Sunday, June 26, 2011

I have to confess this weekend has been somewhat of a "lost" weekend. I blame Gilmore Girls. The libraray had season 5 & 6 and I borrowed them and then couldn't quit watching. Boo. But, also nice and relaxing :) I did attempt to pry myself off the couch long enough to sew a little bit. I haven't finished either project, because my laziness knows no bounds. I thought it would be easier to gets tops of things finished so that I'd only have to switch out my walking foot for darning foot once.....
Here's what will be a pillowcase for an 18.5" pillow.
And here's the top of a table runner. It's a rail fence design, each "rail" is 2"X6.5" to make each block 12.5" and I just make 4 blocks and sewed them all together. I like the effect. I wish I had noticed before sewing it all together that there are two big star prints kinda close together in the middle. Bah! Oh well, once there are things on top of the runner on my table I won't notice it.
patriotic table runner

In other news, I have taken on another job.  My scheming to make some extra money actually paid off.  I will be cleaning the office I work at.  And, trust me....I'll be earning every penny.  I work in a urologist office so things can get kinda grody quick.  BUT, when I get that extra money every paycheck I'll be so excited!  I've been dreaming up all kinds of stuff.....and also will be quite responsible with paying down stupid bills. 

Also, finished up that book I mentioned, The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan.  I liked it, well paced, good action, good story.  It is bascially two siblings who have been raised apart are suddenly thrown together and discover that they are from a magical family.  Lots of Egyptian stuff going on which I found interesting, I love Egyptian stuff.   Next up, I am going to make myself pick something that I already have and have not read yet.  I have a whole box of books that I've been meaning to get to for like 2 years now.  I'll let you know how that goes.

Did I mention that it finally got warm here?  Well, it did and I'm loving it!  I'm soaking up every bit of warmth like a lizard.  It cracks me up here because all winter long people complain about the cold and the ice and snow.  Then, once everything does finally thaw and it's warm then they complain about it being too hot!  Argh!  Not me.  I hated summers growing up because I lived in the hottest place ever!  100 degrees and up was a normal day and you know, cooled down to 80 or 90 at night.  Yuck.  So, I appreciate the summers here that may get up to 90 or so during the day but for the most part cools down at night.  Now, if I can just convince everyone else.....lol.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

100_2715[1]Remember how I mentioned I'd be making some patriotic decorations?  This is what I made on Friday.  I put out all the decorations I had so far, which didn't look like much, but filled in the spaces pretty well.  I have this frame that I have changed out for each season, there are actually a few that I don't have....but have just like left the previous one up for too long and then go, "dang I need to change that!" every time I look at it.  So, I took matters into my own hands, and cricut machine on Friday.  I like the way it turned out, the pic is pretty dark but the reds are really bright in person.  The ruffle on the bottom is just crepe paper that I sewed a seam straight through the middle with my tension turned waaaay up and it just ruffles itself - so fun!  The little circle things remind me of fireworks for some reason :)
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Mmkay.  And here we have a plethora of fabric, courtesy of Mom!  She told me ahead of time that they would arrive either Friday or Saturday.....so I was stalking the mail all day both days!  Saturday I had a wedding to go to and had to leave by 2 to get there, and thankfully they arrived right before I had to leave!!!!  Love it.  I didn't have time to open them and ogle the goodies so I took these pics right when I got home.  Lots of patriotic fabric so I am in the process of making a runner, then might possibly make a throw and maybe potholders?  I don't even know.
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The aforementioned wedding was nice.  It was way out in the "boonies" as my Mom would say.  It was literally a 45 minute drive there!  The church was a small country church painted a minty green.  It was sweet though.  Both Jan and I had been a little pressed for time before we left and there was absolutely no way to stop for food on the way.....so we were starving by the time we got there!  And, it was potluck style and we also didn't bring anything.  We were very relieved that no one seemed to notice or care that we didn't bring anything, but sure were eating! 
Mya is letting me borrow The Red Pyramid which is the first book in another series by Rick Riordan.  I'll let you know how it is, so far I'm only on the first chapter.  It seems pretty good so far.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

lodge quilt finished

The lodge quilt is finally finished! I finished up the binding today. I think it turned out pretty well, what do you think?
So, I realized that I never said where I got the inspiration for the layout of this quilt. I was trolling around looking at different blogs, when I came across this post. I had already taken the deer head panels and added the bear paw triangles to them, and was thinking "how am I going to mix this up?" I had dogeared some pages in different quilting magazines and I knew I really wanted to do some flying geese. So, when I happened upon that quilt I thought "I can improvise that" and that's exactly what I did. I did not buy the pattern, I printed out a picture and colored over some of the stars and made some trees, some geese, some deer heads. and I'm pretty sure that the pattern did not end up with 18.5 inch finished squares.


