Winter is here

When the weather starts to get cold and rainy I start to think about nesting and hibernating through the dark months of winter. I go to my studio and sew or I bake. The last couple weeks I have done a little of everything. I bought some nice pink burn out tissue jersey at mill end. I liked the drape and it was inexpensive so I bought a couple yards. I made a shirt from a pattern that has proven to be the best t-shirt pattern I have made so far. It's the Jalie 2805 shirt pattern that has a few different neck line varieties. I tend to like a nice v-neck but with the cold weather I decided to try the jewel neck line.  From this adventure I realized I do not like working with tissue jersey...it takes forever to get the pattern pieces to meet properly. I fussed a lot with this material. I did add a neck band to the pink material because it seemed very loose and I thought it would help keep the neck from stretching out too much. After my struggle with the tissue jersey I cut out a basic black shirt. I found a black cotton jersey sheet at the Goodwill and thought it was a decent material, very soft. I made the same jewel neck shirt, it's wonderful. It took me about 1 hour to make, no fussing to meet the pattern pieces it all went together beautifully. I decided not to add a collar band to the black shirt and instead finished the neck with a rolled hem stitch on the serger. I think this it my new winter shirt, its soft and warm. I had enough to make another shirt so I made a v-neck with long sleeves (the other shirts are 3/4 sleeve's). I really really like this pattern. I did a rolled hem on the v-neck shirt too, but it puckered a bit more than I wanted. It's a warm comfortable shirt and I'm already planing a few for more.

It was also time to get the last of the peppers from the garden. One of the gardeners in our community garden pulled all his pepper plants and left them in the garden to rot...so I took some more peppers and pickled the last of the vegetable from the garden. The peppers are great on sandwiched and in salads. I also found a recipe for Salted Cantaloupe Jam. I had made some Cantaloupe Jam from the book "Food in Jars" and I loved it. I thought the Salted Cantaloupe Jam sounded great. I bought a cantaloupe but it had to sit and ripen for a couple of days as it was very hard. I made the salted jam in my FreshTech Jam maker and it came out quite nicely. I was surprised at how different it tasted because of the salt. It really changed the taste, it was more of a woodsy and slightly sweet taste. I think it would go nicely on chicken or pork as well as on toast. 

Lastly I made another pair of pants for my husband. He wanted some wool pants. I found this nice balk wool at Scrap. It was about 5 yards of material for $10. I used 2 for the pants so that is a cheap pair of wool pants. I finished the pants this evening and my husband tried them on, he did not like that the pockets tended to stick out on the sides. Not sure why this happened or how to fix it with out taking the pants apart. I told him the flair to the pockets it has a slimming effect. We will see if the believes it or if he sends them back for me to "fix" the pockets.

I also had to go to the dump the other day and I found a box of photos. It's always sad to see someones life in photos tossed. Most of the photos were from a remodel of a 'Mary's Kitchen", but there were also several other remodel projects photos. Along with the remodel photos were several family photos, and photos of what looked like high school parties from the mid to late 80's. 

Some pickles and the Repair Cafe

 Dill Pickles

 Dill Pickles

 Dill pickles with Pink Peppercorns

 Pink Peppercorns

My garden is beginning to come alive. I did plant the cucumbers a little late but they are coming in really nicely, or at least at a pace that I can keep up with. The tomatoes are a little slow, I got some type to tomato that does not grow very tall. They are only about 24" tall but do have a lot of fruit on the plant. I think I messed up a little as I let a couple of sunflowers live in the beds and they grew really tall blocking out some of the sun on the tomatoes. Oh well live and learn. I also have a couple of potato plants and a couple of green pepper plants. As you can see my potatoes went from about 1/2" in size all the way up to about 6" in size, not sure if I just didn't water enough or if I pulled the potatoes out too early. I have tried potatoes several times and they always seem to fail for me. I think this is the last year I try potatoes. I will stick with tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers. I also made pickles for the first time. Last year I pickled some beans and they tasted great. So this year I decided to try to make some dill pickles. I used the recipe from Marisa McClellan first book "Food in Jars", it's simple and I have yet to have one of her recipes taste bad. I made a batch of the pickles yesterday staying true to her recipe, today I made another batch but instead of using black peppercorn I used some pink peppercorn that my brother gave me. The pink looks really nice in the jar with the cucumbers. I understand that the pink peppercorn is a little hotter and has a more spicy taste the regular black peppercorn. We shall see how it taste in a couple of weeks. I also used a lot of my tomatoes for a batch of lasagna, nothing tastes better than fresh tomato sauce in a dish. This week I will have to get busy preserving as I have a lot of tomatoes that will be ready very soon. 

