On a Lark » Personal

Victory is so sweet

Emily — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:31:37 +0000

Particularly when the victory results in something you really, really wanted. I finally finished my very first quilt. It was an excellent feeling to sew that last stitch on the binding. My boyfriend will attest to this as he witnessed my victory dance when I pulled my newly washed and dried quilt from the washer. The victory dance was immediately followed by a nap on the couch under my new creation. I apologize for the number of pictures of this quilt that will follow, but I’m still pretty excited about it.

As I mentioned in my last post, I gave hand quilting a shot, and I’m really happy I did. I ended up using my embroidery hoop as a guide and stitching large circles in no particular order to quilt the three layers together. Although the end result wasn’t perfect, I’m really happy with how it came out. And so are the dogs.

And then came the binding. I’ve heard that this can be a difficult part of quilting, and I definitely see why. I may or may not have bunched up a few spots on the bottom to get all three layers to go evenly together. Still, with rock bottom expectations, the only way to go is up. I found a great tutorial at Crazy Mom Quilts.

As I mentioned at the start of this quilt project, my grandmother made a one of these quilts for most of her grandkids. So as I moved through this project, I tried to keep her crafting attitude in mind. As far as I can remember, Gram never got worked up about following crafting “rules”. Don’t have time to hand stitch the binding? Machine sew that baby. Don’t have any heat rated batting for pot holders? Learn to get the casserole out of the oven before your fingerprints burn off. Don’t have the patience set the Christmas Tree up straight the traditional way? Nail that tree right to the floor.

As it turns out, the finished product is a bit like a scrapbook covering my life to date. A t-shirt for every phase. All the schools, boats, teams, places, events, and things that have gotten me to this place. And of course the Tugboat Emily shirt is right in the middle. That one might be my favorite.

Reward for a job….done

Emily — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:44:32 +0000

When I first started my tee shirt quilt project I decided that, knowing myself, I needed some incentive to finish the job. So I only bought the fabric needed for the top and the batting. I left the binding, quilting materials, and backing as a reward for at least partially completing the project. And here we are, many many months later and I finally completed the top and bought myself some new fabric. I went with silver broadcloth for the binding and this beautiful fabric from Amy Butler’s new line Soul Blossoms:

I ALSO bought new embroidery floss and a giant embroidery hoop. Anna Maria Horner inspired me to try out hand quilting. Now, I completed enough sewing projects at this point to know that I will regret the choice to hand quilt my first quilt at some point during this project. Who are we kidding, I will probably regret it at many points. But it looks so lovely when Anna Maria Horner does it.

And finally, I know this is a little overdue, but some pictures from New Years. We stayed in this year, made a great dinner, and drank champagne. We even made it until midnight. The dogs were not as excited:

Happy New Year!!!

Turkey on a Thursday

Emily — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:07:58 +0000

But not the Thursday you’re thinking of. With the week between Christmas and New Years off from work and an 18 lb turkey in the freezer, this last Thursday seemed like the perfect time to roast a bird. This is probably a good time to make this important note. You might think that because I am voluntarily roasting a turkey on my day off that I am one of those individuals who thinks turkey roasting “is just sooo easy” (I think we all know these people). This thought might be compounded by that fact that I have worked as a cook both at sea and ashore, spending months at a time as the sole responsible party for feeding large groups of people.

Still I don’t ever foresee a day when I won’t have to call my Mom for advice mid-turkey roast. This time, after wrestling with the mysterious metal piece holding the turkey together, I was unable to ascertain whether the neck was included in this particular turkey. Let’s just say the turkey and I are now very close. Mom to the rescue, neck removed, legs tied back together, turkey in the oven.

With the combined assistance of a Martha Stewart cookbook, my Mom, and the outside of the turkey packaging, I decided to stuff with apples, shallots, and onions. Then I made an herb butter with my new spice grinder (!) and a handful of chopped up bacon, spread between the skin and meat. And I only checked the temperature 1,000 times before removing it from the oven.

