Sew Liberated Apron

SewLiberated has this darling apron pattern for sale on the internet. It is named the "Emmeline" pattern.

It shows a high waisted, longer shift that goes great with jeans as a savvy sort of jacket. This flattering pattern is easy to sew, attractive to wear, and will brighten up an outfit and make wearing jeans a little dressier. Conversation will follow just by wearing it.

These are three coordinating fabrics I am going to use when making this apron:

Pictured above is the face of a Roaring 20's woman that will be one of the pockets to be added to the apron front. You can read about how this vintage pocket was hand colored with crayons and watercolor pencils and coordinating embroidery, here in a previous post.

Meg McElwee, the designer of this pattern, was interviewed on the podcast CraftSanity (catch it on a download from iTunes). Ms. McElwee was the featured guest on June 17, 2008 . McElwee is a Mexican expatriate and a current Montessori teacher. She has an interesting story about her designing efforts and how she started in the textile business. The podcast has some fun coversation about women wearing their liberation in a way that is both catchy, yet homespun. It is well worth a listen.

In the June podcast interview, Meg said that one of her readers' ironic comments was that the only bad thing about wearing her Emmeline apron was that her husband was constantly chasing her around the house (she must have looked so-oooooo cute).

Wearing aprons outside the home is going to be the next old-to-new trend, count on it. Wearing new styled aprons will say "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar" in a big way, while at the same time being ultra feminine.

Meg's blog "Sew Liberated" can be accessed here. Ready-made aprons can also be purchased on her website, if you are not one to sew. She will be moving to North Carolina this summer, and will have further independent sewing design patterns in the future.

Painting with Friends, and Cooking Cabbage Rolls

This week some painting friends and I got together to work on our art. Here are their smiling faces, and a glimpse of what they are working on.

We had lunch (Paula Deen's Chicken Salad, but with added pine nuts, grapes, curry powder, celery and some soy sauce, mayo and lemon juice for dressing). And we drank a variation of Arnold Palmer's Iced Tea (except it was limeade and iced tea).

KnitPicks' Podcast gave this recipe for Banana Bread (in episode 98) which went well with the chicken salad, although I tried to hurry the baking time!

And for dinner last nite, the dutch oven did the cooking with cabbage, ground beef and tomatoes.The recipe is here, but you might use instant rice as a quicker alternative to cooking it on the stovetop.






Either way, it is tasty and saves heating the kitchen by putting everything in the crock pot.


It's secret ingredient is cinnamon. That spice really perks up the cabbage and beef.

Enter Free Children’s Book Drawing on July 10, 2008

Recently, Amazon fulfilled my order request for a book entitled “A Squash and a Squeeze.” It is a rhyming children’s book with a moral teaching: be content with what you have, instead of always wishing for more.

I would like to give this handsome used book to a reader who might like it for their child or grandchild. Just leave a comment, and the random generator will choose an entrant’s name if you respond within 10 days.

One of the reasons I purchased this book was that it was a childhood favorite of mine. I asked my husband if he knew of the book, and his negative response was enough for me to hunt down this little gem. It has charming, timeless illustrations of farm animals.

Here is a UKSchoolRadio synopsis of the book:

A rhyming story about a woman who turns to her friend for help to find more room in her tiny house, as she finds it rather a ‘squash and a squeeze’! Following his advice, she brings all her animals into the house. She then finds the house even smaller, but when she is instructed to take them all out again, she finds that her house is gigantic for one!

At the end of the story, the little old lady is delighted to realize what a fine home she had before all the animals came to live with her. The last page says: “She’s full of frolics and fiddle-dee-dees. It isn’t’ a squash and it isn’t a squeeze.”

There is a lesson of being content with present circumstances that we can all learn, no matter our age.

(The copyright on the book says 1993, but the original date had to be prior to 1950, because my older brothers also had a book by this title in their bookshelf prior to my arrival.)

Just leave your name in the comment section below to win a chance for this delightful book.