Peas In A Pod

African Violets

So, here's the thing... Lately, I've been really missing my Grandma. This happens to me now and then. I just start missing her for no apparent reason. It comes over me like a wave. It's kind of weird.  Right now, it's my paternal grandmother I'm missing.  One time, it was my maternal grandmother....it hit me so hard as I was driving down the road.  I felt like I'd been punched in the gut, and I just wanted to bawl my eyes out.  I had to call Mom to talk about it.  I don't get why that happens.  And then it goes away as inexplicably as it came.

I'd show you a photo, but that was before the day of digital photos.  I'd have to go dig one up, scan it, and...well, I just don't have the energy for it.  Sorry!

Grandma has been gone for, oh...15 years or more now.  She crocheted a lot.  She had bad arthritis, but she crocheted anyway.  It kept her busy.  I totally understand that.

She always loved African Violets.  She always had several such plants around her house, mostly in the living room, where she sat and crocheted.  I always liked them for their fuzzy leaves.  The other day when I was at the grocery store, I saw a whole table full of African Violets...I thought it was odd, because I was missing her so much anyway.  So, I had to get one.  I got a cute pot for it, too, and repotted it.  It makes me happy, sitting on my fireplace hearth.

We'll see how long I can keep it alive.  I'm a black thumb.  I either water plants to death, or I dry them out.  I can't seem to figure out the happy medium.  We'll see how I do with this.  It's the only plant in my entire house!  It makes me smile to look at it.  At least for now, as it lives.  I even bought plant food for it.  That's a first for me.  Now, if I can just remember to USE it!

In a couple of days, I'll be revealing my April challenge block with Lynn.  We joined up with Caroll and Em for this one, so I'll be linking to their blogs, too, so you can see what they did.  You won't want to miss it.  I know the other gals came up with some cool stuff.  I can't wait to show you what I did.  I gave you a sneak preview here.  Remember?

Well, I've got to go. I am so crabby with this awful weather we've had this spring.  It's so cloudy and rainy I can't get a decent Internet connection to save my life (we have satellite Internet).  It's quite annoying.  I keep wondering when it will actually be warm!  At least my little African Violet gives me a little spring happiness in my house.  Hope you're in a better mood than I!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

P.S.  I've been updating my weight loss.  Click on the Health tab if you want to see how it's going.

A Few Scraps: Tutorial: Fabric envelopes

via afewscraps.blogspot.com

One of my blogging buddies, Christina of A Few Scraps, has a really cute tutorial over on her blog right now for these fabric envelopes. I think they are totally awesome. I've been wanting to make something like this, myself, and I love what she's done. Hop on over there and check it out for her free tutorial. I bet you could put some neat little gifts in these. School pictures for Mom and Dad, certificates...Hmmm....My mind is turning.....

Okay, I gotta get back to work now!

Until next time,
Mama Pea

Friday Night Sew In Projects

Hi Everyone,

Just taking a quick break from my work to drop a line to you!  Since I've made little progress on my own on anything, here are the photos from my Friday Night Sew In I told you about two weeks ago!  See how behind I am?

I'll try to remember who was working on what.  I'm sorry if I get names wrong.  First, I suck at remembering people's names until I've seen them about 10 times!  LOL.  Second, it's been 2 weeks, and I am not sure I can remember who was doing what!

Ready for a fun parade?

Linda was working on this sweet little wall hanging made from half-square triangles in Christmas fabrics.  I thought it was very cute.  I love how she fussy cut the borders on this.  I think she added another border after I took this photo.

The gal sitting across from me (Marty?) was working on this adorable project for her teen-age daughter.  I loved the colors of these fabrics.  It's going to be adorable.  The fabrics were so soft looking, I thought they were flannels, but they weren't.

Cheryl, not my friend who organizes this shindig, but another friend named Cheryl who comes, was working on this.  It is not from a pattern.  She said she sewed up the squares into a top but thought it was too boring, so she designed all this applique for the top.  It's all batiks.  Very pretty!

Karen was working on putting a binding on this pretty little, blue, polkadot baby quilt.  I didn't get  a shot of it when it was done.  Very cute.

Cheri was working on these adorable pinwheels.  The color is yellower here in the photo than it is IRL.  I love the strings she used for half of the half-square triangle blocks, and I love the cherry and flower fabrics.  This is going to be really adorable, I think!

