Calm Before the Storm

With all the upcoming kid birthday celebrations, company coming into town, and general hoopla soon to be coming our way, we did the only practical thing last weekend.

We decided to ignore the reality that we have plenty of preparations to do, and take a family vacation at the beach. The little surfers above are my sweet boys.

We visited an awesome seahorse exhibit at the aquarium and even saw a pretty insane marine mammal quilt that is shown just outside of their cafe. Really cool that they have their own quilt featured. I found a picture of it on flickr here - sorry I forgot to snap a shot of it myself this time.

Flotsam is now our new favorite book. I think we'll be reading it at storybook time on a nightly basis for a while.

I've been working on a special surprise gift for kids coming to the birthday party. Stay tuned for the big reveal - assuming I finish it! (sweating beads here)

Have you seen this post by Lucy at Quilting with the Past? Her little windmill doll quilt is simple adorable.

Decorative Kid Party Invitation Envelopes

We are having a puppet themed birthday party this year.

In my usual micro-detailed fashion, I wanted to make the party invites super cute.

I ordered them from Tiny Prints - these guys really have an awesome selection for just about every occasion. It's the 2nd time I've used them, and I'm still really impressed.

Instead of just writing all the addresses on there, I wrote them with some funky hand writing and had my almost-4-yr-old color in all the 'holes' of the letters with pretty colored pencils.

Cute, right? Fun way to involve your kids in addressing the invites when they are too young to actually write all the addresses.

In other news, last night I went to a lecture at my quilt guilt (SCVQA). Lecture by Melinda Bula was entertaining, and her quilts were very beautiful.

I think she uses a fusable technique to make these giant floral quilts. Very Georgia O'Keefe looking. Bright colors. I had seen the quilts all before when I attend the quilting in the garden quilt show in Livermore last year.

Quilt Appraisal: More study time for me!

As I mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of antique quilts and quilt appraisal in general.

My hope is to someday become an AQS certified quilt appraiser. So far, I have been getting some practice, but it has been a bit more slow going since the baby arrived. I'm getting back in the swing of things - starting now.

Pacific International Quilt Festival (PIQF) - a huge and really nice quilt show - is coming to my home town in October.

At the show, Cindy Brick (AQS Certified quilt appraiser) will be there to appraise quilts. She is taking me under her wing as her scribe, so I'll be volunteering to assist her the day during the show.

Really looking forward to learning more about how somebody else does appraisals.

Cindy's web site is an insane wealth of information. She has all these articles published here.

Ones I really loved were on best way to store a quilt, washing and caring for your quilt, and what to do with an old worn quilt.

Oh, and yes I really did cut into my Liberty fabric collection. The above block is the 1st birthday signature block for my darling niece.

I will confess that cutting into Liberty fabric is like taking a small slice into heaven itself.

Birthday Signature Quilt: 4 yrs old

I whipped up this number 4 block so folks at my son's birthday party can sign it and write a message on it for him.

You can see the 1 block that is done already with signatures, an early version of the 2 block, and the blank 3 block featured in previous posts.

I'm starting two new quilts just like this. One for our baby who is turning 1 year old this year, and one for my favorite baby girl on earth - my niece. She'll be 1 as well.

For the girl quilt I'm going to use my collection of Liberty fabrics. Yes, sports fans...I'm going to actually CUT them. I think I deserve a drum roll or something here.

Anyhow, I applique the numbers down on 8 inch sized blocks, and ask all the party goers to sign their names with a little message for the birthday person of honor. In total there will be 16 blocks. Hopefully it doesn't become too embarrassing before that age. Do you think we'll make it that far?

Win some, lose some

Win some:

I seriously never win anything. I seriously am never expecting to either. However, that amazing feat did take place, and I won a bunch of lovely fat quarters from the blog giveaway that I mentioned Chara Michele was holding.
Thank you so much Chara! Her photos always have the perfect light and her creations are beautiful. Please visit her blog for some inspiration if you have the time.

Lose some:

I quilted a bunch of feathers in the above block, but because the fabric had TINY dot thingies on it you cannot see them at all. Hm...think I wasted some time here. Oh well...on to the next block.

