Amelia Sews

Day 17 Technology

2011-07-20T07:00:00.003-05:00

Jana

Don

Amy

Coleen

Day 16 Long Exposure

2011-07-19T17:33:00.003-05:00

Amy

Don

Jana

Coleen

Day 15 Silhouette

2011-07-19T11:40:00.002-05:00

Amy

Don

Jana

Coleen

Day 14 Eyes

2011-07-19T07:11:00.003-05:00

Amy

Jana

Don

Coleen

Day 13 With 13 Things

2011-07-15T10:09:00.002-05:00

Amy

Jana

Coleen

Don

Day 12 Sunsets

2011-07-14T06:50:00.005-05:00

Amy

Coleen

Don

Jana

I guess sunsets were hard to come by. Posting for the rest of the month might be rather sporadic... my fellow participants are on the road, travelling all over Colorado and then up to Yellowstone. Their internet access will be sporadic. (You can tell by my duplicate use of adjectives that I'm not thinking straight... probably, the cat fight right outside my window at one in the morning.)

Day 11 Something Blue

2011-07-13T21:19:00.004-05:00

Amy

Jana

Don

Coleen with Blue the Dog

Day 10 Childhood Memory

2011-07-11T20:40:00.003-05:00

Jana

Don

Coleen

Amy

I ran a 5k!

2011-07-10T18:44:00.002-05:00

I DID IT! I just ran my 1st 5k and I was able to run it the whole way! Crossed the finish line in 40:29! 2-1/2 minutes faster than my goal! I am so stoked!

It was all very amusing. We were supposed to pick up our packets between 7 and 8- with an 8 o'clock start time. When I left the house, it was just starting to sprinkle.
When I got there, I parked about 4 blocks away from the start and walked down to pick up my packet. It's starting to rain harder. I get my packet and head back towards the car because I'm on my own and need to put the race t-shirt and stuff in the car and all of a sudden the sky opens up. Still two blocks to the car and no doorways to stop in - nowhere to get out of the rain. By the time I get back to my car, I am soaked. My race clothes are soaked. My shoes are soaked. Still have half an hour until the race even starts. I pull off my shoes and socks and turn the heater on, trying to dry my socks a little. I had to wring them dry. It is still pouring outside. Eight o'clock finally rolls around and I go back down to the start line. They are afraid of lightning, so the race is delayed until 8:30. It continues to rain steadily. We are finally off and I just kept a steady place. Two women who were running part and walking part keep passing me each time they speed up, but I just keep going and there were uphills and downhills and I just kept going. It felt good. Once I reached the turn around point, I knew there were only a couple more hills and I would be sailing home. I booked it for the last half mile.
I came in 66th overall. There were only 3 runners behind me, but I did FANTASTIC! I never would have ever dreamed that I could do this at all!

After the race I went to La Crosse and treated myself to lunch at Panera and a big bouquet from the farmer's market. Pretty!

Day 9 Someone You Love

2011-07-10T11:48:00.002-05:00

Coleen

Amy

Jana

Don

Day 8 Bad Habits

2011-07-09T12:37:00.003-05:00

Coleen

Amy- letting the dishes pile up

Don

Jana

Day 7 Fruit

2011-07-08T19:55:00.002-05:00

Amy

Jana

Don

Coleen

Day 6 From Below

2011-07-07T20:52:00.003-05:00

Amy

Coleen

Don

Jana

Day 5 From Up High

2011-07-07T06:57:00.003-05:00

Amy

Coleen

Don

Jana

Day 4 Something Green plus some fireworks!

2011-07-06T12:19:00.005-05:00

Don

Jana

Coleen

Amy

Galesville, WI always puts on quite a show!

Day 3 Clouds

2011-07-06T07:06:00.002-05:00

Amy

Coleen - she got to see the clouds up close and personal - from an airplane!

Don

Jana

Day 2: What I Wore

2011-07-05T17:43:00.004-05:00

Jana

Don

Amy

Coleen

30 Day Photo Challenge

2011-07-05T06:57:00.006-05:00

Every summer, my daughter Coleen goes to New Mexico for a few weeks to visit her grandparents. This year while surfing on Pinterest, I came across this great idea for a photography challenge and thought it would be a great way to keep in touch with her while she is gone. While I was at it, I asked my parents to join in the fun and then volunteered to post everything on my blog.

You can see the details of the challenge here at White Peach Photography

Here are the players in their photos from Day 1(Self-Portrait)

Jana

Don

Coleen

Amy

Will get caught up and publish days 2 and 3 this afternoon.

Friday Sew-In Results

2011-03-20T13:49:00.004-05:00

I had a busy sewing day on Friday - managed to get 7 pairs of pants hemmed plus work on some fun stuff.

Coleen was able to join me after supper and was able to get everything done for Adelaide's outfit except the cuffs and hem on the shirt.

I was able to mostly construct a pair of pants for William and start a shirt for Coleen.

We had to call it an early night because we had to pick William up at the airport. Glad to have him home again!

Friday Night Sew-in

2011-03-16T10:39:00.002-05:00

The sew-in is this Friday and we're at it again. Coleen hopes to finish the outfit for her cousin that she was tracing out last time and I, well, I have a myriad of projects to choose from- will have to see how I feel on Friday!

If you feel like joining, just click on the link above. It is great fun!

Birthday Girl

2011-03-08T16:44:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was Coleen's birthday. We celebrated on Saturday with banners, and friends and a special dinner.

Included in her gifts was a new outfit.

My little girl is growing up! The tshirt pattern is the first garment I've made her from Ottobre Woman. The pants are a TNT from Ottobre.

Sunday we went over to Perrot to see the trumpeter swans that are on their way through. Oh, what a sight!

