Pets on Quilts Starts August 2!

This would be my third year of trying to get bees to land on a quilt, but I don't have the heart for it this time around. 
Josephine doesn't seem too enthused either.  I think she was a bit underwhelmed by the iron she won last year. Maybe because she doesn't quilt. I, on the other hand, was thrilled!

You've still got a few more days to figure out which quilts to use and how to get your pets on them. It's always fun to follow the links, especially in the other pet category, so head over to Lily Pad Quilting on August 2 to check it out.  

{Yarn Along} Not a Drop to Drink

Knitpicks Dancing in the Jig colorway!


Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis is one of the darker YA novels I've read lately. I'm talking about the wonderful, intriguing kind of dark, not the kind that makes you want to scrub your mind out with bleach and forbid your offspring from reading anything by that author until they're much, much older.  I've stumbled across a couple of those, usually as my kids are checking them out from the library.

This book is the kind of dark that keeps you turning pages, fearful for characters you've come to love. For Lynn's whole life, it's just been her and her mother. She's learned the skills she needed for survival -- how to collect and filter water, how to store it, how to hunt for food, and how to position herself on the roof of the farmhouse and take careful aim at any person approaching their pond.  She knows that she can never let down her guard, especially after her mother dies and leaves her completely alone except for a neighbor she's only watched at a distance.

This book is amazing. I would love to know more about the mother, who we only see through her daughter's eyes. If she'd been a different type of person, Lynn's life could have been much different.  But this is the kind of book that works so well because it doesn't bog down with too much detail. Maybe there's an author interview out there that fills in some of the blanks -- I'm really curious to know if my guesses are right.

For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis. 

Meet Glenn!

After Trevor and Jonah, I was hoping I'd have enough blue sheet left over for the background of this quilt. There was plenty, with enough left over to bind something else.

My quick rummage through the sewing room for yellow tone on tone fabrics didn't turn up as many as I wanted, so I used some pieces with the wrong sides facing up to add more variety. Then, as soon as the top was done, I found the rest of those yellows.

The backing is left over from the piece I used for Laura.

The pattern is Buzz. You can find it, and all of the other free Let's Make Baby Quilts! patterns, over on the sidebar. The quilt is on its way to the local birthing center. Are you participating in 100 Quilts for Kids this year? It's a great source of inspiration and motivation.

For more finishes, check out  Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  , and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.

What's a good cowboy name?

Ages ago, I cut a bunch of 2" strips to make a blue version of Sadie. It was one of those "when I have some extra time" projects. Not that I've got extra time, but it was sure nice to have fabric ready to go when I did get the opportunity to plug in the sewing machine.

I need to take a hard look at my WIPs. More accurately, I need to take a hard look for them. Sewing time has been scarce over the past few months and things have gotten shuffled around. I can't remember what I was working on, let alone where half of it is.

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Have you seen The Purge?

Not that awful movie with the same name -- this purge, dreamed up by Rachel at Stitched in Color,  which involves fabric and going through your stash and finding wonderful things to do with it.

I'm hopping on this bandwagon late, but better late than never and there's a lot of inspiration to be found over at her site.

Weekly Stash Report 

I had to buy more yarn for Squidpocalypse and found out that hard way that Red Heart with Love is substatially more expensive than Red Heart Super Saver, which is what I thought I was buying when I grabbed the skein I needed for the inner side of the tentacles. And of course Walmart doesn't carry that color a couple of months later, so I wound up paying even more for the two additional skeins that I needed.

Fabric Used this Week: 1 3/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 15 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 48 yards
Net Added for 2014: 32 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3775 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 1100 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 2610 yards
Net Used for 2014: 1165 yards

Catch Those Ideas!

If you've been reading my blog for long, you know by now that we're a homeschooling family. One of my pet peeves when it comes to curriculum is the writing instruction. I've seen too many books and curriculums that tell kids that there are certain steps you have to follow. I've also known a lot of authors and written a few novels myself, so I know for a fact that there's no absolute combination of brainstorming and outlining  and writing ideas on index cards that's the "right way" to write something.

I'm loving Fireflies by Coleen Murtagh Paratore.  Her premise is that ideas are like fireflies and if you don't capture them, they'll flitter away.

