Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic

T Time

For this post, you're going to have to use your imagination... ready?

(Imagine 4 charming children- cousins, in fact- ranging in age from nearly 4 months to just past 10 years, all in a row, smiling and sporting coordinated Ts, each one appliqued with the initial of their first name.)

Did you see it?  Because the only way you will get to is in your imagination...

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went to Pittsburgh for a mini family reunion.  My 96 year old grandma lives there, along with my mom's sister and brother-in-law.  My cousin (their daughter) was going to be in from sunny CA with both of her little ones, and so we seized the opportunity, along with my mom, to see everyone at once.  Another cousin flew in as well- we ended up down just one as my only other cousin was too sick to make it :-(  We ended up with my grandma, 2 of her 4 kids, 3 of her 4 grandkids, and all 4 of her great grandkids together over the weekend (plus several inlaws)! VERY cool indeed.

Being me, I decided the great grandkids simply HAD to have special matching shirts for the occasion of their first meeting.  I got 3 Ts and a onesie, all in different colors, and picked just the right fabric to use to make the initial of each kid's first name on their shirt.  Doggie pawprints on turquoise for Annie, camo on green for Henry, guitars on navy for Noah, and sweet heather ross matrioshkas on purple for Celia.  I got all 4 letters done with 48 hours to spare.  They weren't as perfect as they were in my head- are they ever?- but they were done, dammit.

And there ended my plan of adorable ensemble photos.  I had forgotten how tricky the under 3 set can be- especially when out of their time zone by 3 hours and missing their dads...  Everyone did indeed wear their Ts, but we never managed to get everyone awake and/or cheerful at the same time.  Ah, well.  It's the thought that counts- and the fun the kids had all together.  And the Ts came out well enough, don't you think?

A for Annie

H for Henry

N for Noah

And now you'll have to use your imagination one more time, to picture the adorable Miss C in her purple onesie- I managed not to get a single photo where you can see the applique! 

Working on these didn't make my whiplash flare up too much, so perhaps I'm mended enough to get back to sewing for real.  Stay tuned!

 

Bag o' bones

Thanks for the amazingly supportive comments on my knitting angst.  I think I feel a weird guilt about wanting to knit just for pleasure, and for the fact that, frankly, more complicated patterns do NOT give me pleasure.  Angela, it's very much about that zen thing for me too, and when I am constantly counting, recounting, and swearing, my zen goes right out the freaking window.  The guilt comes in when I refuse to challenge myself on the trickier stuff. but, ya know what? I have loads of other challenges in my life.  (Hello, have you met my kids?)  Knitting for me, then, shall remain a sweet, sweet escape.  And also a fun thing to do while watching bad movies and TV with The Hubby.

I spent a few hours with the alligator scarf, and I have a gorgeous alligator head to show for it.  After completing the eye holes, I got sort of confused by a row including bind off instructions, and as I have cleverly lured a knitting goddess over to my house tonight for junk food, booze, fiber, and chatting (not necessarily in that order), I decided I was at a good temporary stopping point!  And I promptly put him away, sans photograph.  Ah, well.

I did take some photos of the progress on The Hubby's Skull-licious Messenger Bag, you know, to have blog content and to prevent anyone from calling sewcial services and having them remove my sewing machine for neglect.  (Sewcial services.  Heh.  I slay myself.Try not to spill your beverages all over the keyboard while you roar in laughter.))  Poor Amy Butler.  I can't imagine she ever thought someone would do this to one of her patterns...

Here's the Front Flap- it will have a Velcro closure added eventually.  Velcro instead of magnet to be laptop safe.

Does anyone else think Alexander Henry might owe Ghost Rider some small royalties for this print? Sheesh.  The Hubby LOVES Ghost Rider- the original comic and not the slightly silly recent film, though, okay, I admit, he does love that too, but in his defense, the love stems from his original love of the comic.  So when I saw this print,I had to buy some for his bag!  And of course, the flaming skeleton gets place of pride on the front of the bag! 

