In which the two year old tries to pull a "fast one" on Mommy...

Me: "Titus, clean up the Legos."

Titus: "Oh, I'm too fast to do that."

Hm. This brand of logic sounds familiar...

Argyle Baby Quilt

Here is the latest addition to my shop - an argyle quilt! I'm super happy because making this quilt fulfilled two of the things I've been wanting to do: make a quilt in an argyle pattern, and do a little bit of hand quilting. As you can see, I did a VERY little bit of hand quilting. Once I finished these three lines I really liked the asymmetry of it, so I left things as they were. Probably lots of people won't like the look of an "unfinished quilt," but I just couldn't bear to do anything more. In the words of my sister-in-law Cindy, "one of the hardest things about art is knowing when it looks just right and stopping before you mess it all up."

Tea Cup Bracelets

I've been admiring these tea cup bracelets for a while now. Isn't this the most adorable idea? They make all kinds of different bracelets, and you can even send them your very own special tea cup and they will make it into a bracelet for you. My mom had a wonderful collection of tea cups, and this seems like a great way to modernize a little bit of it so I can use it on a more daily basis.

As you can tell, summer means less blogging for me, though I've always been a bit sporadic at best, so maybe you haven't noticed? Anyhow, I'm going to try to pop in with updates here and there. I have some fun new fabric to play around with, have been experimenting a bit with hand quilting, and trying a lot of new recipes. Hopefully I'll remember to get out my camera and document some of my summer adventures for you. Now time to dust off the slip-n-slide!

Happy Summer (vacation)!

This picture is from our trip to San Diego a few weeks ago, which of course I didn't blog about because it's taken me this long to get the pictures off my camera. Anyhow, the weather down south was fabulous, but until yesterday things around here have been rainy and cold. Yesterday was our last day of school and the sun finally came out - how exciting! My garden is already stretching out and looking happier. So are the kids - they want to do nothing but play outside, which is fine with me. However, this is the first summer of my life that I find myself worrying about how I'm going to fill up the summer without losing my mind. I guess my kids have finally gotten to "that age" or something. Even the farm gets boring when you live on it every day, so I'm trying to find lots of fun things to do that are free. Today we went to a local outdoor mall with picnic lunches and played in all the fountains. All it cost was the fifteen cents that the kids threw into the fountains. Score! What are your summer plans?

Bright Modern Patches

Here is the quilt I just listed in the shop - finally a day sunny enough to take pictures! (Things have been very dreary and wet here in CA, for those of you living in the rest of the country...) I pieced this little lovely thing together using only scraps from previous projects. I love that fabrics don't have to really match, just have the same feel. Anyhow, I finally finished it up and I adore it - definitely glad I incorporated so much white. I've been wanting to make something out of tiny squares and it was worth all the work. Hopefully this finds a fun happy home to live in... before I decide to keep it!

Salvaged:

This pile of pretty little fabric scraps was saved from death at the dump by my mother-in-law and given to me. I love looking at each tiny little piece - every one is different. Today I got the urge to sew some of the longer strips together. No particular rhyme or reason here; I just liked all the different blues and purples, shapes and sizes. This is what the pile became:



So now what? This needs to become something, but I haven't figured out what yet. I suppose the obvious, and my usual fall-back, would be a little quilt. But I'm feeling like making something else, something I can sit with for a while. I've been inspired lately by Ms. Horner's fabulous needleworks... perhaps a hand-embroidered pillow? Or a hand-embroidered... something else? Hm... as if all this busyness needs any more color. Anyhow, those are my crafting thoughts of the day. Scattered as usual. (I started the day at the fabric store buying backing material for two different quilts I've pieced and need to finish. You can see how far I got on those projects...) Any suggestions for me?