Truck Bed Full of Goodies

My dad arrived last night so this morning he emptied his truck bed and gave us a ton of goodies. My Great Aunt Oska passed away earlier in the year and she used to be quite the sewer. He brought me her sewing machine which he thinks has only been used a couple of times. Its a White. I haven't played with it yet or gone through all the bags.... and boxes...

And boxes...

of stuff. It looks like there is probably 100 spools of thread. A ton of vintage buttons. Lots of bias tape and who knows what else. It should be fun to go through and figure out. Well, figure out where to put it. :) My Aunt Judy said she has left over fabric from my grandma she was going to send but I will just have to go get it.(My Grandma was a true fabric lover according to my mom. My mom was few to ever to see her entire stash. It filled a bathroom, a dresser, under the bed plus other places.)

M got a hand made grasshopper xylophone. Cute, huh? The little legs move when you roll it. M loves it already. My dad said he had to use every tool in his garage. Oh, Kitty loved the bag. The purse she brought was driving her crazy cus it was so big so it was a perfect gift. They just left for the camp ground. We are giving them some time to get settled and do some laundry we go bother them. I guess I should go find the directions. :)

Bag for the Evil Stepmother and a Fancy Nancy Party!

My Dad is coming to visit next week and well, we have had a strained relationship since he was non existent in my childhood. Since I have had M he has try to be more involved. Also, he lives so far away. Well, my stepmother (my dad's 4th wife) and I had a few words the first time we met. Apparently, it was my fault the way our relationship was and had nothing to do with me being 6 when my dad and mom divorced. Anyway, I'm not her biggest fan but we get a long well enough. I decided to make her a bag as a good will gesture. I hope she likes it. I barely know her so knowing what she likes is hard. This bag is from Artsy-Crafty Babe. Its called the Round Yoke. I really want to make it for myself using scraps for the yoke part. Its not the best picture. Its supposed to be really stiff and I folded it after I made it to put it in a bag so that it won't get hairy from the dog.

Also, M and I went to a Fancy Nancy Party at the Library. If you don't know Fancy Nancy you have to check her out. She is a little girl who loves all things fancy. She learns a lot of big fancy words through out her journeys through life and her acceptance that all things are not the way you want them like her parents not being fancy. Very cute. I think they need to come up with a Fancy Nancy fabric line. (I obviously like Fancy Nancy probably more than M.) Anyway, the party was for little girls and they got all dressed up, heard a story and got the make a Fancy Nancy craft. (Puppy ears from Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy.) It was fun and all the kids were cute in their definitions of fancy. M wore a poodle skirt and a dog scarf, a couple bracelets, sunglasses, a couple of Mardi gras necklaces, a shiny silver belt and a big flower barrette. Cute. Oh, she had a pink boa but it ended up in my hair. It was mine! She gave it to me for Mother's Day! :)

My Spring Table Cloth is Finally Done in the Summer!!

My spring tablecloth is finally finished!!! I wanted something in the spring to brighten the house up and I needed a new table cloth so I decided to use these nice bright and cheery colors. I finished it a while ago but dreaded the quilting since it is like 85x85. Huge! Nice spring quilt at the end of the summer. :) I took it the the local quit shop again and I love the quilting. I had her put butterflies all over it. Since the lady uses a computerized quilter she doesn't go around designs or anything so on two of the fabrics I hate the quilting but I can get over it. I just blanket stitched the binding and the binding is really small since I had to bit and piece it. That'll teach me.Sadly, I like the back the best. Its just a vintage sheet I got at the Salvation Army for two bucks. Now I have to clean my table off!!! And a nice little summer photo to end this. A really happy little girl taking swim lessons. That grin is on her face the WHOLE time!

Book Review - Brief however

Occasionally, I have a chance to read. Not often but occasionally. There are a couple of movies coming out this summer that I wanted to see and if it has a book associated with it then I try to read the book first. I can watch a movie if I know the ending but I can't read a book. So, I am really excited about Amy Adams and Meryl Streep in Julie and Julia. So, I read Julie and Julia by Julie Powell. Its about a woman, Julie, whose life is stagnant and needs something to inspire her. For some reason she is drawn to Julia Child's first cook book called Mastering the Art of French Cuisine that she finds in her mom's kitchen and decides to cook all 524 recipes in 365 days and blog about her adventures. The book also includes a few letters written by Julia Child's husband but that wasn't the focus.

The book wasn't the most exciting book in the world. Infact, I hate to say a bit well, boring. BUT and there is a big BUT, there was something about it that forced you to keep reading. What would she cook next? How would it go? Would she actually make it to the final recipe? Would her life have some amazing moment that will make her what she wants to be? It kind of felt like you were following her blog. I have to admit my blog isn't the most exciting but I hope people come back. I have some sort of interest going. I know I read a lot of blogs that aren't the most exciting but I am there reading them.

