Idea 1

Next quilt

I have decided tjis is the year of the quilt. My mom has made ao many awesome quilts and i have participated a bit, enough that i am starting to feel lke i think in those terms. And maybe since i didnt become a landscape designer, the plan view mentality is emerging in an art form that was meant to be flat. Right now I am working on a top secret quilt that I will post in a bit, but as all projecters do, I've already got plans for the next round.

I went to the fabric store with Aly for the Christmas in august sale only to find merely holiday prints on sale. But we made lemonade nonetheless and after some heavy coercion from an attorney, I came away with this wheel of prechosen, precut (gasp!) fabrics. She bought a holiday one and the rules are that nothing gets thrown out. My new blog app for iPhone won't let me post two photos, so my idea for this quilt, the first draft idea, is in a separate post.

Sour cherries

I have wanted to make sour cherry jam for many summers because we've got a pitter laying around and most importantly, I tasted the most delicious sour cherry jam while an exchange student at 14 years in Germany. I order cherries from Tonnemakers (they don't normally bring tart cherries to market) and they had already pitted them! So, no pitter needed--which was definitely for the better. I made jam, cherry syrup for whiskey drinks. Somehow, I have already given away over half of the jam--how does that happen?

Rascal

What a rascal pants. The sewing machine is irresistible to Finn. I caught him red handed the other day fiddling around with some little piece, I think he's gonna need his own.

Ahhh landscape architecture

There is a beautifl plaza at the UW med research building in south lake union and all the grasses are huge and everything is blooming there. It us really a little slice of heaven.

In a jam. Busted.

I hate it when things like this happen. I had delicious hot peppers from the farmer's market, picked all the blackberries I could reach in our back yard, made delicious, spicy juice for Hot Pepper Blackberry jelly. And, I only had enough for one jar because you have to strain out all the fruit and just keep the juice. I got it all prepped and was a little lazy about my water bath, using some jenky metal rack instead of the real wire rack. Dropping the jar in, I heard a pop, followed by a big, spicy, dark red blackberry cloud that dissipated in the pot. But, I left it to water bathe nonetheless because I didn't really register what had happened and I thought maybe it just leaked a little. It broke and I lost all the jelly except for two tiny jars and about a Tablespoon that is in my fridge. I guess it will just be as precious as caviar, now. And I learned a lesson. Don't use a jenky rack that is not meant for canning unless you are super careful. And, don't use a jar that is normally an animal cookie jar that Finn bangs on and takes in and out of the car!

Napkin design innovation accident. Amazing.

I thought I had dialed in my napkin design but this weekend I got a little extra "help" from family members and an innovation has appeared. I wanted to make a set of napkins for a friends wedding shower and I had all the pieces sewn together, left a little whole in one side to turn them inside out and brought them to a family gathering to get some free labor in turning the napkins. The task was to clip the fabric corners that would make the napkins bulky once turned but one of my helpers actually snipped a whole new corner off to make his own whole to turn the napkin. When I got home and began to press them I noticed this and was puzzled but soon realized what had happened. I just thought, okay, two of the napkins will have bites taken out of them (which you see in the picture). But the further I got, the more I liked those napkins with the bites better. So, I went ahead and snipped all the napkins because it is way cuter! And, not to point fingers, but I think it was my brother Mat who I can thank for this design detail. Good job Matsky!

Back in action!!

Finn is now 16 months old and though I feel a bit harried most of the time, those feelings are overwhelmed by a stronger sensation: I'm back! I am squeezing in time for fun projects and Tyler is playing music with buddies (and sometimes me!) and Finn seems to be developing his own set of interests, too. It might be the summer sun, but whatever the cause, I am glad it's happening. This week I am going to do a couple more posts about home-made things that have been coming out of our house.

A new shirt!

I saw a really nice shirt on line and I decided it was so simple I could do it without a pattern. There are a few user errors here, but basically, it's doing the job. The fabric came from that batch of stuff that Annie, my Mom and I collected from the burnt out seamstress' house.