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Although we are not technically on summer vacation yet, we still tried to enjoy the first official weekend of summer to its fullest.
Happy Memorial Day, everyone!
A month or so ago I teased y’all about a project I was working on with Lizzy House’s Hello Pilgrim.
Well, it’s done! And I am pretty darn happy with the results.
The pattern is Sew Lisette’s Traveler Dress, with mods. The shirt dress pattern was the closest I could find style – wise to what I had in mind, but the skirt wasn’t quite full enough. I didn’t want a straight shirt – style, nor did I want a too – full skirt, so I added a slightly flared panel on the sides.
My only complaints are that I made it not – quite long enough (another inch would have been my perfect length) and the top isn’t quite as fitted as I’d like around the collar and underarms. Otherwise I am quite pleased with it.
It’s darn comfortable and I adore the fabric, so I think it will get plenty of wear this summer, especially as it works well with my farm boots!
Then again, Hunter boots do look good with just about anything!
Lately I have been on quite the sewing streak. Ever since I went to the Lizzy House workshop at Susan’s, and Paul bought me a new machine for our anniversary, I’ve been remembering that sewing is fun – not frustrating (an older, not quite “right” machine can really make you dislike sewing).
I also was inspired by the fabrics that Lizzy has created and have been snatching them up as budgeting allows.
But what do you make with such treasured fabrics? It’s kind of hard to decide, as it turns out – the more you like a fabric, the more you don’t want to mess up badly whatever you are making with it.. But, I’ve made two things so far that I am very pleased with (though I really want to buy more of the same fabric and make MORE things with it!!).
This is my new “Schoolhouse Tunic” by Sew Liberated (dress length) in Lizzy’s “Outfoxed”. I love how it fits and it’s very comfortable and flattering. But I just love this fabric so much I want to make MORE dresses, tunics and skirts with it. I mean, just look at the little hedgehogs!
I think this calls for a skirt as well, don’t you?
These are my new Wide – Legged Lounge Pants from Amy Butler’s In Stitches. This fabric is also from Lizzy’s “Outfoxed” collection.
I have been wearing these nearly non -stop around the house since finishing them.
Right now I am working with another Lizzy Fabric from her new “Hello Pilgrim” collection – no sneak peeks today, but I am nearly finished with it so I’ll be showing it off soon enough.
Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!
As you may or may not know, St. Patrick’s Day is our wedding anniversary. This year was number 16 – and we celebrated the way we always do: with good food, cold Guinness, and watching Darby O’Gill and the Little People together. Maddie made a lovely Chocolate Stout Cake with Bailey’s Cream Cheese frosting, and I made Jamie Oliver’s Steak, Guinness & Cheese Pie (from Jamie At Home). I made fresh granola and played with my new Janome sewing machine, and Paul brought home his new toy: a giant trailer.
There’s no real recipe at play here: I just toss some oats, sesame seeds, coconut & sliced almonds with some dried blueberries, some honey, some maple syrup and canola oil and bake it lightly.
Truffles and Speckles fighting over a nesting box. Neither one would cede to the other, and they ended up both laying their eggs at the same time.
No, I don’t particularly like “Hello Kitty”. The machine just happened to be branded that way and it was a steal.
Paul’s new toy.
What do you mean I can’t have this marshmallow Oona dropped that’s bigger than my head??!!
Remember that quilt top I was working on with Caroline when Lizzy House was at Susan’s?
I finished it.
Just the top. But it’s beyond gorgeous.
I don’t have any wall space where I can hang it for a proper picture right now, so bear with me. This is just a peek. The color is off and I realized it’s also upside – down.
More details and better pics to come.
For now I am back out to digging garden trenches.
Let me start by saying that if you work with fabrics you should know Lizzy House. Because if you don’t, you are missing out BIG TIME. Lizzy has beautiful prints in beautiful colors – so much so that Susan collects hoardes bundles of it to display in her house. It’s that beautiful.
Lizzy came to the farm this weekend to give a quilting workshop (farm plus BFF’s plus quilting? I was SO in) and I was thrilled to be a part of it. I’ve not done a lot of quilting myself, and what I have done has been mostly frustrating because I never really bothered to figure out how to quilt, so when things went wrong I wasn’t really sure how to fix them. This class was perfect because I am not necessarily a beginner, but I needed to see people properly working a quilt to fill in the knowledge gap. And now that I know what I was doing wrong I realize how kind of simple the fixes were. Quilting is so very much easier than I was assuming it is, and so very much more fun!
