Camp Out with Grandparents

Three little girls came from not very far away, to stay at the home of their Grandparents, Vicky and Dan.

They were spending the night!! Of course they had their Mama with them, to join in the fun.  

There was BBQ burgers, homemade fries, forgotten corn-on-the-cob, ice cream and a fun game of I Spy.

And Then.....they got to go sleep in THE trailer!!!

Nor did they disturb the grandparents when they left in the morning.

I hope they had fun!

We were given another table/drawer/thing.  Dan remodeled it and added a funky cardboard type thing to the back for more support. Since THAT side would be facing MY chair, I asked him what he planned to do to it.

"Nothing," said he. "BS," said me. 

So I painted it, after discarding multiple other ideas.

After 2 coats of berry-purple, it still wasn't 'enough,' so I added some watered down metallic paint in 'copper'.  It doesn't really look like much, and it really doesn't show much, but it's shiny from my side.

Found this one morning, under the HB feeder. [humming bird]

The ants WERE all around the edges, like lions around the water hole. They weren't that way after getting my camera. Rats. 

But, I have discovered that the slugs, whose slime trails I have pointed to on the left side, actually remove the sugar stains from the trek decking boards. The 3rd arrow is pointing to a pine needle. Maybe they are actually called fir needles? Fir leaves? Lets face, "real" pine needles aren't found in this area of WA state.

Oh looky there....a Quilt Top!

The 3rd one is assembled, of the 7 for 7 Grandchildren.

This one is for #4. Middle of the above 3.

Cutting and Sewing

I have finally plunged into the buckets of novelty fabrics. 

Seven piles. Seven grandchildren. 

I cut up as much in 10 inch squares. Then I cut more in 10 inch widths, to be stitched to other ones, to make up the 10 inch square. There will be many 'patchwork' squares for the girls to choose from. 

Stephanie will have to pick for #7, since she is still carrying him. 

The sun Steph painted on her wall, sure does brighten up the cutting table!

I also stitched together a quilt back.  The center is all large scale prints, which I didn't want to cut down to 10". 

[tho they would make fabulous stack n whack blocks] 

The quilt front is the Tropical-Ocean  circle top I started about 5 years ago????

I finished this wallie, Animal House, and since it's going to a granddaughter, I decided to add some shiny stuff. I had saved a bunch of jewelry cast offs of the girls [daughters, this time]  So the raccoons got 'headlight' eyes, sock monkeys got buttons, one dog has his tail pierced...

Imagine the Robin posing on this rock....

Yeah..that.

And the cutting...??  Not nearly done, I can't see the bottom of the bucket yet.

Circles, Neighbors, Caterpillars....

My design wall in the sewing room doesn't have a fabric cover over the foam insulation, that's why there is silver glaring back at you.

Anyway...that is the current state of Circles. Not arranged at all, with 2 of the panels at the top folded in half.  Stay tuned....

Neighbors.  We have this gentleman, and his wife, moving back into the 'hood. [long story]  Well this guy is a doer. Today he was 'doing' a bit of tree trimming. His son helps him.  Talk about a really cool gadget to have!  And I am not talking about the riding mower. Did I mention this guy is 80 something??

And this brings me to the Caterpillar.  Am trying to figure out who it is in it's next life. For now I will admire it as is.

Other stitching's.  I put this together one afternoon. I call it "Girl". 

For now. Not finished.

I found this Bug pencil drawn on a scrap of white in a box of gifted fabrics, from a few years ago. I finally decided where to use it, so I stitched on the pencil lines, and will give it beady eyes.

Then I will attach her to this piece of in-progress whimsy.

Working title for this is "house."

Kids and Kats

 It was Girls Night here for the birthday girl, Rhiley. 

I made toothpick "candles" for the fruit bowl. The banner I made many many years ago.  Spelling hasn't changed.

Birthday girl said: "no cake???"

Middle sister said: "auntie Steph is....mumble mumble"

She got The Look from mommy. 

☺☺☺

My  excuse me. OUR cat loves Dan's beard.

click to enlarge

The day Avery got her cast off, she had time to sew with me. This time I had her make something!  She is hooked!  While she was doing this, her mom was cutting wood for more of these....

String pictures. She is hooked too.

I need to prep some fabrics for Avery to sew next time she stops by, because I KNOW she will ask.

Giddy Feeling

Judy Martin commented on my last post....

"I liked it in the hoop too.

I wonder if you could stitch a circle around it - like a hoop - to get back that contained basket feeling."

When someone I admire leaves me a comment, it makes me Giddy.  Like looking at color, which I commented on here and Lesley Turner commented back...

You got your movie stars, I got mine.

Back to Judy's comment....I had not even thought of putting this CircleWeave into a different sort of circle!

