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Rae Gun Ramblings: Giveaway: Fabric Bundle
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Graduations
I have one moving from middle to high school, and one from elementary to middle school. (Small man wants to know, "When can I have a graduation?" Next year, big guy - time for kindergarten then.)
The Lovely Daughter:
The Mid-Kid (sorry for the blurry photo - it's the best one I have):
Boy, it's trite, but they grow up so fast!
No quilty photos, despite getting a lot done on my daughter's quilt over the weekend. A few times a year, our guild sponsors a "Sit-n-Sew" at a local University. We get a computer-friendly room, so plenty of outlets. It's a great mini-retreat.
The Lovely Daughter:
The Mid-Kid (sorry for the blurry photo - it's the best one I have):
Boy, it's trite, but they grow up so fast!
No quilty photos, despite getting a lot done on my daughter's quilt over the weekend. A few times a year, our guild sponsors a "Sit-n-Sew" at a local University. We get a computer-friendly room, so plenty of outlets. It's a great mini-retreat.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Museum photos
Not very many, since the exhibits we went to see prohibited photography. These are both from the Renwick.
This is me inspecting a carved mahogany sculpture. That "drape"? It's ALL carved wood. I swear the weave of the fabric is carved into the wood.
A Sam Maloof dining set. Swoon.
This is me inspecting a carved mahogany sculpture. That "drape"? It's ALL carved wood. I swear the weave of the fabric is carved into the wood.
A Sam Maloof dining set. Swoon.
The Antique Quilt
SO, my boss comes in a couple of weeks ago and says, "M. [his wife] wants to know if you want an antique quilt." So I thought a minute and said, "OF COURSE!"
I'm thinking your average early 20th century quilt, available in your local antique store for $50 or so.
No. He comes in the next day with THIS:
My jaw drops to the floor, but I take it home. The next Monday is our guild meeting, so I take it in to share at show & tell. [TMOTH says to "show off", but we all know quilters like to share.] I jokingly tell them not to say anything if it's valuable, otherwise I'll have to give it back.
The others agree with me - it's mid-19th century and an extraordinarily fine quilt. It needs to see someone for conservation, and I do need to get it appraised. Sigh. I'm hoping against hope it'll only be worth a couple of hundred dollars and I'll be able to keep it.
I'm thinking your average early 20th century quilt, available in your local antique store for $50 or so.
No. He comes in the next day with THIS:
My jaw drops to the floor, but I take it home. The next Monday is our guild meeting, so I take it in to share at show & tell. [TMOTH says to "show off", but we all know quilters like to share.] I jokingly tell them not to say anything if it's valuable, otherwise I'll have to give it back.
The others agree with me - it's mid-19th century and an extraordinarily fine quilt. It needs to see someone for conservation, and I do need to get it appraised. Sigh. I'm hoping against hope it'll only be worth a couple of hundred dollars and I'll be able to keep it.
Blogging before dinner - my UFO list
TMOTH has taken the mid-kid off to karate, the Lovely Daughter is staying with a friend so she can ride with her to the field trip tomorrow (YEAH! No getting up at 4 am!!), and Small Man is playing with Legos. Dinner will be easy, so I have a few minutes to think about my UFO list.
My internet buddies, the Prolific Online Quilters, are having a summer Waun-a-Finish challenge, and the first step is to post our UFOs.
1. Mid-kid's chess quilt - still lots more applique to do
2. The Lovely Daughter's cat window quilt - much progress here, mostly due to ...
3. Crazy Mom's one 9-patch a day quilt-a-long
4. Love's the Only House mini-quilt
5. My mom's 9-patch quilt
6. Flannel plaid quilt
7. Birds-in-the-Air quilt (BTW - 5, 6, and 7 are all inherited UFOs. They count, right?)
8. Baby quilt for Laresha's baby
9, 10, 11. Toddler quilts (x 3 - new baby, 4yo, and 2yo grand-boys of my boss)
I'll also probably start a few new ones as well - I'm not particularly stressed by the UFO level as long as I'm working on something ;^)
My internet buddies, the Prolific Online Quilters, are having a summer Waun-a-Finish challenge, and the first step is to post our UFOs.
1. Mid-kid's chess quilt - still lots more applique to do
2. The Lovely Daughter's cat window quilt - much progress here, mostly due to ...
3. Crazy Mom's one 9-patch a day quilt-a-long
4. Love's the Only House mini-quilt
5. My mom's 9-patch quilt
6. Flannel plaid quilt
7. Birds-in-the-Air quilt (BTW - 5, 6, and 7 are all inherited UFOs. They count, right?)
8. Baby quilt for Laresha's baby
9, 10, 11. Toddler quilts (x 3 - new baby, 4yo, and 2yo grand-boys of my boss)
I'll also probably start a few new ones as well - I'm not particularly stressed by the UFO level as long as I'm working on something ;^)
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
A Lovely Day Today
I took about half the day off today - worked early am and late pm but took the middle part off.
