Gray Hair...

When my mother was alive she used to joke about her children giving her gray hair. 

She had eight children but she never did have a LOT of gray hair.  She had one small patch of gray that kind of blossomed up near where she parted it.  Her hair was a medium brown, and it got a little lighter in summer, because she spent a lot of time outdoors.

Her mom had salt and pepper hair, that is, that lovely dark brown almost black, and streaks of white throughout.  Think Clooney or Dempsey...

So when my aunt said to me, you DO have gray hair, in a very surprised tone of voice while we were sitting on the patio one day, I wasn't surprised at all, except that she had just noticed it.  Maybe it was the sunshine we were sitting in.

I love the color gray.  Well, it isn't really one color, is it?

 Pantone says not... they have a whole group of grays, everything from darkest charcoal to the lightest shade of off-white.

 

 

One of those paint companies has this lovely assortment, from neutral to blue-toned to pink tinted.

 



 

Gray in nature is everywhere.  Consider granite and marble.  I love gray marble countertops.  Some day I might have that in my kitchen.  SOME day...

 

But back to my hair.  When one of the grands was small we were discussing haircolor and she said that I had "sparkly ones".

I like sparkle... I can live with sparkly hair.  There are lots of beautiful people with sparkly hair.  It's not really gray, it's more like silver.  Yeah, silver, that's better!

I don't know who Liz is, maybe I should, but I'm with her...

 

Sew on...



Camping - Day and Other Types

When I was a child, one of eight kids in the family, our parents' preferred mode of vacation was camping.  We camped at actual campgrounds near a lake, campgrounds without lakes, and at relatives' homes if they had a back 40 acres.  But that's another post. 

 

With that many kids, multiple forms of dwelling were required.  Mostly we had a tent and a station wagon.  The parents would toss an old mattress in the station wagon and sleep in that, and the rest of us would be in sleeping bags, with or without air mattresses under them, in the tent. 

In order to save on cash the parents bought only four sleeping bags, but you could zip two together for a double sized bag and get three or four small kids into each set.  So the air mattresses would slide apart during the night and we'd end up on the cold, hard ground with only the tent floor and half a sleeping bag between.  And usually a tree root stabbing you in the small of your back. 

You can't even see OUR campsite from here...

Also part of the experience was saving money on campsite fees, and therefore yes we WILL take the one farthest from the beach/lodge/toilets.  This made it very dark in the deep dark night, and I as the oldest was the one the little kids looked to for a hand to hold if they needed to use said toilets after lights out.  Because you know the doors to the car were locked.  Even though the tent was not locked.  Any bear in the area would eat us before the parents knew we were goners!  And how far down the road CAN you see with that flashlight???

Is it any wonder that I hated it? 

My kids love to camp.  Their experiences were different, they stayed in lodges or camped in the back yard or with the Scouts.  The grands like it too.  I on the other hand consider roughing it to be staying at anything less than a four star hotel.

My idea of roughing it.

Recently I've been hearing a lot about Day Camp.  It seems like a good idea, doing some outdoor stuff but sleeping in your own bed each night!  I am considering some day camps, though not the Scout kind. 

You can jump over to Rita Farro's blog to read about  Grandma Camp.  I do a similar thing for my grands, but this year Gramps is running it because I'm still working during the day.  When I take vacation days we do craft projects and eat picnic lunches outside on the patio.

Yes, within reach of indoor bathrooms!

I think I would prefer Glamping.  That was a term used on one of the Project Runway seasons a while back for Camping with Glamour.  Champaign brunch with crystal and silver.  Or at the very least, a tented area to keep the sun off tender skin, say within 50 feet of a permanent building!

 

I'm thinking Day Camp for Quilters... maybe four to six people at my house for the day to do a little sewing, a little eating and a little visiting.  Maybe a Knitters Day Camp, to teach a new skill or work on finishing up a project -- doesn't that sound better than a WORKSHOP??  WORKING is such a negative concept sometimes.    How does Quilter's Day Glamp sound?  LOL!

