Okay, so I went to San Francisco to the periodontist today, thinking I was going to get my stitches out. Only to learn that they are resorbing stitches, so they’ll just continue to annoy me until they dissolve or fall out on their own. Lovely.
On the way there I shot this photo just for you guys. Remember this photo of the steep hill into nothingness but fog? Well, here’s what it looks like on a clear day.
Gorgeous!
And to help make up for the fact that the stitches aren’t coming out, I stopped to check out Kinokuniya Japanese bookstore in Japantown, which was right on my way out of town. I just discovered this place existed and decided it was a perfect time to check it out, after driving over an hour to the city for a 10-minute check up.
Can you say sewing and knitting books? The other crafts were on the other side of this shelf. They had a wide selection of books in English, as well as the Japanese books I was expecting.
A few covers for you. Gorgeous. Unfortunately, I was hoping to find something in Japanese that was sewing but not kids clothes or women’s clothes. No dice today. I didn’t buy a thing! But I have also discovered that there is another of these stores in San Jose, so I’ll be checking that out sometime. Can’t wait!
I didn’t mean to desert my blog, but things have been busy lately. I’ve been (finally!) working on putting together my Amy a la Mode web site. Having to dig up a lot of things from the back of my brain and learning lots of new stuff there. It’s definitely a challenge!
On the less-fun-kind-of-stitches front, I had periodontal surgery last week. Stitches out tomorrow – I can’t wait!
And the whole Bobbin’s Nest crew went to Stitches West together two weekends ago. I now have delusions of grandeur about all the things I’m going to knit!
In the meantime, here are some other things that have been on my mind.
Zippers. I’ll be teaching a class sometime in the next two or three months at the Bobbin’s Nest on how to install zippers. These are samples of the two projects we’ll do — a zipper pouch and a pillow with a lapped zipper closure. I would love to have some of my local blog friends sign up!
These books. They give me so many ideas for little quilts.
These colors. Saw this image in a magazine and the colors blew my mind. LOVE THEM!
Pattern sale.
For the first time in my life I bought more than the one pattern I intend to make right now.
I even went crazy and bought patterns that require knit fabrics, which I have never used before!
I’m hoping to be around more this week, but we leave for Kentucky on Friday. We are making a surprise visit for my father’s 70th birthday! (A surprise for him — everyone else knows!)
I finished my second knitted washcloth. In like, a year and a half. But I think I was starting to get the hang of things a bit more by the end of this one, so I think (I think!) I’m ready to try a scarf. I think.
I’ll definitely be getting suggestions from the knitting folks at the Bobbin’s Nest on a good project and a good yarn to use. I’d love your suggestions as well! The variegated yarn was great for this project because as a beginner it made it easier to see what was going on. But definitely a solid color for the next project if it’s something I’m going to wear.
(FYI – this hook was stuck on the refrigerator when we moved in and I have never used it for anything. I can’t figure out why it was put there, but it made a nice photo spot!)
So, yesterday I drove into San Francisco to see the periodontist (which I don’t even want to talk about!), and I came up to this intersection.
My heart skipped a beat.
Do you see the sign on the left there that says “Hill”? It might seem relatively innocuous until you look straight ahead. Into the fog. And the nothingness. The hill is so steep that you literally can not see any road in front of you.
Check out the second telephone pole on the right (follow the yellow line down the center). You can only see the top of it. Because it is so far down.
I have learned to be very wary when the city of San Francisco feels it necessary to warn you there is a hill coming up!
(And, yes, this hill was REALLY steep!)
It just so happens that I am in good with the coffee roaster at our local independent coffee shop — ya know, the kind where they actually have a giant roaster in the middle of the room and roast their own fresh coffee. I have talked him into letting me have (for free!) the giant coffee bags when he has emptied out the 50 pounds of coffee. These coffee bags come from all over the world and have some great graphics and text on them. And they have a fabulous, rough, burlap texture. I now have four of these huge bags on a shelf in the closet, and when the coffee roaster asks me what I have been doing with them I have had to sheepishly admit that I hadn’t done anything yet and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them. I just felt I had to have them.
