We’ve moved our youngest out of the crib.  It feels a little like the end over here–our baby isn’t really a baby anymore, and as far as we know, we won’t be having any more–but it also feels like we’ve lost our minds–now they can all roam at will, and we’re vastly outnumbered.  We’re playing a zone defense over here, rather than a man-t0-man, and I think we’re behind on the leaderboard.

In order for the baby to move out of her bed, our boy had to move up from the toddler bed.  It went something like this: boy from toddler bed to big boy bed; baby from crib to toddler bed; crib to Goodwill.  We’re all growing up around here.  I left for Quilt Market last week, and our son decided I was going away to get his Big Boy Bed.  I did not disabuse him of this idea, since it made him much more willing to let me head out of town–but getting that mattress into the overhead bin was a bear, I’ll tell you what.

His room has needed a little more transformation since we moved into this house than some of the others.  When we first bought, it was remarkably ugly:

All the bedrooms had full carpet–which was at a bare minimum a solid 35 years old and seriously skanky.  There was a single room in the entire house that didn’t have wallpaper or bifold doors or both; this room, regrettably, had both.

Based on the decor, I can only infer that this was meant to be a boys’ room in the early 1980s.  The trim is all glossy, GLOSSY navy blue, the wallpaper is accompanied by a “masculine” floral border, and there is RIBBON glued where the two meet.  RIBBON.

See it there, below the floral border?  My mother and I started taking it off, and it was nearly one continuous piece of ribbon around the entire room.  GLUED ON.  Heaven help us.

Before we moved in, we painted over the wallpaper, as we did in every other room in the house--we tried to remove the wallpaper in one room, but it appears to have been glued directly to the wallboard, and there was no way on this planet it was ever coming off.  So: two coats of oil-based primer followed by three coats of paint.  But that first winter, there was this really odd smell coming from that one room–sort of mildew-y, sort of chemical-y, something undefinable.  We didn’t smell anything remotely like it in any other room, and it made me nervous–like, I didn’t let my son sleep there with the door closed, nervous.  Since we knew there was some mold issue somewhere in the house, and that we’d discovered some discolored wood in the flooring beneath the carpet when we removed it, we suspected the wall between the bedroom and the jack-and-jill bathroom might have some mold damage, we decided to take that wall out.  Which made sense, since that’s where we put the pocket door to make the bathroom bigger.  All this to say: we also took the walls in his bedroom down to studs and replaced the drywall throughout:

We never did find an obvious source for the odor, but it completely went away, so it must have been lurking there somewhere.

After the walls were re-done and the bathroom completed, we re-painted the same awesome jalapeno pepper green that we’d done before–along with the sky blue ceiling that I thought he’d enjoy during his little boy years.

This was his room before I “went to Portland” to get his big boy bed.  The same toddler bed his sister used, along with the Ikea changing table/dresser that we bought for the baby when we lived in our last house and she slept in the closet.

He also has his train table–purchased as his only Christmas gift two years ago from Craig’s List, along with a huge selection of trains and tracks, for $100–and a play rug from Ikea.  There’s a bookcase in the corner that was my husband’s in college.

When we planned to bring in a new bed, I knew I needed to update a number of things, and now we’re at the starting end of that list.  Here’s what’s left to do:

We already have the new dresser, along with a matching bed side table, waiting in the garage to paint. I’m going with a linen natural color, and his new quilt will be natural linen, as well, with some sashiko quilting a la the whole quilt project in Stitch Savvy and the work of Folk Fibers. The book nook in the closet will get a smaller bookcase from his sisters’ room (they’ll swap with him) and a Rollie Pollie using Dana’s pattern. The bed skirt will be Kona pacific, which is what I thought I’d use to extend the drapes, but I want to avoid anything being too matchy-matchy, so I’m currently hunting the perfect yellow-orange-but-not-too-orange school bus solid cotton to add as a pop throughout the room, including as a skinny border on the curtains and Roman shade. We already have a collection of vintage travel postcards sent back by my husband’s grandparents from when they traveled in the 60s and 70s, which will go in frames on one side of his wall.

Now it’s just a matter of finding the time! Hubs will split a gut if I do a lick of work in this room before sewing some drapes for the master bedroom–it’s only been 18 months, I really don’t know what he’s all worked up about. So expect an update on that room before we move the bus on this one, y’all. Wish me luck!

