Goodbye Hobson - Quilts complete

We love Hobson.   

Sadly, the school year is over and it was time to say goodbye.  Becket had to have a picture in front of the new sign they put up for summer camp - with the gift box he decorated for our Director.

The box actually had two fun banners in it.  Patrice had won my auction quilt last year, so I wanted to make her something that could be enjoyed AT Hobson.  Can't believe I didn't take pictures of them!

Now, his two teachers - Hobson has the BEST teachers - each got their own quilt.  I loved making the quilts for them.

I want to share details of each quilt in their own post, so for now, you can get a large view of each.  Styled and photographed by my resident director - Becket.  This one is called "Symmetry".

And this one is simply "Green".  Becket, his teacher, and I all LOVE green.

Um, Becket, the pictures don't work well when the camera is half upside down.  Give it back now, please.

"I just need to take one of me first, Mom."

Becket with his teachers in his favorite spot - by the building stuff on the Blue Rug

Thank you Hobson, for letting Becket explore and be little.  

How lucky we are to have had you.

Number two is out.....

Washed - crinkled - and ready for pictures.....

Don't you just love pulling a new quilt out of the drier for the first time!

One Down....

I can't wait to be able to show the whole thing.  Becket and I love this one!  He's an awesome 5yr old quilting helper.

It's hard to get stuff done sometimes....

I think I'll probably just clear out my unread Reader blogs in the next few days.  So if I haven't stopped by, forgive me.  I'll come by later after I zero it out.

It has been a tad weird the last little bit.

I'm on Facebook and generally use it to stalk my family and a couple friends.   Every so often trying to find an old classmate or two.  A few weeks ago (all I can call it is obsessed I suppose) I was strangely determined to find an old High School boyfriend.  Wasn't sure why I was looking and I just HAD to search, but it was REALLY hard to locate him and it took the better part of a day with no real luck.  Possibly found his home nearby, but not sure.... The other day he popped back into my mind again for no obvious reason, while I was sitting at the computer, so in his name and city went into goggle. 

The first three returns were his obituary.

Having died suddenly, a little more than a week before.

It has all kind of freaked me out on a couple levels.  First off, I'm none too pleased with the turning 40 thing and getting old, but we are not old enough to have our peers die yet!

But even more so, why was I suddenly urged to track him down about a week before he died?  Was I supposed to call him.....Yikes, it's been over 20 years since I last saw him.  Hi, remember me from a lifetime ago?  Just calling for no apparent reason.  How's it going.

His mom and dad still live in the same house and now I really want to talk to them.  Calling THEM would be super strange.  A condolence card I suppose?  They did a nice job with the obituary though - really made me want to hear more about what he has been up to the last 20 years.  There are 24 pictures posted with it, too.  The boy in the senior picture is the one I remember (I gave him that crazy pleather-shouldered sweater for Christmas.  Late 80's, what can I say.  We dated jr and sr year of high school.)

Yep, weird.  I hate weird.  And people I know dieing (knock on wood, I'm lucky that I've only ever lost a couple people).  And it's hard to do other stuff when your brain is trying to make sense of it.  In this age of instant and 24/7,  never is seriously weird.

Rapture would have been easier.


11:11 Drew

Ugh

Quilting WAS going well. Until I caught this edge. Time to pick some stitches - booooo.




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Symmetry

A top completed in DS and linen.  I am on a big linen kick right now - I love it!

HUGE shoo flies (about 32" each) and four smaller ones.  I love that block.

{Oh, and from a comment on the last post - for the no-reply - Mark took those pictures with his digital camera.  It's a Sony A700 with some kind of big white lens on the end.  I can get more details if you like.


And I love that the Badger people stopped by.  How cool - thanks!}

Making Gifts!

 May is insane with the end of school and the start of summer...with spring lacrosse tossed in!  I stand around in the cold wind watching boys pummel each other most days.

I'm working on a couple of big quilts, but had a chance to make a quick, fun gift last week.  This would be a perfect teacher gift, too!  I called it a "Summer Gardener's Aid".