TMOTH and I went downtown.
First, we went to the Renwick (my personal favorite of the Smithsonian museums - it's really small and quiet and has different stuff) to see the Greene & Greene exhibit which ends Sunday without the benefit of children nagging at us. Ahhhhhh. Wonderful, wonderful, although I had the privilege of visiting the Gamble House in Pasadena about 15 years ago, and all of these kinds of things are SO much more wonderful in context.
Then we hopped one Metro stop back toward home and had lunch at a little Italian restaurant. Yummy.
Then, the Textile Museum. Somehow, I've never managed to visit before, despite having lived hear ~11 years now. They have an exhibit running on Amish Quilts. Oh. My. Goodness. I honestly couldn't pick a favorite, or even favorites. They were all just so amazing. If any of you are going to be in the DC area between now and Labor Day, I highly recommend it.
TMOTH and I went downtown.
First, we went to the Renwick (my personal favorite of the Smithsonian museums - it's really small and quiet and has different stuff) to see the Greene & Greene exhibit which ends Sunday without the benefit of children nagging at us. Ahhhhhh. Wonderful, wonderful, although I had the privilege of visiting the Gamble House in Pasadena about 15 years ago, and all of these kinds of things are SO much more wonderful in context.
Then we hopped one Metro stop back toward home and had lunch at a little Italian restaurant. Yummy.
Then, the Textile Museum. Somehow, I've never managed to visit before, despite having lived hear ~11 years now. They have an exhibit running on Amish Quilts. Oh. My. Goodness. I honestly couldn't pick a favorite, or even favorites. They were all just so amazing. If any of you are going to be in the DC area between now and Labor Day, I highly recommend it.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
A Good Weekend
All in all, it was a pretty good weekend.
The 9-patches are doing their work - I also got more of the 12-patches for the Lovely Daughter's quilt bordered and now have half of them done. Then because I feel guilty about working on hers and not the mid-kid's, I also got three or four more chess pieces basted.
But now I'm sitting on the floor cutting out more 2.5" squares. The only thing on TV right now is Sahara - a chick flick based on a Clive Cussler novel. How goofy is that? I'll also need to think about another quilt for Small Man - he asks me every time he sees me working on one of the others when will I make him another quilt? I asked him what he wanted, and he said "Stars."
I managed to make all of the kids happy this weekend (at different times, of course). Small Man got to go to the park while waiting to pick his big sister up from her painting class and got some snazzy new kid-size gardening tools, the Mid Kid and TMOTH got to go to see Star Trek, and the Lovely Daughter got to go to the mall with a friend, got a new swimsuit, and didn't have to go see Star Trek (she went with a friend to see Night at the Museum and spent the rest of the day at the pool). I managed to get a miniscule amount of the crap on the playroom floor picked up and put away.
No beans planted, but maybe later in the week...
The 9-patches are doing their work - I also got more of the 12-patches for the Lovely Daughter's quilt bordered and now have half of them done. Then because I feel guilty about working on hers and not the mid-kid's, I also got three or four more chess pieces basted.
But now I'm sitting on the floor cutting out more 2.5" squares. The only thing on TV right now is Sahara - a chick flick based on a Clive Cussler novel. How goofy is that? I'll also need to think about another quilt for Small Man - he asks me every time he sees me working on one of the others when will I make him another quilt? I asked him what he wanted, and he said "Stars."
I managed to make all of the kids happy this weekend (at different times, of course). Small Man got to go to the park while waiting to pick his big sister up from her painting class and got some snazzy new kid-size gardening tools, the Mid Kid and TMOTH got to go to see Star Trek, and the Lovely Daughter got to go to the mall with a friend, got a new swimsuit, and didn't have to go see Star Trek (she went with a friend to see Night at the Museum and spent the rest of the day at the pool). I managed to get a miniscule amount of the crap on the playroom floor picked up and put away.
No beans planted, but maybe later in the week...
Monday, May 25, 2009
A finish this weekend
But no photo yet because I left my camera out in the rain :(
Hopefully it will dry out OK. It was the "old" camera, which uses the funky cards that don't fit in the printer slot.
This was a log cabin top that my grandmother pieced in the 80s. It went home with my baby brother today.
The next OPPIG (Other People's PIG) is likely my mom's log cabin. MY log cabin has slowed due to the weekend, but is still lurching along. It helps that I do at least two when I do them - the chain piecing and pressing seems easier that way, actually, than one at a time.
