Nashville Stitch N Bitch

scraps

So many things going on this week, so little progress! Must frustration and the holidays go hand in hand? My (dramatic pause)... Mother In Law will be here any second so I am sure that has something to do with the stress level here. Breathe in relaxtion... breathe out peace. Ahh.

Let me list some thing that are not under the heading of Frustrating this week.

1. That apron. And for the majority of the week, the girl in it. I made a couple of these just as a last minute thing before the open house last week - just a few rectangles of fabric (or oilcloth) and a little sewing and voila! Unfortunately the girl in the apron is not terribly happy with me at the moment because all of the aprons I have made have walked back out the door to new owners. I have promised the kiddo that she will have one of her own as soon as Christmas orders are filled.

2. euroyarn. My mom went to Europe and brought me back not a t-shirt, not a snowglobe, no, this is a mom who knows how to souvenir shop.... yarn! Wads of nameless Italian Greek cotton destined for some kind of throw I think. Filato (filati?) bello, sì? (try to imagine that in Greek)

3. A scrap scarf! I met this woman at fall fest that sold these really interesting scarves made from tons of vintage scraps constructed in a way I really haven't figured out yet. This one is for the Mother In Law's birthday.

4. Last, but certainly not least, the oddest gift I've ever received! kay and I swapped stuff! One of my oven mitts for The Specialty of the Kay House of Knitting, rilly cool dishrags. But not only did I get dishrags, I got customized rubber gloves! And a scrubbie! And it all matched! In the card that came with it, it said "if this isn't the oddest gift you ever received, it isn't from lack of trying." Thank you thank you Kay! Love it.

And though I abhor this grossness, it is the most Southern recipe that I can come up with. I think I'll try to go with the part of the recipe that says "Chill until set."

Happy Thanksgiving!

xo

PINEAPPLE LIME CONGEALED SALAD

1 package (6 oz.) lime flavor gelatin
2 cups boiling water
1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple in syrup, undrained
1 cup chopped fruit or berries
1 cup sour cream

Dissolve the gelatin in boiling water. Add crushed pineapple and chopped fruit or berries and chill until somewhat thickened, about 1 1/2 hours. Stir in sour cream and pour into a 1 1/2-quart ring mold. Chill until set.

craftmas open house success

Boy was that FUN!

Here's how to have one yourself:

1. Find some people who are crafty or talented in one way or another. This open house was all stay at home mama types who also have a little sideline biz.

2. Have a bunch of friends over (babies optional, but they do add to the overall Cuteness Factor).

3. Find someone who knows how to cook. In this case we had the very talented tasha. She custom bakes yummy stuff. And she delivers. And she let us all eat cream cheesey, raspberry, chocolatey cakey goodness for free today.

4. Have fun and make moola!

We had my baby stuff, kim's quilts, angel's incredibly hot-selling soaps and essential oil fragrances and scrubs, Wendy's Reiki services, Julie's video to DVD transfer services, diana's baby products, kelly's rice comfort bags, catherine's book that is also available on amazon.com (Catherine says for those of you planning your own open houses that it turns out that esoteric Montessori philosophy books are not good impulse buys), and carrie's baby tees!

It seriously could not have been a better day! Lots of money made, lots of chatting and drinking of coffee and eating of yummy snacks.

Plans are in the works for one for the spring!

Thank you so much for hosting us Angel, and thank you to everyone else for coming to buy and to hang out. Very fun! A very merry craftmas indeed.

xo

P.S. to kay I didn't get a picture, but as part of our Mama Exchange Program (not sure who we exchanged her for) the Brit mama of our group showed up at the open house casually wearing an incredible Hargreaves design in medium Rowan denim. Now, this same mama that at our last SnB I "reminded" (she claims to have a knitting mom but not have knitted since she was younger) how to cast on and off, knew EXACTLY what I was talking about when I said "Is that a Hargreaves in Rowan denim?" Do you think they are born with innate knowledge of all things Rowan? She does claim that it is no cheaper to have a Rowan addiction if you live in the UK than if you live in the states. Sigh.

craftmas open house

It's sweatshop time!

I have that craft open house thing this weekend and though I had plenty of stuff for it and didn't really need to make more, of course I did make more.

Just this week I have made the little blanket above, this little quilt as well as this one too. All of them have at least some vintage chenille and fabric. I have one more cut out that I am backing with the airplanes up there in the corner.

Also in the mix, these little crayon bags. Quilted, and just big enough for a few crayons and a drawing pad or small book.

And thanks to amanda for the idea... beanbags! I had tons of kid-type fabric scraps and threw a few together. They're quite addictive both to make and to play with.

This little open house will be so cool. It's all mamas - women with kids who have small side businesses. Angel is making essential oil scents, sugar scrubs and soaps, one girl has onesies for toddlers and babies, we have a girl who does Reiki, someone who can transfer your home movies to DVD, handmade quilts, a baker and more! A really wacky array of fun things.

Anyone is welcome to come - let me know if you are interested!

xo

P.S. - Updated to add pics of Angel's fab stuff!

fabric buddy

It seems like all the blog people are always getting little gifts in the mail from other blog friends. This week, I was the one getting stuff!

I got something from my online friend stephanie. Stephanie lives in the great state of Alabama and we have kids similar in age and I love how absolutely Southern she is. I mean, I'm Southern too and all but she's like cool Southern.

