Peas In A Pod

Camera Frustration and Notebook Cover

Hi All,

Hope you had a good weekend.  I had a somewhat productive one, but It was stalled a little bit by issues with my camera.  The battery died, so I went to charge it.  I plugged it into the wall to charge and waiting overnight....no charge.  I doesn't appear the wall charging unit works (though it used to).  So, I tried charging it through my computer.  Got a little charge (enough for two pictures) but then the battery died again.  I was thinking that it might be because I closed my laptop while it was charging.  I'm thinking it won't charge if the laptop's closed.  A friend on Facebook seems to think this is accurate.  So, I charged it last night with the computer open.  Will see if that worked today.  Either way, I need to take a trip to the camera store to see about the wall charger.  Grrr....

The worst thing about this is that I spent a fair amount of time this weekend working on my design for The Quilted Fish Design Team.  I made the "prototype" to make sure I could construct it.  It worked out okay.  I need to make a few minor adjustments, but that's okay.  So, I started writing the instructions and was taking pictures of the different steps.  That's when the camera died.  So, I couldn't make any more progress on writing the instructions.  Bummer.

And I can't show you progress on other things I worked on this weekend yet either.

So, I'll show you something I got last week in the mail and that I took a photo of before my camera died.

How do you like this little notebook cover with scooters on it?  I really like it!  Jana, one of my Quilted Fish Design Team members posted on her blog that she listed this in her Etsy shop.  I really love all things scooters.  So, I ran over and picked it up.

Look how cute it is inside, too.  Isn't it adorable?  I'm going to keep this in my sewing room to jot notes on.  I am lovin' it.

And here's her card, if you feel you need one, too!  I love her cards!  I also love having something cute and handmade that I didn't have to make.  Instant gratification!  ha ha!

You might ask, "Why do I love all things scooters?"

Well, because I have one of these:

And I LOOOOOVE it.  My Suzuki Burgman 400.  Sooooo much fun to ride.  Lots of power, but still a scooter with a centrifugal clutch (no shifting).  I can NOT wait for spring so I can start getting on it again.  I can't believe how much I miss riding it in the winter.  C'mon, spring.  I'm ready for ya'!

Well, I hope to have more of a quilty update for you next time.  Let's hope my camera issues get resolved today.

Until next time,

Mama Pea

UFO Busting Update, Friday Sit 'n Sew, and More Inspiration

Today I'm supposed to give an update on my UFO progress for Susan's (of Blackberry Creek) UFO Busting Challenge.

I have been working on my Tree of Life quilt.  I got back to the appliqué work.  Previously, I had had the leaves and berry at the bottom of this vine done.  I stitched the vine  up to the next section, made some more leaves and berries, stitched them on, and have the vine stitched up to the next section of leaves and berries.  I think there's only one more section of leaves and berries to go on this side.  This weekend I hope to work on that.  After that, I need to repeat all this on the other side, and then there are two bluebirds that go on the top center and bottom center.  Then this is ready for quilting.

I feel like I worked on this a LOT but don't have much to show for it.  Sigh.  Oh, well.  I was PRESENT for every stitch, didn't rush it, and enjoyed every minute of it.  That's what counts.  I worked on some of it at Linda's Sit and Sew last Saturday (which I posted about here).  I also worked on it at my Friday night Sit and Sew that Cheryl coordinates.

Just for fun, Cheryl reserves the multipurpose room at her church for us one Friday per month.  The room is huge and has great lighting.  The church sets up all these tables and chairs.  Cheryl brings all the extension cords and power strips (!), and can you see the little paper bags attached to the tables?  Cheryl does that so we all have thread catchers.  You can see back by the kitchen door, we have a table set up, and everyone brings some food to share.  The church opens up the kitchen for us, too.  It is a beautiful church and a beautiful facility.  (Can you believe the church does not charge us one penny for this awesome service?)

We work from 7 pm to midnight, but people can leave when they want to (and come when they want to).  We spend a lot of time admiring each others' work, checking out what everyone is working on, etc.  We get some sewing done, too.  Holly (the one in the black sweater) was laying out a quilt on the large open floor space.  That was really great for her to have such a nice space to do that in.  Laurie (in the purple over Holly's shoulder) is enjoying chili that Cheryl made and shared with everyone.  She was working on binding quilts that night.  It was so funny, because I was sitting across the table from her, hand sewing, too.  I kept looking up and there she was, asleep in the chair, with her quilts in her lap, needle poised for the next stitch.  It was very cute.

