Nightgowns Completed

Ready for the girls to try on next time they come down.

I’ve changed my mind about my next project. I have 5 yards of a crinkly polyester in a splashy “vacation” print – has sort of a Mediterranean look. I bought it back in the late eighties when we were all wearing those windbreakers and pants made out of crinkly nylon. I think my plans were to make a jacket. Not interested in that now but the fabric is so light that I think it might be good for a backpack from Butterick 4147. The pattern calls for interfacing so it should be sturdy enough. That would use up a little over a yard and I could use the rest to make supermarket bags from Butterick 5338.

Suddenly our tomatoes are ripening like crazy. Looks like gazpacho this weekend!

Back to Garment Sewing

for a little while anyway. Yesterday and today I worked on the summer nightgowns for the girls. They are all finished except for a bit of topstitching. I busted 4.5 yards of garment fabric making these. That makes a total of 6.25 yards out of the almost 400 yards in my stash. I think my next project will be a shell-type blouse for myself. I have lots of printed rayon for practicing until I get the fit just right. That should take care of several yards right there.

This is the pattern I used, view 2 for both. The copyright date is 1983 but the style is still a good one. It was originally purchased at Beverly Fabrics in San Jose, but not by me. In 1983 my daughters were well past sizes 7-10 and I don’t think I ever visited that particular fabric store anyway. I must have bought it at a yard sale or a thrift shop sometime after my granddaughters were born. Don’t we wish patterns still were priced like this one?

I’m still knitting on the 2009 Anniversary Shawl. I’m on the Clue 5 which is the final clue and have only about 12 rows to go. Of course each row has over 500 stitches which means I can only do a couple of rows in an evening. That’s if what we are watching on TV isn’t overly exciting, causing me to make a mistake which involves counting, ripping back, or, worst of all, frogging to the lifeline. That’s the white line several rows from the bottom – actually it’s unwaxed dental floss. The little green things are 1/4” lengths of drinking straws being used as stitch markers. We really believe in recycling/reusing around here. I use different colors for marking different sections of the pattern.

There is no border on this shawl, and no grafting to be done. So when the final stitch is in, I can block it and it’s finished! Not to count my chickens before the eggs hatch, but this will be the first lace shawl I’ve ever completed. Then I can start finishing up the other three lace wips.

Where Has the Time Gone?

Summer is almost half over and I don’t feel as if I’ve accomplished even a tenth of what I had planned. I don’t know where the hours go.

This sunflower is one of at least a dozen that popped up as volunteers this spring. I don’t remember ever planting sunflowers in the backyard, so they must have come from birdseed. I hate to pull up volunteers if I know what they are, but next year I’m going to have to get ruthless and yank them out as soon as I see them. Most of the plants are single but this one just keeps putting out the blossoms.

The tomatoes are finally starting to produce. Not enough to make Gazpacho yet but I haven’t had to buy tomatoes for over two weeks now. I’m thinking about Panzanella for dinner tomorrow. We have some leftover Pugliese bread from Costco that should be perfect for it. The amazing zucchini plant has now given us at least 5 dozen fruits, ranging from 4-5 inches to “too big for stuffing even.” I haven’t let many get big because this is the absolutely best zucchini I’ve ever grown. The plant came from a nursery in San Carlos and was part of the batch of plants our son gave me for Mother’s Day. The label said it was an heirloom variety called “Romanesco” but it doesn’t look much like the photos I’ve found online.

I planted a six-pack each of lemon cucumbers and Armenian cucumbers. However, the Armenian must have been mislabeled because we now have twelve lemon cucumber plants, each producing what seems like several fruits a day. I swear, you lift up a branch and the cucumbers are growing in clusters, like grapes only a lot bigger. Thank goodness they are so good – we are eating two or three a day and have been able to find takers for the rest.

I didn’t get any beans planted this year although we do have some volunteers that sprouted from last year’s crop. I think I might try to get a small batch in next week if I can find the space. The moon is waxing which means it’s a good time to plant beans. I’ve never tried planting by the phases of the moon but I’ve always wanted to experiment with it.

The Husband picked our first apple this evening – no photo because he ate it too quickly. It was an Early Summer Red according to the label. There are several more that look ready, so I’ll probably try one tomorrow.

The Blenheim apricots were very small this year. I think we should have thinned them. Also probably should have pruned them last winter. I checked a book on pruning fruit trees out of the library this week. It appears to have a lot of information on the kinds of trees we are growing, so maybe we can improve our harvests.

Our friends brought us a box of their wonderful Blenheim apricots a couple of weeks ago, so I tried making jam for the first time in many years. This is the first batch. A few days later I found a recipe for Apricot Riesling Jam and decided to try it. I didn’t have any Riesling but I did have 1/2 cup of Grand Marnier so I used that. I got 2 small jars and a bit extra from that batch. We had a little of the extra over some vanilla ice cream the other night and it was pure heaven.

I’ve rearranged my sewing room again and now have room for a cutting table. It’s so nice not to have to use the dining room table when I want to cut something. All this is so that I can make GD1 and GD2 summer nightgowns. I’ve been planning this for weeks and was just about to put it off until next year. But when I asked one of them if that was okay, she said she would really like to have it this year and it didn’t matter that summer is half over, she could wear summer pjs all year, no problem. After that, I couldn’t not make them.

Some quilting has been going on this summer. Big Busted and the twin-size POM are ready to baste. I pieced the back of the POM quilt, so that took longer. I’m going to try the Sharon Schamber method of basting. I’ve read some good reviews on my Yahoo quilting groups. I’ll probably try it on a catnapper first.