Cutting Corners

It is so COLD out there.  Mr. Responsibly kept saying we should get the yard stuff done last week "before the cold comes" all Little-House-On-The-Prairie style and I nodded and went back to my e-mail, because how cold was it realistically going to get?  Cold. Like, lonely playground cold.  Where do the toddlers go when they don't go to the park? This is my big question.  Do other people have children that are content to stay home when you explain what a 45 degree diaper change is going to feel like?

I know, I know, this is the season I was asking for.  I got that mailer from Trader Joe's with 62 different pumpkin-flavored products you could buy, so you can probably guess what I did.  I liked the pumpkin yogurt, pasta, ice cream, and poptarts (well, I would have liked the poptarts, if they were in stock), but this is what I was most excited to try:

I'm not one for mixes usually, but I'd heard people rave about it - warm, yummy bread, with just a flick of of the whisk.  I baked this from-scratch version too, for comparison:

They're similar, but with TJ's I stop after one slice.  With the other stuff, it's two to three slices before I'm done (advantage/disadvantage, haven't decided yet), and it's apple sauce instead of oil.

On a craftier note, I've been trying to practice my FMQ (free motion quilting) but am always scared to do it on something that's already taken me hours to sew up.  I remember Malini, a skilled FMQer from the BMQG suggesting you practice on a panel fabric instead of a quilt top that you've painstakingly pieced - and then you end up with a quilt but it's not that big a deal if you mess up.  The quilters version of using a box-mix cake to try out your homemade icing recipe.

I picked up this 1940s table cloth at Brimfield last year.  Very pretty but it' s for a square card table, which I don't have and don't plan on getting.  As Alidiza pointed out (it's Guild shout out day!), Bridge is much harder to learn than FMQ anyway.  This also had lots of curvy lines for practicing feathers, and flowers I could outline - the tablecloth was totally asking for it.

I used red minky for the back, which is so soft and wonderful, but I really should have used white. It pulled right through the batting and loose weave of the tablecloth, highlighting every mistake in pink (I was going for some nice, subtle white lines!).

In the end though, if you don't look too closely at the details and just take it as a whole, I think it came out pretty well.

It's going into J's crib, because whatever doesn't fit a real bed ends up there eventually.  I've struggled with satin binding all year because she likes satin so much, and I hate working with it.  This time I made 10" wide double binding and it came out the way it should, except for the corners, which I mitered.  A mistake.  If I ever have to do satin again, I'll need to learn a different method for corners.  Luckily the recipient maintains standards as low as her mother's.

Spa Week

September and October are always productive months for me - I think it's that residual back-to-school effect. It's like I'm still trying to impress imaginary teachers who haven't figured out that I'm a slacker yet. So I was particularly disappointed this month when my sewing machine demanded a week at the spa for cleaning and oiling, interrupting all my big plans.

I turned to some no-sew activities like Halloween decorating - this was easy, since I went crazy last year (by "crazy" I mean I bought my own jigsaw and hand-painted my own tombstones and sewed wings for my handmade golden snitches that I'm too tired to even put up this year).  I'm a huge Harry Potter fan, so that's the theme:

And because I hoped if I claimed the acronym first, J would always think it too lame for a tattoo:

My only new additions this year were the perishables:

And this Smash replica that had even HIM confused:

And of course J's costume.  She'll be my little witch and has totally embraced the role:

I was relaxing into no-sew week very nicely and then, on a date with my baby/mama group, my friend Zita showed up in this:

And I was like, "Is that the Hourglass Sweater that's only supposed to take 8 hours to knit, but actually takes 18?  Did you MAKE that?," and sure enough she had.

A little history here: I have attempted only one adult-size sweater in my life, and this was it.  I got sooo close to finishing it three years ago.  But then I had to tear out some rows (apparently "boat neck" in this pattern meant the neck would be as wide as a real boat), twisted the stitches by accident when trying to modify it, and threw the whole thing in a corner in defeat.  After seeing Zita's I dug it out, and this is what it looked like.  Decidedly not as cute as hers:

Part of the problem was that it was totally shapeless and way too short.  Some might even call it 'cropped' ("you can pull it long when you block it," encouraged Zita).  The other problem was the twisted row that had made me cry, back in 2010:

Luckily I have significantly lowered my standards in the last three years and now I can't remember what all the fuss was about.  After some dunking, pulling and blocking, I even got the thing to grow a few inches.  And now I have officially knit a grown-up sweater:

Here we are living the dream: a couple of for-real knitters, hanging out in our hand-knit sweaters.

Ah well, apparently my machine isn't one for long holidays and relaxing because Daley by the Yard got her all cleaned up in less than a week.  Back to the sewing table.

