Saturday Stumpwork

First posted at Kay Dennis Stumpwork

Just a quick peek at some gorgeous stumpwork. It is a 3-d piece based on the knot gardens by Owen Davies.

First posted at Kay Dennis Stumpwork

This is a closer peek at one of the inside corners. Love it. It is amazing what can be done with a needle and thread.

First posted at Kay Dennis Stumpwork

This "stonework" sun on the outer brick wall with its cushion of hydrangeas underneath make me smile.

Vintage Children's Corner

Available on ebay

"Jeffery" is an old standard of Children's Corner patterns. I am not sure if it is still in print or not. I still have it in my stash though I haven't made one in a long, long time. It used to be my go-to for baby boy gifts. It is a classic style.

So classic that here is Baby Hank wearing the Jeffery I made for my Godson, 21 years ago. It is smocked with Ellen McCarn's Stick Horse. The romper is made using Imperial poly/cotton microcheck, lined with white Imperial batiste. All still available today.

Oh, how far we've come. That yoke could sure have used some German interfacing. I also have a tendency to use smaller piping now. I remember being so proud of stitching on the navy blue buttons with red thread. I thought I had hit the pinnacle of design choices. It didn't take much to tickle me. All that aside, our prince is a cutie in a vintage treasure.

Thank you, faithful reader, for all of the emails inquiring about the babies' transition abroad. I think they are all finally settling in. Princess has turned into a full fledged toddler with all of the fun and challenges that brings. Baby Hank has taken the change in stride. Mommy says he is growing like a weed and the dog, aka Car-car, is lapping up the fenced in yard. She can hardly get him to come inside. Lastly, Mom and Dad have finally recovered from a wicked case of jet lag. 

My shoulder is slowly getting there. It has three weeks to be "Done". I've got places to go.

Sometimes Bigger is Better

 

For most toddlers, eating is messy business. Like this little one. No this isn't Princess, but she gets just as messy. I amazingly don't have a photo. It isn't always easiest or possible to strip her down every time she ate and I got tired of soaking her clothes. So another solution was needed. I went searching for some BIGGGG bibs that weren't plastic. She wasn't a fan of the long sleeved bibs.

Wicked Big Bibs to the rescue. I found them while searching on etsy. I bought just one to see how it would work. For a bib they were a bit pricier than I could pay to buy several, so I used the one I did purchase for a pattern and then went went stash diving.

This was the result. I just stitched a sandwich of two cotton prints with one layer of thin batting in the middle. Trimmed it all with bias binding and stitched Velcro to the neck. Now Mommy has several for home and at least one to keep in the diaper bag. The men around here kept calling them welder bibs. I didn't care, they did the trick.

Sorry for the poor picture, must have been taken with my phone. If you squint you can see the legs of the bib reach over her knees

as well as over her shoulders. The next batch I make I will use heftier Velcro. All I had in the cabinet was soft Velcro. I thought that would be best against her neck but it makes it too easy for her to tug it off. Spaghetti is still eaten half naked but it works great for most meals. You could use purchased bias tape but I preferred the self bias.

Not very glamorous sewing but necessary. Now onto some smocking!

A Little Eye Candy

first posted by FrancesSuzanne

You have already heard me lament over the fact that I wasn't able to do any Easter sewing, but thank goodness others did. Found this sweet, sweet bishop while cruising through Flickr.

first posted by FrancesSuzanne

Nothing over the top, just sweet and pretty. You can't ask for more on a beautiful spring day. Nothing more just a little eye candy for you.

Have You Drunk the Kool-Aid?

Have you taken the plunge into the newest time sucker? AKA Pinterest? I think I would almost try to be kind and say "Don't do it!" but it has a sweet seductiveness to it like the smell of warm chocolate chip cookies, except I think you can resist the cookies more easily.

