sewinsight

it's done!

  

I can't believe it, but it is finally done.  I started working on it here almost exactly 6 months ago.  Finished it just in time for one of the hottest days of the year so far, oh well.

I want to quickly say thank you so much to Daria for answering all my silly questions and giving me great advice, thank you for holding my hand through this first quilt.  Also to my blog buddies Kirsten, Leslie, Bex and Oiyi for your encouragement.  And Melissa, who's great quilt for Sam (and the jumping on the bed shot) were my inspiration.  Okay, I will stop with the thank you's, but this really is a great, inspiring community and I just wanted to say thanks.

On to my Friday...B & I are going to try to do some Friday Adventures this summer before he heads off to Kindergarten.  Last Friday we headed out on the bus to the ferry dock in downtown Seattle where we took the 35 minute ferry to Bainbridge Island.

We started the morning with a cappuccino, muffin and a cookie from Blackbird Bakery.  

Then it was off to Churchmouse Yarns and Teas, wow - what a wonderful store.  So many nice projects, beautiful yarns and really helpful staff.  I picked out some yarn for a scarf for Royal and a few skeins of multicolored yarn for some hats.  There was so much more I wanted to buy, but am budgeting myself and can always go back.  

buttons galore!

Then it was off to the toy store (a thank you for stellar quiet sitting while Mommy shopped in the yarn store. After that we walked to the Kids Discovery Museum.  It was fun, small, but we had a good time (we were the only ones there).  They had a great exhibit on the Blue Man Group with lots of pipes and ways to make music.  "Those guys are scary looking!"

After lunch we took a quick trip by Esther's Fabrics where they had some nice stuff I hadn't seen, but again it is small, a cute store though!  After blowing so much at Churchmouse I just picked up a couple of fat quarters here.  Look forward to coming back.  Then we booked back to the ferry, managed to catch the 2pm one back to Seattle.

One of the biggest hits of the day, the water guns (shark and dolphin) - and his new red Croqs.  We had a great water fight in the backyard when we got home.  Gotta love summer!

a great find

I've been doing a lot of knitting of late.  Finished a hat for B, similar to the first one I made for myself, but a different rim.  He requested the same color which surprised me, usually he likes everything grey or black. An easy pattern, went better this time, think I will make a few more.  The pattern is one available from Hilltop Yarn and the yarn is Waterlily color Bramble, a nice soft yarn to work with.

I have been collecting yarn, lots of projects I want to try.  I have also been checking knitting books out from the library so I can get a feel for them, then ordering the ones I like from Amazon.  So far have ordered two of the Stitch and Bitch books and Last Minute Knitted Gifts.  I love Joelle's look and am excited to try my hand at some of the great hats in there.  I picked up 5 skeins of different colored hand spun wool yesterday at Hilltop Yarn so I can do some different color combos for hats.  Getting a head start on the holidays (which is crazy, I know, but I am not a fast knitter - yet).

We went to my stepdad's 60th birthday party last weekend and I asked my Mom for my Grandma's circular knitting needles.  She couldn't find those, but gave me her knitting bag instead as she isn't knitting anymore.  What a great gift, there were tons of needles, straight single & double, flex and circular.  All our metric as we grew up in Canada but I made a list of what was in there so I know what I have.

Also in the bag were these pattern books from the 60's for knit doll clothes.  So cute!  I never had barbies, more into Legos, and don't remember her knitting these but maybe my Grandma did. 

If you are interested in any of the patterns below leave me a comment or send me an email, I would be happy to copy and send them out.

Ah the 70's...

On the quilt front things are moving along.  Finished the machine quilting, trimmed the edges, cut and sewed on the binding and now am slowly working on hand stitching the binding back down.  Have a feeling that will take some time, I have one side done so far.

Enjoy the sunny day!

Hungry?

Well now you are!  B & I went to Trophy Cupcakes the other day and I actually remembered to bring my camera.  So good, different than Cupcake Royale and I have come around to thinking they are better.  They are richer, denser, moister, and man they have a lot of frosting.  Maybe I need to do more taste testing, what do you think?

Yesterday after a morning client meeting, we met back at our house with a local mural artist Patty Makatura who had donated a Paint with Patty afternoon to the auction at B's school.  She has done beautiful work for a client of ours and I was excited to have her come and paint a shelf with B.  They had so much fun mixing colors and creating his new shelf.  

And then my new Gocco arrived in the mail.  I ordered it from Leslie's shop and can't wait to get started.  I ordered some extra screens, bulbs and inks so hoping I am good for a little while.  Thank you Leslie!

Been doing a lot of knitting and ordering knitting books from the library to see which ones I want to buy.  Loving it but do get pretty sore wrists/arms at the end of an evening.  Is that normal? 

I am off this morning to do the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure breast cancer walk with some friends, one of whom is a fellow preschool mom and is battling the disease right now.  Only a 5k walk, wish me luck! 

A day in Provence - Roussillon and Gordes

So I wanted to share a day in the life of a sightseeing family in Provence.  These are from the day we went to Roussillon and Gordes.  Our mornings in Bonnieux began with a delivery of hot croissants and baguettes to our door.  Smelled so good, you could smell them through the closed door.

First breakfast, cereal and fruit...

   

then because we were on vacation, second breakfast and some espresso (oh how we miss that Nespresso instant espresso machine, my espresso maker at home - which we use daily - is so much more work).

Then off to Roussillon, start the day by mailing some postcards,

Enjoying the local bounty,

Roussillon is known for its red-ochre and all the buildings have red stone walls like this one,

Love the cars, and yet another shot of B running in the streets,

Then we visited the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Senanque where they are known for their lavender.  Lovely gift shop, picked up some chocolate and a coloring book for B.  We even quietly went in the church and caught a few minutes of a service.