Have you ever been to a repair cafe? Well neither have I till last week. I was very impressed and will be trying to set up a repair cafe in kenton next spring. It's quite simple, a bunch of people that know hoe to fix things come together for a few hours and help people that have broken items. It's all free, they ask for donations but it's not required. There are people that can help you with mending, or sewing on buttons to sharpening your knives...helping with your computer or fixing small electronics. I took in a 100 year old fan that we thought had shorted out. Well it had, but all it needed was new wires. Stan took the thing apart and rewired the fan, now it works like a charm. It will still cut off a finger if you get too close, back in the day they did not worry about such things as kids putting their finger in a fan. I mean look at the metal fan it could really do some harm when it gets moving. It's always better to get something repaired instead of throwing it away, at least in my opinion. One woman brought in a hair dryer, another person brought in an electronic keyboard, there were 4 other people with fans at this repair cafe. It's been hot in Portland so fans have had a lot of use here this year. There was even a person doing simple bike maintenance and repair. I think this is such a cool thing for Portland. RepairPDX.org does repair cafes all over the city. Another cool thing about this SE repair cafe was there were a couple of young kids about 15 or 16 that came with adults, they were put to work on simple items that needed repair. They were great, if they ran into a problem there were adults to help walk them through the process of figuring out what was wrong and how to fix it. I think this is a great way to get kids volunteering to help the community. And the fan works great now, i do have to fix the front as the GE logo is not straight and that will drive me crazy.  

Vintage Apron

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Sew Mama Sew. I had signed up to get a message on different challenges or submissions they may want from the sewing community. I was not chosen for their most recent request for submissions to make something for the kitchen. So since I had this vintage apron pattern out on my sewing table and have been waiting for a reason to make it, I challenged myself to get it done.  The pattern is a Simplicity 4868, a bib apron with a pocket. I have an apron from this pattern that my great grandmother made years ago and I wore that apron till it fell apart. I have the pattern in large, medium and small, I guess my great grandmother loved this pattern too. 

I had pulled out the pink fabric to cut out the apron several months ago but never got around to cutting out the pattern. Once I started to lay out the pattern pieces I realized I did not have enough of the pink fabric...I dug into my fabric bins and came up with this blue fabric that is printed with a cute Country Fair type of scene. 

I completed the apron in less about 2 hours, I did sew the back strap on upside down at first and had to take it off. I also had some problems with the way the back tie was connected. I think of this as a trial run. Now that I know where I had problems, I can make it again.  I will also play around with using different fabrics for the front and sides. 

I love wearing these type of aprons with a summer dress that doesn't have pockets. Or maybe wear it when I'm up in the community garden. The skirt is nice and full so it would hold a lot of vegetable. I always forget to bring a container with me to the garden and often end up filling my skirt of top with my bounty. I have always liked aprons that have a full front and of course POCKETS. Next time I make this apron I will put two pockets on the front. 

I forgot to tell you about the Tula Pink Quilt I completed on New Years Eve. I bought a jelly roll of Tula Pink's fabric line called Moon Shine last spring. I really loved the  colors and the designs were quite cute. When I received the jelly roll I drew a blank..I didn't know what to do with it, so it sat in my studio for about 6 months. I looked at the patterns and kept thinking what could I make that would look amazing. I finally stopped looking and jumped in. I cut all the strips into 4" squares and started to sew them together into 9 patches. I thought I would add a binding around the blocks but once I had the blocks completed I was inspired by all the color. I decided to sew all the blocks together kind of like a postage stamp quilt with larger squares. I can not imagine making a large quilt with 2" squares, maybe one day I will make one. Anyway, I completed the tip but hit a road block when I could not decide what to do with the backing. I didn't want to go buy any more fabric (I have a lot already) so I dug through my stash to see what would match. I found some bright turquoise fabric that I felt matched nicely, and since I had some 4" squares left over I made a line across the back with a 9 patch as an accent lower on the back of the quilt. I then left the quilt unsure what to do with the binding. I found some bright pink fabric at my favorite craft store Scrap. I have talked about Scrap in the past, they have fabric for about $2 a yard. If you are looking for some inspiration it's a great place to visit. I bought about 10 yards of a bright pink cotton that I used to make my Western Christmas shirt this year. I thought the pink was a nice accent to the quilt and used it as the binding. I quilted it with simple straight lines following the squares. I used a walking foot on my home machine finally finished this lovely gem of a quilt. My husband says it reminds him of sunshine. It's bright and I use on my lap while we watch movies during these cold winter months. I'm getting better at quilting on my home machine as long as the quilt is not too large. I still have a king size quilt that I have to complete for my sister, but that will have to be done on the long arm machine up at Modern Domestic or I will have to pay someone to complete it for me. It's next up on my to do list as it's been sitting in my studio ready for over 6 months. 

