Most of the time, I feel like I totally fail at blogging over here. I swear, it’s for a combination of completely legit reasons:

1. I really haven’t had much time this last year (gulp!) to make much stuff. Sadly, both Josh and I are slammed with various work projects, and so it’s hard to make the time to do much creative stuff.
2. Since we had to move into a smallish rental condo near downtown last year (which completely and totally sucks), we just don’t have a lot of space to do stuff. When we were living in a regular house with a garage, yard, etc, it was a whole lot easier to make stuff and experiment creatively. Fortunately, this isn’t a permanent living situation.
3. Similarly, we don’t have a great space for staging photos. We always enjoyed taking most of our project photos outside, using trees, etc, as props, so the project photos have kind of sucked this year.
4. I blog about fabric-y stuff for my work, so it’s hard to feel motivated to come home and blog about fabric-y/sewing stuff for fun. Even though I enjoy it, it’s still odd when work/hobbies collide. Furthermore, this summer I also wrote some crafty roundup posts for PNCA’s Summer of Making, so I kind of feel like I’m already everywhere, more or less.
5. I’m bored with writing about projects, unless it’s something that’s new/different or featuring a designer or company with which people may not be familiar. I’ve spent quite a bit of time mulling over what direction–if any–we should take this site.

All right, enough navel-gazing, let’s get on to some crafty goodness…

I’ve mentioned that my mom is an embroidery superstar, and earlier this year, she picked up some amazing vintage embroidery patterns at Knittin’ Kitten here in Portland.  This weekend, we were over at her house letting our dog get to know her new dog, and she off-handedly mentioned that she’d been working on a project and pulled out this amazing handkerchief that she’s almost finished stitching. Good grief, she’s amazingly skilled with the needle and floss. I think this would make a gorgeous center to a pillow based on a log cabin block, incidentally. (Speaking of log cabin, did you know that Susan‘s next book is already available for preorder from Amazon? I’ve seen all the projects and they are absolutely fantastic!)

Incidentally, this is probably my favorite picture of my mom and I ever… This is the two of us before we went to the first Blazers game of the season–just had to share that one with y’all.

In additional tales of my mom’s craftiness, she recently asked me to teach her how to knit. I taught myself ages ago, when I was in college and before there were all the cool books and websites about contemporary knitting. I literally knew one other person who knew how–my archaeology professor at American U. I asked my friend Michelle (Remember her?) for a bit of guidance, since I’ve never taught anyone how to knit and she’s the most skilled fiber artist I know. We met up with Michelle this weekend over at Happy Knits, which is a newer shop (about a year old, I believe) that’s a breath of fresh air over on Hawthorne. We helped my mom pick out some gorgeous Delft blue alpaca-wool blend bulky yarn and some nice, big circular needles. She’s really making some progress and I imagine will be bitten by the knitting bug by the time she finishes her first scarf!


I also picked up some yarn for myself so I can finally make a hat to go with this coat (I can’t believe how short my hair is in those photos, by the way–it’s nearly reaching my elbows these days), which I still wear all the flippin’ time. (And it still gets all kind of unusual reactions–that’s what happens when you wear around the most badass coat ever–people say stuff.)  I’m making Natalie Larson’s Spring Beret pattern, which I found over on Ravelry. Of course, I had to pick out some crazy violet and magenta hand-painted yarn to go with my crazy poodle jacket.

When I was at Quilt Market in late-October, I got to catch up with a several of my favorite peeps, including the wonderful and gorgeous Rachel & Melissa. (You’ve bought Melissa’s awesome book, Small Stash Sewing, right?) Also, I got to hang out with Antoinette for the second time this year (!)–and meet her fabulous son, who is quite possibly the coolest little boy ever. I’ve said it about 8,000 times, but I love that the internet enables us all to connect with one another, regardless of distance, and then actually translate that into real life.

Finally, I’d love for y’all to check out my friend Cherri’s recent blog post about how her wonderfully generous son is collecting gifts for troops stationed with him in Iraq. If you’re able, this would be a wonderful way to get into the spirit of the season and spread some joy to folks in our military who don’t have families and friends sending them gifts.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

~Sarah

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In case you were wondering, of course we coordinated our outfits so we'd match. (Not really.)

On my list of things that are awesome, the opportunity to hang out with people I’ve met through this blog, Twitter, Flickr and all the other social media and web platforms that I’m part of is way up on the list. I’ve met Rachel, Kim, Melissa, Caroline, Susan and a whole slew of other folks thanks to the internet, and I’m pretty grateful for that. How did sewing dorks meet other sewing dorks before the internet?

