Well, Hmmmmm-

I follow two blogs from V and E Historic: a pattern blog and a costuming blog.  Recently, the pattern blog seems to have been taken over by a commercial travel enterprise.  I have no interest in this, but can't figure out how to remove  it.  I also can't contact the previous owner to find out if she is aware of the situation.  When I try to access VandEHistoric Costuming, I get a message that I'm not permitted to view that blog.

In other news, my husband posted this commercial to his G+ account today, and since I have a few Kiwi readers, I had to share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBlRbrB_Gnc&feature=g-all-esi     There's more information at the link, but I thought it was quite clever.

I'm still here!

  It's been a long summer full of lots of little tasks, but very little sewing.

  I spent last week in Atlanta, Georgia with a bunch of stitching pals at the annual SAGA convention.  I returned home all fired up to get some stitching done!  I flew down on Tuesday night so I could have Wednesday to bop around and relax.  I'd thought about taking the Atlanta tour, but was afraid I'd be worn out halfway through the day and then grumpy for the rest of the week.  Wednesday evening Peanut Butter and Jelly Kids presented a fashion show of handsewn dresses.  The models were sweet and the dresses were lovely.  I won a doorprize!  The kit has everything I need to make this little dress except for the piping and the thread!

Jane's First Day Dress courtesy of Fine Stitchery

   Thursday I took a full day class with Susie Gay where we made a beaded scissor keep.  Mine is about half done.  I just have a bit of embroidery to do, some button stitch around the tab of the tassel, cording to twist, and then I can put it together.

   Friday was  a half day class with Bobbi Chase.  We made a sweet little one-piece undergarment for a 14" doll.  I'm hoping mine will fit my Mary Frances doll.  If not, I'll have to size up the pattern a bit and make another one.  It's so easy and quick to do, even though the entire thing is hand stitched.

Fine Handsewn Undergarments by Bobbi Chase

Saturday was another full day, this time with Jeannie Baumeister.  Our project was the Drawn Thread Lace Baby Dress.  Pulling small areas of  threads on linen is very intense work!  I didn't get as far along with this as I'd hoped, but I will finish it.  This is a photo of the dress top.  A partial thread is pulled from the center front of the fabric, then the area is hemstitched, a length of lace insertion is added, and then a piece of gathered lace is stitched on.  The flowers are tiny bullion roses and lazy daisy stitches.
Check the link below for Jeannie's post on this precious little dress.

Photo used by permission of Jeannie Baumeister of the
Old Fashioned Baby

  My Sunday class was quite fun.  We learned to make buttons using small wire circles (toy wheel frames, really) , wooden button molds and thread.  I get the idea of how to make them, but had problems in class doing the spiderweb stitch.  I'm left handed- my spiderwebs were upside-down, which means my button front wasn't very pretty.  Fortunately, these are so quick that I can take my samples apart and do them over.
   The photo below is Bobbi Chase's model board for the class.

Button board for Dorset Buttons

  All in all, this was an enjoyable convention.  I didn't win a basket (again), but everybody else at my table did!  I met up with some other Pittsburgh area women and we're discussing plans for a new, official chapter in Allegheny County.  Both flights were quick and uneventful, just the way I like them. 

  I'm already looking forward to next year's convention in Frisco, Texas.

Cat Wars, Day 500+; Detente?

  Bes was playing with a little catnip bird that somehow wound up in my shoe.  Loki noticed him and wandered over to see what Bes had good that Loki didn't have.  He sniffed Bes' head, Bes reared back, then relaxed and they rubbed noses, then Loki wandered off.  No hissing, no biting, no smacking, and so far no spraying.
  Can the zombie apocalypse be far away?

garden update

  As I read my various usual blogs, I notice that many of us seem to be having trouble with allergies this year.  Yup, me too.  I love looking at all the blooming things, but breathing seems less joyful.   We've had a lot of rain over the past few days.  I hope this will wash much of the pollen out of the air, but I fear it will  just encourage more blooming and sneezing!

   The days before the rains came in my husband and I managed to trim the lawn and rake out dead things from the front growth area.  We also purchased a small raised bed unit and I put a coat of marine varnish on the boards for a bespoke custom-made herb bed I ordered last year.  They need two more coats for exterior use, so it will be another week before that can be assembled, filled and planted.

   It all seems to take so much time.

A dirty world

Today, there is  topsoil, mulch and compost.   Somehow, this doesn't look like as much as it sounded like it would be.  It's supposed to be 3 cubic yards.  I've also got a cubic yard each of the mulch and compost, and that pile is about the same size as this.  Good thing it was cheap.
  Time to put on my shoes and go move some of this stuff around a bit.  It will be interesting to see how much I get done as I've not slept since yesterday morning.

  Answer: not much.  As suspected, the base soil, aka "the yard" is about 1/2 inch of poor clay soil on top of fill dirt and gravel.  I can't even get a garden fork in more than a couple of inches.  It's off to the hardware store for some landscape picks so I can pin down black plastic to kill off weeds and grass, and some shallow pots to plant flowers in until the soil loosens up some.

  Today I took cat #3, Kali, to the vet.  She usually runs as far as possible when she sees the cat carrier come out, but today she just made a token escape effort, then sat down in patient resignation.  Poor kitty.
   She lucked out.  Our vet doesn't give cats boosters will-he nil-he, so she didn't need a Feline Leukemia, parvo or distemper shot.  (She's strictly an indoor cat).   We also discussed how the 'old' cats aren't integrating well with the addition of Bes, the 'new' cat.  We've had him for 14 months now, and Kali still can't stand him.  The past few weeks, though, she's been venturing downstairs more often, and has even come up onto my lap when Bes is also on the sofa.  It seems that our using the same brush on all three of their faces serves to spread the pheromones around and sort of acclimate the cats to each other's smells, according to a recent study.  
  Another study has shown that if you put cats in separate areas for 8 hours (such as overnight), they have to sort of re-familiarize themselves with each other at the end of the separation, and some degree of aggression may lessen.  I think I may encourage Bes to sleep on a t-shirt or the like which I'll then put down near where Kali likes to nest at night.

  In sewing  news, there isn't any.  I've hardly been up to the sewing room for a month other than to sort some books and magazines.  I haven't even been tempted by any new patterns or kits recently!

Good Reads

  Today I received my copy of Trish Burr's  Colour Confidence in Embroidery.  It's a gift from my father-in-law.
  Pity I don't have a lot of time to sit and read it today, but I'll get into it soon and post a review later.