Tag: sewing

Sewing Frenzy
Crafty

Sewing Frenzy

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I should sew with friends more! I get energized when I do and it motivates me to finish things and try new projects. I had a sewing date with Kayla, who is working on a quilt and some other super secret sewing projects.

Fancy enjoyed her own deconstruction project while we were sewing. Every couple of months we let her rip up the Chewy box. She loves it and doesn’t eat any of the pieces.

I got to teach Kayla how to make log cabin quilt blocks by chain piecing and it was so difficult not to start a new scrap quilt myself. I desperately want to make a white and rainbow scrap log cabin in a different setting to play off of the black rainbow quilts I have made.

The stack of quilt tops I have sitting in a box waiting for me, is quite terrible though. I’m not allowed to start a new quilt until I finish one. I took them out to show to Kayla. I can’t show some of them, as they are wedding quilts, but this one is one just for the Husband and me.

It’s called Magic Lanterns. It’s from Scrap Quilts To Use It Up. It was one of the first major quilts I made and I’m pretty sure it helped my mother-in-law like me. She saw the pieces when they all came to visit me early in our relationship. 🙂

It looks really complicated, but it’s actually a trick block. You start with a large triangle with sides that turn it into a rectangle and then you cut it up and flip it and sew it backwards.

Here is what the border will look like when it’s done.

I have probably had the top completed for 8 years. Yikes! It will have a black back with strips of the leftover batik triangles interspersed for contrast. It should be beautiful and big enough to cover our bed. It already covers the top and hangs off the edge. With a 6 inch border, it will be perfect.

I also made more hip wraps for Ooky Spooky. I have been having fun using bolder fabrics and really playing with trims.

Here are some pictures!

Sugar skulls and silver chevrons.

Spiderwebs and black diamond check. It’s got a black sequin elastic trim.

The red is not quite as bright. These were basement pictures and I edited the brightness. It still needs to be top stitched.

Oh this belt.. It had better sell, otherwise I’m going to have to keep it. It has a really interesting shape, which  I will have to take another picture of later. It closes with part of a faux leather belt and two circle rings. It has black lace and red satin ribbons strung through two of the holes which can be adjusted as needed. It is impossible to get a good picture of this closure, but it looks so pretty and kind of tough.

The rest of the week will be spent photographing everything and getting it on my Square ready for vending. I have a lot to take pictures of, so there probably won’t be much sewing getting done.

Fancy is currently trying to motivate me to pet her by attempting to climb over my IPad… With a face like this though, how can I resist? (This is an old picture, but is one of my favorites.)

Have a great week!

Prepping, But in a Good Way
Canning and Preserving · Crafty

Prepping, But in a Good Way

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So one of the weird ways my anxiety comes out is to consider doomsday prepping a normal thing. Granted, it’s a good idea to have canned goods and an emergency kit on hand, but when I get overly anxious, I can go a bit nuts.

For example, I texted a friend the other day legitimately concerned about what vegans would eat if we got nuked and trade routes went haywire. I don’t think almonds and chia seeds will grow in Michigan… Mostly, I was wondering about how long people would stick to the moral side of things food wise, if all there was to eat was animals. We have no problem eating animals, so I think we’d pull through. The food aspect was still concerning though.

So how does this fit in with my blog, you may rightly ask?

Well, I know how to cook and sew, both of which are very good skills to have during a crisis. The Husband has technical skills and is very good at figuring out how to fix things. We also have a fireplace and a dog who sounds very fierce. We may be wearing clothes made out of sparkly butterfly fabric during doomsday, but we will at least be clothed. 🙂 Plus, even though I haven’t canned tomatoes, I have at least a 2 month store supply in the basement. I am my father’s daughter because counting the canned tomatoes always makes me feel better.

I’ve also used my prepper anxiety for good. I packaged 4 freezer to crockpot or oven meals. I made up Hungarian Beef Stew, Barcoa Beef, Sweet Chili Soy Chicken with Carrots, and Jerk Rubbed Chicken breasts. We also have about a pound of plain stew meat that could be made into pasty, if I ever have a free weekend. The freezer is very messy, or I would show you a picture. Maybe after it’s organized.

I also canned applesauce. Applesauce is relatively easy. Cook it down, smoosh it up, add lemon and sugar, and can it. A few of my jars leaked a little, but are sealed, so I will have to keep an eye on them. It is delicious! It’s incredibly smooth and velvety. I may need to go get some more apples to make more. It made 7 1/2 half pints. The half pint has been eaten already.

