Peas In A Pod

Everything Nice Quilt

via thequiltedfish.typepad.com

Hi Everyone!

Jana, of Adventures of a Cross-stitch Drama Queen, and one of The Quilted Fish Design Team members has a cute tutorial for making a quilt with Sugar and Spice fabric. It's a cute quilt...when I used the "Blog it" feature in typepad, it didn't give me the photo of the finished quilt as an option for my photo....so, you'll have to hop on over there and check out her tutorial.

If you're a relatively new quilter, the blocks used in this pattern are fairly simple, but give a very effective, modern design. So, it might be just the thing for you. And with the big squares in it (like you see above), it's a great quilt for highlighting some of your favorite new fabrics with the big designs in them.

Jana's had a pretty rough few weeks, with her basement flooding TWICE in the same month. So, I am completely amazed that she was able to come up with such a great idea and put together a nice tutorial for you in the midst of that.  And through it all, she has maintained her amazing sense of humor!   Hop on over to her post and give her a little love!

And if you've never checked out her blog, stop over there and read some of her last few posts (at the very least).  You'll see what I mean about her upbead, dry, and wacky sense of humor.  It's one of the things I love about her.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Until next time,
Mama Pea

UFO Update---of a different sort

I have been about working on my UFOs for Susan of Blackberry Creek's UFO challenge for this year.  I promise, I am going to get back on it this weekend, because I want to finish that one quilt I made so much progress on and practice some FMQing on it.  This is because I'm almost done with the house quilt, and I may want to quilt it myself.  I figure I better practice on something else first.  More on all that later. I wanted to post something this week, however, to get me back in the habit of being concerned about UFOs and holding myself accountable to making UFO progress each week.  Hope this is okay.

How about a little UFO update on our house?  We had big plans for this summer to continue remodeling.  But we have made NO progress with all our traveling, etc.  We're hoping to finish up some pretty big projects before school starts.  Here is what's on tap:

• Finish pulling up that front sidewalk and the stumps from the bushes we cut down.
• Pull up the stumps from the bushes we cut down in the back.
• Replant some...the rest will wait until spring.
• Pour new sidewalk (we decided to go with concrete) and a pad in the back for hot tub (YAY!  Can't wait to get that hooked back up before winter!)
• Get electrician out to wire hot tub.
• Gut and totally refurbish at least one bathroom.
• (This one is a maybe.)  Gut ant totally refurbish other bathroom.
• Replace front door and door to garage.
• (This one I want to do, but I'm not sure it's on Papa Pea's list.)  Paint inside of garage.
• Perhaps paint brick on front of house to match rest of house. (We're still thinking about this one. Papa Pea really hates to paint brick...high maintenance.  But I think it's something that makes the house look dated and adds too many colors to the house.  We both agree it would look better if painted.  We'll see on that one.  It would only take a few hours to do it...)
• Paint the back door to the garage.

That's a pretty ambitious list, isn't it?  We figured we better start small and build some momentum again.  So, I asked for this as a "warm up" activity:

(You can see a little of that brick on the far left side of this photo....)  "Honey, I really hate these light fixtures outside the garage?  Could we start by putting up new light fixtures?"

"There are only two of them.  The one on the right is broken, too.  (My fault from a Christmas decoration I hung on it.)  There are actually three, because there's another next to the back door from the garage.  We can deal with that one later."

In less than a week, I got this!  I really love it!  What a beautiful difference!  (Yes, I need to paint my milk cans, too.  They are looking pretty bad.  There's one under each light.)

A much more updated look, don't you think so?  The mounting hardware on this was bigger, so Papa Pea had to put up a piece of wood, cut into the siding to mount it flush, and everything.  But it looks so much nicer.  Now, we need to go back and get one more for that back door.

