Anyone Can Quilt

Quilting with friends.

I have so much to tell you all about!  I'm not sure where to start, it's been such a busy few months for us.  I'll have to share it all over a few posts, or this one would be waaay too long.  Every year as summer approaches, and as we are nearing the end of our home school year, I plan all of the sewing/home projects I want to get done.  Then reality sinks in and I realize how busy summer will be.  Then as fall approaches I am yearning for the routine of our school days, and hope to get some sewing in where I can.  My mom and I look forward to 4 uninterrupted days of sewing at our yearly quilt retreat each fall.  We went to our third one a few weeks ago, and had a blast. 

Picture it, 4 days of sewing with like minded people, all new friends.  Coffee and tea available all day and night.  Every meal provided.  Cozy lodging out in the country of the pacific northwest.  It is bliss.

Doesn't mama look happy?  She and I had the messiest tables in our little grouping of tables.  Ok maybe mine was the messiest.  Look at all of my stuff on the floor even.  Sheesh.  Down below is a quilt my mom was working on.  Isn't it awesome? 

I was working on my Victory Garden quilt, an awesome pattern designed by Michelle.  I've been wanting to make this forever. 

It just makes me happy.  Extra happy I'm sure because I'm using my Holiday Happy fabrics that Monica designed.  I literally smile all crazy (as I tend to do) as I make each block because I love these fabrics so much. 

It was so fun seeing old friends and making new ones of course! (Missed you Monica, Renee and Michelle!)

Here are Chara, Quynh, and Evelyn.  They were right behind mom and I, and are awesome.  Chara is a wedding/portrait photographer and she has a cat with diabetes.  Quynh is a food photographer, my new sister (mom adopted her), and throws elaborate birthday parties for herself.  Evelyn does something very smart and technical (good memory Sarah) has an adorable red haired daughter, and makes 400 quilts a day.  I love them all, but not so much that I wouldn't steal their fabric when they weren't looking.  Watch your backs ladies. 

Here are some photos of the ladies' quilts.  Maybe I should think of stealing the finished quilt tops instead of the fabrics.  That means less work on my part. 

Here is Karen, our gracious hostess.  She is posing with her birthday cake that some of her sweet friends surprised her with.  Isn't it amazing?

Now we met some more new friends.  They arrived the second day of the retreat and sat at our table grouping.  Meet Stacey and her daughter Dante. 

Stacey is a devoted mother and runs an alpaca farm.  Dante is a hair dresser and has a horrible rare milk allergy.  We had so much fun getting to know these girls.  Dante seriously cracks me up. 

One night just a few of us were still up sewing.  Dante had been string piecing her jelly roll strips all day.  We decided that we wouldn't head off to bed until her first official block was finished.  Here is her hallelujah pose.  By this time we were over the edge tired and couldn't stop laughing.

The block turned out great.  So then Dante, Mom, and I took the little walk to our lodging.  In the dark. 

We were on the lookout for bears and serial killers hiding in the woods. 

We made it back alive, and headed off to bed.  Of course we were hoping not to wake anyone because we were laughing so much.  I decided to take a picture of Dante as she headed down the hall to her room.  And she does this in the split second it took me to take her picture:

This sums up or delerious bout of late night sewing.  She cracks me up. 

The next morning, refreshed, I took a few pictures on my walk back to the building where we sew.

I love being here.  The retreat center is so peaceful and out of the way.

Cry Baby the cat escorted me the entire way.  When I stopped to take pictures she stopped to wait for me.  Cute.

Back inside, I continue to take photos.  This picture cracks me up because of the peeking. 

The lady on the right made these for her granddaughters.  I can't remember her name at the moment, but she was so nice.  I do remember her daughter in-law's name though, Roberta.  Of course that is not Roberta holding the other quilt. 

Hi Roberta's mother in law!.......peek.

Here's a kooky bunch.  Quynh, Melissa (who is pregnant and you can't tell!), me, Chara, and Evelyn.  This was the last day and mom took these of us before we packed up to go.  Of course everyone was sans makeup and not feeling purty.  But we sure had a blast.

Mom took a series of photos and ended up with this one:

Don't ask, cause I don't know.  Good times.

And lastly, my sweet mama and I. 

Warms the heart doesn't it?  I'll dissect the meaning for you, apparently, I'm reluctantly strangling her, and she's surprised, scared, and trying to scare someone else with her right hand. 

