I robbed a squirrel!

OK, so not really. But I did make "acorns" this morning to put in my kids' lunchboxes as a treat and to bring in to the office. Yummy! I got the idea from an email from the Cotton Patch Quilt Shop yesterday - did anyone else see that? I had to run out after work and get the necessary supplies because I couldn't get them off my mind!


That sugar has kept me going today because I stayed up late finishing my gift for my UKE, a reversible apron to go with the double potholder I made for him over the weekend. I'm going to add 3 cookbooks that I don't use and call it good. Here's one side:

And some detailing of the other side, which exactly the same except the fabric placement is reversed:

And here's one of my good sport co-workers modeling it for me since I wasn't sure how it would fit a 6 foot tall man (being a 5 foot tall woman myself). He is holding my "oh so hot!" candy dish. :)


I hope he likes it. But even more, I hope I do OK on this test tomorrow. Please send "kick butt!" thoughts my way tomorrow at 10 AM EST. Hopefully my next post will start,

"Hi, I'm Erin - I'm a black belt in karate - Hutchinson."

Pictures, video links, and the future Miss America!!!

The only sewing I did yesterday was sewing the binding on a hot pad that I may or may not include with my UKE gift on Saturday - it doesn't look as good as I had hoped. Other than that, it was a 13 hour day away from the house - a full day at work, arranging to have my furnace and fireplace serviced, a visit to the library, flu shots for the kids, two karate classes, a quick drive thru at KFC for dinner, and then a Board Meeting. Ugh! Can you say "exhausted"?

So no pretty quilting photos, but I realized that I haven't yet shared photos from my trip to Latin America. There aren't many because I didn't take a camera, just my phone, and the memory got used up pretty quickly.

First stop, Mexico City. While walking down a street, I came across these wings - I was wondering where I had left these!

I visited El Castillo de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Castle). It was hard to get a photo of the outside of the castle because it was up on a hill and surrounded by foliage. But inside, wow! There were several carriages: (reminds me of Cinderella)

Beautiful artwork - and I'm not just talking about the painting - that frame is wood inlaid with miniature pieces of artwork!

Lots of stained glass, including an entire hall - this is one of about 8 or 10 scenes down that hallway.

The view from the castle over the city - Mexico City never ceases to amaze me - it is SO BIG!!!

Another day I went to El Centro Historico to pick up some trinkets for the kids and some co-workers from the street vendors. There were several street performances going on.


Next stop, Costa Rica! Here's the view from the balcony of my hotel room, looking out over a putting green with the city San Jose in the distance.

It is a great hotel - the Costa Rica Marriott San Jose, and I highly recommend it for anyone stopping in San Jose. If you care to view it, here is a link to a little video of the hotel that I took for the kids on the iPad so they could visualize where I was. Video of My Favorite Hotel

But the hotel wasn't the highlight of the visit to Costa Rica - the zip lines were! On the way to the cloud forest, we stopped at a roadside bodega to get water and use the facilities. Look what was growing right outside the rest rooms - COFFEE!!

The red bean is the ripe one, and if you squeeze it, out pop two little white coffee beans surrounded by what I can only describe as vernix. Ick! I prefer my coffee beans dry and brown, already roasted.

Anyway, I bought a whole CD of photos and videos from our ziplining adventure. A highlight for me (besides NOT DYING!) was the Tarzan Swing high out over a river.
Video of Erin on Tarzan Swing

After about 8 zip lines, I was feeling cocky and even let go for a split second. While going BACKWARDS, no less!
Video of Erin doing backwards zipline

Our 12th zipline was the longest, 550 meters face down over a river - that one ride lasted well over a minute. Here I am coming in for a landing, and grinning like a fool!
Video of Erin doing Superman zipline

Next stop, Guayaquil, Ecuador. I was only there for 14 hours, including getting a night's sleep and giving hour-long presentation at 3 schools, but during my free hour before my next flight, my driver took me to El Parque de las Iguanas - yup, you guessed what that is! Freaky! There were hundreds of them just hanging out and eating lettuce out of people's hands! (NOT my hands!)


