A stash confessional

Like I said in my previous post I got more than I planned at Kashi's and the pile arrived yesterday as he promised.

These are the knits, from left the first 4 are rayon knits, the solid heathers are beautiful which Kashi showed me after I got the print. The last two are poly knits. I do have a general idea of what I'm making with these but I don't want to commit yet. Looking at these I can say the mood was blue apparently ;)

Here are the wovens. On the left what Kashi called a Japanese cotton which will be made into this Burda top. The last on this row is another Japanese cotton that Carolyn made famous in her blog, this one for a sheath dress. The yellow print, which looks greenish in the picture, is a cotton with some stretch, I'm thinking another sheath dress. Next a Swiss dot for a top and above a silk for this tunic

When he was cutting my fabric, this denim was being put away by one of his assistants and I couldn't resist. It is double sided one a medium blue the other a very cool print.

Considering that last time I saw Kashi was a year ago, I'm thinking this wasn't so bad...The angst us fabric lovers put ourselves through...

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I leave you with an image of my son receiving his 5th grade promotion certificate from his principal. And if you would just let me boast, he also received the President's award for academic achievement.

Back home

So, unexpectedly (someone decided to come early!) I got to go to New Jersey and spend 5 days with my brother, his wife and their beautiful baby boy, my nephew! As all new parents they are getting used to their new routine or lack of, and I was glad to help.

On Tuesday morning after breakfast I took the bus into the city to enjoy a few hours in the garment district. I knew Cidell and Trena had been there and I almost followed in their footsteps by visiting a few of the same stores. I was very excited about going to Greenberg and Hammer where I finally bought large sheets of marking paper to avoid constantly moving around the tiny pieces of it available at Joann's. These will be great when marking jackets. I also bought the wax slabs that disappear when ironing after I read about them in Trena's blog. From there I went to see Kashi where I purchased more than I planned and therefore had him ship it for me. I found these beautiful belt buckles in another shop (can't remember the name) and the trim in Pacific Trims (Trena does it look like the trim you got?)



I'm all excited about finishing the dress I'm working on and making more summer dresses but first I have to catch up with my household duties...

Something new worn with something old

The something new is the top, it's the finished Green Gable by Zephyr Style in a white cotton yarn. I'm not completely satisfied with this project. The neckline in the back curls to the right side and so does the front to a lesser degree. I blocked it but didn't do much. My plan now is to wash the garment and then reblock and see if it helps. I also hope it helps the ribbing in the arms and especially at the hem, it is too loose and flips again to the right side; this might be my fault, I did not go down a needle size like the pattern asked because I didn't want tight ribbing at the hips and I also did Elizabeth Zimmermann's sewn bind off because my regular bind off had no give and too tight. I lengthened the pattern,I didn't want my belly showing but maybe now it is too long? I hope it shrinks some after the wash. The lighting was strange, it really made the white shine and you can't see the lace detail in the front, so here it is.





The old is the skirt, Burda 8654 (out of print) which I made about 4 years ago (yikes!) and I never reviewed it. The fabric is a polyester chiffon from Joann's, I fell in love with the print but I knew it would give me trouble;the lining is also poly from Joann's. Once I sewed the side seams and put it on it was almost unwearable, I think the fabric must have shifted during cutting, I did have it pinned to tissue paper however, but there was almost no ease in the thigh area which I never have problem with since my hips are the widest part of my body. I do like the style, the chiffon overlay has a mock wrap and there is a slit in center back. I also like the top included in this pattern.

Both of these garments are wearable but I'm not completely satisfied, oh well they all can't be winners!

I am an aunt!

Born June 7, my brother's son. Welcome to the family!

The week's summary

A week ago on our anniversary we celebrated with our boys by going to the National Zoo. Everyone gets to pick what they want to see, I wanted to see the birds which is where I took the photographs of the peacock. He seemed to be posing for me and I couldn't resist the beautiful colors. The best part of our visit however was seeing the baby gorilla. We were lucky to find the mom and baby active and out and about. The way the mother looked after the youngster, never letting him out of arm's length, was precious. Her eyes conveyed such expression and intelligence.



Yesterday we got a day of no rain, after a week of downpours, so I went out to the garden and weeded. I also planted my herb pot because I love cooking with fresh herbs. I planted some sunflower seeds and placed some iron edgings down on the soil hoping to deter the squirrels from digging them up, we'll see.





I'm working on Vogue 7793 which is now out of print. I had cut the pattern from a beautiful batiste I bought at Metro Textiles that year. I used binding at the neckline instead of facings and I really like how it looks. More on the dress later...

Burda WOF 4-2009 101A

I finished this skirt just in time to wear for my meeting with Cidell. Please excuse the wrinkles I had been wearing it for a while when I took this picture. This skirt took longer to construct than I thought it would, in part because life got in the way and partly because of the facing construction which was a bit confusing. Other reviewers found it confusing too and I believe we all just did our own thing; Karen documented her steps better than I could explain it here.