Falling

I do it every year: totally fall for fall.  August gets so hot, and I'm so sick of watering the plants that look dead anyway and the canvas shoes have gone from cute to "can I leave the house in this?" embarrassing.

And then a few chilly days come along and I let myself fall for everything fall.  I love foliage and sweaters-but-no-jackets and drinking my afternoon coffee HOT.  Speaking of which, have you seen this? Hits so close to home, I almost spit out my pumpkin spice latte all over my yoga pants:

I know y'all do it too, get excited about this season that only lasts for about three weeks and treat it like it's the new forever.  But this year I'm not going to get seduced into buying those cute boots that won't do me any good on the December ice. Why is a "fall boot" a thing?

from: http://www.thebudgetbabe.com/

Suddenly you NEED, not just want, a gauzy scarf that your'e going to "layer" even though you're not, because when it gets cold, the layers you'll need better be a lot thicker than that.  I think I'm going to coin a new phrase: anything that is impractical but feels, on a gut-level, necessary, I'm going to call September.  You want two pairs of new glasses because you can't decide between the formal and for-fun frames? Don't do it.  It's so September.  Another reusable grocery bag, because you left the other twenty in the car and this one was super cute? You'll regret it! Totally September. Beats by Dre headphones, a new colander because it's red, IPhone 5S = Septemberish - I can resist.

But sometimes I can't help myself.  Without thinking it through, I pictured the cider doughnuts and the pretty leaves and the windy days and I let myself indulge in a little September this week.

I have this lovely, and I mean loverly, pinkish wool that I got at Sew Low Discount Fabrics.  It can be pink or almost lavender depending on the light.  I only got a yard of it, with no specific project in mind.

This is where I'm supposed to show you the the drapey pile of luxurious wool, but my rotary cutter wouldn't wait, so here are the scraps to give you a sense of what little pieces of heaven would look like.

So what better way to use my $30 a yard, good-enough-for-the-queen, dry-clean-only, 100% wool suiting than on a between-seasons jacket for a 1.75-year-old who still drools, draws on herself, and rolls around on the ground for fun?  No really, here she is with her friend Alex on the playground this week:

I knew the perfect jacket - this Heidi & Finn pattern, which you can get here:

It takes a certain sense of humor to name a child's pattern "The Cocktail Swing Coat"

It came out OK from the back:

And it matches her little knit-by-Kate bunny perfectly:

The ties seem a little awkward and thick on my version, though.

I made a 3T since J has always been a bit big for her age - but she absolutely swims in this.  It's way too big for now.  I know girl, I'm disappointed too.

I have a feeling come April I'm going to shove her into this every day for a week before adding it to the bin of things that she's grown out of, but that I'm not ready to part with.

I'm not going to beat myself up over this one though.  Sometimes I think you've got to just do what the fabric tells you to do, and this was meant to be my daughter's coat.  The lining is a cotton voile called "Josephine's Bouquet" and I think it looks like Dianthus, one of my favorite early summer flowers:

So yeah, it was expensive and impractical and doesn't fit her, but sometimes September gets to me too.

Weekending? For Pleat's Sake!

I love to travel - or loved to, back when it was just two (or one) of us.  Words like 'flight' and 'hotel' used to bring these images to mind:

 Now I just picture this:

Image via: denablizzard.brinkster.net

So when our quilt guild proposed sewing Amy Butler's Not-For-The-Faint-of-Heart Weekender bag, I hesitated.  Like there will ever be another weekend away where I can pack everything we need into one cute little bag with no wheels! But it's a nice pattern; a really professional looking bag.

Depending on the fabric you choose and whether you quilt it, it can look very Pan Am Flight Attendant circa 1968 or more Vera Bradley (I was going for Pan Am). Luckily my sister, who leads workshops in teaching teachers to teach needed a big bag for lugging around her materials, so this one was for her.

Back in the day when I was sewing curtains for J's room and buying fabric from Freddy Farkel's I ran into the problem of a 'minimum purchase.'   It's a little loud, but Mr. Responsibly and I fell in love with P Kaufmann's Tempo Rock n Roll.

Even after the curtains, I still have A-C-R-E-S of it, and luckily my sister shares my good taste and isn't too invested in a super-professional textile look.

The Weekender pattern has been described as challenging, impossible and lethal (there is an actual support group on flickr).  I know I'm not an expert with the sewing machine, but with a description like that I couldn't help but wonder if I was good enough.  If you have the desire to try this yourself, you should follow the sew-along on the BMQG blog (last installment by moi). If you use the right sewing needle (the one for denim) and allow yourself plenty of time, it's actually not too hard, just a little tedious - particularly cutting out all the parts.  