The book itself is gorgeous. It's listed as a paperback, but feels more like a hardback to me. The pages are stitched, so I can believe that it'll hold together for years (and the author encourages you to date your entries so that you can look back on them later.) Most of the pages are blank, or nearly blank except for writing prompts. Some are lined, some aren't, and they're a variety of different colors, all light enough that they won't distract from your writing.

 

Although the book is meant for kids, the prompts aren't age specific. They don't ask you to write about things that you write about something you might not have any interest in. Teenage Daughter has called dibs on it as soon as I'm done writing this post.  I could see it being a good choice for an adult who wants to write but doesn't know where to start.

Disclosure - the publisher provided me with a copy of the book.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

{Kindle Freebie} More Mysteries

These sound like fun --



From the book's page on Amazon:

When Val Valentyn suggests that someone should put her nasty boss out of his misery, she is only joking. But when Val stumbles into her bedroom and finds Mr. Potter, his blood soaking into her brand new 400-thread-count sheets, it seems she has been taken literally. 

Val knows that regardless of a couple minor, not even worth mentioning incidents, where she was a teensy bit violent after one too many drinks, there is no way she killed her cheap, petty, world-class halitosis suffering boss. May he rest in peace. The problem is, the police are convinced it was she who stabbed Mr. Potter. 

Someone has to find the real killer and it looks like it will have to be Val. But she's not alone. Her best friend Julie and her seventy-two year old neighbour Rose, are along for the ride. 
While their sleuthing skills may be negligible, Val is convinced that determination and a positive attitude will lead them to the killer. And while she isn't personally blessed with either of these qualities, she is plenty desperate, and doesn't inspiration come from desperation? Or something like that. Inspiration comes from something. 

It's the first book in the series and I don't know anything else about it, but it sounds good to me and I've just added it to my own Kindle. Prices on Amazon change quickly, so make sure you look before you click. 

And just as I was getting ready to publish this post, I found another one --





From the Book's page on Amazon:

Melanie' Travis's life is going to the dogs. With school out for the summer, a stint as a camp counselor falling through, and her sometime boyfriend dumping her for a Las Vegas chorus girl, the thirty-something Connecticut teacher and single mother figures that things can't get any worse.

She figures wrong...

Everyone knew that Melanie's Uncle Max had a weak heart. When Aunt Peg finds him dead on the cold floor of their championship kennel, surrounded by eleven whining, prize-winning Standard poodles, she isn't shocked...and doesn't panic. But Melanie is surprised when, three days after the funeral, Peg shows up seeking her help. One of her prize pooches is missing -- and it's beginning to look like Max's sudden demise is more a matter of... murder.

With her four-year-old son Davey happily ensconced in day camp, Melanie manages to maneuver herself into Connecticut's elite canine circles. Posing as a poodle breeder in search of the perfect stud, she mingles with sophisticated exhibitors and professional handlers...and soon starts feeling a little out of her clas. Until she meets Sam Driver. Although the irresistibly attractive breeder is soon wooing her with seductive candle lit dinners, Melanie resolves to be wary.

Then the killer strikes again, and Melanie realizes that she has been barking up the wrong tree. As events -- mysterious and romantic -- culminate in the celebrated Westminster Dog Show, she suddenly finds herself on a long leash of intrigue and greed...hot on the scent of a chilling secret to die for. 

Safer Than Golf Balls

Inspired by Youtube, my son has decided to learn to juggle. Because I'm not going to live with flying golf balls in the house, I offered to sew him some bean bags. And because the yardage that was closest to my sewing machine (and that wasn't intended for something else) was yellow, I decided to add some applique and tie them in with the whole Super Mario obsession.

For more finishes, check out  Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  , and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.

Tentacles

Those are tentacles... Well technically they're arms, but it's more fun to say I'm knitting tentacles.

Remember that giant squid I wanted to knit for Teenage Daughter? I took a closer look at the pattern and had second thoughts, but by then I'd already bought the yarn. My only two yarn purchases so far this year have been for that girl. I used the skein that I bought for her Weasley Sweater and I'm determined to  finish this project too. Wouldn't it be nice to end a year and be able to say that I'd made all of the projects I bought yarn for?

It's those bobbles that I'm not so sure about -- by the time I finish tentacle number eight, I'll have done a hundred and sixty of the nasty things. With double stranded yarn, something I don't recommend.



