Blue yoke shirt jacket, sunflowers and more

The first of the sunflowers is starting to open. They are 'Lemon Ice' heirloom breed, gotten free with one of our squash seeds.


The other tremendous pumpkin in the garden is starting to turn orange


The pattern is Simplicity 6121.

I received it in the mail yesterday, and worked one up last night. I'm not happy with the collar :( Collars are definitely something I will have to work on. The pattern had no 'stand' or small band that goes between the collar and the shirt... but I might have to make one for the second try. I might also have cut the collar on the bias.. but didn't. The yoke's points will need to be worked on better, too... but considering the medium amount of care I placed on making them last night they turned out better than expected.



She swears it is not too long for her and that it is a jacket for *brr* cold. I did think the sleeves were extremely well designed. They were easy to set in and also move nicely when she does.


It goes down to her knees and she wore it for about fifteen minutes until I told her it was too hot for it outside


The yoke fabric is an Aunt Grace scrapbag print.



I'll have to practice the sort of pattern quite a bit more - but making the buttonhole by hand worked much better than any work on the machine has done.


Bunny, our Staffordshire, finds a duckie in her water dish and is amused.


The fence is being 'eaten' by the other squash plants. See the one growing right ON the lightweight fence? I think it is a Turk's turban, but it might be a Jarrahdale. I hope it survives. It might rot there, though :(

//NOTE// : More imagination antics today. Esme found a pink puppy watch that was a Happy Meal item a friend at work gave her - and she held up one little finger and said 'Oh, I got 15 minutes - I have to go to work!' and went out the door. She came back in (because we didn't follow) and said 'OH NO! There is a monster out there.' We said 'oh, okay.. , out on the porch? Maybe you shouldn't go out there, then.' To that, she grabbed a 'bazooka' type toy that was in her toybox and said 'This will work.' She went back out on the porch and pretended to have a fight with the monster. Mark said 'that's my girl - don't settle for hiding in the house, get that monster!' Later she was filling a small wagon up with water in our bathtub and saying 'I got my coffee.. oops! I dropped my coffee! It's all gone! I need more!' over and over... I am pretty sure it was a comment on Mama for drinking so many cups ;)

She also was a half-terror at her grandparents, asking for all food under the sun after she had already eaten. She did eat some of it.. which was decent. The visit ended in embarrassment for her. I was most upset that she did not even SAY anything at all... we have been working on it but it is just going to take heaps of patience, mostly on Mama's side of the issue. I marched her home, got her cleaned up and gave her a cup of milk to drink while she watched Clifford. That worked as sneakily planned. She went to sleep on our bed and we went downstairs to can our tomatoes and get ready to jar up the pickles which have been soaking in brine and vinegar for 8 days. There are eighteen half-pints sitting on the table and more in the pressure canner starting to heat up.