25 Before 25 Update

I am now 25 and it's time to look at the list again:

25 Before 25

1. Lose 25 pounds Sadly I haven't

2. Keep the weight off! Sadly I haven't

3. Run a 5k without stopping to walk Sadly I haven't

4. Leave the country again Sadly I haven't..$$$

5. See the redwood forest Sadly I haven't...$$$

6. Sew a piece of clothing for myself Sadly I haven't, wanna wait until I lose the weight
8. Finish my Snuggie project Sadly I haven't, dropped the ball on this one

11. Finish trim on my first quilt for myself  I'm doing this once I finish the purple quilt

12. Make my purple quilt I'm working on this now

13. Go camping in a tent again I'm doing this in August with Corey

14. Dress at a reenacting event again I'm doing this in September

15. Make a full Indian dinner from scratch Sadly I haven't, dropped the ball on this one, doing it later this summer

22. Donate a large of sum of money to a charity (several hundreds of dollars) Sadly I haven't, my money situation hasn't turned into what I was hoping for

23. Caption my New Zealand photo albums Sadly I haven't, dropped the ball on this one, doing it later this summer

21. Read 52 books (1.The Alchemyst  2.HP & the SS  3.HP & the CoS  4.HP & PoA  5.HP & GoF 6.HP & OotP 7. HP & HPB 8. HP & DH  9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 10. The Girl Who Played With Fire 11. Farmer Boy 12. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest  13. Twilight14. The Four Season Harvest  15. Touching Spirit Bear 16. Dinosaurs Before Dark 17. Midnight on the Moon 18.  Artemis Fowl 19. Eragon 20. Please Write In This Book 21. The Foretelling 22. Afternoon On the Amazon 23. Dolphins Before  Daybreak 24. Eldest 25. Evernight 26.  The Good Life 27. This Side of Paradise 28. Freedom 29. Brisingr 30. The Magician 31.  The Sorceress 32. Hate That Cat 33.Powerless 34. The Mostly True Tales of Homer P. Figg 35. A Stolen Life 36. Flygirl 37. I  Can't Keep My Own Secrets 38. The Lottery Winner 39. The Hunger Games 40. Catching Fire 41. Mockingjay 42.Inheritance  43. Phantom Tollbooth 44. Alice In Charge 45. Incredibly Alice 46. Multiple Blessings 47.The Golden Compass 48. The Subtle  Knife 49. Let's Pretend This Never Happened 50. The False Prince 51. 50 Shades of Grey 52. 50 Shades Darker 53. 50 Shades  Freed)

 7. Sew a piece of clothing for my nephews & my niece  (D- a cape, M- a dress, E- monkey Halloween costume)

9. Make my nephew D.'s tooth pillow Done!

10. Make Dad's quilt

16. Find the perfect sugar cookie recipe 

17. Find the perfect homemade cake frosting recipe

18. Have a window garden 

19. Pay off my car loan

20. Make a niece & nephews photo album

24. Get good at applying eye liner

25. Learn how to cook with tofu

I wish I had finished more, but once I'm done with the few I have plans for I'll have done 17 out of 25.

Some of these are too hard to do this summer and are being incorporated into my 30 Before 30 List.

Quilting!

I have finally begun work on my Dad's quilt.  I bought the fabric for him (that he picked out) in February.  This is your introduction to my procrastination.  I have put it off for a long time because I can't just start the process at the part I love, sewing, and quilting.  No, first I have to cut out 1.6 million tiny squares.  I'm exaggerating, I only have to cut out 875 squares.  But I finally started the cutting of the squares!  Which means I can finally start the part I love and having some non-food related crafting to write about.

First I cut long strips 2.5 inches wide off the fabric: 

This is why I hate cutting the squares:

 My cutting mat and ruler aren't long enough to cut the strip in one continuous motion so I have to shift everything to finish the cut and it doesn't always go smoothly.

2. Cut squares 2.5 inches wide off of the long strip:

 

I cut a bunch of squares out of the star fabric and dark blue fabric.  The medium blue fabric is also the border fabric so I want to cut the border pieces before I start cutting squares out of it.  I'll do that tomorrow.  The dark blue is also the fabric for the backing of the quilt.

