Lovely mild weather this afternoon, and perfect for a little tea party with my neighbor Eve. I set out the tea things on the table under the silver maple and we enjoyed the afternoon sun on our backs as we watched the shadows lengthen.
Tiny dried cherry scones, cream Earl Grey, and Eve's coconut cookies. Daisy ate six of them.
"The [tea] tray proved to be most tempting. Delicate little chicken sandwiches, a delectable salad of which Amory had difficulty in identifying the ingredients, fragrant tea, cinnamon toast and little cakes that were almost confections."
A quick run through the antique mall this weekend, and I found these, *way* too sweet and cheap to pass up:
Vintage bulbs to screw into a new light string--don't they look like candy or Easter eggs in these delicious colors?
Intact in their vintage boxes:
Shabby ornaments in all the best angelic colors.
Made for my dear friend and neighbor Phyllis; we are spurring each other on to be better stewards of Creation.
Since Phyllis is an artist I did my best to make these appealing to her unique sensibility: colorful, graphic, not at all fussy and not really girly.
I enjoyed the challenge of designing something pleasing using only plain and simple fabrics, ones I would ordinarily pass over. But even bland and utilitarian can be made fun with some piecing and cutting and stitching . . .
Sew your own gorgeous shopping bags--stylish and ecologically sound! I'll walk you through the steps of making a very sturdy tote bag that will hold a good heavy load of groceries. I recommend that you make two bags at once, as this will use your fabric up very nicely, and you'll find that the second bag goes much more quickly. I'm using corduroy and denim fabrics, and this is going to be the World's Strongest Bag--it will be able to tote bricks, potatoes, and heavy metals. Do choose something sturdy and closely woven, not a delicate vintage voile!
You will need one yard each of your lining fabric (LF) and your main fabric (MF), as well as a ruler, matching threads, and good sharp scissors.
1. Cut a rectangle from each of your two fabrics. The rectangle should be one yard long, parallel to the selvage, and 18 inches wide. You can fit two of these from one yard, you will note. Also cut four handle pieces, two from each of LF and MF. They should measure 17 inches by 2.5 inches, and they may run either with the grain or across the grain. (You will have a very likely-looking leftover piece to cut them from after you cut your main pieces).
2. If you want to do any embellishing, such as an applique, or rickrack, now is the time to do it on your main fabric. Make sure that the design is placed well within the margins of the bag--you will be losing about three inches on the sides and bottom. Have fun! For my bag, I am using tan corduroy for my Main Fabric and a red denim for my lining. I am appliqueing a design of rectangles (think Denise Schmidt and her contemporary quilt designs) on the lower right corner of my bag.
3. Now, working first with the main fabric, take your big rectangle and fold it in half, right sides together, to make an inside-out bag shape. Then repeat with the lining fabric.
4. Using a 5/8 inch seam, sew up the sides of the bag. First the MF. Now the LF. Now, take your scissors and snip the bottom fold of the bag from the edge of the fabric to your stitching. 
Now press those seams open. And lightly press a crease at the bottom of the bag.
5. Now you're going to box the corners. This is so fun and three-dimensional! Look at your bag from the side, and slide your hand up in the corner. Now spread the bag at the corner so that the corner forms the top of a triangle. Flatten the seam, and let the sides of the bag fall apart. It's going to look a lot like the sides of a present if you're wrapping it with paper. 
Using the crease you pressed as a guide, make sure the seam runs down the center of the bottom of the bag. Pin it in place. Now mark a straight line across the corner of the bag, 2.5 inches down from the corner.
You might want to draw a line with pencil or chalk across the bottom of the triangle, or you can throw caution to the wind and eyeball it. Do make sure that your triangle is symmetrical, by checking the seam placement against the bottom crease of the bag. Now, stitch it. Repeat for the other corner, and for the lining piece.
6. Finish the corners by cutting off the triangle half an inch from your stitching line. Here is my tan piece that has been stitched and cut.
7. Time to construct some handles! We're making lined handles because they're cuter and stronger. Lay each handle piece right side down on the ironing board and press its edges in--half an inch for the main fabric, 5/8 inch for the lining fabric.
Now match up your two handle pieces with the lining piece placed over the main fabric piece, wrong sides together. The main fabric color should just peek out around the lining. Working on the lining side, carefully pin in place, and then topstitch together (that just means stitch about 1/4 inch from the edge). 
Here you see my handle getting stitched, but there are no pins in the other side yet. See, main tan fabric is down below, red lining is up above.
8. Almost done! Turn your lining bag inside out. Insert it into the already inside-out main bag. The two "pretty sides" are going to be touching each other. Now, stick your handles between the two layers. I like to place the outside edge of each handle three inches away from the side seam.
Make SURE the handle isn't twisted inside the bag. That the top side stays UP as you peek into the bag; the top side of your handle should be touching the right side of your outer bag.
Pin the handles securely in place, and match up the lining and outer bag so that the raw edges are even all the way around.
