quilt along- I'm along

I've mentioned before that I am intimidated by quilting. It used to be quilting and zippers, but I'm over the zipper fear now. When I read that I Have To Say was hosting a quilt-a-long, and after she assured me that she would be posting lots of pictures and directions step by step, I was on board. It does involve fabric shopping, so that helped too.

Starting the 25th of this month, she's going to be giving directions and pictures once a week to step by step put together a 50x62 quilt. It will last 6 weeks. I'm going to see if I can keep up. It looks like a nice quilt for a beginner.

unrelated picture: The ants found a lost candy cane. We can't figure out where they are coming from. darn ants.

old wood signs

The signs aren't that old, but the wood is. Back when I was in high school and college, my mom lived in this older home with a great stash of old wood in the garage. My old shop teacher used to live there before us so there was a good stash of all kinds of wood. Some of it was old floor boards from the house which had lots of character. Some even had layers of old newspapers glued on the back. I guessed it was used as insulation. When I started making painted signs, I raided the garage for cool old wood.

I haven't been able to put this guy up for a few years now. It's not too 'frozy' in FL, but it sure is here in IN. I saw a similar sign in some catalogue once and made up my own. I especially like it because it can stay up all winter.

Having this guy on our door (which I want to paint red this spring) reminded me that I have some other signs waiting to be hung up. I pulled four from the garage and finally found homes for two of them. The other two are made from heavy floor boards and I need a second hand to help hang them. I made these four when hubby and I moved into a new home that was much larger than anywhere we had lived before. It needed furnished and decorated and it needed to be done cheaply. Recently, I learned two tricks for getting letters onto boards to be painted (using a pencil to imprint the letters on to the wood from a printed page and using carbon paper to get a line onto the wood). I wish I would have known those then.

I found some more wood in our garage here. I am working on choosing some new quotes or passages to use. Do you have a favorite that would make a cool sign?

more eggs

Hubby's been out of town for meetings and I've had all evening (since the kids are in bed about 7:15) to indulge myself in all kinds of sewing and crafts. I have taken over the kitchen counter with eggs and jars of dye and no one is complaining about the coffee pot not having room. That being said, we do miss him when he travels and can't wait for him to be home.

Here are some new eggs I've been working on, mostly for practice and to see what colors work well together. The egg with the black wax is just getting started. Here's my first attempt a few days ago.

I've been practicing some little chickens, flowers and bees. This egg is a practice collage of animals. The animals are a little tricky, but the smaller ones turned out better. I do like the yellow and red together though.

Here is one with several colors and a simple star and wheat design. It's been dyed black and is ready to have the wax taken off.

Here it is after the wax has been taken off. You can see in the red and blue part of the star that I didn't get the wax thick enough in some areas and the black dye seeped through. I think I'll make this one again without yellow. It's too bright against the other colors in the star.

Here's one with a little more complicated design. I like this one already. Here it is ready to have the wax removed, once the dye finishes drying.

I like the red in this one. There is some blue, but you can hardly see it. I do really like the amount of lines and the triangles.

I'm going to keep practicing. I want a whole vase full of them for my mantel in April.

packages!

We got two packages in one day! Our first package came from my brown paper package exchange partner, Janette. I sent to Valerie, and Janette sent to me. It looks like she writes a cooking blog, looks like a lot of desserts.

Yum! Peppermint bark- I've eaten most all of it by myself. Don't judge me. Who hasn't hidden in the pantry and eaten a pound of chocolate by themselves.

Look at the goodies. Some for me, some for the kids even.

I was excited to get my package, but I was almost as excited to send the thank you note. I made this envelope from an international package I received months ago. When I ordered by copy of Alain Clark's cd, it came in this cool envelope. Anyway, I've been saving this for when I received my package, since it's brown paper too.

The second package was almost just as exciting for me. The kids could have cared less about this one.

It took me all these spool, almost 100, to figure out that I was paying WAY too much for thread. Here's 97 that cost between $2 -$5. All that for only 500 yards at the most.