Holly is in my guild here.  At our last meeting, she brought her first art quilt creation.  When I told her about the art quilting challenge I'm doing with Lynn (Alamosa Quilter), she suggested I join her art quilting group.  I've gotten to know Holly a bit and really enjoy her.  I'm looking forward to working with her group this summer.  They meet on Wednesday nights, and Papa Pea teaches on Wednesday nights this semester.  So, it's hard for me to get away for the art group meetings until school is out.

Also the gal in the pink sweatshirt to Holly's left works at the university with me.  she works in the Registrar's Office.  So it was nice to meet her.  As a faculty member, it's also always good to have a friend in the Registrar's Office!  I'm looking forward to sewing with her more, too.  All the gals who came to this were just as nice as can be.

This gal (I'm so sorry, I can't remember her name) was doing her own UFO busting.  This was a project that she had done in a class.  The shading on the flower is all tiny pieces of fabric that she's sewn/fused down.  They also painted on the fabric to get some additional shading.  See all the black spots on the stamens?  Those are all tiny pieces of fabric!  This was her first or second time attempting free-motion quilting.  I think she was doing just great, don't you?!

And see the nice big tables set up behind her?  One gal came and used those tables to baste a quilt that night.  I tell you, this facility is just wonderful for all sorts of things.  And Cheryl is so sweet to organize it.  We have another one coming up on February 18.  I can't wait.

After yesterday's post, Patti, one of my new friends from Marshall (I met her through Linda, The Quilted Pineapple) sent me some photos.  We decided we live parallel lives.

She said her husband was teaching her son, who was in 4H to do some welding.  They made this gun rack out of horseshoes.  Isn't this a clever gun rack?!  Great job to her son and husband!

And her cousin had this tilework done over her new stove as part of her kitchen remodel.  It was inspired by Edyta Sitar's Tree of Life pattern that I'm working on.  Isn't it beautiful?  I never would have believed it could look this great in tile!  I really like this.  Notice how they even used back grout on the tree trunk.  Wow.  Attention to detail.  That was not easy, I bet. (I've done enough of my own tile work to know!)

Thanks, Patti, for sharing that.  We often laugh at how many things are similar in our lives.

Well, I hope you ahve a great weekend.  I'm going to do some UFO busting, work on my Quilted Fish project for the Design Team, and...oh, who knows what else.  Maybe catch up on some zzzzz's.  I could use it.

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Pattern Testing the Georgia Dress from Little Lizard King

 A little while back...maybe in November, Little Lizard King put out a note on Facebook that she was looking for pattern testers.  I have always wanted to help test a pattern but rarely have the time.  With Christmas break approaching, I jumped in and offered to test the pattern.  She sent me the pattern, free of charge.  I finished my test and sent my comments to her. 

The pattern's out now!  Click here to go to Little Lizard King's blog post about the pattern release and to see lots of cute variations on the dress.

 
Here's the dress I made from the pattern.  Since it was winter, Sweet Pea wore a long sleeved shirt and leggings underneath.  In the spring/summer, she can wear it with bare shoulders and legs.  She was pretty excited about it.

She so enjoys striking a pose for me!

The pattern goes up to size 6.  Sweet Pea is somewhere between a 6 and 7 now.  So, the arm openings were a little too small for her.  (Little Lizard King may have modified the pattern based on my feedback about that.)  To extend the shoulder seams, I put ribbon on the seams.  It made for a cute addition to the pattern, actually.

The pattern was really well written.  My feedback was pretty minor.  I love some of the little nuances that Little Lizard King includes in her patterns that make them so readable.

(I've edited this photo to include only a portion of the pattern out of respect for the pattern designer.  Sorry it's blurry.  This was taken with my old camera.)

For example, I love it when people include a measure box, so you can make sure your pattern printed out the right size.

I love how she has all these colored lines to help you know which line to cut for which size.

The pattern was easy to read and easy to follow.  The dress is made of a few simple shapes that were easy to cut out and assemble.  I whipped this dress up in less than 2 hours, and I don't really sew clothes much.  In fact, I'm pretty intimidated by it.  So, this is a pattern individuals who don't have a lot of clothing sewing experience could make, I believe.  I would certainly recommend this and any other Little Lizard King patterns to anyone.