I'll leave you with that.  I'm hoping to get back on the computer soon to get some regular posting and blog visiting in.  I miss you all!! x

 

 

 

 

But I'm a computer nerd's wife.

If you've had your eyeballs open around blogland lately you will have noticed that everyone is joining in The Farmer's Wife Quilt Along.  She's quite alluring, that saucy farmer's wife.  And with all of the gorgeous blocks everyone has been making, I couldn't stop myself from joining.  Not that I really wanted to stop myself.  Sure, I have plenty of partially made quilts that really should be finished.  But.....who cares?  I sure don't, and I'm sure you don't either.  So join in would ya?  You know you want to! 

I just picked up my book at Borders yesterday.  It's $27.99, but I had a great coupon and got it for 1/2 price.  I've seen it on Amazon for around $18.00, and many have found it at Joanne's and used their 50 % off coupon. The book comes with a cd for downloading the templates.  While perusing flickr I found a wonderful link to download all of the templates by a fabulous gal named Liz.  She's combined them all onto 15 pages which makes it so convenient.  Thank you so much Liz!!  Of course even with Liz's templates you'll need the book for block construction.  The best thing about the book to me is the letters written by 1920's farmer's wives.  They wrote into the magazine answering the question, "Would you want your daughter to marry a farmer?"  The letters are so inspiring to read.  And pretty funny, apparently Jazz music was considered quite inappropriate among the farmer's wives.  Who knew Jazz was the gangsta' rap of 1922?  

Block #1!!  Woohoooo!

Well, I went through my stash and pulled some fat quarters.  My goal is to use what I have.  I really wanted a soft, cheerful, vintage cottage feel to my blocks.  It's fun to rediscover fabrics that I forgot I had!

Like you chickens!  I've only had you punks for about....6, 7, 8 years?  But I'm happy to see you again!  I've had some fabrics in bins under my bed so long it's a nice surprise when I open the bin; like someone sent me a gift.  Is it sad that I feel like I'm receiving a gift from an imaginary friend when I rediscover fabrics that I apparently purchased myself years ago?  Of course not. 

Once again, hello floral stripes.  I forgot you existed. 

I don't know how long it will be before this quilt is finished, it may be a loooong time.  My goal is to just finish a few blocks a week, along with the other quilts I'm working on.  No rushing, just thoroughly enjoying the process.  Let me know if you're making one too!  I'd love to see your blocks!  x

 

 

Cuckoo stitching.

Horray for cuckoo clocks!  I love them, but sadly don't have a real one of my own.  So to fill the little empty cuckoo clock shaped hole in my heart, I stitched one.  What else could I have done when I saw this adorable pattern?  I couldn't help myself. 

Hi little squirrel!  Don't eat that mushroom, it might be poisonous. 

Now, what to make with it?  I could make a little pillow, but of course my family would proceed to sit on it and smoosh the living daylights out of it.  You know how it goes.  You have pretty pillows on the couch, and you, in your infinite wisdom, know how to sit with the pillows.  You sit down right in front of them, being mindful not to smoosh them at a weird angle.  You sit in front, and then scoot back a bit, so the pillows are nestled evenly against your back.  Your precious family though, sit on the front of them and then sliiiiide forward and down, so when they get up the side view of your precious pillow looks like a deformed triangle. 

Next idea; a little wall quilt.  Oh yes, I will be saving my precious cuckoo clocks life, and it will be forever greatful.   And I think I've got just the perfect fabrics.  I'm off to go on a fabric hunt.  Fun!  x

An oldie but a goodie, and look at that weird little dog.

Hello my friends!  I have been such an absentee blogger these past few months.  You're all so sweet to stick with my infrequent postings.  I seem to go through phases of frequent inspiration and blogging, and then bouts of....well the opposite of that.  The quilting inspiration is still there, but sometimes I can't make myself take pictures and get them onto the computer.  So today I said, enough is enough!  I need to get something on this here blog!  So I pulled one of my favorite old quilts off of the couch and asked my girls to hold it up on the front porch for me. 

Apparently, Rosie wanted to help hold the quilt up.  But she's just too short.  And she doesn't have opposable thumbs.

"A little higher on the right please!"  She's so helpful. 

"Yo de la hee hooooooo!!!!"  She also has a fabulous yodeling voice. 

