Elsie and Alma

A School Project, Part One

I was really making it a goal to post a few times a week, but my cold/allergies/phlegm thing was getting me down and I neglected everything: blogging, running, yoga, gardening, sewing, etc. I do this every year, get a cold when allergies kick in, so it's a lovely snot and cough fest. But once the headache cleared, I was feeling happy again because SPRING is here. All the pollen in the world can't ruin my love of spring. You know, I love fall, too, which is the other time of year I get allergies. Hmm, coincidence?

Look at that yellow dust! A-CHOO!

But lack of posts does not mean I have been completely idle.

I've been working on a project for my son's school auction. I volunteered to make a quilt involving the kids. The trick with class projects, especially for young kids, like kindergarteners, which is the age group I worked with, is coming up with an idea that is simple, engages the children, has their specific "stamp" on it, and looks kid-made. I realize that parents love their kids, and seriously, they will bid on anything their kids make, but as someone who takes a small amount of pride in things I have a hand in, I really wanted to produce something that stood on its own merits but WITHOUT completely taking over the kid's creativity. This is a fine balance.

I brainstormed a lot about what would work, and settled on the idea of having the kids piece their own quilt square, and putting a "nameplate" square in the middle. There was a lot of math involved as I figured out how big to the make the quilt (I needed to make it small enough to machine quilt on my own sewing machine), how big to make each square, how many pieces to make up each square, the ideal number to produce a pleasing effect, etc. By "pleasing effect", if you think of each square of fabric as a pixel, the smaller you make them, the more blended the overall result. This will probably make more sense later.
The colors the kids were working with were purple, green, and blue. I cut up a bunch of 2.5" by 2.5" squares in light, medium, and dark shades of these colors, and included fabrics with solids, stripes, dots, patterns, and pictures, of small and large scale. I spent a lot of time mixing them up, counting each color value and making sure the numbers of light, medium, and dark were relatively even for each color.

I know those don't look like big stacks of fabric, but really, it's a lot of little squares. And someone has to sew them all. ("Day in the Life" is going through my head now.)

My next post will describe what happened on quilt assembly day. Don't worry, it was pretty fun, actually!

Cold? Allergies?

It all adds up to the same thing. The weather is lovely here today, and my son has the day off from school, but I feel not so hot. Did not sleep well last night.

Today would have been a day to post something, but I am going to take it easy and sort Legos. It is kind of fun, actually. Mindless organizing I can handle.

Happy Friday and weekend and (soon) first day of Spring! Yay!

A Jane Austen Dress

Reading-wise, I am not stuck in the 18th century, and with the exception of novels in the pure romance genre, I like to read all kinds of books. For the most part, I stick with fiction, and within fiction, mostly literary fiction. I have also been known to read Harry Potter, the crazy conspiracy-secret society laden Dan Brown novels, and some uncategorizable spec-fic from Neal Stephenson.

I do like me some Jane Austen, too.

But I almost didn't.

When I was in college, I took a class called "The Rise of the English Novel", which a friend of a friend of mine dubbed "The Rise of the English Nap." No kidding. We started with Clarissa, by Samuel Richardson, the abridged version of which was still about 500+ pages. It was an epistolary novel about, among other things, the downfall of Clarissa, and served as both a cautionary tale on womanly virtues lost, and a commentary on family relations (the bad kind, in case you were wondering). And, there is at one point An Enormously Important Event that was completely lost on me (and more than a few classmates) until we discussed it in class.

"So, did you all get to the scene where Clarissa is taken advantage of by the libertine?" Head scratching. "You know, where they go off into a room together?" More head scratching. Our patient professor explained that this implied, you know, that something had happened. You know, wink-wink, nudge-nudge. Man-woman relations.

"Really?" was the collective response. Except for the class suck-ups.

"Well," she said, "It wasn't as if they could just spell it out."

Oh good Lord, I thought. This is going to be a loooonnng quarter.

I can say that each book we read did improve on the previous, but considering where we started, this isn't saying much, just that the authors were slightly less boring and obtuse as weeks went by. Somewhere in there we had to read The Sorrows of Young Werther, the book that divided the class into Team Werther and Team Please Take Werther Out Behind the Barn and Put Him Down. Guess which team I was on.

Our final book was Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen. Having slogged through Richardson and Goethe and a few other novels on the rise, I have to say, the cards were stacked against Austen. I had not read any of her books at that point in my life (in hindsight, a crime), and I was ready dislike this one as much as the others.

