Archive for Everyday Things

Friday? Again?

Honestly. Where does the week go? Just a minute ago, it was Monday. I think I meant to post on Monday. Time flies when you’re, well, doing stuff. Not that it has been exciting stuff. Yesterday I washed dogs and all of the one-thing-leads-to-another related accoutrements. Well, here we are.

First off, I joined Andi’s Pay It Forward, which I am very excited about! So, now I’m looking for three people who want to Pay It Forward. If you would like to receive a handmade gift from me, and are willing to make and send a handmade gift along to three of your blog readers, please let me know in the comments. Once you accept, you will receive something from me within 365 days. In turn, you will have 365 days to fulfill your end of the bargain. So, if you would like to accept the challenge and commit to keeping this going, leave a comment.

EDITED TO ADD: You all are QUICK! :-) I’ll be sending to:

Jan
Michelle
Jenny

Among other things I’ve gotten myself into, I’m intending to quilt along with Kellie’s Joseph’s Coat Quilt-along. I really love this pattern. I’ve made a small beginning by deciding on a background:

grey

Moda Bella Solid in grey — a nice chalky mid-grey.

I’ve wrangled some of the Stitch N Wash too (although I keep thinking of it as Wash N Stitch — which just doesn’t make sense):

washfuse

Although, I just saw an ad today for a new product from C&T Publishing — Wash Away Applique Sheets. Sounds like it does the same thing AND you can send it through your ink-jet printer. Which appeals to me as I’ve drafted my Joseph’s Coat applique placement guide on the computer. I could send sheets and sheets of petal shapes through. Wheeee. But I won’t. Because I already have Stitch N Wash. FYI then.

In 2007, I saw this beauty from the Tokyo International Quilt Festival. Stunning, no? Here, I must stop and thank Jan because, while I remembered this quilt, I couldn’t find the photo. I sent her a vaguely worded SOS and she tracked down the photo for me. THANKS, JAN! Anyhoo, at the time I saw this, I was entranced. I have a lovely green background and the “border” print in green to do something inspired by that quilt. Oh, and I bought these:

tealeaves

I recall a couple of attempts at piecing the blocks. But, as I said before, time flies and here we are in 2009. While I don’t know if I will keep up, I will give it a try and will appreciate the motivational inspiration Kellie’s quilt-along provides. I have to try not to get mired in indecision when it comes to the color scheme for the petals. To be continued…

Oh, and I decided that nine spider web blocks is enough for now:

spidey

All righty! Hope you had a good week. Don’t forget, if you’d like to join my Pay It Forward, please leave a comment. (FILLED)

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Happy Halloween!

pumpkins

May you not get any rocks in your treat bag!

Um, that’s a button carved into our pumpkin a la Coraline… kinda looks like nothing without some context. We’re keeping with a theme here, people!

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A great day at the bookstore!

bookstore

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Sexy hexy Love quilt

The hexagon quilt pattern using Amy Butler’s Love fabrics (called the Sexy Hexy Loe Quilt) is now available over at Amy’s web site (go to free patterns and then sewing patterns). The method is completely different than my approach but I may meld the two. It will be good to see if I was close at guesstimating the sizes of things. Wheeeee!

Today I’ve been plugging away at quilting the Full Bloom quilt. Stick-to-it-ive-ness is key. And can I just say that it is really satisfying to finish a cone of thread. Just not right in the middle of quilting a quilt (added bonus if you don’t have more of THAT color).

Some sad news…

Remember Gilligan?

gilligan

Here he is in healthier days. Well, Gilligan passed on to the big fishbowl in the sky the other day. I guess we just couldn’t meet his needs although we tried to give him a good home.

RIP Gilligan.

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In support of fried dough

We had a quick weekend getaway. Maybe it doesn’t qualify as a getaway if you’re actually going home?

SF09

I managed to snap one quick picture on the world’s shortest Ferris wheel ride. Sheesh, give a girl a chance to take some pictures, would ya?

Some advice. Be careful of what happens when you’re trying to take artful photos of colorful fish bowls.

fishbowls

fish

fish2

fish3

While you’re not paying attention, you may end up with one of these:

gilligan

This is Gilligan. Yes, I overfed him this morning. We haven’t had a goldfish for quite a while. I didn’t miss cleaning the fish bowl. I’ll pay more attention at the goldfish booth next time.

I also visited the hometown quilt shop. Twice. Same number of elephant ears I ate (correction: SHARED). On the first visit, I bought a small amount of Avlyn’s Nature’s Palette distressed solids in black. The second time I bought the rest of the bolt. It’s lovely aged-looking stuff dyed with natural dyes. I may have the last bit in captivity because it’s old (well, 2006) and isn’t made any longer. I thought it would look fantastic with acid-y greens and golds. If the sun returns, I’ll try to take a photo. But it’s, well, distressed dark grey. Not really at its best without something on it. That may take some time. But I have it. For posterity. Interesting! I washed the largest part this morning and left the small portion unwashed. The WASHED fabric is now darker than the unwashed fabric.

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Your services are no longer required

It had to happen. I’ve been angst-ing about it for months. I didn’t want to believe it could ever happen.

