Molly's first embroidery

I'll spare you the details of why I haven't been around too much lately. Suffice to say part of it was the loss of both of our pets (we put Snickers down and then a couple weeks later our cat Garfunkel died on her own). My job situation has changed; I'm no longer working at Quilter's Corner, but I am still teaching classes there. I am, however, helping Swirly Girls Design out with their website and I'll be teaching a handwork after school program at my daughter's school. More on that last thing below. Oh, and my in-laws visited and my daughter turned seven.

In absolutely fabulous news, my husband passed his final actuarial exam! If you follow that link, you'll see a snapshot of the grueling exams he's had to take over the past several years (all ten items in the white part of the table at the top, and then the Group and Health track column below). He's now very near the bottom of the chart, working on his Decision Making and Communication Module. He's hoping to finish that by Monday, and get it graded (passing, of course) so he can go to the Fellowship Admissions Course in December. This should be a gimme. In the unlikely event his paper is not accepted, he'll just have to revamp it and get it done so he can go to the March Admissions Course. But of course, he's really hoping to get it wrapped up before the end of 2011. Me too.

So today a couple of my wonderful sewing friends came over and one of them brought her daughter. She got my daughter interested in doing some embroidery. Her first attempt is a really big running stitch, but then this afternoon I decided to teach her the backstitch. Here's how she did!
If you ignore the chocolate milk stains on the left, I think it's fantastic for a first attempt and just having turned seven! Next she'll do the bird at the top in blue. This gives me confidence for my after school program this year.

Anyway, with school starting in a few weeks and some planned sewing time on the horizon, I hope to update this blog way more often.

Okay, so now I have to go work on my round robin block for the Richmond Modern Quilt Guild. The meeting is tomorrow night. Ah, deadlines, how I've missed you!

I'm in love!

This past Friday, my wonderful husband and I went to lunch. I said, "I have no ambition. I think we need to get away." He said, "okay, where are we going to go?" I wasn't really meaning this weekend, but thanks to him, we ended up leaving the next morning and spending a long weekend in Philadelphia! I love that we have a small enough family and a great next door neighbor (who is always willing to watch our pets).

So, Saturday we went to the Mütter Museum. Their website isn't very useful, but it was a great museum to go to. It's full of medical specimens. Have you ever wondered what a 75 lb ovarian cyst looks like? Or are you curious about forensic anthropology? Or the skeleton of a man with a disease which causes his soft tissues to calcify into bone? They have it all. It's amazing. To hear a description, you might think it's like a circus side-show, but it's all presented in an educational, non-exploitative manner. In fact, no photos are allowed inside the museum. So here's Molly outside instead.We also went on a short horse-drawn carriage tour of the Independence Mall area (Molly's favorite part of the trip) and saw the Liberty Bell.On Sunday we went to the Franklin Institute Science Museum. Later that day we drove around and eventually ended up at the King of Prussia Mall. I have memories of going there on band trips in high school when we went to Philly to march in the Gimbels parade.

On Monday, we checked out of our hotel. We ate breakfast at a cute diner called Mrs. K's. We had been sick of eating at the extremely overpriced hotel restaurant (seriously? Nine bucks for a bowl of oatmeal? You're kidding me) and were very happy to have found it. The waitstaff was really nice and the locals eating there were friendly and chatty. And a bowl of oatmeal was only about $2.50. No website, though.After breakfast, we checked out Fabric Row. I only went to one shop and was a bit turned off. Maybe I went to the wrong shop. It was crowded and it was hard to see everything. I did buy a bit of fabric to make a ballet skirt for Molly.

The highlight of the trip for me, though, was a quilt shop we stopped at called Spool. This is why I posted that I was in love. The shop was quite small and didn't have a ton of fabric, but what they did have was breathtaking. No batiks, no blenders, no novelties; just designer prints and some solids (and a few shot cottons and Kaffe homespuns and stripes). But what they didn't have in quantity, they made up for in quality. So clean and gorgeous!First impression as you walk in:This is pretty much the extent of their fabric shelves. The only shelves you can't see here are a couple in the back where they have sale fabrics and some home decs.
Here is their classroom area. So cute with the coordinating sewing machine covers!
Another view of their display (really, their only one).
Their patterns.
Here is my haul. First is a laminate that Molly picked out. I need to make the Amy Butler kids raincoat for a shop sample. So I'll make two, so Molly can have one now!
Here's the fabric I bought, just because. It was hard to stop at five yards. The person helping me, who was super friendly, said that the whale fabric was designed by someone local. There were several of her designs there.
And I bought their two bags of scraps. Seriously, you could make something beautiful out of anything they had there. I figured even their scraps would be delicious. I bought the only two bags of scraps they had. If they had had ten, I probably would have bought all ten.
If you go to Philadelphia, visit this shop. I was blown away. So small, but perfect. Only the best of the best. There's a yarn shop next door called Loop that I didn't go to, but they seem to be connected in some way. If I were a knitter, or if I hadn't already spent over $100, I would have gone there, too!