Lest you think it was all roses this trip, here is the reality of traveling with an almost 5 year old, do you see that pout?  I'm tired and want my ice cream, mommy.

Then off to Gordes, in search of Johnny Depp.  The town felt a little slick for me, it is quite popular with the rich Parisians and other travelers and felt it.  But there were some nice little spots.

 

A departing view back at Gordes, amazing the way they built it into the rock.

This one's for you Bex :)

And some quiet time back at home.  

weekend doings...

Had a great girls night with my good buddy who is moving back to San Francisco this week (I am so sad).  We had fun doing Ballard with dinner at La Carta de Oaxaca a great Mexican restaurant where I had Halibut Tacos and a margarita.  Great food, drinks, and atmosphere.  Then we wandered Ballard Ave checking out all the great shops, I picked up this so cute Japanese mug and a fun hat and bamboo t-shirt from Kavu.  Finished up with a stop in Market Street Shoes and cupcakes at Cupcake Royale.  Gonna miss you Sarah!

Saturday I hosted two families on a trip to a horse farm owned by my good buddy Andrea.  We have been friends since we were 12 and she now breeds horses.  Here’s a link to her farm.  This visit and picnic I made were an auction item at B’s school auction last spring and it was fun that he is friends with one of the little boys who came.  The girls especially loved the horses and it was the tractor ride that did it for the boys.  Big noisy machines, yea!

That evening after dinner we walked down to our little downtown (we call it the village) to watch a little baseball, play a little tennis and have some ice cream.  Loving that summer has finally arrived.

Saturday night I finished my first knit hat – so excited with how it came out.  Can’t believe I actually knit something (other than a scarf which somehow doesn’t seem to count) that I can wear.  Reduced stitches and everything!  Woohoo!

On Sunday we celebrated Fathers Day with breakfast at home, bacon, eggs and gluten-free pancakes – they were actually good this time (the Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free pancake mix).  I then dug into continuing to machine quilt B’s big quilt.  Row after row after row of parallel lines, spaced 1-1/2 inches apart.  Slow work, but my goal was to get the quilting done and I did.  Even got out to buy some fabric for the edge of the quilt.  Now I am all set to trim and sew the binding.  Then I can finally retire B’s crib duvet in favor of something that his toes won’t stick out from underneath.

Menerbes and Oppedes

 

 

family crafting

We were in the University District here in Seattle the other day (getting my glasses fixed) and stopped into University Book Store to kill some time.  Royal and I both went to the UW and met there back in 1990 so it was a fun trip back in time to go to the book store, see all the used course books for sale.  Good times.

I picked up some art supplies and discounted books for B along with some canvases which where on sale. When we got home he got busy with the paints:

What he explained to me (he is at that almost 5 age where he likes to explain things and has very distinct ideas of how something should be) that both paintings were of a house (the red one, see it?) and the left one is at night (the moon in the upper left corner) and the other is during the day.  Far more complex than we initially realized.

Over the weekend I also, finally, put the binding on his shark quilt, did it very quick and dirty, machine stitched it all, but quick and dirty was the theme of that quilt and I realized part way through the project on Sunday that I wasn't going to have time to complete it if I hand stitched it.  Good practice for his big quilt and fun to try the technique that was mentioned here for binding a quilt.

Finishing that, though not a big deal felt really good.  Combine that with seeing the beach quilt that Amanda showed in her post got me to thinking about a new quilt (yes I still need to finish the quilt for B, and I will, especially since he is getting far too tall for his crib comforter) that would work for trips to Zootunes and the beach this summer (if summer ever arrives in Seattle, jeez!) so I cajoled B into a trip to the fabric store and here is what we came home with.

We have been taking trips to the library recently and when there I have been asking B to pick a theme (some recent ones have been race cars, dinosaurs, dragons) and then we research and check out books for him related to that.  Seems a good way to focus him, gets him excited about the books, and learn about the library (I used to work in one, something appealing about organizing everything).  Here are some from our recent "dragon" theme.

We have also been loving the Nicholas books over here, Nicholas sure is a BOY and I like that he is an only child, though no big deal is made of it, but since B is likely destined for only-childom I like to find books where that is the case.

Lacoste

Despite it's horrible past (the Marquis du Sade, who sparked the term "sadism") we loved Lacoste.  It was definitely one of our favorite hilltowns.  Now it is very quiet, and I think we were there on an off day, mostly populated by the Savannah School of Art and Design and tourists. 

On the day we visited, there were also a number of Japanese women in the town sketching and painting. 

Kind of humorous to round a corner and see this...

Bonnieux

Short on words tonight, want to get some sewing in, but here are a few from Bonnieux.  Our home base in Provence for the week we were in the holiday apartment, so picturesque!

And there's my handsome dude - we celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary next week - Love you hon

Lest you think no crafting has been happening

I have been doing some sewing over here, Royal was asking if I was going to use my fancy sewing machine again, since I have hardly looked at it since I started to knit.  But yes, it was calling me so I have been working on a few things.  Seems I spend so much time putting together ideas for projects that I end up with a lot of started projects that get put aside.  When I was cleaning/organizing last weekend I put those unfinished sewing projects in a box together and it made it easy to pull out and finish this tote bag...

Also put these two zippered pouches together last night, one a gift and one for me (for my knitting bag for all the little stuff).  

B and I came home today from errands to find a little package from Leslie in our mail box.  Some cute Paris post-its and this fun dinosaur origami kit.  I am not too good at origami, but given some time I can usually work my way though the instructions.  I managed to make the t-rex (who has met his match with the Playmobil Knight Templar that B got today.  Hope they can be friends.  

I ordered some fabrics from Leslie's shop recently, can't wait until they arrive.  I have been toying with the idea of getting a gocco machine, the one in her shop is very tempting!