Posie Gets Cozy

Summerhouse Pillows, Pattern, and Kit Available Now!

Mmmm, reading. I remember it. I'm hoping to even do it again someday. Not today, since my goal is to do three things: 1) Finish adding eight new ready-made Summerhouse Pillows (sold out now — thank you!!!) to my web shop. 2) Finalize and make available a downloadable PDF pattern for these pillows. And 3) Start taking pre-orders for small-patch pillow kits, starting tomorrow and for about the next week or so. When I have everything ready to go, I will make links available, right here in this paragraph, so check back here tomorrow morning, Thursday, July 2, at 9 a.m. PST. All available now! Thanks!

Let me tell you about the kits real quick. I (with Andy's help, as always) will be putting together kits for you to make your own small-patch Summerhouse Pillows (the one on the right in the photo above). The kits will include everything you need to make the 16" (41cm) square pillow cover: 64 pre-cut assorted calico patches; interfacing; coordinating solid-color cotton backing fabric; piping trim; as well as a printed copy of the step-by-step fully illustrated pattern. I will also have feather-and-down pillow inserts (covered with a 100% cotton cover) available, too — you will have an option to include this pillow with your kit when you purchase it. These natural pillows are really nice, but they are quite bulky and heavy, so the shipping cost to include the pillow will be adjusted accordingly. But then you won't have to go out and try to find one on your own, so I'll leave that to you to decide if you need it.

The fabric patches you'll receive for the pillow cover will be very close to the pillow pictured, but please understand that they will not match exactly, since I'll be including several squares of various Liberty of London Tana Lawn fabrics from my own stash, special extras here and there, and, depending on what part of the fabric the patch is cut from, certain patches cut from the same cloth may look different. But all of the kits will of course be designed by me, your faithful servant, and so will look like closely related cousins of each other, if not identical twins. Andy and I will be cutting all of the patches ourselves, as well, so though we strive for speed and perfection (in this case, if no other, at least), please understand that human hands, a rotary cutter, and elbow grease are the engines that drive our machine here, so it will take us a few weeks to get everything together, based on however many orders come in in the next week (we'll stop taking orders after about a week, and then that will be it for these kits).

What else do I need to tell you. Oh yeah. A warning: Making these pillows is addictive. Spend time now with your family and friends, shop for groceries, clean the house, get a tan, have your Fourth of July, etc. Whatever you need to do. Because once you start making pillows we won't be seeing you for quite a while. You'll be sewing. And since, as I recently learned, a whopping 84.6% of you Posie Gets Cozy readers know how to sew, that means most of you. But no worries. We'll wait.

(And, as promised, more of my thoughts on sewing as soon as I get this pillow stuff on-line. I was completely overwhelmed by your responses, and it's truly taken me a while to absorb it all. But somewhere in my summerbrain there are thoughts.)

Pillow Patch

WOW. That was quite a response — thank you! I'm overwhelmed (and a little sad that I'm not writing a dissertation called Sewing in Modern Culture, because there's some research for you — ask and ye shall receive!). But, believe it or not, I am still just reading comments, and I am only in the low hundreds, so it will take me a while to get through all those. But they are truly fascinating, and surprising, and surprisingly emotional (though I don't know why this surprises me), so bear with me and I will keep reading and summarize the response in the coming week or so. Feel free to keep leaving comments, of course, and thank you again for taking the time to participate!

In the meantime, I have been making more pillows. That's pretty much all I do is read comments and make pillows. I think I will have the pillows that are ready all photographed and organized for the web shop later this week, or early next. (Pattern and kit-pre-orders will be coming after that, but first I need to send these pillows away, because I have nowhere to put them!) I would like to keep them all, actually. But you might want one, and in that case, I will be more than happy to oblige.

Laziest Daisy, and a Question

While I was taking pictures of the puppers, I went into the guest room and found my laziest daisy, Violet Paulson, lying on a pillowcase-covered bread board I had brought upstairs last week — a makeshift ironing board I was using to iron in bed while watching TV. (Okay, maybe I am the laziest.) I am trying to iron all of my fabric scraps so I can cut them up into little patches for my patchwork pillows. IT. TAKES. FOREVER!!! I've lost count of the number of hours I've spent doing this. Good thing the Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood marathon was on!!!

"Oh, I'm sooooo tired! Because I have to sleep on a bread board !!!"

"I. Am. Soooooo. Pretty. Though."

"Ya know?"