I found really nice looking rhubarb at the store unexpectedly, so I have 6 cups chopped in the fridge to be frozen or made into something. I have some time tomorrow morning, so it may get done then, or frozen if I don’t have time. There were a few rhubarb recipes that I didn’t get made.

I did get some sewing done, when not busy worrying about the vegans. 🙂

This batch of tea wallets is set to be mailed today, assuming Fancy will let me off the couch. It’s hard to be productive with a snuggly dog around.

Here are the out and insides of the tea wallets.

These are headed out to Hawthorne and Vine, per a customer request. They were a little harder to make than I anticipated. The fabric print has to be a speific size and I had a lot of fabric waste, as I had to fussy cut it. The fabric is more expensive too and I can only get 3-4 out of a 1/4 yard piece. My normal ones are normally 6-7 out of a 1/4 yard. There isn’t as much variety, due to the fact that the fabric could only be used a certain way. I think these will be a by request item only after this.

I didn’t really sew much else. I want to make a couple more bags for Ooky Spooky and a few of the team wallets with whatever fabric I have left. I also have Dr. Who fabric, which I’m hoping will sell.

One thing I haven’t been good about prepping is my Etsy store. It was down to 10 items at one point, so I need to get that back as a priority. I was experimenting with picture options last week with a black background and I think it might work.

These were just taken in the basement and lightened with a photo editor. It’s a black dance veil over black cotton hanging from one of my new display shelves. Some of my items might look better on a black background.

I want to have a Thanksgiving and Christmas sale this year and see if I can move some of my inventory. I have way too many things just sitting around.

When I originally started to write this post, I thought I might not have enough to blog about, but then after writing it out, I understand why I’ve been extra sleepy lately. 🙂

Here’s another picture of Fancy, just to make your day happier. She was vocalizing her need for me to stop messing around and walk her.

Let me know your thoughts on prepping and vegans during the apocalypse. Or am I the only weird one who thinks about crazy stuff?

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

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Sometimes we need a little reminder of the beauty in life, while tragedy surrounds us. I took the featured picture while stopped (yes, Mom, completely stopped) in traffic one day after work. It certainly made my commute a little better.

I briefly lost my notebook with all of my recipes, notes, and craft lists in it, but it was in my work bag.  I’m going to need a new one soon, this one only has a few pages left. Should I make the next one all fancy, with different kind of paper, like graph paper and ruled paper? I should probably just use one of the many half filled ones I have lying around here.

So I have the backing for the Rainbow Snowball Quilt! It’s brown dog themed fleece, since it is going to a home with dogs. I will finally get it finished in the next few weeks.

I completed a quilt for my OT friend and have one more quilt top that is destined for her too. I’m going to send them together.

I made a dress! I took a chance and added lace and it turned out really cute.

Four more hip wraps are done and waiting for Ooky Spooky vending.

I tried some new color pairings with the hip wraps and I love them. Hopefully other people will love them too!

The lyrics are on my second office picture and they are hanging on my wall. A third one is simmering in my head too.

The words say “I’m holding on. Why is everything so heavy? Holding on. To so much more than I can carry. I’ve been dragging around what’s keeping me down. If I just let go, I would be free. Why is everything so heavy?”

I did clean a little nd then got side tracked by fabric and now need to clean again. I have problems cleaning while I’m sewing. Fabric gets put in a pile and it’s much more fun to keep sewing rather than put things away. I was able to sneak some fabric into the laundry though, so now I can get to the projects.

The top two will be dresses or skirts, the Minions are supposed to be matching pj pants or shorts for the Husband and I. Yes, we’re dorks. 🙂

For food goals this month, I didn’t use any new ingredients, I don’t think. I did make spaetzle for my new technique. It was a lot of work. My arms got steamed and tired. It tasted good though.

I also made a new muffin recipe for breakfast and made chili specifically for lunches. I did pretty well meal planning.

I used 7 new cookbooks, five family or my recipes, and made 20 new recipes overall.

Hits were the roast chicken, Fancy’s treats, and the tortellini Stroganoff.

Misses were the stuffing. It was too dry for the Husband.

We had so much chicken this month that the Husband got sick of chicken. He’s typically fine eating the same thing for a while, but this was too much. We’ll try some different proteins this month for sure. We might even try some meatless dishes!

Fancy had a big month and met lots of dogs and people. She had lots of playtime and got a few new toys to chew on.

She also cuddled a lot. She’s definitely a people dog. 

