Amelia Sews

Happy Halloween

2009-11-01T14:24:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we were able to finally carve our jack-o-lantern and then Coleen had lots of fun dressing up as Anne of Avonlea.

We were especially happy with how the jack o lantern turned out this year- though it was a real challenge to get it into the house to carve. William said it weighed at least eighty pounds!

Fall Colors

2009-10-17T11:34:00.002-05:00

A lot of the trees here haven't even started turning- so it's hard to believe we've had snow showers twice already!

It wasn't snow that lingered, but somehow I think it might signal a long winter...

Here's hoping you are enjoying yourweekend!

Pumpkins

2009-10-10T08:10:00.005-05:00

For fun we grew pumpkins in our front flower bed. They filled in the end of the bed that we weren't quite sure what to do with quite nicely. In fact they took over! and climbed down the hill all of the way to the mailbox.

We planted three plants and harvested one pumpkin from each. Here is one as a baby. They grew quite large.
Two of them were cooperative and grew up in the flowerbed. The third grew over the edge of the hill. It was quite a challenge for William to get it up and of course it was the largest!

I had Coleen and Biscuit pose with the pumpkins after William rolled them around the house. As you can see Biscuit is a little distracted...

by the cat!

Enough to make a sewing Mom proud

2009-09-28T12:05:00.001-05:00

Coleen walked out to the kitchen this morning with the biggest grin...

smugly, she says

"I made everything that I'm wearing."

1st day of school clothes

2009-09-11T08:14:00.004-05:00

Coleen's first day of school was Monday and this was the outfit we made. Coleen made the shirt and I made the pants. Both patterns are from Ottobre magazine.

Of course, after a very cool August, it has finally warmed up and it was too hot for a long sleeve shirt. She ended up wearing the t-shirt she dyed in her batik class at College for Kids.

She is very enthusiastic about school this year (of course, Coleen is always enthusiastic). We were able to meet her teacher last night and were very impressed. She is on Safety Patrol this year and has crosswalk duty in the mornings so she has to be at school half an hour early. The exciting thing about the Patrol is they get to go on a two day trip to Wisconsin Dells in the spring. Besides they really stress the responsibility the older kids have for the younger kids. They make sure all the kindergartners get on the right buses and help them during lunch to get through the line, etc.

Here's to the beginning of a great school year!

August?

2009-09-03T07:14:00.002-05:00

Yes, there was an August and it was full of lots of good stuff.

But I wasn't here I was out...

Summer's almost over and everything should settle into a routine again.

Talk to you soon...

County Fair

2009-07-23T07:14:00.003-05:00

We all entered items in the county fair this year.

Here we are with the ribbons we won.

Coleen was especially thrilled that she won both first and second place and is proudly displaying her ribbons in her room.
William and I will put ours in our workspaces to remind us to always work towards the best we can do.

I think county fairs are great. It is one of the few chances any more that people get to show off their talents without the pressure of trying to sell it. There were some beautiful items entered. I only wish that there were more people participating. It seemed, at least here, that most of the entries were put in by people over 60 or by kids working on their 4-H projects. How do you create interest for younger adults to participate?

Flower Garden

2009-07-10T07:04:00.006-05:00

One of the magic things about a garden is that it is always changing. Plants start blooming and stop. They fill in empty spots and then die back and create a new space for something else.

I try to get out every week or two and take pictures of our front flower bed. It is mostly perennials and so far this summer it has put on quite a show. I changed spots this last week so I could include the giant pumpkin that William added to the end of the bed as "filler". It's now trying to take over!

Meet the newest member of our family

2009-07-04T10:40:00.003-05:00

This is Biscuit. She came to live with us on Tuesday.

She looks especially funny when she is running. I think her back end gets going faster than her front end.

The cats are not sure what to think of her. They both run away from her even though she is probably only a quarter of their size. Lucy (pictured here) will not get near her at all. Thomas has sniffed noses and will settle down in the same room with her as long as Biscuit is napping, but as soon as Biscuit moves, Thomas is out of there!

