Let's Paint

Hard to believe it's been a week since I was retreating on the East coast with fellow quilters. We all brought several projects to work on and I believe everyone accomplished quite a bit. But it wasn't about deadlines for me, I was just there to sew. And eat. My favorite things. Affiliate link alert ahead.

Kathryn, wowed us with a demonstration using Inktense pencils and water soluble pastels. She brought several of her masterpieces, which were so inspiring. Then she let us play with her colors. I think more than a few of us are asking Santa for these sets.

I colored on some flowers that Kathryn had stitched up. She's a master quilter too. Girl has mad skills.

Kathryn also showed us how to use the pastels to create silk screen images. You simply color an image on the screen and use medium to squeegee the image onto fabric. How fun is that?

I whipped up another I Spy fabric book for my little cousins. Big sister loves the one I made her, so I made one for her to read to her new brother. He was born on Halloween, so I used some Halloween fabric for the cover. The blue crabs are our family's favorite, and football is big in that family too.

I brought a bag of selvages and sewed them down on muslin. Not sure where these will end up. Somewhere.

Loaded baked potato soup for dinner last night. I threw some diced tomatoes on as a garnish. I wanted to make a Thai red curry soup, but college boy and the Inspector probably preferred the potato soup. Whatever, it has cheese and bacon in it and I didn't have any cilantro for Thai cooking. I've also been craving beef and barley soup. I could make soup every day.

Happy Halloween!

I had a little fun making this zombie. The askew pigtails cracked me up. There's a boy version too. You can get the patterns here. I had the yarn out earlier trying to crochet something, but that didn't work out. I'm all about repurposing.

Carving the jack-o-lantern was a bit less fun. Yuck, what a mess. I am in awe of those that can carve intricate designs into one-inch thick pumpkin walls. I wanted to do the throw up version, but I decided to roast the seeds since everyone likes them.

I did discover a cool idea this year. Cut the bottom of the pumpkin out for the light source. What an aha moment. The top stays nice and you don't have to reach in and scorch your hands to light it. Just sit your jack-o-lantern on a light source and voila.

Enjoy your Halloween. I'm off to make mummy dogs, baked bean larvae, spider deviled eggs, apple mouths, cheese fingers, and spinach dip barf. I have to do something to get that image of Matt Lauer as Pam Anderson from Baywatch out of my head.

Another Blogtoberfest down the drain. Thanks for keeping me company.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you and yours. I hope the Easter Bunny visited and dropped off a pretty basket filled with goodies. If not, all that Easter finery will be on clearance tomorrow, go get you some. Continuing my paper piecing frenzy, I found a little carrot to sew.

I had to make a little "Flat Sally" for a certain little girl. I'm sure her Easter basket(s) will be brimming with candy and toys, but I wanted to tuck in a little homemade something. She'll probably try to eat it.

I had way too much time on my hands Friday and decided to try to make homemade Peeps from a recipe in the newspaper. College Boy was home and even helped me pipe the birds. First, you boil sugar and water to 245 degrees. I get sweaty when I break out my candy thermometer. Me and candy making, not so much. I've sacrificed many pounds of sugar over the years trying to make candy. I have stories.

After your mixture is hot enough to melt lava, you beat that screeching hot liquid with gelatin. Look at that mixer go. It takes about 5-6 minutes and voila, you have homemade marshmallows. And a sink full of sticky dishes and utensils. What a mess. :( This stuff hardens quickly, so you have to work fast.

We piped bird-like blobs and dusted them in colored sugar. I didn't taste them, but the kids say they taste nothing like Peeps. Preservatives must add that distinctive Peep flavor. I was going to use them as decoration for an Easter dessert, but they may just become a topic of conversation. I'm going to put melted chocolate some eyes on a few, pry them off the parchment paper, throw them on a plate and call it a day.

Luckily, you can't mess up deviled eggs. Well, unless you put sweet pickle relish in them. Ha! Just kidding, but we like them sans sweet. I tried making a few look like little chicks with triangle carrot beaks, olive eyes and parsley combs.

We're having a crab boil for Easter dinner. My favorite! I think someone is doing a ham, but crabs are the main course. My mom is making her potato salad and I also made a chocolate eclair dessert. I can't wait to see the spread. Potlucks are so fun.

Dog Days of Summer

I was thrilled to get my paws on this long coveted Moxie the Doxie pattern by Bad Skirt. I've followed Amy's blog for a long time and she makes the coolest stuff. To celebrate a million page views, she is graciously sharing her doxie pattern through September. Here's the dear pup in pieces. I must make a bunch of softies, because I'm almost through my second bag of fiber fill. That stuff makes me itch.

Meet Spot, the colorful dachshund. He'll have to live with an older kid because of the buttons. I thought he turned out pretty cute and the pattern walks you through each and every step. With pictures. My kind of pattern.

