Marking Fabric for Embroidery

I thought I would share my easy, peasy, low tech method for marking my embroidery designs on fabric.

I use freezer paper for a lot of things in my sewing room, such as, marking designs for embroidery.  First, I draw or trace out a design in pencil.  Once I have the design finalized I trace it onto the dull side of a piece of freezer paper.  I go over the design with an ultra fine point sharpie pen so that it is very dark.

Next, I place the shiny side of the freezer paper on the fabric and press until the freezer paper adheres to the fabric.  Then, I hold or tape the fabric up to a window and draw over the design with a fine point pencil. A mechanical pencil with a 0.5 mm lead works well. The freezer paper acts as a stiffener for the fabric and the fabric doesn't wiggle while you draw the design.

This method works great for small designs. My mother always said one should "make hay while the sun shines." With this method that is very true. I make sure I have my fabric marked before the sun goes down if I want to stitch in the evening.  Also, the design ends up reversed with this method.  If this matters you should trace onto the freezer paper with the original pattern reversed.

Here is the finished cat from this drawing.

Making Progress

I have made a couple of things for P to wear when preschool starts and progressed a little in my sewing room tidying at the same time. P. had been admiring these pink fabrics in my sewing room ever since they arrived in the mail back in the winter, so, I made her a reversible apron/smock.

I also turned these size 18 women's thrift shop capri pants into a pair of pants for P.

I started these a week or two ago but was frustrated with the way they fit.  I trimmed the legs down but they still did not look right.  This morning I took the front waist band off and reworked the elastic in the back and the band in the front.  I hemmed them and they fit much better still a little baggy looking but we are going with it.

The fabric was stretchy and I wish I had remembered my walking foot before I had finished them.

I also finished knitting B's slippers but I'll wait until I knit my new slippers and then felt  both at the same time.

Back to work...

Clouds at Sunset

The low sun in the morning and evening is great for photography.  The colors are often more vibrant. We have noticed that the barn is a very vibrant red on some evenings.

Last night, on our after dinner walk I noticed the clouds.

Light on dark.

Dark on light.

Dark and light.

Go With the Flow Socks

I think I may have started a few too many projects and I am now on a mission to finish some of them off.  Let's see what I can get done in the next few days.

First off the production line is the next, pair nine, in the Two Make a Pair project. A. knit hers lickety split as she was driving to her new home. I, however, only worked on my sock a few minutes here and there until I had to sit at the car shop waiting for my car to be serviced.  While there, I finally made enough progress that I was encouraged to finish without much more delay.

The pattern, Go With the Flow Socks by Evelyn Clark, can be found in the Spring 2005 issue of Interweave Knits or Favorite Socks by Interweave Press.

We used Wildfoote Luxury Sock Yarn by Brown sheep.  We followed the pattern as printed except worked the first 10 rows P2, K4 instead of following the chart in the book.

I have learned that it is very difficult to photograph your own feet from the side. I have done it a few times but I have to take soooooo many photos. I just hold the camera out and click. There is no way to see what will be in the picture.  I take a bunch of shots and then look at them on the computer and go back out to try again.  So, I sort of put M. in charge of this photo shoot.  When the evening light was right we went out and he had me stand on some old fence boards beside the pumpkin patch. I didn't argue because at that point P. was the only other person around and I don't think her photo would have turned out any better than one I would take. I am lucky I did not break a bone. The next sock photo may be a photo taken by me looking straight down at my feet.  We shall see. M also took photos here, here, and here.

P. wanted in on the action so he also took this photo.

Sometimes I wonder what the neighbors think when we are out with the camera.

We just "go with the flow..."

Blueberry Farm - Blueberry Pie

We made our first trip to the local U-Pick blueberry farm.  It is close enough that M ran and met us there. (He has just passed 200 miles for the summer and is hoping to make it to 500 before school starts.)We hung our buckets from our belts and started picking.

