Peas In A Pod

Pattern Review: Wee Mouse Tin House

We have continued to have a really busy week and weekend.  But Sweet Pea and I took a little time out this weekend to work on a project together.  I love Larissa Holland's work.  She blogs at mmmcrafts and writes some pretty amazing patterns.  I blogged about her cell phone caddy pattern here and the Binky Bunny pattern here.  I think I have all of her patterns.  She recently came out with a new pattern called Wee Mouse Tin House (click the name to go to the pattern), and I just flipped over it.  I knew Sweet Pea would adore it, so I bought the pattern.  When she saw it, Sweet Pea said, "Can we make it this weekend?"  She was so excited.  So, we sat down and made it together.  Sweet Pea wanted to help every step of the way.

Here is what we made....A little mouse that sleeps in an Altoids tin with its little teddy bear and pillow.  Okay, everyone together now...."Awwwww!"  Is this cute, or what?!  It was such a fun project, and Sweet Pea and I created it in about a couple of hours.  If you are afraid of miniature stuff like this, don't be.  Even Sweet Pea could help with lots of the parts, because Larissa writes such a good pattern and makes things pretty easy with her construction techniques.

The pattern calls for corduroy or flannel for the mouse.  Well, I didn't have any on hand, but I did have fleece.  So, that's what we used, and it worked out swell.  I had a bunch of wool felt laying around for other projects, and I just let Sweet Pea choose what she wanted for the mattress, blanket, and teddy bear.  I told her she could pick from my scraps for the pillow fabric.  But she said, "Can I pick from my fat quarter stash?  I like my fabrics better."  LOL!  Of course, I said, "Sure!"  This project does not take much fabric...all the pieces are pretty small.  So, it was easy to clip a bit off wool felt in my stash.  (Although when Sweet Pea cut the red blanket out, she cut it right from the middle of a big, red piece of felt.  LOL.  We talked a little about where to cut things from to conserve our resources.  It was pretty funny.)

See the pink mouse's tail?  I was even able to do all the embroidery with floss I had laying around, and it was quick and easy to do all the embroidery, too.

As I said, Sweet Pea really wanted to help me with every step of this that she could.  Here she is sewing the arms and legs together.  (We are using my small machine, because my big machine is in thie shop, and this one was set up.  I didn't feel like hassling with her little machine....and since the sewing was so small, I wanted to use a machine I was more familiar with.)  Anyway, Larissa's construction techniques on some of these tiny pieces really made it doable.  The proof is right here....even a 7-year-old could sew the arms and legs, which are the smallest parts on this project!

Here she is tearing the paper off the arms and legs.  She stitched on the lines on freezer paper for this step, which is what made it a little easier.  I shortened the stitch length a little (to about 1.5) on these because (a) the smaller stitches would make it easier to maneuver around the little curves, and (b) it would make it easier to tear the paper off.  This was  good job for little fingers.  As I said, we made the mouse's body out of fleece. I didn't have any white wool, either, so we made the arms and legs out of fleece, too.  It worked out great, because there are exposed raw edges on these arms and legs, and the fleece won't fray.

Sweet Pea sat at my knee and stuffed the little mouse, too.  (I did do all the embroidery on his face, though she threaded all the needles for me.)  She also stuffed the pillow independently.

She did all the cutting on the felt pieces as well.  She had to scratch up the metal on the tin for glueing herself, too.  So, there were many, many things she could do to help with this project.

She loves Altoids, so the bonus was we had to eat a bunch of them to make this project.  :-)

She said this was great because when we travel, she could take this as her little stuffed animal and that she would be unlikely to lose it if she kept everything in the tin.

I just think this is adorable and that any little girl would go nuts over it.

So, my review of this pattern is two very enthusiastic thumbs up!  I will make this again. I  was thinking that I have a niece with a birthday coming up.  I bet she would love one of these, and think how easy it would be to mail this.  Yes, this will be a go-to gift for me for a while now.  And, like I said, I could make one in a couple of hours.  Many thanks to Larissa for another wonderful pattern.  I highly recommend this one as well.  You can do this.  It is not hard!