I've mentioned that my youngest two boys have quirky taste in reading material. I'm always looking for books that they'll love and that won't make me cringe. (I'm not about to tell them that I saw a book last week with the title Sir Fartsalot Hunts the Booger.)

Oliver and the Seawigs sounded like fun. Oliver's parents have finally run out of places to explore and he's looking forward to living in a actual house and going to school. He's never done those things before.  But when his parents go to look at some nearby islands and the islands themselves disappear, Kirby puts all of his exploring skills to use and sets off to rescue them. These aren't just any islands, they're wandering islands and are busy constructing wigs for the competition that will determine which of them becomes Chief. Oliver's parents have become decorations on the wig of the meanest island out there, the one that went bad because human sacrifices used to be performed in his temple. On his way to save them, Oliver encounters a near-sighted mermaid, sarcastic seaweed, and an army of sea monkeys. The story is completely different from anything we've read so far (without being dumb or silly) and the illustrations are full of clever little details.  

We're still waiting for the next book in the Imaginary Veterinary series. Got any other recommendations for us?

For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.


Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance ARC.

I should have taken pictures...

We found the neatest estate sale last weekend, the kind where you don't buy much but have an absolute blast looking at crazy things you didn't know you wanted. I should have taken pictures, but I was having too much fun just taking in the wonderful old stuff. Seriously -- they had a camel saddle. And storage boxes for eight track tapes, still in their original packaging. I'm not sure which would be less useful.

If Hubby hadn't been with us, I think Teenage Daughter and I would've played Tetris to see how much cheap antique furniture we could fit into the back of the van without leaving a young boy behind. There's room in the barn and she's going to have a place of her own someday. Not soon, but it was great old furniture and dirt cheap.

I bought four old spring metal embroidery hoops. Not sure what I'm going to put in them yet since I can't make myself do needlework in round hoops, but I've seen some fun ideas on Pinterest. Hubby wanted to know why I was buying them since "You don't do embroidery." It wouldn't surprise me if next week he told me that I don't knit socks.

There was a neat metal case from an old microscope for five dollars. It had great graphics, but I told myself I didn't really want it. Just Googled for a similar one to show you and I think it's this same one that's listed on etsy for $75. Hopefully someone who got there later in the day got a great deal and it doesn't wind up in the landfill.

What I did want was the croquet set. I've been looking for one for a few years and they had one that was just old enough to look neat but not so old I'd feel awful about using it. I talked myself into being good, mostly because I've never played croquet in my life, but I'm starting to wish it wasn't too far to drive back.

Sometimes looking it just as fun as buying, isn't it?

Stars for Baby

Remember those scrappy yellow stars I was playing with last week? 

I like these a lot. They go together fast and I think the yellow stars really pop against that blue solid. It also doesn't hurt that I've got the perfect backing picked out, a wonderful crinkly yellow seersucker. Want the pattern? It's Buzz, one of my free baby quilt tutorials.

I'm linking up to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

Weekly Stash Report

At the quilt show last weekend, I bought some light fat quarters. Bits will wind up in my lozenges and in the low volume postage stamp quilt I'm making for Teenage Daughter.

Weekly Stash Report 

Fabric Used this Week: 2 1/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 14 yards
Added this Week: 3 yards
Added Year to Date: 48 yards
Net Added for 2014: 34 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 400 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3775 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 1500 yards
Net Used for 2014: 2275 yards

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times. 

French Knots?

I'm not sure if this fella is taking longer than my other blocks, or if it's just that I've had less time for stitching this week. The lobster has a lot of intricate little jagged bits and, for that spring of whatever it is he's holding in his claw, I think I'm going to have to remember how to do French knots.

I've done them before, back in the days when I was obsessed with cross stitch landscapes, but they were never a huge success. Any tips? 

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {7/18/14}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Barbie's Clothes

Jo asked about the little magazine that I was finding the clothing pictures in. It's a catalog that  came with my Mom's original dolls. I'm assuming that one came with Barbie and that the other came with Ken, since we've always had two. They're smaller than they look in the pictures -- a little bigger than Barbie size.

I used to love reading through these -- and still do! Barbie is "tailored" and "accessorized" and her clothes are always "ensembles." It's all just so elegant and poised and wonderful.