P was like Little Sal. Kuplink, kuplank, kuplunk. Her recommended method of picking was to  "eat the big ones and put the little ones in the pail."  She did a lot of picking but must have found mostly BIG berries

I like to go early in the morning and listen to the birds while I pick.  I get in my own little pretend world that I am a pioneer woman working to feed my family.  I ignore that the bushes are in straight trimmed rows and the ground below my feet has been mowed.  When I hear the calls of "Only pick the BLUE ones," and "wow, look how big these berries are," and "how many berries have you picked?" coming across the field , I am jolted back to reality.  The spell is broken and I know it is time to go.

Morning's haul: 15 pounds.

For lunch we all had peanut butter and blueberry sandwiches. Ahhh, only a short time each year can you have THAT for lunch!

We will freeze most of them for pies this winter.

Miner's Blueberry Pie Filling

3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (I use 4 cups for a 10 inch pie)
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Mix dry ingredients.
Add to blueberries and mix gently.
Pour into pie pan with crust. Add top crust.
Bake at 400 degrees for 40-50 minutes.

Embroidery on Linen

Linen is my favorite fabric for embroidery. I have worked with both of these linen fabrics before, but sewing on them on the same day made me notice how different these two fabrics are.

The white is more coarse. It is more difficult to get tiny details to look nice. I still need to put the flower in that little guy's hat. The other is like stitching through butter. I wish I knew how they were described in the industry.  This would help me when I want to order more linen. I bought both fabrics from a costume maker for reenactors about 7 years ago.  Does anyone have a great source for nice linen fabric they would like to share?

I tried this little elf in a different stitch on the white and it was easier to get the finer details.

These embroideries are for an embroidery on linen swap on flickr.

Coming up with the designs was great fun. These designs are from a couple of 100 year old  books in my children's book collection. They are sized up  for easier stitching.

Watching the Pumpkins Grow

It might sound weird but I find pumpkin plants fascinating.  I am enjoying having them a little closer to the house this year. They are right behind the barn instead of down in the field.  I see them each time I go tend the chickens or to the vegetable garden.They burst out of the ground so fast that some of them still held their seed hulls.

They grow and grow and then start making flowers that look like little gnomes.

The stamens look like cheetos.

Then they curl.

They are good at making curls.

They just keep growing.

And they make pumpkins.

Keep us in mind in October. We planted 94 hills of pumpkin plants!

Cracking the Code

P has been surrounded by books and folks who love to read her whole life.  She has seen her parents and brothers read.  Everyone but her reads books with no pictures!  This fascinated her when she first picked up one of the boys books and noticed that the pages were filled with very small letters.  She would sit hunched over one of their open books and study it until she found a letter she recognized. This was usually one of the capitol letters at the beginning of a paragraph.  We would watch her concentration peppered with "there is an E." or "I see a P."

She has progressed to doing a little writing.

And even some reading!

I love that she is not afraid to try reading! She will run her fingers along the words and read aloud what she sees.  Recipes often say "You must eat all your dinner before you have a cookie."

The other day I gave her a little tea set that used to be mine.  She set out a little tea party right away.

As she was feeding little "ploopy" she noticed that there was writing on the bottom of the tea cup.

It says, "I need more tea." Can you read it?

The Little Red Hen at Work

Last weekend we harvested one patch of our rye.

We do things on a fairly small scale so we don't have any fancy equipment. Our method is the same as in many of my versions of "The Little Red Hen."  We use a sickle.  As we work together cutting, carrying, and bundling we talk about why we do some of the things we do here.

We like the idea of being able to grow things that we will use.  We will save a bit of the rye for our own use in the kitchen and some will be saved for next years seed. The rest will be fed to the chickens.  The straw will go into the chicken barn.  It will all get shoveled out in the early spring and put back onto the garden.

It is fun to try new things in the garden and research a bit on how things were done in the past.

For me, the "Little Red Hen" lesson is more than just  "everyone does their share of the work."  It says that it is important to know all of the steps associated in the creation of something.  It is about taking simple steps toward something meaningful.

We think that the actual purchase price on many items that are sold is artificially low because that price does not include the environmental cost associated with their production.  Growing some of our own crops and doing all the steps by hand makes us think more about the things we consume.  We can more easily evaluate the effort put into the production of an item.  We can also see how the mechanization process evolved, because we think of things that would make it easier as we work.

