Anna Maria Horner

Postcards:: day six

2012-02-02T13:50:00.006-06:00

(As I wrote this earlier this morning) I am somewhere in the air between Los Angeles and Sacramento right now, and thought I would share my flowery snaps around Beverly Hills. I spent a lot of time in my hotel room watching old movies and working on various embroidery projects. My legs started to go numb so I thought I should walk around. The walk from my hotel to Rodeo Drive seemed a nice distance, and I guess I felt an obligation to see that. Saw it. But I really enjoyed a few stops on the way back - a coffee shop and the Paper Source. I found some sweet Valentine kits to take back for the girls, a stuffed giraffe for Roman, a harmonica for Nicolas, and a mini sound effect machine for Joseph- (the cartoon edition that has like 16 buttons each with a funny cartoony noise, like a bomb exploding, a springy noise + that sound that Bugs Bunny's eyes make as they pop out of his head when he sees a pretty rabbit- those sorta sounds.) I missed the kids so much by the time I got back to the hotel that I got them all on Skype and I showed each of them their gifts so they wouldn't have to wait. Of course Roman tried to reach through the screen to hug his giraffe, so I told him that it was Giraffe's night-night time, and let him watch me tuck him into my hotel bed. He seemed satisfied to let me care for Mr. Giraffe, and kissed my screen face good night.

(As I finish this post) I am unwinding after a talk that I gave at Meissner's Sewing, here and now resting up for two full days of sewing there.... my first official Janome workshop! More about all that tomorrow-

xoAM

Postcards:: day five

2012-02-01T13:11:00.007-06:00

I got out a little yesterday morning to poke around and see what this town looks like a bit before I started my class at Sew Modern. Okay, I just walked to Starbucks and back. But I have already decided that my favorite thing about Beverly Hills is the foliage that takes over (in a very specifically manicured way) all the old apartments and beautifully nestled together stucco houses everywhere. So pretty.

My hotel, the Maison140, served as an actor's hostile in the early 20th century I'm told. It is extremely quaint. Every surface in my little room is some shade of warm red, white or marble black. When you walk into the lobby at night, shown above, there is always some old black and white film being projected on one of the walls. I should try to get a grab of that tonight....

And this is the lovely group of women I got to spend my day with yesterday making the Multi-Tasker Tote- otherwise known as Sara, Amy, Jennifer, Julie, Jennifer, (me), Shay, Liberty, Morgan, Lorrie and Nancy. They let me chat away about whatever I wanted to (I think I'm losing my voice) and they just kept sewing and pretending to be interested. I have this funny habit of begging to seam rip for anyone that needs it while they do something else for the pattern so they don't miss a beat with a little mistake. Its my little way of remaining motherly while surrounded by grown-ups.

I spent last night with the LA Modern Quilt Guild. What a group. Wow. Talk about a room full of kindred spirits. I hope to have at least a few shots up here soon. I'll admit that when Jeff headed back home on Monday I sort of didn't know what to do with myself despite my full schedule this week. But yesterday reminded me why I love my work so much. Getting the opportunity to be re-sparked like this -in person- meeting others that appreciate and love so many of the same things, their eyes lighting up when you speak about color or form, even though you feel yourself trailing off into your own subconscious ideas about making- there they are- smiling, nodding, and making me feel at home. Thank you to the Guild for my wonderful evening.

Now to my day of no plans in Beverly Hills. Hmm. Well I do have work to do and we'll see what else. Wish you were here. xo, AM

Postcards:: day four

2012-01-31T01:09:00.006-06:00

This is just one of many gorgeous views Jeff snapped from the highest peak of the San Jacinto mountains. It was a dream for him to be able to plan, look forward and climb that summit. The way he talked about it almost had me convinced to overcome my height squeamishness and tram up for a look myself....but in my generosity, I decided to let him keep that joy all to himself.

Yesterday my crafty friends made mustaches out of my braids. So clever those two. This is Annabel on the left and Heather on the right. Jeff just took this one with my phone, but Alessandra was also snapping away, so I'm looking forward to seeing more of those. Such sweet girls.

Today is the first day on my own, now that Jeff is back home with the kids. Alissa picked me up in Palm Springs this morning and brought me to L.A.- Beverly Hills to be exact- what? I know- so weird. Not a place I ever thought that quilt talks and sewing would ever bring me (our kind are everywhere!), but so far it has been an interesting experience. I know that they make all the movies here, but I didn't expect that every single billboard would be plastered with movie this and movie that. I did expect palm trees galore, glass houses in the hills, and cars that cost more than my house- so that much hasn't been a surprise. Tomorrow I am teaching a workshop at Sew Modern, and then speaking to the LA Modern Quilt Guild tomorrow evening, and I'm really excited to do both.

And now that I've caught up on Downton Abbey online, I can call it a night.

xoAM

Postcards :: day three

2012-01-30T00:28:00.002-06:00

xoxoxoxox.

favorite.

xoAM

Postcards:: day two

2012-01-29T01:35:00.006-06:00

After having mostly set up and making introductions last night, we got to lots and lots of sewing today. All the women participating brought along really really great projects to work on, along with extremely inspiring attitudes about wanting to learn new things. A really lovely bunch this one. But if the sewing was in the least bit taxing.....

One could walk just a few feet outdoors and sit by the pool. I was not taxed, but rather had a break with a swim, a delicious jicama salad, and some embroidery. Followed by some wonderful conversation with an FBI agent. Who is one of our gorgeous weekend students. I know, right? I am secretly very jealous of her profession. I fancy myself an unofficial (but could have been a really good one) crime fighter. Really truly would have been a second career choice. Ha. I love remembering things about myself that I forgot.

And this edible distraction, was quite cared for by her mommy (Heather), daddy, and uncle who all took turns shading her with a towel for a poolside nap. Ah to have such abandon.

My honey took a hike. Like all the way up the highest peek outside Palm Springs. After he had been gone for about 10 hours, I got a text with a phrase that resembled: "lots of snow and wind, almost got blown into the Pacific".......(pause, pause) and I got like nothing more for at least 30 minutes. But he made it back and snoozing away. An entirely different sort of challenge than my day. But so good for both of us.

xoAnna

Postcards:: day one

2012-01-27T18:32:00.005-06:00

Once we got to Dallas from Nashville, I was pretty sure we were headed to the right gate when we saw this skirt. The lovely Jane who was also traveling to my workshop with Heather and Denyse in Palm Springs gave herself away with that patchwork love. So pretty. I also sat next to Debra on the flight and got to have some nice chats between snoozing and stitching. (omg! and little Jackie Ivancho was on our flight with what looked like her brother, mom, and puppy!)

This is the view outside of our room at the Ace Hotel. I want my money back though. There's no turntable in here. (If you've ever stayed at any Ace Hotel, you will so love that link.) What is standard issue here at the Palm Springs Ace: caftans. In every room. I fell so ridiculously in love with them last year that Heather sent me one as a gift afterwards. I can't wear it without Jeff saying something stupid. But I don't care. I know he loves it.

This is my favorite view currently. Getting watch my husband take a break for a bit. With me. Tonight we'll have a meet and greet with workshoppers, dinner then get right to sewing for a few hours until late. It already feels late to me, trying to stay awake for this timezone is a challenge!

Be back tomorrow, wish you were here, Anna Maria xoxox

20

2012-01-26T23:16:00.006-06:00

Just one more piece of nostalgia this month, as my first born just turned 20 a few moments ago. This is a mutually favorite photo between the 3 of us who were present when it was taken- Jeff, our photographer. Juliana was just a little over one and we were visiting friends in Sarasota, after having left the Ringling School to come home and become a family. Its nice now to think that I had attended school there to make art, but this is my favorite piece. Happy Birthday Juliana! I wish we were together.

Hey peoples, want to come to California? I leave first thing in the morning for Palm Springs, LA, and Sacramento. I thought I would send some postcards along the way to share the trip with you.....

But first I should get to bed, more soon! xo,AM

Postcard from Nicolas

2012-01-23T14:10:00.005-06:00

While I am not especially good at chronicling photos or artwork into albums or folders of and for my family there are certain scraps and bits of things that I hang onto. Not for any certain reason other than they feel especially poignant. And I am most certainly not great at organizing them, but they just get tucked here and there. I was cleaning out my closet on Saturday (just typing that doesn't quite cover how much that actually required of me). In the process this little card floated on the air down from the very top. A handwritten index card from a 6yr old Nicolas. Translated from his lovely phonetic spelling it reads:

Whenever Juliana isn't here I will be there if you fall down.

Nicolas turned 14 yesterday. I am so happy to have this postcard from his inner heart, his child heart. He was and is a gorgeous boy. Such a treasure to watch the rest as it unfolds. (And in my mind I can still hear little-him whispering words out loud very carefully in order to spell his writings.)

Hope you had a good weekend- its so sunny here today. xoA

Painting Party

2012-01-20T10:09:00.006-06:00

So I'm a little proud of this, when you consider birthday cake situations I have suffered in the past. (But thankfully barely recovered from.) My sweet Eleni turns 8 today. Pffufff. The time. She do pass us by. Eleni has invited a pair of friends to come home on the bus with her today. And together with her sister we're going to have a painting party. It was Isabela's (secret) idea to make Eleni a paint palette cake. Genius. Thank you Isabela. Talk about an easy design to execute! I did get a little fancy with her name on the side of the cake, but I was staring down at a plate full of beautifully colorful paints, erhhh icing plops. I had to do something besides eat them. So I painted on the side with a butter knife. And with "painterly" as the theme, I allowed myself not to worry about perfection. One helpful tip: etching her name in the white frosting with a toothpick first. Anyway, I think now I need to buy pretzel rods and black licorice strings so that I can maybe fashion a paintbrush (dipped in a icing color of course).

Now that Eleni is 8, we also decided it was high time she begin her fabric designing career. She drew out the design with markers (I had no idea she actually wanted birthday fabric, but how sweet). We scanned it, I redrew it digitally, as close to her hand as possible, and we sent to it Spoonflower. Thanks Spoonfower. Anyway. After the girls do some painting today everyone is going to make their own personal homemade pizzas. So I am thinking I will whip up some little aprons out of the fabric for them, so they'll all have a party favor to keep and remember the fun.

Better get to it.
Please don't be impressed.
Eleni asked for her own fabric for her 7th birthday.
Yea.
And I ate the colorful icing plops too.
I am afraid to look at the color of my mouth right now.
Over and out.
And Happy Birthday to my beautiful girl.
xoxo,Anna

Needleworks (in the works)

2012-01-18T12:40:00.007-06:00

I've been writing this blog post in my mind for a few months now. This fall will see the publication of my 3rd book title, Anna Maria's Needleworks Notebook. I've casually mentioned it here and there, mostly in other interviews, in some talks I've given, in some conversations and so forth, but its time to talk about it a bit more officially, I imagine,- especially in the string of what I'm looking forward to this year. Because I am really, really, really thrilled with this upcoming book. It is so different than the other two, I think entirely in a good way. Just like hand work is different than sewing machine work- that sort of difference.

This book has come about very slowly, I sort of had half the projects designed before I even knew how I wanted to present them. The idea of a book about 18 months ago, just made me sleepy. Not bored, I was just all too aware of that process and how you live it eat it breathe it until its complete. And I guess I just didn't feel willing, as gratifying as it can be. But then as I logged stitching hours (crewel, embroidery, cross stitch, needlepoint, hand quilting and so on), jotted notes, made drawings, and dreamed of ideas.... the format of a book, a different sort, just came about. It made the most sense, as long as I could dictate the styling be a little different here and there, I felt I could make it just right. And my gracious publisher, was very willing. Which entirely surprised me. I don't know why, I guess I just thought that the style of books I have written already is such a fixture now that it has become the only way to do it. And I piled onto myself the obligation to suddenly become the official authority on all forms of needlework to qualify me for the task. So silly. That is already available, if that's what you want. So my collection is a personal one of favorite things to do with thread, needle and cloth. Designed by me, sometimes embracing, sometimes ignoring, but always adoring tradition (sorta like how you treat your family).

It will be physically different than the other two - maybe more relaxed, maybe more inspirational, slightly more free-form, but still loaded with projects. And how its going now, the writing and the sewing that is, the book is feeling like my friend already, my companion, my journal, following along in process. I didn't quite feel like that with the others, maybe because this one has been a slow, careful realization. Again maybe just echoing a different type of work than more technical sewing. In the end, the finished work, I hope, is just that- a record of ideas and inspirations, that comes from a very personal place that I'm hoping you can relate to, respond to with your own work, and enjoy for a very long time.

How's that for verbose?
Thanks for reading all that. I'm sorry if you're more confused about anything than you were about 4 minutes ago.
More soon, xoox, Anna

How It Went

2012-01-16T11:44:00.005-06:00

We tucked in on Friday, side by side, upstairs, busy. Quiet, working, drawing, laughing, ignoring, talking, singing. Then snow. Tiny at first. Then huge. She said we should take photographs. I rolled my eyes. But then she put on makeup. I got my coat. Froze my fingers. Click. After. Click.
These pictures document the last of her dark hair for the now. She spent Friday evening trying to go blonde. Then I stayed up with her until almost 3am, helping her go blonder. Then she kissed me goodbye only hours later (her head, a little brassy) while Jeff warmed up the car. I slouched on the couch with Roman. And I was fine.
Saturday. Fine.
Sunday. Fine.
This morning, I headed to her room to ask her to
go out and buy some milk and juice for me becau........OH. Not here. Right.
So I texted instead.
She couldn't go get the milk and juice right away.
She's in Brooklyn.
And then I looked at these pictures for about an hour.
It was a good idea, as it turns out, to take them.
She has a few more here.
xoAM

Play Schedule

2012-01-13T13:48:00.003-06:00

Next on my list of what I am looking forward to this year, is a personal project. Well as personal as sharing ideas with thousands of pals could be. If you're reading this blog, you know I have a blog. Right. You may not know that I have a mailing list as well. I do. Now you know at least two things about me. Also, I've mentioned this before I think, but in general my mailing list is to let folks know about sales, new releases, more business-y. The blog, as you know, is.... uhhh, I don't know, but not especially business-y. But even with the few number of mailing mailers that I send out, I am always like, oohhhh, I don't want to bother anyone, is 5 times a year to many mailings....ohhh I don't know....

Anyhooers, I've decided to be a little more regularlike with my emailings and hopefully make them more inspirational and fun too. Today I sent my mailing list a fun "palette play" layout where I have chosen some beautiful Behr paint shades to go with my Innocent Crush fabrics and new rugs & pillows (you know this already if you're on the list and checked your email 5 minutes ago). Here are the layouts I sent out today. I soooo enjoyed putting this together. Is this fun? I think this is fun.

Point being, this year, I'll be doing this monthly (because I have Pierrette to remind me). It won't always be paint colors. But it might be playing with pattern, print, sewing, patchwork, interiors, tips, etc., in a way that is focused and hopefully informative. I know that this stuff sometimes pops up on the blog a'course, in a behind the scenes sorta way, but I am excited about the idea of doing it every month in a way that sort of follows along what I'm dabbling around with. And in a way that sort of connects the dots of what inspires how I design everything, etc. So. If ya wanna play, you can sign up on the mailing list by clicking here.

In other news, Roman pointed his foot up to my face today and said "Kiss it, mommy."

I really can't think of what to follow that with so, just....

have a good weekend!
xo, Anna

Wool by Color

2012-01-11T13:41:00.006-06:00

Suffice it to say I am thrilled. Ranking quite high on the list of things that I am excited about for 2012 are these Needlepoint kits that I developed together with Anchor, UK. For now I am putting them in the "looking forward to" category because I don't have a final final final answer yet as to when they should be shipping- though I believe it to be within the next month or so. We will carry them in the shop, and I am sure that other shops will be picking them up as well, though perhaps not so wide spread as my fabrics. (And woops it appears as though a few prints from my next collection are showing themselves in the top photo (places hand over "o" shaped mouth, eyes widen).)

These kits seem so much more available in Europe in general (where they are referred to more as "tapestry" than needlepoint). I am hoping to help turn that tide a bit, that these types of goods, and in fresh design offerings, will become more available here for us. The kits come complete with the printed canvas, all the wool that you need to complete them, as well as simple instructions for completion and care.

Never would I have thought, as I tried over and over to make good, even stitches as a young girl (looking constantly in my sister's lap at her perfectly worked wool surface) that I would one day get the pleasure of designing these. Please know that privilege has nothing to do with proficiency in this art form, my stitches are what they are. Mine. Don't be afraid. It is slow work. But I love that phrase, you? Slow. Work. No, never would I have guessed I'd like that either. Ha.

More on all this later. Speaking of guessing and predicting though, I was so honored to give some insight to my friends over at SewMamaSew to wrap up their Reflections & Predictions series on their blog. It has been so fun to read through them all, and honestly has helped to energize my own creative fires. I hope you'll enjoy reading my thoughts on the sewing industry. I tried to sound smart.

smooch! Anna

Pardon me while I adore some material things

2012-01-10T08:30:00.004-06:00

If I were to only ever go on about love of family, or admiration for the act of pulling needle and thread through fabric I might misrepresent myself. There are actual things, you know as in they don't speak or hug .... (or do they?)... but things, that make me happy. Anyway, this week feels like a bonus week. Like another MrsPacman appeared on the screen and told me to keep playing (did you know I held the high score at the local roller skating rink in the 6th grade for like 3 weeks? Why do I put such information in question form, as though there is a chance you would know?) Back to my bonus round. Juliana was meant to be boarding her flight back to school right about this very minute. But a few days ago she decided ohhhh, let's just switch it to Thursday. So we did, and that was great, though it cost me a little to switch it (I would spend an embarrassingly dumb amount to have her for an extra hour.) Yesterday when all the other kids were off to their schools and Juliana and I had the house to ourselves, we were tucked into the upstairs studio tooling away at some projects together. "Maybe I should stay until Saturday, there's no real reason to be there earlier than Saturday." (Out of her view I was nodding, nodding, fist pumping, nodding, obnoxious.)

"Oh, okay, honey, whatever you think."

So yes, this is my bonus round.

But with my brain, I already anticipate needing something to look forward to after Saturday comes. I start making a mental stack. Of things. Lovely things, but very likely they would fall into the distraction category. But with this new year upon us... I am looking forward to so much. I thought I would share these morsels with you over the next several days. Distractions anyone?

(Yay! Its almost as good as my my white patch Levi's being clean AND I've saved enough allowance to get into the roller rink and defend my high score.)

I don't have to look forward to today's thing, because it's already here! These velveteens remind me why I love my work so much. They are definitely a favorite. And really they feel like the type of design work that I hold myself back from a little bit, so as not to go overboard. Well, I am gladly swimming in these, without a lifesaver.

I hope you love them as much as I do. I wrote up a little ditty about working with velveteens over here a ways back.

Up next, wool tapestries!

xoxo, AnnaMaria

(Who does realize that blathering on about one more week with my daughter at home is somewhat similar to talking about love of family. I'm sorry. It slipped.)

(Who also realizes that there are many people who would just say, look the velveteens are available, enjoy them. I'm sorry I can't do that.)

Better with Stitches

2012-01-05T16:38:00.006-06:00

It is likely just me, but today I feel like anything is a better thing with some hand stitching. I have been cross stitching for days now on a very exciting design, but all on black Aida cloth, which is a challenge on the peepers. I've spent a lot of time on my flickr groups the past few days looking through everything that was made over the past year with my fabrics. So. Much. Beauty. You guys are amazing. I looked through, too, lots of shots of things that I made- searching for my favorites- from market and then some. I just keep going back to this one. Its just a detail of my velveteen Bonne Nuit quilt, but I love it so very much. I really didn't have time to stop to notice it, hurried as I was before market preparations to get it done. I knew I enjoyed it but it was hardly a relaxed, easy going creation, it was all on fast forward, and lovely, but fast. Now, though, those earnest blue stitches, working their way around anything in their path, activating the space but not intruding, adding durability but also beauty, being just exactly what they are, nothing more. The coral zigzag stitches, following orders, falling in line. All the obedience and playfulness in their character leaves me a little speechless today. Its hard to explain, really. Its so small. But so perfect. I am glad I made them. Just exactly like that, inadvertent as they were.

xoAM

:: In 2011 ::

2011-12-31T22:31:00.006-06:00

I guess this is becoming an unofficial ritual with myself as I reflect on the year, no order of importance, some restating, some revelations, but each entry a recollection of what it was to live and breath through another year as me.

In 2011...

:: I became particularly practiced at goodbyes to my oldest without tears

:: I realized that the reason we had to say goodbye so often was because we said several hellos, through many -sometimes quick but always welcome- trips, and that is good.

:: Through trips, calls, texts, emails, skypes, phone photos, I discovered that I am as needed (maybe more) as always.

:: I traveled to the other side of the country alone for the first time ever for 3 days (within 15 minutes of arriving my sweet husband called from the emergency room to ask me Roman's birthdate - Roman had fallen off of Isabela's shoulders and hit his head on the concrete- I think my reply to Jeff's question was something like"what's his birthdate? which one of you hit your head?")

:: I never questioned whether my husband needs me.

:: I tore through walls, erased hundreds of pencil lines on graph paper, crossed fingers and built the home studio I've dreamed of since I was a young girl.

:: I felt guilty for having the above pleasure.

:: I felt ridiculous for feeling guilty and felt I had earned it.

:: (Repeat the above two entries numerous times.)

:: In the midst of a very busy home life, bustling work, building the studio, anticipating much upcoming travel, a quiet and very small secret revealed itself in the form of expecting a new life.... our 7th.....

:: We were overwhelmed.

:: We were bewildered.

