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I had the great fun of being in @brendagaelsmith’s Strip Ease workshop last night, through my guild, @baltimoremqg. I’ve been wanting to explore sewing improv gentle curves for a long time and Brenda was a phenomenal teacher. Through the wonder of the Internet, Brenda was in Australia, we were in the US, we had a 16-hour time difference and we all had fun sewing together! I am making blocks to go with my HST blocks that I started five years ago as part of a sew-along from @blossomheartquilts. I’m using quilter’s flannel that I impulsively bought way too much of many years ago. I’m determined to finish this year! 😀Bags are my true sewing love and this year I got to sew two of them! The first, a vastly simplified #sidekicktote from @noodlehead531, sewn in May. This is the second time I’ve made this pattern, and also the second time I used this group of fabrics (it’s actually the fifth bag I’ve made for myself with these fabrics!) The pattern has all kinds of cool features, which were a big part of why I purchased the pattern in the first place. But I ended up not really taking advantage of them with my first bag (which I wore out from constant use) and so, for ease and quickness, I just left them out of this bag. I added a bit of English paper piecing to the front for fun. 😀I also sewed a whole bunch of masks, a few of those I did manage to share pictures of back in April. at some point, I lost track of the precise number that I made but I think it was around 175. I did one final push to make around 110 and after I finish those, I decided I didn’t like feeling like a factory. 😉I donated the majority of them and was glad to be able to use up a whole bunch of fabric that I didn’t want anymore in pursuit of providing a way to help keep people safe. I also finished up mending a rag rug which my kids made for me (with my MIL’s help) from their toddler clothes. And finally, I sewed eight flannel baby blankets because pandemic or not, people just keep on having babies! ❤️❤️❤️The end of 2020 is nigh and I managed to share barely any of what I sewed this year. The pandemic drove me outside for solace rather than to my sewing room so I didn’t sew as much as I might have otherwise. (And, to be clear, this is not something that I’m sad about. Being outside really fed my soul this year.) But, I did manage to finish three more baby quilts to donate through the @baltimoremqg, thanks to @sewsobright’s coordination.“Hey kids! Let me tell you a story about the time that your grandma (who sometimes lost all track of reason when it came to sewing and Christmas) finally managed to sew stockings for her children, even though they weren’t even close to babies anymore. And then, after they were sewn, she loved the way they looked but she realized they were so small she couldn’t even fit a baby orange in the toe. (What was she thinking when she designed them?!?!) And meanwhile, she had only sewn your grandpa the world’s most pitiful barely-a-stocking stocking. So a couple years later, she decided that now that her oldest child was in double digits, she should really be sure that everybody had as big and nice of stockings as she did, thanks to her grandma (who, by the way is your great-great-grandma!). But, she was sad to lose the original beautiful tiny stockings she had made. So she ripped them apart, made big stockings (patterned off of the one her grandma had sewn for her) and then sewed the little stockings on top of them! Plus she managed to sew her husband a real stocking too! And that’s the story of how I have perhaps the world’s weirdest stocking. But isn’t it great, just the same?! Merry Christmas!”🎄🎄🎄As has been my practice for the past four years, I made a Christmas pillow for my mother-in-law‘s early December birthday. This year, I decided to make two blocks, paper pieced and from the original #splendidsampler. My original plan was to make two complimentary pillows but I only got one of them done in time for her birthday (was literally hiding in the bedroom finishing up hand sewing the binding, five minutes before we gave it to her! 😂) so we are giving her the other one for Christmas. The pillows are approx. 13”x17”, A totally cute size. All this fabric came from my stash and it’s a good thing that my mother-in-law‘s living room is now full to the brim with Christmas pillows because I have pretty much used up this particular set of fabrics. 😀 it wasn’t until I had almost finished quilting the first pillow, that I realized I had inadvertently chosen one pattern that made an X and the other pattern that make an O. So I managed to make two “hugs and kisses” pillows for a wonderful woman. ❤️Today, I am adding my voice to the much more eloquent chorus of many others to say that Black lives matter. It feels incredibly inadequate to say only that but it’s a start. .My front porch flowers are bringing me so much joy. Perhaps they’ll bring some into your day too? 