All finished!

It is with great satisfaction that I can write "my sewing's all done!", great relief as well as I was nervous that I wouldn't have it completed and then what would I do? I finished the final little gown at the end of last week, it is a really beautiful terra cotta color and not pink like the photo seems. I put calico buttons on it, I don't know if that's a no-no or not but white china gets boring.


Following are photos of the baby sacque and bonnet that I finished a while ago. I know a lot of you have already seen it but my family hasn't. The outside is light blue tropical weight wool, the lining is champagne colored silk poplin and the embellishment is peach silk embroidery

Katie has been sewing more little caps and if I feel like it I'd like to make a fancier cap from Batiste. I guess that I just can't knock it off with the sewing!

:-)

The boys gathered about 60# of apples today. We will eat a lot, dry some and make apple butter for the year. Early apples don't make good cider so we'll wait to press until October, I think. This weekend we did another 15-18 dozen ears of corn and we are *hopefully* done with corn now!
I am 39 weeks on Wednesday but since I go late I could actually have close to 3 weeks left. I am so eager to meet our "little stranger"!

4 down......

I've completed 2 more gowns for a total of 4 and that only leaves me 1 more to do! I will leave the 5th and last gown until everything else is done though since it's the least of my worries. The white gown has a tucked front and the skirt is pleated, it reminds me of a tuxedo so that's what we call it, the "tuxedo gown". I will finish up the last bits on the chemises by next week and hopefully the sacque (the bonnet is already done) and that's it!!! I'll be done with the baby's layette with time to spare! I need to order some diapers, I had quite a few newborn sized fitteds but I loaned them out and they never came back. I need another wool soaker or two and some diaper pins...... but I am truly almost ready. Your 9th baby might as well be your first; by the time you have that many most of your clothing is worn out and has to be replaced anyway. I made some diaper rash cream last week with comfrey, plantain, chickweed and shepherd's purse. We also use it for wounds etc. and I want to make a batch of unscented soap to use on the baby, I'd like it to be done before I go to the hospital so that I can give him his bath. I don't want him leaving my sight the entire time. We are printing out our "refusal of care" forms worded the way we want them instead of the standard form that implies that you're negligent for refusing. We basically refuse everything: eye drops, vitamin K, hib shot, PKU test, all of it.


We picked up 15 dozen ears of corn yesterday and will get 15 dozen more on Saturday. We are drying it all like we did last year, I want a total of 60 dozen by the time it's all said and done. Katie did all the corn yesterday, the younger ones husked it and she did all the blanching, cutting, and stirring it every 15 minutes in the oven. It's easier for me to sit and sew than it is to bustle around the kitchen these days ("bustle" seems kind of comical considering how slow I am these days :-)) We missed "sewing hour" yesterday but Katie did get another baby cap sewn this week, it's like the other only in a bigger size.

We also brought home 40 zucchinis. I really like zucchini but you can only eat it so many days in a row so we looked for other recipes and found Zucchini Pickles, I hope that we like them! I will add zucchini to our relish and I suppose if I can't find enough ways to use it then the animals can have it.

I noticed that the cicadas started singing a few weeks ago, a sure sign that Summer is waning along with the goldenrod in bloom. Public school started this week although we won't until after Labor day. Usually I'm all excited and so ready to be doing school again, this year however, I'm not ready! It came too soon, the garden is rather late this year and the baby's coming and I need more time! We'll be gathering apples before long to press into cider and making sugar beet syrup as well. Will there be enough hours in the day? To every season there is its own work and unique pleasures. Here's to you enjoying and appreciating yours and us to enjoying and appreciating every moment of ours!

Projects projects everywhere....

We have a "Sewing Hour" after lunch where the girls and I work on our projects. Today I was working on the baby's wool winter bonnet, Tabitha was stitching on her tea towels, and Rebekah was practicing her techniques on some designs that I drew (the little girls went to town with Dad). Katie whipped up this adorable little cap for her project. It is a double layered flannel newborn cap, isn't it too cute for words? It has a 3 piece body like some from the Wisconsin Historical Society collection. She finished it with twill tape ties, I can't wait to see how it looks on the baby!