Under that flap is the front main panel, complete with pleated pouch pocket and closure tab.  Bear with me- the dark fabric for the pocket does NOT show off my skillz, but trust me, that's one sweet pocket.

I must say, the directions for sewing that pocket, my first really, were quite wonderful. Thanks, Amy.  (May I call you Amy?  Sure, in my imagination!)  You can also sort of see the sides of the bag.  It's a bandanna print featuring skulls. Hubby loves it, so there ya go. Then come the back main panel, featuring, the first zipper pocket. 

The first zipper I have ever sewn, in fact.

In my defense, the skulls were cut straight- I checked twice.  I must have sewn crooked while juggling two layers of peltex and my first ever zipper.  Sigh. I'm not ripping back.  The Hubby likes it. The zipper works.  Nuff said.

Okay, I imagine this is more skull related stuff than any of you ever really wanted to see.  what can I say? The Hubby, he is my special guy, and if skulls he likes, skulls he gets.  Although, I hope he won't take this bag when we fly to South Carolina next month, or London in January- I can see the security folks picking him to pick on if he does.  Meanwhile, back to the real world.  Maybe i'll actually have something quilty to show you next week...

NOW I'm ready...

This time, the stockings really ARE hung by the chimney with care.  After work last night, by 8:15 I had the remaining 2 stockings done,

and by 11, the binding was done on my folks quilt!  (Photo to come after I wash and dry it.)  The relief at having those projects done before Xmas is amazing.

Our family room is ready for Christmas.  Here you can see all 4 stockings hanging by the chimney (with care).  You can also see our  2nd tree.  The white tree is the kid's tree, AKA the "touchable" tree.  All breakable or priceless and emotionally significant ornaments are on the formal tree in the living room.  This way, the kids got to decorate one, and they can touch it themselves.  Plus, having the extra tree makes the house that much more festive.  Giant Santa is actually an advent calendar.  And peeking in the bottom of the photo is Sue.  Then on the chair, you may notice the Kitschy Kristmas Kwilt.  The binding is 1/2 done- the front is machine-sewed down.  I just need to flip and stitch it to the back by hand.  ASAP, I suppose.  But it has served its purpose for the photos.

Whee!!!!  Done with stockings!  The Hubby and I watched White Christmas last night while I hand sewed binding.  It was an attempt to find our Xmas spirit.  Didn't quite work for me, but I do love that movie...

Bring it on, Santa. Almost.

Halfway!  I'm halfway with the stockings!  Princess Girl and I are ready for Santa's bounty, at least.  The boys, well, they're on their own.  Actually, I made mine first as I figured it was better to have my own reflect any learning-curve issues.  Then, Princess Girl's as ours have matching cuffs.  The boys' will have lime green minkee cuffs and pink hanging loops.

I got the idea to use leftover minkee from the back of the Xmas quilt (which is now tied, and has 1/2 the binding on).  But I didn't want all 4 to be the same.  Hence, green for boys, and I bought a 1/4 yard of hot pink for the girls.  To make certain everyone can tell what belongs to who, I'm appliqueing our first initials onto the cuffs.  The boys' are ready to be finished- the tops are done, backs are done, linings are done, and they just need cuffs made + attached, and then to be sewn all together.  Maybe I can even handle that tonight. Maybe. Of course, last night I managed to rip a chunk of my palm up on a flat-head pin, the really thick kind?  So my right hand doesn't feel like working on any projects tonight!

Last night, we got all our cards ready to mail. That was nothing short of a miracle.  We really don't seem to have much holiday spirit at all this year, which makes sense, I suppose. Added to Tom's death is the fact that I was out of the office with no warning at what may have been the worst week of the year to do that.  I came back after one week out approx. 3 weeks worth of work behind.  Part of what I was supposed to do that week? Hire and train an assistant.  So, I have one now (did I mention to y'all that I'm back to full time myself?), but, she's not up to speed yet, and in my field, this is THE busiest time of the year.  I feel behind on everything.   Work, family, holidays, sleep.  (Thank god for Rozerem).  I have even postponed my own birthday- for anyone who's counting- I'll be 30 on Saturday.  But, I've decided to celebrate in January when I might have a shot at actually enjoying it.