:: I walked into the lobby of my doctor's office and saw an old man pruning dead foliage from the plants. My optimistic heart sank and I couldn't get the image out of my head.

:: We were humbled. It was first day of Lent- a day we call Clean Monday- I learned that was the state of my womb- clean. Just like that. Gone.

:: I stood sobbing in the empty, cavernous, gutted, cold, raw wood structure that was to become my dream studio. I wanted to give it all away.

:: I felt, as blessed as I have been, that I would never be quite as happy as I once was. And for weeks and weeks (months) it was so.

:: Somewhere, I healed. I don't know how or when. Somewhere, deep in prayer, it is not a loss, but an enrichment of sorts, a connection and a faith in someone I cannot see, but know is there. Always.

:: I felt peace.

:: I loved my children more than ever.

:: I was cared for.

:: I was loved.

:: I was inspired.

:: I made so many little hand stitches in every sort of fancy direction, and for the first time I created products to help others do the same. This brought me such an immense joy and fulfillment in my work. Another dream come true.

:: I realized how happy I am to not be in college.

:: Having interns taught me that, as well as how much I've learned since being out of college.

:: I hope I became a better boss.

:: My husband left me in awe of his determination, and relentless dedication to outdo his own physical efforts.

:: I was encouraged to do barely scratch that surface but build my own endurance and health through running. What a difference it makes.

:: I toiled in my garden more than ever, but so far have only grown good soil, which has me so looking forward to spring.

:: My parents made the first step towards moving to Nashville to be near us, and I am simply giddy every time I think that they could be just a few minutes away.

:: I saw changes in each of my children that are hard to quantify.... hard to name or to attribute, but overall just a growth that makes each so much more of who they are, in a fuller, more rendered and beautiful realization.

:: I learned what a privilege it is to witness it.

:: I sit here tonight, just a few minutes shy of midnight, all alone on New Year's Eve- I guess for the first time in my life. Jeff took all the kids, save Roman, for a night of roller skating. I kept Roman up well passed his bedtime to soak up as much cuddling, and kissing, and loving as he could take. As it turns out, he can take quite a lot, and that works out just perfectly since I have more than necessary to offer. I think this year has been nothing if not a steady stream of arrivals and departures. I imagine that is just the very engine that is our lives together and independently. Today Jeff worked on the final caulking for the structural columns of our home. It was so sunny and unusually warm. He carefully sealed up every last little seam and nail hole, wiped them clean, ensuring they would weather well. So I guess our roof should stand for at least another year, God willing.

I have never felt less alone on a New Year's Eve. I am blessed. I have joy.

I wish you all the same in 2012,

lots of love, Anna Maria xoxoxox

From Our House...

2011-12-23T17:31:00.004-06:00

...to Yours. Thank you for making my days twinkle all year.

We wish you a joyous Christmas and blessed holidays shared with those you love.

With lots of love from the Horner House: Anna, Jeff, Juliana, Nicolas, Joseph, Isabela, Eleni, Roman, and Leo the puppy. xoxoxo

Sunday Paper

2011-12-18T13:45:00.003-06:00

Next on my list: wrapping presents, making sugar cookies, folding laundry, paying a plumber.

xoAM

Looking Up

2011-12-16T13:21:00.004-06:00

Feeling so much better. Antibiotics don't hurt. Nor do candy canes, twinkling lights, sparkling snowflakes, homemade cookies, happy children home for break, cuddley overgrown puppies, loving husbands, squishy pillows, warm quilts or hot tea with honey.

Where shall I have your prescription sent?

xoxoAM

Hello, Friend.

2011-12-12T13:04:00.006-06:00

Yesterday I woke up with an aching head, stuffy nose, sore throat and a bubbly 2.5 yr old boy in my bed that didn't quite get it. I kissed each kid off to church with their dad, and I stayed in bed as long as I could. Once just laying there was driving me crazy I got up and took as much legal medicine as possible (its really all I have) to feel a little better than absolutely horrible.

Somewhere after the medicine and some black mint tea, I started realizing that I was alone in the house and could possibly have some quiet time with a glue gun (as opposed to chaos time with a glue gun where I try to prevent it from ending up on my rug or someone's delicate skin, which amounts to me plugging it in and out of the wall about 80 times in a 30 minute period and always waiting for it to heat up to do any little dab). Ahem. So working on a twig wreath that I've had for years and never really knew what to do with seemed like a manageable task. In my jammies and wooly slippers. Sipping tea.

I simply used some Christmas-y craft leftovers. But when I was done, something (maybe the medicine) told me it needed printed paper. So I tore pages out of an already torn book and wrapped them around these sort of balloon-on-a-wire-stem sorta ornament things that ended up to looking something like a trumpet or a newspapered ice cream cone or a bulbous tulip, erhhh I don't know what. But I liked it. And today, cold-medicine-free, I still like it. So its a keeper.

Thanks for listening. More tea?

OH!

My friends at Janome are doing a big, fat drawing in an effort to reach 20,000 likes on their facebook page. Entering to win (things like machines, patterns, fabric and more x 2 so that you and a friend can share) involves just two things: (1) read their blog posts each day this week about their "friends" -today happens to be me ... awwwwe, and leave a comment on the post to enter to win. You can keep leaving comments each day to increase your chances. But the real deal is (2) to also like Janome's facebook page, and as soon at they hit the 20,000 friend mark they will draw a winner. Could make a great gift for you!

back to Advil, your friend, Anna

Loukoumades & Sunshine

2011-12-10T12:17:00.002-06:00

16 past noon on Saturday. All of our ornament & decking boxes are piled up on the dining room table. Sunshine is pouring in. Loukoumades are rising on the kitchen counter. Under a towel I made more than 3 years ago, which has held up quite nicely. I'm so glad I've used it. I hope we have enough honey. Getting the tree today.

xo, AM

Answers To Questions You Didn't Ask

2011-12-06T09:42:00.004-06:00

(photo is one corner of the girls new room do over, more soon)

:: Candy Cane JoJo's + coffee = breakfast (my own special mathamathicals)
:: Cookie Crisp cereal was eaten at lunch yesterday by someone.
:: And potato chips were layered into a peanut butter & jelly sandwich for dinner.
:: Okay, it was me.
:: My appetite is 9 years old lately.
:: I'm not pregnant.
:: Nicolas will not put the guitar down.
:: That is generally good except
:: There is no other first song to learn on the guitar except Smoke on the Water (or CatScratchFever depending on your generation. But its the same song (almost) and it doesn't seem to ever go away.)
:: He did teach himself the Tetris theme music which is awesome except
:: It makes me anxious and want to organize everything in the house to maximize space.
:: Kristen Wiig could be the funniest person on the planet.
:: Roman met our friend the Question Mark.
:: It started at my brother's house over Thanksgiving when I asked Roman to pull up his little pants and he looked at me with a sideways face, held his palms to the ceiling and said "why, mommy?"
:: Its the cousins' fault.
:: Though he has lately upgraded to ?.2.0 with phrases like "wha happin mommy?"
:: Sometimes you just have to fill your husband's Amazon shopping cart to get what you want and feel no shame.
:: Isabela, the other guitarist, has pre-warned me that she won't be getting her hair out of her face for her upcoming guitar recital
:: I am so conflicted on the inside.
:: Her face is pretty, I like seeing it.
:: But so is her will, I like feeling it.
:: We may meet in the middle with clean, shiny, brushed and in her face.
:: Planning 7 handmade gifts for your family on December 6th is chance-y.
:: That reminded me I have work to do.

:: Should you like to read through some answers to questions I really was asked, you can go visit with me at my friend Bari's lovely embroidery site called welovefrenchknots (yes we do!!!)

have a good day poopsieschmoos. xoxo, Anna

Night Lights

2011-12-04T15:07:00.005-06:00

Yes, its normal to want to go straight to your local craft store now and purchase glitter.

No, its not normal after doing so to think about what your yellow lab (insert any human, pet, automobile or piece of furniture here) would look like with some glitter. You must inhale just enough during your projects to mess up your brain a little.

Last night we ooohhhed, ahhhed and barely blinked we were so excited to try every next color. Totally worth the line at Michael's that stretched to the back of the store.

xoxoxo, fluttery eyelashes and glittery kisses to you, AM & the sparkle team

(burnt lightbulb rehabilitation program found here)

Doing This, Thinking That

2011-12-02T09:46:00.010-06:00

Post Disclaimer: All photos reference the THAT of which I am thinking and not the THIS of which I am doing. There are too many THISs to photograph.

Doing:: Replacing six 10 1/2 ft structural porch columns on the front of our house :: waiting impatiently to have this installed in the dining room :: and two of these and one of these in the hallway :: attending to the lingering details in Nicolas's room and the girls' room after having renovated both :: considering which day to buy our Christmas tree and therefore decorate the whole house

Thinking:: About picking up all the little sunshine crochet squares I started last winter on the couch with Juliana and lots of Whoppers :: Wondering if I need all those things again to be able to do it :: Yes, I do :: I was originally inspired by an amazing blanket that I saw either on etsy or flickr or both.... I think by a talented (Northern?) European woman.... and she had it styled on a modern gray couch.... anyone? I have seen several of course that are similar, but her color choices were unusually gorgeous....Please post a link in the comments if you know what I'm talking about :: Of course you can post anything you want even if you don't know what I'm talking about too :: Which is always the case, really :: EDITED to add- found it!!! Thank you Anonymous commenter :: My first inspiration was found at Sandra Juto's marvelous site :: I can go on living now :: This is a gorgeous photo here

Doing:: Putting the finishing touches on my first pattern for Janome - the Patchwork Prism Quilt :: getting to the homestretch of my first two published-and-soon-to-be-for sale-embroidery collection patterns :: finalizing colorways for more ribbons :: hooking up my new printer so that I can send off the final prints for my next fabric collection :: wearing wooly slippers

Thinking:: That I maybe should have created these crochet squares with the continuous joining method that I found here today while looking for the original inspiration source of the blanket :: Genius in that it saves the white round for last so that you can crochet it and attach them at the same time without having to sew in any yarn ends from the stitching step :: Maybe it would look weird now to finish the blanket with two different methods :: Maybe I should save that for the next one I want to make substituting all the white with something dark :: Grey

Doing:: Interrupting my work several times a day to search presents I'm on the hunt for :: Sending anonymous gift ideas to Jeff using Evernote :: Choosing flannels to make scarves for the girls :: Drinking room temperature coffee and weighing the option of walking downstairs to heat it up

Thinking:: About how much I would like to eat cheese and crackers on the couch while crocheting more sunshine :: It could tie me over until I buy whoppers and Juliana is home :: The THAT that you want to do is always so much more entertaining than the THIS that you're in the midst of:: Until of course the THAT has been a THIS for a few hours

goodweekendxoAM

ChildSky

2011-11-30T09:38:00.006-06:00

I had the fortunate experience as a growing young girl to have yearly visits with my 3 cousins (my only American cousins) in northern Indiana. Outside of cousins being pretty much the best part of any holiday, we were particularly lucky to have the perfect match up of ages, temperaments, and genders... my mild mannered sister Eleni paired up with my mature and kind cousin Liesl, my spirited brother George was the perfect match for my fiesty and mischievous cousin Curtis, and being the baby in my family I was plopped together for better or worse (always better) with sweet, bubbly Meghan - the other baby. And we were essentially the giggle girls. My cousins, I assumed from a very early age, had it so much better than us. They lived across the farm from my grandparents. My imagination pondered the luxury of just walking across a few acres of field and cornstalks to see your grandparents. Pie, potatoes and chocolate sheet cake just minutes away and likely once halfway there, you'd be able to smell it coming at you, you'd break into a gallop to arrive just before you missed the last slice, scoop, piece. I had only their holiday house in my mind, you see. The idea that there might also be some sort of mundane day to day experience escaped me entirely. Jealousy was always more entertaining than reality.

With that field, that farm, those barns and coups full of animals, those two houses full of cousins, grandparents, and warm, delicious, sweet smells, I was given - as often as we could make the 500 mile drive - a cousin experience that could not have been better. Meghan collected koalas. Here room was littered with every imaginable shape, size, color, stuffed, poster, book and sticker of koalas (enter lovely jealousy again). The boys were usually hurting one another, fighting over the rules of any game, or scheming a prank on us. The mature girls were typically off doing something mature, I guess, we were rarely ever welcome. When we did catch a glimpse of their make-believe through a cracked door, it usually involved pretend boyfriends or pretend families, so we could leave that scenery entirely uninterested, and opt for something like a staring contest over Lays potato chips, where the bust-out of laughter was accompanied by shooting food in each others' faces. We were the babies. All I can remember is laughing, really.

I do remember one early evening where Meghan and I were running through the fields behind my grandparents' house and something had upset me.... I think one of the other kids. I was wearing a zippered sweater. I told Meghan I was running away. The sky was huge. And filled with more color than what seemed possible for a sunset. It went on forever, the flat landscape barely putting up a fight to obstruct any part of it from our view. I ran, and ran, yelling that I would never come back, my mouth tasted bright and salty with exhaustion in the northern air. And Meghan, a few years younger, kept after me, ran as hard, caught up, and begged me not to do it. She was the only one of the two of us that believed I actually would. She cried. And begged. She wasn't my sister who knew better because I usually never made it passed that row of pine trees in the back side yard. She wasn't my brother who wouldn't have been paying attention anyway, busy with whatever boys do. She was my cousin. My baby cousin. She didn't see me everyday and know better. She didn't account for the safety net I could bounce off of by just running from our grandparents' farm to my aunt & uncles barn. I learned that she loved me. And hours later we were back at the gigglefest in her room, in the dark. Past our bedtime. She up on her squeaky, springy bed, and me down on the trundle telling her that I never would have really done it. Both of us laughing hysterically.

Years later I would lay on that same trundle, as an 18yr old, in the dark and tell dear sweet baby Meghan that I was pregnant. When I did, she laughed and laughed and begged me to be serious. Like she had learned her lesson from me after so many Thanksgivings and Christmases. But then we cried and cried. And laughed.

The wide open, ridiculously colored skies that directed us on the long drive from a cousin visit in New York last week, brought back so much to me. Its amazing, isn't it? Sights, sounds, smells. Childhood and what it made of you. I watched our children with their cousins during the visit. Sometimes I felt I could label a certain giggle, or bike ride, or slip down the backyard slide as a memory for them and file it away in their little unaware brains. I could see them being made, right there in front of me. And they have no idea how much it will all mean to them one day.

And I felt glad and thankful.
Thank you all my cousins, near and far, especially Meghan who chased me down and loved me.
xoAnna

Backatit

2011-11-28T13:08:00.004-06:00

I typically gauge the success of any time off with how happy I am to be back at work. Our time away was perfect, though we always wish it a bit longer. It must have been just enough, because I am happy to be back. Before I left, I had meant to mention a giveaway of some of my loot over at the Cloth Paper Scissors blog that I think is being announced today, so do hurry over! It helps to celebrate my moved-into-studio being featured as the cover story for their STUDIOS winter issue. So honored.

Hope you're glad to be backatit today, xo, AM

Backwards and Forwards

2011-11-21T23:05:00.003-06:00

Hi friends. First things last. Erhh, last things first. I can't remember anymore. But I do know I have been dancing around in circles waiting to show you some quilt market photos all the while balancing a few other heavy duty tasks like filming Janome videos for days on end and other things of that nature. But here we are then. Okay. Above is the cover of the brochure we put together for fall market. We try to print plenty of these so that we can include them inside all of the shop orders to keep you in the know. You know. Anyway, I am going to attempt some prose here, but I have a hunch that this post might get a little Cliff note-ish. So the bullet point for the above would be the first look here on the blog of my upcoming Ribbon Collection with Renaissance Ribbons. There is no better source for gorgeous jacquard ribbon and I am so much more than honored to be working with them. We are just about to load 8 ribbons into the shop soon to be followed by a few dozen more colors of the same designs. They are like cake after dinner. Perfectly beautiful in every way, and I've been working on lots of project ideas for you. Moving on.

The star of the show, at least front and center was the Log Mansion Quilt. Did you see that?- the title is linked to the downloadable pdf pattern for you. Hooray! (You can also get it from my MAKE page.) Just put the finishing touches on the pattern this morning, and Pierrette has also prepared some kits in the shop.

It really is one of my favorites.

Though this one is begging for a close second. There are a few notes for this lovely quilt. Not only does it feature many of the Loulouthi Velveteens which will be shipping next month, but the linen patches feature some of the embroidery work from an upcoming embroidery collection that I will be publishing hopefully before the end of the year. The pattern is called Love from A to Z and it is a full upper and lower case alphabet of a pretty healthy scale. The pattern will also feature a bonus project idea, this quilt, that will share a clever way to work your embroideries into a sewn item. I am also finishing up a second embroidery pattern called Fields Aflutter that is a conservatory of florals, butterflies, borders and other delights. More about the embroidery patterns soon.

A velveteen pouf that I designed just for market but that I can't get out of my head. And I think we know what happens then. So perhaps a new pattern in the Spring.

Here is a pretty shot of the velveteens from the catalog.

Pouf. And a pillow of linen, ribbon, and backed with velveteen. The table is from CB2. Wish it were bigger, and I'd use it in my living room. I thought of putting two together, but its still really low. I love the look of that dang table though.

See through. Shiny. Pretty. I really enjoyed this bouquet too.

Sigh.

This Painted Portrait Dress, enchanted with a bit of ribbon machine applied to the yoke, is cut a little longer than the pattern standard, for an elegant, albeit gypsy-ish, silhouette of rich color. We've topped it off with a Figure 8 Scarf of the new velveteens. Rest assured the moment we have the velveteens in hand, we will have new scarf kits in the shop for you.

And another sweet little ribbon project was on display. Lots and lots of vertical pintuck pleats made from simple, solid voile, which turn this way and that as the ribbon lays across on the horizon. The same concept could be done with bias bindings, or any cross grain fabric for that matter. It was a very fun exploration in texture, and a nice breather from print. Perhaps the most princessy type design I've ever dabbled with. I look forward to putting together some tips on this little number for you.

Last but not least (and probably not all of everything, but I did try) ...needlepoint. Thats right. Kits. Printed canvas. Wool. And for me, very, very fond memories of my childhood- one eager but imperfect stitch after another. One by one building my ideas of what is a good thing to do with your time. I am just so glad that Anchor was all too happy to let me design four new kits that will become available in Jan/Feb. We had just gotten the unstitched canvases right before we left, so I can't wait to show you the finished samples.

I'd like to say too, that I am feeling particularly reflective lately on the work that I have had the opportunity to do and share. Maybe not by accident that I feel very thankful this week, more than ever, for what I wake up to each workday. I've just been thinking that while I don't take my work too seriously, I also don't take the privilege of getting to do it too lightly. I am beyond blessed. And the added happiness of sharing it with you when I am able too is particularly lovely.

May you be blessed and well fed, body and soul.

Happy Thanksgiving,

xo, Anna Maria

Patchwork Prism

2011-11-12T08:59:00.004-06:00

Hullo there. I meant to get photos from quilt market uploaded, edited, flickred and blogged yesterday but the heavens opened, shining rays of unspeakable light on my sewing table and told me I should quilt instead. So I obeyed. (Seriously look! I never get those cool sun flare shots.) For real, I did have the house all to myself for a solid 6 hours so I moved my sewing machine downstairs next to the design wall and patched and patched and patched. And as it happens its a new quilt pattern for my Janome projects called Patchwork Prism. Hmm.

hope you're having a sunny weekend, xoxoAM

Alright already!

2011-11-09T12:16:00.004-06:00

I took this just for you. In all my early morning no makeup, no hairbrush, no shower glory. Ahh photobooth, I loves ya. I tried to turn to the side so you could see the Versace Medusa insignia thingy.

Stay classy, Anna.

Unpacking the noggin

2011-11-08T16:35:00.006-06:00

I sometimes feel that settling back into the routine of the studio after Quilt Market is as taxing if not more than preparing to leave, because attaining that settled state is a more elusive goal than the concrete preparations we make to get there. Jeff and I had such a smooth go of traveling there, most especially when compared with one year ago. I think that trip will forever make all subsequent market experiences seem like a breeze.

Though this time we had a unique little emergency that came on slowly, ramped itself into near panic, and then resolved itself quite gracefully. Huh? Yeah. So. After a the smooth beginning to our setup on Day one, I woke up on Day two with a sort of fuzzy spot in my right eye that grew as the day went on. I kept ignoring it as though there must be something in my contact lens and went on about setting up, giving my first school house talk (thank you if you were there!) until soon after in the late afternoon, the fuzzy spot seemed to be growing at a rapid rate and really interfering with my vision. When it didn't subside after removing my contact a few times, I started to get a little anxiety and thought I should head back to the hotel room to give my eyes a good rinsing. It was after all, almost time for me to speak at my second school house which was a shared presentation with my friends Amy, Tula, and Val.

When I got to my room, I took out both contacts, and flushed my eyes with tap water. That sounds harmless enough, but the stinging pain that resulted in my right eye and the immediate swelling reaction that occurred thereafter were far from harmless. Good gosh, enter all explicatives here yourself because I am fresh out of them after that. I have never experienced that kind of pain, and then panic. I couldn't reach Jeff or Pierrette for several minutes (felt like an hour- was prolly more like 7 minutes) and the clock was ticking closer to me needing to appear at my school house. I finally got a hold of Pierrette and let her know she would have to come get the samples from me and do the talk. I simply could not open my right eye at all. I had to pry it open with my hands if I wanted to see through it, and then, I think I only had about 50% of my vision and a halo was forming around everything.