Sew on...

The To Do List

It's been hot here in SE Wisconsin.  Well, hot for us, in the 90s and sticky.  I've been kind of lazy.  I'm making a to-do list.

 

I need to get a backing and layer up my Turning 39...

 

Made a bunch of rectangular blocks from some five inch squares in my parts department.  After much hemming and hawing, I decided I need some borders.  Right now it's kind of an odd size.  Then I need to layer and quilt it.

Shopping is in my future with the New York Beauty quilt.  I ran out of the navy, I think I only had a yard to begin with... but I think this one is coming along!  I want to add to the length because right now it's only about 40 inches square.

 

 

I better get to it!  I have a McTavishing class in mid-August.  I'm hoping that it helps me find my quilting muse.

 

Sew on!

July -- Where Did It GO??

Today is the 20th day of July!  What the heck happened to the summer?  And why does it seem like July 4th was just a minute ago?

Time sure flies when you're having fun, I guess.

Last week Saturday was our family reunion picnic.  My mom's side of the family has been getting together in the summer for about 20 years or so.  She had seven brothers and three sisters who all had pretty good sized families.  I think I have like 47 first cousins and of course my five brothers and one sister... and they mostly have kids and some of their kids have kids.  It's a big batch of people!

The original group, my mom and all her siblings, are now watching the picnic from heaven.  Or so I choose to believe!

We had four 'aunties' attending this year.  One of my mom's brothers was divorced and remarried, and this year his ex-wife attended with one of her sons, and his widow came too.  It was a little odd at first but they all got along famously.

The newest baby there was just seven weeks old.

And yes, before you ask, I did hold her for a while.  A long while, in fact, during which she slept like a little princess!  DD came along and said "Oh, I see you found a baby!"  :-)

Do you know that even a small baby gets heavy when they sleep?  So I had to adjust my elbow and let her curl up against my shoulder.  That was SO nice!

Miss A wanted to stay to the end, so when her mom had to go back home she stayed with me.  She was having so much fun playing that she forgot to eat or drink!  So on the way home her head started to ache, and the last ten minutes in the car were crying...

Alternate rule:  Eat ice cream...

Rules for being out in the heat:

When it's more than 85 or 90 degrees, don't go out unless you must.
Drink LOTS of water, more than you normally do.  Some authorities recommend a cup of water every 20 minutes. 
Drink WATER, not sugary beverages like soda.  Unless you're working out and replacing electrolytes or something water is what your body needs.
Wear light, cool clothing and a hat!
If you must be outside, be in the shade as much as you can be.
Use sunscreen and reapply it according to the package directions.

The hottest part of the day is between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

It's going to be hot in Wisconsin this weekend.  Pay attention to your pets if they're out, stay cool and

Could you fry an egg on the sidewalk?  Maybe not THIS egg!!

sew on...

Summer Fun So Far

This summer has been very -- well, interesting I guess.  Weather-wise we've been all over the map.  Earlier in the week we were sweating bullets and the humidity was high enough to really sink my hairdo, and today is about 65 degrees Fahrenheit.  Ugh.

Miss A has been having Gramma's House overnights this week.  When her mom has to go to work early at the hospital Miss A sleeps over because it's really mean to make a kid get up at 2 a.m. and go back to bed next door.  But now I think she just wants to stay with me because she gets ice cream with sprinkles before she goes to bed!  And a back rub, and bedtime stories... hey, I'd like some of that too.  :-)

She's also zipping around the driveway on the bike on a daily basis.  She'd like to ride to the park, I know, but there isn't anyone except her big sister to ride with her.  This may sound like fun except when I think about putting my butt on a tiny seat for any length of time!  Here she is, zipping around... hair blowing in the breeze she creates.

I'm finishing up some UFOs, hopefully going to actually quilt and bind a few small projects this summer!  To that end I signed up for a McTavishing class at a LQS in August.  Wish me luck!   If you're not sure what McTavishing is, here's a link to the class book on the Amazon website. 