Get your pattern here.  It's out now!  While you're there, check out all the other cool stuff Little Lizard King has....like her also newly-released apron-front skirt.  Totally cute.  Most is for girls, but there are a few projects for boys (like a vest and a tie).  She has some really great patterns for matching doll dresses for sale, too.  So, your girl and her doll can wear the same dress.  So fun.

Her patterns are really reasonably priced...at about $6-7.  And you get multiple sizes for those prices.  Just great.  I love how they are delivered in PDF format, so I can store them on my computer (reduces clutter in my sewing room).  And I don't mind cutting up the pattern when I know I can just print out another one if I need to make it again in another size.  Awesome.

By the way, Little Lizard King is so amazingly thoughtful.  When my friend, Brian, died, she sent me some doll dress patterns to give me something to do (to take my mind off things) and to cheer me up.  How sweet is that?  I haven't had a minute to sew them up, but I will, and I'll do a pattern review for you all on that, too.

I hope you hop on over to Little Lizard King's blog and check it out.  She also does some amazing posts on machine embroidery projects and furniture fixing up, etc.  Lots of fun.  I enjoy following her blog.  She also is one of the nicest people I've never met IRL yet!

Aren't blogging friends just wonderful?  I really can't get over it, to be honest with you, how many nice people I've met through blogging.  It makes me feel so good...

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

P.S.  Would you like to see some of my outtakes from the photo shoot with Sweet Pea?  She makes me take the silly pictures as well and will only do poses for me if I let her intersperse the silly ones.  For your viewing pleasure, I offer the outtakes:

Yep.  That's my girl.

 

 

 

Jill's Friendship/Raffle Quilt & Larry's Horseshoe Furniture

Hi Everyone,

I don't have a ton of quilty stuff to report today.  I wanted to update you on my friend Jill's quilt, and I wanted to show you some photos I took over Christmas at my BIL Larry's house.  I thought you might be interested in some of the creative work he does.

First, Jill's quilt.  You may recall a while back, I did a post about the quilt Jill made from her friendship triangles that we exchanged.  I am working on my Tree of Life quilt, and Jill made a different quilt from Edyta Sitar's Friendship Triangles book.

Friendship Triangles: 15 Beautiful Quilting Projects, Triangle Exchange Ideas, Easy, Step-by-step Technique

To refresh your memory, here are photos of Jill's quilt:

And a close up of the quilting:

I know a lot of you were as impressed with this quilt as I am.  You might also recall that Jill decided to raffle it off to help her husband's colleague pay for cancer treatments.  Jill said it was hard to give up the quilt because the fabrics were from our exchange, but she did it anyway.

Well, get this.  They haven't even held the raffle yet, and they already raised $900!!!!  Can you believe it?  That is so awesome, Jill!

And Jill, if you are reading this, I want to buy some raffle tickets.  Seriously.  I love this quilt.  Let's get in touch and work out how I can get the money to you.

Okay, now a few inspiring photos from my BIL Larry.  Larry is a farrier (someone who shoes horses).  And he is one of the best, I tell you.  He has a huge creative streak in him and loves to create.  He has taken to making furniture out of horseshoes and other horse-related items.  I thought you might like to see some of them.

Hard to see in this photo, but a little bookshelf made of horseshoes and iron bars.

I love this glass-topped table made of horseshoes and--I think you call the legs the hames (not sure I spelled that right)--or part of a "yoke and harness" system for horses to pull a carriage with.

This ingenious little magazine rack.

A mirror made out of the other part of the hames (the part that goes around the neck...the "yoke").  He goes to antique auctions to buy these parts (except the horseshoes) to make these items.

Another little glass-topped table made solely of horseshoes.

Oops.  This one's a little blurry.  From my old camera!  This is a chair he made of horseshoes.  It's cute, but truthfully not that comfortable!  Haha!  I need to make him some cushions for it, I think.  The doll sitting on it was made by SISLH, who comments on my blog a lot.  (She is my SIL and Larry's sister.)  She made one for each of us.  The skirts are made from pillowcases for which her grandmother (?) made the lace edging, as well as embroidered a cute little motif.  Very clever use of the old linens!

Postscript:  SISLH just reminded me she bogught all the materials, and my MIL actually sewed up the doll's.  Papa Pea's grandmother did all the stitching and the embroidery on the linens.  SISLH wanted you all to know that!

I am trying to get Larry or Papa Pea to make me a quilt hanger from horseshoes for my little Cowboy Blessings wallhanging.  I also made one of those wallhangings for Larry for Christmas.  I was sort of hoping when he made a hanger for himself that he'd make one for me, too. Hee hee.

