home, buddies

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liberty flying geese quilt, liberty geese, quilting, rikke hat, snow

I was supposed to be in Phoenix visiting dear friends this weekend. On my first overnight trip away from this one, in her almost two years.

Thanks to the 26” of snow she’s enjoying there, my flight was cancelled and I’m home, buddy.

So there was lots of quilt nest time, and some Rikke hat knitting (Tosh Nassau Blue, on Merino DK, if ONLY the color could get me closer to warmer climes). And yeah, I’ll confess, there was quite a bit of bad attitude on my part.

But I did add to my flock of Liberty geese. I finished cutting and marking the background today (for sure the most tedious part of this project) and hope to make even more this afternoon. As we left the apartment on Friday morning, to go to Joann’s like crazies before the snow, Lucy and I heard honking overhead. Geese! Two dozen or so, flying in three perfect small V’s to beat the storm. We stopped to look up, and were glad.

And I guess I am glad to be home with my buddies in the snow excitement, too.

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nametag

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christmas card, nametag, quilting, sewing

We’re ALL SHOCKED that I didn’t get my Sparkle Punch top done by today, right? Good thing Seacoast Modern Quilt Guild’s December meeting tomorrow morning is a sew-in. Maybe I’ll get that sucker pieced up. (Maybe…even backed and basted?)

Here’s what I did get done:

That’s my guild nametag! I used Steam-a-Seam to fuse teeny snippet scrap letters to a 5×5 square of Kona. I outlined the letters with one strand of black DMC floss in a blanket stitch, trimmed to about 2”x4”, backed it in an actual feedsack scrap (wearing my vintage fabric close to my heart heh), and bound it in the last shreds of a pink-and-orange chrysanthemum print that I bought at a LQS in Groningen.

(The fabric behind it is my “ugly” FQ for an ugly FQ swap, an Alexander Henry print that looks better online than in person. It was either this, or something hideously rust-colored with stars and oars–yeah, oars–, and hoping for good guild karma, I decided this is ugly enough but not…too ugly.)

I also got the Christmas card photo taken yesterday. Then I picked the cards and ordered them. In amateur-photography toddler-land, this is QUITE an accomplishment. Even though yeah, it took all day, wore us both out, and we spent the rest of the afternoon in our pajamas.

What a rotten mess.

Enough blathering; Fire Drill’s sitting next to me asking for some handquilting. Good luck sewing your gifts and photographing your toddlers-cats-dogs-uncooperative spouses-goldfish as we enter December crunch time!

that Sam-I-am! that Sam-I-am!

Tags

costume, halloween, sam i am costume, sewing

I do SO like that Sam-I-am. 🙂

Yesterday was Nate’s work Halloween party. Every year I am AMAZED by how much they pull out the stops for this thing. They have beer and wine for the grown-ups, a huuuge spread of snacky foods, piles of candy and treats for the kiddos, a pumpkin carving contest, cornholing, a donut eating contest–and these people do not kid around about their costumes. I maybe saw one other homemade costume running around the place–most of the others were very elaborate and impressive.

Lucy, who does not yet particularly care what she is for Halloween, recently became infatuated with Green Eggs and Ham. I have green-eggs-and-ham’ed until I am blue in the face. She can say “HAMMMMMM” in a bizarre voice. I thought this would be a precious costume that reflects her right-this-second interests.

I think I bought 1/2 a yard of yellow felt (72”) and 1/4 yard of red. Then some felt scraps of white, green, and black to make the eggs and ham. Taking a cue from a costume I found on Pinterest, I made a little wrist strap for her plate of eggs and ham. Lucy still wasn’t crazy about carrying the eggs and ham so people thought she was a gnome.

Still, a little gnome in a tall red hat is pretty durn cute, so whatever. I am trying to make an annual tradition out of Lucy-in-her-costume-with-her-Daddy-at-work pictures, so here’s this year’s:

Crappy lighting (mix of natural and artificial light gets the camera every time!) and Sam has her mouth full. Of sugar, no doubt. Still, her costume turned out cute, cost about $11, and took a hour or so to make. I’d do it again!

low light

Tags

family, sewing, space, teacup apron

 

Pardon the silence here. We’ve gone through a few minor changes this weekend: we’re now a 2-car family (hooray! no more driving husband to work and picking him up on days that Lucy needs to go to the Little Gym), and we have a new dining room table and chairs. Funny how having all those books forces one to downsize in other ways. Because my “sewing space” is also our eating space, my sewing space has changed, too.

