Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Jan. 23, 2013

Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013

I loaded up my sewing machine & stuff to head to the quilt shop on a rainy saturday morning. I took a free motion quilt class that was offered. I had watched a bunch of videos on YouTube about free motion quilting and it doesn't look that hard to watch someone else do it. Plus I actually FMQ'd the quilt I sent to Peter & Brandie for Sebastian last November. But I really wanted some hands on training to see if there were any tricks of the trade. :)


 
My zig zags were pretty awful at the beginning and I actually did some meandering...liked the loop de loops much better, especially the double loops...and was told that my loops could be hearts pretty easily...ooh what possibilities!  I just have to practice, practice, practice! (Yeah right...probably right before I decide to FMQ the next quilt!)
 
I then headed to the needlepoint store around the corner and walls of thread, but I totally forgot to bring my inspiration fabric, so I was choosing colors based on my phone picture...not the best way to choose floss, but I guess I didn't do horribly.
 


The next time I am at the quilt shop, I will bring my fabric and take a gander to see if I missed anything.  Most of these are pearle #5 with a few being hand-dyed, variagated floss. 


Sunday, January 20

After seeing Becky's needlebook on facebook, I had to get crackin'...hers is so beautiful!  It also made me think of the needlebook outside the box.

 

I love my little snap enclosure to hold the scissors in place. I also did the blanket stitching on the outside edges first when it was open faced and then did the running stitch. I learned the hard way that this was totally backwards.


Tuesday, Jan. 22
 

This one was totally Becky inspired. I loved her flower petals...I don't love mine as much, but I did figure out the whole running stitch/blanket stitch sequence.  I also decided that I like the looks of embroidery floss much better than pearle #8 thread. I also used ribbon for the inside scissor snap closure. It laid much flatter than my scrap of fabric.
 
Wed., Jan. 23

 

Today was another ice skating lesson for Kari...she's getting much better at going backwards. She's showing me blue ice scraped from the rink. :)
 
 


 

Friday, January 18, 2013

My life through pictures

I can't believe how fast time goes by as always. Here's a glimpse into the past 10 dayish.

Monday, January 7
 
 
This was my initial sketch of my modern medallion quilt. After looking at numerous pictures on flickr, I knew I needed a simpler color palatte.

Tuesday, January 8
 
 
The McDonalds on Northlake is under construction, but it is up and running. Amazing people working in the rain. I needed my coffee to go to the quilt shop & sit for four hours.
 


 
Sea of Tranquility Block of the Month class. I just realized today, that I misplaced my instructions for this BOM. Good thing I'm going to the quilt shop tomorrow. I need to remember to ask for another copy.
 

 
 This is the red & white one we'll be working on. I LOVE it.

Kari is in a jumping position...learning how to jump! I'm amazed.

 
Wednesday, January 9
 
 

These are my colors for the modern medallion quilt.  I purchased some at the LQS and some at JoAnns. I love these colors. I was considering going turquoise & brown or turquoise & pink...but white just seemed fresh.


Yep, needed to do another sketch with colored pencils...a little more true to form and to scale.
 
 
 Kari learning how to skate one one foot. :)

Thursday, January 10

 
Eric made it back home. He was working in Opa Locka on Monday & Tuesday and he was in Vero Beach & Ocala on Wed & Thurs. We went to Dockside grille for dinner when he came home on Thurs night.
 
Friday, January 11
 
 
Eric & Kari collected eggs before Eric went to work. It looks like they didn't collect any on Thursday!
 

Yep, that was supposed to be my dinner. Stein's leftover hamburger from Dockside grille. Thief!  Kari is holding the jar of Alton Brown's hot cocoa mix that we made. She's going to Kayla's for another smore night.


Mine! Mine! I made this! It's not as pretty as the demo, but it is definitely pretty!
 
 
Sunday, January 14
 
 
Yep, these are the chairs I want to replace our white plastic ones with.

Tuesday, January 16


Yes, Eric's cafe con leche is more fru fru than mine! 


Wednesday, January 17

 
Been going to Panera Bread for over 4 years. I had no idea that there was a steak & bleu cheese salad on the menu. I actually liked my spinach power salad better though with my roast beef sandwich.
 
 
Took a picture of the egret walking on the bushes. Quite cute.
 

Basted the medallion to the white sparkly fabric...couldn't decide on the pearle thread to use.

 
Used the pearle #5 thread last night. Was totally inspired by Heather getting hers done.  Can't wait to go to the needlepoint shop tomorrow to see if I can find other colors of pearle #8 thread.

