tumbling blocks

muslin curtains are the story of my life

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 21:14:00 -0700

After years of execution and planning, our back family room is finally a pleasant place to be. It's not 100% done, but we're getting there. Elie did almost all the work himself—he is no joke. He figures out the things I don't. And vice versa. Which brings me to the fluffy pile of muslin.

Every so often, my sewing is a contribution and not a distraction. I made simple muslin curtains for all the back room windows, and now it's not a fishbowl. I have made these for every window in this house. We used to wonder and argue and have grand ideas about curtains, but now we know what works. This time there wasn't even a discussion.

I'll show you the back room once it gets a little more, hmmm...furnished. We need some shelves. I love this number.

PS This weekend we made awesome grilled stuff-from-the-garden pizza. Thanks Melissa.

simplicity 2601 - it has a peplum

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 18:18:00 -0700

Hello there. Have your days been as full as mine? I love getting home from work in the summer and feel like I still have day left, like there's part of the actual day that my family and I own. We enjoy the sinking sun, and pick things from the garden, and take too long making dinner. Why the heck not?

I've been sewing too, but really not finishing much. I suppose I might take process pics, but I've been doing that a bunch in the garden instead. One finishing exception—I did manage to sew the buttons on to this top I sewed a couple of weeks ago. I like it. It has a peplum (aka it flounces out under the waist), which is about my favorite thing ever in a button-down blouse. I made it as a muslin, but I like it as a shirt. After completing it, I almost cut into my "good" fabric right away, but then I decided that I should probably take it for a test drive. How many times have you noticed how much less comfortable a shirt is at 3:30 at your desk than it was at 7:00 in front of your bedroom mirror? A million. The shirt held up well. I had been thinking about taking it in a little at the waist, but now I don't think I will. I will make the shoulders more narrow though. I'll pinch a straight line down from the shoulders right through the bust. That will shape it up just fine.

tiny bunny pincushion

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:14:00 -0700

I'm so glad I joined the scrappy pincushion swap. There is just something so succinct about a pincushion—it's small, it's stickable, and that's about all the requirements there are. Pincushions were some of the first things I made and fell in love with when I started blogging. I loved (and still love) how diverse and how special they are. Highly detailed or not, I can't help admiring their utilitarian loveliness.

My pincushion went out to my partner today. I am at the tail end of the swap, but not late. I hope she loves it—it was hard to put in the box! The felt bunny pattern is from Japanese craft book ISBN 9784529047869, which is chock full of adorable animals you can stitch up in felt. The rest of the pincushion came from my scrap basket—it was a scrappy swap, after all. I kind of want to make an entire army of these now. Pincushion group shots really get me.

beach visit

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 18:07:00 -0700

When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.

My holes were empty like a cup.
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.

-Robert Louis Stevenson

almost done tops

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 05:15:00 -0700

My poor Alabama Stitch top had been sitting neglected on my sewing table. I was almost done with all the stitched outlining of the printed flower pattern, but I think it was wearing on me, which is why I put it down and knit a sock instead. Yesterday, I picked it up again, finished the outlining, and even sewed some seams. Mmmm, progress.

I also cut and sewed a non-muslin muslin for a top that I've been wanting to make out of my good fabric. Even though it's just the muslin, it ended up being pretty wearable, and I wish I had taken the time to match the stripes in the back. I just didn't really pay attention.

tiny pincushion wip

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:32:00 -0700

Oh, it's the weekend! Today, I drove to Indy to send my daughter off for a week with her many grandparents. It is so quiet here. Elie and I ate a very casual, but yummy, dinner of mozz, garden basil, baguette, and some very tasty salami I brought home from Trader Joe's. When you go it the big city, it's important to stop and buy the good stuff. Also, Valencia peanut butter. Yuuuummmm.

I'm participating in the Scrappy Pincushion Swap on flickr, and this is a little work-in-progress. I think it's going to be good, like hard to give away good. I got some sewing time in today, and I'm hoping for more tomorrow. For now, I'm relaxing to a surf rock channel on Pandora currently playing a Jimbo song by the Reverend Horton Heat. Not bad.

a toe

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:42:00 -0700

One green sock done! I try it on and then I take it right off because it is HOT. Here it is, going on the end of June, and I don't quite have the summer things I am making for myself done yet. I would like to see them finished by end of July. That way, the month of August can be spent gloriously wearing them.

So maybe, sock #2 waits?

tulip quilt block stack

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:47:00 -0700

It has been an odd day in that I have heard the voice of my tiny kitten-pie, Hen, cursing in the back of my head repeatedly. It wasn't a particularly hard day, just a weird one.