Cut to the chase, the nearest thing we could figure out was a Walgreens clinic that Jeff took me to (which he kindly interrupted his post workout sauna for- I know, what a guy, right?) where I waited through 30 minutes of half-sighted sadness and stinging pain to be told that I have something more serious than an infection, but some other condition that would need either emergency care of at least an optometrist. And there we were in Houston at 5:30 pm.... but Dr.Walgreens found one a few miles away that agreed over the phone to see me before they closed at 6. Well we got there with only a few minutes before closing time, and after answering a few questions for Dr. George Ziebaq he determined that I might have a corneal ulcer (ooooouuuchie!!!) but then after looking at my eye determined I actually had SEVERE corneal abrasion, scratching, etc. and in one spot multiple layers of my eyeball -gone, hence the blindness. Who wants to take their contacts out right now??? I know.

Cutting to the credits, it was caused essentially by my allergies here in Tennessee, which caused my actual eyeballs to swell, which caused my contacts to fit too tightly and essentially act like cookie cutters on my eyes. Those are Dr.George's words. I never would put the phrase cookie cutter into an optometry diagnosis because that is weird and scary, but after he said that I didn't need further explanation, so he is a clever fellow. Thankfully because I caught the situation in a reasonable amount of time, as of my followup appointment the next afternoon, I was 95% healed after a night of rest, strong antibiotic eye drops, other eye drops, and no lights on my eyes. But no contacts either. Which made for a fun time of catching glances and smiles across the trade show floor all the following day. I squinted at everyone. I am sorry if I saw you and I scowled at you. The fact is, I didn't see you at all. I'm sorry. I kept apologizing to Jeff. I knew that it wasn't my fault, but I really thought I had swung a market with no drama. I am finding that regardless of the circumstances I may never be capable of nodrama.

Sigh.

My eyeballs are twinging, just thinking about this all again.

And I was able to get a pair of glasses during our 2nd trip to Dr. Z's office which I thought were really cool. Though I was choosing the frames when my vision was not only incorrect because of no contact lenses but also still slightly impaired from the damage. I therefore did not recognize my new glasses once the frames had my prescription in them and I tried them on. I thought sure that Versace heavy black frames with zebra striped stems were super chic, and at over 400$ allowed myself to be certain. But then there was this whole silver insignia thing on the side of them that I didn't even know was there. Then Jeff got in big trouble because he told me when rudely distracted from reading a magazine in the optometry office that they looked great but he should know that I would never have chosen frames with a silver insignia, because I simply never wear silver and he should know that after all these years and wasn't there a gold insignia pair, or at least an insignia free pair or .... gunmetal insignia? Hffmp. My glasses don't scream Anna, I think that my glasses more scream that I am 74 and live in Miami, and maybe also that my skin is tan and leathery. Which would be cool if that were so. But its not.

Drama. I has it.

Everyone @ market heard this story at least four times. So I thought that you should hear it too. Sorry it wasn't over my 5th post-healed-eyeball whiskey sour though. Its likely more entertaining that way.

back soon with full pix of the booth. smooch. Anna

Creature Comfort

2011-11-02T17:42:00.003-05:00

I have been out of my habitat for quite a while now. I've missed you people and that fun back and forth thingy that we do here. My latest back and forth has me just returning from fall Quilt Market in Houston. All went so well, but naturally the preparations had this blog a little quiet, quieter than expected though. I was finally getting through it all at just the right pace, when this house fell silent..... we lost our beautiful little Lemon, the canary. In the grand scheme of life, it is a loss we can bare, so we don't dwell or wallow but I'm left a little lonely without his constant song. He did look so sweet and peaceful when we found him, so that helps. We wrapped him in beautiful citrus yellow fabric, placed him in a tiny box, tied it with a ribbon, buried him deep in our garden and planted flowers above him. Then we thanked God for the gift of getting to care for this gorgeous, innocent and sweet creature.... asked forgiveness in case we could have done a better job of it. We miss you Lemon. Sweetest bird.

Even with one less creature to come home to, Jeff and I are indeed so happily settled back into our nest after too long away. Watching Lion King for the millionth time with Roman, Ritz crackers, juice and wion-pildy (lion pillow) was just exactly my speed today. And maybe tomorrow, and the day after, and...

back soon with happier notes for you, lots of love, Anna Maria

Bon

2011-10-14T16:04:00.005-05:00

I left Tennessee with it still feeling like Summer and came back 5 days later to Fall. The slow, colorful turn towards cool weather and dry air is welcome and beautiful. I left Roman stringing words together, almost all of it in the tone of a question (like, do I have this right?) and I came back 5 days later to some very concise sentences with not a hint of waver or question in his voice. I left the studio with a calm feeling of getting prepared for Quilt Market at just the right pace, and came back 5 days later feeling 2 months behind (???).

But it is good. Bon. Bonne? Not done yet! I'm sharing a glimpse of a velveteen + embroidery project. I am working on two embroidery collections to be released before the end of the year, and hopefully to be previewed as in depth as possible at market. Embroidering in a hurry is the paradoxical happiness/stress that I have found myself in several times over the past months. But somehow pairing embroidery with anything is keeping me intact.

happy stitches xoxoxoAM

(some fun photos of my weekend sewing class here. what a treat that was.)

A cozy Ta Da

2011-10-07T15:04:00.003-05:00

Letting the photos do most of the talking today pals :) The above patchwork blanket is called "Log Mansion" which I'll have a free pattern out for in a few weeks, though it really is just a gianormous log cabin block. This particular piece has no batting, simply backed with voile and hand quilted for a light weight layer.... like a receiving blanket for adults. Why should babies have all the comforts?

have a cozy weekend, xoxoAnna

Pretty & Practical

2011-10-06T13:40:00.004-05:00

Who would not like being accused of either or both of those attributes? I am happy to report that my two new sewing patterns strike both pretty and practical chords for certain. I could be biased.

You've seen images of this pattern show up in everything but the actual printed pattern, so I am thrilled to say that they are arriving to stores now. I have to admit that each new pattern becomes my current fav until I am onto the next (which I of course already am) but this Painted Portrait Blouse & Dress is a pleasure.... I love the way it looks, feels, fits and how it comes together in sewing. I hope hope you will too. You can download the full front and back cover image from this page, and see more versions of the pattern here, here, and here. I counted up all the possible options for this pattern taking into consideration the possible combinations of sleeves, sleeveless, solid yoke, patchwork yoke, pockets, no pockets, dress or blouse.... there are 12. Or more. It makes my head hurt. In a good way.

And my Art Student. Gorgeous, sweet, talented, versatile, loving, helpful, intuitive. Oh the bag? It's cool too (sorry was distracted by my model pumpkinpookiepie who loves when I do this right here in front of the masses). Srzly tho, I really love this bag. As in I carry all versions on a near daily basis. As in you might call me collect to thank me for this one. As in the slim version and the extended version are currently sitting at my feet as I type its praises from the Chicago Midway airport. (There's a lady knitting next to me on one side and a lady reading on the other side. Is this getting facebooky? Sorry.)

The bag! The larger version is so perfect for traveling, especially as your hefty but concise carry-on, and the slim one is super for everyday. In fact Slim is my traveling bag too, because of the shape it doesn't whack any of your co-fliers in the head as you stroll down the aisle with it on your shoulder. I want you to be able to make friends on the airplane if you're so inclined. Anyway, the insides are a pocket bonanza, and so many possible customizations, my favorite being the extension panel of option B that only pops up if you need it (think just bought great art at flea market and want to contain it as you continue blowing your loot or think I spent all of the past twelve years working on this quilt and I'll be dingdangderned if I'm gonna wad it up to take it to quilt guild to show off.) Full cover download available for clicking on the cover from this page.

I love this little outtake. She is cute. I love her. My art student. For the record, she actually totes around her stuff at school using the blue bag on the cover. Cheers. I am headed to Brooklyn as we speak to pinch her rosy cheeks, feed her some overpriced meals, beg her to stay up later than she should to tell me stuff, and also to teach some weekend sewing with my pal Heather. Unless she offers me the nanny position which I would scoop up like ice cream.

My flight is boarding! back tomorrow with Loulou flannel! xo, Anna

A day of details

2011-09-30T13:20:00.003-05:00

We tore the attic studio (upstairs, white room, what do I call it again?) apart this morning to set up a bed for a photo shoot. I just finished sewing a new flannel quilt, which I'll share next week to introduce the LouLou Flannels. The process of propping called for making some new pillow cases as well. I've been wanting to make some new pillow cases anyway just to play around with the borders in the Crossing Paths prints..... so fun. And layer on top of that detail the very enjoyable detail of already-made bias binding! Yes, you heard me, its finally here! When you consider the embarrassing amount of money I would be willing to spend to not make my own, I think these rolls come in quite reasonably. You don't even have to tip me.

Anyway, the shoot went really well, and fussing with the details to get everything just so from each angle, really takes a very, very long time, and still you could always tweak more...you know, just enough crumbles in the quilts to look comfortable, but just enough neatness to translate the quilt pattern....its all very finicky. Four hours of setting it all up and shooting. But highly pleasing for someone like me ... who's OCD tendencies and the desire to be in a good mood are at constant odds with one another. What was talking about? Details. We layered up two different quilts with the pillows for the photo shoot, and I really, really did not quite know or plan to have all the pieces bound with the exact same bias binding, its just happened that way. But I love how it looks.

And more details. My man left town today and is running a 50k tomorrow. I did not just accidentally type a zero behind that five. 5 0 k i l o m e t e r s. That's bout 30 miles. I am eating pretzels and hummus right , which I imagine is very different from running 30 miles. We are different like that. I run. But like 3 miles. And do you know what I love so very much about my running man? He is so genuinely proud of me and encouraging when I do little things like run 3 ten-minute miles. High five-ing me and everything. He is amazing. As much as we all like to tease him about his passion for running, we all are in awe of what he is able to do. Even if we discuss his glycogen levels more than I thought any two people could.

When I started this post, I didn't know what pillow cases and running 30 miles had to do with one another.... but I think Mr. 50k will make that clear to me sometime after the race tomorrow.

Run. Jeff. Run. I'll be preparing the finish line with lots of love.
xoxo, Anna

At the Grocery (or New Levels of Boredom in Blog Reading)

2011-09-27T10:34:00.012-05:00

If I were a checkout clerk at a grocery store, I would be the annoying kind that strikes up a conversation about the combinations of things that people are buying. I know I would. I would try not too, of course, but clerk-me would not be able to resist. Because of this, I often wonder what our clerks and baggers think of some of our purchase lists.

Very often any amount of weirdness in our choices is buried in a pile of keeping this family eating, and also very often buried in a pile of tag-along helpers when we do our shopping. We might be one of the only families of 8 that chooses to shop in large herds. The local Publix is just a hop, skip and a horse away from us, and right next to some of the kids favorite food, so we are often all here. Mostly split up all over the store, one in the bathroom, Jeff or I fetching a few from the cookie counter, there is always someone using the blood pressure machine at the pharmacy without permission and typically Roman likes to push the cart.

But when we spare ourselves that mess, I'll rattle off a coupla things and send Jeff out later at night. One recent favorite small list combo went like this: Melatonin, Benadryl, Beer, Ben & Jerry's. We are very proud of that one. If I were the clerk I would guess that we were trying to get a baby elephant to go to sleep. Nope, no elephant. Just us. Last night's mini list was comprised of: Diapers, Small Whole Pumpkin, Peanut Butter, Beer. While I am not sure what clerk-me would infer from that, I might start to notice the common denominator.

I am sorry about this post. Please do something more important and worth your time now.

Oh, but my recent favorite impulse-buy/plea from Isabela while we were being checked out was "Mom can we please buy Bridesmaids, it looks so funny !?"
(!!!!!)
"Absolutley not Bela, that is not appropriate for you.... or me."
(Which I know for sure now that I've seen it. Twice.)
"No mama, this one says 'Unrated', so its fine."

Ahhh, shopping. xoAnna

Bow Tie Friday

2011-09-23T13:10:00.003-05:00

Roman and I are here with several public service announcements:

Eating animal crackers is fun.

Wearing a bow tie is cool.

Roman prefers the animal crackers to the bow tie.

I prefer the bow tie to the animal crackers.

We each put up with one for the other.

You are allowed to play with your food if you are eating animal crackers.

Its Friday.

All of the above go well together in my brain, and maybe only there.

Crunchy, sweet love to you and your weekend, Anna & Roman

(Style sources: Bow Ties, Animal Crackers, Laminate Tablecloth, Office Chair)

If what I think is happening, IS hapening, it better not be.

2011-09-19T11:53:00.010-05:00

("sinister swarm" print detail in progress)

Hoooa No. Man. Thanks for all the moth info. I think. Ick. No really, I'm glad to take a sampling of all the common denominators in those comments and figure out our plan of attack (defense?).

In other maybe not so unrelated-to-icky-moth news, I am here to talk more about boys. The boys I currently have in the house- 39, 13, 11 and 2 - keep me exposed to everything from heart-achingly wonderful to utterly disgusting. You can make your own assumptions about that limited information. I knew enough about boys when I was first pregnant with Roman to know better than to actually want another one. After all I was (and still am) married to one and I was (and still am) raising two others (errhhh- am I raising all of them....?) But I did really, really hope that he was a boy before I knew. I dreamed that he was. I felt like I had figured boys out and was finally over the fact that I can't put dresses on them. It was like a whole new appreciation of boy personhood was opened up to me. Boys are wonderful. Just as beautiful as girls in their own way, and warm your heart in an entirely different way. I am so lucky to have them. Smelliness and all.

Speaking of lucky, here is our winner of Sewing for Boys + some cuts of my new flannel:

8:09 PM Jamie said...I have had my eyes on this book from the time the ladies announced its impending arrival on their blog about a year ago. Add this to your amazing flannel fabrics and who wouldn't be in line for that?

Congratulations Jamie, and email us with your home address to claim your loot!

Shop news! We've just added the Loulouthi Needleworks and my new Rose Era linens. I am so pleased with how both collections turned out, and didn't expect that both of these cross stitch inspired groups would be launching at the same time. A happy accident.

back to the drawing board, smooch, AM

(ps. does anyone recognize this post title...name that movie? Its my favorite movie line of all time and sums up the life of a mother (especially of boys) like nothing else. Are you cussing with me?)

Like a Moth to a Cracker

2011-09-15T12:21:00.010-05:00

A few months ago, as I began to assemble inspirations and sketches for my 2012 fabric collections, I decided that moths among other naturalistic thingermaggigins would play a feature role in the line.
Not much later we discovered we had a serious moth problem in our kitchen.
I don't mean a couple of moths flying around.
I mean that I open a brand new box of pasta that has never been opened and a few moths fly out.
I then almost hurl, throw away the pasta, grab my purse and holler that we're going out.
We cleaned out the pantry entirely.
Like, scrubbed.
They're back.
Moth balls?
I thought moths liked wool. Or flames.
Ours like carbs.
My feelings towards that moth art have changed.
I almost decided I couldn't handle making moth art.
But this collection is a little bit based on throwing yourself into the midst.
Of anything. And studying it.
So I decided it should not just be a beautiful print, but a shrine-like offering to the moths, depicting the most beautiful moths our planet has to offer.
Not the ugly gray ones in our pantry that like Cheerios.
And flour.
And crackers.
I am also in the midst of sampling various wools for some crewel projects.
Wool. All over the house. My moths don't care.
I love crewel.
Its like pudgey embroidery.
I might have news on the crewel wool front at some point.
That would be nice.
I never find moths near my wool sweaters. Never find moth holes.
Could my moths be stupid?
Like my nephew Eli would say: "It's weeyurhd."

over and out. AM

I heart Boys

2011-09-12T17:13:00.008-05:00

What Shelly Figueroa and Karen LePage got so right with Sewing For Boys is the keen combination of simple but slightly rough around the edges that is so completely perfect when sewing for the young lads in your life. I think you know by now that I don't share anything here that I don't truly adore, and I get shown many, many books. I share only those that I would be purchasing myself anyway, and this one is definitely in that category. I have already set aside cut lengths of my new (soon to be released) Loulou Flannels to make the Goodnight, Sweetheart PJs, plus some bias binding for the adorable piping detail. A long way to go to put a rowdy boy to bed? Not at all. The patterns are so straight forward, doting just enough on the details that make it worth home sewing to begin with. Roman has just outgrown most of the patterns in Handmade Beginnings, so I am happy to have this sweet and inspiring resource as staples for him. Who wants a copy? You will love it, leave me a comment and I'll draw a name next week for a giveaway.....I'll even throw in the above flannels just for fun.

In other news, I was honored to be a featured FACE (a super smiley one) of Nashville on the StyleBlueprint online mag today. It is a very well curated site, and as a mere coincidence, my friend Ashley Hylbert was hired for my photos. She took the first headshots I ever quivered my bottom lip through about 10 years ago. What I love about Ashley is she's talented, she's really fast, and she'll suggest something that I think is goofy, I whine, she talks me into it anyway, I do it, she looks at the photo and says things like, "No, you look stupid", or "I don't like your face in that". The world needs more honesty like hers.

What else..... OH! Those crazytown super wonderful people over at Sew4Home are giving away a serious pile of my loot! (This suddenly sounds like a local furniture store liquidation sale, but) Seriously lots and lots of stuff, so go enter for a chance to win. I don't even care if you don't want it, save it for Christmas gifts.

Think that's it.

I had Asian chicken for lunch today and it made me really thirsty. So I keep drinking. And I keep going to the bathroom, which is all the way downstairs. Its cutting into my work time.

Okay. That's really it. I couldn't guess where it would go from here anyway.
xo,Anna

10 year difference

2011-09-11T14:48:00.010-05:00

Two of our little ones were only glimmers then. Juliana nearly 10. Nicolas 3. Joseph 18 mos. I had 3-wk-old Isabela in a snugly and was headed out the back door for a walk on a gorgeous, sunny day. My sister rang and told me to turn on the television instead. It was only a minute after the first plane had struck. Each of us, of course, remembers where we were. What we were doing. I know for certain what none of us was doing. None of us was waiting for an attack, not expecting the grief and mourning that is still the part of so many of our lives today. I feel like I am finally able to admit, perhaps boldly, even though I did not personally suffer tragedy on 9-11, that we all suffered. I was traumatized. I never felt it fair to feel that or certainly not respectful to say so. I still feel so much grief and sadness when I think back to those raw emotions of watching the story play itself out, changing second by second. I was transfixed nearly 24 hours a day with a baby who barely even knew she was out of the womb let alone think it appropriate to ever sleep more than a few hours. So it was myself, Isabela, and the television all night long, so many nights. I would not let go of her. I needed her to need everything from me. And even though the contrast of what I was holding and what I was watching could not have been greater, I am grateful that I was constantly reminded of the Good because of her precious, new innocence. Like a pill I had to take every three hours as I nursed her, to convince myself that there was still enough good, when I think so many of us questioned it. Didn't we? Thank God for good. So much of it all around us. It wasn't long after the tragedy that we gave up cable tv for good.

**********

I piled a load of children into the car for an early pickup on Friday to get everyone + their Greek dancing costumes to the festival in time for their first performance. All of the children took turns explaining the bits of 9-11 history and the heart wrenching stories that were part of their classrooms all day long. And every one of us cried. We shared grief. In small stories, broken and paused with deep breaths and with little sobs. And though no one said so, we all said how much we love each other and how fortunate we are to have one another. We said so with sadness that doesn't belong to us- it is sadness that we are only borrowing from those who truly have suffered, surely they are glad to give up a bit. Acknowledging that hurt in others acknowledges at the same time a fear in each of us, the fear of losing what we love the most- each other.

Watching my children dance the same dances that I grew up performing, those same songs and dances that I know make my father's heart proud and maybe his eyes a little damp, I can't help but feel celebration. Even today. I am thankful for freedom. I am thankful for diversity. I am thankful for peace. I want more of all 3 everywhere.

I celebrate each of us today, and I remember those lost.

PEACE & LOVE,
Anna Maria

(all photos from the still ongoing Greek Festival here in Nashville)

After the Run

2011-09-09T11:13:00.007-05:00

Do you know that your beautiful coat inspired my floor color? Nutty, creamy, beautiful, soft. I wuvvssu Weo. Thank you for running faster than me (aka kicking my butt) today.

This weekend I will be serving in the appetizer booth at the Greek Festival (she's going to kill me for that link), so come and say hello if you get a chance. The food is so good, and I have a whole gaggle of folk dancing children who will be performing too. One of these days I'll have to share all the costume making I've done for them for years. Which I should be getting back to now....

ps. you can see all of my bare white pre-moved-into studio and read about my inspirations in this quarter's issue of Studios Magazine. They are also going to follow up in the Winter issue with the moved-into studio feature. It was clean for like 2 hours. We took pictures. It hasn't been picked up again since. I am just glad there is printed evidence in their forthcoming issue.

sunny, cool days to you, Anna

That Sewing Doo-hicky

2011-09-07T10:07:00.007-05:00

Here is where I explain some stuff.

A Janome sewing machine has been on my sewing table for more than 13 years. I don't mean one or another Janome sewing machine, I mean the same one. Until recently. I was approached by the company almost a year ago about the prospect of working together, and was immediately excited and encouraged that selling me on their machines would be no work at all. I was already in love. But they almost laughed when I told them I was still sewing on a Memory Craft 5700. Regardless of having the opportunity to sew with many machines (they just sort of show up here) nothing could ever make me stop sewing on that machine. Honest to goodness. I would always go back to it, ignoring whatever gadgets were suppose to be the latest and greatest. And I think that does say something, it says that my machine has filled a need for me that I didn't need to or want to replace.... it never gave me a reason to look around for anything else, so we have a history.

