I love my sewing machine

Well, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I went over to Evie's place for dinner. She lives in my complex and works in the department too, she is the same year as Ryan. She and her boyfriend, Kyle, hosted a potluck style Thanksgiving dinner for all the "Far Westers". Even though Ryan doesn't live up near Far West, we were nice and invited him too. =P The food was delicious. I brought the mashed potatoes since I have the sweet Kitchen Aid to do all the hard mixing for me. Super smooth. and so yummy. Evie and Kyle made the turkey, but she also made a green bean casserole, that was really good and something I will probably make from here on out for Thanksgiving. It was a nice blend of the traditional green bean casserole (which Ryan likes and I really don't) and the green beans and bacon that my mom makes which I like and Ryan is not a huge fan of (even with all the bacon in it, go figure). Her casserole was made with fresh green beans (essential if I am going to like it, no canned or frozen stuff please) and she used homemade cream of mushroom. Then she covered the top with the french onions and bacon. It was so good! And we both really liked it, so it was a nice middle ground. After dinner, I refreshed Evie on some crochet basics and taught her how to make the crochet flowers I have been making since she wants to add them to a scarf she has started on. Then we played some board games and left a little early because Ryan started to get a migraine and I had Thanksgiving phone calls to make. But it was a very nice day and break for which I am very thankful.
I also got to FINALLY really use my sewing machine. I didn't go to work Friday or Saturday and stayed home and did some projects. Some I cannot post pictures of yet because they are gifts, but this I can. I found a really cool napkin set tutorial online, and figured this was an easy enough first project for me.


They are reversible napkins, so one side is the white with blue roses and the other the darker blue print (here they are folded into quarters, they are 18"x22"). They were easy enough, I think the longest part was cutting all the pieces. I am just still kind of awkward manipulating the big piece of fabric and holding it still to cut it with my rotary cutter. That is such a nifty little tool. But it doesn't help that my table is round, and not very big, so it is not the best working space for me, but you gotta make do with what you got. Once I got all the pieces cut, sewing them together went really fast. Until I messed one up and became best friends with my seam ripper, but sheesh that was a tedious process. The napkins are a fairly lightweight cotton, so I didn't want to snag the fabric. But I got all of them made, a very pretty set of six. Dinner party anyone?

The blue and white is just so Dutch to me, I love it. I have some white plates with cobalt blue borders, but I think they also look really nice with my mustard-yellow plates (shown with each side of the napkin.)
Hmmm, I just noticed in the above picture that the left topstitch looks wonky and crooked. I can assure you it's not! I think it is just the way the napkin was sitting on the plate.
And, finally I made a linen pouch that they can be stored in! It is so cute. And it was pretty challenging, but I did it!

All tied up and ready to be put away.

I'd say this all took me six to seven hours start to finish, not too bad for a first sewing project, huh? I love my sewing machine, it is so awesome. I can't wait to get started on something else. I was not able to sew as much as I wanted to, I did a winter deep cleaning and some baking to send off some goodies to my cousins that I did not get to see this Thanksgiving. Also on my plate is the fellowship application that is due today (yikes!) so I was working on essays and stuff. Got a little bit more to do, and then I should be able to upload everything. But once this is sent in, all I will have left to do are my projects and Christmas presents since everything else is done and my apartment is now spotless! It was a very good and busy weekend.