needle & thREAD

I love to sew with Oliver + S patterns. For over a year now (almost two years?), I've been telling you I learn something new every time I use an Oliver + S pattern. I've lost count of the times I've used the free Popover Sundress pattern for both girls and dolls. So, what new could there possibly be to learn?

This time, I adapted the pattern for Katie (#1 new thing: adapting a pattern to size up). The pattern stops at an 8 and she's a 10 or a 12. Then, I shortened it to make it  a tunic (#2 new thing: shortening a pattern into something else entirely). I had the new pattern all drawn and ready bright and early on sewing day. Three hours later, Katie still couldn't decide on fabric. Those straps take a deceptively large amount of fabric because they're cut on the bias. We don't have a big selection of solids. Actually, you're looking at the only solid color we have. And Katie has grown so much that a yard of main fabric isn't enough for her, even for a top. So, we must have unfolded and re-folded everything in the stash before I suggested this Ladies' Stitching Club fabric (#3 new thing: sewing with a border print). I learned that I should have eliminated the curve in the hem when using the border print, but it was easy enough to fix at hemming time. I also used French seams on this one, not a new skill, but one I haven't used since Cari thaught me 21 years ago on a christening own. I remember thinking they were so cool back then!

I really love the finished product. I think this top will be darling with capris in the dog days of summer. Katie is delighted. As I rearranged the girls' clothes for the seasonal shift this morning,  I recognized that we are coming very, very close to the end of Katie's little girl clothes days. This makes me so sad--for her and for me. I wish there were a teenaged equivalent of Oliver + S and that both mothers and daughters could love sewing clothes together well beyond the elementary years. 

I picked Kristin Lavransdatter off the shelf last night when I went down to retrieve my copies of The Great Gatsby. (Notice how suddenly it's cool to read Gatsby? It's in demand in this house and there are no copies in the library.) Several years ago, there was lots of chatter about Kristin Lavransdatter. I bought a used copy and started to read. I couldn't get into it at all. I learned that I had bought a bad translation. I bought a much better translation, but never got very far. We'll see how it goes this time.

What are you sewing and reading this week? I am eager to hear!

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 theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD 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

{Sorry this is late; my model needed a little extra beauty sleep before her photo shoot this morning.)

.

Good morning!

I've got real quick sewing update for you. I made Karoline a popover sundress. It turns out that it did, indeed, take about as long to make as the doll one I made last week. I have fabric all cut and ready to make Sarah a matching one today. Katie and I talked about how cute it would be to make summertime tops out of the same pattern, just hemming them at about a high hip length. Unfortunately, the pattern stops at Size 8. So, I'd have to re-draft the pattern on my own for Katie. I'm mulling the possiblities, doubting my ability to modify, but swaying with her earnest pleading. It looks like Leisl did draft it, but I don't think it's out there anywhere...

I'll report to you next week.

My reading this week is re-reading. I never finished the book study of The 10 Habits of Happy Mothers or the one of Mission of Motherhood. I'd like to finish both in the next few weeks. So, re-reading it is!

What are you up to? Stitching? Reading? Tell me about it!

Let's Try This Again

Last week, I introduced you to  Pat Gohn, author of Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious.

I had hoped to spark some conversation about friendship and about spirtual mentors. Since I know you all are interested in both, and since usually it's not terribly difficult to strike up a conversation here, I was surprised to see so few people chime in. I'm thinking I just picked a super busy day for almost everybody. But this is a topic thtat's become a bit of a passion for me, so I'm going to go out on a limb and give it another go.

.

I am truly amazed at the wisdom Pat has crammed into these ten minutes. I think her insight is so valuable that I stopped and let my girls listen. We had an excellent conversation about how these five principles can be adapted even if you're only ten years old. Life with four daughters has given me lots of insight from an adult perspective on what makes for healthy friendships. What a lot of friendships I witness these days! Some are genuine blessings. Some, not so much. Some girls have a gift for friendship. Some must overcome some real deficits to be or to have good friends. Just as we train our children in good academic habits and good moral habits, we need to train them in good friendship habits. These are valuable lifeskills. This book is a valuable life book.

.

This time, after the podcast link, I'll recap Pat's five talking points, so that even if you don't have ten minutes to stop and listen, you can walk away this morning with some truly priceless food for thought.

