The Stink Eye

Our little 4 yr old has perfected what I like to call The Stink Eye.

When he doesn't get exactly what he wants, he give us this look that we are starting to get very used to seeing. Since we don't give in to the demands I guess we should start to embrace it. I'm wondering if I should take more pictures of it. In certain ways it's really adorable.

Thanksgiving was huge for us this year. We drove to see my family, and I gave my mom the Chevron Scarf that I was working on for the last year. She really loved it. We also visited the happiest place on Earth, so that was a giant thrill.

On the way there I started working on some little Dear Hannah applique blocks again. Gee, it's been a while, but they sure are fun to make. Will post some pictures of them soon for you. Should be quick to square them up.

Above is a photo of a wedding signature quilt block. I'll confess that I have been trying to make some progress on that project too.

Looking forward to so many things - shopping for a Christmas tree, visiting a sick friend who recently moved to a hospital closer to me, buying an electronic portable drum set kid toy that has some serious volume control, seeing my sister again in only 2 weeks.

2010 Quilt Otaku Wall Calendar

In the spirit of getting ready for Black Friday (the most popular shopping day of the year in the US), I created a little wall calendar for 2010.

Lulu's printing service helped me make it available to the general public.

They added a preview function this year so you can see each of the monthly pages which is nice.

Time to order one for your favorite quilter, kick off that holiday shopping, and scratch folks off your list.

Happy shopping!

Oh, and if you HAVE to have that map wall sticker...(my 4-yr-old said, "Where's Antartica?") head over to Firm Living. They will hook you up.

How to hang a quilt on the wall - tutorial for hanging Doll Quilts

There are many ways to hang a quilt up on your wall.

Thirty years ago, it was popular to put Velcro on the back of your quilt and also to the wall in order to hang a full sized bed quilt.

That seems to have evolved to people putting cotton sleeves on the back and running a wooden dowel or curtain rod through.

All of the above involve putting holes in your wall, and that is a level of commitment that I'm not always sure I'm ready to make.

Because I love small quilts, or doll quilts really, I put together the below tutorial on how I like to hang these little quilts on the wall.

You are not making any holes in the wall.

Using the method as described puts a minimal amount of stress on the back of your doll quilt which I also like since keeping my quilts in good shape is another one of my goals.

Hanging quilts like this will work best for small quilts, small wall hangings, and doll quilts. Full sized bed quilts will need to be hung by other methods.

So here goes...let me know if the info is helpful and if you like my humble little tutorial video!


How to Hang a Doll Quilt

The method requires the following supplies:

- Picture Hanging Strips, by 3M Command (2 'sets' per each doll quilt if you want to attach upper corners only; 4 'sets' per doll quilt if you want to anchor the bottom corners as well)

- Sewing machine

- Scissors

- Applique needle

- Thread

- Cotton twill tape (2 pieces that are 7" long and 1/2" wide if anchoring at top only; 4 pieces if anchoring bottom also)

Video Tutorial HERE. Note that the video itself is just less than 10 minutes long and will take a couple of minutes to load and start playing after you click the link.

Compliments to my amazing husband for his awesome camera work! Thanks honey.

What is this amazing thing? (brain teaser)

If you're smart enough to read blogs on the weekend, I figured I'd give you a real special treat here.

Can you tell me what the above is?

Is it...

a) a bow tie for a very large hamster

b) a rare specie of butterfly usually found in the Tambopata Candamo nature preserve in Peru

c) a deadly weapon usually thrown by ninja warriors, similar to shuriken used in the Edo period

d) the best new quilting invention since sliced bread, perhaps Marisa should post a tutorial on what this thing is all about

Hm....any smarty pants out there wanna take a guess?

That's what you get for not finishing

This weekend was a productive one.

We got a bunch of chores done and I managed to carve out some time to work on my creative projects.

I put most of the wild and crazy binding on the feathered arrows quilt. Since the blocks are antiques I asked my quilting buddies if it was disrespectful to spice up the quilt and put a funky outrageous binding it.

My friend Pamela said, "Well, that's what she gets for not finishing the quilt!"

I agree. Maybe I'm here to punish those who have come before me by taking their half baked projects and making crazy things with them.

If that doesn't motivate you to just finish your work in progress quilts, I don't know what will.

I got the above necklace from Nonchalant Mom, this very cool web site with super modern and hip clothes/accessories for kids and moms. The necklace itself was designed by Verre. It's just a bit of blown glass, but I'm a sucker for good color. The natural colored one is on my wish list.

And the Tiny Shall Inherit the Earth

In my 'knitting' group (where I usually quilt instead of knit) the girls have all sorts of projects going on.

My friend Sharon of Knits are for Kids made a hoodie for her son, but he grew faster than she could knit.

Having the smallest kid around does have it's benefits, as in this case....my little guy can still squeeze into the projects that her little dude is too big for now.

Check out her skull caps that she made for the boys. Both of mine got them. Will post some photos of them together in them.

Meanwhile, I started a little beanie of my own with some Make Make Yarn (made in Japan, of course).

I also picked up the binding for my recently finished quilt from SuperBuzzy - it's going to be a polka dot pattern.