1 Year Old Birthday Prep

My sister and I are in full planning swing to play for the one year old birthday parties of our babies. Her girl will be 1 in about a month and my boy will be 1 a few days later.

We both have big parties planned.

Her party is a cupcake party, and I have the pleasure of dressing my niece in the the worlds cutest ever skirt for her big day.

Our theme is a puppet party, so we'll be having a professional puppet show. Should be a really huge blast.

My own birthday is quickly coming up and I'm thinking that the perfect gift for me from our sons would be this little fawn mommy necklace (hint hint). Is it not the cutest thing ever?

Oh yes, and I finished quilting another of the feather blocks.

Quilted Feathers

This little quilt I'm working on is turning out to have a couple of firsts for me.

I have practiced a lot of feathers just for fun, but never ended up adding them to a real quilt top. Perhaps this is out of fear of getting myself in over my head or not having the dedication to getting them perfect.

Well, I'm going out on a limb here, and throwing caution to the wind. Feathers, here we come.

I'm also using some self-designed fabric on the back - photo of it here on an older post. I love to design fabric with my calligraphy but it's hard to cut into it.

Solution: Put it on the back of the quilt! No cutting required.

And for those of you (my sister) who were wondering what book I want for my upcoming birthday, Album Quilts of Ohio's Miami Valley by Sue Cummings is on my short list.

What I've learned recently

I have spent a lot more time moving my sewing machine from storage (read: the floor of my office) to the kitchen table than using it to actually quilt lately.

The baby was sick last week and has been out of school again this week with no-fun-at-all high fever.

Who knew you could get so many germs rolling through your house during summer. I thought this was illegal.

Anyhow, this is what I have learned lately:

• If you have 2 kids, they will ALWAYS poop at exactly the same time.



• If you have 2 kids, they will NEVER nap at the same time.



• If your 2 kids share a room and 1 of them wakes up screaming in the dead of night, the other one will ALWAYS wake up and climb into your bed.
  
  
• It is possible for a 3 yr old boy to bump his head on a door jam so hard that a golf ball sized lump forms, and the 3 yr old will then most likely look into the mirror and say that he cannot wait to show his friends at school.
  
  
• If you are driving around in the car with your girlfriend for a relaxing trip to the farmer's market, it is highly likely that your 3 yr old boy will pick that very moment to ask you how is it possible to pee if you don't have a penis.



• If you work full time and raise 2 little boys, you do way less quilting than you hope and dream of doing, but you have way more fun than you ever thought possible.
  
  OhMyGoshTired, but still in love with my life here,
  
  Marisa
  
  ps. if you have yet to visit Red Felt Flower blog, please do so and enjoy the beauty.
  
  pps. if you want some free goodies and you love photography, visit Chara Michele!

Long Beach International Quilt Festival 2009

This weekend my mom and sister visited the Long Beach International Quilt Festival.

I will freely admit that I felt a small tinge of jealousy when I happened to call them and they were chatting to me about how much fun they had and how crowded it was.

Not sure I plan to go to it next year, but they did pick up a couple goodies for me, so not a total loss. One booth I would have certainly visited is the Shibori Girl Studios booth. Perhaps I will have to go after all next year.

In other weekend adventures, I did chain together a few more signature stars, and managed to baste another small quilt, so not at all unproductive.

At one point, I decided (why, oh why) to bake some french macaroons.

Please stop me before I bake again! Seriously.

I DO NOT heart French Macaroons.

The French Macaroons kicked my tail. I tried a different recipe (the chocolate version) and instead of sticking to the paper like last time, they were as dense and as disgusting little chewy balls of goop. Oh yeah, and they looked uglier than sin as well.

My husband thinks I should raise the white flag. I think I should call in the expert.

Japanese crafting - Yoko Saito's new book: Taupe Color Study

Ms. Yoko Saito has of course done it again by putting together a beautiful book on the use of taupe fabrics in quilting. In case you are looking for a copy of it: ISBN978-4-86322-130-7 Study Book for Taupe Colour.

This book is full of small projects, mostly little bags. I love it and would use many of the patterns in either full sized quilts as blocks or in small wall hangings or quilts.