Anyway, she had some fabric left from her son's room re-do so I got it! It's a couple of different vintage travel patterns - suitcases, and travel stickers. Anyone have any thoughts on what to do with it?

This week work began on Modern Quilt's Eclipse for... (dramatic pause) The Mother In Law and I learned the very slow-going art of piecing giant circular parts. All said since Wed. I have done about 5 squares. Well, that's 5 less that I have to do I guess. Except I have 23 more to go. Sheesh, glad Christmas is a month and a half away.

The other day I found out that we have TWO QUILT STORES IN TOWN. How did I not ever know this?

This week I take some time off from all things Christmas giftish and pull a few things out to fill in my stash for the craft open house next weekend! Would love to see any locals that are interested there! Just write me for more info!

xo

it has begun!

Begun!

My long delayed entry into the modern quilt-along ! Eclipse!

OK, so I am not sure the fun quilts people would approve of the batiks that I am using for this quilt, but I bought them with an entirely different quilt in mind and, you know how it goes, something changed along the line and I decided to try this kind of quilt instead and well, batiks are what I had around, so there you go. Batiks it is.

It's for.... (dramatic pause).....The Mother-In-Law.

I've never used batiks before and I can't remember what was holding me back now. They haven't ever appealed to me really is all I can really say. But suddenly I find them infinitely interesting. AND to make me feel even weirder, I have suddenly become really comfortable with the cutting process. It has traditionally been the thing that makes me sigh and want to sit down and check my email 80 times while I'm doing it, but as of late it's like my patience has grown a new limb and I find it... dare I say it.... relaxing even.

The quilt I had in mind before this was one with lots of applique. And like I wasn't a Batik Person before, I am not an Applique Person now. I wanted to try to be an Applique Person when I originally planned the other quilt, but alas, I know myself. I have lofty aspirations, but like kay has kind of talked about before, I tend to find a thing, and really want to get down in it and roll around in it and really explore it. It's a particular kind of piecing thing for me right now. Cutting and piecing. I guess it's a way of mastering something, but if you live with other people they would more than likely call it something else. They may even use words like obsessive. Try to ignore them and rest in the knowledge that you are eons beyond them in knowledge of cutting and piecing. Even though they have no interest in cutting and piecing.

One day maybe I shall become that Applique Person, but for now I'm in the cutting and piecing ditches rolling with my Modern Quilt-along homies.

xo

not for mama part II

WARNING: If you are my mother, think you are my mother, or possibly just feel motherly toward me, STOP READING. Do not click. Christmas material ahead!

Mom's on vacation so I know she's not hanging around here right now so I can show some pictures! So, shhhh!

OK, so I finished the quilt! I'm so very pleased with it. It's very "mom" for sure.

It's only about 54" x 54". Like I said before, I found some of the fabric, and then found out it was a line of fabrics, and then as I tried to collect them, I found out that it was a discontinued line of fabrics. After a little scraping around, I got most of them that I wanted. Thank God for ebay.

This quilt was super quick and easy for some reason. Only about 2 weeks total to make it and that was without breaking a sweat at all. Although I did my famous "Stay up until all hours watching Sister Wendy" patented marathon binding technique.

Pretty colors, pretty flowers... here's how the quilting looks close up. I just kind of free quilted the flowers, the leaves, and did a curlicue throughout the sashing. I would love to know from other quilters... does binding plague you as it does me? I have taught myself everything I've ever done as far as craft stuff goes and although that's really liberating in one way, it's hell on certain technical aspects. Binding is one for me. Another one is how I don't love how the back of this quilt looks... the way I quilted it and having to use all the different colors... I don't love it. I don't hate it either, but I know there's some key ingredient I'm missing here.

OK, next off to batikland.

xo

mental block

I am not one of those moms. The kind that make their kids' Halloween costumes. Wanna know why?

Because I have a mental block.

I can make just about anything in the whole world, but I have little mental blocks about certain things. Just talking to a friend about this the other night at a kid birthday party; her mom had made a lovely quilt for the little boy - all hand done. Now, just the thought to me of gathering up the needle and the thread sounds tiring. I have tried embroidery, I have tried other stitching, and one knotted thread, one try too many to thread the needle and I'm done. It sounds so vastly unappealing, that I have actually made my husband sew my own buttons on since we met each other. Hallelujah! I thought when I met him. Finally, I won't just throw my buttonless things away anymore.

Then there are things like scrapbooking. The little tiny OCDish side of me thinks that if I remotely just touched on something so extraordinarily vast and full of little tiny pieces and mounds of guilt-inducing photographs that I would permanently lose my soul. I would hate it so very much, yet be unable to not do it once I succumbed. So scrapbooking and I are not partners at all and my photos live in books I buy at Target. That is, when I get them out of the box that they are in now. That is once I get prints made of any of them off of my computer.

The Halloween costume thing is a riddle to me. I love it when people make their own costumes and then I love to make stuff, generally the Halloween costume involves something fun, fabric, and a couple of afternoons, yet for some reason the putting it together eludes me. And so my kids will always be the store bought Princess and Bob the Builder. Eh, they can charge me for their therapy bills later.

Just a little date for you locals to file away for later - Saturday Nov. 19 we'll be having a little handmade open house. Send me an email and let me know if you are interested and I'll send you directions!

xo