My First Zinnias of Summer

Sad to say but I'm just picking my first zinnia bouquet. I've been running around enjoying the end of summer so much that I have barely had a chance to look at the garden and what's growing and blooming. This year, they are thriving with all the water we have had. I love their happy sunny colors.

Have a great Labor Day everyone!

52 Weeks in a Year

We all know this. It’s no mystery. Most times the weeks fly by – I don’t know what I did which day, nor what I ate for a meal, nor if it was cloudy or sunny. But the past couple weeks were different. I tried not to turn my computer on. I tried to spend as much time with Julia as I could doing things we both would find some bit of pleasure in. I didn’t return phone calls. I fell out of the loop…..

Today, I reluctantly will rejoin the loop….

We had a short summer – a quick four weeks without school and appointments. Just what summer should be like for a kid. It was fun if a bit short and without any official vacation away from our farm. The mail and e-mail has piled up. I wonder how I can ever weed through it all.

I often wonder how my mother made it through summer with five little girls – how she stayed sane and herself. Everyday I marvel at the happy life she made for us while sacrificing almost every bit of herself. Her love and the time and encouragement that she gave me has made me the person I am now. And for that I am so thankful and blessed, I know. Thanks Mom.

Julia went back to school today. Before Labor Day. What a horrible thing for a school system to do to a child and a family. I know they have their reasons. I’ve resisted this early school before Labor Day official first day for years – we usually are away. But this year, we didn’t have a good excuse and so there she sits in school.

The lazy hazy days of summer are over and (regrettably) life begins again. Butterflies and knots in the stomach for all of us.

Come See the Sunflowers

Our sunflowers have just begun to bloom. It's been a difficult year to say the least with all the rain, rotting seeds, replanting. We honestly didn't know if we would have any to pick. With any luck, our little self-serve stand should be up and running by Friday afternoon, the 29th of August.

If you saw the article in Country Home and would like to visit and perhaps purchase a few sunflowers, here's the address for you to plug into Mapquest or your GPS system:

562 Leyden Road, Greenfield, MA 01301

We don't live at the field but we're often there harvesting so make sure to say hi if you come from afar.

Country Home - Sept. 2008 Issue - See Our Sunflowers

Oh my goodness - it's finally arrived. The September issue of Country Home that is. Weren't you all just waiting for it? The "Cuttings" Column on Pages 55 and 56 feature our sunflowers and a bit of a story along with just a few of the many pictures from the shoot which happened last September. That's me with Phoebe arranging last year's bounty outside our garden shed. The photo shoot took place in mid-September - you can see the leaves changing on the hill behind me.


John Gruen along with Katherine Whiteside who is a talented and prolific garden writer and author of several books on gardening and I spent two very long days together working on the photos for this spread last September. John's a terrific photographer - I've worked with him on many projects including my book Kids' Embroidery. Unfortunately, only a few of the photos got used. But we had a very good time together. Ahhhhh, that's the chance you take when you sign on for a project with a major mag.

Here's a few of the other photos John took - I found them on his website. Here's Phoebe, one of our Border Collies looking smart in front of the shed door Katherine decorated with sunflowers. The embroidered pillows on the couch are from my book Colorful Stitchery.


Here are three different kinds of sunflowers in some antique blue glass oil lamp bases that I found at the Brimfield Flea Market. The produce and ribbons are from our garden and from the Franklin County Fair which is happening in a couple weeks.


You can read the on-line version of the article here on the Country Home website.

Easy Fabric Printing Tutorial

My garden shed project is continuing. I've had an idea in my head for fabric for the cushions for a couple years now. I wanted something bold that would stand out from afar. I also wanted something cheap. I decided to print my own using a printing technique I have used in the past on the walls of our living room and hallway. I thought it would be a fun summer project that Julia might like to help out with. Although she wasn't too into helping, she likes how the fabric turned out.

Here's the stamped faux wallpaper in the stairwell in our house.


I started with a drop cloth for painting that I found at the hardware store. It's canvas, heavy duty and I knew it would be absorbent. And the price was right - $10 for 5 yards. I washed and dried it to get out any impurities. Then I cut the fabric into the size I needed. I ironed the canvas using lots of steam to try to get out many of the wrinkles.


The cushions are going to be outdoors and will eventually fade and mildew. I didn't want to invest too much in expensive fabric considering the cushion covers will probably be tossed in a couple of years.