On my cutting table right now.  I am back from Quilt Market (photos on my Instagram) and working on a sample of the Modern Babydoll Dress for my Summer Dresses e-course.  I’m working my way through all the variations I’ve dreamed up so I can share them with my class, and it’s giving me an excuse to cut into some fabrics I would otherwise have hoarded for…oh, I don’t know, FOREVER.  Like this double-gauze, which is delicious like butter.  I’m getting ready to add the bias tape treatment to the neckline, using a really obnoxious yellow quilting cotton that just happens to match flawlessly.

Almost every version of this dress I have made so far has all French seams, and they are so fun to play with.  In a fabric with this weight, they’re such a perfect option, since it ravels so easily and is so lightweight.  Just perfect for summer.  And making me so glad I didn’t try to stuff this fabric into my (already overflowing) cabinet and never ever use it–so much funner to sew with it and get to show it off by wearing it, rather than keeping it locked up and forgotten.

What fabric have you been hoarding shamelessly all this time, wanting to cut into it but not quite being able to bring yourself to do it?  What would it take for you to finally take the plunge?  It would be totally fun to jump off the cliff together and have a gorgeous *something* to show for it later!

Hooray!!  Registration is finally OPEN for the Summer Dresses online class.  I am beside myself, I am so digging on these dresses and everything I have planned.  These are three original patterns that I have been working on for months now–and I can’t wait to sew them with you!  Three very different shapes: a babydoll dress with a slightly raised waist and a V-neck in the back, all over a gathered skirt; an A-line with a yoked collar that buttons on the side; and a racerback shift with a drawstring that looks great in any fabric.  I love them ALL and will be showcasing more details of each one over the coming weeks–lots of variations and fun ideas of things to do with these patterns!

In the meantime, get yourself over to the Summer Dresses e-course page and get registered.  I am thrilled and flattered to say that lots of folks have already told me they’re really excited to join the class, and I’d love to see you there before it fills up!  Need some added incentive?  I’m bringing back the Early Bird Discount: just $99 before May 25.  See you soon!

I have been on an insane cross stitch kick lately. It all started with this one, which was a gift to me from a friend. We’d had this conversation on the Twitters, and she tweeted the quote above, and I replied, “I’m going to need that on a cross stitch.” And she said she’d make it for me! Which is awesome and is totally the way that Twitter works–it let me meet Tony Danza, it has allowed me to keep in touch with some of my dear friends who I see only once or twice a year, and now it got me a cross stitch, custom made. Woot! But I didn’t want to let her do something for me and do nothing in return, so I offered to do a trade. I had already gone on a shopping binge over at Kitschy Digitals and picked up a number of fabulously nerdy cross stitch designs, and mentioned I had a Star Wars one. Reply: “Done.”

So I’ve been working on this one for a few weeks:

How great is that, right?  My husband is more than a little perturbed that this isn’t for him and his Mantuary (never mind that the Mantuary will be in the basement which is currently on the schedule to be finished in 2020).  He and I both also think that I should make one for his dad, whose call sign when he was a pilot in Vietnam was Skywalker, and who now owns a shaggy yellow lab named Wookie.  But this one is very specially ear-marked for Al, and I am soooo excited to see it nearing completion.

Like all good obsessions, though, I couldn’t settle for just one.  I’ve accumulated a number of very most favorite cross stitch pattern shops in the past weeks (see links below), and have started to sew out the designs that are calling me the loudest.  Like this one:

Can you stand it??  Sherlock is my Holmes boy!  On an oatmeal-colored 14 count Aida, with the text and border in navy.  I love this one, but made it for my friend Amanda, who took me with her to meet Tony Danza (via Twitter).  She offered me the chance of a lifetime, the least I could do was a little cross stitch!  I put a photo up on Instagram and someone commented that she would never finish a cross stitch–but this one really WAS easy.  Lots of simple, straight filling in, very clear pattern, uncomplicated shape.  I did this off and on one weekend while I was under the weather with a pollen-induced sinus headache–and if I can knock this out under those circumstances, baby, ANYONE can.

