Five Green Acres

Hello friends.  For two weeks now I’ve been vacillating on the sick/well see-saw, fighting a cold with rest and fluids, feeling a tad better; overexerting.  I’ve got all kinds of projects to show you, made in the ‘overexerting’ portion of the past couple of weeks, but first I’d like to mention a very important upcoming event for those of you within spitting distance.

Where? Madison Masonic Center, 301 Wisconsin Ave, Madison WI

I will be participating again this year, selling the remains of my organic cotton baby clothing inventory as well as a smattering of handmade gifts for children and whatever else I can whip out of the studio this weekend.  If you’re in the area, do stop by and fill your Christmas list with handmade goodies and be sure to say hi!

A pile of baby sized yoga pants in the works, to be lovingly paired with stray organic onesies and topped with a bow.

Rock domino sets in progress, a Martha project, first seen on Elsie Marley.   Why is there a toothbrush?  Anyone?  Isadora?

Will there be time to make and assemble mitten kits?  We’ll see.  You can bet on a Sweater Mitten tutorial hitting these blog pages early next week.

And now, lest I tip the scales too far to the “sick” side of this nasty see-saw, I’m off to rehydrate. And pack up the kids and ship them to Grandma’s.

These five green acres have been a flurry of activity lately.  Sewing, sowing, serging, printing…baby giggling, pebble collecting, sandbox playing, rummage sale-ing…flock decimation, flock defending, reality checking.  Details to come, I assure you.

To begin:  printing.

I was reminded of my desire to try my hand at block printing by the luscious printing at Maya*Made.  Go ahead and check it out  – I dare you to not be similarly inspired to try it yourself.  Whiney aside:  It is so hard to read these fantastically crafty and inspiring blogs day after day and not want to duplicate each and every awesome thing I see.  Sometimes I triumph and come up with an idea purely my own; other times I succumb to the inspiration, creating my own designs from the very fertile soil laid down by another crafty soul.  This is one such time.

So here are the facts:

Due to overwhelming inspiration, block printing is now compulsory.

The sandhill cranes have returned from their wintering to their familiar soft spot in my heart, begging for some sort of artistic tribute.

Our shower curtain, inherited with the house, has become so foul and offensive to the senses (nose and eyes and touch) that even Andrew speaks up.  He’s usually much more tolerant of these things than I.

Hemp canvas is ordered, chosen for its amazing antibacterial properties.  The hope is to avoid using a disgust-o vinyl liner while simultaneously keeping the mold count down.  Fingers are crossed; we’ll let you know if it works.

This is the outcome.  Delicious.

Block printing is rather addicting, it turns out.  Feeling the love of the white on blue, I made a handful of prints on linen which are on their way to my etsy shop.  I also ordered a box full of assorted blocks to carve other images into, so I’ll be using all of my available restraint to keep from pouncing on the FedEx delivery truck this week.

I’m totally hooked.

Oh, where do I start?  I’ve been so busy making.  And making and making and making.  This urge to sew has consumed me, almost entirely, leaving me no choice but to Make my way out.  So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing, embracing the mysterious, almost-primal force that is this baby’s gift to me.

Flannel baby wipes.  We use cloth diapers, very happily, and it follows to also use cloth wipes.  (In my humble opinion, there is nothing nicer for a sweet little butt than warm flannel wipes soaking in this.)  We did the same for Isadora, of course, but those wipes are now in the cleaning rag bin, necessitating a fresh batch for the sweet butt soon to emerge.  This project loomed over me for some time, hulking in its importance and urgency, but requiring that I get reacquainted with my serger.  For those of you not familiar with sergers, I’ll just say that they are big, scary, fancy sewing machines with two needles and four big cones of thread to do specialized sewing tricks.  They are finicky, unpredictable, mysterious in their operations, at least in my experience.  And temperamental.  But, much like a wild horse that has been broken, gaining a mastery over her will open up previously-unimagined horizons and will take you there with deftness and great speed.  So I sat down, communed with my own serger, rethreaded her, did a mysterious chant with crossed fingers and a hearty dose of optimism and fired her up.  Success!  Wipes are done.  And then I promptly broke my needle, so the serger has retired to the corral to be rethreaded at a later date.

