Camp Fun

The first days of boy scout camp went well! I followed Kenton around and made sure he could navigate the sand trails and forest.

And I found a few cool mushrooms.

Kenton was excited to do Archery.

I had fun making hexagons outside.

Caleb spent free time having a kayak derby.

They all make frequent trips to the Trading Post - where all the candy you could imagine can be bought and any size water bottle can be filled with slurpee for only 50cents.

On my way out I snapped this picture of Caleb in front of his tent - look how happy he is that I'm leaving :)

Have fun boys!

Use my stash year : {I made it!} week 30

We made it! And all 56 boys are officially checked in and allowed to stay. My paperwork job was a success! All the tents are set up and card games have begun.

They had their first meal, complete with roaming councilor hand-motion sing-alongs.

Caleb can't wait for me to leave.

( In a stash note I cute and sewed a bunch of pillow cases. One very important one for Kenton to use for his first week of boy scout camp. I'll have to share them when I get back. But I used over 11 yards of stash this week!)

Doom

Let's stop and look at the lovely bowl full of my 1.25" hexagons. I have about 180 made of the 352 needed for my quilt. They sprang up during my Hawaii flights and since then during movie nights and while waiting in the car for lacrosse practice to end. I love a portable project!

When I turn around I see this stack that has bee waiting since Sunday night. I found a wonderful use for all the crazy novelty prints I bought when I first started to think about quilts. (I was never going to be a 'quilter'. I was just going to make my son a crafty i-spy blanket. Little did I know!)

These will become pillowcases for children - donated to ConKerr Cancer.

Oh dear, here's the baby quilt that I was ahead of the game on, draped over a chair waiting to be basted. The baby came early yesterday! Eeeek!

And there's the DOOM. In a crazy moment last fall I volunteered to head up organizing our troop's week at Boy Scout Camp. What was I thinking?! I made myself a list just so I could happily cross things off, as it's still a crazy long list and we leave on Sunday and I'm freakin' out a little. I ride the bus 4 hours to camp with 56 boys. I'm thinking some ear plugs and a pile of hexagons are seriously needed here.

Use my stash year : week 29

Much fun was had this weekend with my Gram and cousins. But first an update on all the sewing I did last week as gifts for my sister in-law Laura's birthday and my Gram.

I bought this pattern before we went to Hawaii, intending to make a camera case for myself but never got around to it. Laura likes to take lots of pictures of the kids, so I pulled it out again last week. It's the camera case wristlet by Keyka Lou. A really well written pattern.

I cut the pieces and made one for myself at the same time. Since I hadn't made the pattern before, it was good to have my own to 'practice' on before doing each step on Laura's gift. It hangs perfectly on your wrist and my camera fit perfectly.

There's even a little pocket on the back. This would also be cute to carry around some change and your lip gloss if you didn't need a camera. But I'm glad I made them both at the same time - I may have never gotten to my own if I had waited. I forget how MANY fiddly steps and thick seams are involved with bags.

Laura also loves flannel pillow cases - she uses one year round. I loved the funky butterflies! And her 4yr old is always asking to use her favorite flannel pillow cases, so I made a second with some crazy cupcakes that they can share.

The cool thing about these is that they only have 3 seams - and that includes the french seam! (I hate strings, especially in pillow cases. So I always do french seams.) And even better, there's not a single: evenly turn under raw edge in a cylinder step. Besides adding long boarders and loose strings, my least favorite sewing thing is turning under an even edge on any size tube. I learned this pillowcase method from a friend and I'll be sure to share it this week!

I learned and tried all kinds of things last week. On my Gram's table topper I did straight line quilting that kind of looks like bead board. Appropriately summery I thought. And since I was running out of time, I gave a machine sewn binding a try. It wasn't too bad! I like the look of hand stitched much better, but this certainly was quick.

Overall a very good week!

Busted: 4.396

Purchased: 0.66 - Dream On charm pack win

Net YTD: (31.014)

No time to move the Toys!

I finished up the Bliss table topper for my Gram, along with some gifts for my sister in-law, late last night. Now we have to get going quick to start the drive. I'll be back in a few days for details and all the other fun stuff I made.

