Pardon the Garden

Confessions of a lazy wannabe homesteader

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More quilting

July 16, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

harry-potter-quilt-web hp-quilt-detail1 hp-quilt-detail2 IMG_6991 IMG_7001IMG_7002

This season of motherhood… this not-quite-2 year old is so challenging. And so frustrating. And making it impossible to get anything done for more than 20 minutes, 30 max. But he’s so stinking adorable with how he tries to copy me. He tries to knit on his little dishcloth and he plays with the fabric and yarn and knitting needles  and wants to touch the buttons on my sewing machine. He attempts to copy the noises it makes as I push the pedal. He spins my wheel (and I’ve learned to just leave the drive band off so he doesn’t ruin my yarn in progress). And he’s basically claimed my old Canon PowerShot for his own, grabbing it and turning it on and trying to take pictures of whatever I’m taking pictures of.

Pictures have been few and far between lately, it seems. We keep everything nice put up out of his reach, which means I don’t see my camera out and don’t tend to think about it. I’m missing out on some priceless moments and I need to rectify that. He’s growing up way too quickly – he always has. I feel like we never got that “baby” stage – it seems like he has gone from newborn to toddler in minutes. Sigh. I need to get behind my camera more. I need to get back in the habit of taking photographic evidence of all this. I know I’ll regret it if I don’t, but sometimes finding the energy to fight with a toddler over why he can’t touch the Big Kid camera is just too much.

I’ve been sewing more quilts. A baby one for a coworker, and another hexie one at that. As soon as I found out she was doing her nursery in Harry Potter I had to make one. Had to. I wasn’t planning on making her anything – I feel like I haven’t worked there long enough to really get to know her and, besides, time is limited these days and I’d really like to dedicate my time to making things for the Little Mr. But she had me at Harry Potter – it was fate or something. I found some awesome Gryffindor fabric at Joanns, and I carried the bolt around with me to find matches to make the quilt. I snagged some grey with white triangles (to symbolize horcruxes), some burgundy and gold, and some really amazing grey with silver deer heads on it to symbolize Harry’s patronus. This is what happens when you have quilting skills and you’re a Harry Potter nerd, too. :)

I have some more fabric I picked up Wednesday for a picnic blanket I want to make for myself/my family. I’ll write more on that later.

 

Featured, Posts gifts, Little Mr, quilting, sewing

And now I’m 32.

July 3, 2016 Marie Leave a Comment

Today I turned 32. I feel older than that. I probably look older than that, to be honest. I have more gray hairs than I imagined I’d have at 32, and it gets worse by the week, and sometimes I worry I look like I’m mid 30s going on 60. Especially when I’m knitting in public. But eh, what are you going to do? The silver strands don’t take dye well at all, so even attempting to hide it just leaves me with some other color hair mixed with silver. So the only thing to do is just embrace it and hope that I can make natural grey look cute, I guess.

Anyway. 32. Most years I bake myself my own cake. This is a long-running tradition for me, and while it started out as a bit of a bitter project because no one got me cake… it has turned out to be a thing I very much enjoy doing. There’s something nice about making a special treat just for yourself, as a celebration of yourself and the one year older you became. This year, though, I took things a different direction. I had that new pie plate… and fresh raspberries in the yard… and we had nectarines in the fridge… Pie it is!
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The thing about pie, in this household, is that I’m the only one who eats it. (Well, the little Mr does, too, but he’s easy to hide it from). So literally there is no one else in this house that I have to share it with. My pie crust skills needs serious work, so it’s a bit messy, but OMG is it GOOD. Summer in a pie, right here. Maybe birthday pie is going to end up being the thing I do, instead of cake. After all, pie has fruit so it’s instantly healthy, right? No? Oh well. Worth a shot.

