received: flying geese sewing machine cover from Samantha

Tags

flying geese sewing machine cover, sewing machine cover swap

Fun fact: Vancouver-ish BC to Boston-ish MA is about 3160 miles. Google Maps says it would take me 47 hours to drive it. (Fun-ner fact: I highway-drive like a granny, so it would probably take me 55.)

You may remember the sewing machine cover that I sent to Samantha at Making Life Prettier. This past Saturday the cover she made for my Janome showed up, and it is so amazing.

 

She paper-pieced the swirl of flying geese (one of my very favorite quilting motifs) from some little strip-pieced segments, and then used the scraps for the borders. Look at her precise outline quilting around those geese!

 

The back is even better. I’m 99% sure that she doesn’t even know that one of my favorite quotes in all of English-language literature is about “little houses.” It’s from These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder (yep): Almanzo asks Laura to marry him, and talks about the house he’ll build her. He warns her,

“‘…It will have to be a little house. Do you mind?’ ‘I have always lived in little houses. I like them,’ Laura answered.”

In New England, I know that if I have a house of my own at all, it will have to be a little house. And really, I like little houses! It’s so amazing to me that Samantha fussy cut the phrase “little house” from Violet Craft’s Memoir print (maybe my favorite fabric, ever) and put it in my machine cover. (Look back at the top photo for the best detail.)

I had fun playing I-Spy for my favorite fabrics, too. I see Chicopee, Architextures, Waterfront Park, Tsuru, Lizzy House, and so many more.

Samantha backed the cover in a print from Flea Market Fancy (again, a real favorite), and bound it in a print from DS’s new line, Florence.

 

What a useful print that Florence binding looks to be! (adds to never ending to-buy list)

And to top it off, Samantha sent me two vintage zips, some hardware to make Lucy a bag like the ones she made for her littles, a precious Echino scrap from her Super Tote, and an Ellen Luckett Baker Stamped Ladybug scrap.

I feel so blessed that, despite the 3160 miles between us, I have a true sewing friend. What an amazing swap this has been!

Read Samantha’s post about this cover here.

all the things

Tags

color affection shawl, lowbrow hat, nanook sweater

Yesterday on Instagram I observed, “cooler weather = casting on all the things.”

Yesterday evening I cast on a Lowbrow Hat (click through to purchase the pattern on Ravelry) in The Plucky Knitter Primo Aran in the June Classics colorway, Outta My Hair. I have a good friend who washed a man outta her hair this spring-summer, and I wanted to knit her a little luxury to remind her what a good thing washing a man outta your hair can be. The pattern is so easy and amazing that I knit through the first pattern repeat before bed!

I always thought that leaves looked tricky to knit, but this leaf pattern isn’t. What fun hats are.

Also on my needles right now is my Nanook (again, click through for details and to purchase pattern). You’ve seen the Insta-spam, probably.

I’m using Cascade 220 in the colorway Anis. Bad math led me to believe that my five stashed skeins were enough, but as I seamed the first sleeve on Sunday

I started to get that really bad yarn runny-out-y feeling and rushed to order more. (I’ve since re-done my math, and guess what? 5 times 220 yards does NOT, in fact, equal 1200 yards. #englishmajor). The color is a real chameleon. I love it in the top photo, hate it in the second; love it with certain Instagram filters, am wishy-washy on it IRL. I realized it’s the exact color of one of Lucy’s vests

and so I’ve made peace with it, as a color. I’m 1/4 down the second sleeve and then it’s just a mile and a half of garter and stockinette for the body, so I hope to have it done before a hard frost.

About a month ago I finished my Color Affection shawl, which I posted about before I started it but not since. Yarn is (natch) Plucky Feet in Oatmeal, Dandy Lion, and Ball Point.

I’d not ever knit stripes before, so, as you can see in the second photo, my edge is a little disastrous. (I’ve got to get one of you IRL knitters I know to teach me to twist yarns together at the color changes.) I don’t care. I love this shawl and I’ve been wearing it in the evenings, August heat be damned. Now that it’s cold, watch out, I’ll hardly take it off.