Friday Night Sew-In Results

2011-02-19T11:10:00.005-06:00

We were able to spend a few hours downstairs in the sewing room. I was glad I had committed to the sew-in because on my own I think I would have probably spent my evening watching Dr. Who.

Instead, Coleen and I had fun picking out an outfit for Coleen to sew for her brand new cousin Adelaide from Ottobre. Here Coleen is starting to trace out the patterns.

And I flat-felled the side seams and hemmed the two shirts I am making for William. Now I just need to hem the sleeves, add buttons and buttonholes and oh, yeah attach the collar - I've been avoiding that. I need to be wide awake for that step!

You might think I'm ahead of the game since I'm making two short sleeve shirts in February, but I have a confession to make- they've been at this stage since last August! Ah, yes...procrastination.

Friday Night Sew-In

2011-02-17T06:51:00.003-06:00

Coleen and I are going to participate in Friday Night Sew-In this Friday. We'll be on our own and will have the whole evening to come up with some sewing goodness!

Can't wait!

Maplelag 2011

2011-01-13T11:37:00.006-06:00

We went to visit Maplelag Resort in Callaway, Minnesota last weekend and had a blast!

Not many pictures because we were too busy skiing!

When we weren't skiing, we were enjoying the sauna and hot tub, or eating the delicious food the lodge makes or just hanging out in the lodge reading a book.

This was probably the best vacation we have ever taken! It's only flaw was it was way too short.

We stayed in a cabin that used to be a Finnish Sauna from Northern Minnesota. Three beds and a wood-burning fireplace. Very cozy! All of the amenities were just a short jaunt away in the lodge.

The cross-country skiing was fantastic. All of the trails are groomed frequently with nice, deep tracks and the weather could not have been more perfect (though I never thought I'd say that about temperatures that perhaps reached a high of 3 F all weekend)

The view from our cabin

Inside...looking at the decor
The roastily-toastily fire in our cabin

Lined up and ready to ski...

Coleen on her way out to the trails

After coming in from an early morning ski...

A view of the lodge when coming in from the trails

This was on my favorite trail JibFly

William out on the trails

Can't wait for next year!

Halloween 2010

2010-11-05T09:17:00.003-05:00

Coleen decided she wanted to be Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice this year.

The exciting thing is she made her costume herself (with only a little help from me, mostly in the pinning things together correctly area). She used the pattern offered by Sense and Sensibility for a Regency Dress. She was initially intimidated by the several pages of instructions, until she realized that they were just a lot more detailed than what she is used to and they really did not involve many more steps than other things she has made.
Her dress turned out very nicely and we found the perfect accessory in a lace sweater that I wore to my wedding. The tshirt and pants underneath were a bow to Halloween in Wisconsin, which is usually a bit chilly.

Devil's Lake, WI

2010-10-11T07:13:00.003-05:00

We went on an excursion yesterday. The fall color was lovely and it was an excellent hike. Can't wait to go back and explore more of the park.

The end of Self Stitched September

2010-10-01T08:02:00.004-05:00

Well, September has come to a close. It was a very interesting month and I put a lot more thought into what I was wearing each morning than I usually do.

You will notice that of the last eight days of the month, I only have pictures of about half of them. I did have company, but also I got tired of taking pictures of the same outfits that I wore earlier in the month, so you'll have to take my word for it that I did finish out the month...

What did I learn?

I need a more well-rounded wardrobe and though I love to jump from one involved project to another, I need to spend some quality time just making some basics- a few more tshirts and a couple pairs of pants and I would not have been so bored with what I was wearing at the end of the month to stop taking pictures.

I love skirts and I pulled them out and wore them more this month than I have in years. And right now I have a job where I could wear skirts more often. The next few months might get to be too cold, but in the spring, I am definitely going to keep wearing skirts...

Work more on fitting. Since I also started working on the Lady Grey coat sew-along this month, I have noticed a couple of alterations that I could probably consistently make to patterns that would make them fit better. I need a swayback alteration and I also have narrow, sloping shoulders.

And find some TNT patterns. I noticed that a couple of patterns I used over and over again this month. There can be infinite variations just with fabric and details, so find some well fitting pieces and develop a wardrobe around them.

Thank you Zoe for dreaming up this challenge. It has helped focus my sewing and I will have a better wardrobe to show for it!

Pants - altered simplicity pattern
Lady Grey muslin - the project I'm working on right now!
Ottobre Woman cardigan, burda blouse and the simplicity pants again- as much as I wear pants- I really need to get a couple more pairs made!

Simplicity blouse
Altered simplicity pattern for pants- these were the muslin for the tan pair and they get almost as much wear! Except because I was only going to use these for a muslin, they have no pockets- I won't do that again! Pockets are too useful a thing to leave out.

Burda blouse and simplicity pants again
This time teamed up with one of my favorite vests bought at Express ages ago (probably at least 15 years). I really should pull it out more often.

I will probably continue to incorporate self-stitched items into what I am wearing most days!

SSS Days 17-21

2010-09-22T14:30:00.001-05:00

All are from Ottobre Woman
2/2008 #10 knit cardigan
2/2007 #4 tshirt
2/2007 #8 skirt

Finished socks today and wore them! The pattern is 'Sunshine' from Cookie A's book Sock Innovation Otherwise, I spent most of the day in my sewing room in very casual clothes that did not get photographed.

This is another version of the simplicity pattern you have seen before... this time with long sleeves. Believe it or not, there is still one more version... I really liked this pattern. All of these shirts are at least five years old and a couple of them should probably be retired soon.

Ottobre Women 2/2010 #6
Jalie Pants - These are actually my husband's - yes we are very close to the same size- at least when I make pants for him a size too big! I was planning on wearing a skirt, but it was chilly this morning and sometimes you just feel like wearing pants...

