I've been planning a sewing retreat with Susannah Kate Rodgers for a few months, we are excited to finally announce Sew OK!
Please take a moment to read about Sew OK, we will be adding additional information over the next week, the event is July 17-19 and registration opens January 2, 2014. REGISTRATION IS OPEN.
Thank you all for your support, happy holidays!
Last year, I found out that Jona Giammalva was writing a book, I didn't know what the subject was but I knew that I would own it, I love her patterns for children, her blog, and I still miss her online shop. Finally, it was released earlier this year and I could not wait to get my hands on it. An adult skirt book! Yes!
I did not have time to make anything immediately when I received the book, I was headed to Quilt Market in Portland, OR soon and had other things to do like make silly kitty bags, ahh, fun times...
I sat in on Jona's schoolhouse to show support, here she is telling us how fabulous she is. Sadly, I didn't get the teary-eyed picture of her while she read a letter from a lady who wrote her and said that she was so happy to install an invisible zipper without any problems, it was sweet.
All of those skirts in the picture above are versions from The Essential A-Line. She explained that an a-line skirt is flattering on most everyone, she probably said "everyone" but, I don't want to hear it if you don't like it on yourself. Most of the skirts on the wall are made with quilting cottons, which is perfect for spring and summer, the skirts are lined, they are finished nicely. There's one skirt in the book for pregnant ladies!
Jona signed my book while we took a small break.
Well, the next week, I came home and whipped up a skirt in no time! My skirt is the basic version, I used a linen (by Anna Maria Horner) for the main fabric, it has batiste lining and a red invisible zipper, I love it. I have washed fabric to make more skirts, but I am not able to sew much right now with prepping the studio for operation and summer with aforementioned six year old.
6 year old photographer
Well, in that schoolhouse, I WON A BOOK, how about that? I asked Jona to sign that one, too so I could share with a lucky reader that is interested in making one of her skirts. So, here's your chance, five people that read this blog! Leave a reply in the comments telling me if you have made clothes for yourself before (what's your favorite pattern?) or if you want to take the plunge soon. You can tell me anything else that you want. Because of outrageous postage prices, this giveaway is for the United States only, please. I will pick a winner on Tuesday, July 2, 2013.
If you don't want to wait to get your book, Sew, Mama, Sew has them. Support that little shop!
5 things! 1. I just started peeling oranges last week, I had never done it!
2). After being pregnant, I must wear glasses, she took my sight, it's okay.
3). I have four sisters, I grew up with 3 & the 4th is 13, I was an adult when she was born.
ETA: I actually have 2 more sisters, later in the year, I'll talk about that...
4). My first memory is helping my mom make biscuits when I was 4, she used a Tupperware tumbler to cut the dough.
5). I can't stop thinking about QuiltCon! I booked my hotel the day the announced it last February! I enjoy artsy conventions and it's been a while! Woooohoooo!
taken with my iPhone, you can tell...
Each summer, the 3 of us take a few trips to my husband's parents' cabin. They go out year-round, but with a school-age daughter, we find it convenient to go when school is out of session.
E likes to wake up at 6:30 and watch birds feed, they get a lot of hummingbirds ("honey birds"), gold finch, and nuthatches. Roger & Sally drink coffee on the deck, talk, and read, E enjoys hot chocolate while she observes birds (and the occasional fox!), reads, but mostly, talks.
Jimmy wakes up in time to take E to breakfast and I enjoy sleeping in or just lounging around in silence.
Sometimes, after breakfast, Jimmy will float with his dad or brothers, lately, they take kayaks.
Recently, we played croquet at night, from 8:30-10:30!
Here is E, kicking back (meditating?).
I always bring a hand-sewing project and stitch away on the porch and watch E at the playground, it's fun when other children are out.
Time at the river is usually after lunch, followed by naps for all just in time for dinner.
Sometimes, we go to cocktail parties, and maybe I'll show up with sangria. Maybe we drink it all.
I've barely covered what all we do, but, this is the first time that I've taken pictures out there! We go out to just "be" and it's lovely to do so.