Don’t you just love this Hello Kitty machine Virginia is sewing on?? Virginia owns “Gather Here” a beautiful yarn & fabric shop in Cambridge, MA. If you’re in the neighborhood, drop in and check it out. And tell her I said hi!!
The bonus? Aside from spending the weekend sewing at the farm, my dear friend Amanda came down from Boston.
I do not get to see Amanda nearly enough. That has to change.
I collaborated with Caroline and I am pretty sure a new quilting fiend has been born in her – she took right to it and loved it. Don’t be surprised if she’s designing quilts by this time next year!
Lizzy herself is just as beautiful and friendly and fun as her designs.
We were all working on making our own version of the quilt you see behind her – but not just “making” it. She shared a story of personal loss that spurred her to begin quilting, and how it saved her. How all of the emotion and love and sorrow and all of it went into the quilt until it became more than just “a quilt”. This is very familiar to me as a knitter, and to other knitters as well. Our craft is a kind of therapy and I have spent many hours knitting while mulling over whatever is happening in my life at that moment. From then on, that project always reminds me of that moment, like a snapshot. There are knitters I know who will call something their “angry scarf” or their “lucky socks” because that is what they remember most about knitting them. I oddly have a project that makes me think of Niagara Falls because I was listening to a “This American Life” segment about the Falls while I was knitting it.
Lizzy’s fabrics being bundled into a gorgeous stack.
This quilt project was about that, but in a more “intentional” way. Lizzy tasked us with deciding what we wanted our quilts to be about and to focus on that while working on it. I can tell you my intentions for it were all about my friendships at the farm (both old and new) and my hopes and feelings about finally getting my own farm underway. This will be an intentionally happy and lucky and grateful quilt. And Caroline and I worked on it together! I will remember that every time I see it and it will make me happy.
This is Lisa. Lisa lives locally (YAY!!!) and for all of you who are local, she and her husband own Revolutionary Soup. Right??!!! You can also check out their blog at Red Row Farm.
Caroline and I used a collection by Moda called “Papillon”.
I can’t wait to show off the project when it is all finished. We knocked out 12 of the 18 squares for the top. I’ll be machine quilting it once I’ve gotten the backing fabric and sandwiching material. Nothing fancy – I think the fabric does a knockout job on its own.
If you’re thinking about learning to quilt but are unsure – find a class. I can’t promise it will be as fun as this was, but it will take away much of the fear factor and get you going on the right track (if you live in the greater Boston area, Virginia’s shop is a great place to take classes, and you can use her machines there by the hour).
If Lizzy is going to be in your area giving a class or workshop – DO IT. I can’t speak highly enough of her. And for heaven’s sake if you find some of her fabric GET IT!!!
This is the post where I steal an entire bit from Susan’s blog and pass it on here. She and the crew at JMF are starting magazine. A beautiful, lovely, useful magazine centered around all things done by hand. Cooking, sewing, knitting, building…..you name it. I’m super excited about it (and having a hard time not boasting that I’ve known about it for quite awhile and have seen some of what’s going to go into it…..it’s too exciting to keep to myself!). Here it is in Susan’s words. There’s some lovely prizes to be had for those who can help get it off the ground.
Very Big News!
by Susan on March 2, 2012
So for months now I have been alluding to a big secret I’ve been keeping. I am thrilled that today I can finally share the news with all of you.
Juniper Moon Farm is starting a magazine called By Hand. By Hand will be a lifestyle magazine for people who make, with departments for cooking, crafting, DIY, gardening, and do-gooding, with a bit of travel and profiles of makers every month.
The idea is to celebrate creating things with our hands, and to explore the motivation to make things in a world where there are cheaper and immediate alternatives. It will be both practical (patterns, DIY projects, etc) and thoughtful, with a lovely and gentle aesthetic.
We have lots of amazing contributors and editors on board already, and the first issue is well underway. But before we go any further, we need your help!
We are holding a Kickstarter campaign to raise the rest of the money we need to make the magazine everything we want it to be. And as an added inducement, we have commissioned so amazing rewards! Our art director Michelle Lukezic has designed posters and t-shirts that are going to be incredibly popular with people who make things with their hands. Here’s a sample:
There are posters and t-shirts for each of the sections in the magazine!
If you like what you see and want to support us, great! If you can help us get the word out about the Kickstarter and the magazine we will be forever in your debt!
What’s going on right now:
- There’s 14 1/2 dozen eggs in my fridge right now. It’s getting dire, people. I am going to start doing egg drops on peoples’ doorsteps.
