As the Day Ends

In the click of the lock as the day ends
In the hum of the a.c. outside
In the thrum of the mower that the neighbor uses at 9pm as if that is the perfect time for firefly lit yardwork
In the woosh and spin and click of the hookup of the dishwasher that is
An anachronism in this kitchen made for the 50's
In this house made for the 20's
In the stones that hold 100 years of time in the history
of earth and death and grass and Hackberry star seeds
To the rhythm of the breath of sleeping babes
Who dream and become old men and old mothers
In the passing of the sun and the moon as it grows fat and lean
In the seasons and the years and the lifetimes that this place
Held and lost and held and lost until this moment.
My bare feet on these creaking boards, once trees, once seedlings, once acorns,
Once one hundred feet high on the limbs of their mother
Carried here.  To now. Where the mint takes root in the glass on the sill
And the van beeps as I double check
And the lock clicks as the day ends.

Subversive Stitching

This bit of embroidery was for a fellow MOMS Club board member's gift at our lovely end of year banquet.  It was fun to make and I think there will be more silly/subversive stitching coming your way.

A few quotes I'm hoping come up soon are
"If you are going to be a turd, go lay in the yard" - thanks to my friend Jaime for that
And
"You get what you get and you don't pitch a fit (at least at Mama's house)" because I say that all the time in the face of my complainers.

True here, but not true in life.

Really it should read: "You stand up for yourself and speak your needs.  Just not during dinner, please.  You take a "No Thank you bite" of everything on your plate and IF ASKED, you say, "I don't prefer it, but thank you".  Other than that, you may talk about the weather or something that happened to you today."

but I digress...

Here's the finished project.

I forgot to take photos of the finished back, but I used this lovely tutorial as a nice finish with brown felt. It came out so well! I am always surprised by the sharing community of crafty bloggers, helping others learn how to do things too.  It makes me so happy.

In the spirit of that, I made this pattern into a little pdf, image reversed and everything, so you can print it yourself and make your own wall hanging.
** DISCLAIMER** The border was a free pattern I found on the web by searching, but I can't seem to find the same link back to give credit to the little daisy stitch vintage border.  So I am not claiming it as mine, just assembled by me.  If you know who's border it is, please leave me a note in the comments and I will give credit where credit is due.

Click here for the free pdf

Also, if you make this, or are inspired by it to make something of your own, comment in the posts with a link to your project.  I'd love to see your work!

p.s. For reasons I haven't figured out yet, I noticed a sharp uptick in my traffic from France these last few months, so if you are here from over there, Bienvenue!

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Update!! I found where the little border came from.  It's a little pretty rose garland I found here and edited the center out.  Source of theirs unknown, but it seems very vintage.  Found here.

Little knits for little girls

 Nearly four years in the world entitles this girl to some opinions.  Namely what she wears and what she likes.  So when I asked her if I could knit something for her, she told me what, picked out the yarn and monitored my knitting progress every day.  Unfortunately she also decided to use my scissors on them so these exact arm warmers, after some repairs, were given away as a birthday gift to Cora's BFF, as a consequence for messing with mama's knitting stuff (her choice of consequence, by the way).  Little does she know I made her another pair just like them for her birthday in a month.  Shhhh!  Keep it on the down low.

As for the pattern, it's a simple tube knitted in a rib pattern and when I got within 3/4 of an inch of the end, I knitted 8 stitches onto some scrap yarn, re-knitted the stitches with the real yarn and carried on until the end.  Then I came back and pulled those scrap yarn stitches, picking up the 8 stitches on each side plus 2 more on the ends and knitted a tube for the thumb.  Make 2 of these, then bind off and weave in ends and watch your little fashionista light up!

The stream of creativity takes a turn - watecolor and ink

Necessity is the mother of invention, or as I have found, creativity.  Specifically in terms of making things.  Today I took the jump and tried my hand at watercolor and ink.  I had a baby shower to go to and needed a gift.  Something sweet, handmade, and gender neutral.  I had found this lovely embroidery pattern at So September while searching for embroidery pattern freebies and thought how sweet that would look in a nursery.  I didn't have time to embroider it, so I painted it, coping the picture freehand onto watercolor paper, then painting it and finally finishing it with ink.  You can see in the corner of some of these pictures, I used a nib pen and ink, which is one of my favorite ways to draw.   I think it turned out rather nice!  I think I might explore this medium a bit more.

