Quilting and Other Hobbies

After a great deal of swearing, I was able to finish Lauri's quilt.  The machine was having some issues with tension and speed control.  The stitch regulator is having some issues again.  It broke the thread about a dozen times around the middle of the quilt.  Ugh!  I rethreaded it a couple of times and it started behaving in the last third of the job.  I'm going to work with it a bit longer and see if it continues to have problems before I take it in for repair.

Here's a close up of the quilt that I took in a puddle of sunshine coming in the windows.  It's so sparkley!!

Once I got the last customer's quilt off the racks, I decided I wanted to get one of my quilts done up right away.  I dug around in the bins and came up with this floral fabric to add to the back.  It was absolutely perfect!  I couldn't have found a better quilt back if I had started with it and matched fabrics to it.  Not sure what I'll do with it when I'm done.  I have far too many quilts lying around that aren't getting used, though.  This is a twin size, by the way.  Maybe Emma will want a new one, although I still have to finish her Japanese quilt--it just needs a binding.

I had to piece the back to make it large enough.  One thing that people don't always realize is that you need to sew a generous 1/2" seam and trim the selvages.  The edges of the fabrics are often woven differently and will shrink differently when washed and dried, so trimming that 1/4" off the edge is important.  You don't want your work to end up puckered.

I've been having a long debate about whether or not to continue this quilting & crafting business.  I'm not making any significant income from it and I'm tired.  I could still quilt things for friends, but do it in trade or something.  According to what I could find, if I earn more than $400 in a year, I have to declare it.  But what about someone who does occasional babysitting?  A couple of days a month, you earn $20 per night from a friend who goes out on a date with her husband, and you have to declare that as income?

We have a problem with one of the newer windows that we had installed in Emma's room.  I don't know if it was installed incorrectly or if something broke off, but it's got a massive breeze coming through when the window is closed.  You can see daylight.  It's bad.  I put in a call to the handyman a couple days ago but I haven't heard back from him yet.  Maybe I need to try calling again since I left a message...relying on technology...which can be rather unreliable.  We've got a cold snap moving into the area and may possibly be snowing this weekend, so getting her room weather-tight is important.

I have one more side of Grandma's flower garden quilt to finish up.  No, she's not my Grandma--my grandmothers both died in 1987 and 89--I'm talking about our church's Father's mother.  It's very close to being done, so I need to work a bit more tomorrow and maybe give the owner a call tomorrow afternoon so she can pick it up and enjoy it!

The last couple of days, I have to make a bunch of beads for the Lampworker's Guild as well as a dozen or so I'm making for a commission.  Since I posted pictures, I've gotten a few more people asking to buy beads.  Maybe I need to switch from quilting to bead making?  I also need to make a handout and samples for a class I'm teaching on Saturday.  The class is called "Sewing Limp Parchment Books" using paper and string.  Woo.

Happy Epic Thanksgiving!

We turned out Thanksgiving day into an EPIC 5-day journey and visit...as we so often do for holidays.  I'm wondering how often we want to do this...can't we get anyone to come visit us for a change?  We loaded up Old Tom and picked up Em from school and headed South down to Vancouver, WA on Tuesday.  We finally got on the road around 3 pm, and didn't arrive at the hotel until LATE.  What should have been a 3 1/2 hour trip turned into close to 6 hours, getting stuck in every major city along the way.  SO frustrating!

We checked into a sub-standard hotel (to my standards, anyway).  The carpets were old, the couches were torn, and the mattresses were bony.  After 24 hours, the toilet clogged, overflowed and gushed everywhere.  I ran upstairs and turned off the water, then called the front desk to get some assistance.  They moved us to a new room...which looked remarkably like the old room, including old carpet, old couches, and old mattresses.   The nice thing was that in the mornings they had hot breakfasts (until 9 a.m., anyway) and in the evenings, they had simple dinner fare...burgers & dogs one night, and chicken fried steak the next.  FREE.  The burgers were really good.

On Wednesday, we headed over to visit with Heide & family at their new place.  They don't have cable, but they have "Animal Planet" out their back door...and as A3 put it so cleverly, "All we get is the Squirrel Show."  Heide provided incentive and the creatures came for our entertainment.  A2 has named several of them and can tell them apart.  I suppose it's her keen artistic eye that can discern subtle details between each of them.