Admittedly, I get asked frequently what I sew with, as though I might be an authority- I am not- just some experience. Many people are passionate about their machine brand- finding what you are comfortable on is so important- and different for everyone. I've never felt it a really big deal, to tout one over another, brag, insist, push, convert. The thing I have learned about sewing machines, is that really, who cares? I am always way more interested in what I am making than what is pushing the thread up and down, or making the bobbin whirl..... its just never present in my mind. On the few occasions that I've had the chance to sew with the Rainbow Around the Block team, in all the hours and hours of sewing together, not one of us talked about our machine or machine brand. We talked about our quilts, our fabrics, our projects and our families.

But back to stuff. After the past year of slowly developing the new relationship, I feel convinced that the folks who design, invent and make Janome machines know this. They know you have a choice, and most of us care more about perfecting our piecing, or dashing our darts than the name on our machines. I think that's part of what is working so well for them. They don't rest on or push the name as much as they just make quality products. So no wonder, I guess, that I was compelled to work with them, and I'm happy (jumping up and down) to say that I'll have the opportunity to try out several models, review them, and give old faithful a rest (not that she needs it) every now and then. And you might see someone familiar in their mag ads. Sorry about that.

So who cares?

Well you don't have to. But here is what it will mean for anyone who does care. I am partnering with Janome quarterly to create new free sewing projects, videos (oh dear) highlighting some steps from those projects, and going on some road trips to dealers around the country to share the love. I am thrilled that they were open to working together in whatever way I came up with. And I came up with it because I want my work to be helpful, and inspiring for everyne who supports what I do. And that's you, of course. I have already met so many wonderful and brilliant folks within the company. My quick weekend trip to Orlando was to give my first official hello at their biannual convention. I loved learning more about the history of the company, meeting Janome dealers from every point on the globe and getting to be among the first to see gorgeous new models.

But really all I ever wanted to was to have anything to do with anyone who designs the Hello Kitty sewing machines. Amen.

So here's my Janome + Me page, where we'll be adding more of my updates regarding that world. So I'll just shut up now.

smoochie.AM

Reading, Writing & Arithmetic

2011-09-01T10:12:00.008-05:00

I only recently reacquainted myself with the feeling of what its like to have only my work before me. No interruptions. No distractions. Just work. Enjoyable as most of my work is, I have always been one to work best under pressure or to be most prolific when incredibly (unreasonably) busy- not as though I've had the chance at anything else, really. This week has been strange. New. A little uncomfortable. Today's brightest light was the sunlight twinkling in Roman's eyes as he giggled out a proud smile after successfully yanking his shoe over his bulbous little heel. Over his new school socks (because no other pairs are actually pairs at all, just two socks). Today's deepest, darkest, tiniest, and perhaps irrational fear is that maybe for some years now I have forgotten how to just be single, whole, complete and only me. Or worse, that maybe, that's not as interesting as it use to be. It was a surprising amount of comfort when I stacked some things up for a ticket-for-one weekend trip. It was. Having to remember how I would like to occupy just myself. I wasn't sure I remembered...
~Jeff told me after reading Half Broke Horses that he knew I would relate to the toughness of the heroine. And Glass Castle might be the best book I've ever read. So.
~One of the children has snatched the bookmark out of The Rhythm of Home, but I realized that I am fine with the prospect of reading dear Amanda's (or Steve's!) words more than once- such practical and specific direction to nurturing your family with more than simple affection.
~And COLOR ~ a book that actually offers a history of color, really a novel about color "and reveals how paints came to be invented, discovered, traded and used". It is so unbelievably fascinating, I will never think of that gianormous topic the same way.
~And topping my stack is a handful of cross stitch works in progress on every shade of my new Aida cloths. I have been designing and writing new patterns for lots of handwork....which will appear in several forms....all requiring simple, correct arithmetic of design. Which is a completely different way of composing arrangements of color and form altogether. No harder. No easier. Just not the same. I adore it.
My stack of me.
have a good long weekend, see you on the other side of it xo, AM
Oh, and Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. Such a favorite.

Sprucing the Heck out of Friday

2011-08-26T15:29:00.010-05:00

Ever since I started blah-blah-blahing about the mess I am making in the front yard, I have patiently worked little by little to transform roughly 1500 sq ft of former grassyland into mulchyland. Its been over a month now since I began the process of killing grass with plastic sheeting, pulling up said plastic (whilst holding my nose), cutting and layering cardboard over the dead sod, shoveling 10,000 lbs of topsoil (one shovel at a time) over that, and finally laying 15 cubic yards of mulch over that (that was me + a shovel too (I am 5lbs lighter and super strong now)).

That blue vintage iron bench would be my cherry on top. The bench is Demacopoulos family vintage, as in, I grew up with it on my back porch. Now its blue. And is inspiring lots of plant choices for the whole garden. A few things that I learned about this process is that you absolutley HAVE to avoid any slits or cracks in your cardboard or by golly those little crabgrass stinkers will creep right though. Though they are weakened though, and easy to pull, but I've gone back in and layered over various spots with more cardboard (take THAT, underground grass crime ring). And if you should run out of cardboard its really fun to go dumpster diving at your local recycling center. I'm not sure its legal. That's the fun part.

I'm sorry that so far I have not offered any real photos of the process. There were scenes of what looked like a cardboard quilt all soaking wet that were such a sight of girl-gone-green satisfaction that I was so close to changing completely out of my mudwoman gear to go and get my camera. But people. It has been some exhausting work. For someone who has been in the habit of running about 8-10 miles a week, I have skipped that all together for the past few weeks to save energy for the shovlin'. (How much more interesting can this post get, right?) Anyway, I knew that I would regret not having those mid progress photos. Sigh. I reserved today, my first full day alone in this house in what seems like a decade to buy a few "bones" ~ as in some small trees/shrubs to position here and there. I am barely scratching the surface of what I hope for all this mulchy happiness to be in a matter of a few years, but I am just really glad to be beginning the fun part. I bought a drooping Blue Spruce (above), two very boisterous Princess Lace Hydrangeas, and four very springy looking late blooming English Laurel bushes. Where's the rest of that garden piggy-bank? How did my whole garden budget get eaten alive by mulch, dirt, and a few prissy plants? Cuss. Anyway. This is to be a gradual process and I am saving most of the planting for late fall and next spring once the layers have marinated.

Now then.

In what-I-do-for-a-living news: I've created a needleworks page that has info about all that stuff, plus a slide show, plus a fancy downloadable look book. I also have the two new patterns sneaking a peek on my sewing page, which are (FINALLY) at the printers. Sheesh. Summer.

In what-the-heck news: I have wasted the past year worrying that my dear daughter could get mugged, lost on the subway, or worse (not really) blow all my money at TopShop, when I should have been worrying about natural disasters like Earthquakes and Hurricanes. In fact almost exactly this time last year I sent her out of the tornado ally of Tennessee to Brooklyn where she was just down the road from a tornado. Now this all could mean one of two things: either I need to get better and more specific about my worrying; or it doesn't pay to worry. Not sure yet. I will report back when I'm 108 years old.

Have a good weekend pals, Anna

Crossing Paths & Visions

2011-08-24T10:38:00.015-05:00

There are so many different ways that I want to share how to use the fabrics in this upcoming mini launch that it has nearly rendered me verbally paralyzed (should I just say mute there? speechless? stumped?- see I'm messed up). My heart is beating fast right now, because I am afraid that I'll forget to say something obvious or useful about them and you will be denied the glorious everythingness of this fabric. So lets go through this a little at a time from the beginning. These are what I call Loulouthi Needleworks. They are called Loulouthi because the imagery and the color palettes were derived from my Loulouthi collection. In essence they are no different than any printed cotton that I design, however they are a full 58" wide (wow Anna that's superwide! I know.) But they are called Needleworks, because the artwork printed on the cloth is comprised of tiny little X's.

This print is called Crossing Paths and it is essentially a series of borders stretching across from selvage to selvage, each row its own little cast of vignettes, small or large, traditional or splashy. There are 3 color ways of this print. I am sure that I am not the first to print x's on cloth, but when I conceived of the idea about a year ago, I wanted to be sure that the cloth stood on its own as a lovely print design for all kinds of patchwork and sewing, but also serve as a welcome invitation to thread a needle, find a hoop, and sit down to stitch up precious little artworks- for a baby collar, a yoke of a blouse or dress, a hem line, a framed artwork or a block in your next quilt. Or maybe an invitation to take on a lifeswork of a very expansive piece- a full coverlet entirely stitched, a table cloth, a bed skirt....combined with other printed fabrics, and so on. You get it. The above is just a digital copy of the print work.

This is me playing around with the same print. The size of the X's in this cloth compared to evenweave cloth for cross stitching -or something like Aida- are pretty large. I would say that perhaps if you know your cross stitching cloth numbers that these are about equivalent to 8ct, as in 8 X's per linear inch. You can stitch them up just like any cross stitch using either embroidery floss or Pearle cotton. So far I have only used Pearl cottons #8 for these, I just really like how they look and seem about the appropriate thickness without having to separate strands. Another little bonus to them being printed is there is no counting involved, so very little room for error. This makes it both pretty relaxing as well as awesome for kiddos to try out. Every time I come to one of the bolts to cut something off, I find them with some little square roughly cut away, snipped off by one of the girls- its like finding the boxes in your pantry mousechewed, or your hosta leaves caterpillarmunched...only sweeter. (Oh and p.s., a fine embroirdery needle will perform just fine for you, and only pre-wash them before stitching if your item will continue to be washed.)

This is the Visions print which I think of as a collage of all the different styles of cross stitch that I love, forming a field of possibilities to be cut apart, but still a beautiful soft design with vintage sensibilities to be left as a whole cloth for any kind of sewing. I should mention that while the X's are printed in one color or another, that I have stitched using pretty different shades than the X's right over them. In other words, you could alter your thread colors to a great degree from what is underneath and the thickness of your threads will conceal any distracting difference there may be. OH! And having a length of these fabrics is like getting not just fabric to use but also several cross stitch patterns that you could translate into other works, using these prints as a guide.

These are the 3 colorways of Visions framed up. Not stitched. What do you think I am, a factory?

I hope you enjoy these. Much more inspiration to share with them coming soon. They should be shipping to stores in just a few weeks. If you have any questions about using them for stitching I will answer in the comments section. I'm here to help. Not going anywhere. Really. I live here.

xo,Anna

little wings

2011-08-18T15:08:00.016-05:00

In a matter of days what has been an extraordinarily good summer will officially change into something that I am going to, for now, optimistically categorize as just late summer. With the four middle children off to their schools since Monday, I have insisted that summer is not quite over yet. Juliana is home still, if only till this weekend, so I trick myself into believing that its not over. Roman will begin a school too, in his own little environment most days with other little ones .... which I am sure will be welcome to his nature, the little-one-of-many boy. I didn't quite wish summer away as I have in the past, exhausted with people, focused on making work work. And shockingly, everything worked out just fine. Every single moment here this warm stretch of 100 days or so, has been made up of the needs, wants, musings, cheer, cries, projects, messes, meals and laughter of so many people. This chorus of bodies has very often been overwhelming, with a business that doesn't seem to know how to slow down during the summer. But I do fear the absence of those bodies, although temporary in most respects, will have me missing the sort of mellifluous chaos, leaving me only to..... me. Who changes every day. And my work. Which changes along with me, and everyone else. Like stringy transparent tendrils swimming the dome of an octopus this way and that. Swish. Has it been a year since I drowned in this sorrow? It has. And those words have, each day, rewritten themselves into some other story. Not one of sadness. I don't know what exactly, but its a novel, and it moves, and grows with no definite stops or starts, and no ending. And while I felt as though I was leaving a cocoon on the other side of the country last year, this year, pardon the typical reference, I really do feel as though she'll be flying on her own there. And I feel lighter. And I imagine she might too. Knowing how this works now. That she goes. Only to come back. Just like Roman trusts that we leave him to be cared for, only for a short time, then we peek around the corner again, and he runs, keeping his eyes on our faces, tripping sometimes, with love and gratitude that we are back, belonging to him. And each of us is made whole because of the other. But gorgeous on our own..... currents of wind, or water, no threat to the strength of us.

photo taken by Juliana on a recent family hike

Today's Challenges

2011-08-16T15:10:00.011-05:00

Roman challenge: occupying oneself while most siblings are off to school.
Mom challenge: see above.

Roman challenge: balancing a yardstick in the dump bed of a toy truck.
Mom challenge: resisting talking about things like physics with a 2 year old.

Roman challenge: wearing pants.
Mom challenge: finding pants. Roman's pants that is. I found mine.

Roman challenge: finding the nesting cube that fits head the best.
Mom challenge: deciding which family member to send the picture to first (subject line of "blockhead", natch).

Roman challenge: deciding on exact Anna Maria sticker placement for maximum awesomeness.
Mom challenge: trying not to sing at the top of my lungs with Dolly to "I will always love you". (Singing, in general, is a challenge for me.)

over and out, anna & roman
(And from the looks of the photo I would have to add that vacuuming is a challenge.)

Bold Strokes & Fine Stitches

2011-08-12T10:55:00.006-05:00

It took me creating a new little embroidery- specifically for a table scarf- to tidy up my dining room, the whole house really, and share some pictures of it with you. I don't remember where I left off in showing the changes that I've made to the mess hall. I know you've likely seen it in its Raindrop blue stages here a few times. I also vaguely recall talking about how I wanted it to be cream colored by thanksgiving one year (didn't happen, it was all I could do to stuff a turkey that year)... and then I still picture these pictures of my boy on crutches sitting against cream walls. Anyway. The curtains are not new, but a patching of two fabrics that I created a few months ago, after deciding that no single fabric was doing the job for me. And I found myself hopping from the one turquoise fabric to another red fabric, deciding on neither, making something out of a whole other piece with some patchwork thingermagiggins across them only to take them down after a few weeks because I was not satisfied. Then back to the turquoise and the red, but together, making a new large striped print out of the two. And I love them. Did you get all that?

The table scarf. Here it is. Small potatoes really in such a large room. I grew up in a house where every table surface or buffet piece had some sort of a scarf, doily that was embroidered, cross-stitched, crocheted or otherwise that presumably protected the table top or gave a centerpiece or some other thing a soft place to rest. I have always loved, tiny details as you may have guessed, yet I am not a tiny, fussy type artist so much as I think in larger strokes of color and form. What I think I have learned on every canvas, whether its one of my fabric collections, a single blouse, a painting or a whole room in my house, is that its the marriage of the two- the bold and the fine- and the language happening between them that pleases me the very most. A balancing act, I guess. Something to react to from across the room, like a stage, as well as something to ponder upon closer inspection, like a walk in the woods.

I may not have every surface of my house clothed (though I have a drawer-full waiting to do the job) but I do always manage when spiffy-ing to place some sort of cloth in the center of our 10-ft farm table and place either fresh flowers of a bowl of fruit. It brings me joy. Its the crossbar on my t and the dot on my i. It just makes it home. In the hopes that some day all of my children will have their own drawer-full of these love layers, I was inspired to begin making my own. Continuing the tradition of works that color my memories of what a house it. But new.

This little Plaid Pods design was inspired by my favorite bouquets as well as my Buoyancy print which is on the reverse side. My friends at Sew4Home asked if I would share an embroidery design with their readers and I was more than happy to let that work and my personal musings come together in this little piece. They just posted the pattern pdf yesterday so go have a look if you're in search of some fine stitches to talk to you. I'll have it on my make page soon too.

I have lots of needleworks news and inspirations to share with you soon as the official launch of the goods is slated for September. I hope you enjoy making this if you choose to.

I also hope that my house will be this clean again someday.

xoxo, Anna

Taking Action

2011-08-11T12:19:00.009-05:00

Today I am proud to share my support of Action Kivu with you. If you read me here often, you know that I try not to bug you about causes too much, unless I really feel strongly about them. We- you and I- are so blessed to be a small part of the huge supportive, nurturing, and educational world of creative blogging, belonging to very many caring people. The work that Action Kivu does seeks to offer victims of violence in Eastern Congo a chance at just the tiniest bit of what you and I enjoy every day- learning a trade and getting an education. I won't go on about their work, their website does a better job explaining the intricacies of their struggle, and the urgency of their efforts.

But I will go on about my friend Alissa a bit. Alissa has done all of us a beautiful service, by bringing us a simple, and painless way to help Action Kivu. It isn't often that you have the chance to support a cause that is both vitally necessary and also transparent in its efforts. While giving to really a large organization for a worthy cause that you believe in is a good thing, I am sometimes left with a small nagging question about how my offering will be used.... and hope that its how I would choose for it to be used. There is a bit of surrender that has to happen- from your bank account, but also your will. That's why you can take not just pride but also joy in helping out this cause because it is a genuine need, an uncomplicated approach and shared with us through Alissa, who is as passionate about this program as she is vigorous in her appeal. She is a good egg.

Please, even if you are only able to give the smallest amount, visit this post on Alissa's blog to learn about how you can give, and at the same time put your name in the running for amazingly lovely prizes donated from some of Alissa's pals in craftyland. (After having thrown my own name in a few of those runnings, please know that I would only dilute my chances to win if I really cared about this cause!) And if you cannot offer anything now, please share with your family and friends.

Our own Sunshine & Flowers Baby Quilt is one of the possible prizes in the running. I am also bulking up the loot by offering a free pattern to every winner in each category. I am so honored to be a very small part of Alissa's good work. I am going to rest my thoughts on the hand stitches in that quilt- the ones made in a safe, loving environment- and dream that the same will be possible for every woman and child who is affected by the violence that we hope and pray will end.

with love and thanks, Anna Maria

Seriously, now.

2011-08-10T12:18:00.002-05:00

How am I supposed to work under these kind of conditions?

I suffer.

Do you see how I suffer?

Slurping summer through a straw here until its all gone.

xo,Anna

photo by Juliana

Interview with an(other) Intern, Part II

2011-08-04T15:37:00.008-05:00

Thank you so much for all the kind birthday wishes, and also for the bit of commiserating regarding age and the disbelief of such. But I gotta say, looking back over so much in my life, its a wonder I'm not 79. My age shock doesn't lie in wishing it were different, its just that I am amazed how life goes by, its so surreal and almost intangible.... no other words. I wouldn't trade places with any twenty year old, though, that I can say for sure. But speaking of, I am so glad you enjoyed my chat with Anna. She was blushing through the whole thing, it was kind of fun to torture the intern (that's the whole point right?).

Well I've corralled Crista, my other intern, to answer some of the same and some different questions. This is sweet Crista above wearing my new almost printed pattern, the Painted Portrait Blouse & Dress- wuuhhhl obviously she's just wearing the blouse version not the dress too. I like explaining obvious things like that, because it gives me typing practice. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. Anyway, the moment I said hullo to her for the first time, I asked her to model this blouse in the same breath. We had been on the hunt for a fair girl for the next pattern cover, and we had no idea that she would just walk right in. But she did. And I am glad for many reasons.

bossy: How old are you?
interny:21
bossy: (Runs to get a bottle of wine) Is it easy to be 21?
interny: Most days. How much of this do you actually type? (sees typing) Whhaaahh? I'm so embarrassed already, uhh, red faces are contagious....(mmm, thats good (referring to her glass of wine)) I do have occasional bank account panic, or a hard day due to lack of sleep, you know from being 21.
bossy: You're a student. Where are you studying, what are you studying, and what impression do you have about how important your degree is to your life's work?
interny: O'More College of Design (I'm totally friends with Anna-I really do think she is the best, not just saying that)and I'm studying fashion. It remains to be seen, and this topic--education- is currently up for debate among my friends, how important it is....I love to learn, so ultimately, I'm not concerned with a piece of paper as long as I keep learning and growing at O'More. My dad seems to think that the piece of paper is a good idea.
bossy: What else do you consider an education, besides school or what single thing in life so far has taught you the most?
interny: I think at this point in my life, just watching and observing, doing my alterations job at a dry cleaners, my time here with you, just watching how a business works, and how I fit into that....learning about women's roles... its all so important to me. Growing up without a mom (she died when I was 9) there have always been my aunts, grandma, various mentors, in big and small ways. But being a woman, what that means, and ......I dunno, I can't even pick an ice cream flavor....its hard to say what one thing has influenced me. This past year alone has been a big deal, trying to carve out my own space, where I live, where I work, where I study, that everything be intentional.... so I guess just the process of becoming my own person has taught me a lot.
bossy: Picture yourself in 10 years -what-- you'll be like 14 then, right? What else do you picture yourself to be? Besides 14.
interny: I'll be drinking more wine (snicker). Man, 10 years, hmm. I can't wait to be 31... I've been wearing pencil skirts since I was 10, so finally I think I'll be dressing my age. As a really little kid I was a fighter, I wasn't afraid to talk back....I thought of bmw's, being a lawyer, (pencil skirts).... But now....I still see cities, but I see myself using that fighter instinct for good, for helping women, giving them a voice and empowering them with skills.
bossy: So how do you see that pairing itself with fashion design?
interny: Good question, sometimes I don't know. But my voice of reason tells me that I could use both my nature and my skills to do something wonderful and good. I'd like to empower women with sewing skills, and hopefully employ them too, to create a line of cute, and affordable clothing, that was created by women who are earning a real living for their work and not taken advantage of.
bossy: When I responded to your first several emails, did you believe me when I said that I was waiting for the right time to bring in an intern, or did you think I was feeding you a line?
interny: No way. I wanted to believe it, because I like you so much. But whenever I hear of other people getting internships, they have to show up, be persistent, beat doors down, etc. I figured I could either be annoying or forgotten.
bossy: You were neither. Do you have any take-away thought/lesson/idea/regret from your time here?
interny: I wanted to see how you do this, and I did. I learned that even though there are screaming babies at times (okay maybe just once, I expected more), that you really can have it all. The way that you write and communicate is exactly like you are. Which is cool. But really, the happiness and success that you have experienced is not by accident. You are careful with your children, careful with your time and energy. You are driven. It's been especially important for me to talk about business decisions with you-- even if I may never be faced with the same choices. I admire your thoughtfulness. (She had to leave while I typed this. You should know that. Also, she's not perfect and wouldn't claim to be. If I remember right, she wasn't even sure how to sew a buttonhole on her machine. That gives me hope.)
bossy: Did anything surprise you about this place/house/studio/chaos after your first visit? You can say that my house was a mess or whatever.
interny: Yes, it was a total mess. I walked up to the door, saw shoes, packages, toys, and more packages, and I figured I had the right house. I think I expected something more pristine, and then I opened the door and two little kind faces greeted me, led me to you and on the way I saw the most beautiful colors and prints, but everything was a little off, the rugs were askew, the pillows were on the floor, there was sort of stuff everywhere, really lived-in...... and you never apologized. Which I loved.
bossy: Are you in love? Loving me doesn't count.
interny: Just with you. I just wasted part of my summer on love, so no.
bossy: Does that matter?
interny: I feel that I want to share with someone, but realistically that's not now.....I want to take care of myself and the rest will work out.
bossy: Did you have fun taking Isabela out for sushi today?
interny: It was closed! Biggest bummer ever, she was so sad. For weeks she's been asking me: "Did you ask my mom about taking me for sushi?" I was like do I need to create a permission slip?... anyway we went to Five Guys.
bossy: And did you know that you would have to do horrible things like that if you worked here?
interny: What? That's the best part, new friends. She's a gem.
bossy: Is there anything else you would like for these kind interwebual people to know about you or your time here?
interny: I know you won't type this but you are funny in real life too.
bossy: I just typed it, stupid.
interny: Also, you're a jerk.
bossy: I wuvoo.
interny: (blank stare)
bossy: I said I wuvoo.
interny: I wuvoo too, damnit!
bossy: Hey there's kids in here.
interny: (internal gasp, notices typing) Can you curse on your blog?
bossy: You need another glass of wine.