The stockings AREN'T hung by the chimney with care.

You know how every year when you get out your holiday decorations, one box goes into hiding?  Perhaps those icicle lights joined the witness protection program, or the ornaments went south for the winter?  Last weekend, during the Saturday-of-Jammies-All-Day, we decorated for Xmas.  By Sunday I realized (yes, I am a little slow) the star for the top of the tree was missing.  Hmmm.  The Hubby made me look through every box twice, in case I had missed it. It's big and heavy and solid silver.  I didn't miss it.  Later in the week (yes, I'm really slow) I noticed we were also missing several other things.  Which means- we have a missing box.  For most human beings, that'd be no big deal.  Just go look in the garage.  Our garage is, um, crowded.  Messy.  Bad.  A source of humor for our friends and neighbors.  But, in my defense- my folks moved to New Zealand when I graduated from high school.  They put most of their stuff in storage, and I had to choose to store for years OR keep with me most of my stuff.  The stuff normal people get to leave in their parent's houses for ages.  So, it's not totally my fault.  Also- we kept ALL the baby stuff just in case, and once we get rid of that, we'll be much happier.

Anyway!  Guess what else we're missing?  STOCKINGS!  All four of them.  I made them for us over the years out of various uncoordinated fabrics.  I've never loved the old ones, except for the tiny bit of pride attached to making them.  So, last night, I started 4 new stocking for all of us.

They're made out of leftovers from my Kitschy Kristmas Kwilt.  Which is still waiting to be tied. Maybe tonight.  It's all pinned to the backing and everything.  Did I mention, I bought the most amazing lime green dotted minkee?  I plan to use leftovers from the backing for the cuffs at the top of the boys' stockings (the two on the right), and also, some hot pink minkee for the cuffs on the girls' (the two on the left.)  I'm also going to applique our first initial to the cuff of each stocking, to alleviate Xmas morning confusion.  The pattern is Kari's, and it's wonderfully fast and fun.

Ready for more gratuitous kid cuteness?  We went to the Hammond's Candy Cane Festival this weekend, where we saw candy canes and other delights being made by hand.  YUM.  We also saw someone very important...

God bless non-mall Santas.  The whole experience was so much more fun.  Well, it would have to be, if you remember last year...   We could take as many photos as we wanted with our own camera, for free, and Santa gave the kids awesome Hammond's Candies afterward.  In case you are curious: Train Boy: Lightning McQueen that talks, please, and Princess Girl: a doll that is all soft so I can sleep with her.

The one with the free skeeball...

Today I nearly attained a state of nirvana, or lived my own version of an episode of Friends from back when it was still pretty funny.  Because it's nearly Train Boy's 3rd birthday, and because his good buddy turned 3 last week, the two families got together over lunch today at Casa Bonita (scene of its own TV fame, BTW) to celebrate.  As always, the cheap games in the arcade ate some of our tokens.  When my friend complained to the attendant about one skee-ball machine in particular, he reset it for her and returned her tokens.  Apparently, he hit the magic reset button.  The game let us play for free.  Over and over again.  The four kids played.  The four adults played.  We took turns.  Many turns.  It was heaven- skee-ball heaven.  Eventually, the kids got bored and the dads took them to watch the puppet show.  We moms kept playing skee-ball, and having a great chat too.  We played and played and played.  And played.  We discussed stopping and walking away, but then, we'd be the girls who walked away from free skee-ball, and just like Joey and Chandler couldn't turn off the free p*rn, we had to keep on playing.  We discussed perhaps staying and having the dads feed the kids dinner at Casa Bonita, so we could keep playing.  We then decided the dads could take the kids home in one car, and she and I would keep playing until they kicked us out.  But then, the magic ended and the game began demanding tokens again.  We took our huge pile of tickets, let the kids pick out their junky prizes, and went home.  Still, for a few glorious moments, we had free skee-ball.  And doesn't that just make life worth living?

After coming home and trying to return to the feeling of being a mere mortal again, I got the kids to bed and finished the last item for the last package for my Secret Pal 8 pal.  I don't know if she's been blog-stalking to find me, and I hope this doesn't give it away.  I won't say what else is going into this package, just in case.  But, from something she said in her SP8 questionnaire, I wanted to make her something for Halloween- my favorite holiday.  Since my sewing is still waaaay better than my knitting, I decided to make her a table runner, using Kari's wonderful pattern.  I dove into my over-sized Halloween stash, and came up with this.

It uses fun batiks and other fabrics from my stash, and features that really awesome Witchy Woman fabric from a year or three ago. To spice it up a bit, I appliqued two witches to the plain center panel.

The back is a really fun over-sized Halloween-colored polka-dot on black print.  I am SO hoping she likes it!  Tonight I'm packing up this and some other goodies, and sending then out into the world.  This was my first secret pal, and I am hoping I did well.  I know I went over the minimum spending requirement, so I'm not worried about being a cheapskate, but I am hoping that my presents were a good fit and brought her much happiness!  I have sent two other packages... this is the last one!  Then I really have to get my butt in gear for the funky scarf swap.  I'm finding myself paralyzed.  I have 2 ideas, but one might be the wrong kind of yarn for my pal, and the other might not be funky enough.  What's a gal to do??? 

It's so late, I need to go to bed to be ready for my first day trying to drop to kids off in two different parts of town at the same time.  Thanks to The Hubby's work schedule, I only have to pull this off alone Mondays and Tuesdays.  The rest of the week, he can drop off one or even both kids!  But tomorrow is all mine.

Fabri-Holic, Thy Name is MUD

That would be because I was covered in mud, and other reallllly icky stuff, today.

Just for the record, me=NOT a nature kinda gal.  Eeeeww.  Give my the streets of NYC any day over, well, manure.  I'd rather step over a puddle of human urine on a city street than tromp through what I did today.  (edited to add: I grew up all in cities and never really went out to the country, thus never developing a feeling of comfort in nature.  I hope I didn't sound too whiny- if I had known more clearly what the urban farm would be like, I would totally have dressed myself and the kids more appropriately- ie BOOTS!- and probably not minded much at all...) 

And, you may ask, why did I tromp through this mixture of mud, animal pee, and poo?  Train Boy's best bud, younger brother to Princess Girl's best friend, and not coincidentally, kid of one of my best friends, had his birthday party at an "urban farm" today.  As far as I can tell, an "urban farm" is just like a real farm, only closer to the city.  We had torrential rains yesterday.  Truly.  And so, today, while we were actually very very hot and dry, the ground was a disaster.  I went along with the kiddos as they pet goats, chickens,

and the like.  I tried to steer them away from the worst puddles.  Princess Girl escaped fairly goop free, but Train Boy and I, well, ugh.  The mud in the pens was a mix of mud, and, all the stuff that comes out of animals.  Some of the other parents and I decided we'd all pretend it was just mud, because, well, eeeeewwwww.

Princess Girl even got to ride a horse!

The kids had a blast- though Train Boy refused to get anywhere near a horse's back.  Fine with me- the waiver we had to sign was fairly terrifying.

In keeping with the cowboy theme of the party, and the cowboy fascination of our little friend, I whipped out this present. 

Yup, that would be another of my ubiquitous present-pillowcases. They make such great fast gifts- about 20 minutes to make, if that? And this time, I got all Martha-Stewart-y, too. We had also bought our little buddy a puzzle. So, I used the pillowcase, along with some ribbon and a card, to wrap the puzzle!