We went pumpkin picking. Yeah, my 18-month-old says “pumpkin” AND “jack-o-lantern.” I love the long stem on my big pumpkin, and don’t think I can bring myself to carve it. Lu’s pumpkin is destined for pie (it’s a special variety of pie pumpkin) but shhh don’t tell.

And I made that Teacup Apron from Sew Liberated. In Liberty prints natch, for a special friend who’s a modernist. Couldn’t resist some Bloomsbury Gardens prints for a fellow Woolf-y.

I know this picture is blurred to heck, but I love how it is a quiet, still space full of things I chose and made and love. And if you haven’t bought your pumpkin yet…do it. now.

Sewing hard! I hope I can come up for air from all of this week’s stitching to show more brag pictures.

some days you’re the velociraptor

Tags

quilts, scrappy rainbow pillow

but most days, I’m the fence. You know, the one that the velociraptors systematically test for weaknesses?

After I got done cleaning up the cottage cheese avocado deli turkey mess that my toddler made at lunch, picked up all the books strewn about the apartment, and put all the foods back in the pantry, I put the little ‘raptor down for a reeeeaaally long nap. And I turned on the TV. And pulled out this little scrappy rainbow pillow top I’m rushing to finish.

I’m also trying my hand at blogging from the ol’ iPad. It makes fairly crummy pictures, but on days when I don’t even have the energy to open the laptop (much less find it take a picture upload the picture resize the picture blah blah), I love the ease of snap, blog, and go.

Hoping to have a finished pillow to show off tomorrow, and later this week, a post about holiday crafting!

recommended reading (lucy edition)

Tags

baby, books, childrens' books, kids' books, reading

Whoo boy. I just might have messed up my kid. Just a little.

(No, not her face. She messed that up herself. Yesterday. At the park. On the asphalt, throwing a tantrum so intense that she BARFED. And then scraped up her face. Yeah. We’re still reeling. Given that the kid has a 50+ word spoken vocabulary, tries to sing along to the ABC song, understands 120% of what we say to her, and has the two most stubborn willful people on the planet as parents, we suspect the Terrible Twos have just begun a little early. My mom claims I started them at 18 months, and we’re close to that.)

This kid is a READER. In an intense way. This kid would rather be read to than watch TV. She’d rather be read to than eat. If she had to choose between oxygen and one more go at The Cat In The Hat…well. Let’s be glad she doesn’t get to make that call.

Here are some weirdo non-classic kids’ books that she totally digs right now:

Here Comes the Cat, Frank Asch and Vladimir Vagin (please be more mature than me and don’t giggle at the authors’ names. They didn’t ask for my immaturity. Or yours). When we got this from the mail from McSweeney’s, I basically grunted and put it way up on the top shelf. The only text in the whole book is “Here comes the cat!”, which a bunch of little mice run around shrilling at each other until, well, the cat comes. Then the cat leaves. Riveting. But to a 17-month-old? This stuff is fascinating. Lucy finds the book especially fascinating if you read “Here comes the cat!” in your shrillest mousiest voice. The pictures are also lovely with lots of detail and movement.

Bink and Gollie: Two for One, Kate DiCamillo, Alison McGhee, Tony Fucile. I’ve discussed this book before so I will just say that this book has been promoted from “one Dad reads at bedtime because he likes it but Lucy would way rather read The Monster At The End of This Book again” to a book that Lucy slings at us, over and over again, hooting and whimpering until we read it again. Why? I think she likes the part where the woman and the cat “sing” at the talent show. I think she loves understanding the pictures where the Whack-a-Duck man gets honked in the face with a baseball. She loves finding Bink and Gollie in any of the pictures. I’m glad I bought the hardcover, because her ARC is going to bite it any day.

I Must Have Bobo!, Eileen Rosenthal, Marc Rosenthal. Holy cow. We got this book from Amazon on a Thursday. By Friday morning, Lucy was spending half an hour at a time on the floor with this book, shouting “Gibberish burble blub BOBO!!!” She’d hold up her hands, look at me pleadingly, and say, “Bobo?!?” And then she’d shout “EARL!” Seriously. The plot of this one is also simple, but the drawings are line-based, comic-book-ish drawings (think Tin Tin). A little boy, Willy, wakes up missing his sock monkey, Bobo. The prime suspect is the family cat, Earl. Hilarity ensues.

Don’t get me wrong, we do our share of The Bear Snores On, Where’s Spot, and Elmo’s entire literary oeuvre. Lucy’s taught me, though, not to automatically decide she’s too little or too young to understand some more big-kid type books, and she has gotten so much more enjoyment out of these “real” books lately than she has her old board books. I’d encourage any parent of an 18-month-old to branch out. I’m thinking we might even try some poetry with her next?