If you don't have a little girl or boy to make this for, maybe you want one for yourself.  I have to admit, I do!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

February West Michigan Art Quilters Group Meeting

I wish I could sew at night.  I am missing sewing so much and I really want to go downstairs and sew. But my eyes feel like they are falling out of my head.  So, I decided to get a blog post done instead.  (Doesn't help the eyes, but it makes me feel like I'm getting some vicarious sewing done.)

Tonight is the Kalamazoo Log Cabin Quilters guild meeting.  I was just too tired to go.  I decided to stay home and spend time with Sweet Pea and Papa Pea instead.

How about a recap of our Feburary West Michigan Art Quilters meeting?  Okay then!

One note:  If you life in the area, Angelica announced that there will be an event called "Fiber Art and Mixed Media--Putting It Together" at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, Michigan.  The exhibit begins Sunday, March 11 and goes through April 14.  Of the fourteen featured artists in the show, eight are from our art quilters group!  Come and check it out!

Okay, on with the show.  Our theme for this month was "Bag."  The theme was contributed by Sweet Pea.  :-)

This first piece was made by Jane.  (You can tell Sweet Pea was thrilled to hold it up for me, can't you?!  She liked the bag but was not in the mood to be a helper.)  There is a great story behind this bag.  Before I joined this group, they had a denim challenge.  Jane used her denim to make this bag, and she also used some of June's scraps from another previous challenge on the bag.  (I blogged that challenge here.)

Here is the other side of the bag.  Jane said she makes lots of bags in this style and that she can make one in about 2 hours.  Wow!

Here is the neat part of the story.  See this pretty (Jane calls it "wild") fabric on the inside?  It used to belong to a friend of hers who died.  The friend's husband knew Jane sewed and gave it to her.  So, she incorporated it in this bag in her memory.  How fun.

Jackie didn't want to make a bag.  So, she googled the word bag and found so many different interesting meanings of the word.  It could be something "unpleasant."  It could be a cocoon.  With the cocoon in mind, she made this quilt, which she titled, "Out of the Bag."  I think she said these are some frayed edges from some of her hand-dyed fabrics.  (But I can't read my scribbles well in my notes, so I may have messed that up.)

Here is a close up of some of her frayed fabric, beads, and quilting.  Jackie is so clever to think of another way to interpret the word "bag."

Jackie brought other pieces for show and tell.  Here is one.  I think this piece might be the one that's going in the show I mentioned at the top of this post.   My notes are so scribbly from this meeting.  I must have been fried.  I'm having trouble making good sense of them.  But I wrote down that she used Two's Company acrylics to paint these pieces.

Each of these is a separate piece that she's satin stitched along the edge and then connected together.  In this photo, it is laying on the floor on a pale green sheet.  That is the sheet you see behind each part.  When it hangs, you won't see that pale green.

This is very sea-like, isn't it?

Here is another piece Jackie made.  I think she said this was called "Ripe."  This was also created with fabric paints that she put in squeeze bottles. 

I also wrote down that she used gelatin on a plate.  I'm so sorry.  My notes are so sketchy here again.  I was having a hard time keeping up with everything.  Maybe if Jackie reads this, she can leave a comment to tell us more about how she made this.

I really love Jackie's quilting.

Here is another piece from Jackie.  Maybe this is the one she calls "Ripe."  I am not sure becuase my notes are such a mess.  My apologies, Jackie!

Sweet Pea was really fascinated with how she made the shadows on this one.

Here is another piece from jackie.  I think she said this one was an experiment in layers of paint.  There is cheesecloth on this one.  Then, she added these strips.  I think Jackie wasn't entirely happy with this one, and she said she might cut it up and use it for something else.

Here is a close up, where maybe you can see the cheesecloth.  (Click on the photo to make it larger so you can see it if you need to.)

Here is another one from Jackie.  You have seen this before in earlier stages of completion.  She has finished it now.  This is the one where she shrank the Tyvek.

A close up of some of Jackie's hand quilting.

Next up was Kathy.  She brought this bag she made from a Sue Spargo kit she had laying around and needed to be made.  So, this challenge got her going on that.

Here is the back of the bag.  I love Sue Spargo's stuff.  I think it's all the colors and textures (wool, ribbon, velvet) and threads.

Even the lining is pretty.  I always have to peek inside!

