needle & thREAD with Kristin

You met Kristin here and got to know her a little better here. Now, the bride joins us for needle & thREAD and shares some thoughts on life right now and the sweet quilt top she made with the fat quarters we gave her for Christmas.

I had plans to work on this quilt {my first quilt!} on Sunday, but Karoline batted her baby blues and tenderly persuaded me to spend most of my day playing a game called "Strategy". Last week, she taught me the rules and we played for hours in the basement. Later I found out from Stephen that her rules are very different from the real rules. Nick also enlightened me that the game is actually called "Stratego". Surprised? I wasn't. Karoline walks, often dances, to the beat of her own song {usually a compilation of Taylor Swift and something she made up}. I will have to admit that after my conversation with Stephen, I decided that I prefer Karoline's game. I've always wanted to spend a day in her brain. She finds joy in the tiniest things that I have long forgotten. She's always joyful and laughing about something. I hope that never changes. 

The quilt is still unfinished, like many of my sewing projects. I'm determined to finish this one. I want it to be the piece that I  tell my own joyful 6-year-old, "I made this quilt the first year Daddy and were married. It's very special."   

As for books, I'm finally reading This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald and toting around my Jennifer Paganelli book, Happy Home: Twenty Sewing and Crafting Projects to Pretty Up Your Home {my Christmas gift from none other than Elizabeth Foss & Co.}.  It goes everywhere with me. I like to read through instructions and tutorials in my free time and then adapt to the bumps in the road.. there are always bumps in the road with my sewing projects.  
 
As for This Side of Paradise, I’m not very far into it but I am a really big F. Scott Fitzgerald fan. I cried throughout The Great Gatsby when I was required to read it for my 11^th grade Literature class. I was Nick Carraway – wrapped up in all of the drama and a yearning for a glamorous life at sixteen. I thought hanging out with popular people and being in the center was what life was all about. The Great Gatsby put it all into perspective for me and as Nick started to realize the evils around him, I started to see my own. I climbed out of the box I trapped myself in with materialism and the notion of "right" vs. "wrong" people to associate with. Senior year, I stopped judging and learned the joy of forgiveness. It didn't matter what happened freshmen year or what colleges my classmates applied for. I made new friends and rekindled the old ones that I had become blind to. I truly found peace that year.

High school is 4 years of your life... and then there's college.. and then there's real life. The 29th was my one month anniversary of marriage {gift number 57 #1000gifts} and in so many ways, I feel like I've been alive and awake for this one, solitary month. 

I reread The Great Gatsby last year before the wedding planning picked up. It brought me back to reality and reminded me to plan the wedding based on our love and not the wedding industry’s idea of love. Sometimes we live by these silly rules and risk ourselves missing out on important big moments.

I think we should all be more like Karoline and make up our own rules. They are better to play by. 

{all photos, except this one, kindness of Michael Foss}

What are you sewing and reading this week? I really do want to hear all about it!

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. 

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needle & thREAD

Not much more to report here. Above, you can see the sum total of all the progress I've made on those flannel nightgowns. This Butterick pattern is marked "very easy." I cannot understand the directions. Cari came to my rescue and stepped me through the first few steps. Even she said those directions were hard to understand. I so, so wish that Oliver + S had a nightgown pattern. I'm seriously considering making these pjs for the other two girls. But I love granny gowns...

A few weeks ago, two different people from two completely different circles of my life suggested I read Brene Brown. I checked out her blog and read reviews on Amazon and then I downloaded the audio versions of the Gifts of Imperfection and Daring Greatly to my iPhone. I started with Gifts of Imperfection. I only listen when I'm at the gym. It's like a mini-retreat several times a week.

I really, really like Gifts of Imperfection. The slim volume is full of insight for people pursuing a "wholehearted" (the author's word) life. Some of her anecdotes were so spot-on it was eerie. And the Audible version is very well read. The problem with listening while working out is that I do get distracted. I start paying attention to heartrates and exertion levels and the lady two rows in front and three columns over who is running about 10 times harder and faster than I am. I'm definitely going to listen to it again. But... like so many books on Audible, I got the print version, too. I know that I want to highlight quotes and copy some of them into my journal. I just can't do that with the auditory version, especially while exercising. I really like auditory books; but I like to read them, too. Bad, I know.

What are you sewing and reading this week? I really do want to hear all about it!

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 and thREAD

So, no sewing to report. Yet. I have a flannel nightgown day planned in honor of the forecasted snow, but that won't do much good this morning. Instead of works in progress or finished works, I have for you today the Grand Plan. Here's the sewing I have planned for the year. I figure this will keep me organized, give me a reference when I don't know what to do next, and hold me accountable (a bit) to use what I have.

First up will be flannel nightgowns made of Marmalade. I have lots of eyelet with which to trim them. Today. I must do these today.

Next up, Easter dresses. I'm planning three fairy tale dresses made of Ladies Stitching Club fabric, one in each colorway. To go with them, three Tiny Tea Leaves cardigans. One is nearly finished (I started it for Katie 18 months ago--it will be Karoline's instead) and the other two will be knit of Amy Butler Belle Organic Aran (this yarn has been discontinued).