That was fun. I'll show up again here sometime next week, once I get just a bit more caught up. I've been wanting to share some stories behind the talented designers in my Visiting Artist's pool, spill my official Janome news, introduce you formally to my new sewing patterns, show some other needleworks projects on the horizon and just get back to plain old life snippets here. Sound good?

I'm hoping you are well, xo, Anna

Interview with an Intern, Part I

2011-08-02T14:33:00.010-05:00

The above are recent portraits that Eleni and Isabela did of me and for me. I am entirely flattered by both. I turned 39 on Sunday. I did not turn 40. But still. I haven't blinked since then. I am stunned at how life goes by. I should still be about 12, in my book. I am in no state to write today about me or anything related to me, really. I am befuddled. Flabbergasted. Confused. Floored. Not only that, I'm even 39. Please someone older than 63 tell me shut up and enjoy it.

Lets concentrate on someone else. Today I am interviewing one of my humble interns, Anna Johnson. That's her above slaving away. She is cute and spunky and smart and wonderful to be around. She pronounces her name like most Annas and not like me (Aw-na) so I thought that would avoid confusion. Or I thought we could call her by her first two initials but her name is Anna Michelle so that doesn't work. Sometimes I just call her Bob. I have a real way with people. I asked her stuff. And she's here to answer. Now to our conversation.

bossy: How old are you?
interny:19
bossy: Why aren't you 39?
interny: Why aren't I 39? Lets see, oh, goodness (internal squeak) I was just born in the wrong decade...?
bossy: Is it easy to be 19? (I wouldn't know I was a mother by then. And that was 20 years ago, my memory is fading. Am I still talking about myself?)
interny: Yes and No (as far as answering the real question in there).
bossy: What's the yes and what's the no?
interny: The yes is its great knowing what lies ahead and how many opportunities are yet to come. The no is when people meet you for the first time and you make a wise impression on them, they seem to want to take it back when they learn how old (young) you are.
bossy: So you're a student, where are you studying, what are you studying, and what impression do you have about how important your degree is to your life's work?
interny: Ooooooh. Are you ready for this paragraph? I am a fashion design major at O'More College of Design, in Franklin, Tn. Although I love my school, love how much I've learned, love how much I'm going to learn still, I don't think that in the present economy a degree will guarantee me anything. So in the long run, I look at it as a great opportunity to gain knowledge (those are my English AP words) and make connections. Not to mention that I love all the people that I've met there.
bossy: So then you are thinking of college as an experience as much as it is an education, right?
interny: Yes. College is what you make of it.
bossy: Smart girl, what do you hope your life's work is? Dream of all dreams? Describe it for me.
interny: That's something I struggle with on a daily basis....I'd like to be able to say at the end of my life that I have spent my days doing the things that I love, whether its photography, painting, designing or whatever, I hope I can look back on my body of work and not see it as work, but rather what I had a passion for. It might mean that I have to choose only one of those (or none of those) to make ends meet, or build a career, but as long as the bill-paying work doesn't overshadow finding enjoyment in what I do, then I will have lived the dream.
bossy: Would you like to tell the folks how we met?
interny: (Snicker.) Oh Dear. Umm. Well, like many people probably reading this post, I regularly follow your blog. Then I happened to see you in public and recognize you not by your face but by the crocheted sweater you had blogged about a few days before. I decided I had to overcome the embarrassment of recognizing your wardrobe, and introduce myself, because I knew I would regret it if I didn't.....(laughs shamefully).
bossy: What have you learned from the past two months during your sheer delight of being here once a week (please say something)?
interny: I learned that you drink coffee all day long. And that it is actually possible to achieve the balance of spending time with your family as well as being a crazy busy designer. Also its possible to be a designer and not live in LA or NYC. If you have the talent then you can work from wherever you are. As long as you have coffee.
bossy: (wipes tear from last answer) Did anything surprise you about this place/house/studio/chaos after your first few visits? Honesty time.
interny: As a regular reader of your blog I did have an idea of what to expect coming to your home studio. But I have been impressed by how relaxing it actually is around here, I didn't expect that working amongst six kids could be such a calm environment. I guess I am surprised to see how much everyone is on the same team, and helps out.
bossy: Are you in love? Loving me doesn't count.
interny: Oh, gosh, am I in love? No.
bossy: Does that matter?
interny: Oh gosh. Can of worms. I thinks its very important to love the people you've been blessed with and to make it known how much you care about them, whether its your family or friends, or anyone. So as for the significant other...if that person showed up I would welcome it, but I wouldn't say I'm on a mission.
bossy: Is there anything else you would like for these kind interwebual people to know about you or your time here?
interny: I love the amazing life and amazing opportunities I've been given and my time here with Anna Maria falls into both of those categories.
bossy: I wuvoo.
interny: I wuvoo too.

Hope you enjoyed our chat, more on Thursday with my other intern, Crista.

xo, Anna

Work.Work.Work.Fun.Work.

2011-07-22T15:05:00.004-05:00

But sometimes the actual work is fun too. Like getting to let you in on this. Enjoy!

xo, Anna (who sucks at blog breaks)

Photo by my intern Anna Johnson. Roman is sucking his bottom lip to keep a swarsh of milk in. I am sucking my bottom lip in concentration. Back to that now.

Scenes from a Studio. And Dirt

2011-07-18T12:33:00.008-05:00

My friend Kathy was kind enough to ask me to share a look at my sewing space, so you can see that over here today, as well as lots of other very inspiring sewing spaces for the rest of the month! Anyway, it goes without say, that I have been chomping at the bit to get this place in order enough to share some looks at what the new attic studio has been turning into.

I am a firm believer in slow realization for any kind of living space. In other words I think the best spaces are those that get decorated, adorned, furnished, over time after use and function come to light. You can certainly fill a space in a matter of days, but really making it come together in the best possible way for me takes time and doing it wrong a few times, shifting, etc. The only problem with this method being that it makes me and my room a bit camera shy until it gets where I want to be....wherever, or whenever that is. But you know. Every space in my house is a work in progress. So with this new space when I have one corner or another cleared, looking the way I like seeing it, and not the way I don't, I'll snap and post. No big tada. No major 5-hour-photo-editing-post-post. Just some scenes. Here are some scenes.

Snippets.

I treated myself to 3 new chairs. Above Eleni has stolen this one. I'm sitting in it now. I lovesss it. I also love the giant sized needle I just noticed in that photo. It makes her look like Thumbelina. She's making a quilt with it. It doesn't occur to me to tell her to use a smaller needle. Its seems to be working for her. More on that later.

Above you can see that Isabela has stolen this chair. Both so different from anything else I have, and look perfect in the sunny office nook portion of the studio. Oh, I also got this little one to slide under the long counter. Sorry no photos of that yet....

Dirt. I spent about (lets see, 3, 8, 4, 2) 17 hours in dirt since Friday at 4:15 when I had to pull up one side of the black plastic off my grass to see what was hapnin. Dead grassiswhat. Anyway, thanks to all the amazing advice on this post, I spent the rest of my weekend removing plants, layering dozens of cardboard boxes and fabric bolts over dead sod, layering 4200 lbs (really) of topsoil over that, marking out a little pathway to Roman's tree swing, then dividing and replanting the plants so that they don't suffer out of the ground any longer. Speaking of suffering. Phew. I cannot move. And I'm only halfway done. I do plan a post on this, its just that every time the work in progress scene looked like an informative picture for you on the method, I was covered in a sunburned coat of mud (it was pretty) and no one was around to fetch my camera for me. Then last night I showered, got gorgeous (relative to the mudcake anyway) and went out with my husband of 18 years for Mexican and a movie to celebrate our anniversary. I ate 9 entrees. Not really...wuuuhhhl. Midnight in Paris was so entertaining and sweet.

So. I feel so chatty. This always happens when I think about taking a little blog break. But I need to, in a serious way. Blogging has been too fun lately and I have a job that I'd like to keep which is only slightly impossible for a mother of 6 during the summertime.

Hm.

OMG! I (almost) stepped into the shower this morning to rinse off the final layer of mud from my early morning planting session but stopped when I realized that I would have been showering with a mouse. I paced and said oh my gosh about 12 times in a row then I finally walked out into the studio where poor Pierrette was trying to do her job and calmly asked her (as I paced in my skimpy towel) to please look in the tub and verify that I was indeed looking at a mouse because it felt too much like a bad dream. Pretty much everyone else in the house except me had some part in collecting the mouse into a ball jar and covering it with a handtowel to set it free while I stood nearly naked on a bench in the studio saying oh my gosh some more. Just as Pierrette and I admitted that through the glass jar in her hands that he was quite a cute mouse, he lurched from under her charmed and distracted handtowel-holding hand onto the dining room floor where he ran around in a few circles before hiding under the china cupboard. There is cheddar cheese waiting for him now, in the jar which he'll likely come out to enjoy while the rest of us are occupied.

Also the tub is disinfected, which I doubt would have happened otherwise for at least another week.

xo, Anna, who couldn't let the week go without telling you that.

Summer Love

2011-07-15T11:31:00.004-05:00

Chances are if you were to drive by any place that looks like this, it would be a good idea to stop.

And if the nachos have faces, you should also plan to have dinner.

True love. Myself and that guy in the background of course. I don't know that cup looking guy. Cool hair though.

I want her job. It could either make me hate dipped ice cream cones, or make me enjoy every minute of becoming an ice cream stuffed balloon. Case in point: that cone in my hand is a size Small. And still its the size of Roman. Seriously. No camera perspective tricks here. My ice cream could eat Roman. Which is why I attacked it of course. I was protecting my cubs.

This is Jack. In most instances that's all you need to know. But I'll go ahead and also tell you that he's my father-in-law. Jack grew up a stone's throw from the Dairy Dip (well only if you have a really good arm, I just wanted to say that cause it sounds so Nashville, and I like to particularly sound Nashvillish when I talk about or to Jack). He worked at the Dairy Dip when he was 13. It hasn't changed much. Also. Don't tell him what to order. Getting the extra large Strawberry Dip is a right reserved for former employees I think.

Malts and Floats. Serious. Business. This is not fun stuff.

Who is that Man? And why did we buy him ice cream?

Roman will be offering a workshop on how to eat ice cream in 90+ degrees. I could not do that because I made a bigger mess than Roman.

Lots of love from Sweet Nashville.
Wish you were here.
If you are, venture over to Charlotte Avenue and make a big mess of yourself.

xo, Anna & family

GlitterSmack

2011-07-12T09:26:00.002-05:00

It blogs.

xoam

Tending To Two

2011-07-11T11:43:00.004-05:00

I tended to two gardens this weekend. Only a tiny bit more of this, indoor, patchworky one (oh, but the joy found there). Much, much more time spent on the outdoor gardens. And not the charming kind of tending either, more the chainsaw, electric trimmer, 2000 sq ft of black plastic kind of tending. We've needed to trim back trees and wayward undergrowth from trees for a while, as well as hedges, limbs and all that. I also decided that I was finally going to do what I've been wanting to do forever with our front beds and that is increase them by about ten times. I currently only have narrow borders about 3 or 4 feet wide along the front walk and house perimeter, and I find that perennials just overtake one another, and quickly get shaded by the flowering trees, etc. I just need more space. Everything needs digging up, dividing, and replanting in a more thought out arrangement. So the process has me trying to kill about 1500 sq ft of grass without using chemicals. Without doing any research (typical Anna fashion) I decided to just sweat out the grass by using lawn staples and black plastic sheeting to cover all my desired new flower bed space. I'm hoping by next weekend that it'll be dead, and ready for tilling, clearing. Kill stuff naturally much? And effectively? Any input appreciated.

Being the genius that I am, I thought this was the best sort of thing to do in 100+ degrees.

Eleni picked this little bundle for me from our surprise Zinnias (that just showed up again after an annual seeding last year, I guess they dropped some seeds for me....someone needed to do it) and also some from two bougainvilleas that I have potted on the front steps. Thats about all the work I've managed outside this year until this weekend.

So. Back to the indoor flowers. And patchwork. And books and you.

Our randomly chosen winner for the wonderful Block Party book is:

Marika said...

I got some Liberty coming my way too and I can't wait to receive it !
What you made with it is really nice :)

7:27 PM

Congratulations Marika for winning a copy of the book, send your address details to amATannamariahornerDOTcom.

Thanks everyone for your lovely comments!

xo, Anna Maria

Here.There.Way over there.Everywhere.

2011-07-08T10:33:00.010-05:00

OH. Summer.

Here: Days look mostly like this, plus some night swims at the local pool.
There: I so enjoyed my interview with Sew4Home, maybe you will too (great site!)
*Way over There: I'm joining my pal Heather Ross again in Palm Springs '12! Coming?
Everywhere: I'm wishing you giant, giggley piles of what you love.

good weekend, xoAM

*edited to add!

Invitation to Improvise

2011-07-06T11:04:00.009-05:00

I was fortunate enough to meet the lovely Alissa Haight Carlton at Quilt Market only weeks ago, and the feeling you get from her is just the feeling that I get from her new book, Block Party, which was written together with Kristen Lejnieks. And that feeling is one of approachability and warmth. After talking to her for a only a bit, I wanted to sit next to her and sew. The book, after reading a few pages, makes you feel just the same way. You just feel invited. Not in the fancy invitation that comes in the mail and requires a new dress kind of invitation, but a hey, come over here and join us kind of invitation. The best kind.

The book covers 12 women who formed a modern quilting bee so that each would contribute a block to one person's quilt concept each month. All the blocks would be sent to that one person, and she would get to assemble the quilt and keep it. By the end of the year all twelve of them had done the same, each keeping a piece of history and the work of 12 minds, 24 hands. I love thinking of how every block in every quilt was created during a completely separate set of circumstances within each quilter's life. And that they each, doubtlessly, struggled more with one block than another, experienced successes and emotions that they wouldn't have otherwise had. Some days I imagine that making the block was the most peaceful part of their day- I'm sure other days, they forgot to get to it all together, and stressed a bit to finish it. Each one different. Each one a record of time. Each one perfecting a skill they already possessed or pushing them into a new one. And all together the quilt then, an expression of many. I do believe that is the heart and soul of quilting.

I took note of my dear friend Denyse's introduction to the book, most specifically where she writes that "the best way to learn something (to understand it viscerally and not just intellectually) is to make it happen with your own hands." That, in addition to all the wonderful inspiration, and perfectly clear instructions is what had me chopping up my Liberty stack faster than you can say bee (which doesn't take long at all). I was so inspired by the Confetti quilt because it felt most different from what I typically do. More improvisational. I see a lot of quilts. Lots and lots. And the moment I see them I either get it and move on, or I get it and I want to try it. Or better still, I get it, want to try, and even meditate for a while on how I might interpret it to see it anew. So here I am, improvising within the boundaries of this lovely Confetti block. Instead of using all white for the solid background, I decided to show off all the irregular strip widths by using 3 solids from my voiles (sixpence, midnight, river rock). And because I can't leave well enough alone, in addition to the 3 background solids, I decided to interject one of my own prints. The good for me thing, in addition to it being a scrap + solid style block, is that its perfect for special fabrics that you'd like to use a bit sparingly.

So after only messing around for about an hour or so this morning, I am finding myself entirely charmed with this process, remembering how much I love to wing it, and loving how this one little block is a microcosm of the quilt it will become. And even each component of the block, its own abstract composition- beautiful and unique. I've decided that I need a little tiny bit of this freedom on a regular basis, so I think I'll do one every Saturday morning. We'll see how that goes. I'm glad to have the company of these talented women every time I open this book.

Would you like to open this book? I get to give one away! Leave me any ole comment and we'll get a name chosen at random on Monday of next week. For more wonderful write-ups about this book, follow along on the blog tour:

6/21/2011 A Quilt Is Nice
6/22/2011 I Heart Linen
6/23/2011 Tallgrass Prairie Studio
6/24/2011 Oh, Fransson!
6/25/2011 All Buttoned Up
6/26/2011 West Coast Crafty
6/27/2011 Connecting Threads
6/28/2011 Crafty Girls Workshop
6/29/2011 Whip Up
6/30/2011 Pink Chalk Studio
7/1/2011 True Up
7/5/2011 Block Party Bee Blog
7/6/2011 Anna Maria Horner
7/7/2011 Craftzine.com

happy quilting, xo, Anna

Blueberry Saturday (and peach and lemon)

2011-07-02T13:16:00.007-05:00

5 PIES is my contribution to our upcoming long weekend at my parents' house. I was planning only 4- two blueberry and two peach- but I had all this leftover crust that could not be wasted (never), so I got out my good ole Betty Crocker classic cookbook and looked for something that I had the ingredients for- erhh something that between myself and my neighbor, Karen, had the ingredients for (thanks Karen- even trade I think, we just gave your Josh two of our Wii remotes). Anyhoo, I have some words about baking. I am not big on baking. Maybe because I am not big on sweets or cakes too much. Except for pie. I lurve making pie. I make such a gianormous mess that the finished pie ends up being the apology to my husband for making such a mess of his kitchen (It is his kitchen- he cleans it, I cook in it. He can have it. I will happily keep cooking.) In general I like to cook a lot. Free style with of course our favorite, simple, memorized standards thrown in. Baking requires getting measurements just so, and chemical reactions that I don't have the desire or patience to understand and that's not so much my thing. Yet I find (and this is why I like it) that I can pretty much just throw a pie together (easy as..... that's right, pie). Jeff's eyebrows formed a bracket parentheses over his morning coffee cup today when he watched me pour sugar straight from the bag under my right arm into a giant bowl of blueberries as I stirred with my left and balanced my mom on the phone on my shoulder chatting away about other food we're planning. I'm not bragging, (nkay, maybe a little) its just that for me to like any kind of cooking/baking/preparing it has to be able to be done pretty much like the above described scene and still taste great. I have over the years (ugggh that makes me sound so old) figured out how to make a few kinds of pie taste great, so I thought I would share some of my little maybe-not-secrets, but special to me ways of making a couple.

Double Pie Crust:
2/3 cup softened Kerry's Irish Butter (not softend in the microwave, just leave it out for a bit first)
2 cups flour (I use White Lily)
6-7 tbsp of water/orange juice mixture (equal parts)

Chop the butter into about a dozen pieces in glass bowl. Pour the flour over it, and keep chopping through the butter, which will start to blend the flour. Once butter pieces are about the size of grapes, move to using one of those dough blender things with the wires until the floured butter balls are about the size of peas. Then sprinkle in the tbsps of water/OJ over everything as you toss the dough with a fork to mix- don't try to stir. Once the dough is about like crumbly sugar cookie dough, dump it (even if it feels too crumby) onto a generously sized sheet of wax paper. Fold opposite ends of the wax paper up over the dough and press into the dough using the wax paper to press from opposing directions instead of your bare hands. Do the same from the other two directions. Continue to knead the dough in this manner, pressing it into a firm shape with the wax paper, (it shouldn't take more than about 7 or 8 good presses) then wrap it up in the wax paper and stick in the fridge for at least 30 min before you use it. When you're ready to use it, let it stand at room temperature for about 5 or 10 minutes before dividing and rolling out.