Dorothy, I don't think we're in Wisconsin anymore...

2009-06-17T07:08:00.006-05:00

William had to make a business trip down to the Carolinas last week and I was able to join him for the weekend. We went to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden near Charlotte and then over to Great Smoky National Park where we took an 8 mile hike up to Charlie's Bunion.

Everything was wonderful! It was warm. We have had a cool spring here in Wisconsin and getting out of the plane and feeling the sun upon you was a lovely thing.

It is extremely lush. Green everywhere. The trees towered above you and everything was flowering. The azaleas up in the mountains were blooming. There were large patches of wildflowers along the road that included Flanders poppies and cosmos. I don't know if they were truly wild or had been planted at some point but they were lovely. This was at the botanical garden, but the ones on the roadside were similar.

The Botanical Garden was lovely. There were all sorts of plants growing outside that William remembers tending in the greenhouses in Chico. Including the passion flower.

And then they had an orchid conservatory which was full of orchids and other tropical plants that cannot handle the cold of South Carolina - bananas, begonias.

We had great food while we were there. Lots of fun restaurants both in Charlotte and Asheville.

Then we got to hike a part of the Appalachian Trail. The trail starts in Georgia and goes all the way to Maine. You can see how much further you had to go from where we were at the North Carolina/Tennessee border.

We chose to hike only 4 miles in to a place called Charlie's Bunion which was a rock outcropping overlooking the layers upon layers of rolling valleys that are part of the Smoky Mountains. It was quite stunning.

We had a great weekend and when we talked to Coleen in New Mexico it sounded like she was having lots of fun visiting her grandparents. We did wish that we could share it all with her. She would have especially loved the different kinds of rocks in the mountains and the fiddler that was dancing a jig in downtown Asheville. Well, I guess that gives us an excuse to return...

Tag Team Sewing

2009-06-08T19:45:00.004-05:00

Coleen needed some capris for summer.

We took some time last week and sewed up a couple of pairs. She made the blue ones and I made the khaki ones. This is the best way to teach her sewing. I can show her every step without doing any of it for her. She constructed these all on her own. She even serged the seams!

The pattern is from Ottobre Design 3/2009. The pants are full of great details - like these waistline pockets-

They also had a narrow waistband with an invisible zipper in the side seam. They have a long slit at the hem. Very cute!

Kyuki-do test

2009-05-21T16:03:00.006-05:00

Coleen had her test in kyuki-do on Tuesday. See this post for the difference between Kyuki-do and karate

When they test, they work through the forms for all of the different levels up to their level and then they also practice kicks and punches and then do sparring with a partner.

Coleen and Sergei both started around the same time and usually test for their belts at the same time. They really like to egg each other on.

In kyuki-do there are 13 belts between white (novice) and black (expert). Coleen just moved up to her sixth belt.

We're proud of you kid!

Doll Quilts

2009-05-20T07:41:00.003-05:00

Gwen at After the Dress posted an adorable alphabet quilt she did for a friend. It reminded me of these doll quilts I made. They were the standard birthday gift for all of Coleen's friends when she was in kindergarten-1st grade.

I mentioned in a comment on Gwen's site that free-motion quilting can be quite fun and these all employ it. Hopefully you can zoom in and see the quilting

A field of stars

2009-05-16T22:28:00.006-05:00

While there is still very little to show in the flower garden (we really should plant some more early season flowers - we seem to have one daffodil plant and about 3 tulips.)-

the wildflowers are already spectacular.

On one of our favorite walks in Perrot Park you come around a corner and are confronted by this lovely sight.

These are Dodecatheon radicatum
with an occasional Aquilegia canadensis thrown in.
An absolutely stunning sight! I went Thursday and took pictures because William said the flowers were stunning when he went on Monday- I came back with shots of flowers he hadn't seen three days before. I think we could probably discover new things each week - hopefully we'll get out there more this summer.

