This messy mess I could bear no longer

though I quite think

this photo makes it seem so lovely.

 In truth it was not so lovely.

Being the first thing to be seen 

upon entry to our homey home

today it greeted fair guests no more.

Gathering another canvas from Our Dear One and Her Love's wedding,

(only three more lovelies awaiting their fate remain)

some cotton batting,

an ample piece of vintagy wool blanket

leftover from projects past,

 one rather handy staple gun,

and a few minutes stolen 

from time that really should be spent

reading and preparing 

for a logic and literature class

that a handful of homeschoolers

await for me to teach

on the day next,

And voila!

Surely Now I can think

heady thoughts

of symbolism and plots,

for one little eensy piece

of my homey home

has a little touch of order

mingled with beauty,

happy reminders of days past,

and friends so dear.

Now off to the smarty books I go...

A Pillow, a Laundry Bag and a Girl

I love making things.

 

I especially love making things for my children.

  I often ask them which projecty goodness they want me to embark upon for them next. 

Sometimes I think they must certainly suppose I don't know them well enough at all. 

For you would think I could most definitely figure it out for myself. 

But, I cannot. 

It is not that I don't know them well.

I do. 

But I think it is more that I want them to be part of the creative process,
to have a say,

so it suits their individual unique one-of-a-kind style.

On one of my visits with my ever so far away Dear One in the city, 

we spied upon a vintagy pillow. 

Telling her I could make something of a similar sort someday, 

I took out my little notebook and roughly doodled away. 

I even queried her to choose some Hannah-like fabrics right then and there. 

I wanted it to be as she liked. 

I do hope I haven't given the impression of a finicky girl, 

for finicky she is not. 

After all, 

I don't know of many girls who are excited for the simple gift 

of a mom-made pillow.

Now, with a bag of vintagy fabric happily tucked under my arm, 

I told her she must please forget about the beauteous stash,
and off to coffee we went. 

But forget, she did not.

Instead she was quite looking forward to it, 

for Christmas was not in the too distant future. 

Well, 

I guess the gift giving event was a little too distant for me, 

for a sneakity peek

when it was all in pieces still,

I couldn't resist allowing.

On another trip to see my Dear One and Her Love,

our visit needed to be short but dear,

for laundry, 

this busy girl with hardly a spare moment,

had to launder.

As we were hugging and kissing our goodbyes,

and there were lots of them just now

for brothers and dad were dishing out goodbyes, too,

our lovely Dear One had a mom-can-make-it idea.

Laundry bags.

Laundry bags for two.

BIG ones. 

With straps for carrying.

I was to design laundry bags for their uphill ambling together

to the place where such mundane things need to be done.

She even handed me the destined vintage sheets as I was walking out the door.

Oh, yes, my sweet daughter knows of my affinity

for making goodness with vintagy sheets.

Behold my Dear One and Her Love,

ready to depart from our homey Christmas gathering,

happy with all their vintagy home made gifts:

But worry not,

for a bottle of good scotch to Her Love was in addition given!

Recycled Coffee Sack Grocery Bag

At Christmas, I ran out of sheets for my thrifty gift-making, but still had one more present to go. 

Here is a grocery bag I made for my sister out of recycled coffee bean bags and vintage fabric scraps.
I filled it with wine, marinara sauce and homemade pasta and focaccia bread.

She loved it, which is a great compliment coming from her. She is not a purse kind of girl. Hates them, actually. I hunted for vintage pillowcases that fit her, but nothing shouted her name. Then I spied a pile of burlap coffee bags I had borrowed from a friend for table decorations I put together at an event a while back. They shouted her name. It was perfect for my sister. And, oops Acacia and Garrett, I will be returning one less bag to you! They used them at their wedding.

Did you know that you can go to your local roaster and ask for them? From various countries they receive raw coffee beans in huge burlap sacks. These are from Verve Coffee here in Santa Cruz. You do need a heftier machine to sew with, though. And they can be itchy and sneezy to work with, but well worth it.

Here is my sister and me on the Ranch.

A Vintage Sheet Christmas

How many things can one do with old sheets?

 Alot!

We all are feeling that times are tight.

But I don't think that is why I've turned into a penny pinching,

side-of-the-road free-box scavenger 

and thrift store frequenter.

It's just what I do now.

I enjoy it.

I find I don't quite look at things the same.

When I go to the mall, or look through catalogs, I'm really not enticed anymore.

I simply like the old stuff,

the throwaway stuff,

and quite enjoy updating it.

I hope things won't always be so sparsity sparse, 

but I think I will always be found with piles of old ladies' throwaways laying around

with pieces cut away to create new lovelies

in an attempt to make my tired house a homey home,

and to share handmade goodness with dear ones.

 

The first vintage sheet project I will show you is one with a story.

Here is my Christmas dinner table.

Notice the tablecloth and napkins are made from old sheets.

Nothing matches. They are all different.

They were made the night before with what I had left after all my other gifty projects.

I was quite happy with them.

It brought together all the other decorations I had made for our Christmasy home.

Well.

A few minutes into dinner

one delightful son notices that they are sheets.

In great horror he proclaims his discovery

and proceeds to enlighten the younger folks...

what sometimes happens on sheets.
The thought of someone sleeping on their napkins was just too much.

Shrieks and laughter prevailed.

Thankfully, it was family,

so I wasn't completely mortified or embarrassed,

but let's just say some did not use their napkins,

but left them neatly folded where they were placed.

 I am hoping my obsession with vintage sheets has not damaged them for life. 

But I have a feeling this will be another one of those stories they tell about me throughout the years, 

although I'm sure it will be exaggerated.

If that is possible.

A Journal Was Made

A journal was made

for a dear friend so sweet,

who from her place far away

sends me lovely notes on scraps of paper.

Paper torn and layered,

then covered

with doodles.

Whimsical doodles,

of flowers,

squiggles,

butterflies and such.

A multitude of designs

happy and bright 

intertwined with heart felt notations

of memories of time together spent

and hopes of new shared moments yet to come.

A journal was made

with my own Quilty squiggles

 and buttons

and stitches

french knots
a scrap
and more stitchy doodles

for my friend far away

to fill with her doodley art....

until we again shall meet.

 

 ******

To make a journal for a dear friend of your own, sew a tube that fits over the ends, that is nearly twice as long as your book laid open (no rulers and math necessary), and with edges  neatly finished. I only did my quilty stuff on the  front  part of the tube using free motion quilting. This is a picture of the back of the tube. You can see how very long it is and the one seam down the middle. The fun part is embellishing it with doodles and odds and ends.

Banners

Banners for babies:

And banners for weddings:

Adorable wedding photo by Raya Photography

I started out making them plain and square

which I like well enough.

Then I started adding random scraps to them

like vintage seam tape, lace, ric-rac and dingle-balls.

Dingle-balls?

Is that my own invented word?

Or am I just a country bumkin that continues to make up my own vocabulary?

My children choke and laugh whenever I say it,

then I am reminded that it's not a real word at all,

for I say it so confidently

like it exists.

I googled it and it doesn't.

Well!

What else is one to call them?

They are dingle-balls.

I have a whole pile of them.

The dingle-ball giver used them 'back in the day'

to make her pants longer

for she is tall.

I picture her tall and slim

wearing moccasins and jeans

with blond hair in long braided pigtails

tied with leather barrettes.

Well, enough of my dingle-ball bunny trail! I put these banners in my Etsy shop so they could be special ordered for any occasion. Or you can pull out some scraps and make your own! This makes a great personalized gift, and can be a good project for young sewers. Uhh hemm. Christmas is coming.... And if you have any creative ideas for using up an enormously large roll of brown and creme dingle-balls please do let me know!

Pillow Case Class

Here is a sneak peak at the pillow case I will be teaching how to make Wednesday evening. I'm starting to teach basic sewing classes in my home. If you are interested in joining in on the fun, let me know.

I will put up a better picture when I can get outside in the sun. Yeah. I'm sewing at midnight again. It was way too sunny of a day to stay inside, especially since we've been in the fog most of the summer. Why is it that school starts around here when the weather is at its best? Well, I've decided that the next few weeks of school will consist of surfing, swimming, hiking, field trips to the De Young, Tech Museum, Reno Air Show, Black Rock Desert and rockets, and reading aloud. Homeschooling rocks!

My Studio

Well, really it's just my sewing corner. It holds all my stuff when I'm not sewing. Like when we want to eat at the kitchen table which is frequently strewn with project goodness. Or when the fog rolls in and we can't eat in the back yard. I have a pretty patient family to let me get away with such messiness! And sometimes, of course, they come join in on the fun. But enjoy the pictures of the nice-little-put-away-studio for the few moments it is contained.

Here is a close-up of the machine cover I recently made.

