What Happened to Summer?

The end of the summer flew by for us! We vended at a few music festivals with the kids and that really ticked the days off the calendar. While looking for a pic of a mama hoodie that I made for myself (which is still mia- the pic, not the hoodie) I ran across pics of projects, gifts and kid sewing that did actually get accomplished in this nuts time. It feels so good to look back over completed stuff, and is probably the most sewing satisfaction I'll get until the end of the semester, 4 1/2 weeks aand counting!

corduroy hoodie for the last fest, Oct. 2-3. It was snuggly warm. The pic of me in it at the fest is the one missing













One of 4 sets of undertighties and a very silly guy














Taite's Hippo Hoodie





Skirts on the rail for a Sept. fest






Baby gift for Robin's kin - Kelly & Logan

What Happened Here?

IDK what is up with this post but it really doesn't match up and I'm tired of fiddling with it tonight;)





Well, I guess it was me (with the help of a certain short person too). It seems I just cannot do anything without making a big 'ol mess, even in my own little sanctuary. My intentions are not usually to trash the joint, but man, it usually ends up that way. The view from the top of the stairs - Oh My!

Piles, piles, everywhere. The poor lamp looks dejected and there isn't a single space to do ANY projects

Oye! Under the cutting table is the bane of my attempted organization. Its no wonder that I cant find anything huh?

I see so many pretty, organized and efficient sewing rooms in my virtual travels and I long for my space to be that well put together, so darn it - I did something about it - I cleaned the thing up! Oh, and added some of my favorite Amy Butler fabrics to try and pull it together a bit too :D

Can you hear the heraldic trumpets? Seriously though, my mental state of being gets proportionately clearer depending on the organization around me. I don't why I can't keep it this way, maybe a bit of me likes rolling like a chaotic maniac a majority of the time, idk. Anyhow, it feels great now, well, then...as I've messed it up a bit already ;)

Still not all the way there, but a huge improvement, and I at least know what's in there now, lol.

Under the table are heavy stabilizers, knit & woven scraps, tracing stuff, larger emb thread, all regular thread, UFOs, mending and favorite items to reverse engineer.
The view is much better if I do say so myself :)
Knits are in the storage cubes, teen fabrics and polar fleece large cuts on top.

The semi-hack, recycle lamp job was just what it needed - I love it!

Rigged hanging bar for finished items. Storage on the right has wovens on top, patterns on the shelf in wooden homemade cd boxes...dh's old obsession, they are perfect.....and quilting wovens on the bottom. There is a rolly file cart behind the bar that
holds tracings, filed tracings and mystery pieces. On the left are flannels (top), bottomweights and blankets (middle), sheets and curtains to be repurposed (bottom). Artwork by an old friend, Ron German, aka LaRonica

Winged-it pincushion that was supposed to be in the shape of the trees...didn't quite turn out how it was in my head, but I love these fabrics so all is well, lol.

recycled organization!

and last was just a little too crazy with the glue gun, add in an old yardstick and ribbon and ta-da! ....but I think its still pretty cute.
Happy Sewing & Organizing :D

The Potato Surprise

The only experience I have with tomatoes is remembering my Ma saying 'good lord don't plant any potatoes, you'll never get rid of them'! Well after settling into the gardens for a couple of years I decided to order some organic heirloom spuds. They did great for a while, super leafy green and healthy and I had high hopes.... then they started wilting, and turning brown... I thought it was waaay too early for them to be ready for harvest and figured they must've succumbed to blight. They sat for a week or so getting browner and speaking to me 'get us out of here already and plant something else'. So I listened and began pulling the withered foliage - well surprise, surprise - happy day for me - they didn't get blight, they were in fact ready! WooHooo


Just for good measure my favorite Russian Sage





and some pretty Dill that volunteered just off the front porch

Oh Strawberries!