If you wanted any horseshoe furniture, I'm sure Larry would be glad to make it for you.  Just let me know, and I'll put you in touch with him.

He also finds the neatest things at the auctions.  Look at this lawn ornament he picked up at one auction and gave to us:

I love this guy.  The bottom of his cowboy boots are buried in the snow.  We keep him by our driveway just as people drive in to our house.  How's that for a welcome?  "Stick 'em up!"

Well, I better get to work now.  Have a wonderful day!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Sneak Peek at Intuitive Angle Piecing

Today I thought I'd give you a sneak peek at what I've been working on for the Intuitive Angle Piecing project I'm working on with Lynn, Alamosa Quilter.  (If you have not checked out Lynn's blog, you should.  She is always up to something interesting.  She inspires me. Thank you, Lynn!)  I just have a few finishing touches to put on it, and it will be ready to show you.  I hope to get to that this weekend.

I am using this photo as my inspiration.  I took this photo a few weeks ago, when Sweet Pea, Papa Pea, and I all went ice skating on the lake behind our house.  The ice where Papa Pea had cleared the snow with the four-wheeler was really rough and hard to skate on.  Some of the snow had frozen to the ice.  We had just had a really nice snowfall, and the rest of the lake was covered with pristine snow.  There were a few deer tracks on it here and there, but mostly it was untouched.  We decided to try skating on that ice.  The ice under the snow was like glass.  It was glorious.  We skated over the entire lake.  It was like skiing in powder.  Just awesome.  I turned around and saw our ice skating tracks in the pristine snow and snapped this photo.  The light wasn't that great at the moment, but you can get the idea.  The snow was all sparkly, too...like someone had spilled glitter all over it.  It was such a special afternoon.  I thought this would be a good way to commemorate that day, and I loved the lines in this photo.

Here is a little peek at some of the intuitive angle piecing I've done.  This got incorporated into the piece.

And here's another little smidgen.

Hmmm...what's it going to look like?  I'm looking forward to showing you!

Remember last week, when I didn't post on Friday?  Part of the reason was I was so busy.  Another reason was that I was feeling pretty bummed out on Friday.  We thought we had lost our cat, Rosa.

You might remember we adopted two kittens this summer, and Rosa was the first one we got.  She's all grown up now and is just the most wonderful cat.  She's so tame, and she never puts her claws out at people.  Sweet Pea picks her up and cuddles her all the time.  And she is a GREAT hunter!  Even grabbed a mole in the back yard last fall.  Yippee!  That mole was digging up our yard!  (She's a much better cat than PJ, who is really under foot all the time, nips at you when you pick her up, and doesn't hunt that much.  But PJ is a nice cat altogether.)

Anyway, I had come home from bowling at about 1 am on Friday morning.  (Yeah, I know, what am I doing out so late on a school night?  I paid for it the next day!)  I saw both cats then.  I gave them a little midnight snack and went to bed.  When Papa Pea got up in the morning, Rosa was nowhere to be found.  She is always here in the morning.  She didn't come and didn't come.  We got worried that she went out prowling that night and something got her.  Papa Pea kept asking me, "Are you sure you saw her last night?"  He left around 10 am, and she still hadn't shown up.  I got home around 3:30, and still no Rosa.  I was so sad.  I told Sweet Pea that it was possible we had lost Rosa.  We were so sad, after having just lost sweet old Piper.  It was just about more than I could take.  I could not get motivated at all to do a blog post.

For some reason, as we walked around outside, I said to Sweet Pea, "Do you think there's any chance she got stuck in the shed?"  I opened the shed door to see, and her comes Rosa, running out!  We were soooo happy!  But Sweet Pea and I were wondering if we had a magic cat or something.  How did she get in there?

I told Papa Pea about it later.  He thought about it and said, "Oh!  I did go in there  this morning to get the shovel so I could shovel the walk.  I didn't see her, and I didn't see her follow me into the shed.  I must have walked out and closed her in there!"

Well, that explains it.  I didn't even know he had shoveled that morning.

The only bad news is that Rosa sort of tore some things up and peed in there.  At least she didn't ruin anything.  I keep trying to convince Papa Pea we should put a litter box in the garage and in the shed so that if the cats do get caught in there, they at least have somewhere to "go."

We were very relieved and happy to have our Rosa back.  I'm glad there's a happy ending to that story.

Have a wonderful day!  I'm working out again this morning.  :-)

Until next time,

Mama Pea