Sew Distracted

Handwork

I spent a good amount of time on Back Tack this weekend, no sewing for me. Assembling the kitty was quick and easy, a little practice certainly helped and this time the resulting kitty was much more athletic looking and adult.  Here's a teasing peak:

and a partial facial view:

This kitty is a lean and elegant princess of a kitty, no awkward kitten here.  As such she needed a few big girl trinkets.  And here is where all my time is going.  It has been a long time since I have any bead embroidery, and I had forgotten how much time is involved.  Oh its fun.  I am having a blast.  But progress is painfully slow.

I don't have a macro feature on this camera and apparently this shot was too close.  You get the idea anyway, I'm sure.

Green

In the shady front yard, summer color is dominated by green

and the only touches of color tend to be the ones provided by pots full of annuals and tender perenials.

Since we have suddenly, with the advent of Memorial Day weekend, made the transition from cool prolonged spring to summer heat, perhaps it is no wonder that I was drawn to green:

I  stopped in to JoAnn for felt and a couple of patterns and was distracted by this fabric.  Unlike my garden however, which is mostly in the shade and mostly green, this green is only destined for the sidelines.  I had a sudden mad urge to pair it with this brightly printed cotton on a maroon background for a casual summer skirt.

Did I need this fabric?  No.  Should I be sewing other things now?  Yes.  I still have the "spring" coat, which I will actually still wear, and regardless, I still want to sew.  But the heat has brought visions of casual summer skirts dancing through my head.  I am fully confident that everything will get sewn, but in what order?

Meanwhile I am working on Back-Tack which must be mailed in a few days.  I am having a lot of fun, but despite my best efforts to be clever and creative I keep coming back to my simple original plan.  Crafty goodness is not my strong suit.  I do hope I can achielve some kind of simple charm  however.  There are still several choices to be made.  No photos to entice however.  I shall hold on to words and promises until back-tack is firmly in the hands of its recipient.  Well...I might.....cheat a little...just a little.  Wait and see.

Yet another distraction

Oven down!  Ovens are apparently not necessary items as I can’t get it repaired before June 5 and I called all the local dealers/repair places for my stove.  The only place that could come sooner won’t come because I didn’t purchase the stove from them – the fact that the store from which I did purchase the stove is out of business, and that I would be willing to consider buying from them in the future was not a persuasive argument in my favor.  But it is summer and the grill works and the burners work.

Aha! I have an old-fashioned free standing stove with built in oven.  If the oven doesn’t work but the burners do work, perhaps I have a blown fuse.  I am somewhat handy and would be slightly embarrassed to wait nearly two weeks for someone to come change a fuse.  Of course the owners manual does not tell where the fuses are hidden, and they are not obvious. Apparently it is intended that the consumer should pay someone to come change a fuse.  Still, they can’t be that well hidden, we don’t want the poor repairperson to have to work too hard just to change a fuse after all.

I found the fuses.  They looked identical so I could not determine whether or not the oven fuse had blown.  No problem I just took it out and hauled myself, with fuse, down to the local electrical store.  It looked good to them to but they were happy to sell me another one just in case.  I got home and plugged in the new fuse.  It’s not the fuse.  But I can add this fuse to my fuse collection.  I have several now.  After all you don’t want to wait for the AC repair guy when you blow a fuse on the hottest day of the year, now do you?

So back to the oven situation.  No oven.  I was planning on using the oven for a few things this week.  Now there will be no asparagus lasagna, even though the asparagus bed is  at its peak and I had begun saving the asparagus over the last two days to have the requisite 4 pounds for our spring indulgence: Asparagus and goat cheese lasagna.  I usually roast the asparagus for the lasagna, so I could grill it instead.  But I don’t think I can grill the actual lasagna.  After some research I decided that I could blanche the asparagus and freeze it, then make the lasagna when I get the oven back.  It was either that or eat asparagus for breakfast lunch and dinner for the next week.

Needless to say, nothing was sewn or cut out yesterday.  Still I thought of sewing.  More exactly I thought of fabric shopping -- my favorite cure for daily frustrations.  Actually I was thinking of this fabric:

The top fabric is the Kaffe Fassett Dahlia fabric I used for Tiny Kitty.  I think it would make a cute skirt banded with the dotted fabric below it.  That fabric is called Bubbles.  They are both available, although I probably have enough of the bubble fabric to do the band on the skirt and the proposed stuffed animal.  I haven't ordered more Dahlia fabric yet, but I might yet.  The idea is sitting just under the surface, teasing and taunting me, and in a moment of weakness I might just give in.

That's the problem with sewing everything spawns more ideas and more tempations.