One gal there, whose name I don't know, was working on these realistic applique blocks.  They were really neat!  This one is not stitched yet, just fused.  This made me think of my SIL who donates quilts to her husband's hunting group for fundraisers.  The blocks were all North Woods style.  I really liked it.  I had her show me the book, but do you think I can remember the title now?  No.  And did I write it down?  No.  But I think North Woods was in the title, so I bet I can find it.

Okay, I know this gal's name, but I'll be dinged if I can remember it.  I am so sorry!  Anyway, she was doing embroidery all night.  I love seeing what people are working on with embroidery.  You can sort of see the finished project on the CD case in front of her machine.  It's a nativity set that is a bunch of embroidered blocks sewn together with some sashing between each block.  Here, she is embroidering one block.

She's doing all the blocks on silk.  Here is one block finished.  Isn't it pretty?  I hope she brings the finished project sometime.  I'd love to see it.  I tell you, machine embroidery is a good thing to bring to these events on a Friday night when you are tired.  Let the machine do most of the work!  I am going to have to remember that for next time!

My friend, Cheryl, who DOES organize this event finished her Tree of Life top.  She still has to do the applique though.  So, she put it away and started working on some Christmas stuff.  I didn't get a photo of that, but it's really cute.  Her sewing on this project is so much more precise than mine.  I'm jealous.  Hee hee.  (P.S.  Got mine to Linda, The Quilted Pineapple, for quilting, so it's on it's way now!)

Another new gal, whose name I have forgotten (I am so sorry!), was sewing up all these cute little bags as knitting project bags.  She's going to give them to her friends to carry their knitting projects in.  Aren't they cute?!  I love sock monkey!  Lucky friends.

There was other stuff going on, too, but this is what I had time to take photos of.  I already showed you my jelly roll quilt that I was working on that night.  It was an extremely enjoyable evening.  I was in the FOULEST mood when I got there.  I can't remember why now, but Sweet Pea was doing something before I left that was really bothering me.  I had to do a lot of deep breathing on the way over there to calm myself down.  (Seriously, what could have been so bad that it stressed me out that much and now I can't even remember?!)  For the whole first hour, I just looked at projects and tried to relax...and I was late anyway.  (Oh, yeah!  I was late because I took Sweet Pea to the school carnival first.  She did a great job at the carnival, but was completely obnoxious when it was time to go, and I was furious with her.  I remember now!  haha!).  But I did get to sew from about 9:00-midnight, so that was fun. 

Honestly, half of the fun of these get-togethers, though, is all the socializing and seeing what everyone else is working on.  It really helped to relax me!  Thank you gals, and especially Cheryl, for organizing this and sharing your friendship with me.

Hope you enjoyed the parade of projects.  I have to go do some work now!  Argh!  I can't wait for this week to be OVER!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Happy Easter!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!  Ours was quiet, as no family really live close by for celebrating with and it's too busy for us to travel at this time of year.  But, Sweet Pea had fun hunting for eggs and playing a lot.

I'll try to make some quick posts this week.  Today, here are a couple of fun Easter photos of a project one of my friends completed:

Check out all these awesome bunnies she made as gifts for the secretaries and student workers in the main office.  Aren't they cute?  She always does such fun stuff, but never does just one.  She always seems to make a slew of whatever she makes...and the sheer quantity just multiplies the fun, doesn't it?!

I bet everyone just loved these!  She is a very generous and thoughtful person.  Way to go on these LMR!  Well done!

Okay, I gotta get back to work right now.  I'll be back for another tidbit tomorrow!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

UFO Update (Mine and my Mom's!); Project Hot Koochie Mama

Happy Friday, everyone!  Woo Hoo!  I couldn't be happier that it's Friday.  Today is the last day of classes on our campus, so I am done with my teaching.  I have TONS of grading to do now, and I do have a final to give next week.  So, the next week is going to be tough.  There is so much to do at the end of the semester.  I have a couple of dissertation defenses in the next two weeks, I have two editorial reviews due, budgets to prepare for new projects coming up, a class to prepare for this summer, two major national presentations to prepare for...oh, yeah, and my grading!  Oh, and commencement!  So, it's crazy.  But after next week, I have more flexibility in my schedule, which really helps me!  I am looking forward to it.