In our family the girls are required to be competent with hand sewing before they are allowed to use the machine, I'm a big fan of samplers! I like the quiet time spent with just the girls and I while they work on such important skills. The boys work on some project with Dad or Aleks while we sew, today it was building movable turkey roosts.

We picked this bed up about 8 years ago from somebodies garbage, Aleks has been using it but because it's a 3/4 bed no standard mattress fits it. I needed to get Abby out of our bed and used to sleeping with Elisabethe so we decided to make a straw tick to fit the frame. The bed is square nailed and dates from the 1860-1880 range, I think. It was originally red, then black, then yellow and most recently green. ;-) Anyhow, Katie sewed most of the tick together and then we filled it and made it up so you could see it (yes, it's outside in the picture but it's too dim in the bedroom to see). I thought it would be a hard adjustment for Abby but she loves it! Elisabethe took it much harder, she is used to sleeping with Katie and she was a little tearful about leaving Katie to sleep alone. Isn't that sweet? ;-)

This white gown is the latest completed baby article. I'm sorry that it's so hard to see details but white on white is tricky. There are 4 vertical rows of 100% cotton lace on the bodice as well as some lace on the sleeves.

I received my milk paint order yesterday but before tackling the cradle we decided to paint this shelf first. It wasn't a priceless antique so if we really messed it up it wouldn't matter. We painted it 2 coats of Federal Blue and I really like how it turned out. Milk paint is supposed to look faintly streaky, that's the nature of it and it feels very chalky to the touch. There were zero fumes and I helped to paint it even. I love milk paint!

A time to every purpose

This has been a busy and productive week for us thus far so I thought I'd blog about the highlights. The green beans and sugar peas are still in full swing, we dehydrate/can some every 2 days and will continue for a few more weeks. I'm expecting our corn to be ready any day now and so then we'll have 30-40 dozen ears to process, but in the meantime we haven't been idle. ;-)


When my sister Dawn brought out the cradle she also brought along loads of comb honey. A man that they know does bee removal and some of the honey he takes out of buildings he gives to them. As you can see, it was not the most aesthetically pleasing honey I've ever seen, so we strained out the liquid honey and got well over one gallon. With the remaining comb we rendered out the wax by repeated boilings and strainings. The house smelled so wonderful during the process!


The final rendered product all ready for candle making or salves. Quite a contrast to the "before" picture, isn't it?

These are Aleks' first Jacob's Cattle beans that he harvested. They are an heirloom dried bean good for baking and soups. They were easy to grow and prolific to boot! He has several other heirloom varieties that aren't quite mature enough as of yet but should be ready soon. After he has all the seed stock that he'll need for next year, we get to eat the rest. The thought of homemade bread with soups and chowders to accompany it almost makes me wish for cooler weather. ;-)

We have been making peach jam quite a bit this week. I made it the same way as the other jams we made: with very little sugar and no added pectin. We added cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg and it was delicious (we ate some this morning on cornbread)!

And, on the sewing front: I found this piping cord and I just love its tiny size for baby gowns, the scale is perfect! I used it on...........

My first completed baby gown! I have several white Pima ones almost finished but I was running short on white thread after my chemise marathon so I decided to make up a printed gown.

This gown has a total length of 21" which seems to me to be a more practical length for a gown that will see a lot of use. I believe it was Sarah Jane that mentioned that longer gowns tend to trail about and become very dirty. The skirt is a very full 60" to more easily facilitate diaper changes and the sleeves are plenty wide so little arms will slide in easily. I'm really enthralled with it, I hung it on the jelly cupboard so I could look at it often. :D

So, what do *you* think?

My Mom and Dad sent me out this cradle to use for our new little one. They weren't really sure of the age or even if it was the natural wood or if it was painted. We decided to use a little stripper in an inconspicuous spot to see just what we were dealing with and if it was the "original finish" we would leave it as is, but if it wasn't, we would refinish it. That seemed the safest course as we were concerned about multiple layers of lead based paint. As it turned out, it was multiple layers of paint, 3 to be exact. Brown then black then green. Really bright green! Below is the cradle partially stripped, you can see the green running down the side.