I’ve spent some time playing with various sizes of base cloth, too, and with how many strands of floss to use.  The Star Wars is done with all six strands of floss held together, and I really love the knobby texture that gives, but I won’t pretend that it hasn’t slowed me down–notice it was the first I started and still is incomplete.  So for the Sherlock piece, I went down to three strands held together, with two strands for the backstitch (on the smaller text and on the skinnier border).  Both are done on the same 14 count Aida cloth, so it was really cool to note the difference in how they turned out.  Then, on this fabulously obliquely-referencing-Doctor-Who one, I got the pattern and was a little disappointed with how small the finished product was going to be.  At first I thought, “Crap, now I’m going to have to blow the whole thing up and make it bigger if I want a pillow.”  But then I realized I could just sew it out on a larger-scale Aida.  So this is done on 6 count Aida, the largest scale I could find.  The “count” is the number of squares per inch in the fabric–so the 14 count is very small spacing between the Xs you’re stitching, and the 6 is naturally much larger:

I went ahead and used all six strands held together on this one, too, because I like my Xs to really fill up that box and have some presence.  With something this huge, that would’ve been tough with only two or three strands.  I also used a slightly larger needle, and varied my technique a bit–on the 14 count, I have to put the needle in the fabric, then reach around from behind the hoop and pull it through.  On this giant 6 count, I was able to put the tip of the needle in one opening, then out the destination opening, all from the front of the fabric and with no hoop–the larger squares made the surface more flexible and easier to work with that way.  I’m not sure which is the “correct” way to cross stitch–my lessons with Grandma Miriam amounted to making all my slashes in the same direction across a row and then working back going the opposite direction, and after that I was on my own–but I enjoyed playing with more than one technique.

And how fun are these patterns?  I realize now that I’m assembling all the images together that they’re ALL nerd-centric, but I own that, with no apology.  Love me some Doctor Who and Sherlock and Star Wars.  And Harry Potter:

This one is a graduation gift for my oldest, who is finishing up her final year of high school THIS MONTH.  Have I mentioned that?  Yes, I think I have.  Sigh.  They grow up so fast.

She and I both love Harry Potter, and “Lumos!” seems like an appropriate message for a girl heading off to her new intellectual life on a college campus.  Or at least, a hope from a mother that her child will walk into the light while she’s on that college campus.  Oy.

Plus!  This one’s done in glow-in-the-dark floss!  Which is totally cool:

And it really does glow, too.  Pretty well.  It’s a BEAR to work with, and tangles easily and is hard to thread through the eye of the needle–and makes a lot of my stitches less tidy than I would like–but when I take it into the closet and close the door to check that it really does do what it says it will do, it DOES.  This one will be a pillow for her to put on her bed in her dorm–which I think she will.  She and I both believe in separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes to friends, and any kid who doesn’t think a Harry Potter pillow that glows in the dark is cool probably won’t make the cut.  Fair enough.

Should you be looking for some cross stitch designs of your own, check out these fabulous shops–I have purchased one or more designs from each of them over the past six weeks and been really pleased with the quality and speed of delivery:

And for supplies, I’ve had great success with Everything Cross Stitch.  Their patterns are a good bit more matronly and traditional than what I would probably stitch up, but their pricing on floss, needles, and accessories is great and they ship really quickly.  For a hoop, like the one in the Lumos project above, I use the Q-snap frame, like Anna Maria does.  You can get one from your local quilt shop (lots of them carry these frames for hand quilting–I use the 17″ x 17″ for that), or from Amazon, CrossStitchers.com or CreateForLess–I’m using the 11″ x 11″ in these photos, but the 8″ x 8″ is a great size, too.

Have fun cross stitching, y’all!  I’m off to see if I can’t get R2D2 some lights going…

Short version, AKA I’m planning to look at the eye candy and then get out of here because I really don’t need to know that much about someone else’s fabric purchases: We recently took a family trip to New York City, and while I was there, I managed to squeeze in a visit to Mood Fabrics, where it’s possible I spent a little too much and brought more home than strictly necessary.