😘It’s my first 2020 garden harvest! A good sized bunch of radishes, one carrot that overwintered (I doubt it’s going to be edible), and a really delicious assortment of baby greens for salad - it all makes me happy! My peas are taking forever to grow this year so I don’t know that we’re going to get many out of them, but that’s OK. My yard and garden have been my solace and my sanity the past two months. #salmonandsouvlakigardens #organicgardening #growwhatyoueat #baltimoregardenIt’s asparagus season!! Woo hoo! We haven’t had a functional oven during asparagus season since 2016 and so we celebrated by making our very most favorite way to eat asparagus! (Recipe from @smittenkitchen.) It’s been four years since we’ve eaten asparagus pizza and it was just as good as we remembered. 😍 We also enjoyed an all-local salad as well as another mustard-y hot dog pizza. Swipe to the last picture for the golden beet fritters that rounded out our meal. .In non-mask making news, we have continued our #quarantinebaking adventures and I just remembered I forgot to post pictures! On Easter weekend, we made homemade pizza and pita on Good Friday and then I made sourdough cinnamon rolls for Easter brunch. I used the sourdough pizza dough recipe and sourdough cinnamon rolls recipe from @maurizio. His instructions are impeccable; I am a rebel and don’t follow all of them; and the final product is still great. 😉 We made several different kinds of pizza but the one pictured is a fancy hot dog pizza that Nik had at a gourmet pizza restaurant once. It’s a Dijon mustard sauce with hot dogs, pickles, cheddar cheese, and raw onion as toppings. It might sound weird but it is surprisingly super delicious! #salmonandsouvlakibakes #sourdoughcinnamonrolls #homemadepizza #sourdoughpizza #hotdogpizza #theperfectloafDonated this set of 34 masks to @fablabbaltimore for their work with Housing Our Neighbors, helping those who are experiencing homelessness. Many thanks to @createdomesticity for stocking twill tape, and also for the front porch delivery! ❤️ Thanks also to @makergonnamake for her work on this project! (And please contact her if you’re able to help make masks or donate supplies or money!) #salmonandsouvlakisews #domesticitymasketeers #charmcitysewcial #bmqgsewcialdistancing #ilovebaltimoreCategories
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Monthly Archives: January 2011
In negotiations
Ellie is nursing, mostly, thankfully. Thanks for all the encouragement everyone. She still seems to have some issues and just this afternoon went almost 4 hours without nursing and then would only nurse while swaddled and almost asleep. So things … Continue reading
Posted in Ellie, nursing
2 Comments
Ellie joins the AFL-CIO*
*Association For Little Children in Opposition In her quest to support organized labor, on Saturday afternoon at around 1:15, Ellie decided to join the AFL-CIO. When a child joins, he or she decides what to be in opposition to. The … Continue reading
Posted in Ellie, nursing
6 Comments
Oh the cuteness! Oh the tinyness!
Last summer, we looked like this: Now, we look like this: (Only, we switched babies.) Welcome Luke William, born last Wednesday! Good job Nikki! He’s so cute! He’s so tiny! He’s a boy! (And it’s impossible to believe that Ellie … Continue reading
Posted in Ellie, family
4 Comments
Captain Literal
I have to be careful what I say around Ellie these days, because she takes me literally. For example, last night I said to Nik, “Wow, Ellie hasn’t been talking very much today,” and immediately, she started cooing. Or yesterday … Continue reading
In which Laura throws Eliana at Noah and Noah, being the nice cousin, rescues her from certain peril
*No babies were harmed in the taking of these photos.
Posted in Ellie, family
6 Comments
A few hard lessons I’ve learned already today
1. A baby cannot be rushed. (Actually, I learned this lesson while nannying 6 years ago but I evidently forgot it.) 2. It’s not a good idea to start a baking project where the items have to come out at … Continue reading
Posted in Ellie, parenting
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Resolved
One of my food resolutions for the year is to bake most, if not all, of the bread we eat. I started today with Oatmeal Toasting Bread. I made it with all whole-wheat flour and without the old dough (although … Continue reading
Posted in cooking
3 Comments
We’re home!
After a long trip (starting at 6:00 am AK time and ending at 1:30 am EST), we’re back in our own home! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Nik’s family in Arlington, VA and then on Christmas night … Continue reading
