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Author: 459856pwpadmin

  • Purple Muslin

    The problem with internet and mail order fabric shopping is that once in a while mistakes are made.  When I saw this knit fabric I thought "wrap dress".  When it arrived at my door I wondered "what was I thinking?"  The only thought that popped into my head was pajamas.  But I don’t want knit pajamas.

    Luckily this kind of thing doesn’t happen all that often.  And now I have muslin fabric.

    Purpletee
    I made a muslin today from another old pattern that I used to love.  It is cute enough.  It needs a little work.  Look at that big fold at the bust telling me that it needs darts.  When I made this top before it was when I was a skinny minny and didn’t need darts in my tops.

    Ha Ha!  Not today.

    I could fix it, but I don’t think that the pattern is so special that it is worth the bother.

    Did I waste my time today?  No.  I did something I wanted to do.  I had fun doing it.  And I learned something. 

    If I bother to finish the edges of the tee I could certainly even wear it, and I would lay odds that most people wouldn’t even notice that big wrinkle because I see people running around in RTW tops that do the same thing all the time.   H***, I think people wouldn’t even notice if I didn’t finish the edes.  But I would notice.  And I would still feel like I was wearing pajamas.

    Bye Bye Purple Tee, you were never meant to be.

  • Green

    Spring_green

    The fiddleheads are up, both in the market stalls and in the front yard.  The weeds are especially vigorous this year.  I looked out the door and there was something 4 feet tall that I would swear had not been there the day before.  I know it must have been there, but obviously it had not caught my eye until grew out of proportion to everything else around it. 

    Perhaps it was a beanstalk.

    I was pretty efficient in my tasks today and I had time to go out in the yard a bit to begin to grapple it back under my control, but I decided I needed sewing time instead.  The yard will become overgrown, and when winter comes it will all die back again, and sometime I will again exert my will on my little piece of land.  In the greater scheme of things it is a small matter.  As for sewing.  I am a much nicer person when I can spend a little time fondling the fabric.

    I almost forgot to bring the garbage cans down from the top of the hill.  I had been left a note on the can that I should put all my paper trash in plastic bags so that it doesn’t blow around when they are emptying it into the truck.  I know this makes sense, and I know many people are required to tie up all their trash in plastic, but there is no local requirement about this and the garbage collection company never demanded it before.  Since we contract individually with collection agencies, it is not a service provided by the community and paid for by our taxes even though they are high enough, I never bothered.

    I do understand the reasoning behind the request although I think it seems awfully wasteful of plastic bags.

    But then I don’t want to run around collecting paper from the neighbor’s yards either.

  • Rainy day activities

    Ironing
    Yesterday I just had to face the mountain of ironing that I had been storing up for "a rainy day". 

    Yesterday was rainy, and I had nothing left to wear that didn’t require ironing. I also thought it would be nice to wear something out to dinner besides my gym clothes.

    So there was no sewing but there was lots of time in the sewing room looking at the stack of fabrics piled up near the ironing board, thinking about what I would be doing next, taking brief breaks from the ironing board to look at patterns, and so forth and so on…you know the drill right? 

    I don’t usually let the ironing pile up this much, but life has not been normal of late.  I know some people don’t iron their clothes, and although I can admit it would be more environmentally conscious not to iron, I can’t bring myself to do it.  I don’t iron my slips anymore, or my gym clothes so I think I am working my way into a more laid-back lifestyle, but very slowly.  I still iron most everything else, including my jeans.  G irons his own shirts.

    I defend myself briefly by saving the ironing up until I have a pile, I don’t iron the clothes for each day in the morning before getting dressed like some people I know.  Mostly this is because it is wasteful of time (I would rather sleep in a few minutes more) and energy.  The most energy is used during that initial time when the iron is warming up, and it seems a waste to warm up the iron and then use it only a few minutes.  I usually don’t heat it up unless it will be on at leat an hour.  I think that is part of why I have never been good at sewing in 15 minute intervals.  I can’t sew much before I need to press and I refuse to heat up the iron unless I will be there for a while.

    Anyway, the circuits were configured in this room so I could use the iron with other equipment and not blow any circuits.  And the new Naomoto iron takes less energy than my old Sussman, and in fact it uses less energy to warm up than the coffee pot uses every morning.  After I blew the kitchen circuit the first few times I had to run around the house, tapping into the different circuits and measuring the actual energy use of various appliances and pieces of equipment in the house.  I am such a nerd that I found this highly entertaining.  I can iron, but I can’t make coffee and toast at the same time, which sometimes requires some interesting choreography in the mornings.  In fact, if I didn’t sew, I would use less energy ironing than I do making coffee over the course of a year. 