Sheepish I will be no more!
I have been dying to see how it would be to sew with these, so the other day I finally cut into one of the bags where a big blue stripe ran down the middle and made . . . a zipper pouch! Okay, I realize that a zipper pouch in and of itself is not that exciting, but this one is really cute.
The stripe runs down one side and up the other.
It was actually a bit of a challenge to get that zipper in there with all that bulk, and I had to stabilize the burlap with some muslin before even starting to sew. Look at that beautiful texture!
After I had it all sewn together I realized that I really should have topstitched the zipper to keep the fabric more away from the teeth. So, I made do with hand stitching the lining to the tape on the inside. Coffeepots on the inside? Get out!
This little cutie will be winging its way to Anne in Alabama for so quickly guessing the secret message in my Zen Quilt. And along with it will come a note with another secret message!
I totally loved all your reactions to the chemise. You guys totally crack me up. I am proof that everyone has a bad sewing day every now and then!
I taught my first sewing lesson at the Bobbin’s Nest on Sunday. I had two women for two hours who had never used a sewing machine before, and the three of us had so much fun! For the project we basically made this messenger tote bag. I think this is a great method for making a bag, with lots of straight seams and very little fussing involved. Perfect for beginners!
We didn’t get done, unfortunately, but we got far enough that I feel pretty confident they can finish the bags at home — if the one with the sewing machine can find the parts she was missing! She couldn’t use her machine at the lesson because she didn’t have the little disc needed to keep the spool on the post, and the discs from our machines didn’t fit.
On Saturday I spent some time making one of these bags and writing up instructions for them so I would know exactly how it was going to go. The bonus for doing that is that now I have a cute bag as well! Sweet!
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
The first meeting of the Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild will be Tuesday, February 16 at 7pm at the Redwood City Public Library Main Branch Community Room. I hope to see some of you there!
Before I get to my post topic, I wanted to say thank you for all the love regarding my Zen quilt project. You guys are the greatest! Mmmmmwaaaahh!
And Anne guessed the secret message right off — it’s “Leap and the net will appear,” an old Zen saying. Way to go Anne!
One of the first sewing books I ever bought was Simple Sewing with a French Twist. It was the first time I had ever seen a sewing book that was beautiful and inspiring instead of dull and dry. I’ve been making an effort lately to try out more of the projects in the books that I own, so I finally made the sweet chemise from this book, which I’d had my eye on for a long time. Before wasting using any of my good fabric, I did a muslin out of some cheap stuff I had lying around. I AM SO GLAD I DID!
Just so you know: 1) I did the French seams, except I didn’t trim them before doing the second seam, so the frayed edges are showing on the outside. Please ignore. 2) I didn’t even consider hemming any of these. 3) I obviously am incapable of tying the shoulder straps at the same length. Clearly my own personal deficiency and not the pattern’s.
Here’s how it looked straight off the pattern.
I want to stop here and say…I thought this was going to be a top. Sue me for not knowing what a chemise was and relying on the book photos and illustrations, none of which indicated how long this really was going to be.
If you want to consider making something out of this book that requires one of the patterns in the back, here’s a warning for you: the patterns don’t really enlarge right. I scanned these into my computer, imported them into Illustrator (where they came in at their actual size), and then enlarged them as directed in the book. In Illustrator you can tell it exactly 640% or whatever this required (it was literally something like that). Even though the front and back pieces were in the same image and enlarged the same amount, when I printed them out, one of them was an inch longer than the other where the side seams were supposed to line up. The facing pieces had to be enlarged a different amount, and when enlarged, did not fit the front and back pieces. Just a word of warning to you.
Anyhow, I didn’t want a dress nightgown, I wanted a top, so I tried just cutting it off.
No dice. This was not something I was going to wear outside (even after enlarging the too-tight bust — this is a one-size pattern and I wear a size 2 off the rack, so let that be a warning to you as well!).
My last thought was elastic thread — maybe some shirring could save it? I tested out with just one row around the bottom (since that’s all that was left in that bobbin).