Then and Now

2009-05-15T07:24:00.004-05:00

Coleen - March 2005

Today on her way to school. I am amazed this dress still fits her, though it is more of a tunic now. I made this from an Ottobre Design pattern for her birthday four years ago!

Filler

2009-05-14T07:11:00.005-05:00

Our weeping crabapple a couple of days ago.

The pants class is going great! I am learning alot and I really think I'll have a well-fitting pair of pants by the end.

Coleen will be testing for her next belt in karate next week.

William is busy in the garden. Our front flower bed is expanded and planted. Everything but the tomatoes and the beans are planted in the vegetable garden. Hopefully it will warm up for the squash soon. It's been a long, cool spring.

Speaking of Pants

2009-04-29T12:17:00.003-05:00

I have signed up for the Pants Fitting class presented by Shannon Gifford over at Pattern Review. It starts next week. I am very excited. I have decided to pick up Simplicity 2860 to use as my base pattern. It is one of the patterns Shannon recommends. I hope I can find it locally at Hobby Lobby or Hancock's. If not, I'll look through my collection of magazines and find a pattern there.

David Page Coffin book coming in July

2009-04-27T17:17:00.001-05:00

Check this out-David Coffin's new book on Making Trousers

The Wedding Quilt

2009-04-27T16:28:00.001-05:00

Our trip to Phoenix was planned around my sister-in-law's wedding.

The quilt in the pictures from Albuquerque was my gift to them. I really loved making this quilt and it was quite fun having it oohed and aaahed over at the wedding luncheon. My gift was the only one opened at the reception. I'm afraid I insisted. After putting that much time into it - I want to be able to see the recipient's face when they open it. Terribly selfish of me, isn't it?

I know Nikki appreciated it because she makes lovely quilts herself. Besides... a picture's worth a thousand words.

Spring

2009-04-19T08:15:00.008-05:00

Spring is being signalled this year by small things-

The trees have not leafed out yet, but small little blooms have started appearing: crocus and daffodils,

various wild flowers I don't know the name of.

The cacophany of sound when you open the door- the birds are back. Friday at work, I could watch them gathering materials for nests. Right now I can hear cardinals and a woodpecker and various song birds. A moment ago a pair of Canadian geese flew over. I never notice how quiet winter is until it becomes so noisy in the spring.

The other day, a wood duck landed on the factory chimney across from our house... it seemed a funny place for a duck to be.

Spring also means the start of the garden. Last weekend we had three days and gorgeous weather so most of the beds were prepped with two truckloads of compost

and we planted potatoesand onions.

Coleen's Year in Review 2008

2009-04-07T13:13:00.002-05:00

Working on William's Christmas present. She made him a hooded sweatshirt and sweatpantsShe also made me a skirt. Somehow I have no pictures of either William or I in these clothes. I'll have to correct that. I admit I actually wrote most of this post in January and was waiting to post until I got pictures, but I'm giving up...or else it will be time to do the 2009 review before I even get 2008 published.
We forgot to shorten the sleeves...

She made her whole outfit in both of these pictures.

After looking through pictures to find what I had done last year, I really thought Coleen's sewing should have it's own post. She really has done a lot and I'm quite proud of her. She is a good listener and tries to follow directions. Most of these patterns come from Ottobre magazine, so she traces the patterns, reads their brief directions and then I give her mini-tutorials as we go through the different steps. She doesn't cut anything out yet- I will let her iron and use the sewing machine, but I can't hand the rotary cutter over to her. That thing just makes me too nervous! Since the patterns come from Ottobre, they don't have any seam allowances and so it is easier for me to cut them out then have her add s.a.s before she cuts them with scissors.

Karate tournament

2009-04-01T13:36:00.004-05:00

Ok, life keeps going forward, though I don't seem to be getting much blogging done.

Coleen had her karate tournament the second week of March. There is a new form (series of moves) each time you earn a new color belt. Most of the competition is judging groups of kids on how well they can perform their form.
Here she is doing one of the kicks... I'm not sure if I've figured out how to take action shots yet.
There were four kids in Coleen's group. She did quite a good job and won a blue ribbon. She was quite proud of herself! And we are quite proud, too...