I'm not going to get into the conversation of should you pin or shouldn't you? I have received a few emails asking me what I think of the bru-ha-ha of pinning vs not vs copyright vs etc etc etc. If you know me very well, you will know that I don't have a horse in that race. Maybe it is because I am not a designer. I just feel like if I have posted a picture on my blog then it is out there already. I can say a thousand times, don't lift my pictures; but we all know that not everyone follows the same honor code as I might. There is even a Pinterest Etiquette. Some of it is common sense but we know that sometimes common sense isn't very common at all.

graphic from Positively Splendid

• I will say, if you do "pin it" give credit where credit is due. There is an option for adding a text caption to what you pin, even though almost all of my photos are "marked" give a shout out to the blog in your text, or what you liked about the item you pinned. 
• Pin from the original source. If you are trying to pin one of my tutorials, open just that post (by clicking on the post title) and then pin. If you pin from the main page, it will bring the searcher back to the main page and they may not know how to search for that tutorial about French seams.
• Also, check out a pin before you "re-pin." I have been guilty myself of quickly repinning without checking. Sometimes the link doesn't work, goes to a dead end site, or to be quite honest, is lame. 
• If you pin a recipe and or idea, try it and find out it is nasty...delete it! For instance, there is a recipe for potatoes. You may have seen it, it is a whole peeled potato sliced really thin but kind of left whole and then baked? NASTY! The time it took to slice that potato into paper thin slices was so not worth the results of dry, chewy potatoes.
• Follow those with similar pins, you will get even more ideas you don't have time execute.

graphic from Positively Splendid

• Whatever you do, don't pin from Google images or from a tumbler site. It NEVER leads back to what you are pinning without a lot of lost time searching through pages. I waste enough time there, don't make me hunt for that darling idea through pages and pages and pages. You see I am like a bloodhound, if I have scrolled through a half a dozen pages searching for something it becomes like a challenge. A little switch goes off in my brain that screams "I will not be defeated! I WILL find it!" Two hours later and still no luck. Aggravating!!!
• Also, don't clutter up my screen by copying the ENTIRE text into the pin description. I often look at Pinterest on my phone. You are just making my time fly by when I have to scroll through all of that text on my 2" x 4" screen to get to the next pin.
• Unless you want all of your facebook friends to know what you are up to, log into pinterest independently. Not through facebook. I waste as much time as everyone else, I just don't feel the need to broadcast how I waste my time by having it show up in the facebook newsfeed.

Enjoy Pinterest for what it is, a place of inspiration. I have used a lot of ideas, recipes and shopped from pinterest. It was great at Christmas for my three girls. They pin things they like, I purchase. Kind of like how they used to go through catalogs as kids and circle the things they liked. I am assured it is something they will enjoy or need yet it is still a surprise.

Pinner beware though, at times it will make you think that everyone's refrigerators look like

Pinterest

this on the outside and

Pinterest

this on the inside.

Instead of the electric science project that it really is.

Pinterest has a tendency to make you think that other pinner's homes are straight out of a magazine, their children are polite and that they wear pearls to cook dinner. It is a lie! No one posts pictures of reality only what they wish was their reality.

Not everything on Pinterest is the bees knees. Just as there are some really cool, beautiful, darling things on Pinterest; just like everywhere else there is some fugly there too! Some things that make you tilt your head and say "huh?" For the most part, there is some wonderful things to discover.

Follow me on Pinterest, see the button on the top right column. See you there!

A New Normal

 

Life is much quieter these days. The great exodus took place last week.

I will have to go buy a suitcase in order to go visit. Not a suitcase left in the place. This doesn't give a true picture...

I could have sworn it looked more like this.

Princess had lots of fun trying to undo everything Momma did as she prepared to depart. I hear that is a trend that has not changed since they arrived at their destination.

Baby Hank seemed to take the whole thing in stride. Save a whopping case of jet lag, he has taken the relocation much better than Sissy has.

I took my time last week wallowing in a good case of separation anxiety. Everyone needs a good pity party every now and then. Yes, I know there is email, Facebook, Skype, Face Time and Tango. Trust me when I say it doesn't take the place of hearing "where's Mimi?" every morning. We will adjust. I have a visit planned very soon. I am a mom who needs to see where her kids lay their head at night.

I do have lots of sewing projects piled up, my shoulder is slowly allowing me to get back to normal. Operative word is slowly. (FYI protect your rotator cuff!) Yesterday and today I have been plowing through the mess in my sewing room. Why is that the dumping ground for everything just because someone doesn't know where it goes? And when you are working with your non dominate arm, it is even more of a process. Oh well. Needs to be done.