Ottobre Woman cardigan again... will probably only wear half the day. It has been chilly in the morning and warming up in the afternoons - perfect fall weather!
Ottobre Woman 2/2008 #4 tshirt
2/2007 #12 skirt

Progress on my coat

2010-09-22T12:19:00.003-05:00

As of Sunday, all of the pieces of my muslin are cut out. The seams are all thread traced and ready to sew together.

I've had a few minutes here and there the last couple of days and have the back sewn together and am working on the princess seams of the front. I hope by this weekend to have the musling together and fitted.

SSS Days 13-16

2010-09-16T12:07:00.006-05:00

Hmm... you'll notice there are only 3 pictures for the four days covered. Forgot to take pictures on the 14th, but it was just a repeat of what I wore on day 3.

Top Ottobre Woman 2/2008 #9
Tank Ottobre Woman 2/2009 #1
Skirt Ottobre Woman 5/2007 #4. Stitched for me by Coleen.

Skirt is self-drafted from RTW. It is a mock-wrap and extremely comfortable
Blouse is the same pattern as the red checked shirt on Day 1. Actually, in the picture below is a 3rd version of the same blouse.

Also wearing the pants from day 1,3,4 and 7...see, I told you I wear them lots.

Lady Grey Coat Sew Along

2010-09-16T12:01:00.004-05:00

I'm participating in the Lady Grey Coat Sew Along over at Gertie's blog.
I am so excited! My fabric came yesterday from fabric.com. An unclipped corduroy and one of Amy Butler's prints from her Midwest Modern collection plus ivory satin for the sleeve lining. I think it will be lovely. I am definitely starting on the muslin today when I get home from work!

Self Stitched- the 8th-12th

2010-09-13T12:10:00.005-05:00

BWOF ? Will look up the issue after work
Ottobre Woman 2/2010 #6
Ottobre Woman 2/2008 #9
Another version of Ottobre Woman 2/2008 #4
Ottobre Woman 2/2006 #3

SSS Days 3-7

2010-09-08T12:14:00.005-05:00

Ottobre Woman 2/2008 Tunic #1 Two different versions. The second blue one was sewn for me by my daughter (and so I guess I fail at self-stitched...)

Ottobre Woman 2/2008 tshirt #4
Ottobre Woman 2/2010 blouse #14

September 1-3

2010-09-04T16:38:00.006-05:00

Here are the outfits for the first 3 days of September. Forgive the bad pictures, I forgot to have Coleen take them and so would take them myself at lunch time and the camera and I were not agreeing on where the focal point should be...

Day 1:
Red check shirt - made by me several years ago. One thing it reminds me of is that I have improved as a seamstress... alot... even though, I still need to work on fitting. It was a simplicity pattern that I do not have any longer, but I used it a lot when I did - probably 5 or 6 different versions over a couple of years
Pants - Made last year while I was taking the series of pants classes offered by Shannon Gifford at Pattern Review. This was originally a simplicity pattern too, but it was altered quite a bit. I love these pants - they are quite comfortable, however I really had trouble with the zipper at the time, so they are not my best effort. I still wear them lots however.

Day 2:
Sweetheart top by Jalie. Love this pattern and really should make some more!
Green pants are actually the muslin for the tan pants above...

Day 3:
Same pants as day 1. The shirt is from Burda October 2007.
My first completed Burda pattern. Great details

Self- Stitched September

2010-08-27T12:30:00.002-05:00

I just signed up for self-stitched September over atSo 'zo's blog.

I decided I could probably handle one handmade item a day.

Wish me luck

Better late than never...

This Year's Harvest

2010-08-19T17:13:00.000-05:00

This year we braided our garlic. Aren't they pretty?

Something New

2010-08-16T21:21:00.003-05:00

Just a pretty picture.

New shirt

2010-05-07T12:55:00.008-05:00

A month ago, I spent my lunch breaks tracing out a series of tops from Ottobre and Burda. Five different tops that were cut out of five different fabrics all from my stash. All of the patterns were cut straight from the magazine patterns without alteration.

This is the first one I completed. It is from the October 2007 issue of Burda. Design #117.

It is made from a lightweight (slightly sheer) cotton I found at Hancock's a couple of years ago. The top has french seams and went together very well except for the sleeves which I realized were going to be too tight on my arms before I set them in. Thankfully, I had enough fabric to recut them out with an adjusted pattern.

Coleen chose the buttons. I really love them, but would never have thought to try something so colorful... I was sort of set on wood or coconut when I went to the store.

I really like the button plackets on the sleeve with the double buttons.

Here's the back, albeit quite wrinkled from a day at work...

I would probably shorten the sleeves a couple of inches if I were to make this again. They were supposed to be 3/4 length, but it looks like they almost hit my wrist.

I would also think about changing the collar. I am not crazy about it. It makes my neck appear shorter than it is. I might just go without one and do a binding or narrow facing.

I do really like the polo style placket and the inverted pleats that open at the waist.

Now, four more to go...

Birthday Girl

2010-03-10T06:51:00.005-06:00

Coleen's birthday was Sunday. She is 11! Sometimes it seems like just a moment has passed since I was able to hold her in my arms. Now, she's less than 6 inches shorter than me- I think I will soon become the shortest in my family :)

After William made her birthday cake (cheesecake with blueberry topping), we took her down to La Crosse and bought her a bike. She was so excited! She is going everyday up on the cul-de-sac to practice riding and really has made progress in the last three days.

The outfit she's wearing in the picture with Biscuit was her birthday present from me. She was very pleased with the hoodie. She loves velour and I was able to manage to sneak this piece in past her and get this made without her knowing about it (one of her favorite things to do is inventory my fabric - so this is not so easy).