This thread however was $1.50 a spool and each has 1200 yards. You heard me right. I've been missing out! I bought the floral pack and then a hand full of other needed colors. I'll never buy thread the same way again! This is from connecting threads. (It looks like I had a sale price, but still, it's only $1.99) Shipping is free for orders over $50. When neighbors go together on orders, that is easy to meet.

Oh, the happiness a well stocked thread rack brings...

snow day

I've been saying it since Christmas. If it's going to be this cold, there might as well be snow. We finally did get some snow. Apparently, there isn't always a measurable snow each year in our area of southern Indiana, and the town isn't great at dealing with it. We had about 2 inches of snow and school was canceled for two days. Growing up in northern Indiana meant winters with a good amount of snow- so hubby and I were a little confused with everyone's concern over 2 inches. Regardless, we had a terrific time playing in the snow (we were ready since I insisted on everyone getting snow boots this year), eating snow ice ream and having lots of fires in the fireplace.



We only had one friend come to the nature center this week. We made paper snowflakes. Since school was canceled, the kids and bundled up and went for a decent hike on the snowy trails. They had a great time following animal tracks. I didn't take my camera since it was still snowing pretty decently at the time. The kids were having such a fin time, I wish I had been able to take a few pictures.

When the news talked about a snow storm coming and people all ran out to get milk and toilet paper, I ran out and bought extra baking supplies and crafting supplies. The kids and I have been using the extra time inside to bake and craft so it's all worked out well. We sure would like to get back to school though.

snow icecream.... yum!

pajama party

We have been playing games from this box. They are games to be played as a family while at the dinner table. I had never seen the beginners version and was pretty excited to find it, especially on the clearance table (at Barnes and Noble). One game told us to plan a pajama party for the next night. And plan we did.

We had an early bath and dressed in jammies.

Bee is wearing her new mama made Fancy Nancy nightgown. It's lined with fleece since it's so cold in her bedroom at night. She insisted on a matching robe, so I used an old robe to make up a pattern. I won't let her wear characters on her clothes, but have approved them for undies and jammies. She's taking full advantage of it. The robe needs pockets, but I ran out of fabric. I used literally every drop of the 1 yard of fleece I bought.

I wore some new jammies I made up by tracing a pair of yoga pants. They are a jersey knit and I cut them out the wrong way. The stretch is going the wrong direction. They are fine, but they don't stretch like normal pants. I had to add some pocket to the backside to cover the fact that they are a little tight there and don't stretch appropriately. The pockets are cute though and I will add them again when I make a new pair of pants (I have three colors of knit waiting to be made up).

We ate breakfast for diner: yogurt with blueberries, egg casserole (finally used up the last of the sourdough loaf from Christmas)

and monkey bread (I used too much whole wheat flour and it was a little dense and a little disappointing- although it was eaten without complaint).

We did have fun making it though.

For our entertainment: There were floor puzzles to build, about 20 new library books to be read and mailboxes to decorate. I just let the kids decorate their mailboxes with stickers. If you want really cute mailboxes for your family, look here (she has more coming too!). We have been leaving each other notes in them. The kids sure love getting mail.

Lou fell asleep by 6:50 and Bee was in bed by 7:30. We're real partiers like that. Everyone had a super time and we are looking forward to our next pajama party. It's sure to be a regular event here.

dumpster diving

ok, there wasn't a dumpster involved.... not exactly. It wasn't even my idea... this time.


My neighbor/partner in crime called and said that another neighbor had put out some interesting things for the trash the next day. It was late, it was SUPER cold out, I was already in my jammies, but she had me a 'free stuff on the curb'. Using only my cell phone as a flash light, we dug through bags of toys and clothes and found a few keepers. If Bee had a bigger room, there was a nice head and foot board for a little girls room.

Bee scored this guitar. I know, right. It needed new batteries and that's it. I sewed a cute strap for it too. We all agree it's a pretty cool guitar. Our stage and mic have been asking for some instruments. Bee's a pretty conservative rocker in her cords and sweater set here.