    But then I do sew, and I am not going to stop.  Nor am I going to stop making coffee, although the espresso machine draws less power than the drip coffee pot for some strange reason. 

    Pinkgreen_2
    So just call me energy hog..

    Pink Energy Hog.

    I don’t know why it took me 8 months after making this skirt to realize that I could wear it with pink.  Now it is a perfect skirt for a cool spring day, not just a fall and early winter skirt.

    Duh.
    .

  • Picking up the (pattern) pieces

    Thanks to a generous offer from a dear friend to run an errand for me yesterday I actually found a few moments to focus my efforts in the sewing room. 

    Summerfabric3knits
    There is a little more fabric in residence at the moment than will fit in the allotted storage area so a few pieces have been allowed to take up residence on the cutting table.  These are knits that should fill my immediate requirements for summer  tops, a few pieces that are crying out to be made up soon, and a couple of other pieces that I just want to get off the fabric shelves and into the closets.

    Then, because I had "free" time, I actually got some of the fabric washed and ready to cut and I was able to pull out the two versions of the pattern drafts I made for that last Burda knit top and start to compare what I had done, so that I can make the necessary fixes and continue my work on this pattern.  I may interrupt for a few projects, depending on mood, but I definitely want to perfect this pattern a little more, and I will definitely wear it again.

    And you know what?  It was so nice to play with fabric, dream of garments, and actually look at pattern pieces and try to reassemble my thoughts after a couple of months absence.

  • On looking through the photo albums

    I had an opportunity today to go through our photo albums and it was a very interesting activity.  Admittedly I am not really a photo person and I don’t usually look through the albums often.  Still I am finding that it was a rewarding experience.

    Step-daughter M had asked for some photos of herself and her father when she was young, and also some pictures of her father and I so that she could add them to a photo-wall she was creating in her house.  That task was both easy and difficult.  I have pictures of her dad as a child and young adult and those were easily scanned into the computer for later printing.  I also have an album of pictures of the children when they were small, thoughtfully put together by M herself as a birthday gift to her dad, when at some point she realized that most of the photos had migrated with her mother at the great divorcement.

    Pictures of her father and I together was a more complicated issue however and this required extensive poring over the albums.  Basically I am not a taker of photographs.  I have been on occasion.  G bought me a pocket sized camera soon after we were married and I dutifully carried it on trips and, under his encouragement, took pictures, usually because he was taking pictures too.  G was something of an amateur photographer.  Actually I got rather good.  But I don’t automatically think of taking pictures without encouragement, or without being under the tutelage of another photographer.

    Even with two photographers there are few pictures of either one of us.  Neither G nor I are particularly eager photographic subjects.  There are more photos of me, primarily because G took far more pictures than I, lugging large cameras and lenses on all trips.  But G was mostly a photographer of landscapes and things, not people, and I shared some of the same propensities.

    I loved looking through the photos of our trips and our days.  It has been very evocative, a trip down memory lane it is true, but some things have reminded me of things about myself I have forgotten.  Sometimes there would be just a page of pictures of the trees at home on a given day — those would be my photographs — whereas G would take wonderfully detailed pictures of scenery and architecture on our trips.  Looking at our pictures, even when there is nary a person in any one, reminds me of so much about who we were in those days.

    But after about 2000 the pictures drop off.  G stopped carrying his camera and photographic duty more and more often fell to me.  I would take the pictures when I thought about it, or when pressed, which wasn’t very often.  Then when I had a digital camera I would upload them to the computer and never print them out.   I still rarely take pictures unless I need a photo for a blog post or to record something in the garden journal.  When I am someplace or doing something with friends, I am usually too busy being there, in that time and place,  to step out of the picture and think about recording the image.

    So what happened?  Will there be photos of our future, or will there be only a 20 year snapshot of a portion of our lives?  I don’t know. 

    I doubt I will become a photographer.  I am not sure that I have the temperament.  And unfortunately G’s photography days may be short lived.  He was having increasing difficulties making the camera work, even though he had operated a camera for years.  He was having increasingly difficulty getting chemicals to mix correctly, and the dark room was becoming a place of frustration.  It is easier to find excuses than admit that he is failing, that he can’t do it anymore.  He would never use a point and shoot camera.  He would feel that if he couldn’t control every aspect of the shot it wasn’t worth doing.

    And you know, it is OK with me.

  • First Iris

    FirstirisThe first Iris of the season opened its bloom today. 