She finally quit me.

old iron

My first really good quilting tool. Yeah, she’s pretty corroded and gross, but we’ve been together for more than 15 years. I’m probably a little more corroded than I was then too.

But then she burned me.

cord

Well, admittedly, I was — shall we say — finessing the plug in the socket trying to will her to turn on.

I wasn’t ready to give up on her, for one reason, because I didn’t know what to replace her with. Auto-shutoff is such a deal-breaker.

But recent reviews have been a little better, so:

box

And we are going to follow the watering instructions. To. The. Letter.

newiron

So far, newbie is giving me nice crisp seams. I haven’t put water in her yet. I want to keep the fantasy going a while longer.

I will be keeping my fingers crossed while I iron in hopes that she doesn’t spring a leak.

Wish me luck, and I’m sure I’ll keep you posted. Keep an eye on the “Whining” category…

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Perfect timing

First day of fall, eh?

Yes.

And the last thing I want hanging off me today is this shawl I just finished knitting.

daybreak

It’s the first shawl I’ve ever finished. As September started to cool off, I was thinking, hmm, I could almost get this finished in time for the start of fall. And, gee, wouldn’t it be nice to have this around my shoulders on a cool, damp morning at the bus stop.

Yes, yes, it would.

dayb2

Instead, we have had a few hot, sticky, damp mornings at the bus stop.

dayb3

No wool for me at the moment, thank you VERY much.

dayb4

Oh well. Soon enough I’m sure that this little thing won’t help me keep nearly warm enough. In the meantime, the air conditioning just kicked on.

Should anyone be interested, this is the Daybreak shawl from Westknits. It was a blast to knit!

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Flower power

In red and green.  No independent thinking here, copied straight from Quilt Romance:

flowerp

Fun and satisfying!

In my infinite wisdom and laziness, I whipped this off the bed a la pulling a tablecloth off the fully set dinner table. Only, the pillows were over the littlest bit of the outer border and managed to cause enough friction to ravel part of the outer border beyond the seam allowance. My disgust is in the fact that it took longer to add the loooonnnng horizontal pieces than it did to make the rest of the quilt. Of course. To be remedied another day when I have some more sashing/border fabric.

Why are new glasses exciting? OK, maybe they are only exciting to me? One reason I’m excited is that I managed to outrun the bifocal monster once again. Hurrah!

newgl

These are not at all what I had in mind when I went shopping for new glasses. I am guessing that either my head is shrinking or people are making glasses that are way too wide for my face. At one point, I saw the optical person bringing me glasses from the KIDS’ section. I don’t know. I’ve never had this problem before.

I don’t know how to assure you that I am not selecting this brand simply based on their great glasses cases. The cases certainly don’t hurt though.

The old case:

oldcase

And the new more subtle but no less fun case:

newcase

Off to fold laundry and then to lunch. Have a wonderful weekend!

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Ups and downs

Yesterday was the day!

I’m sure we were all sad to say goodbye to the lack of schedule that summer brings. No alarm clocks, no lessons (OK, we kept up on piano for most of the summer), no homework (OK, we did do math through the summer and read a lot) — but mainly, aside from camps, days (and days) left to our own devices.

On the other hand, I’m a person who needs a little routine and sense of accomplishment. A growing nine-year-old is a work in progress — a joy and a treasure but not a finished product. So, I’m welcoming the return of some structure … although the 5 am walk is going to get old pretty fast what with the nocturnal critters and face full of cobwebs — well, and the 5 am-ness of it (although I highly recommend exercising in the dark –it’s almost like it never happened).

So, the day started off at the bus stop.

Fully loaded:

waiting

Waiting:

school09

Yea, it’s the big yellow transport!

yea

I came home to some paper piecing. Which is also good exercise if you don’t keep your cutting and ironing supplies right next to you. Up and down. Up and down. Up and down. I’m working on a Kaffe-y version of Kathy’s Gypsy Kisses quilt from the Material Obsession 2 book (here and here).

All I can say is “whee.”
arc1arc2

arc3arc4

arc10arc5

arc6arc7arc8arc9

Gee, only 38 more pairs to go. More ups and downs in my future.

stack

I previously gathered together other batiks and Westminster fabrics for a lovely basket quilt from Diana McClun and Laura Nownes called Going to Market:

basketsume

For me, it’s all about the striped bias handle!

basket

I really like the method used to make the basket handles. It is new to me and don’t we just love to learn something new? You can view the method on Diana and Laura’s web site where they kindly show us in an instructional video (it’s the preparing handles for applique video).

May your day be filled with more ups than downs…unless you’re exercising or paper piecing.

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Old Gizeh

Maybe this is a post purporting to contain evidence that I am always prepared (stop laughing…). Maybe I just couldn’t resist a post with the title “Old Gizeh.” You decide.

To wit, evidence (and a reminder for next year) that I am ready for NEXT summer:

gizeh

gizehb

Thank you, deep end-of-season discount at BirkenstockUSA.com (and, long story short, gift certificate to a different store…) (oh, and hubby…)!

Strangely, these look a lot like, yes, the old Gizehs:

oldgizeh

Well, except for the pristine footbed in the first pic…

Old Gizeh, indeed!

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