“If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals are better off than a lot of humans.”-James Herriot
“Animals don’t lie. Animals don’t criticize. If animals have moody days, they handle them better than humans do.”- Betty White
“You know, sometimes the world seems like a pretty mean place. That’s why animals are so soft and huggy.”― Bill Watterson, Scientific Progress Goes “Boink”
“Animals praise a good day, a good hunt. They praise rain if they’re thirsty. That’s prayer. They don’t live an unconscious life, they simply have no language to talk about these things. But they are grateful for the good things that come along.”- Mary Oliver
“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.”-Francis Of Assisi
“Zoo animals are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild.”-Jack Hanna
I haven’t had a sewing post up for a while because while I have been sewing, it has been erratic. We’ve had so many house repairs done in the last four months, most of which required the basement to be ripped apart. Our last one until the windows was last week and we had to move everything away from the basement windows.
My sewing area is currently spread across the basement, my serger is packed in its travel case, and my sewing machine is upstairs on the dining room table. It’s a mess! Hopefully this week, we can start rearranging. The Husband starts play rehearsals this week, so will be having some late nights again for a few months. I’d like to have the heavy things moved into place at least before that happens. But I have managed to sew some things amidst the chaos. Here’s what I have pictures of at least.
This is my favorite tank, the Itch To Stitch Lago. The fabric is a drapey rayon spandex. It’s super comfy to wear and can be dressed up or down (relatively speaking.) It’s got tiny hearts! I just serged the bottom hem.
This is probably my favorite dress I have made in the past few months! This is a modified Sweetheart from Patterns for Pirates in a super slinky and cool feeling ITY. I lowered the neckline, banded the sleeves, and made the skirt slightly hi/low to better suit my bubble booty. I wore to work and the very stylish people there all liked it! It makes me feel super duper cute, which is always helpful. The skirt was cut in half circles instead of a full circle because it is a directional print. I forgot to put in pockets, but ITY is a funny drape sometimes and this fabric is super thin, so I wasn’t sure how the pockets would hang. It definitely fulfills my twirly skirt dreams!
I love this pattern, but I think I need a full bust adjustment, because although it looks cute here, I cannot raise my arms in it and it pulls very funny. It has princess seams though and is made for woven. This is a snail print rayon voile maybe? I ordered it a while ago, so don’t remember exactly what it is. The skirt part fits me though so I may just try to recut the bodice into a shape that fits better. This one does have pockets!
Now this project was super fun to try, although a bit confusing. It is the H2O To Go sling by Linds Handmade. It carries a water bottle for hikes and is lined with waterproof fabric, so it won’t get the rest of your purse wet! It’s my favorite purse right now and I need to make another with just regular fabric so I don’t wear this one out. I used the card slots in the pocket. I took it on our wine trip and it worked very well!
These are the inside pockets/card slots. It actually fits my inhaler and everything! Funny story, I had this when we went to visit K1 and her family and she gave me a tiny bottle of herbal bitters that I put in the water bottle pocket and promptly forgot about. I’ve been carrying it everywhere with me unknowingly since! I found it again early this week and it’s now in the booze cabinet where it belongs.
I think I have four pairs of the Petite Stitchery & C0 Briar shorts now! They’re so comfy! I made these for a challenge and it took me 20 minutes to cut and sew them! Super easy and super flirty. I made a matching bra top to go with them, but got the band wrong, so have to fix it.
These pants are for K1’s baby, but if I don’t get them there soon, they’re going to end up as capri pants instead! Her brothers have matching pairs and the oldest helped me serge his. He was super excited to help. They are flannel, so they’d be good pj or lounge pants. I used the Walk the Plank Kids PJ Pant Pattern from Patterns for Pirates.
I made these two leggings for me! Both are Peg Leggings from Patterns for Pirates. I love the bright leggings and wear them with my plain colored tunics or dresses so they have the proper focus. I will be wearing them possibly all winter, although they are capri length, so I may not be able to wear them with boots. Maybe just summer and fall. The cacti are cotton lycra and the bright pair is DBP.