Blueberry Filling:
The amount of blueberries I use depends on the size of the pan obviously, but I like a heaping amount, so I usually have more than I need- maybe 4 cups or so. I do just pour sugar in until it looks about right- if I had to guess I would say about 1 or 1-1/2 cups. I also drizzle in about 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 1/2 tsp finely grated lemon peel, and about a tbsp of flour.
~or~
Peach Filling:
Same as above on amounts of fruit, sugar, and flour, but I also use about a tsp of cinnamon and sprinkle about 1/2 tsp almond extract

My American grandmother always made so many pies for us ravenous grandchildren. Tons. Some visits she would make up to 8 pies or so. I guess I'm getting there myself. With today's leftover crust I decided to try a Lemon Meringue pie. I know. You have to be pretty precise about the glossiness and peekiness of your meringue peeks and all but I actually really enjoyed making it. I'll get back to you if its good, it sure looks all fluffy, toasty and delicious. The house was so quiet while Jeff went to retrieve four kids from a week-long camp, Roman napped and Eleni cuddled with a quilt in front of some cartoons. For once I wasn't sewing or stitching during that peaceful time. But was covered in flour, apron over my nightgown, jumpy on coffee, nibbling on leftover bacon, and teaching myself how to make a new kind of pie using my own and borrowed ingredients.

I felt so happy, if not just slightly American.
Happy Independence Day!
xo,AM

Spinning Stars

2011-06-30T13:36:00.008-05:00

Enter Spinning Stars Quilt.

I've designed this new free pattern for my Loulouthi fabrics, which you can grab off my MAKE page, and we've prepared kits over here for each of the palettes. This one above is a throw size, made up of 9 blocks, and from the Juliana palette.

I hand tied the throw with a pretty aqua pearl cotton, at every corner and every center of each block. Hand tying is fun for me, quicker than hand quilting and I like the fuzzy little knots poking up across the surface of the patchwork. Sort of silly almost, but still pulled together. I aspire to be just like a hand tied quilt. (Anyway, YES, I know! Where are those stinkin' thread kits? I'm twiddling my thumbs along with some of you, but I was told end of June, so it should really be any day now.)

While I do love the messy, mix-y , patch-y of a quilt, I decided to play around with some solids too. Its amazing how different these quilts with the solid bands are. And how the solid influences the feel and color story of the whole thing. This solid aqua is paired with fabrics from the Eleni palette. I also backed this one with voile, which makes your needle just sink right in beautifully if you are handquilting, and who wouldn't want a layer of that against you on a cool night? So soft. It was such a push to get each of these finished before market, so I had some help from my pal Brittney to piece two of them (thanks Britt!). And while its not really recommended to bind up the edges before you quilt the layers together, market will push you into just that kind of corner.

So it came along just like this, safely pinned, and waiting to have the stitching realized (as it still waits). The main reason I introduced solids to these is to have some open ground to feature hand stitching. So on the above I'm a little torn between tying and stitching. Hmm. Every quilt I design is like a new friendship, and you learn something. What I've learned from this one, is that I gravitate towards blocks that have a center, as do these pie shapes, and so the background stars. There is so much power play that can happen between the two, depending on how the color and depth arrangement gets fooled with, that you can really go on and on. Which is just the point to all this I believe.

And I did-go on, and on! This is a crib size version from the Isabela palette, and I love it! So fun to hand stitch in playful primaries.

And extremely enjoyable to allow the background stars to be really graphic, using high contrast colors from the gold and blue. I think I like this poppy-ness partly because its a small-scale, playful quilt.

I put a solid voile on the back of this one, to give various hues of stitching center stage.

Spinning Stars. I hope you enjoy it! I had no idea when I was drawing it up a few months ago that it would be such a summery, starry tie-in to the upcoming holiday. Hooray.

Sparkley wishes, and lots of love, AM

A June & Johnny kind of day

2011-06-28T14:24:00.003-05:00

Patchwork and these two got together extremely well. Amen.

I'll be back soon with a new quilt pattern for you to dance to. xoAM

Shop Talk

2011-06-22T08:35:00.012-05:00

Here's today's bullets, look out:

:: I am so thrilled, honored, humbled, excited (and all those other things that make me sound nice and modest) to be over visiting with Amanda for her soulful mothering series today. I wrote about my messy kids. Ha, no not really. Well, sort of.

:: I have a new blog banner, get outta your reader and get over here to see it, you.

:: And a new front page.

:: I updated my FAQ page

:: I updated my about page to include the facts that I have actually written two books, not one, and have 6 children not 5. Hasty, you say? I think it was time.

:: I created a new slide show of my Quilt Market booth

:: I (finally) have slide shows for Innocent Crush and Loulouthi up on the fabrics page.

:: I now have a Loulouthi flickr group waiting for your projects.

:: There's a Little Folks and Folksy Flannels sale going on in the shop now (yay!)

:: I have a Sample Room! I do, I do, I do! At least while it lasts.

:: I love tabouli.

:: The kids captured a menacing spider that has been following me around the studio for a few weeks.

:: Isabela named him Stanley and feeds him moths.

:: She feels conflicted about the moth feeding thing, but Stanley won't touch Special K or pretzels.

:: Its gettin' real in the Whole Foods parkin' lot.

:: A few of the above points are not so much relevant to shop talk as they are of general all around importance.

love from the summer house, (haha, no I don't have a summer house, just this one, where its currently summer) xo, Anna

the Source

2011-06-19T16:13:00.016-05:00

(a view from the porch of my Dad's house in Greece)

Because of my dad, I witnessed very early in life that painting is a perfectly fine thing to do with your time.
Because of my dad, I learned that how you spent your day, in spite it's struggles, was simply the path to get you home with your family under one roof, together each night.
Because of my dad, I didn't even know until I was twenty or so that there are places that will change your car's oil for you.
Because of my dad, I learned that olive oil, fresh tomatoes, salt and crusty bread can be enjoyed at 7am as easily as 11pm (and most especially if its past your bedtime and you're invited out of bed to the late night kitchen table in your nightgown to "have a few dunks with bread").
Because of my dad, I may have anywhere between 3 to 6 gallons of the purest, greenest, most beautiful olive oil from his trees in Greece in my home, at any given time.
Because of my dad, I learned to never take a photograph of people enjoying a meal after the meal is over and there is nothing but empty plates on the table. (What the bleep is the point after the food is gone? People might think you don't have any food.)
Because of my dad, I don't get scared when people yell.
Because of my dad, I welcome being told that I am doing anything the wrong way.
Because my dad, I learned that watermelon is best kept cold while camping if you're able to get that good spot towards the back of the campground with the stream, so that you can wedge the melon between a few rocks and let the cold rushing water do the rest.
Because of my dad, I've never bought a house that wasn't situated up on a bit of a hill and well above the road level (this has saved me and my family more than once).
Because of my dad, I know that I could have bought any of those houses for less, if I'd just held out a little longer after the 4th counter offer (but I couldn't stand it).
Because of my dad, I know that after you cut the fourth leg off of a frog it can no longer hear, as evidenced by it staying still when you tell it to jump (sorry, really, really bad family joke).
Because of my dad, I knew that dating a boy should commence somewhere around 35.
Because of my dad, I knew I was entirely loved even when I brought home a boy at 18, and then his baby at 19.
Because of my dad, I learned that unconditional love is the most difficult, most worthwhile thing you do in this life.
Because of my dad, I've had the joy of drifting into a late afternoon nap (on that porch shown above), blown by a gentle breeze sweeping down a mountain side, and sung to sleep by the rolling, chiming sound of sheep's bells in the distance.
Because of my dad, I learned to embellish my storytelling with anything necessary to make it all a little more humorous or enjoyable, and to be sure that no one is ever laughing harder at the story than me.
Because of my dad, I learned the harder you try not to bring something up in conversation the longer it takes you stop making (and remaking) your point once you do (dad, are you paying attention?)
Because of my dad, I know my single most important accomplishment was finding a man that would love, provide and care for me and our children, in every adventure life brings. Even if it was that 18 year old kid that I brought home about 20 years too early for my dad's liking.

Happy Father's Day to the both of them! Wishing all of you dad and dad-figures every happiness today!
xoxo, AM

A quick change to the Quick Change Trousers

2011-06-17T10:49:00.008-05:00

The Quick Change Trousers is undoubtedly one of the most popular patterns to make from my Handmade Beginnings book. I think its obvious why: they are sweet, simple, reversible, easy to make and easy to wear. It almost deserves a flickr group all its own, because there are so many adorable examples on the book's flickr page (along with so many other great sew-ups)! And in my book, (not sure if that pun was intended) any great, straight forward pattern calls for some fun adaptations. In fact all patterns call for this to me. Having a pattern is great, but it is always just one way to do it. So today I thought I would share another, really simple way to do up these trousers.

Making the shorter variety of the trousers is an obvious adaptation that really requires no explanation or change to the pattern other than amending the length. Great. Yay. Got it. But Roman's wiggleyness, and activity level these days really makes me on the constant lookout for one piece clothing, so that his clothes will stay on. (Almost all childrenswear manufacturers stop that at 24 mos for some reason, what the heck? It drives me nuts.) And though the book pattern for the Quick Change Trousers only goes up to 24 mos (no space for more!), because it is so simple to begin with its also pretty simple to grade up in size. Roman is slightly taller than average for his age, but he can still wear the 24 mos size in this pattern due to being pretty narrow through the hips, and we don't do the cloth diaper thing (do you? wow, I am so proud of you. sigh.)

Here are the main components of amendment to turn your Quick Change Trousers into overalls:

- Transform the front leg pattern piece into one continuous leg + bib front piece. To do this you are really just adding a rectangle to the top waistline edge of the front leg pattern that extends to cover your baby's chest. This will mean the center front seam of the pants will continue up in a straight line to the top of the bib (how long this line will extend depends on your child's height and how high you'd like the bib to be). The top horizontal line of the bib is at a 90 degree angle to the center seam line. The bib width will not be as wide at the width of the front leg but stop a few inches short of that- really just depends on how wide you'd like the bib to be. The side edge of the bib, at least Roman's, is a straight line just until it is a few inches away from meeting the waistline of the pant leg again, and then it curves out towards the side to meet the waistline. Of course, just try it first on paper, and pin it to your annoyed toddler's shirt to have a look.

-You'll also need to make some straps. Roman's are a finished 1.5" wide, which I think looks nice and supports the 1" wide buttons well. His overalls have a few extra inches of finished strap (the button end of the strap behind the bib) to allow for some button moving once he grows a bit. To make the straps, I first cut the straps extra, extra long, sewed them right sides together with one finished end, turned them out, pressed them, then stuck the unfinished ends into the back of the pair of pants he was wearing, crossed them across his back and then over his shoulders to judge how much I might need to shorten. In all instances I firmly believe in messing with your kid to get it right. No reason for you to suffer alone, I say. Struggle brings two people together. Team work is worthwhile work.

-Where was I?

-The assembly of the overalls will follow the exact assembly of the trousers, with the exception of:
-sew the straps into the back waistline seam before you join the inner and outer pants together
-only create an elastic channel on the back of the pants between the outer edges of where you have placed the two straps, and anchor the elastic in place at both ends of the channel
-double sew a pair of buttons on opposite sides of each finished strap end to keep them reversible (total of 4 buttons)
-create button holes in top corners of bib front

We used an adorable Kokka print (covered in chalk above) that I picked up at Purl when we were in NYC earlier this year. Roman loves this print so so so much. For the months I waited to get started on the project, he would bring me the fabric and gesture for me to spread it out on the floor so he could lay on it. I need to go cry now. I'm back. He is such a stinkin widdle sweetheart.

And because of that I put hugs and kisses on his butt. Fabrically, not literally.....but well, his little tush has been loved. Oh and the reverse, is made all from this print, which is adorbs, but haven't gotten him still again lately to show you that. We've made a few pairs now, and all have been worn shirtless too.

have fun, lots of love, Anna

A perfect summer evening that coincidentally did not involve any boys except for one cute baby who was put to bed early

2011-06-14T14:12:00.008-05:00

Four girls, homemade personal pizzas, a movie, and a movie credit too (for which I am now finally ranked as cool with my girls- that was easy, ahem). I did find this nice little story on the process of bringing Miss Moody to life.

A lovely night while the boys are off on their own adventure.
thanks for all of your (ongoing and ridiculously too nice) support.

xo, anna

Probably a large topic for a Summer Friday

2011-06-10T09:02:00.013-05:00

But a topic that I have been thinking about a lot lately. And that is DO. What I do. What we all do. But maybe perhaps also kinda what I've done. I speak of course about my work.

The window that my website, and especially, for the past five years, my blog, provides into my process, which has transformed over the years, has generated lots of emails, phone calls, handwritten notes of asking how. How do I do it? Sometimes its very specific, like how did I get into fabric design, etc. - a topic that (maybe its just me but) I feel has been covered well over the past few years in the creative blog realm-, how did you get a book published, how do you care for all those kids and run a business, etc. But often just a very general how, which I sort of sometimes don't know how to answer except to say that I am still figuring it out. I will admit that the approaches can be a little overwhelming sometimes given my schedule with work, and of course my family, but I always, always want to help, and to answer questions, and to offer insight. I am sure that there have been some emails that have slipped through the cracks. And I'm sorry for that. I do have a FAQ, and I do offer interviews, where lots of this stuff gets answered. So it is helpful to have some of these answers on autopilot at times.

I guess what I'm rambling on and on about here, is that I am not sure if what I can offer is even what you would call an answer as much as it is a response. A very personal one. One that may or may not work for whoever is asking. But I also think that anyone who reads me here knows that these questions slowly get answered, in a trickle of sorts. Few people have the time for that in order to simply to get a pressing question answered, yet, I think there is an assumption that there is some specific template of life. Or a secret that no one has revealed or a school where you learn this very set of trades. Or that success somehow will occur if you just know that one thing that no one seems to tell you.

This isn't even going where I thought this would be going.

Its challenging for me to write about what I do, because it is indeed always evolving. Constantly. Being in business one way or another is something that I have done now for 20 years. It very simply started by me earning extra money in college by using one of my best friend's parents' basement to make dresses that I sold to a local retailer. They sold well. We had a kid. I was also waiting tables 20 hours a week and earning a fine arts degree. After earning that degree no one beat my door down to offer me a job so I opened a shop to flesh out the clothing line with the help of my mom. That was wonderful but also incredibly challenging. Its hard. Its physical. I do not envy retailers at all. After 3 years I closed shop and went to wholesale with the clothing line but after kid 3 it was too much, despite the fact that it was taking off and I couldn't keep up alone. Then I turned to partnering with manufacturers. And over the past 10 years, I have had almost every experience you can imagine good or bad in that arena too. But the most important thing I've learned is to read and even write my own contracts and that everyone in any partnership has to get something out of it and its that overlap of your happiness and theirs that makes the situation work. If you aren't both happy at the same time, there is no point in continuing. Period. Forget your pride and what might feel like a failure. A success is knowing when something isn't working because that means you are paying attention.

I feel so content about where years of struggles and successes has arrived to. And of course there have been struggles, there always are, for everyone, even the most successful person you can imagine. I think that the perception is when you see only the good, that good is all there is. That's because there is simply nothing to show for failures.

Being in business, albeit a mostly comforting and handcrafted one, essentially begs for maximum possible gain for minimal input. On every level. I can get caught in the trap like anyone, to only think in these terms. How much will this grow my business? is this worth my time? will it work? is it relevant? how far reaching is this? etc. Optimize, optimize, optimize. But I think I have arrived at a place. And this is really (if you're still with me) what I'd like to say. These questions do matter. I've only been able to do what I do for a living because I have asked all these questions along the way with every single endeavor. But the place where I am now (and things like this video have helped me get to it) is that its OKAY if something might take more time than its worth in dollars. And that every now and then I NEED that. We all do. Why earn a living but lose yourself in the process?

I am fondly remembering the very slow work that brought me to love making and ultimately to the faster paced, and mass produced items that I now have a hand in creating. I don't resent mass production. It enables me to share my work with each of you if we look at it honestly. But I'm not happy with only that. I don't care about things that I don't care about. Its not important to me to be a label on a product that I would never dream of bringing in to my home. It was important to me for a time because I, like many, are tricked into believing that bigger must certainly be better. Better because certainly then you have more choices about how you want to live. What I'm learning is that bigger, just for the sake of it, means you have far fewer choices about how you want to live because you become ultimately burdened by surrounding yourself with things that you might not care too much about. So if you are going to go big, you better love it. All of it. I think that if you love what you are doing, really truly care about it, and are able to share that love in a meaningful way, then it will really just end up working. Call me Pollyanna.

I was listening to a great story this morning on NPR about a local woman who built a cake pop business due to not being able to get enough photography and design work in the present economy. My take away from her story was that she decided that WHAT she was doing for a living was less important than HOW she was living. That is huge to me. Being a photographer was not giving her the life that she wanted. Yet that doesn't mean that she had to stop being one, but decided not to get hung up on making a living from it. This kind of choice to me is empowering and not debilitating. You can read/listen to her story here. Another favorite sound bite from it is that she can't help but smile when she talks about the cake pops.

I want a cake pop.

Anyway. Sorry. Posts like this are few and far between as I do busy myself with the tangibles, so I find it hard to just sit and compose my brain space sometimes. The simplest things will spark these kinds of thoughts. For me lately its been lots of little things. Watching Juliana carve out her ideas about how she wants to live and work, that video from Greece, the fact that I wanted to take a day off and sew muslin bags hand stamped with my needleworks logo to package my upcoming Aida cloth cuts, despite the fact that business-wise this is not an optimal use of my time. But it is special to me, so I don't care (see some of those muslin envelopes stacked in the photo above). The repetition reminded me of those days in my shop where I made up to 20 dresses a day sometimes. Phew. Actually this post is about how I am glad I don't make 20 dresses a day anymore.

But maybe making 5 or so would be nice. In fact, I do have a new venture called "visiting artists", a concept that I have been stewing on for months, that I will be sharing soon. I think more than anything it will celebrate the slow making that I find myself missing some days.

More soon. I have much to DO.
have a great weekend, and as always thanks for sharing the journey.
and keeping asking me questions, just forgive my often slow responses.
xoxo, Anna

And slightly less rough around the edges

2011-06-08T17:23:00.008-05:00

My favorite part about reading the comments from my last post was the utter gentleness that each of you who had constructive criticism exercised in your words. I am here to tell you, that yes, I know. I know. Really. I do. That intro piece is not right. Which is partly why I loved it so much yet definitely have not embraced it as a finished work. It entertains me, and even makes Nicolas laugh after a few days distance. I am thankful that the snazzy interwebuals allow me to share the process in all its quirky glory.

And really.

An animated intro? Not my biggest goal in life. Silly to begin with perhaps, but sometimes we just can't help ourselves.

I will look back on this like I do the photograph of myself at age 2 wearing nothing (really, nothing!) but a football helmut and a little undershirt that was very tight on my chubby belly.... a family favorite yes, but not quite right to share with the whole world. Ahem.

But speaking of works in progress, off to my corner of the living room.
thank you for the millions of dollars worth of 2 cents. Priceless.
xo, AM

Embroidery + Angst

2011-06-06T13:52:00.004-05:00

I don't know why this is making me laugh so hard. Nicolas and I are working together on some needlework videos for the launch of the goods (just a few weeks hopefully), which I am over the moon, no, over the man in the moon excited about. Anyway, we are playing with an intro. I loved this yesterday. Today I woke up and watched it again and it just sounds so funny and drum-lesson-teenagery to me that I think its hysterical. Which might mean it needs some work. Or it might mean its just perfect. (Do you feel like someone is shooting at you?) Either way, he is a regular riot to work with.

3 cheers for 13 year old boys and working at home.
(hip hip...)
xoxoAM

Yup.

2011-06-02T21:16:00.004-05:00

And how was your day?

Why does it already feel like the middle of the summer both in temperature and temperament around here? Does the temperature do that the the temperament? Methinks.

xoxo, Anna (who will commence to a cold beer and a comfy couch now thank you)

p.s. I so lurved reading all your very thoughtful comments about the dear sweet lace-making Yiayias in the Etsy video. I am in such good company here. thank you.

Making me think today

2011-05-27T12:39:00.007-05:00

But also making me sew, too. Of course. By hand. Juliana and I both shed a little tear with this story, only 5 minutes long or so. I think you'll agree how beautiful this portrayal is. What does this sort of thing do to you? As a descendant of this type of work, I feel. As a business woman, I contemplate. I would love to know what you feel or contemplate, even if it conflicts. Perhaps more than anything, as an artist, this makes me want to learn.

have a nice long weekend, make something beautiful, and then show someone else how to do it too. xo, Anna Maria

(Video compliments of my friends at Etsy)

Needleworks (!!!!!!!)

2011-05-24T13:34:00.005-05:00

As many times as I have stuck myself with a pin or a needle over the past few weeks I am surprised that I didn't pop given the amount of excitement that has had me blown up like a balloon. Introducing Anna Maria Needleworks! (awh, phew, I can feel the air escaping out my fingertips as I type). I've alluded to it, shared some of the behind the scenes on projects, and geesh you've been looking at evidence in my blog banner for a while now too. But its almost here (as in a couple of weeks).

Now let me tell you what it is.

My Needleworks collection right now consists of two boxed collections of Pearl Cotton (Anchor's size 8, which is pretty middle of the road in thickness) divided into two color palettes : Geranium Wall & Reflecting Pool. Each box contains 9 skeins that each contain about 85 yds. I also have two envelope collections of 6-strand embroidery floss the Seafaring palette and the radiant palette. Each envelope has 12 skeins that each have about 9 yards of floss. All the packages are so beautiful, reusable and provide a nice portable storage option for all of your stitching adventures. (The floss envelope even has a large scale winding card for you!)

There is a lot in the Needleworks collection that will follow these beautiful threads, but what I thought I would do today is share some close up shots of some of my first projects with these goodies. I am also excited to direct you to my friends Kim and Kris over at the diydish.com where they've posted a video today of our sitdown time at Quilt Market. Its as good an explanation as any of how I've been using these threads, and what more we have to look forward to as I introduce all the projects and fabrics that I've been working on for you. They are also hosting a giveaway, and a free embroidery pattern from yours truly, so head over there to watch the video, then meet me back here.