 
 

Monday, January 7, 2013

Jan. 7, 2013

Monday night

School starts tomorrow. Yeah! After having 2 weeks off, I'm ready to have a schedule again. Stein even packed all of his pencils into his new pencil case. Now, he wants a blue flame one...have to keep my eye out at joann's & see what I can come up with.

We picked up Eric from the airport on Friday. He came home bearing gifts. :)



Kari then went to Kayla's house for campfire & smores in the evening.

On Saturday, I thought I was doing so good by having coupons for the girls to go ice skating. Buy one and two get in free. Only to find out that my coupon expired on 12/31. Oops! The girls still went though they let us have one free admission with skates.



And, I signed Kari up for ice skating lessons for the next 8 weeks. I couldn't believe she opted for ice skating instead of flag football with Kayla, since she's been talking about that for a year. Go figure. I have to say that I love the stadium seating upstairs to watch...so much warmer up there & definitely comfortable esp w/wifi.

Our picture for Sat is one where we had to ask Aunt Becky for help on a drawsomething that Cami drew. It makes total sense after we had help. :)



Aunt Becky's hint was it's something sticky you put in your hair.

Today, Kari made more progress on her paint by number that she purchased on Thurs when we were looking for yarn. She's doing a fabulous job. :)



And after being totally jealous of seeing what Heather & Becky chose for their fabrics for the modern medallion quilt, I had to go shopping in my stash to see if anything caught my eye.  So far, this is it. 


I may change my mind after going to the Quilt shop tomorrow for my BOM class, but for now, I'm thinking of alternating rows of turquoise & white with this being my inspiration piece for the middle. It matches nothing in my house, but it does make me smile. :)


Here are a few more fabrics that I pulled from my stash...we'll see what else I can come up with from the LQS & JoAnns this week. One of the white ones is white on white paisley and the other white one is sparkly. One of the blues is sparkly as well.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

jan. 3, 2013

Thursday.

Back/tailbone is still sore. Caffeine definitely helps, but I so don't want to get addicted to caffeine again. But I'm drinking a cup a day again, so probably at the end of the month, I'll go back to no caffeine & have withdrawals.

Officially signed up for the block of the month quilts at Buttonwood Quilts. So excited. :) That's where I will be on Tuesdays after I drop off the kids at school. They have a red/white one in the morning and then a blue one in the afternoon.

I haven't decided what to do with Stitch-A-Long yet. I want to do it, but that means buying two of the books. I don't have either one from Natalie Bird & I would have to order them from Australia...not that I mind that, but I know I'm going to be busy with my handstitched camp from Stitched in Color and my BOMs at Buttonwoods, but I really want to be involved at the SAL, now that I've been following the blog for over a year. Sigh. I know I can't do it all, but I sure want to! Choices. Darn.

Eric left to go to the Bahamas today. He's fixing a plane & heading back tomorrow, in time to go to work in the evening. :)  We need to replenish the money that we used to buy zippy 2...or chirpy...or pops as we call the Sebring.  At least we're debt free...gotta remember that. debt free. :)

Kids & I went to Panera Bread so I could go to the Christ Fellowship book club. I have been thinking about going for over a year, and finally saw it online again, and decided it was time. With Eric out of town, I brought the kids along, and we had dinner & pastries & hot chocolate & mocha latte. :)

The book we discussed tonight was Dogwood by Chris Fabry. It was a book I read in under 2 days...definitely thought provoking and an easy read. It was an interesting discussion and I can't wait to go back next month. 

The kids & I went to JoAnn's before Panera Bread, looking for some Christmas yarn. Yes, I'm a little late and the Christmas yarn they had wasn't the one I was using. Last winter/spring I was crocheting a granny square, but I hadn't realized until New Year's when I pulled it off the dining room chair, where it has resided for the past 6 months, that I could've bought a couple more skeins and made it about 10-12 inches larger to make it a true lap-size blanket...and so the hunt started for more yarn. I probably should've just bought the yarn at JoAnn's and it would've made a nice border, but I will probably wait until next september when they bring out the christmas yarn again and hope that i can find the "right" yarn. If not, then I'll be adding a border of some sort next fall.

I still plan on signing up for a Bible Study at Christ Fellowship. I realized that I really missed it and being with other people. So many times, I've been home by myself during the day because Eric has been away on work-related trips and that's not good for me. I really need to make myself available to connect with others.

