The Weekend...But First....

A Murder of Crow[s] in place of leaves.

An occupied planter....Steph found these people in Seattle

Not JUST a planter.....

parking lot after it snows

Above her desk sits a.....

little tree....next to....

a little house....with a little.....

snowman of it's own.

The neighbors. [made by S's roommate?]

 Having Steph home this weekend was fantastic!!! Sadly, she and her BF have broken up, but.....and believe me I know this is selfish.....but, we had a great time  

talking, watching tv, and breaking out the crafty stuff!  And hugs...oh my gosh there were lots of those.

We had a family gathering for Thursday, like so many others. I set the delay timer on the oven for the turkey.....and....and.....oh yeah...added a little bit of flour mix to get the gravy to thicken, but now that Steph knows how to do that, I am sure I can avoid that part of the cooking also.  Everyone else was in and out of the kitchen, including 3 little girls, and everything was great, so why mess with a good thing?  Because of power outages in the area, Danny and Ashley were able to be here the whole afternoon.  Danny's family had their holiday sometime over the weekend, so the kids got to have 2 days of feasting.

BTW...the little tree has a USB plug so you can plug it into your computer! Purchased at Target.  The paper mache house is the smallest one of 3 I found at Hobby Lobby for 13$, but were twice that price everywhere else. We used beads and abandoned earrings, paint and fake snow-paint on the tree and house.

pix clicks to enlarge...

You Just Know....

This person is a quilter!!!!  found this picture here...

man that is cold!!!!!

Dan took this photo yesterday on his way to work....happened right in front of him and he ended up getting rear ended right  after this van slipped and flipped.  Dan and his car are ok

Snowing

My adoring fans await me....something I don't see for myself, though I know they are there.

 I was trying to figure out how to trace a large circle, but sadly, the laundry basket was not large enough.  I wanted to get the round of fish on evenly....hah!

 who am I kidding???  just slap them fishies on there chick!  I have taken some creative license for the fish colors, my quilt my rules.  I will do the same for the flowers when I get to them, but I will try to keep the seahorses and plants normal colors....the coral might get a little crazy too now that I think about it.

 so did someone ask for this?  I am a bit bummed because Steph is not here to build her snow person, and by the time she gets here Wed, this might be gone as it doesn't last here in the lower elevations around Puget Sound.

Remind you of anything?

Thank you ladies for the uplifting comments on my last post.  Mom has not asked for the paper as much as I thought she would.  I did read her the highlights, online, which seemed to suit her.  She could keep her eyes closed and we could make comments about things and we even joked about a few things!

Me Bad

I know...the expression is "my" bad...but in this case I am the bad one.  I stopped the newspaper delivery for my mom.  She hasn't really been able to read it for a long time, just some of the headlines.  Then she stopped reading it altogether, just carried it around. Then she stopped doing even that. 

picture by megan

She got mad at me again yesterday, acted exactly the same way she did a few days ago....Dementia is not my little friend.  It makes me the bad guy. I have offered to do many things for her, like read the paper TO her, let her read the paper online in a larger font, etc.  Not the same.  I get that.  I also know that this scenario will be repeated in a day or two and I will get to be the bad guy ALL OVER AGAIN.

Family and Sewing

Dan's niece

What Megan does with the camera

Dan and his sister, who showed up this last week

adding the water around the volcano

 I decided to try a trick Liza Prior Lucy does, she calls it 'front basting' for lack of a better term.  She machine bastes the appliqué pieces down, then takes out a few stitches at a time as she hand appliqués.  Worked pretty well on the first section but I went with hand basting for the other 2 pieces.  Took about the same amount of time to hand baste 2 parts down as it took to machine stitch  the other one.

all 3 water parts complete with my pen lines

how they look on the piece...crappy photo tho.

Football Pre-Game Parking

Yes, it's raining

what is a tailgate party on a boat called?  rudder party?

The University of Washington Huskies are playing tonight, at home, against UCLA.  This is an unusual Thursday night game, so it's big news around here.  The traffic will be a mess, but Stephanie, aka CollegeGirl, has a front row seat....to the parking lot!  Her dorm room looks down on this. She said the RVs were rolling in by 8 am today and the boats started arriving as she was talking to me.  The stadium is off to the right, in case you are wondering.  And no, Steph will not be going to the game, but she is getting better [she has mono].  She does get to enjoy the BBQ odors wafting up from those game-goers.

Invention Idea

One of the ladies over at Glorious Applique does the freezer paper method for applique, but puts the paper on the top of the fabric pieces.  She wishes she could see the fabric under it, to make sure it plays nicely with the other fabrics.  That got me thinking about clear freezer paper.....then heavy tracing paper with sticky stuff on it....then it a to me that you could do that with the spray stuff [505 isn't it?].  Get heavy tracing paper or even plastic maybe, trace the pieces then spray the back and stick to the fabric.