A couple weeks ago, Josh & I drove up to Seattle for the day to meet up with Antoinette, who was in the Pacific Northwest for work. (Read all about her fun weekend meeting up with bloggy friends over here.) We had a lovely dinner at our favorite Seattle restaurant (which is both vegetarian and vegan friendly, by the way) and had a fantastic time chatting like old pals. Of course, being the dorks that we are, we forgot to take pictures until we dropped Antoinette off at her hotel.

Really, this may be the worst photo that's been taken of me this year. No lipstick, crazy hair, weird posture... Ugh.

Also, awesome is my authentic Yummy Goods Unicorn You=Awesome T-shirt. I’ve been waiting for what seems like forever for Melissa to start offering these online–who doesn’t need a little Unicorn love in their life? I screwed up and ordered a size too big, but I love it nevertheless. The best part is watching people read the shirt and then kind of grin. Unicorn makes people happy. What made me happiest, though, was the sweet way Melissa packaged my order.

Fantastic!

Orange tissue tied up with some Sugar Snap--you know I'm using this fabric as a headband right now.

The anticipation!

Some atomic fireballs--Josh snagged these. He & Melissa share a mad obsession with these candies.

I’m so glad that I photographed this, because it really made me happy on a day I was really stressed out from my hellish commute (I think it had taken me an hour to go 10 miles).

Saoirse has taken over these ottomans we made about three years ago–to the point that she gets irked when people sit on them. So flippin’ cute. Man, I love this dog much.

My world has been rocked.

A few months back, I finally sucked it up and ordered some fancy-schmancy earbuds. I have quite a few situations these days in which I need to block the world out. However, I had no clue how to actually pick out earbuds–despite being a certifiable geek, I always bought the cheapo ones. Finally, I settled on some thinksound extra-bass noise cancelers. Oh. My. God. That is all.

This summer Josh surprised me with the most awesome gift ever–a Kindle. I’ve always been a huge reader, but the last year or two I haven’t been reading much because we just don’t have the storage for books. Sure, I could use the library, but it seems like every book in the Multnomah Country Library that I want to read either has 100+ holds on it, or has been stolen. Josh got me this Kindle (which is a K2–a new one came out this week), and it’s literally changed me life. I’ve read a huge number of books in the two months I’ve had this thing, and discovered that a lot of my buddies who I know through the basketball geek community are also huge readers who love the same sorts of books as I do. I really hadn’t realized how much I missed reading every night, until I started doing it again…

Mmm... Echino.

Of course, I had to make myself a case for my Kindle, so I created a simple pattern (I know there are loads of instructions online, but it didn’t occur to me to Google) and made a sturdy case with some leftover Echino fabric I had sitting around. (By the way, have you seen the phenomenal case Quilt Dad made for Beth? So freaking awesome!) Of course, me being me, I neglected to think about how I would close the damn thing, so I have to keep it shut with a hair band. Oops. This coordinates with the awesome giant tote bag (the fabulous Jackie Clark‘s Junk Bag) that I carry everywhere (which I need to photograph for y’all).

TopPot Doughnuts in Queen Anne, Seattle.

Also awesome: doughnuts.

~Sarah

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Laura Gunn's new Poppy Patterns made up in fabric from her Poppy collection from Michael Miller.

Gina, the owner of my favorite fabric shop ever–Bolt in northeast Portland, emailed me this week about an awesome event at Modern Domestic, the new sewing studio down the road from Bolt (Gina’s a partner in that business as well).

Modern Domestic is hosting a talk by Laura Gunn, who designed a beautiful new fabric collection, Poppy from Michael Miller, next Thursday, July 8th. I’m usually not a huge fan of fabric that’s so painterly, but I just love Laura’s work, it just makes so much sense translated into textiles. The colors are clear and bright and designs are the perfect scale for fabric. Gina tells me that Laura will be talking about her fabric design process, which should be fascinating!

The event starts at 7:00 (at Modern Domestic on Alberta Street) and will last until around 8:30. Gina tipped me off that not only will there be snacks and drinks, there will also be some sweet giveaways!

See you there!

