Bowls and books

I know you think I've just been playing craft hooky all summer... (wink wink) as I've been traveling and not posting like usual (hubby is quoting my numbers of posts tonight. According to him, I'm way behind for the year)
Anyhow, between my kitchen table makeover, bathroom painting project, nesting for another baby (we await the call!), and the many quilts underway... I've been trying to still do little crafts as part of Camp Mommakiddo ...
Yesterday's random project (between babysitting a friend's kid and carpooling my own) was a few scrap journals. See, my friend Melissa, picked up these amazing polka dotted bowls for me at Costco (can't shop there, my kitchen is too small!)... And I liked the heavy weight and glossy colors of the box. So out came the much-abused paper cutter and I ended up with 5 of these. Now what am I going to do with 5 more journals?

I believe this makes me a Soccer Mom

And yes... In my handmade journal are sketches with new ideas, and there ARE indeed yoyos to sew and work on hiding in the expandable Libby Dibby bag... Because I'm hopeful that way... Even when most of my time on the sidelines is spent trying to keep Z from hurting others during his massive screaming tantrums.

Spiderweb quilt progress

I've got only 2 more rows of six before this quilt (my biggest yet) is pieced. Kind of exciting! I'm making it full sized... Which is not the size of any bed we have, but seemed a fun size to cuddle under or lay on at the park. I've had so much fun making this.
The pattern itself calls for a lot of waste, so I redesigned it a little (with a lot of math and an old phonebook for paper piecing) and was able to use almost every single piece of waste I made. (yay)
The quilt itself is pretty obnoxious, but around here, it fits our world-view and we all love it.
The kids asked if they could pose on it, so I figured that they were good for demonstrating scale.
Almost there! (then all I have to do is pin it and quilt it and bind it. Hmmm. Let's not talk about that yet)

Writing on fabric

In case you've ever wondered the same thing, I did a little experiment this week and thought I'd share the results... I've always wondered which pens can mark on fabric and stay through the wash/dry cycles. Some fabric pens request heat-setting (which is really boring and can be time consuming). These tests were all done with no heat-setting. The Bic Mark-it pen bled even before i put it int the wash, but all the others looked great. I was especially wondering about the Sharpie writing pen, but it might actually look the best of all.

Anyhow, I'm glad I did this. My faith and fetish with Sharpie products still stands.

Know of others that mark well on fabric that gets washed and dried? Leave it in the comments.

Mod Podged Table

Last night I got a little bee in my bonnet and set to work in the kitchen instead of at the sewing machine. Our kitchen booth is cute but SO drab. The rest of the house is super colorful (still thinking and working on the bathroom)
... But the kitchen is drab, old and very boring colorwise.
So last night, the tabletop met some Amy Butler scrapbook paper, Mod Podge and some sealer, (though i ran out of sealer and had to order more at 11pm)...

Finished project = happy.
Z came in our room this morning to tell us, "come here! You have to see what happened to the table!"

Courtney's skirt travels

Special thanks to blog reader, Courtney for taking these pics while she was on a vacation this summer! It was on my to-do list to get some pics of the non-polka dotted side of the Original skirt.
now you can see it!

Nesting

I haven't been posting much lately. We are kind in full swing of summer, lots of outings and playdates... But as we are also mentally and emotionally preparing for welcoming another baby into the home, there is also lots to do to get the house back in order.
I've been sewing, too, lots of projects for my bee, a few more dresses from the springy swing top pattern that I modified, a few scrappy quilttops, and lots of furniture building and painting as I am nesting...
This morning we also discovered someone else had been nesting - in the lattice over our window (that we installed to overgrow the memories of men crawling through it to rob us a few years ago...) I thought the bird had been merely scoping out my fruit tree, turns out she had different plans... Plans that hatched this week.
It feels very sweet that as I've been telling friends that "I'm nesting" this week, that I'd get this visual. And then to see new life where there was only pain is also quite dear. 

Quoted

I was just informed tonight by an acquaintance (a neighborhood mom I know from a playgroup) that I'd been quoted in this magazine (which has been on my coffee table for a month). "Cloth Paper Scissors" is a really inspirational mag for me - it's all about collage and textile arts... So of course i love it. But though I'd read much of this and carried it around with me for weeks, I'd had no idea that my little quip was included in print. Funny.
The quote was just an emailed answer to the question: what art supplies do you travel with? ... But it still is fun to see your name all glossy...

Giant yoyos

Months ago (I can't find it now) I posted a pic of an amazing Anthropologie quilt made of giant yoyos. Here is my own humble beginning... Shown with my toesies for scale.

Just some afternoon painting

I bought some canvases for the kids and I to paint ... And today we got to work... Z made the tree and hedgehog (with a small amount of help from momma), Mimi did the "doggie in the forest" and I made the mushroom.