Hopefully it will dry out OK. It was the "old" camera, which uses the funky cards that don't fit in the printer slot.
This was a log cabin top that my grandmother pieced in the 80s. It went home with my baby brother today.
The next OPPIG (Other People's PIG) is likely my mom's log cabin. MY log cabin has slowed due to the weekend, but is still lurching along. It helps that I do at least two when I do them - the chain piecing and pressing seems easier that way, actually, than one at a time.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Lessons learned
- It IS possible to stay ahead of the 4-year-old who wants to take out everything you put away (and also to sneak some things in the trash and not have him notice).
- Even when you poke holes in them, sometimes baked potatoes explode in the oven.
- When you use Beth's roll recipe and have your bread machine set on "quick bread" instead of "dough", you get bread that is very, very, very dense - but still edible.
- When your nine-patches want to be set with orange sashing, maybe you should listen to them.
- Survivor really is awful, and WHY is it on when Cold Case is supposed to be on? (Okay, that's a question, but the lesson is not to go sit at the computer until you're sure the program you thought would be on is really on.)
- Hiyao Miyazaki really is a genius, even after watching his movies over and over and over again.
- Even when you poke holes in them, sometimes baked potatoes explode in the oven.
- When you use Beth's roll recipe and have your bread machine set on "quick bread" instead of "dough", you get bread that is very, very, very dense - but still edible.
- When your nine-patches want to be set with orange sashing, maybe you should listen to them.
- Survivor really is awful, and WHY is it on when Cold Case is supposed to be on? (Okay, that's a question, but the lesson is not to go sit at the computer until you're sure the program you thought would be on is really on.)
- Hiyao Miyazaki really is a genius, even after watching his movies over and over and over again.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Movie time
When you have a 4-year-old, you have to accept that they like repetition. The same food. The same books. The same movies. I believe that we have watched Nausicaa every day now for the past 3 or 4 days.
I don't mind so much. It's just so much eye candy, the Miyazaki movies. Actually, it'll be nice when he's old enough to watch Princess Mononoke - that ones a little bit too much right now. And our copy of Howl's Moving Castle has some bad skips; need a new one.
No quilting likely tonight, unless it's after the boys are up to bed. TMOTH took the mid-kid to Boy Scouts, and they won't be back until bedtime.
I don't mind so much. It's just so much eye candy, the Miyazaki movies. Actually, it'll be nice when he's old enough to watch Princess Mononoke - that ones a little bit too much right now. And our copy of Howl's Moving Castle has some bad skips; need a new one.
No quilting likely tonight, unless it's after the boys are up to bed. TMOTH took the mid-kid to Boy Scouts, and they won't be back until bedtime.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Two more 9-patches
Only 9 am, and I'm caught up. Yay!
What's the big deal about 9-patches, right? For me, it's not so much the 9-patch, but the simple act of getting started. I know a lot of you don't have quilter's inertia, but I do. I can sew in the playroom (all alone) or on the dining room table (which means getting set up). Mostly, I go the dining room table route, because I like piecing on the Featherweight. I find that once I've sewn that simple 9-patch, I have the machine all ready and can work on something else.
It's effective for me.
Happy Mother's Day, everybody.
What's the big deal about 9-patches, right? For me, it's not so much the 9-patch, but the simple act of getting started. I know a lot of you don't have quilter's inertia, but I do. I can sew in the playroom (all alone) or on the dining room table (which means getting set up). Mostly, I go the dining room table route, because I like piecing on the Featherweight. I find that once I've sewn that simple 9-patch, I have the machine all ready and can work on something else.
It's effective for me.
Happy Mother's Day, everybody.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
9-patches
I've joined a quilt-a-long over at Crazy Mom Quilts. Make a 9-patch every day, and have a quilt done by summer.
I was a little late getting started, but I have six so far:
I like how some of them are contrasty and some are not. I'm cutting more squares tonight. Makes good use of those scrap strips! I'm also trimming some strips to work on the baby/no longer a baby quit for my boss's grandkids.
The "source" 9-patch uses white sashing; I think that's unlikely for me. Good practice for finishing up my mom's 9-patch, which is sashed with blue-and-white seersucker.
I was a little late getting started, but I have six so far:
I like how some of them are contrasty and some are not. I'm cutting more squares tonight. Makes good use of those scrap strips! I'm also trimming some strips to work on the baby/no longer a baby quit for my boss's grandkids.
The "source" 9-patch uses white sashing; I think that's unlikely for me. Good practice for finishing up my mom's 9-patch, which is sashed with blue-and-white seersucker.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Recovering
Urgh. I caught a bad cold last Friday and am only just now starting to recover.
