Tova Top: Plaid Lawn

My 2nd Tova Top from Wiksten  (you can see the 1st here) . The fabric is a sheer Marc Jacobs cotton voile from Mood. The size is a large with no alterations to the size (I'm 5'7 with a 36D chest) I only shortened the sleeves . I underlined it in an also sheer white batiste (scroll down to see the garment from the inside). I love this top. love it! I wasn't so sure about the 1st one I made but I really like it now and wear it often. 

I did the front yoke (?) on the bias and underlined it in the same plaid on the bias.  That was a tough decision and I had to google it but didn't have much luck finding advice on that topic (underlining or even just lining something on the bias and whether the lining should also be on the bias..or not). I did them both bias and love it. It worked great and has been washed several times and the yoke has not gone wonky or stretched out. I used that quilting basting spray stuff to keep my underlined fabric stuck to my outside fabric so it wouldn't shift while sewing.

The top inside out. 

The majority of the top is underlined in batiste. The sleeves are not lined at all and the yoke is underlined in the same plaid.

Below is an embroidery I did ages ago. It's a combination of a black apple drawing and an embroidery pattern (the frame/vines) from Sadie & Oliver on Etsy.

Going back to Cali..

I really cannot believe I have not blogged once this December until now. I have a really good reason though. We are moving back to San Diego in about 3 weeks! Jon will go to Korea for a year while me and the girls will live in our hometown then after that year who knows? Germany again? D.C. area? Who knows! It has been the worst move ever for us and soooooooo draining emotionally and $$ and about to be physically when they come pack up our 16 thousand pounds of fabric household goods:) Never ever move during Christmas. We got our orders the day after Christmas and have to be out of here by mid January. Nice huh?  It's a long story but to sum it up, we have been trying to get our orders since before October.

*below is our Christmas Cards from this year*

What have we been doing? Visiting friends back in Stuttgart, 

Kelly from my old work. She's one of the last from the original group of girls still working there.

Below is our friends from Stuttgart also. Jayery and Andreas. Jayery babysat Emily from about 1 month to about 3 years and Ava a little bit. And Andreas was Jons roommate in the Barracks before I arrived in Germany. We will miss them.

A lot of embroidery that I need to photograph. This was the perfect craft project to take outside and do while hanging out with my friends. We put my swing in the garage and sit there every single day at 2 with coffee. It's awesome and I will really really miss them.

one day of snow

Just a cute photo of the girls titled "the unsuspecting bathers".

Sewing little stuff to keep me busy while we waited for orders and our house was already half in boxes. The movers are supposed to do this but I'm a little anxious to get this done so I started boxing stuff at the end of October. 

Got this knitter for Emily but really I enjoy it more. It just makes these tubes but I'm so anxious and uptight lately that it's nice to do this while watching t.v.

Got this super cool wolf-eating-granny at Ikea

And Mendocino Feathers! I made 3 large ones and 3 small ones.  I have made other things but all the motivation has left me for now. I just want to get this move over. Not anxious to leave Germany and all we've known for the last 10 years but anxious to get on with my life and get Jon back from Korea. I want to blog again and sew and all that good stuff. I might show up again with stuff I've done over the last couple of months or you might not see me again till I'm in California!

Tree Carving

An embroidered pillow for my sister and her husbands Anniversary. 

Happy Anniversary Steve and Julia!

I completely copied this idea from this seller on etsy. I was going to have this seller custom make one for my sister but since I sew and embroider I wanted it to be made by me. I think this makes an excellent anniversary or wedding present so if you don't sew, you can have this seller make one and the price is not bad at all! I will eventually buy this other pattern  to make a "family tree" for us.

The fabric is linen and completely (front and back) interfaced with iron-on interfacing. I used prepackaged brown piping and pearl cotton embroidery floss. It also has a zipper at the bottom so you can take the pillow from out and wash it. The pillow measures 16"x16" (the middle panel measures 8"x10").

And above is a picture of it on her bed! Correction: above is a picture of it on the wonderfully beautiful spectacular quilt I made her! Toot Toot!

Tschüß when you leave not when you enter

I'm writting this post only becasue it hit me today that I only have 3 weeks left in Stuttgart before we move to Schweinfurt (above). Stuttgart is all I know, meaning it feels like home and like I've been here forever not just 7 years. I'm scared and most of all I'm sad about leaving my friends. I currently have some people in my life who mean so much to me. Friends who are irreplaceable. Who have inspired me and make me happy and I love them to death. I had better stop before I start crying!

*embroidery from badbird on etsy
I have only been cleaning and getting rid of stuff so the crafting has been small. I've nothing to show...except some stuff I bought and some inspiration. I got the above and below embroidery pattern for my airplane ride home but sadly I was just so tired and worn out from Ava that I didn't do one bit of embroidery the whole 3 weeks.

*embroidery from polkaandbloom

I want these portraits below baaad. Except they would be of me, Jon, Emily & Ava. But I'm not so sure about one of Jon. He shaves his head. I can't imagine it looking good. All you would see is skin. I'm laughing just imagining it!

