A Dress Like Maggie's
It's been a quiet week here. Andy and I were fighting colds all weekend, and they actually came and went very quickly, but there wasn't much energy for things beyond the usual chores. Greta was called out of town unexpectedly, so all orders from this week and the end of last will go out today, when she returns. I cleaned the office and put away piles of things that had been stacking up. So weird how those piles happen. I shudder at clutter like that, so I think just going through some of the stuff I've been meaning to get to for a while actually made me feel better. That and a lot of Cold Calm, Airborne, and Sambucol, and orange juice and the amazing chicken soup (his specialty!) that Andy made for us on Saturday! Don't omit the dill or the peas on that one. It's ever so delicious.
One of the things in the office that stared me down and won was the gigantic fabric scrap bin that I keep under the table. It's overflowing. I had some 1 1/4" paper hexagons (that I found under one of the piles, actually) and finally got a brainstorm for pillows for Amelia's window seat. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for these pillows but recently I saw this gorgeous pillow that Kristen made (the one on the porch swing) and thought I would try that. It's been a long time since I made hexagons (back here, where I very pedantically explain how, and here, where I put them together a little bit). I ironed a few big handfuls of my scraps and then tossed everything in a basket to take out to the living room at night. I cut the squares with scissors just by eyeballing the square, around the paper hex. I've been doing them for about an hour or so the past couple of nights. My crochet and my embroidery are just sitting there. I seem to need something even easier — no counting, no reading, no papers of any kind to shuffle through — at the end of the day. When I get enough of these, I think I'll lay them all out and make an 18" square, and then turn that into a pillow cover. Well, at least two pillow covers, for the window seat. And actually I'm pretty sure we have two pillows at each end of the window seat, or at least we should, so that would be four. (If you're sitting in the window seat you gotta be comfortable.) I like log cabin pillows, too, so maybe I'll make a couple of those?
I really want to start sewing entirely from my stash, but I just love taking Amelia to the fabric store so much. She loves being in the shopping cart — any shopping cart, really — but the fabric store is far and away my favorite place to hang out with shopping carts. That said, I do not need one more fraction of a yard of fabric. At all. Ever again. Maybe we could shop for buttons, or ribbons. . . . I really, really want to use up what I have. I have so many plans for things I want to make for her. I made her a little Maggie Rabbit peasant dress yesterday (from vintage pattern Simplicity 7197), and when she saw it she grabbed it and kissed it (and then wiped her nose with it) and oh how that inspires a mama!!! My heart did little handsprings across the (now cleared) sewing table. Next up is the dark green calico in Simplicity 9532 (also vintage).
Thank you so much for the sweet comments on the quilt top! A few people also asked about my garland: Very easy. I used this heart punch, this circle punch, and this scalloped circle punch to make shapes out of this cardstock and this one. Then you just stack four of the shapes on top of each other and sew through them using regular polyester thread on the sewing machine. Hold the threads as you stitch the first shape or they'll get all tangled up. Just keep sewing to twist the threads and then add the next set of shapes (I just did mine randomly). When you get it as long as you want it just open up the layers and fold them outward until you get a puff you like. Easy. I'm not sure how good this is for your sewing machine, but I change my needles a lot so I wasn't too worried. But you'll probably want to change your needle after sewing it at least.
Windy and cold today!!!
