project purgatory

After the quarter ended, I decided to do a massive overhaul on my room. I cleaned and moved all my furniture around. I think I like the new setup. During the process, I uncovered a box under the sewing table that was full of projects that were half done. Sadly, I'm sure there are others lurking somewhere out there.

One of the projects, I managed to finish today. It's a knit top with pastel blue and yellow stripes with pleated cap sleeves. That project stalled sometime last summer when I had to put binding on the neck hole and somehow finish the hem. I hate those parts. I finished it off this morning and realized that maybe it's too tight. I'm not sure if I want people to be able to see my underwire. Maybe I can pawn the top off onto someone else.

This is the same approach I'm taking with the knitted tank (cover project from Sarah Dallas's Vintage Knits) I just finished. Even though I downsized it, the thing is still too big!! I was just looking at the schematic for version of it in last summer's Rowan and there is way less ease in the pattern. I wonder if it was because of differences in American and British sizing, but I am bitter!! The stupid top doesn't fit. I think for this one, I have an eager recipient, so it's not horrible, even though I would have liked for it to fit me. Boo.

The item in the box that truly took up the most room is a quilt that I started making in 1998. 1998!! The top is pieced and all of the layers are basted together. I abandoned this one when I had to start machine quilting. It is so big that the machine quilting process is huge and daunting. I finally jumped in two days ago. Oddly, I found that it's easier for me to do the stippled quilting with the feed dogs up and haven't found the walking foot to be necessary (this is contrary to the research that I did before starting the project).

Unfortunately, it's summer and after about 20 minutes of quilting, I was covered in a sheen of sweat. I stuck it out and completed about a square foot of quilting in an hour. The quilt is huge and I'm now sweating just sitting here. I figure if I work on it a little bit in the morning each day, it shouldn't be that bad and then I can take a shower and then do my actual work. I was going to do that today, but I was sidetracked by the striped top.

The last item in the box is a dress I started to make last year for my niece. I cut it to be a size 2, since I figured that she is small for her age and would still be able to get some wear out of it if I finished it that year. The alternative was that my younger niece might be able to fit in it if I finished it later. Four seasons later, she's now 3, the younger niece is just as big, and the newest addition to the family is a boy! It would be a cute dress, but I don't think that's the look that his parents are going for (stupid gender rules).

I'm now sort of between projects. I could work on the cardigan I started a few months ago, but it's hot and I have to figure out what the hieroglyphics I wrote to rechart the pattern mean. Instead, I'm thinking that I could work on a crochet elephant. Everyone's life could use a crochet elephant...