We interrupt...to bring you a sewing post

2009-04-01T13:27:00.005-05:00

Hmm... don't know what happened to the rest of the trip. Not much computer time lately, but will get back to editing photos and posting the rest of it soon (Though I won't so brazenly post that it will get done this week.)

Coleen had her spring piano recital this past Saturday. She played a theme from Don Giovanni by Mozart and an arrangement of 'Don't Get Around Much Anymore' by Duke Ellington. We decided she needed a new dress to perform in. We chose a dress and jacket from Ottobre and got to work. Coleen made the dress and I made the jacket. Both fabrics are from my stash. She is getting good at figuring out the directions on her own and I only really helped her with the gathering of the skirt and the zipper.

As usual, I found these patterns well-drafted and they went together well. We took what shortcuts we could - the insides could definitely be prettier! All seams are serged on both the jacket and dress, but if I had more time, I think I would have done a Hong Kong finish on the jacket seams.

I am very happy that we were able to get both done in just under a week - it really makes a difference when there are two working on a project... as the saying goes - many hands make light work.

Her concert was a great success!

First Stop- Albuquerque

2009-03-23T13:40:00.008-05:00

On the way to William's sister's wedding in Phoenix, we stopped in Albuquerque to visit my parents. My brother and his wife flew in from Seattle while we were there, so we had a sort of mini family reunion.

It was a great visit! Very relaxing, considering how short a time we were there. Sunday, William and I had some time to ourselves and went and wandered around our old haunts. Since it was just going to be the two of us, Dad let us borrow his convertible.

Nob Hill, where we met at work;
While at UNM, we conveniently visited the Center of the Universe...
Zimmerman library, also at UNM, my alma mater:

and it wouldn't have been complete without a trip to the Frontier for a plate of Huevos Rancheros with fresh tortillas!
We finished the night by going back to my parents and Dad & I had fun photographing my quilt,while William and Coleen warped the loom she got for her birthday. (While going through Lawrence, KS we stopped at the Yarn Barn and bought a Kromski Fiddle rigid heddle loom).She warped and finished her project all in one night.
Monday, we ran a couple of errands(including a second trip to Frontier) after we went to visit my parents new church building, which is quite beautiful,
with a stunning view of the Sandia mountains.Then went back to their house and had a birthday party complete with a spumoni cake
Since we were all together we celebrated Coleen's and Cat's birthdays together.
Coleen had a lot of fun with the treasure hunt my parents concocted.
Tuesday morning on our way out of town, we stopped and had breakfast at Weck's (another favorite from when we lived there) and saw this hot air balloon take off in the field next door.

Spring and back again

2009-03-20T14:22:00.005-05:00

Well, we've been back for two weeks and I am finally beginning to set a routine again.

We had a fantastic trip to Albuquerque and Arizona. It was really great to see our families though the time we got to spend with them was way too brief!

Here's a few shots from the trip. I will be (ahem!) trying to post bits and pieces from the trip every day this week. Maybe when I'm done with it, I will finally have something to show in the sewing realm. Very overwhelmed with just starting a project. Seems to always happen after a big project...

It really felt like we travelled to spring and back again.

This first picture is in Lawrence, KS. We woke up to two inches on the ground and more coming. Trying to wait out the storm didn't work either. We finally continued on south to Oklahoma and by the time we crossed the border, the snow had stopped the sky had turned blue and there was green in the fields.

In Albuquerque, the skies were blue, you could go outside without a coat and daffodils were blooming.

The desert around Phoenix was green.

We were a couple of weeks early for the cactus to be
blooming, but the wildflowers were splendid

In the city, the bouganviella was blooming and so were the orange trees. That is just a heavenly scent in the evenings. Unfortunately, I couldn't bring that home with me.

We did come back home to snow. In fact, we just missed being caught in another storm on the way home. It was a little disheartening, but the weather for the past week has been warmer and the snow is melted. Spring has followed us home.