elliebelle

Hello Summer.

I'm so glad you're here.  Please stay a while...

In honor of the lovely weather and lush greenery, Chelsea and I thought we'd take you for a short walk through Horicon, our little home town (this is our fairly regular route - shortened some as we had to make a vet appointment!)  

Here we go!

Our first stop is the little park by the river, about 2 blocks from our house.  You have to watch your step here - there is geese poop every few feet!  Horicon is known for its very large marshland.  With this marsh comes a great amount of wildlife - especially the Canadian Geese and right now they all have goslings.  It's pretty fun - but very messy!!!  I think Chelsea sniffed every little turd.

From there we walk up to the downtown area - now we can survey the progress on the construction! The main road running through our town is all torn up this summer making for a very difficult town to navigate.  Because there is a railroad hub and a river - there are very few routes through Horicon, so when you close one down - it becomes crazy!  But it's fun to watch the progress.  (Oh the joys of small town life...)

Look at those beautiful old buildings.  Too bad most of them are empty, except for the few taverns. Now here is the sadness of small town America - empty buildings, lonely downtowns.  Can't you imagine what it was like back in its hey day?  I think of the small businesses, owned by the people of the town. Places where you would see your neighbor as you passed through.  Somewhere to grab a loaf of bread and some eggs. (We don't even have a grocery store in our town anymore...)  I bet Joe remembers when there was more going on in Horicon, being that I've only lived here a year, I obviously don't know the history of the town.  But I like to imagine what it must have been like.

Onto some neighborhoods - admiring the lovely canopy of green as we walk through...sigh...I love that!

We wind through a few more neighborhoods and circle our way back to downtown. (we didn't quite make it to the second park and wonderful pool on this trip - not enough time!)  Passing by John Deere - the heart of Horicon...

Back to the river - this time looking down from the bridge.  You can't see it but to our right is the end of the river, opening into the marsh.

About to turn the corner onto our street - admiring, again, the loveliness of the greens out now...

And Home, Sweet, Home!  Chelsea knows which house is hers and she excitedly runs for the door awaiting her ice cube treat.  Isn't it great that dogs think ice cubes are special treats??? 

 

So, I'm guessing this post isn't all that interesting to people outside of my immediate family.  These walks have been taking up quite a bit of my time lately - so there has been less sewing - hence the lack of blog posts.  But hopefully I can continue to make time, even in small increments, to keep sewing and knitting in my life, because without them, I just wouldn't be me!

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend!

Back from Market.

We made it back safe and sound yesterday - but definitely exhausted!  Pittsburgh was surprisingly a very beautiful city.  I shouldn't say "surprisingly" since that may offend some, but I just didn't expect the city to be so lovely!  The architecture was really nice.

These pictures were taken from the balcony at the convention center, pretty nice huh?

We even got a chance to drive up to their "ledge" or whatever it is called - for some beautiful views.  There were even prom kids up there taking photos.  It was fun.

So on to the stuff you really want to see!  

Quilt Market is always fun and inspiring and again this year did not disappoint! The show overall was smaller, the booths were smaller and there were less people attending, but there was still the excitement that Quilt Market brings.  I'm expecting that the Fall Market will be large again as that tends to be the Main market of the year.

Here's an overview of the trade show floor taken from the walkway the level above.

It can certainly be beautiful overload - like at the lovely and gracious Amy Butler's booth.  She is such a kind person, I mean, she remembers me!  How cool is that?  For one of my design "idols" to remember my face is amazing.

How gorgeous is that booth??!!

And of course I drooled over the Echino booth - I think partly cause there was so much purple in there!

The designer of the Bananafana patterns is so nice and was such fun to chat with.  She has adorable little girls patterns.  We've even carried a couple at Nancy's Notions.

I am excited to also look into patterns from Patty Young (who also designs fabric for Michael Miller).  Seriously, how CUTE are her little garments?

Michael Miller's booth really took the cake for me!  It was bright, inviting and darn right cute.  It won 2nd place for best booth design.  Don't the colors make you drool???

There was of course gorgeousness at the Free Spirit Fabrics Booth!

Kaffe Fasset

Valori Wells

Erin McMorris

I also like to visit Amy Barickman at Indygo Junction.  She has great garment and accessory pattern.  What I love about them is that they are so versatile and can really work well for all types of people, all you have to do is switch up the fabric for a different look!

And lastly (as this is getting quite long), I got to meet these two lovely ladies, Denyse Schmidt and Heather Ross.  I even got my Weekend Sewing book signed!  Woohoo!

As you can see Quilt Market was wonderful.  Not only was the show great, I also got a chance to eat some yummy food and get together with some great people. 