Little embroidery

I have a very good friend, Meenoo, whose husband, Bill, does these terrific little doodles. Usually they end up in the recycling bin, but when I saw them for the first time I said, "I need to embroider one of those!" Meenoo thought I was nuts. But I got her to confiscate one of them and I recreated it in floss. This is my first time doing this kind of fill stitch. I think it's so cute! I gave it to Bill for Christmas.In Molly news, she has a walking cast on due to a sore foot. We're not sure of the reason for the soreness, but she's been a toe-walker forever and never grew out of it. The cast will stay on for a total of three weeks. She says it's feeling better. I'm not sure how much of this is serious injury and how much of it is pandering for the upcoming Oscar season. I'm hoping this cures the problem regardless of its origin.

New year, new projects

Wow. I've never taken a blog break for this long before. Several things happened. One is that I went to a quilting retreat with my friend and co-worker Maureen. These are really fun! Sadly, in the three days following the retreat, both my car and my sewing machine bit the dust. The car was fatal. We ended up trading it in for a tiny commuter car for RT. The sewing machine wasn't fatal, but it took nearly a month to get back from the repair shop. And then there were the holidays and the flu and other such nonsense. On to photos!

I did more than this over the holidays, but these are the photos that are off the camera at the moment. These are some selvedge pincushions. I made a bunch and gave them to lots of friends.
Some people still haven't gotten theirs yet.
More photos soon, I promise. In the meantime, a word from Molly:

Tomorrow's menu. #1: we are going out.

My sentiments exactly, honey. :-)

Paul McCartney

Ohh, it's been a crazy summer, hasn't it? I'm so glad that school has started. It give me time to sew! I don't have photos of everything I've done in the past few weeks, but I'll take and post them soon.

One thing we did in August was go to see Paul McCartney in concert! The day before we left, I found a Beatles t-shirt at Target, but it was in the toddler section. So I got the biggest one I could and made it into this little dress for Molly. If I had had more time and more fabric (don't we all need more of both of those), I'd have made it twirlier. The shirt has Ringo's drum kit on it. The skirt fabric is gray with white polka dots. Here we all are. My friend and quilting student Carrie joined us.
Here's Sir Paul! Yes, he's the tiny speck in the middle of the stage. Thank god for giant video screens.
How irritating are these small photos, anyway? I need advice, fellow bloggers: how do you deal with photos on blogspot? If I upload straight to blogger, I'm worried that I'll run out of space. So I upload to Flickr and then link, but they come out so small. What do you do? I want it all: larger photos hosted somewhere else so I don't have to worry about running out of room. Any advice?

Time to celebrate! Let's give something away!

A few days ago it was my girl's sixth birthday. I love her to pieces. We went to the Cheesecake Factory and they fancied-up a sundae for her.In honor of her birthday and this being my 100th post (and the fact that I have fewer readers than I'd like), I've decided to do a giveaway! These five cute Riley Blake Boo to You Halloween fat quarters could be yours!
You get an entry for every one of these things you do:

1. Make a comment on this post (bare minimum)
2. Follow my blog
3. Include me in your blogroll
4. Mention my blog in your blog

If you're already following or have me in your blogroll, that counts! Just make sure you let me know in your comment how many entries you get based on the rules above. I'll close the entries Tuesday or Wednesday. We're going out of town later this week, so I'll pick the winner by random draw either just before I go or right when I get back on Monday.

One more Molly (as a puppy) photo for good measure.

time flies like a banana

Photos!

For the Minnesota Road Show (which went fine, I think), I have a couple more samples to show. First is Ric Rac Rendezvous. It's a table runner to show off rick rack.Also, Posh, a wall hanging. Both of these patterns are from Maple Island Quilts.I also have the Raspberry Ripple purse. This pattern is from Melly and Me. It's not from the Minnesota Road Show, by the way. I think I forgot to show it when I did it a couple of months ago. Anyway, Melly and Me are out of Australia, and I'm not sure but I that their version of fusible fleece might be a little less stiff than ours. This baby has some heft! But I love the colors.Here's my round robin. Remember this one? It started out as just one strip with the wavy lines in it. My friends all added the rest of the rows. You'll be able to see a lot of our round robins at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival in February.And finally, Molly had her birthday party today. She had a Beatles party, so I made a yellow submarine cake. Those funky things in the water are her candles.

Little, purple, cute!

Lots of projects going on now. I haven't written lately because I've been so busy! I haven't forgotten about the giveaway, though.

