Succulent Success

Time has such a way of getting away from us, doesn’t it?

Between the holidays and the beginning of tax season, I have found myself almost too busy to get any sewing done. I work as an accountant, and between January and mid-April, we get to run through the gauntlet a little bit. Due to the excessive business, I haven’t been able to work on any of my little side projects at all. Any snippets of time I’ve managed to grab have been devoted to my best friend’s graduation gift.

My best friend and I have known each other since we were quite young but became close in college. She is an incredibly bright woman who loves the outdoors and is a little wild, so I was not at all surprised when she wanted a succulent/cactus quilt as a graduation gift. Finding the pattern was a pain, but they are so cute!

The quilt is going to get a whole lot funkier as it progresses, but I am close to finishing a dozen cactuses that I need for that particular element of her gift. While I wish I had a little more time to sew right now, I am glad I get to spend the time that I do have on something so cute!

Once I have more of the quilt done I will post the pattern that I got off of Etsy for anyone who also wants to make these charming little cactuses!

-Sparkle Jane

Holiday Chaos… and Peace.

One expected, but not simple, consequence of moving far away from all of the extended family that my husband and I dearly love is that we travel extensively over the holidays. We enjoy and miss all of our respective in-laws, so our Thanksgivings and Christmases have already proved very hectic at times, even so early on in our marriage. It’s a wonderful and sometimes stressful situation.

Because of the aforementioned holiday chaos, I have had very little sewing and writing time over the last several weeks. I have gotten a few things done, but I’ve had to choose between posting and stitching, so my inanimate tasks have been getting a disproportionate amount of my time and attention. Not to mention the fact that so little has been completed that there wasn’t much to be posting to you all about.

So here it is! I have been working away at a lovely little tree skirt for my home with my husband and cats. This project has been a new challenge for me as it needed a lot of skills I either haven’t learned or have not needed to use in a long while.

The first major issue was that I somehow neglected to notice that the color scheme was exceptionally patriotic. The fabric was gifted to me and is very Christmas-y, so it seemed perfect for a tree skirt! We are a very patriotic household (family in the military as well as veterans), but somehow it didn’t feel like a Christmas project because of it. My husband missed the color scheme issue as well originally but then offered a green binding as a solution. It helped, but I still feel that it is a little unbalanced. Oh well. We live and we learn.

The pattern that I used to make this tree skirt was pretty good, and I will link it here: https://www.gathered.how/sewing-and-quilting/quilting/free-christmas-tree-skirt-pattern/

I do have a few warnings: firstly, this pattern calls for more fabric than you need, with the exception of the backing. If you have pieces that are close, feel free. Secondly, the instructions for the final trim on the panels are… Lacking? Almost non-existent? I was a bit frustrated, to be honest. I ended up freehanding the trimming of the panels with the 45-degree lines on my rotary board, which was a passable fix, but having more specific measurements would have made my segments more exact. Proceed with caution.

I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday that is safe and full of love. I know that holidays are a mixed bag for many people, and I wish you and your family joy.

-Sparkle Jane

And Now…

Well,  I made good resolutions, and I kept them for a  while I guess, but it’s the “for a while” that’s so disappointing. I did do very well, at least for a while, and I am proud of myself for that. But now, I must make up for these many days that I have been neglecting you all shamefully. I apologize for my neglect, and here is the make-up for that.

Here is my latest one-up on my “science project”. The wave quilt is going beautifully, and I love it more and more with every stitch. I’ve decided what I’m going to do with it to. I’ve had a  quilt on my bed for  a while, one that I made when I was ten, or maybe 11,  (I think). But now, that sweet little show-winning will be given a  slight break. The wave quilt will move to the bed this May, when I do my enormous room clean. So here is a picture of that well-beloved and used quilt, for those of you who haven’t met it yet.

 

This was a picture taken just after the huge room clean last year.

This is a  shot that my mother took at the fair that I entered the quilt in. It won first, and I was so pleased. But that was years ago, and now…

I’m starting the hand quilting on the wave quilt. I’m planning on entering it in the fair this year. I’m having so much fun with this, and I shall try to keep you all informed with how it’s going. It’s going to take the other quilts place on the bed, and I’m sure it will keep me very warm.

Thanks for reading,

Sparkle Jane

 

 

Two For The Reading Of One!

So, after a very long week (or weeks) of school work and general mayhem, I think that I’m ready to post. I have been sewing in all the general mayhem though, and I have gotten through two different steps in my science water quilt, so you’re getting them both at once.

All the cutting associated with this was very tiring, but I got through it. One  a few of the strips, there were little bit’s left that I could use in other parts of the quilt, so I used almost all of the fabric I had sewn. This looked like a rather enormous project to me, and that was daunting for me, but I got through it ok.

