christmas ninja part 5: things to keep stuff warm

The next and possibly the last category of  xmas-making-of-things.  I suppose the tablet cozy could have fallen into this catagory, had it not already been in the last one.  First, let’s start with something for me!

I saw this yarn around new years and had to have it.  Then I started working with it and figured out that I was gonna need more.   Then I had to find a third store to finish filling my need.

I just love the colors and I used a ‘Q’ sized hook (which was comically large) and 18 balls of yarn.  The blanket is enormous, I think it would fit on a queen sized bed.

Second entry: a tea cozy for Nana

I had the measurements of the teapot, but that’s all I had.  I used this Emily Taylor’s Domestic Diva for Riley Blake in red for the outside and in brown for the inside.

All the quilting was freehanded along the damask  pattern on the outside. Binding around the edges and a little loop on top for pulling!

 

Finally, more warm for me: flannel for pyjamas.  I’m going to do a separate post on all of my pyjama pants, by here is the fabric:

oh yeah, gotta love the monkeys 😀

minky… all the better to clip you with!

I had a request from the person that received these to do some more for a baby shower. The only instructions given were that the colors were green and brown, they didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl, and she liked the damask patterned one. Not a whole lot, but more than enough to get creative.

So I started searching around my stash for green and brown, everything green and brown i could find in any fabric, even if they didn’t go together or weren’t the same shades, even if it was just a scrap. I came up with about a dozen fabrics and carted them all to my sewing table (aka, “the kitchen table that hasn’t seen food in probably close to 2 years now”). I started laying them out, moving them around, pulling some, putting some other ones in, just visual brainstorming. I had the wonderful thought to make one side minky because I had some stringy minky scraps from cutting around blankets and bibs, and I hardly ever throw a scrap away. So here’s what I came up with:

Not too girly, not to boy-y (yes, it’s a word now), and hopefully sorta co-ordinate-y (again, now a word).

encouraging girls in science and technology

This project is being linked up over at honeybearlane.

As you might have noticed, I’m a Software Engineer. And you might have also noticed, there are not a whole lot of women in software – there aren’t a whole lot of women in any kind of engineering – there aren’t even a whole lot of women in science and technology.

It’s always been a big initiative of mine to encourage women – especially girls who have an interest in science – to consider a career in engineering. I think that many times women can offer a change in perspective to a problem and a change of dynamics to a team. I always encourage my employers to try to find talented women to hire, partly because it can be very lonely (I’m the only full-time female software developer in my entire company!) but also because I find that if a women is in a technical field, chances are that they are very good at what they do otherwise they would have been discouraged a long time ago. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve met my fair share of people of the male-persuasion that told me that a) girls don’t program and b) they don’t want to be beat out by a girl (Seriously? Are you sure we’re really in the 21st century?) but I believed in myself enough and had enough positive female role-models to keep me going over the years.

In trying to give back to the WISE (Women In Science and Engineering) I’ve mentored students, supervised LEGO building events and workshops, I even wrote a proposal to get Imperial Oil to fund a grad student going into grade schools once a week for the entire school year to help with building an entry for the LEGO category of the annual Robot Games in my city – and I’m on the committee that organizes the games every year. I read an article a while back (I wish I could find it!) that said that you shouldn’t be just putting girls into science and technology (just hiring them for the sake of hiring a girl) because that is actually counter-productive, but you should make special efforts to encourage girls that are good in science and technology to stay.

So with that in mind, take a look at my latest project!

We had two female interns at our company this year and I really enjoyed having a little more estrogen in the office for 16 months. Just so they don’t forget about us when they’re back at school for their final year, I made these super-soft, super-squishy pillows for them! “CDL” is the name of our company and our software is used in some military applications, so I’ve appliqued on a very feminine pink minky camo with a flowery brown minky fabric. Do you recognize that blanket? Yes, it’s the beast that broke Pfelicia! BTW, I performed surgery on Pfelicia, more on that later…

There is a pink zipper set into the bottom of each pillow – they’re actually just pillow covers! As usual I got my zippers from Zip-it! for really really cheap in an assorted pack, so when I need one, I just pull them all out and find one that matches!

The pillow inside is completely removable so you can wash the cover. The inner pillow is made from muslin (super fast and easy!!!) and stuffed with fiberfill.

This was my first try using a zig-zag stitch to cover the edges of an applique, and I think it worked especially well here because of the texture of the two fabrics. What do you think?

Are you a female in the fields of science or engineering?
Have you ever been discriminated against because of your gender?
How do you support young people interested in your field of work or study?