A1 wanted to do a little shopping for a jacket, so we decided to make a quick trip to Portland to check on a few of their offerings.  Our 90-minute quick trip to a clothing store turned into a 6-hour EPIC Journey through horrible Portland traffic.  We were stuck in the city at every turn.  We even did a figure 8 trying to get onto a bridge to cross the river downtown.  I hoped that I would get a chance to go to Fabric Depot or a yarn store...but no such luck.  I did, however, find one offering that I found amusing on the shelves, but could never imagine ever wearing...or anyone else wearing.  At least not in public.  I had to get a photo to show to my bro who loves bunnies.  He agreed...he wouldn't wear it, either.  Nor would his wife.  I wouldn't be able to drop the $40 they were asking for it, anyway...and that was the sale price.  Maybe if I found it at a second-hand store or something...Maybe.

Thursday we headed over to Mike & Laura's at 11 pm.  Got lots of photos of the kids...

Mr. Mal loves his jumpy seat.  He had mastered the control of it, bouncing and turning in circles, then lifting his feet to unwind.  Brilliant kid for 10 months!

Beautiful daughter with Mr. Mal.

Me with Mr. Mal

Mike with his boy...Mr. Mal

My three kiddos!

Friday Kelly headed down to Portland (while we slept in) and did a little Black Friday shopping.  I didn't even know he was gone until about 20 minutes after I got up.  We packed up all our gear and traveled North to visit with the Grands on the Peninsula.  We made a couple of quick detours to grab some Cache-to-Eagle geocaches.  The first was in Bremerton at the Boy Scout office up in the hills in the Soroptimist Park.  We found it pretty quickly and picked up a couple of Travel Bugs there.  From there, we headed up to another one at the Kitsap Memorial State Park in Poulsbo to grab one more C-to-E cache.  This one didn't have one of the points of Scouting in it...each one is supposed to be labeled "A Scout is... [honest, friendly, trustworthy, faithful, courteous, etc.]"  I figure what we'll have to do is find all the rest and use the process of elimination to determine what it is.  We have gotten 9 of the 12 so far...only have to get two in Seattle and one in Sequim...no idea when we'll get a chance to drive all the way out to Sequim.  It'll take at least 2 to 3 hours EACH WAY.  I dunno...

The kids had a great time Friday playing with their cousin, Miss Aurora.  Hours of play ensued up in the loft.  That night, Kelly and I spent a rather uncomfortable night in a hotel.  The walls were thin, the plumbing was noisy, the wifi was horrible, and the bed was too squishy.  I slept poorly, waking with a backache.

Saturday we returned to the Grands' and visited with Kelly's brother, his wife and son.  The kids had a fantastic time...there was much joy emanating from the loft.  Football games played the whole time.  I wasn't really paying attention to any of them, but I did see the surprise ending to the Aurora-Alabama game...fantastic finish!

Saturday morning, rather than watch football, I managed to make my escape...temporary escape.  I spent a couple hours out seeking Geocaches.  I found one in the morning when Kelly and I walked over to Starbucks for some tea, but I found seven more around town (and one that was missing, so I couldn't count that one; I found the fishing line that it had been attached to, but the rest of the cache was gone).

We stayed for dinner then headed back home.  It was a long week, but it was a lot of fun...except the traffic part.  We made our way back across the water and got home shortly after 9.  It was an epic five days, and I'm really glad that we have a day to recover before we start back into the daily grind.  Laundry, straightening up, and maybe some Christmas decorating are in order!

New Additions

There have been a number of new things added to our home, none of which poop, for which I am eternally grateful.

First new addition was a fridge.  Our old fridge, which was original to the house, circa 1999, finally crapped out.  The freezer was at frost mode and the fridge was slightly cooler than room temperature.  It gave me the opportunity to throw almost everything out, and even after putting all the stuff back into the fridge (about 2 coolers' worth), it still looked empty.

This quilt block was started over the Pirate Retreat weekend, but I wasn't able to finish putting it together until a couple days ago.  It's from the Harry Potter Project of Doom series--the Monster Book of Monsters.  I'm not entirely happy with the paper piecing assembly, but I think it falls into the "good enough" category.  I had to take apart and re-assemble several of the seams, so I'm not going to freak out if the black pages of the book don't line up perfectly.  The original had white pages, but I didn't like the way it looked.  I wanted to give it more depth and really make the yellow teeth pop.


The guild does a monthly charm swap.  This month's fabric theme was batiks, so I bought six yards in some bright, cheerful colors, and chopped them into 6" squares.  I wasn't able to make it to the meeting, unfortunately, but my new friend, Dorene, picked them up for me.  We'll get together for lunch next week so I can fetch my swapped pieces.  I'm looking forward to getting them!  Six yards of squares will make a pretty sizable quilt, especially if you add a couple yards of black sashing!

