hit the ground running

Vacation was awesome.  We ate lots of really great food, found a microbrewery and drank lots of really great beer.  We took naps in the middle of the day.  Yes we watched bad TV… a little Charmed, some Angel, Ghostbusters 2, C snuck in some syfy channel.  We went for a hike in the forest preserve, which was beautiful when we stopped to look around.  The bugs were so thick we speed walked the entire 2 miles.  We bummed around the downtown areas, shopping in art galleries, olive oil and wine tasting shops.  It was nice.

= Pic is of what I think is an immature eagle.  It was bigger than any hawk I’ve seen.  He/she landed in a tree right along side the road.  I’m bummed you can’t see his coloring but I snapped the photo quickly from inside the car.
= We also saw wild turkey’s crossing the road, and swarms of mosquito like bugs.
= There were several pieces of art that we discussed purchasing.  One was a copper owl/moon/crystal wind chime, only it didn’t chime it was more for just pretty.  The copper was fired to give the moon and owl color and it was pretty neat.
= I found a leather purse that I liked a lot too.  Soft leather with a unique design, hand dyed, from somewhere in Pennsylvania.
= We fell in love with this clock the most and it’s what came home with us.  The pendulum swings and its a million different colors.  I think the green face is what sold us.  It’s very unique and fun.  It’s also three different layers so it stand maybe 5 inches out from the wall.  It’s created by David Scherer, who after googling him seems to have his clocks all over the internet. 

= What was best about the trip is that we actually got to relax.  And R had a wonderful time with his grandparents.  Actually I think they had an even better time than he did.
= We got home Sunday and landed on our feet.  Unpacking, starting laundry, getting R back in routine, cooking dinner/food for lunches during the week. 
= For Mother’s Day R made put together a small succulent garden.  It’s pretty awesome.  He picked out the plants and played in the dirt himself.  He also gave me a big slobbery kiss.  Can’t ask for much more.
= There’s a million other things to do this week, and in the next few weeks.  And I’m actually looking forward to most of them.

two new projects

M might kill me.  OK, well maybe not kill me but I definitely think of her lectures when I start a new project before finishing any of my 20 others.  I have two new piles of fabric in my house.  Just piles right now.  I don’t have any intention of cutting into them for a little bit.  I do need to finish a project or two before that.  But one definitely has a deadline.  The first pile is my deadline pile.  It’s also not a finished pile for the project in mind.  I know quite a few little babies coming into the world late this year and this pile will become a baby blanket for one of them.  I don’t know if it’s a boy or girl yet so I’m going to make it a neutral blanket.  I want to add some cream, red, and yellow to the accent fabrics.  I’m very excited at the beginnings of this project.  And that the main color will be grey.  What’s with grey lately?  It’s every where and I’m loving it.

The second pile is or will be Mom and mine’s second collaboration quilt.  The first was done in batiks.  Which seemed a good place to start.  To me batiks are all about the color, and not so much the pattern.  While looking for some inspirational batiks we came across Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  They are not batiks but bright bold patterned fabrics that were really beautiful.  After some more searching we found a bundle on etsy that contained 20 fat quarters of a combo of Kaffe Fassett and Philip Jacobs fabrics.  Both have large prints and tend to be floral.  The bundle contained the whole spectrum of colors.  We ordered this and divided up the fabrics so Mom has 10 fat quarters that are different from my fat quarters.  Then this weekend we went out shopping for some coordinating solids. 
This is going to be quite the challenge working with the prints.  The really large prints I’ll treat like a batik and the small prints I’ll use as normal.  That’s my plan right now.  We’re enlarging the blocks to 10 inches and we have no set rules as to how or what those blocks will become.  It’s more of a learning experiment in sewing.  Mom talked about working with curves on some of her blocks.  And I’ve seen some interesting techniques on Pinterest that I’d like to try out.
I probably won’t cut into this fabric in the near future.  I figured out how to finish the first collaboration and am anxious to work on the borders.  Finishing that is one of the top things on my list.  I’ll deal with that when we’re back from Wisconsin.