I have made two swimsuits this summer! I only have a picture of part of one though because swimwear pictures are not something I’m ready for. This is a set with a Shenanigans Skort and a LBB from George and Ginger with an attached lace part for the belly coverage. It works pretty well. I wore it on our visit to K2 and it held up decently in the water. I think I would give myself a little more top coverage and shorten the straps though. The purple and black are both swim fabrics.
Piggy swam out to “rescue” me and nearly pulled down my top clinging in panic to my shoulders. She’s not so much a water dog it seems. After the first time of swimming out to me (attached to a leash held by the Husband for safety) she swam back to shore and shared K1’s lap with the baby and shivered for a while. We’re going to get her a life jacket before taking her on the inlaw’s boat.
I just made this quilt for a coworker’s mom and I’m hoping she liked it. I’m pretty proud of myself, as this is my second all Accuquilt cut quilt! The sashing got a little bit wonky, but oddly enough, it was wonky in a way that looks almost deliberate. I tried to do something fun with the border, but think it looks weird.
K2 and another friend came over for a tie dye birthday party for K2. I was proud that I got all three of these garments done. I do have a ton of white fabric left over though, so I might try to make a couple more things with the leftover dye. Or maybe just save them for next summer. Who knows? They are- Patterns for Pirates Cocoon Cardi in the big sweater, Petite Stichery & Co Briar Shorties, and the Sinclair Cachet for the shirt. The Cachet just has serged edges as it’s meant to be a swimsuit cover up or pj shirt. The Cocoon has a shawl collar and can I just tell you how comfortable this is? Oh my goodness, I neeeeeeeed one as a cozy fall cardi. I think I have an oatmeal colored waffle and a dark blue waffle fabric that will be shawl collared Coocoons when I get my space back.
I made a doll shirt for my challenge today as I was feeling under the weather. I have two more cut out, but my bobbin thread ran out and I didn’t feel like threading more.
And last, but not least, in my quest to have all the cozy hoodies, is this slightly oversized Ellie & Mac Be Creative Hoodie. It’s made with white printed French Terry and a purply waffle fabric. Waffle is like thermal, but thinner. Still pretty warm though, but doesn’t have a lot of recovery. I may go in and slim it down in the sides and arms a little. But it’s super cozy! I ran out of material for the sleeve, but I think it looks good with two different ones?
I’ll leave you with this picture of Piggy in a shark hoodie. Look, it was on sale and I couldn’t resist. Plus, she seems to actually be ok with shirts when she’s cold. And she’s got a belly skin thing going on, so this helps keep that reaction down when she goes outside. I hope this makes your night end on a giggle!
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” ― John Muir
“Plants give us oxygen for the lungs and for the soul. — Linda Solegato
“The planting of a tree, especially one of the long-living hardwood trees, is a gift which you can make to posterity at almost no cost and with almost no trouble, and if the tree takes root it will far outlive the visible effect of any of your other actions, good or evil.” ― George Orwell
“In the rain forest, no niche lies unused. No emptiness goes unfilled. No gasp of sunlight goes untrapped. In a million vest pockets, a million life-forms quietly tick. No other place on earth feels so lush. Sometimes we picture it as an echo of the original Garden of Eden—a realm ancient, serene, and fertile, where pythons slither and jaguars lope. But it is mainly a world of cunning and savage trees. Truant plants will not survive. The meek inherit nothing. Light is a thick yellow vitamin they would kill for, and they do. One of the first truths one learns in the rain forest is that there is nothing fainthearted or wimpy about plants.” ― Diane Ackerman, The Rarest of the Rare: Vanishing Animals, Timeless Worlds
“Plants are like people: they’re all different and a little bit strange.” — John Kehoe
“We may think we are nurturing our garden, but of course it’s our garden that is really nurturing us.” – Jenny Uglow
“I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me – like food or water.”-Ray Charles
“Tones sound, and roar and storm about me until I have set them down in notes.”-Ludwig van Beethoven
“Nature’s music is never over; her silences are pauses, not conclusions.”-Mary Webb
“I’m obsessed with the countryside: woods, forests, fields, lakes, mountains. I’m really into folk music and folklore. But more so I’m into electronic music. I’m into bands that have both aspects, like Boards of Canada is a perfect example. You could listen to that type of music running through a woods. It’s kind of what I wanted to achieve.”- Ellie Goulding
“If you look deep enough you will see music; the heart of nature being everywhere music.” – Thomas Carlyle
I went on a fantastic Girls’ Night with some friends to Mt. Tabor Trails in Buchanan, Michigan. It is a trail between two wineries where you can take your drink with you. Each winery has different specials and such. The two wineries are called Round Barn Winery and Mt. Tabor Winery. Here’s the website if you want to check it out. https://moerschhg.com/trails
We hung out for dinner with live music on Friday after hiking and it was lovely! I had a honey hard cider and a frose- Frozen rose wine. Both were delicious! Anyway, on to the pictures!
