Make-A-List Monday Week 8 - Happy Memorial Day

 I am a total sucker for patriotic holidays. Blame my childhood. And my family. Here's the math:

2 grandpas who were career Marines
3 Marine Corps uncles
1 born-on-the-fourth-of-July dad
1 Air Force husband
2 Marine Corps brothers
= one flag-waving, tears-up during the national anthem every time, patriotic little me. And don't even get me started on God Bless America, God Bless the U.S.A., and America the Beautiful. My kids are partial to the Air Force song.

We started this tradition when we moved to Seattle. The Washelli cemetery in Seattle has a very large military section. They do a special afternoon Memorial Day ceremony each year. But before that, early in the morning before that,  a group of people, mostly Boy Scouts (love the scouts!) go and place the flags at the gravesites. And they let my little family participate.

See - here's my awesome husband showing my two oldest how it's done.

And my oldest boy doing it all by himself. So sad we couldn't find a local cemetery to do this at this year. It was a lovely tradition. We'll still go to the cemetery and see who's got flags out and talk about it. It's important to know and talk about.

Yes, this is a quilty blog. But it's my blog. And today, I'm thinking about the men and women who sacrificed so much for my freedom. One day a year isn't too much to ask of me.

But now I will move on to quilting matters.

Here's what I'm working on this week:

Finish quilting and binding this quilt:

(and there would be a picture if I could find my flippin' camera, but it seems to have sprouted little legs and wandered away)

Cut up my charms for the Boy/Girl I-Spy charm swap (pretty sure there are still spots available if you're interested) and the Yummy Sherbet charm swap (I'm in the lime/mango group). The fabric arrives tomorrow.

Clean/organize my sewing room. Again. For the eleventy billionth time.

Finish cutting and start sewing on my daughter's adventure backpack (needed more fabric for this one).

That's a decent little list. What are you all up to this week?

Winner Winner Pie for Dinner

You have the chicken. I'll have pie for dinner, thanks. Blackberry. With pistachio ice cream. Don't knock it 'til you try it. It's awesome.

Okay, I'm doing a giveaway every time because reading your comments was vastly entertaining.

I said vastly in my head with a British accent. It was funny.

On to the winner's circle:

So I'll let you guys count up the comments and get back to me on the winners.

Just kidding. I'm a math nerd. I love to count things.

#4:
Crunchy Con Mommy said...

my favorite cake is chocolate, my favorite color is hot pink, my favorite book is the Chronicles of Narnia, and my favorite ice cream is cookies n' cream :)

 #51:
 Allison said...

Thanks for the great giveaway! My favorite Super Hero is the Incredible Hulk :)

 #171:

Breanna S. said...

my favorite thing right now is my nephew who is due in 4 weeks but if that isn't good enough my favorite summer food is corn on the cob and my favorite craft is currently knitting.

I've sent you all e-mails, so be on the lookout.

Congratulations to all of you. It was great fun reading your comments. I'm so glad I have many kindred spirits out there.

I'll be back on Monday with more quilting crazy fun!

Friday Finish: the one where I'm a little nuts

There are nine children, all eight and under, in my house right now. At 7:05 a.m.

I am officially crazy.

Five are mine. The other four belong to a friend who is moving and she has a boatload of last minute stuff to do before she heads out of town this morning.

Um, I kinda offered to have them over this morning. See, crazy.

Nah, they're good kids, and cartoons make zombies out of them all. Some monkey bread and milk and I'll look like Mom of the year.

Okay, on to my finish. You don't need to know how crazy I am.

I did get something finished this week. Can I get a hallelujah? C'mon, don't leave a girl hanging!

This little red and aqua barn raising quilt has been on my finished but not quilted stack (I'm not the only one with one of those stacks right) for forever. Like, I finished it in Seattle. That was a year and many boxes ago.

So it went to the top of the "Move on it Woman" list (also known as my 2nd Quarter finish-along list). I'm also trying to get as much done as possible while my husband is out of town.

Okay, blah blah blah. Time for pictures.

Just some straight line quilting, backed in aqua flannel and bound with red gingham. If you're new here, gingham binding is sorta my thing. Some people are famous for their sunglasses, others for their shoes. Me, I'm famous (in my head) for my gingham bindings.

It's soft and snuggly and, blast it all, too small. But my baby girl likes it. See:

She had a great time crawling around on it while I was trying to take pictures. See that bright light in the sky? It's sunshine. And we've been missing it!