Perhaps marginally better, but no dice. Oh, and sorry about that pissed off look on my face. At this point I may not yet have recovered from only recently having figured out what a “chemise” is.
That’s it for this one. I won’t be designating any good fabric for this project. I guess they can’t all be victories!
On a happier note, I will be teaching my first sewing lesson on Sunday to two sisters who have never used a sewing machine. Should be barrels of fun (seriously!)
Guess what I found??? A gift certificate in the amount of $50 good toward any winter/spring or summer class at PNCA! No kidding! So funny — it fell off my bulletin board the other day and when I reached down to pick it up, I realized what it was. I totally forgot I had gotten this in a holiday card from PNCA this year (after taking the Denyse Schmidt class last summer). I immediately dashed off an e-mail and discovered that I could indeed apply it toward the fabric design course with Heather Ross that I have signed up for. WOO HOO!!!
Okay, now on to the little project I just finished!
I’ve been wanting to try a long list of things and finally decided that trying them out in miniature would be better than not trying them out at all. So, I got the idea for this on, I think, Friday, and finished hand-stitching the binding down at the coffee shop this morning. It measures a mere 20″ x 24″.
I am really loving it! I love how when two blocks next to each other have the same color, new shapes and patterns are created. I was testing out the pieced design here, as well as the colors (that’s gray, not black, by the way) and the quilting design. AND I managed to use up some batting scraps in the process (I really disliked using this batting — will not use it again! Some kind of cheap polyester from JoAnn’s. Yuck. It’s gone now, thankfully!) The pieced design has a secret message hidden in it. I would like to offer a prize to the first person to figure out the message, but I can’t think what to offer, so if you figure it out and want a prize, let me know and we’ll talk. How’s that?!
For the quilting design, I was testing out using this little baby I got for Christmas. It’s really for rotary cutting circles, but I wanted to try it as a template for marking concentric circles. I’d like to have something similar custom made by my local TAP plastics, but I thought I’d try out this cheaper version first to see what I thought. It actually worked pretty well! Now to think about whether I want something custom made or whether this will do…
In other, completely random news, I might be giving my first private sewing lesson this weekend. I’m totally psyched!
We actually got to watch the Super Bowl yesterday, despite the fact that we do not own a television. We even got to watch it in HD! AND it was a great game all the way to the end! NFL football is one of the only things I miss about not having a TV. Thanks for inviting us to watch it at your brother’s house, Meghan (if you happen to read this)!
So, after the one washcloth, I have never tried any more knitting. But I had more of the yarn I’d used for that, and thought I’d try to make another one, now that I work at a yarn/fabric shop.
This is some sad progress.
This is all I managed today. I’m trying not to be really crabby about how frustrating I found it. Main frustrating points:
1. Both yarn and needles are so tiny. Are people really able to grasp these things long enough to do a row without wanting to cry? I don’t see how.
2. And yet, incongrously, the needles seem GIGANTIC when I try to knit or purl. Slip the needle through the stitch, huh? This is like pulling teeth. There is not that much space there!
As you can tell, I am fighting with every step of this process and it is making me crazy, and making all my arthritic parts ache. Give me a sewing machine any day!
I managed to cast on 50 stitches and then attempted a few stitches in seed stitch before deciding to switch to just doing one stitch for practice because switching back and forth was too hard. No clue if I was attempting the knit or purl. Can’t remember which is which.
And I only made it about half a row.
And I may need a Celebrex tonight because of this.
Blech.
On the other hand, I have been having fun choosing and ordering the backing fabric for this sample quilt.
And I’ve been playing with something completely new.
I have also been having tons of fun at my new job! So far I have mostly worked on Saturday, except when I subbed for someone who was sick. I’m working on Valentine’s Day if anyone wants to come by and say hello! And I’ll be working the 20th and 27th as well (both Saturdays). We’re having a big party the night of the 27th during Stitches West with some great yarn folks that will only be at our place and NOT at Stitches, so come by! Keep an eye on the Bobbin’s Nest Blog for information!
