spring colours week: yellow

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peeps bunny bunting!  i made this from dana’s tutorial last year.

oh, what’s that you say?  you just wanted a photo of a pretty flower?  okay.  i give you, “lonely daffodil in the rain.”

our house’s prior owners planted an abundance of daffodil bulbs, which are so fun to have pop up in the springtime.  i love to cut a bunch and bring them inside.  i mean really, having fresh cut flowers straight from your yard will lighten anyone’s mood, especially when we portlanders endured 29 days of rain in the month of march, with 23 of those days CONSECUTIVE, and it didn’t hit 60 degrees until march 31, the latest on record…um…yeah…kinda depressing.  bring on the flowers!

spring colours week: green

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ginkgo against a green leafy backdrop.  i took this at reed college during a little photo shoot to “depersonalize” my sister’s house art as part of the staging process.  a little lisa laporta action.

i just love the leaves on a ginkgo.  they make me happy.  and so does bokeh.

(part of poppytalk’s spring colour week – having a blog means i can participate in these fun things now!)

in the midst of a big project

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i’ve been spending most of my free time working on a quilt for em’s twin-size big girl bed…my first honest-to-goodness quilt, not just a picnic blanket!  this one has much more patchwork, batting, and will reside on a bed, not on a campground picnic bench, and i will see it every day.  as a result, i’m completely terrified at each new step…what if the rows don’t line up?  what kind of basting do i do (pins, fusible batting, basting spray)?  what kind of quilting pattern should i go with (i’m thinking this)?  what if i can’t reach the middle while quilting with my normal sewing machine?   oh man, SO much hand sewing on the binding…and i need to hand sew it, i haven’t had much luck with making machine-sewn binding look pretty enough.

so far, the top is pieced.  i went for the simplest, most low-stress type of patchwork i could think of (a bunch of 6″ squares).  i joined them into pairs, then squares, then rows, then joined the rows.  i bought batting and environmentally-friendly non-toxic basting spray…and that’s where things stand now.  the top is pieced and looks great, it’s full of fabric by my favorite designers plus a smidge of vintage sheeting, and it’s the perfect colors for em’s room.  it fits on her bed!  i’m seriously thrilled.  tomorrow, i shop for backing fabric and binding, and hopefully, during naptime, i will make a nice little quilt sandwich.  i’m devouring quilting blogs (film in the fridge and oh, fransson!), i’m draining the brain of a good friend who just took a quilting class, and i’m checking the quilt books i’ve accumulated with the intention of making a quilt someday…there are so many steps and i don’t want to mess it up!

here’s a little sneak peek.

wish me luck!

a dash of dots

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what may seem just your average, run-of-the-mill, sweet little dress…

…is actually a swirling,

twirling,

LEAPING,

“POLKA DOT BALLERINA DRESS!”

i made it to match her cousin’s 2 year birthday dress from gymboree, per em’s request.  i thought it’d be a bright idea to add godets (my google search for “triangle inserts in a skirt to make it flare” led me to THAT fancy sewing term).  that turned a short, quick, easy project into a much longer one, one with a lot of seam-ripping, one that em turned into a little taskmaster.  “is my polkadot dress done yet, mommy?” was a common question for a couple weeks as i grumbled and delayed and tried new techniques to get the tops of each triangle to a perfect point before i finally just zigzagged them and called it good!  but now it’s done, phew, and she loves it.  the fabric is a michael miller polka dot.  the godets made the middle of the dress a bit too boxy, so it looks best gathered with a belt or ribbon.

let the neverending dance party continue!

a little green skirt for springtime

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i have a soft spot for the oliver + s lazy days skirt free pattern.  it was the first article of clothing i made after the husband gave me a machine for mother’s day, and i learned that i should DEFINITELY follow instructions when learning to sew rather than winging it at first, because it’s an art that’s been around for a long long time, and i had a lot to learn.  here’s my daughter modeling my first creation in the summer of 2009.

lazy days skirt

check out those tiny little legs!  this skirt would probably hit at an indecent mid-thigh level on her now!  that first skirt took me 2 hours (i can now whip one up in a quarter of the time).  most toddler skirts i make now are a variation on the lazy days skirt, usually a hybrid of the lazy days and the market skirt by MADE, like this one:

i decided (at 10pm on wednesday night) to sew a little green skirt for her to wear on st. patrick’s day, with plenty of growing room to last her through the spring/summer.  the print is valori wells’ berries in sage, and the solid is a poplin.  i’d never used poplin before, but it’s really nice – softer than quilting cotton, and the color matched the print beautifully.  i can’t get enough of the spring green.

i made it plenty long because my little beanpole tends to grow up, not out.

she loves her newest skirt (yay!).  it helps that she’s in a “ballerina” phase and currently only wants to wear skirts or dresses.  i’m happy to oblige.

“dorothy shoes” are also a must.