I've got my other red/aqua quilt to baste (after I clear out the excess children) and then I'm getting to quilting that puppy.

For the record, I don't quilt puppies. So don't be calling the PETA people over that. If they want to haul me in, it can be for bacon consumption.

Have a fabulous weekend! Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Oh, and hey, you've got a few more hours to enter the giveaway. So get to it!

WIP Wednesday: Survival Mode

I'm totally channeling Gloria Gaynor these days.

I will survive.

I have even more respect for single moms. Mine is only temporary, but man is it tough! As an FYI, my brilliant law student is doing an internship in Seattle for the summer. I am not in Seattle. I am 5.5 hours away, so I'm single momming it until July.

And to top it all off, I'm without an ironing board. I mean, my husband I can do without (not really!) for many weeks, but I fall to pieces when I don't have my ironing board for three days.

I loaned it to a friend and they said they would bring it right back and it's been three days and I'm going batty. Am I a little nutso? I'm hoping not. Methinks I will have to go over there to fetch it back, because I've got two quilts that are queued up to be quilted and I've got to press those babies first. These two:

Yes, part of my red/aqua obsession. Both of these are on my list for the Finish-A-Long and I'd like to cross them off. I'm a list girl, and crossing things off the list makes me a little giddy.

I won't bore you with all I'm not getting done. Remember. Survival. That's what I'm getting done!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway

Welcome to my little corner of blog land.

I put together some of my favorite projects for those who are new here.  Me in a quilty nutshell.

My finished string quilt top - will be quilting this soon.

Indian Summer Quilt

Victory Garden quilt

Red and Aqua Chimneys and Cornerstones quilt

Red and Aqua Matchbox quilt

My Sunkissed granny squares - quilting this one in July

Okay, on to the giveaway.

Here's how it works.

In order to win, you must do the following:

Blog about my giveaway, but you have to type the blogpost whilst standing upside down.

And you must have photographic proof.

And then you have to promise to religiously read my blog posts, even the boring ones where I blather endlessly about my current fabric and pastry obsessions, teething babies, law school husbands and potty training.

Okay, not really.

 But I would like you to leave me a comment. Tell me your favorite something: book, cake, movie, workout video, color, perfume, musical, vacation spot, baby name, bird, TV show, whatever. But if you skip over these instructions and just leave me a comment and there isn’t something “favorite-y” in there, you are disqualified. Because I’m in charge.

And here are my favorites. Are we kindred spirits?
Book: Pride and Prejudice
Cake: Coconut cake (I have the world's greatest recipe!). Oh, and yellow cake with chocolate icing
Movie: Chocolat (my first date with my husband)
workout video: Jillian Michaels' Ab workout is killing me these days
Color: Yellow
Perfume: Poeme by Lancome
Musical: Anything Fred and Ginger
Vacation spot: Seattle (that's the one that will happen sooner rather than later - used to live there so I know all the great things to do and the best places to eat)
Baby name: the one I wanted to use and didn't get to: Megan
Bird: Osprey
TV show: Downton Abbey

 I think we'll have three winners. Three different charm packs: Summersville California Girl and Vintage Modern. And I'll most likely throw in some other fun things.

The technicalities:

• I will not ship internationally this year. Sorry!
• The giveaway will stay open until 25 May at 5 p.m. PST (give or take)
• I'll draw the winners Friday night and notify you by e-mail. Check and make for absolute sure you aren't a "no reply" blogger. If I can't reach you, you miss out.
• One entry only. I'll be checking.

You do not have to follow my blog. Can I tell you how much I dislike this requirement? Follow because you like me, not because you want an extra shot at my giveaway. Do you know how many times I've followed a blog, just for a giveaway, and then stopped following because I wasn't really interested in the blog? Yeah, too many to count.

Have a great time visiting all the blogs.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Hooray for Amy! It's time for the Spring 2012 Blogger's Quilt Festival

I for one have been thinking long and hard about which quilt to enter this year. I have more finished quilts this time around to choose from, which makes me happy, but it makes for more choices.

But I kept coming back to this quilt.

 The only picture I had was in the snow. So of course I had to retake the picture in springtime!

 Although it does look good on top of the snow.

And now the story. I had my fifth and last child last October. She was born in the middle of law school mid-terms for my husband, and came via emergency c-section. I named her Caroline after my late maternal grandmother, who had passed away last May.