Monday Randomness

>> We had another busy weekend.  My folks came down and we all hung out and played and ate good food
>> I splurged on the diet after going 10 days of doing really well and barely losing a pound.
>> I’ll start back up next week
>> We’re leaving for vacation Wednesday.  3 Nights in Door County Wisconsin.  Super excited
>> I might be most excited about going for hikes in the forest preserve…but I’m also real excited to just relax for a few days.
>> I’m starting to pack..it’ll be chilly that far north and by the lake.
>> We wend to the zoo on Saturday.  Had a great time.  R was into looking at the animals this time
>> R stayed up to see the Super Moon Saturday night.  It was very bright…but other than that I’d seen bigger moons in the past.
>> Mom and I hit up our local quilt shop…I like this little store more and more.  I now have fabric for two more projects. 
>> I made the final decision on how to finish up the Collaboration quilt.  Now all I need is time.  It’ll be at least a week before I get to work on it again.
>> I played with some film cameras for the first time in months.  35mm in both the blue slim and lomo.  I need to drop off the film to be developed.  Thinking about bringing both cameras on vacation too.
>> Is it wrong that I kinda just want to spend half a day in the hotel room reading and watching bad tv??  That sounds so relaxing.
>> Tomatoes are in the ground and garden is full of seeds.  Hoping to get green bean, zucchini, and cantaloupe seedlings by the time I get back.  I have some extra space…thinking about some banana peppers
>> C finished his album…check your mailboxes next week if you know us. 
>>  Off to go pack some handwork for the trip.  I’m thinking the letters and maybe my afghan.

adventures in critters in the back yard

Our house backs up to park district land.  First there are woods, then a huge field that is actually a floodplain so no worries of houses coming in, and if you go even farther there is a creek.  We’ve had all sorts of critters in the back, deer, raccoons, opossum, wild turkeys, and other ones I’m sure I’m not aware of.  R loves to walk to the creek.  We go down there now and then and let him throw rocks into the water.  Sunday we were following the path to creek when we saw what was probably once a opossum carcass in the path.  We carried R around the body so he wouldn’t investigate and continued to the creek.  While they went ahead I went back with a large stick and moved the carcass into the wooded area so we wouldn’t have to worry about R. 

On our return trip to the creek we saw a huge bird land in a tree very near us.  We weren’t that close to the carcass yet, and I had forgotten about it.  It was huge.  We thought it was a hawk at first.  We see a lot of those but not this close up.  We stopped and pointed it out to R.  The giant bird took off and began to fly in circles, around us and the surrounding area.  I could see the red in its head and figured it was probably a turkey vulture.  I had see these farther south but I figure it’s not unheard of to see them here.  And they are bigger than hawks.  And the circling was definitely vulture like.  It was a bit unnerving to be sort of hunted/circled like that.  Enough that both C and I grabbed R’s hands and kept him between us.  Although I’m fairly certain he was protecting it’s lunch…not looking for a fresh one.  It sort of reminded me of this scene from Ice Age 2.

Anyway we walked the rest of the way home carrying R.  The vulture continued to circle us until we reached the street.  Creepy, but at the same time I wish I’d had my camera.

In other news I have my sewing machine back.  My ego was slightly bruised by the dealership people commenting on my not so straight lines of my quilt, but I’m getting over it.  I did tell him not to judge.  I quilted three lines w/ the machine without a hitch which is more than I’ve gotten before.  Put the quilt away and started piecing Rocky and Bullwinkle.  It felt so good to be creative again.  Now to find a happy balance of handwork (my letters) and machine work. 

letter magnets

Here are some pics of a handful of the letters I’ve been working on.  I used scraps of fabric from my bin.  Lots of them are from the play mat.  And the back is a pool blue solid I got at jo-anne fabrics. 

R got a hold of them yesterday.  He liked them a lot.  He would take one letter tell me what letter it was and what color it was and then go throw it on the floor and come back from another.  I have to hurry up and finish them up so he can go ahead and keep them…or loose them under something.

I sewed a blanket stitch around the edges to help prevent any raveling and also to give them a more finished look.  The letters are about 3-4 inches tall.  I was too cheap to buy some letters to trace…so these letters are in my handwriting.  Which is good b/c it makes them unique…and maybe bad b/c I’ve never had great handwriting.  Some letters could be doubled for others.  Like my “M” and my “W” and the “d” and the “p.”  Oh well.  They are what they are.  The longest part of this project is the blanket stitch.  I’m enjoying the handwork.  I worked solidly last night while watching two episodes of Buffy.
The shop called today to tell my my machine is back.  I’ll pick it up tomorrow and hopefully sew on it this weekend.  I’m very nervous that I’ll still have problems.  I’m ready to be done with these issues and just sew.  I’d pick it up after work but I have a date with a treadmill. 

