Those hydrangeas came from my mother's yard. She divided them, my brother drove them from Chicago to Kentucky.  Fatty planted them in our yard.  And now a little piece of my other home is at this home.  And I love that.

Carrots need to be thinned.  I did that a week ago and was disappointed to see white, spindly, root-like things.  I pulled one on a whim yesterday.  And look! I am growing baby carrots!  Fatty ate it. He said it smelled like carrot, but tasted like nothing.  Let's just wait.

Like the carrots, I pulled a pea pod. Yuuuummmm! I'm anticipating a harvest in a week or so.

And geraniums are my favorite annual. I always go for the shocking pink, almost red variety. The distinctive geranium smell is full of memories.  I should tell you about that some time.

I hope your weekend is wonderful.  Ours is off to a good start.  Dinner cooked entirely in the new kitchen and margaritas to boost!

I pick up the paring knife, its shape fits my hand.  Blue cardboard quarts sit on the counter to my right and the colander is in the empty sink waiting to be filled.  I pick up the first berry.  With a quick twist of the blade, it's little green top is detached and dropped.  It sits on the bottom of the big white sink looking brighter somehow.  The plump, red strawberry is placed in the strainer, waiting to be joined by all the others.  I reach for the next berry without thinking.  Quick twist, dropped top, berry plopped. I find my rhythm immediately.  It's a familiar task - one I don't think much about until now.

I make fast work of the first quart and half of the second one.  After a quick rinse, I lay the berries on some paper towels to dry.  I sample one.  It's perfect - sweet, juicy, not too ripe.  Although dinner is in a short while, I help myself to a few more.  With each bite, I taste summer.  I'm immediately in central Wisconsin, some June day around the age of seven or eight.  I walk outside my grandparents' house and pick strawberries for breakfast, eating one for every couple berries that make their way in to the wooden box.  The sun is shining on my shoulders, warm but not yet too hot.  There isdirt under my toes, turning my white sandals brown.  I bend over again and examine the plants.  I lift the leaves, find the gems and pick them.  Two in the box, one in the mouth.

"Mom!"  Her voice brings me back to the task at hand.  "Would you like a strawberry?" I ask.  She grabs one readily.  I take another one for myself.  I look down at her face and she's smiling.  "These are soooo good," she says.  "They are, aren't they?" I reply.  She nods and grabs two more before she skips out the kitchen door, yelling for her sister to wait up.  I plop another berry in my mouth - it's just as sweet as the first one.  I could keep eating, but I make myself stop so I can fix dinner.  The truth is I could skip the meal all together.  The days are growing longer and I am anxious for the stretch of carefree days ahead of us.  Only four days of school remain and the calendar says May, but itmight as well be June.  For me, summer always starts with the strawberries.

We're busy putting stuff back into the kitchen.  I'll be back here with the book winner and probably something else later this week. Take care.

I recently received a copy of Kaffe Fassett's Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts from STC Craft/Melanie Falick Books.  Kaffe and his co-author, Liza Prior Lucy, have put together 23 quilt patterns that all come from simple shapes just like the title suggests.  Squares, circles, triangles, rectangles, diamonds and quarter circles are used with color to come up with fresh variations on traditional quilt squares and patterns.

Kaffe and Liza explain how they choose a pattern:

We are in love with traditionalquilts. Weboth admire and collect them. The repetition of shape in block form issoappealing. Most of the time we use a traditional quilt pattern to startwith.We browse books of antique quilts and examine antique tops and quilts invendorbooths at quilt festivals.  

Sometimes we find an antiquetextile formthat is not a quilt but we think would be easily adaptable to piecing orapplique. For example, in the new book, Simple Shapes SpectacularQuilts, thereis a quilt called Haze Kilim. This pattern was derived from a KilimCarpet. Youcan find a very similar form in American Native woven textiles.

Our interest is mainly inplaying withcolor to see how we can take those traditional patterns and bring theminto themodern world. We tend to choose patterns that are not terribly tricky orcomplicated. Large scale printed fabrics are what we use most and thatkind offabric doesn't usually lend itself to tiny piecing. 

........

There are so many gorgeous quilts in this book!  I'm particularly smitten with Stripescape.  At first glance this quilt looks quite complicated, but once I took a closer look, I was amazed at how simple these rectangles of striped fabrics really are.