Beautiful work, Kathy!

Kathy is embarking on a new project.  She is looking up vintage photos of some of her favorite buildings in Grand Rapids, and she plans to make a quilt of each building.  Here is the first photo she's working on.  This is a hardware store she loved when growing up.  She said she loved the smell of the hard wood floors in there.  (It made me think of a really cool hardware store we used to go to in Johnstown, Ohio when we lived there.  They had red pine floors that they oiled.  They were still the original floors. Never even refinished.  I loved that place.)

And here is her start on that building.  Again, that's the green sheet behind the piece.  So anywhere you see pale green is where she has cut away fabric.  Kathy has hand painted all the fabric for the brick and concrete.  She brought all this great stuff she's planning to put on this for the windows, doors, and awning.  Wait until you see this in farther stages of completion.  It's going to be amazing.

Look at all this amazing detail!  She has cut out and stitched down each individual brick!  WOW!

In her searching, she found this photo.  That's her dad talking to the attendant who is pumping gas!  I think she should definitely make a quilt from this photo!

Kathy also brought this book.  It looked really interesting.  It is from d4daisy books.  What was intriguing to me about these books is that if you buy the books, you also get some free on-line classes you can take on the same topic.  There are code words in the book that allow you to access the class.  How do you like that?  You have to be a little detective (Encyclopedia Brown?  Remember those books?) to find it and to access the class.  I love that idea.

Here is June's bag.  She uses it for carrying her yarn and knitting project.  Now, wait to see what she did.  You're going to love this.

Here is a close up of some of the quilting and piecing on the bag pocket.

Look what's behind/inside the pocket!  June has taken one of those nice canvas bags you get when you go to a quilt show or some other type of convention and prettied it up.  She said she liked the bag, itself, but she dind't like the big logo on it.  So, she sewed a pocket right over the logo!  How clever is that?!  I love it.

She said she makes these all the time for her grandchildren.  They carry their snowpants and snowboots to school in them.  What a great idea.

Mary was next.  She has the word "bag" embedded in her last name, so she sort of wanted to do something about that.  Instead, she ended up making some jewelry.  One piece she made was this bracelet.

Related to the bag theme, she made these little amulet bags.  I always love little amulet bags.  I don't know what it is about them that I love, but I do love them.

Here is a close up shot.  (Click on the photo to enlarge.)  Mary said she was considering "transitions" and had been reading about St. Francis' transition to sainthood.  So, she took some text from the book she was reading and incorporated it into her amulet bags.

Here is the back side of the bags.

She also made some pins.

And she made earrings.  Wow.  Sweet Pea was really enthralled with all this stuff!

Next was Sweet Pea's turn.  Sorry for the quality of the photo.  We are meeting in a different room these days, and it's a nice room, but it is very dark.  Sometimes it's challenging for me to get good photos.  Case in point.  Here is a bag Sweet Pea made.  One of my graduate students gave her a kit for Christmas.  The kit had this little bag in it, along with some stencils and paints.  Sweet Pea made this bag out of that kit.  She is quite proud of it and happy with it.

You might recall at our January meeting I showed you this piece of fabric that Jackie had made.  It wasn't her style, and she gave it to Sweet Pea when Sweet Pea complimented her on it.  We got home, and Sweet Pea wanted to quilt it.  So, we made a quilt sandwich, and she started quilting it with her new sewing machine.  She took some variegated thread and quilted a square around it.  Then, she took some blue thread and started quilting water.  Looks pretty good so far!  She said she still wants to quilt the sky and the sun.  So, she still has some work to do on it.  But I like her ideas.  (You can click this photo to make it bigger.)

The meeting was basically over at this point, and we all asked Kathy what she was working on--she had been stitching on a piece throughout the meeting.  She showed us this piece.  It is a couple layers of t-shirt knit fabric.  She is making a jacket in the style of Alabama Chanin.  Is that new to you?  It is to me.  I had never heard of her.

She has cut away some of the turquoise fabric and is stitching around it and adding some embellishment.  It's very pretty and looks like it will be oh, so comfortable.

Kathy said that she figured she'd never be able to afford a real Alabama Chanin, so she was going to make one for herself.  I can't wait to see this finished!

