Inspiration, Part 1

I'm feeling very inspired tonight, and I thought I'd share it with you!

I don't think there are many things more inspiring than a visit to a quilt shop--unless maybe it's a visit to Quilt Market! I was trolling the internet awhile back while Quilt Market was in full swing up in Portland, and I came across a photo on the Fat Quarter Shop's blog, The Jolly Jabber, that caused me to do a double-take. Gee, the woman in the photo sure as heck LOOKED like Lindy, the owner of one of my local quilt shops, Bear Paws and Hollyhocks, but I wasn't certain. Tonight at our Jo's Club meeting, I confirmed with her that yes, it really WAS HER looking over all the goodies at Anne Sutton's Bunny Tales booth. Lindy carries many of the Bunny Tales patterns and usually has at least one Bunny Tales applique class on her schedule. That's Lindy there on the right in the black sweater--that cute flipped up blonde hair was the giveaway!

Tonight Lindy talked to us a bit about all the wonderful things she saw at Quilt Market, and I can hardly wait to see some of these things arrive in the shops. I wish I could have been there!

One of Lindy's favorite new designers she found at Quilt Market is Virginia Cole of Galloping Pony Studio--click HERE to check out her blog. When I saw the books and patterns Lindy brought back, I had to agree. In the past several months, I've been fascinated by altered art and I had some vague thoughts about combining altered art with quilting. Turns out that's exactly what Virginia Cole does! I had to chuckle when I saw directions for making a purse out of a felted wool sweater in one of her books--I felt like I'd been reading her mind! I've only checked out her blog briefly, but I can see I'll have to go back and read more. She even has a blog category for thrift store finds! I think I'll get lots of inspiration from Virginia. As a matter of fact, I came home with one of her books--

Speaking of books, here's something else that's inspired me lately. A few weeks ago, I read Marcie's blog entry about a book her aunt had loaned her called The Quilters. Marcie talks about the book HERE. If you love history and quilting, I highly recommend the book. Back in the early 1970s, the authors met with quilters in New Mexico and Texas. The book is filled with photographs of quilters and quilts and contains the recollections and stories of these women culled from the oral histories the authors obtained. These quilters worked hard all their lives to carve out a home and a livelihood in the early part of the 1900s. Quilting was a creative outlet for many, but it was also a necessity--quilting "for cover" meant making utilitarian quilts out of anything and everything leftover to keep the family from freezing through the long winters. I brought the book to Jo's Club tonight, and Lindy talked about a play that was based on the book. A play? I had no idea! Turns out the book inspired a musical drama; the Broadway production was nominated for several Tony awards in 1985. Apparently it has been performed all over the country, so keep your eyes open--maybe it will be performed at a theater near you!

I love history and since I also love quilts, old and/or antique quilts inspire me! I know I'm not alone; after all, that's what Jo's Club is all about--reproductions of quilts made in the 1800s. One of our members, Elaine, brought a quilt to share with our group and was kind enough to let me take a photo to show you. This is one she recently made, but she was inspired by a quilt she saw in an old book that belonged to her sister. She enlarged the photo and tried to reproduce the quilt as closely as possible, even going to far as to make one of the blocks from a pieced half-square triangle--can you see it? After all, our quilting ancestors used every scrap they had available!

I hope maybe something you saw here today inspired you also. If not, check back tomorrow--I have more inspiration to talk about!

A Hairy Tale

As I was climbing out of my bath last night, getting ready for bed, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. To my horror, I saw I had a WHITE HAIR sticking out of my otherwise brown eyebrows. Here I am, only slightly past my "best if used by" date, and my eyebrows are going white! And when did that happen? If you're of a certain age, no doubt you're familiar with the odd occurrence of the occasional abnormally long hair. Sometimes they appear on chins, sometimes eyebrows, sometimes . . . well, sometimes in places better left unmentioned. So this darn white hair was one of those long ones that sticks out above the rest, and I'm SURE it wasn't there a day or two before. Did it suddenly grow overnight? Or did an already longish hair turn white overnight? And, more importantly, does the occurrence of white hairs have anything to do with our son moving back home?!

