Post Pledge Day Post

Annie,
Thanks for helping to motivate sewing yesterday! I finished the Marcy Tilton Vogue 8559 cardigan and I'm pretty happy with it. Although M did ask if it was supposed to be a serape ?!? I think he was a little confounded by the draped front. All is well now - it was explained.

I used a lightweight black wool doubleknit for the back, to give it some stability. The draped fronts and the sleeves are a black striped mesh knit from Marcy's website; the neck, front and bottom bands are a dotted mesh knit. The stripe is very stretchy and wiggly, not the easiest thing to sew, so I cut my bands a few inches longer than the pattern, to make sure they'd fit if the neckline or front had stretched too much. I also cut them wider than called for, but that was a design decision - I wanted more dots to show! Oh, and I lengthened it by 5 inches. I'm tall! The pattern is very simple and everything fits together nicely. It will be a perfect summer cover-up to keep the icy air conditioning at work off my delicate self.

Because it's so drapy, it's hard to get a good photo of it. I think we'll need to ask Dahlia to model it for us at some point. In the meantime I'll go home and get a mediocre picture to post tomorrow.

OH - thanks for putting up the picture of Special-K. He was so handsome!

xoxox, Sis

Sister Memorial Day Sewing Pledge

Sis's pledge: I pledge to do my best to finish super secret black mystery garment and to get one more item at least cut out. Apres of course delicious breakfast somewhere swell.

Annie's pledge: I pledge to get as much of new project, Afternoon Stroll, done as possible.

Afternoon Stroll from Emma One Sock

Will they keep their pledges?

10:30:
Oh no! Annie throws in the towel! I have a migraine and I'm out of silk organza which I need for interfacing. And even without a headache, there's no way I'm going to find silk organza in Tacoma. Wah!

Let's wait and see how Sis is doing.

2:30:
While Annie is languishing in headache-land Sis is having a productive day. She says "We can sew vicariously. We are working on Vogue 8559! I am using a black wool double knit for the back and some black sheers for the fronts, sleeves and trim. I'll send some pictures of the fabrics later in the afternoon. I have the body and sleeves done, I'm just pondering my trim fabrics and deciding how I want to use them. I don't think I can get a good picture of it...I might have to come drape it on Dahlia to get a shot. I am trying to practice slow sewing and get everything sewn and trimmed just right. Louise would be proud - my sleeve stripes match.

5:05:

Sis says: Neck/front band back on and looking nice. I've basted the bottom band on using the large polkadot mesh that I used for the neckband. Hmmm...not sure I like it. Maybe it's a little bit circus?

Meanwhile, Annie, in her disappointment over the day, is looking forward to bed time.

Sis's Bristol blouse finished!

Bristol Blouse is done! I love its fabric-a silk and cotton blend from Marcy Tilton's booth at Expo. It's very light weight but not sheer with a little bit of a crepey texture. It doesn't photograph particularly well but it will be loose and cool in the hot weather.

 

Good news!

 a day on the mountain

Annie makes it to Paradise a day before the Rapture!  Today was the seasonal opening of Paradise Inn on Mount Rainier, and David and I drove up for lunch.  It was a lovely warm sunny day, with people from all over the country and from Germany, India, the Philippines, Japan and China.  And the food was yummy.  Annie had halibut and chips, and David had a venison sloppy joe.   Here's what the mountain looked like:

And the Tatoosh Range

And a few pictures from inside the lodge

Some of the specially made furniture

And here's a photo of a photo of the lodge (from the 20s I think) which hangs on the wall of the lodge.  You can see the clock and the piano and the furniture:

And this is a detail of another photograph, showing the Paradise Inn ghost!  If you look at the boots of the woman sitting on the left you can see the ghostly shoes of another woman, and then look upward to see her shoulders and face.  Cool, huh?

The wind is old and still at play
While I must hurry upon my way.
For I am running to paradise;
Yet never have I lit on a friend
To take my fancy like the wind
That nobody can buy or bind:
And there the king is but as the beggar.

