Finished Amy Butler Duvet Cover

What a great week it was, first off the weather here in Vancouver was spectacular all week. We had no rain, it was sunny and warm in fact bulbs are starting to pop up here in the garden.

Work went well, I billed 38 hours, worked only 4 days and managed to walk the dogs every day after work. I got lots of little picky things done, still cleared nothing from my to do list however (next week I'll get that cleared up). Business remains good, volumes are way better than this time last year. We must be doing something right.

I finished a couple of projects, first and foremost, the Amy Butler duvet cover is done and on the bed. Do you like it? I can't say I love it, but I do like it. It's going to inspire me to do some work in the bedroom and change up my decor and accessories. We've been very slow to get our bedroom looking good. The rest of the house looks great but the bedroom needs some love, so to speak. Stay tuned.


I also managed to finish my Jalie top. I found a buckle that's a perfect size at Fabricana. I would have preferred a wooden buckle but wasn't able to find one. I'll have to go around the thrift shops looking for an old belt with a good buckle I can use. I'm happy with the way the top turned out however, and will probably even wear it. I'll definitely make it again, probably a couple more times. I have some nice knits I ordered from fabric.com waiting for me at our trailer in Lacey, WA. We're planning to head down there next weekend. In addition to the fabric I have some books and sewing accessories waiting that I ordered on the internet.

I've finished the first week of my running program. I want to run 5K by my 55th birthday on March 20. I'm getting ready for week 2. I took my toy poodle Jackie to the vet to make sure that she's good to run with me. They said it'll be OK as long as I don't take her over 3K. That's a bit of a bummer, but I'll figure out how to run her for 3K, get her home and continue on myself. However that's quite a few weeks away. I'm still at the point where I'm walking more than I'm jogging. I feel a little bit of pain in my right knee. I may have to buy some proper running shoes instead of the all purpose gym shoes I've been wearing.

Viewing was great this week. 24 is back! I wasn't disappointed and who knew that Rene would turn out to be as brutal as Jack. What a great couple they'd make. I'm also following Launch my Line. It'll do until Project Runway gets going here in Canada in early February. We're always a few weeks behind the US viewing. I think so far LML is credible, they've made good choices in who they take out. I'm not sure about the model part however, there seems to be a pool of models that gets used and they don't get to keep their models week after week. This makes fitting very difficult as the measurements they're given seldom seem to be close the the models real measurements.

Next week, I doubt I'll get much sewing done as we'll be away in Lacey for the weekend, but I should have finished week 2 of my running program.

Jalie 2921

I had a good week at work and was able to clean up lots of loose ends. I attended 1 meeting and a productive one at that. I got nothing crossed off my to do list (eek)but did bill 35.5 hours. Not bad for 4 days work.

We decided to go up to the Sunshine Coast for the weekend and were leaving late on Friday morning. This gave me time to cut out Jalie 2921 before we left. I'm using a knit I bought last year from either fabric.com or gorgeous fabrics. I had planned to use it to make a Vogue wrap dress but when I received the fabric it wasn't what I expected. In fact I thought it was horrible. It has now been relegated to my muslin pile. I'm anxious to see what it will look like as a top, it actually may not be too bad in such a small amount. This pattern has only 3 pieces if you make the sleeveless version and so it only took me half an hour or so to copy the pieces onto parchment paper, another 45 minutes and I had my pieces cut out and ready to go with me to the coast.

I have a really cheap Europro machine up there that I bought at Costco. It works fine, sews a good stitch but so far I've only used it for piecing when I bring quilt projects up with me, I've never tried the stretch stitches so this will be a first. Oh yes and I only have quilting needles with me, no knit needles. It's really hard to think of everything you need to bring.


It only took me a few hours to get the top to this state. What a great pattern and very clever. You end up pulling the whole shirt out of the ties on the neckline. I've never sewn anything like it. Jalie makes very clever patterns.


I just need to stop at Fabricana and get a buckle to put around the ties, hem the arms and bottom and it's done. It might even be wearable. That would just be a big bonus.

We had a good time up on the coast. The weather was much better than expected, we even woke up to sunshine on Saturday. We ended up going into Sechelt and having lunch at the Lighthouse pub. It was nice and the view was fabulous. I should have taken a picture. The picture at the top is from our deck on Saturday morning.

I haven't watched much TV this week. I'm looking forward to 24 starting on Sunday. That's TV I don't miss.

Next week I'll get back to my duvet cover, I just find it really hard working with long lengths of fabric.

