all buttoned up.

We are home. With stuff.

I did quite a bit of thrift "looking" in B.C. and an obscene amount of purchasing.  The first time in I went bananas and over my budget, but I think it was worth it.  It's hard when the things are good and the prices are right and the things you find are otherwise hard to find (at least for me, whos time spent at estate sales and the like has been cut off considerably this last year.  I need a good friend who will drag me along with them.  Anybody?).  I'll give you the good stuff, and leave out the boring bits that were more on the Looking For list and less on the Can't Put it Down list. 

I'm very very pleased with the glasses.  I look at similar ones all the time at a store down the street.  I've nearly justified paying in the tens of dollars so I felt completely redeemed in paying the tens of cents.  The butter dish is my favourite-- it's plastic and stamped with W.Germany on the bottom.  I like that I'm old enough to remember the wall coming down.  The rest of it is for here and for others (there are three of mixing bowls and match with the casseroles I'm hoping to take of some friends' hands).  I paid a little bit more for the Midwinter cups, but I put everything else back to get them, so it all worked out.  Incidentally, I bought those at Talize in Surrey.  It is huge and new and set up exactly like Value Village.  Unfortunately, the prices are HIGH.  Like, silly and in most cases not worth it high.  Is this the way it is in Ontario, too?  Disappointing.  If you're in the neighborhood, try your luck at the MCC store down Scott Rd. instead. The gravy boat is an old English Pyrex-- JAJ.  God love Mariko  and her handy Pyrex/Midwinter reference guides.

 

A small box arrived full of Cherry Jam yesterday.  Oh My Awesomeness.  Thank you so much, Friend .  Have I told you how much I love toast?  Some of you know.  I tend to go on about it if anyone asks me what I had for breakfast.  Or lunch.  Or in between.  In fact, we used to rate PDX breakfast places just by their toast.  This was before we had a kid who sort of screwed up the curve.   Anyway, Cherry Jam, I love you.  So does my toast.  And look!  Sort of matching saucers for my orphan tea cups .  Nice one. 

bend-the-rules

Okay, so clearly Amy is a friend and I count myself quite lucky there.  Therefore, you might expect some sort of glowing and over the top love-in over her book.  If you're sort of on the fence about whether or not to get it, you're not exactly going to come here looking for advice.  So I'll cut past the huggie bear and kissy face and tell you exactly why I like this book so much, and why I think you might love it, too.

First, go ahead and read Megan's review.  Thorough, right?  Here's what I want to add-- you are going to feel good about reading this, even if you think that you've learned past what Amy has got to offer.  I've been sewing since I was five and I think I've got a handle on most things.  I also like to follow the rules at least once (when I've trying something new), and I think it's very important to do so if you want to become a competent sewer.  Amy has written this book as if she has a vested interest in seeing you succeed wether you're a beginner or an old hand-- she's covered all the basics without leaving you hanging on the small stuff or getting you lost in the details.  She doesn't hold back on the tricks and tips that she uses every day (I'm not ashamed to say how much I learned.  How the hell did I not know about the layered bias tape construction??!), and she lets you know exactly where you're going to be sorry if you cut an important corner.  Not long ago I had a question about a project I was working on, and so I asked her what she would do.  I stupidly quibbled with her on the last step, figuring that I could get away with doing it my way.  Like a good friend, she shut me down completely and told me I was going to jack up my machine and my project if I didn't do it properly.  Awesome, right?  Yeah.  This book is just like that.  It is smart and funny and rad, exactly like Amy.   

Here, Have a Tissue.

I've told a couple of people that I nearly lost my stuff when I pressed publish on that last post-- hot flashes, a little gagging... I don't know what that's about, save to say that this "expecting" time comes with a lot of nervousness which is kind of new for me. So.  Thank you for being so warm in your encouragement and excitement.    We are over the moon. 

Like I said, there has been a little more crying around here lately while we sort everything out, and usually I just reach for some sort of cloth napkin or handkerchief or something.  'Course not everyone likes to roll like that and so Paul came home with a box of actual tissues from Trader Joe's.  Apparently they let a rabid animal pick out the colour scheme for the box decor, and I was left cringing-- CRINGING-- every time I looked over at the bookshelf.  What would we do if we weren't crafty?!  Would we live with the box?  I shudder to think. 

