Fair Along '08

I've joined the Fair Along '08 blog, where we are all posting about entering our county and state fairs. Come on over and read the many intros from all over the country; it's fun to see everyone's stuff and read about why they started entering. (my intro is here, and you'll see I have a bit of work to do by July 16)

Floral Friday

We are back from our camping trip. The weather was gorgeous, the beach was fun, the mosquitoes were awful. The boys look like they have chicken pox!

Not much new blooming in the garden this week:
The spiderworts started blooming in the front. These get more shade, so don't get as gigantic as my purple ones in the back. I like the light blue color.

This is some foxglove that I got from a friend 2 years ago (oops, it's not. Suzee says it's Penstemon). The bees love it, and yesterday, Calvin counted and said there were 57 of them working on the flowers.

The stella d'oro lilies have started blooming also. I always think they look so nice and cheery.

Landscaping

I used the panoramic setting on the camera, it kinda distorts things, but you can see more. (click on the photos to make them bigger)

Here are the results of our hard work this past week. Over the course of 4 days we planted 4 dogwoods, 4 vibernum, 8 arborvitae, 1 limelight hydrangea, 3 weigela, 1 service berry, 1 river birch, 3 grey owl junipers, 6 diablo ninebark, 3 blue spruce, and 3 staghorn sumac. I also moved 3 roses, dug up and divided various iris and daffodils, moved 2 oriental poppies, and cut the grass. It looks great!



We also moved this big rock. I'm guessing it weighs 250-300 pounds. At first I guessed 200#, but David says it's definitely more. To move this, David built a sledge out of some plywood and 2x4. We used a crowbar as a lever, tied a rope around the rock, had a boy on each side pulling, while David pulled in the middle, and I pushed. We put a broomstick handle underneath the sledge to make it roll, and got it from the back corner of the lot (by the telephone pole) all the way over to the side. If the Egyptians could build the pyramids, and the Incans could do Machu Pichu without horses, we were going to move this rock! Ancient History comes in handy sometimes! If only I got a photo, it was pretty cool.

Now we need to weed a bit more, clean up our dirt mounds and order mulch. But first, I'm going camping to relax. Yeah, really.

Floral Friday

Last night we planted the last of the arborvitae, and everything that was delivered on Monday is in the ground! I am very tired and quite sore. Now we need to clean up the dirt mounds and order mulch. Pictures to come later. Here's what is blooming this week:

My friend Deb gave me this miniature rose for my birthday last year. Isn't it pretty?

The bachelor's buttons are hard to photograph. I think they are delicate enough that the camera can't decide where to focus. The bees are always working on these.

I think this is some sort of sage, or something from the sage family. The bees like these flowers a lot too.

The peonies are in full bloom, and when the wind blows, sometimes we get a whiff of them.

The dragonflies are always buzzing around; they seem to like the garden a lot. I think they eat mosquitoes, so I hope they stick around! They are pretty hard to photograph too; I must have tried at least 5 times before I managed to get this one.

I've had my eye on this guy for a while. It is so pretty. I wish I could show you the swarms of dragonflies we have across the street, darting around, eating bugs. It's really neat.

This isn't a flower, but it started out as one. We have a peach! Two peaches, actually. I'm quite surprised, as I didn't think we would get fruit for at least 2-3 years after planting. I don't know if I should do something to prevent a squirrel or bird from getting it. Anyone know?

Plants!

I am going to be MIA this week. Look what came yesterday:
Yeah, that's a lot of plants. And, I've got to move some things around before I can plant certain things. It's going to look great when it's done.

Last Day Of School

YEAH! School is out for summer!

I've got a seventh grader now! Check out his first day as a sixth grader.

I also now have a third grader on my hands! Here's his first day as a second grader.

Floral Friday

We had more storms yesterday afternoon and last night. Most of my flowers have been beaten hard with the rain. I got these pix yesterday morning:

This is my favorite iris, a white double-blooming one. It will bloom again in late October. I'm thinking about pairing it with the 'black' iris, somewhere in the garden.

Another lovely iris.

More iris. Can you tell I like iris? These are the last I have.

The peonies have started opening their buds. I love how these look and I'll even cut some to have on the kitchen table, but they make me sneeze a lot. So I'll suffer.