(waiting. waiting. waiting.) Oh good, you're back! I'm sorry about all my hand motions, and that I need a haricut. I wouldn't blame you at all if you hadn't come back after that Crystal Gale lookalike you had to listen to. Anyway.

This quickly became a favorite pre-market project for me. It is simply a hand quilted pillow. I layered the pillow front, just like I would a quilt top, batting and backing sandwich, then pinned, basted, handquilted, trimmed and finally sewed into a pillow.

I would really love to do a whole cloth quilt this way, just following the pattern but also the colors of the print design. As I mentioned when I shared the other free-style quilted pillow, if you are new to hand quilting and want a great project to practice your stitch the pillow is ideal, because you wouldn't have to worry about perfecting how the backing side of your stitches look. (ohhh, ahhha. yes.)

This is the dress that Juliana is wearing in the video. Its another version of the Painted Portrait Blouse & Dress (available in July). The yoke features one of the 6 Loulouthi Needleworks prints which will be available later in the summer. These goods are no different than our printed cottons, except that the design work is all little cross stitch designs, and they are 60" wide instead of 44/45! Yay!

You can leave them as they are, or stitch over a little or a lot of the cross stitch pattern. I'll be sharing better views of those 6 pieces later this week. I used the pearl cotton for the above, but you could also use any number of strands from the stranded embroidery floss as well.

This little outfit generated lots of excitement at market, and I'll admit it was hard to leave it on the dress form when I really wanted to steal it each morning. The blouse is a sleeveless version of the Painted Portrait Blouse, and I chose to run embroidery floss stitches throughout the yoke for interest. (Fabric note, I used the quilting cotton for the yoke, and the rest of the blouse is from the voile- I love the scale shift.)

Here is part of the yoke a little closer up. The stitching was really pretty quick and I love how simple, but also sort of elaborate it is, and how the stitches interact with the print to create sort of a veil over it. Maybe like you're looking at a garden through a window screen or a fence.

Also on that little lady was a cross stitched, sewn belt with a stitched flower on the side. That was seriously fun.

This is a better view of the embroidery that I was sharing on the video as well. I embroidered each flower with a series of different stitches all on a cream colored linen. I then cut those out and hand stitched them to the grey cotton with a running stitch (actually I'm pretty sure my mom did the running stitches on two of those for me, and Juliana did the 3rd, but you get the idea). This piece will remain an artwork but there are so many different ways to use the same design work in other ways. Which I think might be what I love most about this hand work. Up to you.

Speaking of you, the free Loulou Bouquet Embroidery downloadable pattern is available for your pleasure over at the diydish, so get down and load it. We'll have it on the make page soon too.

Phew. And that's not all, but this is me sliding in my bookmark, and resting my wrists for a bit.
(And did anyone catch that fun little announcement towards the end?) More soon.

xoxo, Anna

It could have happened anywhere

2011-05-22T20:31:00.006-05:00

As long as I had placed a bowl of pearl cottons between any two chairs in any corner of our home I imagine this scene might have eventually produced itself. Often after Roman is in bed, and the rest of the children are settled into what will be their last task or play on a Sunday evening, I sneak off to set my mind onto Monday. Usually at the computer, just for a few minutes, to organize my thoughts about what I will wake up to. It might sound like weekend work (gasp), but it actually helps me enjoy the rest of the evening that will follow if I feel like I've peeked into the next week a bit. Anyway.

They marched in with purpose, and headed straight to the window seats with their little sewing bags ready to whatever together. Eleni making a pouch for Juliana, because she thinks Juliana needs a pouch for all her stuff. And Isabela, just making a handbag that will be for she doesn't know who. Just making it.

Its just that tonight, they have no idea what they're making me. They are making me peaceful in my heart, relieved in my mind, and thankful through out as they stitch together the raw edges of their day, when they had every other endeavor to choose from. So simple.

Needle.
Thread.
Cloth.
Evening.
Light.
Sisters.
Good.
Night.

xoAnna

Boy Turns 2 (or Boy Turns On His Mother, just depends on how you look at it really)

2011-05-19T13:05:00.003-05:00

Guesses his birthday bib is pretty cool, erhh that could be the lollipop talkin'.

Thinks, yea that is a really good lollipop. Mmmm. Likes turning 2. 2's his favorite.

Bets you wish you had a lollipop.

Yep. Its not a big deal, but its pretty good. Bib is okay, he guesses.

(.0002 seconds later) NO NO NO NO, I hate it, I hate the bib, bibs are for babies, what do you think I am, A BABY?

Mom. Chill. What the heck. Don't need a bib. I'm 2.

2-ness aside, Roman's mom would like to share some more wishful thinking for you. These are the Loulouthi laminate prints for willing babies, toddlers and general all around people everywhere. We hope you love them (at least for a minute or two).

Back to the other 207 pictures I took during 3 minutes with one bib, one lollipop, and one very grown-up (sniff) 2-year-old boy. Happy, happy birthday to my sweet boy.

xoxo, Anna

Voile (and) Ahh

2011-05-18T11:04:00.012-05:00

Voiles. 6 of them this time around in colors that I feel like wearing these days. The scale on the "Clippings" (rose, butterfly) print is about half the size that it is in the quilting cotton varieties. I think its nice to have it smaller particularly for clothing.

Here are a few shots of Eleni wearing the "Clippings" print in Sherry as part of her Easter dress that I am (finally) managing to post. This quick little design is sort of a glorified pillowcase dress with a solid voile lining and the beautiful embroidered ribbon for the front fixed sash.

We thought it would be extra chic to have the draw-thru shoulder ties only bow up on one side. Oui. You'll see these fabrics in action more when I share a new sewing pattern called Painted Portrait Blouse & Dress that I'm working on.

Here is the official write-up for my Loulouthi inspirations:

Loulouthi is a treasure box of all that I love about flowers and fabric coming together in form and inspiration. The word loulouthi simply translates from the Greek as “flower”. But in an ongoing story, my cultural heritage has enlivened these fabrics with visions of needleworks in progress, the gentle tending of village gardens, and the luxury of living alongside everyday works of art. The language of flowers and floral handiwork has spoken to me since before I could thread my own needles, and this collection is my reply to all that beauty.

Tomorrow, some laminates. All of the cottons, voiles and laminates are now on view at the freespirit site here. If you're a numbers and color name type of person. (I am assuming that everyone who is reading this is.?.)

Oh, the Ahh part of this post is that AAAAHHHHHhhhhhhhh, I'm home. Market was so, so fun, and hugely exciting with all that I got to share. Booth pics will follow all the little collection release shots here soon.

smooch, Anna

Just art today

2011-05-14T08:55:00.003-05:00

Juliana palette

Isabela Palette

Eleni Palette

Wish I could manage some lovely words to go along with the layouts of Loulouthi quilting cottons today, but am about to hop in the shower and then head to the second day of Quilt Market here in Salt Lake.

Wish you were here, hope to share more later so that you can feel like you are!

xoxo, AM

A peek between

2011-04-26T18:13:00.007-05:00

We had a beautiful Easter weekend, lots of joy, lots of meat, lots of red eggs, morning church, afternoon church and midnight church. As Orthodox we celebrate every last detail of the Resurrection. Exhausting, but gorgeous and fulfilling. And then the fast breaking. I think I have officially eaten almost every form of animal that roams the earth and am now ready to start fasting again. I might have eaten 10 pieces of bacon yesterday. I found a small piece of bacon in Roman's crib this morning. What does that mean? I guess it means Lent is over.

Anyway. I am wiped out with so many quilt market preparations, and you know how I hate/love all this stuff. It consumes me for a few weeks (actually more) but is also sorta like the biggest craft project ever, so there is definitely fun in that. Right now I am in the midst of painting a 5 x 8 wall with giant roses, and butterflies which is really just an exploded version of one of my Loulouthi prints. I know that you can get extra large prints run, etc. but somehow I'm not happy if I'm not painting some part of the booth by hand. I'm a weirdo. I'm not happy unless I'm miserable. Its like eating 10 pieces of bacon. You know you don't need to do it. But.

So. I hope to share a closer look at the new collection later in the week, but otherwise have to restrain my chattiness to get some work done. I can't wait for you to see each print up close and talk to you about my inspirations, so much to say there. Thank you for all your kind comments about that little sneak peek. And there are also other very exciting product releases that I hope you love and I am about to bust to share! (hold, hooooold) But I want to make a little splash about it, so that'll take a little ducks-in-rows work.

I found this picture in my uploads, and I love it so much. It was a quick snap after the studio building was complete and the kids insisted on having a slumber party up here. This is Bela and Rome (aren't I hip with my nicknames?) the following morning having some cubby hide-and-seek fun. Trust me, if I were even half moved in, you'd be getting some pictures, but that might hafta wait till my booth is shipped off next week.

How are you? Whats every one excited about sewing, making, changing, doing these days?

kisses from your pal, Anna

A Morning of will-be's

2011-04-22T13:14:00.006-05:00

:: These new voiles and beautiful ribbon will-be dresses for my girls. By tomorrow night, naturally.

:: And in a daring act of selfishness, this half-muslin-draped, half-sewn number of new voile & cotton will-be a dress pour moi.

:: This corner of the white room will-likely-always-be just what it happens to be already. Comfy, sunny and a little scattered. Though once everyone is to bed tonight, those colorful pieces will-be put back together into something sweet for celebration.

I hope your weekend will-be beautiful and new!!

lots of love! xo, Anna

Loulouthi sneak peek

2011-04-13T10:51:00.007-05:00

Launching at Spring Quilt Market, in stores late May-ish.
30 quilting cottons, 6 voiles, 4 laminates.
Another look on my front page.
And also the blouse is my new Painted Portrait Blouse & Dress pattern, expected early summer.

Now I have some sewing to do in a not very moved in to white room.
xoAM

For Good Measure

2011-04-11T09:08:00.005-05:00

For me these will only ever exist on my blog. I will pay any takers $20 bucks if they wear these for a full day of Quilt Market. Of course you would have to spring for the 795$ shoes first. And the 4-hour foot massage after. So $20 really won't cover you. But still.

have a good Monday, more daydreams here.
xo,AM

What I hadn't yet done

2011-04-08T08:30:00.006-05:00

I love Friday mornings. Faced with thoughts about what I need to get done in just one day is so much more peaceful than the thoughts I have on Monday mornings about what I need to get done in five days. This morning I am enjoying this. In playing around with these beautiful Pearl Cottons, I realized that in all my experiences with embroidery and hand quilting, there was one venture I had yet to try.

And that was drawing onto solid cloth free form (with a water soluble fabric pen), and then hand quilting the artwork. I most often do this sort of thing with embroidery, but I thought it would be interesting to quilt the art instead of embroider it. Using a range of colors kept my interest and felt a little bit more like my embroidery experiences than my hand quilting ones. When I hand quilt, I am almost always, yes definitely always in fact, following the lines of the piece work, rather than using any sort free form stitch style, or template stitch pattern.

A pillow is a great place to practice your hand quilting stitches. Creating the pillow front is exactly like creating a quilt top, but because the back side of the stitches will be hidden inside the pillow, you can feel a little less freaked out about your quilt back results as you go. You may remember I gave some tips about the stitch here and here. I am no expert, I just love it a lot. Can you imagine a whole single cloth quilt like this? Gorgeous. I am an inspired girl right now. The stitching takes a while, and you certainly wouldn't have to do it as densely as I've done this (I get carried away when I doodle). But doing a single cloth quilt would save you lots of cutting and piecing time. For this little pillow top (about 14x20") I hand basted the top, batting, and backing together pretty densely, and because it wasn't a giant, heavy quilt, I did the hand quilting without a hoop or frame entirely, which felt really comfortable. In that process though, I continually smooth out the surface, and hold it out flat with my open under hand as I stitch with my upper hand. Hard to describe unless you're next to me on the couch. Perhaps a little video one day soon.

There you go. Overcast, cool Friday morning. Pillows. Stitches. The weekend to look forward to. Oh, and the underside of that pillow is peeking out a tiny preview of a little print from my next fabric collection, Loulouthi. Lots to look forward to!

xoxo, Anna

ps. thank you so much for all the "white room" housewarming comments- I appreciate them so much, and feel so entirely blessed to have the space and your encouragement!

Bare Canvas

2011-04-05T08:42:00.013-05:00

Because I felt like I wouldn't see it like this again until I'm 85, I thought it would be good to take photos of the white room completely finished but completely empty. Jeff insists we call it the white room. It is both obvious and descriptive and its what I called it when I was trying to figure out what to call it, but somehow still wasn't obvious to me. I'm like that. Above is the view as you come up the steps and turn to the right. This is the mid progress view of the same. On the left there are fabric shelves, broken in the middle with a nook that has a closet rod for hanging pattern samples and such. Just beyond the fabric shelves you can turn to the left to see.....

...this. My nook. This is the dormer part of the renovation that builds out over towards the backyard. I love this spot so very much. It almost didn't happen. Roof angles came in every which way here, and it wasn't clear for a while just exactly how to use the space. I literally almost cried (okay, so I did) trying to figure it out, and wished I had listened to my dad 20 years ago and gotten an architecture degree. What was available was very weird and low, and really building a dormer was the only way to make it livable and useful. But it still took a while to envision what the shape of it would be from the outside, how large, how deep, what we would be left with on the inside once the outside was figured out and how far beyond budget (whats that?) it would put me. I finally got to the point where I told Geoff and Pat to just get started flooring everything and I'll figure it out as we go. They loved that. All builders love that.

But it worked out beautifully. Its about 12 feet deep from the rest of the room and only about 9ft wide, but it adds so much to the room. This is a ready made file drawer chest that I got here and painted white. They cut off the feet and all the ledges of it that stuck out, fit it into this space above custom cubbies and below some other shelving. This will mostly be used for art supplies and my drafting table will settled right next to it.

On the other side of the nook is my computer table and general work station where I'll also have my printer, my light box and likely a million other things that I'm pretending don't exist including empty juice boxes and peanut butter cracker wrappers. The file cabinets are found here and they support a table top that I sort of dreamed up as we went. There were several planks flooring some of the attic joists when we moved in, and while they didn't cover much ground up there, they had this beautiful aged color, and dark knots.

They serve so beautifully as my new table top. It's about 28" deep and almost 12' long. I took these pictures before I sealed the wood, and now that its sealed with a clear coat, it is so much deeper in color and I daresay prettier. This is really so fast and cheap. Geoff literally just used super long staples to nail the planks to a plywood base, and I think he also put some glue between. (Am I confusing you with Geoff and Jeff? Jeff is my husband. Geoff is not.) I am not picky about perfection for this kinda thing. In fact I was really looking forward to having something rough and old and very, very simple to kind of balance all the newness.

Speaking of old, I found these lovely artifacts at a favorite local haunt, Preservation Station. Furthering the challenge of figuring out this attic was that some of the support columns had to stay in place. Some of them I was able to hide within walls, others like the one above I dressed with an old corbel to support one end of the table. I wasn't originally going to make the table so long, but when I realized that the angled spot between the column and the corner was pretty much useless and would bang a few growing heads I went ahead and extended the table all the way.

From this side the corner of the table will sort of serve as an end table in the bookshelf/seating area which will be at the end of the white room in front of the large window. Maybe a little stool should slide under the end for a homework doer. This leg is an old fence post which was as equally cruddy/lovely as the corbel.

Oh, back in the dormer. I elected to window as much of it as the roof would allow for, in an effort to get as much natural light as possible. However setting the windows any lower would have really just given me a partial view of the roof, so I kept them up pretty high for mostly a tree/sky view at every glance. Even though these side windows are tiny, when they're open so much circulation comes through and it really helps the whole tree house vibe. I chose to get awning style windows which just crank out so they open at a top to bottom angle, which are awesome because you can leave them open in the rain. Pitter pat. I listened to quite a bit of that last night. That top window in the gable peak doesn't open, but is just a transom to provide light.

Here's a view from the dormer into the main area of the white room. Lots and lots will get loaded into those shelves. Not necessarily all pretty stuff, but boxes and such too. I have a feeling the moved-in shots won't need any explanation after all this here chatter.

Back towards the beginning end of the room I have another of the same file cabinet. Obviously this won't hold files as it'll be the sewing end of the room, but great for all my notions, supplies and the like. Hooray.

Kind of the same view here, just rotated around a bit more to show where the fabric shelves are again. This is the mid-progress view of the same. The stairs from the studio come up right there on the other side of that half wall. And beyond that are a couple stairs that walk up through a door and into what is the real attic. The bead board and woodwork on the angled walls was sort of a mid-progress splurge. Its hard to tell from these photos just how very long this room is from one end to the other, and when I envisioned a huge, long expanse of drywall that you couldn't really hang anything on because of the angle, I started having a fear of blankness. Simple and clean is good, but I wanted to have a little interest as well. So while the angled wood pieces sort of have the look of rafters peeking out, they are completely cosmetic. But they are one of my favorite details that came about through lots and lots of searching through Google images.

And here are the lights. I found them at the Ferguson Lighting gallery over on Powell Ave. The highest clearance we have in the main area of the room was about 7'6", and with a husband that stands (quite gorgeously (sorry I was just thinking about it)) at 6'5", I had to really consider the total height of the lights I chose, which narrowed down the options. Also, if you want more info on the hand made lamps, like this one here, you can ask for Todd at Ferguson's.

Oh and the floors, I don't think I ever mentioned that I chose to just use porch/floor paint right onto the plywood. After a little caulking in the seams and a few coats, you'd never know just how cheap pretty can be.

Thanks for coming. I got some messing about to do now.
xo, Anna

A light in the Attic

2011-04-01T10:21:00.005-05:00

I will be shaking my tail feathers today to begin the move in. This is the very fanciest little thing up in the attic/loft/cloud/studio/atelier/moneypit/place. It hangs above my drawing/office nook where we were actually able to have standard height 8' ceiling in one spot. Its built by a local guy (who has no website or I would give it to you) from vintage lamp parts, and the amber glass is from the 20's. I love it so much and I think I asked my guys about 1,789,375 times when it would be time to put the lights in even though I knew not until after painting.

I'm gonna give you some clean slate shots next, week, then share some moving in views too I hope. Lots more details to come, promise.

have a great weekend! Anna
ps. Eleni told me as we were painting the floor last night that at school that the cafeteria lady quickly offered her "soup or beans" but she said it so fast that Eleni followed with surprise "we have superbeans?!"

I know, right? She said she knew there was no way the cafeteria had anything super.

In the White Room

2011-03-30T09:52:00.007-05:00

It is getting pretty exciting up there in the attic/studio. Still don't know what to call this room. We already have a room called "studio" and saying something like "upper studio" sounds, uhh, kinda lame. Any ideas? I have a feeling we might just call it "upstairs" since this is really the only room we have that is up.

I have never paid anyone to paint for me in my whole entire life. But my builders have this groovy airless sprayer and they can cover the whole room in about 90min. There are so many, many nooks and crannies and shelves and drawers and trims and such that it would really take me an entire day to give the room one coat. So I decided to give in this time.

The color is called "Glass of Milk" and its one of Martha's colors for Home Depot. Have you guys used her cute little color swatch cards? They are a nice large swatch, and a narrow strip of the top and bottom both fold over the main color to reveal a color suggestion for ceiling and trim. Its really quite helpful and made me want to build a dollhouse out of them. Thanks girl. I'm using all the same color for walls and ceiling, just changing from eggshell to semi-gloss when it goes from drywall to wood. But I am taking Martha's (or some smart color person that works with Martha) suggestion for trim, but using it for the floor. It's called Macadamia Nut. Darker white, but still clean and nutty.

Phew. I think I will be moving in by the end of the week!!! I can hardly wait. In the grand scheme of things 6weeks isn't that long, but it feels like forever since we started.

More details and photos to come! xo, AM

Only Ever Tennessee Spring

2011-03-25T17:12:00.006-05:00

On my walk

And on my lap.

I guess you could say this is my case for only visiting New York but living in Tennessee.

have a lovely weekend,
Anna
(who is sorta kinda reluctantly managing to barely like her phone camera. some.)

New York By Phone

2011-03-24T12:55:00.019-05:00

Our Spring Break, while it might seem unfair, was entirely engineered to keep Roman at home and not traveling to and fro riding all means of mass transit. Jeff took Nicolas and Joseph to the city one Sunday and spent three days with them, doing slightly more boyish things, hanging with Juliana and he also coded some work meetings in. I stayed at home with the little girls and Roman, then once the big boys returned we headed out leaving Roman to have guy time for the rest of the week. I really, really don't think Roman minded not being forced into one seat or another for a week straight, which is sort of what vacation in a large city becomes for a wittle kid wike him. As we drove into the city on St. Patrick's Day, evening had just begun to fall, the Empire State building was lit with green lights, and Eleni was journaling the beginnings of our trip.

After about 0.2 seconds of thought, the first night we decided not to fight the pub crowds in search of fish, chips and green beer, but instead we visited our favorite restaurant in Little Italy. Il Pallazzo won our hearts a few years ago, with such amazing food, attentive wait staff, and they also refer to Juliana and I (and I'm certain every other female on the planet) as "bella" whether they're saying you're welcome after you've sung a thank you to them, or asking you to sample the wine while they wait to finish a full pour (try the Acacia Pinot Noir), or saying goodnight. Bella is at the end of every phrase. Its cozy. Call me beauty in any language and I will pay you for food over and over again. So easily won by flattery, its ridiculous. Of course it also helps when every bite of everything on their menu melts in your mouth.