* * *

In answer to several questions yesterday, that is a little vintage reading light that hangs on the headboard of the bed and yep, my pillowcases are thrifted — I have a large and well-used (and well-loved) collection of flowery cases from the '60s and '70s. We have so many pillows in our house it's nuts. I believe I am going through a pillow phase. Has that ever happened to you? No??? Try it. It's good.

Secondly, here's my question for you: Do you sew?

Lately I have been getting a lot of emails from people who don't sew, or are just learning to sew. They always interest me, because I come from one of those families/circles of friends where everyone sews, or knows how to sew, and doesn't really think too much about it. It's just what you do. For most of my life, I really did just assume that everyone grew up with big piles of fabric in the dining room, or pieces of thread all over their shirt. But now I know that's not right. So my question is: Do you sew (with a sewing machine)? If you do, what age did you start? Who taught you? What do you make now?

If you don't, why not? What would you need to start? Do you even want to?

I'm just curious, so if you have a minute this weekend, please comment here, and feel free to expound — I want to know. I am going to report back on the results, so even if you don't usually comment, see if you can this time. I really wonder how those numbers will break down, don't you?

Grilled Shrimp, Patches, and a Book

Okay, where are we here. Let's start with the grilled shrimp. These are the Grilled Spicy Jalapeno and Lime Shrimp Skewers from the summer 2009 issue of Cook's Illustrated: Summer Grilling issue. This is a great issue. We actually have all three of the current Cook's Illustrateds around here: grilling, the June issue, and the Summer Entertaining issue. Andy got a subscription to the regular magazine for his birthday, and it is a great magazine, especially for scientifically minded people, since it really goes into the hows and whys of cooking in a very user-friendly and approachable — conversational — way. Each recipe details the process of discovery in creating the best version of the recipe, much like the companion television show, America's Test Kitchen, does, if you watch that (I TiVo it). Good stuff. Lots of extra information about buying shrimp, what kind of skewers work best, and  . . . grilling everything. I forgot that all of their on-line recipes are protected, so in order to access the shrimp recipe on-line you'll need to sign up for a 14-day trial if you are not a member; we made the recipe exactly as written so I can't copy it here for you. But this is a great issue and those guys work really hard on this stuff so you won't be disappointed if you get do sign up, or buy the magazine on the newsstand.

Next: Patches! The magical patches. I don't think anyone guessed the special technique, so here it is! To make a square patched pillow cover, what you do is this: Take a square of featherweight fusible interfacing the size of your finished cover plus seam allowances to every patch seam and side seams and lay it, fusible side up, on a cutting mat or a flat cardboard box — something big that you can carry over to the ironing board. Then lay out all of your patches with their cut edges butted right up next to each other in very straight rows and columns. Then take the mat over to the ironing board and carefully transfer it to the ironing board to press. Press all the patches lightly but securely to the interfacing. Then, with right sides of the patches together, fold the outermost column of patches down along the "gutter" created by the tiny space of interfacing between columns, and stitch the seam, using a scant 1/4" seam allowance. Continue across the width of the pillow in this way, and press all of the seams in the same direction (pressing only on the right side of the fabric). Turn the pillow cover 90 degrees, and repeat for all of the rows. Voila! You have a pillow cover front in minutes!

I will be putting together a pattern with step-by-step instructions for the two pillows pictured above in the next week or so. I think you could use this technique for anything that requires a certain amount of body — pillow covers, of course, but also placemats, table runners, seat cushions, potholders, maybe even little girls' dress bodices, or the hem of a skirt, or jean cuffs, certainly bags. It's absolutely perfect for bags. I don't think it's perfect for actual quilts that you are going to wash and sleep under, because of the interfacing, but that's just me; I like floppy cottons in my quilts, and since the interfacing is synthetic it won't allow the quilt to behave as you might like. But it's a really cool technique, and I am making pillows like a crazy woman for all my summer birthday presents, and some to sell in my web shop. I think I'll probably make pillow kits available, too, with cut patches, interfacing, piping, and backing for a 16" pillow, since I have cut hundreds and hundreds of patches in the past couple of weeks. These patches are very similar to the ones that I cut for the Tanglewood Bags and my cats' living-room pillows last summer -- a bit of Liberty lawn, a bit of solid, a bit of really cool contemporary quilters cotton. I am still loving this look so much. I wish I had known about the technique then, because those pillows took forever.

