Symbiotic Stitches

Oh man!

2010-03-05T07:43:00.000-08:00

Obviously blogging has not been something I've kept up with this winter, lol. I have kept up with getting my groove back as far as sewing what I want to sew; patches and skirts, and skirts and patches oh my! Really though I just can't get enough color combinations, patchwork designs and strip work.
Couple of holiday gifts, apron for MIL with the kids' handprints along the bottom

Spinny flannel skirts & trousers for my nieces & nephew
Rainbow & peace sign fabric skirt. I loved the peace sign fabric, but also want to use it sparingly and waited until it spoke to me. A smile just spreads across my face when I look at this skirt :D
back
front, new for me is adding ruffles into a patchwork design
This one wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be either, but I think it came together well, the flounce on the bottom is my fave. These (this and the one above) both have a rolled hem using sparkly multi-colored thread - FUN
Mama shirt
Organic Mama shirt
AH birdseed, My best friend's wallet, love how these go together. I really should make myself a new one as the old is getting a bit bedraggled from being in my purse for the last year and a half.
Hippie, but not-too-nuts skirt that was out the door almost as soon as it was off the machine, lol
Patchy save from a strip skirt that formerly had an elastic waist. A drawtie waist, patchy pockets and a patched hem brought this into Happy Skirt Station

Shorts for Dh, from really soft upholstery fabric that I have a t.o.n. of
All patch wrap skirt with vintage crochet edging (formerly a tablecloth)

Purple patchwork that lives with one of my SM friends now.
Light-ing --AcQueen a.k.a. lightning mcqueen patchy & cord pants for ds
My fave purple patchy outfit - the kercheif top is vintage linen (tablecloth again) with the prettiest hand embroidery. There are patches of it in the skirt too!
patchy pants for moi, old cargos that hadn't seen the light of day in many moons....add 5" to the waist and what-do-you-know? They fit again!

I'm going to try and be better about making over to my own blog instead of reading everyone elses', lol! Hope your day is sunny :D

What Happened to Summer?

2009-11-09T14:27:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-08-19T15:36:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-28T08:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-20T14:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-19T09:51:00.001-08:00

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 ;)

2008-12-26T16:44:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

The day before Halloween we (I) still didn't have the kids' costumes together. Riley decided that this was the year she would be too old to go trick-or-treating :( getting braces two weeks ago may have also had something to do with that ;)

So that leaves Mason & Taite. They have both been quite certain about who they wanted to be this year. Taite chose Diego and Mason chose Edward Elrich from Full Metal Alchemist (an anime character from a show she's into).

Mason used a pair of black pants and shirt she already had. Found a wig to braid and we made the coat. It is a thicker cobble/canvas cloth lined with Kanjii. She found one online for more that $200 - yikes. Since it is a cosplay -as opposed to a costume (excuuuuse me) she will be wearing it a lot I think. For sure to the comic con we're going to this coming summer.

Taite wore some blue cargos he already had with a blue cotton rib longsleeve shirt..Our color is a bit off, our Diego has longsleeves, and there was no way he was letting me get a chance to hem it - ah well, he certainly doesn't care about the hem, maybe I'll catch it when it comes through the laundry, heh heh. We found the perfect orange pack at goodwill and just had to sew on some eyes for the rescue pack. His vest is self drafted and made up as we went along.

Tomatoe, Tomato

2008-09-28T13:07:00.000-07:00

Whichever way you say it is ok by me. To me one of the harbingers of fall is the smell of tomato plants, fresh in the garden, then simmering on the stove being preserved to combat the effect of lake effect snow on my affect, lol. Peasant soup, beef stew, chili, spaghetti, lasagna oh my, all so much more alive with the fruits of your own labor. I've gotten lazier with age and for the last 2 years I have frozen or dried all of our produce. The canning jars languish in the barn for now, but are at the ready should we need them. Sauce tomatoes are organic heirlooms -Amish paste and Opalkas. This week I've frozen 6 quarts of sauce, 7 quarts of whole stewed tomatoes, dried a ton of carrots and some organic bananas that were going to go to waste.

Green Zebras, Pink Brandywines and pastes awaiting their fate

Easy Sauce
tomatoes
medium onion
celery seed
green pepper
garlic
oregano
rosemary
thyme
parsley

-stew together on low (covered) - very low for at least 6 hours - don't stir, peek occasionally to let the aroma fill your kitchen :) The water will separate from the toms, veggies and herbs. With a slotted spoon remove as much water as possible and put tomatoes/herbs/veggies in a food processor, zip it up until it looks right to you. Return to stove to simmer and flavor to taste. We use season salt, worchestershire, and a pinch of sugar, more oregano and simmer for a couple more hours.

By this time it is long past dinner so what could be better that boiling up some pasta and enjoying freshly created goodness. YUM, our house smells amazing right now.

