A Skirt with a Real Waist

The chocolate brown skirt that I made wasn't working so well.  The flap wouldn't stay nicely, and the fabric had a few snags.

I took a brown linen tablecloth in my stash and made a new skirt to replace it.  I didn't intend to make the waist so high - at first I kept trying to tug it down, but Rebecca laughed at me.  She told me I don't remember that we used to have waistlines at our real waist.  She's right!  I'm so used to my shirts not staying tucked in, to waistlines hitting me below the belly button, that to have one up here makes me feel funny.

But I'm keeping it.  It's remarkably slenderizing and modest.

I did try to add side-pockets to the yoke seams.  That was a mistake.  The pockets pulled and gaped too much.  I firmed up the yoke with some interfacing, which feels good.  I also, at Rebecca's suggestion, finished the hem with bias tape (maroon when I ran short of brown).

I can't believe I'm wearing and loving Crocs!

Let's hope this skirt turns out to be a workhorse in my wardrobe, unlike the other one.

A Little Discussion on Quilting Styles

Recently, my friend Marilou announced that she cannot make quilts because she is clueless about colors.  I argued with her, knowing that she is a pragmatic person, that quilts can be made from a functional standpoint, too, not just a color scheme or to match a decor.

I've been reading lots of back-issues of Threads, given to me by Rebecca's aunt.

I don't like to see quilting defined as a hobby requiring special tools, clubs, and matching fabric.  People like Marilou and me get confused and give up.

Threads:  Af-American quilt

When I look at the Gee's Bend quilts or other African-American patchwork, I can work again with confidence.  These quilts are so beautiful to my eye because the quilter was using what she had and making beauty within that.  I can do that, too! 

that quilting pattern

I recognize this approach from my grandma and other Mennonite grandmothers.  I can't imagine Grandma Weaver carrying around swatches to fabric stores to get exact matches in order to make a quilt to a color scheme.  She used what people gave her or what she found in the second-hand shop where she worked.  My sister has a weirdly beautiful yellow quilt to prove it.

Threads:  Af-American quilt

I admire the technical prowess in planned matched quilts with intricate quilting, but they do not move me.  Whereas, when I see a quilt made from real odds and ends, my heart melts.

2 vintage quilts - love the quilting patterns

I'm working on a wallhanging right now, something I swore I would never do because most quilted wallhangings I have seen are too cute or too clumsy.  Either commit to a whole quilt or just hang a darn picture on the wall!

vintage quilt

However, I acquired three orphan quilt blocks in the Mennonite-Grandma-Weaver style that needed to stand alone as art.  I'm adding some stitching, embroidery actually.  I'm eager to show them to you next week, after they accompany me on my travels for work.

Perfect Green Salad in the Brown-Bag Lunch

When I pack salad for a brown-bag refrigerated lunch, I don't dress it in the morning (it would be a disgusting slimy mess after a few hours).  I don't put the dressing in a separate little container either (which usually leaks; plus, most of the dressing seems to stay in the container when I try to pour it out). 

Instead, I pour the right amount of dressing  down into one corner of the plastic container I'm packing the salad in.  At lunch, I just mix up the salad and dressing and hey presto!  a crisp home salad for lunch.

Is this a trick that everybody knows?  It was a new thought to Rebecca, too, but maybe the world is made up of rolling epiphany waves and we're just on a different one from the rest of y'all.

The Wall of Family Photos

We have very few knick-knacks sitting around.  They get dusty and I don't like to take the time to dust them.  Plus, I think my husband would live in a modern cube if he had his way.  However, I wanted to put up some family photos - family is so important to me.

I recalled an idea in a Rosamund Pilcher novel that I read years ago.  One of the characters lived in a very modern flat, very white and spare.  She painted one narrow wall bright blue and hung all her family photos tightly on that wall.

So that's what I'm doing at the base of our stairs, sans the blue.  I add a family photo as I come across one we love.

Me, my sister, and brother, early 1980s.

I'm using clip frames, which I pick up every time I go past a craft store with a 40% off coupon - the small ones cost less than $2 that way.

How do you handle family photos?

Sunday Dinner: 1950s Broiled Steak and Vichysoisse

Menu: broiled T-bone steaks
vichysoisse
crisp green salad with French

It was such an elegant 1950s meal.  I didn't intend to broil the steaks, but there was just enough gas left in the grill to turn it on and that was it, as I discovered just before dinner.  I turned to my 1954 Joy of Cooking for help.  I really have not been following recipes recently - only using them for ideas.  What I did was heat the oven to 350, then turn the broiler on high.  I laid the steaks on a rimmed baking sheet and broiled them for 5 minutes a side.  They were tender and absolutely delicious.

And so was the vichysoisse.  I wasn't crazy about it last year - I hope I can repeat this version again. 

Again, I used a recipe for the idea only.  What I did, loosely:
1.  Saute leeks in butter.
2.  Add chopped potatoes, roughly the same quantity as leeks.  Saute a little.  (Peel the potatoes if you're after perfectly fleck-free soup).
3.  Barely cover with good chicken stock.  Cook covered until tender.  Allow to cool (several hours).
4.  Add some watercress. Blend until very smooth, adding some milk and plain yogurt, a little half and half.
5.  Add some dill and marjoram.  Taste, add salt.
6.  Chill overnight.
7.  Serve in soup bowls, garnished with snipped parsley.

Lettuce from our garden, but not much longer:  it's starting to bolt in the heat.

By this point, my husband was saying firmly, "I'm hungry."  So I put the camera away, despite the lovely light that comes in our dining room at lunchtime every day.  And then we had a lovely Sunday dinner with naps and books to follow.

The Ironing Catch-All

Why didn't I realize that having my sewing machine set up all the time would make me whiz-bang projects out one after another? 

I used to sew at the dining room table - our only table - so I was constantly setting up or taking down my machine.  Now, it's so efficient - I just run up to my machine, sew a few minutes, and run back to whatever.  The birds are waking me up early now, and I can easily sew for a little bit while I sip my tea, turning off my machine whenever I hear roars from the children.

I took an old eyelet dresser scarf and turned it into a catch-all in the laundry room.  Now the hankies and napkins have a decent place to wait for Genevieve, instead of handfuls hanging off the ironing board holder.

Then I took the best scraps from that project and made little soap totes for my etsy shop.  More to come - they're so fun to make.

The Summer Pillow Cover

I felt a desire to sew something with ball fringe.  I used my 40% off coupon to go to Jo-Ann's and buy 2 yards.  I was in the store for 5 minutes and that was the only thing I bought.  Shopping with littles taught me that method of shopping.  I'm sure the stores are very disappointed with my non-impulse shopping (or maybe this ball-fringe thing was an impulse. . . ).

Then I was moved to make a summer pillow cover for one of our sofa cushions.  I really am not a seasonal decorator because I have no idea where I would store the off-season stuff; ergo, the "winter" pillow cover is washed and hanging out in the laundry basket until I figure out what to do with it.

The fabric for this pillow cover is from a thrifted, stained tablecloth.  I avoided the stains.  I also got to sew this with a girlfriend at her house after all our respective children were in bed.  Lovely.

The pillow cover is very popular with the children, whom I have threatened with evil things if one of the balls is pinched off or sucked on or something else I couldn't dream up.