I’d noticed that I’d gone a bit off knitting and yarn buying. But now that it’s getting back down into the 50s 60s here, I’m having fun planning my fall knits. I want to knit Grace, and those Purl Soho kneesocks that kicked my butt in January. I wound yarn for a To Infinity and Beyond cowl, and MAY have just ordered a couple of skeins of DK for a French Cancan. And I think Lucy’s just got to have a Little Sperry.

If you knit, what are you planning for the fall-winter? Are you casting on all the things too? 🙂

finished-buying-fabric friday?

Tags

fabric, fabric diet

Does that count as having finished something, having bought ALL the fabrics?

YES, right?

Suffering from sewing block this month nearly killed my fabric budget for the rest of the year, in a big way. Above is a photo of my haul from Sew Fresh Fabrics. Peg holds weekly sales (that you will only hear about if you follow Sew Fresh on Facebook), and several weeks ago, she put her whole sale section on extra 40% off. You know what was in that sale section? Many of the prints from Flea Market Fancy. I was doomed. I added in a few other irresistible prints, including an Andover text print and 1.5 yds of Summerlove (Ruby top, anyone?)

These low-volume Comma, Architextures, and Madrona Road text print were not on sale, but shoot. I keep running out of these prints because I use them just all the time.

Pink Castle Fabrics is also running an insidious series of promotions they’re calling Deal of the Day. You sign up for the daily email, and then try every day to resist the awesome treat they’re offering at a spectacular price. I’ve caved a modest three times. One low-volume bundle:

One solids bundle:

(sidenote: we all think Brenda pulled this solids bundle to coordinate with Tule, right? Because look:)

And I have an $8 shipped spool of white Aurifil 50wt coming. Aurifil: I won’t FMQ without it.

Stash Modern Fabric is one of my new favorite shops (since I picked up some Koi voile and white Waterfront Park prints a couple weeks back). When Michelle of Factotum of Arts, a dear blog friend, celebrated her one-year blogiversary several weeks ago, she surprised her top five commenters with an Etsy gift card. Michelle is an Etsy artist herself, and I thought this was a wonderful giveaway that gave me a lot of choices for how to treat myself. So duh, fabric, from Stash Modern Fabrics. I’m going to say that Michelle treated me to these fabrics for a Super Tote:

and, because Stash Modern does free shipping over $50, the rest of this just…fell into my cart whoops:

Finally, remember that shopping cart fulla fabric I posted on Monday? I was at this surplus and salvage store (“It’s grosser than Big Lots!” I crowed to my husband) called Mardens, located in Maine. Amy, our SMQG president, arranged for our group to get 10% off our purchases on the day of our September meeting. Ima do the math for ya. Designer fabric at <$5/yard ($4.49 seemed to be what most of my choices were labeled), plus a 10% discount = crazytown.

There’s a piece missing, some Anna Griffin I bought to make a fall Washi for myself.

So there you have it. Trouble. Now I’m busy trying to cut and sew it all down into a stashable pile–and I’m even busier trying to resist the Pink Castle Skinny Sale this weekend. I’m officially on a fabric diet until Lizzy House’s kitty cats come out. Officially.

P.S. a bonus: Lucy cruised through as I was taking these photos and saw my camera. She asked me to take her picture PLEASE, and then sat still, smiled sweetly, and looked at the camera. She hasn’t done this since she was six months old.

My hope for decent Christmas cards is renewed.

stuff that helps when you’re stuck

Tags

sewing inspiration, staple dress, unstuck

because it would appear that I’m not the only one! Thanks, all, for the commiseration and advice.

Maybe it’s September? But I’m feeling considerably less stuck today. Could be the changing weather. Yesterday we took Lucy to the playground wearing shorts and short sleeves, and had to leave 45 minutes later because Momma was cold. (Don’t be too jealous. It’s supposed to be in the 90s on Wednesday.)

Or, the renewal of my creative energy could be due to any combination of the below:

1) Selfish sewing

In July I bought the printed Staple Dress pattern by April Rhodes from Pink Castle Fabrics. It was worth whatever extra couple of bucks it cost me not to have to fuss with taping printer paper together.