Here's how I printed the fabric:

Step 1: I drew out some of the flowers on white paper and traced the design on the fun foam. This is the fun foam that is really easy to find in craft stores and sometimes at drugstores. If you can find the fun foam with an adhesive back, use it. You'll save some gluing and drying time.


Step 2: I cut out the shapes from the foam. Kids fun foam is really easy to cut. You can get much more intricate than my shapes. I was going for bold and bright so I kept my flowers simple.


Step 3: I glued the fun foam flower shapes to grayboard insulation I had hanging around the house. With a sharp knife, I cut around the shape. Grayboard is very brittle and easy to use - you just need to slice through it about 1/2" and the shape will snap off.


Step 4: Keeping in the frugal vein of the project, I decided to use latex paint I had hanging around my paint closet. If you've seen photos of my house, you can imagine how many cans of leftover paint there are in that closet! I also mixed up some colors I was missing by mixing acrylic tube paints with the latex.

Although I'm not sure how durable, etc. the latex paint will be on the canvas, I figured I would keep things simple. The cushions probably won't last more than a couple of years outdoors. If I were to do this fabric printing project for an interior application, I would use Jacquard's fabric paints which give a nice soft hand to the finished fabric. But since I was being frugal, not this time!

Using a foam brush, I neatly painted the flower stamp with the latex paint. I flipped the painted stamp onto the fabric and pushed neatly and firmly all over the grayboard insulation so that the design would transfer to the fabric.


Here's the first flower on the canvas:


Step 6: I printed many of the flowers all over my canvas leaving lots of white space between the flower shapes.


As you can see, I got bored with just one flower shape and color and by the second piece of cloth, I added a few more flower stamps. I printed the different shapes in different colors.

Step 7: With different shades of green paint and many different leaf stamps, I added a bunch of leaves to the flowers.




Using a wine cork, I stamped centers into some flowers.

Here's all the stamps I used for this fabric printing project.


Here are some photos of details of the fabric. I love how this technique turns out - nothing is quite perfect. The texture of the canvas shows through. Where the leaves overlap the flowers, the colors mix and look really interesting and handmade.


Here are the two patterns I developed for the two orange wicker chairs that live on the porch of the garden shed.


I love how my fabric turned out - bold, cheerful, and summery. I've got to sew the cushions now and get a good photo of the chairs for you all. I've also got a second pattern I'm working on for two other outdoor chairs that I'll share as soon as I can get them finished and photographed.

I originally learned about fabric printing with foam from my friend Lisa Curry Mair who makes traditional canvas floorcloths in Vermont. Lisa uses foam printing on many of her floorcloths. She also wrote a great book called Floor Cloth Magic. On Lisa's Canvasworks website, she has a movie showing all the steps of making a floor cloth which is really helpful.

Garden Shed - Part Two

It continues to rain and rain and rain here. There isn't a gardener or farmer around who remembers so much rain in June, July and August. My veggie and cutting garden has grown like crazy. There are so many leaves that the mulch is practically invisible. The mulch really helped cut down the number of hours I have to spend weeding. It has back-fired slightly because of the wet weather though. I've got way more slugs and some of the plants are rotting. But we've been eating lots of delicious fresh veggies.


I've been fitting in my garden shed exterior rehab in bits and pieces. Haven't had a lot of extra time to spend on it. I painted the door a fabulous pumpkin orange color - the name of which escapes me. I used Benjamin Moore's High Gloss Metal and Wood Enamel. I am in love with this paint. It goes on like a dream - smooth and luxuriously - and dries to a fabulous high gloss. It is oil based. I know a lot of folks don't like to use oil based paints -- but me - I love them and until they stop making oil based paints, I will keep using them for certain high traffic areas where I want the paint to be very durable and washable. (The other favorite oil based paint of mine is Benjamin Moore's Satin Impervo - the interior woodwork of our house is covered in it. It is so darn durable and again, goes on like a dream.)

The wicker chairs that were a rescue from my sister's porch about ten years ago are now bright orange. I discovered a wonderful spray paint at the hardware store and took a chance on it. It is an enamel designed for painting tractors so it comes in a limited color range. I chose "Rustoleum's Allis Chalmers Orange" and boy is it pretty. I've used a lot of spray paint in my day and this stuff covered quickly and has a great shine. I can tell it is really durable. My sister Nancy can't believe I still have these chairs - they really are in awful shape - leaning this way and that with bits of wicker breaking off every time you sit in them. I think the paint will help me squeeze a couple more years out of them.