Sewing Goals for next month are to make at least one clothing item, one item from the UFO bins, and finish a wedding quilt. I also want to work on some more bags for Etsy and vending.

Food goals are to try more meatless dishes and get creative with breakfasts. Also, to continue to make the freezer meals for long days.

The Husband has his play pretty much all month, so our dinner schedule might be weird. We’ll both still need lunches though.

My garden is on the verge of dying. I had a hard time keeping up with the watering when it was so hot. I also didn’t realize I should have been plucking blossoms that wouldn’t have a chance to mature first. Next year I will know. My herbs are still growing though, so that’s good.

Fancy is demanding walks by jumping off and on the couch, so I have to go get her out before she takes out the furniture. Have a good week!

Weekend Sewing
Crafty

Weekend Sewing

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I couldn’t sleep on Saturday or Sunday morning, so I ended up sewing on Sunday. Fancy couldn’t decide if she should steal my spot or sleep on the couch downstairs, so she spent most of the morning at the top of the stairs. She would occasionally heave a very big sigh and stare down at me with sad eyes.

I set up a test table for my vending events. I thought it needed more height to draw people in. Here is what I came up with. Please excuse the basement. I didn’t want to haul the table upstairs as I am still using it to sew on. What do you think?

I picked up some more table accessories, such as the shelves and baskets, for under $20 at thrift stores and Target. Most of it was on school clearance. I also padded by pouches with plastic bags to make them poof out. They can get a little droopy otherwise. I didn’t use interfacing, as I wanted them to be flexible, but after sitting for a while, they can deflate. I also added the tea pot to help set the stage for tea wallets. I will have a couple of sets with the a tea wallet in a mug with a honey stick for sale too, but didn’t have everything for the test run.

I made four new hip skirts. I want to keep almost all of them, but will have to sell them. Here’s a picture of all four:

There is one with tassels and three with just trim. I will be making a couple more with tassels before I vend, but have a lot with tassels already made too.

This piece was supposed to be skull tea wallets, but the employee at the cutting counter cut it crooked, so it already had a slight hip skirt curve to it. I figured it was meant to be. It was either that, or get really annoyed. It’s backed with black and has a flouncy little fringe trim on it.

This is the tassel one. It’s grey and black houndstooth, with a purple back. It’s very plain because of the tassels. I love this combination of colors and the purple ribbons were from our wedding.

If this one doesn’t sell, I’m keeping it. The trim got sewn a little uneven by accident, so I could justify keeping it now, but I will be good. It is backed with a black and white diamond fabric.

This purple with grey just makes me happy. The purple accent is a beaded belt that I got from Salvation Army. I sewed in between the beaded parts so that it would drape nicely while it is on. The silver trim is some trim from Joann’s. It’s got little grey and black loops.

I’m in the middle of trying to decide what I’m taking with me to vend and what I need to make more of. I think I need to make some more hair flowers in all the sizes and in darker colors.

I don’t know that I will bring a lot of bags with me. I sometimes sell one, but for a bellydance event, it makes more sense to focus on costume elements. I’ll leave my veils home, I think. They are all much lighter colors.

I have some Halloween fabrics that could be turned into bags. I should be set on hip skirts, but might make a few more with the black and white fabric. I am very well prepared with tea wallets.

My own costume is still up for debate. I am using black Isis wings, which are wings with sticks in the end, so hair and jewelry should be kept simple so that the wings don’t catch on anything. I may wear a belly covering costume too, but haven’t decided completely. That gorgeous peacock fabric I bought really wants to be a vest, so I may make that up to see how it looks.

There is certainly enough to keep me busy in the next month or two. Hopefully I can get a bunch done before the event. Send productive thoughts my way!

Quilts and Grandmas
Crafty

Quilts and Grandmas

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I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandmas lately. (Grandpas too, but they need their own post.) No particular reason, I guess, except missing them. I’m sure it’s a common thing to wish for more time, but I have been trying to remember the time I did have with them.

I distinctly remember one Easter being alternately thrilled and worried that I had to call them by Grandma and their first names. I was probably about four or five maybe and we weren’t supposed to call adults by their first names! They seemed to be okay with it though. 🙂

My mom’s mom was named Florence and she was an accountant. I’m fairly sure she tried to instill a love of math and numbers, but it didn’t work. This picture of Fancy will illustrate how I feel about math.

Grandma Florence had a drawer for both my brother and I where she kept papers and blank account ledger pages for us to play with. We always played store and banking with these. She had the Sesame Street Alphabet books which we would read every time we saw this set of grandparents.