...William Butler Yeats

Sister Sewing Follow-up

Ooooo I love your formerly secret projects! The color of the sheer rayon/lycra knit is really lovely. If the little snip bothers you I guess you could lower the neckline a bit? I have two recently-made tshirts that have tiny snips at the cuff, but I'm pretending I don't notice. We will soon need to have Close Proximity Day of Sisterly New Outfit Promenade!

The Bristol Blouse is almost done, it just lacks hems, buttons and buttonholes, which will have to wait for the weekend, I'm afraid. I'm pretty happy with it though I remember now what I don't like about this pattern. The collar requires VERY precise stitching and there is NO room for error. I need a large boulevard of error-room, so the collar isn't quite perfect, but I can live with it. No one but you and I will know. Unless Louise Cutting or Loes Hinse invades my personal space. I'll post pictures on Saturday or Sunday.

Long Distance Sister-Enhanced Day of Much Sewing Productivity was very fun and useful - it helped keep me on track and not be distracted by the lure of my book. Currently reading: Eric Larsen's In the Garden of Beasts It's kind of clumsily written - lots of foreshadowing and intimations of doom to come, but the story is so interesting I'm willing to forgive him.

Let's sew "together" again soon!

xoxoxo, Sis

Long Distance Sister-Enhanced Day of Much Sewing Productivity

Today Sis and I are sewing together long distance.  We live 30 or 40 miles apart so getting together to sew isn't practical, but that doesn't mean we can't sew together anyway!  Sis says:  Here is the plan: although LC Camp Shirt is cut out and ready to go I will put it aside for a bit to trace the Loes Hinse Bristol shirt pattern and get it cut out and prepped. I shall then reward myself with lunch and pick up again in the afternoon by starting Camp Shirt. Tea break in the late afternoon will be accompanied by a slice of delightfully pink charlotte framboise.

Louise Cutting camp shirt

Bristol blouse

Totally cool pink dessert Annie isn't going to get any of

This is Annie's commitment for the day:  finish (formerly) secret project number one, which has already been cut out.  The fabric is a semi-sheer rayon/lycra which I bought recently at Nancy's Sewing Basket, and I've cut it out extra large so I can wear it over other tees.

And prep the pattern for (formerly) secret protect number two.  This fabric (also from Nancy's) is a very crisp cotton.

So later in the day.  Here's what Annie has done:

It's nearly done, but I want to find some thread that matches better before I do any stitching that will show.  This fabric is really a pain to work with.  It keeps wanting to curl and has to be tamed with many pins.  Also I managed to snip a tiny hole just below the neck edge in the center front.

Latest word from Sis:  Bristol Blouse has been traced, cut out, marked and prepped. [no pictures yet]

More Maggie the Arctic fox

As Sis says, the ways of the interwebs are mysterious.  Recently I posted this: "The sun is out! Let's go to the zoo! Here is Maggie the Arctic fox waiting for a treat. A little girl called her a baby polar bear."  Later I did a search on Maggie the Arctic fox to see if anyone else had written about her, and I found my own text strangely translated into globish:  "The object is out Let s go to the zoo Here is Maggie the Arctic fox watchful for the provide A small lady called her the baby frigid bear."  Well, here's the baby frigid bear having a good laugh.

And here's Maggie's "cousin" at Woodland Park Zoo

Saturday at the zoo

We are so lucky to have two outstanding zoos in our area.  We love zoos so much that for awhile we lived across the street from Woodland Park Zoo and went nearly every day.  Imagine waking up to elephants trumpeting (this was in the old days when they were near the road) and siamangs calling to one another.  So yesterday we went to there to see the new dinosaur exhibit.  It was superb!

Here's the dilophosaurus.  It spits!  It spits about 5 feet out over the path to the great delight of little boys.

The parasaurolophus

The T Rex with its idiot arms

Baby dinosaurs!  They move and they chirp.  One is emerging from its egg.

And of course, dinosaur appropriate vegetation

Also seen, cool zoo art

A bucket of snow leopard poop

A solar compactor, placed where the sun don't shine

And David's picture of the fabulous two-headed bear

I, of course, carried my zoo purse which attracts a lot of attention from both little girls and little boys.