Full version, AKA I have a fabric fetish and even the most mundane details of a trip to a fabric shop fascinate and enthrall me, so I would like to read every ridiculous detail so that I may more fully live vicariously through your experience and then follow a link or two to make some unnecessary purchases of my own: So, my oldest child is graduating from high school next month. Yes, GRADUATING. And yes, NEXT MONTH. #freakingout

I don’t care if it’s inappropriate hashtag use, I am FREAKING OUT. But keeping it under wraps. Last fall, we made her a deal, in the hopes that we could motivate her to higher academic standards and thereby assist her in securing the widest array of possibilities in her college choices: make straight As the first semester of her senior year, and we–my husband and I, just the two of us, none of her younger siblings–would take her and a friend to New York City for Spring Break.

There was cursing and gnashing of teeth (on both sides) over the months of that semester, and a near-miss when one of her grades missed the mark by a SINGLE GRADE POINT.  After forcing her to complete a PowerPoint presentation on why we should overlook the one point and still permit her to head to NYC with her friend on our dime (yes, we really did that, and yes, we expect to hear about it every holiday for the rest of her life until she has her own children, at which point we’re anticipating a hearty “my bad” from her), we made the travel arrangements and set out on our journey.

My husband located a Vacation Rental By Owner in the Garment District, which I thought was an accidental stroke of luck but it turns out was just another example of him being adorably thoughtful (I hardly ever notice these efforts and the time, and he doesn’t call them to my attention, so when I realize he’s done something extra sweet, it’s always like falling in love all over again–but I digress).

image via Mood

The apartment we rented was on 37th, just two blocks from Mood Fabrics.  As our cab passed by on the way in from the airport, I had to physically restrain myself from tossing my body through the window in order to go roll around in some pretty fabric.  I do most of my garment fabric shopping online, so the chance to cavort through three floors of deliciousness and pick and choose based on texture and real-life color rather than relying on images and description and my steadfast avoidance of polyester seemed like a vacation in itself.

On the third and final day of our trip, I finally managed to pull off a visit.  We had walked all day and the dogs were tired–so we headed back to the apartment with about 90 minutes to change and rest before needing to leave for the restaurant to make our reservation, and then on from there to make our curtain time (it was all just so New York, y’all).  We lollygagged for a bit, but I finally persuaded my husband, “I really want to go to Mood.  You can come with me.  We’ll find some seersucker and I’ll make you a summer jacket!  You’ll be just like Matlock!”  I am not above bribery for any of my family members, it would seem.

image via Etsy

We had a scant 45 minutes to get to the shop, browse three floors of rafter-high fabrics, check out, get back to the apartment, change clothes, collect the children, and get moving.  It was a whirlwind.  A whirlwind that requires having a Plan.  I thrive when I have a Plan.

All this was scored during just 40 minutes on the shop floor, which included a lengthy conversation with the nice man in the linen section who had extensive advice to share with my husband regarding slacks (particularly his approval of the choice of mustard-colored fabric as a bold, fashion-forward selection in the pants department):

And that doesn’t include the buttons, the trim, and the white twill that steadfastly refused to photograph well for this group shot.  We were ANIMALS, I tell you.

Keep in mind as I list these that we all carried on our baggage, had already purchased clothing and gifts to take home, and literally had NO ROOM for more stuff.  But when I see a fabulous linen, I simply cannot say no.  Here’s what I brought home with me:

These three are for shorts, for me and for the children.  But mostly for me.  I get super frustrated when shorts shopping, because while I have nice legs (if I do say so myself), I’m not 22 anymore, and the shorty-mc-shorts-shorts just aren’t appropriate for a nearly-40 mother of 4 to go galivanting around town.  However, I’m no matron, either, and I do like to think I have some sense of style–even if I’m wrong on that one, Audrey would never have worn old lady shorts.  Since I struggle to find anything close to that in the shops, I’ll be making my own this summer.  Either the red or the white will be a pair of piped sailor-style shorts, and the other will be an above-the-knee pair.  The grey will be a creased-front, zip-fly short that hits around mid-thigh.  These are all cotton, but the bottom has some stretch to it.  I got one or one-and-a-half yards of each, despite them being 60″ wide, because I wanted to have enough to make shorts for the children in addition to my own.

