horses

For the girl who loves horses a new a-line skirt with this small piece of Heather Ross fabric I have been holding onto for ages.

lily of the valley

Guess what is in bloom? Lily of the Valley! And, it is spreading so nicely over the past few years. The house smells amazing.

I also added some new bird brooches to the Etsy shop this afternoon. Here are a few of them. They have been popular over the years and I got in the mood to make some more. It must be Spring.

Have a nice weekend.

on the knitting needles

On the knitting needles" Gavotte. A top down knit that has come a long way since this photo was taken but still has quite a ways to go. I am using the same yarn in the same color that the pattern calls for which is hard to describe but I guess it like nutmeg- a spicy orange/brown.

a sort of rainbow top

Like most little girls S is really into rainbows especially drawing them. I didn't have any rainbow fabric but, I did find this brightly colored zig zag stripe bought a few years back and so a rather unconventional rainbow top was made.I'd say she is pretty satisfied with it.

birthday

This past week has been so busy. I put the finishing touches on new items for Mackey Blue which I brought to the store yesterday on my way to the city for dinner to celebrate my birthday which was this past Thursday. Putting together the Spring items took many hours over the past few weeks and there are some new things there this time around like dress up crowns and big bow dresses. I also brought smocks, sun bonnets, clothespin dolls, button bobbies, ribbon bow pins, necklaces and onesies. Am I forgetting anything? Probably. I feel like I got off a roller coaster a little bit. I didn't even really have time to properly photograph what I brought but here is a peek at the fabrics I used for the dresses. They are all finished with french seams. The kitty one is quilting cotton, the brown is a very soft shot cotton and the gingham is cotton lawn. If you are in the Hoboken, NJ area I do hope you will go take a peek.



So, last night we went out for Indian in the city and it was very nice and mellow especially after the busy week. Yesterday morning was spent working with the garden club behind the greenhouses potting up in preparation for the sale in May. It was such a pretty day and a good night for walking. My actual birthday was low key but there was a delicious dark chocolate sea salt caramel cake that I enjoyed before going to my class for the evening made by Mick. My parents (the babysitters last night) gave it rave reviews.

the footstool

I finished the footstool yesterday morning. I first wrote about this project here which I am working on in my upholstery class.


When I last wrote I was putting the burlap webbing on which actually I didn't weave a strip correctly so I had to re-do it. I then tacked on the burlap folding the edges in and then tacking. Then came foam which I cut to size and cotton. After that I tacked on the muslin.

Then came the big decision- fabric! I took my time with this step and am happy with the one I finally settled on. I found the fabric at Calico Curtains which I was surprised about. I had a unfounded negative opinion about this store but actually liked quite a few of the fabrics there. Then came attaching it. This was hard and I did it a few times. I wanted it to be smooth without a pleat on the corners but I see now a pleat would have been easier because it was next to impossible no matter how tight I pulled for it to be smooth. The piece is curvy but, I think I got it the best I could after a few tacks and untacks I decided to leave it. I made the double welting cord on my sewing machine using a zipper foot because I didn't want to wait for a welting foot which I would have had to order from a supply store or have shipped from the UK. The zipper foot worked just fine. I then hot glued this on around the edges. This is an older piece of furniture which I bought at a flea market around 8 years ago and it needed a good wax so I polished it as a final step. Overall, I am happy with the outcome and I like it a lot more then the original fabric.

I have now moved onto a boudoir chair that has been sitting in the garage and have it completely pulled apart and am in the beginning stages of tacking burlap on. Hopefully, my fabric decision won't be too hard but since I am known to be a bit indecisive here we will see.

Have a nice weekend.

indigo dyeing

Yesterday morning I experimented with indigo dyeing.
I got the indigo dye kit from Dharma Trading Co. and have been wanting to try it for a while.
I plan to make a tablecloth, napkins, a pillow, scarf and maybe some pouches. I dyed cotton, upholstery weight linen, linen/cotton blend, silk and lightweight linen. The silk soaked up the dye the fastest. I still need to do another rinse on some of these pieces.

