A Log Cabin Quilt Retrospective

I wondered exactly how many log cabin quilts I'd made this year, and this is what I found: ten smaller quilts, and eight twin-size quilts. Not counting the ones I've pieced that are waiting on quilting--thanks, Mother!

A good year for quilts. 

I'm not done exploring this design, and before long I'll be showing you completed Japanese Maple, Blackberry Patch, Reflecting Pool, Frosty Morning, Lake with Whitecaps, and Saturday Morning at the Hardware Store.

Happy 2013!

 

And She Finishes the Mittens

That was fast, Clara. Please crank a pair out for me.

Clara's Knitting: Short Stripey Socks

Clara used her first sit-down-and-knit at home to finish these quickly--she had done the vast majority of the work at school. I love the crisp cream and navy stripes. 

On to mittens for her! As for me, I'm crocheting my granny square afghan into something the size of Eurasia.

Snowbirds at the Window

Five Scenes from Christmas

Felix put together a festive tie-vest-tie pin combo.

Pink and red flowers to brighten the sitting room.

Bella and lemons.

Giles

Clara and a new velvet cloche.

No hike for us today, we stayed in from the weather. Made a tenderloin, rolls, worked a puzzle, and watched Giles figure out how to work his Christmas gift--a vintage 80's keyboard from the Composer's studio. 

We Have Been Brought Near

Macaroons,

 

Daisy's own nativity set-up

So much baking

So much music,

and cookies, 

and so much to think about.

"Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ . . . without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who were once far away have been brought near . . . ."

Ephesians 2

"Ice" "Skating"

We went out for wintertime evening fun; the park had set up an ice skating rink!

Or not. Turns out it was plastic, not ice. I had no idea this was a Thing.

 It didn't work that well. But it was very cold out, which helped us pretend we weren't on giant flat interlocking Duplo blocks, which we were.

Actually, Daisy and Bella could get themselves going just fine. We larger people were troubled with inertia, so we got off the Ice and kept our hands warm.

And moseyed over to the petting zoo to visit the sheep and the llama, and admired the Winter Wonderland from afar (those aren't real snowflakes, either).

Cherry Cake for the Win

Lemon zest, ground almonds, and plenty of cherries (plus that gorgeous frosting!) make this cherry cake a win for sure, from Jane Brocket's Vintage Cakes.

Bella Makes Fruit Pâte

I've been wanting to make these fruit pâtes myself ever since seeing the priced-like-gold examples in the Williams-Sonoma catalog--they're very straightforward, just fruit, sugar, and liquid pectin. Bella stole a march on me yesterday though and produced these gorgeous strawberry gelées. Next up, raspberry, from our freezer stash.

More information about making them is here (this is more information than we had--we'll be using this next time).

Early Early

Sunrise was especially fetching this morning.

"Anna's Garden" Stencil

The upside of having my sewing machine gone was time to cut a new stencil for an Alabama Chanin project. This is (so appropriately!) Anna's Garden--you can download it from the website and print it out, but then you're going to have to do all that cutting . . . . so you'd better be motivated!

 I had this printed out and taped together a while ago, but then Fitzwilliam threw up on one of the corners, so I had to replace that part before I started. Oh, the sordid details outside the frame!

I'm working with pennant felt--it's a very thick acrylic felt that takes a lot of power to cut through, but then is long-lasting. My next $2000 purchase may well be a laser cutter. But that may be a while.

Frederick and the Hipster Sweater

Felix and his friends troll the thrift stores for large and ugly sweaters to study in. Lounge sweaters.

Felix brought this one home and then realized he had picked out the sweater equivalent of Frederick,

who was hip before you were even born.

Frosty Morning Log Cabin Quilt Top

Twin size, not quilted yet.

Crepe Myrtle Trunks

My mother is just out of the hospital with her second hip replacement surgery, and recovering at our house. I'm sticking close to home for a few days, but still managed a walk this afternoon, just before dark.

I don't want to forget to look around and notice how beautiful everything is.

Revisiting Nourish

The best hand and body soaps we've found are from Nourish, the soap store in Savannah, Georgia, that we first patronized because it was so beautiful and smelled so good. Turns out this is the only soap we've found so far that doesn't sting or aggravate irritated skin.

And boy, there are a lot of gorgeous choices! Not a punishment.

