needle & thREAD

Hi, this is Elizabeth's friend Ginny, just saying a quick hello, and introducing my husband Jonny. He is guest posting for needle & thREAD today! I'll mostly keep quiet and let him tell you about our latest project:

I was much too young and fickle the first time I bought a rotary cutter. I only have a slight memory of the excitement that went along with that purchase. But I do remember standing in Joann’s trying to pick just the right cutter for so much and no more money. Simultaneously I procured one of those flexible cutting board things and a handful of fat quarters. You see, I had it in my mind that I was going to make a quilt. Where that idea came from, I am not really sure. I must have been about 21 years old. I was either freshly married or just about to be. Back then, Ginny did a little bit of crocheting. She taught me how to make granny squares. Once I made a couple, I decided I would make enough to put together a blanket. Somehow making those granny squares heightened my craftiness. Just about the time I made enough to actually put something resembling a blanket together, the idea of making a quilt came into my head. So, naturally, the granny square blanket was sidelined, and the trip to Joann’s ensued.

I never made a quilt. I tried to. I must have cut over a hundred squares out of the fabric. It was actually a lot of fun. I definitely had enough to complete a twin size quilt. But, I lack focus. I mean, I have focus, but only for a little while. And back then, I had less of it altogether. I can start a project with all kinds of motivation. Then, during the course, something happens and the motivation fades. Along with it, my interest goes out the window. Then, a new project materializes, and all my focus goes to it. So, by the time the squares were cut, my interest faded. You might be wondering when I’ll get to the point. Well, here it is. I want to make a quilt again. This time, though, I’ve enlisted the aid of my clever and crafty wife. Whereas my first attempt was solo, this will be a joint effort. This way, I’m hoping to see the project through.

It was totally all my idea to make a quilt (again). But, I have left the pre planning and decision making to my wife. I have feigned involvement. For instance, when we were trying to pick out fabric online, I would point to a bundle and say something like “what about that” or “that looks nice”, all the while knowing that it really wouldn’t do. I had to stand there and wait until Ginny found the perfect bundle. Which she did. Some Heather Robert or Rose or Ross (covering my mouth and mumbling) something or other…which I’m sure is going to make for a fantastic, fun yet practical, color scheme! Yay! (Oh my goodness. It's Heather Ross, dear.)

We are going to make a Log Cabin quilt. I don’t really know much about what that means, but I do know that we will be hand tying it in 99 places. (Hi! This is Ginny. Specifically we are planning to make the log cabin quilt from Patchwork Style. Each square is quilted and then squared up before they are all joined. We don't totally understand it yet. I do know that this doesn't eliminate the need for the entire thing to be quilted at the end, but the pattern calls for tying it, so we can avoid machine quilting, which is good because we aren't equipped for that.) And while I had hoped to actually show off some of my sewing skills, Ginny hasn’t accepted that the fabric needs to be cut. She says it’s too pretty. (Isn't it?) I’m not really reading anything right now. I just finished one of my birthday presents, Confessions of a Bad Beekeeper: What Not to Do When Keeping Bees (with Apologies to My Own). I’m planning on keeping with the bee theme and reading The Queen Must Die: And Other Affairs of Bees and Men next. I don’t really think it’s possible to read too much about bees.

~ ~ ~

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-)

needle &thREAD

I conquered sewed one of those figure eight scarves at last. It took me far longer to cut it than to sew it. The sewing was simple and Anna Maria's instructions were excellent. I have one more to sew, hopefully today. It really looks pretty when wrapped just right around my neck, but I didn't have it in me to learn how to take a self-portrait just now.

I am listening to Anything again, after I drop the boys off at soccer. I'm learning even more the second time. Together, Stephen and Nicky and I are listening to Kisses from Katie to and from soccer. The two books are read by the same woman and she absolutley nails the tones of both books. I highly recommend the audio versions. Oh, and while sewing, I listened to the first two installments of the Bloom Book Club discussion of 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. Well written, meaty books all. 

And when I feel like I'm going to burst if I don't talk about the potential for our anythings with someone, I'm finding that Nicholas is feeling much the same way. So we ponder it all aloud. As my children get older, I am ever more grateful for the community I find in this family.

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-)

needle & thREAD

Please forgive me for the tardiness of this post. I was up all night binge reading! I finished three books this week. I had to tear myself away from books to squeak in a little sewing. I managed to put the border on this quilt, begun all those many moons ago for the Whipstitch Quilting Class (I highly recommend those classes, by the way. Deborah Moebes is an amazing teacher. I'm so, so tempted to take the fall wardrobe class. But then again, there's a good bit of wedding sewing to do this fall). I put the quilt away after finishing the mian body of it because my life was intensely busy right around Christmas and into early January. Then, I think I was afraid to work on it. I love this quilt and I have a fear that I'm going to get this far into the process and mess it up. So. Yesterday. The Border. All finished. Now I have to decide how to quilt it. Every square is different and I can't really imagine traipsing color or design over some of those blocks. Honestly, this is one I might take to the experts. I don't know. And yes, I noticed it's nearly Christmas again.

Now, about those books. I discovered Kindle on my iPhone. Oh the joy! I've got my nose in a book instead of mindlessly clicking through social media. And, I might be a little obsessed. Three books, people. And a good way into a fourth.