Ahhhh.
Ahhhh.
I'm going to jump right in and finish showing you some of what I did in 2010!
July:
Yeah, so I made this dress with my favorite dot fabric. The frock is long and should get over a year's wear.
It will get a lot of play because there are 16 panels that I sewed together there...
July was getting hot so, instead of working in the garden, I did more sewing than normally during the summer.
I made a little tote for my best bird, I may have started that embroidery in January, I do not remember.
And a little zipper pouch to go with the tote was very necessary.
She loves the bag! Hooray!
Oh and I embellished my tee.
August:
I *think* that it was August 1 when we made our birds. She will soon get a post of her own.
September:
Hmm mmm, all four in five days.
Ooh, yes! Lamb kabobs! We made some delicious tzatziki that day as well. Mmm. Happy Labor Day to us.
October:
Not going to lie to you right now, I may be ready to throw down with Bobby Flay, does he can jalapeños?
I like when I leave the room, some little person leaves there mark.
You already know about this...
For Halloween, I made Dorothy come true for mine.
November:
Suz needed an apron--who am I to decline?
and who am I to not accessorize?
As you may have noticed a small person lives here, she cannot reach the hanging towel in the bathroom, so, she has her own that rest on the countertop for her, and since 2010 was the year of embroidery, I had an obligation to meet.
December:
What else was I going to do with this fabric, I mean, besides eat it.
A teen bird gets a messenger bag
and I had so much time on my hands, I thought that I would start making these:
and these:
and this:
Yes, December 2010 lead the way for 2011, which will be the year of the bag.
You just wait.
It is really nice to reflect on the year's past through pictures, I am going to show some things that I made in 2010 in 2 posts as I am doing individual .jpgs. Yes, this post is the best kind of heavy...
January:
A birthday dress for our 3 year old
I loved it so much, I started another after our guests left that evening.
February:
Oh, this little thing? It was a class with a Holly that I know.
Of course, French General is on the list
March:
Bibs for aforementioned Holly's baby boy
April:
A Gilded Life meets Kaari Meng
Yes, again with the French General. This bracelet was sold to aid Haiti after the earthquake last year.
May:
I made a lot of trips to the zoo
June:
A tiny necklace for a friend's Stella
Yep, okra's in the garden
E & I started morning glories with an eggshell garden, look at how much they've grown!
Basil, we can't get enough of this herb, E would pick it right out of the garden and snack on it.
This month, I am working on a birthday dress for a girl who's soon to be 4, my Cosmo bag, and a quilt.
So, the second day of the workshops started too early (did I say that?)! I skipped breakfast and ate my backup cupcake--lemon is a fruit, so...
We again, started our day with Kaari; we made fabric flower bouquets and they were really amazing! Kaari had a table set up with a dozen or so fabric squares for us to choose, a small table with ~20 spools of ribbon, and an overflowing amount of embroidery floss for our project. We had a little piece of heaven that day, I was so overwhelmed, that I did not take pictures of the setup. Bummer, her shears alone deserve their own blog post, they had "French General" etched in them all! Mmmm. Oh, yeah, flowers... here's mine, I slapped it on this bag, it looks really good with the ticking!
In this photo, Shelley is wearing her first one and putting the finishing touches on the second, she is a machine, MecaShelley is what I call her now.
Next, we all attended a luncheon and the very first thing that I did was find and meet Amy Butler! That really made my afternoon! She was really nice and cheery and just happy to be there!
I know what you are thinking--yes, she's 6'10!" Okay maybe not that height, but, she is tall and she had on some major heels. I don't wear heels, so, that's all me. The lunch was great, the panelists were great, it was really a good time to sit back and just eat.
Our last class Shelley and I had together, it was with Charlotte Lyons, we made a handy travel tray. I use it to tote jewelry kits from room to room. It came together well, I will make a few more for gifts.
I had a lot of fun with my OK gals! It was fun to share a room with Shelley, she was compliant with my need for a warm room. She may have unwillingly lost five pounds, though! MecaShelley made all of my gifts, she is a sweetie!
