Open-ended indeed

Riley received her first homework assignment yesterday. Kindergartners are to spend about 5-10 minutes a night on their homework, plus an additional 20 minutes of reading (or being read to, or both). Riley's teacher said she was starting off with some really open-ended assignments, which gives her an idea of how our children think and the various approaches they apply to a problem.

The first assignment: "Write down all of the numbers you know," with the rest of the paper blank (no lines).

Riley appears to think rather artistically (or haphazardly) about numbers. Her favorite number is 100, so there were a bunch of strings of 1's and 0's, then just random numbers between 1-100. The numbers started off quite large and then got smaller and smaller, then larger again, and then she started kind of fitting them together like a mosaic. The result looked kind of like those sand art bottles you make at the fair, where you pour different colors of sand in layers into an oddly-shaped bottle.

When I dropped her at her classroom today, I saw another student (or her parents) had drawn wide, neat lines on her paper and she had filled in consecutive numbers, starting with 1, in a relatively consistent size from top to bottom within the lines.

Both beautiful examples of hard work, both totally unique. I think Riley's teacher may be on to something here.

YOH update

It is so much easier to report on YOH status when I've actually been making some progress!Along with some friends in my baby group, I've been following some beginner running plans the last few weeks (I'm up to week 3), with good results so far. I like that the plan kind of sneaks you into running a little bit at time and that the 5-days-per week schedule means there is always a rest day coming up soon.

As an added bonus, I got to buy a nifty new watch to track intervals!

Fine dining, elementary style

At Riley's elementary school, every month we get the next month's lunch menu and can choose between one of two offerings each day. These always crack me up. Here's a sample:

• Cod with lemon dill sauce, carrots, and baby red potatoes
• Herb roasted turkey with sage gravy, buttered corn, and whole wheat stuffing
• Lemon baked chicken with roasted summer squash and rice pilaf

Of course, when you ask Riley what she had for lunch, she'll say, "Something with cheese on it."

Ruffly camo

Project: Calf-length cargo skirt
Pattern: Simplicity 3796 (top-right view)
Fabric: Cotton camo

During our last DOS, I made excellent progress on my camo skirt and now have it almost done.

The good: It turned out looking better than I expected. I liked working with the fabric which is more like a soft cotton than a heavy denim. I was able to complete it in a decent amount of time. Also, I decided against a hem and instead will rough up the bottom to give it that cool camo cargo look. On the advice of Chelsea and, strangely enough Jeff, I'll run stitching around the bottom to prevent the rough edges from sneaking up the skirt over time.

The bad: All of those danged curved pockets! The more I did curves, the better I got, but that means the early curves are pretty rough. However, I do value the experience making two types of pockets.

The ugly: I think this must be a design weirdness. There is a thin tie-ribbon that runs around the waist band that you gather up and tie into a cute bow at the front. It was painstakingly created by taking premade 3/4-inch twill tape and cutting it into several sections, then carefully tucking the short ends under on each end and stitching along each long side to create long belt-loops around the waistband. Then another thinner twill tape was run through each of the belt loops (I ended up using masking tape and barbeque skewers for this) and finally tied at the front.

All well and good in the pattern picture.

But, in reality, when I gathered the ribbon at least enough to keep the skirt from falling off, it made this weird pouffy ruffle with the rest of the waistband, above where the tape sits. Not, I think, appropriate for a camo cargo skirt. The obvious answer (thoughfully provided by Chelsea while I was still pondering the incongruity of it all) is to move the ribbon up higher on the waistband. I'm not super enthused about revisiting the fiddly little thing, but I guess I have my next DOS project all set.

Wearability: Medium-low. I probably won't wear it to work, but I can see myself in it on a Saturday. If I fix the ruffle issue. Or wear long shirts.

Zoom zoom zen

Currently lacking better space, I have my "sewing room" set up in the dining room. Some days when Riley is at school and I'm at home in the morning, I'll sit and sew while Reed runs his cars along the window sill. With the great light coming in from the window filtered by the beautiful Magnolia, it's an hour or so of pure peace.

"Second verse, same as the first..."

