Overachiever

I don't know whether I'm an overachiever or just hopelessly out of touch with reality. But when it comes to projects, it's a classic case of "my eyes are bigger than my stomach." Or rather "my big ideas are greater than my time and talent."

Regardless, I've got a few things on my needles - both the knitting needles and the sewing machine needles.


First I should probably introduce you to JoAnn. She'll be my stand in for those bloated and bad hair days. You'll probably see a lot of her.



My first project is one that is from Interweave Knits magazine and is called the Bonsai Tunic.

This is what it should look like when it's done.



I have most of the back completed so far, and I'm hoping to finish this by the end of May.

(JoAnn looks like she needs to lose some weight - her butt looks a little big in this sweater.)

I love this little vest because it can be worn with a short or long sleeve shirt underneath it so it should span pretty well across the seasons. It is also my first attempt at charted knitting, so now I'm one step closer to being a "real Knitter." With a capital K. (I did take quite a bit of teasing from Vern for making it in almost the exact same color as the model in the magazine. What can I say? It looks good in that color. . . ).

A couple of knitting projects that I'm dying to start are the Waterlily Top (also from Interweave)

and the Soleil tank top from Knitty.com.

On the sewing side of things, I'm doing a Trash the Stash project and plan to use, sell, or otherwise eliminate all of my fabric stash. I have my fabrics divided into summer and winter fabrics, so I'm working on the summer fabrics right now. I figure if I use it all up, I can buy more of the new fabrics out there and actually have room for it! My goal is to use it with patterns that I already have or that I find online so that I don't have to buy more "stuff" in order to get rid of the old stuff.

The sewing projects are mostly quick projects, so I'm actually hoping to have all of them completed by the end of this month also.

The first project is to make an apron out of this vintage tablecloth. I'm planning to use a pattern from In Stitches by Amy Butler. I love wearing aprons - they make me feel all Holly Homemaker.

I'm also going to participate in a sew-along from Sew Mama Sew and make a vintage style smock.

This is a 3-week long sew along, so I'm going to try to do a little each week as it is presented. It's a pretty easy pattern, so I shouldn't have any problem keeping up with this one. I've got a couple of cute fabrics in my stash that I have in mind for this.

(Gee, with all the apron/smock talk, you would think that I cook and clean a lot. Not true. I just like to look like I do.)

Finally, I ran across a super easy tunic in the most recent issue of Threads. It's simply made from rectangles. I'm going to make it in a basic black stretch fabric so that I can wear it with all my t-shirts this summer. This one should whip up in no time.

Whew. I'm tired already and I haven't even cleaned up my sewing room so that I can get started.

If you don't hear from me for a few days, send help. Or Martha Stewart.