You should have seen me frantically trying to pluck that thing out when I was already so tired I could barely see straight! I kept missing the one white hair and pulling out just about every other eyebrow hair around it! I'm afraid to look, but I think I might have a little bald spot in one of my eyebrows now.

And here's how the first real day of having our son home again started.

I had to wash my face with a dish towel because the kid made a dash for the shower--and the bathroom where the wash cloths are kept--just ahead of me.

A little later, as I was getting dressed, I heard my male offspring say, "Mom, I left my wallet at Johnnie's last night and I need gas. Do you have any money?" In his defense, though, he did pay me back. Mostly. Minus what he spent on donuts because he didn't want to use his debit card for some reason.

Oh, yeah, and then there was "Mom, do you have any hair gel?" Well, no, as a matter of fact I don't. I just have the four cans of shellac extreme hair spray I picked up at the hundred dollar store. He was happy enough with that though. I can see I'm going to have to go back to Target much sooner than I anticipated. I'm going to need more of that hair spray . . . and probably something to dye my eyebrows brown again. And I think it might be best if I don't look in the mirror tonight.

A Room Without Walls, Part 2

About a week and a half ago, I wrote THIS post about my cubicle at the office. Since then, I've been working on making my office space a more personal and welcoming place to spend time in. People have noticed and I've gotten several compliments. Most of what I've added to my space have been thrifted finds, and I brought in a small quilt to hang on the back wall of my cubicle. I'll try to get a couple photos eventually, but I thought I'd show you my latest little project--bookends.

I had seen a couple bookends at the thrift store--simple wooden bookends that looked like they were probably made by some high school kid in wood shop. Oddly enough, they had holes drilled out of the bases. I considered whether they might have been made to serve some other purpose but they sure looked like bookends with holes to me. Not knowing what I could do with them, I left them on the shelf.

Yesterday I started thinking about those bookends again. I thought about getting something round to sit in the holes and remembered these birds on one of the shelves of my hutch--

I had picked these up at Michael's a few months ago and I think they're the cutest things! I decided to go back to Michael's and see if they had any more. Well, no they didn't, but they did have the birds in a larger size--and at 50% off. So I bought those and headed off to the thrift store where I found the bookends still sitting on the shelf.

These larger birds don't sit inside the holes but they sure do cover them! Now I'm working on some paint and decoupage techniques. When I'm happy with the bookends themselves, I'll use some kind of industrial strength glue to affix the birds, but here's a rough idea of how they'll look--

When I was at Michael's, I also found this birdhouse--perfect for my smaller set of birds! I really like the ornate, shabby chic quirkiness of this thing. And, yes, it was also on sale--I love Michael's, don't you?!

I hope to finish the bookends in the next day or two, and when I do, I'll share an "after" photo. Thanks for dropping in to see what I'm up to!

The Prodigal Son and Another Winner!

The prodigal son has returned and we killed the fatted calf but he wasn't here to eat it!

Yes, my son has moved back home--temporarily, or so he says. That was one of the reasons for the frenzy of cleaning that took place here over the weekend, although not directly. We've put him in our daughter's former room because it was the only room with a couple empty drawers and a little bit of closet space. Someone told me I shouldn't make him feel too comfortable, so he won't stay very long--sounds like a parent who knows her stuff!!! Anyway, that room was pretty much ready for him, but we live in a small house, so I wanted to do what I could to make the rest of the house a little less cluttered--with three adults here, it's going to feel cramped no matter what I do but having it tidy helps.

I was going to cook a celebratory steak dinner last night, but I was cleaning here and he was cleaning his old place and still packing stuff so I postponed the big dinner to tonight. But, as I alluded to, he wasn't able to be here for it because he's still cleaning and packing. I'm pretty sure, though, that this won't be the only meal I cook while he's living here.