I once heard an artist who made a living by his painting say that he had only one stream of creativity and when he delved into other forms of art (he was trying his hand at jewelry making) then his art suffered.  I have rather feared to delve too deeply into other mediums of creating, lest my music suffer, but if I think about it clearly, my music is already suffering.  Naptime does not afford me brain space enough to write a new song. I can play the old ones, but new ones rarely come.  It takes a clarity of mind for me; one that the dirty diaper pail, the laundry, the smudgy floor, and piles of dishes there at the edges of my thoughts, nagging me about what a poor housekeeper I am, often prevent me from achieving.  But this is just a season.  This is the season of glorious chubby babies and beautifully curious toddlers.  This is the season of a messy house.  This is the season of mini projects. This is the season of diverting the stream a little and enjoying what new paths it carves out.

Pin tucks, Pleats, and French Seams...

Cause I just need that much more crazy in my life, right?  Judah is fast approaching his baptism.  And though I've made a gown before (for Cora) 1. It is very feminine and 2.  he is a chunk and won't fit in it.  Cora can still wear it (unbuttoned but at 2.5 yrs old!), but my 6 month old baby boy won't fit in it.  So he gets a new one.  And I'm up sewing in dim dining room light until midnight.  I bought a Simplicity pattern and I never remember that I don't like Simplicity!  I like the look of the outfit on the outside, but the inside is all unsightly, unfinished edges and raw seams.  So I add another layer of bodice so I can tuck the skirt in with a little hand stitching (insanity.  I know) and I do french seams on the skirt, so it's nice and tidy.  French seams, for those of you who don't know are when you sew the pieces together (wrong sides facing each other) with the seams on the outside, then you turn it wrong side out (right sides facing each other) and sew the seams again, to tuck them in.  It hides all the raw edges and keeps delicate material from unraveling.  Useful! 

This gown has a lot of pin tucking in it and I am not great at it.  There have been some grumbles and ripping out of seams to get them straight, even with ironing!  Long lines of pin tucks.  Arg!  But I know I will love the end result, so I'll shut up and sew.  Now I know why mothers made one unisex gown for the first baby and every other baby wore the same one.  Because finding time to sew with a 6 month old and a 2 year old who wants nothing more than to "help" me (i.e. play with the pins, crinkle pattern pieces, try pattern pieces on baby brother, and run around with fabric scraps on her head and around her neck because the are "So pretty!"), it's hard to get much done until "dark time" (as it is called around here).  "Sun time" is for mama to mind the kiddos!

Easter Dress - long overdue

I did actually get this done for Easter Sunday, but Cora was sick that day with a 104 fever and we didn't go anywhere.  So finally, I got her to model it for me.  The pattern was a Vintage 50's pattern #2392 by Simplicity, but as patterns go, was not so great.  I ended up doing a lot of modifications.  I guess in the interest of keeping it 'simple', this pattern cut a lot of corners and left a lot of inside raw edges exposed.  Even though I had read through the pattern, I'm a 'learn by doing' learner so I had to rip out a lot of things to get the inside to look nice too, or at least not be itchy.  Also the sizing was pretty off.  Cora is small, but still was squarely within the weight measurements for the 18 month size.  As I looked at it, I decided to go with the Medium (12 month) and when I got the bodice done, even that was huge!!  More cutting down and modifying.  Sigh.  It was worth it for how cute she looked in it.  It also came with a bonnet, but she staunchly refuse to wear that, except backwards and untied.  I'll spare you the photos of that and of the howling that ensued when I made her stand barefoot in the grass.

Pumpkin day!

I'm just getting this post in under the wire (it's 11:11pm - cakes to make and all that) but we wanted to wish you a very safe and very fun Halloween. Here's our little one in the pumpkin costume I've been working on, enjoying a little snack of leaves!

See you Monday!

Can't wait::Kicking bag

This was supposed to be a present for a friend's baby boy (due soon) at a get together Monday night. I worked fast and furiously to weave in all the ends and then...I had my days wrong. The gals had moved it because of Labor Day and I totally spaced. I showed up at the Hostess' house and she was sportin' her jammies. Sigh.

Oh well! At least it's done. I can't wait any longer to show you, so here it is. A kicking bag for baby, (So, yeah. It's a bag, for a babies to sleep in so the can't kick off the blanket) a free pattern from Ravelry. I loved doing the 'mini cable' (see top of bag) which was so easy it was ridiculous. Plus it is very sweet. I'm going to be incorporating that stitch into more things this fall!

And finally, a little stash of books to keep me occupied over these Autumn months...(as if I didn't have enough to do!)