Another favorite of mine is the Not-So-Lone Star.  I love seeing a traditional quilt re-done in a fresh, modern palette.

To learn more about Kaffe Fassett's Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts, check out the Quilt-Along that STC Craft is hosting.  There is a free pdf download of the Yellow Potpourri quilt pattern as well.  Other stops on the blog tour are as follows: 

May 3: Quilt-A-Long Begins! http://www.melaniefalickbooks.com 

May 6: Review http://to-be-charmed.com

May 7:  Kaffe and Liza’s Top Ten Quilting Blogs http://quilting.craftgossip.com

May 10: Review and “Liza Lucy Stories!” http://goknitinyourhat.blogspot.com

May 11: Podcast Interview with Kaffe and Liza http://www.PatSloan.com

May 13: How the "Kaffe Fassett Collective" designs together http://whipup.net

May 14: Choosing Colors www.knitgrrl.com   

May 17: Art vs. Craft http://www.thisisloveforever.com

May 18: The Question of Dabbling http://www.yarnstorm.blogs.com

May 19: Choosing Patterns http://www.houseonhillroad.com

May 20: Interview http://sewmamasew.com

May 21: Review http://www.ohbara.com

May 25: Review http://usineurope.typepad.com

May 26: Review http://www.alabamachanin.com/journal

May 27: Why a Design Wall andReducing Glass http://thelastpiece.typepad.com 

May 28: Interview: Tradition Today http://www.materialobsession.typepad.com

May 31: Interview http://thelongthread.com

June 1: Kaffe and Liza's Quilt-A-Long http://www.melaniefalickbooks.com 

June 2: Review http://quiltersbuzz.com

June 3: Quilt-A-Long Sharing http://blog.fatquarterly.com

June 4: Review http://www.trueup.net

June 7: Review http://bemused.typepad.com

........

I have one copy of the book available to giveaway.  You know how it goes....leave a comment on this post before Friday, May 21 at 12 noon EST for your chance to win.

Just popping in to say hello.  I've had to be away from home for a little while so my kids clothing update will be in a few days.  Tomorrow another book author will be stopping in.  Speaking of which, the winner of Handmade Beginnings by Anna Maria Horner is Jennifer H. (#228).  Congratulations Jennifer! I'll email you for your shipping address.

Until tomorrow, take care.

The first time I saw Anna Maria Horner's fabrics, I was blown away.  Her patterns are fresh, the colors saturated and fresh.  Each time she comes out with a new fabric line, I am equally bowled over.  She always manages to out do herself.  For us, that is a very good thing.  Her newest book, Handmade Beginnings, is wonderful addition to any craft book library.  While the book focuses on 24 sewing projects to welcome baby, it is more than that.  I love that it is so versatile!  I asked Anna Maria a few questions and I am excited to share our chat with you.

E:  First, congratulations! I really like your new book. 

AM:  Thanks, I'm so gladyou like it!

thank you notebook

E:  It has a wide range of projects and they are all so cute.  Whatimpressedme the most is that this book is great for new parents and it's stillfantastic for those of us who don't have babies at home.  How did youcome up with such versatile projects?

AM:  Well as I wrote the book I was going throughthe very motions of both expectinga baby and also wanting to provide for the rest of the family. A new baby is aperfect time tonot only make goods for the new one and for the mama, but its really acelebratory time in your life when you can do a sort of preparing yourhome (also known as nesting!).  I think of it as sort of like preparingfor company.  You might spend some time on what your new guest willneed, but also make sure everyone else in your family is provided for.  Iam just very lucky to have my own big family as inspiration.  The keythings I asked myself with everyproject idea though is, would I make this for someone else, or is thisstill useful or beautiful even when not expecting a baby?  So if I couldanswer yes to one or both of those questions, then it passed the project test:)

E:  I really like that you talk about your color choicesfor each project.  Why did you want to write these color notes?

AM:  I provide the colornotes with the hope that it provides insight into how I put thingstogether, which seems to be one of the more popular questions that Iget.  I did this also in Seams to Me, bc I really want the reader tofeel like they're right there next to me in the studio, flipping throughpiles of fabrics and hearing some color/design logic behind mycomposition decisions.  I think its just that little something extra forreaders to feel involved in the process and therefore, hopefully, moreinspired about theirown fabric selection.

swaddled baby love

E:  It's great that you includeprojects for siblings and even Dad.  And everything in your book ispractical and beautiful,too.  Do you think having a large family influenced the way youapproached Handmade Beginnings?

