Look what I found at IKEA

I don't shop at IKEA very often, and I was there the other day and discovered that they sell fabric by the yard. A lot of the fabrics are upholstery weight, some are lighter weight blends. This is one I bought - it's a cotton/linen blend, 60" wide, and was only $7.99 a yard. The print is pretty big - I was thinking of making a table runner, but am now thinking of maybe just hemming it and making it a tablecloth. They have a lot of their signature large-scale Swedish prints, some nice stripes, and some solids. I didn't see anything more than $7.99 a yard.

What I've Been Working On Lately

Today I finished my PhD dissertation. This is the culmination of 6 years of study and research and also the end of a VERY long week of editing, referencing, and eventually printing. It is 130 pages long and barely fits in the folders that I bought for the copies that I am about to deliver to my committee members. This thing is LONG but somehow the thickness doesn't seem adequate to contain the years that have gone into it. I think everyone feels this way. For today, I'm glad it's finished. Next week I start working on my defense presentation.

Beach Bag

I made my first beach bag this week. I found the pattern while I was shopping with Kathy and Reenie, and I believe they were making fun of all of the fabrics I bought to make beach bags. (I was just planning to make one for everyone I know!) Anyway, I finished it in about 2 nights, and have started the second one. We will look pretty stylish on the beach this summer. And, if you're lucky, I'll make you one!

Fabric Finds in Ohio

Here are some of the fabrics I bought in Ohio. Kathy, Pam and I had a great time checking out some of the fabric shops. Pam took us in her Prius, we figured out how to use the GPS system, and we went on a little shop hop. We found 4 shops in the Cleveland/Akron/Canton area. We had so much fun that we didn't take any pictures of us, so I only have this one of some of the fabrics I bought. The one on the bottom of my stack is an upholstery-weight Amy Butler fabric - I'm thinking tote bag for that one. The others will find their way into various other projects. I also came home with a couple patterns - one for a quilt and one for a quilted beach bag. So I better get to sewing!

Lillian Laney was ahead of her time

I saw this post on PurlSoho and, of course, thought of Grandma. Apparently, hand-knit wash cloths exist outside of our family! Brian is still not fully on-board with the homemade dish cloths, but I'm sure he'll come around.

The Finished Quilt

Ingrid finished piecing together our quilt squares for Monika, Rico, and their new daughter last week. Isn't the backing great? I love the orange. Looks like my squares weren't too bright, after all!

The Internet Was Right

I got this top from J. Crew last month during their "final sale" which means it can't be returned. On the website, it looked like a really pretty orange-scarlet color, but in real life it looked like my shirt was on fire. I should have heeded the name of the color: bright flame.

I decided to try to change the color. Should I make it lighter or darker? I already have black shirts and it's Spring, after all, so I decided to try to bleach it into a lineny pale orange.

On the internet, they say you can't bleach chiffon because it will burn the plastic of the fabric, which has been embedded with its color since it was created. I ignored this advice and here are the results:



















The bleach really did eat up the chiffon, but it looked kind of cool like it was tie-dyed for a few minutes before I tried it on and realized the chiffon was tearing apart at the slightest touch. Then I cut off all the chiffon and left just the satin lining, which I then discovered was totally see-through (last picture). Now I think I'll use the lining to make a change-purse or something.