Pillow Disease?

Seems my initial pillowy successes have sparked some sort of insane pillow-making obsession. I would write more but it's hard to type while I'm feeding cloth into the sewing machine.

More later . . .

Summertime Begins

Lots of fun and activity over the weekend. Both girls were busy with end-of-year sleepover parties, the state soccer tournament and all the good things that kick off this season of warm, relaxing days.

As for me, I finally tried my hand at stitching up a few of those pillows I learned to make this spring. They are quite easy and use an envelope type closure in the back. I started with the green print, then made the tan one, and then got brave and tackled the ticking pillow, which is actually three thin remnants sewn together to create the front. I really love how they all turned out! I haven't done much sewing and it's been several years since I made anything at all, so I was amazed with the results and congratulated myself several times.

Today is all blue skies and busy birds (I can hear the babies peeping up in the treetops). 

Flour Sack Towel Embroidery #2

I took a little inspiration from the book Doodle Stitching and came up with this design for my second embroidery attempt. I'm happy with how it turned out! I have yet to try satin stitches although I did try a "lazy daisy" and the results were less than attractive (notice that I am not showing you a picture of said "daisy").

Weekend Plans:
Crochet on the new blanket, finish reading Cutting for Stone (excellent so far, BTW), paint trim in kitchen, plant remaining herbs in garden, take some items to Goodwill, and tonight – dinner at El Cazador downtown and watch "The Descendants" with Gary.

Happy weekend to you all!

Sidetracked

Yesterday I fully intended to go grocery shopping, as the cupboards were more than a bit sparce (stewed tomatoes and dried beans anyone?). I called Gary to see if he'd like to meet for lunch and he said he would - in 45 minutes downtown at the bagel place. Perfect! But that wasn't nearly enough time to grocery shop and I kept hearing this little voice calling "Jenny, the antique mall is downtown. Please shop!" and I suddenly found myself roaming stalls of antiques. Joy!

Here's what I discovered - there are hoards of antique embroidered linens in the world! How come I'd never noticed this before? They were everywhere – so intricate and delicate. I snapped a few pics. Isn't that alphabet sampler just amazing?! What a ton of work.

Just seeing all those hankies and dishtowels and tablecloths so carefully embroidered made me think about the woman of days gone by, rocking by the fireplace in the evening, humming a little, and lovingly stitching embellishments on cloth. Women from Colonial days, the Victorian Era and those traveling West to find land to farm. Post-WWII mothers stitching their children's initials into their underwear and socks before sending them off to summer camp.

Learning this old skill makes me feel a tiny connection with those women, who were FAR more industrious and hardy than I'll ever be. Remember Ma in "Little House in the Big Woods" - when she hit that bear on the butt, thinking it was Sookie the cow? How about in "On the Banks of Plum Creek" when Pa got lost in the snow and was gone a whole night. Ma just sat by the fire, calm as can be, stitching and waiting. Even when her children showed concern and asked if she was worried she held her composure and gently sent them back to bed. I would've been freaking out, crying "Dear God, Pa's dead! What the hell am I gonna do? A lone woman with three children?! We're all gonna starve here on this piece of crap farm in the middle of nowhere!" But not Ma. She just stitched the night away.

By the time I met Gary at Bagels on Broadway (best bagels in town) I was giddy to show off my new purchases – a beautifully embroidered pillowcase and two cloth sugar sacks. As you would expect from a man, he was super excited (not!).

We split a turkey, cream cheese, cranberry sauce, sprout and sunflower seed sandwich on an everything bagel. It was so delish I wished I'd just gotten a whole one to myself.

Embroidered Kitchen Towel

Well, I completed my first embroidery project and I have to tell you . . . embroidery is SO much fun, VERY relaxing, and it is probably going to take a little PRACTICE to make my final product look anything like the pictures in Alicia's book. But, that's okay. I'm willing and patient.

If you're looking to give it a try I have to tell you (geez, I have a lot that I have to tell you don't I?) . . . I loved the flour sack towel project. You can buy the towels for about a dollar apiece at Target so if you make a mess of things you haven't blown too much cash. Plus you can instantly display your work as soon as you're finished – just drape the towel over the oven door handle and viola! Your kitchen is a bit fancier.

Here are the steps I took. (It only took me a little over an hour from start to finish.)

1. Gather your supplies and print the design you plan to use. Make sure you wash, dry and iron your towel before you start. (I had to include a picture of the package of needles because they are so vintagy cool! They came from G's aunt Billie's sewing box and they say they're made in England which makes them even yummier!)

2. Hold your towel over the printed design against a sunny window and use a washable fabric pen to trace the design on your towel.

3. Using a basic backstitch (see tutorial here), follow the design in thread colors of your choice. I used two strands of embroidery thread on the main parts of the design and just one strand on the smaller flower details.