Last Friday night, I did my Friday Night Sew In with some friends.  I have a bunch of photos to show you, and I haven't had time to post them yet.  I will get to that either next week or the week after.  I was planning to take my Circle Stars project to work on, but I think I told you the next step is pretty daunting to me.  I think  I need peace and quiet to do that (um, when will I get some of that?!).  I didn't think it was a good project to take to a Friday Night Sew In that (a) started at 7 pm after working all day (I've already told you I'm not at my sewing best then), and (b) where I'm so distracted by all the great people to play with and all their wonderful projects.

So, I decided to take a jelly roll quilt I started over two years ago and was on my UFO list.  The blocks in the quilt are simple (9-patches and snowballs), and the layout was simple.  Sounds like a good one for Friday night!  I couldn't really remember where I had left off...Did I have all the blocks done or not?  So, my first step was to go through all the blocks and see where I was.  I had all the blocks done except for five 9-patch blocks.  So, I sewed those up.  Then, I took advantage of the nice, big design floor at the church where we work and laid out the quilt blocks.

Here it is!  The photo is yellower than the colors are in real life.  I don't know why...probably the lighting in the room.  This is made with Moda's Aviary fabric.  When it's all done, I'll give you some close up shots of the fabric.  It's beautiful.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with this quilt.  I just really had the Aviary fabric, and I had a new book of jelly roll quilts back then and decided to make up this pattern.  (I'll tell you more about the book later...I don't have time right now.)  Although I think this is pretty, I'm not sure it's really my style anymore, so I don't feel all that invested in this quilt.  I'm thinking this might be a really good one to try free motioning on my own for practice.  We'll see.  I'll probably chicken out.  I am hoping the right idea will come along for who I can gift this to...  Anyway, I got four or five rows sewn together that Friday night, so it's almost half-way put together.  I feel like I made a real dent in this project!  Yippee!

Here's another UFO project from my mom.  About....3 or 4 years ago, we went to a quilt retreat together and started a bunch of projects.  (My Circle Stars is one of those.)  One of them was this project:

I finished mine (not shown here...I'll have to find it...it's on a different hard drive and I don't have time to look right now...but it's just like this one, except I did a scalloped edge on mine, and I did a red polka dot binding on mine, I think).  But Mom never finished hers.  She isn't really into the 1930's reproductions, and this was a kit provided by the class.  Mom is cleaning out her stuff, because she might move soon.  She was going through her UFOs and decided to gift this to one of her friends, who finished it!  It looks great!

What's really cool is that my mom's friend made this pillow case to go with it.

So, the quilt folds up in it and makes a pillow when it's not in use.  See?  How clever is that?!

Mom's friend bought extra 1930s reproduction fabric for the back, and used all the scraps for the binding.  I think it turned out cute!  Mom said her friend is giving this to her son's fiance's mother (or soon-to-be mother-in-law).  That's pretty cool.  The quilt started out in Utah, then moved to Tucson, AZ, and will now live in Flagstaff, AZ.  My mom's friend named it "Happy Memories" as a tribute to the fun time Mom and I had at the retreat together working on this and other projects.  Mom thought that was really sweet.   So do I!  Mom says she would have NEVER finished it, and she is so happy to see it finished and finished so cleverly!  I think it's awesome.  And, Mom, tell your friend thanks for letting me share the story of this quilt with everyone!  I love quilts with stories, don't you?

Somewhere I have the pattern for this quilt (but not the pillow--that's my mom's friend's own design), so if you want to know the pattern, I can find that.  I just don't have the time to get it right now.

If you want to see more UFO progress, hop on over to Susan's blog, Blackberry Creek, and check out everyone else's progres!

In other news, I did start my diet and Project Hot Koochie Mama is really off the ground now.  I added a new tab at the top of my blog.  If you click on the Health tab, you can follow my progress.  I put up a tracking bar to help me track my progress, and I'll make progress notes there occasionally. I'll let you know when I update it so you can check it out.  I am hoping some "public posting" of my progress will really give me the incentive and accountability I need to get to my goal.  That has really helped me accomplish some of my quilting goals...so I am hoping you'll help me with this goal, too!

Well, I promise to be back to a more regular blogging schedule after finals week is over next week.  So, hang in there with me!  And thanks for all your friendship and support!

Until next time,

Mama Pea