Things that make me happy Monday

Many things are making me happy today, maybe some of them will make you happy too!

Some new fabrics:

You all know that I like gnomes just about as much as I like mushrooms, so when I saw the fabric on the left, I just had to have some! Willard the gnome is by Pocketful of Pinwheels on etsy and is an original design by Ariel that she gets printed at Spoonflower. The fabric on the right is some Liberty of London that Carol brought back for me from London. It’s a gorgeous fabric and I’ll use it in one of my next quilts. Thank you Carol!

Finishing and mailing off my DQS7 quilt to my pal. I really hope she likes it!

Finally getting started on sewing my box bags for Stitches East and local yarn stores.

I was hoping to get a lot more done today but my machine broke again today (same part as last week) and I brought it back to the shop to get looked at. After realizing that the hook assembly (the part that the bobbin goes in) must be defective, they put in a new one. Thankfully they had a spare of the part or I would have had to wait 2 weeks! So I am very, very happy that now my machine should not break again.

I’m thrilled that although August was pretty slow for my etsy shop, I sold 8 bags over the weekend. And 5 of those today. It makes me really happy that I’m not sewing for nothing. But now it looks kinda empty now, gotta go sew!

I usually don’t put pictures of myself on my blog but since I had a couple free hours this afternoon, due to the sewing machine being in the shop, I stopped at a hair salon and got an overdue haircut. I love it, it’s exactly what I wanted and I just had to share!

I’m finally making some progress on my Pomatomus sock and only have 2 rows left to knit before the ribbing. So if I can get an hour away from my machine tonight, I might be able to finish them. I really was hoping to finish them by the end of the month, so I just might have to do it!

Last but not least, I just have to have this. If you love it too, make sure to leave one for me!

What makes you happy today?

CSA Tuesday

Just because there can’t be a CSA without a Tuesday, or rather a Tuesday without a CSA.

Here is today’s loot:

6 ears of corn, one quart potatoes, 12 tomatoes, 2 eggplants, 1 bunch basil, 1 bunch radishes, a bag of green beans, and 1 pint of PYO cherry tomatoes. Not pictured: 3 small hot peppers.

We’d been getting 12 ears of corn every week for the last month so today I asked my coworker if she wanted a few ears of corn because I’d have too many. But this time I only got 6. I will be bring a few tomatoes to work though, and the hot peppers, as I’m not a fan of spicy hot foods.

I have high hopes for the remaining tomatoes; tomato, mozarella and basil salad, tomato pie (recipe similar to this), the potatoes will make delicious potato salad. With the radishes I might make some more of this (I made it last night, delicious). Last but not least, I will be attempting to make pesto with all the lovely basil  I have. I just need to pick up some pine nuts at the grocery store. I’ll let you know how that goes!

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On a totally different note, I am currently destashing a bunch of my yarns to pay for my sewing machine that broke again. You can check it out here on Ravelry. Message me there if you see something interesting. Thanks for looking!

Good mail days

Last Monday, when I came back from our mini vacation, I was thrilled to find lots of packages waiting for me at the post office. It’s not often that I have so much that they need to give me the crate with the packages!

There was a big box of zippers, a big bag full of bias binding (thank you Zonda!), fabrics from a few swaps, some from an etsy vendor and more Orla Kiely fabric bought on Ebay.

Most of these supplies will be used in box bags, but maybe not the Heather Ross minivan fabric, it’s just too cute!

This mail goodness on Monday was nothing to prepare me, though, to what would arrive on Friday. When I opened my mailbox on Friday I was surprised at the sight of a large padded envelope. I wasn’t expecting anything so was quite surprised.  I recognized the name it was coming from, one of the participants of the virtual quilting bee I’m in, but, even though her month was coming up it was still a bit early for her to be sending her fabrics out.  So I open the envelope and find this item nicely wrapped in tissue paper.  Still no idea what it is. I unwrap it and see the back of a small quilt… Still no idea. Then I have the bright idea to read the note included and I finally find out that I was the lucky recipient of my own Doll Quilt Swap 7 quilt! Made by Amanda!

