sewing by hand...

My life has turned up the hectic of late. I'm into the first of 2 semesters of classes where I have to actually be on campus to participate. A brief description of the geography of northern BC: Prince George, home of UNBC is a 4 hour drive, or 6 hour train ride or 5 hour bus ride from Smithers, home of casa Clong. So, in a nutshell, I'm living in both PG and Smithers, which means I'm putting in some frequent rail miles on good 'ol VIA.

I could write an entire post about my love of trains. Traveling across Canada, was amazing. China's trains rocked my world. Literally - 330km/hr on the fast train. wicked. Our next big adventure trip will definitely involve the choo choo. I love the train.

On a train, you can walk around, lie down, stretch out. In China, there's unlimited hot water so you can drink tea all day and all night long. You can see some amazing scenery not possible from the road (in places along the Canadian railroad - you're not beside the highway at all, so the scenes seem so much more intimate...just a few rail tracks and the wilderness).
And of course, you meet some interesting people.
When we took the train across Canada we met another couple traveling for Christmas and shared in the fun of going to the dining car to buy pop for mixing with our illegal alcohol. In China we met a few young people who gave us insight into modern China. And along the Skeena route, there's plenty of loud tourists to laugh at, or with depending on your mood of the day.
There's always a few characters - the drunken man who wanted a cuddle with me while i was asleep and Mark was in the viewing car (I was saved by our friends in the next seat), or the man in China who couldn't hold it in any more and emptied his bladder on the train floor at the back....sigh...those were the days!

All this to say I met a lovely retired couple from Edinburgh yesterday on the train. We chatted about the trees we saw whizzing by the central interior of BC. We chatted about places to see in Scotland. And then my new Scottish friend pulled out some hand sewing.
I of course was so happy to see this, and struck up a conversation about what she was doing. Turns out she's a passionate hand sewer. She believes in the tradition of quilting, using used materials, and incorporating story and meaning into every element of the quilt. This is not something I thought I was into - a lot of traditional quilts give me nausea due to country-bumpkiness. but then I thought about how, when I first got interested in sewing, it was to re-use/recycle fabrics from home or the salvation army. I wanted to make things new from old. And then I fell in love with designer fabrics. This was no ones fault but my own. They are so fun, modern, and un-country-bumpkin. I love getting a package in the mail full of beautiful. But I have to say that I'm re-inspired by my train companion. What better way to learn about traditional patchwork then go through my scraps and other used fabrics and start making something from other things. It was also happy timing, this meeting, because I recently may have flown to Ottawa for a weekend wedding without asking Mr. (yup...dog-house ladies. Dog house). My pledge to make back the money was to give up specialty coffee (who are we kidding!?!), forgo buying my new grinder (i can do that), and giving up new fabric for one year. This is now my goal. I will use only what's in the house or that can be bought used for the rest of the year for all my sewing needs.
Any hexagon help/good reading material would be much appreciated!
Don't you love this stage of making a resolution - when you're full of hope and optimism that you'll actually do it. You know, before the reality of yet another failed project looming on the horizon becomes obvious...

trains and sewing. love.

a.

Tasty Trail Treats!

John and I planned our first backpacking excursion for the summer this past week, an easy 7 km hike into a lakeside campsite on day 1, a fun mountain scramble for day 2, and an easy return trip from the camp site on the final day. Unfortunately, the summer cold I'd just recovered from hit John the day before the trip and we cancelled in favor of lemon honey ginger tea and less energetic pursuits. Lucky for us the trail snacks were already prepared before we cancelled!

John has been off oatmeal since last summers over indulgence, so I decided to try some Banana Oat Energy Bars to mix it up. I LOVE these! Naturally, I thought it best to share the tasty treat.



The recipe for these came from a homemade binder of back country nutrition information I received on an intro to back country skiing two winters ago. I tried another recipe out of the book as well but it was a major bust. I guess you win some and you lose some.

Here it is:
Cream 3/4 cup butter, 1 cup brown sugar, and 1 egg. Add the following:
1.5 cups mashed bananas (I used 4)
1 cup raisins or chocolate chips (I used 1/2 cup of each)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1/2 tsp salt
4 cups oats (rolled or quick)
1 Tbsp vanilla (I omitted this as we were all out)

Spread it all into a greased pan and bake at 350 F for about an hour. Enjoy!!

PS. Check out the lovely trivet under the cookies. Its the one I received from Linnea on the trivet exchange.

Last minute finish

I finished my first quilt...about 20 minutes before I showed up at the surprise retirement party for my Mom where I was giving it to her. Nothing like a little time constraint for motivation. Car trips are a good time for hand binding, but not so much when you get motion sickness. Anyway, here is Derek holding up the finished product in the gas station parking lot. Classy!

