bateau neck shirt

the baron spent much of her summer sewing version after version of this shirt.  above, on toddler x, is a version in grey and white seersucker.

car caddy

the baron used fabric left over from toddler x's quilt to make this car caddy.  it's not nearly large enough to hold all the child-related stuff that floats around her car, but it's a start.

another palate cleanser

in the last few weeks, the baron has made several summer shirts (knits, no less!) for things 1&2, and also the jacket above, which has just sleeve hems and buttons to add.  she started these clothing projects from a sincere need to pad out summer wardrobes (well, not the jacket; the jacket is for a nephew, for next fall), but now she's feeling a bit of dread about returning to the as-yet-unfinished quilt.

on one hand, the baron regrets her choice to spiral quilt a 7ft. square quilt (1/4 inch spirals, really, the baron?).  on the other, she really likes the look of the spirals, as they so nicely set off the straight lines of the quilt top.  also, it's come on summer now, so the thought of sitting at a table wrestling with a heavy, uncooperative blanket does not appeal to her. sometimes it happens that, mid-way through a project, the baron falls out of love with the pattern or the fabrics she's chosen and can't fathom, even a little, why they appealed to her in the first place.  in those cases, faced with regret, wasted time, effort and money, she guiltily tucks the project away, to be finished at a later - much later - date.  that's not happening now, though: the baron still really loves everything about this giant quilt, from the simple block pattern to the colorful fabrics and even the fabric she picked for the binding (the baron has been historically dissatisfied about her binding fabrics).    

so, in summary...the baron, she's feeling all the feelings, and perhaps just needs to grit her teeth and finish (as seems to be the case with so many of her sewing projects).

a palate cleanser

he baron has been working on toddler x's quilt for a couple of weeks and is feeling, really, a bit beaten by it.  the antidote?  a quick and easy boatneck top, in blue and white stripes.  so lovely, right?

finished!

the baron has finally - FINALLY! - finished her english paper pieced quilt.  it was her first - and most likely her last - epp project; it is entirely hand sewn, except for the binding, for which she used her sewing machine on one side.  the final product is around 5 feet square, in white and varying shades of grey and orange.  the back, which you, reader, can kind of see peeking out below the binding in two of the three photographs here, is pieced together from two fabrics (one orange and white, the other grey and white).

this quilt has been a fabric specter, haunting the baron every day she was not actively working on it.  she kept it in her bedroom, on top of her dresser (for ease of reach - a hearty joke), and so it lurked there in its off hours, reminding her of the enormous and impossible amount of work left to do.  the quilt was conceived of and made for the baron's daughter, for her second birthday (a milestone 6 weeks past now).  the hexagons and restricted color palette feel modern and clean to the baron, and she's hoping daughter x will want to keep this quilt in use for many years to come.

singer settings

the baron is currently working on the quilt in the photo above. it's really, really big, the largest she's ever made. quilting it has been a bear, and getting the tension settings right has been especially tricky.  she just learned, for instance, that the bobbin holder has a tiny little screw that can be manipulated to affect bobbin thread tension.  who knew?

hexagon quilt

the baron has been working on this quilt for over a year, which, now you mention it, does seem like too long a time.  but the end is near!  soon, perhaps within the week, she'll be done with the quilting and can move on to the binding.  a baron can hope, anyway.

so much sewing to do

the baron, for being an unemployed stay-at-home parent, has a kind of big to-do list. it's mostly household-y stuff like vacuuming, laundry and the like, but there's other stuff on there too, stuff that might be labeled 'hobby' but which has come to feel like work.   it's the sewing, that damn sewing.

first, sometime late last fall, she thought she'd make her brother a quilt.  upon completion of the quilt's top, however, she decided that it didn't look sufficiently masculine enough for him, so she decided to start another, manlier, one for him, one consisting of triangles matched up into squares matched up into larger squares. midway through cutting the fabric for this quilt the baron remembered: dude, quilting with triangles is some hard business.

such a hard business, in fact, that the baron thought she'd take some time out from this second quilt to make a hat for baby x. 'a' hat turned into two hats, which then somehow - after the husband cleaned out his closet and displayed for the baron the pile of collared shirts he planned to donate to the thrift store - turned into four collared summer shirts for baby x (three of which are pictured below).

the baron has been working on these hats and shirts for the past couple of weeks while her quilts languish unseen in a cupboard. today she will finish the last of collared shirts and maybe, maybe get back to the quilts. maybe.

today's word is diversion

the baron was at a fabric store the other day and spotted some very deeply discounted halloween fabric. deeply discounted enough, in fact, that the baron had this thought: 'hmm.  halloween is coming, and baby x will need a trick-or-treating bag...' and before the more prudent side of her brain could counter with 'halloween is yet 8 months away', the baron found herself at the cutting table asking for three yards, please.

the baron was at the fabric store to pick up thread to match a large - very, VERY large - quilt she's working on; that tree below, constructed from lots of different fabrics and appliqued onto a white panel of fabric, is the center of the quilt.  

has the baron mentioned it's a big quilt?  so big that her tiny singer sewing machine is dry heaving at the thought of having to quilt it?  so big that it's more practical to talk about it in feet rather than inches? 

