needle & thREAD

Big sewing here this week! We put in ten hours today alone. My sweet, wonderful, very smart friend Cari came over to lend her expertise to drapery creation. We've finished sewing the living room, dining room and family room window treatments. Woo-hoo!

Today, we set the sewing maching smack in the middle of the house, pushed furniture out of the way in the family room and took over the floor, and plopped the serger on the dining room table. I buzzed girls back and forth to dance a few times, mediated disputes over The Great Adventure Catholic Bible Games, and supervised pre-school math and college math (both on the same table as the sewing machine). We made a good dinner and took a break to sit at the dining room table (minus the serger). All in all, a very satisfying domestic day. 

In the reading department, I received a lovely new Bible a couple days ago. And it just so happens to look beautiful with the curtains destined for the room where I do the most Bible reading. It's the C. S. Lewis Bible, a full Bible interspersed with C. S. Lewis commentary. I love it!

This was a good homemaking day. Cari did all the engineering and design work; she knows this stuff. With full confidence, I pushed miles and miles of beautiful fabric trhough my pretty terrific sewing machine. I had good reason to use both my walking foot and my quilting table, thereby alleviating all the guilt I had previously felt over not quilting a thing since Sarah's quilt (which was the only thing for which I'd ever used those items). Mostly though, it was so nice to work with my hands and just talk all day with a dear friend, while being totally available to my children. I've known Cari since I was a newlywed. She was there when I was pregnant with my first three babies. She was the neighbor to whom I could run for milk or sugar (back when I consumed both). She was also there for cancer. Many years later, she, too, is a cancer survivor. So we had lots to share and it was so very good to have her here.

I think we managed a full day of schoolwork. Tell me, you who sew and knit and do all things domestic while also educating children at home: How do you do it? What's the rhythm in your home? When do you work on your craft? I'm eager to hear about it all. 

And, of course, if you've been reading and sewing or embroidering this week, please share that too. 

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-)

needle & thREAD

Good morning! We've been all kinds of domestic here in the last few days--lots of cleaning, cooking, sewing. I think when my world spins and it becomes apparent that I have little control over it, I tend to hunker down and do the home thing. I have a degree of control of my own domestic haven.

I helped Katie sew a Class Picnic Blouse this week. (Did you see Sarah's picnic blouse and her skirt on her birthday last week?) Katie did almost all of it herself and she's quite pleased with the result.

In the reading department, the children and I have been reading along a patriotic theme, with the books pictured here. With the bigger kids we're reading Bill O'Reilly's books and truly loving them: 

Lincoln's Last Days,  Kids are Americans, Too, and  The O'Reilly Factor for Kids: A Survival Guide for America's Families

We've hunkered down at home and enjoyed some good discussions on hope and vision and culture. I find myself profoundly grateful for the blessing of home education these days. If my life has a theme lately, it's home.

What about you? Are you starting to think Christmas gifts? Big plans for winter home dec?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-)

needle & thREAD with Edith

I have a confession to make.

I am a sewing lesson drop-out.

There. I said it.

I know, that wonderful book, right? It's not that I didn't intend to finish it. I did so want to graduate through each skill-building lesson. It's just that...Well, I couldn't help myself. 

Really, it's not my fault. 

It's all those patterns out there! They're the ones to blame. So darling! How could I resist?

It all started one morning when Elizabeth (She's really the one to blame!) and I were texting about sewing machines and she just happened to mention the 2-part video series on apparel sewing basics by Leisl Gibson of Oliver + S. (Oh, how I adore Oliver + S!)

In my mind there was nothing to do but download that first video. And that's exactly what I did. I watched and all those basic techniques, they didn't seem so hard. Just trace the pattern, cut the fabric, follow the directions and if I get stuck I can always revisit the technique on the video. What have I got to lose, I thought to myself.

So I took out my Oliver + S Music Box Jumper pattern (You see how I was doomed, already stashing patterns?) and a few yards of Anna Maria Horner's Field Study print, Mind's Eye in Toast (Yes, fabric too!) and began measuring Beatrix, my ever-so-willing-to-get-a-new-dress kind of girl. 

I admit it. I was a little nervous. I even considered abandoning this whim, chalking it up to a moment of creative insanity. But that adorable pattern! It's only one out of four scissors on the difficulty scale, I said to myself. I can do this, right?

That's when I called Elizabeth. 

And that's when she told me that this particular pattern, with its pleated skirt and that placket with all those buttons and holes to line up just so, it's not truly a beginner's pattern. Fair warning, but still she encouraged me to give it a try. 

So I did.

Not too shabby for a drop-out, now is it?

I think it's safe to say that there's no turning back now. And I'm downright fighting the urge to order up every pattern in that collection. One at a time, Edith, one at a time. 

(However, I did start another jumper for my daughter Margaret. This one's in Anna Maria Horner's Field Study print, Cell Structure in Americana. It's not quite finished. Still needs a hem and buttons. I do love it that the two jumpers coordinate, but aren't too matchy, matchy. Poor Beatrix won't have to wear the exact same jumper for years and years as Margaret passes hers down.)