Project: Black 1/2-circle skirt
Pattern: Simplicity 3834
Fabric: Medium-weight black linen with embroidery

Voila! I finished skirt number two from my starter pattern, and I have to say I think it turned out well. A few glitches here and there, but nothing major. Not like, say, the following project, still in progress, where I'm making a camo-print cargo skirt with what seems like a thousand curvy pockets. But that's another story.

The good: The second time around was faster and turned out better overall. The zipper went in without a hitch, and the lace edging turned out really well. I like the fabric very much. My mom was admiring it as well, so perhaps a future project for her in the offing.

The bad: The zipper fit so snugly against the top of the skirt that there wasn't much room for the hook and eye. I was thinking about leaving it off, but Chelsea suggested squeezing it in there. A good idea, since one doesn't want to find out one's zipper is coming down by having one's skirt suddenly fall off.

The ugly: Well, if you look very closely at the hemline, the stitching kind of waves up and down rather wildly rather than sitting in a nice, neat line 1/4" away from the lace edging like it is supposed to. I'll keep practicing this one.

Wearability: Just great! Fits well and feels really solid. The newness of the lace edging makes the bottom stand out a bit like a poodle skirt, but it will calm on washing, I expect.

(PS. The post title is from a Violent Femmes song, one of my all-time favorite bands. Well, their early stuff anyway.)

Ugliest fabric ever, revisited

In an earlier post, I commented that it is nearly impossible to find fabric that I like in stores that are entirely devoted to displaying fabric. Upon further investigation, I discovered that you can, in fact, find several fabulous fabrics if 1) you do not have a project in mind for which you need fabric and therefore don't have any idea how much of it you might need, and/or 2) you don't have money to spend on fabric. Under these circumstances, great fabric practically jumps off the shelves into your cart.

On your mark, get set...

Today was Riley's first day of kindergarten. People keep asking if I cried when I dropped her off. The answer is...no.

For one thing, she and I had already been through the traumatic separation bit when she went off to preschool more than two years ago. In her case, this lasted exactly 2-1/2 hours and 5 minutes (the 5 minutes was when I dropped her off on day two. Apparently as soon as I was out of sight she was as happy as a daisy the rest of the day, though I spent the time in tears, certain her spirit was being permanently damaged by this abandonment).

One way to look at the first day of kindergarten is to think of it as a transitional ending, where your child is moving from babyhood to childhood. But in Riley's case, it seemed much more to me to be like opening the starting gate against which she has been straining. Riley has always been our independent child, certain she could handle anything. While this makes for a harrowing parenting experience, I have always hoped that this quality will serve her well into the future.

She and I both have been excited anticipating her first day. I have been ordering and returning uniforms like crazy, wondering yet again how companies can have such different ideas about what "size 5" means and why Blackwatch plaid with red stripe is "bad" while Blackwatch plaid without the despoiling red stripe is "good." She has been listing the people she knows will be there, the teachers she has met, and which are the good spots on the playground.

Finally the day arrived. Riley got up, showered, dressed in her shiny new uniform, ate a big breakfast, put on a cheesy smile for the camera, and proudly led the way to the car ("Come on, Mom! We're leaving!"). I walked with her up to her classroom, watched her stow her things in her new locker, and walked in behind her when she confidently opened the door to her classroom, made her way past the throng of parents assembled at the back, and sat down with the other kids to hear the teacher read a story. After a moment, she turned back for a second look, and I waved and indicated I was leaving. As I reached the door, she ran back to give me one quick hug and kiss before hopping over to rejoin the group.

As I was leaving, one father was gently tugging his wife on the arm, saying, "Honey, we need to go now. Come on, it's okay, it's time to leave here..." But, rather than feeling sad and nostalgic at the passing of her early years, I had a huge smile on my face. I was so proud and thrilled to see Riley race out of her starting gate full speed. I loved learning at school - the books, the activities, the teachers, the new facts and ideas, the creative projects. I don't know if Riley will love school as much as I did - I hope she does - but in the end she goes her own way, as always.

Happy first day of kindergarten, baby girl.

Aaaannnnnd, GO!

Ugliest fabric ever

Okay, I don't really have anything specific in mind, but I'm wondering how I can search an entire store dedicated to the sale of fabric and find one thing I like. Sort of. If it was in a different color maybe. Either I'm super picky (entirely possible), or I seriously overestimate the good taste of the general sewing public. Or I overestimate my own good taste (also possible). In any event, I find I'm choosing the same fallback fabric: embroidered linen. I just purchased two more variations for my next two projects, one white-on-tan and the other multi-on-black. I guess that means I will be communing much more with my iron than I would like!