Then we went to El Barrio Las Penas, the oldest part of town displaying coastal colonial architechture built onto the side of Santa Ana hill. It has recently been rehabilitated, and it is very cool that each renovated, brightly painted building has a photo of what it looked like before mounted on a plaque on an outside wall! Here I am at the bottom on the only street in the barrio, which is lined with art galleries. (Ignore my cheezy, squinty grin)


And here I am about halfway up - I couldn't go all the way because I didn't want to miss my flight!


In Quito, I didn't do anything very touristy besides visit a museum in the historic center of town and ride the trole (best ride I've ever gotten for 25 cents!). However, I did take a photo of this, Albert Einstein rendered in chocolate - a gift from the Colegio Einstein school, one of the many schools I visited. I ate about half of him, from the feet up, before I started to feel like I was OD'ing on chocolate.


I hope you enjoyed my travelogue! And now, for something TOTALLY random...

one of my favorite students, a top scholarship winner here at W&L and one of the sweetest, most helpful people you could ever hope to meet, is competing in the Miss America pageant. Part of the competition is raising money for The Children's Miracle Network. If even just 25% of my followers donate $5, she'll exceed her fundraising goal. Wanna help me help this phenomenal young woman acheive her dreams while helping enrich the lives of sick and injured children? The link to her personal page is https://www.missamericaforkids.org/m.aspx?i=26093f0+91b7ed373&e=3e44.

I promise you, this impressive young woman is the POLAR OPPOSITE of this poor girl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQdhMSEqhfg&feature=player_embedded
(wrong of me to pick on this girl, I know, and I'm probably going straight to hell, but I couldn't resist!)

A Winner, a Bobcat and a Chef!

First of all, congratulations to Angel, commenter #4, whose number was chosen by the Random Number Generator! Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway! I love seeing who is reading my blog, and there is nothing like a giveaway to make people bite the bullet and comment, instead of just lurking silently. (which, by the way, is not meant to be a derisive comment - I am guilty of silently lurking myself!)

Second of all, I am finished traveling for the year - YAY!!! As much as I love to travel, I love being home more. This weekend was a typical one:

- Donald earned his Bobcat Badge at the Cub Scout Pack Meeting on Saturday (a distinction for which you get your face painted - anyone have any spare teeth they can donate to the Hutchinson household? Or better yet, I'll rent my children out to you as Jack-O-Lanterns at a really reasonable rate!)


-He made Rice Krispy treats to bring to the meeting. See his apron? I won that in a blogging giveaway last year from Rebecca at Our Busy Little Bunch. She makes the coolest stuff and is constantly having giveaways - check her out. And see the dogs circling about waiting to scarf up anything he drops? Boy, do they know my son well! (Are dogs allowed to eat marshmallows?)


-The Black Belt Test for Karate is Saturday, October 22. I spent 5 hours at the dojo this weekend in preparation. I'm so nervous, I'm nauseous. And thrilled to pieces that by this time next week, I can say, "I am a Black Belt in karate!" I might just introduce myself that way for a while, "Hi, I'm Erin "I'm a Black Belt in karate" Hutchinson. Nice to meet you!" What do you think, too much?

Anyway, during the test, we get to demonstrate our moves on an UKE, a generous soul who sacrifices his/her body to us for the day, prepared to be thrown about just to make us look good. My UKE is a 6 ft, 20 year old Black Belt, who also fancies himself a chef, a true Renaissance Man. We are supposed to present our UKE with a gift at the conclusion of the test. I am making him some kitchen stuff - an apron, a hot pad and a double potholder. I bought what I hope he will consider "manly" fabrics while I was in WV, and started on the gift this weekend. The double potholder is done, and while not perfect, I really like how it turned out. It is nice and roomy, plenty big enough for his manly hands. I will probably make one for myself. And perhaps for some family members who like to cook.