This is half of the top. I haven’t uploaded the full quilt pics, sorry. It’s so beautiful, plus it’s a really good size. I was overall, very pleased. I enjoyed this part of the project, but the next step is even more exciting. I’m going to hand-quilt the whole thing!

Thanks for reading,

Sparkle Jane

Afghan Times

I recently visited my grandparents, and while we were there my Grandma gave me a bag with some yarn in it. It was very pretty yarn, all pinks and blues and yellows, in baby tints. After rummaging in the bag a bit, I realised that it was a partially made blanket, but that was made with knitting needles. Neither my mom nor I knit, and I had a purpose in mind for the yarn, so during the drive home, I unwound the partially made object, and started something of my own. There was a new baby in my ward, so why not?

I also added a little decorative edge to the afghan. So cute! I love it and hope that its new owners will too.

Thanks for reading!

Sparkle Jane T.

Well, I Have Been…

I have been being useful, regardless of my lack of activity. Between all of the school, dancing, and homework, I haven’t had much downtime. All of my time that I have been on the computer has mostly been devoted to the writing of essays.  All eighth graders have a typing test soon, so I’ve been doing practice essays at school. Thusly a severe lack of postiness.

But believe it or not, I have been getting a little done. In science we’re learning about water, and we got to pick a personal project. Our teacher said that we could pick any project, as long as it had to do with water: Art, poems, experiments, whatever. We gave her a proposal, and she would approve, make suggestions, or disapprove, with information on why.  My proposal: An all blue, purple, and sea-foam green bargello quilt. It demonstrates the wave patterns of water, right? 🙂 My teacher loved the idea, and thusly…This.

Trying to choose how to lay out all those little pieces is exhausting! Thusly me, dead on the floor (not literally) and still dreaming about how on earth I could decide. I did, eventually, and now I’ve been busily sewing like a maniac. I’ve been on one of those sewing kicks where you can’t really stop for too long without hearing the fabric singing to you from the sewing room. 🙂 Most of my weekend has been spent in the sewing room, busily sewing away.

So there you are. I’ve been sewing, and just haven’t had typing times.  I hope you all had a good Valentines Day.

Thanks for reading,

Sparkle Jane

Christmas In January

My Grandmother has always been very generous with presents over Christmas time. And she is always careful to make sure the presents between my brother and me have been fair. But this year, while looking at the presents and trying to figure out what they were, my brother and I discovered a VERY large box. We read the tag and…It was for me! While looking through the other boxes, we found no others nearly so large. So we had to wonder what it was. The box wasn’t heavy, so it couldn’t be electronic.  We were, needless to say,  curious.  Christmas day came, and we began unwrapping. As we got to the huge box, we all paid much attention to it. I took the paper off and well…Let’s just show a pic…Roll the camera!

Boots! And rather fantastic ones I might add. My mom plotted a photo shoot outside, so here they are.

My mom has a tendency of deliberately making me laugh while we do photo shoots, so I’m laughing in most of them…(Notice that the cat joined in.)

Love the whole outfit, but especially the boots!

Thanks for reading,

Sparkle Jane T.

P.S. My brother had a box as small as mine was large, but his was a watch. Fair to the tee.

Totally Tutus

Again with my super busy life. Sorry for the long hole between posts, but here I am again. My school recently had a dance. My friend and I decided that we needed to do something crazy for it. And we needed to match. The decision: Tutus. Crazy? Indeed, but crazy cool. We spent one afternoon at my house, and ta-da!!!!!!!!!!!!

Two tutus! We had so much fun! We matched that day, and we were fabulous. The tutu skirt is made up of different colors of netting, and the waistband is made of cotton poly solid black fabric.

Thanks for reading,

Sparkle Jane

P.S. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!

Garage Sale Glory!

I have always loved going to garage sales, but now I love them even more!

Question: What’s Green, originally $345, and paid for at a garage sale with $50?

Answer: The most beautiful prom dress ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So beautiful!!!!!!!!! I won’t be able to wear it for another year (I have to be in high school to go to prom. 🙂 But I can’t wait!

Thanks for reading,

Sparkle Jane

I Had Fun!

My school had a dance a while ago (and when I say a while I mean 2 months ago:) My school calls dances “Stomps”, which doesn’t make sense until you go to one and see that none of the guys ever dance with the girls. You can’t really blame them because if you do dance with someone people will video tape you. No joke, they really will. All “Stomps” are planned by the student leaders, and I am a student leader, so I knew about it before the rest of the student body. Because of this I had a lot of time to plan an outfit.

The final outfit was Black skinny jeans with orange shirt, turquoise tank-top, black hat with orange ribbon (not the hat in the picture, we decided on a different black hat last-minute, but it did still have the same ribbon), and a scarf that I made myself. The scarf is easy to make and I will probably do a tutorial on it sometime. The outfit was a success and I had a great time.

Thanks for reading,

Sparkle Jane