~Sarah

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What You’ll Need

• One pound whole wheat shaped pasta
• Five cups chopped vegetables such as bell peppers, broccoli, corn, onions
• Two cloves chopped, fresh garlic
• Two tablespoons olive oil
• Two cups grated cheddar cheese (you can substitute other cheeses, according to your taste)
• Two cups skim milk
• Two tablespoons butter
• Two tablespoons flour
• Two bay leaves
• Handful of breadcrumbs (optional)
• Salt & pepper

Directions

You’re better off having several pans going at once with this recipe–sure, it makes more dishes, but it goes a whole lot faster that way! When veggies aren’t seasonal, use good-quality (preferably organic) frozen veggies, and defrost according to the directions on the package.

• Pour the milk into a sauce pan with with bay leaves, simmer over medium heat–be careful not to burn the milk. One the milk has started to form bubbles around the edges of the pan, remove it from the heat. Don’t skip this step–it makes all the difference!

• Meanwhile, begin cooking your vegetables over medium heat, starting with the garlic and onions; I usually cook each type of vegetable separately, since their cooking times vary.

• Also meanwhile, boil your pasta according the package directions, minus one minute of the cooking time (i.e., if it takes ten minutes, cook for nine).
• Once the pasta is cooked, rinse it with cold water to stop the cooking.

• Once your vegetables are cooked, set them aside.
• Preheat oven to 425°
• Melt the butter in a large sauce pan (I use a large soup pot); be careful not to burn the butter.

• Lower heat on on the butter (medium-low).
• Add the flour, whisking rapidly until the flour and butter mixture are incorporated and smooth.
• Hey, you just made a roux!
• Slowly stir the milk into the butter and flour mixture, whisking until smooth and the thickness of pudding.
• (Don’t forget to remove the bay leaves!)
• Next, add the cheese, a handful at a time, again, stirring until smooth.

• Add the cooked pasta and stir in thoroughly.

• Add your vegetables, stirring thoroughly, making sure all are coated with the cheese mixture.

• Coat a lasagna pan with oil or butter, and then add your vegetable, pasta and cheese mixture to the pan.
• Sprinkle the top with the breadcrumbs, if you’re using them. You can also sprinkle with a little bit of shredded cheese, if you like.

• Bake for 20-30 minutes, until the cheese bubbles and turns brown.

• Remove from the oven and let cool for 5-10, until the cheese sets up.

• Eat and enjoy!

~Sarah

Note: Recipe is © Sewer-Sewist 2010; please do not reproduce or republish.

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Fremont Bridge

This spring, along with my friend Bryan, I took a wonderful digital photography class through PNCA’s continuing education program. (Shameless self-promotion alert: I’m still teaching there–check out all their wonderful, high-quality courses for the community over here.) I loved, loved, loved it–I did photography a million years ago back when I was in high school and it was one of my favorite things. (Okay, it wasn’t really a million years ago, but it was the early- to mid-nineties, before google and all that other snazzy stuff.) It’s remarkable how much I’d forgotten, but I have to say, I much prefer the digital darkroom to the “real” one I learned when I was a kid. Of course, now I’m jonesing for a fancy-schmancy DSLR. (Hey, Nikon! I’d be happy to “review” the D5000! And while we’re at it… Hey, Beats by Dre/some other headphone company! I’d also love to “review” some noise-reducing earbuds! [I obviously screwed up and never hopped on the blogger free stuff gravy train of the mid-2000s. Damn integrity...])

Some of my favorites that I took during the class are over here, if you care to peruse them…

This photo of my mom is one of my favorites I've ever taken. She looks pretty hot in that hat, right?

This bad boy's on sale right now--I receive no kickbacks from C & B, but I sure do love this couch.

In completely unrelated news, we got a new couch this past fall. (We really try to buy locally as much as possible, but this was from a chain, Crate & Barrel. And, I’ve got to say, I cannot explain how fantabulous they were, from the ease of order–we ordered online–to their wonderful delivery people. It didn’t hurt that we got a great deal on a really good couch that’s made with sustainable materials, in the United States. I have really bad reactions to the off-gassing from things like foam and the stain treatments that are put on fabrics, and this particular sofa had none of those issues. Plus is nice and wide and two people can sink into it comfortably, unlike our old, beat-up “small scale” sofa.) It’s been a great sofa, but the colors are a bit blandish–kind of a woven mix of olives, golds, rusts and sable. We have a totally funky rug that goes in front of it, so the sofa needed some livening up.

The blue in this Denyse Schmidt cheater print is one of my favorite colors ever.

Saoirse "customized" this pillow for us--do you see it? She's such a talented pooch.