Pinks

My fabric order from Thai Silks arrived, including the proposed fabric for the contrast fronts on the spring coat.  Of course since, I was placing an order for one piece of fabric, it seemed such a shame not to order more, so three pieces actually wended their way cross country to my house:

The pink piece on the far left is for the coat.  The rose fabric in the middle will either be a dress or skirt and blouse, and the plaid dupioni is intended to be a spring/summer dress.

After reading all the discussions on SewingWorld and Stitcher's Guild about sewing with silk thread, I decided that this would be the perfect test project.  I had previously ordered a sample booklet for Tire silk threads and I ordered threads for this project.  I ordered silk topstitching thread as well, to give it a try.

Then, I went to S&S to pick up some more Mettler thread, my normal sewing thread, because there were a couple of colors I needed for the stuffed creatures.  While I was there they were very happy to show me the new embroidery threads they were carrying, including this lovely top-stitching thread:

I was, of course, tempted.  So now I will have to play with topstitching and see which one I like best.    Well, actually, I have to test the pattern first...

Introducing Pointy Kitty

Hello Kitty!

The first Pointy Kitty is done!

Pattern:  Pointy Kitty from Wee Wonderfuls  by Hillary Lang
Fabric:  Kaffe Fassett's Cool Dahlia Blooms cotton, purchased from Glorious Color Shop

In my mental peregrinations about this kitty, I never imagined it with the felt appliques at the back and top of head.  But as I was making this I had second thoughts and put them on in a deep red felt to coordinate with the red parts of the dahlias.  After sewing the piece on the head, I decided it distracted from Kitty's charm so it was removed.

Since I am planning on giving this to a new baby in September (which means I get to keep it for over three months) I decided that button eyes were risky and used felt.

I really enjoyed sewing this kitty, which surprised me somewhat.  I have never been fond of home dec sewing or quilting, perhaps it is all the square shapes and straight lines, but putting kitty together was fun and interesting.  With tiny 1/4 inch seams and interesting curves and bits it was a fun sew.

I did not find it difficult to turn, despite the warnings, but perhaps all my practice sewing garments has given me ample opportunity to practice turning small narrow objects.  Stuffing was more of a challenge for me, it takes a little skill to get the batting in so that kitty's limbs are evenly filled out without creating a misshapen creature. 

I will enjoy making a few more and will certainly hold on to the pattern as it will make a cute gift that I am sure will prove popular.  Since the entire figure takes only a 1/4 yard of fabric or so, it is also economical and encourages one to save bits of fabric.

Here are more pics:

and a back view:

Carolyn accused me of being a tease, and she is right, I am a tease, but I have been teasing myself as well, with all these lovely fabrics stacked up, waiting to be cut and me running around like a loon all week.  It is as if the promise of sewing is taunting me, but I can’t quite grab hold of the time to delve in.

I hadn’t really expected much sewing time on the weekend.  It was G’s birthday and we spread the celebration out over a couple of days.  Our favorite local restaurant, Café Tamayo opened on Thursday after six months of renovation and we were there on Friday night for an absolutely fabulous dinner including our favorite duck confit and a wonderful bottle of Cotes du Rhone.

Saturday afternoon we attended a benefit concert for a local chamber music group.  The concert and reception were held in a home up in Rhinebeck, the next town north of us, and it was absolutely lovely.  The American String Quartet played a concert of Shostakovich, quartet #11, and Haydn (I should remember which one but I don’t, you can tell where my loyalties lie).  The living room was L-shaped and the quartet played at the base of the L.  We ended up sitting in the narrower, shorter, foot of the L, just behind the cellist, which was marvelous.  It felt like we were in the middle of the music, and I, for one, was absolutely thrilled to be sitting right behind the cellist’s left shoulder and able to read his music as he played.  Heaven. 

Sunday has become a food oriented day since the local farmer’s market opened on Mother’s Day.  I stop at the farmer’s market first to select the produce around which I plan the week’s menus. We get a special order of yogurt from Old Chatham Sheepherding Company every week and it comes in Saturday morning usually.  Now instead of picking it up on Saturday I just do all the menu planning and as much shopping as possible on Sunday. The whole process takes a good bit of time, but it is such a pleasure, spreading the days "catch" out on the kitchen Island and planning the week's culinary adventures.

It is still early for most produce here in the Northeast and the farmer’s market is heavy on greens, including these lovely mustard greens that we picked up this Sunday:

We had them sauteed with black olives and blood orange juice as a side dish to lovely fried soft-shell crabs.  I think I finally mastered a nice gluten-free breading by combining rice flour and peanuts with crushed red pepper in a blender and grinding it all to a fine powder.  It crisps up nicely on the crabs.  Mmmmm good!

