needle & thREAD

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Katie and I did some sewing yesterday, but I can't show you yet because they're a surprise. I do think a sweet girl and her doll will be very pleased. Katie's skills have improved greatly this summer--all those headbands proved to be great teaching tools. Good thing, too. We have 14 more to make. Yesterday's project was a perfect opportunity to practice French seams. Katie was duly impressed with tidy seams inside the dress. 

I really enjoyed sewing while listening to Simple Mom podcasts. What a retreat for me! And Katie loved listening along. Bonus: I've discovered some fun new-to-me blogs, which, in turn, prompted me to give feedly.com a try after about six months of blog reading hiatus. Win, win, win!

I've got three books going right now. The Homegrown Preschooler is a gorgeous book full of full color photographs that captivated some of us right away. Karoline squirreled away with it for hours. I have spent enough time on soccer fields and in dance studios to know that some (many?) moms are very worried about the best preschool environment for their children. They invest a lot of time and energy and money into assuring that preschool gives a child a leg up on school and life. This book reassures a mom that an intentional mom and comfortable home can get the job done just fine. 

I ordered The Introvert's Way after I read this article. I think the aritcle is spot-on. It's really an excellent insight into and introvert's mind. I am disappointed with book the book so far. It's not nearly as thoughtful, well-researched, and insightful as Quiet is. I much prefer the meatiness of Quiet over the breeziness of The Introvert's Way.

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child was recommended by Sarah about a milion times. Sarah is about batting a thousand on book recommendations throughout the years so that worked for me. My kids were utterly confused about the title, by the way. The more literal they are, the more confused. This is an amazing book in the truest sense of the word; just really top notch. Brilliantly written, incredibly thought-provoking, and potentially life-changing. This is the perfect book for the beginning of a school year because while it certainly encourages us to develop imaginations in our children, it points out how ours might possibly have been squelched and inspires us to revive it. Truly great read.

What are you reading and sewing this week? 

I am eager to hear!

  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 theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD 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 finished last week's headbands. Zoe and Katie and I sewed away the morning on Thursday and dashed all fourteen of them up to the studio in time for ballet. They looked so pretty all together.

And I totally forgot to take pictures.

Here are three I found in the studio this morning. Pretty cute:-)

I woke up super early on Tuesday with every intention of sewing something for myself. But I couldn't get past the "research" stage. This is where I get stuck sewing for me everytime. I look at the pattern, search Flckr for pictures of other people's projects, read all those notes, search the Lisette blog, and basically just psych myself out. 

Really, I should just make a muslin and get on with it. But that would require cutting the pattern and once it's cut in that size, I can't use it for a different size if the muslin turns out too big or too small. And I don't want to trace. Besides, I don't have any tracing paper. All this to say, I'm still stuck.

But I'm going to sew this weekend. Mark my words.

I'm reading an advanced copy of Hands Free Mama's new book. Anyone who reads here at all knows that this message is probably dearest to my heart. I'm really encouraged by this book and I personally believe that a copy should be handed to every new mama along with her newborn. 

And I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I need this message, well beyond the obvious need to control technology. Karoline confirmed it for me. This week, we've been blessed to have a baby around. While her mom teaches dance, we've been playing with Kenley, who turned one yesterday. On Monday, after I dropped Sarah off at the studio, I surprised the kids at home by bringing Kenley home with me. Mike stopped to play with her before he left for the airport (again). Kenley loved Mike. Mike loved Kenley. And my girls were impressed with his baby skills.

Later, Karoline remarked, "I think Daddy is better with babies than you are. He had nine babies. I know you had nine babies, too, but I think he's more confident and comfortable (her words; I kid you not). No offense, Mommy, but I think he just got good at playing with kids while you were busy cleaning." 

Ouch. 

I will not miss another season.

What are you reading and sewing this week? 

I am eager to hear!

  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 theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD 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:-).

with needle & thREAD

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I had lofty plans for this week!  Due to comings and goings, there are only four children at home this week and I thought this would be the perfect time to deep clean the house and make drapes and a quilt for Mary Beth's room and finish planning the next semester. Oh! so many, many things long planned.

I have a cold. It's just a cold, but I'm sharing it with everyone left here at home. We're all moving in slow motion. I did manage to finish sewing the blouse I cut for Katie ages ago. Voile is such lovely fabric, light and silky and perfectly perfect for hot summer days. It also slips like crazy, frays and tears easily, and is not at the top of the list for practical fabrics for 10-year-old girls. Still, it makes a lovely top. It still needs a button and clearly should be ironed. And I think it might be too short, but Katie isn't home so I can't know for sure. I hope she can wear it for the rest of the summer.

I've been reading in fits and spurts. I borrowed this slim volume from Patrick's desk and it's just perfect for a little reading before dozing. Lessons for Living is so aptly named--lovely nuggets of wisdom for life.

Life is a talent entrusted to us so that we can transform it and increase it, making it a gift to others. No person is an iceberg drifting on the ocean of history. Each one of us belongs to a great family, in which we each have our own place and our own role to play. ~John Paul the Great

What are you sewing and reading this week?

with needle & thREAD

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We're binge sewing this week! Monday afternoon, I found myself alone in the house and I wandered into my sewing room to see about putting together the blouse I cut for Katie weeks ago. I didn't have the right shade of pink thread. Since I really wanted to settle in with my machine, stitch a little, inhale steaming cotton, and feel the contentment that comes with creating a bit with my hands, I found another quick project.