Most of the rest of the day she spent on one of her favorite pursuits- reading. She is devouring the Redwall books by Bryan Jacques right now - for the second or third time.

We ended the day with a delicious manicotti dinner and the glorious cheesecake!

Next year, she'll be in middle school... how time flies.

Coleen Made a Jacket!

2010-02-26T11:47:00.003-06:00

Coleen just finished a blue corduroy jacket- perfect for fall! Yes, it was cut out and started last September and then has just been slowly progressing, but she is finally finished and I have a feeling it will see lots of wear this spring. Unfortunately, with having it on the table for so long -she has sprouted up and is now two sizes bigger - thankfully, I think we made it a little on the big side so I think it will work through spring. I just am not sure it will make it all of the way to next fall...

Details:

The pattern is from the Spring 2006 issue of Ottobre Design. Sizing 128-170 cm. She made a size 134. She had originally intended to make this from some light blue corduroy, but then we decided that it was too lightweight and we should find another piece of fabric... well, it was my stash to the rescue. I had this piece of dark blue corduroy that was a better weight for a jacket just languishing in the back of my cupboard and there was just enough of it! And when I say just enough - I mean that a couple of the pieces have selvedge seam allowances and the pocket flap facings are cut in the wrong direction!

I think the jacket went together smoothly for the most part. I would help her with pinning (and in fact the one big error was mine - I pinned one of the sleeves in so that the top of the sleeve was lined up with the front princess seam instead of the shoulder seam - oops! Easily resewable and since it was my mistake - I even ripped the seams out for her.) She had a little trouble keeping the top stitching straight, which I think had to do with the corduroy tending to want to shift in the machine.

We really liked all of the details on this jacket and Coleen found some great buttons- again in my stash- silver with some Celtic knotwork stamped into them.

She was thinking on moving onto an easier project, like pajamas next, but I just happened to have a pair of pants cut out for her and so she has already started on those.

They're Done!

2010-02-12T07:26:00.003-06:00

I was able to finish up the curtains last weekend and we managed to get them all hung by Saturday night. What a difference it is to have nice curtains up. It makes it feel so much more like our house and less like an apartment we're renting.

The fabric for all of the curtains came from fabric.com.

Our bedroom

Coleen's bedroom. She has sheets with blue & green polka dots too!
The office. These are my favorite. I loved the fabric!

All of the curtains are lined with black out fabric. All hems were hand-stitched which gives a nice clean finish (albeit a slow one) to the outside of the curtains.

Next on the list: pants for me. And then we will start re-outfitting Coleen for spring. I realized yesterday when I took her measurements that she has shot up not one, but two sizes... no wonder all of her clothes seem small.

What I'm working on

2010-02-02T12:24:00.002-06:00

Curtains!!!

For both bedrooms and the office... yes, all at the same time.

They are all simple tab tops and just the height of the windows (about 3.5 feet).

I think it might have felt like I was getting them done faster if I had done one set at a time... but now I am on the home stretch- just have to hand sew the linings to the curtains on the side edges. 4 curtains down... 6 to go.

Here I am at work on the curtains for Coleen's room

Chair slipcovers

2010-01-15T07:37:00.009-06:00

Back in October, I was commissioned to make slipcovers for a chair and ottoman.

I had never done it before, but I like a challenge. So armed with a couple of books, I looked at the bolt of 15 yards of fabric and the chair and scratched my head.

I decided to start with the easy part - the ottoman!
After all it was simply a box that I needed to cover with a piece of fabric. My lesson from the beginning - do not overfit. I got the top to fit perfectly but did not give it enough room to fit over the sides- the result - it looked like an overstuffed sausage ( and you can't tell it to breathe in and hold it...). So it came apart again - luckily I had left really wide seam allowances on the top

Next came the T-cushion which went together pretty smoothly thanks to this book. I also marked all the straight sides of the cushion with a ruler before sewing on the welting cord. I did not do this with the ottoman and there are a couple of places where the straight lines are sort of bumpy.

Next came the actual chair. The book above suggests making a muslin pattern and then using it to cut your final fabric. I did not do this. Instead, I followed the advice in this book, which was to cut large rectangles of fabric and then fit them to the chair. I cut extra large rectangles because I also wanted to match the stripes and I did not want to take the time to figure out their placement ahead of time.

When I got to this part, I was more confident of what I was doing and it went together more quickly. This was definitely a project where my seam ripper was my friend, but I really learned alot.

By the way these are slipcovers. and totally removable. There is a zipper on the back of the chair. I think reupholstery might be a little easier - or at least have different challenges. Here I had to make sure to make it big enough for it to be removable. With upholstery, you would want it to fit exactly.

In the end, I was happy with how it turned out and so was my customer! Next time, it would definitely take me less time and probably less fabric. I would do it again. In fact, it gives me reason to go to yard sales - to see if I can find potential slipcover projects.

Happy New Year...Albeit a little late

2010-01-11T06:58:00.001-06:00

and without much to say.

We are busy and healthy and I Hope to be back to blogging soon...

I do have lots of stuff to share. Just no time to share it.

Soon... though. There is light at the end of the tunnel

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.

And here it is...

2009-02-26T14:49:00.005-06:00

I might add more to the inscription. It depends if I can think of anything profound to say.

The quilting is quite simple- just along the block seamlines.

I will get better images when I'm in Albuquerque visiting my parents. My house is too small to get a really good image of the quilt. I can't get far enough away from it to get a good perspective.

And going outside isn't really an option- the weather is not being cooperative.
This is the beginning of 4-8 inches of new snow...

Phoenix, here we come!

The towels have been off the loom...

2009-02-21T22:37:00.005-06:00

for a couple of weeks now.

They turned out quite lush and lovely. They are woven with 8/2 cotton. 10 towels in all.

