catching up

it's been a couple of months since i last posted here.  quite a bit has happened.

i went to maryland sheep and wool with my friend kristin and her mom and aunt.  this was my haul.  i see two sweaters, several shawls, two cowls, and the motherlode of wollmeise. 

the verdant gryphon had a codex update, and i bought the devil's dictionary.  at first i was thinking a shrug sweater but i think it really wants to be a shawl.


clearly i lost the april through june pantsdown stashdown.  :/

after many starts and stops and some mixed up skeins, my age of brass and steam shawl is steaming (ha!) ahead...


i'm going to KDO again this fall and am taking a steeks class and a intro to crochet (!!) class.  here is my homework (i still have a seed stitch square to do.  i loathe seed stitch.)


i took a class at a new yarn shop and learned to do a sweet tomato heel.


i signed up to do tour de fleece this year.  i am on team spindler.  clearly i am deluded, becos my spinning sucks, sucks sucks!  i really need a wheel...


black betty came out of hibernation so i stitched up some project bags...


it's canning time again, so i made two kinds of strawberry jam, two kinds of cherry jam, and black forest jam (cherry and chocolate and almond, yum!).  i'm hoping to add some sliced and whole fruit and veggies to my canning, provided i can find a pressure canner.


i got serious about my garden this year and planted three heirloom tomato plants, three roma tomato plants (for sauce!), two pepper plants, two cucumber plants, and a couple of herbs.  i have some dill drying down cellar, picked two huge (albeit green) heirloom tomatoes and downed these little beauties. mother nature has been kind to our garden and has kept our rain barrels full, so we don't have to rely on our public water.  i also shredded irish spring soap to deter the squirrels (still finding holes, the little dirtballs!) and bought slug repellent to chase the slugs away (might be working?)  i also planted my usual variety of flowers and they are flourishing as well.


speaking of rain barrels, i finally painted these after looking at their gaudy blue exteriors for nearly four years.  now they blend in with the scenery.


my mojo wavered quite a bit, so i read.  a lot.  and i have more to go.


the kids keep me hopping.  school has been out for nearly a month, and in that time they attended two bible schools (our church and my parents' church), celebrated the end of school with a trip to chuck e cheese and the book store, and play with the neighbor kid.

the kiddos enjoy visits to the park...


they graduated from preschool (the three year old class, anyway...)


and freddie is obsessed with the movie cars.  we watch it at least once a day, sometimes twice.  the kid can do movie karaoke with it, and i actually have a couple favorite scenes and songs.


the kids are learning to ride bike.  petunia quickly learned and often flies past her brothers.  freddie is more content with his trike.  not to be outdone by the kiddos, the boy is learning to ride too.  they ride up at my parents' house, who live across from a large cemetery, the same one where i learned to ride my bike.  they ride around in circles and sometimes take a tumble, but i'm glad that they are getting exercise.


the boy participated in his second soapbox derby.  he said he didn't care that he didn't place, he enjoyed just doing it.


this summer the boy will be going to church camp.  it's his first time away from home without family.  he's a little nervous, but i think he'll have fun.

prolly the kids' favorite summer activity - playing in our backyard.



we have other activities planned for the summer - visits to knoebels, summer reading at the library, sleeping over at grandparents' homes and a family picnic with hubby's extended family.  before we know it, we will be shopping for notebooks and pencils, new sneakers and jeans, and trading evening play in the yard for settling down for homework and early bedtimes.  there's so much left to do, and i don't want to miss anything!

button, button, who's got a button?

i do!

my dad gave me a baggie full of button cards that belonged to my nana.  i had so much fun sorting them.

there were a ton of brass buttons - they looked like they were from military uniforms...

the detailing is amazing...




odd brass buttons...


such a pretty icy bluish green...


tiny black buttons on a large safety pin.  perhaps these were boot buttons from old fashioned lady boots?


red buttons (ha!)


i love these chartreuse green buttons, and the yellow are so lemony...


brown buttons


charcoal buttons


brown and black buttons


odd buttons that didn't fit anywhere else (love the pink ones tho!)


nana must have sewed the shirt buttons on cards...recycling!


i love the greenish buttons, and the white ones will look so cute on a sweater...


i think these buttons were my favorite - i plan on knitting a sweater for petunia and i think they will be perfect for it.  i wonder what nana planned to use these buttons for?  or rather, what did she use one button for since there were originally 8 on the card?


nana used to crochet toys and used these eyes...


 these buttons looked like jacket buttons, very masculine...


mom also found a button tin at a thrift shop on a recent day trip.  it had several lovely silvery buttons, perfect for a sweater (or two)...


a few stray buttons...


i managed to put all but nana's white shirt buttons in the tin.