.

Pat has recorded a thought-provoking (and sweetly short) podcast for you to listen to with your morning cuppa. She's got me thinking about spiritual motherhood. I'm reflecting gratefully on the women who have taken the time and care to mother me spiritually throughout my lifetime. They have firmly imprinted goodness on my soul and I am eternally grateful. I mean that. Eternally. Those women who have mothered me spiritually have affected eternity for me. And, through me, they have affected eternity for my children.

.

Spiritual mothers aren't just mother-figures, they're the good friends in our lives, even the ones who are from our peer group. I can think of at least two women who fill that role in my life who are much younger than me, too. We are all called to spiritual motherhood. And, I think, it's in answering the call to that particular vocation that we become genuinely good friends.

.

Pat has some wonderful concrete suggestions for us. They aspire to help create spiritual mothers and strike right to the heart of creating really good friends. Oh, how the world of women is desperately in need of good friends!

.

This is a ten minute podcast that might change your life-- and your friendships. I'm not exagerrating here. Take some time --just ten minutes-- to listen today. The world and your world will be a better place because of it. I know mine will be.

>>>Click here to listen to ‘In the Heart of my Home hosts the Blessed, Beautiful, & Bodacious Blog Tour’ on Audioboo<<<

Five recommendations for aspiring Spiritual Mothers (Pat fleshes out these ideas in the podcast. It's only ten minutes. You'll be glad you listened.):

~

1. Make friends with one another. Create a non-competitive sisterhood. 

2. Find THREE. Find three friends: one younger, one from your peer group, and one older than you are.

3. Raise the fun quotient. Do things that bring a smile to the one you want to befriend.

4. Pray for one another.  Ask. Seek. Knock. 

5. Use the four gifts of receptivity, generosity, sensitivity, and maternity. 

After you listen, come back here, because there's something in it for you and for the community here at Heart of My Home. 

Let's have a conversation. I really, truly want to hear your heart on this topic and I want to share with you in the combox. 

Who has been a spiritual mother to you? Describe her ways. You don't have to name her, but let us know how she's been a help for you. Pat talks about five gifts. How can we live those? How can we encourage one another to be spiritual mothers, both in real life and here online? 

Winning a copy of this book is very simple. Listen to the podcast. And then join the conversation. If you come back here to chat with me, you will automatically be entered to win a copy of Blessed, Beautiful, and Bodacious. I'll announce the winner right here, next week:-)

Needle & thREAD

~

    I guess that just before Lent Karoline heard me say that I was going to make Easter dresses during Lent. All through Lent, she insisted that one of her Lenten "sacrifices" was to be making dresses for her dolls. She spent a great deal of time in the scrap basket, twisting and turning and pinning scraps to make clothing. She also spent a great deal of time begging me to help her make "real" doll dresses. I had every intention of making dresses for dolls to match the girls' Easter dresses. I just didn't get to it before Easter.

    Yesterday, I was operating on very little sleep--just days and days of deficit. I planned to push through it to super-clean my house and get ready for Frist Communion festivities this weekend. Instead, I delegated a few housekeeping jobs, sewed with Karoline, and binge-read Heaven is Here. Have I mentioned that sewing with Karoline is really just an excuse for me to have her on my lap so I can inhale her sweetness? 

    It is.

    It occurred to me as I was sewing for a doll that this pattern takes just as long for a doll as for a six-year-old girl and I have some girls who need clothes. So, I think I might make my girls some dresses to match their dolls, too;-)

    And the book? I couldn't put it down. I'd take a picture of it by I handed it to Mary Beth at bedtime and I'm pretty sure she fell asleep on it around dawn. Best part of homeschooling is all night binge reading...

{Warning: there is an incident of religious bigotry that is sadly aimed at Catholics. It's clearly a product of the author's ignorance, but, there it is.} 

    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 theREAD post below in the comments, and not a needle and theREAD 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:-).

my little bookcase

There is a sweet new meme floating around Instagram to start the month of May. Using the hashtag #mylittlbookcase, folks are invited to share the best of children's books. I'm going to join in on Instagram. You can follow along @heartofmyhome, or just click the camera icon on the top right of the sidebar.

Here on the blog, I've invited my ten-year-old daughter, Katie, to share her favorites every day. Maybe you have a young writer who'd like to join her?