Fabric Envy

You ever look at someone else's fabric and say, "Wow! What great fabric. My fabric is boring compared to theirs!" Happens to me all the time. As someone who feels this way, I probably shouldn't agree to swap fabric, because then I am bestowing my "less fabulous" fabric on someone else.

V at Bumble Beans is looking for some fabric scraps with white in them. As scrap queen of the Shenandoah Valley, of course I wanted to help her out. But come to find out, I don't seem to have many scraps with white in them either. And when I laid out the ones I found, and compared them with the photo of her scraps on her website, my initial thought is, "Man, she's going to hate my fabric."

Maybe not. I'm sending it anyway. Hope you can find something of use in there, V.

I am proud of myself for making progress on some Christmas presents last night. I always WANT to give homemade gifts, but I always wait until the last minute and don't get them done. Well, this year, a tight budget is forcing me to give homemade gifts. Last night, I finished 5 of 6 Crayon Totes that I am making for my friends who have small children. (If you are a friend with small children and you are reading this, act surprised on December 25th.)

I am assuming that they are like me, and have a little bit of everything in their purse to entertain children in Doctor's offices, while waiting for food to be served, etc. The only problems are 1) the inside of my purses are always marked up from the crayons and 2) I spend much more time underneath yucky restaurant tables retrieving dropped crayons that I would like. I saw these Crayon Totes on another blog, and decided to modify it for my own purposes. (Don't go look at the photos on the other person's blog - again, her fabric is much cooler than mine!) My Crayon Totes hold just 8 crayons, enough to keep my kids entertained, but few enough so that it doesn't take up too much room in my purse.


If I were to make them again, I would hope I would be less lazy and would match my thread to my fabric. I told myself that using the thread in my machine would provide a nice contrast if it was visible, not thinking that all my mistakes would be that much more visible. Oh well - live and learn.


I'm not sure what I'm going to do for my kids this year for Christmas. Some of their favorite gifts in the past have been this kitchen that I gave Donald last year and that he uses to prepare meals (strawberry soup and lemonade) nearly every day,

this pedal-operated police car that is streaked with white where it has taken the paint off our doorways (while it leaves black streaks on the hardwood floor - sigh),

and of course, Thomas the Train.

I want to come up with something else that they will use almost daily as these cherished toys are used, instead of something that is loved for a week, and then forgotten for the next year. Any ideas?

Scouts Singing

Here's the best I can find so far of a photo of the Cub Scouts singing the National Anthem at the game last weekend. The photos are protected from being copied, so I just have this link - it is photo #28 in the slideshow, but you don't have to look at all the photos before (unless you want to, of course). My oldest son, Jason, is second from the right (he doesn't need the words, apparently!). My youngest son, Donald, is all the way on the left, determined to not be left out, even though he is not a Cub Sout and can not read yet. (Oh, and his future is so bright, he has to wear shades!)

http://www.wlu.edu/prebuilt/scene_on_campus/publish_to_web/index.html

Notice that I am not much taller than these 2nd graders. Sheesh!

What a weekend!

What I should have done was rest. Instead, Friday night, my hubby, the kids and I went to the VMI vs ARMY basketball game. We were rooting for Army, but VMI beat them. Oh well. Then on Saturday, I went to the guild meeting. I missed last month, so I was really excited to go this month. I actually had something to show for show and tell - my flannel Love Crumbs Comfort Quilt, which I turned it to the Comfort Quilt Chairperson, and my Scrappy Stars top. So I thought my bag would be lighter on the way back home since I was coming home with one fewer quilt, but I was wrong! First of all, three different guild members had fabric scraps for me - one had flannels for my buzz saw quilt

and two had baggies of scraps with my name on them.

It's great to have a reputation as a scrap quilter! And when I showed my Scrappy Stars top, I told them all that if they looked closely, many of them would see fabric that they had given me in there. Oh, and lately we have had a table of freebies every month. I pawed through some of the fabric and came home with some for myself.

Then, when I got home, there was a package waiting for me from Jan. I had completely forgotten that this was coming. The cutest little mini postcard

and an absolutely stunning piece of candlewicking! I'm actually thinking of getting yet another Quilt Block Frame from Angela at Country Scrap Quilts to display this in - I love it. Thank you, Jan! (caution - lousy photo - this is pretty hard to photograph)

That evening, Jason's best friend and his two younger sisters showed up for a sleepover. First, we went outside to play Kick The Can in the dark - I have such great memories of playing that as a kid. One of the little girls had me laughing so hard that I got captured. She is always dressed in pink and purple, and as we were hiding, she said to me, "OK, I have to find somewhere pink and purple to hide so I can blend in." Once the kids were good and tired, we came in to watch movies in our new (almost finished except for the paint and the furniture) home theater in our basement. First it was Charlotte's Web (more childhood memories for me - I ADORE that story), then Cars. Only Jason made it to the end of the second movie.