But here is the thing: where Samuel was a finger-wagger, and Johann was a wallower, Jane was funny. I read the first few pages, and I thought, this isn't really as good as I think it is....is it? Her characters seemed real, and the people and places more alive than any of the other books we read that quarter. The story was more interesting, the writing more clear, and overall, I found myself having to say, "I think I like this. In fact, I think I love this." And this was just Northanger Abbey. I hadn't even scratched the surface.

She seemed to say, "Yeah, yeah, ok Richardson, pioneer of the form and all that.....but come over here and read ME. Clarissa might be important, Werther more...poetic, but I am FUN."

Soon after this, I devoured Emma, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice. You could drink beer with Jane and laugh at inside jokes, like how ridiculous Mr. Collins is, or the nonsense coming out of Mrs. Elton's mouth. I don't see myself drinking beer with Mr. Richardson. 

A few years later, and I went to see Emma with my mom and sister. I came out of the theater wanting a dress from the movie, but certain obstacles prevented this. One, I could not sew. Two, I had nowhere to wear a floor-length Regency style dress.

Obstacle number one is (kind of sort of nearly there) conquered. Obstacle two, however, remained.

Fast forward a bit in time.

My sister informed me a month ago that she bought the latest Emma miniseries on DVD (the new one with Romola Garai in the title role, see pic above), and she was going to have a viewing party, "with costumes, of course."

That's what I'm talkin' about. Now, at long last, I have an excuse to make one of these dresses.

Be forewarned, future throwers of Halloween parties. When I get this 18 piece pattern of a dress fitted to my measurements, I will be in period costume for your parties the next 20+ years. Let's hope my body holds its shape as long as the dress. I might be stuffing myself into something that doesn't fit so well, and you will just have to suck it up and endure.

And here is the fabric. Not too bad, actually, about $40 at Fabric.com (actually, less. I bought something else in that package. So, about $25 for 4 yards). Cotton lawn.  I should have enough for me and to make a little something for my daughter, if I mix in some other fabric. I'll need something for lining, but will buy locally when I have a better idea of how I am putting this together. I already have a few ideas for modifications.

Sigh. I can't wait to start this project. It's been a long time coming.

Recycle, Upscyle, Sidecycle?

What do you call something that's new but needed a fix up?

 

I bought this sweater at a local boutique's sidewalk sale for $10, down from some ridiculous price like $100. Seriously. There was a small hole in one of the sleeves, so I patched it up and was happy with it for a time.

The neckband, however, was unforgivably floppy.  So it hung in the closet, an unworn bargain, until I finally got over the idea that one day it would suddenly improve and decided to try fixing it. 

First, the style of the sweater was inside-out. Meaning, all of the pieces were sewn wrong side out, so the purl side was showing instead of the knit, and all the seams were exposed. If the sweater were less floppy, I suppose this might have worked, but in this case, it just looked like an inside-out sweater. (What possessed me to buy it in the first place? I am sure I had a good reason, but it's gone now.) The buttons were very cute, but too heavy for the weight of the yarn, which made the button band heavy and floppy as well.

I took the buttons off and turned the sweater right side out, removing the tags. The yoke on the back neck had a cute polka-dotted chiffon-ish patch of fabric that now showed on the outside. I think that might be my favorite part of the sweater, and that, plus the buttons, is probably why I bought it. Even though I took the buttons off, they are a nice addition to my stash.

After doing this, the floppy neckband still bothered me. I folded it over and pinned it, and it improved the stability immediately, but just sewing it straight with brown thread didn't look that great (I tried). So, I grabbed the pink flower trim and machine-stitched it on, and called it good.

Yay. New sweater. I am going to take a look at my closet and see what else I can find in there that needs a dash of improvement...

A Handy, Printable Fitting Guide

Like many women, my body measurements don't exactly match the standard measurements of sewing patterns. Some parts of my body are 16, some 10 or 12, etc. You know what I mean. I have always cut to my largest measurements, rather than attempt to adjust the patterns themselves. But, it seems to me that the "I'll just figure it out in the sewing" is the rough equivalent of some bad software development processes I'll refrain from describing for fear of boring you, and because I am about to start a really big sewing project, I want to practice making the pattern work for my measurements BEFORE I start cutting and sewing.