I felt so together...

Until later tonight, when an attempt to buy some tickets on-line led us to realize- my wallet was not in my purse. We searched the house and the car. I was puzzled as to who would steal my cash-less wallet, but leave my iPod and fancy camera in my bag?  Ah, well, it seems that my wallet fell out of my bag at dinner tonight. And was left behind under the table. And was actually turned into the manager by some nice person. And was safely in their safe when we called them panicking at 9:55pm tonight- more than 3 hours after we left the place. Can you believe that?  I must have done something nice lately to have that good karma. The Hubby is out right now retrieving my wallet. What a good man. And what a good stranger, too. Oh my gosh, imagine how bad that could have been. Trust me, I did.  In fact, I almost threw up.  I still feel queasy.

I had so many things I wanted to tell you about.  The simply fantastic movie I saw Friday night. The machine quilting class yesterday.  The fact that I'm missing a hugely important piece of my machine.  My new light.  But, the mud and the wallet incident have totally sapped my strength, plus this is another one of my long rambly posts.  I'll be back soon, I promise.

Welcome to the special retrospective 200th post celebration!

Howdy, dear audience, and welcome to a celebration you've helped make possible.  The 200th Post here at Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic!  If we were on TV, we'd do a clip show right about now and showcase some of your favorite moments from the last 11 or so months.  Remember this?  And this?  And surely we can't forget this, right?  Or what about where it all began?  Ahhh, the laughs we've shared.  (And since it appears my blog-i-versary is a mere few days away, we'll have to celebrate again soon!)

We're also celebrating today because last night, I finished the place-mats.  In the nick of time!  Now I can mail them, along with some of my Dad's favorite goodies (because the place-mats are really for my Mom) off to SC, and they should get there by 8/23.  37 years for my folks. Let's give them a hand.  And, while you're at it, let's give the place-mats a hand, too.

Here they are on my small dining room table. Remember, my folks kitchen table is HUGE, and their dishes are white and blue. And, all their chairs are deliberately different. Hence, 6 varied place-mats that go together in pairs.

Small Squares

Rectangles

Horizontal Stripes

Big Squares

Vertical Stripes

Triangles.  (You may notice one of the originals is missing...  I decided I really really hated it and scrapped it.)  Hooray for this very belated Project Spectrum June finish!

Phew.  Next time I try place-mats, if I try place-mats again, I may not do them them the same way.  For these, I wanted to skip binding them, so I sewed all 3 layers together right sides together, left a small opening, and pulled them right sides out, then quilted them, then sewed up the turning-whole.  But the edges don't look as clean as I might have liked.  Overall, though, I am pleased with them, and just hope my mom is as well.

And, now, back to what I really want to be sewing.  Hooray!

A place(mat) for everything and everything in its place(mat).

As a final hurrah for Project Spectrum June BLUE, I started a set of place-mats for my mom. SHHHH!  They're for my folk's wedding anniversary next month.  And, I do plan to get them something to go along with them so it's not just a gift for my mom...  My mom has blue and white dishes.  They're nice. Not my style, but then, when is any blue aside from peacock or turquoise my style?  I whipped out my blue stash, pulled some pieces that I think will work for her dishes, going all by memory here,

and got to work.  As all 6 of their kitchen chairs are different styles, I plan to make 6 unique place-mats.  I've been wanting to play with place-mats ever since the lovely wonderful post over on Whip Up a few weeks back...   Since the post was by Weeks Ringle, author of Modern Quilt Workshop, and referred to some techniques in the book, I got out my copy and played along.

I am pleased with the simplicity of place-mat #1.  I simply cut strips of varying widths and laid them out in what I found to be a pleasing manner.

I like this one quite a bit.  Modest much?

Then, I tried the method described in Modern Quilt Workshop for the "unifinished business" quilt.  I'm not so much in love with this one. I feel like I wasted lots of fabric, and also, like it's too busy.  But, I do think, with practice and experimentation, I could get a better handle on this method.  Probably.