so big that the baron decided to take on the smaller, more manageable task of a trick-or-treating bag instead.

oh, but reader, it's a lovely  bag.  totally worth two days away from the quilt-of-nearly-unmanageable-proportions.  she made it reversible, using two fabrics: one rather silly and one a bit spookier.  thus, depending on his mood - or his age - baby x can select which side he'd like to use.

see!?  clever, handy bag, eh?  this small project was not a useless diversion.

wait, was today's word denial?

a new place to sew

the baron and the husband were recently given a set of china that once belonged to the husband's mother. it's lovely, and the baron is VERY GLAD to have it.

but.

the arrival of this china, though welcome, is problematic because:

the baron and the husband live in a teeny, tiny house. their dining room, miraculously, has room for a 4 ft. round dining room table, a credenza, sideboard, and an arty looking (though functionally useless) table (one the husband zeroed in on at restoration hardware a long time ago and HAD TO HAVE). the dining room has also, for the past almost-three years, housed the baron's sewing table; it's tucked unobtrusively into an corner near the radiator. this is a small table, 3ft x 2ft at most, and when the baron wants to sew, she just moves the table over one room, poaches a chair from the dining room table, and sets herself up in front of the television.

the sideboard currently acts as liquor cabinet, bar glassware holder, and wine caddy. the credenza currently acts as bookcase for the baron's cookbook collection, and houses assorted other items (dinner trays and woven baskets mostly). the arty table? it holds a coffee mug full of wine corks, a white ceramic pitcher, and a really beautiful sculpture of an octopus.

back to the china. there's no room for it. currently, it's stacked on top of the sideboard, gathering dust.

but.

the baron has devised a solution to this issue. she moved her sewing table into the sunroom, into a spot she is forcefully calling a 'sewing nook'. this frees up one corner of the dining room, making space for maybe a moderately-sized china hutch?

finding a china hutch to fit the specs of this particular dining room corner will certainly be a long process.

but, in the meantime, see the baron's new sewing nook!

things that are approximately the same size as baron

new bed

a couple of weeks ago, baron von dachshund was taken ill. the sole symptom of his illness was vomit, left in little piles all over the house as delightful surprises for his parents to discover. in some cases, the scene read thusly: it seemed that he had been sleeping, then awoke, then harnessed enough energy only to move his head slightly to the side to throw up. in the bed he was sleeping in. (one of the consequences of his one symptom? a bath.)

he did this - turn his head slightly and throw up in bed - twice, in two different beds. (this may concern you, reader, you may be thinking, 'oh no! the dogs' beds! where will they sleep?' but realize this: the baron and the husband, keepers of four dogs, own 8 dog beds. a little excessive, no?) one of the beds was a reduced-for-quick-sale after christmas bargain from two years ago; it was a small, red doughnut bed with a candy cane and a holly on it. the second besmirched bed was much more expensive and of much nicer quality. the first, the baron and the husband deemed disposable; the second, the baron rinsed in the laundry sink (to get the chunks off), then sent through the wash twice - once as it was, then once inside out, just to be safe.

the red doughnut bed had fit perfectly into a spot in the dining room (because EVERYONE has a dog bed in the DINING ROOM, don't they? it goes side board, dining room table, dog bed, right?), between a credenza and the closet, a spot that gets very, very warm in the winter (because one of the furnaces main pipes runs through that part of the wall, parallel with the closet). conversely, because the dining room receives no direct sunlight during the day, it tends to be among the coolest rooms in the house. in short, from the dogs' perspective, it's the perfect room for sleeping or chewing the random sock. and the spot near the closet is perfectly sized for either of the two black dogs.

because of this, the baron felt compelled to make a new dog bed.

conveniently, she had recently replaced the mattress pad for her bed (it was not deep enough for the mattress).

so.

the baron folded the mattress pad up into a square that fit snugly between the closet and the credenza, the sewed it closed. then, she used heavy duty canvas to make the cover. she's quite pleased with her project: the dogs' have a new bed, she didn't have to discard the old mattress pad, and she was able to use fabric she already owned. everyone wins!

below, see baron on the new bed.

sew the baron was saying...

the husband gave the baron a sewing machine for christmas, and - though her relationship to sewing machines has historically been cool to say the least - the baron is delighted by and grateful for this mechanical gift.

she has had a singer sewing machine, a rather old one, for ages and ages - it was a moving out of the house gift from her mother, but the truth is this: the baron was never able to master the old machine, she couldn't find the manual, couldn't get the tension right... the meeting of the baron and that old singer usually resulted in some kind of clusterfuck.

but.

this new machine is amazing and idiot proof, which is just the kind of help the baron needs.

so.

remember this fabric for the sunroom? that plan for the holiday break? see what the baron accomplished, below:

this is just one of many roman shades she made during that week-long... 3 of 5 shades are in place, 4 of 5 are completed and the fifth will be sewn this weekend! so, yay!

but, reader, the baron has completed SO MUCH MORE! with the help of this book, the baron has become a purse making machine!

the first one she made...


and the second, with a closeup of the interior:




and the third one, her favorite so far, with a little appliqued star on the front pocket and a closeup of the lining...





and reader, if you were wondering: yes, this i-will-never-use-a-sewing-machine flavored humble pie is DELICIOUS.