Anyway, the fabric was a remnant, and the pattern comes from figuring out the dimensions of the box (while leaving a little wiggle room and seam allowances).  If you're uncomfortable sewing a cube, you could use the trim box instructions to get the general idea.  I made a giant buttonhole by marking the length of the hole on the top piece, and using the zigzag stitch up and down the sides. 

The tissue box is sitting on top of this book, which Paul bought me for Mother's Day.  Are there people adopting in your life?  This book is a beautiful, beautiful thing.  We're on vacation in B.C. this week, drinking in the mountains and the good thrifting.  Truth be told, I went a little overboard on the latter.  I'll get to the details next week.  For now, avoid the tissues boxes at TJ's at all costs, unless you're feeling the need for some Cute to cover them up. 

matchy-matchy

I bought some cotton suiting at the Depot awhile back.  It was in with the fancy shirting (which I only touch but never buy), and on sale so it was sort of a no brainer.  I washed it a couple of times to see how it would come out.  It's so great-- super soft but sturdy (like denim), and not too wrinkly especially if you dry it on permanent press.  The stuff I have is brown with a tiny salmon and black stripe. I don't think I've ever been so giddy buying fabric before. 

Backup.  When I was pregnant with Sam we were busy doing things like working crazy long hours, hanging drywall, and fooling ourselves into thinking we wouldn't need a kitchen with a newborn ("Cuz, like, it's not like he eats solid food or anything").  My sewing was limited to a wonky fitting crib skirt (why did I feel like I needed something like that?) and a cover for a nursing pillow I never used (again, WHY!?).   As our house became more livable I was able to set up my sewing machine in its very own corner, and begin to plan all sorts of ambitious and silly things for the people in my life.

 

Three years later, I'm still playing mad catch-up and realizing that my little sweet was clothed by our families and the hand-me-down generosity of friends.  I'm also going crazy making plans for a new little-- our new little.  We are going through the domestic adoption process, and sometime this summer or fall, bbf (baby boy Frantz) is coming home to a houseful of handmade.  And of course, the boys are going to be all matchy-- I can hardly be seen with the likes of the Chickens or the Shims  without at least making an effort.  We have had to stay so in our heads about things through all the paperwork and interviews and appointments, so that when I do stop and just feel all this, I usually start to cry.   It's heavy stuff, but really really good.  It also explains my blog-flakiness a little, as we ready our house and ourselves to be scrutinized, etc.  We are nearly done with the parts that we can do, and then we will just wait and pray and you know, sew.

For those of you wanting to know-- all the clothes are loosely based on commercial patterns. The My Favorite Things Baby Stuff  pattern is a great place to start when sewing for the really little people.  Most elastic waist pants patterns are the same no matter where you get them, for the bigger littles in your life.  Oh--  and the fabric for the jacket is a double gauze from (where else) Superbuzzy.

Built By Wendy Again. Simplicity 3692.

This is a good pattern.  I want to make that quite clear.  I think the problems that I had were entirely my own.  The fit?!  Oh, Good Fit, why do you taunt me? 

Here's why this pattern is going to scare some people: It's made for knits.  Knits can be scary. There is a yoke with gathers.

Here's why it shouldn't: Wendy goes step-by-step how you should deal with knits (needle, stitch, type) on whatever sort of machine you have.  Just a reminder-- I don't own a serger so this was a straight stitch deal. The yoke is pretty straight forward and cute.  AND unlike other patterns, it's not boob dependent because it cuts on top and not underneath making it flattering for all types of people.  Plus there are facing pieces that help you get the neck nice and non-wonky. 

My issues: Whoa, too BIG!  The nice thing is that even though I made the shirt according to my measurements I cut it down a fair bit on the sides.  The pattern is such that you can do this right up to the last minute without screwing anything up. I could only find cotton with lycra that was also in my price/time range.  I'm sort of a 100% kind of girl.  I think I'm going to mailorder some next time.  Any suggestions?  Even though I was careful, I don't think Lycra likes top-stitching.  So the neckline got a tad stretched.  I'm going to throw it in the wash and see if it works itself out.

Everything was going so well and I was loving on the whole process so much I found myself cutting/sewing through too many layers, snagging bits I shouldn't have, and being a complete dolt about seam allowances.   This is the magic of knits, I think, the black magic.  Issues aside, I'm going to make it again.  Next time I'm going to start out with a smaller size and maybe try using some sort of floaty cotton?  Of course, now that I've convinced myself I can do an adequate job with knits I might just go crazy with the stuff.