- I’ve been reading 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C Mann and I am loving it. There’s all kinds of great little – known facts about the impact that contact with the “New World” made globally. Did you know that at Columbus’ time (he was called Cristobal Colon then, btw) people had known for years the earth was round; Columbus (or Colon) insisted it was pear – shaped, with the very top resembling a woman’s nipple? Did you know earthworms were unknown in the Americas before the Europeans arrived? Or that Pocahontas’ name was actually “Mataoka”. The name “Pocahontas” was a nickname which meant “Little Hellion”?
- I’m working furiously on Wicked using the luscious Superfine Alpaca yarn Caroline and I bought from the Montpelier Fiber Festival in the fall. It’s very slow going, and normally I would be ultra bored with it by now, but the yarn is just so wonderful I can’t put it down.
- To assist with all that knitting – we got a new dvd player. Okay, we got it because our old one broke. Paul picked up a new one with all these crazy bells and whistles that I can barely figure out BUT. I can access my Amazon Prime account through the dvd player so that I can watch any of the streaming shows and movies from my online account ON MY TV!!! I know I am so late to the party on this but I am very much enjoying it! Now I don’t have to rely on my laptop to watch Downton Abbey!!! (And goodness, if you haven’t been watching Downton Abbey, please do. It is so very good!)
- I started working out every day back in January. I’ve been alternating between a strength – training Pilates program with resistance bands and an “Ease into 5K” program on the elliptical. I also gave up soda completely and have replaced it with green tea. My favorite is The Republic of Tea’s Blueberry Green Tea. I’m feeling pretty good. My goal is to run on the beach this August during my book club beach weekend. My super – fit friend Beth runs every morning while we are there, and this year I plan to join her.
- Today I got my spinach and broccoli planted. As last year, I am using all heritage non – GMO seeds from Baker Creek. We’ve expanded the vegetable garden site and I am excited for all the fresh veg we’ll have this year!
- Last but not least, I bought supplies to take to Juniper Moon Farm this weekend where I will get to meet Lizzy House! She’s giving a quilting workshop and I get to go sew with some of my favorite people (and meet Lizzy House!!!!!!)
What are you up to this week????
Yesterday was the kind of January day I need more often. The kind where you get a surprise snow shower and have plenty of knitting and reading, and a full tank of propane to keep the fireplace lit all day.
The snow barely stuck and was over too quickly, but it was lovely while it lasted. Oona kept begging to go play in it – but it was too wet and muddy out.
I did manage to block a sweater I finished back in November after we finished up school for the day, and installed our new National Geographic Complete Collection onto my computer (the girls will be using this for social studies).
Paul will be having back surgery soon (nothing to worry about – we are looking forward to some relief for his pain) and I am hoping for winter to finally show up in force afterwards since he will have a several week recovery at home (and we won’t have to go anywhere). For now the kids are indignant that the sun is out and temperatures are hanging in the 50′s. So am I.
As the days race toward Christmas it is getting more and more difficult to keep the kids focused on schoolwork. They’ve got the proverbial “visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads”.
Admittedly, I do as well. If I weren’t so busy with the business of school, housework, grocery shopping and all the other mundane tasks that take up my time I would be spending my days on holiday crafts and making every corner of the house bright.
Today I relented somewhat, and after some perfunctory math and writing exercises we dove into some paper crafts. Hand prints on brown paper became reindeer ornaments, colored construction paper became the backdrop for wintery tomten pictures.
I am quite taken with Scandinavian style and folklore, and the tomten is no exception. I think I like him particularly because of his traditional connection to farmers. On a lark I traced out a paper cut design to see if I could make a reasonable garland from red paper.
Well, it is reasonable. I didn’t say I was making a stellar garland. I wanted this for over the kitchen sink, and that is where these little fellows hang, for now. The construction paper was a bit too something. Not quite right for this project. Tissue paper was too thin. I am thinking I will re-do this not on paper, but perhaps on felt. Much sturdier, no need for tape. That way it can also be reused every year. Perhaps some single appliques for pillows even?
This holiday season is going to fly by way too quickly for me to accomplish all of the blissfully fun things I want to do. St. Lucia’s Day is coming up soon and there are buns to bake. The solstice will be here not long after and there will be celebrating to be done then. Before we know it SAnta will be making his yearly deliveries and just like that it will be over.
But, then I suppose the season wouldn’t be so special if it weren’t also so very fleeting.