I will also forever associate green jello with her. She always served green jello, sometimes with shredded carrots in it, and we had apple juice out of cute plastic cups. They were colored translucent plastic and in my young child mind, were simply fabulous. She would also make us chocolate chip cookies, which she would bring on visits in Quaker Oats containers. Although I didn’t know it at the time, this was a big deal, as Grandma was not a baker!

I don’t have many things to remember her by, but do have a pie dish, the orange Depression glass bowl, and very fancy china. We haven’t used the china yet, mostly because we just now had enough space to store it safely. I do have lots of good memories though. 🙂

Grandma Florence worked in a radio factory in WWII and measured glass rods to a very tiny and exact measurement. She didn’t really talk about that part of her past though. I do know my Grandpa rode all the way across country standing up on the train, so they could get married.

My dad’s mom, Grandma Shirley, also was involved in WWII as a nurse. She was a little more open about her past, but I now realize, only really about the happier parts. Having been through the war, she was the grandma who would just look at you and laugh if you were being obnoxious.

My love of quilting came from spending time with Grandma Shirley for sure. We used to make quilts together for the church ladies to send to Lutheran World Relief. Let me tell you, church basement ladies can be scary when they are all together. There was always lots of laughter and a lot of jokes I probably wasn’t meant to understand just yet. 🙂

Grandma Shirley did like to bake, so one of the ways I had to remember her was her aprons. I ended up combining her aprons and my aprons from a summer job into a quilt. She made all the grandkids quilts, so I thought it would be appropriate. Now, keep in mind, this quilt was made right when I first started quilting and didn’t quite know what I was doing… (It’s also upside down, whoops.)

I don’t remember if I used a pattern or not. It’s backed with a green and white checkerboard flannel.

Here are some of my favorite squares.

The bottom flower square is actually a pocket! There’s another strip of mini pockets along the top.

After my Grandma Shirley passed away and my cousin Angie got married, I decided that I needed to make family quilts. It would have been something she would have done and I wanted to honor her memory.

I have pictures of most of them, but a few I can’t seem to find. I made a cool guitar one for my younger brother, which I think has fallen apart. Of course, it’s one I don’t have pictures of. Also, two for my dad and my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding quilt.

Here are my cousins’ wedding quilts though.

Split Nine Patch for Angie and Nate with a friendship braid border:

Crystal and Josh got a Friendship Braid Vegas themed quilt:

And cousin’s kids’ quilts too, of course!

Lilah’s quilt is called “Oodles of Owls,” officially. Unofficially, it was “the drunken owl quilt” as I accidentally set the pattern wrong and the owls went flying all different directions. I also got really mad at it and threw it in a box for three months until it could behave.  🙂

Her brother Ollie’s quilt: I can’t remember if I named it anything other than “The Monster Quilt.”

It’s four of these squares put together. It is still the most complicated quilt I have ever made because it has tiny pieces.

And my cousin Kaitlyn’s daughter Maylee’s quilt: A Pastel Friendship braid.

While thinking about this post, I realized I don’t have good digital pictures of either Grandma, just printed ones. I’ll have to scan them one day and post them.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little of my family history!   I want to start keeping better track of what I’ve made to give away. Half the time, I forget to even sign them! Also, I am not allowed to start any new quilts until I have finished the very late wedding quilts that are sitting a box downstairs. Wish me luck with that!

Sewing and Gardening Update
Crafty · Gardening

Sewing and Gardening Update

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You’ll have to excuse the abundance of Fancy pictures this week. We will have had her for a year on the 17th and since we don’t know her birthday, we have settled for celebrating her on her adoption day. She’s going to get a little spoiled this week. Well, a little more spoiled than she already is. 🙂

I have some great recipes to try for treats and I need to repair her little jacket before winter. Once it starts hitting temps in the 30’s she won’t go outside without a sweater on. Her fur is too short and she gets cold very easily. I’ll make sure to post the treat recipes and her review. 🙂

I realized I hadn’t posted a garden update in a while. The lettuce and zucchini didn’t make it. I got one zucchini from the plant and then gave up. The lettuce got spiders and is apparently more temperamental than I thought.

Most of my other stuff is still growing. I have a ton of jalapeno and they are certainly living up to the massive name in terms of width. I am thinking about maybe canning some salsa on Sunday and making sure to use some of them.

I have one tiny poblano pepper. I had some starts earlier in the summer, but something happened and they didn’t really grow.