Excuse the terrible lighting and editing--
this is a little sign for my sewing room and a box, I keep extra needles and thread in there for now.
I love my little journal! The burd pendant sits on a birdcage near the sewing machine, and those lil' legs! I don't think that she was able to squeeze all 8 letters for a name tag for me, I love it!
This is from the journal that she made, basically, we said this the whole weekend!
That was a nice weekend, but, I must admit, I had a margarita on my way home from the airport!
On a windy weekend in late April, 100+ females met in St. Louis for a workshops event hosted by Mary Engelbreit. Three of us from OK traveled together, Renee, Shelley, and myself flew to MO for a great adventure. Soon after arriving to St. Louis, we hopped in a car and drove to Mary's studio for a grand tour, I explored more than I clicked....
Next, we ate lunch, checked into our rooms and headed to the much anticipated Red Lead Paperworks.
Red Lead is run by 2 sisters who were chatty and funny, their store was swell.
One more shot...
I introduced my travel buds to Urban Outfitters (they have never heard of it!) and we hit up Anthro, too. We prepared for the welcome night where Mary greeted us, she's so excited to see me!
Here's a fella bella, Rachel V. and Shelley
Everyone made their own name tags for the event, here's my roomie and me with ours:
After the meet and greet, the 3 of us enjoyed a cupcake or two, it was a perfect end to almost any night not involving alcoholic beverages.
The next day, we wake up bright and early for breakfast at 7:00, luckily, Shelley and I had our own bedrooms & bathrooms, so we did not have to get up before 6:00. Our first class was a charmant bracelet.
Our instructor was Kaari Meng, look at her name tag!
I ended up with both colors for the bracelet, they were just irresistible.
I had this gilded beauty signed by the author and contributor and mailed to my greatly missed bird.
During this class, Shelley and I sat a seat apart and magic happened. There was some snickering, talking under one's breath, and mild profanity, basically, we made a friend.
Priscilla is her name, her bling would make Lil' Wayne proud, she was hilarious and will understand the Mary J. Blige reference that is the title of this post.
After lunch, I made a glitter chandelier with Wendy freaking Addison, yo! I have been a fan of Wendy for about 5 years, longer than I even knew who Mary E was! That was such a labor intensive class, it was 98% cutting, I am not exaggerating. It was a handoff between an exacto knife and scissors, my fingers will never be the same again, neither will my sewing room where the chandelier hangs. I love it. Love it!
During that class, her assistant quickly became my life coach, she said that I was too anal or detail-oriented, she did not get far with me, she surrendered.
We ended that night with a fabulous dinner, wine, and dessert, of course. Day 3 coming up next!
Recently, Robin and I were able to attend a jewelry class with Shea Fragoso, Debbie Murray, and Kaari Meng in Dallas, Texas.
Shea and Deb are a mother-daughter combo forming the Gilded Life, they are amazing, talented women and have great hospitality. Also, they know how to serve desserts, lots of them. Until 2 in the morning.
The charm that the Gilded Life girls taught was breathtaking. The techniques were new to me and that made me feel adventurous.
Kaari arrived as we worked on our first charm and swept all of us off of our feet with this necklace.
This was a pleasure to put together. I originally did not attach the "shine" charm to the necklace because I thought that it may be to heavy, but, it is really beautiful all together. Aside from the class itself, I had a blast with the Texas mommas and my bird. Robin gave out lil' gifts (stamped fabric swatch w/vintage buttons), Heather A. did as well (thanks for the beaded charm!), and so did Shea and Deb (the initial necklace)! Thanks to all of you!
I received an extra gift from Robin, I am in love with the packaging.
It is a thimble, I love it so and I will use it once I can break the seal on the bag. It will take a little while longer to do that, by summer, I'm sure.
I had fun with everyone that night, especially Stacy "I can't sew" McGiness, who apparently does not realize that she is a Texas momma.
A few weeks back, we took a drive to Kansas City, MO for a barbeque trip, even though I am coming less interested in eating meat, the trip was still fun. Wee E had the most fun, I believe.
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