You can see MANY more pictures here!

Off to Market.

I'm just about to head out to the door on my way to the airport.  I'm off to Quilt Market!  You may remember last fall or last spring.  I'll be back with pictures either Sunday or Monday.  Have a great week and weekend. Ta-ta!

She's a Peach!

This pattern is definitely a keeper!  The second garment I made, in a row, to fit! (that rarely happens! There are often bad ones mixed with the good ones!)  This is View B (shortened) of Kwik Sew #3659.

(Geez I have a big head for such a small body!)

It feels so good to sew up a garment and have it not only fit, but look pretty good!  I've gotten better at visualizing how much length I need to take out since I'm so short.  I also took out extra length this time because I wanted to wear this as a shirt instead of a tunic or dress.  I wouldn't mind making this top in multiple colors.  It's so easy to make.  The majority of it was done on the serger which makes everything so fast.  The fabric is a remnant I bought during Sewing Weekend at an amazing price. (way better than employee discount!!!)  So this top was very cheap to create, and quite rewarding.

So what garment will be next??  I'm not sure yet, so I guess we shall see!

A gift given.

And now it has been received, so I can post about it here!  It was my Mom's birthday on May 4th.  When I asked her what she might like, there was a request for some of these...

2 are knit and 2 are crocheted.  They are all different sizes so they can be used for multiple things.  I used Sugar n Cream - perfect for dishcloths.  I thought the colors were nice and summery, and I think my Mom likes them as well.

I decided she needed something else to go with this gift, and after seeing similar things on Etsy and elsewhere, I decided she may like some small drawstring bags for bulk foods or produce.  

I used the same vintage table cloth that I used to create Mom's birthday gift last year!  I cut out varying squares/rectangles, serged the outside edges and then stitched them up.  I left the serged edges on the outside, that way if she is putting something like rice or oatmeal in them, particles won't get stuck in the serging.  The top pulls closed with a drawstring and would be extra tight if you used the extra string to wrap around the top of the bag.  I also included this water-erasable pen to use for labeling the bags with their bulk or produce number.  After she gets home, she can just wet the bag and the number will disappear.  I love this pen for drawing out embroideries - I hope it works for my mom!

I got a call on Saturday from my Mom saying that her presents arrived and that she loved them.  She was very excited to use these produce bags at the Co-op - and I'm just so glad she likes them!  I really love the feel of the well worn fabric in vintage table cloths.  It's such sturdy yet soft fabric - perfect for a kitchen item that will be washed regularly.

That's it for now, though I did finish up something tonight that I can't wait to get pictures of.  Another successful garment coming tomorrow!  Yippee! Two in a row, I think that's a record. haha.

To My Mom.

To my cute Mom, 

Thanks for being such a great mom, for being able to be silly, then serious, and then back to silly again.  For dancing in the kitchen with your two girls while the boys call us the crazy McGarraugh women. ;)  For teaching by wonderful example how to be loving, caring and accepting of others.  For helping to teach me (and Toria and Eric) how to live a healthy life.  For cooking amazing meals and making the best desserts.  For showing us how to love music. (and for accompanying me on the piano for all of those solo and ensembles!!!) 

And for showing us how to love life by partaking in many fun activities like horse back riding...

Kayaking...

and Swimming...

That's mom and me two summers ago at the cabin. (Mom, I hope you don't mind a pic of you in your swimsuit on my blog!)

And of course to the woman, with the unbelievable green thumb, with the vegetable garden so amazing that it produces tomato plants that grow to be taller than she is!

Mom, thanks for everything.  I'm so proud to be your daughter.  I love you!

Skirting the Issue. Literally.

The issue:  I want to sew more clothes for myself.

The solution: A skirt.

Why a skirt?

1. It was SO easy.

2. It was SO fast.

3. I LOVE IT!

Any better reasons than those?  So for this skirt, I took a knit skirt that I bought at Old Navy a few years ago, and love the fit of, put it on some fabric, traced, cut it out, and sewed it together. SO EASY!

Never mind the wet hair and half chopped off head.  haaha...it was the morning.

I'm so pleased with how simple this skirt was.  I'm definitely making another one.  The fabric I used is a cotton/rayon/spandex jersey knit.  So it's lightweight and drapey, but not see-through.  I didn't even have to put elastic in the waistband cause it fit just right.  I love that.  I did decide though that the plain brown skirt needed a little something.  I thought about adding some reverse applique like shown in the Alabama Stitch Book.  But I wasn't sure I wanted to put that much effort into it last night! haha! Darn it, I wanted to wear it today.  So I remembered some of the doilies I bought a while back.  I know I've seen others use them as embellishment to cardigans, and probably skirts too, but I don't really remember where I saw them.  Either way, it was so easy to add this to the corner and have a fun and unique looking skirt.