Some leggings, a shirt and a quilt back

I love my light up Santa, if I could I would leave him out all year long I would, he always makes me smile. I completed several projects last week. My new goal is to do one thing every day. One day last week I spent on the internet choosing health care...that was a drag. So I had to get into the studio and make something. So I made a couple pairs of leggings for my husband, he likes to wear long johns under this jeans during the winter months. I bought him some silk long johns a few years ago, but he can only wear those so many times a week. These leggings are a little thicker and may be just a little warmer...at least he thinks they are. As you can see I did a zigzag stitch in the waist band. It took me about an hour to make both pairs of leggings. I'm going to Joanne fabric this week to look for some grey or red material to make a couple more pairs for myself. I love these leggings and as I said they are soooo quick and easy to make. I then finished the backing for the my Tula Pink Moon Shine quilt. I used the left over squares with some nice turquoise material that I found in my cupboard of fabric, I think the turquoise goes nicely with the bright Tula Pink fabric. This week I hope to put the entire quilt together and quilt it on my machine at home. I pulled out my Christmas Fabric in preparation of making a couple matching western shirts for my husband and myself. I was thinking of the grey or red for the base of the shirt with the Michael Miller Holiday Break fabric as the decorative yoke. I love this fabric it's very cure. 
I also finally tried to make a fabric basket. I have seen these on so many blogs. Ladies make the baskets to put in sewing rooms and fill them up with small scraps of fabric or thread destine for the trash. I have never made one before and found a nice tutorial on SewMamaSew during the handmade holidays posts the last few weeks. I like it but I do not think I will be making any more for my studio but I think I will make a couple to hold cookies as gifts this holiday season. During the winter months I like to wear long sleeve t-shirts under large sweaters. I tried the Alabama Chanin long sleeve shirt from her last book "Alabama Studio Sewing + Design". I used some cotton jersey that was not very stretchy thus the shirt is a little tight. I want to make it again because I like the flare in the sleeves. I think I have to do some adjustment to the bust, as that area was a little tight too. The fabric I used to make this shirt was some scrap that I bought at a thrift store so I have no idea of the actual content of the material. It was a white piece of material but I dyed it blue with a batch of fabric I dyed last summer on vacation. I really liked the color and was hoping that the shirt would work on the first try....it did not. I may just back to the Jalie 2805 pattern as I have made several of these t-shirts and they all fit really well.  

A Quilt, some Tea Towels & my Bags

I have one quilt that really got me to love quilting. In the early 90's I was taking a printmaking class and decided to start printing on fabric, it was cheap and I had access to a lot of cheap fabric at the thrift store. Paper was getting too expensive so I figured that fabric was better because I could use the printed pieces in a quilt. This red & pink quilt was what I made in that class. I screen printed some images that I found in various clip art books as well as printing actual clothing such as the bra and the  teddy. I have had this quilt on display in my house some place since I made the thing, I used it often to stay warm while watching movies. It reminds me that all you have to do is sew scraps of fabric together in ways that appeal to you and you have a quilt. I did not follow a pattern, I did not match up corners, I squared some of the blocks after I made them only to make them all fit together. I love this quilt. Three years ago my husband took this quilt with him when he went to San Francisco to help built a living space in a warehouse for a friend, it kept him warm. I always think of this quilt as my crazy quilt because I mixed so many pieces of fabric together, wool, velvet and cotton,  I stitched some cute ribbon and did some little embroidery on this quilt.  
My tea towels from Spoonflower arrived. When they arrived they were a little stiff and I was afraid that they would not be absorbent. I hemmed the edges with a simple double fold hem and washed the fabric, the fabric softens up nicely. The test of how absorbent they are will come tomorrow on Thanksgiving when we cook, eat and clean up.  I think over time the linen cotton canvas will soften up quite a but and make this wonderful kitchen towels. I'm thinking that a nice fat quarter of a kitchen themed fabric would make a nice tea towel as a Christmas gift. 
I also saw my bags for sale in a bookstore in downtown portland. I was down there buying a used copy of Fabric Surface Design. I can't praise this book enough, it's full of all types of printing, dying, stenciling and stamping techniques on fabric. It's a great reference book for any one that works with textiles. I'm looking forward to trying several of the processes in the book. I had the book checked it out from the library and after 2 months they wanted the book back...I had to buy my own copy. 

Skirt and another Quilt Top

 
I finally completed the Facet Skirt from Alabama Chanin. This design took me about 3 months, I kept putting it down because the pattern was so detailed. Cutting out all the small designs took me forever. I do like the beaded detail. I used size 8 clear glass beads to accent the design. the breading was the easy part. I want to bead all my clothes now. If you look close at the first photo you can see two of my cats watching me with interest as I took photos in our backyard...it was very cold!

I finally cut into my Tula Pink jelly roll pack that I bought several months ago. The collection is called Moon Shine. It's described as a "fantasy camping trip full of mystery and wonder". I bought a roll of 4" strips, there were 27 different strips. I did not know what I wanted to make but I loved the fabric so I bought it. I thought some triangles would be nice but then sewing all those small parts was not how I wanted to spend my day. So I decided to cut everything into 4"squares. I sewed all the squares into 9 patch then sewed everything together. My husband  looked at it and said it looks like sunshine...it's so bright and colorful. It's 50" by 60", i'm  not sure if I will quilt this one on my home machine or make this a tied quilt. I have some lovely turquoise fabric for the backing.