I found Guttermann topstitching thread in the same color red and I like the way it shows. The opening with the buttons is fully functional except that the skirt has a side zipper, so you could just sew it up and use the buttons as decorative and still get in and out of the skirt just fine.



The length on this pattern for a 5'6" me ended above my knees, I wanted it a little lower so I made a 1/2 inch hem finished with bias binding. The fabric is a stretch denim from EmmaOneSock which has been in my stash for a while.

One more photo to show the topstitching

Meeting Cidell

Kristy, Cidell and me waiting for the fashion show to start

On Saturday I got to meet fabulous Cidell. We got together to attend the fashion show for Sew Me What You've Got at Ikea, Baltimore. Cidell was everything I expected her to be fun, warm and more beautiful in person. Her friend Kristy also joined us, she likes to knit, quilt and used to make all her clothes so that you can imagine all three of us had plenty to talk about during lunch, we actually had to hurry not to miss the show.

I thought the show was great, the models were all different body types and the Ikea fabrics which they all had to use were very colorful and modern. I was surprised that some of the construction and finishing was a little sloppy (like you could see where the machine hem stitching started and ended and invisible zippers were not invisible), I don't know how long they had to complete the garments but I'm sure it wasn't a Project Runway/Fashion Show situation. If you would like to vote you can do so at the link above they even have great photographs of all entries.

Anyways here are some of the pictures I took.


This one I loved the exhuberance of the model with such a fun dress.



The yellow band had was all pleated




I like how the designer used the design on the fabric to form the petal like skirt


A regular shirt in a cool fabric on a good looking guy ;-)


I like that the designer combined fabrics with little ruffle details and a fun flirty skirt.


Loved the grey fabric and the pink piping


This fabric was fabulous and it turned a simple dress into an attention getter.

After the show we headed to the fabric area (of course) where Cidell bought a very cool fabric, go check it out on her blog where you'll also get her impressions of the show. I also got to see her doing her happy dance when she talked about her new Featherweight, which I got to see stuffed in the front passenger seat of her car.

What a great time I had! Meeting Cidell was a pleasure and I hope we get together again soon!

Wedding Anniversary

Sunday is my wedding anniversary, I married DH 17 years ago. I wanted to share with you pictures of my dress and my maid of honor's. My dress was designed by my friend and maid of honor who at the time of my wedding had a bridal business. She is a graduate of FIT(Fashion Institute of Technology) and has since worked as a designer for various RTW companies.

When it was time to pick out my dress, my friend L. came with me and my mom. We tried many,many dresses and once she knew what I was looking for she showed me parts (a sleeve and part of the bodice) of a dress she was working on at the moment and told me that if I like it I could use it. I fell in love when I saw the delicate ribbon embroidery accented with seed pearls, crystals and much more. The fabric is silk organza. She also made my hair bow after we spend a wonderful time at the most incredible ribbon shop in the district; the owner gave us a blue piece of ribbon as we were leaving which became my garter (which I still have...no throwing of a garter for this bride!). The veil was beaded by my mom and me with seed pearls and crystals.

Her dress she designed and made herself. The fabric is silk organza in a gorgeous pink plaid and she found perfect shoes for it.

My dress has held up pretty well to the years, I hope that maybe one day a granddaughter may love it as much as me and has a chance to wear it.

Weekend wrapup

My kids got colds starting a week ago and of course they were staggered so I had sick kids for the duration of a week, that culminated with me being sick this past Friday through most of the weekend. So...not much sewing, actually none at all was accomplished and nothing else for that matter. As soon as I felt better on Sunday I did laundry and cooked.

Yesterday I felt so much better that I went for a walk with my family. We went to Montgomery county and took a trail around Lake Frank. This is a beautiful hike at points you can barely see the lake and you are surrounded by beautiful woods when you finally get to see the lake, it is a wow moment.



The hike we thought would be flat and easy but they were enough changes in the terrain to make it really interesting with enough hills to climb for those that like a challenging hike. The mountain laurels were blooming and they were gorgeous!



The weather however decided to not cooperate and for most of our trip we had thunder and then the pouring rain started, the four of us and our dog were a poor sight, I can't remember the last time I was in such a downpour. Anyways now we have a funny story to tell.

Baby Quilt

I finished the baby quilt and it has arrived in its new home so now I can blog about it. I'll warn you that I really like the way this quilt turned out so I took a lot of pictures:-)

I changed the original design from Kaffe Fassett's Quilt Road, Rowan's Baby Block Quilt. I changed one block and of course I used totally different colors. I used cotton batting because I like the way it wrinkles when washed giving the quilt an old fashioned look. The binding was pieced from different prints. The quilting is diagonal lines, this is a simple way to quilt; I marked the first diagonals from corner to corner and then using those as guides and the quilting guide in my walking foot I quilted parallel lines one inch apart.