Today, Papa Pea is working on that big monstrosity in the back yard.  To give you a sense of size, it's probably about 10 feet tall....from the ground to the top of that dish.  Maybe more...  It's comin' down, baby!  I can't wait!  We got the bolts off the part that sticks up and receives the signal.  That was no easy task.  They were rusted shut pretty good.  But when we went to take it off, it was full of hornets and a big hornet's nest.  So, Papa Pea sprayed it with some hornet killer, and we're letting it sit a bit.  The smaller dish is our Internet receiver.  Hopefully within a couple of weeks, we can take that down, too.  I hope to have a new Internet solution by then.  I think we're going to pour the hot tub slab somewhere between the two of them.  I'd sort of like it about right where the smaller dish is.  I'll update you later!

We started shopping for stuff to remodel the bathroom.  That's a huge first step for us...getting the tile picked out, countertops, etc.  For our guest bathroom downstairs, I am thinking something like this would be really cute as the new vanity.  It comes with a solid surface countertop AND sink bowl!  This one's a litle too narrow.

But you can see it comes in wider styles.  Our current one is 36", so I think we'd go with this 37" model.  I like how it looks like an antique piece of furniture and it would go nicely in our basement, I think.  The price doesn't seem bad, considering that includes the solid surface counter top and sink, too.  All we'd have to add are the fixtures.  (Of course, it just kills Papa Pea to pay money for the cabinet, when he could build it himself.  I'm going to let him build the one upstairs for our bathroom, I think, because it's an odd size...7 feet.)

Next step, get it ordered, pick out tile, and start the demolition!

Okay...so it wasn't a sewing UFO update.  But these were definitely projects that needed to get done so we could move forward on our house plans.

I'll make sure to have a more quilterly UFO update next Friday!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!  Sweet Pea and I are off to a quilt show in Grand Haven tomorrow, and then I'll take her to the beach there.  Some spectacular beaches off Lake Michigan.  Looking forward to it.

Until next time,

Mama Pea

Gettin' ready to Glamp it up!!!

I got home from work today and found this little package on my front doorstep.

I saw that adorable little sticker on it and knew exactly what was inside!

My Glamp kit from Amanda Herring, The Quilted Fish!!!  Yippee!  She sent one to each of us Design Team members who wanted one.  Of course I wanted to play with one.  You know...'cause I don't have enough to do!  I have BIG plans for this!

All the parts to make a really cool lamp.  Remember, Summer Camp?  Amanda's having a contest, and it's not too late to get in on it.  You can hop over to her website and get one of these kits yourself, make one, and be eligible for some really cool prizes!  Here's the link to where she talks all about the contest.  Here's where you can get the Glamp Pattern.  I'm not sure how you get the hardware kit yet.  You might have to e-mail Amanda directly.  If you want to contact her, let me know.  I'll give you her e-mail address.  Come on and play along!

Amanda's even going to send me and the other team members who are playing additional prizes we can offer.  I am really excited about it.  I'll keep you posted on everything, because you'll want to blog hop a little to get in on all the prize action.

I can't wait to get started on this.  I'm totally going to Glamp up Sweet Pea's room with this!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

iPad Purse--Review of Sweet Nothings iPad Carrier Bag tutorial

I don't think I've posted this already....forgive me if I have.  I've thought about posting it a lot.  I searched through my posts to see if I had posted it, and I couldn't find it.  But it feels like I've done it already.  I'm getting old!

Before we left on our trip earlier this summer, I wanted to sew up a little purse for my iPad so I could carry it around at the conference and use it for notetaking.  It would save me from hauling around a pad of paper, etc.  But I also need to carry my room key, a credit card (I never carry cash), and some other odds and ends (mints, etc.).  Well, most iPad cover patterns out there are just that...covers.  I wanted something that also functioned as a purse. 

Fortunately for me, Julie (of the Intrepid Thread blog and etsy shop), one of The Quilted Fish design team members wanted the same thing and developed a really awesome tutorial for it.  It was posted on Riley Blake's "Cutting Corners" blog.  So, I went and grabbed it.

Here's the link to the free tutorial if you want it.  Great tutorial!

It all started when I saw some great fabric on Julie's Intrepid Thread etsy shop.  Had to have it.  Ordered it, and this little package came in the mail.  So cute how she wraps it like a present.

