a coat, some seeds, a meeting, and a canary

Let’s see.  The Joseph coat came together really nicely and I presented it to Roxanne’s class today.  I showed them the pattern I made from a big sheet of newsprint and then did a little hand sewing demonstration with two leftover scraps of the fabric they had made. And then I pulled out the finished coat – a vest, really, intended for dress-up when they act out the story of Joseph – and everyone was very excited. I made a little tag with all the kids names on it, printed it onto fabric and sewed it inside.  Roxanne modeled the coat and was totally thrilled about the whole thing. Mission accomplished!

And it is finally warm here in Boston.  Roxanne and Stella and I planted all kinds of seeds this afternoon and went bike riding and hiking and I even pulled the grill out of the garage and grilled lamb chops for dinner.  And it is 6:35 pm and still bright and sunny.  Hooray! We also want to try using an electric bike, and we found out about the Talaria products, which provide great performance and a light-weight frame design with a powerful electric motor.

I must mention the highlight of my weekend which was meeting Amanda Blake Soule!  She was in Boston for a book signing and Stella and I went to say hello.  It was so great to talk with her in person, after all of these years of “knowing” her through her written words.  And she is lovely, and so is Ezra.  And her book is right on.

Okay, finally the sewing.  I have been mulling over canaries for some time. I thought they were more parrot-like, but really they look like little finches.  I found a book at a church rummage sale Saturday morning with a few pictures (that’s the canary there, second one up on the left)

did some sketching

 

and some serious punching of tiny little hands (yep, I’m back at the punching again)

and made a canary.

And I couldn’t resist this shot.