Because 18lbs of turkey is a little excessive for two people, I had all the fixings to make a freezer full of turkey pot pie, stock, and turkey salad. My goal is to not have to cook for the month of January. Just kidding…but seriously.

So it was a productive day:

I had planned to use all of the turkey cooking downtime though out the day to start on some new pillow covers for couch. But THEN I spent an hour on the couch with my sweetheart watching one of the TV series on DVD we have going. Definitely a good decision on a quiet winter day. I did eventually get motivated with the pillow cases when I realized that I’m tired of all of my fabric. How can this possibly true with all of the stacks of fabric piled neatly upstairs? Yet somehow, it is. Looks like I have to go fabric shopping. Darn.

And the tree came down today…

Emily — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 22:43:51 +0000

Christmas is all over and to mark the occasion, I took our tree down today, put away the wrapping paper, mailed out thank you notes, but mostly just shoveled out from the blizzard that has taken over the Northeast for the last few days. I also thought about picking up my quilt project again but instead just stared longingly at Amy Bulter’s new fabric line, Soul Blossoms.

As always, Christmas was wonderful and filled with friends and family. This year we added a few new(ish) traditions with the old:

A good old fashioned lobster bake on Christmas Eve:

Homemade Glühwein with a German sugar cone that we purchased (and somehow managed to find again) last year in Germany at Christmastime:

And our first Christmas tree at our apartment. There’s always room for improvement right?

After Christmas, we raced home from my parent’s house to hunker down for the first real snow storm of winter. When all was said and done, we got a little bit less than a foot with the wind howling all night long. I may regret this statement later in the winter, but I love watching the snow come down and relaxing inside because there is no where to go. That night we all got bundled up and took the dogs out for a much needed romp in the snow.

And of course, we took advantage of our first snowed-in morning to use our new waffle iron (with Fiddler’s Green Organic Fiddle Cake mix) and stove top espresso maker. What’s not to love about snow days?

Another great thing about Christmas this year? It got my sewing machine out again. More to come on that next time..

I’m actually going to sew this quilt

Emily — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:14:31 +0000

The T-Shirt Quilt is fully underway. A few weeks ago I got all of the t-shirts cut out and interfaced and I even cut out a bunch of strips border fabric. And then … we got a little heat wave, and there was lots of swimming to be done before the end of summer, and lots of adventures to go on. Last weekend, with a house full of three people and as many dogs, was taken up with the Common Ground Country Fair. So not much progress on the quilt.

Finally, I had no more excuses so I moved my sewing machine down to my kitchen table and got going. Unfortunately I made a fatal error early on. Well maybe fatal is a bit of an overstatement, but it was a poor choice anyway you slice it. I cut up the t-shirt squares into four different sizes. And obviously, I did not cut out a sensible number of each size. Or think at all about how I would lay it out ahead of time.

So after puzzling over it once I actually sat down at my machine, I decided to make squares or rectangles piecing together two of one size and two of another. I have two now and two more on the way. I figure I will deal with how to piece those larger pieces together once I get there. Once again, sound decision making . I also don’t know how to bind this quilt. Baby steps.

I know it’s been a little while…

Emily — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 23:19:19 +0000

…but I’ve been busy. As soon as I got my quilt pieces cut out, we got a little bit of a heat wave around here and it was too hot to be upstairs sewing and not taking the puppy to the pond. I’ve also been enjoying spending the weekends with my sweetheart, who recently returned from a long (albeit productive) summer away. Now that one brown dog has become two, every adventure is that much more ridiculous and fun

These are from a day with my folks. What you missed is the image of my puppy, strapped into a puppy life jacket and swimming to shore like a champion. He’s still a cautious little guy, but I guess that’s for the best.

So that’s what I’ve been up to lately. And now today, my one afternoon where I probably could have gotten going on that quilt, and I decided to bake some chocolate chip cookies to take with me on my weekend trip instead. Sigh. Maybe that quilt will sew itself?

