As promised, here's a little how-to on the fabric ranunculus.

First, cut your fabric into strips on the bias.  The width and length of your strips depends on how big you want your finished flower to be.  For this small flower, the strips are about 3/4" wide and around 10 to 15 inches long.  I used four strips here, but you made need a few more or maybe one less so cut as you go.  For a bigger flower, make the strips wider and longer.

 

Next, using a small zig zag stitch (about 1.5 mm x 1.5 mm), sew along one long edge of your strip.  The idea here is for one side of the stitch to catch the fabric - you really have to be on the absolute edge.  Going slowly will make it easier.

Along the other long edge, sew a gathering stitch (straight stitch, long in length).  Leave the thread tails long and gently pull one thread to gather.

Starting on the outside of the flower, pin the gathered edge into the shape of a circle.  Stop pinning when you complete a full circle.

Using a zig zag stitch, sew along the gathered edge of the circle.  When you come to the curves, leave the needle in the down position, lift the presser foot and rotate the fabric.  Continue until you finish sewing the pinned circle.  Back stitch and cut the threads.

 

Continue gathering and pinning the strip in a circle, slightly overlapping the ends in a soft spiral.  You can fold the end of the strip under if you want.  Sew it in place.  Back stitch and cut the threads.

Keep adding strips to your flower in this manner.  I varied the start and stop points of my strips and the direction to add interest - some go clockwise and some go counterclockwise.

When you get to the center of the flower, zig zag back and forth at different angles to ensure that all edges are sewn.

Before you stitch on a pillow or a skirt or a t-shirt, get out some scraps and try a practice flower.  It'll be worth the few extra minutes because you will get a good feel for how much you need to gather and how big to make the flower.  If you do this on a t-shirt, make sure you don't sew the back to the front.  Ahem.  Go slow, use lots of pins and have fun.

I'll answer any questions in the comment section.

We arrived home last night and the kids should be here with their grandparents in a few hours.  I have laundry going and have been to the grocery and got the car's oil changed.  I am completely exhausted due to the three hour time difference.  I think a third cup of coffee is in order as there is much to do and not much time for a nap.  I am having a hard time getting the cleaning started, let alone finished.  Can you tell my mind is muddled?  What I really want to do is cut fabric and sew.  But a rotary cutter, sharp needles plus lack of sleep only adds up to a bad idea.  Later, then.  After the cleaning and the nap, when the laundry is folded and put away, and after a good long cuddle and chat with the girls.

I'm so happy to be home.

olive oil tasting at Round Pond

wine tasting at Plumpjack

champagne tasting at Schramsberg

It's happens every year.  Sometime around March, I lose the desire to knit.  I don't even think about it and then July comes around and - BOOM! - I'm planning projects in my head.  This year, I am starting little.

Vintage Baby Knits by Kristen Rengren arrived on my doorstep a few weeks ago.  Oh my goodness!  Be prepared for an overwhelming amount of cute.  I have already cast on one little project and have plans to start another as soon as this one is finished.  I could go on and on about this book and I will in a couple of weeks when Kristen stops by House on Hill Road as part of her blog tour.  In the meantime, you can read more about her book at these other blogs.

All right.  Back to my vacation.

I put together this little outfit for a friend who turned 8 last week.  The skirt is 1/2 yard of fabric, selvedges sewn together, hemmed and shirred with elastic thread.  So fast and super easy - really, the whole outfit took about 45 minutes.  Crazy, huh?  I sewed the waist in a subtle spiral with a regular stitch length (3.0 on my Bernina) and then used the steam iron to make the elastic pull in even more.   The fabric is My Secret Garden by Alexander Henry that I ordered from Purl Patchwork a few months ago.  The t-shirt is from Old Navy, out of the stash, with a flower just like the one I made for Sarah's quilt square.  And, yes, I will do a tutorial since enough of you asked.  I took the photos while I made this one so as soon as I have time, I'll get it together for you all.  Probably next week.

OK - gotta run.  Fatty and I are on vacation.  There's a beer calling my name and a patient husband waiting.  Oh!  And a fabric store to visit, too.  Back here soon.

my photograph

Jane's drawing

I'm a total blogging slacker these days.  Summer is just moving along and we are busy just being.  It's pretty great.

I said I'd be back with something crafty, but I bet you didn't think it'd be friendship bracelets.  Truth is, neither did I.  My girls came home from camp and raided my embroidery supplies.  They started braiding bracelets for their ankles and doing hair wraps on their dolls.  Jane asked me if I knew how to make different kinds of bracelets.  Well, yes I do!  I made the above bracelet for Jane earlier this week and am now working on a pink and orange one for Kate.  I sit at the pool, completely in the shade, chatting with my friends and making bracelets.  Today I gave a 30 second tutorial to a few girls.  I have a feeling that we'll be seeing a lot of these in the coming weeks. 

These are the kind I made when I was a kid and I am totally doing it from memory.  Yay!  Jane started a four string one in yellow and white.  I would like to try my hand at something a bit more complex and while trolling the interwebs, I found this site.  Awesome - patterns, instructions, pdfs to download.  I'm going to try an arrow one next.

All right.  Back to summer.  Catch you next week.

How can it be Tuesday already?

Things of note:

    - Sorry if you came to the blog in the last couple of days and tried to comment, or read comments, but couldn't.  I tried to switch over to threaded comments, but something went awry.  I have switched it back now that TypePad has seen the problem.  Hopefully, they can figure out what is going wrong because I really want threaded comments.  Anyhow, sorry if it was frustrating for you.

    - The girls are home from camp.  They had a great time.  The room re-do went over so-so at first, but has now been fully embraced by Jane.  More on that as we finish up some projects - pillows, framing photos and the like.  She's excited to be involved and I think we will work together ok.  She has definite ideas that aren't always practical, if you know what I mean.

    - There's a new banner on the blog.  My friend Marcia shot this photo of Fatty and me driving away from a mountain bike race last week and was kind enough to let me use it on the blog.  I'm pretty much in love with this one and some others she took of the truck.  It's nice to be on the other side of the camera every once in awhile.

    - We picked, and ate, the first cucumber out of our garden last night.  That may sound boring, but it was cause for great excitement around these parts!  I also made some refrigerator pickles that were fantastic.  I'm going to try another recipe and then I will let you all know which one is the winner.  Now if the tomatoes would just ripen....

    - Saturday night, I made the kale chips again.  This time I just used olive oil and sea salt and turned the oven to 375 degrees.  They cooked about 15 minutes, maybe a bit less and were perfect.  Way better than the first batch and both of the kids ate them.  Success!

OK - I hope to be back with something crafty soon.  Chat with you later.