After the Easter dresses (or maybe concurrently), this fabric will become a quilt for Mary Beth and draperies for her bedroom. The fabric is Heather Bailey Home Dec Garden District and the quilt will be our variation of the Picnic Blanket. We will do a drapery tutorial when we make these drapes. Cari's got it all written, but I want to take pictures as we go.

Then, it should be time for summer shirts and sundresses. I'll pull from the stack above.

This is Sarah Annie's stash. Pink. 

Dresses and tops for summer will come from this basket of Oliver + S patterns. We have more than enough in our collection for some variety.

Knitting after the Easter sweaters are complete will be Christmas knitting. We've got yarn stashed for scarves and cowls for cousins and teachers and special girls in our life. Still searching the perfect patterns (suggestions?). To go with the handknits, this year I'm resolved to give gifts in fabric bags. I still need to find a tutorial for nice drawstring bags.

I've set aside some bags we have to see if I can find the best method of "drawing the string." We have an abundance of Flurry fabric from the Christmas quilt. Some of it will become another quilt and the rest will be gift bags. 

I'm hoping to get to several quilt tops over the summer. I have jelly rolls of Kate Spain's new Honey, Honey set aside for the little girls. They will each get to choose the yardage for the backs and binding. I need to do that soon so that quantities aren't limited. I plan to use this quilt pattern.

I'd like to finish the California anniversary quilt. Maybe by our next anniversary?

Speaking of quilts, there is fabric here for a quilt for Mike's parents (some older Joanna Figuera) and then there is some more fabric from the quilt I made for Sarah's Posey-pie. Not sure if there's enough there for TWO more babies (you did hear she's expecting twins, didn't you?), but we're creative types around these parts; once we know gender, we'll put our heads to that.

There are some more of those fabulous Anna Maria Horner scarves to be made. I love these so much and truthfully, this fabric is earmarked for me! I hope to squeak them in rather soon. I also have a stash of ribbon. Opportunities to use pretty ribbon always seem to present themselves. It's good to be prepared.

There is also some long-ago stashed Anna Maria Horner on this shelf, enough to make a large voile quilt. I purchased it before I realized how slippery and fragile voile is. It's patiently waiting for my skills to improve. There's some velveteen, too. I was thinking about this cape. Maybe? 

That's more than enough for the year, I think. I haven't left any room for new inspirations. That's probably a good thing; I have imposed a spending freeze upon myself, too:-).

Reading? Did you notice that the girls' jelly rolls sit atop Deborah Moebe's new book? Stitch Savvy. You might remember that it was Deborah's book that got me going on this sewing path. That and Sarah's insistence that we both learn to sew. Instead of learning to sewing, Sarah had a baby. I learned to sew (a baby is better, I tell you).  Now, she's having twins. Guess that means my sewing goes into overdrive and I read Deborah's new book?

Stay tuned.

What are you sewing and reading this week? I really do want to hear all about it!

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:-)

Now, I must click this shut and focus on our pending snow day. 

And sew some flannel nightgowns. Today. Promise.

needle and thREAD

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Good morning! I think I'll share some December sewing with you. Just before Christmas, Cari and I made drapes for my sewing space. I know, all the cool chicks call it a "studio," but in our house, studios have long been places where Daddy goes to make TV shows or girls go to dance. So, it's the "sewing room" or my "sewing space."

These drapes were the last to be hung. Cari hasn't even seen them finished! And they're my favorites. Mike's favorites, too, I think. The room is so pretty and inviting. I made some pillows to match for a chair where kids plop while I work (I write in my sewing space, too, just this little side hobby, the writing). I love to be in there. Next week, I'm going to give you a tour of the shelves. I think I need to write a post detailing my intentions for all that fabric and yarn over the next year. Then, you can hold me to it!

There's no picture here of my chair, where I sit to sew. Mary Beth and I have some plans for that chair. Perhaps you'll see it here in the next few days. 

No picture of my book, either. In the past couple days, two people have independently recommended Brene Brown to me. So I've downloaded the audible versions of The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are and Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead.

What are you sewing and reading this week? I really do want to hear all about it!

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 and thREAD meets Yarn Along

I had an a vision during Advent: a handknit sweater, a skirt made of stashed Anna Maria Horner flannel and a pretty AMH ribbon, and those TOMS (the ones that have taken on such meaning). Sarah would wear it all for Paddy's brunch the day after the wedding. It was a golden vision.

Totally in my head.

I never really put them all together until after I was finished knitting and sewing (and that happened around the morning of the 28th). The vision didn't quite become a reality;-). The sweater is a bit too snug through the chest and not really the right shade of gold to go with the skirt. Oh, well. She likes it. She went to bed talking about her "golden clothes."

Reading has been sparse this week. I started two books, The Language of Flowers and A Homemade Life. The first glances of each were depressing so I put them aside. I downloaded The Art of Family to read in the orthodontist's office, but my friend Jen was there, so we spent the morning chatting instead.

What are you sewing and reading this week? Tell me about your handmade Christmas gifts!

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:-)

 For more knitting and reading, visit Ginny.