Catching Up

I just want to dedicate this post to some of my creative pleasures of the summer. I took pictures of a lot of the creative stuff I enjoyed, but didn't get round to posting them. When I looked through the photos, I realized I'd taken none of the clothes I'v been sewing. I did try and keep a list on my phone, and I just counted fourteen items of clothing, sewn by me this year! I'm most proud of the dress I made to measure for my mum, but I have not one picture of it... . Maybe I'll do a catch up post on clothes later.

I grew some cut flowers for the first time this year. Of course I have been cutting flowers (dahlias, cosmos, narcissi, lady's mantle, sweet peas, ...) from my garden for a long time, but this year I enlarged my tiny veg patch and added an actual crop of flowers. It was great fun and quite succesful.

Just some of the bouquets I cut from my new cut flower patch.

Although I got a late start, the sunflowers and the Ammi gave good crops. They looked so pretty in the garden that I didn't pick as many as I could have, but the bees and hoverflies loved them, too. The snapdragons gave some very pretty, bright and pastel colors, but the stems were quite sure, and I don't really like their scent. I think I'll sew them again next year (lots of seed left), but just pop them in the garden as pretty annual. They are still pretty now, at the end of October, with very little care.

In the beginning of summer I knitted another fox from Little Cotton Rabbits. Felix had managed to lose his Floepsie, so I made this grey fox for him. I still plan to make myself one, too, but the children love their foxes and dressing them, so whenever I do feel like knitting I end up making more dresses for them. This is the first fox I did with stockings (light blue and white stripes) and shoes.

New friend and old (very much used) friend.

She's a winter fox, so she got a snowflakes dress.

 This next project is something I did while we were camping in Delft. I got a really bad laryngitis, so I couldn't go swimming. Instead I stayed in the tent, and started planning a tea party sewing bee. Since I couldn't start cooking while on holiday, I painted some invitations. They are teacups with sewing motives: daisy stitch flowers, embroidery scissors and ohio star quilt blocks. I thought that was quite clever of me! You have to pull on the tea bag label to get out the teabag, which has all the information for the invitation. Isn't it pretty? And I'm glad to say the teaparty sewing bee was an absolute succes. I had the buffet inside and the sewing and cutting tables on the porch. There was also a little seating area where we could drink our tea and leaf through sewing books. And we had flowers from the garden to decorate, because that's what I asked my guests (my mum and my mother- en sister-in-law) to bring. Lovely summer memories!

I'd go to the party if I got such pretty invitation!

 Of course, a lot of my creativity flows into the garden in spring and summer.

My succulent garden keeps growing.

I'm not a pastel girl, I love the bright colors of Nasturtiums!

Calendula is my favorite flower. In Dutch they are called Goudsbloem, "golden flower". Their color is like a natural antidepressant to me.

Lovely leaves of "snijbiet".

Tiny courgette. I had only one plant, but more courgettes than we could eat!

The patch at the beginning of summer, with the addition in front, where the cut flowers are just getting going.

Pretty harvest. I made a thai curry for Willem and myself from this. The kids don't like hot food, but they were visiting their grandparents on that day. We ate it in the shade of our cherry tree: summer garden bliss!

Garden path: to the left is a patch I've left unweeded for 3 years now. It's very pretty and the bees love it.

A harvest of tiny "Marché de Paris" carrots and ...

... huge red beets (I think "Egyptische platronde", but I'd have to check)

I bought some japanese anenome "Fantasy Pocahontas" for late summer flowers, ....

... and added this bright orange with pink shine Echinacea "Mood Sympathy" (or was it Symphony?)

 These final pictures are of some sewing and knitting I did for a god daughter who is due in November. I think the dress is lovely, it just needs buttons on the back, and it's ready to go.

The fabric is called "Walkabout" by Geninne Zlatkis. Maybe she'll take her first steps in it?

The sweater is very pretty in itself, ...

... but it's tiny! Only a really tiny baby would fit. And as she will be a third child, she has every chance of being a big baby, so I donated the sweater to Elly, my daughter's doll, and will knit another, in a size that fits the dress.

 I had so many creative plans for this godchild, but I got stuck planning, because I wanted it to be perfect (not a good starting point!). But more on that in my next post!