Friday, September 26, 2008

Fabric, Fabric, and more fabric



Colin and I went to the Portland quilt show with Christina and Sheila. We had a great time and saw some amazing quilts. I was a bit surprised on the small amount of vendors they had there. Especially the Amy Butler and Michael Miller booths, they were so small and only hand a handful of examples. The Michael Miller booth didn't even have a person there. Like I said we still had a great time and I got some really cute stuff including a lilly apron kit featuring the farmer's market fabric. I just love it!I would go again and am hoping to go next year and I would recommend going.

I also got some great deals on fabric from fabritopia. Just what I needed, Farmer's Market, and some Ginger blossom fleece ( it was on clearance for $3.00 a yard, yippee!). I am going to make a quilt, hopefully queen size for my bed.
I will need filler fabric since I don't have a large amount of fabric. I have a half yard of each.
I am thinking various square and rectangles with white fabric but who knows what I will actually end up doing. And I am sure my stack will grow because I feel I need a little more color variation. Perhaps more blue and/or purple. And if you happened to notice I bought the same fabric twice, once from the web and once at the quilt market. Complete accident and I will have to be more careful in my purchases. It's a good thing I really like it ;o)

I almost forgot as a thank you with my purchase from Fabritopia they included these little scraps with my fabric (note picture is a close up they are about 2"x4") I think they are from the Pop Garden line by Heather Bailey. Cute!

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

What a weekend

We had a busy weekend and got a lot of projects done.
I got the carpets cleaned. Sorry no before and after pictures :)

Finally got my Christmas present from two years ago painted and hung up. My grand father in-law made it for me, I think it's great and the paint matches with the rest of the bedroom set. I still need to get all of my jewelry put in it and I am thinking it should be moved to another wall. My husband, of course, wants me to wait a week in hopes that I will like it where it is. So I must keep an open mind about where it is hanging now. Unfortunately I don't have a before picture, I thought of it a bit too late. I used an antique black paint kit, the pictures don't really show the antique look but it looks great.


We use our old wood kitchen table and chair set for our out door furniture. It works great except here in the northwest we still get a lot or rain during the summer, especially this year. So the set is not looking that great. I talked the hubby into sanding it down and painting it. We had some left over cans of spray paint, espresso color, and the in-laws had some left over clear varnish for out door use. After we got started I thought it would be really cool if the top of the table were painted with the chalk board paint. Then we could doodle and keep score while playing cards right on the table. But we are not to sure on how well it would hold up being outdoors (only during the summer of course). And I would hate to put a lot of work into it to have it turn look like it does now. So if anyone knows about using chalkboard paint outside please share your knowledge because I would love it if we could use it. As of today, Monday, we have one coat of the varnish on and we are going to apply several more so for now I have a picture of the table with it's new paint and no varnish. Please ignore the sad looking flower pot in the background it used to be so beautiful but it's the end of summer and at its nearing its end life. We still have to do the four chairs, we haven't even started on them yet. We ran out of sand paper for the electric sander, hubby is supposed to pick some more up today. So hopefully I will have an updated photo with the complete set all done shortly.

I have been working on some cloth booties for Colin, pattern from here . Maybe it's just me but I have heard this from others, Amy Butler's directions are difficult to read and follow. I could be that I am a beginner but I have to read the directions over and over for each step. Especially since there is two booties each one consisting of an outer layer and a liner. I am now at the sewing part and I tried to sew the two layers together only to end up ripping the seam out. I am awful, truly awful at following curved lines. Normally I do everything in my power to avoid them, which is not good because I will never learn how to sew them if I avoid them. My new plan of attack is to mark out my 1/2" seam line then trying following that, since I am incapable of just following the edge of the fabric. If any one has some helpful hints I would love to hear them ;o)

Hmmmm..... what else was there?

Congratulations to me! I won my first giveaway. I am so excited and grateful for the great stuff that is going to be coming to me via snail mail ( I love mail espcially when its not bills). I won the linky love prize you can see it here.

And of course I tired out a new recipe featuring my moms home grown zucchini, Fried Zucchini Coins, from food network. You can get the recipe here and of course I added a 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese.

We borrowd a jumper from our dear friends Rob and Sarah and I am pretty sure Colin likes it.
And I also have a picture from when we went and visted the sometimes crafter, the sometimes crafters mom, and healing techniques. We had a great time and I thought I would share is adorable picture of Sheila playing with her grandson. She is one happy grandma, too bad I didn't get the front of Brice's face he was having as much fun as grandma. I am really hoping that we can all get together at least one Friday a month for some crafting.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Fun Festival in Portland

Green Sprouts Organic Baby & Family Fest
Saturday, September 13, Peninsula Park, Portland 10am-5pm

There are a bunch of neat seminars and workshops listed here that they will be hosting including a time table of events. I have never been before but I figure I will spread the word because I am always looking for something fun to do with the family that is inexpensive.

Read anything good lately?

I am in need of a new book. I have finally decided to give up on Wideacre by Philippa Gregory. I love her other books but I just can't get into this one and it's heading in a direction that is not keeping my interest. I am looking for some suggestions on a good book to read, I like all types of books, so any and all suggestions are wanted.

And if anyone has read Wideacre does it get better? Should I keep reading? Is it worth my time or should I move on?

Or if anyone knows of a book swap or feels like swaping books maybe that's a possiblity.

Another Great Giveaway

This one I am pretty sure I am on time for and hopefully you will be too. So head on over to here, it's Heather Hales Designs, she has great tutorials and is looking for ideas for some new ones. Good luck to everyone and have a great weekend. I am hoping to get some crafting projects completed so that I can post about them Sunday. So check back to see if I actually do (hopefully this will help keep me motivated).