10 Word Book Review: The School

The idea behind this is a review I could tell someone in less than 5 seconds if the need arises. That and it might actually help me remember what I've read?

 The School by T.M. Wright: Boundaries between life and death crumble. Better than its cover.

First Finished Quilt!

There was going to be a photo shoot. Possibly involving the amazingly decrepit pear tree in the back yard. With close ups of the stitching and the neat little corners (mitered!) But... Then it reached 30 degrees inside my apartment, worse outside, and the A/C died. So I bundled the quilt off to a nearby air conditioned cafe and chilled (literally) until it was time to deliver it to it's new recipient.  

Here it is in it's new home, on the end of little Madelaine's bed (though not where she sleeps). The front is made of 4 nine patch blocks, each square is 5" finished for a 30" square quilt. I hand stitched in pink Cosmo embroidery thread just inside the edge of each square. The fabrics are flannels from Anna Maria Horner's LouLou Flannel line, except for the wavy gold fabric which I think is Little Folks. The binding is a cute blue bird flannel by Valori Wells. I like how they're just hanging out on the edge of the quilt.

The back is some cupcake flannel I picked up at the Fabricland. Because everyone loves cupcakes. 

My other excitement yesterday was when this bundle showed up in the mail. I won 2.2m of this gorgeous silk from the Tessuti gals last week, and they zipped it all the way to Toronto from Sydney. I'm thinking about what to make, but a Gabby dress would be pretty perfect (they sent enough to make any size in either length). I'm still working on getting the fit just right, with the massive fba I need, but hopefully soon you'll see me rocking some silk tulips. This has got to be the nicest fabric I've ever gotten to pet. Tessuti has also made their fabulous New York Cape pattern available as a download which is first on my list for fall sewing. Thanks, ladies!   

This was going to be a post about pie...

This pie. It's a pretty excellent recipe. I halved the sugar and used unrefined raw sugar instead of white, so mine was a little more golden brown than white. And full of strawberries to go with the rhubarb. It was lovely. 

Then I lost my camera. So no pie pictures. It's got to be around the house somewhere, so when I find it, you'd better believe there's gonna be pie. In photo form at least.

Until then, here's a cool vintage pattern to look at. I love the back wrap on this one. The ric rac trim is also pretty great. I really want to figure out how to incorporate it into some of my sewing projects without things getting too over the top.

Also, because it's the weekend and I felt like it, everything's 15% off in my shop with the code 15OFFSALE

Next week we hopefully return to your regularly scheduled blog updates. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Ottawa!

I'm off to see family the 18-24th, and hopefully the Governor General's Awards show at the National Gallery. I'll be closing the Etsy shop while I'm away, and I'm doing my last run of mailings tomorrow in the early afternoon. So if there's anything you were antsy to get, today's your chance.

I wish this one was about four sizes bigger

Hope you all have a great week, and I'll see you back here on the 25th!

Constellation I and Some Thoughts

Constellation I: Acrylic, dye, hand carved stamps, and graphite on wooden panel, 10" x 10", 2012.

It seems like every time I blink I've been away from my blog for a few weeks. Not so good. It's been hard finding my rhythm as a multiply self employed arts person over the year since I graduated, but I think I'm starting to find my groove. Now I just need to make sure blogging stays a regular part of that. 

No sewing's been going on the last little while, due to my studio time being spent painting and working on a large project for a friend of mine (I'll show you more soon). Also a full week out with the plague. You can see some of the art I've been working on over at my website, which I've been finagling night and day.

Hope you're all having a lovely weekend and busy stitching away for Me-Made-May-2012. I'm still undecided about whether or not I'm jumping in this time around. I think it depends on if I can ever sort out my &@**^*(@ darts...

Spring Wardrobe?.. Oh Look, There's Some Bread!

My Spring Wardrobe plans are going a little lot slower than planned. For some reason I thought teaching myself how to do an FBA would be fast and easy? Not so much. I think I need to split the honking massive dart I end up with into two darts, make them a little shorter, shift them slightly... By the end of a week of pattern wrangling, I felt my sewing mojo fly right out the window. I think some skirts are on the menu this week, since they tend to be just fine on me without alterations. But tonight I needed some sewing down time... So I baked my first ever loaf of bread.

Yum!

Nothing too fancy, basically a giant rye scone. I used the Rye Soda Bread recipe from Super Natural Every Day by Heidi Swanson. I love this book, and am slowly working my way through most of the recipes in it and Super Natural Cooking. Heidi also shares tons of great meals and photos on her blog. I try not to visit too often though, because I want to make everything she posts, and I'd never make it out of the kitchen. All of her recipes are vegetarian too.

Do you want bread yet?

A nice wedge of soda bread with goat cheese and a bowl of homemade veggie French onion soup makes for a nice dinner. Now if only I could bake some new tops...

Tiny Pocket Tank

I finally finished altering my tiny pocket tank to accommodate seven inches of difference between my full and high bust measurements. It involved a few mishaps, but seems to have worked out in the end.

See those red lines? They make up the GIANT dart I needed for a two inch FBA (my first!). My pattern looks a bit like Frankenstein's monster at the moment, and I'm a little nervous about cutting into my fabric with it. Luckily my test run is some $2/yd poly/cotton I bought heaps of.

I'm a little behind on my challenge, so I'd better get stitching!