I'm still cookin' along, making little signature quilt blocks...slowly but surely. My boys both fell asleep at the same time for about 30 min today so I was feverishly sewing away. I'm trying to batch process about 35 blocks at the same time.

Will post a photo of them once I get some more assembled.

In other news, I'm addicted to this band Mates of State. Are you a fellow addict? Yes, it is embarrassing that they did an Orange County (the TV show) song but they do rock seriously.

I just ordered the new Mates of State album from Amazon along with a boat load of "just corn". Who knew little boys would eat unlimited quantities of veggies if only you freeze dry them?! Go figure.

Road 2 California 2009

Road 2 California quilt show is planned for next January and accepting applications from folks to host quilts in the show as well as sign-up for classes.

Classes that interest me are by Jo Morton because her quilting style is very classic with an emphasis on hand work.

Maria, the owner of Pinwheels, is also having a class on making a little taupe bag, which is another one that looks very good to me. On her web site, she is selling these incredible 4 inch long zippers for coin purses - all in taupe colors. Super cute, super affordable.

The above photo is a quick snapshot of the pieces I'm cutting out (STILL!!) for my Sarah Johnson quilt. Progress is a bit slower that I might like, but I'm plugging along at it.

Happy 4th of July

Hope folks in the U.S. had a great long weekend for the Fourth of July holiday.

We did a lot of relaxing, and I logged some serious time holding the baby and tickling him. Important work, to be sure.

Quilting-wise, I did cut out and prep some more blocks for the Sarah Johnson quilt. Hopefully I can carve some time out to work on it this week.

My favorite blog post read for the weekend was this one by Oiyi. As if being an incredible knitter isn't enough in and of itself. No, Ms. Oiyi is off dying roving and spinning it first before she knits up the worlds most beautiful creations. I'm almost inspired enough to buy my own sheep. So very pretty.

I will also confess that the above patriotic quilt is not my own creation. It's a gift from my lovely and talented quilting sister.

Summer Reading

Some of you may be reading Moby Dick this summer, or perhaps works of Jane Austin. Meanwhile, I'm digging into more Japanese quilting books.

This book (ISBN4-529-04120-4) by Kuroha Shizuko covers many quilted works using indigo fabrics. Indigos are very traditional Japanese fabrics that these days are more and more hard to come by. Historically, they were created by indigo dye masters.

Back when I lived in Los Angeles, I used to visit a shop (Azabu-Ya) that sold many beautiful indigo fabrics from Japan so I have a little collection that I've been meaning to use.

Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth blog also loves to work in indigo. If you have yet to check out her blog, it is a visual feast for the eyes and I highly recommend it.

Whatcha reading this summer? Got any recommendations for me? and PLEASE don't recommend the Twilight series. It's way too addicting, I am not allowed!

Opening Pandora's Box

As a general rule, I don't do a lot of food photography, but I could not resist taking a quick shot of the wanna-be-french macarons that I made for my husband on Father's Day. And no, I did not wisk them with the ugly stick, thank you very much.

Not sure if I'm happy or cursed for trying to make them since they were a disaster.

I followed most of the recipe that I found on this online version of Desserts Magazine.

Did my cookies have feet? Ahem, no.
Did my cookies have puffy round dome shapes? Um, no again.
Did they become a huge sticky mess which my husband claimed tasted good anyhow? Yes!

So, do I resign myself to NEVER, EVER making them again, or should I give it another go and see if I can do a bit better?

Any tips you got for me you psycho baker genius-types? (you know who you are...yes this at least includes Rebecca from my quilt group)

And speaking of opening up another Pandora's box, have you visited Pandora yet for your listening pleasure? I think I'm hooked. Music to quilt by.

Mini Star Quilt

I just finished putting the binding on this mini star quilt.

The pieces of fabric were went to me by Kathie of Inspired by Antique Quilts Blog (check out her version of the quilt here).

Thanks again Kathie for sending the fabric, I had a blast putting this little quilt together. I hand quilted it too which was a huge blast. More about that in a future post.

I also put together a mini-teenie-flickr set slide show of my sister's baby quilt for you to enjoy.