“It’s not that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but it’s your best friends who are your diamonds. It’s your best friends who are supremely resilient, made under pressure and of astonishing value. They’re everlasting; they can cut glass if they need to.”-Gina Barreca
“No one picks a friend for us; we come together by choice. We are not tied together through ceremony or the responsibility to create a son; we tie ourselves together through moments. The spark when we first meet. Laughter and tears shared. Secrets packed away to be treasured, hoarded, and protected. The wonder that someone can be so different from you and yet still understand your heart in a way no one else will.”― Lisa See, The Island of Sea Women
“The treasure is not only gold, silver, gems, etc. The most important treasure of this world is family and friends.”― Tamuna Tsertsvadze, Galaxy Pirates
“One and one makes two,’ she declared. ‘And two halves make a whole. And Faithful Friends should be together, never kept apart.”― P.L. Travers, Mary Poppins in the Park
“Neither one of the two friends felt any great need of talking. As yet. They had time; summer lay before them, long and full of promises.”― Tove Jansson, Moominsummer Madness
“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them. ” ― Agatha Christie, Agatha Christie: An Autobiography
“Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”― C.S. Lewis
“It’s okay to be absurd, ridiculous, and downright irrational at times; silliness is sweet syrup that helps us swallow the bitter pills of life.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich, Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts, & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year
“Before this week, I never realized that real-life romance isn’t like the movies. Things don’t have to be so serious and intense all the time. You can have intensely serious feelings for someone and be silly with them. You can go from making out to laughing, and back to making out, and that’s okay.” ― Dallas Woodburn, The Best Week that Never Happened
Exciting things happened! The Husband randomly plugged in my really old phone and it suddenly started working! Expect some throwback pictures from prior adventures! These are from the California Academy of Science.
“If you wait for the perfect moment when all is safe and assured, it may never arrive. Mountains will not be climbed, races won, or lasting happiness achieved.”- Maurice Chevalier
“Let’s end by pointing out all the positive ways you can scare yourself and feel alive. You can tell someone you love them first. You can try to speak only the truth for a whole week. You can jump out of an airplane or spend Christmas day all by your lonesome. You can help people who need help and fight real bad guys. You can dance fast or take an improv class or do one of those Ironman things. Adventure and danger can be good for your heart and soul.” -Amy Poehler
“Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out.”- Katherine Dunham
“When positivity is the key. You’ll find peace in a cup of tea.” -Munia Khan, Fireclay
“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot – it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”-Maya Angelou
“Dogs are actually very smart, it’s just that they’re rather clumsy, but it’s this trait that makes humans attracted to them and why I love dogs so much.”― Hiromu Arakawa
“Scratching Yogi’s ears Michelle says ‘That’s just part of his job, the comforting. That’s what I mean by the bhatisvata. That he’s more concerned with comforting and helping, even more than his own well-being.” This is a trait that more “people” should encompass.”― Chuck Palahniuk, Stranger than Fiction
“You can’t replace one dog with another any more than you can replace one person with another, but that’s not to say you shouldn’t get more dogs and people in your life.”― Polly Horvath, One Year in Coal Harbor
“Harriet resisted, until Tara pulled out the big move…the combination “lean-against nuzzle, with a slight lick and an adoring glance.” In dog-land the move had a degree of difficulty of nine point seven, and as far as I know, there is no known defense against it.”― David Rosenfelt, Leader of the Pack