Someone forgot to buy lettuce at the market, so we've been eating a lot of tomato, avocado, radish, and fresh herb salads. I don't even bother with a dressing. Just a drizzle of balsamic, salt, and pepper. I picked up some lovely watercress yesterday, so we can go back to salads. Inspector Gadget is not a fan of watercress, but when I see a good bunch of it, I have to buy it.

Another quilt for AAQI. Our guild challenge for September was to make AAQI quilts. There were so many cute ones. You can see them right here. I never tire of making these little quilts. I'm looking forward to a rainy weekend with lots of cooking and sewing.

It's Spring!

I had some T-shirts to upcycle, so I found a few tutorials to play around with. This Recycled Mooshy Belly Bunny is by the clever Chez Beeper Bebe. She makes all kinds of cute things and shares a variety of tutorials. My bunny looks like a child made it, but my daughter loved it. She saw me making it before she left for school and begged for the finished bunny.

I also tried making a skirt from a T-shirt, but that was a total fail. The concept looked good, but it didn't quite work out. Too bad an Abercrombie shirt had to die, but it was in the poor kids box anyway. Now I have a fancy designer dust rag. Hollywood probably wouldn't have worn the skirt anyway, but I had to give it a try.

I decided to give the Granny Square block another try using a much quicker strip piecing method. And check out this oversize Granny Square block using colorful nine patches. I really have enjoyed seeing all these Granny Squares popping up in blogland. Such a darling block and I love the bright colors the others have used.

My attention span (and scrap stash) was good for about four of these blocks. They will work perfect for a mini quilt. And maybe I'll get brave and do some free motion quilting.

Chicken wings for dinner last night. I like to bake them on my oven broiler pan. Put foil on the bottom part for easy clean up and spray the top part with cooking spray. I bake them for an hour at 350 degrees, then crank the oven up to 425 degrees for the last 10 minutes. The wings we get are pretty large. Those chickens have serious guns. The result is fall-off-the-bone, perfectly cooked wings.

And because I was feeling lazy, I only served a crudite platter with the wings. I stuffed those mini peppers with a cream cheese and feta mixture. Tada, easy dinner. And plenty of leftovers for lunches.

Saturday Silliness

Guess who the waif is? Hollywood! Design budgets don't always allow for professional models. College Boy's infant face was on the side of a city bus one year and Inspector Gadget and I modeled quite a bit in our newspaper days. Hollywood was really shy at that age, so I knew she wouldn't smile around my photographer. I swear I didn't scold her for the sake of art.

See, she's smiling later in the shoot. Big brother came to work with mom too. I'm going to try to get them to pose like this now.

I couldn't resist these house ornaments by Retro Mama. Aren't they adorable? I may have to make more of these cuties. Retro Mama has a great blog with tons of other fun patterns too. I just realized I forgot the doorknob button.

 I'm off to play with these books.

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

I couldn't resist this cute bunny pattern by the Quilted Cupcake. I thought he needed a little quilt too. I used Carol's single fold binding tutorial, which is just perfect for little quilts.

I finished this little quilt for my swap partner. The roofs of the houses are prairie points. I might add some buttons or other embellishments to jazz it up a little.

I'm hoping to find some time for those April UFOs this week if I can recover from last week's massive to-do list. It's only 9 am, but I need a nap.

TGIF

I made another one of those Fluffy Stuffy Bunnies. The dress pattern is available now. There sure are some talented crafters out in blogland. I love that they share their patterns.

This bunny will accompany my February doll quilt, which is now quilted and bound.

Here's another crafter you must check out: Ayumi from Pink Penguin. This patchwork wristlet was made from her tutorial. She has several other clever tutorials and you'll love the way she puts fabrics together.

I got a new computer! No, not that ancient Mac above. That MacIIsi above was my very first home computer. It had a 40MB hard drive and 2MB of RAM. I paid $4,000 for it in 1991. Gulp. You can get a lot of computer for $4,000 now. My computer geek son learned on that machine 17+ years ago. Needless to say, he's surpassed me in technology. I hate to think of how many computers I've had in that 20-year span, but truly, what did we do without them?

I still use a Mac for my graphic design business and any drawing and drafting projects. I use a Windows-based laptop for everything else. I spent yesterday transferring files and loading software on my new laptop. It's running smoothly and doesn't sound like it's going to blow up like my old one.

Distractions

Hare Heiney

An adorable and easy stuffie/softie pattern by the talented Jenni B. Harris of Allsorts. A reversible dress is coming. It's So Fluffy! Bunny Pattern

I stumbled across this fun little project. I used 2.25" squares, so mine is kind of tiny. Valentine's Heart Wall Hanging

I finally finished my winter scarf production. I decided I didn't like making scarves. I can never figure out how to wear them either. This one has a pretty purple silk dupioni on the other side. I did some freestyle piecing and paired the patchwork with some shot cotton.

Speaking of distractions, I guess I'm not getting any laundry folded either. Silly dog.