Mom didn't have these three outfits, but I love the illustrations and descriptions.

Registered Nurse 
Barbie cures patients in a trim white cotton uniform with zipper back, buttoned blouse and real hip pockets. With her spectacles and graduate nurse's cap, she wears a navy blue cape lined in red silk for outside calls. Hot water bottle, diploma, medicine bottle and spoon complete the set $3.00

American Airlines Stewardess
Barbie takes off for sky adventures in her flight blue uniform with flight insignia on cap and jacket. Her white nylon blouse and shoulder pocketbook are trimly tailored to regulations. An American Airlines flight bag travels with her. $3.50

Ballerina 
Barbie dances before kinds and queens as the Sugar Plum Fairy, costumed in a shimmering silver tutu. A program announces her performance. For practice at the barre, she wears a black jersey leotard and tights. Pink satin shoe bag holds her ballet slippers. The set, $3.00 

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer.

{Yarn Along} Another Pair of Socks

I think I'm getting to the point where I could wear nothing buy hand-knit socks, if it wasn't so easy to grab a pair of Hubby's from the clean laundry hamper! These are knit in Regia Surf, which I posted about last week. 

Mission to Murder
is the second Tourist Trap mystery by Lynn Cahoon. This isn't a series that I could easily jump into with the second book.

Here's the book's description from Amazon:

Jill Gardner, proprietor of Coffee, Books, and More, has discovered that the old stone wall on her property might be a centuries-old mission worthy of being declared a landmark. But Craig Thomas, the obnoxious owner of South Cove's most popular tourist spot, The Castle, makes it his business to contest her claim. When Thomas is found murdered at The Castle shortly after a heated argument with Jill, even her detective boyfriend has to ask her for an alibi. Jill decides she must find the real murderer to clear her name. But when the killer comes for her, she'll need to jump from historic preservation to self-preservation. 

There's conflict over Jill's stone wall and whether it's truly part of the old mission, but no real explanation beyond that. I also never figured out quite what The Castle was, or why it was such a popular tourist destination. (I'm guessing that was all explained in the first book.) After finishing the book, I feel like I came in in the middle and left before it was all over. And I'm not excited enough about the characters to go back and find the first book.

I'm also reading Incubus by Ann Arensberg. A horror novel set in 1975, the story is unfolding slowly and this book has the feel of something written a few decades ago. (It's exactly what I loved so much about Harvest Home.)

For more fun projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.  For more finishes, check out  Sew Much Ado, Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?,  , and Freedom Fridays, Wonderful at Home, and Inspired Friday.


Disclosure -- The publisher provided me with an advance ARC.

Always Keep Knitting in Your Bag!

Before we left for the park last week, I looked at my socks-in-progress. I think I even picked them up and started to put them in my bag before deciding that I wasn't going to want to work on them. Sitting in the emergency room a few hours later, I really could have used some mindless ribbing to distract myself from the long wait.

I should know that you can't predict when you'll find yourself stuck someplace. At the very least, I should keep a pair of spare needles and some dishcloth cotton in my tote bag. Watching reruns of TV series you've never seen doesn't do much to soothe frazzled nerves...

It turned out that the cut wasn't as awful as it looked as we dripped blood from the playground to the car. Eight stitches later, everything was back in place (never had to say that about a cut before!) and the little finger in question is going to be just fine.  I took pictures because I knew that his brothers and his daddy would want to know what was under the gauze, but I'm not posting them here because I like you all too much to subject you to that image.

There may be a scrapbook page down the road because the cut looks creepily similar to the incision on his daddy's ankle. I think they're going to have matching scars.

You'd think that with the number of times I've written similar posts I'd know to always carry some kind of handwork with me. What about you? Do you keep knitting or piecing in your bag?

On My Design Wall

Look, blocks for new baby quilts! 

This post is linked to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times.

I can see!

I love needlework and intricate lace knitting, but I've had this problem for the past year or so. I could see my yarn and those itty-bitty stitches just fine, but when I looked back up at the rest of the room, it took a few minutes for everything else to come back into focus.  I solved the problem by not looking up until I absolutely had to. I'd still be avoiding the issue, but the anti-reflective coating on my  glasses was peeling off and there's a point where you just can't look through scratches anymore.