So, two place-mat tops done, 4 to go.  Hopefully I'll have some time this weekend. 

But, I'm also chomping  at the bit to start my Project Spectrum July Purple project(s).  Cause, let's be honest, this is my month to shine!!!  I want to finish my T-shirt quilt this month.  I want to make a new bed quilt for our room.  But, I'm torn between the Love Beads from Modern Quilt Workshop (see Sarah's here), or Snake Charmer in Denyse Schmidt Quilts, or, Hop Skip Jump from the same book (check out Mel's wonderful in progress one here).

What to do, what to do?  While I contemplate my many fabulous options, I'll leave you with two truly adorable pictures of the kids from over the holiday weekend...

These were taken at different festivals on different days- we had a lot of face-painting this weekend.

I've got the BLUES...

But, they're the good kind of blues! I had two finishes in May that I had to hold until June to share- because they're blue, and June is Blue for Project Spectrum. It's sort of cheating, but the main blue project was a birthday gift due 5/20, and so, I made it in May, but my heart was in June!

Finish #1 is a lovely purse- frequent readers may recognize the style as I've made 2 this way before.   This was a birthday gift for a wonderful friend- we met when our now 5 year old daughters were about 6 months old, and have been very close ever since- even surviving the Fancy Private School debacle when hers got in and mine didn't.  If our friendship can survive that, I say, we're good for life!  Blue is her favorite color, bar none, and when I learned she was expecting a 2nd baby, I put the lovely blue Kaffe Fassett floral aside in case she had a girl.  We both had boys the 2nd time, and so, I made her son a lovely, but more masculine quilt.  I saved that blue floral for ages and in my head, it was always "Rachel's fabric".  So, when her hubby threw her a huge birthday bash this year, I finally used Rachel's fabric for Rachel, and made her this purse.

I don't know if you can tell, but the buttonhole is MUCH better than my last attempt...  And, although I never ever use blues, or so it seems to me, I was able to make this 100% from stash!!  Yippee!

I also put the (blue) binding on this quilt for Train Boy.  I bought the fabric before we realized trains, not cars, were his true passion.  It's a yellow brick road, ugh I know, everyone has made 2 million of these, but, the pattern works SO well for novelties and kid quilts!  FYI, this is also a stash project, except for the cars and flames.  All the other fabrics came from stash, even the entire backing!

Look how blue the back is!  As always, click any photo for a larger view...  I finished binding this a few weeks back, but my quilt holder and I have such varied schedules, I wasn't able to snap it outside in good daylight until yesterday morning!  Sheesh...  FYI, this one was quilted by Bonnie back in December, along with the kids' xmas present quilts, and since this one was not time sensitive, it  waited until I had a pile of quilts ready to bind. I love to do bindings in a big ole bunch- seems less tedious somehow.

Life goes on and on here.  This is the weekend of insane birthday parties- 2 kids invited to 4 parties between them, and the rub is, all 4 kids are good friends (we try to say no to a lot of the invites we get, as the daycare pushes an "invite everyone" policy that can be overwhelming, and also have you breaking your budget on birthday gifts for kids your kids barely even play with...)  Princess Girl has 3 classmates turning 5 next week, and all 3 invited all their classmates to their parties, all within 36 hours of one another!   Yikes.    So, The Hubby and I will once again be ships passing in the night as we divide up the parties.  I'm making him do both the pool parties, as I learned last year- the other mommies do that so they don't have to wear their swimsuits in front of one another!  I was the only mommy stuck in public in a bathing suit last year at one of these, and I have learned!!!  The other mommies also often try to out-skinny each other at parties, loudly declining offers of cake or ice cream... Ugh.  It's not all about the kids, though. Tonight while The Hubby is at work, 2 or 3 great friends are coming over to hang out :-)  And drink margaritas :-)  Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!