Blue Day

It was a day for finishing blue projects.

It's been too long since Nora has had a new Gran B dress, and this gathered panel was so easy. Serge up the back, turn up the hem, and add ribbons to tie at the shoulders. Done. Of course, it took a month from serge to ties.

This postcard was for a birthday exchange. I can't remember why I had the piece of embroidery that shows up in the laptop cozy below. Maybe I skipped the first bit of embroidery and had to start over again. The piece of piping was from that project too.



The soft laptop cozy is a work project, a Martha Pullen design that I made with hand-dyed blue fabric and blue gingham. For some reason, it took me a couple of tries, well, maybe three, to get it together right, but here it is.


And the last blue - I started this tote during Kids Kamp to show the kids the steps. All it needed was the binding. It's my variation of McCalls 6130, with a water bottle pocket in the side instead of their pocket. They say it's a 60-minute project and it actually is, not for kids who are learning but easily for experienced sewers.

I love finishing projects and picking up a bit. Since I've been sewing downstairs during this heat, I had things everywhere. I went to the post office and sent off a bag, postcard, and baby bib. A good day.

The Last Holdout

Lots of folks around here are stitching out this Anita Goodesign Seeing Double table topper, but for a long time I decided to sit this one out. It seemed like a lot of stitching and cutting, and I had other things to do. Finally, though, I decided to give it a try.

The nice thing is that it's embroidered in the hoop, which means that all the quilting is done for you and when it's done . . . well, it's done. I stitched a panel here and there when I was around my embroidery machine and as it went together it got more and more fun.

The really nice thing, though, is that it's reversible, so when you flip it over you can have something entirely different.

I did mine in summer fabrics, but you could do fall/Halloween, Christmas/Valentine's or whatever you want. The only thing that needs to coordinate is that the thread color needs to be the same for top and bottom. And it does use a lot of thead. I went through an entire spool of the large 1500 yard Sulky.

The diameter is 26". I think this is going to be my go-to for wedding presents and maybe even for Christmas gifts this year. It's that pretty.

Early this morning I set up my machine for the center design and went outside to mow the yard. We had several days of heat combined with rain and the grass took off. It's been several days now with heat but no rain and I noticed that several of my plants are drooping. Watering next.

This Time and This Place

I was going to quilt guild with a friend and we stopped at her son's house. This was the house next door, and I was struck by the garden, with its stone work and its exuberance. Very pretty neighborhood - you should have seen the house across the street, like a small castle.

It's a good time for gardens. Really hot, but really rainy too. I don't think I've had such a nice garden since the Aberdeen days. Our water came from deep wells and there was a flat $10 monthly charge. I didn't have an appreciation then for conserving water - that was 25 years ago - and I remember one summer when I'd run the sprinkler all night on my little front yard garden. It was the prettiest garden I've had - until this summer. This is the first year for this garden, but it's filling in fast. I love to go out in the morning and see what's been happening overnight.

Some of my facebook friends were talking about Graeter's ice cream and one likes buckeye blitz. I usually have the sorbet but decided to order the blitz, with chocolate ice cream and peanut butter cookie dough and Graeter's chocolate chunks. Oh, my. Memorable, and it just seemed like summer. This particular Graeter's does a bigger drive-through business than walk-up, but I like the one in Steph's neighborhood, with all the seats full and people sitting outside too. I need to take Nora and Aaron again soon.

Overnight Guests

Nora and Aaron spent the night with me last night while Steph and Helen had a sleepover just down the street at Bridget's. It was way late, with way too much popcorn, when Aaron finally crashed. Aaron stays up with the best of them, then suddenly says, "I'm tired" and that's it for him. His little stuffie Harry went to bed with him.

Nora was good for a little longer, then she went to sleep with Raggedy Ann by her side.

Nora was first up this morning and she crawled in bed with me and looked at a quilt magazine, admiring colors and designs.

I hope that when she's older she will remember a Sunday morning with Gran B, looking at a quilt magazine.

This Time and This Place

This is the first okra blossom I've seen in my garden. Obviously there have been others, because there are two okra veggies on the plant. I'm not especially a fan of okra, although I like it, but I really like the bloom.

I've been quiet all week since I've been super busy teaching six girls to sew. My only project for myself was this bag, and it was from a kit at that, at least in the sense that the fabric and instructions were packaged together. The pink wasn't with the package but I liked it better than the green stripe-y fabric that was. The green stripe-y stuff was also the other side of the quilted fabric, and it does make a neat lining.

The monogram needed a little touching up with more dots. When the software recommends a range of sizes for a particular font, it's a very good idea to stay within that range. Enough said.

Last night was a lovely night to sit outside and listen to the fireworks that happen after the ballgame when the Reds are in town, and they were, and they won. I had some lovely cherries to eat and the pre-rain breeze was perfect. I wished, just for an instant, that I'd gone down to the riverfront, but really, sitting on my porch was just right.

Post Ecovillage

Three years out from the Ecovillage and I feel a little guilty.

I use the dryer sometimes, although not for heavy things like t shirts and sweatshirts. If I'd just get a good drying rack that would take care of most of the rest, but I haven't.

I have an energy-efficient furnace and a new water heater, but the only appliances with an energy star are the freezer and dishwasher. If I'd have researched the water heater ahead of time, I might have gone with an on-demand model, but there was water all over the floor and I felt like I needed it right then.

Recycling vs. trash? Pretty good, about 50/50, although I'm wondering if Rumpke is going to miss picking up the recycling today, once again. I take short showers and don't use hot water for washing clothes. But, there's my fabric dyeing habit, and that takes lots of water.

My low-grade guilt feels a little better after getting a personalized data sheet from Duke Energy. For both electricity and gas, it shows that my usage is way on the low side for houses of similar size with one person.

Of course, there's always the matter of "do I really need a house this size?" and the answer is "no." I really love it, though, and still plan to use the second floor for an in-home business. Maybe I could get that drying rack and do just a little better.

Gifts

How could I not love this gift? A box of 24 spools of Robison Anton thread, my favorite, with no duplicates of what I already have? 24 spools!!! A real treasure, and what fun to add them to my thread shelves.

It's been a tired past couple of days, and I'm in the mood for little projects, so I made these little gift-ies. The tops to the pincushions have been on my sewing table for ages and really just took a few minutes to finish. The bib is from a new Anita Goodesign collection, done entirely in the hoop in no time at all. I can combine the bib and any name in my software. This one was for Baylee, the babe across the street.

And this was a birthday postcard. I don't even remember how I did the bird fabric, but it looks like I might have dipped a pencil eraser in bleach. We'll say that's what happened anyway.

I have a new exhaust system that I didn't expect when I started out to the fabric store this morning. I had just left, going slow in the parking lot, when the tail pipe broke, leaving the converter dragging along. Mike, bless him, wired it up with a coat hanger so I could get to the Car-X across the street. I am grateful for Mike, grateful that I wasn't on the interstate, grateful that it's fixed. Grateful that the converter didn't need to be replaced and it was a reasonably inexpensive fix.