Monthly Archives: July 2010

Garden Frustrations

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A few weeks ago, I mentioned the Summer harvest had started.  We’ve had some rain and a lot of sun and hot temps since then, but not much has changed in the garden and I’m getting frustrated.  True, I am able to must pick okra everyday and the other night I had enough pods to make a large batch of bhindi masala for dinner, the easiest and fastest way I know to use a large amount of okra.  The tiny cucumbers for cornichons are ripening, but only a couple are ready to be picked every day which makes pickling hard as the process need to be started right away.  Leaving the cucumbers on the vine only results in monster sized ones, though it gave me the opportunity to whip up a batch of refrigerator pickles for the first time.

I also figured out why my beets and onions were so small – it was just too early to pick them.  I left a bunch in the ground just to see what would happen, and they got bigger.  So if something seems too small, leave it alone and it will most likely grow. Next year, I’ll remember Spring onions in the summertime.

I have handfuls of full sized butternut and acorn squash, and at least three large pumpkins.  The vines are all twisted around each other, and I can no longer tell which ones are my sugar pumpkins for pies and which are the jack o’lantern pumpkins for carving.  I guess I’ll find out in the Fall.  Finally last night, Will and I spotted several watermelons about the length of my pinky finger.  All the vines have been covered in yellow flowers, but I was afraid nothing was getting fertilized and I was so looking forward to melons.  We breathed a big sigh of relief.

So there is a lot of success in the garden, but I’m having trouble with my tomatoes and home gardening is really about tomatoes.  I’m not sure if it is all the rain we’ve had, or the fact that I got my plants in the ground a few weeks later than I liked, but nothing is ripening.  I have quite a few green tomatoes, but they don’t want to turn red.  I’ve been good about snipping off the suckers – the branches with no fruit – so the plants would put more energy to making the fruit ripe, but maybe I’ve been overzealous here.  Last year I did no pruning, which was a mistake, and maybe this year my mistake is too much pruning?  The stink bugs also love one of my heirloom plants – the mortgage lifter I think – and they keep boring holes in the fruit causing them to rot.  Almost every tomato on this plant has succumb to the same fate.  At first I thought it might be a blight, but after watching the plant and seeing no other signs I realized it completely due to the stink bugs.  I have a lot of companion plants for tomatoes nearby and I could try some kind of organic pest control like my beloved neem oil, but I think I’ve decided just to sacrifice the one tomato plant. They seem to like that one above the others, and leave the rest alone when there is a fat mortgage lifter to attack.  If I had a good windowsill, I might pick some green tomatoes and let them ripen inside, but I don’t. Have I mentioned before how dark it is inside my house, and how I get very little light?  I’m never living in a place with no windows on the south side again.

August is almost here and as long as I can keep my gardened watered well enough, I’m hoping for some changes, melons, and tomatoes.  I don’t want to just get two out of the three, because I’ve realized I’m selfish when it comes to my garden!

Art Quilt

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A few months ago, I had to get a piece ready for an art show of my high school’s alumni.  It is a biannual show, and I last participated in it four years ago when I showed a series of Holga images from New Orleans.  My default art form is photography, but I didn’t have any recent work I really liked, and I kept thinking about fabric since that is what I mostly work with right now.

So I made a mini quilt.

My inspiration came from Gee’s Bend, Denyse Schmidt, and Joelle Hoverson’s Last Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts,  but once I started putting the fabric pairs together, this mini quilt sort of made itself.  I used my signature colors (all from the scrap bin I might add), and I love just about everything about it, especially the turquoise strip and the little square of dark fabric in the cream and white border.  I had wanted to try some hand quilting, but since I always underestimate the amount of time a project will take, this quilt was machine quilted.

It’s nice to make something that mixes thought and chance. When I think about it, my favorite photographs are ones where the same has occurred.  No wonder I like this quilt so much.

