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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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Category Archives: baby
Change is Hard…and Cute
This morning, Ellie woke up at 5:25 (sadly, as been her custom the past few days). After a long nursing session, she was still upset (as in throwing herself around the bed upset) but finally agreed to rock with me. … Continue reading
Posted in baby, Ellie, movie
4 Comments
Our New Home (Again)
Before Ellie came, Nik surprised me with a new house. And now he’s gone and done it again! He decided that our new house wasn’t big enough so he upgraded. He surprised me with the new house today. I was … Continue reading
Posted in baby, Ellie, just for fun
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Yes, I’m Very Pregnant
In case you were wondering, here’s some proof. At 36 weeks, along with Ellie’s opinion of me attempting to take a belly shot right after she woke up from a nap: And from last night, at 37 1/2 weeks: So, … Continue reading
Posted in baby
2 Comments
November Sewing: Something for Ellie, Something for B2
Wanting both B2 and Ellie to have something new of their own once he/she is born, I made a little cooking apron for Ellie (using this tutorial) and a new baby blanket for B2. I’ve been meaning to make Ellie … Continue reading
Posted in baby, Ellie, sewing
8 Comments
OK, Fine, You Figured Me Out
Just as Ellie didn’t really have rabies and we didn’t really feed her pizza for her first food, we are also not planning on naming our child “Buster” or “Busterina”. I still think that “Baby Bus” would be a cute … Continue reading
Posted in baby, Ellie, just for fun
1 Comment
Announcing…Our Top Baby Name Options for B2
We’ve finally nailed down the names for B2. For a boy: Buster For a girl: Busterina Why such unusual names, you ask? Ellie is currently in love with buses. She lights up whenever she sees a bus. She’s also careful … Continue reading
Posted in baby, Ellie, just for fun
8 Comments
October/November Sewing: Blankets for Our Baby Boy and Our Friends’ Baby Girl
I know, I know, we don’t know for sure (or at all) that we’re having a boy. But I didn’t like the boy blanket that we had from the last pregnancy so I cut that one up for cloth wipes … Continue reading
Posted in baby, sewing
4 Comments
How to Figure Out if Your Belly is Getting Bigger (In Two Easy Steps)
For Anyone Out There Who Might Be Pregnant: 1. Try to close a closet door and ram the door into your tummy. Or try to walk past your husband in the hallway and run right into him. Both will be … Continue reading
Posted in baby, Ellie
8 Comments
A Couple Momentous Firsts
Ellie is growing and changing so quickly. The past couple weeks, a couple things have happened that have really made me realize how quickly my baby is turning into a little girl. Exhibit A – Ellie’s first loaf of bread … Continue reading
Posted in baby, Ellie
3 Comments
Why We Think B2 is a Boy (But No Ultrasounds for Us!)
Before Ellie was born, we were pretty sure she was a girl, mostly because I’d had 2-3 dreams in which I clearly knew that she was a girl and because one of the midwives in our practice had been fairly … Continue reading
Posted in baby, Ellie
7 Comments