I Come in Peas

We are enjoying a great year for our garden.  Our cool, wet summer has kept our pea plants producing late into July.  Is this a blessing or a curse?  A little of both I think. We planted both sugar snap peas and garden peas and have picked almost every day the last few weeks.  Shelling the garden peas can get very tiresome.  P. helps me though.  We sit together and she has her own container.  She takes a pea pod and splits it open, carefully puts the peas in her container, counts them and then dumps her container into mine and moves on to the next pod.  She is very methodical about it.

We have eaten all of the sugar snap peas and shelled and frozen most of the others.

They just keep making more.

A lot of things are like that, mixed blessings, like Buzz was to Woody.  "I am Buzz Light Year. I come in peas."

Tonight's dinner forecast?  Peas.

Chicken Girl Update

I thought it was about time for a check in with the girlers.

P has learned that they will eat grass from her hand.

The chicks have grown a lot and are used to running around.  They are much harder to catch these days.  I even have a hard time catching them with the camera.  I think P dreams that she will go out to the pen and sit down and the hens will just come up to her and sit in her lap for a rest.  That does not happen.  Maybe if there were fewer of them there would be a chance of them becoming that tame.  Maybe when she is a little older and can go out on her own and spend more time with them.  Maybe.

This is our free "rare bird" that came with the order.  The fluffy feathers on her legs make her look a bit like she is wearing bell bottom pants.  We have looked through the Murray McMurray catalog and think she(or he) is a buff cochin.

She looked like this when we got her.

July Flowers in Hot Colors

I have often wondered about the flowers that bloom in July.  Why are so many of them orange?  I am enjoying them more than usual since July is cool here this year.  I usually look out and wish for lots of blue flowers in July. Blue would make things seem cooler.  These yellow and orange flowers often make it seem like the yard is fiery hot.

brown eyed Susan in our prairie field

butterfly weed in our native prairie fieldday

lillies -19 years ago we planted one tiny plant on the corner of the outhouse we also have them all along the road in front of the house

poppies - started in a garden but we never know where we will see them each year

lilies - the one area where the deer don't eat them

Laundry Day

I am thinking of adopting some sort of days of the week plan for housework.  This is the plan laid out on my vintage dish towels:

Monday - wash clothes
Tuesday - iron
Wednesday - sewing/mending
Thursday - market
Friday - dusting/cleaning
Saturday - baking
Sunday - rest/look out the window

I definitely would not need a whole day for ironing. I can't imagine the electricity that would use. Perhaps I could substitute catching up with my favorite blogs. Nor would I need a whole day for market but restricting it to one day a week would be good.

We do seem to need a day for laundry. In warm weather the schedule would need to be flexible enough to take advantage of the clothesline. P enjoys laundry day and goes out to hang the clothes. She has her own line strung at half height.

And she now has her own bag for her pins.

She used to keep them in an apron but the pin hanger is more convenient when you need to run over to the swing after hanging the clothes.

Maybe I should let P set our schedule. These are the things she likes to do- laundry, sew, bake, and scrub floors.  I hope she will enjoy these things when she is an adult as I do. I get a certain satisfaction from hanging laundry on the line, scrubbing the floor on my hands and knees, and baking things from scratch.  Sewing and knitting are different. They are relaxing, creative, and use a different part of the brain.  When doing needlework I feel like I am creating something lasting. Clean laundry, a clean house, and fresh baked goods don't last but I hope doing these things with my children is creating something that lasts. 

A Well Worn Pattern

I have a huge collections of patterns and books. Some of them I try out. There are some that I never finish, some that I finish and say, "I'll never make that again" for whatever reason, and some that I make over and over again.

The felted clog pattern by Fiber Trends is one of those patterns that I make again and again. I have made well over 30 pair.We don't wear our shoes in the house so these slippers are our "home shoes." They get worn until they have holes in the soles and toes. P thinks they are very fun when they are so big. The color is actually a deep blood red, not the pinkish look in the photos.

In an effort to make the slippers last longer I tried knitting wooly nylon with the wool on the sole on this pair.  It felted up nicely and I will be watching how they wear.