Simplicity 5201

As I thought, I've spent my week immersed in spreadsheets at size 8 font. The good news I think we've put December and 2009 to rest (at least until the auditors make their appearance) and it turns out it was a good year!! I attended one meeting, crossed off 2 of the 3 items on my to do list, and billed 38 hours.

I read one book, Adrian Mole The Prostrate Years. This turned out to be Bob's least favourite of the Adrian series but I had to disagree. Adrian's family isn't really any more flawed than most and at the end of it all, I came to see that Adrian is loved and I think Adrian is starting to see that too. I found it charming and touching while I think Bob found it sad (probably the subject matter). This is the first book I've read on paper for months. I continue to do all of my reading on my IPhone via ereader.

I went fabric shopping on Friday. I had to find backing for the Amy Butler duvet cover. I realized I'd made a big mistake by not buying the backing at the same time as I bought all the other fabric. I was going to need 8 metres of fabric that ideally would match one of the foundation pieces and the chances of me finding that after 1 year were slim. I walked into Fabricana and of course made a b-line to the Amy Butler section (I'm way too cheap to actually buy her fabric but I usually like the other fabrics they put with it). Imagine how thrilled I was to find bolts with several of the foundation fabrics, one of which was what I would have picked if I'd had my choice of any. It had just enough on the bolt for what I need. That was a lucky break.

I've been wanting to make a sewing smock for some time. I usually sew in a pair of my yoga pants and at the end of a session they're covered in threads which are a bugger to get off. I figure if I wear a cotton smock on top it'll save my pants from looking like a big thready mess. I found Simplicity pattern 5201 at Fabricana and a wonderful retro looking cotton fabric with a Jacobean look that I just fell in love with. Was able to whip up the smock in a day and I'm quite happy with the results. Very "Little House on the Prairie". Has awesome pockets that can hold my cell phone, plus anything I've picked up and haven't put away yet.

Television was good this week. I didn't spend too much time viewing but new episodes of Dragon's Den are back on TV, unfortunately the first one contained Mike Holmes (I'm done with him) and Jeanne Bekker (whoever she is). I hope CBC goes back to just the Dragons as that show is just fine the way it is.

I checked out Republic of Doyle. Filmed in one of the Atlantic provinces it's not too bad. The scenery is wonderful, so different from the West coast. I'm quite taken by all the colourful houses. It looks so good there, but I can't imagine if people on the Sunshine Coast started doing that. It would look tacky as hell.

This week, I hope to finish the duvet cover. We'll see.

Amy Butler In Stitches duvet cover

This was a good week. I only made it into the office 2 days as we're still on our Christmas/New years break. I got lots done as I was alone both days with no distractions.

With all the free time I decided to resurrect the Amy Butler duver cover I had started in January 2009 and having tired of it, put into my UFO pile a few months later. I had made it to the point where I'd finished the foundation, made all the bobbles and pinned them on.

Being full of energy I've decided I'm going to finish it before I start anything else. I spent a few hours basting all the bobbles on to the foundation and then had to decide what thread to use to attach them. I'm always drawn to variegated threads when I'm working on quilt tops and wanted to use them here but fortunately my daughter Mhairi talked me out of it as she said there was too much going on already with the top. Of course she was right and I decided to just use a plain creamy cotton thread and satin stitch the bobbles on and I think they look great.

Thursday was New Years eve. Bob and I left mid morning and headed to our cabin on the sunshine coast to spend the weekend. We got there just in time for the ferry and were in and unpacked by 3:00. As usual I wasn't able to stay awake for midnight but there was nothing going on up there anyway so I didn't miss anything.

We had a quiet weekend and went out only once for a great Indian lunch at the Grasshopper Pub in Madeira Park on Saturday. The picture below says it all. It was rainy, gloomy and absolutely BC west coast in January.



I'll take another picture in August when the deck is full of people and sunshine and the look will be completely different.

Being on the sunshine coast without a lot to do gave me plenty of time for my other passion, television. Our channels were running marathons of lots of shows. I watched hours and hours of the Office, Corner Gas and Mad Men. I don't know if it was my mood or just seeing it in large quantities but I enjoyed The Office. I had tired of it and never watch it any more but did enjoy the marathon.

I definitely need to see more Mad Men. I'll be at the video store renting season 3.

Corner Gas was good. I've only ever watched a couple of episodes and usually when a marathon is on it always works out that those are the episodes I see over and over again. That didn't happen this time. It's a simple, pleasant show and a lot cleverer that it appears on first viewing.

Next week promises to be very busy at work. Month end/year end yikes!!