It's been the Summer of Humidity here. It rains nearly every day and when it's not raining, it feels like a steam room out there. My hair is looking ridiculously unruly. My go-to is always a folded bandana to pull it out of my eyes, but that look isn't the greatest very often. 

Andrea posted some really cute headbands on Instagram last week, so I followed her lead. I used the turtorial at Happy Together (I love the name of that blog!). Once I finished one, I saw the potential.

Last spring, I promised several girls in Katie's dance class that we'd sew this summer. These headbands are perfect for dancers and they are also the perfect small project to get girls sewing. Yesterday, we had a friend for Katie and a friend for Kari come sew with us. Each girl chose her own fabric and I helped each one make hers individually. After making the first four, I recognized that the younger girls' probably needed a slightly smaller band, so I cut Sarah's down as I went. There is actually a link to a smaller pattern at the Happy Together  site. I think I'll check that out before our next pair of sister friends come to sew next week. 

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 All pictures above are kindness of Katie with my iPhone. I had every intention of taking good pictures with my big camera but quickly discovered that I had my hands full. 

I've been reading Educating the WholeHearted Child this week. It used to be that I read this book the first week of July every year. The book was revised a few years ago and now it takes me much longer! It's so well worth the time though. I don't tend to go to homeschool conferences or retreats. This book is it. I take time to sit with  pretty pens and notepaper, a cup of tea, and intention to pray and I let the wisdom seep into  my bones (hopefully).

The nice thing about the revised copy is that the Clarksons have perspective now. Their children are grown. They can look back with some sense of confidence. They can also draw upon the reflections of their kids. What worked? What didn't? I can tell you this. The Clarkson clan is real. They struggle like the rest of us. But a great deal worked!

Lest you think all the fun was had by girls druing yesterday's crafternoon, I assure you the boys created, too. Nicky made cupcakes while we sewed and then everyone got in on the act of decorating. A good time was had by all:-)

What are you sewing and reading this week? I am eager to hear!

What's on your summer reading list? Do you have a summer sewing list?  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 theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD 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 finally hitting my groove with this costume thing. Dance costumes are outrageously expensive. So, when they arrive, one naturally expects something well-made from quality fabric. That's the first piece of education. They are never well made and the fabric is cheesy. The next piece is that there will always be mistakes in sizes. Then, there's the greatest piece: don't be afraid to improvise and rig it to make it work. 

This dance season has been quite the education for a fairly new seamstress who has been fighting perfectionism all her life:-). 

But I'm hitting my groove. I'm learning to cut and piece and make do. I'm also learning that not much can happen that sequins don't improve.

Reading has been light. I can't find my copy of Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment. It's here somewhere. I'm counting on it reappearing next week when I have some calm days for binge reading. Maybe I'll finish Kristin Lavransdatter , too.

In the meantime, I picked up Second Nature, Michael Pollan's new book. I'm a fan of Michael Pollan, so this one is the perfect to fit into my tidy threesome of Mother Culture books.

"There is no sadder sight in life than a mother, who has so used herself up in her children's childhood, that she has nothing to give them in their youth. When babyhood is over and school begins, how often children take to proving that their mother is wrong. Do you as often see a child proving to its father that he is wrong? I think not. For the father is growing far more often than the mother. He is gaining experience year by year, but she is standing still. Then, when her children come to that most difficult time between childhood and full development she is nonplussed; and, though she may do much for her children, she cannot do all she might, if she, as they, were growing!...

Is there not some need for 'mother culture'? But how is the state of things to be altered? So many mothers say, 'I simply have no time for myself!' 'I never read a book!' Or else, 'I don't think it is right to think of myself!' They not only starve their minds, but they do it deliberately, and with a sense of self-sacrifice which seems to supply ample justification.

Mother must have time to herself. And we must not say 'I cannot.' Can any of us say till we have tried, not for one week, but for one whole year, day after day, that we 'cannot' get one half-hour out of the twenty-four for 'Mother Culture?'--one half-hour in which we can read, think, or 'remember.'

The habit of reading is so easily lost; not so much, perhaps, the power of enjoying books as the actual power of reading at all. It is incredible how, after not being able to use the eyes for a time, the habit of reading fast has to be painfully regained...

The wisest woman I ever knew--the best wife, the best mother, the best mistress, the best friend--told me once, when I asked her how, with her weak health and many calls upon her time, she managed to read so much, 'I always keep three books going--a stiff book, a moderately easy book, and a novel, and I always take up the one I feel fit for!' That is the secret; always have something 'going' to grow by. If we mothers were all 'growing' there would be less going astray among our boys, less separation in mind from our girls...

A brisk walk will help. But, if we would do our best for our children, grow we must; and on our power of growth surely depends, not only our future happiness, but our future usefulness.

Is there, then, not need for more 'Mother Culture'?"  

~Charlotte Mason Volume III, no. 2 The Parents' Review

 

 

Do you have three books going? Would you like to have three books going? Which three?