 

The quilt is an Irish Chain quilt.  I have made one before on a smaller scale for my nephew when he turned 1 and then for my niece when she turned 1.  The dark squares in this sketch that criss cross across the quilt are the star fabric.  The medium squares are the medium blue and the light squares are the dark blue.

Patterns!

My patterns came!  This one is the dress I am making for my niece:

Isn't it an adorable pattern?  And I'll be using this fabric:

 

She picked out the fabric, so it makes the project even more fun for the both of us.

I need an accent pattern and I think I'm going to go with this darker pink:

 

The only thing that I am fairly upset about is that the "pattern" did not come with tissue paper!  I thought that was the point of paying for a pattern!  (And it did cost a fair bit of money.)  It just came with this tiny booklet with bad diagrams:

Therefore, I'll have to do this project with my mom so I don't screw up royally and then waste the money I spent on fabric.  She has made clothes before and will be a big help!

The other pattern I won't be using for awhile, but will eventually be used to make a dress for me!  And thankfully, it does have the tissue paper to help you cut your fabric to the right size.

Making an item of clothing for myself and for my two nephews and my niece are all on my 25 Before 25 List.  It will be fun to be able to cross another thing off soon!

Non Food-Related Crafting! A Tooth Pillow

 
My nephew D- is in first grade now which means he could lose a tooth any day now.  Or he could be like me and not lose a single tooth until second grade.  When I was little we had a little pillow that looked like a hippo and the hippo's teeth were pockets.  When I lost a tooth I put my tooth in the hippo's tooth pocket for the Tooth Fairy.  So I wanted to make a tooth pillow for my nephew.  He said he wanted his pillow to look like an actual tooth.

I went to the fabric store with him and he picked out a light pink cotton flannel fabric (my favorite quilting fabric).  Then I found a tooth template.  I sketched out a tooth while looking at that as a reference.  I cut the first piece around my original outline so I would have a seam allowance.  Then I flipped it upside down and used it as a template for the second piece of the pillow.

I decided to challenge myself and make the pocket for his teeth look like another tiny tooth instead of just a square or a semi-circle. 

It took me awhile to decide how to attach it, but I ended up deciding to simply sew it on with a straight stitch and then embroider it later to hide the ugly stiches.

Those scissors are my favorite sewing scissors.  They are sharp, tiny, & pointy and also serve as my seam ripper.

Then I pinned & sewed the two pieces together (pretty sides facing each other) while following my sketched outline.

25 Before 25

I was inspired by Making It Lovely's 30 Before 30 List and made my own.  I have about a year and a half to do all of these.  Every time I cross one of my list I'll do a post about it.  


1. Lose 20 pounds
2. Keep the weight off!
3. Run a 5k without stopping to walk
4. Leave the country again
5. See the redwood forest
6. Sew a piece of clothing for myself
7. Sew a piece of clothing for both of my nephews & my niece (D- a cape, M- a dress, E- monkey Halloween costume)
8. Finish my Snuggie project
9. Make my nephew D.'s tooth pillow Done!
10. Make Dad's quilt
11. Finish trim on my first quilt  
12. Make my purple quilt
13. Go camping in a tent again
14. Dress at a reenacting event again
15. Make a full Indian dinner from scratch
16. Find the perfect sugar cookie recipe
17. Find the perfect homemade cake frosting recipe
18. Have a window garden
19. Pay off my car loan
20. Make a niece & nephews photo album
21. Read 52 books (1.The Alchemyst  2.HP & the SS  3.HP & the CoS  4.HP & PoA  5.HP & GoF 6. HP & OotP 7. HP & HPB 8. HP & DH 9. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 10. The Girl Who Played With Fire 11. Farmer Boy 12. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest)
22. Donate a large of sum of money to a charity (several hundreds of dollars)
23. Caption my New Zealand photo albums24. Get good at applying eye makeup
25. Learn how to cook with tofu