I went looking for a fabric for the back that coordinated with the colors of the quilt top but could not find any, so I decided to piece it with solid colors and add a strip of the prints used on the top. My inspiration came from the quilts in Red Pepper Quilts, her quilts are very beautiful and cheerful.



On the label I included a piece of the fabric I used on my babies' room, I thought it was a nice way to tie the cousins.



By looking for inspiration in several bloggers that quilt I found out that the style of quilt I most enjoy has a name Modern Quilts, duh, I never thought about it just knew what I liked. The good thing about this discovery is that there's a ton of books out there on the subject that I can use for inspiration when it is time for me to quilt again.

Next up

Update: Trena's question about topstitching reminded me that I wanted to mention I found topstitching weight thread at my Joann's. They redid the displays and brought in new merchandise. I found the perfect color red to go with my fabric; I finished all the topstitching and it looks great, really stands out. I just need some time to finish with the rest...

I started sewing Burda WOF 4-2009 Mod 101 A. This is such a cute skirt and I have liked every version I have seen in blogland. I'm using a red stretch denim from my stash but I have to go out today and get a zipper and buttons. I hope to maybe finish it today, the boys are home (no school) and they have projects to work on so I might have some free time.

A prom dress

My mom used to make me all my party dresses, so when senior prom came along we headed out to the fabric store to find a pattern and fabric. I picked this Vogue pattern but we could not find a fabric we liked, so my mom after work (she worked at a bank that was located where they now do the Today show in New York City) went to the fabric stores in the city and found this beautiful silky fabric. I wanted to coordinate with royal blue (after all this was 1980) so mom made me the belt from beaded trim and I wore royal blue peep-toe pumps. My date brought me a blue orchid corsage, all in all matchy-matchy.

What was really funny, well not so much back then, it's that my neighbor whose personality and likes were as different from me as can be chose the same pattern for her dress!!Thank God her mom made her the short version and in a different color; well we both laughed at the coincidence and it wasn't like we would be spending time together at the party.

Here is one more with my brother who as a freshman got to go to the prom with one of my friends (he went to every prom after that except his own, I guess he had had enough!)

Mother's day weekend

If you click on the image to make it bigger you'll notice my husband's nose is covered in pollen (that's what happens when you go around smelling every flower you see)

On Saturday we went for a walk because the rain finally stopped in our area and Clio the beagle was desperate to be out; she hates to be out in the rain so she has been pretty sad for about two weeks. We went to the wetlands park which is local and we love it. The boys love wading in the streams and there's always wildlife to enjoy. We've had beaver's dams, salamanders, blue herons, snakes, turtles, ducks, geese,etc;yesterday we saw a blue heron and geese with chicks.



Sunday morning we went to see Star Trek the movie. I loved it! There was lots of action to keep you on the edge of your seat which was nicely balanced by the character's stories, we are all ready to see it again! I was telling my kids how when the Star Trek 1960's series was first on, I was in Cuba so my dad would put our little tv antenna on the balcony to get the US reception so we could watch the show; my oldest thought that it was pretty amazing that I wanted to watch the show since it was in a language I could not understand. Well, mom and dad understood English so they would summarize for my brother and I.

The afternoon we spend at home having a cookout with my mom. It was a beautiful afternoon to enjoy the backyard.

I'm finishing up the binding on the quilt and after my brother and SIL receive it I will post pictures.

I hope you all had as nice a weekend as I did!

A rainy weekend

Yesterday I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and I'm glad I did, today has been raining all day, yesterday was overcast but we did not get any rain. It was also the spring carnival at my son's school and as always we volunteered for one shift at one of the stations. It looked like my kids this year decided that they were too old to play so they spent their tickets on the food, so after our shift I left for the festival minus the family.

I met Holly at the entrance and we wondered around until 6:00pm when we sat down to enjoy a lamb dinner. It was very good. We also saw Jody along with other familiar knitters. See if you can spot me in Jody's photographs :-)

As always the yarn was gorgeous and here is what came home with me.

This is a beautiful sock yarn from Yarns Forever that I'm thinking will be made into fingerless gloves.



Next is Misty Mountain Farm Super Fine Naturally Colored Alpaca. I bought enough to make a lacy sweater. The color is a deeper brown the flash lightens it.



And lastly from Brooks Farm a superwash wool (Solana) in a worsted weight for a vest.



I also bought Kim Hargreaves' book Amber. The designs in this book are gorgeous, I couldn't pick a favorite.

Today I'm planning to do some more quilting. I already have my next sewing project (a garment) picked out, stay tuned...