Archive for the 'traveling' Category

SIMPLICITY 2215 SKIRT : NANI IRO

Published on November 2, 2012 in clothing, stitchery, textiles, the workroom and traveling. 13 Comments Tags: Italy, nani IRO, Simplicity 2215.

Simplicity 2215 Skirt Pattern
nani IRO canvas
photos taken at the NH Excelsior Hotel in Siena, Italy

Our trip to Italy was almost a month ago now and I’ve yet to post any photos from my DSLR. There are SO MANY! I really just need to spend one entire day going through and editing them before too much time passes by. I thought I’d post up some smaller bits to start.

This simplicity skirt pattern is one of my favourites! I have a few other pieces of fabric set aside to make this pattern in again. I just can’t resist the uneven pleats and the pockets.

This fabric might look familiar. Yes, it’s true. I already have a Birdie Sling in this same nani IRO fabric, but I really love it and felt like I also needed to make a piece of clothing with it. I laid out the pattern so that the hem of the skirt is actually the selvedge of the fabric so that I could include all the lovely text and the fringe.

Siena was one of my favourite parts of our trip. I promise more photos of the actual city soon!

NANI IRO BIRDIE SLING

Published on September 21, 2012 in stitchery, the workroom and traveling. 9 Comments Tags: Birdie Sling, nani IRO, squam italia, sultan's fine fabrics.

I’m a bit embarrassed. I just looked to see how long ago it was that I made my last Birdie Sling Bag and it was just about two years ago. This is mostly embarrassing if you could see the state that the bag is in right now. The handle has almost disintegrated for starters and it’s rather faded and quite dirty. I use my Birdie Sling every day, I can’t seem to live without it. I’m a little surprised it’s taken me this long to make a replacement Birdie, but I’m rather picky about my fabric choices for this bag.

I have yet to show you, but I made a pretty skirt out of this same nani IRO fabric. The more I looked at it, the more I thought it would be an awesome Birdie Sling. For the last few months I’ve had a piece just waiting to find it’s matching handle & lining fabrics. With all the fabric coming through the doors of the workroom right now, I can’t believe I didn’t find a match sooner.

Sunday afternoon, I had a sewing date with Katherine who announced she was making a Birdie Sling for our upcoming trip to Italy. Drat! I wanted to make one too. I had no choice but to shop my stash at home and find something that would work. I ending up deciding to just use a stripe fabric I got at Sultan’s Fine Fabrics (meant for a dress) as just the bands and using the same nani IRO print for both the body of the bag and the handle. For the lining, I used a Japanese fabric I bought at Fancy Tiger when we went to the Makerie.

I always add an inside zippered pocket to my Birdie Slings. I like to have a secure area. Especially when traveling. Check out our Birdie Sling class photos for more inspiration.

Katherine & I are headed to Italy to go to Squam Italia. We’re going early to tour around since neither of us has been there before. If anyone out there has any favourite places to stay, eat, drink, shop, buy fabric, taste wine or anything we shouldn’t miss – we’d love your suggestions. We’re flying into Rome, then heading North to Siena, then Florence, then over to the east coast to a small town called Morro D’Oro for Squam. We leave on Monday. EEK!!!

THE MAISY QUILT

Published on July 2, 2012 in patchwork and traveling. 17 Comments Tags: Denyse Schmidt, Madison, maisy.

Near the start of our trip to Madison, I popped into Joann’s to have a peek at their fabric. I left with a small stack of fabrics, all by Denyse Schmidt. As I was leaving the store, I realized they looked really lovely together as a set and they also reminded me of Maisy. I decided that Maisy needed a quilt, so that when we’re traveling, she’ll always have something familiar to lay on. I didn’t have a set plan, so I just decided to improv the design. It’s the first quilt I’ve made that has been completely improvisational. I decided to just do wonky strips to create blocks that were about 9″ x 10″ and then started to sew. As the blocks came together, I let the process tell me what to do next. Almost all the fabrics in the quilt are from Madison with a few strips of fabric from home thrown in that I had brought with me. I had a hard time figuring out the layout of the blocks, but I really like the lighter blue squares in the middle of the quilt.