*Custom Silhouette Prints by ellothere on etsy

How cool is this soap?!

*soap from hellocrafty on etsy


I sooo wish I could wear headbands. Not only do they give me headaches but this particular kind (stretchy) won't stay on my head. I just don't have a big enough bump at the base of my skull to hold them on. I'm guessing that's why. This is so cute. I hope I can get Emily or Ava to wear headbands.

* headband from lindsayharmony on etsy

This shirt screams Nicolas Allen!! And Emily.

*shirt from rockrivertees on etsy
**

Tschüss means "bye" in German. When I first got here, Jenny B was my first friend. She has 3 kids and her youngest would say Tschuss when we'd leave a store. I kept thinking she was just making a weird sound (like kids do) but it turns out it's really a word! Can you say Ra-Tard? But in my defense I had just moved to Germany! It reminds of this one time on Friends...when someone (who Kelly? Christina Appelgate, Rachels sister?) thought someone else was just making a weird sound when that person was actually saying Phoebe. Something like that. Does anyone remember that episode?Or did non of that makes sense?

*

And just to clear up what my post title means (becasue i haven't already written enough and bored everyone to death) it has to do with my brother-in-law Steve. When he visited in 2008, we was saying tschüss when he'd enter a store. We didn't know he was doing this until we saw it once. It was so freaking funny telling him that you say it when you leave not as a greeting. It's like walking in to a store and saying to everyone "bye!". He said, "oh, that's why I was getting funny looks!". It can still make me laugh.
Anyone else experiance a language Faux pas that's either embarrasing or funny?

Goodbye Kee-na:(

My good bye gift to Corinnea. Pattern is Wig Wonderfuls from here.

Isn't she fabulous?? The hair is Anna maria Horner voile, appliqued. I had to use polyester ribbon for the ribbon embroidery becasue I didn't have any silk ribbon at the time.

Monday me and the girls spent time with Corinnea, Mary A. and Nicolas.

Corinnea & Emily.
After letting the kids play, eating really good food and talking about men, we said our goodbyes. I will see her one last time tonight though.

Corinnea & Ava.

Corinnea will leave for the States while I am visiting my family. So this is it:(

Sony ebook

My new toy!! It's a Sony Reader Digital Book with touch screen (PRS700BC). I am a VOROCIOUS reader! I just wanted to describe myself as voracious:) It's a cool word. Anyway, I read A LOT.

This is why I got it:

1. I'm not in to renting books from the library (every time I call or look online for the book I want, our library doesn't have it) I read books over and over so renting them doesn't work and

2. I HATE buying books online and waiting and waiting and waiting for them to arrive.

3. Our PX has a horrible selection.

4. My apartment is already overstuffed.

5. I read EVERY night before bed even if it's only 15 minutes, and the lights annoys Jon (this particular Sony has a light)

6. I was saving to buy a new serger but I'm going to wait a while on that so with some of that money I was able to get this! Schwing!

There's more reasons but I know some people (Katelyn) have already fallen asleep so I'll stop talking..except for what I wrote below then I'll stop.

**

Jenny B. bought one of these a while ago so the research was already done:) It's charging right now and I can't wait to start reading! Until it's ready, I'm rereading Acts of Faith by Erich Segal (same guy who wrote Love Story). It's a really good book. I'm also waiting for the Lily Bard series by Charlaine Harris (True Blood books) to come in the mail. oh, yeah, I meant to say that buying this digital reader was not to save money on books. From what I can tell, buying an ebook is about the same amount as a regular, hold-in-your-hand-book.

Jenny and I are putting together some embroidery projects for the store. Here's one of mine. I got the needle and thread from a Sublime Stitching pattern we carry in the store and the quote from googling "sewing quotes".

The Happy Stacker from Heather Bailey. We now have it at the store so it's sample time...I have two more rings to go.

A new quilt from the book, Winsome Baby. It's going to be ADORABLE!! For a preview of what this quilt looks like finished, look here and here. Heidi so generously gave me some of this fabric to make it! Fabric is Celebrate Spring.
***

I think I should start a daily Emily quote:
" my poo poo packed it's bag and is ready to go!"

Embroidery and Burp Cloths

Embroidery from Wee Wonderfuls

http://www.weewonderfuls.com/

Hilary Lang designs these embroidery pattern cards herself.

If you like her stuff, we sell her bear, robot, bunny & cat sewing patterns at the store (Patch Multi Crafts). her embroidery cards are only for sale on her website though.

This is my most favorite kind of needle work. I would call this type of embroidery Modern Red Work (it's SO not your grandmas embroidery!). It's easy and you can be very creative.

And this is how creative you can be:

I took artwork from http://theblackapple.typepad.com/inside_a_black_apple/, traced it with a water soluble pen and embroidered. One reason I love doing this is you can do it while watching TV or in the hospital (every time I was hospitalized during my pregnancies I brought my embroidery to pass the time) or in the car if it doesn't make you sick!

Something I will be working on soon: more bibs, aprons, bags, baby t-shirts and burp cloths to sell in the store.

Skull and Cross Bone flannel for burp cloths