Did I mention it would be irregular posting?

Dang, sorry about that. It's just been crazy busy, I flew back from China and hurried around visiting people while unjetlagging, spent all day Sunday flying back to Boston, Monday - Wednesday started up at one of my summer internship placements, Thursday had to get my internet fixed and run errands and pick up my first CSA dropoff!!!, Friday went back to work, and now here I am, finally.

So I have a mini update planned for my recent travels, but I wanted to pretend to myself that this here still passes as a sewing blog, so here are some refashion-y pillows I made for all 3 lovely people I recently saw in China.

For my parents:


They wanted some cushions to sit on. I browbeat them into accepting patchwork, although there is a tad bit of quilting in them to make them sturdier. Notice how I make good use of my overdone penchant for matching-but-not.


Aaaaah, so there's the refashion-y part. Can you see the pocket in the upper righthand corner? I managed to salvage it and love that detail, although I wish I could've maneuvered to have it a leeeetle farther down the back of the cushion. No need to create fancy back fastenings for cushions for me!

I love the story of this plaid shirt. My mom originally got it for me as a Christmas present - this was back in sixth grade, the like one year where it was fashionable to walk around in giant oversized plaid shirts or to wear them wrapped around your waist [did I go to a weird middle school? Does anybody else remember this? It would be circa 1995]. I always loved the color and feel, but eventually got tired of looking like last last year's fashions to my classmates, so my dad happily accepted the donation and wore it for a decade, after which he decided he, too, was tired of it. At which point I fished it back out of the Goodwill pile, sensing some refashion-y potential here. And I've used it here and here, though this is my favorite use of the fabric so far, probably because it goes back to the two people who gift/regifted me with the shirt in the first place.

This is a t-shirt my brother received for his birthday in college that he absolutely loved. I remmeber him showing it off to me and cracking up continuously. Anyways. With multiple ways it shrunk in the awkward way [short and fat], so he didn't wear it anymore and I rescued it from the Goodwill pile [this happens a lot in my family, I think we need to communicate better] with the thought that I could eventually salvage the front panel for something.


Tada! It's waiting for him on his bed when he gets back from China. And I don't have to worry about him finding out ahead of time on my blog, cuz I think China's still got the block on Blogger. The coordinating fabrics are mostly salvaged from SCRAP: shirting samples, home decor samples, a really nice soft placemat that I used for the back [the plaid]. The rest is stash.

Oh yes. And the postcard swap! Zonnah sent me the most beautiful postcard, please check her post on it here because it'll take me too long to get a photo up of her lovely creation. I also forgot to snap a picture of my postcard to her but you can see it in her post as well. I love, love, love her applique and the perfect embroidery and handstitching! And you can't see from her photo but she put in tiny red beads, which is such a nice detail. As I told her, I couldn't believe she'd actually given it up and mailed it to me! Wow.

And here's the postcard I gave Rita:


Image adapted from this one [scroll down to the free image]. I know she likes embroidery so I tried to satisfy that wish. I also brought her some blue and green fabric and she gifted me with a stupendous amount of fabric and scraps in return [cuz she knows I hate cutting large pieces of fabric]. I am, once again, behind in the karmic crafting circle with this girl. Rita: 5. Jessica: -3 or so.

And on a completely unrelated note, I have a stupendous amount of lettuce from my CSA. One giant head, but consider the fact that I. do. not. like. salad. Well, I'm now teaching myself to like it, so today I threw in some Asiago and blueberries and contemplated that strange combination of salty and tart [the sale blueberries were very unripe], while letting the fiber, I mean the lettuce, wash down as unnoticed as possible.