Oh yeah, I’m livin’ the life …

So I had three things to tell you all today, and when I stopped and thought about them I was very amused. My three things are (1) organic vegetables, (2) a print from an independent artist and (3) something I just made. You can’t say I don’t do what I preach, er, ramble on about on here.

Organic Veggies: At the moment I’m super crazy excited waiting for my first home delivery of organic vegetables. A friend who already has been doing this for some time swears by Greenling for their produce. They are supposed to be awesome for veggie quality. I got two of their “surprise” baskets. The local basket has an unknown variety of seasonal fruits and vegetables from farms in the area.  The other one is the “artisanal basket” with a surprise variety of breads, meats, cheeses etc. from local shops. I don’t know what I’m getting, and I just love that! I have to admit that although I like the organic part, I’m actually more excited about the surprise element, and the fact that I don’t have to go to the grocery store.  I used to love getting home delivery of groceries in Manhattan.

Art Print: The art print is one called Bear Snug (#214 from March 1 ,2008) from Nut and Bee. What, you’ve never stopped by Annette’s stationery shop?  You really should. Her illustrations are some of the cutest I’ve ever seen, and I love checking out her 3x weekly postings of new Sketchbook Sweeties (her name for her drawings). Check out the Whirlipig and the Drama Llama. You’ll succumb to the spell too.

Kitchen Curtain: In addition to all those WIPs from yesterday, I did actually finish one thing, if only because it was the easiest thing.  I have this wierd spot in my kitchen where the 1970s builders decided to put a countertop for some sort of breakfast nook, I assume.  It would have made about 1000x more sense to put cabinets there, but apparently builders and architects can’t be bothered to be, you know, practical.

So I’ve put up 2 shelves (well, my dad did) and made a curtain to hide the area below.  Now it can serve as additional storage without just looking messy.  Plus, I love the stripe.

My mom had a GREAT idea for making this.  I got a pair of shorter pre-made curtain from Target to do this, and she suggested that instead of cutting off the extra at the bottom I should just fold it over so it’s the right length, and just sew in the rod pocket in the middle somewhere. Then you just sew down the sides. If you use a loose enough stitch, you can pull out the stitches later and reuse the curtains! FAB.

I <3 fabric

Good day for fabric! I’m generally excited about fabric and nothing is more interesting than new fabric techniques & types. I do love exploration of new stuff.

FIRST: in my wandering I discovered the wonder that is Ah! Kimono, which is a site that will sell you pieces of fabric from kimonos. I received my first package of fabrics (<– over there) with a lovely note this week. These are all green-hued, about 9″ x 9″ and I think (totally not sure!) they’re silk. Let me just tell you that my photo does not do these fragments justice. They’re beautiful, and have awesome texture and sheen. One is pebbly and rough and thin, another is thick and silky…

Having a weakness for fabric, I joined Ah! Kimono’s quarterly fabric club. I did that so that I wouldn’t be able to choose what colors or styles I get. I have a bad habit of picking the same things over and over, and I thought this would be a great chance to get something new and unexpected to play with. What will I do with it? I don’t know. I have an idea about a skirt, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

Also! SECOND. I got this book in: Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein. Very nice. I’ve looked through it about 5 times today since I got it. Fabric painting is something I’ve done a little, but technique and materials was sketchy for me. This clears some questions up, while giving me new ideas about things to try for decorating fabric. Like dyeing fabric with rust, that’s a new one. Got plenty of materials around here for that idea.

I ordered the book because I was curious about some techniques I saw reading a recent issue of Cloth P aper Scissors that I picked up (not the current one, the one with the yellow birdhouse on the front). If you haven’t seen it, it’s a lovely mixed-media magazine from Quilting Arts, seems like a nice bridge between sewing and painting.

So clearly I’m not doing well on the “fewer things to do” classification of life, but hey, I don’t actually have any fabric paint right now, so at least I can’t hare off to do it right now. The kimono fabric, on the other hand…

Embroidery Day!

Today I’m dragging out some old, old stuff.  Many years ago I got interested in embroidery and went after it with my usual obsessiveness.  I think I like it because it’s really the first crafty type of thing I ever did.  I started this one embroidered bib when I was maybe 6 and finally finished it when I was about 22.  I’ll find it sometime and show it to you.

I did these 3 embroidery pieces when I was 22 or 23 years old.  Ever since then it’s just been stored, doing nothing. You will see I have a certain style - I like organic-ey, rounded shapes, kind of like vines.  I love those shapes, it’s so very much fun to draw and sew!

This next blue/green piece is my favorite of all the pieces of embroidery I’ve done.  Looping vines and 2 kinds of flowers.  I don’t quite know what I’m going to do with it, but who knew I had enough patience to do the satin stitch on those petals!

This last is a foretaste of my last show-and-tell project today … I love the scrolled look of the embroidery.  More curved shapes!

Finally, I had three pieces of Holiday embroidery in the pile that I’d apparently originally intended to be pillows.  I decided they would be one of my projects to finally get done when I reorganized.  I can’t remember the details of what I was going to do originally, so I got to make it up again.

So … here’s my Xmas pillows, in April!  Don’t laugh!!  It’s a 10-year old project finally done!!  I think they turned out nicely, kind of like presents, even if I do have to put them away immediately.

Seriously, regardless of the theme & decoration here, I still faced some sewing fears!  In this case, the red fabric is a really shiny satiny material, very slippery - festive!  I usually avoid this kind of thin, slippery fabric, and this was a good opportunity to grit my teeth and sew with it anyway. I also avoid buttonholes like the plague, and I had to make buttonholes for the envelope closure, and because of the fabric I had to use stabilizer in it.  But I prevailed.