Girls' Night Out

Just a little something I whipped up last night about 20 minutes before a get together with my girlfriends! 

There was a birthday being celebrated so that meant girls' night out at The Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor.  It's a great place to go for drinks and clam chowder or maybe some calamari! 

If you are ever in town you must go!

http://www.tidestavern.com/

This is the view out the back.

I whipped up a hot pad using one of my already made blocks for the Bust Yo Scraps QAL, 'cause that's how I roll!  :)  I'll just make the quilt a row shorter!!  No one will ever know....

Here's the back, another block from the same quilt in progress! 

We had a great night. We laughed and we laughed until I was crying from laughing so hard!  Our waiter made it extra fun with his antics.  When we asked him to take a group picture, he immediately stood on a chair.  He has photographed women before, obviously!  Then he took pictures of other tables for me?  The crowd was having fun posing.

Me and my girls!

He even took a picture of himself.   Gee.....thanks?

So today Jack tried out for the elementary school talent show and made it!  We will be putting together a video of him skateboarding that will be shown.  He is "stoked" !  (skateboarder word)  Of course we were off to the skate park right after to do some filming.   

Happy Fabric Tuesday!  Linking up to the girls over at quilt story.

Kris

and Mr. White Whiskers himself.....Duke

Scrappy blocks and cornbread!

I've been focused on the scrappy blocks for the Bust Yo Scraps QAL!  Made some this weekend...they are a bit time consuming with all of those little pieces! 

Here are the 8 yellow blocks I finished.  Shouldn't there be more?  It sure seems like it to me but then again there is so much pressing in between sewing that the time does tick by. Oh well, no hurry.  I am enjoying working on the flying geese and perfecting the sewing of them. 

This shot is for Mary and Clare!

So while Duke and I were busy at the sewing table:

My pin cushion disappeared - - then reappeared with the pins arranged like this!  Thanks Jack, love it!  And just when I was thinking I'll never use those pink pins in the middle again, I got another surprise!

So maybe it will stay like this, who knows with Jack!  See the little skateboard and wheels? 

He HAS found his passion at age 10.  Jack has been skateboarding since he was 3.  It didn't hurt that his older brother used to skateboard lots and my husband built ramps in our back yard in Texas.  Luckily, his friend here in Washington has a ramp in his garage which means the boys can still skate on rainy days here in the PNW.  Or Mom drives them to an indoor skate park.  I love to watch them skate and it's a great place to take along some hand stitching like:

 this Christmas Tree Garland that I made last summer.

And now a word from our sponsor:

just kidding....but really have you tried this corn bread?  It is my recommendation of the week!  Did anyone go buy the wine last week I mentioned near the bottom of this post?  By the way my name on the bottle method has worked!  It is still sitting on the counter while my husband has finished his bottle and moved on to something else!  But I digress....last night was Sunday Dinner which meant pot roast with salad and cornbread.  Just add water to this mix, it's super easy and really tasty.

I am also happy to report that I mailed the last of the 2011 Christmas presents!  :)

 Sheri's quilt is now with Sheri.  It's the first quilt that I have made for someone other than a family member.  Sheri is practically family though, we've known each other since the 1st grade.  We met in Illinois, then both of our families moved to California in our high school years, so this meant we could stay in touch, visiting each other in Southern (me) and Northern (Sheri) California in the summers.  We were in each other's weddings too, of course.  Here's a pic from my bridal shower:

Check out our big hair in the early 90s!  We thought we looked soooo good!  LOL!

Happy Monday and hello to those of you visiting from Canoe Ridge Creations Modern Monday!

Go check out Megan's blog and the linky party!

Kris

Apple rose-starlet

Apple rose-star, a photo by DukeSaysSewWhat.blogspot.com on Flickr.

My 3rd Rose-Star

Wanna learn to Crochet?

A couple of days ago I listed several "bins" I use for organization and totally forgot about this one!  It's a wooden box I got in the kids' toys department at Ross.  I filled it with my toys!  Don't let these knitting needles fool you - I took 1 class and failed miserably.   I would like to learn to crochet this year though.  Is it possible to learn from an online tutorial I wonder?

I found this crochet-school on line. I want to try! 

Just look how inviting the first picture is:

It's a 23 week class.  I am thinking of starting it the first week of March.  Anyone else want to play along?

Valentine Garland Colours by Anna (on FLICKR)

I saw this heart garland and thought, I want to make that!

Christie at Describe Happy recently did a great organizational post showing how she has her scraps all separated and in see-through containers.  Christie, here are my scraps!  Ugh! I'm running out of storage space or counter top room since my sewing space is the far end of our kitchen.  Let's see....when does my Senior leave for college?!  ;)

I went back to Target today and those trays I showed you before are selling like hotcakes!  I got a few more of the wool/felt bins but the larger shallow hard sided tray like boxes (whew!) were ALL GONE!

I am STILL busting through scraps for the QAL and am about to start the final 28 blocks.  Once I get this quilt top finished, it will be my 4th quilt top completed that lacks a backing.  Do you think I have a problem?  As in....can't FINISH something? 