Well, there you have it.  That was our meeting.  Another awesome meeting.  I still didn't have anything to show and tell.  Maybe sometime soon.

I still feel like sewing.  Maybe I'll get a second wind.  I doubt it.  Yawn.

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

Winner of Magazine Giveaway

I got home from the airport, had dinner, and just did the drawing for the magazine giveaway.  I put 1 through 14 into Random.org, and the winner was......#2.

SEWCALGAL!

I will drop you an e-mail to get your mailing address!  Thanks to everyone who commented!  I am sorry you couldn't all win!  I'll have some more giveaways coming up, I hope!

The Best Saturday Ever: Review of Sew Modern and The Urban Craft Center

Warning:  This post is long and very photo heavy.  I was going to split it up into several different posts, but I felt like it just all needed to go together so you could feel the full impact of my day!  Yesterday was truly one of the most fun Saturdays I've had in a long, long time!

The morning began with my sister and I venturing out on the LA freeways to head over to West L.A. to hit a quilting store and to meet Candice.  The traffic was really light on a Saturday morning, so it was not too bad.

The first thing we did was meet up with Candice, of Made with Love blog and Squirmy Worm Studios patterns.  (Check out her patterns.  They are really awesome!)  She is one of the Quilted Fish designers with me.  Although we've corresponded a lot over e-mail and through our blogs, I had never met her in person.  So it was just a blast to meet her.  I gave her a really long, inappropriate hug for Jana, another Quilted Fish designer.  She has been missing Candice and gave me that request.  So, Jana, here is your inappropriately long hug to Candice.

I had e-mailed one of my blogger friends from California and had asked her to recommend a good, modern quilt shop in LA.  Cindy, of Live a Colorful Life blog, recommended we head to Sew Modern.  Cindy, thank you, thank you, thank you!  This was such a wonderfully fun shop!  We spent almost 2 hours here.  And, Cindy, if you are reading this, this shop just screamed YOU.  I loved it.  If you are ever in LA and like modern fabrics, you totally have to visit this store.  Want a tour?  I know you do!

As soon as you walk in, you are greeted by this little sitting area right next to the front window.  I just wanted to sit down and hang out all day!  I loved everything about this little corner....the quilts, the fabrics, the furniture.  Just awesome.

Here is a close-up shot of all the wonderful ribbons on the table.  I wanted several yards of each.  :-)

Right inside the door, on the opposite wall was more eye candy with these really cool quilts (I especially like the white one), and a bunch of fabrics that were 20% off.

Right in front of me were these wonderful Japanese fabrics (Kokka).  This is stuff I drool over all the time at fabricworm.com, but I have never seen in real life.  I had so much fun fondling it.

Here was the wall right next to those fabrics.  I had quilter's ADD.  I kept running from one area to another, looking saying, "Oh my gosh, they have.....(fill in the blank with all the fabrics I love)!"

Case in point...recognize the red and white mushroom fabric I had just ordered?

More eye candy a little further back.  Love this.

A little further back....a whole bunch of Enchino fabric from Japan.  I was about going nuts over this, because I have been drooling over it online and have never seen it in real life.  LOVE!  My sister scored the end of a bolt of one fabric at 40% off!!!  Way to go, Aunt Pea!!!

More eye candy....

Very clever and cute quilt.

A close up of the quilting for you.  I really liked this loose pebbling with the multiple times going around each pebble.  Seems like this could deal with a multitude of pebbling sins!  I LOVED this quilting idea.

More fun samples.

This wall had all the solids, you can see them starting at the left there.  I loved the little chalkboards behind the cash register, where they listed their classes coming up.  So cute.  Lordy, I wish I could be there to take a class.  But isn't this a cute idea?  I think this would be fun to do on the wall in my sewing room when I get to remodel it.  I could make my "to do" lists on these.  Love it.

I looked a tthis pattern over and over again, but I resisted it.  I took a photo so I could remember it in case I decide I can't live without it later.  :-)  Might have to order it from the shop later.

I wished I needed a new sewing box.  Aren't these the cutest little sewing boxes ever?

