So Many Projects

I was first going to label this entry "too many projects" but actually I don't have "too many". I have a lot of hobbies and I want to do many things. Therefore I have many projects. But too many? Right now, here's what I have on the burners for sewing and knitting. Now mind you this list of projects also has to compete with the house projects (painting the hallway, refinishing the wood floors, landscaping the backyard...), the scrapbook projects (still haven't finished my honeymoon album and we've been married over 7 years), the dollhouse (so many cute miniature things!), the genealogy (I've promised printouts and CDs to cousins and siblings), the garden (no fresh veggies this year...again?), my skating (if we're going to pass our tests, we need to skate more!), and my French (will there be French 2 or is French 1 as far as I'll take it?).

Burda 2560 blouse: It's a "muslin" since I'm using fabric I don't love but I'm making it up as if and in case I actually want to wear it. It's also practice for when I cut into the fabric that I do love.

A fake fur throw: This was inspired by a Sandra Betzina project that she showed on the PBS TV series America Sews. The throw is also in her book Sandra Betzina Sews for Your Home. I'm using a snow leopard print fake fur on one side and a short pile zebra fake fur on the other with black microfleece for the border. I started this last year as a present for A but didn't get it finished. I couldn't keep the cats off of it and they kept pulling the pins out. And since it was getting to be warm out and not fake fur throw weather, I stuffed it in the closet.

Curtains for the family room: Well, this really isn't a full blown sewing project. I bought navy blue velvet curtains from IKEA and they just need to be hemmed and the panels joined together because they're going on a traverse rod. I know I should get these done before it's too warm to put them up.

Pillows for family room: I have the fabric: short pile "painted pony" fake fur and short pile cheetah fake fur, and I have the pillow forms. I just have to make the covers. I think I have some polyester suede somewhere in a similar color and would like to do one side of each pillow in that and also maybe do some piping. Hence, the pillows will take a while to get done.

Quilt: My first and only quilting project (unless you count two very small wall hangings) is still unquilted. It's pieced and safety pinned to the batting and backing. One reason I haven't touched it is that I'm afraid that in the nearly five years it's been sitting in this state, the pins have leached their metal onto the fabric. I am afraid. I don't want to look.

I could go on for days describing the other projects I have in mind. I have hundreds of yards of fabric and a couple hundred patterns (yikes!) and nearly all were bought with a specific project in mind. If I can keep from buying more fabric or more patterns, these projects will slowly work their way to the top of the pile. I'm trying to identify these projects, like I did above in hopes of focusing on them and being reminded of them. I have a couple of collapsing mesh containers that I think will be good for housing the supplies for these projects. If they are "in sight", maybe they'll be "in mind" and I'll work on them.

My knitting projects are also backed up. Right now I have two unfinished projects.

Cream and pink baby dress: I don't remember who I started this for. Or maybe I just started knitting it figuring that if I ever got it done there'd be some child in the family that could wear it. I think it was the latter. It's super soft yarn that I purchased from a yarn store that was closing. I have many balls of it. I should have knitted it on my knitting machine because the yarn is lightweight enough and the pattern is simply stockingnet. But portions of it were knitted when I sat in the room with my father as he lay dying of cancer. I wouldn't be able to frog it (rip rip) due to those memories. I may never finish it either.

Off white cotton sweater: It's a pattern from Knitter's magazine and naturally it has a complicated stitch pattern. I thought stockingnet would be boring so I chose this one instead. But now I can't be put it down and pick it up later without having to relearn the stitch and spend huge amounts of time just trying to figure out where I left off! I worked on this a lot during long flights to D.C. for work. I also worked on it during the wee hours of the morning when I was working. It helped that my work at the time consisted of being present in case there were any problems with the satellite we were babysitting. Yes, babysitting. I was sitting crew duty monitoring a satellite we'd just launched and since it was the "health and safety" crew, we didn't get to do the fun stuff of deploying solar arrays and firing rocket engines. Our job was to just watch it for 12 hours in case it spontaneously did anything wrong. It never did.

I have some yarn for other projects that I haven't started: luscious rayon yarn for a vest, soft chenille for a hat, and colorful yarn for socks. Knitting socks is my "new" project obsession. I don't know why...

So that's what's on my horizon for projects. Now if I could only find the time.