.https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Art-McTavishing-Karen-McTavish/dp/0974470619/ref=pd_rhf_schuc_s_cp_9?ie=UTF8&dpID=51VP3CFFNKL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_SL500_SR104%2C135_&psc=1&refRID=VHXPS3AC1RMKZH3FYVBW

I finished my New York Beauty blocks and made a few extras because I can't make a decision on the layout.  I kind of like this one that's pinned up on my design wall right now, but I don't have enough of the navy to complete the corners.  That's going to require some contemplation.  And maybe shopping.

 

 

I actually did complete a few other tops, some that were on a multi-year plan.  It's time to start layering and actually getting some quilting done, which as my dedicated readers know is not my favorite part.  But I'm working on clearing out some of the clutter in my resource center, and finished quilts would definitely contribute greatly.

 

So 39 and Holding (above) got a border of crossword checks.  The plan is for a 'bar code' backing and maybe black binding, or maybe bar code binding.  Jury's still out on that.

The quilt top below was finished too.  It came from the 5 inch scrap bin, nearly all of the browns and golds.  That is either going to be sent to a family member or become a donation quilt.

Last but not least is the holiday bed runner, started with fabric that I won at our LQG holiday party.
It's 30 inches by about 72 inches so it should cover the end of my bed with a nice overhang on both sides.  I think I should be able to get this done by November...  fingers crossed!!  I apologize for the small photo, I can only get so far away from my design wall.  And either the light's not good at the bottom of the picture or that's a shadow of me with the camera.

ooo -- I didn't notice until just now that both dark blocks are at the bottom, and the white sashing is not distributed very evenly.  Oh well, you won't see both ends when it's on the bed!  (Because you know I'm NOT taking it apart...)

Our annual family reunion is tomorrow.  It will be very nice if the weather cooperates and it's only in the mid-seventies and not ninety in the afternoon.  We're a large and diverse group.  The party is in a cousin's big yard and the food is pot luck so you know it's going to be good and interesting...

Miss E is baking something today for the reunion.  I think I'm in charge of potato salad.  That's my specialty.

Sew on...



I've Been A Lazy Blogger...

But I HAVE been sewing.

I love to take off the Friday before and the Tuesday after a Monday holiday.  It makes the weeks on both sides so much shorter-seeming!  Of course sometimes you still have to shove 40 hours worth of work into the abbreviated week, but still.

I started a circle project.  It's inspired by the bloggers who are doing the 365 circle project, but merged with a 'target' project I saw on someone's blog, maybe the Barrister's Block??  It was a while back.

Anyway, the church quilty ladies and I were working on learning various types of machine applique -- raw edge, backed with iron on interfacing, and the like.  When I taught sewing machine classes at JoAnn's I used to have the students sew a big fat paisley shape to get inside and outside curves, and an L shape to get inside and outside corners.

I made cardboard templates so I could trace around them with a marking pen.

So I started with three different sizes of circle on a square.  I made templates using a cup, a small plate and a jar lid.

 Then I cut them out of fabric.  Hint:  Starch the fabric first, it really helps.

The biggest circle is laid on a background square, centered as much as can be but don't get anal about it.  These are raw edge appliques.  I stitched around the outside edge at 1/4 inch.  Then I CAREFULLY cut away the backing from the big circle leaving about a 1/4 inch seam allowance on the inside. 

Here you can see how I sewed each successively smaller circle on, and cut away the back of THAT circle before stitching on the last smallest circle.

This is what results when you forget to trim away the last circle!  (you can leave them but it makes a thicker seam intersection to have four layers there instead of two.

Once they're all sewn together, you cut them into four quarters, right through the center of the smallest circle.  Cut even squares, don't worry if the center is not exactly in the middle.

I used a 9 inch background, so ended up with 4.5 inch quarters.

Sew two together, press seams open, then sew the two 'twosies' together. 

Make sure you mix up your quarters.  See where I have two of the same fabric coming together?  It's not a fatal error but I should have been more careful...

