Flowers in the Garden and Some Stuff I'm Making

I Have this amazing friend named Helen. She has a great gardening blog. Her love of her garden has inspired me to take some photos of the lovely flowers growing in our own garden. I am quite disappointed that I didn't get any photos of the irises that we had. Sadly, we got so much rain that they bloomed and drooped and fell very quickly. Maybe next year.

Let me just say, that I love the idea of gardening but I do not consider myself a gardener. I like to think of myself as a nurturing person, but I tend to kill house plants. I love them, I really do. But, I am forgetful. The only plants that seem to do well in my care are ones which don't need a lot of attention. Even then, sometimes I manage to kill them too.

The reason that we have so many beautiful flowers growing in our garden is due to the many years of hard work on behalf of my Brother-in-law and my Mother-in-law. I'm doing my best to keep up with the weeding and that about sums up my efforts in the garden thus far.

Helen and her partner, Michael, are so great at making things grow. They gave us some tomato plants. Thanks so much, you two. The tomato plants are now flowering and doing quite well on our front porch while we try each weekend to prepare our vegetable garden for them. Things are moving slowly on that front even though my husband John and I have already put in quite a bit of work.

I've been sewing more stuff. First off is the beginnings of that quilt I was telling you about. Here's a glimpse of the first square...

I was thinking that maybe the steel skull fabric in the center was a little much. But, my husband loves it (I knew he would). This project is going to be a long time in the making...

I also made this pocketed organizer thing from a book called Sew & Stow.

I can hag it up and use the pockets to organize stuff. And I can roll it up and carry it places. I'm slowly making friends with binding. I flipped open my Bend the Rules with Sewing book the other day and read the sentence, "I love binding". 'What!?', I thought to myself. But, I have to remember that a few months ago I hated ironing and that changed so perhaps some day I'll learn to love binding too. Until then, arrgh!

I did change this pattern slightly and made the pockets larger. I thought I might use it for cards, envelopes, pens and stamps so I made the pockets big enough to accommodate average card sizes.

Another pattern I'm trying from the Sew & Stow book is this travel pouch. I'm making it for my husband for Father's day.

Isn't this Echino car fabric amazing!


♥ Andrea ♥

A Space, Just For Me

Something's been happening to me these past few months. Since November of last year when I dusted off my sewing machine and made a permanent place for it in my home, I feel like my entire life has changed. Can a machine change your life? Absolutely. The computer certainly has changed my life. But the sewing machine? Oh, my sewing machine, I love, love, love you!

I remember looking on the internet at things that people were making just last year and being amazed. I would think to myself, 'I wish I could do that'. And now I feel like I can make anything I can think of. I stay up late and wake up early with measurements and fabric designs dancing in my head. And there are other changes too.

Now that I have my own creative space in the house (it's really just a corner in the living room next to all of the kid's toys) I am also becoming much more organized. I think I sort through and clean this area of the house more than any other place. As new thoughts and projects arise, even those totally unrelated to sewing and art, I am organizing those thoughts and creating new spots of organization for these as an extension of this creative space. It's as though I've finally allowed my creative self to stretch and breath.

In high school I read A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. I really enjoyed this book and understood the importance of creating my own personal creative space even at that age. And yet, I have actually never done this before.The importance of etching out one's own creative space is so obvious to me now. I don't think I could go back to living in small quarters without any space for my creative self again.

If you have not made a space for yourself to be creative in yet, do it now! Taking the time and space you need, will enhance every aspect of your life! I promise.

Happy creating!

♥ Andrea ♥