AM:  Asmentioned above, most definitely!  I have thought before how differentthis book would be if it were written during my first pregnancy, or even duringthe third pregnancy!  Every pregnancy is different and each one hasbeen a beautiful time, with a new wisdom all its own.  For mepersonally, I feel like I've really come to appreciate not only what anew baby brings to mom and dad, but I have watched and marveled at howit transforms the family as a unit and its left me in awe.  I wantedthere to be a project for each and every need, detail, sibling,relationship and nook that a baby transforms simply by arriving.  Andone book can't do it all, but I certainly hope that it provides astarting point and lots of home& heart centered inspiration.

center of attention quilt

E:  Thanks, Anna Maria!

AM:  Thank you so much forsuch thoughtful questions, and I am in love with your Sixth Times theCharm Quilt!!  Beautiful job and you didn't even have to have 6 kids tomake it.  Good thinking!  Have a great weekend all! 

........

I'm giving away 2 copies of Handmade Beginnings! For a chance to win, leave a comment on this post before Monday, May 17 at 3 pm EST.  Wiley Publishing is also running a drawing for 1 SINGER® Confidence™ 7470 sewingmachine, 5 yards of Anna Maria Horner fabric, a copy of the book HandmadeBeginnings:24 Sewing Projects to Welcome Baby. Details andhow to enter can be found here.  Finally, you can read much more about this great book by following Anna Maria on her blog tour.

May3      Craft

May4      Indie Fixx

May5      Sew MamaSew

May6      PinkChalk Studio

May10    WiseCraft

May14    House onHill Road

May16    The Purl Bee

May18    AllButtonedUp

May19    Alabama Chanin Journal

May20    HomemadebyJill

May21    True Up

May22    Oh, Fransson!

May23    Prudent Baby

May24    SewLiberated

May25    HandmadebyAlissa

May26    Hazelnuts

May27    PetitePurls

........

Enjoy your weekend.

Well, day three didn't go so well.  The girls didn't end up with their skirts.  I was too busy working on something else.

I was hoping to have the entire quilt finished by tomorrow, but I am going to settle for the quilt top.  Please come back tomorrow.  Anna Maria Horner is stopping by for a quick chat about her new book, Handmade Beginnings.  If that isn't enough in itself, there's a giveaway, too.

Back with more kids' clothes on Saturday.

I mentioned yesterday that this was more challenge and less clothes.  Well, I have myself to blame for that.

First, I should mention that I am not spending much more than an hour working on these clothes each day.  That includes pressing and cutting fabric as well as the sewing.  I have another project in the works and it is taking up a good amount of my free time.  Second, it is difficult for me to sew for my kids and then have to wait until they wake up or get home from school to try things on.  I want to finish these things on my schedule and having to adapt to theirs is a bit frustrating.  It may sound silly, but it's true.  Finally, for this little number, I didn't use a pattern.  I made it up.  Like I said, I am at fault.

Jane chose the fabric from my stash.  It's a Lecien print that I've had for a few years and I didn't think I would have enough to make this, but I barely did.  The red straps and red bit at the bottom were design choices by Jane.  She definitely has an opinion and really thinks she can design (thank you, Project Runway).  Anyhow, the band at the top is faced and is a weird shape.  This band is the third version I drafted and it still has problems.  Jane's ok with it and therefore so am I.  I will fix it for Kate's top, though.

I do like how the back turned out.  The top has a small casing with elastic so it gathers naturally and helps keep the top in place without being fitted.  I think it could be equally as good with a few close rows of shirring.  I may try that on Kate's.

We needed to add something to the bottom of the shirt to get a little more length because we didn't have enough bird fabric.  I suggested sewing a band of red at the bottom, but Jane came up with the idea of layering the two fabrics.  I think it's a charming hem and a great example of how details can really make a garment sing.  I'm glad the idea was Jane's.  I bet she'll actually wear the shirt seeing as how she helped design it.

Up next, some super simple skirts.  And have you been to the flickr group?  AMAZING.  I'm blown over every time I visit.