    This iris is right next to the front door, which is a fairly sheltered little spot protected by the house from the cold air that tends to blow from the North and West, and somewhat also by winds from the south as they most often seem to be coming from the south west.  One year, when I diligently took temperature measurements around the yard I found that this little section of the front yard easily ran about 10 degrees warmer in the winter.  It averages a touch cooler in the summer too mostly because it is one of the few areas of the yard that gets bright morning sun but lots of shade in the afternoon.  Too much of our property seems subject to the harsh, pounding afternoon sun.

    When I stepped outside the front door to take the picture a couple of sparrows flew away in alarm and started twittering madly.  They must be building a nest.  I shall keep my eyes on them, it may be in the ferns near the door or at the base of the Azalea.  I remember a few years ago when they nested in the large pot of flowers right next to the front door.  Alas, I have not replanted that pot yet this spring, even though it is already getting late, so the exposed dirt is not a promising nesting site.  I used to love to sit on the step just inside the front door and watch the sparrows come feed their babies. 

    I sat on the step for a while, and the birds started to hop cagily back, but then my cell phone went off and I had to stand up.  They could see me through the window as well as I could see them, and the motion startled them off again.  Perhaps another day, when I am not answering the phone for the office.  If the nest is somewhere near the door where we can watch it, perhaps I will be able to show Owen something interesting in a few weeks when he comes to visit.  It is possible that the chicks will not yet be ready, there may be nothing to see, nothing that can be watched with the attention span of a baby anyway.

    Oh just sitting here for a brief moment and watching the birds reminded me of a much beloved book I read as a child, An Episode of Sparrows by Rumer Godden.  I shall have to see if I can rustle up a copy as now it is set to plague my mind.

  • Summer Fabric

    I have been playing with fabric.  I have been re-arranging, sorting, storing and generally thinking and dreaming about fabric and projects.  Newly purchased fabrics have been cataloged and filed in the collection and a few old favorites have been brought out to perhaps become new summer garments.  At the very least they will inspire summer garments.

    Summerfabric2
    This is a stack of fabric that I have added to one of the cubbies in the sewing room.  They come from all periods of my collection.  The aqua fabric near the middle is the Armani fabric I posted after shopping at Leandro Fabrics a few months ago.

    What these fabrics have in common is that they have companion pieces that are dancing around my head as potential outfits.  Some of these plans are quite nascent now, for example the armani jacket is still vague in my head although I do still intend to get to it this summer, probably a little later when things have calmed down a bit, perhaps as late as July after visits from step-children and others are past.

    Some of these projects might be completed sooner, but none of them are on the immediate production list.  I still seem to have a few stacks of knits I want to work through, and perhaps a few skirts.  At this point simple projects seem to remain best, and I am loathe to start some epic project only to have it delayed until the point that it just becomes another UFO.

    A few surprises have materialized as well.  As I put fabric away in one of the fabric closets, this set of buttons fell out:
    Summerfabric1
    Buttons are not supposed to be stored with fabric. In fact I wonder what I was thinking because I would never use these buttons on the fabric with which they were cohabiting.  They are awfully pretty though, large, heavy metal with rhinestones.  Somehow they don’t say summer to me so they will be put aside, with the rest of the gold buttons, until the pefect garment comes along.

  • In the Garden

    Life seems to be slowly getting back to normal, or at least this weekend has been a perfect weekend in many ways, even though I didn’t actually sew.

    I did spend some time reading and that was a wonderful way to get myself motivated and focused once again.  I also got out in the garden a wee little bit — today really was a perfect gardening day, sunny breezy and in the upper 60’s.  I suppose if it were like this all season I woudl live outside.  I am finally coming terms with the fact that I don’t like the heat, and the sun is not good for me, but I still like a garden. Truthfully however noone would know that looking at our place this year.  It is an overgrown mess from 3 years of workmen and repairs and construction and today was the first bit of gardening I have done this spring, and here it is nearly summer.

    Oh well, I know there are more important things going on.  But getting out in the yard even for the hour I spent outside today really refreshed me and helped me get back into the normal groove of things.  Actual sewing, aside from the dreams of garments to be made and the fondling of fabric cannot be far behind.

    As sewing progress is still fully imaginary, I shall instead show you a few tulips.  I adore tulip season, but this year even the tulips have sat out in the garden basically ignored, whereas I am usually filling vases and bowls by the armload.  They are a little short this year.  Remember they had started to come up in January, and I am sure that false start compromised their stature a little bit.  But the flowers are glorious:

    Tulips1
    Tulips2

  • Spring Bounty

    Springbounty

    Spring continues to shower us with good things and I am again savoring time in the kitchen.  You may be tired of reading about ramps and morels and spring vegetables, but we have in now way exhausted the possibilities in the kitchen.  Now that spring is really here, even the offerings at the fish market seemed to have improved. When I stopped by Adams on Friday, I got to the store just after a group of fishermen had dropped off a catch of Striped Bass.  Now I have mentioned before how lucky I am that I get Bluefish, Striped Bass, and at this time of year, Shad, that are brought in by local fishermen the day they are caught.    As I walked to the fish market, they were just unpacking a bunch of bass onto the ice.  They were beautiful and of course I bought one.