Here is my sandwich all ready for stitching--tan outer bag is inside out, red lining is seamy side inside the bag, handles are sandwiched between with the tan side touching the tan bag.
9. Time to stitch! You need to do two things. One, leave the bag unsewn beween the ends of the handles on one side, so that you can turn it inside out. Two, every time you get to a place where you're sewing over a handle, sew over it, then reverse and sew backwards, then sew forwards again so that the handle is triple-stitched. Got it? Great!
10. Turn the bag by pulling the lining out, then feeding everything through the hole, then stuffing the lining back inside, and cheer for yourself! Now, carefully press the top edge. Where it is open, press it down the way you want it to lie, with the edges turned in. Now topstitch the whole thing, working from the lining side. 
11. Now you are really done, and the happy owner of a lovely shopping tote!
Note: if you use contrasting fabric for the lining, you may or may not care about changing your bobbin and top threads to keep them matching your fabric. I personally don't like contrast stitching, so do a lot of juggling the two threads to get my thread to match my fabric (for instance, when stitching the handle, I have red thread on top and tan in the bobbin). Not required, though.
A beautiful variation on the cranberry-blueberry cake: apple-cranberry.
I sliced two small tart apples and laid them over the sugar in the pan in a pretty pattern, then scattered frozen cranberries on top, for a punch of bright color.
Perfect for fall, when apples are waiting at Farmer's Market . . .
A few days ago Daisy got it in her head that she *had to* go to the "seashore." I couldn't bear to tell her that I wasn't planning on making the 800-mile drive to the beach, and further questioning revealed that the heart of her desire was to play with buckets in the sand, so we sold her on a trip to a nearby lake.
We never go there in the summer because it's very crowded and rowdy and has no shade at the water's edge (we do go to a different, farther away lake with its own charms). But in this season the park was deserted, clean, sunny, windy.
Filled with Canada geese, and one great blue heron who stood preening himself in the weeds for so long! and squawked irritably when he finally had enough of us and flew away.
So we had the "sea",
and the sand,
and a little bit of water.
Then we got out the basket with the thermos of hot tea, and the sugar, and the little jar of milk, and the mugs, and we decided that no matter how nice an outing is, it is *always* better if you bring tea along.
No idea why it took me so long to organize cloth bags for my grocery shopping. If I could have anticipated the smug, righteous feeling I would get at the checkout counter as I whipped them out, I would have made them long ago . . .
These are made from a thrifted tablecloth ($1) and lined with grey dotted swiss that was a stash pass-along. I made five and they held about two-thirds of my week's groceries. So I'm thinking two or three more, in some dashing fabric.
Perhaps green?
Refrigerator cookies from my oldest cookbook . . .
We did a variation on the variation and filled them with a little piece of super-dark chocolate.
And that worked fine.
Of course the mornings start out chilly, so a fire is in order . . .
and a person can sit beside it and work on a little hand-sewing project they might have brought along. I seriously considered bringing my sewing machine; after all, we were going to be there for two days!
And while you wait for the cabin to warm up you'll need your hooded sweatshirt.
When you do go out, it's breezy and blue.
A stop in at the closest antique store is in order.
Beautiful arrangements, a little pricey. We didn't bring anything home.
Off for a hike--without little girls, who stayed in with grandmother. Felix was more "in the woods" than the rest of us.
No matter where we go, the most beautiful things in creation are these faces:
Bella
Felix and Clara
Clara at sunset
and Giles.
We are headed out for the weekend, to a cabin in the mountains. Lots and lots of cooking and eating, a little hand-sewing, some hiking, and looking at gorgeousness. Back on Monday!
I have been adding to my library of sewing books--there is so much beautiful inspiration out there! Here are some I have really enjoyed recently, and can recommend either *as* gifts, or for *making* gifts, take your choice.
Last Minute Fabric Gifts by Cynthia Treen. I'm latching on to her designs for cosy wool hats made from thrifted and felted sweaters--I'm itching to get started on these, no pun intended.
Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson. I especially adore the fabric birds pictured on the cover, and plan to make several for my Christmas tree. I also love her idea of "machine-tying" a quilt by machine-embroidering an ovals in each square of the quilt.
Simple Gifts to Stitch by Jocelyn Worrall. Elegant indeed! She uses a variety of fabric, from silk to vinyl, and has some interesting new structural ideas I've not seen before.
Riches!
This is the library basket. It has been making the weekly trip to the library for over twelve years now. I believe it had a former life as a grocery shopping basket, ended up stranded in a thrift store, and was rescued by my neighbor, who passed it on to me.
Why is the library basket so perfect, so superior to a tote bag?
• Its rigid sides keep books from sliding out and around in the car.
• Books can be neatly stacked, magazines don't get crushed.
• Its metal frame can support many, many pounds of books.
• It's substantial enough to have a "home" under a table in the schoolroom. Library books *belong* in it, so they tend not to wander as bad as they might.
• It's easy to see what's in the basket, whether you're looking for something to read, or checking to make sure you've got everything with you to return.
Daisy brought home some books today in the library basket. Then we read on the couch.