Summer Goals

While my sewing machine is in the shop my to do list is growing at an alarming rate.  I’m going to have to sit down and evaluate what takes priority in my sewing world.  In the mean time I’ve been making a fabric alphabet for R.  He’s completely into his letters and numbers right now.  Recognizes half of the alphabet on his own.  I found this fun project on the Moda blog and decided to make a set for R.  I’m using the Moda project as inspiration.  Mine will be constructed differently… mostly because I bought the wrong interfacing.  But I’m working with what I have.  I’ll take pictures soon to share.

Other than adding to my sewing to do list I’ve also been mentally making a summer goals list.  Here’s what I have so far.

~ I need to stock up on some more homemade jam.  The apple-cranberry jam was a hit so more of that.  More of the raspberry-jalapeno jam and I’d like to make a strawberry rhubarb jam.  That’s a lot of jam but it would be nice to have a selection around the house.
~ enroll R in swimming lessons. 
~ I think we want to do the front yard this spring…rip everything out and plant grass
~ I need to get my veggie garden in soon…simple again this year.  tomatoes, green beans, and zucchinis
~ I now officially know 3 people having babies in Nov and one earlier in the fall.  I need to figure out if I’m going to be sewing gifts and get on it.
~ That takes priority over my other sewing projects
~ But I’d like to make it a goal this summer to sew a purse and try some embroidery
~ Finally I’d like to become more physically active…get in better shape.  Wednesday’s are going for hike days this summer, and I plan to start working out again after work.  Long days but I hope to feel better physically.

reason my muscles are sore

Sunday we ripped out the railroad ties that form the wall around this garden and made a mud pile.  Here’s a nice picture of our mud pile. 

Sunday and yesterday I worked on building the two rock steps in the mud pile.  I really love the look of flag stone.  Our neighbor gave us this stone when she decided she didn’t have a use for it.  It wasn’t enough to do the two step look I wanted.  So the larger bottom step I used the large lava rock boulders from our front yard.  Some of these rocks are the size of basketballs.  They are really quite large and they are very very sharp.  I tried to grab ones that were more eroded and dulled but they’ll still cut you if you’re not careful.  We have lots more in the front we need to attempt to get rid of soon.

Yesterday I also started replanting the plants that were in the garden.  I was beat so I didn’t get everything replanted yet.  But you get the general idea.  This is mostly a shade area so I want to go get some coral bells to plant under there as well.  And I’m hoping it’s not too shady so that sedum will grow around the rocks and in the very front part of the garden.  I also want to replace the gutter drainage tube with a smaller diameter one so and run it along the top of the garden.  This was a fun project to do.  I’d forgotten how much I love playing in the dirt.  I was so tired and drained after working in there but I felt so good.  =)

Last night I got the fabric to finish the collaboration quilt.  I’m so excited about it.  It’s a little crazy but I think it’ll work.  At least it’s going to work better than anything else I’ve found.  I think it’s going to be cool.  And now I’m sad that my machine is in the shop.  I’m really excited about this and the thought of hand sewing the border seems a little overwhelming.  We’ll see tonight where my inspiration is. 

weekend primed for disaster becomes a whole lot of fun

We had a busy, fun, happy, silly weekend…but I sure didn’t think it would turn out that way.  Friday I took my sewing machine in to the shop, I’ve only had it 5 months.  That’s still not rubbing me right.  R woke up early, 5am early both Saturday and Sunday.  The weatherman/person/people was promising storms, wind, and crazy weather.  Here’s how we turned it all around.