After putting the kids to bed I finished the zipper on Stein's pencil case so it is officially finished. I will ask him tomorrow to choose some more fabric from my stash so I can make him another one to put his markers/colored pencils in.  (Maybe some duck canvas without lining.) I'm pretty sure this one won't fit all of what he carries to school. I did put interfacing in it and I used PUL fabric as the lining. I used this tutorial here which was quite easy to follow other than doing top stitching for the zipper. Oh well. At least it's done & I'm hoping he will like it. :)



I made my first piping ever! So exciting. I may have to do it again. :)










Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Jan. 2, 2013

Highlights

Hearing the alarm go off at 530am so I could go let Spencer in.
Kari waking me up crying because Spencer was killing her on Minecraft.
Eric coming home from work and telling the boys to get off the Xbox b/c they weren't being nice to Kari.
Kari & I going to the Library, Costco, Panera Bread for lunch, & GameStop.


Finding out at GameStop that our bank account had been leaking money.
Going home, waking up Eric and going through our account to find out that it was my debit card that had been hacked and that it had been going on since 12/28. Ugh.
Going to CitiBank and having them cancel my debit card (second time in the past 12 months).


Getting my hairs cut at Pyure and finding out that Sami is leaving in Feb.
Going out to dinner with Eric & the kids at Olive Garden.
Stein calculating that we had over $648 drained from our account in almost a week.
Eric dropping us off at the house while he goes back to Gulfstream tonight to run an engine.
Eric mentioned that he is on the list to go to Nassau tomorrow for Dory.
The kids & I set up the Kinect and played KinectAdventures. Actually Kari & I played while Stein worked on his winter packet. Then Stein played for a few minutes. Lots of laughter. At one point, Kari looked at me and said, Mommy you don't need to go to Yoga classes! :)

Jan 1, 2013...just a little late

So, I took my picture today. Had some thoughts. And got sidetracked by a project. I told Stein I would make him a pencil holder. Well, it's now January and the school year is half gone. But here I was tonight, making him a pencil holder. It is 90% done, now that I've ripped apart the zipper. I so, should have looked at the tutorial before I just plowed through it. I so like doing zippers by turning the lining inside out. Not so much by top stitching it into place. I know I shouldn't be too concerned, figuring with all the use it's going to get over the next 6 months but still, it would be nice if it at least lasted until June.

Anyway, my picture is of the chicken apron I made today. Kari has been noticing that two of the original hens are getting too much attention and they are missing some feathers on their backs. Now, they might be molting as well, but I figured I would make some aprons eventually and that eventually became today. 

Well, I thought I would be able to upload my picture. Hmm. It was inspired by this. 

chicken saddle


Ok...so I am quickly learning that I need more education on how to make a working, readable blog with pictures and links. :)

Time will take care of that...after all I have 364 more days this year to get it right!



*Updated 1/2/13
Here are the pictures of the original aprons I made. I made some adjustments to them after Eric tried to put it on mama hen. I have no idea if she kept it on all day, but I'll try to remember to check tomorrow. If it works, then I'll make another one for the other mama hen and probably some extra ones, just in case. Will post the revised one tomorrow. :)


This is the first ever piping I made for Stein's pencil case...nope not done yet, but hopefully tomorrow!



New Year...New Beginnings

2012 has gone by in a blur. 
Probably just like 2011, 2010, 2009, not so much with 2008. :)
So, this year I want to be intentional with my memories of 2013.

I want to remember 2013 with

  -pictures (maybe a picture a day) http://www.peanutblossom.com/blog/2012/12/project2013-friends-inspiration.html/

  -words (maybe with Lisa-Jo's 5 minute word inspiration)
http://lisajobaker.com/category/five-minute-friday/

  -pictures of competed projects (quilting, sewing, BOM class, hand stitched online class,  Pinterest-inspired projects)
  -I would love to start a SAL but I am supposed to have a blog for the one I've been following. http://stitch-a-long.blogspot.com/

  -books I've read (goodreads?)
  -food choices 
  -detoxifying the space we live in
  -simplifying life
  -relationships
  -memories in the making
  -the good and the not so good
  -God's blessings (maybe with 3 things I'm thankful for today)

I think I need an outlet for me to find the creativity I need to be happy. Maybe this is it. Maybe this is not. I want to commit to a year and see what happens. I'm not committing to long wordy posts or even consistent posts, but I do want to enjoy the process. Grow through the process. See how God is moving in my life. Record stuff. Learn. Love. Be content. Be. Joyful.