The only thing I can think of to call this besides a “shot” linen is FABULOUS.  Even the sweet dude at the cutting table said, and I quote, “This is really something special.”  AGREED, homes.  I adore this fabric–it’s drapey for a summer linen, and has such amazing texture to it.  And those “shot” threads really make it stand out in an unexpected way.  You’d almost never know it’s linen, except that the feel against your skin is so perfect.  Plus, it’s my go-to shade of tomato red.  It will unravel like a crazy dog, but I don’t even care.  I’m planning to make a sleeveless, full-skirted sundress out of this one, and cannot wait.  I got 3 yards total, and I don’t even care if I have some leftover.  Matching handbag, anyone?

Hello, nurse.  One: it’s my signature lime color.  Two: it’s linen.  Three: it’s checked.  Four: it has an embroidered eyelet border.  Five: it’s a DOUBLE border.  This is the last fabric I chose from Mood, after I nearly couldn’t carry everything in my arms.  But it had to, had to, had to come home with me.  I see no downside here, and I was prepared to wrestle the stewardess to the floor of that Boeing in order to get this puppy in the overhead bin.  I’m thinking of a lined summer shift, with the border at the hem.  Of course, I got 2.5 yds, so I could very well do another full-skirted sundress with the border at both the hem and the upper edge of the bodice.  Either way: yum.

I saw a sweet little dress at the department store not too long ago (you can find the original in my Instagram feed) that I thought was just precious–but not so “precious” that I couldn’t pull it off.  It was an orange cotton seersucker with a line of trim down the center, on a simple sleeveless shift with a short hem and bust darts.  Except the bust darts!  Were basically pointing to my chin, and nowhere near my bust.  So while it fit, it didn’t fit, you know what I mean?  I took a shot on the IG and everyone agreed with my husband: why bother buying, when you can just make it?  So this was the first fabric I was looking for when we got to Mood.  That, and a trim to go with it.  The lovely woman in the trims department helped me choose a few, and this is the one that I liked best.  At just $4 a yard, I think it will really perk up the seersucker and give this shift some real life.  I got 2 yds of this seersucker, I think.  I tend to over-buy, but that’s because I like to be on the safe side.

My husband has a navy blazer, as I think most men his age do.  And I do NOT like it.  It has brass buttons and simply looks dated every time he wears it.  But there have absolutely been occasions where I could see that a navy jacket would be appropriate, and that it was understandable he should want one.  So while we had a men’s jacket in mind for him, anyway, and were up to our knees in the linen section (basically my mothership), I eyed some beautiful navy linen.  This photo is a little blown out–it’s actually a deeper blue than this–but I wanted to show the gorgeous texture this linen has.  It isn’t stiff, it has a real softness to it, but without being so flowy that it won’t make a very nice men’s jacket.  My husband picked out the buttons while I waited in the (very long) line, and got them to me just in time.  He got a few spares, too, at the suggestion of the folks in the buttons section, in case one goes missing.  He’s VERY excited about this jacket, which I am planning to make partially lined and use a Hong Kong finish on the seams.  We brought home 3 yds of this linen, on the (very small) chance that there will be enough leftover for me to squeeze out a teeny matching vest for our son.

And finally, the fabric that was (theoretically) the purpose for our visit: the classic blue seersucker for a men’s summer jacket.  I adore this fabric, and while we briefly fingered a couple of other colors, it’s the classic blue that makes the most sense.  Again, my husband picked out the buttons himself, and they’re much better than what we would have found at a big box fabric store.  I love the weight of this fabric, and the very high quality you can feel in it.  The seersucker texture is just right, and the stripes are woven, NOT printed–extraordinarily important distinction when shopping for seersucker.  I won’t do printed stripes, because honestly, if you aren’t going to do it right, why even bother?  We got 4 yds of this one, since it’s so awesome, and our girls will get skirts to match Daddy.

If you’re keeping track, that’s somewhere around 20 yards of fabric, plus buttons and trim.  And I had to get it all home in my suitcase–which I did!  Hooray for fabric and efficient packing!

Mood was lovely, it was so fun to be there, and seriously, I think having a strict unbreakable time limit saved me about $500 that I would have spent if I’d actually seen all there was to see.  I can’t recommend enough going with a PLAN and knowing the two or three categories of fabric you MOST want to see so that you can target your shopping and not get overwhelmed by all there is–because that’s when you get home and look at your purchases and think, “What the crap did I just buy???”

Thank you, Mood!