These were the most ridiculously simply pillows ever. We had some of Denyse Schmidt‘s Patchwork Promenade from her County Fair home dec line laying around the house (Josh ordered a little too much from Kathy last year) and it had the perfect colors to match our funky circle rug that my mom got us for Christmas last year. I literally just cut the large 18×18 block pattern out, stitched them right sides together and stuffed them–it was certainly the easiest pillow project ever. And, they compliment our osprey pillows beautifully. I’m thinking of using the same fabric to create some large floor pillows using sets of four of those blocks and maybe some weird button action. We’ll see where that goes…

Mulberry silk fibers.

The afore-mentioned Bryan went on a really cool trip to Scotland this month, and being a totally badass friend, he picked up this bundle amazing hand-dyed mulberry silk fibers for me. How fantastic is it to have friends who know how delighted that I’d be to receive a little pouch of special fibers from Scotland? The thing is, I really don’t know what to do with it, and the tag isn’t that helpful…

"Suitable for any number of imaginative wool work and creativity projects!"

So while my first inclination is to just keep the fiber in its little pouch and play with it every once in awhile, I would love to know what to do with it, should I ever decide it wants to be something else. Ideas? Anyone?

Finally, some very exciting news–I met a BIG celebrity: Melissa Averinos’ Unicorn!

Melissa, Unicorn & I. I first met Melissa at J. Caroline's first Fabric 2.0, which Quilt Market was held in Portland in 2008.

If you haven’t watched Melissa and Beth’s awesomely quirky Unicorn Stories, you’ve missed out on something kind of mind-blowing. Stop reading and go watch right now! Turns out, I wasn’t the only person at Quilt Market who wanted to have their moment of fame with Unicorn… Unicorn gets around. Melissa has assured me that he’s just in it for the snuggles. Plus. since I now have a copy of Melissa’s new book, I can make my very own Unicorn.

Speaking of Small Stash Sewing, it is, as you’d expect, just wonderful and I love that Wiley really produced it so Melissa’s personality really shines through. I’ll write a longer review of it (urging you to hit up your nearest independent bookshop to buy it immediately) later, I swear! My copy, however, is pretty special… Look at the inscription.

I love the internet! It's amazing how the internet has allowed so many wonderful inside jokes to evolve--enough to fill up an entire book page. Though all the parts about my being "so pretty" are completely true!

Whoo! Isn’t that the best? Anytime you can slip an Atomic Fireball reference into just about anything, it’s is a good thing…

I also recently met (in real life!) the wonderful Cherri House, who it really seems like I’ve known forever, and her sweet daughter, Lizzy, who is such a talented and creative fabric designer. It’s always a treat to actually meet internet folks in real life–I love how conversations carry on like you see each other every day. (Actually, that reminds me of one of my current pet peeves; I went to a marketing seminar and the presenter talked about how “young people today” don’t make meaningful connections because they’re using the Internet and cell phones to communicate. I know that those technologies have enabled me to connect with like-mind people that I count as dear friends all around the world–and that’s a meaningful thing!)

Alrighty… That’s about all that’s up with over at Casa de Sewer-Sewist. Hope you’re heading toward good things this summer.

~S

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I was never able to print this type, but it was for the back of the Brandon Roy card--the header read, "The Reason." Because, when it comes down to it, B-Roy is the reason that many, many people came back to the Trail Blazers, after the team had some very dark days.

What I really loved about this project, is that I got to experiment with photopolymer and the results of using different ink and paper combinations. My original goal was to print an entire team set of basketball cards, complete with back descriptions. However, between limited access to printing facilities and my workload increasing, I didn’t make my goal. However, I was very happy with the prints I did make. The red were printed in open editions, but I limited the silver to a small run of 12 each. The cards are around 3×4, printed on acid free paper, with round corners. The silver ink is actually made with silver–so the metallic quality has a lot of depth, and I suspect that it may be oil-based–given how long it took to dry and how difficult the clean-up was. The variations in the red are due to mixing the red at different times (I have to hand-blend the rubber ink), I also learned that if consistency is important, you need to mix all your ink at once. I ended up only writing a few descriptions, again, because I ran out of time with the letterpress studio and hand-setting all that type is extremely cumbersome.