Handmade Quilt Label: broderie perse (part 2)

Here's the 2nd part of the Broderie Perse labels - this label is on the back of our baby son's quilt.

Again I took some fabric from Anna Maria Horner's design and cut out some white leaves. I wrote on the leaves in my funky calligraphy style. Oh, and it was so nice of my friend Carol to applique most of it on there for me. That was perhaps the best part.

Makes me want to finish more quilts just so I can put labels on them!

Don't forget to put the name of who the quilt is for, who made it, date, washing instructions if you are going to give it away (wash cold, gentle, hang dry...wash as infrequently as possible), location of where it was made.

On that note...perhaps I HAVE finished another quilt. Maybe Kathie knows which quilt it might be....Is the suspense killing you?

Echino Oilcloth and baby goodies

My mother's day gift from my parents included a piece of Echino Oilcloth (from Purl Soho) big enough for my breakfast nook table. It's spill-proof, kid-proof, and almost bullet-proof. I can think of a zillion things I could do with it besides eat on top of it, but it looks like that is it's destiny.

In a moment of weakness I picked up some matching fabric to make napkins from http://www.ayarnoutlet.com/.

I also wanted to pick up some cute new toys for my newest baby-girl-friend that I was having lunch with today, so I headed over to Baby Buzz, which is the cutest baby shop around (you must visit in person - such an adorable/happy/friendly place).

They have oh so many wonderful things for kids. If you live in the California bay area, you really need to check it out. Tons of chewy toys by Haba (my favorite German toy company), as well as this awesome teething ring by a company called ZoLi .

I picked up one for my little friend, but made sure that our 9 month old tested it on his 2 new teeth and I'll say that he totally approves.

Another attractive display had cars from Automoblox - a company that makes modular cars for kids to play with and mix and match.

I literally could not avoid picking up an adorable hair clip for my baby niece. It's hard to restrain myself from wearing it. If you see a grown woman running around with one of these in her hair, it might just be me.

Handmade Quilt Label: broderie perse (part 1)

To spice up my niece's quilt, I used a broderie perse applique method to create the label.

Anna Maria Horner (her blog) is a super cool fabric designer that makes all sorts of large prints in wild colors. Her color usage is quite bold and unique actually.

I bought some fabric that she designed for Freestyle from her Drawing Room collection. It has all these great birds and flowers all over it.

The birds had a lot of blank white space, so I wrote the quilt label inside of that, and cut around it carefully to applique on as the label.

I will confess that I also used this method for the other quilt label I just made for our baby son. That label is even better because my dear friend Carol actually ended up doing the applique to put it on there for me! (hee hee...it was a complex pattern, and a very heavy fabric as well!)

Quilt Delivery Service

Last weekend our family drove from Northern California to Southern California to visit the grandparents and Aunt/Uncle/baby-niece.

Her quilt was complete, so I had no more excuses to keep it hanging around my house.

I made a super cool label - more details on that soon - and wrapped up my beautiful adorable niece in her new little quilt. I think she appreciated all the wild colors.

Not having the quilt in my house is a bit sad, but giving it to it's rightful owner...priceless.

Having taken a lot of photos of it before I gave it to her, I am thinking of putting a little flickr set together for you to see more of it.

The name of the quilt is Rising Diamonds - kinda like the Japanese rising sun, but with diamonds instead.

I'm also in love with the NPR challenge, "How Low Can You Go" where people write in with their recipe ideas that feed a family of 4 for under $10. Some very cool and interesting ideas in there.

Excess Fabric

Is there such a thing as "Excess Fabric"?

I was searching for a topic for my blog post tonight, since I wanted to show you a photo of the blocks I made for the Sarah Johnson quilt but thought I should have something more intelligent to say than just - hey check out my awesome signature blocks.

So I asked my dear husband what topics I have yet to cover in my blog.

He said, "How about asking people how they use their excess fabric?"

I said "EXCESS FABRIC?!!!! - NO SUCH THING!"

Or maybe not - if you check out the May 2009 give away from Sew Mama Sew, you may find that lots of folks have excess fabric and are more than happy to give it away to you as long as you leave them a comment.