    Now a good sized whole striper is a bit big for two of us, so I did not cook it all Friday night (I hope this does not bring out the fish police).  One fillet was wrapped in paper, surrounded by ice and this whole conglomeration of things was then put in a giant zip Lock bag (I think fabric came in it originally) and stuck way in the back of the refrigerator until Saturday night.   

    And because it is rare that I have two pieces of the same fish, I decided to experiment a Little.  Friday night I steamed the fish using a technique I learned from an article about Jean Georges Vongerichten many years ago.  I pulled off a large sheet of foil, then I layered spring vegetables on the foil.  I used some of the tiny asparagus you see in the photo, morels, and some slender tiny spring carrots, grown in pots, each about the diameter of a pencil.  I placed the fish on top of this and then layered the ramps over the fish and drizzled the entire thing with olive oil and a little salt and pepper.  Then I sealed up the foil packet and placed the entire package on a very hot iron skillet that had been heating while I got everything ready.  When the foil packet puffed up like an old jiffy pop popcorn package, I started the timer, and cooked the fish for 4 minutes.  I took it off the heat and let it rest 1 minute more.  Then dinner was served.  It was heavenly.

    Saturday night I baked the second fillet, again simply drizzled with olive oil.  The ramps were cooked and pureed and baked into individual custards, and the remaining tiny asparagus and the bell pepper were simply sauteed together.  Another perfect dinner. 

    Now what was the purpose of all this?  I wanted to see how the fish turned out.  The steamed fish was delicate and flavorful, really really good, it almost melted on the tongue.  The baked bass was also very good, very flavorful, and a little more toothsome.  It was still quite tender but it had a little firmness on the tongue, more al dente I suppose, and George and I both felt we preferred this preparation.  The differences were subtle, but now I know. The vegetables and the meal as a whole was a success both nights.  Perhaps it is true, simple things are best.

    And speaking of simple things, the pansies I planted last fall have sent up progeny this spring.  They have been blooming heavily the last month or so:

    Springbounty2

  • Just because you think you are richer than God, doesn’t give you the right to play God.

    In Friday’s Wall Street Journal there was article about the erosion of the shoreline in Siasconsett on the Eastern side of Nantucket Island.  Basically, the shore is eroding rapidly in that part of the island and many wealthy people have large nice homes overlooking the Atlantic Ocean which they wish to protect.  I am sure there are also some less wealthy people who have had homes there for some time, but these points are relatively minor in the grand scheme of things.  Anyway, the rich have set up a fund and they want to rebuild the beach.

    Of course controversy is brewing here, and rightly so.  In this case I side with the fishermen.  I hope they win.

    I personally have nothing against rich people building houses wherever they wish to build houses.  I like ocean views as well, or mountaintop views.  But they have to learn to accept that money doesn’t buy everything and they might just loose that home. 

    There is evidence that rebuilding the beach may protect the homes for some time, and it will certainly protect property values.  But there is no evidence that rebuilding the beach actually stops erosion, in fact evidence is mounting that the efforts made to restructure and resurface areas of the ocean have often made the situation worse in the long run. All you have to do is google beach erosion to find tons of references.

    Then there is the issue of disturbing the natural environment and the striped bass habitat.  The statement made by one of the landowner’s that he would pay the families of fishermen the lost revenue that would be incurred by the loss of fishing grounds is incredibly arrogant.  Yes that may help one family, but what about the future generations?  What about future generations of all of us?  We don’t really understand the longer term impacts that some of these changes might foment.    I think this idea that we can try to configure the earth to fit the pleasures of some wealthy humans and the long-term fate of the rest of the human race and the planet itself be damned is an incredibly bad idea. 

    I am surprised that they are even getting permission to do this, but then money and power talk. And governments are run by and intrinsically connected to people who have money, and projects that don’t cost the public anything in dollars up front are easily approved.  The short term goals are met and the idea of looking at the long term seems to be a foreign concept.

    I have been to Siasconsett.  The old houses were beautiful. Some of the new ones are simply grandiose.  The place itself, looking out at the ocean is beautiful, but part of that beauty is its very danger, the pounding of the surf, the thought that it could all be washed away in a moment.    There are places in the world where you can have a fabulous view of the ocean and where there is a smaller risk that your house will be washed away.  Do the research.  If you can’t stand the risk, don’t buy the house.  .