Quilt

2009-02-21T22:13:00.005-06:00

Quilting...

Taking out all of the basting pins...

Close up of the fabric and quilting... because I wanted to see if my camera could and it did!

Trimming the extra batting and backing off...

The binding is sewn on...

Now all I have to do is hand-sew the binding on to the back. AND I AM DONE! And, I can quite happily say that I still have 5 days until we leave (big grin!)

Top's done!

2009-02-19T17:38:00.002-06:00

The top is done and sandwiched with the batting and the backing!

It is ready for me to go and start quilting - right after supper :) One must not forget to eat -even in the middle of a project.

Gwen asked what percent of time I would spend quilting after piecing and everything. I'm guessing it is between 5 and 10 percent. I'm really hoping closer to 5 because I have already spent over 200 hours on the quilt. I know it could take a lot longer. I am not doing anything fancy and I am doing it by machine.

I will spend a lot of time wrestling with a queen sized quilt and my regular sized sewing machine. I know it's doable because I've quilted two other queen quilts on it, but not my favorite part.

Hope to have it ready to bind by the end of the weekend.

Again there are no pictures. William is traveling to Washington DC and took the camera with him. I will post pictures of it finished before I leave for Arizona (one week from tomorrow). Warmth here we come!

10 and counting

2009-02-16T06:54:00.003-06:00

No pictures- but I'm down to 10 pieces!

The top should be done by tomorrow and I can move on to quilting!

Isn't it strange that it is called quilting when probably 80% of the time is getting to that stage?

I think most appropriately this quilt should be called pinning. The seams resemble a porcupine when they are ready to sew!

Progress

2009-02-08T18:51:00.002-06:00

Well, I am down to 500 pieces!

All of the corners are sewn on the blocks and they are trimmed

and up on my wall. I know I wouldn't have gotten this far without my helper:

I can feel the end coming!

I have a question, when you have a big project like this, is there a point about 2/3 through it, that you just about hate it? I am at that point with this and know I need to work past it, but boy is it hard. It's good I have such a tight deadline with this. I have about half a minute I can spend on this feeling before I have to move on.

This will give you an idea of what it will look like. I am not going to worry too much about keeping these squares in this exact order. I think I'll combine these squares into larger squares before I do that. 500 pieces are a lot to keep track of.

Making tortillas

2009-02-02T17:30:00.000-06:00

One of the things I missed most when I moved from Albuquerque was being able to get fresh flour tortillas.

There is a restaurant called The Frontier right next to the University of New Mexico. It is a student dive with good, cheap food and the best tortillas. You could watch them go through a machine. They'd go in as balls of dough, be rolled flat, puff up as they cooked and come out steaming hot and delicious!

I went there often when I was a student and I would never leave without a dozen tortillas in my bag.

When we moved to California, I just couldn't be happy with store bought tortillas, so I learned to make them on my own.

Here's a recipe:
2 c flour
1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
2 Tbs shortening
2/3 cup warm water

Mix dry ingredients in bowl of mixer. Add shortening and mix until there aren't any big lumps. Add water and mix thoroughly. Dough should be pliable. Let sit for 30 minutes. Divide into 9 parts and roll into 8" circles. Stack them as you roll them out - sprinkle a bit of flour on them to prevent sticking.

When they are all rolled out, flip the stack over and begin heating a 12" frying pan over high heat. Let it heat until very hot.

Put the tortillas in one at a time.

They will develop bubbles.

When they have puffed, flip them over to cook on the other side.

Sometimes, they will continue to puff after you flip them until they are just pillows of air

When done, remove and place in a clean kitchen towel to keep warm.

Sit down and enjoy. Great with chile, beans, posole, enchiladas, burritos.

And if you want an extra special treat, take one that is still warm, spread butter on it and then liberally drizzle it with honey. Yum!

Photo of frontier from ushlambad's flicker album

For Gwen

2009-01-29T19:02:00.003-06:00

Gwen,
These are William's temples. He used the sample end off the last towel warp to make them. They are just very basic drawstring bags that he filled with pebbles (rice or sand would work also)

He uses bent paper clips to attach them to the edges of the selvedge. They help you keep a square grain in your fabric and also make it easier to keep your selvedges neat.

There is a corresponding one on the other edge.

Check out the information at The Woolgatherers. She has a wealth of information including this page on homemade temples. She does some really lovely work, especially in linen

William is also busy

2009-01-28T13:27:00.004-06:00

William has been working this month on another set of towels.

The beginning of the month- warped and ready to go. Notice that there is fabric being used as a warp separator. William did go to lease sticks for these towels, but we didn't have enough. Careful wrapping of the fabric, to make sure it doesn't bunch makes it useable with fewer tension issues than on the last warp.

The first towel

These are two variations of the dornick twill (quite similar to a herringbone- the difference is in how the v's of the pattern meet up - in a herringbone, it will be a continuous pattern of v's in one color vvvvvvvv- in a dornick, the v's are offset one white v one black v,etc.

Another weft color
The second variation, with the squares, is just a different treadling pattern.

He's on a business trip right now, but hopes to finish these up in the beginning of February and start a new project. I think he warped 10 towels and has 7 done.

Quilting Progress

2009-01-28T13:09:00.005-06:00

Well, I've gone from this

to this

since the beginning of the year...

Right now I'm trimming all of the squares(or octagons rather)and then comes the fun part.

I get to put them up on the wall and decide which goes where!

Then have to put corners on all of them and sew them together...then quilt and bind it!

Deep breath. This is a big project with a tight deadline. The best way to get through it is one step at a time.