So, we stripped it all the way and sanded it, but the best we could get it is pictured below. We wanted a more accurate date for it so we asked an antiques dealer that we know and an antiques restorer for an age estimate. They place the date in the 1840-1850 range, we also found out that it was definitely homemade, hand planed, square nailed and the original color was green. Since the paint is milk paint that explains why we couldn't get it all out. The restorer said that we now have basically 2 choices: leave it as is, add a light stain and seal it. You will always be able to see the green this way. Or, choice #2, paint it again as it originally was. The original color of milk paint can be viewed here, it is the one called Tavern Green. Or I suppose we could paint it some other color.

Almost nobody likes the idea of repainting it, it runs contrary to our 21st century sensibilities that prefer natural looking wood. However, even though I wouldn't want a whole house full of painted furniture, I do like it for some pieces. When this cradle was built it wasn't fashioned from oak or cherry or another "beautiful" wood, it was made from utilitarian poplar which isn't really considered pretty. It was designed to be painted and brighten the home where it was used, as painted furniture is very, very common from this era.
So, the question is: what do you think I should do? Please tell me truthfully, I really want to know! If everybody thinks painting it would be hideous, then I'll probably bow to your wisdom and not repaint it. I'm starting to doubt myself here. ;-) I'm inclined to paint it mostly so it will look as it was intended to look but I'm afraid that I'll wish I hadn't once it's done. Oh, the indecision!!! Opinions please. ;-)

My life lately

I am now finished with the last of Abigail's dresses. This is the pink/red print that I bought recently from Zinck's. I wanted to do something a little different so I pleated the bodice and added 100% cotton ribbon on the stitch line. The skirt is pleated as well to keep the theme going. We tried to do sausage curls but that didn't work out very well, they were just too limp. ;-)

This is a better shot of the sleeve detail. I pleated the sleeves just like the skirt and added the same trim.
This is a close up of the pleated bodice. I really like the look and I think I'll make this style again!

The boys also got new homespun shirts which I have yet to put the buttons or buttonholes on. They prefer their homemade shirts to storebought as does Mr. G, they are more comfortable I guess!

I've also gone on a button buying binge as of late. I use china buttons on dresses and pinafores and metal on shirts with the very occasional mother-of-pearl thrown in when I don't have anything better. I buy mostly from E-Bay but that can be hit or miss especially with china calicoes as they tend to get snatched up by collectors. I purchased these below along with 118 plain white china buttons not pictured. I also have about 20-30 ringers coming by the end of this week. I'm pretty happy with my purchases especially in light of how expensive new buttons are, I had to buy new metal buttons for the shirts and they were $.66 a piece. That's more per button than the antique ones which are better quality too.

This is Katie and her new green dress. It's the first one that she has sewn entirely by herself. I'm very proud of her and the job she did!

She and I also hand washed the boys' wool winter coats. Dirty! Ugh, I could not believe the water, but they are all fresh and clean now and packed away. We also gave the girls' winter dresses a heavy scrubbing, mended them if needed and put them away until the weather cools. That's a job that I feel good about once it's accomplished.

Aleks, Levi and Micah got new overalls this past week. They are rather partial to overalls and really dislike the fit of modern jeans. I suppose if that's all they owned they would get used to it, but for work wear nothing beats pants that don't fall down! ;-)

In addition to all this we harvested over 1000 leeks and got a gallon of powder from them. The garden is doing well and we're eating sugar peas now. Mmm!

I had some blood work done and found out that I'm pretty anemic and I have a low platelet count. I have never been anemic before and was pretty surprised to hear this, although it sure explains why I'm so tired. I'm supposed to take it easy. ;-) Also, I have consistently been measuring big this time, which is again something that never happens to me (except for the twins of course). Anywhere from 3 to 8 cm bigger but we're pretty sure it's not twins so.... what is it? It seems odd to me that you could have 8 children and each pregnancy would be pretty much the same until your 9th and then boom! everything is different. Time will tell, I supose.

Things have been so crazy here that I hardly have any computer time. Blogs that I used to check frequently now don't get visited. I miss hearing about you all and hope to be back when things settle down.