It's November!?

How did this happen?


The adults around here were down for 10 days with a bad and somewhat strange two-wave cold. One of us had a man cold. Which, of course, meant I had more to do and couldn't rest at all.

I did a little bit of quilting on the never-ending Halloween quilt (not finished, again). This week, though I made this for my older son's class Winter Market. They (er...we) are raising money for Science Camp in March.

 

It's just a small baby blanket made from 2 chunky mystery yarns that I got last summer when Stitches was having their closing sale. I used a simple granny until I ran out of yarn, basically.

Next up? Ten small handmade items for younger son's Winter Faire kids' market. And more for older son's Winter Market. And for younger son's Winter Faire Crafter's Booth.  And I must finish my nephew's baby afghan before Christmas, when we will be seeing him.

I have been itchy to get at the sewing machine, but not sure that will be happening soon!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

My entry for the Blogger's Quilt Festival Fall 2010 is actually the first quilt I ever finished. Not the first one I started, not the first one I cut and pieced, not the first one I started quilting. But the first one I actually finished. (OK—I had made a quilted pillow before. Does that count? It was about a 12" block, with no binding. So I say no, it doesn't count.)

Finished in August 2006, this is Zachary's quilt.

 

Yes, I look at it now and cringe. There are so many things I would do differently. But Zachary loved it, as did his mom, who has a tendency to buy pieced blocks at thrift stores and frame them.

So, the story behind this. I wanted to make a quilt for the baby because his mom loves quilts. Choosing the fabric was another story. It had to be OK for a boy or girl. And I really wanted to find some animal prints. Zachary has an older brother and sister. His brother is autistic—but quite high-functioning. But there was a lot of stress about how big brother (who was about 7 at the time) would accept the new baby, as change is very hard for him.

Big brother loves animals. Loves them. And can tell you all about them. Everything I know about bullfrogs I learned from this boy. So I thought maybe an animal quilt would give the new baby something that big brother could discuss. But a babyish print would be good, so that it clearly belonged to the baby.

Like a true beginner, I chose my pattern before I chose the fabric. Which was not a great idea. But it had lots of squares. Big squares! I did a simple diagonal quilting pattern, as well as some square outlines and straight lines.

All in all it worked well. I finished it, after all. In a timely fashion! The whole family loved it. And I realized that making a baby quilt is much much faster than crocheting a baby afghan.

Crazy Busy!

The last 2 weeks of October are pure insanity. Every year. But this year...

• My parents came to visit for 5 days. They do not like to (or want to) do anything other than tell me I am too busy. My dad did help me vacuum, moving things out of the way! Unfortunately, he could not get my mom to move her feet. Lots of extra cleaning and cooking for me--and my mom hates it when I am the computer. Even when I am looking up info for her. Really!
• Field trips for both boys. Different days. Requiring prepping of different lunches, docent "donation", etc etc.
• The putting together of costumes!
• Helping a class of 2nd graders carve pumpkins!
• Ticket selling (and organizational meetings) for 5th grader's school pumpkin patch/fall festival.
• Pack full moon hike.
• Pack Halloween party.
• Both boys' school picture days. Different days, of course.
• Galaxy game with little guy's soccer team! They got to march around the field too.
• Friend's Halloween party.

Are we done yet? I haven't touched my sewing machine in two weeks!

a simple pillow

So T-Bone (11) has long loved having two pillows--since he had a horrible cold at age, I don't know, three?

He had "borrowed" a couch pillow for his second pillow. An old, feather-filled, somewhat pokey, not-machine-washable couch pillow.

I decided to get rid of all those pillows when we got rid of the couches they matched. Freecycle girl took some, the rest went on top of the trash can and someone took them.

I finally made a cover for the new borrowed couch pillow last weekend.

 

See that fabric? Yeah, he likes it. Even if he won't show his face ;)

radishes

I have never liked radishes. Too spicy in a way completely different from chiles. Too...dirt-tasting. Too..crunchy in a way that isn't entirely crunchy, if you know what I mean. Yet so easy to grow!

Today's harvest--(not so) Petit Dejeuner from Renee's Garden

Last winter our CSA boxes came with plenty of radishes. I needed to do something!

So I took a little tour through The Joy of Cooking. If you read about radishes, it tells you they can be used in turnip recipes. If you read about turnips, it tells you they can be used in potato recipes.


Scalloped radishes?

Oh. My. Goodness. The spiciness is toned down to a magnificent onioniness--without onion. The dirt taste is gone, the not-quite-crunchy enough texture fully softened by parboiling and baking.

And there are four different types of dairy product! What's not to love? (Unless you are a boy, I guess, since they won't even try it.)

For tonight's potluck.

Perfect for a potluck, since two of us can finish off an entire 8" pan. And with all that dairy goodness, that isn't really necessary.

this moment

Extraordinary? Definitely memorable.

This moment, as inspired by SouleMama. A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!

After my monthly trip down to the San Pedro scout shop I decided to reward myself with a trip to my favorite fabric store. It was on the way home. Really. Kind of.

I was greeted with this:

 

In spite of having exactly 2 hours to shop, wait in line, get home to get organized, and get the boys, I managed to buy this:

A lot of brown and orange. Two colors I rarely use. I love love love that bird fabric! I see a bag of some sort. The pink/red/black is intended for the outside of the Everything Bag from Weekend Sewing. I want to do some sort of wonky block with the orange/brown on the upper right. (I love those fruit trees! Love them.) The bottom selection--I'm not sure yet.

Now I need to get back there. I need to go with a plan. And to think I really just wanted to see Innocent Crush to wrap my brain around it before buying any. Needless to say, they don't have it.