Then the quilt will look a little bit like this one!  This is Lauri's stained glass quilt that's on my frame now.  Originally we talked about quilting it in a shiny silver thread, but now I'm thinking it'll look nicer if I do it in an all-over medium purple.  The back is purple, too.

At the guild meeting last month, I picked up this charming little quilt to sew together for their charity program.  It has polar fleece for the back, so no batting is necessary, and quickly stitched some hearts and swirls into it.


I have another bunch of fabric here to make a boy's quilt--they're always short on masculine quilts.  I thought it was another quick-to-quilt thing, but it turns out it's all fabric...it needs to be pieced.  Hmmm...extra challenge.

I have gotten several commissions for beads, weaving and quilting in the last couple of weeks.  I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment.  But...I gotta get some laundry and dishes and other cleaning done before the Thanksgiving holiday.  Toodles!

Patchwork Pirates INVADE!

I know that I haven't done much writing for some time--it's been busy and I haven't done anything remarkably interesting, but I'll catch you up on some of the basics this last month.  Kelly, Tom and I went to a couple Sounders games.  Tom traveled down from Bellingham to see the games and will be joining us next year in our Gang Green (Gangrena, as Daniel likes to call us--he's fluent in Portugese).  In at least one of these games, he had to buy a separate ticket away from our group, but was lucky enough to find a seat just a few rows behind us.

We often grab dinner at a nearby food court.  Clearly, English is a second language and proofreading is an afterthought.  I think that perhaps it was merely an issue with punctuation:  "All Employees Must Wash; Wash Hands Thou Roughly Before Returning to Work [sayeth the Lord]."


I've continued doing a little Geocaching now and again.  I found this lovely log covered with mushrooms.  It looks like a woodland fairy condominium.

I also found some of these really cool looking mushrooms, which I think are Candy Caps (Lactarius rubidus), which are edible.  Otherwise, they might be Jack o'lanter mushrooms which are poisonous.  Not going to pick them and find out...

Made some beads for a couple different people.  I promised to make 40 of them for a Kingdom gift to the Royals that will be attending the big camping event in the summer.  I've done this a couple times before in years past.  It's not very difficult, it doesn't cost more than a few bucks for my materials, and it's a great way to practice bead-making skills.  Here's me making the bead hot with the torch--you can't see the flame, but you can see the glass glowing.  I have everything I need here:  my computer, a cuppa tea, some chocolate, glass, lighter, mandrils, and a bucket of vermiculite to cool the bead slowly.  I was able to complete 9 of them that night, including these 7:




And these two, which I was trying to create a "dragon scale" pattern on the glass, which mostly worked.  I have to ask Bekah to demonstrate her technique since I suspect it could be done with more ease and consistency.



Then I posted those pictures and got a commission from a lady by the name of Jadwiga.  She said she wanted 3 beads, but I made six, figuring that she could have her choice of her favorite 3 or all of them, should she decide that 3 was not enough. :)



I got a call a couple days ago from a lady who said she had a quilt from her Grandmother that she needed to have quilted, and we made arrangements for her to come by and drop it off.  This gorgeous piece of work arrived at my house!!  It's all pinned together, so I will have my work cut out for me taking it apart and racking it up on my machine, as well as checking it for open seams.  I already found one, so I may whip stitch that one closed and any others that I find.


Early on Saturday, Lauri and Linda arrived together and we began sewing up a storm.  A few hours later, Sharon and her daughter arrived just a few minutes after Jean.  While Jean isn't a quilter, she worked on a knitting project while the rest of us cranked out some quilt blocks.  I was able to finish putting this quilt top together, which is made entirely out of scraps and measures 98" square.  It needs just a few more inches for borders to make it big enough for a king size bed, and then it'll be ready for quilting!  I had two people say that they want the quilt already, and I have tons more scraps to make more of these if I want...and I may just do that.  I may get a commission from them yet...although the cost on it is prohibitive for most.

Terrible picture, but here's Jeanie and I trading places.  Lauri called us Mutt & Jeff.


Went out for dinner at the Mexican place--I was driving, but Lauri and Sharon enjoyed macho margaritas...



Then stopped by the fabric store, only to discover that it was closed, so we went to the 7-11 instead, got a couple scratch tickets and played with the hats.  I am the walrus.  Sharon is a lemur.

After I finished the quilt top, I pulled out the Harry Potter Project of Doom that I've been working on over the last many months and began working on the next couple of blocks, numbers 11 and 12.  This was a difficult one--white owl on a cream background.  I'm going to have to do some kind of outline stitch on the bird to make it stand out.  Also, I goofed on the eye color, so I may carefully pick out the seams and reverse applique some gold fabric into place.