Most definitely NOT urgent was this project that I just had to whip out to satisfy the Instant-Gratification Genie that sometimes pops up and demands results.  Isadora and I found this pillow on a thrifting adventure and it shouted, “Book Bag!” so I had no choice but to fufill the request.  It sat on my cutting table amidst the other, more legitimate pre-baby projects and I just couldn’t take the whining from it any longer, so it jumped to the front of the line with glee.

Whew.  “Good riddance,” muttered the other queued projects in my studio, as it left on the shoulders of Isadora, off to be filled with random, colorful things.

Oh!  Remember this, from the other day?

Here’s what was inside:

It’s a Mei Tai, a pouch-like baby carrier that is greatly esteemed in our house.  It ties around the waist and over the shoulders and can comfortably hold a baby or toddler leaving your hands free to do anything you wish.  We love our own mei tai and I’ve assumed a sort of missionary status in promoting them to others.  This was made from an Ikea pillow cover that I’d been saving just for this purpose.  The blooms are felted wool circles and the straps are made from a roll of upholstery fabric I was bequeathed recently.

Let’s now venture over to the rocking chair.  I had great intentions of sewing a new cover for the cushion that came with the chair, so I threw it in the washer to get all the dusties out and make it ready to go for that time in the future when I’d tackle the project.  I had not planned on that time coming so urgently, but it emerged from the washer and drier in shambles and fluffed to about 10 times its pre-washed size.  All of the cushy stuffing that had laid so nicely was now fluffed and balled up and freaking out, creating a big, big problem.  Rocking is an important part of my day.  I foresee it to be an important coping strategy while in early labor.  Damn.  With a new sense of urgency and panic, I hit the fabric store to figure out a plan for making a new cushion.  I returned with some foam and quilt batting and used a beautiful thrifted coverlet for the new covering, stapling it all to the underside of the base.  It’s lovely and looks great in the kitchen, but this Princess can detect a pea under there, or at least the hard, unyielding wooden base.  It will definitely need more robust cushioning, but at a later date, please.  For now, this will suffice; I’m running out of steam.

Back to the subject of sweet little baby butts…

Our little baby’s butt will need some salve to keep it so sweet and soft and protected, so clearly a balm-making session was in order.  We are big, big fans of LuSa Organic’s Booty Balm and used it judiciously on Isadora’s own sweet butt.  Of course we still are big, big fans of the Booty Balm, but I’ve since gained a chest full of herbs and oils and know-how.  Mix that with this stubborn dictum to Make it Myself and a prevailing Nesting wind and the outcome is a lovely salve of my own hand, sure to keep the most stubborn of rashes at bay.  Should you have your own baby butt to protect, do run out now to LuSa’s beautiful website and check out the other delights.  We’ll be replenishing our Wipe Juice just as soon as it runs out.

And that shall conclude our tour for today.  Not because it encompasses all that I have recently made, but because it is all I have the energy to report on right now.  And likely all you have the energy to read about right now.  Tomorrow, I’ll unveil my crowning achievement, the most ambitious, off-the-cuff, no-pattern sewing project I’ve ever tackled (and conquered) to date.  Ooh – aren’t you excited???

These are dried apricots. Aren't they beautiful?

I’ve been having some trouble getting to sleep in the past few weeks.  All signs point to the crazy-hormonal-overload that’s preparing my body and mind to hold my brand-new baby, a baby that’s likely to be nocturnal if my new sleep patterns are any indication.  It would be lovely to give in to the new tide and relinquish my desire to fall asleep at a reasonable time, but there’s that matter of the First Child, as she’s soon to be known, the one who’s not operating in a nocturnal time zone.  Also of concern is the possibility of going into labor at the tail end of an exhausting day, before first recharging with some sleep.  So I’m fighting it, and trying instead to find ways to regain control of the wheel, at least while I have the option of a full night’s sleep, punctuated of course by a handful of bathroom breaks.  In my aresenal you’ll find herbal tea – an aromatic chamomile and lavender blend spiked with Scullcap tincture, but this is only useful if I remember to drink it earlier in the evening, lest I add more bathroom breaks to the already-full nighttime schedule.  There’s also light exercise, which sounds like a great idea but again really requires some forethought.  At the end of the day, the mere act of climbing the stairs is utterly exhausting.  A warm bath is also reputed to be good for this type of thing, but our tub is less than hygienic right now and cleaning it requires a bending-over maneuver that is physically out of the question, thanks to This Belly.