My strawberries have some blossoms on them still, which surprises me. I am hoping to be able to winterize them and keep them for next year. I’m going to try to keep them in planters, but get some longer ones or an actual strawberry planter.

There are also a few red peppers still growing. This one has a spot, but I think the rest of it is okay.

My herbs are mostly still going. I’m going to start pulling them and drying them soon. I don’t have a good spot to try to keep them growing inside in the winter. We keep the windows covered during the day and our kitchen window is a bit too small.

In sewing news, I swear the Rainbow Snowball quilt is cursed. The backing fabric is washed and looks lovely, but there is not enough of it to cover the back and I don’t have anything that matches. I am planning to go to Joann’s with supervision and pick up some fleece. The Husband is normally pretty good about reigning me in when I veer off my fabric list. 🙂

I made a new dress last weekend, but hadn’t posted pictures yet, so here it is.

The fabric was a Christmas present from my Mom and I ended up with the perfect pink lace to accent it. Excuse any wrinkles, I wore it and didn’t have a chance to iron it. I plan to wear it today for my intake appointments because it’s cute and comfy.

I am now completely out of black dress zippers. I need to make dresses in other colors to use up my rainbow of zippers.

I also finished a scrap quilt, which will be headed off to a friend for her occupational therapy room probably at the end of the week. I had tried this pattern out and wasn’t happy with how it looked. It looks lovely, but not quite what I had in mind. So instead of continuing, I alternated with the fish fabric squares and made it work a different way.

It’s roughly a 38 inch square with 9.5 inch squares 4×4 across and down. It’s backed with the same fish print and a strip of blue batik, as I didn’t quite have enough fish.

Here’s close up of the squares:

It has no batting, so it should be light and easily washed. This is one more project off my written list, so I was excited.

Of course, I finished one quilt and started another scrap quilt…. This one is another rainbow quilt. It doesn’t yet have a home, but I’m sure it will find a good one.

I still need to make the red squares and have to check how many squares are needed. It will be bordered with a black fabric, I think, unless it turns out looking too dark. My points look nicer than usual because I ironed every piece! I know. Crazy talk. Don’t tell my mother or mother-in-law that they were right…

Next up for quilts, I plan to actually finish one of the wedding quilts that are in a box waiting to be put together. No more new quilts until at least one of those is done!

So there’s my update. I think I am in my groove about being productive with my down time after work. I washed a bunch of fabrics for clothing this weekend too, so I can start on those.

It feels good to be able to work through my scrap and UFO boxes. Maybe one day, there will only be one of each!

Wednesday’s post will be all about Fancy, so be sure to check it out for your dose of cuteness!

Fabric Plans and Completed Projects
Crafty

Fabric Plans and Completed Projects

LSieh2 Comments

Have you seen that meme that has Maury saying “You say you have not been to the fabric store in over two weeks….Store surveillance footage has determined this is a lie!” Well, I admit it. I bought more fabric.

Yesterday I went to Joann’s for a few minutes before driving to work (it was next to the gas station,) since I would have been really early. There were some amazing fabrics there and I made a deal with myself that I needed to sew more clothes, so that I could get more fabric to make even more clothes!

I was also very motivated by my friend, Steph’s, dress this weekend. It was adorable and beautifully made, as usual. I swear she waves her hands around and a dress comes out of nowhere. I am nowhere near that level yet, but I won’t get there if I don’t keep sewing. I have a bunch of unfinished clothes waiting in the UFO box too.

I did make a dress on Sunday, wore it today and got lots of complements. My response was generally “Thanks, I made it!” Followed very quickly by “It has pockets!” This was then followed by gasps of amazement, since not only does it have pockets, but they are not sad little girl pockets… Both pockets fit my phone! (Believe me, this is huge.)

Here is the dress:

The back and sleeve:

This is the same pattern my strawberry dress was made from, so I made sure to take Steph’s suggestion of taking a picture of the pattern with the dress, well, fabric in this case.

It’s view D with added sleeves. I need to fix the neckline, it has this weird gaping thing going on, but it’s cute enough to wear for me. The problem was I had lost a pattern piece and didn’t have the scoop neck pattern, just the high neck. It apparently doesn’t work for me. The strawberry dress has the lowered neckline and works better. As usual, I cut off about 4-6 inches of hemline. It falls right at my knee now.

I also made a bag for Etsy, but it rained and I haven’t taken pictures yet. It’s too pretty for basement pictures. 🙂

For as many fabrics as there were that wanted to come home with me, I was pretty restrained. I bought the materials for this fairy costume for Ren Fest.