My stash:

And thread:

Notice the 2 old sewing machines under the desk for helping others learn to sew. The desk was from a yard sale and has the dream of being painted yellow someday. The cool hand stitched picture was rescued from a junk yard for $5. Like the Velvetine Bunny, it was tossed away, and has again come to be loved and appreciated.

Whimsical Bib

Here are a few bibs I made last week, one of which was for a friend's new babe.

I cut bib shapes out of 2 fun fabrics and 1 scrap piece of cotton batting, sewed them with the right sides of the fabrics together and the batting on top, trimmed the extra batting away from edges, then turned it happy sides out. Easy peasy, really. Then the fun stuff. Using fusible webbing, I ironed on a flower and some leaves from another scrap of fabric. Hint. Save all those scraps. They come in handy when adding artsy touches to regular olde projects. I was then able to hone my free-motion quilting skills abit. I just swirled around making it look vine-like, being careful to not stitch over the flower shape on the reverse side. And since the project was way smaller than a quilt, it only took a few minutes to doodle these whimsical stitches. Fun. I felt rather like an artist with a power-tool instead of a paint brush.

A little embroidery, a ribbon loop, an olde button, and viola, it's a happy little bib!

I feel as if after practicing on a variety of projects all spring and summer, I am beginning to develope my own approach or technique. I am finding I really love adding the extra stuff to my projects. The random, oddly stitched pieces are always my favorite like the binding on the boat quilt, the square on my apron, and the shapes on Hannah's woolen blanket. I also don't like making things just to sell without really loving the project, or making a bunch of the same thing. I like creating for those I know, to bless them. And I like keeping it just a little bit artistic. Off kilter. Not typical.

I'm selling a few extra that I made in my Etsy shop, though no two are alike - cuz that would be boring. Unless any cute babies cross my path. Then I might just have to give them away.

Red Bag

Here is my I-have-one-hour-till-we-leave-for-martial-arts bag that I made for my Sweet Girl:

I will give it to her soon, and together we will decide what improvements can be made. It is kind of an over-sized makeup bag to instead be used for hair products. Working with oil-cloth was a bit tricky for me, but not too bad, since it took less than an hour to dream up the design and stitch it up.

Woolen Hanging & Introducing Vickie

A twig,

a thrifted woolen blanket,

my grandmother's olde buttons

and some happy new fabrics

to make a wall hanging

 to hold my littlest boy's current book, drawing pad, pencil
& friend.

It is sure to overflow with more beloved friends, soon.

I will show you how I made it in the very near future, as soon as I can get Vickie to be a little less pokey at resizing and loading up pictures. Can you figure why my computor is named Vickie? It's from the book/movie I-Robot. Yeah. With a house full of science-fiction-loving boys one comes up with such names for such things.

twenty-seven. my 3 boys and their leader who appreciate good science fiction

and are determined to have me do the same.

A simple something made for a special someone who moved away today.

A soul soothing endeavor made with much love.

She takes a little piece of mom-ness with her.

For my eldest nestling

who is music to all who know her.

God bless you and your love as you take this next leg of the path He has set before you.

 twenty-one. a God who directs our paths.

twenty-two. nestlings who are writing God's story in their lives.

Museum Tunic by Anna Maria Horner - Review

 Easy peasy!

And lovely.

A few of my friends came over last night for our weekly project night. They asked me to help them make this easy peasy tunic designed by Anna Maria Horner. It is made with a cotton voile and is a great sewing project for beginners! This tunic was a first-time clothing venture for Annie. Looks pretty good, huh! 

If you need something new and exciting to wear in a hurry, give it a try. The lovely Mrs. Horner said it took her an hour. It took us a bit longer, but I'm sure it will go more quickly next time. Yep. There will be a next time. We are already planning which fabric to use for the next tunic.

A quite glamorous easy peasy tunic that even looks good on my girl Sally!

Clothes Design - Country Girl Tunic

Here is my Country Girl Tunic. I it designed myself and made it with Anna Maria Horner cotton toile fabric and is now for sale in my Etsy shop. It is also in the Sew Mama Sew Make It Wear It Challenge photo pool. 

I originally made this tunic a few months back using a vintage fabric, but I soon confiscated it for myself and have worn it waaay too often, but you can see it in it's pre-loved condition, and learn how I made it here.

I am really just a country girl and am loving this long tunic with jeans thing.

Just gotta find a gently used pair of cowboy boots!
fifteen: a patient husband who takes pictures of his silly wife