At the heart of the problem, I’ve learned, is the challenge of quieting my mind.  It’s as if my pregnant body has transformed my creative reception from AM frequencies to HD, with so many more channels and a remarkably improved sound quality.  (I don’t have an HD radio, and you already know we’ve turned off our TV, but the analogy seems reasonable nonetheless)  My mind is reeling, constantly, with ideas and creativity and to-do lists that rise up and spill over the banks of my consciousness.  Through the course of this pregnancy, I’ve come to know this little one as my Renaissance Baby, as I’ve entered in a period of prolific Making that I never would have fathomed possible before.  And it’s wonderful.  A gift.  Timely.  And useful for this phase of making-a-home.  But really, really hard to shut off when needed.  So I’ve found that the very best weapon in my arsenal is a blank book by the bed to download some of the data from this overactive mind before turning off the lights.  Naturally, it’s a book of lists.  On the first night, I filled four pages with project ambitions, some needing completion before Baby’s arrival and some more lofty in scope.  And I slept.  Step 1 accomplished.  Step 2, I quickly realized, was completing as many of the tasks as my very limited energy supply would permit during the waking hours, so that I could cross them off the list at night during the next download. This creates quite an opportunity for Show and Tell, doesn’t it?  Here are some of the more photogenic graduates of The List.

Kitchen Table gets a new outfit.  Thrifted placemats lose their tassel edge trim and gain a fresh red and white polka-dot edge.  I made the bias tape edging with my handy Clover Bias Tape Maker, which I adore, from fabric formerly constructed as a blouse, also thrifted.  The napkins were cut from a vintage tablecloth I had stashed away for just that purpose, and are a collection of eight.  Eight napkin edges are a lot to press and sew, I learned, when in the midst of crazy-fast-get-it-done-now sewing.  So boring.

No doubt this project will facilitate the new-baby bonding period fast approaching, just like the kitchen pantry I was compelled to rearrange and scrub on a whim last week will be duly noted and appreciated by Baby.  Clearly, the intensity and diligence and explosive creativity is there in this frenzy, but rationality and practicality are most definitely not.  The funny part is that I can see this irrationality clearly, as I’m plowing ahead, calling Andrew to tell him that I will not indeed be making supper because this particular project must get done and I can’t possibly stop now.  I can see clearly that supper is pretty important too, and that in no way will the quality of baby’s life be affected by a better organized pantry, but I’m completely powerless to stop.  I laugh as I ask Andrew to pick up something on his way home to bail me out, but my hands are tied.  He has a good sense of humor, so it all works out.

A reorganized pantry begets a new rug for the pugs’ food and water dishes, of course.  Clever me, as I pulled out the most boring of the rag balls inherited last summer and saved myself the trouble of cutting my own.  There was not quite enough to make it to the end of my row, so I spliced in some leftover red from our bathroom rug, giving it a surprise burst of color and a Red Herring persona.

So this one is a tad more baby-related.  These are sachets for Baby’s dresser drawers.  Never mind that the clothing to go into the drawers is in a mixed-up heap on the spare bed, most of it with spit-up stains 3 1/2 year old, waiting to be sorted, spot-cleaned, rewashed, then put into the drawers.  Never mind that.  It’s all on the list, but first things first.  Sachets.  Filled with lavender.  Sewn from a pack of fabric squares I thought I liked but then decided I really only thought of as acquaintances and besides – what was I going to make from a bunch of matchy-matchy 5″ squares of fabric anyways?!?  Sachets.

Then there is This.  It’s a gift for a friend who just had a baby, and it’s at this moment sitting in a box by the front door waiting to be shipped out.  I’m afraid I can’t show you what’s inside until it arrives safe and sound, lest I spoil the surprise.  I can tell you, however, that the polka-dot drawstring is left over from the placemat project, so it could be argued that it was necessary to complete that project, seemingly random in its urgency, in order to complete this project, of critical urgency.  Aha!

And now, I hope to cross off one more thing in today’s To Do agenda:  Blog.

Maybe a good night’s sleep is just around the corner.  Please?