Friday night…had taco bell for dinner.  Ok yes taco bell is gross, but it’s kinda of a treat to us.  We’ve been trying hard not to spend money going out to eat so it was wonderful to just wrap up our papers and not have dishes that night.
Friday night…watched Resident Evil.  and made plans to watch a bunch more summer movies
Saturday AM…up early, decided to pack up some coffee and head out for a hike at the forest preserve before rain hits.  630 out the door…its pouring by the time we get to the car.  Instead open up the garage, sit on the trucks tailgate, and sip coffee while R plays in the rain and splashes in the puddles.
Saturday AM….still raining off and on…so we rearrange our living room furniture to create a huge fort.  Then play in the fort for the rest of the morning.  C game up with a good floor plan, two couches formed two walls, the railing made a third wall and a trunk created a half fourth wall.  We didn’t take the fort down until Sunday evening.
While R naps….make a double batch of oreo cheesecake cookies.  no egg so R can eat them.  Started hand sewing the rocky and bullwinkle blanket…learning to enjoy the handwork again.
Saturday late afternoon…pack up R and cookies and beer and head to a friend’s house for pizza.  R did so good.  He played with the big kids.  There are three kids all much older than him but they played with him and let R play with his toys.  C and I were able to be in the other room for periods of time while R played good their kids.  It was a lot of fun.  R was up late…we thought he’d sleep in.  He did not.
Sunday morning…coffee and cartoons until we woke up.  I thought we’d do a quick playtime outside but the mild weather and wonderful breeze made playing outside a blast.  We were in the yard all morning.  Picking dandelions and letting R destroy them.  Picking up maple seeds and watching them helicopter in the wind.  R made many attempts to tackle a big green ball.  We had plans to picnic in the yard for lunch, but R fell asleep before we could.
While R napped…caught up with M on the phone.  Read in my Vanity Fair magazine.
Sunday afternoon…decided to start on a yard project we’d been discussing.  We ripped out a railroad tie retaining wall that wasn’t very high but was falling down.  In it’s place I’m digging/shaping the dirt into two natural steps using the lava rock boulders from our front yard.  In the steps will be a flower garden.  I dug in the dirt for hours Sunday.  R and C helped.  The picture is of R helping. I was trying to get him to put rocks in the bucket…but he found something else to put in the bucket.  I worked on the steps until the storms blew in around 7.  By that time I was exhausted and happy. 

I’m hoping to get back to the garden project tonight or tomorrow.  Yesterday I continued to hand stitch R+B, it’s going faster now.  Tomorrow I go shopping for the backing fabric for the collaboration quilt.

machine in the shop

Today I chain pieced 144 pieces off rocky and bullwinkle fabric to sashing.  It was my first time chain piecing and it went well and I enjoyed it.  Then I attempted to quilt the bargello again.  And I had more problems….my thread kept breaking, I’d loose tension, and it skipped stitches right and left.  Frustrated I tried a different area of the quilt with less seams.  And I had the same results.  I’ve had a frustrating week and so this put me over. I took the machine up to the shop and had them look at it.  They didn’t see anything obvious wrong with it.  The one suggestion they had was that I had too big of a spool of thread on the machine causing extra tension.  I’m not really sure I buy that…So I had them send the machine in to be looked at.  It’s under warranty and so shouldn’t cost me anything.  I’m very frustrated with this machine.  I’ve only had it 5 months and have had problems with tension from day one.  Hopefully it comes back fixed.  If not I might wage war, since this is not the machine I was told I was buying.

So the machine will be out for 2 weeks.  Not real sure what I’ll work on in the mean time.  I could had sew some rocky and bullwinkle.  I could hand sew a bag idea I had.  It’d be slow going.  I’ve gotten quite spoiled by the speed of a machine.  Maybe I’ll focus on house projects.  We need to rip out a low retaining wall and either replace or work on some landscaping.  I’m very unfocused lately.  I guess I’ll just default to what Mom always says to do….work on what you’re excited about. 

distractions

Every now and again I get a little frustrated at the real world and take to the world of books for a distraction.  That’s where I’ve been the last two weeks.  Lost in a land of fiction.  I’ve only been surfacing to play and take care of R and C or to read reviews of other books to read on amazon.  Depending on how big of a distraction I need I can get pretty lost in the land of fiction and in reality this is the only time I really make for myself to read.  And I like to read…so after typing all that I guess this is a good cycle to be on.
I can find it difficult to surface from lala land.  My creative energies disappear and it’s difficult to get them back.  Yesterday I sat down at the sewing machine to try and stimulate some creative juices.  My binding is sewn onto the play mat so that’s done at the machine.  I thought I’d give a go at quilting on the bargello again.  On the first line of quilting my thread broke half way through.  On the second line of quilting I finished only to fine my tension was totally and completely screwed up on the back.  At first I decided to just box this quilt up…it apparently doesn’t like me and right now I’m not too fond of it either.  Later in the evening I sat with my ripper and ripped out the offending stitches and I wasn’t quite as mad.  Maybe I will finish the bugger.  But I’m pretty sure that project is out to get me.  I did manage to cut out all the blocks for the Bullwinkle blanket.  So that just needs some time at the sewing machine to start seeing that come together. 
I’m not quite in full inspiration mode.  I’m not even really sure I want to leave the land of fiction yet.  I have a couple books in line that sound like interesting reads.  And we have some spring projects we want to do around the house and yard.  Sewing might still be taking a back seat for a while.  But at least I sat down and tried for a while yesterday.