Wish me luck

Some stats:
Quilt for my sister-in-law's wedding in March
5760 pieces (already down to 2400- hooray!)
You can get the idea of what this will like at the top of my blog- I used the same pattern to make the quilt that is used as the background to the title.
This is a scrap quilt- it has lots of treasures: scraps from clothing my mother made my brother & I when we were little, a piece of fabric that was my grandmother's. Fabrics from friends in California, fabrics from almost every quilt I have made and lots of the clothes I've made for Coleen too.
The original quilt had larger squares - I believe they were 6", but for this quilt I shrunk them to 4" because I wanted to use the above scraps and a lot of them were not big enough to get pieces out of for a 6" block.
That means there will be 480 blocks in this quilt.

I hope to have it up on the wall by this weekend.

Winter Wonderland

2009-01-24T08:00:00.003-06:00

What looked like a cold, wintry day yesterday

actually turned out quite lovely except the wind felt like it was blowing right through you.

I had to go over to Winona, Minnesota to run some errands. The last two pictures are from Lake Winona right in the middle of town. There are parks and walking trails all the way around the perimeter. Yesterday, there weren't many people out walking but there were several out on the lake ice fishing.

Year in Review 2008

2009-01-16T12:23:00.000-06:00

After surveying what everyone else had done last year, I had decided against doing this post because I felt there really wasn't that much. But Coleen insisted that I take a look at what I had done and I was really surprised by how much I had accomplished. The first half of the year was largely taken up with doing 7 bridesmaids dresses (I made all of them in this picture, except the one on the far right),

but I still managed to make Coleen a blouse and a couple pairs of pants.

I also made an outfit for a client from a piece of lovely silk an exchange student from Thailand had given her.

In the second half of the year, I made more pants for Coleen (we both made pairs at the same time- which is a great way to teach someone how to sew- especially, if you are like me and are always trying to show your pupil how to do something - this way I could do exactly that and still leave it for her to do on her own pair),

We also did the same thing with t-shirts.

I tweaked the pattern for shirts for William until he is very happy with the fit,

I made Coleen a hobbit costume for Halloween

and even turned out a couple of skirts and t-shirts for myself.

I learned a great deal making a winter coat for Coleen,

managed to make Christmas presents for family

and ended the year with making a poodle skirt for a client.

Here's hoping 2009 is just as productive!

Poodle Skirt

2009-01-09T12:21:00.010-06:00

A sewing client asked me to make a poodle skirt for her granddaughter for a Christmas present. After some brief research on the internet, I decided I could make it without a pattern. There could be nothing simpler. It is a full circle skirt and because she was unsure of her granddaughter's exact waist measurement, I put elastic in the waist so it could be easily adjusted if it ended up too big.

All you need for a skirt like this is two yards of 72" wide felt, a poodle applique, some ribbon and elastic for the waist.

First take your fabric and fold it into fourths. (In the picture above I have drawn the waist arc and am now measuring the hem arc.) Starting at the center point, draw an arc where you want to cut out the waist. For an approximately 30" waist, I cut out a 4" arc. From this line, measure how long you want the skirt and add an inch and a half to turn over for the waistband. I only added an inch and used 3/4" wide elastic. This leaves a very tight opening to get the elastic through, so if I were doing it again, I'd add the half inch and give myself some breathing room. The felt won't fray, so you don't need to worry about a hem allowance. This skirt was to be 27", so I measured my second arc at 28". In the next picture you can see both arcs drawn. It is now ready to cut out.

I then cut along both arcs and then unfolded the skirt:

I then folded over my waistband to the inside and stitched it shut using my blind hemming foot. I have found I use this foot a lot for edgestitching as I can but the fabric up against it and be a lot more consistent. I left an opening to insert the elastic. When I removed it from the machine, I inserted the elastic, stitched the ends together and closed the opening.

At this point you have a skirt and all that is left is the embellishment. I put the skirt on my dress form, figured out where I wanted the poodle and then took a spool of 1/8" wide ribbon and played with it until I had a leash I liked. I pinned it and then took the skirt off the dress form and sewed the ribbon down by hand, smoothing out the curves as I went along.

If I were to do this again, I think I would add a separate waistband piece. It would just give a more finished look. I think it turned out well though and my client was very pleased.

Christmas Presents

2009-01-09T06:25:00.010-06:00

Now that Christmas is over, I can finally show the projects that William and I were working on.

William made dish towels from the Keep it Simple Pattern in the downloadable book top ten towels on 4 shafts

I made these clever Criss-Cross Coasters. I followed the tutorial at
allsorts. She does such a good job explaining how to make them. Just follow the link.

Coleen made owls for all of her cousins. All of them are really into the Harry Potter books and so she wanted all of them to have their own personal Hedwig.

She made painted glass objects for everyone else on her list this summer in a glass painting class she took at College for Kids in Winona, MN. Somehow I neglected to get pictures of them, but she had lots of fun making them.

2009 Resolutions

2009-01-04T16:58:00.004-06:00

I have been thinking about what I would like to accomplish with my sewing in the next year ever since people started posting before Christmas. Here's what I have come up with.

1. Make pants that fit me well. This is from ground zero. I have not even made any pants for me yet. I know all the steps though because I've made my daughter's pants for years. Will it be difficult? A lot of alterations? I don't have any idea, but I am always putting them off... This is the year to get over the hump.

2. Be more balanced between my sewing and business sewing. I find myself swinging wildly between the two. If I have a big job, I'll become so obsessed, I don't do any of my other projects and then I'll resent that it took all of my time. The time doesn't necessarily need to be equal, but I need to feel like I am accomplishing something of my own or else the work part will become no fun.

3. Part of being able to being more balanced with my sewing is making sure I spend at least 30 minutes in my sewing room every day. Even if this time is just spent cleaning, I will feel more like spending time down there if I have the discipline to do it every day.