Any weirdo kids’ books your baby loves that you’d love to recommend? I love buying books other people have enjoyed and raved about.

apple picker

Tags

baby, family, photos

The skinniest, baldest, and–dare I say–the cutest? apple picker in the orchard yesterday:

I had so much fun taking pictures, and then even MORE fun playing with the photos in Photoshop. I downloaded the Pioneer Woman’s Photoshop Action Sets and had just. a. blast. last night.

I’m super-late to the Photoshop Action party, but I have a feeling I’ll make up for lost time this week.

honey lately

Tags

baby, family, photos, she only smiles quilt

Oh. my. gosh. Two weeks since my last post! There’s no excuse. But, in my defense, we’ve been busy. Good busy, corn-on-the-cob busy, Old Town Hill busy, biscuits-and-honey-and-brand-new-quilts busy:

But we’ve also been plenty of bad busy too. Lucy had a minor infection that required a week of antibiotics. She didn’t feel well or eat great because of it, and I also had to clean the house–WITH BLEACH–from top to bottom. Several times. I’m just now getting my feet back under me. Lucy’s back to 100%, thank goodness for her kind pediatrician, sulfa drugs and Elmo On Demand. (Needless to say, we’ve been indulging in a little too much television.)

I was able to finish my green She Also Smiles quilt, and gifted it to a friend who is moving to Portland. I think she was pleased. 

I had a heck of a time getting a picture of it, because when Lucy hears that camera beep, she’s pretty sure she’s supposed to be posing. Also, she’s got this thing about walking on differently-textured surfaces, so she loves to have a quilt spread on the floor to play, sit, and watch television from.

Today? More cutting. I have a new quilt top to show you sometimes this week (as soon as I can snap a toddler-free picture of it) and I’m already ready to start a new project! Here’s hoping to avoid any baby-illness-related unexpected hiatuses. 🙂

cutting days

Tags

baby, plus quilt, quilts

I’ve been busy recovering from our vacation all. week. Not only did I bring home the world’s biggest sandiest dirtiest pile of laundry, I brought it home to one of the world’s dirtiest apartments. This week I scrubbed the kitchen floor! On my hands and knees, with a brush and a bucket! (Swiffer generation.)

So it’s been nice to finally pull out the stack of greens and blues I sorted out before the trip and get into some cutting. This pile, mostly Hello Pilgrim, is destined to become a simple plus quilt, to be shipped overseas to a lovely couple we know from Groningen who just got married. This past weekend. Yeah, I’m a little late. It’s simple patchwork, so barring disaster, I should be able to get this shipped off by the end of August.

And here’s a terrible picture of that little Kona fat eighth stack I won from Elizabeth over at Oh, Fransson! square quilted throw pillow shams at this point, quilted with thick black embroidery floss. I’ve either got to find a backing print to coordinate with these sort of odd colors, or use the Kona Tangerine yardage I impulsively bought and have had hanging around for two years. I’m certainly interested to see what I decide.

And just in case anybody wonders what I do with the baby during all of this…well. Usually she’s asleep. She takes good 2-3 hour afternoon naps at this point. (I’m convinced she only sleeps 1.5-2 hours of this time, needing the rest to decompress by herself in her crib. She loves her crib, and is clearly her mother’s daughter.) But sometimes I do try and get a few things accomplished while she’s awake, and she looks a bit like this:

That is the striped bar from her Tiny Love baby amusement mat thing, the one she used to lie under when she was 2 months old and bat at the toys. She dragged it out of her closet today. She also sports an Ikea coster, and my favorite Crate and Barrel dishtowel. Why, yes, she does get stuck trying to go through doorways.

thank goodness for pinterest

Tags

baby, family, pinterest, rainy day

I only have one kid, and she’s a) easy to get along with, and b) still really little, so I cannot. even. imagine how difficult rainy summer days are for most moms. It rained most of the day yesterday and Lucy and I felt pretty cooped up, despite having gone out for a quick power walk before the storms started.

Thankfully, I’d “pinned” this idea a few weeks ago. (Pin here, original post here.) I’d NEVER in a million zillion years have come up with this on my own: squeeze finger paint into a ziploc bag, tape it to a window, and let the baby finger-paint, mess-free! Lucy loved it. And I love that there are waaaay smarter mommas than me out there, who share their good ideas on the internet.