This block is a series of books with a feather quill.  I re-arranged the order of the pieces so I wouldn't have the yellow quill leaning against the yellow book--I didn't think that through entirely.  Later, I thought maybe, in honor of Rita Skeeter, I should have done the quill in acid green.  Heck, I may just print up the pattern again and start over...or not.


The girls got to play together all day and night--they always have such a great time together.  We decided that they are the exact same height now, even though their ages are 19 months apart.  They truly are two of a kind!



Jean didn't stay the night--she left around 11 pm Saturday--but the others had cots and inflatable mattresses set up around downstairs.  I stumbled upstairs around 12:15 a.m. for my 8 hours.

We started up again in the morning after I cooked up some pancakes for everyone--mostly the kids.  We made a trip to the fabric store around 2:30 pm where I got batiks for a swap for the guild meeting next week.  I have to wash and dry them before I can cut--batiks are infamous bleeders!  I feel like I'm way ahead by getting the fabrics organized a week in advance rather than at the last minute like I usually do.

Everyone packed up by 3 pm Sunday to head back home.  We had a great time and got a lot done.  I should have gotten more pictures...maybe I'll be able to post more after I get some sent to me by the others.

Traveling Teacher

It's been another busy week here at Chez Surprise!

The weekend was spent down south for Accademia/Ithra and visiting friends and family.  I drove down to Heide's with Cammie.  We pulled in and had a cuppa and got to bed by midnight.  A3 had a friend staying the night so there was a lot of giggling, but they were shuttered away in her room having a great time.

We woke up early and started getting ready.  And get this:  I forgot to bring my undertunic.  I quickly pulled out one of my class samples for the undertunic class I was scheduled to teach, and quickly sewed it together on Heide's machine, nicknamed "Satan".  It behaved well for me for the duration, so threw all my stuff into the car and we headed over to the happenin' town of Scappoose to teach at the high school.  Heide and her eldest, A1, joined us later in the afternoon to sit in/participate in a dance class.

I taught two classes:  one on Viking Undertunics, which had 3 students and a model, and Bog Coats, that had 8 or 9 students.  There were one or two who didn't show up--possibly one that said, "I'll be there!" and then doesn't show.  I had one or two do that to me and decided that all students need to be pre-paid or I wasn't going to save them a spot.  For some classes, it's not a big deal to add one more at the end, but for others, the teacher needs to have all the kits prepped and assembled.  For Bog Coats, I just needed to have enough handouts printed--the rest of the supplies were brought by the students.  For the most part, the students caught on and had a great time.  I had a couple of students who were doing a lot of "show me that again..."  In the end, they all got it and had a coat ready to sew together (not enough time in the class to do that).  However, it'll be the last time I teach it--I think I'd rather teach a simple rectangular constructed coat that is documentable.  

That night, we got back to Heide's and we had a little stir fry and rice and I made cookies for them.  I've written down the recipe for the cookies 3 or 4 times for her, but she says she keeps losing it, so maybe I'll just publish it right here.  :)
Karen's Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 sticks butter, soft
1/2 c. sugar
3/4 c. brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 c. flour
chocolate chips

After a very restful night in A3's room, we got up to do a little Geocaching and dropped in on A1's senior photo shoot.  We got her some flowers for her pics and even though it was very cold, she kept on smiling and looked fabulous!  We had lots of laughs and several of her pics reflected genuine joy.  This is one of my photos where she was transitioning to the next pose.  We were cracking jokes about how silly those professional photographers talk to models... "Be ze tiger!  Be an angry tiger!  Show me ze anger!"  I guess they were quoting "Zoolander" and some other silly movies (that I haven't seen or remember).

At about noon, we headed down to visit with Mike & Laura and Mr. M.  We went out to lunch at a lovely little cafe about 5 minutes away from their house.  I got a thing with potatoes and chicken sausage that was really simple and GOOOD!  I want to try to recreate that at home.

Mr. M. and Cammie got acquainted and hit it off.  I was still a person of suspicion, so I tried to hold him for a minute and he wanted to go right back to Cammie.  She's just a natural caretaker and friend.

Monday was a long day at Children's again, but it marked the end of the medical trial.  We finished up the short term science experiments for Ben, but still have a couple of follow-up appointments for lung function tests and blood draws.  Kelly took the day off and he drove down after lunch so he could take the afternoon shift and I came home to pick up the girls from school.