I’m using the sleeveless vest and overskirt in the upper right, and attaching the wings. The Husband voted for a dark fae, so I have a red and black brocade for the vest and a red lame type fabric for the wings, with a sequined net as backup. It needs to be done by September 9 and as I am writing this I realized I didn’t get fabric for the overskirt… I’ll have to get more or use one of my bellydance skirts.

I bought Halloween and fall themed fabrics for tea wallets for Hawthorne and Vine.

The one on the far right will be a bag.

I needed a few more spooky fabrics and some glam fabrics for the vending event in October at Ooky Spooky. Here are the ones I picked up:

As you might imagine, it’s a Halloween themed bellydance event. One of my dance heroes, Mardi Love, is going to be the headliner and I’m terrified I may make a fool of myself while there. I am taking the workshop, vending, and performing! I have most of my costume done, but will need to cover a top to finish it off. It should be relatively easy to do.

I’m still working my way through my UFO bins as well. I think I have some hip skirts cut out that would be perfect for this event waiting to be finished.

Wish me continued motivation to getting all my projects done before their deadlines!

Monthly Review
Monthly Review

Monthly Review

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I have made 75 tea wallets this month. I went a little crazy. What’s also crazy is the fact that my scrap boxes look very similar to when I started. I need to get my already started quilts done so I can start making some more.

These are waiting on the last threads to be cut. It’s my least favorite part. Some of them will also need buttons.

I got tired of having nothing to report on for my craft goals this month, so worked pretty hard to get them done. I still need this darn Rainbow quilt to be done, but may be able to get the fabric washed tomorrow.

Crafting and Sewing Update

So my completed craft goals for the month were to figure out a wallet and a coin purse, organize the basement, and fix something from the mending or finish a UFO project. Some of the tea wallets were actually in my UFO bag and I fixed a skirt where the elastic had snapped.

I found a stash of wallets that I made when I was first sewing for Etsy, but had decided they weren’t as professional as I would like, so haven’t sold them. I pulled a black one made from a shrunken sweater with a daisy print fabric and daisy embroideries on the front. It’s not too big and looks cute.

I also made a zippered coin purse from some scraps from a shirt. It gave me an excuse to use a tiny 4 inch zipper.

It’s lined with the same material. I have so many zippers right now and really need to make some zippered bags for my Twinflower Etsy store. I have a bunch of weird colors though, so hopefully I can find enough fabrics that match. It would be terrible if I had to buy new fabrics after all! Well, the Husband would think so at least.

This is the skirt that I fixed. The elastic popped while on a work trip a few years ago and it got stuck in the mending pile. I finally pulled it out, picked a few stitches and re-threaded the elastic.

Such a simple fix and I just never did it. Now I can wear the skirt again and it will be even more appropriate since I work with kids.

My office art and clipboards were two things that I only got partially done. I lost my Modge Podge in one of the moves and will need some more before I can collage the clipboards.

The office art is drawn out, but I haven’t quite decided if I like it. One of the songs I had picked out, “Heavy,” is by Linkin Park. With Chester Bennington’s recent suicide (the lead singer), I’m debating the wisdom of having the song in my office. The song itself talks about not holding on to things you can’t change and recognizing that you need to leave some things behind. It’s a beautiful song and sparked a few discussions in my teen group, I’m just not sure if I should have it up right now. I can see both sides. On one hand, the song itself can be inspiring, but it now is connected with someone who died by suicide. Maybe I will still make it and put it up in a few months. This piece will have a stick figure trying to support a globe on it’s back with the words in the globe. It will either be oil pastels or collage pieces with cool colors.

My second song, “Brave,” by Sara Barellis, is one that I have wanted in my counseling office since before I had an office. It talks about saying what needs to be said and being brave. For a little while every time I had to do something big, the song would be playing on the radio. 🙂 This one will have a stick figure shouting the chorus. It will be warm colors.

Garden Update

Most of the garden is growing well. I’m still waging a war on squirrels and they are still winning. Here are some garden pictures.

These are the “mammoth” jalapeños. They still aren’t what I would call mammoth…

Green Peppers

Roma Tomatoes

Cooking Update

I used 12 new cookbooks and 25 new recipes. We had one family recipe and 4 or 5 recipes/methods by me. That’s a lot of food. How did we eat so much food?

Hits for the month were the Gold Beach Burgers, the Korean BBQ ribs, the Greek Grilled Chicken, and the Shrimp Scampi. Most of the ice cream recipes were also hits.