I loved this pillow.  I bought the panel for it and am going to make it.  I have dark chocolate brown leather couches in my family room.  That room needs a punch of color.  I decided this weekend, this is what the punch of color is going to be.  The panel is from Prints Charming, and it's just the blue outline of the bird.  You do all the hand embroidery on it to embellish it.  Here, let me show you:

Love this!  I am anxious to get it sewn up.

The gals from Australia who designed this visited the shop and did a class for them.  You can see different example of how people stitched up this bird on the Sew Modern blog post about it.  Click here to read it and to see all the other examples!

They even decorated the back of the pillow  How clever.

Doesn't it look adorable on this modern chair?

I loved this chair, too.  The fabric my sister scored had some of these ladies on it.

Candice and I both really liked this quilt up front.  The pattern is in the most recent issue of Quilts and More.

I thought you might like to see a close up of the quilting.  Really cute and just the ticket for this quilt!

I set my shopping bag down to take the photos.  When I turned around, I saw this shadow on the floor.  Had to capture it in the photo.  Want to see what I bought?

This clock fabric.  I love it.  I have been wanting to make a quilt about time, so I got this to stash away for that.

I liked this little panel.  It made me think of Sweet Pea.  I'm going to do something with it for her.

The Prints Charming bird, some Anna Maria Horner embroidery thread for embellishing, some coordinating fabrics for another pillow and for backing (stripes), and some mini pom pom fringe for the pillows.  So much fun!  These fabrics are all from Australia.

If you saw stuff you like, Sew Modern has an online store, too.  The girls in the shop were just as nice and helpful as could be.  The store is beautiful and really fun.  It is so, so worth a stop if you get a chance!  I'll be following Sew Modern's blog now, and I am hooked on them.

A couple of photos before we go.  Me and Candice.  (I really need a haircut, BAD!  I was due for one in December and missed that appointment.  I still haven't had time to get it done!)

And one with my sister.

We were trying to decide where to go for lunch.  Candice suggested we go to Santa Monica and hit The Urban Craft Center and then find some place to eat.  So we did!  I am so excited that she suggested this.  What a cool place.

We walked in to more great imported fabrics.  More Enchino, Amy Butler was all 50% off, and lots of other fun stuff.

There was a papermaking class going on behind the counter in the classroom.  How do you like the big round couches for knitting groups, etc?  Looks like a lot of fun.

Fun bias trims and buttons.

Loved this little headband.  This pattern came home with me.

Lots of solids here, too.  I loved this little suitcase full of fat quarters and half-yard cuts.

I had never seen these fabrics before.  I loved this zebra fabric.

So many cute little displays and eye candy!

And here is an old printer's cabinet full of buttons and beads.

Wouldn't you love to have a poster like this?  I thought it was pretty awesome.

Around the corner they had yarn and knitting supplies.  Lots of bookmaking, scrapbooking, soapmaking, etc. supplies.  Let's put it this way....just a really nice smattering of all sorts of art supplies. 

My spoils?  I had to have this scooter fabric.  I couldn't decide which color way to get, so I got both.  I found them in that suitcase of fat quarters and half-yard cuts.

The headband pattern and a little more striped fabric.  I think I showed good self-restraint.  Don't you?

This shop was also awesome. They also had some really amazing classes....paper making, knitting, book making, shibori dyeing, etc.  Another place I wished I could take a class at!

By now, we were hungry.  We stopped at this Irish pub, and....

had a beer and lunch.  We had an Irish waiter, who kept calling us "love"--with the accent and everything.  I love an Irish accent!  We had a very nice, relaxing lunch.  I sighed and told Candice and Aunt Pea that this was how I loved to spend a Saturday...shopping with friends, having lunch, and relaxing over a beer!

We dropped Candice off at her car, and then Aunt Pea and I headed back to her house.  As you can see, the traffic picked up a bit.  But it was still moving pretty well and was not too bad.

To top the day off, we picked up the kids and took them down to the pier.

It was pretty chilly, still, so my niece Rachel dressed warm.  LOL.

Rachel, Aunt Pea, and Jane.   A little chill never stops Jane from being fashionable!

We checked out the crabs at the crab market.

We went to the penny arcade (though they should call it the quarter and at-least-a-dollar arcade these days!).

The girls played games.

They rode the rides.

Went out to dinner at a little diner on the pier.