Using the tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew! I made a rice heat therapy sack and a reusable cold pack.  A nice, heavy linen makes these super cozy.

For the cold pack I found buckwheat groats and a yummy essential oil at Whole Foods.  The buckwheat groats were only $2.99 a pound and well worth the special trip.  The bag feels so nice with them inside.  I used a sweet orange oil as in the tutorial - I stood at the huge rack-o-oils at whole foods for quite some time sniffing everything.  A few made me gag, and I always went back to the orange, so that was it.

The rice in the heat bag was from the regular grocery store - no need for special jasmine rice inside the bag!

I tied it all up with some muslin and a couple badger balm tins (one for rough hands, another for after sun exposure).  Overall, a fun use for some favorite fabric scraps.

I'll end with a few lacrosse pictures, since that's a majority of my life right now!

From Blue to Green

I hope to get this quilt sandwiched tonight, but with the rainiest March in decades followed by the cloudiest April in 150(!) years, I had to jump out in the sun for a couple shots today.  Seriously, it's supposed to rain tomorrow afternoon and all next week.  I am SO ready for 80's and sun - DONE with spring.

The wood grain should really be on the left, but it was windy and we were crazy busy today with Kenton going off on another weekend away for lacrosse, so I wasn't going to have Mark flip the quilt top around.

See, it's the plus shaped log cabins inside one BIG log cabin.  The cream round of logs are two different linens.  LOVE linen in a quilt.

I like the back as much as the front!   Loosely following Kati's fun tutorial, I only sliced vertically, and was able to use up a bunch of the solids left over from the top.  And I was feeling kind of twitchy without any white in a quilt, so two big strips ended up on the back.

I can't wait to quilt this - I'm going to change up my standard all-over stipple a bit!

May Bee for Me

It's my month at the {Sew} Beautiful Bee and I finally made a block decision.  I'm going to let my bee mates decide!  Mean, I know....hopefully they all have fun doing it, and don't hate me or feel too stressed about that.

   

Long ago I favorited one of AmandaJean's bee quilts, a wonderful one all in reds.  I liked both the monochromatic color plan as well as having a real piece of each bee member with their own block creation.  

So I sent out packets of blue solids and prints to my bee buddies today, asking them to make a block they love - that is Them.  I can't wait to see what comes back!

Color inspiration

My favorite clear blue and lime green




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(ok, looking at this on my computer at home, the iPhone resolution is seriously lacking - or I'm doing it wrong.....comments?)

Happy Arbor Day

...and playing with my new toy


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Modern Log Crosses

This will be the off-centered center of one really big log cabin block.  It's about 37" square right now.

I love all the greens!

Downtown Chicago Inspiration

A couple weeks ago, on a non-preschool day, Becket and I met my mom downtown Chicago for a day at the Flower and Garden Show.  I found some cool quilty inspiration on the trip.  But first I have to add some cute Becket pictures.

We parked at the local Metra station and took the train in.  We sat in the top row seats.  Becket was a bit excited.

Once we got downtown, we had to wait a bit for my mom's train to arrive from the north suburbs.  So a snack was in order.  It was fun to sit on the old benches in the huge, marble station. 

The Flower and Garden show is at Navy Pier - and one of the permanent exhibits at the Pier is the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.  It's a fabulous collection, and of course great quilt inspiration.

My mom and Becket peeked at me through this one :)

Surprisingly, I didn't find much quilty at the flower show.  They fill the big exhibition hall at the end of the pier with a bunch of mocked-up yards, ponds, flower beds.  A fabulous thing in the last of the Chicago winter!  But the theme this year was sports, so not as quilt-inspiring as the Alice in Wonderland displays last year.

But on the way back to our train station, I had to jump out into the road for two last photos.  It was so cool to see the cobblestones partially exposed from pot holes in the pavement.

Kid side note - so we're here watching Becket's favorite cartoon, Max and Ruby.   Do you wonder how old Ruby is?  There's never a parent around except for when the grandma comes to visit.  I hate it when I'm watching these things and am saying in my head how unrealistic it is to have no parents around, or traveling the world as like a 6yr old.  I have to remind myself that it's a CARTOON of talking rabbits - not realistic in the least.

Ripped in 30 - Day 1

Jillian is trying to kill me.

In 30 days I'll be ripped or dead.

Imagine : Hobson Quilt II

First, thank you for all the nice comments here and at the Moda Bake Shop.  It's hard to know, when you're writing it, if your tutorial is going to make sense to anybody other than yourself!

If you recall, this was the sunny block I made on my birthday.  I created it specifically for a live auction item at our preschool.   Every year you have a chance to win a story time visit from the school's director, so exciting for the kids!  The child will have this quilt as a keepsake of her visit.

I chose some of my favorite story-like prints.  My mom especially liked the row of chairs, as if the kids can sit for story time in them. 

A few bees, flowers, and an inchworm.

I loved the green and yellow stripes on the back.  On my label I named the quilt "Imagine"  because that's a gift Hobson gives to the children. 

The dotty green binding was just the perfect frame.

I wish Becket was still holding this one! 

Cathedral Windows Tutorial : Wing It OCD

[Moda's Bakeshop changed since it was published - I will post the tutorial here on my blog once I can re-create it!]

Finally, my Cathedral Windows tutorial is live - I've been patiently waiting my turn!  

I made a fun pair of pillows.

I was tempted to name my project: Just Wing It {NOT!} 

I got to use the fabulous new MoMo line Just Wing It, but as is most of my quilting, the cathedral windows border on OCD - the furthest possible thing from winging it. 

Optimized result with an efficient process, that's from the engineer in me.  I've included all the little tricks I use to keep things square, flat, and pointy.  Exactly how I like my windows!

Here's a little bonus project.   Use one of your first folding attempts or the most wonky, extra window and two charm squares to make a cute pincushion. 

Jump over to the bake shop and say hi!

Stash Update : week 14

I just clicked on my Stash 2011 tag - I haven't posted about it since the first one of the year!

Well, I've been good and using my stash, so not much to report.  I've used/sent away 21 yards in the last couple months.  Making pillows, the Hobson quilts, and donating 2" strips to the Quilts for Quake Survivors.  

(Shipping note - that's called a Regional Rate box A.  It's a new postage class and lands in between the tiny priority small and the most costly medium.  You  may want to look into it if you send lots of fabric.  I fit over 8.5 yards of strips in that box and it wasn't yet full.)

 

But now I must update the Fabric IN, as the mail man has dropped quite a bit at my door this week.  These lovely pieces arrived from Sew Fresh fabrics.

And some prints from Fabric Shack.

Along with solids I HAD TO HAVE.  See, I bought a pattern because I loved the colors on the front.  Then I needed the colors.....so a little over 13.5 yards in this week.

I also popped in the resale shop downtown and was super lucky.  I never find vintage sheets, and I hit a jackpot.  Those don't count...I can't be bothered to add vintage sheet yardage up, so when I use them they don't go in either column. The summary:

 

Busted: 21.036

Purchased: 13.63 yards

Net YTD: (20.594)

In between, I spent a significant amount of time on a little project.  The fabric was sent to me and it didn't get recorded In or Out.  We'll finally get to see it tomorrow!

Eeeeek!

Two creature issues - one cute....

Becket wandered by my sewing area and saw the pile of trimmings on the floor.  He yelled "ah - green!" (his favorite color) and scooped up a pile of the scraps to hoard in his room.  On the way to his room, he also found Caleb's ipod touch, left on the steps when he was picked up for lacrosse practice.  Becket scooped that up too.

Not so cute.  SOMETHING chewed into or out of my front door jamb around noon today.  I heard it.  

I do not like having a hole from  the inside to the outside of my house!  It's stuffed with steel wool for the day, until our door guy can come out tomorrow morning. 

A Green Start

I love sketching out a plan, doing some quilty math, and pulling a stack of fabrics.

Inspired by the cover photo of Modern Log Cabin Quilting - I'm eager to look through the whole book.