See how cool they are?  I can't wait to put a quilt together using these patchy circles. 

Sew on...

This is Post Number 406

So I completely zoned on how many posts I've done... I wanted to celebrate the recent milestone but I missed it.  I think it was about three weeks ago now that I posted number

Thanks for reading!

Sue

Crafty People - The Summer Projects

You know that old saying, 'it runs in the family'?  Sometimes it's a direct route, and sometimes not.

My grandmother sewed, and evidently she did a lot of makeover type sewing, creating suits for the younger boys from cast off things my grandfather wore.  My fondest memory of quilts at her house are about a crazy quilt she made from the scraps of his suits and trousers, all grays and blacks embroidered with red floss.  The border was red as was the backing.  I don't know what she used for batting but that quilt weighed a TON.  I wish I knew where it was now.  I suspect one of the cousins has it.

My mother knew how to sew but with eight children she didn't get to do a lot of it.  We didn't even have a sewing  machine until I bought my first one when I was in high school.  She did knit and she made the most amazing socks and scarves and mittens.  Later in life she crocheted lovely afghans.

Two of her three sisters were not crafters but the one that was taught me to crochet.  As a lefty, she did things backwards for me, but it worked pretty well after we decided to sit opposite each other instead of next to each other!  It was like watching it in a mirror...

And you have also read about my aunts and cousins and our Friday Night stitchers' group.  Friday Sewing  So crafting is definitely a family trait.

My daughter knows how to sew, (as does my son) but probably only enough to sew on scout badges or mend and only if I am on the other side of the world and out of reach.  However the grands who live next door are both very crafty.

Miss E has been featured on this blog, and she has her own sewing machine, the Baby Lock I won last year at Nancy's Notions Sewing Weekend.  Winner

Miss E is a project person.  She needs a locker accessory, she makes a locker accessory.  She needs PJ bottoms, she makes PJ bottoms.

Miss A, on the other hand, takes after me: i.e. she is a process person.  She wants to do it all, and sometimes she wants to do it all TODAY.  Nail Polish project

Last year we painted rocks on the patio, and we intended to do more.  I was looking for my painting supplies, and you won't believe this** but I put them away so successfully that even with the help of DH, I could not find them!  (**My craft room is so neat, you know...)

Friday on the way home I stopped in at a Michaels store.  They just happened to have acrylic paint on sale for 50 cents a bottle.  Now you know what happens when you lose something, right?  You will not find it until the day after you replace it.  So I bought six bottles to test the theory.  A small price to pay.

(**Note to self, keep looking for that box of paint supplies because they haven't magically appeared yet.)

DH has been picking up pine cones in the yard all spring so as not to run them over with the mower.  He had a big garbage can full of them just begging to be played with.  Miss A pulled out a small bucket of them just for fun.  Somewhere I'd seen painted pinecones standing in for flowers in a dried arrangement.

Thus was born our latest project.  You need the shorter pinecones for this project, those long ones don't stand up very well.


The little fat ones are the best for this project.

These are about two inches tall and about the same across the bottom.

Here's what we have done so far.

The Artist At Work.

 Cover any surfaces with paper or plastic if you're letting kids do this.  It's messy!  But the paint cleans up with soap and water off most things.

Make the centers yellow or paint the whole thing one color.

Miss A likes to make them look like asters, while I prefer the chrysanthemum look.  I think that's because she has trouble with the word chrysanthemum.

Aren't they pretty?   And guess what they can be used for?  You put them in a basket painted side up, and give them to a friend with a fireplace or a fire pit to use as kindling!  That is, after you get tired of seeing the pretty colors and let them get dried out.  So if you harvest in the spring they'll be ready to use in the fall.

I'm not sure if the paint will smell when you burn them.  And it takes two or three coats of paint because pinecones are seeds and they are porous, so the paint does soak in.  But it's so much fun to do and there is no shortage of materials free for the picking up.  (Ask your neighbors if they mind before you go into yards other than your own, but I bet they won't care.  And you can always give them some of the product when you're done.)

Craft on...