Misses were the Slow Cooker Soy Citrus Chicken, the Garlicky Baked Chicken Thighs/Drumsticks, and the carrot puree.

We had at least two new recipes per week and I made lots of new ice creams. I made two last night actually! This week’s recipes will be posted later.

Goals for next month: 

Sewing wise, I am relaxing my goals a little. I’m picking general categories this month. Sometimes I don’t want to work on the things I’ve picked. The only firm projects are the Rainbow Snowball Quilt and my office art.

Categories:

Clothing item, Etsy stock, and UFO/mending pile.

Continue to organize basement.

Get new storage for small pieces of fabric.

Garden Goals: 

Dry herbs for a tea making party in September.

Food Goals: 

Continue to make 2-3 recipes for week.

Try new ice cream recipes.

Use new recipes for Anniversary party.

Get freezer recipes made up in freezer.

It seems I may have a busy month ahead of me. I think I’ll join the puppers in a good night’s sleep.

Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update
Crafty

Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update

LSieh2 Comments

Apparently cleaning the basement makes Fancy sleepy. She napped for most of the weekend, when she wasn’t running frantically around in the basement pretending to be a shark guard dog. She must have been getting into the spirit of Shark Week, since I’ve been subjecting her to it all week.

She likes to think all boxes are hers and hers alone. And how dare we try to pick them up, or take them away from her! We did manage to distract her with some box flaps so that we could clean the rest.

I took one picture of part of the basement before it was organized. It’s terribly embarrassing, but I thought maybe I would be more likely to keep it clean, if I posted it. Try not to judge us too much…

We were able to recycle some of the boxes and the rest are in the garage waiting to be recycled. The city finally figured out the recycling program, so once we get our can, we can really get it under control. Moving takes a lot of boxes.

The Husband put together two more shelves for my crafty things, so that was very helpful. Now even if the inside of the totes are messy, they will be at least on shelves and off the floor. Here are two after pictures:

We still have to figure put storage for the Husband’s Legos and there’s more craft and general household items to figure out, but it’s nice to be able to fully work in the basement.

I cleaned up and put away ton of fabric. I need to get a different storage option for my fat quarters. They are outgrowing the shoe boxes and all the boxes are different sizes. I’m thinking the bigger shoebox type clear boxes will be the best.

I also went crazy with tea wallets! I kept finding good pieces for them while I was putting away fabric. I did them in color batches again. This time it was reds, browns, grey, and some pinks. I specifically needed rose and fall themed ones, so tried to get those done so I can mail them out.

Here are the groups. Fair warning, there are a ton of pictures. Most of them will go to Etsy, some will go to Hawthorne and Vine, the lovely flower store where they are currently being sold.

Grey batch. Yes, those are shiny unicorns…

Pink batch. This one had a lot of the roses in it. It also has one that looked like frosting, so I used sprinkle fabric s the inside.

Red, brown, yellow. With beer! And rockets!

More brown with fall leaves, tea, and revolvers.

Sometimes once I start sewing them, I can’t seem to stop. I suppose there are many worse things to be addicted to than sewing, but it does make getting anything else done a problem. I’ve put the rest away for now, but do need a few more rose themed ones for my flower store package.

I was experimenting with new Etsy pictures this week. My pictures on the website definitely need an update, so I was playing with backgrounds and props.

I sent the birch tree picture to my husband and he said  “Are you being weird in the front yard?” The answer, is of course, yes, because that’s where the tree is…

I figure the neighbors might be ready for our true selves to come out anyway. It’s been a year and there’s four flamingos in the front yard. So I need opinions on which picture looks the best. I don’t mind being weird in the birch tree and think it looks the best after editing, but want a second opinion. Which one highlights the bag the best? Birch Tree or Trellis? (My pics upload fuzzy on the blog. I haven’t been able to figure out why yet.)

I have a picture of our garden harvest too. It’s not being as prolific as we would have hoped, but we are getting a few things. The pepper had a bad spot on part of it, but was good on the other side.

So that was my week and weekend. Busy and very productive. Now that the basement is a bit more organized, I have more room to get things started down there and be able to work with the bigger projects. We have to get the Husband another Lego table too, so he can have more room to build more pieces. He’s filled the one he has with Lego city pieces.

We just have to keep working on the bits that need to be finished and we’ll be all set. It’s definitely encouraging to see our progress. I know we can keep it up too, if we just do a little bit at a time. Wish us luck!

