Sticks and Sewns

Luckfully, the wind has stopped howling, it was a little scary around here the last couple of nights.  I need to go out and walk around, Ellen and I heard a big branch or small tree fall somewhere.  The cats were all freaky, because leaves and sticks were rolling across the roof.  The yard is littered with broken branches and sticks and a mountain of leaves swirled into the driveway. 

I have not been working on much due to my medical crud, but I did a few little things. 
-I found a binding fabric for a quilt that has been sitting unfinished for months.  I got a black sateen, it will be perfect for my red silk quilt. 
-Ellen and Ned picked out the backing fabric for a baby quilt.  I don't have a photo yet, but the quilt is amazing.  Teri and I worked on the quilt together.
-I made 1 square for my family quilt project, it needs a bit of tweaking, then only 13 more to go.
-I took a bunch of scraps and made placemats.
-I appliqued this onesie as a baby present. It is really cute except for a small pucker at the tail.  I am going to add a french knot for an eye.
-I have almost finished the top of Minky animal prints for a little throw blanket.  I am never going to work with that type fabric again.  It is too slippery and stretchy and I just don't know how to make it work well.  I am sure there must be a trick to it, but I don't know what it is. 
-I boxed up the star quilt to be sent to the longarmer in College Place, WA, but she can't work on it until April.  I might be giving a "to be finished" graduation present.

I want to show you another example of things that are really big.  The boys and I saw this at RiteAid and had to get it for Nanny.  It was a "big" hit!  Helen turned 89 and deserved a big gift. 

Squirrel Art

Okay, I still had the Christmas squirrel quilt hanging on the door - I know, I know.  The kids asked me why I haven't hung up a different squirrel quilt yet.  I was quite grumpy with them, because they are the ones who definitively said they did not want monthly squirrel quilts.  I could have had a cute valentine squirrel hanging up there.  Valentine's Day isn't until Monday......nah, too much effort.

Not much to report about anything, February is so dull!  I am not depressed, just can't muster the energy or interest to do anything exciting or actually anything.   A lack of anything is a whole lot of nothing!  An abundance of nothing! 

Ned just fell asleep on the couch next to me, it is 6:00, just proves how boring it is around here. 

Winter Disintegration Art

I forgot to include this in my last post.  I took a picture of my art project in winter. As usual my picture stinks.  I use my cell phone camera and I think my finger is blurring the photo.  I am actually thinking about buying a camera, still won't make a difference if my finger is in the way.

WINTER

Fat Albert and Ice Chunking

Today started out as a 2 hour delay and then become a snow day, ANOTHER day at home.  I don't have to make the decision to cancel school, thank goodness, but today would have been fine with the 2 hour delay methinks.  I groaned thinking the kids would want to watch tv all day, but in fact many other things were done.  I kicked 1 dog, 1 cat  and 3 kids outside and they spent at least 2 hours chunking ice off the driveway.  They did this on their own and I was not going to interrupt. 

The wild ones came in slightly less wild and we did some schoolwork.  Ian's homework was quite fun.  The fourth grade wrote a story to make into an imagery book.  His class spent two days painting paper with different techniques and paint.  Ian has to cut out the characters from all that paper and make his story entirely visual.   Ned and I helped him make fish, his story takes place in the ocean.  Ned read books to me as Ian worked.  I don't know how Ellen didn't end up with work to do - highly suspicious.

Unfortunately this bit of sitting led into my least favorite game, it is called Fat Albert or Fat Boom.  They have never even seen the Fat Albert tv show, so how it got the name is beyond me.  It involves finding every pillow and stuffed animal in the house and stuffing them in your pants and shirt. The game sneaks up on me, they are quiet as they are looking for all the padding.   After they are sufficiently fattened they run into each other and wrestle.  This always ends up with Ned getting hurt and today was no different.  It also means that pillows and stuffed animals are all over the house.  I guess at our house the game ain't over until Ned cries. 

Ned had a mohawk all day. He created his hair masterpiece all on his own.  I was relieved that he only used mousse and water.  He was going to go without a shirt all day, so he wouldn't mess it up.  I nixed that plan, clothing isn't optional in winter.  My children are seasonally challenged.

Not in actual position in this picture

I actually got to hang out in my sewing room a little bit.    For Christmas I received a really fun bird pin cushion.  I want to make a nest from fabric scraps, does anyone have any ideas on how to do it?  I was thinking water soluble interfacing quilted and then modge-podge.  Hmmmmm, suggestions???  I worked on my star quilt and it is coming along finally!  If that crazy kitten doesn't climb the design wall and pull off all the squares tomorrow I might be able to piece the top.  Lately the Minster has been unrolling all the toilet paper rolls, so maybe she will leave the quilt squares alone.    It is hard to get any quilting done with the kids, the kitten and having to step over the dog - Chaos (pronounced chowse) Quilting.  No lie, Sunday evening Ian had another rant about the word chaos, I might have to put him in therapy over it.  I might have to put myself in therapy over it!

I can hear the rain has started, where is a good el nino when you need it.  Probably more delays or cancellation as we are all flash frozen.