Some of What I’ve Been Up To

Sketching. Ideas are a-swirlin’.

Such as this Willow embroidery—inspired by my Easter walk. It turned out a little more folk art than I intended. It doesn’t look too much like a palm tree, does it?

My first attempt at Sashiko—with a twist. Traditionally it’s white stitching on navy fabric. I love the effect and can’t wait to try out more designs.

Finding patches of sun to sit in. (Or channeling my inner cat?) It supposed to get up to ninety degrees Fahrenheit over the next few days. (That’s about 32 degrees Celsius for those of you metric-ians.) It is only the end of April, isn’t it?

Gardening and Forsythia

I have to admit I’ve been touched by a bit of melancholy lately. Even though the weather here in NJ has been absolutely beautiful I’ve still been shuffling around in an inexplicably glum mood—draining through my reserves to be as friendly and sociable as possible.
Midday today, my Papa asked me to help him start planting the garden. I put aside the book I was reading and rolled out of bed, being sure to not wake the cat. We planted a ton of cauliflower, broccoli, red cabbage, kale, even some lettuce and carrots. And I believe I’m feeling better. I think it’s because I finally got my hands dirty. Nature plays such a large role in our well-being. I have to try to remember to get out of bed, draw back the curtains and go meet the day no matter how much I just want to stay curled up in the dim light with a book.

I also finished the embroidery for the forsythia zip pouch and I’m very pleased with its simplicity. It’s done on a European oatmeal colored linen. I’m considering what I could use it for, to keep for myself, because I really am in love with it.
I wish any readers I may have a wonderful week. I probably won’t be blogging much through the week due to being busy with life, this baby shower and taking some time to sew for myself.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

I’ve been working on the party favors for the upcoming baby shower. They are Divine Chocolate bars wrapped in a paper sleeve featuring a little baby carriage with button wheels.

I also forgot how much I love embroidery–I haven’t done any in ages. I think the spring has inspired me. I’m working on a forsythia zip pouch now, because everywhere I go there are big patches of yellow.

Making the makeup bag and camera strap struck some cord in me. I’ve been missing sewing things for myself. I figured I’d take some time off from my shop and focus on me.
From now (or sometime this weekend) until the end of April, everything in the shop is discounted to help with a recent vet bill and make way for new items to come in May.

Inflorescence

Recently I was attempting to find the exact definition of the word “indepondegenius.” I searched both the dictionary and the web to no avail. I don’t even know if I am spelling it right or even if it’s a real word. I have a general idea what it means because I can place it in context. See my Grandma used to teach her kids to retort to smart-alecky kids with this phrase she picked up somewhere when she was little: “Do you mean to insinuate that I should tolerate such diabolical insults from such an undersized piece of humanity as you? Don’t be indepondegenius!”

Anyway, it wasn’t a search without reward. While I was looking through my dictionary I came across the above diagram of “inflorescence” and was inspired by how wonderful these designs would be to embroider. And since I was busy working on a little zip pouch made from repurposed wool pants everything fit together perfectly to create this:

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

The Sakura Skirt

Just added this sweet little skirt to my shop.

It’s a secondhand skirt made of a linen-look cotton with hand embroidered cherry blossom detail. The label says a US size 12. It’s about 24″ long, the elastic waist measures 26″ – 32″. Hips are about 40″.

And slowly but surely, I’m adding more additions to the Liesl Made Shop.