Craftiness and Garden Update
Crafty · Gardening

Craftiness and Garden Update

LSiehLeave a comment

How did it get to be Monday again? It seems like it was just Tuesday and now I need a weekend to recover from the weekend. We had friends over for a Driveway Movie Night, where we projected “Moana” on the garage door and watched it from lawn chairs in the driveway. Fancy got to see a dog friend again and did really well when the other dog was in the house. We were happy with that, as she can be territorial.

It’s pouring rain and thundering this morning; the perfect kind of day to stay home and do nothing. I don’t have that luxury, sadly, but do have French Onion soup in the crockpot for later which will be comforting.

Fancy had the right idea this morning. She hid under the bed and refused to come out. I was making chocolate ice cream, so bribed myself with that, otherwise, I would have been under there with her.

I was pretty crafty last week. Having to be in the basement with Fancy helped me get some more fabric cut up and organized. I had to start a new box for purple fat quarters, as I kept finding more of them. I also almost completely cleaned out a box with random fabric and crafty things in it. I also made 12 new tea wallets for Twinflower Fancies, or Hawthorne and Vine, a flower shop where they are also currently being sold.

When I sew these, I organize them in color groups based on what color thread they will be sewn with. I chain sew them as well. It doesn’t make sense to do them one at a time, as I would have to switch thread colors constantly. Normally, I wait until I have three or more in each color before I start sewing them up. I tried to expand my color range this time. I know I tend to stick to colors and patterns that I like by accident, but need to remember that it may not appeal to others as well.

Here are the green ones:

These three buttons were my favorites, I think, from the whole stack.

Here are the two black ones:

And the blue ones:

The octopus one might have to be my work tea wallet. I just love it and don’t know if I can give it up, despite already having a Red Riding Hood one in my purse. It’s just too cute.

It ws fun to go through the fabrics and remember what they were from as I was sewing them. This batch had a lot of familiar prints.

The owls are from a baby quilt for my cousin’s little girl. The dark green and vine print one is from a purse that I had tried to hand sew when I first started out. It was not a good idea and I finally got up the nerve to just rip it and reuse the fabric.

The geranium one and the holiday recipe one are both made from scraps of aprons that have been made for my Mom. When I bought the geranium fabric, the lady at the cutting table asked if I could adopt her too, she was jealous. 🙂

The gold treble clefs are from pillows I finally made the Husband this year after buying the fabric when we were dating. The blue and white waves with the boat is from one of the first skirts that I made.

All the other fabrics are from the stash. It’s nice to think if those special fabrics being used for something else too. That’s why I love scrap quilts so much too, there are a lot of memories in each of them.

Now for the gardening update:

I keep accidentally almost killing my lettuces. Plus, there are spiders living in them. Gross, hairy spiders, who have made a home in the lettuces themselves and in the pots. The Husband is going to have to cut them when, or if, they survive. I am not having spiders crawl on me. I think I’ll stick to farmer’s market lettuce next year. Any tips would be appreciated.

We have been getting some strawberries before the squirrel does!

These were all from yesterday and I found another one today. There are still a bunch of green ones on the plants too.

My peppers are looking good. The Mammoth Jalapeño has a pepper started. We’ll see how big it gets and if it lives up to its name. 🙂

The tomatoes all have some started. This one is the Roma, I believe and it had the most on it. I need to get some more stakes.

Here is the cucumber. This sucker is huge! It has a lot of flowers, but no starts yet. It keeps trying to escape into the yard.

My herbs are doing alright. The basil doesn’t look good. There has been a beetle that keeps eating it and it got very leggy and scraggly looking. It has yellow bottom leaves too, which I’m sure isn’t good. The oregano seems to have bolted. It keeps sending up flowers. I’m going to prune them off and see if I can get more out of it. Everything else seems to be growing well.

This week I have a few late nights, but most of my other days have a little more flex in them than usual. The weeks that my biweekly clients all come can get a little crazy, but it evens out with a few slower days occasionally. I’m hoping to get the fabric washed for the Rainbow Quilt and get it ties this weekend. Our friends are coming over this weekend for another sewing/video game day, so I can get some sewing done then too.

I also have a goal of canning three recipes, blackberry cinnamon tequila jam, nectarine orange marmalade, and dill pickles. I have some time tomorrow and a few other times this week.

I’m considering starting a “Simple Sunday” post which would be a quote or two, either funny or inspiring. I found my quote book from a while ago and was sad that the quotes I liked were just sitting in a book and not getting shared. It would be a good way to find out other quotes too, so I think that will start this Sunday.

Have a great Monday!