In Molly news, she got her first sewing machine. It's purple! It's pretty loud, but it is a real machine, with a real bobbin, so it meet's Mama's requirements. She's sewing together the pieces that were part of the shop display for our Scrap Therapy classes, which I'm no longer teaching.This Saturday at 2 pm, the Dumbarton Library is putting on a small production of The Little Mermaid and I was recruited to make mermaid costumes. This is an in-progress photo, but you get the idea. They're done now, and I'm pretty pleased, considering I did two start to finish in a couple of evenings. Ugh -- please ignore the disastrous state of my sewing room!I finished another bag for the Minnesota Road Show. I hope you're coming if you're in the area. It's only ten bucks and half is taught by me! This bag is Zippy Strippy by Atkinson Designs. It's not technically part of the road show, but I'm incorporating it anyway.And finally, I'm doing a project for a friend who I recently unearthed in Australia. It's been ten years since I've seen him and I'm so excited to make something that's not a required project. I was lucky to find some Australian inspired fabric. I'll post a photo when it's all done. This photo some of the quilting when I was just starting. I love pebbling.What I did was layer the print below the black, then I quilted most of the spaces, but left a few unquilted. Then I cut away the black layer to reveal the print below. I'm going to couch some yarn over the grey straight lines.

So this happened

Yeah. It's my daughter's latest craft project. It's alpaca wool felted around a lump of soap. I think it looks more like something the cat coughed up, but her little hands made it, so... yeah. It smells the way you'd expect a wet alpaca to smell. The idea is that the soap gets embedded in the felt and comes through as you use it. So, of course Molly wants to take a bath with it now. Lovely.

And here's a glimpse of my latest contribution to the row round robin I'm in.It's 3:22 a.m. and I can't sleep. I'm really happy because I got off a video call a while ago with a close friend who I haven't seen in a long time. He lives in Australia now, which makes timing a bit tricky, but we slipped into conversation as if it had been only ten days since we last talked instead of nearly ten years. The internet is a wonderful thing. Now I want to send him something I've made.

Gosh darn cute

I made this tooth fairy pillow for Molly. I think it's just in time. Her bottom front tooth is awfully wiggly. I got the tooth pattern from Martha Stewart, though I did it differently from her. Mine is two layers of white because I hate when things shadow through. So it has two layers and was turned inside out. Then I topstitched very close to the edge. Then I attached it to the pillow (before stuffing) by just going right over the topstitching in order to make a pocket. I LOVE it!
I also made another shop sample. This one is Fire Escape by, you guessed it, Atkinson Designs. It looks super simple, and it is, but it's challenging to keep everything organized. It's supposed to be a throw size, but it's pretty big. It finishes at 60 x 75 or so.

Busy, busy, busy and auction results

I haven't been posting, I admit it. I've been busy with non-quilting things, though I have lots in the pipeline. Unfortunately, my sewing room is a disaster, so not much is being done there, and it's spring break, so I'm home all day with Molly so nothing is being done at the shop. And somehow, I'm still busy, and often gone, all day long. Not complaining, mind you. Just explaining why I haven't posted.

But I was amiss in not letting everyone know that the latest auction quilt went for $1200! It was won by a friend of mine, so that makes it doubly great! The placemats only went for $15, but they were also won by the same person, so I'm happy that she got them.

In Molly news, we have a new tooth. I need to make a tooth fairy pillow, pronto! If you know of a good pattern, please post it in the comments! It's coming in behind her front teeth but I've been assured it will be okay in the end. I see orthodontist appointments in our future.

curls, a friend and a house block

I went to Target and bought some fabric covered foam curlers for Molly. She loved them and looked so cute! I need more practice, though, to make them lay right.I also sewed with Amy on Monday...
... and made a house block. This will eventually become a wall hanging for an advanced beginner class I'm doing. I'll tell ya, that fence will force you to perfect your quarter inch seam!

Dress done (except buttons)

Here's the dress from the KwikSew pattern I mentioned in a previous post. I like my fabrics way better than the ones in their photo. It's all done, except that I need to add the buttons and corresponding buttonholes. I have never done this before, so it will be an adventure. One thing I did discover is that Aurifil thread (cotton mako 50) is not really strong enough to do gathering stitches. It's great for other sewing, though. It has hardly any lint, so it's become my favorite piecing thread.

Addicted to deadlines

I have a problem. I can't seem to get things done (quilting-wise, anyway) unless I have a deadline. Case in point, Brittany's quilt. I missed her graduation because I knew she didn't need the quilt until she went to college. Then, before September, I had a bunch of deadlines at work -- samples for a gift fair, class samples, etc. "Oh well," I thought, "it won't get cold in Texas for a while anyway." I worked on her quilt and had it 99% finished, and I found a flaw that I wasn't sure how to fix (I discovered a seam that had not been sewn together properly, but the quilt was all quilted). So I put it off. Then Halloween (and the associated costume) was looming. And then we lost the dog and I got cancer and things went all to hell.Front and back

I'm ready to mail it. I haven't trimmed all the threads and I haven't washed it (because I don't have a front-loader), but I'm sending it anyway. I'm so sorry, Brittany, that you had to wait this long.
How it looks on a bed.

Does anyone else have this problem? How do you get through it? I feel pretty shitty about it.
Obligatory Molly pose.