I picked up my phone this morning after Jack had been taking pictures with it and found this:

It seems I'm not the only one who likes to take pictures of the Dukester.

and this...

Will you have a finish to show on Friday over at Amanda Jean's crazymomquilts? 

I hope to!

Kris

Jack's latest

Hugs and Kisses

Our Valentine's Day Banner went up today!  I made it last year. You can read more about it  here.

It rained almost the entire day today.  It was hard to get motivated...just ask Duke! 

I managed to get all of my pieces cut for my next starlet.  Can't wait to start it!

Kris

Storing the goods!

Have you noticed all of the containers in the $1 area of Target these days?  I love it!  What is it about January that we all feel the need to organize and store?

This wool bin came in other colors, I may need to go back for more!  It came in handy for all of my scraps for the "Bust Yo Scraps" quilt I am currently making found here.

And how about his hard sided shallow tray?  I have all of my Starlet pieces in here for the Rose Star Block Party.  The apple towel on top called my name from a clearance rack.  I will fussy cut that baby up for a starlet in the near future.  Clare over at www.summerfete.blogspot.com is hosting this EPP Rose Star Block party - it's so fun....you should join us!  Look at this collage she posted today of some recent stars.  (Mine are the two with the yellow backgrounds).

...wandering if anyone else in this block party decided to use a cereal box for their templates?

Speaking of storage, this is what I use for a trash basket on my sewing table. 

I use flower pots for my tools, etc.  I can't keep a flower alive but I can stick scissors in the pot with no problem!  ;)

This bin is for thread.  It's the thread I use for basting.

I used to paper piece hexagons.  This colander serves as a great keeper of all the hexies still waiting for their permanent home on a future potholder, etc.

Pins....do you care what color you use?  I have had all yellow for quite some time now.  This box of pink pins just makes me happy!  I also picked up a thimble.  I looked for a leather one like Mary the Queen of hand quilting uses, but alas Hancock's did not have one.  (I just love Molly Flanders!)

Here is what my sewing space looks like with my movable pots and baskets!

I finished half of the blocks for the "Bust Yo Scraps" quilt today.  Of course I started with the easier block.  After this it was back to cutting up scraps.  I need another 100 or so. 

"just the thought of cutting 100 scraps makes me want to stretch my long legs and take a nap"

Remember the duct tape wallets that my 10 year old son, Jack is making? 

He is getting good!  He decided to start his own company and made me the "Investor"!  I love it!  So I'm in charge of buying the duct tape.  He has had several orders - he's so excited.  He's charging $3 each.  This one is for one of our employees at our shop who is 20.  He told Jack, "Make it cool."

A wine recommendation is next!  Have you tried 14 Hands?  It's very reasonably priced and the Merlot and Cab are both very good!  My husband drinks much more wine than I do - - so I tried this method today.  Here's hoping there will be some of the Merlot left when I decide to have a glass!!  ha!  Jack saw this and asked me which bottle of wine cost more.  Uh hum.....cough, cough....."The Merlot was just a tad more expensive,"  I said.  Jack then said - "why am I not surprised?"  He heard me turn down a glass of wine the night before from a bottle that Jon paid $3 for.  Seriously, why bother?!  You KNOW it's not going to taste good !

Our snow is melting but the skate park is still not dry.  Here's Jack walking away from the ramps after observing the water.  He's bummed.  Snow, snow, go away! 

He has a new board to break in!

Happy Fabric Tuesday!

check out the link ups here!

Kris

Bust Yo Scraps!


In an effort to keep all of my QAL balls in the air - - I've been working on the Bust Yo Scraps quilt.  (See the button in my sidebar).  There are a lot of scraps to cut up and I'm determined to cut everything before I start to sew.  The quilt consists of 28 snowball blocks and 28 scrappy squares blocks. 

I've got everything ready to go for the snowball blocks!  And I'm using turquoise for the background.

For the Scrappy Squares Blocks - I need 133 more 2.5 inch squares, 112 of the 4.5 x 2.5 rectangles and 28 of the 4.5 x 4.5 squares.  It will be my first time making flying geese.  Oh boy!

Here's the pattern:

Here's the block construction instructions!  Won't you join us?  Many are just getting started.

Look at THIS one by life on the selvage edge!   She is way ahead of the rest of us. I just love it!

Don't worry my starlet friends, I'll be cutting fabric for startlet #3 soon!  I'm loving our Block Party. 

I think I'm in other QALs too, but I can't remember!  LOL 

Well, there is the Chasing Chevrons quilt back to make!  ;)

And I'm hoping to start swooning at some point. 

I've also been thinking of enlarging Duke's bed (not that the couch potato uses it all that much!)

And it was a good mail day for my H.S. Senior (the stand up bass player)! 

An acceptance letter to Whitworth and his class ring arrived. 

Willamette, in Salem, OR is his current favorite. 

Kris