angry chicken

we are back and dirty as hell

We are tired and a bit burnt, but had a really great time camping with the girls. Delia ate about 2 cups of dirt and I forget the french press (I'm a snob) and really felt the coffee pain in the morning. I also forgot my camera. (swearing here) but, you know, I sometimes think that is a really good way to go. Then you enjoy it all and aren't always looking for the perfect shot. There was a bit of tent/lantern confusion (of course) and let's just say that eating unfamiliar chili made the close quarters in the tent very interesting, and that's all I'm gonna say about that. Here is a view of the lake from a tourist site, and trust me, it really was exactly like that. Sadie saw the water and said "Sadie in the swimming pool!" I hope she never loses the 3rd person thing, it kills me. Stephanie not only told us about this campsite, she lent us gear (thank you) as did my brother, who loaned us a titanium spork! Who knew there was such a thing?

Alright, no quilt Monday tomorrow. I'm up to my ears in beautiful aprons. The apron gallery will be done by tomorrow. It looks amazing. All the similar colors together are really striking. Also, the theme for August's Tie One One will be up Monday morning. I'm taking a nap now.

gone campin'

we are headed out tomorrow to Trillium Lake, near Mt. Hood, for a quick car camping trip,so I will see you all on monday. . .hopefully with nice photos and few tales of disaster. (tragedy + time = comedy)

some of your apron e-mails have been bouncing, I've been told. This is because my brother, who hosts www.kingpod.com, has a crazy-tight filter on the e-mail account. so, if your e-mail does bounce please try matern(at)comcast(dot)net. that should do the trick.

see you monday!

make your apron this weekend!

the tie on one "pink lemonade" apron submissions are due by the end of the day Sunday, so start sewing! This very pinky and lemony fabric here is from jess hutch's personal stash which I found while drooling over at the flickr vintage fabric group.

and not a lemonade apron here, but minute-maid (still a juice!) this lovely image of a vintage pattern (e-mailed to me from janet, thank you) has been added  to the photo album at tie one one, and my goal is  to move the whole photo album over to flickr, so then if any of you *need* to find or are willing to sell/trade patterns, we can have a resource-you can just leave a comment there (when I do this, which I haven't yet- it's on the list, man.)
And if you need a quick apron to make this weekend, go to a fancy schmancy kitchen store, (or better yet, a thrift shop) and  buy a dishtowel, and just sew some ribbon to make the ties, making the tails super long to tie in front. no hemming! now you have no excuse. ha!

 

what I'm looking at right now

fabric for a Christmas quilt, and/or tablecloth/aprons, you name it. But maybe just a quilt. this is mostly Hillary's fault from the fabric she got last week. I'm a big copy-cat here.

from a vintage crochet pattern book. I really would like to crochet this jumper for Delia this fall. maybe I can get some help from Kelly, who just posted the cutest dress she crocheted for Brynne. And must find shoes and tights like these! I really like this photo. The colors are too sweet and almost look gross together, in a good way. That specific blue on the shoes make me really happy.

miss Sadie, skirt pulled up, mini-loaf pan as shoes (brilliant!) and Delia's little toes make another appearance

I'm already getting excited for Halloween and am seeing so much I want from Christmas traditions-as usual. I might have to get some black pipe cleaners and draw or find some cute cat heads to glue on.

 

mail luv

I had so much fun making this bag for Hannah for her b-day, and really didn't need anything in return (it was a gift!) but got this lovely goodie package from her anyway-thank you Hannah! so many great things;homemade cards from her, very cool, and look at that beautiful wrapping paper in the background (and Sadie "helped" me open this all up, yikes!)

vintage apron pattern (!) and vintage FAB vinyl table cloth, ribbons, and fabric and a really nice blank book with a beautiful letterpress cover (now it's Sadie's. last time I ever open a package in front of her!) too nice. thanks Hannah and I hope your b-day kicked booty, looks like it did.

I also got an out of the blue package from Amy (of amyville fame) who found this amazing apron pattern kit in great shape and "thought of me" god, I love this whole internet thing sooo much. This is a Christmas apron kit that you sew and embroider-comes with transfers. thank you, it's so wonderful. and I really scored too, because I also got sweet note cards AND a necklace and stitch marker!

here's the necklace (sorry for the crapitude of the photo) but this is from her sushi line and I'm sure all of you already know about her AMAZING creations. These are so tiny in person, really amazing work. And they have also made an appearance over here st The Small Object's shop, with the peeps,and wow, Amy's tiny food with Sarah's peeps is almost painful to look at, it's so good.