The project continues - and there's more to come if I can just fit it all in to the busy days of August.

Kristin's Suzani Mittens in Fall 2008 Vogue Knitting

Last winter I got a call from the editors at Vogue Knitting asking me if I would do a pair of "Over the Top" Kristin Mittens for the Fall 2008 issue. I agreed and then let my mind wander. The only requirement was for them to have a long cuff. I drew up about ten different mitten ideas and then Trisha picked which she like best.


Going from a sketch to a finished mitten takes a leap of faith. Sometimes when I am drawing, I'm not really thinking about how I will carry out a design. Turning the sketch into the finished object is different than making visual art with pen, paper and paint. It's actually a lot harder for me and way more time consuming than painting. I have to take in the constraints of the yarn, the gauge, the pattern stitches and repeats, and the fabric I create. It really makes me think hard and I often sit on the daybed in my kitchen wondering how I am going to turn the chosen sketch into a physical knitted object. I also have to keep in mind how normal knitters are going to like making a project and how I am going to write the instructions and size the project. It is a great big juggling act. Designing a pair of mittens takes almost as long as designing an entire sweater.

I gave my Vogue Knit mitts the codename "Suzani Mittens." I've had a thing for Suzani embroidery for a very long time. I discovered this type of embroidery shearly by accident 15 years ago when I purchased an embroidered cloth at a flea market. I fell in love with the colors of the cloth and the crazy embroidery stitches. The cloth was well worn - there were small patches done with handstitching all over it. I like to think I ended up with someone's discarded family heirloom. I know it is going to be one of our family heirlooms! Here's a close-up of the piece:

(It seems the the rest of the design world caught up with me a few years ago. You can find Suzani derived designs throughout the interior decorating world...... Look here for some suzani styled knock-offs.)

I wanted to make the actual knitting of the project rather easy - and that it is. The mittens have a pointed border and are mostly worked in stockinette stitch. At the wrist, I added a chartreuse garter and eyelet stripe for the pom poms to thread through. Here's a photo I took of them before I shipped them off to NYC.

I wanted to combine some colors that I usually don't work with together. I chose my beautiful Geranium Color from the Julia line of yarn as the base. I started playing around with ideas for the floral colors and actually decided on colors that aren't typical flower colors at all - Blue Thyme and Lady's Mantle. For my dark contrast, I chose Espresso.

After knitting the mittens is when the fun really begins. I decorated the mittens with three embroidery stitches - chain stitch, lazy daisy, and french knots. These are three stitches that I love to use on handknits and you can find many other ideas for embroidering on knits in my book Kristin Knits.

I stopped knitting at the top of the mitten before the top shaping, slipping the open stitches on a scrap of thread. This makes it easy to slip your hand into both the top and the bottom openings of the mittens, therefore making embroidering easier.

Here's a detail shot of the cuff swirl pattern. To stitch this, I used a double strand of yarn - one strand each of the Lady's Mantle and Espresso and worked the swirls in chain stitch.

Here's the detail of the flowers and vines. First I stitched the swirly vine up the center of the mitten using the Espresso color double stranded. Using a double strand of Blue Thyme, I worked the outer open circular shape of the flower in chain stitch. Using a double strand of Lady's Mantle, I filled the center of the flowers with french knots. To finish it all off, I stitched lazy daisy leaves up the vine using a double strand of Lady's Mantle/Espresso to match the cuff swirl pattern.

Working the embroidery is always a leap of faith, even for me. It's similar to drawing a picture -- starting with a blank canvas and then building the design with the yarn. I always doubt myself the beginning of each embroidery project. As I keep adding to it, the design starts to become something. An excitement builds and I can't wait to finish. Of course, it's always a struggle to finish the second in the pair but with a deadline looming, it happens!

I've had to hold back on talking about this knitting project until now. It was all I could do because I was very happy with the way the mittens came out. I knew the girls at VK loved them too. When they love them, it guarantees a good picture. I love the fun, fashion shot they took and the coat they found to accessorize the mittens with.

All in all, I couldn't be happier. I hope lots of you will knit them this coming Fall season. Don't be timid - the embroidery isn't that hard! The hardest part for you non-embroiderers may be just deciding to do it.

Double Digits

Julia has passed at a momentous birthday. She is working on her second decade. Tell me, where has the time gone?

Happy Birthday Julia!

p.s. Amazing almost flourless chocolate and raspberry cake from the Chocolate and Zucchini Cookbook. I really do love everything I have made out of this cookbook so far!