On the home front, CollegeGirl just found out that she has Mono.  Ugg.

That Darn Cat....

not only does she sit right on my project, but she won't look at the camera!

 Rocket is the picture in my header.  He would look straight on at you.

 Now while you look at this, keep in mind that this is a progress picture, please.  I asked Dan if he thought it looked like a volcano and he said, "want an honest answer?"  Oh hell no, dear.  I may do this part raw edge, even though a big BIG part of my RightBrain says turn under...turn under .  But, RightBrain, the jagged-ity edge of the lines would look more rough, like lava does.

I am doing this quilt in circle-ish form, [though the quilt may be square on the edges] and a looking down from above sort of view....

Screeching Halt...

So that piece of fabric I showed you the other day that I was going to use for the
Tropical appliqué is a no go....the darn thing is only a yard....I couldn't fit all my critters and fauna on it.

So off to the online shops and looky what I found at Thousands of Bolts..... 

just the colors I wanted for the background for this project!!!!

"Stonehenge Caribbean"  seems there are more than just one in the "Caribbean" collection.

 naptime

My Next Appliqué Quilt Plan

The next step in my Tropical applique plans. This will be the fantasy tropical place you can find me in when I go to my "happy place", though I will be leaving out the handsome hunks serving me drinks and peeled grapes. And the bugs.

 I saw this great idea on another blog, for figuring out what fabric to use for what, when you have a lot of pieces.  I didn't quite use her idea here, but I still think it's a good one.

seaweeds

corals

waves/water

turtles and dolphin

the flowers and fish will be multiple colors

my base fabric for the appliqué

almost forgot the seahorses!

I left out the birds that will be in the outer area too....I know which ones I want to use, I just forgot about them....

my 'map' for this quilt

Like my goofy Paint mock up for this newest project?

I didn't think I needed a full size paper pattern/map to follow for this, but I did want something to keep me straight on what will go where. I think I will put the paper patterns I have on the base fabric and make sure I do have room for everything...and that I free-hand-cut the volcanic action for the center area, in a correct size.  Don't want it to be marble size, ya know?!

The base fabric for this was a little brighter than I wanted, but I didn't want to buy another one, so I.....did something that will shock you......I bleached it.....yes, you read that right, I applied bleach to it....or rather, put it in a mild bleach bath.  Took all of about a minute to change.  Still not exactly what I was thinking of for this, but it will work....it's just the base for all the other yummy fabs anyway.  And maybe some embroidery.....and some fun quilting.

The Rich Win Again

This being an election day, I am actually paying some attention to some of it.

Reason #1= income tax on those who make more than 200K a year.  Failed.
so the rich stay rich and us poor [literally] schmucks will get poorer..because it will all get worse in the next couple of months. Why?  the state is increasing the minimum wage AGAIN.  That means EVERYTHING will go up in cost, more jobs will be lost and fewer people will be able to buy pizza.  ***

Did you know that the average tip for a pizza delivery is one dollar.  1$.  Thats it.  And the worst tippers?  The people who would be paying that state income tax!!!!

Bill Gates Sr. came up with that tax idea....and the money would have been for the schools.  So quit screaming about the crowding in the schools because it's going to get worse.

One guy they interviewed said "I was one of the people who would have had to pay that tax, thank you voters."

I am sure not enough poor people voted or this would have passed.....a tax for the rich....come on people.

Reason #2 was the Liquor Initiative.  Privatize booze, take the state out of the liquor business.....lose more money for the state which would result in more job losses....I wanted this one to pass and it did.  Good.  Maybe my son won't lose his job...


*** the increase in wage wasn't too bad in 2003 or 2004, but when it was raised again a year later, a 200$ trip to Safeway suddenly became 400$.  That hurt bad!

History of Minimum Wage in Washington State
Effective date	Minimum wage per hour
January 1, 2010	$8.55
January 1, 2009	$8.55
January 1, 2008	$8.07
January 1, 2007	$7.93
January 1, 2006	$7.63
January 1, 2005	$7.35
January 1, 2004	$7.16
January 1, 2003	$7.01

Girls with Curls

 Rhiley in costume and curls

it's hard to choose just one....

 Progress on the house A & D are building.  

On the left side there is the open space under the stairs...

 ...this space above, that is going to be wasted.  WASTED.

at least until after the final papers are signed, then the kids can cut thru the  sheetrock to open this up for storage/play area. This large opening faces the garage, which is still ideal for putting a door in.  For saving money, it's all enclosed as opposed to having to 'finish' off the area with sheetrock.  

 living room and kitchen, above....looking out to the garage, below

The Yorba family, my daughter Ashley, Rhiley and SIL Danny.