I'm going to try doing this again.  The next skirt though I want to have more fullness, maybe it will have to be a bit more circular, I have this fantastic purple (of course, what other color would it be??) knit fabric I got in our remnant sale last weekend that has tons of drape to it and would be great as a skirt with lots of movement, kind of like a dancer's skirt.  Actually, I want to look like Jennifer Lopez's character in Shall We Dance.  I know that movie was super cheesy, but the dancing and clothes were beautiful!  The way the fabric moved...ahhh.  Ok, so maybe I will never look like that (I am 5'0" tall, long and graceful, I will never be! But I was a decent pompom girl - a side note - haha), but at least I can pretend with beautifully flowing garments.

I can't wait to get back to more sewing of clothes.  That is what made me love sewing, and it feels good to be back in that realm.

Time for Margaritas!

So, it's Cinco de Mayo, and I am having a dinner of a margarita and guacamole.  Does it get any better??? I suppose it's ok that I am having such a "healthy" dinner as I just worked my butt off at Zumba.  New routines today (first class of the month) so I had to think and try a little harder to learn the new moves.  But seriously, I LOVE Zumba.  It's sooo much fun.

On to some projects here.  Like I've mentioned the last couple of posts, we had our annual Sewing Weekend at work.  It is a crazy event and each year (this is my 3rd) I am still surprised at how many people show up and how crazy and excited and down right fun these ladies are! (I'm not going to lie, some drove me up the wall, but most of them are great, and I even got kissed by a lady when I found her a certain fabric!)

So I spent the weekend in the Clover booth.  They needed another helper, and I volunteered.  I really love their products, they have such innovative products that not only touch on the sewing side, but also on the crafty, make with your hands, side of things.  I love that so many of their products rely on hand stitching.  There is something about stitching by hand that feels meditative and soothing.  Plus, it's something you can do while watching TV or when having a conversation.  Who doesn't love good multi tasking?

So I demonstrated the new Rose and Bow makers.  I think I did alright (for just jumping in and winging it) but don't ask me to demonstrate one for a couple of weeks - you sure get tired of saying the same thing over and over again! I thought it was funny how some people would get the jokes, and some wouldn't.  You see each Rose maker comes with a bobby pin (yeah, the regular old hair pin) to help twist the rose to finish the shape, and I would call it "the super high tech tool, that is included..." and some people would laugh and some people would just kinda look at you, it was amusing.

Anyway, enough about that.  I decided that the best way to demonstrate these items were to have some things made, and actually, I am glad I made these accessories, as it gave a  lot of the customers ideas on how to use the tools. (Clover had their own samples too, but you know I had to put my own flair on some of the items.)

This is what I came up with.  Pins, earrings, and hair clips.

In the picture you can see the rose and bow styles, each day I wore something different.  I had something in my hair and a pin on my shirt.  It was kind of fun to spice up my outfits that way.  But, it does get difficult to pick out an outfit based on these accessories!  There was definitely a lot of trying on and seeing what looked good.

Overall, these tools are really fun and so easy to use.  I would love to try more styles.  It was really fun to wear hair accessories.  Usually I am more of a leave my hair down kinda girl, but the sassy clips can be kind of fun, and it seems that they are coming back into fashion, little by little.  (on that note, did anybody else notice that scrunchies are inching their way back into fashion!!!  ICK!!!  If I ever start making scrunchies out of Amy Butler fabric, please, STOP ME!)

So I guess that's it for now.  I'm hoping for some more finished projects this week - we shall see!

A cowl in May? Ok!

It's not exactly the right season for this.  But sometimes yarn just screams your name and you just want to use it RIGHT AWAY!  That's what happened when I saw this Malabrigo Thick n Thin yarn at Iris Fine Yarns last weekend.  

It's purple, so of course, I had to have it!  And, I love the way it worked up, but it was sure hard on my knuckles to knit.  It isn't nearly as fluid as some yarns can be.  

This is a slight variation on the Delores Park Cowl that I've done a few times. I am pleased with the end result!  Now that I've finished this item, I am working on another purple project - this time with a more summer appropriate yarn.  I can't wait to show you some progress!

Otherwise, I am sorry to have been so elusive these last few weeks.  I am hoping to get myself back on schedule with working on projects.  Who knows if I will ever really get there.  I always have high hopes and then life gets in the way!  But I do have a few other things I've been working on, so hopefully there will be some finished items soon.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  We've had a beautiful, sunny day here today, so I thought I should end with this sweet photo of Chelsea basking in the sun this morning.