I was browsing around on the Simplicity website and I found this handy fit brochure, downloadable, and free. Note: If you decide to print, set your options to Landscape, and the size to 60%. That fits onto 8.5" by 11" paper. Or, supposedly, you should be able to ask for it for free at your local fabric store.

For experts, this is old hat. For me, it was kind of eye-opening, particularly the part about how to handle bust size, which is my issue. And since the pattern I am using for my big project is a Simplicity pattern, this brochure serves as a good guide. And I like that it is short and explains the concepts well with precise how-to instructions.

Add that to my list of goals: making clothes that fit.

The weather

Isn't that what people talk about when they don't have anything else to talk about?

I actually do have a post in the hopper but am waiting for something to arrive so I can take a picture of it for sharing. And I guess I did post something already, but for some reason feel the need to post again about the weather.

I live in Seattle. We discuss the weather here. A lot. I imagine in places like SoCal or Florida or AZ that weather talk is pretty limited: "Oh look, it's the sun. Again." Unless you get one of your crazy sudden torrential rains that cause flash floods (Cal, AZ), or, get freezing temps anytime (Florida).

Here, however, weather is a daily discussion. This last Saturday we were enjoying 60 degree weather. Monday it snowed. Just barely. But still. Snow. Made me glad I did not get so ambitious with the seed planting.

As a lifelong resident, I am pretty OK about the weather here, but I do start to get antsy in March. And this March has been a strange one. In like a lamb, out like a polar bear.

My sister and mom are in Hawaii right now. They are probably not wearing wool hats and socks and Gore-tex and pile jackets. Like me. Good for them, I say. They've earned it.

Alright, I got it out of my system. March, do your worst. I can take it.

BTW: Remember this post where I am complaining about the cold. When the temps go up over 80 in August, I will do the same thing, except about the HEAT. Yes, we are HUGE weather wimps here. Ideal temps: 65-75 degrees, no snow on the roads, light winds. 60 is ok. Below 45 is too cold. Above 80 is too hot. If we were plants, we'd come with all kinds of instructions on how to cover, move, dig up, or bring indoors based on all weather conditions. Maybe that is why some of us don't move away. Oh we'll travel just fine, but some of us don't always transplant well.

Sandbox Outfit

Remember the pattern tracing post? This was the result of all that tracing:

 

And more pics:

 

Not the best pictures. Ugh. (Honestly, I've been struggling with pictures. I have a pretty nice DSLR, so I SHOULD have much nicer pictures, but getting indoor shots of my crafts.....I don't know. I need to take a class or get a book. When I take pictures outside in the yard, I seem to do OK, but these shots are kind of crappy)  I did NOT make the shirts, but I did the freezer paper stencil.

Entire outfit design and pattern courtesy of Oliver + S. Such lovely patterns. Here's a funny: I bought the pattern at my local fabric store, so I did not see this particular pattern online, or the pictures of the resulting pants. Yet BOTH mine and the one in the picture are made with brown corduroy. So either I did see this picture previously and it sat in my subconscious until I bought fabric or, great minds think alike. Hmm. Curious.

I didn't find any shirt that really went with the colors I chose for buttons and waistband (note to self, maybe pick a shirt first?), so I bought two that kind of go. And stenciled them both. 

Those back pockets were fussy. Dang. I think I need to take a remedial pocket-making class. It was one of those parts where I found myself thinking, "there must be a trick to this but I don't know it yet."

This outfit is for a new baby boy of a dear friend. We await his arrival with GREAT excitement.

Weeds, stop growing

I hate weeding. I don't hate ALL weeding; for example, I don't mind tidying up a bed that is largely clean already, where the ground is soft and squishy and the weeds pop out easily.

What I really hate weeding is stuff like this:

This is a predicament of my own making, as I put the bricks in myself. Sigh.

Or, take this brick, turn it into rock, rotate vertically, and then you have my rockery. Which I hate with a burning white hot passion. The installers of mid-century rockeries sit warming themselves in the 10th circle of Hell. And even there they are laughing at me. That is how evil they are.

So, when I engage in this kind of weeding, I have to make a lot of little deals with myself to make it more tolerable. I have to set a goal so I can feel like I finished something, even though I hardly ever finish completely. I have to reward myself with treats.

For example, a cup of coffee is a nice incentive

And the perfect place to rest it so I don't have to get up from my weeding spot, even if it takes 20 minutes to dig the perfect rock out of the rock pile.