So while mulling it over, which I do very well thank you, I noticed the squiggly tree out the window.  It's a willow, a Curly Willow tree that I won't even bother giving you a link for because it might change fate and give us bad juju root trouble.

So I talked my husband into taking 5 minutes and cutting some branches for me, 

since it needed trimming anyway. 

Then I wove, wrapped, and poked the pliable small branches into a circle shape.

 I clipped the weave to it and pulled some of the tails through with the crochet hook.

backside

Will it stay this way?  Not sure. 

 I like it much more than in the man-made hoop, but not sure if the willow branches will stay friendly.

Different project.  I thought this one was done, long time ago.  But as it hung on the wall looking at me, I grew to dislike the squirrel image....it didn't stand out enough! {and it needed some more blue sky wiggles between the tail and body}  So I have been mulling over different 'treatments' to make it gray and visible.  This little bit of sheer is the first layer....

The ToilePathway, below, is progressing.

Some gold-ish silk and green gauzy bits woven in....

all pix are enlargeable, just click um 

....and more yellow-y silk added to the sky area....

Home Life

Ben found frosting in super duper bright colors, so of course he had to try 2 of them.  

They came with sprinkles too.

Spelling homework.  Meg's teacher wants the kids to really learn the words!  "1. Write each word 3 times, 2. find letters in [junk mail] , assemble into words,glue, 3. write the words on 'graph' paper, cut apart, reassemble, glue."  We have gotten into a pattern of doing this with Meg.  Ben, Lily and I look for letters in the junk mail, cut them out and then assemble the letters for the words.  The letters get put in ice cube trays by word, and we do the same with the graph paper words. We make the 'graph' paper on construction paper and use different colors. Fun. Lily is also benefiting from this.  BUT...this part is not  Meg friendly, she couldn't focus, but putting the letters together into words, she is all over that!

This is our homework area.  A place for Meg to do art too.  A place for all the pens and pencils to be kept! When they were kept in the playroom, they WERE. EVERY. WHERE.  I really hated that.

I grew up with all that sort of thing kept in one area because my dad was a commercial artist, as it was called in the day.  He had his draft table, his taboret, his pens, his brushes, everything right there.

Food.  Biscuits, brown sugar, butter, cream cheese....

YUM!!!  Something found on Pinterest.

We made a packing popcorn pillow for the playroom. The popcorn doesn't weigh much.

I am still working on the Crane Prairie 'picture'.  This is our truck, which is actually white, but....the beads are black, that should count....The rivers and lake are from a damask dyed by Deb L.

And the trailer is white too....and the tents...and the pink wagon!!

North, on the Columbia River, still in Oregon, the trains went past every few hours, so I added 2....yes, the engines look like vans....

The large blank area of tan below the river is for rocks, sticks, pine cones and other collected items.

Last Mothers Day, or maybe more, Steph and Ashley gave me a charm pack of happy fabrics.  Well I waited and waited until an idea formed on how to use it....I have finally decided to make skirts for all 4 girls [yes there is another on the way, she will get something later].  {I have other charm pack-fabrics all stitched tog, but no pix, for the actual skirts}  I sewed this pack into one long strip, cut that in half, and those in half so I have 4 equal length strips to make a ruffle with, to go on each skirt!

The cat didn't give me much time to take photos....

Not sure if I have shared this pic yet, of all 3 tog.

Road Trip 1 for 2012

So...Dan, Stephanie, aka CollegeGirl, and I got away for a few days.

We stayed at Seaquest State Park on 503, it leads to Mt. St. Helens. 

 This is The Mountain. The cloud cover probably doesn't cover to much of the top, since she blew that away in 1980. This is farther up the road from the CG.

On the way up, there is a nice view of the Toutle River valley[?] area. [below]

 This was a whole different picture right after the eruption, with snow melt, ash, debris...!! 

Probably a lot deeper too.  

Dan took this pic for me....of the trees...he is right...I really like it.  Feathers. 

Collage of St. Helens view from road, below.

Not sure if the truck was a causality of the eruption, but it has a Weyerhaeuser emblem on the door...and a tree growing through it...

Waterfall for Ashley, for her List. 

 While 'camping', it rained....and rained....

I loved the ferns growing up on the tree branch.

Steph's new BF...har....This is for Megan, who wants to see a BF- as in Big Foot.

 A red headed woodpecker. Added to my Life List.

 

And another Ash-hole added to that list....

 After 2 days of rain, we got Snow! [and then the sun, of course!]

Stephanie added another Snowperson to that list....

And this female elk can to added to yet another list...

Besides viewing butts and ashes....we girls did crafty stuff....

 It was extremely relaxing!

 And a token shot of our CollegeGirl, reading for pleasure!