nursery that won't wear out in one second flat
4. Proper winter waterproofs (trousers and coat). For aforementioned outdoorsy nursery, and for our own reasonably free range lifestyle. Any brand recommendations very welcome! I've heard that the various Scandinavian makes are best (if there's one thing they know about, it's cold winters!

Um. Optimistic? Definitely. Realistic? Not even a tiny bit. Never mind, the hand making police probably won't come and arrest me if I end up buying more than I make. It's nice to dream.

I've got something to show you tomorrow that I've been saving up all week, and I'll put my ever-so-slightly-optimistic list for Jasper up on Thursday.

To Do: September

Gorgeous list-making stationery from Flapperdoodle.

I can't believe that for about the eighth month in a row I'm contemplating writing 'finish the sunshine quilt' on my To Do list. I swear that quilting goblins are visiting to unpick my stitches on a nightly basis. My sole aim in life is to complete the damn thing before winter sets in. Bets on whether I get it done?

Anyway, on the off chance I beat the quilting goblins, here are the rest of the things I'd like to achieve this month:

1. Finish that jumper for Teddy
2. Make a winter coat for Teddy. We were donated two amazing cashmere overcoats by Adam's mother recently (she had them made abroad, but the cut wasn't what she and her husband wanted, and they've been languishing unworn for a long time). I'm hoping to salvage enough fabric for a winter coat for Teddy, and possibly something for Jasper too. They're black, which wouldn't be my first choice, but I'm not going to turn my nose up at free cashmere! Anyone know any tricks for safely bleaching wool coating fabric, with the aim of re-dyeing it charcoal or navy?
3. Knit socks for Teddy
4. Knit longies/leggings for Jasper
5. Plan the Christmas season hand making that needs doing
6. Make a winter dress for me

Ah, the joy of optimism in the face of having completed precisely one of last month's items. Ho hum.

August round up

I just realised there's a whole bunch of people doing what I (attempt to) do each month - a round up of my sewing for the month. Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts has a whole host of August sewing round ups. 

August marked the real return to The List after a handful of rather busy months (tip: don't plan your wedding and new baby for the same three month period if you value sleep in any way).

 I won't go so far as to say it was a resounding success (I'm not entirely sure I've knit more than four rows on Teddy's jumper - which is likely to end up being reassigned to Jasper if I don't finish it soon), but it also wasn't a dismal failure. Round up:

1. Finish the Sunshine Quilt.

It won't surprise you to learn that I haven't finished it. I am trying not to get cross about that. Can we not talk about it just now?

2. Make a new sunhat for Teddy.

 Hurrah! Done! And I do realise that is not, in fact, Teddy.

3. Knit a colourwork sweater for Teddy.

Well, I've knitted something that more resembles a colourwork belt. but hey, it's making progress. Thankfully I only planned a band of colourwork round the bottom, which I'm on the last row of, so it should start making good progress soon!

4. Knit a wool soaker or longies for Jasper.

Um. Nope. I really should get this on the needles so I have something mindless in progress.

5. Finish the Single Girl quilt

Meh. Jasper's not using his cot. I'm disinclined to make him a quilt. Can you tell the sleep deprivation is getting tedious? And if anyone leaves a comment about how their baby slept through at 3 weeks (or, indeed, slept more than 2 hours together at any point before 5 months) I am liable to have a hormonal moment.

September's list coming tomorrow!

Summer holiday, a few things to tell you, and busier than ever

We've been on our summer holiday. Mainly to my parents', but via the Isle of Wight to watch some sailing.

This chap is already a seasoned ferry traveller.

Because we like watching boats.

Especially boats with Daddy in.

We also like taking pictures of taking pictures. Sometimes I suspect my sister doesn't value her camera that much.

Yum.

Visual yum (more on this later).

More visual yum. And more on this later too (This quilt is Deconstructing Clarice, by Kathryn Chambers)

Teddy was rather more struck by the magnifying glass than the butterflies at the zoo.

Not exactly the most glamorous holiday in the world, since the post wedding budget stretched to one tank of fuel. The world was our oyster, as long as that oyster was within a radius of 130 miles. So, we visited my mother and step-father in South Wales (via the Isle of Wight. Don't ask).

I've got about a billion posts in the works, but a few notes to catch up on for now. Most of them are unrelated to one another. Sorry about that.

1. There are an awful lot of interesting places local to my parents. If you're ever looking for a bidget holiday, I suggest googling for local attractions. We could have visited a working museum, an old mine, an old ironworks (hey, my parents live in South Wales. Most activities revolve around coal), a maze (adjoining the above butterfly zoo), countless ruined and less-ruined castles and goodness knows what else.
2. The Festival of Quilts at the NEC was brilliant. And made me feel very humble and seriously lacking in talent.
3. Apple fudge cake is also brilliant.
4. More importantly, when I posted about the Festival of Quilts last week I quoted the source of the photo of an amazing quilt, but, stupidly, not the makers. It was made by Rosalind Gregory and Joan Herrington and is called 'Where have all my shirts gone?' Rosalind had a similarly impressive quilt (made from salvaged dresses rather than shirts this time. That woman knows how to maximise fabric!) at this year's exhibition called 'Becky's Dresses' - I didn't take a photograph, but there is an image of it here.
5. We have our wedding photos back! They are amazing amazing amazing. And I can finally blog the remaining handmade details of the day.
6. Thank you so much to everyone who commented on my post on comment replies last week. I've ringfenced a few minutes tomorrow to have a proper read through all the blog comments from last week, and I'll decide how best to deal with comment replies in future.
7. I've caught the hand piecing bug again. I love it so.
8. But before I am allowed to indulge it too much, I need to carry on with hand quilting.
9. I am less enamoured of hand quilting.
10. I am very busy. My To Do list is a little alarming.
11. What crops can I plant now? The allotment is basically ready to use, but I have no idea what to sow!