A Love Affair

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My sister-in-law, Liz, is getting married soon and my children are in her wedding. Ely is the ring bearer (or ring boy as they like to say) and Agnes is the flower girl.  When I asked Liz if it would be okay for me to make Agnes’s dress and Ely’s tie and she said yes, I knew exactly what I was going to sew.

I’m in the middle of a huge love affair with Oliver + S patterns by Leisl Gibson.

It started back in October when Ely wanted to be a Jedi for Halloween.  I looked at a bunch of images online and realized the costume was basically a robe over kimono-style pajamas.  I had never sewn garments before, but I was eager to try the Oliver + S patterns which I’d read so many good reviews about.  I purchased the Bedtime Story Pajamas and some tan muslin, and they became the Jedi pants and shirt.  Leisl wrote that the pajamas were the best first pattern for novice garment sewers, and she was right as the pjs came together very easily.  They weren’t quick – I spent a lot of time tracing the pattern, cutting out all the pieces and sewing the top and bottoms together – but not a single step was hard.  Even the times I thought I was doing something wrong and that this couldn’t possibly come together in the way it’s supposed it, it worked out perfectly.  I was impressed with the detailed instructions, the drawings, my ability to follow them, and the resulting garment.

For Christmas, Ely and Agnes both received Momma made clothes.  Agnes got a Playdate Dress (sadly no longer in production), copied almost exactly after this one, which I’d loved ever since I first saw a photo of the dress in that fabric.  Ely got the Sandbox Pants and Shirt, which was also my first time doing a freezer paper stencil and is about the easiest and best thing ever. They both loved wearing their new clothes, and it made my heart swell to see them so happy in something I made.

The more I sew from these patterns, the more I understand about pattern pieces and markings and garment sewing.  I once tried to make myself a dress from a Simplicity pattern, but it wasn’t thorough and I was lost from almost the beginning. It’s so nice that Leisl has taken the time not only to design cute and timeless clothes for children, but to write out and draw the sewing process step by step.  Oliver + S patterns could be renamed Oliver + S sewing school.

For the flower girl dress, I chose to make the Birthday Party Dress in Anna Maria’s Little Folks voile (I gave my sister in law several fabric choices and she liked this one the best) with satin ribbon ties.  Since the voile is thin and a little see through, I “lined” the dress by cutting out all the pattern pieces from the voile and a cotton lawn which I based together before construction.  The double layers of fabric also made the blindstitching of the hem and bodice facing easier, because I could just handsew through the cotton lawn inner layer and not worry about my stitches showing up on the outside of the dress.  When I showed the dress to Ely, he said,” Mommy that is the most beautiful dress ever” and Agnes couldn’t stop repeating “My pretty dress, my pretty dress.”

I don’t think this love affair is going to end anytime soon.  I have the patterns and materials for a raincoat and several more dresses and skirts waiting for me once I finish the flower girl dress and tie.  Now that the dress is done, I’m one step closer.

Habit

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Habit has been one of my favorite blogs ever since it started 18 months ago.  I love to see the daily photographic captures of Emily, Molly, and their monthly guests paired with their own simple words (30 or less) .  So many images have struck me, and so many words have resonated with me.  Everyday I look forward to the new set.

July is a special month because Emily and Molly have invited everyone to be a part of habit.  I’m 11 days in, and kind of addicted.  At first I thought I’d make a habit entry every few days or so, but then the day didn’t seem finished without the creation of a habit photo.  Often there is a shot I’ve taken during my day that I love, but just isn’t right for my 365 project or as a part of my blog or flickr photostream.  Usually that photo is just right for habit, and it’s been a joy to take these orphans, think about what I want to say with them, then set them afloat in the habit group.  It’s also been nice to spend a few moments of my day – either during lunchtime or at night when the house is dark and quiet – with others’ images and words from their day.

With 20 days left in the month, it isn’t too late to try habit out for yourself.  I already know that once July is over, I will still add to my habit photos on my own, because it’s quickly become a favorite ritual – a habit – of my day.

First Harvest

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The Summer veggies are here! Or at least the early beginnings of them.  The last two weeks of heat gave all the plants a big boost, and now everything is growing and flowering like crazy.  The Winter squash and pumpkins have formed, and I don’t think anything is cuter than a tiny butternut squash already in its butternut squash shape. Will is terrified of them because he hates butternut squash.  The tomato plants have lots of green globes, and some of them are turning red.  I ate two carbon (black) tomatoes this week in the first of hopefully many tomato and cheese sandwiches.  I’m already in trouble with the okra because I let some red velvet pods get too long. Even though I’ve harvested lots of greens and herbs in the past months, the garden is real now.  Kind of a funny thing to say about something that has been going since early March.  As great as you are Spring veggies, my heart loves the Summer ones more.

The first of the Fin de Meaux cucumbers – we’re going to try to make French cornichon pickles, but first we need more than three.  They are tiny and hard to find on the vines. These probably should have been picked earlier.  Good thing the vines have a thousand little yellow blossoms.  Oh, and why did I never know that cucumbers and melons have the same small yellow blossoms, while squash and pumpkins have the larger orange ones?  I love that I can learn about plant families just by paying attention to what is similar in my garden.

Some little creature (of the two legged variety) ran off with my plant tag, so I have no clue about this mystery heirloom pepper variety.  The plant is big and beautiful and strong, and I love these large purple flowers.  So far google had gotten me nowhere, and I’m desperate to see what the peppers look like. Once the flower falls off, the ends are still purple so I’m wondering if the peppers will end up purple.  If so, Agnes will be in love. Maybe it would distract her from picking the green tomatoes, a trait she still hasn’t grown out of.

And finally a beet that isn’t puny. My mantra for next year - More space, more space, more space.

So, is anything ready to harvest in your garden?

Anna Maria’s Museum Tunic

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Six months ago, I fell in love with Anna Maria Horner’s square dance dobby dots fabric from her Little Folks line.  I bought 2 panels in aqua (I think 2 panels are slightly less than 2 yards), but never could figure out what to do with it.  As much as I loved the square dance design, I was stumped.  I thought about making Agnes a dress or myself a skirt, but possible designs never seemed to work with this fabric.  I almost made this skirt out of it, but I’m glad I didn’t because again I don’t think the pattern would have been the best one for the fabric. Anna Maria has a cool double sided scarf I was seriously thinking about, or I figured I could always take the easy way out and make quilt squares from the fabric. For some reason though, I wanted to turn it into a garment and as soon as I saw Anna Maria’s brillant museum tunic complete with simple instructions, I knew my fabric would become this dress.

I love tunic style dresses, and I didn’t realize how easy the construction is until I saw Anna Maria’s drawings.  Since I had two panels, I decided to make a floor length dress – I have two weddings coming up later this Summer and thought this dress might work for one or both of them. I made a few other modifications, which are simple to do with this pattern. I raised the neckline a couple of inches just to make it easier to find a bra or slip to work with the dress, and added a slit to the back to allow for comfortable walking in the long straight skirt.  I started to make the sleeves less wide (I hate seeing tanks and slips through sleeve armholes), but then they didn’t drape as nicely so I cut out the stitches and left them alone, pet peeves be damned.  For the elastic waist, I put my first row of elastic on at the top edge of the first set of small blocks, then tried the dress on to see how the shaping worked.  With my bust size, I realized I needed a row of elastic above that one to make the top less baggy. The third row went below the first one I sewed.  I liked being able to try on this dress at every step, and easily adjusting the fitting to make it work better for me.  It may have only taken Anna Maria an hour to sew up her tunic, but it took me a good 5 or 6 days working slowly and only when the children were sleeping.

The dress is super comfortable, and the lightweight fabric makes it cool.  I almost wore it the other night, but I need to find a slip to wear under it.  I wish that process was as easy and fulfilling as the sewing of this dress.

I kept hoping to get a photo of myself wearing this dress, but it hasn’t happened yet and I was tired of this post sitting around.  When I get a photo of the dress worn, I’ll add it.