For the back, I had the idea to do a scrappy strip along the middle. I also thought it would be fun to piece the letter ‘M’. I drafted out a simple design for it and used my Machine Paper Foundation Piecing skills. It totally worked! My final touch was to hand embroider Maisy’s name with the year just beside the ‘M’.

The batting is from the workroom and was hand delivered by Jacqueline, who came to visit us for a couple days. I was able to sew the binding onto the quilt during our drive home to Toronto. I used the same navy fabric for the binding with just a small strip of orange for a little pop.

This quilt marks so many hours of our trip and holds all of the feelings I was having while sewing it. I’m really happy with how it turned out, it seems to be just perfectly Maisy.

MADISON

Published on July 1, 2012 in photography and traveling. 18 Comments Tags: Madison, maisy, UW Veterinary Care.

About two months ago, we discovered that Maisy had a high grade soft tissue sarcoma. Cancer. We were sent to the University of Guelph for more tests and to speak to an Oncology team. While University of Guelph is the best place for treatment in Ontario, we were told that our only curative treatment option for Maisy was in Madison, Wisconsin. We were recommended to take her for a month long radiation treatment at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We made up our minds pretty quickly that we wanted Maisy to have the best care and the best chance possible. We packed up the car and drove out to Wisconsin within a few days. We had absolutely no idea what to expect from this trip. Our month in Madison was heartbreaking, fun, sad, quiet, tiring, full of discovery, love and adventure. I will never forget all those days we were able to spend together as a family.

I think the photos tell the full story best. The entire Madison photo set is here.

The UW School of Veterinary Medicine is an incredible facility that is highly regarded for a reason. They are the best. We are so thankful to them for their loving care of Maisy while she was with them. Maisy has pet insurance and we know now that it is the best one out there. Trupanion.

We are back home now in Toronto. Maisy’s next stages of treatment will continue back at University of Guelph. It’s good to be home.

SIMPLICITY 2215 SKIRT : MANCHESTER

Published on June 6, 2012 in clothing, stitchery and traveling. 7 Comments Tags: Madison, Simplicity 2215.

Simplicity 2215 Skirt Version
Reproduction print from the Manchester Collection by Nancy Gere
Photographed in a corn field behind Black Walnut Chalet, Mount Horeb, WI

This skirt has been in the works for a month or so. I brought it along on this trip because the only thing I had left to do was to hem it and sew a button and buttonhole for the side closure. Sometimes those pesky last details are so difficult to get motivated to finish off!

This pattern is the skirt version of the dress I made in Jay McCarroll’s Purple Drop Cloth. I knew when I made that dress that the skirt was just perfect on it’s own. I love the pockets and all the lovely random pleating in this pattern. I have another version already cut and serged using nani IRO.

The fabric is a reproduction print by Nancy Gere. I love the fine lines and interesting motifs you find in many reproductions. This one was apparently originally printed in Manchester, England.

We are past the half way mark on our trip now. We’ll be coming home in just over a week. Still time for a few more adventures and a bit more sewing.

JACQUELINE’S COTTAGE

Published on November 7, 2011 in Bernina, patchwork, stitchery and traveling. 10 Comments Tags: Bernina, cottage.

Summer seems like a dream, but I’ve been meaning to tell you about three rainy days of sewing bliss I had at Jacqueline‘s cottage at the middle of August.

In a nutshell : 5 girls, 2 dogs, 4 Berninas, 2 irons, 14 rulers, 7 pairs of scissors, 5 rotary cutters, lots of good food and sewing from morning til night.

See all the photos here. Next summer can’t come soon enough.