I met with the landscape designer yesterday, and loved the plan, so bought all the plants and they are getting delivered on Monday. I will be VERY busy next week getting everything in the ground! Thankfully school is out as of this afternoon, so I'll have helpers to work with me.

Weekend Storms

We got hit hard with storms this weekend. They started on Saturday afternoon, and continued through last night. We lost power for about 3-4 hours yesterday, and got a bit of water in our basement, though I was able to clean it up with just towels. So far we've had 9.12 inches of rain this month, with over 7 of it from just this weekend.

Sunday morning the rain came down so hard it was like being hit with a hose. The rain barrels couldn't handle the volume and speed of the water. This is the water that is just coming off of the garage!

Our neighbor kitty-corner from us had some tree limbs fall on their iron fence. I don't know if you can tell, but that half of the street there is under water.

Some trees were damaged in the park, and this one fell across the path down to the beach.

The beach looked like someone had hosed away a bunch of sand. Usually you can only see about 6 inches of that cement block that Connor is next to.

This is about 4 blocks north of me. This area got hit really hard with wind shear. Lots of trees uprooted and torn in this area.

Caleb's school is closed today due to wind and storm damage. It would be pretty hard for anybody to get through safely!

Floral Friday

Time for more flowers! Here is what has bloomed over this week:

This 'black' iris is gorgeous. Calvin is begging to cut it to take it to his teacher.

Instead, I let him cut a bunch of these purple iris. We also have oodles of pale yellow irises like these, and he made a lovely bouquet on Monday.

This one is lovely with the orange accents.

The purple spiderwort have started blooming. I have light blue ones in the front, but they get less sun, so always seem to be a bit 'behind'.

It's hot today, and it feels great. It was fairly cool in the middle of the week (maybe 60), with rain. Now it's about 80-85 today and sunny. The landscape designer came over on Tuesday, took some measurements and photos, and I meet with her next Thursday to see her ideas. Can't wait!

Deciding Entries

It's time to decide what to enter in the state fair. My entry form/fee is due by June 20, entries themselves are due July 16, with judging on July 20. (if you live here in Wisconsin, all the info is here)

I haven't done much over the past year, so I'm not sure how much I'll enter, or if I'll try and get some things done in time. For sure I want to enter one of Caleb's costumes. The question is, which one? Do I enter the Pharaoh or the Jester? I can't enter both -- one entry per category. I'm pretty sure I'll put it in the children's costume category, as that is supposed to be for ages 5-12. Whichever one I don't enter, I can enter next year. Do I try and get a dress made? Can I finish a top that can go with a skirt I did last year and have a 2 piece outfit? Decisions, decisions!

I'm also toying with entering a sweater. I've been working on Notre Dame De Grace for a while, and it's looking pretty good. I've got the back and both sleeves finished, and am partway through the front.

I also need to decide if I'll enter any photos. I really like the one I took of Calvin whittling a few weeks ago, and I do think some of my flower photos are quite pretty. Well, I've got about 2 weeks to decide, so I guess I'll just think about it some more.

Floral Friday

I've decided I'll use Friday's to show you photos of what is currently blooming in the yard.

This is actually my neighbor's redbud tree. Isn't it pretty? It overhangs the peonies. We have a little one we planted last year. I just love them.

The columbine are blooming on the side of the garage. I can't remember what the blueish flower is behind it.

The first of the many varieties of iris I have are blooming. You'll be seeing a few other colors in the next few weeks.

I don't know what this plant is, but it's so pretty. I got it from my mother's yard. It stays short and spreads pretty easily.

Wild geranium.

Next Tuesday someone is coming over to help me come up with a landscape design for the side and back yards, to form a natural fence. It'll be a lot of work, but I'm excited to start.

Is It Over Yet?

I am so ready for school to be DONE. You can tell the end of the school year is upon us. This week we had a choir concert (Caleb) and a gymnastics banquet (Calvin). Next week we have Family Fun Night (Calvin) and an orchestra concert and potluck (Caleb). There is still soccer practice and games, Scouts, and a campout next weekend for Caleb.

I want my boys home so we can be lazy!