B has two pair, one for the basement and one for the rest of the house. That way he doesn't track saw dust and other "basement stuff" upstairs. I have made them in all sizes from the child's small to the men's large. One year I made them for each of my nieces and nephews.  I gave them to them in the prefelted stage so they could have the fun of shrinking them to fit their own feet. I am not sure how much fun my sisters had with that project but I think the kids enjoyed it.

I noticed today that someone else had holes in their slippers so I have already started the next pair.

Yep, this pattern is a keeper. It knits up fast and we all love wearing them. They really help keep the feet warm in the winter.

Faces in Places

Here are some interesting photos from the last few days.  Looking around flickr has gotten me to try new things with my photography.  I have been trying to see things in a different light or point of view.

Face (where the banister used to be attached to our plaster wall.)

Barn Robot

Resting Dog

That resting dog is actually the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes this morning. It REALLY looked like a dog in the dim morning light.

The inspiration for these photos came from the flickr group Faces in Places. Go have a look at some other great faces in unexpected places.

Catching Up

We have been quite busy lately.  Last Wednesday evening we had a big storm blow through and knock out our power again. We lost two of our very old apple trees and several other trees on the property.

M ran his 100th mile since starting to run with the cross country team on summer vacation. D, P, and I went out and met him for the 100th mile.

He was "really trying" not to let P get home first.

P and I did some sewing on her SewHandy as it was so handy when the power was out. We made a doll apron, a doll pillow, a doll blanket, and a clothespin holder/hanger for HER clothespins.  She likes the old fashioned round ones not the "tricky" ones with springs that I use.

The power came back just in time for me to make a strawberry rhubarb pie to take to the neighbors for a Fourth of July cookout.  There was a beautiful sunset on our walk home to put P to bed.

This weekend, in addition to helping clean up tree limbs, I made three jewelry pouches for the shop.

I like these little pouches.

The boys have some of this design that they used to keep marbles in.  P now wants me to make one for her- she has lots of little treasures.  I told her we could make one on HER sewing machine.  I have also made some with silvercloth lining.  I use one of those for my silver jewelry.  It works great; the jewelry says shiny and the pieces don't scratch each other. 

Hansel and Gretel vase

I have a lot of odds and ends that I have saved from my childhood. Occasionally, I'll find one in a drawer and wonder why I saved it. Over time, when cleaning I have let some of them go. Some things I save because they trigger a fond memory or make me smile when I run across them.  Some of the items I still use.

This vase is very special to me. It came from my mother but I don't know the history of it. I don't know where she got it. I remember picking flowers for it when I was small.  I liked using it but was a little afraid of it at the same time. That little cottage in the dark woods reminded me of where the witch kept Hansel and Gretel.  I always gave this vase the respect it deserved.  P now uses it for her bouquets.  Almost every time she goes outside she comes back with a flower from the yard.  She likes them with almost no stem so this is a good vase to use.  We put the fresh ones in and pull the old ones out to keep the arrangement fresh and always changing.

Paper Dolls

I had such fun designing and making this little quilt for ‘Calamity Kim.’

!  It was like sewing for one of my sisters. I just got a note from her saying she got it in the mail today, so it is safe to post now without spoiling the surprise.

The embroidery went quickly as it was a small quilt.

I didn't want the quilting to be distracting to the embroidery so I only hand quilted around the figures.

The finished quilt is 12 inches tall.  I forgot to measure the width.

I also had great fun going through my cards and choosing some that I thought Kim would like.

I hope I chose well.

Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow

I think I need to slow down and take more time to enjoy the flowers.

Maybe then I would be able to say deep and thoughtful things like my daughter.

Things like "Today is Yesterday's Tomorrow."

And Ella starts with "L," Emmy starts with "M," and Arlene starts with "R."

Really, how does she come up with this stuff?  She's only three!

And she loves pink!

Chicks and Dolls

Our little chicks have grown fast. They are mostly feathered, so we moved them out to the barn about a week ago. They like having the room to run and flap around and have quickly learned how to scratch in the dirt and eat grass.  They are separated from the older hens and can get out to the fenced area.

The big chickens can watch them through the fence.

In the craft room, I have made some progress on Kim's little quilt.  The embroidery is finished and the quilt is ready for quilting and binding up.