Gehring Road

a happy place... or ode to anthropologie

School has officially begun, and it is alarming scary how quickly things slip into old routines... resetting instead of snoozing at 5:20 am, rushing out of the house a mere twenty minutes late, a rushed goodbye but perfectly packed lunch from someone who loves me, lost keys (twice), panic at being stuck at school (I once was physically stuck TO the school while they put down carpet tiles with this obscenely sticky glue a few years ago... I broke out into cold sweats I tell you), laughing with work friends at lunch, complaining about the smell of the cafeteria during our first day meeting, feeling like after work, time flies... The hectic pace always surprises me this time of year... making me seek out happy places to escape to during endless meetings and uncomfortable speeches.  The thought of the comfy home I escape to at the end of the day, complete with the Jack Russell who is always up for snuggling and someone who is forever making me giggle doesn't always get me through some of those first day meetings and trying times at work.  Sometimes I dream of Anthropologie... I'm not above window shopping during my planning period on those days... activity logged by IT, ah well, such is life.  

Who can blame this girl for loving that store? If Rob and Kylie were up for it, I'd move us there... It is a store where I always find something unique and something that I'd love to bring into our home.  The smell of their candles is lovely and oh! they also have a kick-ass sale section in the rear of most stores... perfection. So here are some of my recent finds at Anthropologie...

::All Sorts Dishtowel::

::Over Yonder Dishtowel... it's decorative Rob::

::Bateau Platter::

::Folk Art Cup and Saucer::

::Hidden Hamlet Plates::

::Paisley Trivet::

::Succulent Apron (a steal at $20)::

::Vinifera Goblet::

...none of which have made it here in order to recreate that comfy spot here... but they might, who knows when I might make a little visit... sometimes it just is one of those days.  I hope your recent days are spent in the happiest of places... Happy Tuesday!

sunday stash peek... "a" is for alexander henry, amy butler and anxiety...

So there we have it, the last day of summer vacation... tomorrow it is back to work, back to school for this teacher and oh how I will miss these long and carefree days of summer.  In store for us tomorrow, meetings, motivational speakers, more meetings, etc. until we're actually happy to see the kids on Wednesday - phew, it's the kids we sigh... predictable, sometimes wonderful, sometimes trying kids.  Like the kids, teachers get jitters and I have the precursors to jitters right this moment as my last few minutes of summer tick away.  I'll save the real ones for the night before the kids come, every year without fail they happen... and I always mention it to my students.  In many ways we're a lot alike... but while the kids are dreaming of a return to the freedom from work and rules, I'm dreaming of fabric and sewing projects to take me through the fall so not that alike... we both might be dreaming of the new Twilight movie, but shh... don't tell the kids, English teachers don't read that garbage.

Today's Sunday Stash Peek of course has an A and apple for teacher theme, though this teacher likes her apples printed on linen and cottons thank you very much.  The above fabric from my stash was a little bit of fabric that was picked up with my mother in mind... this reminds me of something she had in her classroom ages ago, and will probably become something in her classroom as a back-to-school (commiserating!) gift.  

I'm loving this Alexander Henry fabric that I found at of all places JoAnn Fabrics I love the simplicity of the pears and colors... I have no idea what this will become.  It is screaming dishtowel at me at the moment, but hopefully it has more lofty aspirations.

And a little Amy Butler to add to this week's stash peek... I love these "wall flowers" as much as the real-live Freshmen wall flowers I'll see at the Homecoming Dance in a few weeks...

... photographing very orange, but the color is actually a cherry red... very beautiful and very vibrant. 

And to round out the Sunday Stash Peek, the newest piece in my fabric stash, that I traded some of my unused fabric for.  At Flickr, a group of fabric-philes got together and created a fabulous little group where people can post extra fabric they're looking to get rid of, and things they'd like in exchange.  I traded a bit of some Kerchief Girl and Alexander Henry Owls for this happy little number...

... and oh this has me thinking about Christmas Break, and how I'm like that blue character on the bottom of the swatch during school breaks - hands up and cheering in excitement... luckily, this veteran seasoned teacher knows that like Christmas, the summer has a way of coming right back round again, and it's really important to enjoy the in between... (even if you're tempted to start the count-down to June 20th tomorrow)... remind me I said this in February.  I hope this back to school season reminds you of first day jitters and you are so loving your weekend.  

goings on...

::Bird mobile featured at Spool Sewing:: 

Weekending around here has been about embracing the rainy weather and heading indoors... it feels just like fall and we're so ready.  We've been canning some of the peach haul we took in - so far it's been peach pie filling and peach jam made this afternoon.  We've been scanning the Bernina brochures and coming to a decision... looks like it's the Activa 230 PE (hopefully that means something for someone, somewhere) this honey of a machine sews through anything and will be my machine for many, many years to come.  More to come when we pick it up... Besides dreaming and relaxing, we've been to the ER (file it under can't believe it was Rob this time and not me) for some finger stitching... Rob is fine, and joked through the entire experience, very wonderful and very Rob.  He's already canned peaches and gotten the bandage dirty... at least he's taking it easy and not removing drywall or installing windows - which would also be very Rob.  

Some things I've been noticing online... the above mobile was made by a group at the  Anthropologie  headquarters and is featured at Spool Sewing.  Made as a baby mobile, each person included a thought or wish for the baby on the way - very cute idea.   I love the fabrics they chose and am looking to update the set of birds I made a while back when I first started sewing (very pastel, very outside of my fabric tastes) so this is a fantastic motivator.  The embellishments they added are lovely.  If interested, Spool has a fantastic tutorial on these birds, and they're very easy to make.  

Also, a group of blogging ladies have gotten behind a cause, I love a homegrown cause... especially by a group of fabric-philes like myself.  A little background, a fabric line by Denyse Schmidt called Flea Market Fancy was discontinued and then started showing up for astronomical prices on Ebay and Etsy. The ladies behind this campaign are attempting to get the fabric manufacturer to reprint this popular fabric, and so far they've been given some positive news.  If you're interested...

I hope the weekend finds you enjoying your loved ones and the changing of seasons as much as I am...

hello lovely...

I fell in love today.  I tried not to, I promised Rob I wouldn't, but I did.  It was inevitable.  My recent adventures in sewing have gone from kind of funny and blog-worthy to tear inducing and expletive laden, not very becoming I assure you. Probably funny, but not good for the blood pressure.  It's effecting the harmony of our home... you see, a few days ago, I screamed so loudly at the machine as it ate and consequently ripped through my neatly interfaced denim (while trying to sew a simple hem), Rob thought I was injured and came running upstairs ready to head to the ER (not all that uncommon around here actually, but my machine has yet to put me there).  I went cold turkey off of sewing for a while... mourning the loss of my tote bag, pouting a bit... today I went to Close to Home, a little sewing machine retailer and fabric store that is close to our home.  Marilyn, a wonderful woman who saw the craze in my eyes, walked me through Singers, Janomes, and...the all-mighty  Bernina.  I test-drove a few machines. I walked around.  I sat back down and tried the epitome of machine beauty.  I had the exact fabric (now scrap) that had caused me fits a few days ago and the above Bernina sewed through that fabric like it was a warm knife through butter.  Sigh, sigh.  Marilyn allowed me to play around with the Aurora 450 QE and I love, but alas, Rob and I were not Powerball winners last night so... I think I've decided on the Activa 220.  By all accounts a beautiful machine, a powerful little piece of machinery, and it's incredibly quiet... stealthy - what more could a girl want.  

So it is with a heavy heart I come to terms with the fact I might need to upgrade my Rob-purchased machine... an incredibly wonderful gift from an incredibly wonderful man. But the silver lining - it made me love sewing, I mean LOVE, LOVE, LOVE sewing... and for that I am so incredibly grateful.  To old loves, new loves and future loves.

fall fabric and missing tote bag

Some difficult news... my sewing machine hates me.  Since I interfaced the above piece of denim (a very light weight denim, I swear!) my machine is now utterly refusing to sew a seam on it.  I've tried everything and shock/horror, it cut through said fabric and interfacing and now the piece needs to be recut.  My love/hate relationship with my machine is becoming a little old, and I think all of us in the household are a little tired of hearing about sewing machine melt-downs (that's the sewing machine having them, not yours truly of course ::ahem::) So until the sewing machine situation is settled (my grandmother offered me her mother's very, very old Singer - which I have an inkling needs some attention) not a lot of sewing going on around here... no need for frustration on top of pre-school year jitters (yes teachers get them too!).

In the meantime, I've been browsing fabric... no surprise there.  I thank you all for your encouragement and kind words about the colors I chose for our bedroom quilt... someone from flickr said, "I think those colors sing!" (I think so too and just might sing when they arrive!) Some fabric I'm so looking forward to seeing in person... 