Top to bottom:
Knitter's Almanac - Elizabeth Zimmerman
The Creative Family - Amanda Blake Soule
Handmade Home - Amanda Blake Soule
Knitting for Baby - Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas

I should have gotten a Styrofoam head

I finished this hat for my beautiful friend Beth, who is moving away to colder climes and needed something to keep her head warm!

She showed it off in true Beth style and then our babies modeled it too. Sigh. It really did turn out well, and Beth really does have hair. I swear!

For a closeup of the yarn see the previous mentioned post. If she had posed like a model then it wouldn't really be a true reflection of who she is. Plus, these are great blackmail pictures! Ha! What a goof. I'm gonna miss my friend.

(Eichelbaby models the hat)

(then my miss priss does too)

p.s. Happy first day of September (a day late)!! I'm already headed into my second knitting project. I love these days of late summer.

Chore avoiding...brought to you by - Naptime!

While Cora slept yesterday (or attempted to sleep, babbling up in her bed) I decided that she needed flashcards of her colours in French. I was really just avoiding chores, but we will call it a 'creative brainstorm', rather than slacking. ahem. Those piles of old mail can wait right? I like the way they turned out so much I am going to do them over on real watercolor paper and put them up in Cora's room! (and add 'Marron' - brown and 'Blanc'-white) More pictures here and here. (I especially am loving 'gris'!) I'm taking a day of rest, so I'll see you all on Monday!

Vistin'

Cora and I have been gallivanting across the country again, and now are home with hearts full of family and a suitcase full of dirty clothes, useful hand-me-downs including a baby potty (which I took through as a carry on. Oh yes.), hand made puzzles, and pictures drawn by my sweet nieces and nephews.

We went south to Houston (area) and braved the wrath of the southern summer sun (yes, again) for a week! My sister asked me if we wanted to 'do' anything. Nope. Just hang around with you guys! So we did. We swam (a lot! You have to to survive, I'm tellin' ya),

ate lot of mangos (to which I must continually prove to myself I am allergic...sigh), visited friends, had sweet sister conversations till the wee hours of the night (ok, not wee, it was midnight, but when Cora woke up at 6am every day, it felt wee), played,

went to church, went to groovy 70's night at their church, (and we thrifted for the costumes!)

played Bunko with the ladies, and generally had a fabulous time!

While there, I altered a dress for my niece that I made when she was 4 (and mailed with no chance to try it on her before I finished) and is just now almost fitting at 6 (simplicity pattern! I didn't know they ran so big!).

She's a slim little girl, so I added some shirring in the back and she wore it to her first day of school! So sweet. I only got these kinda dark photos (it was early! I didn't think to go outside.) to show it off, but it is tiny pink and red flowers on a brown background. I don't know the name of it or the designer, but it's so sweet and reminds me of Laura Ingalls!

So we went a-vis-tin' and came home to 75 degree weather (yay!), a (mostly) clean house, and a sweet Papa/Geek, who missed us lots and lots. (he said so!) It's good to be home. Cora thinks so too! She slept for 2 hours in her bed as soon as we hit the door.

On the needles

Fall is coming! I can smell it. On my walk this morning with the little girl and the dog, I noticed how the leaves were just starting to drift down. (Just a smidge? Maybe? Huh, huh, please?!) It was the first day back to school around here and the neighborhood was practically abuzz with kids waiting for the bus. (usually it's very quiet at that time of morning!) I wish I had had my camera with me since the leash was tied to the stroller and Cora was holding onto the leash. It was almost as if she was walking the dog. So cute!


So knitting. Yeah. I've begun again. It's very seasonal for me and I don't know why. I have no idea where this yarn came from. A friend gave it to me when I first began to knit and I think it is recycled from a sweater. I'm pretty sure it's wool (but don't quote me on that!), but I've been saving it for the perfect project for a long time now. It's time for it to become more than a ball of yarn. Aren't the colors delicious? The pattern is a top down beret found here. The tomato stitch markers are made by me from a Tomato Art Fest of yesteryear. I had some sculpted tiny tomatoes left and they became knitting accessories!

A closeup for ya! (Is this yarn porn?) Tee hee!

Knots and Notes

When I was little, my mama would include tiny notes in things. They usually had a scripture and a little encouragement on them. Silly me, I didn't keep them. I read them and then threw them out. She stopped doing it after I left college because by then emails had taken the place of a letter from home, and now I only have two of them left. I wish I had saved my mother's letters to me in college and camp, but I was a child and what did I know about the things I would wish I had saved. There is something powerful about the written word. The hand-written word. It takes no time at all to dash off an email, but it takes a little time, effort, paper, pen, and stamp to send a note.