So, with all that said, here are the results (please keep in mind that these are based off of the 2008-09 team, not the current team)…

This is Rudy Fernandez–if he were traded, the collective heart of Portlanders would break, he is incredibly popular, and the showman on the team (he can fire up a crowd like I’ve never seen). I had a really difficult time creating the artwork for this one without Rudy looking like a zombie; he has smallish eyes and fine features, so I had to improvise a lot to get him to look “right.” Rudy’s probably the most enthusiastic person I’ve ever see play any sport, and he clearly loves his job, so I tried to replicate this in this letterpress portrait. This card is dedicated to one of my favorite people, my friend Michelle (who I met at a Blazers game last year).

Oh, Greg Oden. This was one of my favorites to design and print, because I really wanted to capture the funny, charming #1 pick that Blazers fans fell in love with before his ill-fated rookie season–and I think I did that fairly well. My mom and I were at the game earlier this season in which he broke his kneecap, and we were both choking back tears. All I can say is, in our house, we still believe in #52.

LaMarcus Aldridge’s portrait is the least portrait-y of them all, intentionally because I tend to think of him as only existing on the basketball court. I am actually grateful that I never got around to having to come up with content for the back of this card, I don’t think I would have had much material. It seems like there have only been a couple of in-depth interviews with the Blazers power forward, and we don’t know a ton about him. We do, however, know that LaMarcus Aldridge does not seek your popular applause.

Travis Outlaw and I have a strange history–he drove me nuts all of the 2006-07 season. And, I wanted the team to sign Ime Udoka instead of extending Travis’ contract (this has more to do with Ime being from Portland than anything–I’m very loyal to fellow Oregonians, it seems like there’s so few of us sometimes). However, over the summer, I started to feel guilty about it, and then I figured out that Travis was really, really funny. So, I actually spent the next season making amends with Travis, and cheered extra loudly for him whenever he took the court or really did anything–and he was pretty awesome during the team’s crazy 13-game winning streak in 2007-08. So, now I’m really fond of Trav, but, unfortunately, he too is injured. I love how he turned out in letterpress. He may look a bit like an alien, but it really looks like Travis. In a sense, this one is the most true-to-life card, right down to the look he has on his face. He always has that look on his face. I would have had a great time composing the back of his card–there is a lot of wonderful material out there featuring his “Travisms.”

Nicolas Batum’s letterpress card was the first one I made, and I was pretty thrilled with it. You can really tell how young he is, and to me the look of it illustrates how promising he is as a player. I can’t explain why, but it’s the way he’s looking upward that really does it for me. This was one of the few that I had time to do the typesetting for the back, and I’m sure glad. (By the way, the “Frenchie” nickname seems to have stuck, since Adidas now provides Nico with custom sneakers with it stitched on them.)

This was my only letterpress card that is of someone who is no longer on the team, Channing Frye. This card is based off of a photo taken by the extremely talented Brian Kroll. (Go check out his awesome photography!) I love that this image is very clearly a non-basketball portrait, since the reasons that I’m such a Channing fan have far more to do with the was he embraced Portland as his home and little to do with the sport (though, I don’t think you could ask for anyone to have a better attitude while facing adversity on a basketball team). While he’s having lots of success in Phoenix now (and playing with two of my favorites: Grant Hill and Steve Nash), I sure do miss his blog posts about living in Portland… Incidentally, my quasi-famous “Channing for Mayor” shirt still gets the occasional comment. In terms of the actual printing, I was really challenged with this one, since I wanted to have fine details that were true to Brian’s photo–which is hard to do in letterpress. After a lot of trial and error, I think I was able to capture that, and it feels the most “real” of all of the portraits. (Pats self on back.)

I really developed a soft spot for Martell Webster last year, when he was injured the entire season (oddly, it’s the exact same foot injury as Travis Outlaw has right now). That sounds weird, I know, but I went to a lot of games really early last year (to get good parking), and before most games I watched from my seat in the 300 level as Martell went from kid to kid (and a lot of adults, too) who clamored for a professional basketball player to say “hello” to them. You could tell that it meant a lot to those fans, but what really struck me was how he never rushed away, always looked thrilled to talk to everyone and was just the epitome of gracious to everyone to whom he talked. It was some kind of impressive. I know nothing about the circumstances of why he was so good to all those folks, and never saw an interview about it, but I certainly won’t forget it. Furthermore, Martell famously–while in his walking boot–pushed two people’s cars out of the snow during a storm. I just have a feeling that he’s a really good dude. Actually, this fall I saw Martell while he was driving, stopped at an intersection, and I was walking the dog. When I did a triple-take (I’m sure it was pretty funny) and realized it was him and smiled like a total dork, he very nicely smiled back, so there’s that too. I do fear that since I’m a big Marty fan, it will result in his being traded, since I have that awful Blazers karma. Anyway… Printing-wise, I am actually kind of disappointed in this one. Martell is a very good-looking guy, with very distinctive features, but I had a hard time translating that into the letterpress medium. I like the look of this print, but I’m just not thrilled with it actually being a portrait.