As I am still learning about dye any tips or advice on running this through the washing machine at the end. I can't seem to find anything about that and I don't want to get dye on anything or anybody.




The effects remind me a lot of the sky today.

1, 2, 3....

Three things I made this week:

another wiksten tank top
wool felt necklaces
and
clothespin dolls

Have a good weekend.

fireworks scarf

On Saturday we took a walk around the city and I stopped into Purl Soho. The store is so beautiful and well designed that each time I go I find it just as exciting as the first. I had come of course with a few basics in mind- elastic, thread, a new washable pen...but I couldn't not go gaze at the Liberty of London Tana Lawn. I also did my fare share of pawing yarn. I was really drawn to this bold pattern of Liberty and it reminded me of fireworks. I also liked the Purl Bee Mother's Day Liberty Scarf sample that was sitting in front of the bolts so I chose to make it. The colors in the scarf I made are ones I tend to wear a lot and I thought it would be great for summer days. Maybe even the 4th of July... For the reverse I chose a more subtle pale dove grey and white floral and a bright coral red-orange for the frayed edging. It is not so great worn on the reverse because the other side shows through so if you want it two sided I would choose two bold complimentary fabrics. This was a fun and simple project easy to complete in one evening.

summer tunic top

I had it in my mind to make a tunic style summer top for S with a pleat in the middle and straps that criss crossed in the back. I think it came out pretty cute and with a few tweaks it will be ready to wear in the summer.

Easter

We had a nice Easter- two egg hunts, a visit with my family and some time on the beach. The weather was perfect.
I made a soufflé but, of course it fell before we got to eat it. It was still very tasty and one of my favorite salads- baby spinach, radicchio and endive with warm balsamic and shallot dressing. There was lots of goodies, pies and a raspberry tart.
The kids were super happy and Matty got to fly his kite.

whole cloth quilt

A simple quilt which makes a fast gift if you want to do something special and have a 1 1/2 yards of two quilting cottons.

I used two solids green and off white with handmade floral binding because I had them on hand.
I machine quilted this after pinning of course back and forth on the shorter side with no pattern and with wavy or tilted lines.

I first saw this style quilt on Katie Did's blog a few years ago but wasn't sure about machine stitching it like this. I thought for a long time whether I should hand quilt it with straight stitches but, decided I would try this out. It is sort of a freeing concept as you sort of lose a bit of control quilting like this without lines to follow.

In the end, I do like it and am now itching to do whole cloth quilting thing again but, this time hand quilt it in sashiko embroidery thread. I really like the way that looks with a lofty batting but for a thin batting like this one the machine quilting works out.

The size is 40" x 42". I should mention that my bobbin thread was very pale pink and on top I used four different colors- pale pink, blue, green and red picking up colors from the binding.

shorts

Another pair of puppet show shorts. I like this pattern and have been making them for a few years now. It's the little details, the gathers at the cuff and the pockets. This time sewn in shot cotton which is so soft and has hints of other colors in the weave. The contrast stitching came about simply because I did not want to go to the store.

-Viewing these photos now I see the fabric is loose on the chair and I will go get my tack hammer out and fix the fabric on it this morning. I recovered it a few years back which reminds me... I will show you my footstool when it is done. I missed a class due to illness and there is no class this week. I am enjoying it and it is a nice process which I will try to explain. I hope to get a good start on a boudoir chair before the class is over.

texture

Two simple projects- scarfs.

One with super soft pink yarn in plain stockinette.
The other in Habu textiles cotton gima which is flat and a bit papery and a bit of an experiment to see how it feels before maybe working something bigger.

I also started a sweater for me which I need to rip out as I made a mistake. I am waiting on help from another knitter on Ravelry for clarification and then I will start again.