I went to guild meeting last night anyway! Our speaker was Carol Taylor, and she spoke on working in series.
It really showed how photography is important - one of the quilts in particular was nothing on the photo but absolutely spectacular in person.
And the best thing? She had Aurifil thread on sale at the meeting! I was able to stock up!
I went to guild meeting last night anyway! Our speaker was Carol Taylor, and she spoke on working in series.
It really showed how photography is important - one of the quilts in particular was nothing on the photo but absolutely spectacular in person.
And the best thing? She had Aurifil thread on sale at the meeting! I was able to stock up!
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
I hate Kidz Bop
Last weekend, the mid-kid went on his first Boy Scout camp-out. Before leaving, he and TMOTH went to McDonald's for dinner, and got this cool talking Melman. Well, all Small Man could talk about until lunchtime the next day was what toy HE would get at lunch at McDonald's. Did we get a cool Madagascar toy? NO. We got a Kidz Bop CD.
So for the past almost-week, whenever we're in the car - "Can we listen to my CD?" Can I just say that "Stick With You" is NOT my favorite song? But, what ya gonna do when someone like this is in the backseat, happy because his "favorite song" is on:
So for the past almost-week, whenever we're in the car - "Can we listen to my CD?" Can I just say that "Stick With You" is NOT my favorite song? But, what ya gonna do when someone like this is in the backseat, happy because his "favorite song" is on:
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Checkup #1
I scheduled all the kids' checkups right in a row - the Small Man this afternoon, the mid-kid in the morning, and the Lovely Daughter tomorrow afternoon.
Small man is 43" and 47 pounds - 95th and 100th percentiles. BIG boy.
Small man is 43" and 47 pounds - 95th and 100th percentiles. BIG boy.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Quilt show - Friendship Star Quilters
Our guild show was this weekend - I didn't take very many pictures.
My guild challenge quilt:
My donation quilt:
and a few that I liked:
A Gardner's Sampler, by Pat Vasaio
Jeweled Sky, by Susan Sellers (the vertical black one)
and Busy Lady, by Barbara Kilby
Time to go wake up TMOTH!
My guild challenge quilt:
My donation quilt:
and a few that I liked:
A Gardner's Sampler, by Pat Vasaio
Jeweled Sky, by Susan Sellers (the vertical black one)
and Busy Lady, by Barbara Kilby
Time to go wake up TMOTH!
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Saturday Frenzy
Soon to be 9:30 - wake up The Lovely Daughter and make sure she eats something
10:00 - take The lovely Daughter to the Arts Barn for class/return home
11:30 - take Small Man to lunch and stop by the quilt show
1:30 - pick The Lovely Daughter up from class, get her lunch, and drive to the Pinewood Derby
1:30 - hopefully not too late - chase the Small Man around while listening to The Lovely Daughter complain about being forced to be at the Pinewood Derby
- If before 6, return to quilt show
- If after 6, return home
Have dinner and collapse.
What's your day like? And I KNOW all of you at the quilt retreat are having a great time - I'm jealous.
10:00 - take The lovely Daughter to the Arts Barn for class/return home
11:30 - take Small Man to lunch and stop by the quilt show
1:30 - pick The Lovely Daughter up from class, get her lunch, and drive to the Pinewood Derby
1:30 - hopefully not too late - chase the Small Man around while listening to The Lovely Daughter complain about being forced to be at the Pinewood Derby
- If before 6, return to quilt show
- If after 6, return home
Have dinner and collapse.
What's your day like? And I KNOW all of you at the quilt retreat are having a great time - I'm jealous.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Eek...only a few more days.
The quilt show starts at noon on Friday. Am I ready? No, of course not!
The info board is mostly done. I need a few more bits for that.
I need a placard saying "Children must have parent's permission to sew."
I need to get some more pincushion squares sewn up and turned.
I need to thread a bunch of needles with different colors of thread.
I cut a LOT of squares this weekend, and got the peek-n-seek list done and ready to print; and went by Office Depot this morning to get the assigned blue paper for it.
I'd really like to get a piece partially quilted, so they can see the process.
We'll see.
The info board is mostly done. I need a few more bits for that.
I need a placard saying "Children must have parent's permission to sew."
I need to get some more pincushion squares sewn up and turned.
I need to thread a bunch of needles with different colors of thread.
I cut a LOT of squares this weekend, and got the peek-n-seek list done and ready to print; and went by Office Depot this morning to get the assigned blue paper for it.
I'd really like to get a piece partially quilted, so they can see the process.
We'll see.
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