Finally moved in…mostly

Emily — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:51:58 +0000

Here we are, the puppy and I updating you all from our new apartment. After about a week and a half of moving, shopping, and unpacking, and oh yeah, working, I’m pretty much all unpacked. There’s still one big wall with five or six pieces of art leaned against it waiting patiently to be hung. And the coat closet is still waiting for a curtain to artfully (hopefully) cover it up. But otherwise, everything else has found a home. Including the eight throw pillows that I furiously sewed covers for to cope with the stresses and excitement of the whole move:

Please ignore the wrinkles, tennis balls, and puppy hair (you might not be able to see it on the photo but it’s there). You might recognize the floral Anna Maria Horner voile. At one point I had dreams that it would be a skirt. After several failed attempts, I think it looks pretty nice on my couch.

All in all, this new life is pretty excellent. Everyday flies by and I find myself rushing rushing rushing to relax for an hour or so before bed and enjoy the summer breeze. No complaints here.

The “Before” Pictures

Emily — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:16:18 +0000

On Wednesday, I found an apartment. A beautiful, sunny, close to work and town and places to walk the puppy apartment. But more importantly, an unfurnished apartment. I’m so excited to move in, but I don’t own much furniture of my own. Luckily, my whole family has been extremely generous and between my parents, aunt, and my boyfriend’s parents, it looks like I’ll have some places to sit and eat and sleep. Hurray!

So this morning I set to work getting my very kindly donated furniture ready to go. Here are the before pictures of the first three victims.

This is a six-board antique chest from my Aunt. It is so beautiful and I’m almost afraid to touch it. Still, there are a few watermarks on the top and I’d like to protect it from myself with a few coats of something just on the top. I think I’ll be able to take a few layers off the top and slap on a few layers of polyurethane:

And this table is going to be my new sewing machine table. It’s nice and big and there are some big changes ahead for it:

This bureau came from my boyfriend’s parent’s house. I love the way it looks but after years in my boyfriend’s childhood bedroom, it needed some love. After a morning at the hardware store and a few phone calls to my Dad, I think it’s nearly good as new and ready to a new look:

Stay tuned for the after photos.

Movin’ up and movin’ out

Emily — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:49:31 +0000

The lull of sewing projects has been replaced by the roar of apartment hunting and moving preparation. Because I got a job! I have a very civilized three weeks to get my act together and get settled in my new city (town, to the rest of the world) about an hour away. I am excited. Because of this, my sewing attention span has reduced significantly. On the up side, I have shortened the straps on several dresses and tank tops because it takes approximately five minutes.

I used to think that the clothes had a strap problem, but I’m beginning to think I may have abnormally short shoulders because I shorten straps like it’s my job. Short shoulders is probably not a real thing, huh? Besides the war on straps, I’ve been working on this skirt for a week or so:

This skirt project has a fair amount of self-imposed pressure involved because I love the floral voile by Anna Maria Horner and I only bought a yard. Why? I have no idea. I will not make that mistake again. Anyhow, I’ve already cut it down a few times, and now I’m frozen, unable to keep working on it because there’s probably only room for one or two more mistakes before it becomes a pillow case. I think the new plan is an invisible zipper in the back, a little gather in the front and maybe in the back and sewing it to the sash and then call it good. Next time I will use a pattern or some kind. Hopefully I’ll have a lovely finished skirt to show you all soon!

Wedding Bells are ringing…

Emily — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:41:29 +0000

My big brother is getting married on Saturday! We’re all pretty excited around here. All this wedding talk got me searching online for the true gems of wedding couture: the bridesmaid dress. Some of the photos out there are just fantastic. Was it the bride being cruel or did they actually like the look? These two are from Grey Likes Weddings and Lemon Drop:

Luckily, nothing like these dresses will be making an appearance this weekend. My brother’s fiance must really like us all because we’re all wearing the black cocktail dress of our choice. How can you go wrong? It seems pretty silly to me that by the time most of your friends are married you would also have a closet full of dresses that someone else picked out for you. But I guess that’s just how it goes.

Everyone cross your fingers for a sunshiny, pleasant Saturday for a beautiful day to remember. Congratulations J and S!!