Sewing

Last Thursday I completed my second pillowcase. It was the first sewing project I have done entirely on my own (no assistance from an instructor or my mom). As a result, it was not as good as the previous pillowcase. But, practice makes perfect. Here's the finished project:

From that picture it might look just as good as the first pillowcase. Unfortunately, close up it has two issues. One: it somehow ended up about 1/2 to 1 inch less wide when held up next to the other pillowcase. I must have sewn a seam a little wider or or something. The second issue is this:

Yeah, not lined up as well. I must not have sewn in a straight line somewhere. 

Even with these two issues, I am happy with it. After all, I did it all by myself :) I'll just need to keep sewing to practice. I think some issues arose since with the instructions. I should have written a couple of notes in the class. That and the take-home instructions were not exactly the same as the instructions in class (a little different ordered, etc.). That helped me in one way: I can read instructions and put something together. But it hurt in that I didn't really remember the extra steps we took in class, which is why I wish I took some notes. Oh, well.  I now have two matching pillowcases and they match the curtains in my bedroom pretty well. 

In other news, I am almost done with all of my classes! I have finished up one of my summer classes and did well in it, and now just have two more to finish. I have four projects and three papers to finish up in the next two weeks (busy home stretch). At the end of August I should be receiving my degree in the mail! It's been quite the wait.

With all of those things to work on, though, I won't be posting much on here. I am still babysitting the adorable, fast-growing, rambunctious husky puppy. He is getting SO big and so dark! I didn't know huskies got darker as they grew, so I learned something new in this experience. TJ and I are debating getting a second dog since Amos seems to really do well with another one around. Right now we are torn between getting a puppy or adopting an older dog. We've been taking Amos and Striker over to the neighbor's to play with their dachshund and Striker absolutely LOVES water. He likes playing in the kiddie pool and dries so easily. I guess that makes sense since they were designed to stay warm in the snow! We'll definitely miss the little fur-ball after we return him to his owners. Hopefully he won't miss Amos too much, or they'll need to get a second dog, too!

I'm also on the job hunt and had one interview last week. I'm hoping to hear back from some other places this week too. Wish me luck! I need a job to fund my new sewing hobby, right? ;) 

After these next couple of weeks with school and job hunting, I already have a list of projects to work on. So you can look forward to:

• My first quilt (I found a kit at a thrift store that is already pre-cut, a great beginner's project)
• More digital scrapbooks - finalizing how I want the Raider one, a Dargo one, a wedding one for my wedding (overdue), a 'zoo' one, and a vacations one
• A baby quilt for a family member
• Sewing a lunch box
• Decorating and organizing the living/dining room
• Finishing up some long overdue cross-stitch projects
• "Fixing" my garden
• Practicing my ASL -- I really need to get on this since TJ's family might be visiting us for Thanksgiving! 
• Actually posting recipes I've been trying! I have a bit of a backlog on this. I'll likely post them on another site and just link them in my future posts. A recipe site will work out pretty well, such as allrecipes.com. We are gradually trying to cook more from scratch and we have some neighbors that can help us out a lot with this. They are ahead of us, even making their own butter, yogurt and ice cream.