But I want you to know that as far as I'm concerned, it's a good pattern.  That's the most important thing. 

 

Some Sewing, Finally.

Did anyone watch the Independent Lens on La Lupe last night?  Fascinating and a little heartbreaking (and Oh My Pantsuits!?!).  It was on late which worked out fine since I was all itchy for this to come out of the dryer.

I tried to make this in a different colour-- blues, reds, browns, but yellow kept yanking me back.  I guess I caught the fever, too.  The strip piecing was super straight-forward which didn't stop me from agonizing over the placement and continually swapping patterns for solids.  Also, I finally remembered to pick up a piece of cheap, white flannel for the wall.  It made all the difference when I was laying it out.  The fabric is a mostly solids, a little old and a little new.  The back is semi-pieced with a brown Cranston reproduction print, a blue Free Spirit piece, and one of the best ever Superbuzzy  prints from the Folklore line.  This quilt needed some abstract applique (a la The Chicken) but I was pretty focused on figuring out the quilting, and I only had so much brain power to use for this particular project.

Some Notes on the Quilting aka Stippling:

• Introduce yourself to your darning/embroidery/free-motion foot.  A lot of machines (even the least fancy) come with this thing.  When you lower your feed dogs and attach this foot, your quilt sandwich has the freedom to move around.  I thought this would be a disaster-- making everything bunchy and jumping all over the place, but it's not.  It's plastic or metal with a circle or half-circle where the needle punches through.  It has a little spring that goes up the shank. 
• I set my stitch length to 2 and kept my tension even (Nancy  says to loosen it by two, but it didn't make a difference to me-- maybe to yours?).
• Some of my quilt lines were drawn on with a dissapearing marker/my new best friend. Then, I put my pedal to the metal/lino and moved my fabric around slowly.
• Quick stitches and slow movement-- that is the key my friends.  If you go slower with the stitches they end up all wonky.  I have Amy and Nancy to thank for that advice.  The only other tidbit that helped me that some of you might not have on your machines, is the ability to have my needle stop in the down position mid-row.  This was super helpful since the fabric wants to jump around a little once you stop, and the foot isn't actually holding it down in place.
• It's a good idea to practice on some scraps.  It won't prepare you for wrestling an entire quilt through, but it will give you a feeling for the speed you need to move the fabric through.

Now, I don't have a high-end machine.  I went with the "pay as much as you can, for the most amount of used equipment" route, and for the most part it's worked out fine.  It's a Janome, with a few fancy stitches (blanket, scallops... I actually use them quite a bit), and a shorter-than-I'd-like free arm.  So what I'm saying is that, if you can get your hands on the right foot, I think most machines could handle quilting this way, and frankly, I think it's a lot FASTER than the straight line numbers I've done with my walking foot.  Granted, it's not a big quilt (and I wouldn't want to do anything bigger this way) and this method wouldn't work very well for perfectly even stitches and straight lines.  But for something like this (scallops overlapping) or for my favourite sort of loopy thing that a lot of quilter's employ, this is about perfect. 

"Perfect" in my own way that is so far from it, mind you-- I have a long way to go at getting everything smooth and pretty all the time.  In fact, I'm a little embarassed to be giving this away with its sketchy bit in the middle and semi-crooked scallops near the edges.  But since I've spent most of my life being embarassed/insecure about one thing or another, this is going to Michigan with our dear friends anyway.  It's only about 50 by 54" so the two of them are going to have to sit very close together on their couch to get under it.   

*Edited to say: Thanks all!  So nice.  Stitch length is important-- not totally, but it seemed to matter to me and Melanie makes a good point in the comments.  I wouldn't want to do it without the foot though... the quilt sandwhich would ride up your needle some, also the little half-circle part of the foot keeps the fabric smoothed out a little.  And you know, if you're doing it properly the needle is going to be moving very fast, and I for one am far too clumsy to keep my fingers out of the way.  Thanks to my adept movements, I'm already operating with only three fingers on my left hand this week.  I'm a star.  FINALLY, this way of quilting uses a lot of thread!  It's worth it, I think, but I thought you'd want to know.