Finally sewing again

It seems the sewing mojo is back, finally. I've missed it.
Here are some reversible pants for my little grand daughter.

And here's a close-up of the cuff detail:

The pattern is this - poofy pants, reversible, found on etsy.
I loved everything about this pattern: it comes in several sizes and the individual sheets are very easy to assemble. There are only 2 pattern pieces and the instructions are excellent.
I used the 9-12 month size for these thinking that the flannel would be appropriate when the weather gets colder in Colorado where baby and parents live. My next pair will be made from quilting cottons for more immediate use.
I am linking up with Randi from i have to say for Show 'n Tell Tuesday.

Summer sewing

I'm trying to get back to whatever passes for normal around here these days and it may still take a while. Summer hasn't been easy, with the death of my sister, not unexpected, of course, but difficult all the same.
Of course, there were good things, too: two visits to Colorado to get to know our little grand daughter.
And I've tried to keep busy, but don't have much to show for it. Hopefully soonish.
I did sew a bit, quite a while ago and here's what I made:

I used one of my favorite (free) patterns: the dumpling bag. Not only do I love the pattern, but the inspiration I found here: cooking dumplings for quilt-as-you-go. I love that technique, I get to use up my scraps, those little bits of my favorite fabrics, and quilt (almost) straight lines and it's just plain fun and relaxing to me.
The little bowl is another free pattern: round basket. Quick, easy and great to use up small bits of fabric (not scraps this time). I went for the shabby chic look with that one. Here's a better look:

And a few more pictures of the dumplings. I'm wondering whether I should put them in my etsy store, after all, how many dumplings do I need?

Photo dump

While downloading and editing the pictures I took this morning (see this post), I found quite a few older pictures on my memory stick. Some good ones, some not so good ones.
I think by now we all know that I mostly use my phone to take pictures these days, but sometimes it takes a "real" camera to get the pictures I want. As much as I love my iPhone for taking pictures (I don't use it all that much for other things), I doubt I could have gotten these with my phone.

Same berries, different area of focus.

Unedited.

Same pictures as above, cropped.

Amgen Tour of California

I'm a big fan of the Tour de France. There's practically no chance that I'll ever get to see it in person, but living in California, I did have the opportunity to watch the Amgen Tour of California live today, the very last leg in Santa Rosa.
I took both iPhone and SLR camera along and, since the riders did two turns in downtown Santa Rosa, I shot pictures with the camera the first time and did a video with the camera the second time they rode by.
Here are the pictures, well quite a few of them (and many more didn't make it):

Tejay van Garderen, winner of the Tour

 As much as I love the camera on my iPhone, I know that there's no way I could have gotten anything near as good with that camera. For the first time in a long time I used automatic focus again and the sports setting and just clicked away. Just about all of the pictures turned out well, except for the ones at the end, the awards ceremony. I was too far back in the crowd to get decent shots, so there is just one of Tejay van Garderen (and not the one where we brought his newborn daughter on stage) who is the overall winner. No picture of Peter Sagan who won the sprint finish and apparently had a really good time on stage or any of the other individual winners.
And here is a link to the video:
Amgen Tour of California

Quilts

I took my first quilting class over 30 years ago. I was pregnant with my first child at the time. Hoping for a girl, but not knowing (ultrasounds and amnios were rare in those days), I did not have a single pink thing when the baby was born. Yes, it was a girl.
Two weeks after her birth, I got a phone call from the wonderful elderly woman who had taught me how to quilt: she knew I didn't have anything pink and she'd heard I had a little girl, so she had made a pink baby blocks (or tumbling blocks) quilt for me. By hand. And by this I mean completely by hand. Rotary cutters didn't exist just yet, we marked our pieces with pencil, cut out with scissors and while some of us used the machine, she sewed by hand and quilted by hand.

This is the beautiful quilt she made. And here are some close-ups:

The last picture shows the pattern perfectly.

I had started my own (unisex) quilt a few weeks before, but didn't finish it for a few more years. For one thing, my daughter was a preemie, for another I had bitten off far more than I could handle. She was five when I finally finished her quilt and it is plenty big for a five-year old, she slept under it for a few more years.

I remember quite a bit about how this quilt came together. The pattern came out of a German women's magazine, Brigitte, probably one of the Christmas issues, those always contained crafty things. I am sure there were full-size templates for all the appliques. And the original quilt was in reds, whites and blues. The magazine quilt used a lot of plaid, but there was no plaid to be had where I lived. So, I settled for polka dots and florals, calicos, because that was all there was at the time. I machine appliqued, and I have no idea how I figured that out because that wasn't something covered in our class. Looking at it earlier, I realized that I obviously had a lot to learn back then. I should have made the quilt one row narrower and one row longer because then it would have flowed better (always end with the same kind of block as the first block in a row).

Still, I am kind of proud of my very first quilt. It definitely was a labor of love and even though I didn't really know what I was doing, it turned out quite well. I am getting ready to pass it along to my little grand daughter and figured I'd better take pictures and write about it while I can.





I am linking up with Randi from i have to say for Show 'n Tell Tuesday.

Random photos - almost no words

There is a quail family that lives in our neighborhood. Fun to watch, a little skittish.
The other morning, Mr. Quail decided to hang out on our backporch rail. We have an agreement: he lets me take his picture, I stay behind the glass.

From a recent trip to the ocean, Rodeo Beach, one of our favorites:

Always surprised how versatile that camera on my phone is. It does good close-ups (see flowers and seaweed above) and decent distance shots. That tanker in the last picture was miles away. L didn't think it would work. It did.

A little sewing

There hasn't been that much sewing going on here lately, and definitely not much finishing. But, wanting to make something for a Facebook friend who has been very kind recently, I dug out the scraps yesterday and made a little quilt-as-you-go dumpling bag.

A nice,manageable project.
The pattern can be found here.
I wanted to try using only low-volume fabrics and I'm quite happy with the result. I hope my FB friend likes it.

More circle skirts .............

................ and some experimental photography.
After seeing my little grand daughter wearing  the first circle skirt I made, I made more of them this morning.
This time around, I timed myself. Each skirt takes about 30 minutes to make. What takes the longest? Changing thread colors.

Afterwards I spent another good15 minutes on a little photo shoot. Very experimental.
The patterns for the little skirt can be found here.
I am linking up with Randi for Show and Tell Tuesday.

Young model

Remember that little circle skirt:

Here it is being modeled by little Ingrid:

Love the little booties and the look on her face. Such a sweet little girl.