Camping

Another season has also started for us: Camping! We went camping this weekend in the Northern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest.

We stayed at the same campsite that we go to in late June. I've never been there this early in the year, and the trillium and solomon's seal were blooming all over the forest floor. It was beautiful.

We enjoyed playing in the spring forest.

Calvin worked on improving his whittling skills.

We got rained on after supper on Saturday, and Connor really really wanted to go home, but we stayed and were able to roast marshmallows over the campfire. In the morning, after a good night's sleep, he was happy.

It's that time of year again -- time for gardening!
The daffodils are almost done blooming, the iris are shooting up buds, and this bleeding heart is as big as me (ok, not really, but I'm seriously going to have to divide it next year).

It's neat to see all the plants coming back after the long winter.

Spence

I got to meet my new nephew on Monday. He's tiny (my littlest baby was almost a pound more at 7 lbs 12oz), and just gorgeous. He woke up a bit while we were visiting, and it was neat to see him looking around. The newborn phase is one of my absolute favorite baby stages; I could seriously sit there for hours just holding, watching, and smelling them. ^_^

The boys will get to meet him when we go down for Cuzzy's birthday party (2!).

It's A Boy!

I'm an auntie again! My SIL and brother had their baby today.

Mr. Spencer Timothy
6 lbs, 15 oz
1:03 pm

They sure grow them little! Caleb was my littlest baby at 7 lbs, 12 oz. It's going to be so fun to hold a newborn again (one of my favorite ages), I just need to figure out when I can get down there, between soccer tournaments, scout camping, and gymnastics!

10 Questions and Answers

My friend Rowena posted this on her blog yesterday, and I really like it, so here are my 10 questions and answers:

1. What are your 3 favorite fabrics?

- 100% silk, with duppioni being my absolute favorite. I love the sheen, the feel, the vibrant colors, and the smell.

- 100% cotton. Cotton comes in so many varieties, from the lightest voile to heavy canvas. You can get fantastic prints and beautiful weaves, and it's easy to sew. The only cotton fabric I don't care for is knit.

- this is a toss up between linen and rayon. I like both, though linen is pretty similar to cotton, so maybe I should go with rayon on this one. ^_^ I love the drape and weight of rayon, I adore rayon batiks, and my favorite knits are rayon ones.


2. What are your 3 least favorite fabrics?

- like Rowena, I loathe anything with glued on sequins. Stitched on isn't so bad, but glued ones are awful.

- Neoprene. I can never get a machine to stitch that stuff without cursing and whatever I've done with it has taken 39 times longer than necessary.

- Fake fur. It sheds and gets in my nose.


3. What is the most unusual fabric you have ever sewn?

- I have to really think on this one. I sewed a costume once with a gorgeous embroidered duppioni. The embroidery wasn't done with thread, it was done with metal.


4. What is the most unusual thing you have made out of normal fabric?

- Gee, I dunno. A bra? Not unusual, but not normally made at home.


5. If you could sew with just one fabric for the rest of your life, what would it be?

- I'd probably pick 100% cotton, though I'd have to think really hard about the silk too.

6. What is the most special piece of fabric you've bought AND used?

- I don't get too attached to fabrics, I get attached to the end result. I suppose it would be the Coca-Cola bottle cap print I bought in 1990 or so. It was horridly expensive (almost $50/yard), supposedly a Perry Ellis overrun, and I made a shirt for my dad with it. He loved that shirt, and I kept it when he died and I went through his things. The fabric quality was great, and it still looks as good as the day I made it.


7. Where do you get most of your fabrics?

- I try my best to buy locally, and I'd guess 95% of my fabric is bought here in Milwaukee. We have JoAnns, a Hancocks, and Wal-Mart. We also have a few pretty good quilting shops, and I get a lot of my quilt fabrics at Bigsby's (they have some garment stuff too, like this linen). Mostly, though, I buy my garment fabric at Canvasbacks, which is a local manufacturer that sells off their fabrics 3x/year. I tend to go to only one of the sales a year. This, this, this, and this were all made from Canvasbacks fabrics.

8. What are the last 3 fabrics you used?

- 'quilting' cotton (Amy Butler prints), 48 bean bags for my Student Interest Day sessions.
- some sort of satin, for the jester costumes last week, along with a really neat sari fabric.
- duppioni and canvas, for the jester hats, along with the satin and some poly crepe looking stuff.