On a happier note, I had a little happy arrive in the mail last week. Marilyn over at Pink Martinis and Pearls hosted a giveaway a few weeks ago and shock of shocks, I won! It was a bright spot in my week. If you need a great cookie recipe, hers is the best. I use it all the time.

Off to sort, move and tidy a bit more. I will be back much more regularly now and hopefully with something to show for my time. As always faithful reader, thank you for the emails of good wishes and concern.

The First Egg Hunt, Ever!

I am sure that other children may have participated in an Easter Egg Hunt before, but you sure couldn't tell it by the nine adults standing around our front yard last Saturday. I have pondered that few precious minutes of watching this child hunt Easter eggs all week. We stood around and delighted in every move she made and giggled like kids ourselves. A moment of pure joy. Baby brother? Slept through the whole thing. Little did we know he was coming down with a bug. Next year will be his time.

So sit back and enjoy the First Easter Egg Hunt ever held and of course the only child smart enough to accomplish the task. Ever. We aren't biased or anything.

No one was left out and the dog, known by Princess as Car-car, wasn't about to miss it either. He scooted out the door before anyone could catch him.

"I am not really sure what this is all about. Y'all seem awfully excited though."

Obviously the dog is going to play an important role in this "hunting" thing. He had to sniff every egg before it could be gathered. Mommy helped too.

"I think I get it, let's do this thing."

See how deftly she grasps that egg? I told you she was smart. The egg is lifted so gently right before you hear it "crack" after it hits the basket. Thank goodness we were getting ready to devil them for dinner right away.

 

"Come on Car-car, there has to be more." See how Car-car is so keenly sniffing out the eggs?

"Mommy, hold that basket still while I gather this one."

"Look how many I found! I have no idea what to do with them now."

"That was fun, lets do it again!" And we did.

Before you ask; yes, I made her dress. No, not this year. My shoulder prevented any Easter sewing this year. Princess is wearing her mother's Easter dress from 1985. A simple Children's Corner Lee smocked with Ellen McCarn's Sundress Bunnies. It is out of Imperial broadcloth with a teeny smidgeon of lace around the collar. It was all I could afford at the time. Married to a 2nd Lt. in the Air Force and pregnant with our fourth child, I was doing good to purchase fabric for two dresses let alone much lace. It is a tad big in the shoulders but since little girls wore their dresses much shorter then, it was this year or not at all. 27 year old dresses don't handle having the hem let down very well.

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse into our Easter joy. Truly a wonderful celebration of all Easter is about.

The Easter Bunny Cometh

 

Hello again faithful reader. I did not return as soon as expected because the scheduled departure of the babies has not occurred yet. They are still here, their next scheduled attempt at departure is set for early this upcoming week. We have learned through the process of  this international move, that nothing moves quickly or in a linear fashion. Many fits and starts. The upside of that is they were still home for Easter. So everyone gathered again. It was a wonderful weekend with lots of laughs, smiles, giggles, good food and even better company.

A wonderful holiday with a smidge of wedding prep thrown in there too. A shout out to Vellum, a fabulous stationer in Kirkwood.

Sit back and I will tell you about it. Lots of pictures.

We celebrated with the springtime ritual of blowing bubbles. Do you ever notice bottles of bubbles for sale as much as at Easter time? I don't.

 

Easter eggs were dyed. Yes this was done by some almost nekkid. She didn't mind.

New shoes were admired.

Cookies were decorated. Not the best but not too horrible for someone still recovering from shoulder surgery.

 

Weary travelers napped.

 

Lots and lots of snuggles were shared.

New recipes were tried.

And handsome young men were admired.

All wrapped in sweet hello-s...

And tearful goodbyes.

It was a wonderful few days of spending treasured time together while trying to capture the  sights, smells and sounds of another holiday spent with loved ones. It was perfect.

There is still more Easter fun to share but I will save it for the next time. I hope all of you had a wonderful spring weekend as well, no matter how you celebrated.  Also hopefully some stitching is in my near future. I really miss it.