4. Find some quick and easy knit top patterns that I love and always have one ready to work on. Most of what I have right now are turtlenecks- great for this time of year, but it will eventually warm up. If I had some TNT patterns that I could whip up, I could be ready for spring.

I could probably list a dozen other things, but I think I will try and keep it manageable.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

2009-01-01T08:54:00.007-06:00

It was a wonderful holiday season and now it is time to get back to schedules and deadlines. I was sort of lazy over the last two weeks and now feel I have some posts to catch up on! I have really enjoyed reading everyone's posts about what they've accomplished in 2008 and their goals for 2009. I'll get there. I just have a couple of posts to write before that...

First off-

Christmas was delightful. We opened presents, had a late breakfast and went skiing! The snow was perfect and the trails were in good shape. The world is so beautiful and quiet with a layer of new snow over it. We then came home and baked a ham and had a delicious meal with horseradish brussels sprouts and cream biscuits. That evening it snowed again. What a great Christmas present - good weather on one of the days that we could all enjoy it as a family.

To top it off we had a Christmas pudding. Here is a picture of when we lit it.

We had it warm with whipped cream on top. It was quite delicious and worth the wait... we cooked them in October and they have been aging in the refrigerator since.
As good as it was warmed on Christmas Day. It is even better the week after: sliced with butter and a cup of strong tea.

Some favorite gifts? Warm slippers, an extra-wide ironing board, a new cuisinart and a wonderful handmade apron. All of which have already been put to good use.

I always make something for Coleen to wear for Christmas - I really like how this turned out. It's from Ottobre... one of the boy's patterns. That's another post to write.

Thomas, being the cat he is, felt it was all for him and picked his own present from among the many offerings...

a close second for him was probably the marble run Coleen got from my parents. He was fascinated by those marbles moving down the track.

Lucy, our other cat, was not sure about the whole unwrapping presents thing. She is skittish to begin with and all that noise was enough to drive her downstairs until the craziness was over. She, however, loved the fact that we had a tree in the house. She spent most of her time under it and I am sure she was saddened when we removed the tree yesterday.

I hope your holiday season has brought the year to a good end and that you feel refreshed and ready to face the joy and the challenges of the new year.

Happy New Year to everyone!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T17:29:00.003-06:00

I hope your day was filled with friends, family, laughter and love.

Merry Christmas to one and all!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

2008-12-18T21:06:00.003-06:00

Last week after the snow, I came home and found this in our backyard. Every big snowfall, you can bet there will be a new snow angel. It seems to be something that Coleen just loves to do.

Last Sunday we went and got our tree. We don't go far, just to our backyard! There's a group of pines planted by our fence that were planted too close together - so we are harvesting a few to give the others more room. We spent the evening decorating the tree and listening to Christmas carols.

It was so nice to have the tree up! Coleen was home Tuesday and so I spent the day getting Christmas packages ready. The tree lit up, the crinkle of paper, Christmas music in the background and outside it was snowing. Just the sort of thing to put you in the Christmas mood.

New Hobbies

2008-12-13T18:52:00.003-06:00

Last winter we became a little stir crazy in the long Wisconsin winter- so how do you combat that?

Find some way to get outdoors! We are all learning to cross country ski. We have enough snow now to do some practicing and went out in the woods for a couple of hours. It will be quite fun once we get the hang of it! Both Coleen and I have never been on skis before so there is a bit of a learning curve, but even after only a couple of times out, we are feeling much more confident - at least on the groomed trails.

I'm looking forward to more snow!

Pay It Forward

2008-12-04T11:53:00.000-06:00

Gwen over at after the dress seems to be good at finding fun games all over blogland.

I managed to be one of the first three to post for Pay It Forward. I love the idea of giving crafty things to cyber-friends so here is your opportunity to in the next year receive something from me. The first three commenters on this post will get a handmade gift. The only catch is that you have to make the same offer to three people on your own blog - that way you pay it forward.

William's Shirt is finished

2008-12-03T16:40:00.003-06:00

I finished William's shirt before Thanksgiving and he was able to wear it to the festivities.

We had a delightful visit and lots of delicious food. Will post soon about the trip.

Thanksgiving prep

2008-11-25T16:31:00.004-06:00

William and I spent a large part of Sunday preparing food to take with us to Thanksgiving dinner at William's sister's house in Iowa.

We love to contribute some of our favorite goodies-

The challah will actually become breakfast Thanksgiving morning.

The cranberry sauce has a secret ingredient this year and is delicious!

And the best part of the prep was that William wanted to perfect his cherry pie recipe and had to make one for us to test.

We went this summer and picked sour cherries in Gays Mills, Wisconsin. We have enough frozen for 8-10 pies! Yum!

Here's everything at the end of the day. The cornbread is for stuffing and the squash is for pie.

It's going to be really busy from here on out. We will leave Wednesday night with our car packed to the gills.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Bookworm Meme

2008-11-22T13:33:00.005-06:00

I was tagged by Gwen at after the dress The rules are simple - open the closest book to me (not my favorite or most intellectual) to page 56 and write out the 5th sentence, as well as two to five sentences following that. Then, pass this along to five blogging friends.

Since our computer is in the library, I am close to lots of books so I just had Coleen pick one. She pulled out Concepts of Modern Art edited by Tony Richardson.

Here in the Demoiselles, we have, albeit in a tentative and clumsy fashion, a new approach to the problem of representing three-dimensional volumes on a two-dimensional surface. It is in this that the painting's supreme originality lies. In the heads of the three figures in the left-hand half of the composition, Picasso's intentions are stated in a crude, schematic way: the heads of the two central figures are seen full-face and yet have profile noses, while the head seen in profile has a full-face eye. But in the squatting figure to the right, the most important part of the painting, and the last to be painted, this sort of optical synthesis is more imaginatively applied to the whole figure to produce one of the most revolutionary and compelling images in all art.