While in the process of making this, I remembered that waaaay back in the day, I justified the mandatory minimum fabric purchase by telling myself that I would make purses with the left over.  It was the *free* "For Pleats Sake" pattern I had in mind.

I'd actually already bought the lining fabric and two sets of handles for it back then, and shoved the whole thing in the corner, you know, to work on later.  Two years later.  So while I had the big roll of fabric out, it seemed pretty now-or-never for these purses.

When we found this fabric, my first thought was that my friend Fox would really like it; it's always kind of reminded me of her.  So I made a bag for each of us.  That also provided an excuse to order the handles in both black and red since I couldn't decide which I liked better.

The pattern was simple enough, and I have not doubt I will be making seasonal variations on this, it's right up my alley style-wise.  So here's what I want to remember for next time:

-  When making the pleats, the two marks, 3/4" apart should match up (it's a very shallow pleat, the fold  is half-way between the marks).  In order to center the pleats, I had to do the first one 3" in, and then 2" apart thereafter, otherwise I got 7 pleats.  Apparently I'm the only one on the internet who has had this problem though!
-  I wish I'd done one interior pocket for keys/phone.  I find a lot of pockets frustrating, but one is always a necessity.  This bag is too big to just let everything loose in there and ever expect to find your keys again.
- I might make this 2/3 the size next time.  Even though I got the longest straps, they still seemed a little short and thin in proportion to the bag.
-  I was impatient with sewing on the handles and they are unacceptably messy looking from inside.  It wouldn't have been that hard to do this right the first time,

Quiltspiration

Not much achieved this week, just a shirt that no one loved (it's too small and the cat yuked on it, so I guess she didn't like it either).  And I made some zucchini bread from the 2 lb zucchini we got from CSA (I'm starting to hate CSA) but forgot to add the sugar. So I'm starting to think this is just a month where I sit back and admire other peoples' projects instead of trying to work on my own.

Missy J was sick last week and I figured in her weakened state she wouldn't be able to protest a long car ride, so we headed up to the World Quilt Show in NH.  There was some truly inspiring stuff, so I thought I'd share the photos that I keep looking at, over and over.

I had two favorites: this was from Alison Laurence of New Zealand, called Off the Wall.  I love the graffiti look, I love the shoes, I love the too-big winter coat, I love it that if I squint I can pretend it's me.:

I was also really taken with the negative space design on this set of minis done by quilters/artists from the UK who call themselves the Fusion Quilt Group - they were inspired by The Secret Garden, one of my favorite books as a kid. And for the record, did that book involve a love triangle or was that all in my nine-year-old imagination?

I also liked these mini-quilts from a challenge by members of The Surface Design Association.  The theme was Blind Eye: The Result of Doing Nothing.  I haven't done, nor have I seen a lot of political quilts, and I found these really moving.  The themes ranged from child abuse:

To gun violence:

To the challenges facing teachers today:

And I liked this one by a grandmother who said her quilt was about how she sometimes avoids young men that she finds intimidating when she's walking down the street.  Now that her own grandson is a teenager, she wonders if other people make assumptions about / avoid him in the same way.  Her quilt questions how we change that.  I'm paraphrasing, she said it much more articulately in the note, but I liked the sentiment and the way she did the figure on the quilt.

These were incredible too:
From a South African quilter - but I didn't catch the name because someone was starting to get fussy- maybe because we were standing in front of it for like, twenty minutes.

Just look at the forehead alone:

This was a mini, part of a Women, Peace and Security challenge by Quilt for Change.

The Basket Makers of Axoum, Ethiopia by Meri Henriques Vahl (U.S.) also stopped me for longer than J was comfortable with.  The detail was incredible.

Around the corner was Green Tara by Allison Wilbur (U.S.) My phone doesn't do the colors justice.  The quilting was mind-blowing.

This was the "pervy" quilt with a black screen surrounding it, and a warning sign that parental discretion was advised - like anyone is going to take a pass on that!  I think J was a little disappointed by how tame it was. No idea who the artist was:

My favorite group if I had to pick by nationality were the Japanese quilts - I didn't get all the names/artists as these were the last we saw.

Let's Go Party by Keiko Ike

Cherry Blossoms In Full Bloom by Noriko Matsutou

My Favorite Town, New York by Natsumi Ohara

I actually can't be sure this one was Japanese, but I think it was:

Finally, while J did a little whining through most of the show, there were a couple of quilts that made her scream "meow" in the loudest most high-pitched voice ever - it was so disturbing I actually saw someone adjust their hearing aid.  So I think of these as the quilts that could break glass:

This was only my second quilt show, so I can't say with any authority how it stacks up, but it was a really inspirational morning!