This is my favorite, Brandon Roy. I think I got really attached to this one, because I spent so much flipping time working on it. Brandon has very distinctive features, but they’re kind of fine, so translating that into the letterpress medium was a tremendous challenge. I actually really struggle with creating the artwork (I create it digitally, in Adobe Illustrator) for letterpress projects, because I’m not very confident in my ability in visual arts. So, I invested days and days and days of work into creating my first Brandon print, which was terrible! He looked, well, scary. Which was definitely not the look I was going for. Finally, when I was almost ready to give up, I hit on this design, and I love it. The eyes were the toughest part, like with the Rudy print, and I like how the eyes translated in ink and paper in this one–especially in the silver. I am really proud of this one, and it’s really the first thing that I’ve made that actually feels like it’s “Art.”

~Sarah

P.S. I know I’m preaching to the choir, but I have to remind folks to please not use my images without my permission. I have had a lot of trouble with that lately, particularly with sports bloggers stealing my images off of my All Rights Reserved Flickr stream and posting them on their blogs–without credit or permission. All of the thieves has had ads on their sites (one was an ESPN-affiliate blog), so they are literally making money off of my work without compensating me.  I’m sure many of you have been dismayed to find your work on other people’s sites, and I encourage you to combat content theft–it helps protect all of our intellectual and creative property.

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Up on a high shelf, there's something pretty awesome hidden in some inauspicious cardboard magazine holders.

Anyway, the magazine is an extremely cool snapshot of textile–and cultural–trends. I spent a bit of time thumbing through an issue from fall of 1949 (I snagged this one, because I love post-war fashion–the hats were just wonderful during that time). Check it out my mediocre cell phone shots of some of the highlights.

The cover. There was a Van Gogh exhibit at the Met at that time, and so there was a feature about his use of texture and how it relates to fabric.

There are lots of ads with fabric swatches throughout the magazine.

This one's called "Everglaze" and it's got a weird burnished surface.

This is an orange pique--but made out of some sort of synthetic, not cotton.

I couldn't come close to identifying what sort of fabric this is... Some sort of synthetic.

This fabric is a melton fabric that's just dreamy, it's very textured and the color is deep. Also, check out the model's rad hat!

This issue had a special feature on nylon. Which is not one of my favorite fabrics–actually, I think it’s extremely creepy and kind of gross. But, this nylon is far nicer. (It’s still creepy, though.)

What you should know about nylon!

One of several spreads on nylon fabrics.

Didn't you know? Nylon provides "psychological uplift?" Of course it does...

I think I'm going to add this to my favorite quotations list on my Facebook page.

This had some weird narrative in the caption about "the human chemical plant." I believe it was intended to describe how synthetic fabrics are made. The illustration is kind of amazing, actually.

Then there is just some random fabulousness…

"The Fight Against Bureaucracy." This is an article about rayon labeling.

What's amazing about this little blurb, is that in 1949, textiles were still the #2 industry in the USA.

This is an insert about textile & textiles--inspired by a Van Gogh exhibit that was showing at the Met. The type is beautifully handset, by the way.

I love this ad so much, I don't even have words for it.

When I have more time, I’ll bring my good camera, and take notes, so I can share more of the awesomeness that’s in American fabrics with you. There are some intriguing-looking issues from the sixties, that look very Mad Men.

~Sarah

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And I hate snow. As has been well-documented here.

Fortunately, when we had friends over to watch the Christmas Ships last weekend, I invented a pretty stellar new drink–I call it the Twisted Caipirinha. When I got home this evening, the first thing I did to seek solace from the snow, was make myself one–and I thought I’d share my recipe with y’all.

I first had a caipirinha at one of our favorite restaurants several years ago, The Lumberyard in Cannon Beach. (True confession: we call it The Logjammer, which is a Big Lebowski reference; I’ll just leave it there for those of you in the know to snicker about.) I got a little obsessed (I know, shocking, me obsessed.) with re-creating a caipirinha, but we could never find the special Brazilian booze that goes in it, cachaça (theoretically, you can substitute rum, but I hate, hate, hate rum, so that’s a non-option for me). We finally found some a few months back at the wonderful liquor store near Josh’s work (liquor stores in Portland tend to be creepy places whose primary focus is lottery tickets and generic brand gin, so this place is a treat–if you’re ever in Portland, you’ve got to check it out). So, after tinkering quite a bit and messing with recipes from my two favorite cocktail books, I perfected the caipirinha.