Now to finish up with the hot pad and the apron. I also hope to make something for Jason to give his UKE, a drawstring backpack made from one of the t-shirts from the dojo. Gotta get cracking - only 5 more days...

Tension Troubles

My mother-in-law came through surgery OK, and now they just have to figure out what to do next. Thanks to all of you for your prayers and positive thoughts. It certainly made ME feel better!

But still, I've been tense this week. I've been chewing up the inside of my mouth. My shoulders are sore from being held so stiffly. I'm not getting enough sleep, and not sleeping very well when I do.

I really want to get this quilt done so I can send it up to her. So after karate and dinner last night, I went down to the sewing room to see what I could do about quilting it. First, I started with some straight lines - BORING! I couldn't make myself do more than 2 lines, which I will be taking out. Time to put on my big girl pants (borrowing from Em) and try Free Motion Quilting. A meander can't be that hard, right? I thought I'd practice on one of my hot pads that I had made this spring, the one I messed up on and left the space between the O and the T, the one I am definitely keeping for myself anyway:

OK, not too bad, I can do this. Of course, the hot pad is only about 8" square...

I got started on the Chicken Soup Quilt and the thread kept breaking. I rethreaded 3 times before I pulled the quilt out and looked at the back. Not only was the thread breaking, but the back had ridiculous loops. Obviously my tension was wrong. Maybe I should read my notes from when I tried free motion quilting once before. Why don't I ever read the instructions FIRST?? I had in my notes what tension works for me, what stitch length, etc. I made the adjustments and switched to new thread (why not? maybe it was the wrong thread and THAT is why it kept breaking), and started again in another place.

It isn't perfect.

The shapes are funny looking and in some places, much more angular than smooth, sometimes crossing over other lines of stitching even though I was trying hard to avoid that.

I am finding it very difficult to maintain the same speed throughout so that I can have the same stitch length throughout.

But I'm doing it!

Unfortunately, I have a bunch of stitching to pull out from the first thread...UGH!

You know, I'm also tense because of the book I'm reading. Someone from work read my blog and offered me her copy of THE HELP so I wouldn't have to wait for the library copies to come available. I'm really enjoying the story, but it is also making me tense. I just KNOW something terrible is going to happen. Despite my knowledge of segregation and discrimination in the US, reading about it still exasperates and angers me. But it is a good story, so I keep reading.

You know what DIDN'T stress me out? On Monday evening, I watched the 1985 version of Anne of Green Gables, all 3.25 hours worth. No wonder it was on TV as a miniseries when I was a kid - it is LONG! But so good! I never even considered not watching the whole thing from start to finish. (I spent the whole time wondering, though, who cast Megan Follows as Anne? She's perfect for the role in temperment, but in the book, Anne is supposedly not pretty, and in my eyes, Megan Follows is gorgeous!) And while watching, I was transported to that magical place (in my mind), Prince Edward Island, and felt myself relaxing. I finished my June Birdie BOM (leaving me just August and September left to do at this point, which I will take on my first work trip this weekend):

and I made some more progress hand quilting my Pick and Choose Quilt. Will I EVER finish that quilt? I am starting to wonder...

HOT new finish!

I'm feeling absolutely NO GUILT about sitting and sewing while I recuperate from my calf injury - after all, how can you sweep a floor or scrub a toilet on crutches? So I'm thrilled to present my Independence Table Runner, done in plenty of time for the 4th of July! Although, I probably won't keep this - I have a recipient in mind...

And while I was downstairs sewing on the binding, I also whipped up some 7.5" square hot pads. The ones I use in my kitchen are scorched and stained and tattered, so it was time for something new. I had purchased some Insul-bright specifically for this purpose some time back and have finally gotten around to using it. What a fun project - no measuring, no precision piecing, just grab some scraps and go!

(you can tell I haven't yet sewn the space at the bottom where I turned it right-side out, and I think I'll also do a minimum amount of topstitching/quilting, but other than that - DONE!)