Goal setting is important, too. For example, how long to weed? Until the orange bucket is full?

Umm...how about the white one?

No, maybe the other white one:

There we go!

Maybe this weeding isn't so bad. It's all about perspective. It will be Miller time before I know it.

Seeds, Start Growing!

(the title above is a line taken from one of my favorite kids' book series, Frog and Toad. In this story, Frog gives Toad some seeds so he can start a garden. Toad, in typical Toad fashion, plants the seeds and stands over them, expecting them to pop up immediately. He yells and yells at them until Frog comes running and asks what is going on. Toad expresses frustration that his seeds are not growing. Frog explains to him, with only the patience that Frog has for Toad, that he must let the sun shine on them, and the rain fall on them, and wait for the seeds to grow. I have always felt myself to be a bit of a Toad, but I aspire to be Frog.)

Hello? Anybody home? We're here!

My seeds arrived two days ago, to much excitement.

I need to admit something: I am not much of a seed grower. I usually take the lazy route and buy plants or get them from my sister who grows stuff from seed in a greenhouse on her farm.

But this year I decided to actually get some seeds and give it a go. I am not starting anything indoors. I've never been good at taking care of indoor plants of any kind, and seedlings in starter pots are no exception. (Although for some reason I bought a bunch of pots just for this purpose because they were ON SALE. What? Oh well. I suppose I will use them at some point.)

This will be good practice for when I put in my vegetable garden next year post-remodel, because while you can buy starts for just about every type of vegetable, you get the best options starting from seed. Which brings me to one of my favorite window-shopping venues, the Territorial Seed Company catalog. I don't even like beans that much, but when I look at pictures of them, I want to grow them. All of them.

So, here they are, the seeds I ordered:

Marigolds and Zinnias!

Cosmos and Sunflowers!

Rudbeckia!

And Carrots! Carrots?

(Homer Simpson voice:) Wait a minute. Carrots?!? But those are HEALTHY! MAAAAAARRRRRGE!

I did not order any vegetable seeds, so initially, I was confused. As I mentioned before, a veggie garden requires a level of attention I just can't provide this year (plus there will be construction people and things right about where I would have put the veggie garden), but I think Territorial Seeds included a packet for just about everyone who ordered seeds, because if you read the fine print, you see the package says, "Plant a Row for the Hungry." I did some research and found that it is a program that has been around for 15 years, and encourages gardeners to plant extra vegetables to share with food banks and neighbors in need. How cool is that? Very, and also very that Territorial gives you the seeds to plant for free with really no guarantee you will do what is asked.

Except karmic guilt, mind you. I am talking to you, Toad.

OK, maybe I will try to find some space for the carrots.

Garden update

The great thing about a garden in spring is I can go out, take a few pictures of what has popped out in the last few days, talk about it, share said pictures, and it might come off as having done something. Which I haven't. OK, at some point, I did plant the plants, just nothing recently.

I did get out for a decent de-cluttering a few days ago, and anticipate another this weekend. Then the weeding begins. Every year, it gets a tiny bit better, though. Slightly fewer weeds to manage. My final nemesis is the horsetail. THIS is the year I am going to take it to those bastards. (sorry Mom. But they really are awful).

And at some point very soon, I'll be planting sweet peas. YAY. It has been a few years since I bothered, and they are so wonderful. I can smell them now.

On to the pics:

Wee narcissus. Look how tiny!

Flowering currant. Here is a tip: you will never get flowers if you hack it back every year. Ask me how I know this.

Hellebore. Remember this post? This was the plant Soren almost "weeded". It looks great now.

More narcissus. I used to feel kind of "meh" about them, but look how happy!

Myth I was told at the Garden Show: cats don't love catmint. Not true! Fortunately, it grows with such vigor, I don't really care how much they feast, roll, rub, and claw on it. Which they do. Here is some, just starting to emerge past last year's leftovers. It is on my to do list.

A lovely and not invasive Euphorbia. It is delicate and dark purple with green "eyes."  Just noticed it was coming up also.

One of the hardest workers out there, hardy geranium. I have a lot of it, and while it can get a bit vigorous (not this particular guy, but others), it is a good space filler, looks great most of the spring and summer, and requires virtually no water once established. And not all that hard to rip back if it gets to be too much. This one is more delicate. I love the chocolate markings on the leaves.

That is all for now. Happy Spring! (is it here yet? i am ready.)