Eleven Stitches

Things From Holland

I made a few purchases while in Holland that I thought you might like to see.  First of all this painting, because it is beautiful.

 

We bought it from the artist herself, who had her wares spread out on the sidewalk. I love buying art this way.

There was also a fabric market in Amsterdam on Monday mornings.  (I might have squealed when I first read about this.) I dragged David along with me.  I picked up what I thought was four expensive fat quarters, but it turns out that they're each a half meter of fabric.

 

Two have traditional Holland motifs, and two I just like.

I also bought enough knit fabric to make a dress.  There was a vendor selling a lot of printed knits, and David picked out this particular pattern.  I can't show the fabric to you though, because I already made a dress out of it!

 

Pattern: Simplicity 3775, View D
Time to Sew: Today!
Modifications:  I made my sleeves in the same manner that Amanda suggested when she made this dress.  I didn't bother with a bottom hem.  I also had to re-draft the front bodice piece because it seems that I have lost it.  I must have been pretty close because I didn't have any problems at all putting this dress together.

I didn't start out the day expecting to finish a dress, but that's how the day went.  It's a nice way to end my summer vacation.  Teacher work week starts tomorrow.

I really love this dress.  The fabric feels so nice (I wish I had bought more), and the print is fun and casual.  The dress is comfortable, and it has just the casual feeling I was hoping for when I started.

I'm expecting to be working a lot this week as I get my classroom ready for the new school year, so I might not be back on the blog for the next couple of days.  I'll check in when I can.

Featherweight in Amsterdam

We had a great time in Amsterdam.

 

This was such an easy place to visit!  There was a lot to see and do, but it was a manageable amount, not overwhelming.  Everyone there spoke English.  And when we got tired (or footsore), we could just stop at a place along the nearest canal and get some food and a beer.

I don't have any photos of two of my favorite destinations, the Anne Frank House and the Van Gogh Museum, because cameras were not permitted.  The Van Gogh museum had a lot of really recognizable paintings, and many others as well.  There was one still life painting of some flowers in a vase, and right next to it was the actual vase. I thought that was especially interesting to see.  The Anne Frank House was very moving.  We got to tour inside the apartment where she stayed in hiding. Amazing.

We went to Leiden for the day, and we rented bikes there to visit Maria Montessori's grave in a town about 9K away.  I had a lot of ideas for the pictures I would take along the way of the countryside and of us riding our bikes.  But in actuality, it was raining on our way up there and the trip took longer than we thought, so I only had a few minutes at the cemetery before we had to turn back.

 

I was glad I was able to visit.  I wish I had brought flowers.

I'm pretty certain that there are more bicycles than cars in Amsterdam. There are dedicated bike lanes on all of the streets, and WATCH OUT before you cross them! 

 

Amsterdam also had a lot of cats.  This one, whom our bartender called Vodka, came in and had a seat at the counter.

 

Another cat (I didn't catch her name) jumped up on my lap when I sat down on a bench.  She didn't even mind that I handed my camera to David to take a picture.

 

I finished knitting my Featherweight cardigan right before our trip.  It's so lightweight that it was easy to keep in my bag just in case I got chilly.

 

Pattern: Featherweight Cardigan by Hannah Fettig
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr
Needles: US 5s
Modifications: I knitted the collar and edgings in garter stitch instead of ribbing, mainly because I was tired of purling.

 

David and I realized on the last night that we didn't get any pictures of us together. We took this one on the way to the train station.

 

It was a great trip, and I'm glad to be back home.

Happy Day, Happy Dress

I came home today and realized I had been running errands all afternoon and I didn't feel tired.  I think that perhaps the last lingering effects of the swine flu have been finally melting away. Just in time for our imminent trip to Amsterdam!  (Oh, didn't I tell you about that?  We're leaving this weekend for a 5 day trip.) The reclaimed energy along with a new haircut, a finished exam, and a new lip gloss make me a happy girl.  So I thought I'd show you this happy dress.

 

Pattern: Butterick 5315, View C, but shorter and without the sash

The only modification I made was to put in a pocket on the non-zipper side. I love the Peter Pan collar on this dress.

 

The fabric is from JoAnn's and it's a true purple.  I think purple fabrics are a little difficult to find, so I was excited to find this one.  And I thought it was a great fit for the retro-styled pattern. 

It's a little difficult to see, but I made my own bias binding to line the neck out of some bright green fabric.  I also used bright green buttons down the front!

 

The only problem I have with this dress is that the sleeves restrict my arm movements a little bit.  I might try view B's sleeves next time.  It looks like they have more gathers in them, which should allow for a freer movement.

It's quite likely I'll make this pattern again.  It's a yay in my book.

Mini Quilt Tuesday

I'm a little late for mini-quilt Monday, but these -alongs are supposed to be low stress.  First of all, I have some micro-mini quilts.

 

They measure 2 inches by 3 inches!  One of my assignments for teacher training is to come up with three small objects to represent each of the 26 sounds in the alphabet.  "q" objects are a little harder to come by, so I'm making enough to trade with all of my classmates.  They're fun to make, and I was using just tiny snippets of fabric. I used fusible webbing to stick the snippets onto a 2x3 "backing" piece, and then quilted across the layers and satin stitched the edges.

Here's a slightly bigger mini-quilt.

 

I wanted to play with putting orange, pink, and turquoise together.  I like it!  I think I might like this more without the white breaking up the color, because I just love riots of color.  But this quilt is still quite good at making me smile.

And finally, here's a non-mini quilt-in-progress.

 

I finally laid out all of my hexagons a few weeks ago.  I like the way this came together!  I'm currently attaching column 3 to column 4, and it's a little slow going.   I'm enjoying the process, however, and some day I'll have a pretty quilt to show for it.

Featherweight Progress

Hello, I am back.  The last few weeks I've been immersed in certification to become a Montessori teacher, and that paired with trying to recover from the swine flu has left me swamped.  The good news is that I've completely fallen in love with my newly chosen career path, and I can see myself being a Montessori teacher for a very, very long time. I feel like I'm a different person now, to some degree, after this intensive summer, and I am extremely content.  The bad news is that I haven't blogged, and well, I'm OK with that.

But now it's time to catch up!  Let me show you what I've been knitting.

 

I've finished the body and almost finished the collar.  I decided to do the collar before the sleeves because it's hard to figure out how the sweater fits without the collar.  While knitting the body, I got *very* tired of purling, so I decided to do the edges and collar in garter stitch.  I think it works well with this sweater.

 

I have some quilting and sewing to show you as well, but I'll leave that for another day.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and I'll be back soon.