This post is a bit top heavy with photos. Digital, so easy to just snap off a few hundred at a time.
I started out the year telling myself, no more yarn! and I have been pretty darn good about it all. Then I got cranky and said, "Finish your UFO's!" so naturally, I started sewing up a storm. The bad news is that I haven't been knitting much but the good news is that I'm getting around to making a lot of things I'd thought about for years.
Like a new apron. My old one was beyond description. It was pretty bad. I went to take a photo but then I though, "..do I really want to show the web what a yucky apron I've been wearing for YEARS?" Answer: No.
This one was made from a hand drawn pattern (on butcher paper no less stored in a manila envelope with a hand drawn illustration) that I picked up at the Sew-in"s RuMAge sale. Not bad at all. I altered it just a bit since I did not need adjustable apron ties. Easy peasy. I would like to make a few more.
One of my knitting friends is expecting her first grandchild, a boy so I just had to make some bath blankets. The last photo shows it mostly unfolded. You wash your child, put the little hood over their head and wrap them up. Dry. When they get older they run around and pretend they're Superman. It's a win-win situation.
Then I wanted another J Stern top. You can crank out one of these puppies in a few hours. I had a few things I wanted changed from my first try such as taking in the top of the front and back just a smidge. I folded a little dart in my pattern pieces and that took care of the gap that bugged me. Since it didn't affect the rest of the garment there were no other adjustments needed.
While I sew I get to gaze out and enjoy the view. I really do have an amazing sewing room with glass on three sides. Olive, the little homebody of the household has her special spot right in front. She has some flat rocks to enjoy the dappled sun and lots of unsuspecting critters rooting around in the ground cover to stalk and torture. She is a cat after all. They don't take prisoners.
KITCHEN AID
I am experimenting with making gherkin pickles. I have a vintage book that is really wonderful. The main challenge is reducing the pecks and bushels down to what I'm working with, a couple of pounds of cucumbers at a time (heirloom French).
BOO KAYS (AGAIN)
Whatever the birds leave me after they've worked over the sunflower heads I harvest and start up the next year.
The white gladiola just doesn't want to hang out with his buddies.
The Russian Sage has finally come into bloom.
A volunteer cosmos nestled down in the artemisia ('Sea Foam', if I remember correctly). I think the cosmos is called 'Bright Lights". I grew them years ago and they come up every year. Sometimes I transplant them but generally I just let them grow (usually in the middle of a path) where they germinate.
One of my stranger hydrangeas.
A heirloom hard shelled squash.
A trailing geranium.
posted by Earin Marybird @ 1:50 PM
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