It was my hardest recovery of all my babies. I always struggle with post-partum depression, and this time was just a little bit worse. I can normally count on my body bouncing back pretty quickly, but that wasn't happening. I won't go into gory details. Let's just say it involved a whole lot more visits to the doctor, urgent care and ER than all the others combined.

Enter Pam Kitty Morning, my favorite fabric line. It was bright, cheery, and fun to work with. I wanted to make a Victory Garden quilt, both as a tribute to my Rosie the Riveter grandmother (she's got a great story!) and as a memory of one of the things that got me through this winter. Downton Abbey.

 As silly as it might be, I looked forward to each and every episode. I love British period pieces, and this has been no different. I had two escapes from my fog of depression: working on quilts and watching Downton. Mary is my favorite. Don't hate me, but I love her.

With this quilt, it was a pattern I could do a little at a time and not forget what I was working on. And the blocks came together so well but appeared so difficult that I couldn't help but be tickled at it all. I machine quilted it in an all-over loopy design, taking time and walking away when I had to. And now it's the quilt I get the most compliments on. In fact, my mom wants a king-sized version for her bed.

And now I have a perfect lap quilt to snuggle under while I watch Downton reruns. Do I really have to wait until January? Yikes!

The lovely part is that while the depression is gone, the passion for quilting, or Downton, does not bring back the depressed feelings. Instead, it reminds me that no matter how dark things get, there is always something to light your way out of it. You just have to find it.

Have a lovely time looking at all the quilts during the festival, and thanks for stopping by!

Where troubles melt like lemon drops . . .

Also known as the post with an overabundance of rainbow quilts!

I'm getting my boatload of color wheel charms soon and I've got a rainbow quilt (or two or three) to make. My oldest daughter has requested one for her birthday (November), so I'd like to figure out what I want to do.

I've been busy searching flickr and pinning away. Here are my favorites:

And why not start with my very most favorite, even if it would take me FOR-E-VER to make. It's still just awesomeness in quilt form.

Source: flickr.com via Jennie on Pinterest

I'm really leaning towards these pinwheels. So much fun.

Source: flickr.com via Jennie on Pinterest

I've been wanting to try my hand at flying geese, and this quilt is calling me:

Source: flickr.com via Jennie on Pinterest

Or how 'bout this one? This might be a way to use up the last of the charms, not the first of them.

Source: flickr.com via Jennie on Pinterest

This quilt comes with a pattern (always a nice thing in my book) and I can adjust at will. But there again, I might save the last of the charms for something like this - heaven knows I've got plenty of them!

Source: oliverands.com via Jennie on Pinterest

And my last two favorites:

Source: janesfabrics.blogspot.com via Jennie on Pinterest

Source: rubyru-rubyru.blogspot.com via Jennie on Pinterest

So, watcha think? Have I gone a little mad? Wait. Don't answer that question. And with that, I leave you until tomorrow, when Blogger's Quilt Festival begins. I'm still on the fence about which quilt I'm going to choose, although I'm leaning more and more one way. Guess that means I fall off the fence!

Make-a-List Monday Week 6: back on track

Sometimes it's a good thing to set small goals. Then you can get them done, right?

I finished piecing the top for my yellow and orange string quilt. I love it. And, compliment of all compliments, my husband said he really liked it too. WOW!

Here's the best shot I could get of the top. It's been pleasantly breezy lately, but that makes for challenging quilt top photos.



And I got a couple of blocks done for my red Christmas string quilt. I've only got until August to get this baby finished, so I've got to get crackin'.



I'm keeping it manageable this week. My law student heads to Seattle tomorrow for his internship, so I'm on my own for a long while. This week is for settling in to our new routine, which will include a daily Skype session so baby girl doesn't forget what her papa looks like.

But here are my manageable goals:

1. Ship my color wheel charms

2. Sew seven red Christmas string blocks

3. Pick out the quilting on my Dream On quilt

4. Plow through the cutting list

The cutting list is longish, but it's prep work for future projects. I do my cutting on the kitchen counter - it's higher and easier on my back. And now that baby girl is mobile, I have to make sure that the kids remember to keep the stairs blocked and the screen door closed. We don't need her tumbling down either set of stairs. So this keeps me central and in the middle of the madness.

Let's Celebrate!

First of all, if you're interested in joining the Boy/Girl I-Spy charm swap, head over here to sign up. We're only halfway there, so jump in and join the fun!

