Making Over A Sewing Table!

Way way back in October I started a project to make over a sewing table that came from a fabulous sewer in my family. 

It's a very sturdy table that had seen better days.  So it got primed and painted a dazzling apple green to bring it back to life.  Then with a touch of hand painting and new knobs, she was looking fantastic!

I had some fun painting on part the flips open.  The dandelion wishing flower has always been one of my favorite symbols of being free or blowing with the wind. 

And I chose the "Sew Free...like no one's watching!" saying to remind me to always follow what's in my heart; not a trend or fad.

I was even able to sink my sewing machine into the table like the original design intended!

The Mister used brackets to create a platform in the table at just the right height for my sewing machine.  It's brilliant and I feel like it's going to take my sewing up a few notches!  I do have to take the sewing machine out if I want to close the extra table on the left, but I'm in love!

And here she is in action for the first time!

If you need me I'm sure you can find me by the beautiful green sewing table.  I'm home recouping from head to toe poison ivy these next few days... ugg!  I'm hoping sewing provides a nice distraction from the itching. 

Getting Back to Blogging

I've been missing, but I'm back now. 

These pictures just about sum up what's been going on. 

When we're not all snuggled up and sleeping.  We are doing other things... like taking hikes.

Wearing bandanas and in general being too busy to stop.

Looking forward to showing more of what I've been up to!! 

And I still can't stop gushing about how cute these two are together.  Nearly inseparable.  And almost the same size now.  Sammy is on the left in this last one.  Katie is on the right. 

We'll talk soon!

Living up to the Challenge

I worked diligently on the one challenge I set for myself this week which was to finish up my remaining bottled rainbows blocks.  Let's take a look at the progress I made.

You can read more about Amy's One Thing, One Week Challenge here.

This blue block got filled in and pinned (will be sewn today).

Same with the yellow block.  Just love the diagonal lines in this one!

The red one is almost filled in.  Looks like I have a lot of red fabrics with dots.  Too funny!

And I believe the lime green is also one you haven't seen yet.

Did I finish up the challenge as I set it for myself?  Not exactly.  But, in a way it worked, because I have a renewed motivation to get this one to the finish line.  So much so, that I cleared my design wall and put the whole thing up as a reminder of how darn cool it's going to be all finished!

Neat looking, isn't it?  I am getting more and more excited about this one for sure!

I also signed up for the upcoming Friday Night Sew In.  Clearing some time for myself to sew, sew, sew!  If you are interested you can read more and join in here.

Baby Apple Tree

It's been an amazing, sunny, warm, delicious, make you think of summer, and all those lazy days ahead kind of weekend.  Hope you and yours have found ways to turn the time into sweet memories! 

Also, Happy Mother's Day to all the strong women who make it look so easy.

The seedling is a baby apple tree grown straight from a seed found in a real life apple.  I took the seed from the apple core after eating the apple and plopped it right into the dirt.  Of the eight seeds I planted, it seems this is the one that will try to grow into a tree.  The 'greenhouse' is up-cycled from the top of a two liter soda bottle.

Nothing like a little new life to give us all a little perspective on this festive day!

Ciao bella, xoxo!

WIP {Bottled Rainbows & I'm Not Crazy}

I am getting back into my sewing groove coming off the fresh inspiration from the quilt show (which I will finally dish about tomorrow).  And I started to realize that I have a lot of ideas and quilts in my head.  So, I grabbed my trusty chalk board and began to make a list.  I think I have enough projects here to take me through the summer!  Wow!

This Week's Work in Progress (WiP) Stats:

Last WiP Wednesday Total: 1
New Projects: 7 (I'm glad I'm finally getting all these ideas in one place!)

Finished Projects: 0

Total WiP's: 8

Let's look in on a few, shall we?

The Bottled Rainbows pattern is coming along nicely.  Here you can see I was working up the turquoise block.  I just love that big orange in the bottom left!  You can also see Sammy stuck her nose in the photo.

I have also been hard at work making up the last 6 blocks to start filling in with scraps.  I have light orange, red, and yellow ready to go with the batting attached.

Here is light pink, pink, and a purple... the last three.  The blocks are together, I just have to sew the batting on and they will also be ready for scrappy wonderfulness!

I still have one of my sewing assistants with me regularly.  This is Sammy (aren't Katie and Sam looking so similar anymore?).  I had to show you the icky ball that Sammy insists on playing with -- good thing it doesn't smell.  The Mister grabbed it out of our lake... Sam just loves the thing.  So, I am typically sewing a little, throw the ball, iron a little, throw the ball... you get the picture.  Keeps me laughing!

I have also started designing and cutting triangles for my very own Patchwork Prism.  I'm doing my best to follow the quilt along found at Sweet Diesel Designs. 

The pattern (which is free!) caught my eye right away.  And I admit that I haven't had my fill of rainbow-y projects yet, so this is appealing on lots of levels.  And have you seen the prizes involved?  Ya. A sewing machine. Count me in!  Here's a sneaky of what direction I'm headed. 

I also wanted to share a new little fella that's keeping me company on my desk.  There was a vendor at the quilt show with lots of Japanese things, and I fell hard for this guy.  I think he's meant as a pincushion, but I haven't been able to stick him with a pin yet.  But, I grin so darn big when I see him!  I think he needs a name too, don't you agree?