I've also been thinking about friendships. How they grow more important to me as the days slip by, never to come again. As a little girl, I made bracelets for friends and this week I dusted off my friendship bracelet skills. Here is the result of all of my knotting and making. A little bundle of notes and knots for friends.

The dress...part 2

I think this deserves it's own post. Finally, the baptism gown. Go ahead...oooo and ahhh. I still do! I can't believe it came together so well! It just turned out perfect.

Perfect shoes - a gift from our friend Desire'!

Some details...

Nope, I didn't finish the buttonholes. I didn't have a buttonhole foot and couldn't bear to have them be crooked. If I did them by hand they would have been. She went to church pinned in! :) I'll finish it when my buttonhole foot comes in.

Two months worth of planning and sewing for one little 10 minute event! It was worth it. In fact...that sounds like the other time this fabric was worn!

The dress...part 1

I've been showing you bits and pieces of this as I created it, but the final product is now on it's way. And since most of you are smart, I know you knew already that it was the Baby Bear's baptism gown!

For once I was glad that I am a pack-rat when I found a stash of material leftover from when I made my wedding gown and veil.

My wedding dress (more photos here)

The scraps (even thread!)

Then there was the process of matching the creamy (winter white) shade that my dress had been with the batiste I bought, which would become the actual baptism gown. Then there was the practicing of my tiny little embroidery stitches so they would be perfect.

Then I had to take the pattern that my friend Beth loaned me and make it...well...girly! She sewed hers for her son and it was so handsome, with generations of trim and tatting to make it perfect. But it was still very boyish. Honestly, I spent more time thinking about this gown than actually sewing it! I had a limited amount of lace, so I couldn't follow the pattern exactly and that meant a lot of planning BEFORE I cut. I've learned that lesson (more than once) the hard way. Then I found a cute little pink dress that had all the right details and was in the size I needed, so I measured the heck out of it, measured again, wrote notes all over the place. I found an amazing site called Vintage Sewing, which told me how to change the sleeves (scroll down until you see 'Various types of short puffed sleeves')from straight to puffed (my little tribute to Anne - everyone needs puffed sleeves sometimes!) Once all of that thinking and preparation was done, I dove right in!

Tea Dying - A great use for Chamomile (other than drinking it!)

So this project I'm working on, (yes, I'm still being mysterious) needed some tweaking. I found the fabric I wanted, but not in the color I wanted. It was TOO white. So I experimented with changing the color.

I tried regular tea (Tetley tea from England), but the result was too brownish pinkish orange. So I read somewhere in all of the websites I browsed through that for making it off-white or creamy, use Chamomile. Interesting. Here are my test swatches.

From left to right - English tea swatch, chamomile swatch, original fabric. The difference is subtle, but when comparing the other fabric I had to the original white batiste I bought, the colors just did not look right.

Test swatches are key here. One thing to note is that a tiny little square is going to dye a LOT faster than a large amount of fabric. I learned this the hard way and had to re-dye the whole lot.

Bring your water to a boil, turn off the heat and add the tea bags. I used 2 tea bags of plain chamomile tea (check there's no other herb or flower in there - especially nothing with orange in it!) per 4 cups of water in a giant stock pot. I steeped the teabags for 20 minutes with occasional stirring.

Steeping tea
Yep, I'll say it. Steep until it looks like dark urine. Gross, but accurate! It got even darker than this photo.
Make sure ALL of the fabric is submerged.

Put the fabric in the pot and stir it around to make sure it is soaked through throughly. I used a smaller pot lid to keep the fabric from floating. This is from my first attempt, which was too light from 1. not dying it long enough and 2. not using enough tea bags. Make sure no bubbles get under whatever you are using to hold down the fabric. Stir occasionally (about once per hour)

Cotton takes the dye better, but this is a poly-cotton batiste so I had to experiment with things such as shrinkage and not dying at too hot a temperature. This batch ended up needing to sit in the dye bath for 6 hours to reach the light cream I was going for. Plain cotton can be boiled while dying, making the process faster. Not so for polyester! Booo. Although some dye recipes call for an overnight soak.

Once it has soaked long enough (check it for color. It will lighten a little after you rinse it) then take the fabric out and rinse it in a cold water bath until the water runs clear.

Wring out your fabric and hang dry.
Once it is dry, (remember that it will dry lighter!) iron and use. If you hate the way it came out, do a bleach load to remove the dye and start again.

The best part of dying with Chamomile? The sweet smell of the tea every time I iron the fabric!!