Amanda got me so, so well and made me something totally, wonderfully perfect. I love it!

She used mostly fabrics from the Heather Ross Far Far Away collection, which I love, woodgrain fabric for the binding, another of my faves and tons of other fabrics that make it a most wonderful quilt for me.

Unicorn block

Frog block

Hexagons!

Cute birdie on a branch and the pretties daisy backing

I have a little bit of wall in my craft room where this quilt would be perfect. I just now have to figure out how to hang it. I know I’ll be looking at it a lot. Thank you again Amanda, I love it very much.

I have to finish the quilt for my DQS7 pal now, I hope she likes it as much as I liked mine.

WIP Wednesday

During my short vacation in the Adirondacks, I made some progress on 3 single socks. I really was hoping to finish the second Pomatomus sock but didn’t quite make it. There was a little stitch problem at the start of the last repeat and, although I knew that the solution was in the text of the pattern, I didn’t have it with me. So I just put it on hold and started working on another sock.

I started working on the left most sock. It’s the Tesserae pattern by Knitspot and the yarn is Madtosh Sock in Black Currant from here. The pattern is very easy and once I’m done with the Sock Hop sock (in the middle) it will become my on the go sock.

So these are the socks that I am currently working on. Both the Pomatomus and the Sock Hop are on sock #2 and the Tesserae is on sock #1.

That’s practically it for knitting projects. I haven’t touched the only other knitting project I have in quite some time. Hopefully, when my deadline knitting is over I’ll be able to devote all my time to it.

Even though I’ve slowed down on my knitting quite a bit these last few months, I quite enjoy always having socks to work on. What are you working on these days?

CSA Tuesday

My observant readers will have noticed that I skipped last week’s CSA Tuesday. I did take a picture but didn’t have immediate plans for the food as we were taking off the next day for a few days in the Adirondacks. If you’re curious as to what I got, click here.

To make up for last week, here is today’s bounty. All I can say is that it was very bountiful and we’ll be eating very well this week!

2lbs tomatoes, 2 lbs red potatoes, 12 ears of corn, 2 bunches radishes, 3 hot peppers, 1 tomatillo, 4 eggplants, bunch parsley, basil, flat leaf parsley, 1 pint cherry tomatoes

Even though the temperature inside was in the 80s, I thought I’d better get started on the cooking and prepare a few dishes. I made this cheesy eggplant casserole with this week’s eggplants and the 2 from last week I hadn’t gotten around to cooking yet. I made a few mods (used 2 eggs, added a can of chopped tomatoes, and used more cheese and used leftover breading I had) and the results were quite good.  I boiled up the potatoes and will be making potato salad tomorrow night. I’m waiting for a recipe from my friend for the radishes and will be sharing it with you hopefully next week.  In the mean time, we will be eating lots of tomato salad!

As seen in Kennebunkport, ME – August 09

Flowers, with and without bugs

Just a bug

What is this cat watching?

Maybe these baby sparrows…

How ’bout a ship

A red parasol

Or a chimney

Stacks and winners!

On my craft room floor and desk I have stacks and stacks. Stacks of fabrics, stacks of interfacing, stacks of zippers and stacks of handles. I’m getting ready for Stitches East and have about 70 box bags that I’m hoping to get done by then. I’m hoping to have 50+ fabric bags and a dozen oilcloth ones ready for the show, plus a few more for my shop (there’s been quite a few addition in the last few weeks, so if you haven’t visited in a while, have a look!).

I spent last weekend cutting up fabrics for all my box bags as well as the interfacing. My fabric stash has decreased quite a bit!

4 piles of future box bags (top left: oilcloth bags, bottom left: smalls, bottom right: large, top right: for my etsy shop)

Handles waiting to be topstitched

Stacks of cut up rectangles of lining and exterior fabrics waiting to be interfaced

All that cutting leaves me with piles of scraps…

Which leads me to the winners of the leftover Handmaiden Mini Maiden and my pile of scraps from last Monday’s giveaway! I really want to thank everyone who stopped by and participated in my giveaway. I really wish I had enough for everyone!

