needle & thREAD

Hello, sewing friends!

I welcome you to needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? 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. Do visit the Flickr page. There's some amazing needlework there.

       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:-).

I've read two Grace Livingston Hill books in the last week (much reading between soccer games--bliss out in the sunshine, on a blanket, under an umbrella). The first, The Mystery of Mary, was like a novella you'd expect to find in a women's magazine. There was very little plot or character development and it was fairly implausible. It didn't take long to read it, though, so I'm none the worse for the wear. The second, A Voice in the Wilderness, was far better. The storyline was more believable than The Enchanted Barn, the first GLH I read. Set in the Arizona desert, the cast of characters was well developed and the plot was strong. There were lots of little nuggets I enjoyed.

Grace Livingston Hill has a definite "formula." Young women of strong Christian character and independent spirit bring dashing young men to the Lord and the young men, in turn, protect and defend them in the moment and forever. It's wholesome entertainment, I suppose, but this week, I'm going to take a little GLH break and look at some of your other suggestions from previous weeks.

After I finish putting my house in order.  :-)

Incidentally, I think that GLH does inspire attention to homemaking and that's a very fine thing. There's also a wonderful inspiration to feminine loveliness. 

I'm also powering through Hail, Holy Queen because I promised myself that I'd read it this May. And I only have a few hours left. 

I haven't gotten much sewing done--actually no sewing at all. I have managed to wash fabric and trace patterns and cut out one of the six jumpers I have planned. I promised the little girls two sundresses each by mid-June. So, beginning tomorrow, sewing binge:-) 

Hold me to it, friends. Next week's post should have much sewing and perhaps a wee bit less reading.

needle & thREAD

Hello, sewing friends!

I welcome you to needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? 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:-).

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I don't have much to report this week. I finished that hand sewing on the Painted Portrait Blouse and Mary Beth clicked this very squinty picture. When I saw how squinty I was, I thought about a re-do. But I am reminded that I squint all. the. time.  why even waste another minute trying?

My Kindle coordinates nicely with the blouse, I think.  I told you earlier about one of my reads this week. (Go back and be sure you're entered in the giveaway.) The other was The Enchanted Barn by Grace Livingston Hill. As I mentioned, Kim enthusiastically endorsed these books ages ago. I'm definitely late to the party. This one lived up to her general summation of GHL books. It is a very nice, story, if a wee bit farfetched. Especially appealing is the attention to domestic details. For me, the biggest criticism of this volume was the baby talk of the youngest child. She is a four-year-old little girl and all her dialgue is in tedious, overly-sweet baby talk. Throughout my reading, I kept reminding myself that I was so enjoying the story that the baby talk could be overlooked. But the last lines of the story were spoken by the four-year-old. Huge bummer. 

There are lots of Grace Livingston Hill books in the Kindle store. I'm definitely going to read another.

So, what about you? What have you been up to this week? Reading, sewing, embroidering? Do share.

needle & thREAD

Hello, sewing friends!

I welcome you to needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? 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:-).

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I finished up the machine sewing on last week's tunic. All that remains now is the handsewing of the facing all the way around the front and back yoke. Um. As soon as I learn what a whipstitch is. Alrighty then.

When we read (and read and read and reread) Crafty Chloe, I promised my girls that we would make doll dresses just like Chloe did. I planned to do all three on one day, letting each of them help with their own, but  I only finished Karoline's. It's amazing how much more slowly this project goes with help;-) Katie does have one from the fall. Sarah Annie doesn't have an 18 inch doll. She's got some lovely baby dolls, though. I need to find a pattern for a baby doll outfit. Anyone have one of those?

It turns out that Karoline's doll will match two of her outfits: both her twirly skirt and her Easter dress were made from Ruby by Bonnie and Camille. Since Karoline chooses that fabric every time she has a choice, I think it's safe to say she's a big fan. And she's got excellent taste. I probably would have chosen a different color thread for the ric-rac, but hey, can't argue with "that's my favorite color ever" and "it matches my eyes." I did, however, deny her request for a matching sundress, even though the pattern for girls is free, too.

I loved working with this free pattern so much. May I just pause here and tell you how much I appreciate Oliver + S and Liesl Gibson's patterns? I've made the Lazy Days Skirts, the capes in Oliver + S: Little Things to Sew, those wonderful Easter dresses, and two of these doll Popover Sundresses. In the context of working with the patterns, I've learned so much. There is just such attention to detail. It seems that every project I've tried has taught me a skill I've carried into projects that aren't Liesl Gibson patterns. I've got to think that's the mark of a good designer, a good teacher, and a good writer. I'm so grateful.

In the reading department, I'm trying to read quickly through a substantial stack of gardening, small plot farming books:

The BackYard Berry Book

The Backyard Orchardist  

The Family Kitchen Garden

The Edible Front Yard

The Essential Urban Farmer

Ooh, and I see The Paper Garden snuck into the picture, too. I saw that at Beth's during a needle & thREAD visit. Tucking away to little read a little of that gem, here and there;-)

So, what about you? What have you been up to this week? Reading, sewing, embroidering? Do share.

with needle & thREAD

Hello, sewing friends!

I welcome you to needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? 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 theneedle & 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:-).

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I can't believe it's Thursday already. I thought I'd have so much more (sew much  more?) to share. I have one half-finished tunic and about a half dozen half-finished books, and another half dozen newly downloaded not-even-touched books. 