Superwash

Dealing with a chronic skin irritation issue in the household, we've determined to get detergent out of the schoolhouse. It sounds so easy, doesn't it? Just substitute something in the laundry . . . .

I wish.

A lot of reading about the lingering presence of detergent suggests that simply switching products doesn't do the trick. So we've been doing the Superwash: it's four cycles in the washing machine, the first two with detergent-free soap, and the second two with plain water. Not my idea; it comes from the motivated folks at Solve Eczema who have been looking at this problem for years.

I'll just say up front that this is not a lot of fun. On a really focused day I can get four loads of laundry done. And it's not just the clothes. Towels, kitchen linens, rugs, curtains, slipcovers: when you start looking at the detergent in your life it's kind of scary.

And then go and read your shampoo, soap, and toothpaste labels. We've found alternative detergent-free products for most of our needs (the dish liquid and dishwashing powder come from an awesomely retro company in California that clearly hasn't done a label redesign in decades). I'll share a list of resources in the future, or visit the link above. In the meantime, I'm going to put another load in the washer.

Alabama Studio Style: Circle-Spiral Applique Dress in Turquoise

I finished the circle-spiral dress I was making myself and love wearing it. Like all these jersey dresses, it is so easy to throw on, but because of all the stitching and high-powered color, it feels like so much more.

I was thinking ocean when I chose these colors and placements. I think that comes through a little!

Cedar Cuttings in Milk Glass Vases

Isolation and repetition give presence to even the most humble materials: 

cedar snippets in thrift store vases.

Twinkly Town

Christmas parade was this past week. We're almost never downtown after dark so it was thrilling--especially the tow trucks all decked out for the holidays.

It makes me happy that people exert themselves to dress things up, so we can all enjoy. Don't you love that?

Vintage Cakes by Jane Brocket

Here is something delicious: Jane Brocket's adorable Vintage Cakes. I'm just getting started and there's so much deliciousness ahead: cherry cakes, orange cream cakes, sponges . . . .

It's beautifully styled with vintage linens, but not quite meticulously edited, sorry to say (this surprises me, as Jane Brocket strikes me as a very careful writer). However, it's nothing I can't overlook in my enjoyment of this charming cookbook.

Eighteen Feet of Bunting

I've been living without a sewing machine for over a week now (cue the sad violins), but there's an upside: time to rummage around the various bins and boxes in the sewing room.

Apparently there's a lot I'd forgotten about.

Like, eighteen feet (eighteen feet?) of hand-crocheted bunting in perfect condition wadded into one of my boxes of trims. Have I ever seen this thing before? Not to my knowledge.

This one will go in the shop, for one of those people who live in a pristine white house layered with textiles. Or who is decorating for Christmas, or is getting married. Dreamy.

Knitted Red Bear

Several years ago I knitted Brown Bear for Daisy. I was going to give him away as a baby present but failed to move on that before she bonded with him.

He's grown old and tall (not like the way most aging people do) and just about ready for retirement to a closet shelf, so Daisy asked Clara to make her Red Bear, from some silky alpaca in the yarn suitcase. Clara was able to whip out all his pieces over Thanksgiving, save his right ear. I knitted that myself this morning while giving Daisy a spelling test, and sewed it in place.

Here are the two of them together. Red bear has a handsome triangle trim to his nose, so you can tell he's newer.

Frederick's Shadow at Sunrise

An Easy Jersey Headband

 

 A quick project from an old tee-shirt! Choose one in soft all-cotton, in an interesting color. You need a strip that's 9 x 22 inches, with the long side cut *with* the grain of the fabric (neck to hem of the shirt). Also cut two one-inch strips across the grain, about five inches long.

I folded the strip in thirds the long way, so that it measures 3 x 22 inches, and I pinned the edges together, then stitched down each long side in a running stitch, using heavy thread.

Next I took my one-inch strips and gave them each a good tug, turning them into long, rolled-up ties--which I then sewed to the short ends of my headband.

There you go. Tie and enjoy! And remember, this can be fancied up with beading, embroidery, or even stencilling (though I think that stencilling often looks crude when done on a very small scale like this).

Final note: there's a headband project in one of Natalie Chanin's  Alabama Stitch book, but since I didn't remember that until after I finished, I don't think offering these directions steps on her toes.