Speaking of the web shop, I have finished seventeen Jane Market Bags for you! I was trying desperately to make twenty, but I just can't make any more. The cool thing about them is that they are true stash bags — all of them are made out of fabrics that I already had on my shelves. I am going to try and get them all photographed and in the web shop early next week, so I'll let you know when they're there. I am trying out some new computer code that I'm hoping will eliminate the possibility of two people buying the same bag at the same time, so we'll see about that. But these are truly one-of-a-kind and can't be replicated, so I am keeping my fingers crossed about that, so no one is disappointed (my least favorite thing about having a web shop).

Lastly today, my first summer reading book is Little, Big by John Crowley. This is my fourth time reading it — I first read it at the perfect time in my life for it, and it's probably my all-time favorite summer book. I had started and stopped a couple of my new books recently, and then just had the urge to go for the sure thing, since I know it will be good. It's not for everyone, but I love it. And isn't that the coolest cover image ever? So perfect for this book. If you've read it, you know.

Jane Market Bag

In between all the gardening, and the hay hauling, and the just generally sitting around waiting for something to grow, I've been sewing a bit. I was watching Marple a couple of weeks ago and I noticed that Jane is almost always carrying some sort of calico bag — which probably contains her knitting, not groceries. But it gave me an idea for a bag I'd been wanting to make for quite a while, a giant grocery tote to replace those hideously fugly ones they sell at all the stores now. You know the ones I mean? Those black ones, made of what feels like the same material they make Handi-Wipes out of (don't even know if they still make those, but my mother used to use them and I still remember that weird, webby fabric)? Anyway, I can't stand those bags, as practical as they are, but I do like that big, boxy shape — like a regular paper grocery bag. So I made this one, out of calico. I've been carrying it around all week, testing it out, and I love it. I'll put together a pattern this week in case you want to make one, too. It's easy, and a great stash-buster!

Speaking of stashes, when we got new carpet, a giant shelf that was in the bedroom came down to live in my studio. I moved all of my fabric to it, but it's a total mess. I'm trying to use up as much of the stash as possible so I don't have to refold and refuss with trying to stack and color-code it all. I'm finally just accepting that the whole stash-fabric-refolding thing will probably need to be redone once a year. It always seems to be exploding off the shelves, possibly because I am such a slob about putting it away nicely in the first place. But only possibly. I think it's really messing itself up and hurling big piles of itself to the floor on purpose, just to make me crazy. Because stashes have nothing better to do. Everyone knows this.

Oregon April

I was so excited to be asked by my fellow Oregonian Kristin of Sew, Mama, Sew! to design a fat quarter pack for their gorgeous on-line fabric boutique. Would I? Yes, please.

I'm calling my collection "Oregon April." Inspired by the view from my window, it's water, petals, birds, blossoms, snowflakes (we had hail here yesterday), and dotties, like my favorite umbrella. Enchanted April. My favorite month. 

So, I've decided that arranging squares of fabric is just about my favorite thing to do. It is completely relaxing. Picking them off of a web site and arranging them into tiles instead of wandering the fabric store was so cool — I've never done that before, but I now totally get how appealing this way of designing can be, especially if you are busy and you just need a mini-break. I cannot wait to make a quilt out of these in real life. I'm thinking 4" print squares (smallish, like flowers), alternating with solid pale grayish-blue? Or is that too much like my Lemoncello Quilt? I don't know. Something. Something damp and bright and Aprilish.

Kristin's also giving away a pack. Leave her a comment describing the view from your window today, and maybe you'll win one!

Isn't that a cool bulletin board thing, too? Kristin's colleague Lauren did that. How do people make cool digital things like that? I've always wanted to do that but I have no clue.

My Dress

Andy and I got engaged on March 16, 1996. I was 28 years old and Andy was 25. We'd been dating for three and a half years, and had already known each other for close to seven. We're slow. I told you the story of our engagement a couple of years ago. I love engagement stories, especially ones where someone's acting badly (and I really was [often am] ). I'm fond, too, of the memory of the day we took our "engagement" picture, which is totally incongruous with the photo of us at the church on the wedding day itself. For Stitched in Time I took the picture above, and told the story of what it was like to make my own wedding dress.

You'll have to just buy the book to read that one. I can't give away the farm here, people!!! [Kidding. I'm really just too lazy today to retype it.]

*Update: An idea [bounces on chair]: How about a free copy of Stitched in Time for the funniest engagement story! Doesn't even have to be your own story. Andy and I will judge. Just leave it in the comments on this post and we'll decide on Friday!