And how do you know when your kid has moved back in? Those of you with semi-adult children probably know the answer to this one! Your garage is suddenly piled high with mountains of dirty laundry! So, knowing that my son will be spending much of the day tomorrow doing HIS laundry, I spent some time yesterday doing ours--something that's usually my hubby's job but since he was working, I did it for him. I went to take the last load out of the dryer today and what did I find? A dollar bill! Woo-hoo! Must be my lucky day!

And speaking of lucky days, we have a winner of the Decoy pattern!

Again I asked hubby to pick a number in the range of entries, and tonight he picked number 22, Angela of Quilting in Cornfields. If you read her blog, you'll see that poor Angela is up to her ears in fabric and is thinking about taking over space in her daughter's closet, so it's probably a VERY GOOD THING that she's won a pattern and not more fabric--it sounds like she has PLENTY of that! Like most of us, I suspect, her problem lies not in buying too much but in not having enough time to use it. Well, that's MY excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

Today I DID finish my version of the Decoy quilt using the Prairie Paisley fabric though, so I can feel good about using fabric and not just stockpiling more. Next it's on to quilting the other patriotic quilt. Maybe that will be done by next weekend, assuming not too many chores get in the way of my playtime. Oh, and one good thing about our son moving back home? He knows how to cook and does a pretty good job of it, so I'm anticipating a night or two a week when I'm not the cook and can just come home and play in the Sweat Shop!

Congratulations Angela! And for those of you who didn't win either of my giveaways, stay tuned. If the thing with my son moving back home doesn't work out, I'll have a drawing for a 27-year-old young man who is an excellent soccer player with carpentry skills and a penchant for spray paint art work.

More Weekend Fun and a Teapot Winner!

Whew! I'm beat! I've spent the entire day cleaning! Cleaning out drawers, rearranging things, trying to make sense of my "altered art" craft supplies and papers (which don't lend themselves to being as neatly arranged and categorized as fabric!), sprucing up my thrifted treasures, finding homes for the thrifted treasures, rediscovering my own "vintage" goodies . . . . The list goes on and on. I'm going to need a weekend to recover from the weekend! But the end is in sight--it's 11:30 p.m. and I need to vacuum the living room and clean the kitchen. Something's telling me the kitchen's not going to get quite as much attention as the rest of the house got today.

Remember that burglary we had a couple months ago? Well, when I cleaned up our bedroom, I pretty much just shoved stuff away wherever it fit. Today I cleaned everything out and filled the garbage with all kinds of stuff like cheap, ugly circa-1980s costume jewelry, old purses, and dried out old shoes. There were a couple pieces of jewelry with sentimental value that I wasn't sure hadn't been taken in the burglary, but today I found them, so that was a relief! And look what else I found!

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember my story about always wanting a pair of thigh high boots, getting a pair just about the time the most recent short-lived fad had run its course, and wearing them to the grocery store where I ran into probably the last person I would have wanted to run into! Anyway, there they are, in all their glory--a little the worse for wear after playing a role in a couple Halloween costumes and collecting dust in the closet over the years. Did I throw them away? Naw! Had to keep them--for now. Maybe my future grandchildren would like to see them and hear wild stories about old grannie!

In cleaning out a drawer I found a 6-pack of Mounds candy from Easter--Easter 2007, I believe, if not 2006. These are my husband's and son's favorites, so I put them out in a newly-polished silver plated dish and set the dish next to my husband's recliner. Happy Easter honey! Better late than never!

Here's another silver plated dish I polished up today and a brass English Breakfast Tea container--earlier in the week, I promised to show you some of my finds from the Great 50% Off Memorial Day Sale. I thought I'd show you a couple things tonight.

About a year ago, after my dad passed away and my mom cleaned out everything in their place, she gave me a big box full of sewing-related "stuff." For the past year, I've been ignoring that box. I had looked through it right away, so I knew what was there, but I didn't feel much like sorting through everything and putting it all away. Finally I took care of that today, so I no longer have a large cardboard box shoved into the corner of my son's former room. It feels good to have that done.