-just a couple things
-we leave the skins on - my grandma would have been so proud of my roughage consumption here heh heh. But be warned, fibered you will be. To avoid the skins, run your sauce through a strainer or food mill rather than the processor
-I learned to make sauce as a kid with my mama who followed the recipes in the ball blue book, these are just adapted to fit our family

Call Me a Lemming - but Hedgies ARE cute

2008-08-16T18:36:00.000-07:00

Trendy yes, which usually does little for me, but in this case, man I'm hooked. There are just so many fabulous Japanese prints out there in cyber never-never land . I could just drool for hours at http://superbuzzy.com/ and http://www.shopcraftyplanet.com/store/home.php I could readily give up chocolate for an unlimited budget at either of those wondrous places.
There were many times that I would fill a cart, only to get distracted by children, come to my senses, have dh ask 'what exactly are you doing over there?'...'not buying more fabric right?' I dreamed of all those lively patterns for months before I got my little mits on some. Oh man does it sew up nice too. I think in the last year this us my favorite kid garment. I sooo wish the girls were still small enough to wear, or want to wear, something this sweet and innocent....and they would say boring and plain - but you cant win em all huh?

Hopefully a cute little hyena cub will enjoy wearing this as much as I enjoyed making it

Embroidery from emblibrary or embroidery dk, I just can't keep them straight, but doesn't he look great with the print?

Quiet of Morning, Bounty of Summer

2008-08-08T19:37:00.000-07:00

Early morning looking North from the porch. I love getting up before everyone else when the day is still damp and heavy, not hinting at everyday chaos to come. The gardens called to me, choking with weeds and grasses, we need tending. So with Taite and John gone for a while and the girls spending time with their dad, I ignored my sewing voice and headed outside for the day.

The first actual harvest of the season yay! I can't wait to get the tomatoes into a yellow salsa, the beans canned into dilly beans, cukes pickled and the peaches cobbled. The poor garden has been neglected the last month. Between wedding preparation, John working more than full time outside of the home for the first time since we've been together and the girls always wanting/needing to go somewhere, the garden had fallen off the priority list. Luckily those wonderful heirloom seeds really know their stuff and with minimal care can produce like crazy.

Volunteer tomatoes that just wont quit to the left, sage and time in the foreground. New beds of transplanted cantaloupes and yes more tomatoes, mostly paste - amish and opalka. Soon it will be sauce time around here, yum

Well? I dunno

2008-08-06T15:14:00.000-07:00

I have been on a quest to find something other than a t-shirt to feel comfortable in. Dressing up for me entails being clean, and having on an oversize T shirt with minimal staining or holes ~~insert my blush here~~

After trying and UFO-ing a few different patterns I gave up for a while. My body doesn't seem any more abnormal than any other mid thirties mom who's boobs have deflated and gone south almost meeting the dreaded mama pooch that doesn't seem to go away, no matter how many times I pass up the cheese and ice cream ;) Why can't I find or make a shirt to fit my body, that doesn't look like I'm trying to be someone I'm not? My lack of a style just further complicates my nightmare of dressing myself.

Enter some new-to-me patterns from a mama over at SewingMamas. This material doesn't highlight the pattern very well - but it was quick, easy and is quite comfy. Please excuse the bedraggled looking mama modeling. I will be trying all of the view on this pattern, which include pintucks and poet sleeves, though I'll be a bit more choosy with fabrics.

This was cut at a size 14, with FBA mods. I ended up eliminating all of the FBA mods and after reserging the side seams realized I probably could have cut a 10 and been just fine. The only questionable part of this is the arm binding. I think it looks a bit star trek-ish as it sticks out from my shoulders - thoughts?

Outside of Normal

2008-08-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

Not that I really have a normal style per say anyhow, but usually I make kid's clothes, functional recycled items and embroidery. These projects are reminiscent of things I've worn in my past life.....They are in preparation for a small music fest in our area http://www.michiganpeacefest.com/

It was so much fun to play in fabrics and have the freedom to do what I wanted, not what I thought would do well, y/k? No pattern, just an idea and flat fabric, to be turned into your imagination's delight. I can't wait to spin in that crazy skirt, the uneven hem flaps like a flag - I love it :) Dh thinks these are being sold....heh hee heh

A Cute Stab in the Dark

2008-07-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

So I was contacted by a friend (hey Michelle) to make some bibs for her girlie. I have had drooly babes, and sewn, but never have I made a bib. Michelle provided me with some much needed inspiration in the sewing room, it seems as the weather gets nicer it is harder and harder to get any real sewing done, so a new project with many design possibilities was just what I needed. Drafting a pattern and getting it into a real object worked surprisingly well, though the binding did give me fits and needed to be changed after some of them popped in the wash. With a solution to each bib that needed fixing we were off. First shot is the lot of them.

Sock monkey appliques and embroidery (emblibrary) on cotton knit, backed with striped flannel, heart shaped stuffer of hemp terry.

Blue corduroy with hedgehog embroidery (emblibrary), backed and bound with Harmony Art organic cotton knit. Heart stuffer in this one too.

Tan cotton knit with squirrel embroidery (emblibrary) stuffed with hemp terry, backed with squirrel print flannel.

I hope you & Jorie enjoy them Michelle :)

Recent Embroidery Work

2008-07-21T08:48:00.000-07:00

Many of the same embroidery design is not my idea of fun, but it does fund my fabric obsession ;) These shirts are for my sister-in-law's, Dad's tractor pulling team. Depending on how well they do this year these may make it on the outdoor life network - kinda cool

The gray and green shirts are for a friend of a friend's landscape company.........all 31 of them....whew

2008-07-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

The garden is in full swing whether I am or not. We had a ton of volunteer plants this year; tomatoes, fennel, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe, cilantro and basil. The beds did well overwintering perennial herbs as well, so with minimal planting we should have quite a harvest come fall.