(BTW, I exclude Chelsea from the "general public." She seems to be able to whip into an actual or online store and find the perfect fabric combinations that I never would have even dreamed of. I hope to learn.)

Managers of the round table

I just received a new piece of furniture in my office: a round table. This is separate from my desk and a great place to hold a small meeting in an overcrowded building with little conference room availability. It's not non-standard furniture or anything, but you have no idea how hard it was to come by. Our creative admin managed to acquire one for me by somehow suggesting that my manager needed it (and he did, in fact, come in and lean on it for a bit this morning). Apparently, you must be a lead or manager before you can score one of these tables legitimately. Because no one other than a lead or manager could possibly have a use for a round table.

DOS Roundup

For my birthday a couple of years ago, a friend gave me a quilting-themed book that got me started thinking about quilting circles - groups of friends getting together to quilt. Thinking further about my mounting pile of unfinished projects, several months ago I asked a couple of friends if they would be interested in getting together for a day of sewing. Encouraged by their enthusiastic response, I invited them over for a day of sewing: DOS. No kids and no spouses, just potluck snacks, chatter, and sewing.

So, approximately monthly since then I've hosted a "DOS" for sewing and crafting friends. Typically there is a mix of clothing-makers, quilters, knitters, and, most recently, a scrapbooker. People bring new projects, old projects, and stalled projects, and over four or five hours on a weekend afternoon, we joke, laugh, chat, and eat snacks while somehow also making terrific progress on our projects. I cannot tell you how fantastic it is to have a room full of experts when working through a tough projects.

Over time, group tastes have shifted around a bit - several of us are off on a knitting kick, I recently tried my hand at clothes-making, and some upholstery work is not out of the question. Next time I will remember to take some pictures, but below is a recap of our most recent meeting.

DOS roundup

Chelsea: My sister-in-law and fabulous clothing-maker, Chelsea cut the pattern for a brand new dress project, then worked through the tough final steps - hemming the double-layer skirt and adding lace edging - on a beautiful wrap dress she began at our last meeting. The fabric is a deep black heavy-ish shirting (I think) with tan-ish-mauve-ish embroidered flowers. The pattern itself is Vogue, with a narrow waist, wide skirt, long pointed collar, and great matching half-sleeve cuffs.

Samantha: Sam is knitting a fun, soft, light-blue hoodie for her son with a cute kangaroo pocket in the middle. The sleeves had come out a few inches too long, so she needed to rip out the decreasing, take down a few inches, then reknit up the decreases. She made it all of the way through one sleeve and halfway through another before calling it a day. She also showed us a cool verrrryyy stretchy bag she had made. You can see it on her blog.

Heather: Having made her way though a fleece tied baby blanket the last time she came, this time she brought her travelling closet-on-wheels filled with scrapbooking supplies. As is ever the case with scrapbooking, she had fallen a few years behind reality, so took the uninterrupted time to begin to catch up. She made it through 10 new pages throughout the day, mostly filled with her three-year-old son (now almost six). She is determined to work through her existing stash before buying more, so she made fun, creative use of what she had on hand.

Marge: Chelsea's mother is not often able to come to these because she works on weekends, but fortunately she was able to show up this week. Her project was a cushion for a bench-seat in the entry way of her home. Showing up with a large piece of foam, some backing, and some great rusty-orange suede, she took a few minutes to size up her project, then spend the remainder of the time making a remarkably accurate and visually flawless cushion.

Me: Studiously avoiding finishing the five quilts I made for my birthday hunt that I have yet to finish, I embarked on a new skirt project: a camo-patterned long cargo skirt. My lessons for the day were in curve-sewing and pocket-making. I found that each curve I completed became a little smoother and each pocket became a little more accurate, and I appreciated the valuable advice of the group while working through the sometimes incomprehensible (at least to me) pattern steps. I managed to make it through a back yoke, four pockets, front seam, and fake front fly before calling it quits.

At the end of these productive days, I am both so invigorated to continue sewing and so tired out that I just can't, so I end up laying around doing nothing for at least an hour or two. Jeff calls it being "run over by the sewing truck."