My break from cleaning is nearly over, so it's time to announce the winner of the teapot. TERESA of Stitchin' Friends is the new owner of a white, copper insulator covered teapot. There were 14 entries in the giveaway, and when asked to pick a number from 1 to 14, hubby picked 8--Teresa's number! Congratulations, Teresa!

I hope to get this cleaning finished tonight so I can spend most of the day tomorrow in the Sweat Shop with a clear conscience and a happy heart. Tomorrow night I'll draw a winner for the Schnibbles Decoy pattern, so stay tuned and thanks for stopping by to visit me.

Friday Night Fun!

It's Friday night, and the weekend has officially arrived! It arrived a little bit early for me because I took about an hour of vacation time and left work at 4:30 so I could come home and shampoo the carpet in my daughter's former room. Do I know how to party, or what?!!

Once I was done, as a reward, I took myself down to the Hundred Dollar Store. Here's a photo taken from my car as I was stopped at the light, waiting to turn left to get into the parking lot. Remember my "God's Kar" post? The photo of Gods Kar was taken at just about the same spot. As I was thinking about that earlier experience, what do I see but this limo:

Yes, this is apparently a limo. I think it's about the oddest limo I've seen. I'm guessing maybe this is the limo graduates of the trucking school hire when they want to celebrate successfully obtaining their "degree." What do you think? And when does a bus become a limo? I bet a bus would be cheaper!

So I went to the Hundred Dollar Store to get hairspray. I have really fine, limp hair and to get it to stay where I want it, the best product I've found is Aussie Mega Freeze Spray. The grocery store stopped carrying it, so I had to go to the drug store. Then the drug store stopped carrying it, so now I have to go to Target--and when I do, I stock up on about four cans because that's a really dangerous place to shop. I was in Home Depot the other night; if I had thought about it, I suppose I could have just picked up a can of lacquer and called it done. Sure would have been less expensive! Yes, the Hundred Dollar Store and my trip to buy four cans of hairspray ended up costing $105 and some change. I figure inflation must account for that extra $5. Hubby doesn't know it yet, but I bought a couple new pillows and a cushy mattress pad--the bulk of my purchases. While he's at work tomorrow and I'm cleaning house, I'll "install" the pad and pillows. I may even need to nap-test them! (Yes, I have one of those fun-never-stops weekends planned, ladies! Try not to be too jealous!)

Let's see. What else did I do on this fine Friday night? Well I took the scenic but slightly longer route to the Hundred Dollar Store right past the Goodwill store. Except I didn't, after all, drive right past. No, I had to stop. Now that the crowds from the big Memorial Day sale have cleared out, I was able to browse at a less frantic pace and I found a couple more wool sweaters and a red wool blazer.

The sweaters would now make nice doll sweaters--yes, I also spent my Friday night out in the garage, doing laundry and shrinking clothing.

But hey! Look what came in the mail! Hubby went down to the mailbox and brought back a box--

My thread is here, my thread is here! Had I gotten that box earlier in the evening--like right after I shampooed the carpet--I might have hustled myself into the Sweat Shop and skipped the shopping trip, thereby saving myself $105! But at least I can get the Prairie Paisley quilt finished up now--and this is the right weight of thread too!

And what else was in the mail? This apparently came a few days ago, and I think hubby was intentionally hiding it from me, burying it under all the other miscellaneous mail on the kitchen table, which was conveniently hidden behind a bunch of thrifting purchases.

Do you see that? Salvation Army is having a 50% off sale! Oh, but wait! When is it? Friday, May 30th? DARN! I missed it! Instead of hitting the sale, I've been watching TV and cutting apart a red wool blazer! I've gotta start planning out my Friday nights better! After all, there are so many fun things to do and only a limited amount of time to do them in!

Dear Ms. Manners:

I'm not sure what the "correct" thing to do is, so I thought I'd ask for some input from you.

My girl boss is getting married in a few weeks. I haven't been invited to the wedding. Do I get her a wedding gift?