Dispatch from Sew Expo

It was cool. It had been about five years, I think, since I'd been to it, but the Sewing and Stitchey Expo my mom and I went to yesterday was a really fun place to find out about some new stuff, and pick up some things I haven't seen anywhere else. You know how I was kind of bummed to be finishing my book soon? WHAT WAS MY PROBLEM. Seriously. I picked up stuff to start about four more projects, some of which I have never done before, and now I am so ready to be done so that I can start on them. (BTW, these photos and illustrations are all from the artist's web sites, not mine.)

My favorite, and something I've been wanting to learn forever, is this little Sheperdess rug punch pillow pattern  from Reets' Rags to Stitches. My mom bought this pattern for me and a beautiful Oxford punch needle, and the burlap. Such a nice mommy. I have wanted to make a rug for so long, but I didn't know anyone who did it to show me how. I bought supplies and a book from the fabric store one time but I got overwhelmed by the idea of cutting all those strips of fabric, and because I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't realize that you could use worsted weight wool, which I have bucketfuls of, more than I know what to do with. And you know what I don't have? RUGS. I desperately need rugs in my house. And chair cushions. Perfect. I need four chair cushions for my dining room. My new thing was going to be making a braided rug out of my fabric stash, but I wasn't looking forward to cutting and folding and stitching all those strips, etc. Though I do want to do that someday. But this rug punch is SO EASY. The lady showed me how to do it. And it's so fast. And you can use up your yarn stash = good. I can't wait. Can't wait can't wait. The only thing is, to make a rug, I think you have to have a big frame to hold it while you're working? Not sure if you can use a big but hand-held hoop and move it around. Anyone know?

Okay, next. Folkwear. Do you know about Folkwear? I don't even know where to start talking about Folkwear. The coolest pattern company ever. They've carried these patterns at Fabric Depot for a long time and I have looked at them a million times but never bought one (just got the Roumanian Blouse), mostly because I can never decide which one to get because they are all so beautiful. Yesterday at the show there was an entire wall of them, offered by Birch Street Clothing.

I have never seen the actual pattern packages and illustrations (by artist and jewelry designer Gretchen Schields, which are utterly amazing — I could just look at the illustrations for everything all day, actually) so big and up close like that. They're gorgeous. And the clothes are so unique and fantastic. I'm thinking either the Roumanian Blouse, the Afghan Nomad Dress, the Russian Settlers' Dress, or, naturally, the English Smock.

See, I can't decide. But something. I will order something because I love them and had kind of forgotten about them. And they have a TON of different styles, you just have to look.

What else. Okay, another pattern. The Birdie Big Blocks quilt pattern by Barbara Brandeburg. A 56" square easy applique quilt. They had a turquoise, brown, and melon-orange one made up and it was absolutely adorable. I am going to make this out of my stash, as well. This looks like a perfect stash quilt. I've never made a little quilt like this, or done anything fancier than tie a quilt. This had cool stitching all over it. I think it would be cute to just do simple running stitches by hand around the circles, too. But anyway, sweet. Mom got this one, too.

Next: pincushion. I love pincushions. I need one in every room of the house, hopefully to assuage my tendencies to leave needles in pillows in the bed. One of my special talents. But cute pincushions really do call to me. I thought this one, the English Garden Pin Cushion by Bird Brain Designs, was really cute. I got the kit for this. You can do the flowers however you want. They had beautiful dyed wools, too. The lady was making the most incredible needle-felted animals. I am a little bit afraid of that needle. But I think this pin cushion has just enough needle-felted (the centers of the flowers, and you can make stems and stuff, too) parts for me. This I'll do right away, and keep it on my nightstand.

Look at these incredible miniature cross-stitch historical gardens by Liz Turner Diehl. I got the Ruby Jeweled Garden pattern. I couldn't resist. So cool. I'm thinking of doing my own, of whatever garden we put together this year in our planned raised beds. Aren't those neat? You have to click on the links because the photos are really small.

Anyway, I think that's it. I am really excited about the rug punch. I just had to say that again. I gotta go so I can finish my book and start this, stat. Bye.

Good Morning, Girls!

Brrrrr! We are having an *ARCTIC BLAST* here in the Pacific Northwest! That's what they call it on the news. Meaning it's 22 degrees F. I've lived in a lot of snowy, freezing-cold locations in both the Midwest and the Rocky Mountains in my life; it has been much, much colder, and much, much snowier. But for some reason, when it gets to be in the twenties with an inch of snow on the ground in Portland, Oregon, we might as well be at the North Pole. North of the North Pole. The entire city freaks out, including me. Oh, the drama! Oh, the beauty! I love it. Of course, this is my luxury, another one of those work-at-home perks I love on mornings like this (as long as the power stays on, and I have pets to pile on top of me). Poor Andy had to trudge out through the ice and snow to get to work early early, while it was still pitch-black out. We have the worst front stairs going down to the sidewalk — no railings, and a lightpost at the top of the stairs which doesn't actually light the stairs, but does blind you as you approach it so that you cannot see the stairs as you're walking down them. Awesome.