The Twisted Caipirinha Team

Ask anyone who hangs out with me regularly, I’m not a big drinker. Sure, I enjoy a trip to Thatch with Rachel when she visits (Uh, by the way, Rach, when are you making another journey to PDX?), love Portland’s vast selection of microbrews and really love the fancy bourbon Josh buys me every Thanksgiving (another one of our funny traditions–my favorite is Blanton’s single barrel, which is not hugely popular, but works great the way I like it: over ice, plus a teeny, tiny splash of soda water; it also has a badass bottle), regardless, I’m not much of a drinker.

(Geez… Was that a long enough intro to this cocktail recipe?)

Assemble your ingredients. (Makes one cocktail.)

• Cachaça (I prefer Leblon. It’s smooth, and tasty. You could substitute rum, but I wouldn’t recommend it–track down the real thing if you can. Cachaça is made with cane sugar, rum is made with molasses, they’re quite different in flavor.)
• One Lime
• One clementine, “cutie” or mandarin orange; you could also use half of a tangerine
• Simple syrup (I cheat & buy mine at Trader Joe’s. Here’s a recipe, if you want to make your own. Hint: If making your own, use a natural, organic sugar.)
• Ice

You’ll also need the following:

• Cocktail tumbler
• Sharp knife
• Muddler or pestle from mortar & pestle
• Shot glass or other measuring tool that measures down to the 1/2 ounce

Make your Twisted Caipirinha.

First, slice your lime  into quarters, but do not completely sever the skin. Basically, you’ll have two halves that are almost divided into quarters.

A way to make sure you extract the most juice out of your limes is to roll it on the counter before slicing.

Repeat with the clementines.

Mmmm... This is funny, because it's a tropical drink, but the clementines are only available in the winter. I love it for a surprising holiday cocktail.

Toss all, cut sides down, into your tumbler.

The juice will squeeze out better if you take care to make sure your fruit is cut side down.

Next, add a half an ounce of simple syrup to your fruit. (I tend to like things sour, so if you do too, add less syrup. If your taste runs to the sweet, add a bit more.)

I think the store-bought TJ's brand simple syrup is just as tasty as the stuff I've made, and it's a whole lot less messy.

Now it’s time to add the Cachaça! Pour two ounces into your fruit and syrup mixture.

Mmmm... So much better than rum!

Now take your muddling tool (I use the pestle from our mortar and pestle that we’ve had forever (Josh got it for me for a birthday, 21st  or 22nd, I think) and mush everything together in your tumbler. You don’t need to be too aggressive, just mix the liquids and gently push the juice out of the fruit.

It's funny that we don't own a muddling tool--but this has worked well for ten years or so...

Fill your tumbler with ice and give it a quick stir.

Your Twisted Caipirinha is ready to drink! Enjoy!

Twisted Caipirinha! While I love the original, which is a sour lime drink, my version with seasonal clementines is really festive and tasty.

~Sarah

P.S. For a traditional caipirinha recipe, try this one. (And please, consume your caipirinha responsibly, and make sure your guests are responsible as well–don’t drink and drive.)

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So, Saoirse doesn’t actually sew, but she does love hopping up on the chair in front of the sewing machine. But my mom does sew.

A couple of Mondays ago, my mom came over and hung and we each made a quick project–the Amy Butler Swing Bag. Oddly, my mom has never ever made a handbag. She had it in her head that it was really hard–and I think they’re one of the easiest things to make. She was kind of driving me crazy over the last year talking about how she was going to make a bag, but not actually doing–which resulted in lots of absurd conversations, for sure. So, we went over to Bolt and picked out fabric for each of us and she brought her machine over and we got to work.

Like I told my mom it would be, it basically took no time at all to sew up our bags–hers in a cool brown and orange Amy Butler print with a houndstooth lining, mine in an Anna Maria Horner print in aqua and blue with a complimentary lining. Here are a few photos of what we were up to (in reverse order, because my slideshow maker is not being cooperative at the moment).

It also seems like my making a quilt started an all in the family trend as well, because my mom finally pieced together the quilt kit that she’d ordered from Pink Chalk Fabrics “some time ago.” She brought it over that same day to show it off and get me to help her pick out her backing fabric (because, apparently, since I’m the only person in our family who has ever made a quilt, I’m now the resident quilting expert). Check out how gorgeous this is.