This is kind of an awkward situation, it seems. We've worked together since last August and get along well--I like her. As the wedding date approaches, people in the office are asking me if I'm going to the wedding. Well, no. I'm aware that she's invited the firm's senior partners, so there's a little bit of talk about the event. I've also been asked whether I'm going to arrange a bridal shower--I really hadn't even thought about it until someone asked, but my knee jerk reaction is that if I haven't been invited to the wedding, it would be inappropriate for me to arrange an office bridal shower. The whole thing feels kind of weird, though. How would you handle it? Wedding gift? Office shower?

By Popular Demand . . .

Thanks for leaving me comments--I love to read what you all have to say! Several of you asked about the quilting I'm doing on the Prairie Paisley quilt, so I thought I'd tell you a little about it and show you how it's done.

Yes, the pattern I'm using is just free-hand, free motion, and it's simple as can be!

I think the name of the fabric line, Prairie Paisley, reminded me of this quilting pattern, and I had decided I just wanted to do an all-over quilt design on this one since I'll probably use it as a table topper or small throw, so this pattern seemed ideal. And with the scrappiness of the fabrics in the quilt, using the variegated red, white, and blue thread also seemed like it would work well.

I have a feeling I may have seen a tutorial on this on someone else's blog, but I have no idea whose--sorry! So I just drew out on a piece of paper how the pattern works. Try it yourself on a piece of paper and see how easy it is to do; I bet it will give you confidence to try it on a quilt if you've never done this before!

First of all, I like to start in the middle of my quilt. See where it says "start"? Self-explanatory, I think! From there, you just stitch a loop--see those arrows along the line of the curve? I usually try to go with an oval or tear drop shape but a circle works fine too--this really is a forgiving pattern that doesn't require you to be perfect.

Now change direction and make another loop, echoing the first one.

Finally, a third loop and your first "pattern" is complete. (What I'm calling a "pattern" is what you have when you make three loops--are you with me so far?) Ready to keep going?

Whichever direction you start your next inner loop is the direction you'll end up going when this second "pattern" is done. In other words, if you want to keep moving around more or less in a circle, clockwise, then start your loop going in a clockwise direction. Here, though, I'm making the second "pattern" go counter-clockwise.

Just keep going like you did the first "pattern" until you have three loops and are ready to move on again.

Here again I switched directions, starting the first loop going clockwise, so my third loop will end on the right side of this third "pattern."

And so there's the fourth "pattern" completed, and my "stitching line" (okay, actually my pencil in this case!) ends up on the left side of the pattern I just completed. If I keep switching the direction of the first loop each time, I'll end up with "patterns" that keep going in a somewhat straight line across the quilt, and I don't really want that--I want it to look more random. So, for the next few "patterns," I'll keep the first loop going counter-clockwise and start circling around that first "pattern."

So, that's pretty much it. Simple? The point is to keep going and filling in the open spaces. If you work yourself into a corner, it's not a problem--just stop, clip your threads, and start again at the edge of your quilted pattern where you have some open space to move.

Now I've worked up an appetite doing all this paper quilting. Time for dessert. Look what I found at the store today--

And gosh are they yummy! I know this because we've already eaten some. But this is a BIG container, so we'd best get busy eating more!

Oh, and by the way--here's a thrifting mystery update. Remember that rolling pin thingy? My anonymous but self-proclaimed "best Bro in law" left a comment for me today, advising that it IS IN FACT for back massages and suggested I try it out on hubby. Here's what he said: "Just don't try and flatten him like you would with a ball of dough!" How about if I just beat him with it instead, best bro in law?! Oh, but wait! Then you'd have to come arrest me, wouldn't you?! Unless, of course, you're one of my OTHER anonymous best brothers in law and not the one in law enforcement?! As I happen to be "blessed" with four brothers-in-law, I'm making an educated guess on which one left the comment. His mention of homemade apricot brandy, though, was a pretty good clue, since most of my best brothers in law are happy enough with plain old beer!!!

Thanks for stopping by to visit! And try out that quilt pattern soon--I bet you'll enjoy it!

I Hate it When That Happens!

I've been quilting away on the Prairie Paisley quilt and I have about two and a half sides of just a bit of the border left to quilt and what happens? This!

