New Blog

I'm no longer updating this site. Please visit my new blog - Gratz Industries - which I share with my husband.

Thanks!

Here's What's Cooking

No new photos to post because I'm still working on finishing the big purple quilt. This week has been pretty crazy. I'm working on the quilt, working on work, and working on putting together some project proposals for a decoupage book that Lark Books is planning. Plus we're getting ready to go to Knoxville so my husband can talk about his book at a school and at Carpe Librum Bookseller's Teacher Appreciation event. Whew!
So the only thing I can talk about making right now is food. I've been thinking about blogging about food for a while now. I've fallen in love with Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers and I've started working my way through every recipe in the book. A little like Julie and Julia but not so insane. So far I've loved every recipe I've tried and that has to be some kind of record. The other day I made pesto for the first time. I added a handful of kalamata olives to the basic recipe and it was deeelicious! The first two days I plopped a blob of the pesto on a plate, drizzled it with extra olive oil and used it as a dipping sauce for focaccia bread. Today I made a grilled cheese sandwich with Swiss cheese, fresh tomato slices, and the pesto as a spread. It was possibly the best grilled cheese sandwich I've ever had. . .

Unfinished Object

I finished the messenger bag and baby quilt on my last road trip, so now I get to pull out a new UFO. Over the course of the next couple of months I'd like to wrap up all of my unfinished projects. This is a quilt I was working on when I got a new job and we had to move. I took it off the design wall and packed it up - that was two years ago. I finally pulled it out again last night. All the blocks are made so it just needs to be assembled and quilted. It's a king-sized quilt for our bed and I'm hoping I can get the machine work done in the next week or so and then do the binding on my next road trip. You can see how much I have left to do - the little packets of blocks in baggies are the finished blocks.

Works in Progress

I can never seem to get a work in progress posted on Friday, but this week I had an excuse - I was getting things ready for my daughter's 4th birthday party on Saturday. It was fun! Seven 3-4 year old little girls all making cool stuff at our house. They stamped T-shirts for party favors, made bracelets, decorated their own cupcakes, and did lots of cool things with crayons, watercolors, glitter glue, googly eyes, pom-poms, and more good stuff.

Now I'll be on the road for two days, so I spent some time Thursday getting a couple of projects up to the handwork stage so I can take them with me. I've got this baby quilt ready to bind. It's supposed to look zebra-ish for the jungle themed room the new Mom is planning.

I'm also almost done with my new messenger bag. I wanted something bigger that I could just sling over my shoulder when I'm out for fun. Something that's big enough to fit a notebook and some colored pencils in addition to my purse stuff, a book, and a bottle of water. I think the extra wide quilted strap will be great for all-day schlepping. All this needs now is for me to stitch in a pocket for a water bottle. I love the hot colors on the outside, with the cool as a cucumber lining.

Some Very Bad Sewing

"OK," I thought. "It's a simple bias-cut elastic-waist skirt. How hard can it be?" Well, I managed to mess it up. Where should I begin? It's got an opaque underskirt of something drapy. I'm not very good at identifying fabrics and I bought this years ago. The overskirt is very sheer and gauzy. This is my first from-scratch project for the Wardrobe Refashion blog.

The first problem is that I cut something out on the wrong grain. I know you get a little bit of stretch when you cut on the bias, but the underskirt stretches side to side while the gauzy overskirt stretches top to bottom. I don't know which is correct, but I'm pretty sure the first time I sit in this for any amount of time, I'll end up with a saggy butt. Even without sitting, it drapes weirdly and makes my hips and thighs look bigger than they actually are. Even my husband noticed (and commented on) the odd silhouette.

Then there was the hemming problem. The underskirt was fine, but the gauze was a nightmare. I don't have a serger and my machine kept sucking it in. I tried changing to a brand new, fine needle, but it still happened. So I decided to try a rolled hem by hand. Bad decision. I got about 8 inches done, but it looked awful, so I picked it out. I had topstitched about 1/4 inch from the raw edge and then trimmed it down to about 1/8 for the hand-hemming, and when I picked out the part I had hemmed, I kind of liked the feathery raveling that happened up to the topstitching. I decided to throw the thing in the washing machine and let the whole hem get a frayed edge up to the topstitching. "It'll be hip," I thought. It frayed all right - right up past the topstitching, leaving chains of thread hanging down. I cut off the chains of thread and now you see the lovely finished product - a skirt that will probably sag around my butt if I wear it and will unravel if I wash it. Do I at least get points for using fabric from my stash?

I'm no chicken!

I did it - my first wardrobe refashion. I took a plain black skirt (no before picture - but you can imagine) and appliqued on a blue chicken.

I used to be good at drawing, but now I rely on Ed Emberly to help me along. This is inspired by Ed Emberly's Drawing Book of Animals. It's still not as cool as my daughter's clothes (no jingle bells or hot pink and orange tassels around the hem) but it's a start. I wish I had made the legs a little fatter (the chicken's legs - not mine).

I Am a Refashionista!

I've been out of town all week for work so I've gotten nothing crafty done, but I have taken The Wardrobe Refashion Pledge.

I Wendi Gratz,
Pledge that I shall abstain from the purchase of "new" manufactured items of clothing, for the period of 4 months.
I Pledge that I shall refashion, renovate, recycle pre-loved items for myself for the term of my contract.
I Pledge that I shall create and craft items of clothing for myself with my own hands in fabric, yarn or other medium for the term of my contract.
I Pledge that I will share the love and post a photo of my refashioned, renovoated, recycled, crafted or created item of clothing on the Wardrobe Refashion blog, so that others may share the joy that my thriftyness brings!

I already love this site, so this is going to be lots of fun.