She chose a very cool Joel Dewberry print for the back, by the way. At some point, I’m going to help her sandwich and quilt the thing. (Again, how funny is it that I’m now the “expert” on quilting around here? I literally have no idea what I’m doing.)

My point with sharing this random snapshot of an afternoon is to remind y’all about how sewing actually can be a “community” thing. For knitters, crocheters and needle-workers, getting together to work on projects and share knowledge is second nature, but–despite the history of quilting bees and families sewing an entire school year’s wardrobe together back in the day–sewers don’t really do that a whole lot. It was great to get the chance to share so new tricks I’d figured out with my mom, pick out fabrics and just talk sewing. It’s a great change from the normal solitary nature of sewing as a craft.

Modern sewing machines are pretty darn portable, and fabric isn’t that difficult to transport at all. Scheduling time to meet up with folks at your favorite fabric shop isn’t that hard either–I mean, you’re going to be going there anyway. One of the things I love about watching basketball (yes, it all circles back to basketball for me), is the communal nature of it, the shared experience. Sewing can have that same effect–try it sometime.

~Sarah

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Yep. Me, Sarah, made a quilt. For years and years I’ve been adimently anti-quilting. I’ve had garment sewers’ snobbery, I guess. I just couldn’t imagine having the patience for all that cutting. And then the sewing all those little squares together. And then the actual quilting part–I couldn’t get my head around any of that. Well, on my trip to Pittsburgh for Quilt Market for work, Laurie–founder of the Fabric Shop Network–got me a wonderful quilt kit from Quilt Company (if you’re ever in western Pennsylvania, it’s definitely a shop worth visiting). Determined to not let my coworker, Mandi, finish her quilt from a similar, also awesome kit, before me, I got cracking on it and sewed the top up in no time. The reason it was so simple? Uh, because the Quilt Company had kindly cut everything in advance. How nifty! Seriously, I probably would never have made a quitl if that fussy, frustrating cutting wasn’t already taken care of for me.

I have to admit, it’s almost embarrassing to tell y’all how much stress the backing and the binding were for me. I was convinced that I would end up frustrated with the busy fabric I originally selected for the backing. I became obsessed with trying to line up the pattern vertically and horizontally and I could tell it was all going to end in tears, so I quit while I was ahead and headed back to Bolt for more assistance.  They helped me pick out another, less complicated fabric for the backing–a very pretty Vicki Payne (whom I met at Quilt Market and was totally RAD–she told me I was “fashionable”) 60″ cotton canvas sateen that coordinated perfectly with my quilt top. For whatever reason, this fabric behaved itself and I even managed to quitl it (nothing elaborate, just stitched in the ditch) fairly easily–especially considering that I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.

The binding was kind of another story, though. I used the fabric that I had originally intended for my backing and it looked pretty cool. However, I just couldn’t get my head around attaching the binding, mitering the corners and all that stuff. This was further compounded by the fact that most quilt books tell you to hand sew the binding on–because of my tendonitis, I simply can’t do much hand stitching. Not to mention, I kind of hate to hand sew. I mean, I sew buttons on with the sewing machine… I was convinced that the ‘Quilt Mafia’ was going to come after me for not hand sewing my binding. It was dumb and irrational, but I was panicking.

(Uh, I guess a real quilter would have ironed their quilt before photographing it. Oops.)

Anyway, as you can see, after all that angsting, I was able to get my binding sewn own. This is really thanks to my wonderful pal Susan, who has an incredible book that describes an easy one-step binding that worked well. (I didn’t execute it that well, but that has a lot more to do with my tiredness than the actual method.)

I’m pretty proud of my quilt–flaws and all. I’ve actually started another quilt, believe it or not. It’s a simple design from the beautiful book Material Obsession (worth checking out just for the stunning photography) for my mom as a retirement present. While I don’t think quilting is something I’ll take up on a regular basis, it is a satisfying diversion from my usual garment and accesories sewing projects. Josh, on the other hand, has been bitten by the quilting bug. He went out an bought Denyse Schmidt’s gorgeous quilting book (another book that non-quilters would probably enjoy having on their shelves because of the inspiring designs and Denyse’s unique aesthetic). In fact, he’s currently in the midst of a massive quilting project himself–The Big Zig. It’s wild and awesome.  In the meantime, he’s become very attached to the one I made…

~Sarah

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