As far as reading goes, I'm no better at one at a time with my books than I am with my sewing or knitting. I'm still reading Bleak House. Three hundred pages in, only seven hundred to go! I commited a grave literary sin and began watching the BBC Bleak House series with my husband--before finishing the book. Egad! (But it's so worth it! And it's available to stream instantly on Netflix.)

The girls and I finished Wuthering Heights. We all let out a disappointed sigh when we closed the cover on that one. So sad to come to the end of such a masterpiece. We talked for days and the girls and I all agreed that the movie versions completely miss the point of it. The greatest love story ever told? Yes. But the true story of love isn't about Catherine and Healthcliff. It's about the love of a mother that protects her daughter always and at all times, even from the grave. The girls and I were unanimous--the movie versions completely miss that. 

To fill our Bronte-sized void, we began reading David Copperfield this week. More Dickens. I know.

But really, can anyone ever have too much Dickens?

~~~~

What about you? Are you starting to think Christmas gifts? Big plans for winter home dec?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-)

needle & thREAD

Well, hello there! Is it really Thursday already? I'm afraid I haven't any sewing to show you. I've been creating in my sewing space, but nary a stitch was sewn. I have, however learned a very important lesson.

If you find a fabric you love and you want to design a project around it, buy everything you need right away. Everything. Really. Even extra is a good idea. What I didn't know about the modern designer fabric sewing world is that a fabric might be available only for a season before the designer introduces the next thing and the first fades into oblivion.  Well, now, that is certainly an excellent reason for a stash. Having been well schooled in this fact, I now understand all those serious sewing ladies who have shelves crammed full of fabric. One must hoard, I think.

Remember last spring--early spring it was--when I asked you about a fabric to make an anniversary quilt? I decided upon California Girl. I ordered my fat quarters, but I left the borders and sashing and binding and backing fabric to wait for another payday. My initial thought was to embroider the centers of every log cabin block. I made three. Then I realized that I could do this or I could finish the quilt sometime this year. And then, we went to California for our anniversary. Not only that, we went to the very same places that inspired this fabric--the very same San Francisco Bay area where the designer lives. (Click. it's really cool.) Serendipitously, my choice all those months ago became even more perfect. I would cover our bed in California hues, keeping memories fresh forever. Happy, happy thought.

Last week, all aflutter with renewed zeal for this project, I consulted my notes and went to order the remaining fabric. I could find it no where. Actually, I found and ordered it at Fabric.com, planned everything around the whole 9 yards (literally) of backing fabric only to learn that they didn't really have the backing fabric. They have messed up every order I've ever made. No more from them. Ever.

Now, I had sashing and borders coming from elsewhere and no backing any where. I spent a ridiculous number of hours searching. In the end, it was the Fat Quarter Shop who came to my rescue. [Note: They are a blog sponsor. Also note: I am eternally grateful and would have told you this story any way.]. So, now I have a stash of adequate backing fabric (different from my original plan but still good) and I can sleep at night.

After my anniversary quilt fabric experience, I cast a wary eye at the fabric stashed for Mary Beth's quilt. I'd originally planned to make this quilt to throw over the back of the couch in the family room. Mike was not a fan. Mary Beth, however, loves this fabric. So, it was decided that we'd make her bed quilt from it. The problem? I bought enough fabric for a 64"X 64" square quilt. Standard double bed quilt size: 80" X 80". I have yet to solve this problem because--again--I'm learning that I should have over-stashed when it was hot. My plan is to get the whole thing cut and see how much fabric I have left. I'm open to suggestions. Actually, I'm begging for suggestions!

Finally, a new fabric:-). This time, I think I overbought from Leisl Gibson's new line, The Ladies Stitching Club. I was treated to gracious kindness by the proprietor of the Intrepid Thread who supplied me speedily. This fabric is intended for Fairy Tale Dresses--one in each colorway. Right now, I'm only at the sit and stare at it stage. I can't even bring myself to wash it. It's so lovely. I bought some of the border print. I haven't decided on it. Bows? Collars? I don't know. And... all the reading this week? The instructions inside those patterns--I'm reading and re-reading and working up the courage to begin. 

~~~~

Does autumn call you into your sewing space? Are you thinking flannel pjs or cozy quilts? Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-)

needle & thREAD

I'm finding my sewing rhythm again. I've picked out a few hours in the week that I can predictably sit in front of the sewing machine. That's a really good thing:-). This week, I made the Oliver + S Picnic Blouse in a Sandi Henderson floral from my stash. I made the 6 for Karoline. All her other Oliver + S clothes are 5s, but I wanted this one to fit until next summer. The sleeves are more like elbow-length sleeves on her than 3/4 length. Silly me, I should have had her try it on before I hemmed. Other than that, it's just as I'd hoped. It will work as a good layering shirt over a long-sleeved t-shirt or turtleneck when things turn cold. Karoline loves it and Sarah has already requested one. My sewing to-do list has grown quite long all of a sudden. Another needle &thREADer suggested that this pattern could easily be lengthened into a dress. I can see that in my near future.

At the suggestion of a friend to whom I confided my deep and earnest desire to live my life outside and turn my suburban half-acre into a farm, I have begun to read The Backyard Homestead. And the dreaming for spring begins anew:-). This time, those dreams will have concrete plans attached to them.

 

Does autumn call you into your sewing space? Are you thinking flannel pjs or cozy quilts? Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-)