Only I could do this....

We were on our way out to the store yesterday when I tripped over my own feet and bruised the heck out of my left big toe, right on the knuckle. My toes folded right under and my full weight (quite ample lately thanks to ice cream) came right down on it.

It is kind of purple now, so I'm parking my butt on the couch and also in the boys' room and embroidering. Today would have been a lovely day for the park, but I think I'll need to rest my foot some. Just doing basic daily straightening up this morning was awful.

I'll post pictures of my toe injury project soon :)

Pretty Kitty

I've been dabbling in embroidery. I was never into it before, but on a whim, I picked up Jenny Hart's Stitch it Kit, and have been hooked ever since. A lot of traditional patterns seemed a bit too stuffy for my taste, and looked too difficult for me to even want to try.

Her designs only require mastery of a couple of different stitches, and are totally awesome. How do skulls, pinup ladies, and sushi sound? I'm currently embroidering a cat on a handkerchief for a friend. I'm not sure what to call it (Is it a dresser scarf? A wall-hanging? A doily?) but I think it is turning out very cute. I plan on adding some more details but wanted to post a picture to prove that,yes, I am working on craft related stuff. :)

Those shadowy stars are from one of the patterns, I just haven't embroidered those yet. I made them very light on purpose, because I like the patterns so much I want to get lots of use out of them.

This is what I've been up to with the skull quilt. I found a great book called Take Away Applique, by Suzanne Marshall (she's in my quilting links). In it, one of the things she explains is how she quilts with no hoop or frame, so she's able to move from room to room with her project. One of the ways she makes the method work is she bastes the heck out of a quilt. This way, she doesn't have to worry about it coming apart, she just fills in with the quilting stitches.

This woman's work is fantastic. She does it all by hand and it's so beautiful, it defies description. You have to see the pictures on the site. Besides, it's outrageous to ship something like a quilting frame or even just the hardware here, and then I'd have to keep the kids from getting their fingers caught in it. At any moment I may have to literally drop my work to chase after the boys. The excessive basting is a very good idea in my case.

Even thought I've never tried applique, I want to try one of the bug quilts you can see on her site or in the book. Don't Bug Me is the quilt on the cover, and Wyatt immediately started pointing out all the different bugs to me. I love traditional applique designs, but never saw anything that made me say "I have to make this now!" until I saw that quilt.

Not crafty, but fun anyhow

I don't do a lot of memes, but I found this at http://crankyprof.blogspot.com.

1. Go to Wikipedia and put in your birthday, without the year, in the search bar.

2. List on your blog 3 events, 2 births, 1 death and 1 holiday that happens(ed) on your birthday.

3. Then tag 5 more friends to do it!

I knew some of the things that had happened on my birthday, but others were a surprise. Like the cranky prof, I'm not tagging anyone, but if you do it, leave me a note in the comments so I can see yours. Enjoy!


3 events
1891- A New immigration depot is opened on Ellis Island, New York
1904-The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square
1923- The chines of Big Ben are broadcast in radio for the first time by the BBC

2 births
1908 Simon Wiesenthal, Austrian Holocaust survivor, (d. 2005)
1937 Anthony Hopkins, Welsh actor

one death
1997-Michael Kennedy
one holiday
New Year's Eve on the Gregorian calendar

Some might say I have issues....

I have been feeling outspoken and surly lately.The main reason is because I have one of those colds that isn't bad enough to completely incapacitate me, but saps my will to live a little more each day. It started Thursday and by Friday afternoon I was a zombie. I feel better now than I did the other day but I think it's the calm before the storm, since I feel the scratchiness and ick moving into my throat. What a lovely mother's day present.





Thank goodness I am crafty, and can channel my agressiveness. It was nice the other day to concentrate on those teeny, tiny quilt blocks. Today, I made cake. I want to make cake for Malcolm's first birthday and I am the type that needs remedial cake decorating classes. I think they'd probably kick me out of the regular ones. So, I picked up some cake mix, chocolate frosting, and the icing that comes precolored in a tube to which different tips can be affixed. I didn't have room for "Happy Birthday" since I just made one 6 inch layer, so I came up with something else on the spur of the moment:

I feel like I didn't do too bad of a job. The flowers almost look like they're not random blobs of blue.I remembered to put the little pieces of wax paper under the edges when I was icing it, so I made a nice little border around the bottom. My top border was off because the layer was sloping a bit, but I didn't care since it was practice.

Eeek, the words are running together so I'm off to slumber in Nyquil induced coma. Happy Mother's day!

Itty Bitty block

I love tiny doll quilts. I only wish I had girls so I had an excuse to make more! I've made one for my friend's daughter (no pictures of it) , and it was great fun. I have a lot of scraps floating around so I decided to start one today. I've made one block so far and it turned out really well.

I was aiming for it to be three inches, but somehow it turned out to 2 and a half. That's ok. Once I trim the edges, it will still look fine. I got the idea from the block here: http://www.quiltville.com/chunkychurndash.shtml

I drew a three inch square on notebook paper and drew all the lines in the appropriate places, then added seam allowances to all of the pieces so I could figure out what size strips and squares I needed. I haven't done the hourglass blocks yet, my brain just isn't up for any more math. I couldn't find the calculator and hate the one on the computer so I used paper and pen for the multiplication and long division. Thankfully, I still know how to do it. I'm always surprised how so many people make it through school without learning it.

Well, I'm off to catch some zzzzs. Have a happy early Mother's day--and that goes to people with non human babies as well (cats, dogs, chickens, etc). :)

All the pretty colors

My son Wyatt is three, and is still in diapers. I wish he were potty trained,but I just don't think it's the right time to push the issue. There are some positives to him still being in diapers at three, the biggest being he can tell me when he's gone in his diaper and needs a change.

A few minutes ago, he walked in the room and said "I need new diaper. I pooped myself. " I told him to wait a minute so I could finish what I was doing. He obliged, and kept telling me about his poop. "I make big poop mama. I make red poop". This alarmed me. I looked at him and saw red smears on his leg and in the diaper area. I yelped and made him lie down so I could have a look. I thought "Oh my god, he hurt himself, how did he do that?"

It clicked then, however, that he had consumed a half bag of cheetos. I don't normally let him have so much junk food at once, but today was one of those days where he was driving me so nuts, I let him eat whatever he wanted so long as he wasn't destroying the house, chasing the animals, or picking on his brother. He kept a running narrative while I was cleaning the lovely mess. "I make red poop, I make yeddow poop, I make blue poop!" Oh well, at least he has a good grasp on his colors.