Lou is showing off his prized item. He's all of a sudden into monster trucks. This truck also works and is a favorite truck at our house... it's Monster Mutt.

This little wooden hat or coat rack was up for grabs too. I had it near the dress up clothes area, but Bee wanted it moved to her baby/house area. I have already mentioned what a bag lady she is, so it works well here. She keeps several bags here to load up baby gear for when she takes the babies to the grocery store. Lou makes a fine grocer.

There were also several cabbage patch baby doll outfits. We have slimmer dolls, so everything just needed a little altering, but now they all fit our dolls. I also grabbed a spring wreath but it's already in the garage in a tub. If there had been sunlight and/or it had been warmer out, Carole and I would have gathered more and I'm sure our hubby's would have been even more embarrassed when we came home. There aren't any garage sales right now, so I think we are just in withdrawal. It's not our faults.

easter eggs... already?

I know, it's hardly time for Easter eggs, but it's all snowy and they are making me feel like spring might come soon. Also, I just got the Ukrainian egg dye that i wanted for Christmas, so I couldn't wait to get started.

I haven't done this project for a number of years. In fact, the directions page I printed off the first time I made these was dated 1996. My mom and I went to a craft class that our church was offering. This was the project.

Here are the players for this project: Pretty eggs. Find the ones without the bumps and let them come to room temperature.


Other players: meet kistka and beeswax.

Also important: really good egg dye. It's special Ukrainian egg dye, it's bright and dark at the same time. Here are my colors all lined up ready to be made.

See how bright they are in powder form. These are going to be green (it looks brown in powder form) and orange.

Boiling water is mixed in (some colors also need 1 t vinegar)

The premise here is that wax is put on the egg and dyes are used in layers. Whatever is covered in wax will be that color. So, I started off this particular egg (it's my warm up egg- it's been awhile) putting wax on the white egg then dying it blue. Where ever the wax is will not get the blue dye. This is only a two tone egg. Most eggs are multiple colors. I have some of those going right now and will share them soon.

The kistka is warmed and then little scoops of beeswax are taken from the block. Then the tip is warmed again and thin lines are applied to the egg. If the kistka is too hot, the wax will glob out, if it's not warm enough, the wax won't come out fast enough and the lines will be shaky and uneven. (i.e. see my work in the finished egg picture).

The goal is to have smooth and even lines. I didn't do too bad. After a few eggs, I should get back in the groove.

At this point, normally I would dye the egg the next color and add additional wax, repeating several time. However, this is a two tone egg and only needs one dye/wax layer.

When the egg is done going through the dye and wax layers, it's time to remove the beeswax. The egg is held next to a flame and the wax is warmed and wiped away. If the egg is too close to the flame or directly over the flame, the egg shell will burn, ruining all the hard work. If it's not close enough, the wax won't melt. It takes some time since you are only warming one small area at a time.

The finished egg has a nice shine from the bees wax, but another sealer or varnish can be used on top of that. I stress the fact that you should test all varnishes before using them on an egg! My senior year in high school I had made several eggs for the school art show and went to seal them the night before the show. I ruined two of the best eggs. It was a long night replacing them.

You can see my lines are not all even, in fact this may be the worst section of the egg. I should have photographed the other side!

So this is the first one in many years. I have some others going and will share those in a few days. They will be multiple colors and hopefully have tidier lines. The 'legend' goes that the eggs were used for lots of things. They provided good luck for the household. Different symbols mean different things. You might give an egg with a chicken picture to a friend trying to have a baby since the chicken represented fertility. Also, a girl might give an egg to a boy to show how perfect her lines were. This was to show what a tidy housekeeper she was. Apparently that made here a good candidate for marriage. My hubby might agree at this point that this egg represents my housekeeping abilities!

Here's what some really good ones look like- photo borowed from here:

Here's some sketches of eggs I'm planning or ideas I'm working on:


I linked this project up here at Skip yo My lou- Made by you Mondays: