Where We Live

Sometimes it takes old friends visiting to get us appreciating where we live.

Pimientos de Padrón

Yum! Yum! And, more Yum!

Fry in a little olive oil until the skin blisters. Serve on a brown paper bag with a generous amount of sea salt and large quantities of beer. Good company adds a nice touch. It's a social food, but can also turn into a bit of a frenzy. Keep on cooking. One basket is *not* enough.

Don't wash them first or they'll splatter like crazy. Eat whole. Well, not the stems, silly. Even my five-year-old likes them. The two-year-old just licks the salt.

My best Padrón year, ever, was when we got to house sit and tend a garden that had a row of Padróns just coming on. We ate and ate and ate that August.

Read more about them here, here, or here.

They're out of stock but you can get the seeds here. Or, here's a place that doesn't seem to be out of stock. Or, here. I haven't bought seeds from any of these places. If you really want to know the inside scoop on where to buy seeds, you could email my friend, Andy, who grew the peppers in this photo.

I also saw that you can buy the fresh peppers here. Or, why not invest in the future and talk a local farmer to grow some. Yum!

Thanks, Julia!

An old linen bed sheet.

See the tiny, tiny seam where the two halves meet. The date looks to be 1815, perhaps the third month? I think the name is Jane Ewing — the last name is hard to determine.

From a friend of my father. It belonged to his mother who died in the 70s. It had been sitting in a house with black mold all over the walls and ceiling since her death. A treasure waiting to be found.

Embroidery as Camouflage

Why I left a skirt that only needed a waistband and a hem as an unfinished object for more than a year is a mystery to me. Several times I took it out of storage, putting it in the things-to-do pile in my kitchen work area — so many times, that it eventually faded from exposure to the bright morning sunshine. The hem and waist band took about an hour. It only took a couple of evenings to run the band of flowers and squiggles around the hem to help camouflage the fading. Then, I read a little of the Alabama Stitch book and realized that I needed to tack down all those flower petals. The stitches are bigger than a quarter inch, which is the the longest stitch length recommended to avoid snagging. It took another couple nights just to do the tacking, which gives the once rounded petals a slightly weird geometric look. Now, I'd love to make one of those gorgeous skirts from the book, which at my rate could take about ten years.

Berry Pickin'

It helps to have a professional photographer along with you when you go berry picking.

Thank you, jo ann! It was such a wonderful surprise.

Bitch'n Bobbins

If sewing folk had their own local bitch'n groups, like the knitters, it would be a wonderful world. Beer, sewing tips, and industry anecdotes — while surrounded by fabric and yarn — is just about worth its weight in gold. There's another class tonight if you can make it.

Heather Ross Class Tonight!!!

This just in:

Heather Ross will be teaching her summer dress class tonight — July 9th and tomorrow, July 10th from 6 to 8 pm — locally (my local, that is) at Luminous Threads in Felton, California. It's the same class that she taught at Purl Patchwork in March. You can see a beautiful version of the dress on their site.

Here's a link to the Luminous Threads class schedule (scroll down for July)

Here's the Luminous Threads phone number if you want to know more: (831) 335-2621.

I think it's $80 for the two part class, but you might be able to take just one for $40. Not sure of the price for the one time class. Call for details.

Now if I could just find some childcare...

I'm feeling Lomoish

I keep wanting to write up a blog post with more depth, but it just doesn't seem to happen. I think I remember the same thing last summer.

Anyhoo, today I finished this long-time (over a year) WIP — a skirt made from a flea market baby quilt. The photos were less than great, so I paid my $25 and signed up for picnik. I probably could have played around in Photoshop using the prescribed layer configuration for a Lomoish look, but sometimes it's just easier to use a Flash interface that helps you do the same thing, only easier.

Red, White, & Blue Clothes

Happy 4th of July. We're just back from the World's Shortest Parade. I thought I saw Anahata Katkin, but was too shy to ask. I wouldn't mind if it was actually her, but, I have asked people before if they have a blog, and feel silly when they say no with a funny expression. Apparently it wasn't Anahata — looks like she went swimming.

The photos are of my sister modelling the shirt that I just made for her. Photos by Becktress.

Cleavage

For my dressform, because I'm not an A-cup.

Found Object

I was going through my box of vintage lace the other day, looking for some trim for my future embellished tunic dress, when I found this already-been-crocheted bodice. Somehow, I didn't even know I had it — probably didn't care about crocheted bodices before I went and made some. It fit my sister, so I paired it up with some nice vintage feedsack-ish fabric and sewed it up. I used the same pattern as previously. A couple of flat fell seams and a little seam binding and it was finished. Sweet. Did I mention how much easier this was than the ones that I had to crochet myself? I can't imagine using crochet thread. It was hard enough with the yarn.