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Well, that was a looong road trip. Thank God for TAL podcasts! I'm giving a link to it because surely I'm not the only person who wasn't aware until now? Or maybe I am. Anyway, they provided ten interesting/informtive/funny/sometimes fascinating hours in which we didn't have to think up things to talk about. On the first day we stopped and visited my aunt on the Oregon Coast. So pleasant there! On the second day we stopped halfway to that day's destination of Vashon Island, WA to visit with Monica for a couple of hours. I seriously have never seen such a perfectly cute studio in all my life. I hope we'll see pictures of it in magazines soon. Everyone should get to see it! You can get a pretty good idea here in her Flickr set. LOVE IT!! We could have chatted til midnight, I'm sure; but we had to drive another 4 hours to WA and get on the ferry and find our B&B for the night before it got too dark. We had to get up and out by 6:45 the next morning to go pick up our little prize; our newest family member; Sophie.

AWWWW! We LOVE her so much already. I've never had a new puppy, and this one just could not be better. We've only slept with her (she in a crate) for two nights, but both times she slept all night and then just slightly whimpered to go out and potty at 5 or 6am. I've wanted a cardigan corgi ever since I used to follow Alicia Paulson's blog. First she had dear Audrey, who has since passed, and late last year she got Clover. When I saw Clover as a pup I knew that was the breed for me. I was talking with a few breeders late last Fall but then decided against it at the time (too much family stuff going on). Then this past Spring it felt like it might be a good time to try it and I got lucky and found this 'accidental' breeding up in WA about 10 days after they were born. I'm sure that's the only reason I got on the list...if I'd been any later they all would've been spoken for, too. I can now see why. OH she's so sweet and smart. This is how she likes to spend as much time as possible

Lying alongside my lap. That's how she spent her first two days with us, making the long drive back home. I enjoy it because our two cats never have been very affectionate.

So now she's here and we're all happy about it.

Last week Nanette posted some pics of Heather Bailey's new fabric. Nanette is re-doing her couch with some of it. Well, I started looking online for the whole line, which I just love so much, and I found an ebay seller (her mother-in-law!) who sold me a fat quarter each of all 64 designs! Here's how it looks at my house

Here, here and here you can see better shots of the three colorways that comprise the 64 pieces. FAB YOU LOUS Ms Bailey!!(ooh! I see she's having a giveaway)  That was one of my biggest impulse buys ever but don't think for a minute I'll regret it. I plan on having LOTS of fun making LOTS of stuff with these. I really do try and make most purchases locally, but as I'm sure Brenda would agree; a quilt shop just can not buy all 64 bolts of one designer, and still please all their customers, so sometimes ya just gotta go online.

Oh, here's a pretty idea to pass along to those of you who are lucky enough to have abundant hydrangeas like we do here.

This is the time of year to successfully dry them. I cut as many as I need, put them in water in the garage, and in about two weeks, long after the water has gone, they will have dried perfectly. Like paper. And the color hardly changes. I'll show you again when they're done.

Oh, and I have a pile o' neat vintage stuff for an etsy update. I've taken pictures

(this was plain blah brown til I painted and papered it) but I just need to make the time to list them.

I recently found a big box of old wood letters. They're about 8 inches high and nearly an inch thick. I put some together as words and will sell the rest individually. I promise I'll make the time to list them soon and will post here when I do.

Yikes. Out of time! Hopefully this big linky post will suffice for the whole week if I don't make it back? Cheers.

If you give a mouse a cookie...

Well, everyone knows what happens then, right? He’s going to ask for a glass of milk. When you give him the milk, he’ll probably ask you for a straw. When he’s finished, he’ll ask for a napkin. Then he will want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn’t have a milk mustache. (from the wonderful children's book by Laura Joffe Numeroff).
Well, this past weekend we had the white carpet torn out of the 500 sq ft family room. It had been in there for the five years since we built that addition. We had it cleaned twice a year and still it always felt or looked dirty. Probably because the rest of the house has wood floors and you know when they're clean or dirty. Also, we've had fleas, coincidentally enough, off and on for the five years that we've had pets on carpet. So the carpet's out and the wood laminate is in.

( I wonder how long that old pad and carpet will sit out there on the patio?)

So, as soon as I looked at the new floor I realized (I had always been pretty sure) that I really do hate the wall paint in there. So now that's being changed just as quickly as I can manage, to this much lighter buttery cream.

And of course now the tropical print of the roman blinds just DOES NOT work anymore...and don't even get me started on the brown blob Costco furniture  (apparently I already did go on about that), and on and on and on.... And I would really like to get it all put together before we leave on our road trip this Thursday. We are heading to Seattle to adopt a new family member.

   I don't think I've been this excited since we got a grandbaby! Be back soon with more pics.

Wish us luck on the roadtrip...we tend not to travel well together. I've filled up the iPod with some of the best This American Life podcasts (including every one by David Sedaris that I could find) so listening to someone else do the storytelling may help.

Have a great week!