 
This was the fabric that started it all.  Loved it.  Love the colors, love the design.  Joel Dewberry.  So, I ordered a yard or so.

 
And Julie is so sweet, she sent me a piece of this, too.  OMG. I loved this, too.  Also, Joel Dewberry.  So, I was thinking, "Oh, yeah, totally have to use that in the purse, too."  (In fact, I ordered more of it from her!)

I needed several fabrics for the purse, so I went to my stash and pulled these.  The green is some of that neat hand-dyed cotton/silk fabric that my friend, Jackie dyed for me. I thought having that little bit of bling in the purse would be pretty cool.

Here is my finished bag.  I think it turned out so cute.  I really love it.  I brought it to one of my meetings at the conference, and pulled my iPad out of it.  My department chair was sitting next to me, and he said, "That's a cool bag!  Is that a Vera Bradley?"  I about fell out of my chair!  I told him no and that I had made it.  He was duly impressed.  (His wife is a knitter, so I'm crediting her for him knowing who Vera Bradley is!)

Here is a more close up shot.  You can see that the flap is quilted in a diamond pattern.  I really like how the silk looks on here.  I asked Jackie if she'd dye some more fabric for me.  Wouldn't this be pretty with some lavender or blue silk?  I have enough to make some more bags.  So, Kristin and Krista, if you're reading this, let me know if you like it.  Think...Christmas present!  (The clip hardware was a little hard for me to find here.  Couldn't find exactly what I wanted.  But I found some in the fashion district in LA when I was on my trip.  So, I did pick up enough to make several more bags...you know, just in case.)

You can also see the handle can clip off, in case you want to remove the shoulder strap.

Here it is open.  It has a magnetic snap closure.  Where the green fabric ends is where the slot is for the iPad.  Where the circle fabric ends (at the top of it) is a pocket.  Inside that pocket are a couple more pockets for storing credit cards, etc.  Nice.  It's a pleated pocket, so it does give you some space.

You can see I didn't really control for where the circles fell on my pouch.  I just let it be serendipitous.  I like how it turned out.  Not too contrived.

My iPad fits in there really nicely without the cover on.  Slides right in with no problem.

It also fits well with the cover on, but it's just a little snug.  You'll see why in a minute.

I lined my bag with fleece.  Julie had used flannel.  I didn't have any matching flannel in my stash, but I had this green fleece, which was close enough for me.  I thought that would give a really nice, cushy fit.  It did, but it's more bulky.  I think if you did it with flannel, it would not be snug at all in there.  I also found the fleece made it a little harder to sew everything closed, and it made the pocket opening in front of it more snug.  The next one I make will have a flannel lining instead.  I think that might be better.  If I did it with fleece again, I would make the pieces just a skosh wider...maybe 1/2 inch...to accommodate the extra bulk.

Here, you can kind of see the pocket.  That's the best shot I could get of it.  But it's pretty functional.  I told Julie it was a little tight at the top, but again, I think that might be due to the fleece I used instead of flannel.  Julie said she wanted it to be a little tight, so that her purse stuff wouldn't fall out of it easily.  Makes sense.  You can see the little pleat on the top there (look at both edges).  The deeper part of the pocket is bigger once you put your hand inside.

Here's how it looks on me.  (Hey, that was about 15 pounds ago.  I'm happy to report I look much better than that now!)

I asked my mom if she'd like one for Christmas for her iPad.  She said yes and that she really liked it.  But she is not crazy abotu these fabrics.  They are not her.

Remember these fabrics I bought at Gruber's a few weeks ago?  I bought them thinking they would make a great iPad purse for my mom.  Wow, I didn't realize it until now, but that black fabric really has a similar design to my purple fabric, doesn't it?  Mom, if you're reading this, let me know if these fabrics are more to your liking.  If not, that's cool.  I would love to have these in my stash!

I totally love it.  It is functional and beautiful.  Thank you for this free tutorial, Julie, and for the awesome fabric!