So let's just stay inside, do click-'n'-ship, and have the postman bring us some sweet dolls!

Here's Mabel Abigaille, who will benefit World Vision. She's writing her dissertation on peasant culture as depicted during the Northern Renaissance. She wishes she could have met Pieter Bruegel the Elder.

This is Maisie Elspeth, who will also benefit World Vision. Dr. Maisie Elspeth is a veterinarian, specializing in the crossbreeding of Swiss Toggenburg goats with breeds (like the Galla and Boran) indigenous to the pastoral areas of Kenya. (I meant to have her benefit The Salvation Army but I forgot to change the charity before I listed her, and I can't seem to change it. That's okay, because I wanted to try to buy a goat.)

Ingrid Marigold will benefit Toys for Tots. She is the premier importer of wooden toys and Christmas pyramids from the Erzgebirge region of Germany.

Kendall Margaret will benefit the Red Cross. She is a trained emergency medical technician, and enjoys antiquing in Cape Cod on her days off as a way to decompress.

Here's Dorie Violette. She will benefit UNICEF. She is a trained perfumier and owns a flower-extract factory in an undisclosed location "south of Grasse" on the French Riviera (where she met Angelina Jolie at Cannes in May). I am trying to convince her to bring back a reissue of (the sadly discontinued) Laura Ashley No. 1, my favorite perfume which I don't have.

Fiona Flannery will benefit Free Geek. She is an Irish dancer (and also plays the bodhran semi-professionally), frequently attending ceilis around county Antrim. She's single, but fine with that.

Miss Devon Everleigh trains Cardigan Welsh corgis, the most awesome dog breed ever. Her sale will benefit the ASPCA. She lives with fourteen blue merle Cardigans on a small farm near Mist, Oregon.

Yes, I am a lunatic. I guess I have cabin fever.

But anyway, so these auctions are up! This is my first time selling anything on eBay, and I am excited to see how it works. The auctions will last three days, and then I will ship dolls immediately after payments are received. Because of this crazy weather, I will only be able to ship to locations in the United States this time, since shipping overseas requires me to go across town to my post office to do the customs forms and all that, and I don't think I'm going to be going anywhere this week. (And if you did send me a bookplate request late last week, unfortunately that's probably stranded at the post office box, too!)

As they say on eBay, "Thanks for looking!" xo

My Little Group of Girls

Yay, I finished the girls! I'm so excited about them. I am going to show you all of their individual photos and start my eBay auction for them on Monday, December 15. It will last for three days and then I will ship them really quick, so they will hopefully get to you for Christmas (but no promises — unfortunately I am just cutting it too close, sorry!). But as I mentioned the other day, I will send half of the proceeds from each doll to a different charity, including World Vision, Unicef, Red Cross, Toys for Tots, The Salvation Army, Free Geek, and the ASPCA. So stay tuned and I will put all the links and photos up on the blog on Monday.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the signing at Bolt last night! I had the best time. You guys are all so nice, so adorable, and so generous. Let me tell you, it has been such a fun experience doing these signings during the holiday season — it just feels like party after party. Thank you for that. It has been such a great experience getting to meet so many of you, and hear your stories, and understand more about why we all love to make things for the special people in our lives. I have really loved all of it.

Kristen Rask, who owns an absolutely darling little store in Seattle called Schmancy and who also was one of the hardworking organizers of Urban Craft Uprising last weekend, asked me some unique and interesting questions the other day about my life and craft — you can read that interview here, and also leave a comment for another chance to win a copy of Stitched in Time if you haven't gotten your copy yet!

We have a busy weekend, and I bet most of you do, too. Tonight we are going to see the Portland Revels Christmas show (and unfortunately, it is completely sold out — I got my tickets several weeks ago and there weren't even two seats together at that time!). This year's show features dance, music, and drama inspired by Scandinavian legend and lore, and it just sounds so cool. I can't wait. And tomorrow we are taking our niece to see The Nutcracker downtown, and that's always one of my favorite things about Christmas.

AND — it's supposed TO SNOW this weekend. Oh joy!!! I need to go find my flannel nightgown and make sure we have pancake supplies for Sunday morning. I can't wait.