Summer is flying by here...August already! Anyone else thinking about Christmas yet? Might as well, 'cause you know how fast it'll be here! I'm still trying to find a balance between grandkids, volunteering, and creating. Seems every time I start on one I get pulled in another direction. I think I have adult onset ADD, which has been brought on by these kids and grandkids! So, about 'working' at The Discovery Shop. No, we don't get first crack at 'the good stuff'. Believe me, I expected to, but The Three Hour Rule is posted prominently in the break room. An item must be tagged and put on the sales floor for three hours before you, a volunteer, can go buy it. Yeah, I thought it was a sucky rule too, but this shop has 100 volunteers, so if we all went cherry-picking before putting stuff out on the floor, what would there be exciting to find for the customers? I was straightening racks there the other day and came across a skirt which was made from a fabric that just made me giddy. It was a size 14, above the knee, and all the way around was one inch pleats. Still had the store tags on it. (ya' think?) I immediately saw it's potential for use in a 'stack n whack' quilt. I've never made one but I know the concept from when my mom jumped on the bandwagon (along with most every other quilter) a few years back. I paid $8 for the skirt (and let the counter ladies think what they liked--didn't share my plans) and ran home to start ripping out all those seamed pleats. I kid you not; I ended up with eleven running feet of fabric. What designer could've thought eleven feet of pleated fabric would look good around a size 14 bottom? sheesh. After a short lesson via google, I started stacking and cutting and ended up with what will be 15 blocks in sizes 10, 16, and 20 inches.

Loving it so far!

I asked my mom not long ago how you get better and faster at paper piecing and she said (duh) "Plenty of practice". Well, I've made 24 blocks for the abc quilt that Marie Claire Idees inspired me to do and I have to say; I got pretty good AND fast! It's really quite enjoyable once you start building your confidence. Here's a look-see at what's waiting to be put together.

Have I told you lately that I am in LOVE with the blanket stitch on my Bernina?

I really really am.

All these projects going on...now you know why I've never shown full-on pics of the studio. It's always too busy to straighten and pretty for picture taking! Know that I love it, tho. That John Duncan sure went the extra mile to gain nightly control of the tv remote, huh?

Oh. Speaking of my Bernina. I went to a group sewing gig (monthly volunteer thing through the guild for community quilts) and what a job hauling that thing in and out of the car! One lady had brought the super cute Hello Kitty 3/4 size machine by Janome. Said she'd bought it for her granddaughter who doesn't seem interested in using it so thought she'd give it a whirl. She sewed straight all day just like the rest of us! So, yeah; you guessed it. I had to go buy a 'travel' machine.

Before I got the desk in the studio for jewelry making I had this travel case on wheels stuffed with all my bead boxes and all sorts of miscellany. I was almost sad to not have a use for it anymore, and now YAY! the travel machine is a perfect fit. Can't wait til the next social sewing (I think it's at Scottie Dog, Brenda. So don't laugh at me and my I Can Sew machine!)

Well, I hate to end after all those pretty pictures with this next one but it's my current reality

Yep, garage sale time...once again! (I always hear that in the voice of Woody in Toy Story. YAAARRDD SAAAAALE!) We've been paying $65/mo storage for three years now just so we didn't have to deal with it but I caught John on a good day last week (or just off-guard) and he borrowed the U-Haul from his office and two loads later the storage garage was empty and we were parking out side and I'm planning the sale. Sad thing is, I haven't even brought anything out from the house. Who needs all this stuff? It's really ridiculous.

OH. I almost forgot. Last week when I signed off and John was going to get my computer fixed? All he did was take the cover off the hard drive and vacuum LOTS of dust out of the fans. OH it was so dirty in there. Put the cover back on, plugged it in, and the darned thing's so quiet now you wouldn't even know it's plugged in. Cool! These things apparently aren't rocket science. Pass it on! :-)

Monday morning

A quick post here before John takes my hard drive to the doctor. It WHIRRRS and groans all the time...I hope it just needs a new fan!

I finally got left alone to sit and sew for most all of yesterday. I'm having fun making 24 single blocks for the quilt shown in the last post. It took most of three hours to do this one seven inch block.

Crazy, huh? It probably took so long because it was my first time doing a pineapple block, but even with practice I can't imagine shaving off more than an hour. It reminded me of this pineapple blocks baby quilt my mother made a few months ago. (pardon the lousy photos)

Pretty fabulous, huh? This adorable quilt is a good reminder of why people don't normally sell quilts. Who wants to work for five cents an hour? Better to give them to someone you love.

So; sweet Caleb, who is such a big boy now that he is heading to camp with the church for the rest of this week, just woke up and picked the number 6. I see that after Dawn and Doe said they already have or are getting their own copy, Nanette was the sixth commenter. I'll be sending the mag this week Nanette. Anyone who hasn't already been there really should go visit Nanette's blog. She maintains it with several of her grown daughters, all of whom are crafty and quilty. Every post is a pleasure to see and read.

Okay. Time to unplug this puppy. Hopefully not for too long!