Not the scenic photo shoot I was imagining to showcase the quilt. Oh well. Also forgot to take some close-ups of the finished quilt, but here is one of me working on the binding while camping.

I'm happy with the finished product (and my Mom loves it!), but definitely learned some lessons along the way. I already have plans for the next two quilts that I want to make :). 

Cowgirl Tumbler Quilt

The Cowgirl Quilt has left the building. I struggled a bit with this quilt. My original plan was to do a quilt like the one shown in the photo below. But, I just didn't like this quilt at all. I felt as though there were too many competing patterns in small blocks and the fun cowgirlness of the fabrics was lost. I also hated the solid fabrics. Baby blue and two shades of brown. They couldn't have been more boring.

I started messing around with the layout of the quilt and eventually narrowed it down to this one. First, I liked that I nixed the solids. I also combined the mirror images of two trapezoids to create a larger hexagon block to show off the kitschy cowboy printed pattern. I felt like this quilt worked.

I also pieced together chunks of batting so I didn't have to buy more. I had no idea how to do this (or if I could). I asked Google and got some pretty good ideas and then went for it. Google said to hand stitch. I would rather have just bought more than hand stitch this batting together. I instead used a wide zigzag stitch which seemed to work.  I hope the batting doesn't separated inside the quilt some day. Oh well. That is what the quilting is for, right?

I used red thread for the quilting. I quilted about 1/4" to 1/2" on each side of the zigzag seam. In addition, I stitched the horizontal ditch between each row to help the batting out a bit.

I didn't love the quilt while I was making it. I certainly liked it, but never loved it. By the end though, I did love it. I hope the new baby, Lilyanna, likes her new quilt.

Crafting in the field

Yesterday I crafted.

Now, before you get all excited, wondering “How on earth does that Mara have time to complete field work AND craft?!” please be aware that I have seamlessly combined the two activities.

You see, I am working on these little guys

Which includes putting up little cameras to spy on their every move. These cameras are powered by big ass batteries that require superior strength to transport and set-up.

The batteries are changed about every four days, so in the meantime are in great danger of battery predators: namely, curious cattle.



Sometimes the cows feel like chewing on the cords, other times they like nothing better than giving the battery system a good kick. Basically, they enjoy creating holes in our data set.
We do have some beautiful cattle guards waiting around for me to pick up, but until that happens, I created the below masterpiece by lugging around various logs and sticks and placing them in pokey positions.

TaDa!




Ain’t she a beaut? I like to think so.

Delusional

I have an affliction.

Every time I am almost done a simple sewing project, I always decide to make it "better" (a.k.a. complicated beyond words). This usually translates to a disastrous end product.

I blame patterns.  I get near the end of the pattern, the finished project within 2 seams of being done, and I think to myself, "Wow, that was so easy.  This looks so good.  I should probably make my life a complete disaster now by doing something really hard." I swear that those exact words pulse through my brain.

Case in point: This past weekend I decided to make a lunch bag. I found this free and cute pattern: http://thelongthread.com/?p=6217

I duly read the instructions and all the comments.  I noted that Ellen said "zipper...great idea....some sort of suggestion [along the lines of 'don't use this pattern if you want to have a zipper']...would make zipper easier"

Fast forward 2 hours. Outer layer sewn. Lining sewn. Just need to stitch the tops together.

Kim decides to add a zipper.

Kim immediately forgets that it was suggested that this design would be difficult to add a zipper.  Kim goes for it.

Kim spends the next 4 hours ripping, sewing, turning inside out, ripping, sewing, ripping, sewing, flipping, and swearing. Of course, the entire time I was thinking to myself: I could just take out this zipper and go back to the original plan. But I really wanted a zipper!

I ended up having to rip off the metal piece that prevents the zipper from falling off:

The zipper fell off many times.  Often when the bag was guts out.

Speaking of guts out...my bag herniated. A lot.

I almost herniated. A lot. Especially when this happened:

In the end, I finally completed her. It wasn't pretty, but I manage to suture up this puppy after a number of botched surgeries.

I do adore the bag. I love that it is lined with waterproof fabric and that the zipper can either be fully zippable or semi-unzippable,  and I even love that I wish that I had put a pocket in it.

Also, it now has a dual purpose: it's a lunch bag AND a daily reminder that I am delusional at best when it comes to improvisational sewing.

at home work attire

It's been a good week of posts on Offbeat home - here's one that totally applies to the grad student types - what do you wear when you work from home??

http://offbeathome.com/2011/05/a-freelancers-wardrobe

I'm a jeans (only those that are already on their way out) or carhartts with a t-shirt, hoody (or some other large and comfy sweater) and often a tuque (not always because i'm cold...sometimes i just like wearing a tuque) kindof girl.

What do you think...does dressing up increase at-home work productivity? Or do pajamas keep you comfy and therefore productive?

a.