(Sorry no photos of the sewing cuz I couldn't figure out how to take a pic while sewing.)

A couple things caused some problems for me:

a. My main thread color (blue) almost exactly matched the color of my outlining pen which made it VERY hard to see what the heck I was doing.

b. Check the back of your work FREQUENTLY. I'd be sewing away like a mad woman and then feel a funky snag, turn the thing over, and discover a spaghetti-like mass of thread on the back. I don't know how I kept making such a thread blob but it happened several time.

Here's how the back looked when I was done. I'm guessing this is kind of a crazy mess but I don't have anything to compare it to.

Here's the finished towel! I love it!

Think you want to try? Don't hesitate! Start tonight! Good luck.

Nesting like a Spring-crazed Chickadee

I don't know what sort of crazy energy elixir someone put in my Diet Coke this morning but I am busy as a bee and there's no sign of tiring out. I mean I can practically feel my insides humming with energy and you should see how hard I'm chomping on my gum right now! I'm. On. Fire! :)

So far today I've completed an invitation I was hired to design, nearly finished an entire annual report layout for a client, grocery shopped, painted the stair skirting that the flooring guy needs to install Thursday, went on a run, crocheted a row on my blanket, cleaned the entire car (oh the snack crumbs those kids create!), swept the garage, cleaned part of my bathroom, and squeezed in a lunch with two of my besties! And I have at least a dozen projects that I'm pining to work on yet today around the house – cleaning, touchup painting the trim, laundry, organizing the bottom of the pantry (I did the top last night!). I don't know what's gotten in to me! I didn't have this much of a nesting instinct when I was pregnant. Granted, I did have a lot of hip and back pain toward the end and walked around like a hunched old woman most of the time. You can not get a lot done in that condition. It gave me a lot of insight into how bad your bones must hurt when you're 80 years old.

While I was out earlier I picked up a few flour sack towels and plan to start mentally prepping myself to try something new – EMBROIDERY! I am sooo excited! This all started when a month or so ago when I cyber stumbled onto the blog of Alicia Paulson (rosylittlethings.typepad.com) and instantly fell in love with her, the blog and her hand work. She has patterns and kits that are to die for! Not only do I wish she was my personal new best friend but I also wish I knew even the tiniest bit about embroidery so that I could tackle her Daisychain ABC's Sampler. But I don't . . . sooo, I'm beginning my journey slowly and with trepidation (what if I mess up!?). I dug up some needles from an old sewing kit we inherited when G's aunt passed away, I've now purchased the flour sack towels and I'm going to Alicia's blog where she has graciously uploaded a free embroidery pattern for "Pleasant Kitchen Dishtowels." There's a towel design for each day of the week. Perhaps tonight I'll pick which day I plan to tackle first.

*You can download the vintage image I used on this post at The Graphics Fairy

Lovely spaces

My friend Karin lives in the most beautiful, historic home in the cozy University area of Missoula. Not only does the house contain many of it's lovely original features (see the original wood floor above - it even matches her papillon, Petunia!), but Karin is one of those people who can make a space even more beautiful with her magic touch.

As I previously mentioned, Karin also knows how to sew and so on my Friday visit she set up her sewing machine on the dining room table and got to work showing me how to make a cover for a pillow form. They were so easy that she had covered a pillow for her daughter's room in a fun zebra print within a half hour! I need to recover some throw pillows for the basement couches and this new skill is going to come in handy! Plus, I can remove them and throw them in the wash after the next time I host ten 13-year-olds who decide to eat a bag of Cheetos.

Sadly we got so busy chatting as she worked that I did not take the promised photos of the process, but I plan to make one soon and will upload step-by-step instructions so you can make some too!

Little Darling, it seems like years . . .

Here comes the sun!

And boy, does it feel good! What started off as another dreary day took a turn for the best and by the time the girls got home from school the sun was glinting off the sidewalks. Everyone was giddy - kids, dogs, and grownups.

Tomorrow my friend Karin is teaching me to sew a pillow cover. I am soooo excited. I haven't done much sewing but suddenly I'm all about it. I keep mulling over patterns for cute dresses and lined pea coats, but then I tell myself to slow down and start at the very beginning - hey like that song in "The Sound of Music!" "Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start . . . " In that vein Karin has invited me to her lovely historic home (I should post photos – it is truely lov-e-ly) where I will watch, help, and take notes while she makes a pillow for her daughter's room. I stopped by the fabric store this afternoon with the intent of picking up a yard so I could follow along a bit, but I became so overwhelmed by the choices – what weight? should I start with a solid color? is 100% cotton best? I wandered around a while then gave up and purchased a skein of yarn for a baby blanket I'm plotting to crochet for my brother's "in utero" baby. Tomorrow I will just have to watch and learn. I'll take pictures and fill you in later, in case you're hoping to learn as well.