After adding numbers to the comments on my giveaway post I had random.org pick a number for the yarn winner and a winner for the scraps winner. And the winners are: Stardust B. for the yarn and Angela for the fabric scraps. Congratulations to both of you! You will both be receiving an email shortly. If you don’t see anything, check your spam!

FO Friday

For once I actually have some FOs to show you. I even have two to share, can you believe it?

One was knit, the other one sewed.

By order of finish date:

Milkweed Shawl by Cosmicpluto Knits [Ravelry details]

This shawl was knit in the beautiful Handmaiden Mini Maiden, color unknown (one of you just might win enough to knit your own). It took me just under 1 month to finish, or 2 weeks less than how long it took me to knit Ishbel.

But then again, my Milkweed came out just a smidgen smaller than Ishbel (see photo below for the difference)

I love this shawl, very, very much. It was an easy knit (love the garter stitch), the lace was easy to read and the yarn was a pleasure to knit with. I only had to tink back a couple times and the yarn handled it well, even though it had a tendency to stick to itself.

Since summer has finally started here in New England, I’ve yet to wear it except for the photo shoot. But I am looking forward to wearing it when it gets cool again!

My second FO is the Strips and Bricks quilt I started at the beginning of July. I tried to do one step every weekend and a few weekends later I have a finished quilt.

I used a lot of my favorite scraps to make it as well as scraps I received from Linda (check out her new book!), Carol and Kate. Thank you to all three of you for making this quilt possible! This quilt is going to be given away shortly, I hope the recipient likes it!

I might have another FO within a week or so if I can manage to sit down and knit for a bit. My Pomatomus socks less than 2 repeats from the ribbing. I think I just might make it before the end of August!

CSA Tuesday

It’s late, so tonight you’re getting a photo and a recipe. Enjoy!

Click on photo for details on what everything is

I sauteed the 3 eggplants and the green squash together in a pan and made Lime Mint Iced Tea with the mint (using the recipe from here). It was very good, but yields just enough for 4 glasses. Double it if you can, it’s worth it!

Estate sale finds and a giveaway

Last weekend, DH and I had the chance to stop at an estate sale. I’d never been to one before and I think that it was my lucky day. In the driveway were 2 quilt racks, in the garage was an old Viking sewing machine and there was another sewing machine in the entrance of the house. The basement was full of sewing patterns, threads and other sewing accessories. The owner was also a doll collector and there were some really cute dolls and doll furniture.

I came out of the estate sale with some great finds and I wish I could have bought more!

I bought this 34 year old Viking 6430, in perfect working condition. It’s missing all the accessories but as it will just be my secondary machine I’m quite pleased.

There were boxes and boxes of vintage patterns and I picked just a few:

I hit pay dirt when I found 2 large boxes full of seam binding and bias trim. I use seam binding in my box bags and am always trying to find more colors to match my fabrics. My Joann’s has a very meager collection of seam binding so when I found boxes full of them I was ecstatic. I gathered up all the seam binding I could find, as well as zippers and ric rac and got a big bag full of them!

My last purchase was an impulse buy. When you fall in love, there’s no reasoning to be done.

Look at those eyes, those lips and that outfit! She has fully fashioned undergarments, a sweet petticoat as well as the under dress and the over dress. She’s about 50 years old and in a wonderful shape and will grace my sewing room for another 50 years.

I got a great deal on all of these items and want to share the love a bit. So I have two givewaways to share with you. One is for sewers and one is for knitters.

I’ve been cutting fabrics for about 70 box bags over the weekend and I have a bunch of scraps that I’d love to share with a sewer. There are small and medium size strips of fabric as well as echino oilcloth scraps.

I just finished my Milkweed Shawl out of Handmaiden Mini Maiden, a 50/50 wool/silk fingering weight yarn. I used 55g for my shawl but there is 49g leftover so I’m thinking that someone could make a fair sized shawl with the rest. I don’t have a picture of the yarn balled up but here’s a picture of the yarn still in the skein.

If you’re interested in either prize just put in the comment which one you’d like and what you’d do with it. I’ll pick both winners next Monday.