I have to admit I cringed at some of the detailing of the recipes. I knew this before but gelatin for Jello is made from hoofs. Well, instead of buying a package at the store of good ol' gelatin she got hoofs and actually made her own. Not something I would ever do. She cooked plenty of other things we all would well, rather not hear about. At the beginning people thought she was crazy. Why this? Why now? Her mom thought she was nuts and would kill herself in the process but by the end people really supported her. They wanted to see her succeed. Even her "bleaders" (Blog readers). I wanted to see her succeed. Although I thought she was a bit nuts as well. But aren't we all.

This book was an easy read. Something you could definitely kick your feet up while the kids are in the yard and read. It looks like the movie is more exciting but I didn't realize this book is based on two books not just. I was wondering how in the trailer they show so much of Julia Child's learning to cook and in the book you only receive snippets into the woman she was and how her husband loved her but its a movie, they do what they want, right?

I still am looking forward to the movie. I think this is one of the rare cases that the movie will be better than the book. (I am currently reading the other summer's release "My Sister's Keeper." I was up way to late reading this book. I already read Harry Potter so I am good on that one. :) )

Mom's quilts

Since we were busy this weekend with nothing overly exciting I got nothing accomplished. I did put back all the fabric into my stash that I pulled out. That was an accomplishment. I kind of had to. My mom needed the guest bed to sleep on.

Here, however are some pictures of two of the quilts my mom made:

This one is a baby quilt for her boss. I wish I took a better photo. It was so bright I couldn't see the screen so I took them both blindly. It has little ducks playing in puddles in each square that she embroidered on. It is really cute. She doesn't know the gender (of the baby not the ducks) so she is hoping this is non gendered enough. I think it is and really it doesn't matter. You can have your kid swaddled in pink and purple and people will still call her a boy.

She made this last fall and I conned her into giving it to me for Christmas. Good mommy. Please excuse the lint and dog fur in the next one. We are people who use our quilts. (I wasn't going to use this one but she told me to use it!)

This is my favorite block. I love the tiny stippling which changes size with the picture and she used variegated thread that was perfect. My mommy is so talented.

I need to go take pictures of the rest of her quilts but she wanted the duck one taken before she gave it away and I had the black one right there so I grabbed it to get it taken. Honestly, my mom is short so this is about the size she could hold. :) I'll have my hubby do the others.

Hope you all had a great fourth!

Winking Owls Quilt

See how motivated I have been. I finished my quilt top last night and I went bowling and got a 108! 108 is pretty good for me. When my hubby was in Iraq, one of my keep myself busy activities was going bowling every week with a friend. I very rarely got over 100. So that is pretty impressive to me. Oh and the birthday boy had a good time.

I wanted to make something out of this cute owl fabric. I've been hoarding my owl fabric so I finally cut into a piece. I got a four pack of Japanese import fat quarters from etsy. The solids with exception of the "stop" and the border (I just learned that the mini border between the border and the blocks is called a stop. I feel all smart now.) is a chambray. You can't really tell in the picture but all three are very iridescent. Really the picture doesn't give the colors and fabric justice. You have to see it in person. I had bought 1/2 yard cuts of the chambray a long time ago with no idea what to do with them but I just loved them so wallah! I used it. It was nice to use almost all stash fabric. The stop is a cherry blossom design and then the border wasn't what I went to the quilt shop for. I was going to get a solid but this print was Asianee and it has every color that my patches too. I thought I would hate it anyway but I really love it. Now I have to quilt it so I will hate it soon enough. I hate quilting but I don't want to pay for this one to get done. Any volunteers? :)

Another owl fabric I am using. I am working on my stash. I conned my mom into making me a Kimono jacket like the one she wore when I was a kid. (She lived in Japan for 7 years so it is authentic.) She just copied the pattern. I should get it this weekend. Yay me!

Wallhanging

This is the wall hanging I finally made using the girl embroidery patterns that I embroidered when my GM was in the hospital. I really like it although I might make the blue yo-yos in a lighter blue. They are really dark. In the picture they look black but I promise its blue. Last night I made 75% of a quilt top. It was a really simple 9 patch that I didn't sash so is it still a 9 patch? That's what it started as but I decided it looked better with them mushed together and I found some border print fabric. It will be crazy. Hopefully, I will have it done tomorrow but we have a last minute bowling birthday party for my nephew.



M and I hung out at Lake Padden yesterday. Needless to say I missed some spots on me and I am totally burned. I thought I got my chest but apparently not and the insides of my legs - they look pretty funny since my water bottle was resting on my leg. Oh, and my hair line. I got my face but the edge between my face and hair - totally red. I LOVE ALOE VERA! M didn't burn. I did her sunscreen quite well. Hope you are enjoying your summer!

I also signed up for Favorite Things Swap sponsored by According to Kelly. You get a partner and you send them 3 of your favorite things. It can be anything you want. I just thought it would be fun.