ARGH! I've mentioned before that I sometimes use Valdani variegated thread and that I have to order it online, so that's what I had to do tonight--put in an order. Actually, I put in TWO orders. Why? Well, because I couldn't remember if the thread I was using was 35 wt. or 50 wt. because it seemed a little heavier than normal, but I didn't think I had ordered the heavier thread originally. And then I couldn't remember which of two similar variegated colors it was. And neither of two online shops carried both weights. And I couldn't find a confirmation for my original order to check. ARGH! I hate it when that happens too!

And tell me this--when you're quilting with a heavier thread, what size and type of needle do you put in your machine? I was having some breakage problems and switched to a larger needle, which lessened the breakage, but I was still having some difficulty. So any tips would be appreciated!

And another thing--have you ever washed a wool sweater and ended up with a teeny, tiny sweater? I did--but actually that was my intent in this case. Here's my new teeny, tiny red wool sweater:

I have plans to make it into a purse. Yes, this was a thrifting find. You know, it's pretty hard to find wool sweaters here in California! I actually found two wool sweaters. The other one was 85 percent wool, which should be a high enough wool content to shrink, but guess what? It didn't seem to shrink much. Oh well, you win some and you lose some!

And speaking of winning some, I thought I'd have another giveaway. Yes, you read that right--ANOTHER GIVEAWAY! Two giveaways in two days! So let's say I'll draw a winning name for this one on Sunday--which I think is June 1st, isn't it? So I'll draw for the teapot on Saturday and this pattern--

on Sunday--just the pattern; not my not-quite-quilted Prairie Paisley quilt! This is the Schnibbles pattern I used as the basis for the quilt though, so if you win, you can make your own! If you'd like to be in the drawing, please tell me in your comment that you want in the drawing. Same with the teapot--and leave the teapot comment on the teapot post because I'm easily confused as I've already told you. I'm sure there are some of you who may want to comment but don't necessarily want whatever I'm giving away, so if you want to get in, say it right up front; otherwise, I won't bother trying to foist my "stuff" on you. And let's say only one entry per person--don't even try to do what I did to win my former BFF Ms. Red Geranium Sharon's FQ bundle, 'cause it didn't do me any good anyway! (I hate it when that happens!)

Thanks for stopping by to visit--I definitely DO NOT hate it when that happens--I love it, especially if you have a little time to "talk" to me!

A Good Thrifting Day!

Hubby and I hit four Goodwill stores today for their 50% off sale, and boy were they jam packed with people. What does it say about our society when $2.99 is too much to pay for something and you have to wait for the 50% off sale?! It's funny, too, what people find to buy. When I looked at what other people had, so much of it seemed like junk, but they were happy. And I'm sure they--and possibly a few of you--think I'm nuts too, but it was fun, and we came home exhausted after nearly 6 hours of driving around town and pushing through crowds of people, all looking for bargains.

And what did I buy? Well, I'll probably show you some of it in the next few days--the van was pretty well loaded with bags. But today I wanted to tell you what I got for YOU! Yes, indeed, I bought YOU something--if you're the person whose name I draw next Saturday!

Almost the first thing I saw this a.m. was another teapot with a copper insulated cover like the one I bought several weeks ago--one of my great "finds" that started me down the thrifting pathway.

Unfortunately, this one is missing its lid, but covered with the insulator, you'd never know. So, it's not perfect, but then what in life truly is?! Here's how it looks topless:

If you're interested in entering my drawing, please leave me a comment saying you want in. You need to ask to be in the drawing, though, because I don't want to chase off anyone who wants to comment but doesn't want the teapot, okay?

And for my sister-in-law Kathy--Kath, we got you something too! Hubby will probably come by with it sometime this week. Late birthday present!

And Chris from Sacramento--I tried to watch for you, but I was pretty busy hunting for treasures. Your comments come through without an email address, so I haven't been able to write back, but if you made it out to Goodwill today, I hope you had fun!

Thanks, everyone, for stopping by to visit me! I hope you enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend!