Running With Scissors

Flashback Friday: Halloweenie

My family calls me Weenie. Colleenie weenie. I know, we are a wildly creative bunch, as you can see with my costume here. I particularly like the paper bag around my neck.  I'm not sure there was anything more to my costume than the mask, but it doesn't really matter because when you trick or treat in Minnesota you cover it up anyway with a coat.

 

Here's one a few years later in Dallas.  I, of course, am the beautiful princess and Susie is Casper the Ghost.  I like that my mask has a mask on and lucking I'm  not wearing my paper bag this time.

I Bet This Doesn't Happen to Martha Stewart

You know, when the college boy lived at home, odd little situations didn't surprise me:  the "treasure maps" drawn on the walls (in Sharpie!); finding Matchbox cars in the dishwasher, the dryer, and the toilet; the cat locked in the bathroom cabinet ("so I can find her later"); and the frame of our couch snapped by three offensive linemen "just sitting down" -- that's life with boys.

But I need someone to explain to me how these red spots appeared on the cabinets and ceiling.  Cooking, you say? I understand cooking mishaps, believe me, I understand. I've had a few unfortunate incidents with the blender too. But this is just above my refrigerator -- no cooking going on there. I'm not sure what the spots even are -- ketchup? Salsa? Blood!?!

Charlie denies any knowledge and Chance isn't talking, so I guess the mystery will remain a mystery. Excuse me while I go find a step stool.

It's True

I'm easily amused.

Saw a funny t-shirt on another blog (of course now I can't find it to give proper credit, but thanks!) and followed the link here and did all of my Christmas shopping. 

Okay. I didn't really -- but it would have made for an amusing Christmas morning. For me.

This is the one I need:

Fit For A Princess (or two)

All this quilting has put me behind on the knitting! We had two more babies born this summer among my multitude of cousins and I just finished hats for them. I made these little crown hats from this (Free!) pattern from Amazon:  Princess Hat . It's hard to tell in the photo, but the crown part has sparkly gold threads woven in.

Hopefully I will get them in the mail to Princess Lauren and Princess Ada this week.

Finished At Last: Casey's T-Shirt Quilt

I have got to find a better way to photograph quilts. At least there aren't any feet in this photo. Anyway -- Casey's t-shirt quilt is finished. Can I get an amen? T-shirts and jerseys from baseball, soccer, football, Scouts, junior guards and various and sundry activities for the last 15 years. Hockey teams from kindergarten through college!  If I had used everything I could have made a blanket big enough to cover my house. 

I wound up not using (5 years worth) of soccer jerseys, except one from his favorite team, the Mighty Sharks (they wanted to be the Bloody Sharks, but AYSO vetoed that!). I also left out most of his baseball jerseys, except the two Angels Majors ones. The club and college hockey jerseys were saved from the scissors too, for sentimental reasons.

This quilt was surprisingly easy -- once I figured out what I wanted it to look like.  My cousin Kim made a gorgeous quilt for her son last year that was very inspiring, but way beyond my skill level.  Her advice to buy a rotary cutter, mat and Omni-grid rulers helped immensely though and gave me the push to do this. My other go-to supplies were Pellon Stacy Fusible Interfacing and a variety of Moda Marbles fabrics.

 

I machine quilted it on my old (can I say vintage, since it's from the 40's?) Singer -- my lines are straighter than they look in this photo -- I swear!

Flashback Friday: Halloween Edition

In honor of Sister Sue visiting for the weekend I'm putting in her favorite Halloween photo. She likes it because I am an ugly old witch (with devilish red eyes!) and she is a beautiful princess.

I think her costume looks more like a drag queen. 

Notice the coats and gloves -- Minnesota, perhaps? Nope. This is in Dallas. Must have been a nippy fall y'all.

They're Here! They're Here!

It's that wonderful time of year -- Honeycrisp apple season! I am a big fan of these sweet, tart, super-crisp apples.  Run out to your grocery store and pick some up before the much-too-short season is over.

Hat Trick

Sister Susie asked me to try and copy a scrub hat she liked. (She has more faith in my sewing skills than I do.) I finally took the time to figure it out and realized it was a two-piece pattern with a little elastic -- right up my alley.

Don't you just love my model? He looks just like those guys on Grey's Anatomy. We'll call him McSnarky.

See the dancing skeletons? I thought that would be cute for Halloween.

The first one went so well I thought I'd try a couple more. This one will coordinate with all different colors of scrubs.  I have never been awake in an OR so I don't know if that matters.

And one more to honor her alma mater. It looks a little crooked but I had to hurry up because me model wanted to get back to the football game before he became McCrabby.

This One's For The Girls

We raced for the cure this morning.

In memory of

My grandma, Hazel,

My aunt Rose, aunt Emma, and aunt Patti.

In celebration of

My mom, Alice,

My sister Susie,

and my friend Denise Carter.

In solidarity with my BBCA 2 (breast cancer gene 2) positive sisters including

My aunt Susan and aunt Katie.

There were 14,000 Warriors in Pink in Newport Beach today!

What I Did This Summer

My pal Jessica asked to see my other quilts that I finished this summer, so, in an effort to get the heinous (and yet still beloved) high school quilt further down the blog, here they are. The first one has been in the blog before as a UFO (unfinished object) or more optimistically WIP (work in progress).  Whatever it was, it sat around for months because I was too afraid to figure out how to finish it. I finally sucked it up and found some tutorials on the 'net and quilted it and bound it. 

I just stitched in the ditch (well, next to, over, and around the ditch to be honest) and I didn't have a walking foot for my sewing machine -- but I think it came out okay for a first effort.  I used a free pattern from Moda Bake Shop, which basically consisted of cutting charm squares (5-inch pre-cut squares) in half and sewing them together. I used a white jelly roll (2 1/2-inch strips) for the sashing.  For the back I used the left over pieces and some Mary Englebreit fabric. The main fabric I used is the Hello Betty collection from Moda.

Here's number two.

This is a throw for the family room. The fabric is Happy Campers from Moda and it features vintage metal picnic baskets like the ones I collect.  This one was even easier than the first one -- it's another Moda Bakeshop pattern too.  I just used a jelly roll and strip-pieced it.  I found a walking foot for my old sewing machine so the quilting on this was much easier too.

The back is similar to the first one, just used the leftovers and this awesome basket weave fabric.

For quilt number three the lovely and talented Charlie modeled for me.

This fabric is Sweetwater's Authentic.  I love it. Do you see the mistake in my quilt? I didn't notice it until I was quilting it.  I decided to leave it because I'm easy-going that way. And lazy. The pattern called for a layer cake, which is 10-inch squares, but I bought charm squares (5-inch) by mistake. So I added a couple of borders instead. I like the way it came out.

Nice feet.

I did the back the same way I always do, but I quilted a lot more densely because I'm such a pro now. And I added a label with my name and the date because I wouldn't want someone to mistake this for an antique or something.