Blueberry picking with my Gram in Michigan - Summer Bliss!

Circle Tip

I wanted to share my tip for doing circles like the raw edge in the last post and the turned/pieced ones I've done for past quilts.

Use a CD. It is the perfect size for a charm pack! And I have also found that the curve is nice for stitching - I can usually make it around the edge, gently turning, without having to stop and constantly adjust my angle.

And look, it was posing so nicely on my new Dream On charm pack {and a few extra treats} - my goodie bag from Heather's birthday party. Amy sent it from Australia - that is some of the coolest mail to get. Seriously, Australia is so far away, and even with all the great blogs I read from there, it's hard for me to think of it as a real place sometimes.

At the same time my mail box had this swap from Julie. She sent along some extra Hawaii charms from Natalie - and a bit of yardage. I have a plan for my Hawaii trip fabric and this is the perfect addition. And it was a swap - so no stash in - woohoo!

So it's a good thing these happy packages arrived, as it may have saved me from a complete implosion. How many days left until school starts?

Evidently I'm ruining my children's lives - they have told me numerous times so I don't forget.

That CD at the top and many others are available because their computer's mouse broke and I refuse to replace it this summer.

TV remotes have gone missing.....(the actual TV was too heavy for me to haul away)

And the Wii tools are also MIA

And look at this poor DVD player from the downstairs TV. You can see my fingerprints in the dust from when I ripped it out of the cabinet, disconnected the ability to hook up to cable, and tossed it in a dark corner.

They WILL *DO* summer.

Bliss is....Learning

New stuff - I love learning new stuff.

When I was knitting all the time, I kept moving through different techniques. Always eager to learn a new stitch or method.

When I started my Gram's table topper yesterday, I was excited to pull out my sewing machine's manual. I thought I would learn how to do a nice blanket stitch for some raw edge circles. I can't imagine my Gram enjoying the little strings that come off for a while with a soft raw edge.

After fiddling a bit and testing a bit I dove into my lovely Bliss layer cake and came away with some beautiful blocks. I really enjoyed the machines back and forth rhythm as I made my way around the circles.

Use my stash year : week 28

I cut and finished this cute, quick baby quilt top. I love it!

Becket was my holder today - perfect size for him to help. It's 36" square. Now I just need a quick back /quilt it / and I'm thinking a bold pink binding.

Not sure on the quilting yet, but since it's so small I'm considering pebbles. I haven't done them in a while. Straight lines are so tedious and I may be able to stomach doing them on a quilt this size, but I don't think it would do anything for the design. You'll know I couldn't make a decision if it ends up stippled!

Busted: 1.19

Purchased: 0!!

Net YTD: (34.75)

This week I'll be visiting my grandma - so I hope to get a table topper whipped up. And my sister in law will be there, it's her birthday in a week, so a couple of little gifts are on the list, too. I have a bunch to get done in the next few days!

No need to panic

I'm loving these bow ties! And even better, they are so fast.

Mark: I talked to Jai today. Did you know when his wife is due?
Me: Tia told me at the pool a couple weeks ago.
Mark: It's only 2 or 3 weeks!
Me: I know, that's why I have her quilt going.
Mark: Good! I thought it was still months away.

The guys never pay attention to important things like due dates!

Becket is Funny

I keep forgetting to write this down!

When we were in Hawaii buying fabric, the boys wanted me to make their new pillowcases RIGHT THEN. I said that would have to wait, since I didn't have my sewing machine.

Becket insisted that there was a sewing machine IN the hotel room. He SAW it. (He was very insistent)
We nodded. Sure sure Becket.

When we got back to the room, I asked him to show me the sewing machine. He quickly ran to the closet and pointed it out.



The hotel iron!

We had a good laugh, and I had to tell him - yes, I iron a lot while sewing, but the iron does not stitch the fabrics together, just makes them flat.

Inspired!

Jess at Milky Robot just posted the most wonderful "Good & Evil" quilt.


So now I'm cutting fabric.


It will be for a baby girl, so I even have the same awesome color scheme going. Not sure how big Jess' blocks are, but I'm making big 5" squares in each of the corners. I like the idea of quick and fast for a baby quilt, with only four of the blocks instead of 12.