First, this blouse. Oh my! I do love it. Love the way the fabric feels, love the way it drapes, love the front. Love the colors. I even bought a pair of bermuda shorts to go with it. Love, love, love. But the back? Um. I blew it. And I tried and tried to figure out what was wrong--what those pattern directions meant--and I couldn't. Just couldn't. I spent hours, hours, hours reading and re-reading, taking out and doing again. I scoured the internet looking for just one person who had struggled with this pattern. No one.  I'm sure it was just me. And all the while, I was thinking and praying about a child of mine who has learning disabilities.  Every day is like this for him. Everything he struggles to learn. Ridiculously hard. And mostly lonely. Please, God, don't let me forget this.

At then end of the day (literally), I made a "design decision." I just covered up my mistake, made sure it wouldn't affect the usefulness, and moved on. It's a coping technique I've witnessed again and again in that child. Figure out a way around it. I hauled myself upstairs, aching and exhausted, and wondering if sewing was really in God's plan for me.

And waiting up there was a text from Sarah, directing me here.

I cried.  Really. I can't even begin to tell you how hard I struggled with that quilt, how many, many imperfections are there, but if you look closely at her photos, you can see them. Likely, you won't though, because you'll be utterly entranced with her baby, with God's creation. The uneven corner (I know it well--it's there) seems so ridiculously unimportant as I drink in those delicious toes. And that's how it is, isn't it?

We sew clothes to cover our bodies, but those bodies and our souls are His. The clothes will never be perfect. We sew quilts for our homes. The family that lives in that home? The most glorious, splendid art of human love? It's His. We bring beauty to His perfection and He makes it more beautiful. We are created in the image of the Creator and if we can keep our eyes on Him and do it all for His glory, no matter how we struggle and how flawed our product, He makes it all so good. 

I want to sew this blouse pattern again. I want to learn the right way to do it. But I'm grateful for the now and I will wear this shirt  one day-- after I tuck under all the bias for the hem and handsew the facing to the yoke. Did I mention I made that bias tape? I did. And I thought I was a rockstar sewer. Briefly.

 I will wear it, though maybe not too far from home;-). For now, though, I'm going to show you the back as well as the front, even though I could get away with editing out the flaws and never revealing a back view, because, hey, you're my friends and I'm not alone, even if no one in history has ever messed up this pattern.

(The color is truer here. I got tired of messing with iPhoto above)

As for half-finished books, I'm out of time. Those will wait until next week. Maybe they'll be finished then. But don't miss these, my not-even-started books. For years, Kim has been telling me about Grace Livingston Hill, sharing quotes and big thoughts. And, oh, how this is a writer after my own heart. Last night, Kim shared on Facebook that all of Grace Livingston Hill's books are available for free on Kindle. Don't wait! Download a bunch. We have a whole summer to read them together! Maybe Kim will chime in and tell us in which order to read them.

What have you been up to this week? Reading, sewing, embroidering? Do share:-)

with needle & thREAD

Hello, sewing friends!

I welcome you to needle and thREAD. What have you been sewing lately? 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 theneedle & 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:-).

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I've been reading some Urban Farming-type books this week. I'm reading as fast as I can because my husband--who does not have "the Farmer" as his screen name--is out of town and I want to have lots to make a case for turning our yard into a mini farm share with him when he gets back. But I'm going to save those until next week. Because I got a surprise in the mail yesterday and, well, it just looks so pretty with my sewing;-).

I pre-ordered Joanna Figuera's With Fabric & Thread several months ago and it arrived yesterday. I haven't read the whole book, but I do admit to sitting on the front steps and immediately inhaling the fourth chapter. That's where color theory all finally made sense to me. It was all I could do not to phone a friend who plays with paint chips as much as I do and read the whole chapter to her right then and there. 

There are some really lovely projects in this book and I know I will sew many of them. I've already got my eye on a darling apron to keep up my St. Martha's day tradition. It's a flirty retro style that will still cover my mama figure. And there's a pattern for little girls, too, so we'll be all set.

In sewing news, I thought I'd have so much to show, but I don't. I have traced the pattern for Anna Maria Horner's Painted Portrait Blouse. That whole tracing thing is so tedious and bothersome, isn't it? And I've started laying it out and cutting it. The fabric you see there (which is a Fresh Vintage palette--I learned that in Chapter 4), is some Heather Bailey that I've had since I tried to sew when Karoline was a baby. The blouse will have that fabric for the yoke and some coordinating solid green for the rest. I think. What do you think? I thought the print all over might be a bit much on me. I'm barely 5'2" and don't want to look like a stuffed chair. That striped fabric? It's my tablecloth, an Anna Maria Horner Loulouthi, but I'm not sure it's staying. It's not Fresh Vintage. And I most definitely am.

Speaking of which, I did get some needlework done this week. Mike's been gone. Karoline has been staying up way past her bedtime and stitching with me. This quilt square is part of my big anniversary quilt project. The fabric? California Girl by Joanna Figuera:-). I already have fabric to match my new book, fancy that. All most definitely Fresh Vintage.

Finally, my happiest needle news ever? This is Karoline's needlework. She's five! And she embroiders! And she loves it. It's so fun to sit and stitch with her. Aren't these the loveliest butterflies ever? She chose her current favorite books for the picture. 

What are you needling and reading this week?