And yes, there was finally a little sewing last night, although not garment sewing.  I have had softies and stuffed animals of various kinds on the brain and so I am indulging in a little sewing play.

I took this fabric (the one in the center)

to use as my first softie, the Pointy Kitty from Wee Wonderfuls .  This is actually a test run for the softie I need to make for Back-Tack .  I was originally determined to make Pointy Kitty but now I am considering Wee Bunny as well, as I think my fabric choice might make a better bunny.  The final back-tack softie will be made with the black and white fabrics shown in the post from May 18th.

At any rate, I was beginning to have doubts about my choice of fabrics.  I am not sure my ideas for brightly colored creatures are all that sound.  But the kitty looks cute all cut out:

It is possible that it will be too bright and garish, something more frightening than charming, a softie that only its mother could love.  We'll see.

I have started sewing but am low on thread in appropriate colors so I must run out to S&S today as well as to JoAnn for felt.  I went to the JoAnn in Kingston last week but the felt supply there was very limited.  Poughkeepsie will have more options.

Meanwhile, Monday morning has been busy.  Two trees blew down across the driveway and two solar panels blew off the roof (for the pool heater).  They were, of course, the two the mason had to loosen to move out of the way while he rebuilds the chimneys.   The masonry work has held however and there are no leaks in the house. There was little other damage from the winds last night, with the exception of the irises, which are lying on the grass like a line of slain soldiers, a sad reminder that nature will always have her way.

Colorful Stitching

I've been pulling out piles of fabric from the cotton stash for a few upcoming projects:

These are all for sewing related to the arrival of impending grandchild.  I have had fun looking at bright cheerful prints and these all make me quite happy.   

Since this photo was taken the fabrics have all been washed and pressed and are now waiting for a happy woman with scissors to have at them.

More to come.

Just a peek

Just a peek at what is in the works for back-tack:

Lilacs, Mother's Day and Dreams of Sewing

I have mostly been sewing in my head, planning out future projects, fiddling about with this and that in the sewing room.  Otherwise too much going on here.

Miriam sent a lovely small bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day and the heady perfume of lilacs greets me whenever I manage to escape to my special room:

The coat fabric is still on the end of the cutting table, next to the flowers, and a ball of yarn for a scarf for next year's donation box to Morse School.  The baby sweater still awaits being sewn together.  So much for gran plans.

Still, the flowers make me happy.  I never minded becoming a step-mom, I figured all along the kids came with the territory and never resented that.  I never expected however that I would come to love these people, adults now really, but still more child than adult when they came into my life, so fiercely.  Not having children of my own, I feel lucky to have these step-children, and I think how luckily I am to have them to love.

The pattern for the Balenciaga coat arrived:

The pattern is pretty intriguing and I think it would be nice in several different fabrications.  I do not think it is what I want for the multicolor organza coat however, not that I was counting on this pattern anyway.  I need to make a muslin, and I am still undecided about the contrast fabric, but it will all sort itself out.

More sewing this week:  actual rather than virtual.

Periwinkle Sweater Set done

I finished early this morning and only had to find the time to take photos. 

Matilda has agreed to stand in as a model as she is not shy about traipsing around getting her picture taken in front of construction guys, and there is no place to take photos  during daylight hours that is construction-free.  In payment she got a minor tummy tuck when we learned that she was bigger than I.

Presenting a periwinkle cardi:

And a few detail shots:

The top underneath is a little large, I cut it out several months ago, long before the cardigan. 

I could go ahead and take it down a little, but it is comfortable.  I think I will wait at bit before proceeding.  Besides this is perfect to wear now, and as my life generally revolves around my local construction site here, it is the perfect kind of thing to wear.

The top fits perfectly well under the cardigan but I don't think I will wear them together much.  I am finally leaning that I just don't like multiple layers of sleeves on my arms or around my shoulder areas.  Somehow, when I move the under layer always causes the over layer to bunch up.  I remain convinced this is due to my own forward and downward curving shoulders, but even better fit doesn't correct the problem.  I think it is mostly a problem of body mechanics.  It doesn't really happen on jackets if they are loose enough, but the more closely fitted jackets that have been stylish lately have the same problem. The sweater sets I wear the most, both RTW and my own creations, are the ones with matching sleeveless tops and I don't notice the problem when I have a sleeveless top on underneath.   When I do wear a shirt or turtleneck under another sweater, I tend to like the outer sweater to be pretty boxy, with deep, roomy armholes.

I have enough of the blue knit to probably make a little tank top and I might consider doing that. Not yet though.  There is time.