Nothing is sweeter than sun warmed, plump, really red berries, yum :D








He has been eagerly awaiting the ripening of the berries since we saw the first hint of green on the plants this spring - since the pic a few minutes ago he's eaten over 20...yes, we have to count them, every time, lol! I was thinking of making up an angel food cake, but he'll have them all done before I can get it mixed I think, heheh.

The ten year quilt

This quilt was planned in late 1999. My girls were moving into their own big girl beds and my Ma thought they needed their own quilts. I'm guessing the printed embroidery squares were ordered from Mary Maxim (sp) as she and my Gram ordered from there frequently.

Gram is the embroiderer and did all the blocks on both quilts.

Ma was the quilter and she loved, loved, loved making quilts for people who meant the most to her. The pink backed quilt was finished first and turned out beautifully. The top was stitched on
the next quilt and soon after was sandwiched with organic cotton batting. Ma did the quilting on about half of the inner blocks and then she died unexpectedly.

All of her projects were left waiting to be picked up again. I was too heartbroken to even move the needle from where she had left it - in the quilt- for more than two years. I kept trying, but would end up in tears within a few stitches. The half finished quilt managed to get through a flooded basement and doing time at Gram's in storage before we moved into our now house. I've picked it up for a few stitches occasionally, but became a fixture of my sewing room and the tv room until the latest stash game at Sewing Mamas This Un - Finished Object needed to be completed.

Yes I machine bound it, I tried hand sewing and ya know what, it just isn't my style. My ma would understand that and be glad that at least its finally done....though I can surely imagine what she would say about taking the easy way out, etc, etc and the fact that I have a few not exactly even places in the binding.






Pink one on the left is the Gram and Ma collab, Blue one on the right is the Gram, Ma & me collab. I think they look pretty good hanging next to one another :D


So there it is - my first full sized quilt :)

As February Drags

Days pass, but the calendar just doesn't seem to be giving us much love yet. After a few days of unseasonably warm weather, the guarded game-face of winter had started to slip away. There were smiles on faces everywhere, drivers excited to finally be driving at freeway speeds once again, even the bedraggled brown grass somehow looked refreshing. I decided to poke around in the garden and began clicking through online seed catalogues. But oh Michigan, you did us in once again with your lovely lake effect, why do I think for some reason Spring will just happen to come early every year, I know it won't, but I continue to hold onto this ridiculous hope that winter will decide enough is enough already.

We are bracing for 4-10" of snow in the next few days. The kids stayed home today and will likely stay home tomorrow. Chaos for mom and one of the best wishes come true for a kid




The next post will be a good one for knitters to check out. I've put together a bag/organizer that I'll be giving away, along with a couple smaller project bags to spread some warm mama fuzzies while the mercury continues to stagnate ;)

Oh it has been forever for the neglected blog. Real life ramped up in mid November and is just allowing us to catch our breath now. The girls and I all had semesters end in mid December, which were accompanied by the requisite late nights, papers and studying. I have one class left to complete to earn my B.S. in Sociology, Riley has figured out that if you consistently do your homework you get better grades (wha hoo), and I *think* Mason is getting there but we still struggle pretty regularly over homework. So all of that combined with the flurry of sewing before the holiday has kept us more than busy :)

With our downtime I've been doing computer housekeeping and ran across a sweet picture from 2005 that reminded me just how quickly our kids grow up.

Look at them now


They have firmly moved into big girl territory and gleefully gave up the number of their presents for the big ticket items. No complaints when they opened up socks, quick thank yous for scissors and books and then they got to the real meat of the presents. Mason loves her purple ipod nano and Riley is entranced with her itouch. Aye, the next thing you know they'll be wanting a car - yikes!

All three kids are in mama-made pjs, they all chose different flannels and shirt colors of course. I think they would declare mutiny if I tried to matchy-matchy them. So instead each kid matches one or more of their cousins, all of whom do not match with their own siblings - We spread our craziness for the holidays :P

Warm Wishes