So after all the pie making, I spent today locked up in my craft room to sew. First up, I finished my sister’s wedding quilt (and I’m hoping my sister doesn’t know about this blog, or if she does she has sense enough to just avert her eyes and move on to another website so there aren’t spoilers… consider yourself warned, sis!)

wedding-quilt-detail wedding-quilt-finished

I’m so excited to have it finished! And… I kind of don’t want to give it away. It was a LOT of work. Do you see how small my sewing machine is? Do you know how hard it was to roll that quilt and get it shoved through that small hole so I could quilt it? SO. MUCH. WORK. But… I’m pretty sure I’m going to make another one so I can have one for myself. Different fabrics, of course, though I do love the black/white/gold combo so much. But, alas, without a gift quilt to gift I’d have to come up with something else and chances are slim to none that I’d get something made before Saturday. I decided to machine the binding, and I thought I might regret it but I don’t at all. It looks fine. It’s still handmade, regardless of how the binding is done. And it was way less stressful to machine it.

akita1

After the quilt was done, I decided I needed a new shirt. The thing with having a uniform for work is that I don’t need near as many clothes as I have. So I need a new shirt like I need another hole in the head… but I can make myself a new shirt to replace one of my commercially bought ones that is nearly worn out, so it’s a compromise. I’ve had this Akita pattern in my library since it was released, but never got around to it. The fabric is some mystery fabric I found for $1 at the Goodwill (score!) that was more than enough to make this shirt. I’m nearly done with it – all I have left to do is hem the bottom and sew on the neck binding. If all goes well, I’ll get it finished tomorrow morning and be able to wear it. It’s purely coincidence that it’s red and tomorrow is the 4th of July. I’m not exactly the most patriotic of people. Mostly, I just like the BBQs and the pie. :) But more on the shirt tomorrow when it’s done – I added a special little detail that I want tho tell you about when I have more time (and when birthday pie isn’t still lingering, begging for me to eat it).

Posts handmade wardrobe, Me, quilting, sewing, summer

Quilted and bound

November 30, 2015 Marie Leave a Comment

fox-quilt-finished

Finished this last week or so but I’m finally getting around to photographing it. The Little Mr’s quilt is done and ready to be wrapped up. ♥

Now I just need to get working on all the rest of the knitting that needs done ASAP.

Featured, Posts quilting, sewing

Little blocks for a little cradle

July 5, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

Christmas 1986 my grandparents gifted my sister and I with a wood cradle and matching chair for our dolls. We each had our own with our names written underneath so we knew which one was which. After we grew out of using them, my mom and dad tucked them away for later when we might have our own children. And now the little cradles and chairs are with my sister and I.

In between the OMGENTERTAINMEAUNTIE! moments I cut up a few 4.5″ blocks to make a little blanket for my sister’s cradle so my niece has something to use with her dolls. It’s nothing much – just some cheap broadcloth I had on hand and the patterned fabric is from a vintage pillowcase I picked up at the thrift store for 99 cents. It’s not perfect – the broadcloth puckered, and the corners of my squares don’t all match up like they should. I’m not great at this quilting thing, or maybe it’s just that I’m not so picky about it? Regardless, the munchkin will be happy regardless of its faults.

In other sewing news, I finally purchased batting and backing fabric for this old project. I figured it was about time to get on with it, so I’m slowly piecing that project together.

Posts quilting, sewing

Piecing together

February 27, 2012 Marie 2 Comments

I had a mini meltdown this morning. As I gathered my supplies together to work more on my quilt, I started doing the math in my head. Queen size quilts, by the measurements I found here, should be 88×96. I thought surely I had purchased enough fabric. But as I did the math I started to realize that maybe I was wrong, and that perhaps I would have to cut my quilt down to maybe a full or even a twin size. Which just wouldn’t do.

I started thinking of other ways to make the fabric work. After all, that was $40 I spent just for the tan fabric for the top of the quilt (as I have yet to buy the batting or the backing fabric). Sidenote: Thinking about how much this quilt costs when everything is said and done makes me cringe. I won’t spend $100+ for yarn for a sweater, and most of my clothes and home decor and whatnot is thrifted. Suddenly I’m now making a $100+ quilt for my bed. But I digress…

Turns out, after much fretting, I was perfectly fine. And the quilt is piecing together quite nicely.

Posts quilting, sewing

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