From This to That

The past few months of my life in one big stack...

I *finally* finished my semester last week and am thrilled to be able to divert my attention to other things for a while without feeling guilty...even just being able to listen to whatever I want on my laptop as I type without getting distracted is completely freeing! I really enjoyed my classes  and feel I've found the right path, but have been eagerly awaiting the freedom that the summer months offer to a student. Between the gallery and the historical society, I am still working a ton but at least have some room to breath a bit between projects now and am geared up to spend as much leftover time as possible sewing up a storm and getting my etsy shop ready for the holidays so that I don't have to worry about it once the fall semester starts up in August.

Curling up with all good things in the falling light
(ahem, yes that is the new special edition of DOMINO!!! Hark, do you hear the angles singing?)

Since submitting my last research paper, I've been indulging in so many of the things  I love that I haven't gotten to enjoy much of these past few months...lots of extravagant cooking, a weekend camping get-away to the cape, a little lot of fabric stashing, and staying up late with my favorite magazines, embroidery, and darning work, while curled up with my cats, husband, and several seasons of How I Met Your Mother. The rewards in life certainly are so much sweeter when you know you've earned them several times over!

 

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...some yardage and fat quarters of AMH's loulouthi velveteen, cotton laminate,
and quilting cotton, Heather Ross' FFAIII in the  pink colorway, some Liberty of London from my Purl Soho trip,
AMH's pastry line and rare centerpiece, and a whole yard of Michael Miller's Vintage Stroll

Ok, so yeah, the above stash hoard is a bit more than I was planning on when I began picturing the reward I'd planned for myself upon the completion of a successful and utterly crazy semester. Luckily I was able to hunt down some sweet deals and it is lovely, ya?! It pretty much just has me smiling every time I look over at the freshly piled stack on my worktable and all I want to do is fondle it and ignore all other responsibilities. THERE, I admitted it!

   Soupe å l'Oignon Gratinée

One of the more elaborate cooking adventures we've managed as of late was Julia Child's recipe for cheesy onion soup, or Soupe å l'Oignon Gratinée, if you're feeling fancy. It's the third recipe I've tried now from her classic "Mastering The Art of French Cooking" and every single one has been superb..of course. The other two were the ratatouille and the riz a l'orientale, which is basically a rice bowl (but o so much more than that and my favorite so far)—who knew such a thing as French comfort food existed and was so completely amazing? Umm...ok so probably lots of you but yeah, I'm learning here folks.

I'm looking forward to being able to blog more often again now and hope to be sharing some finished pieces with you soon...until then, wishing you all just as many good things to be distracted by!

A Little Liberty Fix

 I was tempted to make a bad old man joke with the title and call this post,
"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death," and then decided to stop being such a total cheese-mobile, sigh...

When it came to gathering up materials for my upcoming show, I knew it was the opportunity I'd been looking for to pick up some of the Liberty of London tana lawn I'd been pining for. It's going to make some gorgeous pillows (a few of which will end up in the shop after the show so everyone can enjoy!) and fits in with the look I'm going for just right. I can't believe the prices on this stuff so I ended up just getting a mini rainbow bundle from Purl Soho (and definitely planning on stashing some of the leftovers for my own projects...this job's gotta have some other perk apart from working in one's pajamas after all, ya?).

all bundled up

I was not at all disappointed by the quality of this fabric—both the feel of the fabric and the look of the prints makes it some of the most luxurious that I've come across and I can see now why I'd want to roll around in yards of it it's so coveted. The prints that I thought were just so-so in the pictures, I've ended up really liking in person and the prints that I thought I'd like in the pictures, I've ended up loving in person which is such a nice surprise when going through a bundle of several prints from one line. I had never been able to feel tana lawn in person before this either and I would compare it to the delicate softness of voile but with slightly more of a structured drape. If voile is like handling butter, then this tana cotton lawn is like handling refrigerated butter. But not margarine, cuz that would kinda be a drag.