And since every art history professor I had in school would tell you that it is really hard to study art without seeing it, here is the image referred to above:

Since, I am not really sure who reads my blog except for my family and Gwen, if you want to participate please do so. Please leave a comment on this post though so I can come and look at your bookshelf.

William's Weaving

2008-11-22T13:20:00.006-06:00

Just a couple of pictures of the dish towels William made.

They are really nice. Not only pretty, but soft and very absorbent.

These were finished at the beginning of the month. He is in the process of deciding on his next project.

And now finally, the coat

2008-11-22T12:57:00.003-06:00

So, here's Coleen ready for winter. William knit her the tam and the scarf is my family's tartan, which really ties the green coat and red hat together.

Front

and back:

I am quite pleased with it. I had lots of fun with the needle felting on the belt and the pocket welts. I am also pleased with the buttons I found. They have interest without overpowering the other details. - I didn't think about it, but on the back belt the buttons and needle felting are quite close together and a lot of the buttons I looked at clashed with the felting. Thankfully one of the ladies at the quilt shop saw these (I had passed right over them after trying the same design in red and not liking it).

I re-sewed the lining and it looks much better. The sides do not pull up any more.

I really learned alot making this coat and now want to tackle them for William and me. I know there are things that I can improve the next time around and look forward to the challenge.

Finished

2008-11-20T16:14:00.001-06:00

Finished...

not only with Coleen's coat, but William's shirt too!

Just have to get pictures taken now.

Coleen's coat...almost

2008-11-17T16:31:00.004-06:00

I said I was almost done with Coleen's coat. That all I needed to do was add buttons.
Well, I went to La Crosse on Friday and found buttons I really liked at the local quilt store A Stitch in Time. I realized however when I had Coleen try on the coat to make sure the button placement was right that the hem was unacceptably wonky

So I ripped the lining hem out and realized I either cut it too short or misunderstood the directions and sewed it in wrong because the coat hangs perfectly if I just scoot the lining up about an inch. I had bagged the coat and sewed this in by machine originally, but I am just going to resew it by hand.

This picture, with the really bad shadow shows that the lining came all the way down to the bottom edge of the coat - in fact if you were really looking the lining showed (just barely)- so I am glad that I ended up ripping it out anyhow.

After I ripped it out and pinned it where it hung naturally when she was wearing it, it looked more like this:

Hopefully there will be pics tomorrow with it done and ready to wear!

Cat Nap

2008-11-15T17:29:00.004-06:00

Thomas is the most patient cat. We tucked him in for the evening and he stayed tucked! This is an hour after we had thrown the blanket over him. He wasn't going to let anything disturb his cat nap.

Minneapolis

2008-11-14T17:35:00.007-06:00

* This picture is from August a couple of years ago. I did not bring my camera this trip, but wanted to include something scenic from Minneapolis. The spoon is in the sculpture garden next to the Walker Art Museum.

We went to Minneapolis last Friday so that I could attend the Original Sewing & Quilt Expo at the Convention Center. It was my first time attending one of these shows and I enjoyed myself. I took three classes and had plenty of time to wander around the vendors booths and find some fun stuff to bring home with me.

I was looking especially for buttons for Coleen's coat because it is finished and I did not buy enough of the buttons that she had originally chosen. Unfortunately I did not find anything suitable, but that didn't keep me from finding other things.

I bought three pieces of fabric. The green and the brown are bamboo/silk blends and the robin's egg blue is a bamboo/silk/wool blend. After dissection our best guess is the brown is the wool, the white bamboo and the blue silk. It is lovelier in person and definitely more blue than this picture conveys. The green and the brown will be shirts for William and I. The blue I am thinking of a jacket and skirt combination for me.

I also couldn't resist this Indonesian sarong. It is actually brown over-dyed with navy blue. It will probably become a blouse or a skirt, but I haven't quite decided yet.

These books are references from two of the classes I took. The classes are really more like one-hour seminars. Both of these classes had lots of good information. Cynthia Guffey warned us ahead of time, that in order to fit all of the information in she talked so fast you would not be able to take notes. Boy was she right! But really quite a delightful speaker. I can see why her class was packed. The book here does outline exactly what she said in class without the charm.

Lorraine Henry talked at a pace you could follow, but did not get through everything she wanted to cover. I got the book from her class because I liked the measuring tapes. One has 0 in the middle, so you can measure back and front(or right and left) at the same time. The other can attach to the first one to help with measuring inseams. Very clever.

The third class was with Lyla Messinger and was more like a trunk show. She showed us several different techniques for edge finishes in knits and showed us how she used them on garments she had made. Of the three, it was my least favorite, but when discussing it afterwards with William, I decided it is also the one that I will use the most. She had some good pointers on working with knits and since knits are quick and easy, these tips will get their fair share of use. I will probably order some notions from her in a couple of months.

While I was there, Coleen and William went to the Walker Art Museum and Magers&Quinn, our favorite bookstore. William also went searching for weaving supplies. We did finally go to the Weaver's Guild on Saturday. They are closed on Saturday, but had a class in session and were very kind and let us look around and make a purchase. William found a really great book on woven Shibori and also bought some cotton to play around with.

We made a quick run to IKEA and REI to do some shopping and then made our way back home.

Hmm...

2008-11-13T16:54:00.003-06:00

Well, by the lack of posts you might think I have nothing to say, but the opposite is true! I have so much to write about that I don't know where to begin.

I will take a deep breath and start posting about projects and last weekend in Minneapolis tomorrow.

Right now, I'm just posting a pretty picture.

These are dogwood blossoms- one of the things I miss about living in California.

Just one thing to say today

2008-11-04T07:23:00.000-06:00