It turned out that my prescription for distance had changed just a bit. I didn't need bifocals, just a slightly different prescription.  I put off new glasses for another four months, mostly because I couldn't find a pair I liked. Now I have a brand new pair that I don't really like -- but I do love being able to see my stitching and the rest of the world!  I'd been going in for regular exams. This was a combination of a change in vision that hadn't changed my prescription and a later change in vision piled on top of that.

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 11 3/4 yards
Added this Week: 0 yards
Added Year to Date: 45 yards
Net Added for 2014: 33 1/4 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 3375 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 1500 yards
Net Used for 2014: 1875 yards

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times.

{Guest Post} A Stitch in (Summer) Time

Our family will have to skip our annual trip down to Utah and/or Arizona this year, but The White Magic Five and Dime by Steve Hockensmith and Lisa Falco gave me a vicarious trip to Oak Creek Canyon. Today, I'm happy to have a guest post by Lisa Falco. 


A Stitch in (Summer) Time by Lisa Falco

I’ve been doing a lot of writing recently, which is a craft in itself. But lately I’ve been longing to get my hands busy doing something other than typing. Usually, I’m a crazy knitter but in July, when the temps regularly reach over a 100 degrees in Los Angeles where I live, I don’t want to touch yarn. That’s when it’s cross-stitch time.

Cross stitch is so satisfying. It’s neat, orderly, and if you just follow the directions, it comes out perfectly. So as I thought for a while about a quick and enjoyable project I could do this summer, it hit me: tarot cross stitch!

I’ve been cross-stitching almost as long as I’ve been interested in tarot. I started learning both around 8 years old. I won’t go into how long ago that was, but let’s say it would be measured in decades!

Recently, a friend and I worked on a book about a tarot reader who solves mysteries. My friend, Steve Hockensmith, is a mystery writer, and I’m a tarot enthusiast. It was the perfect pairing! In the book, The White Magic Five & Dime, a young woman inherits a New Age shop in Arizona after her mother is murdered. She decides to stay on and run the shop. She learns to read the tarot and helps investigate her mother’s death. The book includes tarot spreads with pictures. The fact that the book comes out in this month led me to think about cross stitching some of my favorite cards from the tarot deck.

There are some beautiful free and for purchase patterns out there for anyone interested in tarot cross stitch. I’m a traditionalist, so I have to say I’m partial to the Rider Waite Deck (one of the most popular and well-established tarot decks). That’s why Whoopi Girls’ shop on Etsy caught my eye. Click here and you’ll see a cross-stitch pattern for a Rider Waite-style Ace of Swords, the card which represents the genesis of a new idea. Perfect, right?

I’ve come to the conclusion that if you are creative enough, you can marry any of your passions. Tarot and cross stitch? Why not?

Happy stitching!

Lisa Falco is a teacher, author and tarot-card reader. Her first book (published under her maiden name, Lisa Humphrey) was A Mother’s Promise. Her tarot novel with Steve Hockensmith, The White Magic Five & Dime, is the first in a new mystery series from Midnight Ink.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {7/11/14}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Still Playing With Barbie

I did some more digging and found my own Barbie -- but she's got the wrong head. Instead of her ponytail, she's got a Fashion Queen Barbie head. I know the right head is around here somewhere and I'm determined to find it!  These, along with the doll I showed you last week, are the Barbies I played with the most. My sister and both I had tons of 70s and early 80s era Barbies, but I don't love them the way I do these ladies.

I can't get over the clothes that Mom had for her Barbies! They're just so pretty and ladylike and nothing at all like the stuff my own Barbies or my daughter's dolls came with.  (Teenage Daughter wants me to point out that they have polish on their fingers and toes.) The dresses are a little squashed and dingy after fifty years, but I'm not going to clean them up without doing some real research first.
 

I love the detail and the construction. All of those pleats and darts and ruffles...can you even imagine putting zippers in the back of something that tiny?  The accessories are long gone, except for the shopping bag (which I hear might be in Mom's jewelry box.)

This post is linked to Vintage Thingie Thursday, Thriftasaurus, Share Your Cup, Ivy and Elephants, We Call it Olde, Savvy Southern Style, Thrifter Maker Fixer.