lodge quilt finished
The back was pretty fun.  As per usual I didn't have quite enough of any one fabric and I guess I really like flying geese right now!  I did however have an epiphany on this one.  The last quilt back I made kind of drove me crazy that part of the squares got cut off.  This time, I thought what if I make the triangles just wide enough and then add more blue backround on the edges to make it big enough for the quilt sandwich and then that part would be the part trimmed down instead of the triangles.  Does that even make sense?  Well, anyways, it worked out.  Back view:
back view of lodge quilt
Georgie peeking out from behind - so cute!
George peeking out
And of course, the folded view.
folded quilt
I did not get to any other projects really this weekend.  Mostly I just quilted and quilted.  This one ate a bunch of thread!  Saturday Jan and I went dress shopping which was a truly eye-opening experience.  I have not tried on dresses in forever and apparently I have forgotten just exactly how large my chest is!  Ugh.  Everything was too low cut or tight and accentuated the girls.  Bah!  the funny part is that when I was a little girl I remember crouching and putting my knees in my shirt and saying that was how big I wanted my chest to be when I was grown up - like Dolly Parton!  And, now I know better!  I don't think I'm Dolly Parton sized, but dang!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

I just realized that......

next week will be the middle of June!  And I think this weekend I should put up my patriotic decorations!  And that means I might have to make a patriotic runner because I don't currently have one.  Darn.  You know how I hate making runners! 

Sunday, June 5, 2011

office shower and reasons to wear sunscreen

So Thursday we had a little baby shower themed potluck at work for Karlie.  It was pretty low key, but I still wanted to decorate a little bit!  I put up a sign up sheet requesting decorations and also food items.  All in all I think it turned out pretty well!
office baby shower
Sharon made the garland, which turned out super cute.  I recycled the topiaries from the baby shower I did for Kristin, just repainted them and different colored poms.
close up of a topiary
Here's an up close of one of the topiaries. Honestly they are super easy! Jessica brought the tootsie pops, I had put them on the list but really didn't expect anyone to bring them! I think they just make the centerpieces more fun, and then everyone gets to take a yummy treat with them.
yummy cupcakes made by Savannah
Savannah made these cupcakes - from scratch! I'm super impressed. Inside each of them was a fun treat - either a caramel or andes mint! I had made the cupcake toppers a couple weeks ago.  Everything coordinated so well, the food was fabulous and Karlie got some great gifts!  Vikkie made the most amazing spinach artichoke dip!  I have never actually tried spinach artichoke dip because I detest mayonnaise and can't choke it down.  I've tried.  It doesn't work.  Anyways, Vikkie made a special variation of the dip without mayo, she ommitted the mayo and added more cream cheese - and it was DE-licious! 

In other news, Jan had a yard sale at her house Friday and Saturday and I helped out.  Friday was fa-reezing cold!  And windy.  I didn't dress properly for it because in the morning it was warm and sunny so I was wearing capris and flip flops - whoops!  Yesterday was overcast mostly but definitely warmer.  Guess who got sunburned.  ugh.  Just call me "rudolph"  My nose is bright red!  Seriously. 

I didn't take much to sell, just a few books, plates and some fabric.  The fabric all sold, one plate and 2 books.  LOL at least I wasn't counting on making my millions at that sale!  Everyone else had brought a TON of stuff and sold a good bit, so all in all I'd call it a success.  Surpisingly Friday was the busiest day!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

a runner and confession

Okay so I was keeping this project a secret until the recipient received it.  And now she has so I can share :)  I signed up to do a swap on Swap-bot that was to craft a surprise for your partner.  The word partner is a little annoying on swap-bot though because who you send to is not who you receive from.  I think I would have enjoyed getting something from who I sent to....but, eh.  I don't make the rules.  The rules of this swap were to pick a craft that you are good at and make something of at least a $7 value in supplies and send it to your person.  The gal I had said she liked vintage things, and floral, and on her profile mentioned that she like the color combination of purple and lime.  For some reason that part stuck in my head.  I started looking through my stash knowing that I wanted to make a runner for her.  I started pulling all vintage fabrics, but it just wasn't coming together.  I wasn't liking the look.  So, then I started pulling purple and lime stuff and made up an easy pattern et voila!
table runner front
Back view:
table runner back
In other news.......and I was hesitating to mention this.  I might have adopted a cat.  So, there this one neighbor who has a ton of cats.  Or, rather there are a bunch of cats in the neighborhood and he may or may not be feeding them.  This one is super friendly.  And was hanging out in my yard.  And, somehow may have gotten in the house and I might have fed it.  And it was starving!  So, I like the company of cats so I started letting her come in.......and feeding her more.  Ugh.  What have I done?!  I've been calling her George, because at first I didn't know if she was a boy or girl and I thought it was a boy, and I said he looks like a George.  I was telling Mom that and she said - "What does a George look like?  The only George I knew was my dad."  Which makes sense because my Grandpa was a redhead with blue eyes, and this cat has orange on her face and blue eyes!  So, there you go.  That's what a George looks like to me :)  I think officially for propriety sake she will be Georgie but I still have been calling her George.  It might not completely work out to have a cat......so I'm trying to not get attached.  Fat chance.
George
Here I am standing on the chair to get a good shot of the quilt, and George got in there........she's kind of cute, huh?

In case anyone is wondering it has rained and snowed off and on alllllllllllllllllllllll day.  I am very thankful we don't have tornadoes or flooding.  My heart goes out to all those who have lost homes and loved ones.  So sad, and terrible to see the devastation.