"What's that?!"  Does someone dare walk down the sidewalk on this fine summer day?  She might have to give them a what's for if they recklessly decide to walk in front of our house. 

False alarm, wait, is that a bug?

Do I smell an earthworm perhaps?  I like to roll around on a nice earthworm. 

I'll go check it out. 

What's that!? 

Oh that silly little girl of ours.  She cracks us up.  As do all of our animals.  We have six now.  SIX!!  That's a lot for us.  Dog, cat, two guinea pigs, rabbit, and a bird.  Phew.  But we love them all.  Poor kitty had to go to the vet recently, turns out he has a urinary tract infection, and a yeast infection in his ears.  Horrors, poor thing.  I've been enjoying giving him his medications as you can imagine (to him, ear drops = pure hell, and to make it even more evil, the ear drops have to be refrigerated).  Good times, I just love cat wrestling.

Now I'm worried about all of the neighborhood cats who hang around my house, the little angels who poop in my flowers.  They're always outside, I think most of them are stray cats, so they have noone to take care of them.  Noone to notice if they aren't feeling well.  I worry about these things.  I wish I could round up all of the stray cats, put them on a kitty bus, and get them checkups. 

Anyhoo, sorry to bore you with all of that.  About the quilt, it's one of my favorite patterns.  Super easy, but looks interesting still.  It's made of 5" charm squares, with little 2 1/2" squares sewn diagonally onto two opposite corners, then flipped back to make little triangles.  I'm wanting to make another one of these for the summer, I have the perfect charm packs waiting, Rose Parade by Moda.  The fabrics are so summery and cheerful.  I'll do a quick tutorial when I start that quilt for any beginning quilters who'd like to see how it's put together.  It's really easy!

I hope you're having wonderful weather, and that all of your furry and feathered sweeties are healthy.  And thank you for all who told wonderful bird stories on my post about little Stewart, I loved reading them!! xo

 

 

Cause it's more fun than laundry, that's why.

You know the feeling you have when you have a million things to get done around the house?  And it all seems to be growing exponentially?  If you're anything like me, you'll resolve to spend the day getting things done.  First up, the laundry.  You'll get on top of it today if it's the last thing you do.  With resolve you gather every last dark piece of clothing from around the house (or whites, whatever floats your boat) into your two arms cause you don't want to empty the laundry basket that is already full of clean clothes from last week... that you haven't yet folded, they're all wrinkly and such.  You try to get to the laundry room without killing yourself.  Of course you can't really see any dangers in your path (the cat) due to the huge amount of clothes in your arms covering your face.  But alas, you do finally get there, after many dropped socks (which are all properly cursed at). 

Now you feel like you've accomplished a little something, so you might as well go to your sewing room for a little break.  Then you end up perusing Etsy and finding the cutest embroidery pattern in the world.  For only $4 you can't resist purchasing it.  To make a long story a little shorter, as soon as the pattern was mailed to my inbox I was tracing the pattern onto some muslin and happily choosing felt and embroidery floss.  Did I have time for this nonsense?  No.  Do I really care?  Nope.  Am I happily stitching on an adorable cuckoo clock?  Yes.  Am I thrilled at the fact that there are jackalopes involved?  Absolutely. 

I love wool felt.  It makes me happy.  I ordered this stack from this wonderful Etsy shop.  She has so many gorgeous colors, it's hard to choose which ones to get!  My embroidery floss also makes me happy.  I won this super silky Cosmo floss from my friend Monica's giveaway last year.  Wow, it's sooo nice.  It costs more, but is so enjoyable to stitch with. 

I am messy.  But creative messes make me happy.  Unlike kitchen messes which were supposed to be cleaned up after the laundry.  Hey, that's what kids are for right? 

I'm slowly working on getting this quilt pieced too.  We're still (still!!) wrapping up the end of our homeschool year.  Only a couple weeks left!  Woohoo!  Then I'm hoping to get caught up on some quilts.  Of course, I always say that.  I know I'll be outside doing yardwork, going on camping trips, and canning jam.  Maybe finishing the laundry (that was a joke). 

I don't feel too guilty about stitching when I should really be doing other things.  It really recharges my mommy batteries.  Then when I do get back to housework, teaching my children algebra and cleaning up cat barf, I have more of a skip in my step, even a sense of calm.  After all, the little things really are the big things aren't they? 

I hope you give into some creative distractions this week.  Who needs clean socks anyway?  x