After they got into the car, I suggested we do a quick shopping trip.  I promised Cammie a birthday shopping spree and Emma needed a couple things for her cosplay costumes.  It's really blurry, but this is what Cammie selected for her wardrobe.  It included 6 shirts, 3 pairs of jeans and 3 dresses.  We might add a little color to the peach dress since it's almost the same color as her peaches-and-cream skin.  The white frock shirt is really cute and we added the teal shirt underneath, which turns out to be a perfect match.  The great thing is all these pieces ended up being just over $100.  Emma's two items totaled $36 for a pair of boots and pants.  I got one sweater and a couple of kitchen items.  I love that store!

Today was a day of "normal" (whatever that means...) and tomorrow is back to the "abnormal" (more doctor appointments).  But for now...sleep.  Too many late nights and early mornings.

A Dry Month? Hardly.

It has been 31 days since I posted.  Time flies like an arrow!  Fruit flies like my kitchen!  Well, a few of them do.  Just when I think they're gone, I see one.  Not millions...just one. Weird.

Lots of things happened this last month...

We had a sweet 16th birthday for Emma.  It was a mellow occasion marked with two friends, cake, and pizza.  They just wanted to watch anime and eat sugar and starch, and change into different costumes.  I tried to make an interesting cake, which was a double red velvet with chocolate frosting--yes, that's a full cake mix on the bottom square and a second cake mix for a two-layer circular cake.  With her are Miss E, her bestie from 4th grade, and another Miss E, her new bestie from high school.  New bestie decided not to wear her prosthetic in the evening...it gets heavy, she said.

I finally got my long arm back from the repair shop which needed something like $3,000 in repairs, all of which were covered by the extended warranty I purchased for $400.  Totally worth it!  I'd look it up, but it's dark in the room and I'm tired.  Maybe I'll look it up tomorrow if I think of it.

While I was waiting, I got a couple quilt tops finished and I need to start quilting them.  I'll have to find some backing fabric to finish these.


The school moved its annual Jog a Thon to the fall instead of the Spring, and it eliminated the fall magazine sale.  I like that.  I was getting so tired of foisting stuff on friends and family whose kids were also selling the same stuff.

I went to an SCA event that turned very rainy and muddy.  By the end of Saturday, the river had risen a couple feet and everyone was evicted from the site.  I hadn't planned on staying the night anyway--it's too late in the year to camp that close to the snow line.  My yurt is not Mongolian-winter-ready, which means I don't have it lined with a heavy wool blanket on the walls and roof.  Maybe someday, but for now, it's just canvas.  I have fleece that I can line on the interior walls, but I'd really need a roof liner to keep it really warm.

I got a picture of lovely Bekah by the river.  I don't know why so many of my photos are coming out blurry when it's set on 'auto'.  Ugh.  This is supposed to be a better 14 pixel camera and I'm getting lots of crap photos unless I'm standing absolutely still.  I've gotta find my red instant camera again.

They had an excellent food contest.  I love this pig!  SO cute!  And it looks delicious!  And edible!  Now this event's theme is "Banner War", and you can almost see the banner lying across the pig, but they have another event in the Spring called "Boar's Hunt", which this would be ideal for.  I don't think it'll keep 'til May...

Ben was enrolled in a medical study for a new CF medication.  This means several hospital visits, lots of EKG tests and blood draws.  He's such a trooper about it!  He will be well-compensated.  Since this is a short 2-week study, we'll be done in a few days.  There will be a long study probably starting in February, that he's likely to be enrolled in.  You can also see his feeding tube button, or as I called it, "Baby's First Piercing".  We have to pull it out and put in a new one every 3 months; he's actually due to swap out button now.

Bekah and I had a tea party last week, just for fun.  We made cucumber sandwiches, chicken salad on croissants, scones with jam and Devon cream, lox and cream cheese, turkey and swiss rolls, spinach salad, lobster bisque, and of course, tea.  It was a fabulous feast and I had leftovers for a few days.  Bekah folded the napkins all fancy, too!

Tonight we went out to celebrate Miss Cammie's birthday!  She chose the local Teppanyaki/Bennihana place as her restaurant of choice.  Because it was Thursday, Bekah joined us for dinner and a show!  Ben decided to fill in as chef...OK, this was at the end of the meal.  He really enjoyed the show, though it was sometimes loud and bright so he covered his ears.  He enjoys all the silly puns and juggling from the chefs, though.

I tried to get a sweet family photo, but Emma put up bunny ears on Cammie.  The camera, sadly, didn't click when I wanted it to.  This is the next frame, Cammie turning back and saying, "Heyyyy!" while Emma giggled.

Another attempt and Emma hid behind her book.  Ah well.  It's a charming photo of the birthday girl!

As for me, I've been coughing for at least a month since I had my cold.  I have inhalers and cold and cough remedies galore, but nothing seems to work.  Hopefully it'll clear up soon!!