June Blocks

I was so productive this weekend. I was on a roll. I finished all the quilt blocks for my bees for June along with other things. I'll show the rest a later day but here are the bee clocks for you to peruse.

I like this block for Rachel but I don't. I think its the colors mixed together. Or I am picky. Which is probably more like it. (it looks really crooked but it is the photo - I promise)
Michelle said we could do whatever we wanted including applique so she got this Big Birdie. I think its cute. I had the pattern out because I wanted to make a lap quilt out of it. I have all these great lime green and yellows.
Stephanie wanted a spider web block. I love the linen she chose for the center. I am annoyed with myself that two fabrics matched up in the corner. I was trying so hard not to have that happen. Hope she doesn't mind. I really want to make myself some spiderweb blocks. Hmmm...another to add to my list.

Isn't it funny though how some blocks totally work out and some don't. I could make the same pattern and I would hate one and like the other.

Sarah's Quilt

My friend Sarah was married last Saturday. I wasn't able to go because of M's recital and birthday party and it is was on the other side of the country. I made her a lap quilt as a gift. I am holding off on mailing it because she is movie to Hawaii in a couple weeks so it only makes sense to wait so I had time to procrastinate and finished the binding last night.

So this lap quilt is very simple. I wanted something clean and bright and I love the quilts at Twiddletails. Here is one that I really like and was going for a similar idea. Sarah is a neat freak and a very cheery person. The poor girl had to live with me and Andy. We aren't gross or anything but the two of us are not the tidiest of roommates. (We had another roommate but I don't remember her name- she was in her room the whole year getting stoned so we never saw her since that wasn't our scene.) We lived in this awesome 4 bedroom house that was on the verge of needing to be condemned. You had to pick up momentum to make it across the slanted kitchen and you had to be cautious near the microwave because the floor was soft. Andy's room was over my room and when her boyfriend was over I swear her bed was going to fall through the ceiling and they weren't even doing anything but sleeping! I loved that house. Fond memories. Good times.

Back to the quilt. I picked out three colors that I thought would look nice together. I thought about getting a purple but there weren't in the right color shade (all of it from Joann's). I then cut out squares of each fabric. I believe I had 3 pink, 2 blue and 2 green different fabrics. Then I sewed a different fabric same color on 2 sides. Then I added tons of Kona white. I wasn't trying to make a pattern. I made two rows I was happy with and repeated. It just ended up wit the pink and blue down the middle.

It was so quick to make it. I usually get carried away for gifts and make them huge so I used a lot of self control here. I did take it to Two Thimbles to get it machine quilted. I am not the best at it especially with my card table set up and since it was a gift... Totally affordable. I paid $45 and it was worth every penny. My mom had one done too and it turned out great. I had it stippled in a multi color thread. I did the binding multi color as well. I think it turned out really nice. I think Sarah will really like it buuuuuut maybe I should keep it. :) Go buy her a premade one at Walmart. Just kidding. I would never do that. My mom would have a heart attack if any of her children bought a blanket.

I lied- I did make something

Ok, I lied. I did make something over my vacation. I forgot about it until I saw in in our guest room in a Ziploc bag. When I made that orange bag, the first one I cut was too small so I threw it to the side and started over. Well, I didn't want to waste the fabric so I did sew it up. I didn't use a Chinese knot because it was too heavy for the bag since it was so small. So I used a yoyo and a covered. I used one handle instead of two for the same reason. Plus, on the inside I put a button closure. I sewed a button hole in the lining and then lined the button hole so if you were looking you didn't see the fusible fleece and then I sewed on a button. I should have taken a picture. Oh, last night I did get motivated and started sewing the binding on a quilt I made for my friend who got married on Saturday. I only did two sides before my hand was cramping and I was working in way slow motion since I was distracted by a documentary on Bruce Lee. He is so fascinating. I knew he was influential but I didn't realize that in so many fields he influenced so much change from martial arts, nutrition, how actors are paid, body building, film, music, philosophy, and he even designed exercise equipment that we are familiar with today. Wow! Can you imagine the influence he would have had if he didn't pass at the unfortunate age he did? Did you know that in Bosnia there is a statue there of Bruce Lee that represents mutli culturism. The documentary said something like "One thing we all have in common is Bruce Lee." Sorry that was a random strain of thought. Quilt almost done. There - back on track.

I have so much to do. I have fabric for 3 quilt blocks to make for my quilting bees, I still owe Chen a block, I have to finish a little gift I embroidered (I would show what I have so far but the person reads the blog occasionally), 2 bags for my office mates, a bag my friend asked me to make for her friend because she doesn't have the time (its a kit so that should be easy once she gives it to me), AND my mom commissioned me to make her a bag which I think is funny because she taught me to sew and she can make it herself but then again I gave her material this weekend to make me a kimono jacket and I could make it myself but I hate making cloths and I actually want it in the near future. So she will get it to me quicker. :)

Tonight I will get motivated. Really, I will.