The first full day, I snuck out of bed early to train out to NJ for a meeting while the girls, my mama, and my MIL slumbered in a little longer then had a day with Juliana to see the Pratt campus, have lunch and generally hop about Brooklyn. After meeting up with them at Penn Station we wandered around Chelsea, came upon FIT, and found our way into a free exhibit featuring Japanese fashion , Vivienne Westwood, and the His and Hers show. So, so cool. If you live nearby, you should go by and see it. Its not too big, but so entertaining, quite fascinating. Speaking of fashion, Juliana sported this adorable skirt that she made for one of her classes. She got an A. Good girl.

After a second meeting that I had in Chelsea (I know, I'm a worker bee), and a little trip to Purlsoho, we floated into Balthazar for an early dinner. My favorite French place in Soho. I go every chance I get. I feel like I'm getting boring going to the same places every time, but man, if someone put a poached egg on your salad, sliced crusty bread for you, served it with fresh butter, then gave you french fries that reminded you of your Yiayia's homemade potatoes fried in olive oil...wuhhhll....you'd keep going, right? Oui. Plus it gave Eleni and Isabela yet another chance to color on tables and have cherry Sprites.

The next day may well be ever referred to as our big day. Big, because we had 6 tickets in my bag for Mary Poppins on Broadway (which I thankfully didn't leave on the floor of a cab or anything stupid like that). And since it was a single route shot from where we were staying in Brooklyn over and up to 42nd St. we thought it might be very big and city like of us if we took the subway. I've only been on the subway a few times, never wanting to miss the views of the city from just riding around in the back of a cab. I've been on the trains tons, for longer stretches out to Long Island to see my brother, George which I also find mysteriously enjoyable as well. The subway is just so...ehmmm... economical and cool. Seen through the eyes of these two little girls who jumped back when the rush came around the corner and giggled as their hair blew about, it also became altogether exhilarating. I know those of you who do this every day are giggling to yourself right now, too.

As girl-in-a-perfect-world-fate would have it, the Hello Kitty store meows directly across the street from the New Amsterdam Theatre, so we had before and after the show fun there (see pink Sanrio shoppers). It was quite chilly and very windy on Saturday so we succumbed to seriously touristy, IheartNYC-hoodie shopping to deal with that. Adoring Eleni being swallowed by hers. The play was so incredibly fun. I think I might have cried with giddy happiness when they sang/danced Step in Time just because live performances of any genre, when they are totally and completely good, are just so moving. It is such pure entertainment that I wonder how I manage to be entertained otherwise. The girls, all of us, really, were just so happy and in love with it, even if money did buy it this time.

That was a big day. We finished it off with a lovely meal of fish, rice, vegetables, and all manner of desserts at a Spanish/Italian place, Meson Sevilla, on W. 46th. Despite aching legs, full bellies, and show tunes wearily playing and replaying through our heads, the girls talked me into letting them stay at the hotel pool until it closed at 10pm. I had some embroidery with me and the pool had lounge chairs so that worked. We stayed at the Marriott Brooklyn Bridge, which as you might guess is just on the Brooklyn side of the bridge and a comfortable place sort of out of the noisy-ness that I am accustom to in Manhattan. But its really so easy to hop over the bridge and do whatevs. Renting a suite with 2 double beds, a fold out bed and adding a rollaway bed was the best idea I had for this trip. So much better than staying into two rooms at just about the same price. Every last one of us had some handiwork with us, so it was a cozy pleasure to sink into couches and stitch away the end of each day. And while the girls were all excited about having their own beds on opposite sides of the room, this is how I found them the last morning. They are my messy little munchkin pies.

And the final imprint of our trip was a fabulous midday breakfast at Juniors in Brooklyn on Sunday. They had me at Cheese Blintzes. And coffee, and hot chocolate, and french toast and buttery, salty biscuits. Da best.

And that my friends is what you can do in NYC without a Canon 40D.
Not so bad.
xoxo, AM

Who needs a hug?

2011-03-21T10:10:00.005-05:00

I have good and bad and worse and makedo to report.

GOOD: I just spent the most wonderful 4 days in NYC with my two little girls, my mama, my MIL and my big college student girl for our Spring Breaks, which luckily coincided.

BAD: On the very first cab ride from LaGuardia to our hotel in Brooklyn, I left my camera bag (as in THE camera) in the cab.

WORSE: I did not get a receipt from the driver, and therefore have been placed in camera-loss purgatory as far as the city of NYC and the cab service is concerned with regards to ever finding it. (And yes I have taken every other measure possible to find it, thanks for asking....but maybe there's one I still haven't thought of, like looking on Craigslist to possibly buy it back. ha.)

MAKEDO: I took lots of pictures of our trip with my phone. This is not one of them. But this hug within a hug photo that I found on my desktop is making me feel like its all going to be just fine.

The NYC-vacation-by-phone (a very expensive vacation, considering pending camera replacement) is coming up tomorrow.

xoxo, Anna, who missed you and sends you a hug if ya need it.

Snapshots of Progress

2011-03-15T17:44:00.007-05:00

Last week once the insulation was put into the attic Isabela was overcome by how suddenly the cave of a room felt like a real room. And I agreed. The sound changed in there altogether and felt much more like a space that we would actually inhabit. I had settled into my living room chair to do embroidery and she bounded in and said

"Come on, lets work up in the new studio!"

"No way, it's a mess up there, and there's no light," I laughed back.

"But Mom, its your new studio, and we can take a light and put blankets down over the dust," she pleaded.

"Oh, Belle, I just don't want to be in a mess, I'm too comfortable down here, sorry."

And then when I looked for her at bedtime, I found her and Eleni just as they are shown above. Staking their claim on the space while its still in this fort-like adventurous state. Her pure eagerness came as such a needful reminder of my good fortune in creating this space.

The next morning, they hauled loads 12ft long drywall sheets up through the scaffold and through the open soon-to-be window hole after they had papered all the floors to protect them from the coming mess.

And speaking of messes. We finally had some sun the other day but our window space it still mostly boarded up until the real windows are in place. This eager sweeper mumbles at the bottom of the stairs everyday for a chance to go up and act out the role of worker. He watches Geoff and Pat in action, and then tries to emulate their skilled labor. Mostly that means he stands near some wall or structure, pushes on it, and grunts to make it sound like really hard work. I love watching him figure out this big mess that we're making, and also getting to watch the details of putting it all back together.

And today, after the long and boring, 10-day drywall process is finally complete, Pat watches for Geoff's signal to send up more oversize materials through the scaffold and window hole 3 stories up. The scaffold is set against the house right next to one of the current studio windows, and so every now and then my peripheral vision catches a man scaling the side of our house. (It keeps you dressed in your own home, that's for sure.) But Roman. Oh my goodness, if he sees them climb up, he gets so excited runs to the chair under the window, does his own scaling up to the back of the chair, and watches their every move as they unload all manner of wonders out the back of their work van.

This week should see all the built-in shelving go into place and at least one large window installed, and if we're really lucky, a power coat of primer paint on everything. And then, pals, we'll have another look. Okay?

Feeling united in sadness & prayer with so many souls across the world for Japan.
love, Anna Maria

Where I stack beautiful things into pretty piles to wait for me

2011-03-10T17:18:00.004-06:00

Oh wow. Its been such a several days. Busy work, busy remodel, busy family, busy heart, lots going on. Looking at this image that I took a few days ago as I was making lofty hand work plans helps me find a little order and peace today.

I've been wanting to share more attic photos, though we are in the slow (boring) stages of drywall and its been so dark and rainy especially with the windows boarded up until the real windows get here (fingers crossed behind my back for tomorrow). I have piles of boxes everywhere that would normally be stored upstairs as well as lots of drawers and such to put together that will get built into the walls for storage up there. Yea, so, btw, one of many things that I've been able to figure out about doing built-in wall shelving, drawers, etc, underneath slanted ceiling lines is this: buy ready-made drawer or shelf units and have your contractor just set them into the underneath space then build out to look built in....it actually saves money and time. There are some places in the new studio where what I need is a little more custom-ish, so I'll get them to custom-ish-ize those (as in bigger bucks spent) but, man, I loved searching through the home office section of the Home Decorators site to find units. It was so oddly satisfying. I don't know how much fun Jeff has had putting them together so far, but..... well, time and money, time and money.

This'll make more sense later when I can show ya. Pinky promise. I'm all out of cute phalanges references.

Anyway, who else has succumbed to the vexing ways of the Liberty rainbow? This little stack of gorgeousness will be the first plop down of all plop downs once that room is ready to inhabit. I dream about getting to know it better with a cup of coffee and perhaps a cozy chair in my new, old, attic hideaway.

smooches, Anna

Winter Lifting

2011-03-01T17:39:00.002-06:00

The Wintery, clouded-sky forecast I gave in my last post has given way to an almost-Spring day today. So rather than squeezing ourselves up against a window to let a glimmer of light on my latest little stitch-up, my skirt beneficiary enjoyed an outdoor visit with Leo. I used the Flirting the Issue skirt pattern to make this for Isabela, which I've been itching to do ever since we received some new solid voile colors.

Since the skirt is already lined, it was easy enough to let a little of the lining color peek out from underneath by making it about an 1 1/2 " longer. The running stitches, using the perle cotton, are really so simple and you can see that despite my imperfect stitches (sorry, we were watching Winter's Bone which was, uhh chilling, and so good) the effect of the concentric stripes is so pretty.

I love it so much. So does Bela. I like the optimistic little peek of pink under the heavier midnight layer.

Its just how Winter seemed to lift off of us a bit today. Almost there, Spring, wait up!

xo, AM

Today's Forecast

2011-02-24T13:08:00.002-06:00

A better view of what I see outside my window today.

smooch, Anna

Attic Studio: Day 7

2011-02-22T17:37:00.017-06:00

These are the already existing stairs (behind this door with the embroidery hoops on it here) leading to the attic. This is most definitely the beforish group of pictures of my attic studio even though when I took them in the middle of yesterday my guys had already accomplished tons since this pic (more on my guys soon). It could be quite drab to look at all this wood and stuff - that's what that clicky button on your computer mouse is for. But if you'd like to come up with me......

As you come up the stairs and turn to your right you'd see the east wall of the house where we've busted out a hole in the brick wall for a window space that'll be about 6 ft wide and 4 ft high. Its also the only way to bring all the large materials into the attic for building. So there is a scaffold set up from the garage wall below and up 3 stories to this gaping hole. Our house is really a long, one story house, but the garage is tucked in under that main story, and now this studio will be above that, making it pretty high up their. The first day Nicolas (sans cast) saw the scaffold when he got off the bus he didn't hesitate to scale up the side of it and enter the house by coming through the hole, and down the stairs to say hello with a proud grin. Pat and Geoff (my guys) had taken the boards and ladder away from the lower areas of the scaffold so no one would be tempted to try it. Nicolas would have likely come up the hard way even if the easy way had been left in place. Sigh. Where was I?

Turning clockwise a little from the window area, is this very long wall, about 25 ft, that runs along the front side of the house. I'm not putting windows, or dormers here, because there would be the need to also kind of balance that build out at the other end of the house and we don't have the plans or budget for that. (Also that property assessor guy that looks our house from the road every year would see it and might assume our house is worth more than it was last year, and who wants to pay property taxes on such silly assumptions? Eehhem.)

Here's a view of that long wall from the window end. The short studs that you see there will become a knee wall which will be the back wall of a very long row of shelving that tucks under the angle of the ceiling. That'll house bolts of fabric, quilts, pattern boxes, etc. I'm smiling.

Now we're turned back down to the west end of the shelving wall, and back at the stairwell. My long sewing table is going to run along that sort of half wall there. My kids are going to throw a bunch of crap over that half wall and down the stairs. I'm just giving you the full vision here.

On the other side of the staircase, except for building out a little more alcove space for storage, we are walling off the rest of the attic, and making access to it by way of a door. You can sort of make out lots of pattern boxes, bolts of fabric, etc behind the beginning of the framed wall. Our attic runs the entire length of the house, and so provides about another 3000 sq. ft. of space, which is crazy. The center portion of the attic/house actually has higher ceiling clearance- about 9 feet- than this east end that I'm building out which only has about 7.5 feet at the highest. But the center portion is huge, like about 2000 sq. ft., so way more than I want to heat and cool or even design for at the present. My new space will be about 430.

Now turning clockwise again from the previous picture you can see where my sort of T-shaped studio stems out into a new dormer that will face the back yard. This north side of the studio will get a wall of fabric shelves for my personal stash (from that metal pole on the left to the wooden support in the middle) and then take a turn into the left side of the dormer which will be a wall of drawers for art supplies, etc.

The windows that will go in the dormer will give me this view of one side of our backyard. Hello trees.

And hello confused little dog. How did you get so tiny? If I peer over the edge of the dormer hole I see a puppy that wants to know why his mommy is standing in the roof. Cute little schmookums.

Heres that hole in the roof for the dormer again. My drafting table will go at the end of this under the windows. It feels very tree-housey up here, I hope that doesn't change once its finished. To the right of the drafting table along the east wall of the dormer, we're going to build a long counter style desk for my computer, and other desky stuff that I don't have much room for downstairs. There were some really great old, aged planks of wood up here flooring just a tiny bit of the attic for walking around that I want to use for that.

So there it is guts and all. Thanks for peeking around with me. I might be the only person that likes the sound of power tools and building while I work. I love knowing that little dreams are getting fulfilled up there.

more soon, xoxo, Anna

Rainbow Sewing Day III

2011-02-18T13:08:00.005-06:00

After having to cancel Rainbow Sewing Day III back in December due to snow (insert ugh here), we were finally able to pull another together this passed Wednesday here at the house. Above is my shuffled up living room where we cut backings. We also sat on the floor and scratched our heads about stuff, and pulled up our skinny jeans about 60 times to avoid any unwanted backside showings. That last part could have been just me.

Paula floated in with the sunshine and near 70 degree weather. Thank you Paula!

Britney and my Mama were all business at the dining room table. I think Britney only cussed her bobbin running out before the end of her sewing pass about four times (not really, just an adorable sigh). I think my mom might have said "fiddlesticks" only about 8 times, which is how my mom cusses. Thank you Britney and Mama!

Kirsty joined us again, bringing her beautiful baby Toby along. They mostly played blocks in the playroom. (Haha get it? Okay, sorry.) Thank you Kirsty, thank you Toby!

Kathy and Cindy worked I think mostly on binding at my sewing table in the studio. Both talented ladies! Thank you Kathy and Cindy!

And by the end of a long day we had another pile of completely finished and completely beautiful quilts ready to deliver to flood victims for their homes, which are slowly coming back into reality all over town. Also joining us Wednesday were Terri, Jennifer, Amanda and Jennie- thank you all!!! I really hope I didn't leave anyone out! I was slightly left out all day because Roman wasn't feeling well so he couldn't go to his little toddler class. Instead I walked around holding a limp little baby on my hip all day. Scratch the little part of that, he's huge, and heavy. I think it would have been easier to sew all day. He's better now. Still huge though.

In his sleepy, pitiful delirium, after everyone left, he knocked over the finished stack, rode it like a horsey, then put those suckers to use. He really believes that every quilt in this house belongs to him and him alone. He pats his chest when he sees one as if to say "put it on me now, please".

Oh, I wuv him so ridiculously much.
good weekend, xo, Anna

Happy Lovey Feet

2011-02-16T17:15:00.005-06:00

I ordered these beautiful silk/wool handknit cozies from the gorgeous knitabella collection last week as a Valentines gift from me to me. It was 7 degrees on the day I ordered them. I was cold. I needed love. My feet needed a hug.

On Valentine's Day when I got them it was a sultry 60 degrees. It was an indulgent purchase. Once Jeff offered his gifts of love- a singing box of chocolates, a giant plastic diamond solitaire ring, and a Spongebob Valentine- my own purchase felt like a really good idea.

Look. Its my feet as a heart.

But this gorgeousness has had me very busy. Its my soon to be (additional) studio space, which is above my current studio space. That is indeed a large gaping whole in my brick wall. I am so excited I could spit. It puts the plastic ring into perspective, no? Would you like to watch the progress of this space with me? Guts and all? Good. Cause I wanna share it.

xo, Anna

Scientific findings of Snow Days

2011-02-10T12:05:00.007-06:00

This just in:

The number of snow days where children do not attend school has been found to have a direct and consistent effect on the number of broken dishes in the house where those children spend their snow days.

Findings reported by:
The I'm So Sick Of Snow Days I Could Break Dishes But I Don't Have To Foundation.

Flirting the Issue

2011-02-08T12:05:00.008-06:00

I played baseball with my brother in the backyard as often as he would agree to play with a girl. This would only be when I could catch him between Atari, playing army with Steve Beck up the street, his daily ingestion of $1.49 Totino's frozen pizza, and better offers to do more fun things with cooler kids. I was tomboyish, but not a typical tomboy. I liked playing with the boys best because they seemed to argue less, but I also liked figuring out things that were pretty too, like fancy barbie clothes and flower doodles on my math folder. It took me a while to dress like a girl though. Most of it seemed a fuss, got in the way of doing more important things like catching pop flies. (If you're here for anything of value, please skip down to the last part of this post, I'll turn my back.)

It took me a while to figure this all out. Girlness. And clothes. And how girls wore clothes. And what seemed most important was that if I was going to do that, I didn't want to do it like any other girl. I have vivid evidence of this stored in my brain. My mom might remember this. (I'm hoping my brother doesn't, or he'll never play catch with me again.) One night as I lay in bed scheming of how I would talk George into playing catch the next day, I also schemed a better way to wear a skirt.

I had a short, flouncy skirt that cinched in at the waist. I did not like anything that was tight around my tummy (nor wool, nor collars, nor highwaisted pants). So I decided that I could wear the skirt like a poncho, waistline around my neck, with jeans, the flow of the skirt leaving me plenty of room to catch and throw a baseball. I even got up out of bed, closed the door, turned on my light, dug my skirt out of the pile on my closet floor and held it up to my neck to see if it would be long enough to meet my jeans. Perfect. Lights out, back to bed. Dreams that even George would think its cool.

"What are you wearing!?" said he.
"Shut up, lets go throw." said I.
.
.
.
"Anna Maria Demacopoulos, what on earth are you wearing?!" from the lady in the kitchen window. And it was back to tshirts. Eventually I figured a few things out.

For one, I figured out this new skirt, that has a very uncanny resemblance to my childhood neck skirt. But. You should wear it like this. At your waist. (It also looks great sitting low on the waist, across the hips.)

Then glance towards the glow of the window, offer a demure smile, and no one will need to be convinced that you are both a girl and know just exactly how to be. Despite the time and fashion hiccups it took to get there.

Here's your link to the Flirting the Issue Skirt pdf. This is the same skirt design that you've seen here and here.

I've organized all my free patterns onto a new page called "make" at the website so that they are no longer polluting my sidebar here. That felt good!

And yes, we made some kits too. I think this would be the perfect Valentines Date skirt.
(don't forget your baseball mitt!)

xo, Anna

On Boys and Danger

2011-02-02T09:53:00.006-06:00

Eeech. Jeff just emailed me a picture of a scaly, little, skinny ankle, with a surgery scar, some inkpen marks (from surgery I guess) and what looks the bulge of screw heads near the surface. The subject line was "Nicolas wants you to see this". Of course he does. He loves flaunting anything scary or disgusting in my face. They are at the orthopedist right now getting the cast off in favor of I'm not sure what- waiting to see if it'll be a splint or another cast. I feel like I'm gonna lose my Luna bar. But I don't think its because I'm grossed out. I think its because I'm scared that he's actually healing. I want him to heal. I want him to heal. You know what he'll want to do after he's healed right? Right. Eeechblechdahblunchech.

I took these pictures just a few days after he got the cast. Mopey boy. As sad as its been, there has been safety in that little leg cage, at least for me. I have had so much sympathy for this kid. He's practically had to swat me away a few times when I've tried to help him too much. He has handled being off his feet and not skating so much better than I would have guessed. Watching him struggle to get used to the cast was hard. We've had lots of conversations about risk taking. My dad contributes to that conversation like this: "He has to stop that skateboarding business!" I know where he's coming from. Its a conflict. Nicolas does not dig team sports. Nicolas is strong, creative and very, very coordinated, despite what these portraits evidence. And the thing is, is that he has an unbelievably high tolerance for pain. I love and hate that. Nicolas loves to skate. Watching him not skate is not fun. But here's the thing that I think is unique to this type of sport and wears on my weary heart: it is a practice of learning to do dangerous things. And as good as you can get doing dangerous things (and he has) they are still dangerous things. What's worse, the better you get the more dangerous things you try. And then your mother falls over from exhaustion.

And then call your friends to tell them about your wicked injuries and pretend that you don't really enjoy the attention.

And while you're off your feet, you get better at making skate videos of your friends at your favorite local skate park.

And then your mom blogs about it because she is so proud of you, even if most of your bravery is exemplified by scaring the living daylights out of her on a hourly basis.

The other thing. About boys. And girls. And danger. We've had four broken bones in this family. Only one of those was earned by actually doing something. Nicolas was trying to get better at something that he loves. The other kids were, uhhh, playing *butt blaster, jumping off a bed, and swinging from a tree. And while you can be skeptical about a future in professional skateboarding, I don't know any professional butt-blasters, bed-jumpers, or tree swingers.

Skate on, Nicolas.
I just wrote myself into a tear. Sniff.
And a laugh. Ha.
xo, Mom

*Butt blaster is when one person lays on their back, feet in the air forming a seat that the second person sits in. When the person laying down bends their knees all the way back then shoots the other across the room with a forward thrust of their feet, a butt has effectively been blasted.
*It is not recommended.
*It is incredibly fun.