::Denyse Schmidt's Hope Valley::

::photos from True Up:: 

::Simple Abundance by Bonnie and Camille for Moda::

 

 

::photos from Cotton Charm Quilts::

::Anna Maria Horner's Little Folks Voile::

 

::Photos from Freespirit::

::American Vintage Fabric::

::Swatches from Fat Quarter Shop::

my friends at Quilting by the Yard in Connecticut stock most Moda prints and specialize in Vintage prints, so I'm sure I'll see some of these lovely fabrics soon.  And you, what have you had your eye on lately?  I hope you are looking forward to the season ahead whatever it has in store for you...

in the works...

I made a decision this morning and stepped into the chaos that is a high school in the summer... I went to work.  Overall it was a good thing, I saw some students and fellow teachers, but decided I'm not quite done with summer... The trip was really a bit of procrastination you see, this post is really supposed to be the unveiling of my new school bag. I'm 100% procrastinating on my Lotta's All Day Tote, but the interfacing and panels are ready for some attention, so hopefully tomorrow. A procrastinating teacher?  Apparently so. I guess making a new bag feels a little like relinquishing my death grip hold on summer... or possibly I imagine it filled to the brim with papers, ah the life of an English teacher.  I think the best thing is to Keep Calm and Carry... papers home in a cute bag. 

In the meantime, have you visited Quilt Home recently? I happened upon a feature the other day while browsing ::ahem:: for additions, most specifically for a simple block patchwork quilt that I'd love to be my first foray into quilting.  So here's the magic... if you add something into your cart (those clever, clever people... once in the cart, it is very tempting isn't it?) you can actually pull the image out and manipulate it on the screen to see how your fabric swatch looks with the other swatches you've found while "browsing."  It's ingenious I tell you... The image size is perfect to see how a patchwork quilt might look with select fabric.  Too much fun.  I'd love your opinion on the little selection I picked out for our quilt... 

... too orange? too yellow? I have a love of that slate-blue/charcoal grey color and will probably use some patches of solids to break up some of the chaos... I also know the patterns of some of these fabrics will look better on a smaller scale. I'm really contemplating using just one pattern of each of the basic colors - green, blue, orange and yellow to calm it down.  And of course, that lovely folky print from Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks line stays.  So that's the idea... what I have in the works.  What do you think? Don't hold back... Rob says, "It's nice" when asked about design/color things... He sort of goes to a happier place to avoid the pain of contemplating color. His philosophy is he doesn't really mind what it looks like because, well you're looking at the backs of your eyelids not the quilt... sigh.  Anyway, my hope is that today, you're having as much fun dreaming of projects to come as I am or just plain dreaming as Rob would like to be.  

sunday stash expose...ok, let's say tour.

In keeping with the little Sunday ritual, I thought we'd take a glimpse into my fabric stash this morning... and because I'm feeling brave, and possibly a little under-the-weather, and because True Up asked to see my stash, I'll show you the whole thing in it's slightly alarming glory.  I should preface this by warning if you happen to notice a dust bunny in one, two, maybe all of these photos it is because well... I should vacuum more.  Anyway, on to the stash unveiling... onward and as my stash tends to grow upward... 

...Sorry for the somewhat blurry photos, my camera can never decide what to focus on.  Maybe that's just my camera's way of disguising the pure amount of fabric goodness... blur the colors together, good idea! That's just one piece of green fabric there, of course it is! Anyway, the more I look at this photo, the more I think it's kind of excessive? For someone who started sewing in January that might be the case. Ah well... if only it didn't end there.  It extends to this fabric scrap area (I have tons of scraps, I can't tell you what I did to a piece of Kerchief Girl Fabric last week)...

...and this the leaning tower of Denyse Schmidt...

...now inside of that box is where I keep my trims and clasps and things of that nature but the bottom drawer is filled with things like this...

... many of the fabric bundles that I've found at Jo-Anne Fabric are actually Heather Ross fat quarters... I've found West Hill Horses there as well as the Nesting Dolls and the dogs.  Though I typically buy quilting fabric elsewhere, these I couldn't pass up.  I've also seen Munki Munki fabric at Marshalls and TJ Maxx of all places.

My favorite fabric at the moment though, is a huge piece of Heather Ross Farmer's Market that I found, and adore - well for sentimental reasons.

It came with some little fabric pieces that are really sweet and will make great additions to patchwork gifts and projects in the not so distant future.  

So there you have it...my fabric stash, which sometimes I'm a bit sheepish about but really shouldn't be anything but a source of pride and excitement. I contemplate a cabinet to hide it,  I stole around taking pictures of it for this post while my special someone listens to The Money Show and makes plans to save money, and oh, my hyperactive Italian guilt gene sets in. 

But my collection is practical - it makes things that I love, for the people I love, for this home and life that I love, and it's a good thing. My fabric is also a source of tremendous inspiration for me - little projects in the planning, some fabric stashed away for another day or just in case... each little bit is a piece that I love and a glimpse into my sewing life in the future. So my hope for you today is that you are as surrounded by things you love and those that love you as I am.  

weekending

::the kitchen table at the moment::

The weekend brought us outside today, thankfully, things that are so not funny have been making us laugh hysterically around here lately... sure sign of heat induced cabin fever.  So we took advantage of some clouds today and hopped on over to Wright's Orchard and dried flower barn to pick the peach haul for this summer.  We sought refuge from a passing shower in the barn and snapped these beautiful images of the dried flowers... 

 

::dried flower barn::

... visions of fall wreaths danced through my head while Rob tried to look interested in dried hydrangeas... Anyway, you're wondering where the pictures of the peach haul are, right? Well, my camera took the opportunity and ran out of memory space - I think electronics are conspiring against me. These pictures of the AMAZING peach haul courtesy of Rob...

...So we picked about 60 pounds of peaches... is that a lot?  When spread out on the kitchen table to ripen, it looked like a lot... While Rob hauled the said 60 pounds of peaches up hill in the rain, I felt bad for him like it was a lot.  We have so many plans for these fabulous fruits of summer... pie filling, jelly, salsa and chutney.  We're hoping that a little work now will bring back this moment of summer in the long, dark days of winter which makes it totally worth it, don't you think?  I do too.  Anyway, look for some Nuclear Containment Vessel pictures of these beauties being canned in the next few days.  I hope wherever this summer weekend takes you is as joyful as a perfectly ripened peach enjoyed in the middle of an orchard with your favorite someone who carries things when they're too heavy.  

project pause

My workspace... quiet.  Where's the cutting mess and the mid-project scattering of all manner of fabric and thread you ask?  Sadly missing I'd say.  My plan to make a back-to-school (sigh) tote, you know the one that was going to make it all better, came to a screeching halt yesterday as my machine is sewing slanted and less than secure stitches (sigh, sigh).  I have the pieces for Lotta's All Day Tote cut and ready, the hardware to modify the pattern a little, the interfacing to make it nice and sturdy and the pictures begun to blog about it.  Ah well, such is life.  

Though I'm definitely getting the jitters having gone an obscene amount of time without sewing, I'm getting the itch to go and test drive some new machines.  Until I get the courage to brave the absolute stagnant air outside and head down to visit Singer, Husqavarna and Bernina (ha!) I'm checking consumer reports and contemplating a dive into hand embroidery.  Good timing I say... Sew Mama Sew is devoting an entire month to hand sewing, everything from quilt bindings to decorative stitches.  Here are some highlights that make me want to run down to JoAnn Fabrics and pick up some embroidery floss... Ok so not run, maybe cruise down in an air conditioned car (more pipe dreams!) Hand sewing inspiration:

::Hand Stiched Hexagons from All Buttoned Up::

::Yo Yo Garland from Yo Yo Cottage Quilt::

::Little Pink House from Checkout Girl::

::HAND! Embroidery of Initials by Betsy::

 

::Sweet Strawberries from Yvestown::

I love these little and beautiful creations and so admire the amount of work that goes into each of these hand sewn wonders.  Off to find some more inspiration...  

noticing... orange (and we're officially hiding from a heat wave)

::Image found at Flickr::

I've been thinking about peaches lately. There really is just something about this time of year that makes me crave a little trip to our local orchard or very, very local orchard for some picking and perhaps some tasting (not that we approve of that).  With all of the canning that has been happening here, I'm looking forward to peaches in February that we picked now... well, as soon as the weather breaks and allows us to be outside for more than a few minutes.  Until then, I'm finding (and loving) a fix in the orange/peach images and inspiration I've been noticing (and collecting) this season... 

 

::Chair found at Target::

::Joel Dewberry "Aviary" Fabric::

::Miz Mooz "Jade" Shoes in Cognac::

::Patchwork Quilt (on sale!) at Urban Outfitters::

:: British WWII era Vintage Motto, Poster at Etsy Shop Byorderofthecrown::

::Butterflies at Etsy Shop Whichgoose::

:: 1950s Bellenger Favor Girl Poster Reproduction found at PosterCorner or the original at International Poster Gallery if you have an extra $2000 ::

And that's a wrap on a little slice of summer into fall color for you... hopefully to be followed by some lovely peach canning photos in the not so distant future.  Enjoy this summer day...