SEWING SUMMIT MINI

Published on October 23, 2011 in patchwork, scraps and traveling. 7 Comments Tags: free motion, improv patchwork, Lizzy House, mini quilt, outfoxed, sewing summit.

Here’s my improv patchwork from Sewing Summit. Half the scraps for this came from Amanda and the other half came from Lizzy, who let me & Katherine dip into her collection for some bits we wanted for our stash. I really like sewing with other people’s fabrics. It’s fun to sew with fabric that I might not normally use.

I’ve been a bit afraid of free motion quilting. Okay, ALOT afraid. So far all the machine quilting that I’ve done has been straight lines, using a walking foot. I mean, after all the time that I’ve spent putting together a quilt, the last thing I want to do is ruin it with some bad quilting. This is why I knew I had to sign up for the Free Motion Quilting class at the Sewing Summit.

Our teacher, Alison, showed us lots of examples of different styles of quilting and quilts that she had done. She gave us some tips and gave demos on her technique. Then we just had to go for it. We had quilt sandwiches to practice on. This is definitely the best way to learn. Practice on little fake mini quilt sandwiches! There was a lot of wonky stitching on my practice mini, but I really liked the look of the overlapping square pattern, so I kept practicing that pattern over and over. Finally, I just decided to just go for it. SCARY! If you look really closely, this quilting is hardly perfect. But it was really exciting to finally let go and stop worrying about how perfect my little squares are. From a distance, it looks pretty good. Of course, now I want to do all kinds of free motion. I’m going to stick to mini quilts for now, but I can’t wait til I am ready to tackle a larger quilt. Bring it on FREE MOTION!

SEWING SUMMIT

Published on October 22, 2011 in stitchery, textiles and traveling. 8 Comments Tags: Lizzy House, mrsmcporkchop, salt lake city, sewing summit.

This year was the inaugural year for the Sewing Summit in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sewing Summit is a two day sewing & blogging conference that was held at the Little America Hotel. Since Katherine and I had such a great time at The Makerie in the spring, we knew we had to be a part of the Sewing Summit, too. It was also a chance to meet up with lots of friends IN REAL LIFE that I’ve made on the internet. Most specifically, Amanda aka Ms Mcporkchop! Amanda and I have been chatting pretty much every day for well over a year. We’ve worked on projects together, sent each other packages in the mail and video skyped with each other. You can imagine how amazing it was to meet up with her at the SLC airport and room with her & Katherine for five whole days. It was the best!!

We had flown down a few days early so that we could spend time with Lizzy House and have a chance to explore Salt Lake City. This was one lesson we learned from our Makerie trip. We didn’t schedule in time to really check out Boulder and Denver. Thursday was our shopping day. Armed with a list of local quilt and yarn shops, we headed out in our rented SUV. We took a short drive outside the city to visit Material Girls and Quilt, Etc. Both were huge shops with so many great fabrics. We had a lot of fun scouring the shelves and picking out fat quarters for ourselves. Back in SLC, we visited Piper’s Quilts, which sells both fabric and yarn. This shop is in an adorable house with quilts hanging out on the porch and a classroom upstairs. The last stop on our craft tour was Blazing Needles. It’s been a really long time since I’ve knit anything, but I always love to check out the colourful skeins of yarn. Something about this wonderful shop inspired Katherine & I to buy yarn and start knitting a cozy cowl. The owner, Cynthia, spent a lot of time with us making sure we got everything we needed and giving us advice. We left the shop feeling really inspired. I think everyone who visited that shop felt the same thing because at night huge groups of gals were huddled together in our room or the lobby knitting away.

Friday was another exploring day. This time with Lizzy and her sister, Melissa. We drove out to Sundance Resort, which is located in a gorgeous canyon surrounded by mountains. It was actually snowing in the mountains, which made them even more breathtaking. We also drove out to Park City, which is actually the setting for the Sundance Film Festival. In our wandering around we happened upon a Banksy, which totally made my day.