This morning, the kids played very well together while I did some much needed housework - swept and mopped all the floors, did a load of laundry, and got dinner in the crockpot. Then my mom showed up to see my basement, and then off to the basketball game we went. The boys did GREAT singing the National Anthem before the game. Even one of the officials came up to me during a time out to tell me to be sure to let the kids know how much he enjoyed their performance. Then, during the game, I was amazed - the kids actually paid attention and kept stats for their "adopted" player(s). At halftime, when they each stepped up to the microphone to introduce themselves and share the halftime stats, they got so much applause. Not one of them hesitated at all about talking in front of all those people. I'm SO proud of them all! I know that quite a few people took photos, so I'll share one when I get to see one. I know the photographer for the local newspaper was there - maybe the boys will have a photo in the paper. Wouldn't they be tickled!

And to top it all off, my husband's team won! I went to the store to get apples to make his favorite dessert - Apple Crisp. It came out of the oven just as the kids were preparing for bed, so they got some, too. Now, I am taking a break from ironing and cutting down the scraps I got this weekend. I was hoping to have them all done tonight, but I don't think it is going to happen - I am exhausted! Happy, but exhausted.

Peace, hope, love

I sure do LOVE embroidery. Like when I am hand quilting, I feel so at PEACE when I am doing it. I sure HOPE I have a chance to do some more this weekend. Work has been kicking my butt this week, and today is shaping up to be a train wreck. I could sure use some down time. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Scouts and Embroidery on Veteran's Day

Monday evening's cub scout meeting went much better. My co-den leader is back, and I think we make a pretty good team. The scouts (and I) now know how to care for a flag and fold it properly. They also know what all of the words mean in the Pledge of Allegiance. (Did you know that "indivisible" means that "you can't see it"? The kids had me laughing with their definitions.)

We also arranged to have our pack come to my husband's basketball team's season opener this weekend and sing the National Anthem at the start of the game. It won't be pretty...but I'm sure it will be super cute. There's not really much glass to shatter in the gym, anyway.

And then, to keep them engaged in the game, they are each going to "adopt" a player. I made up sheets for each player with their photo, jersey number, hometown, year in college, height/weight, plus some definitions (free throw, two-point basket, three-point basket, foul) and a place for them to tally each player's points and fouls. Then, at halftime, the announcer is going to let the cub scouts announce each player's halftime stats. Again, it should be really cute. Cub Scouts is FUN!

Work is so busy that I haven't had a lunch break yet this week. Today, however, I am determined to stop what I am doing, eat something, and do a bit more embroidery. Why did no one tell me that this is highly addictive? Here's my second Gail Pan block.

I think I am going to do three or four and incorporate them into a 12" block to put in my second Quilt Block Frame from Country Scrap Quilts.

Be sure to thank a veteran today!

My First Embroidery

I had to work all weekend, but I managed to steal moments here and there to work on my first embroidery project. You know, all of you who said I should try it, you were right! It is wonderful fun! Here's my first block, something I've seen lots of other people working on lately, a block from the Gail Pan Christmas Wish BOM. I will definitely be making more. I learned three stitches with varying degrees of success: backstitch, lazy daisy and french knot.

Christmas Gift Idea

Did you read Shirley's post today? She bought a Quilt Block Frame from Angela and Jim at Country Scrap Quilts and put a really cute embroidered block in it. Which reminded me...I bought one to display a block that I won in a block lotto in my guild a couple of years ago.

Isn't this block neat? The maker (not me) is really talented. I love the butterfly!

But it also reminded me that I bought another of those frames last year thinking that I could put a quilt block of my own design into it and give it for a Christmas gift. I never got around to that last year, but what's stopping me from doing it this year? I have time to make a block. I'd like to try embroidery. I should be able to embroider one block in time for Christmas, right? Thanks for sharing, Shirley - now I'm all jazzed up about trying something new and possibly actually finishing a Christmas gift before Christmas! And if you are looking for a gift idea, check out Angela and Jim's shop. I've got my eye on one of those clocks...