9. If you could buy any fabric you wish, what would you buy and what would you do with it?

- I really don't know! I've been obsessed with finding a fabric that duplicates chain mail. I've seen it online in movie photos (Monty Python's Holy Grail) and in some of the Shakespeare plays I've seen. It's probably knit, and I'm not sure it's available in yardage. IF I could find it, I'd get a bunch and make cowls and hauberks for the whole family.


10. What advice do you have to seamstresses about buying fabric?

- Touch everything. Go to every store you can and learn about the fabrics. Learn about fibers, weaves, dyeing (not that you have to do any of it, just know about it). Get samples, buy 1/4 or 1/2 yards of stuff and play with it. Make samples. Don't buy something unless it speaks to you, and don't be afraid to use it.

Lastly, don't be afraid of anything. Don't be afraid to try welt pockets or a lined jacket, or underwear. Don't be afraid to cut into that fabric you love, just do a muslin (or two or five) first. It's really not that hard. Really. Enjoy the process. DON'T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF! I see and read people picking apart their work, and yet, if the same thing was on a rack at the store, you wouldn't be complaining, or not nearly as much.

Sharing My Passion

Tomorrow is Student Interest Day at Calvin's school. A while back, they sent home flyers, asking if parents had a hobby or job they'd like to share about, and I volunteered to talk about sewing. I've been trying to think of what I'm going to do. Turns out I will have 2 sessions, about 45-50 minutes each, with a mix of first through fifth graders in each session. The sessions were pretty popular, and are full with 20 kids in each one!

So far, I'm planning to bring some clothes, some costumes, and some quilts for the kids to see and touch. I'm also thinking I'll set up a sewing machine that the kids can try out (no fabric or thread, just run paper through it so they get a feel for it). I'll talk about how I like solving puzzles and creating things, and sewing is both for me. My friend Rowena said that she did something similar at her daughter's school, and she showed the children what patterns look like, and put together a doll shirt so the kids could see flat pieces turn into clothes.

It was suggested that I try and have something that the kids could do hands-on and bring home, so I'm thinking to have small bean bags sewn up, and I'll show the kids how to close them using a mattress stitch (I'll have a few helpers).

Am I missing anything? Trying too much? Any other ideas?

Complete!

Here are the jester costumes in all their glory. Turns out that Caleb's friend had 2 pairs of gold shoes, so they wore those, along with either green tights or green soccer socks. I'll try and get a picture of the two of them together this weekend. The feast was a lot of fun, with kings, queens, serfs, bishops, monks, wizards, jesters, cooks, archers, knights, and plague victims.




(the bells fell off. I'm sure the metal cut through the thread. any ideas on how to get them sewn on and stay on?)

Court Jester: The Hat

The pièce de résistance! (maybe not, the pants ARE really cool, but this really makes it say 'jester'). I used Butterick 4313 for the jester hats. This pattern went together really nicely, and was quicker than I thought it would be. I think the pattern runs a bit small, however, so if you make it, check the fit right after you sew the main pieces together.

Looks cool, no? I underlined the pieces with canvas instead of using the fusible interfacing called for. The horns are stuffed with fiberfill. If I hadn't been on such a time constraint, I would've spent more time making sure I didn't have any of the same colors next to each other.

I lined both hats in blue, since I had a good amount of it leftover. To make this hat, you sew the main horn pieces together, then stuff the horn. Next you are to put in the lining, but I did that last.

You then make the two little horns separately, stuff them, and hand sew them to the hat. That was hard, and I can't imagine doing it with the lining in already. Next time I would hand sew the little horns on before stuffing the big horn. The horns were also hard to turn right side out, and I rounded the corners.

I finished the bottom with a french binding (like a quilt). The binding was sewn onto the inside of the hat, and flipped to the outside and edgestitched down. Quick, easy, and looks pretty good.

Each horn got 3 bells each, and it does fit nicely. For as big as the hat is, it really stays nice and secure on the head. I hope to get some good pictures at the feast this afternoon (my batteries died during our photo shoot this morning. o_O ).