The tutorial is extremely well written and easy to follow.  Julie has photos all along the way to show you how to do each step.  Even installing the clips and D-rings was easy, because of her clear directions.  Highly recommended pattern and not too difficult...especially considering the great looking result.  Well done, Julie!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

P.S.  This has been a frustrating post to write.  I had internet problems at home again.  We have satellite internet and whenever it's cloudy, I can't load a web page.  So frustrating when I couldn't load a web page all weekend either.  ARGH!  I am actually sitting in Barnes and Noble writing this!  I might FINALLY have another option.  A new service coming in our area.  I talked to an agent there who gave me some information and his direct extension so I could call him back.  I have tried twice now and left him messages.  No return call.  So, now I'm concerned about customre service that I'll get with them.  Crap.  Why does this have to be so hard in this day and age???  Okay, I'm done whining now.

Organizing my fusibles, interfacing, and stabilizers

I did a little organizing in the sewing room this weekend.  I have this shelf where I had put all my stabilizers, fusible webs, and interfacing.  I used to keep it in a drawer, but the drawer got too full to be functional.  Plus, some of the rolls were too big for a drawer.  So, I temporarily put it on a shelf, knowing then that the solution was no good.  Stuff kept falling off the shelf every time I tried to grab something to use, and I could never find what I needed.

I know a lot of people sew a sleeve-like thing to hang on their walls to store tubes of stabilizer in.  (Like this, or they sew something with sleeves.)  But that woudn't work for me.  First of all, I don't have the wall space to spare.  Second, it just wouldn't hold enough and would take up too much room if I made it big enough to hold all my stash.  Third, some of my stuff isn't in rolls.

So, here is the solution I came up with:

I bought a little black garbage can to put the stuff in that came on square bolts.  The garbage can is a rectangle.  They fit nicely in there.

I put the labeled end on top, so I would know what was what.  I had some other stuff that had to be folded, so that's in there, too.  But this holds things nicely.  (BTW, that $11.99 bolt was on sale at Hancock's going-out-of-business sale way back when, so I got it for like 70% off.  Score!  I bought the whole bolt.  It's almost used up!)

I got aother round garbage can for all the stuff that could be or came rolled up.  Here it is all neatly organized.

I tied ribbon around each to secure them shut, and if there were instructions with it, I tied that around it, too.  I color coordinated the ribbons.  All the pink ribbons are tied around interfacing.  The yellow ribbons are tied around stabilizers.  The green ribbons are tied around fusible webs.  I tied a tag to the label and wrote what it was on the label.  I think this will really help me use up what I have.  Often, I couldn't find what I needed or didn't want to cause an avalanche to get what I needed, so I would just go get some more.  This will be much better for me.

This should make it so much easier to find what I need when I need it.  I found these fit nicely on the floor under my cutting table.  Great!  Unused space anyway.  And now, I have a shelf that is 3/4 empty, so I can get some other stuff cleaned up.  Can't wait.  Hope this helps some of you organize a little bit!

You would think with all the organizing I do, my house would be neat, clean, tidy, and organized.  NOT!  Sigh.

And as a parting shot, this was a pretty cute sight this morning.  When I walked downstairs, I looked on the front step.  There was Belle laying on the front step, with the two cats cuddled up next to her.  Of course, when I went to snap the photo, both cats came over to see what I was doing.  (Pay no mind to the fact that my porch and stoop need to be swept and the rug needs to be shaken!)

By the way, we ended up having TWO litters of kittens.  One litter is now gone (the one that was PJ's, the cat on the right).  You haven't even seen the other litter (Rosa's, the one on the left).  They are pretty cute.  They were born while we were gone, so they're about 5 weeks old.  I'll snap a photo for you and show you sometime.  We will be looking for homes for four more kittens soon, if you need one!  :-)  For not being a cat  person, myself, these two cats sure are nice, and I like cuddling with them when I'm outside.  (And boy, do they want inside!)

Well, gotta run.  More tomorrow!  Hope you're all having a good day!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

P.S.  Weighed in yesterday...down 23.8 pounds altogether.  Yippee!  I updated my ticker but haven't updated anything else on the Health page.  Internet problems again last night.