the homestead grows

Happy Monday, everybody! I hope that you had a great weekend. I did have that sushi on Friday night. Actually, it turned into a whole weekend of eating! Let's see... there was a homemade strawberry marshmallow and a homemade "Ring Ding." And then there was the artisanal pizza at Dellarocco's in Brooklyn and chocolate cake. And finally a cupcake at Georgetown Cupcake in Soho. EEK! I never did get around to that vacuuming. Now what was I supposed to tell you about? Oh, yeah. I built more houses!

I had fun pulling fabrics for the remaining 19 houses in the new Fig Tree pattern called Homestead. I'm aiming for a clean, summery beach look. I'm using mainly the larger and brighter prints from Fig Tree's Avalon collection (I edited out the smaller prints, the creams and the stripes). I also finally broke down and mixed in some of my prized Fig Tree Strawberry Fields fat quarters. I've always felt that they're too special to use, but I can't see them when they're on the back shelf in the closet!  

Joanna Figueroa's pattern uses just one green for the grass. But I don't have enough of one green, and I prefer controlled scrappy anyway.

This little red house happened on Sunday night. Maybe it was the sugar rush that caused me to make a few mistakes...

I KNEW that something was wrong with the right part of the roof, but I couldn't see it until after sewing this section together. And because I had already trimmed out the underlayers of fabric, the only solution was to redo it.

Ah, that looks better.

I wasn't sure if the big red Avalon floral would work here but I'm thrilled with how it looks. I actively planned the fabric cuts to make sure that I had plenty of full roses showing. 

And tonight I built the house that just had to be made. Pink and green and strawberries. Had to do it!

If you happen to be in NYC within the next few months, there are two excellent fashion exhibits that you might want to check out. Exposed: The History of Women's Lingerie is at the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology until November. The exhibit focuses on the evolution of undergarments from the late 1700's through the present. It explores the technological developments that made their construction possible, as well as the changes to meet designer and consumer demands. I visited the show over the weekend thinking that it would be something to do (I studied design at FIT, and I enjoy visiting all of their museum and gallery shows) but I actually learned something, too. Included are undergarments which gave shape to Christian Dior's New Look dresses of 1947, bustle cages and a pair of Twiggy stockings. (Alas, no quilts here!) Also definitely worthy of a visit is the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Charles James: Beyond Fashion exhibit which puts a dazzling spotlight on America's greatest (and until now, forgotten) couturier. Visual animations and x-rays trace and recreate the dressmaker's patterns on digital screens alongside the actual gowns. It's on exhibit until August, and I'll definitely return for a second visit.