Then I waffled about fabric. I wanted Liberty Tana Lawn. I couldn’t justify spending that much money on a dress when I didn’t even know that the pattern was flattering. Then I wanted Anna Maria rayon. Not sure why I didn’t make that happen. Lazies? I considered everything, and then Rashida Coleman Hale’s Koi voile was put on presale at Stash Modern Fabric and I was all, YES.

Two months later, I put Lucy down for a nap, trimmed the pattern, cut the dress, sewed the dress, took the bathroom mirror selfie above, and then got the kid out of the crib. It was that quick, and that easy. And it’s a super-flattering dress, in beautiful fabric. What a joy.

2) Let yourself get behind.

I was super-caught-up on Penny Sampler blocks and practice projects (see, my dogwood pillow, above) about a week ago. I totally let it all slide last week.

Instead, I took time to:

pick the last container of blueberries out of the field

bake the first apple pie of the season

spend the whole day Saturday going to the Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild’s first meeting in Portland Maine, at A Gathering of Stitches (a making-learning-doing space recently opened by one of our members)

and go fabric shopping in a big way (I’ll fess up about all the fabric buying in a post soon).

I have nine or ten Penny Sampler blocks to make this week, but I’m so energized from a week of not doing them that they’ll be no problem.

3) Figure out what’s making you feel guilty, and tackle it.

I have two main projects making me feel “obligated.” The spiderweb lottery blocks were a biggie. I want my guild members to see them made into a beautiful quilt, because I want them to know how much I value them and their work. The other night I just…sewed them together and started working on a plan.

The second is the twin quilts project. It isn’t due until early November, and I have all my fabrics and a general plan. But what makes me nervous is that I’m trying out my own block design, and I’m not sure how well the block WORKS, especially as a quilt. I also had a guild lottery “star” block to make. Two birds, one stone:

 

 

Finally, it goes without saying, I let my camera mostly sit on the shelf and just took iPhone snaps as I went. It’s wonderful to Instagram things when you don’t feel like blogging!

If you were in a funk are you out of it yet?! (How much fabric have YOU bought to get yourself out of it, ha!)

a little stuck

Tags

little village block, stuck

 

I’ve been a little absent lately; I’ve been a lazy emailer, and a lackadaisical blogger. Truthfully, I feel a little bit stuck, creatively. I’m not missing any deadlines; I don’t owe any bee blocks, I haven’t let anyone down. I arrived at a design plan and fabric choices for those twin quilts. (You guys: I get to use CHICOPEE. I’m finally going to get to cut my gorgeous FQ stack!) I’m even caught up with Penny Sampler class assignments. (That is my Little Village block above–I spent Saturday putting this together. I’m deep into the why-use-solids-when-there-are-PRINTS-in-this-world philosophy. I’m so smitten with the spirit and whimsy of this block!)

Maybe it’s that I’m lacking the pull of a larger project to keep me orbiting around my sewing machine? Maybe it’s the guilt pile of lottery blocks that is asking me to make “just sixteen more spiderweb blocks please” and let me tell you a spiderweb block is kind of no joke. Maybe it’s just all these little projects that just need a few minutes of attention to get done–no challenge, no nose-to-the-grindstone. Maybe it’s all those silly sewing mistakes I made for a solid week a couple of weeks ago.

Or maybe it’s little anxious things: jury duty, the dentist (my kid chipped my front tooth, ah, the wages of parenthood), the where-are-we-going-to-live-come-December–keeping me up at night, making me too anxious to sew. It’s a vicious cycle. When I am too anxious to sew, I put off doing the thing that is the one surefire anxiety solution in my life, making me even more anxious.

Nothing is really wrong here! Like I said, I’m not behind in any sense. I’m just wishing inspiration would strike, and soon.

What do you do when you’re stuck? Should I start a new project? Pick up a lingering WIP? Keep my head down and bee-block-Penny-Sampler until I’m unstuck? Dig into those dang twin quilts already? So far I seem to be just buying fabric left and right, which isn’t the greatest solution.

I’m all ears!