I have a finished stack o' tulip quilt blocks. Mwah ha ha! Think of all the evil, quilty things I can do with them. I have already laid half of them out on my bed to get sneak peek of the final product. I can not believe I ever doubted the blue!

summer is for sock knitting

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:19:00 -0700

I still mostly am a person who knits in the winter and sews in the summer, but it has been hard to put down my newest project. After much messing around with starting sweaters that I really didn't feel like knitting, I cast on for another sock. I'm knitting from the same book as my evening knee socks. Nancy Bush, I love you! You have such a great understanding of knit socks. These are a Child's First Sock, but they are not really, they are for me. I feel like when these socks are done, they will deserve sock blockers.

evening stockings

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:30:00 -0700

I kind of don't even know what to say about these socks. I love them. They are tall, lacy socks that would be (will be) really great for October. They were started in March and finished this weekend. Sock number too took a long time because it got warm and knitting was suddenly much less exciting. That said, knitting is much more exciting as of Saturday when I needed to start a new project (because really, nothing but knitting will do for the commute). It is so easy to spend forever on Ravelry because they really have all the options. If you're like me and like to consider all the options before you do something, this can be hard. I have started three projects in the last three days, and I'm not sure that I'm keeping any of them. I want to make the absolute best match of project to yarn while maintaining budget and reducing stash. This is ridiculous. How do you pick projects? What do you do when you regret it?

Another question: How important is blocking my socks? I didn't block these because I don't have sock blockers and even if I did, they would be too short. Am I missing out?

Facts:
Evening Stockings for a Young Lady
Knitting Vintage Socks
Nancy Bush
Arucania Ranco

remember that I love you quilt

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 12:03:00 -0700

Having a daughter turn ten is a very happy thing. Ten is a good year to be, plus as a parent you get to celebrate a decade of having done pretty well, actually. And then, ten is the beginning of being a tween. Of course, they didn't call it "tween" when I was that age, but I remember it being a time that was as aggravating as it was fun. Beebs is still very much a little girl at this point, but this quilt is for the coming years and all their hard spots. If the girls at school are mean, or the boys ignore her, or she thinks her parents are particularly wrong, and she feels quite alone, I hope maybe that she'll look at this and realize that she's not.

Yes, it's a bit of a heavy-handed birthday present. Whatever, it needs to be said. Hopefully, the Denyse Schmidt prints in her favorite colors lighten it up. (Thank you Erin.) Plus, you should imagine the words being said in a bit of a sing-song voice, like on the Juno soundtrack. I had originally thought I'd do the same words in cross-stitch, but I couldn't get excited about it. Then the Proverbial Quilt that Melissa has been working on, plus the more free-form lettering of cauchy09 in this quilt, lead my do do it in fabric. I used the same tutorial as the flickr quilt for the lettering. It more fun than I thought it would be.

tulip block starts

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 20:36:00 -0700

I like that these in-progress quilt blocks look like the bud versions of what they will become. It gives me a little preview of what it will someday be.

What I don't like is all the comment spam I've been getting lately. It stinks, and I've had to turn on comment moderation to save any of you who have subscribed from getting spammed in return. Poo. I did take off the Captcha though, so at least that part of commenting should be easier!

late spring, red berries in abundance

Sun, 30 May 2010 11:22:00 -0700

I think it will be a Summer of Abundance. At least, it's starting out that way. Last year we planted six little strawberry plants in the corner of the garden. They spent the summer looking somewhat sickly, and I think we got one berry from them. This year they came back in a ferocious kind of way. I couple weeks ago we got our first three berries, and I was so excited about the precious little berries that I took the photo above. Since then, the strawberry patch has produced about four quarts of berries. I am totally amazed.

The cherries are a similar story. Our house had a mature, fruit bearing cherry tree when we moved into it 6 years ago, but this is the first year we've had anything resembling a harvest. Either bugs, birds, or late frost have prevented us from enjoying these tasty fruits. Then this year—pow! There are hundreds of cherries and the birds don't seem to care. They are more interested on the service berries out front.

I've got a lot of picking and processing to do. :-) Not a bad thing for a totally beautiful holiday weekend. I'm planning on doing more documentation of the garden this summer. I've created a flickr photo set for it here, just in case you'd like to follow along.

mad science birthday

Sun, 23 May 2010 10:22:00 -0700

My little girl is 10 today. Ten? Wow! On Friday we hosted a crazy mad science sleepover complete with color-changing dry ice experiments, glow in the dark algae, moving plants, and grotesque snacks, all augmented by the kind of silliness only possessed by girls of a certain age. Scientist dad really came through with the activities on this one.

kids clothes week

Tue, 18 May 2010 18:18:00 -0700

I thought I would make it through without participating in kids clothes week, but alas! I am an incredible joiner and you all were making such wonderful things. My child has entirely enough clothes and did not need me to make her anything, but let's be honest—my sewing of clothing is not really about need. This top (girly style wardrobe letter a) was so simple there was not much reason not to make it. I wasn't true to the intent of the week, which was to do a little each night. Instead I had one helluva pleasant Sunday afternoon. Eva surprised me by still being a little small for the size 140 cm, so the top is a little big. She thinks she will probably wear it.

Here she is doing "You love the bunny."