It was a fun, busy day!  I was SO TIRED that night, I was falling asleep on the couch at 9:30 pm!

What a great day.  It was a day to remember.  Thanks, Aunt Pea and Candice, for one of the best days I've had in a very long time.

Now, I'm heading home.  I'm really looking forward to seeing Papa Pea and Sweet Pea.  Just a few more hours.  (I'm sitting in the airport typing this.)

Hope you enjoyed spending the day with us!

Until next time,

Mama Pea

 

 

 

Magazine Giveaway; Terri's bracelet; Some sad news, some good news

Today was the last day of my conference here in California.  It's been really informative and fun.  Today, I gave a presentation.  I think it went well.  The audience was very kind to me and very interested in the work, so I guess that's good!  I always feel such a huge sense of relief when my presentation is over.  It feels good!

Remember how I told you my cousin Terri is fighting breast cancer?  Well, she lives in California, too, so my sister and I drove up to see her the other day.  It was so fun to spend the day together.  She's doing okay, but she's pretty tired and wiped out from the chemo.  Mostly we had a great time....laughed a lot.  We all sort of cried a bit too, wishing we could just hang out together more often.  We wish we could do that about once a week.  We really enjoyed our day together.  It is always sort of like being kids again when we can hang out together....just the three of us.  Remember when I told you I sent Terri the charm bracelet?  Well, look at it now!  Look at all the charms people have sent her!  It's so full!  She went through each charm and told me who gave it to her and what it signified.  It was really cool.  She said she absolutely loves it.  I am so glad that she does.  I'm glad I gave it to her!  I'm really grateful that family members and her friends all participated in the way they did.  Just great.

We made a pact....when she's done with her chemo and radiation, we are going to make a girls trip...the three of us and our moms (my mom and her mom are sisters, and they both fought and won the battle with breast cancer).  We told Terri she gets to pick the destination.  We'll all meet there and just have a long weekend together.  Should be fun, and it gives her something to look forward to!  Actually, it gives us ALL something to look forward to.

Tomorrow, my sister and I are going to west L.A.  We're meeting up with Candice. I can't believe it get to meet her IRL, finally!  I can't wait!  We're going to go shopping and have lunch together.  I'll take photos and blog it.

Then, Sunday I fly home.

Before I left for this trip, I went to Barnes and Noble and bought this issue of American Patchwork & Quilting.

I thought it would make a good magazine for something to read on the plane.  I even had a coupon for 20% off one item, so that was cool.

Then, I got home and realized I already had this issue!  I forgot I had a subscription to this magazine.  Doh!  Do you ever do things like that?  Sheesh.

So, I'm going to do a giveaway of my duplicate copy.  If you'd like this issue, just leave me a comment below.  I'll draw a name on Sunday night (February 19) sometime when I get home.  I'll send it out to a randomly selected winner.  :-)

UPDATE:  THE GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.  THE WINNER WAS #2, SEWCALGAL!  CONGRATULATIONS!

Some more sad news....Sweet Pea's goldfish died.  Sigh.  Just what she needed.

Papa Pea has been spoiling her while I'm gone, though.  Last night, to surprise her, he brought Rosa in the house.  (She's an outdoor cat, and we usually don't let her in the house, despite her frequent attempts to sneak in!)  Sweet Pea's eyes apparently about bugged out of her head.  Papa Pea brought Rosa over to Sweet Pea and put her on Sweet Pea's lap.  Sweet Pea got to snuggle with Rosa in the house for about 30 min.  Rosa loved it, but Papa Pea said Sweet Pea was in hog heaven.  She just loved it.  And, he told me, tonight he let Sweet Pea do it again.   (Papa Pea has been worried that Rosa has seemed pretty lonely since PJ died.  He thought Rosa needed a little extra attention, too.)

Some really good news....Papa Pea was offered a really good job this week.  He accepted the job today!  He's been doing consulting for the past year, which has been good, but it's an exciting job and a very steady income.  We are very happy about it.  We could use a little good news, huh?!  We're going to have a little celebration and go out to our favorite expensive restaurant when I get home!

Hope you all had a good week.  Have a wonderful weekend.  I'm not getting much sewing in, it seems, these days! Hope you are!

Until next time,

Mama Pea