The first Cute skirt

This is the first Cute Skirt I made.
The one I said was poofy in the back. I thought about reworking the skirt by ripping out all those stitched and zig zagged seams, But the thought of all that ripping and reworking waistbands was more work than I wanted to do. So I ripped open the casing in the back, leaving it sewn to the skirt. Pulled the elastic out of the way and just restitched the 4 back seams starting about a foot below the waist tapering in until the seams were about 1/4" smaller at the waistband. Then I just continued sewing through the waistband fabric to decrease its length as well. You can not even see it in the gathers. I pinned the waistband back in place then while stretching out the elastic, sewed the casing closed.

Now I have 2 cute Cute Skirts.

The batting thief

Often when I am making a quilt and there is batting exposed I feel a tug from the other side of the table and see a fast moving object go by trailing white fuzz. Other times I might be working on a quilt related project and have pieces of wool batting laying around in places that I think are safe from small roving beasts. Next thing I know my pile has shrunk.

Abby has a crate that she keeps all her toys in and anything she finds of interest. It is usually filled with napkins and batting that she shreds into fluffy clouds. I wonder if chihuahuas have squirrel in their lineage.

My sister memed me: 7 things that rock

making art of any kind
new art supplies to play with
sisters and good friends who also get excited about making art

the blogosphere (more art, craft, knitting, & friends)

having a really great book to read or listen to while making art
scrumptious yarn and a new knitting project
warm oatmeal scones with dried cherries and chocolate and a cuppa earl grey with cream

The cutest Cute Skirt

I adore this skirt. It is from the Cute Skirts pattern and made with Heather Bailey's gorgeous fabric.


I made a Cute skirt before this one. I haven't posted a picture of it because I was not happy with the fit. I made the size according to my waist and hip measurements on the package. It came out kind of poofy in the back. I went to the flicker skirt group that Kristin at Sew Mama Sew mentioned to me the other day on my other skirt post and lo and behold someone else had made this skirt and had the same problem. She recommended going down a size. I did that with this skirt and voila, a fabulously cute skirt with no poof.

Open house in CPS

My Open House book is in Cloth Paper Scissors this month in the mixed media accordion book challenge "It's Home Grown" article.



This is a great issue. I loved seeing Juju Vail's board book that she had just showed a glimpse of on her blog. Reading Anna Maria Horner's artist profile was fun. Kelli Perkins gorgeous paper beads that she was making at the Chicago Quilt festival are featured. An interview with Susan Taylor Glasgow who makes the wonderful sewn glass pieces. And lots of great mixed media work, I could go on and on. It really is a terrific issue.

The first skirt

This is the Emily skirt, and the great fabric came from Sew Mama Sew.This is a fairly easy pattern. The pleats worked out great with this particular print. I was able to get the stripe to fall right into the pleat. The one change I will make the next time I make this skirt is to face the whole yoke. As it is now the facing only comes down halfway in the yoke underneath. This would be fine if I had the lithe body of my youth, but now I have a few bumps and soft spots around the middle that are not as well hidden by that short facing.

Another Chicago Antique Market

Many years ago in Junior College I made posters for the campus events on a letterpress using type just like this. If only I appreciated using it then as much as I would now.










My latest apron finds.
I adore this little black and red one, so Spanish looking. It looks adorable on my daughter Nina with her Latina coloring.

I could not resist this one, having spent 20 years of my life in California.