And now, on to the celebration!

Why are we celebrating?

1. My husband is taking the final final of his first year of law school.
2. My baby girl cut her second tooth (yeah, she's doing them one at a time - oh joy!
3. I have 49 followers. That's almost 50!

 And I feel like celebrating with a giveaway to my current followers.
I just numbered you all and used the random number generator (boy, is that handy - way easier than drawing names out of a hat!). The winner is:

And of course 43 means nothing, so I'll tell you. The winner is Johanna. E-mail me your address and I'll send you your choice of these patterns:

Camille Roskelley's Piece of Cake 3, Vintage Holiday, or On A Whim.

And I think Follower Appreciation Giveaways are going to be a regular thing. Randomly regular. Just as a thanks for liking me.

WIP Wednesday: a big quilt and a little obsession

I think there needs to be a support group called Charm Swappers Anonymous.

I'll be a founding member. I've only been a swapper for a couple of months, but I can see where this is headed. I'm headed to Hoarders: The Fabric Edition someday.

My first was a color spectrum swap. 5 yards.

Yah, that's 280 charms. It was fun and a great learning experience. One of the things I learned is that I definitely have different taste in fabric than others. I knew this, but when the ugly (according to me, of course) fabric is staring up at me and I'm wondering what on earth I'm ever going to use it for, I learned it more tangibly.

My second was an aqua/red charm swap. Just a 1/2 yard of each. I'm still waiting for this one to arrive. Soon though. These are the two I sent in:

Then I found a color wheel charm swap that was brights only. No batiks. No solids. No pastels. My kind o' swap. 5 yards again. This time, because there wasn't enough response, I signed up for two colors, so I'm going to be getting 560 charms. Think I'll have enough for a rainbow quilt for my daughter? Kidding. More like 3 or 4.

I'm on my last one. An I-spy swap. Two yards of two different fabrics. One boy, one girl. Here are the two I'm sending in for this one:

I want to make a big I-spy quilt (or two) for camping trips so we have something to do in the evenings inside the yurts. Yep, yurts. We're yurt campers. But I digress. I think I'll host an I-spy charm swap in June.

So that's my obsession.

But I'm okay with it.

On to fun things.

My string quilt top is done done done (but you get this picture because it's a Winds-day out there and I can't get a good picture inside).

I'll piece the back later and get batting next month for it.

I'm thinking of taking the rest of those scraps and making some scrappy triangles (for a throw pillow), or a few pillows like this, or this. Or what about a quilt like this one? Or a quilt like this one? I have to say I'm leaning towards the plain stripes as pillow shams.

I've also got plans for the big Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway coming up on the 21st.

 
It's such a fun week, visiting new blogs and crossing fingers I win something. I've got some fun stuff on order for it. Might look something like this:
 

I figured I ought to give away things I'd want to win. And no fiery hoops to jump through. Can I say that I dislike that intensely? Tweeting and following and liking and doing all that sort of thing should be voluntary. I love followers, but I love that my followers chose to be followers because they like my blog, not because they might win something. It's like bribing people to be your friends. Not for me.


Linking up!

See you on Friday!

Make-a-list Monday Week . . . um, I forget

Well, I did take a little time off, so I really can't remember what week I'm on. I'll just hit the reset button!

I won't even try to recap what I was supposed to be working on. With weather like this:

 

You could hardly expect me to pay attention to that sort of thing. Add in sleep deprivation, sick kids and potty training a 2.5 year old and I'm lucky to remember to put clothes on in the morning!

So here is my list for this coming week:

Finish piecing this yellow and orange string quilt:

I only need 8 blocks there on the bottom and it's done. I really, honestly love this quilt more than any other. The colors are my favorites. And I'm backing it in yellow Minky. Be still my heart. I might not get out of bed.

I need to get started on this red string quilt (while I'm in the mood for string quilts) for my bestie in Utah who is getting married. Yes, it's a Christmas quilt. But she loves red and she loves Christmas. It's beyond perfect, and I hope I make her cry when she opens it!

I've also got to make a laundry bag for my handsome law student who is leaving for his internship next week. I also want to make myself a new pincushion. I'm thinking a sunflower.

I haven't forgotten my granny square quilt. Or my pinwheel quilt. I just needed a break from them. And those borders are all kinds of fussy, so it's going to take some time. But with my law student gone next week, I'm going to sew my little lonesome heart out.