I read iDisorder on Kim's recommendation. I read Talking Back to Facebook (it was a needle &thREAD read of someone else's a few weeks ago). And I read 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess.  I'm still listening to The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. To say that--together--these books are life-changing is not an overstatement. Just focusing on the Internet aspect, I'm blown away. In a good way, I think.

iDisorder is the most technical of them all (with The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains a close second). I read it all out of order, skipping from one chapter to another, trying to diagnose myself and everyone I love;-). I learned a lot. I highlighted a lot. I'd already put some practices in place before reading. The book affirmed for me the necessity for them. I was particularly interested in some passages about how we can read one negative comment and fixate on it, despite 20 others that contradict it. I've been living that lately. Heck, I've been living that since the first time I got online. Maybe I'll tell you about that some time. 

Talking Back to Facebook is going to be required reading for everyone in this house. I learned a whole lot there! It's a very readable book, easily grasped by a 13-year-old. I'm still tweaking how it will change behaviors and online presence, but I promise you it's made an impact. This one will be required teenage reading. ASAP.

I'm crawling through the The Shallows. I think it's a great book. I read it because my friend Linda told me that it's required reading this summer for every single student at UNC Chapel Hill. That's how important this book is. I think I might cave and buy the hard copy. It's just not a great audio choice. 

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. I finished this one at 2:00 this morning. I wish I could put this book in the hands of every person in this country (and in Canada, too). The chapter on media dovetails nicely with my other reading. I'm going to force this family to read that one chapter, at least. But this book? This whole book? This book poses some very, very good questions. Jen Hatmaker is not Catholic. You might even find a post or two on her blog that sound a little anti-Catholic, which is kind of jarring because she's not the anti-anything type. I just get the sense she's not so much into liturgy or beautiful churches. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, read the book. She took seven areas of excess and focused on one a month, whittling away at--no, actually, taking a chainsaw to--ingrained habits of gluttony in our culture. I'm trying to figure a way to pour this book into everyone in this house. I don't think they'll read it; it will be one of mom's crazy ideas. But I'm starving to discuss it. The last chapter is on creating rest. Her take? Praying the Hours. (Yes, I know. That's liturgy. We are a very complex creation, aren't we?) I've talked a lot about praying the hours around these parts. I've never thought of it as rest. Verrrrry interesting. Especially at 2AM.

I have the sense that the conversations I will have about these books with people close to me in the next few weeks will be as life-changing as the conversations I had about this novel idea called "home education" all those many years ago.

I'm going to take a little break next week. There will still be posts here every day. If my mail and history are any indication, there are a lot of people searching schooly things. So, next week, I'll make it easy and put those things front and center. And I've got a guest hostess to come share books and sewing with you in this space on Thursday. I'm so exicted about that! Honestly, there have been some brutal internet moments in the last few weeks. Let me hasten to say that I am so very grateful for all your kindnesses. (It's that 20:1 thing). And I'm tired. The negatives? They just crush. The two people who commented around midnight last night? You are gifts. So I'm going to step away, rest, and pray. Think about all this reading. Read some more. And sew. Ah, yes. I'm quite sure I'll sew.

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).

needle & thREAD

I knew it was only a matter of time. I'm here before you this morning to confess I didn't sew a thing this week. I was gone all weekend and spent the first part of the week recovering my household. The only thing I did in my sewing room was rearrange the furniture.

It's an odd paradox. I've been tired and overwhelmed and in a bit of a funk pretty much all summer. I always feel better when I sew. And yet, I sometimes can't bring myself to get started. Inertia. It's a bad thing.

I've been reading Talking Back to Facebook. I think this book is well worth my time. I'm only about half way through it and I have the Kindle version, so it's tricky to skip around. The book is focused on social media and children and teenagers. So far, I'm nodding right along. I do think he underestimates the effects of social media for the rest of us, though. Or maybe he's going to get to that. Or maybe it's just me who feels those effects...

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both? What's on your summer reading list? Do you have a summer sewing list?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).

needle & thREAD

I finally finished those dresses! Details, details:

The fabric is Zoe Pearn's Sweet Nothings. It appears to be very sold out. I bought a whole bunch of it for curtains and then decided otherwise. Happy thing, that.

The pattern is Oliver + S Seashore Sundress in a 3, 5, and 12. 

I'm reading Stratford Caldecott's Beauty in the World: Rethinking the Foundations of Education. It's my inspiration before heading into mega planning mode for the coming year. It's an awesome summer read whether you educate your children at home or not. We all need this book.

I'll be back within the week with a review and a giveaway.

What about you? Sewing? Reading? A little of both? What's on your summer reading list? Do you have a summer sewing list?  Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo (or more) and a brief description of what you're up to? Will you tell us about what you're reading, also? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much.

Make sure the link you submit is to the URL of your blog post or your specific Flickr photo and not your main blog URL or Flickr Photostream. Please be sure and link to your current needle and thREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and thREAD post from a previous week. If you don't have a blog, please post a photo to the needle & thREAD group at Flickr. 

       Include a link back to this post in your blog post or on your flickr photo page so that others who may want to join the needle and thREAD fun can find us! Feel free to grab a button here (in one of several colors) so that you can use the button to link:-).