I honestly do not have a single thing to complain about yet about my new job. This is unprecedented. Everyone is really nice. Really. Seriously. Not just acting nice. I’m not sure what to do with all that sarcasm and cynicism I usually save up for work!
In the slow times there I am busy working on making this for a shop sample. I have been wanting to try one of these Oliver + S patterns for a long time, but had no reason to make children’s clothes. This should be fun. I’m making a rain jacket out of some of that vinyl-coated fabric everyone is putting out these days. But since I am only working one day a week on the weekends right now, and sometimes it’s really busy, it might take me a while to get it done. I do have all the pieces cut out, though!
Sewing Classes with Yours Truly!
A plug here for anyone interested in taking a sewing class or private sewing lesson with me. Just call the Bobbin’s Nest to schedule something. The shop has a February/March class schedule out. I am not teaching any of those classes (I was in Vietnam when that was being put together). However, you can still get a lesson with me just about any time, and if you and a friend or two or three have a class you’d like to take in mind that you would like me to teach, we can set that up as well (maybe with advice on making the Amy Butler Weekender Bag, or one of the projects I’ve posted about on my blog). Just call the shop and tell them what you are interested in. If I’m not there, someone will take down the info and get it to me, and I’ll call you back as soon as I can. It would be so great to see some of you there!
I saw this Anna Maria Horner fabric (Volumes, from the Drawing Room collection) at the Bobbin’s Nest (my new hangout!) and realized it was perfect for a friend who just finished a Master’s in Library Science.
In her limited free time, she’s been working her way through all of Dickens (very industrious, I know!), so I embroidered the names of all the Dickens novels onto the book spines. Each one is a different font.
The back I did envelope-style with some Amy Butler Lotus fabric I’ve been trying forever to find something to match!
Congratulations, Katie!
Update: How I did this, for those who asked and anyone else who wonders.
I typed up all the titles on the computer in different fonts I thought I might be able to stitch. Then I printed them out and cut out the little pieces of paper. They didn’t all fit the first time, and I had to go back and change the sizes of some (mostly to smaller) to get them to fit horizontally or vertically on the spines. Then I used a light box to trace the text onto the fabric with a blue water-soluble marker. (My super duper SewEzi table also doubles as a light box.) Voila!
It seems like ages, but I actually have a little sewing project to show you. Get out!
I made five little zippered pouches. Such a lovely quick project. I used fabric with maps on it that I had used years ago to make Roman shades at our last house in Kentucky. Each one also has a little gift tag attached to it that says what is inside.
What are all these little pouches for?
Foreign currencies!
We have been just throwing all our foreign currencies in one place, and every time we go somewhere (like our recent trip to Vietnam), I end up digging through every coin and bill to see if there is anything for where we are going. Not anymore! Each one now has its own pouch.
When my husband picked up the last one and it felt empty he asked me, “What’s in this one?”
I have a confirmed spot in this awesome class, and reservations to stay at the Bluebird Guest House in the Division neighborhood (thanks for the recommendation, Susan!). Not as convenient as staying in the Pearl district or near there, but certainly much cheaper. And it looks so adorable! I’m going to hold off on booking airfare with my miles for a little while yet to see how the class details work out.
I am super psyched that Terri, Quilt Dad, and Karen will all be there as well. THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN!!! Anyone else out there going that I don’t know about??
Random subject #2: Ga Kho
If you like Vietnamese food, I highly recommend this recipe for Ga Kho (also known as carmelized chicken). This is very much like the traditional clay pot dishes, without the clay pot. I even let this cook too long (“Is that burnt sugar that I smell? Oh crap!!”) and it still turned out great. Thanks Ravenous Couple!
Click photo above to download 3.4 MB .zip file with instructions.
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2007-2009 Amy Hodge. All photos and information on this blog are the property of Amy Hodge. Feel free to link to my content to your heart's content! However, please do not use any of my photos or content elsewhere without my permission. E-mail me if you would like consent to use my content. Thanks.