 

happy baby book

I found a very cool japanese craft book at my local haunt a few weeks back. this one is called "for sweet baby" (isbn4-07-246385-X) and has some of the cutest sewing projects of the squealing variety.

wow-and I love that suitcase too!

must make felt beads right away-and I already have a huge embroidery hoop waiting to become this lovely thing.

there are four shoe patterns in this book, one for each season.

this would be a snazzy case for anything, not just for a leaky bottle that surely would get it all wet and stinky anyway. I really like the plaid on the ends and tiny doggy button. very nice. so, this is also a little incentive for some of my friends who are wondering about when to have that second baby (you know who you are. . .) you can make all these goodies (and forget how dang tired you will be all over again!)

quilt monday-inspiration

often when I go looking for inspiration, I can't find it ANYWHERE. but then, when I'm not looking for it, there it is. well, duh. I guess this is always how it goes. so, when I go looking for quilt inspiration, usually the last thing I should search for is other quilts, which I was again reminded of late last night. happily, Jocelyn Warner's wallpapers hit me on the head.

okay, these don't even look like wallpaper. I don't know what they look like. I love them.

I turned these last two images sideways-so I could see them differently. very cool (as in temperature) and pleasing to me. perfect images for the free-motion quilting thing I am into right now.

 

 

 

the wee box-that wasn't small

okay-so you may remember I got this box last week-

and the contents were of the"screaming and jumping up and down can't believe it!!!" variety. Of course, there is judy in all her glory (sadie hasn't met her yet, and may not for a bit) and the apple basket bag. I could go on and on here about seeing hillary's work in person vs. over the internet, but for the sake of brevity, I'll just say that although she takes a mean photo, it really can't do her workmanship justice. Really amazing to own these-thank you thank you!

she also tucked in so many other goodies. Her ability to pick out the exact things I would LOVE was uncanny.

hillary also sent a wee for grammie! here grammie is opening it-and was thrilled, as was pete to get his 'zine  (snakepit) which is now stashed in the depths of his "office/guitar room" otherwise I'd show it-

This is from a freaky vintage doll making book she tucked in and I need to make these right away. wow.

my own wee pin cushion, cool postcards, and holly cow, can you believe that cape pattern?? yes, you will be seeing this made up for miss sadie and delia very soon. I love this style hood too, as you can see here. . .

two aprons, lovely patchwork with rick-rack and the degas ballerinas on organdy-

vintage dress for delia and top for sadie! Wow. It almost feels silly trying to express how much this all means to me. A lot. A whole heck of a lot. Hooray for web friends, the internet, and the generosity of such talented people out there. I do strongly believe in web karma and hillary has it in spades. thank you so much, my friend!

mish-mash friday

It was a long night last night-or should I say, very early morning with delia-so this post is all over the place.  We went out to the farm again and met some family and friends to listen to music last night. There was a beautiful sunset and a rainbow that was so amazing it was silly. I thought sadie was going to have a little seizure she was so excited (I was a lame-o and didn't bring my camera. truly one of the most amazing sunsets I've seen in my life, and I have no images. curses!)

book illustrated by the wildly talented jen corace, written by amy krouse rosenthal 

you all know about this book already. .

also-I have been trying to buy these books (okay, need to interrupt my self here to tell you I am typing away and listening to a cat barf somewhere in the house) and can't get the dang chronicle website to work and am getting a bit pissy about it because thay are on sale (40% off, thanks for the tip, karen!) through today only.

and-we found out yesterday were were a bit, um, overdrawn. so that iced latte I bought on my debit card was actually $32, with the fines and all. awesome. but on a better note, I finally scanned all my vintage fabrics here and am so dang excited by this vintage fabric group on fickr, thanks kim and hillary.

Now I need to send links to craftlog's wonderful japanese craftbook site. And, I have been meaning to right about this for a bit. If anyone out there who likes reading ALOT of webblogs is not signed up with some sort of feed site, do it now. My brother told me about this, and I didn't get it, and ignored him (because he is my brother, after all) and now that I have bloglines up, my life has changed. truly, I am serious. It has saved me so much time and I am now able to read 4 times as many blogs (is this a good thing?), and see so much more because I know when sites have been updated and all that. I may be the LAST PERSON out there to do this, but if i get even one of you to try it, I will feel better. Speaking of being the last person to do stuff-how rad is flickr?? It's so fun "seeing" you all over there too! so happy I joined that party (thank you hillary!!)

my paintings say hello to you

okay-I am so happy to have my paintings up on king pod. Please take a gander and say hello to them. (they can hear you) To see the big veiws, you need to have pop-up windows enabled.
Now you all can see where I'm coming from with my large quilts.**update: these paintings are from 2000-2001 from when we were living in Seattle and I was showing in galleries up there, before babies and all that. I am hoping to make king pod a site for all my artwork-textile and other. I don't want you all thinking I did these last week-while making my apron. Ha!

I'm going to take a break from scanning slides for a bit and get to work on a sock monkey, or scanning fabric for the vintage fabric group, or make small quilts, or start some of my very tardy swaps, (or fill bib orders). where is my clone? Up to no good, no doubt. I will be putting up all my monoprints up on king pod in stages also. . .maybe in September?