i can't wait to make a few projects - be it a sweater or  something sewn - so i can give these buttons new life!

snack time

i made the kids reusable snack pouches for church:

i can't find the pattern i used (i printed it out) but this is pretty close.  instead of using PUL i used ripstop nylon becos i read somewhere that PUL wasn't food safe.  i plan on using these for dry snack foods like cookies or crackers anyway.

i used peanuts fat quarters.  i had three different prints to differentiate between the kids - petunia gets the purple one, freddie the red, and the boy's is a green golf theme.  these fasten shut with velcro, but i read a comment somewhere that someone would make these with a zipper.  becos i can't read directions, i made about three different versions of these sacks (my turning edge opening was with the print, not the lining.  duh.)

hopefully the kids won't fight over whose snack container is whose!  

ribbit! ribbit good!

in honor of leap day, i ventured into toy making with these cute frogs.  meet purl frog:

each kid gets a frog (altho two got made; i botched a piece of the boy's while cutting it out, so i have to cut another piece.)  the pattern called for the frogs to be stuffed with dried beans, but i had leftover rice, flaxseed and lavender from making sachets so i filled them with that instead.


i didn't make this frog.  according to my dad, my nana's friend made this.  i remember seeing them up at the farm when i was wee.  my frog is falling apart in spots (what do you expect from a nearly 40 year old frog?) and resides on top of our desk out of the kiddos' reach.  i do like how the frog was constructed - it was probably filled from the top (the mouth) and the stitching makes cute frog lips.  legs and arms were constructed separately then stitched to the body.  someday i'll figure out the construction and make new frogs.


ribbit ribbit.


kiddos are a little meh about them.  freddie likes to swing his and hit petunia with it.  heh.

meet melody. or betty

i splurged and bought another sewing machine.

this is the singer 160.  i bought it off HSN for 5 low payments a month.  

suffice it to say, it kicks my little singer simple's arse.  more stitches, more accessories, and it makes the most pleasant hum when i sew.  it's not herky jerky like my old one.  it's also bigger and more stable than the simple.  i have a bigger sewing surface.  i haven't checked, but it just might fit over the hole in gram's sewing table altho i might need to fix it up as i'd planned.

i sewed up little project bags for my summer mom's swappee, my starbucks knit buddy and myself.  they came out pretty neat.  now i have to find more projects to work on.  maybe flannel buchmans (aka pajama bottoms) for the kiddos (i bought the material - raggedy ann/andy flannel - just debating on the size to make them)

oh yeah, the name.  at first i thought black beauty.  then black betty.  now i'm thinking melody becos she hums when she sews.  

church bags!

i made the kids new tote bags for church!

found this pattern online, it seemed simple enough.  it took me about 4 hours to make all three (cutting out the pieces, ironing the straps, sewing them up).  the bag is lined and the bottom of the bag is stitched to make it lay flat - two new sewing skills for me!

the kiddos loved their new bags.  petunia stuffed hers full of play food and books (i think my reusable shopping bags rubbed off on her).  freddie's lay on the floor.  the boy liked his and told me that he liked when i made him things.

the bags are big enough for their activity kits, a snack and a bottle.

my next project - reusable snack pouches.  all i need is nylon material for the lining.  

sew in love!

i bought myself a sewing machine for christmas.  it was a cheap model from boscov's but i hoped it'd be enough to do some simple sewing.

i had stash before i had the machine.  this is the material i got from spoonflower:

i got this material from Hoovers Bernina in mifflinburg.  it's a nice store but it's out in the middle of nowhere.



i got a bunch of fat quarters at joann's:



plus yardage to make project bags:



i was lucky to win a free pattern in a contest french press knits sponsored and i picked this one :



my handiwork:



ugh, such horrible crooked lines.  i need to get a plastic quilter's blocking ruler so i can actually cut and sew straight lines.  i also need to get some disappearing ink pens.  my tailor's pen left purple marks.

i also made some crude lavender sachets:



and a really bad project bag.  actually i practiced sewing seams on this and made a pouch.  the ribbons were too short and broke.  i wound up using it for my sewing supplies (bobbin holder, scissors, scraps):



finally broke out the new tabletop ironing board i got months ago.  i love my iron - it's nice and heavy.



i had trouble getting the machine set up.  i couldn't figure out how to get the bobbin to thread through to the working thread.  the machine came with a dvd, so i watched it and it helped me figure out what i was doing wrong (bobbin thread wasn't long enough for the needle thread to catch).

i'd like to make a few more coloring wraps to leave in the car/church, make some project bags, including some square project bags.  i also want to make reusable gift bags for the kids.  it would be nice to forgo paper wrap next year!

what's your favorite sewing project?