I'm off to go take the scissors to this stuff (the greek chorus standing in the wings just shrieked, i know) and buckle down for my last weekend of work before the show, eeks! I hope each and every one of you has a fabulous holiday weekend with lots of good weather and relaxing and I'll see you back here next week with a brand spankin' new embroidery pattern for you to maul.

A Little Stashing

New Denyse Schmidt at Jo-Ann

I finally found something worthy of the very last of my christmas money—the new DS Quilts Collection! I'm glad now that I managed to save it for a rainy day as it's been burning a whole in my pocket and I just couldn't pass these ones up, especially since I am still lamenting the fact that I was not quick enough to get my hands on any of her Flea Market Fancy line (that are now going for $40/fat quarter, geez louise!). I had just enough to get a 1/4 yard of my favorite ones although there are a few more pattern/colorways to the complete collection available at Jo-Ann.

The patterns and colors remind me of those found in American farmhouse kitchens from the 30's to 50's so I want to use them for a vintage style apron with trim or perhaps an oven mit, definitely as edging along a flour sack dishtowel. I can also picture them mixed with lots of calicoes and scrap fabric for a very vintage looking quilt although that idea will have to wait since I have two make that three other quilts in progress right now...I just seem to have a knack for zooming through quilt tops and then getting very lazy when it comes to the actual quilting and binding.

Maybe next year I will save up my christmas money for an extra pair of hands, ya? In the meantime, I've already put a little birthday cash aside for AMH's new Loulouthi line due out sometime in May...looks brilliant. What can I say, I have a serious addiction going on here and need a hit every now and then!

back from chicago, back to reality

one of my favorite chicago landmarks, the carbide and carbon building on michigan avenue

well, we've returned from our scouting trip to chicago! i'm kind of wishing we were still there but alas, it's back to reality for the time being. it was a great weekend filled with good food, dear friends, some sightseeing, and a whole lot of getting a better feel for where we might live/work/eat/play as we consider another (permanent!) cross-country move. although we still have a couple other places we want to check out, chicago is definitely at the top of our list because it's so easy to see a future there for ourselves and our careers. that, and we are just itching to get out of the suburbs and back to city living where our friends are. time.could.not.be.moving.any.slower! as we spend the next few months getting our ducks in a row.

inside the chicago cultural center

one of my favorite things about downtown chicago is all the amazing historical architecture from the turn of the 18th century. on a whim, we ducked into the cultural center after lunch on saturday which i'd never been inside of before and was amazed at the gorgeous stained glass dome. there was also a little exhibit tucked away in there on the life and work of the architect louis sullivan who designed so many chicago landmarks. the metal work on display was particularly brilliant (above on right). maybe we can find an apartment that looks like that?...mmm, or perhaps i will just settle for plenty of studio space and natural light...i already can't believe how cheap rents are compared to what i've paid in nyc, dc, and boston. i must be dreaming!

inside the needle shop in bucktown

we got a bit rained out on sunday/monday so our plans for walking around more of boystown (and heading to molly's cupcakes) were a bit of a wash. among other things though, we went walking around downtown on saturday...along the river and millenium park where we did not take touristy shots of the bean/cloudgate, haha. we got to hang out with so many friends we'd not seen in a while, plotted endless moving possibilities with the friends we stayed with over meals (cuban, thai, deep dish pizza, and truffle oil grilled cheese, o my!), and went to one of my favorite museums, the oriental institute (unfortunately i could not remember any of the cuneiform i'd learned from a distance learning class i'd taken there while working as the manager of a georgetown antiquities gallery...so much for my former life!). perhaps my favorite thing though, and what you'd be most interested in, was our trip to the needle shop. it's a completely drool-worthy local fabric shop that i could have dropped our life-savings in but alas, i just got a few things to add to my stash:

my loot from the needle shop including some echino laminate, denyse schmidt,
new AMH quilting cotton, an echino remnant, and some free bits from their scrap bin! ooo ahh

i hope we will be back soon for interviews and apartment hunting but i'm not betting on anything moving too quickly in this economy. in the meantime, we'll just hold our breath, cross our fingers, pray a lot, do raindances, make trips to the other places we want to check out, and send out a bajillion +1 resumes. hopefully that will do the trick   :)