Til Country Dusk From Country Dawn

I very much want to snuggle under a pile of quilts in a field in the country with kittens to play with. There might be iced tea, flowers, and books involved too. I've been in a throwback country mood lately. It's showing in my music choices and especially the projects I've been working on.

Like this.

An apron for Julia in exchange for a new spring masthead. Luckily for me, (and Julia), my sister gifted me a sewing lesson for my birthday. Now, I've declared many many times my distaste for sewing. But it turns out... when you are working with a decent machine (ok, a super nice old Viking I was very lovingly gifted by my aunt when her mother passed away), and someone actually shows you how to do the maneuvers, I actually like sewing... quite a bit. Since that lesson, I've worked on several projects with minimal phone calls to my sister (minor questions!).

So the apron. We loosely followed the directions in Bend the Rules Sewing (my sister, the trained seamstress, was aghast). She suggested a few changes to improve the construction of the ties and it turned out very nicely. Inspired by the beautiful chicken scratch my mom stitched on aprons for me, I added a bird for some embellishment. I personalized it with Julia's name on one tie, and that was that.

It made it down to her and has already been put to work in the kitchen. Maybe she'll even send me a photo of putting it to use?