The Sewing Summit started early on Saturday and wrapped up Sunday afternoon. We took Handbags 101 with Bari J, Free Motion Quilting with Alison of Cluck Cluck Sew, Creative Fabric Selection with Jeni B of In Color Order, Marvelous Minis with Amanda of MsMcPorkchop Quilts, Photographing Your Creations with Vanessa of V and Co and Improv Piecing with Jessica of Urban Patchwork. That’s a lot to jam into a couple days, but I learned a lot and felt really inspired.

In particular, Jeni & Amanda’s classes were totally energized and informative. Jeni gave a really thorough presentation on how to choose dynamic colour palettes and surprised the entire class with Kona colour cards. Such a useful tool for selecting colour. Amanda brought so many examples of her minis and they were all incredible. My favourite all time mini is her Oregon Star. I felt like I was in the presence of the Mona Lisa, seeing this mini quilt in person. Incredible. Also, you have never seen anyone as passionate about getting you excited to make mini quilts and be creative. I am pretty sure everyone in her class went straight home after the weekend and made a mini quilt. I know I did.

There were so many friends that I met at the Summit that were so fun to hang out with. I’m so happy that I made sure to take lots of ‘people’ photos on this trip. Amanda J, Amanda Hall, Jeni B, Kait, Lindsay, Angela, Deedrie & Jessica – I had so much fun with you ladies! Saying goodbye to everyone on the last day was really hard, but I hope we’ll meet up again soon!

Check out my 100+ photos from Salt Lake City and the Sewing Summit here!

SEWING SUMMIT DISCOUNT

Published on September 22, 2011 in the workroom and traveling. 6 Comments Tags: sewing summit.

I’m pretty excited that in less than two weeks I’ll be in Salt Lake City for Sewing Summit. I’m heading down with Katherine, my sewing retreat partner. We’re rooming with Amanda and hanging out with Lizzy, so now matter what we’re going to have a blast.

Sewing Summit is a 2 day sewing and blogging retreat where we’ll be taking all kinds of fun classes, like Improv Piecing, Marvelous Minis and Free Motion Quilting. I’m really looking forward to meeting so many internet friends in real life. Finally!!!

For those of you heading to the Sewing Summit, I wanted to offer you a discount in our online shop. If you place your order by October 3rd and use the code SEWINGSUMMIT, I will bring your order to the Sewing Summit and hand deliver it to you, so there will be no shipping charge.

If you’ve been thinking of treating yourself to a Cosmo floss palette, Japanese Dress book or Sparkle floss, now is the time.

Can’t wait to meet you in Salt Lake City!

COTTAGE

Published on June 24, 2011 in the workroom and traveling. 14 Comments Tags: cottage.

June hasn’t been my favourite month of the year, that’s for sure. It seems like I’ve spent the month focusing on problems and drama rather than moving forward. The biggest setback has been losing two months worth of our inventory and sales data at the workroom. I wrote about it here. It’s the kinda thing that you hope will never happen and when it does, (despite all your back-up systems) you are crushed with helplessness. Then you need to suck it up and work for several nights until 4am, 2am, 1am to start getting things back on track. If you’re really lucky, like me, when you ask for some help there is an outpouring of kind words, receipts (in person, emailed, photographed, scanned) and offers to do data entry. Thank you. So much.

If you’re just hearing about this now, we are still hoping to get as many of our receipts or emailed invoices from April 5-June 15, 2011. Even if it’s for a spool of thread or a class you took, we’d love to have a copy. No receipt is too small. We’ve been able to rebuild so much quicker with the receipts you have sent in so far. It’s taking a while to go through all your lovely emails, but you’ll hear from us very soon. Please read more details here, if you think you can help.

After four intense days of emergency computer mayhem. We took off to Andrew’s family cottage for 3 days. Perfect timing. Quiet. Escape. Hand stitching. Food. Naps. Nature. Family time.