I'm not sure I told you yet, but I joined Studio Art Quilt Associate (or SAQA).  Have you heard of them?  Well, they are a great group for artists that want to play with different types of art quilting.  Art quilting isn't traditional and in fact I love it because pretty much anything goes!  I'm sure I'll be talking about art quilting more and more moving forward.

So, anyway, SAQA had a call for entry on their site called "I'm Not Crazy" for the topic of mental illnesses (common ones like anxiety or depression, or less common ones, like schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder).  One of the questions they wanted the art work to explore was "How does the world look through the eyes of someone experiencing a panic attack or depression or other mental disorder?"

This really resonated with me; I'll explain why another time.  It resonated so much that I stayed up late to cut up the zillions of little confetti bits needed to cover the 4x4 foot area.  Below is a sneaky peak of it.  And yes, Sammy showed her approval by laying right on top of the basted start.  Argg!  I am in the process of quilting and embellishing this one and look forward to sharing more very soon ... especially since this one is due by May 31st.

And that's what's going on recently in my cozy little sewing room.  Lots of inspiration and my ever faithful pup getting in the mix.  I can't wait to take a peak at what you are up to this week!

Rambling Through the Garden

I'm in a bit of a rambler mood and let me share why.  Last night we were woken up by the alarming barks of one Ms. Sammy pup -- she is a brilliant watch dog and huntress.  She was adamant that something was out there.  We went to the windows to look and listen for anything.  And that's when we heard the most horrible shrill scream. 

Not just once, twice, but three times.  And loud.  And terrifying!

At that point I about swallowed my heart if you know what I mean.  The sound was hard to place.  Not quite human, but not an animal that I could identify.  The Mister and I went through the list of wildlife we know is in the area and started to cross them off one by one.  It wasn't a bear, coyote, wolf, mountain lion, owl....but what was it? 

By now all the noise had stopped and Sammy went on like she had defended the fort and we were safe and sound and snuggled back into bed. 

You can imagine I didn't get much rest after that jumping and fearing every silly little noise.

So, this morning I google "animal that screams like a woman" and come up with all sorts of hits... and one kind of slams me like a mac truck saying that a female fox (vixen) makes that sound.  And sure enough, google fox screams and the youtube video clips are pretty reasonably the sound we heard.  Ugg!

And to think that I was on a forest hike early Saturday morning with the pups and we saw a fox cross our path ... and I was thinking to myself how nice to see wildlife that can't (really) hurt me (wasn't a bear, ya know)... little did I know how scary they can sound.  deep breath. 

p.s. I now feel inducted into country living properly.  Seems like a right of passage for every person living somewhat in the woods.  I can hear myself now saying to a guest, "oh yes, come stay the night, we'd love to have you."

And then in the middle of the night... "that noise? oh that's just the foxes getting their twitterpated selves on.  No worries.  We're perfectly safe."

I might even consider camping in the backyard once more.  Lastly, anyone have any ideas how I explain to Sammy that the noise is "normal" and she needn't wake us for it.  Sigh.

So, other than that weird event my weekend was amazing.  How about yours?

Yes, I did make it to my guilds quilt show and yes it was the most amazing thing I've seen in a long time!  I want to take the time to digest everything and then I will share my experience of being a quilt handler for the judging as well as what my first quilt show was like.  I have quilt-y eye-candy for you too!

One of the best parts of the show was connecting with so many people that adore sewing/quilting like I do.  And I want to say hello to Cathy!  Hello!!  It was so much fun to meet you at the show and thank you again for being such an avid Describe Happy follower!

Alright on with the day.  And now that we can laugh about this crazy fox incident.. how cute would it be to see baby foxes running around?  That is, as long as they don't sound like big scary monsters in the middle of the night. 

Have a fabulous day!

... Linking to Outdoor Wednesdays with A Southern Daydreamer ...
... Linking to Cottage Garden Party with Fishtail Cottage ...

Birthday-WIP-Catch Up-I'm a Slacker

Maybe if you stare in the pretty rainbow colored scrappy bottled rainbows blocks you won't much remember that I've been a total post slacker this week.  I am finally finding my first few moments this week and it's Friday.  When did the week slip by me?

There are a lot of things going on.  I had a big meeting at work which went amazing in the end, but took a lot of time and effort to prep for.  I have been going to dog training classes with both dogs.  Katie is in a nose work class one night a week and Sammy is taking intermediate obedience one night a week.  I still swear the training is mostly for me, they are just there to keep me company. 

And I got to volunteer as a quilt handler for quilt judging for the quilt show my guild is putting on this weekend.  It was amazing.  What an experience to be able to handle so many quilts and see them up close.  I was also able to listen to the judging and am really gaining an appreciate for all the things they look at.

And... I even got to hold my two quilts while they were being judged.  Talk about good luck!  It was nerve wrecking, but I am so happy with the positive feedback.  Yes, I have a lot to learn, and no I didn't place or get a ribbon, but I couldn't be happier.  And I am reminded that I am part of an amazing group of ladies!  Yes, they could all mostly be my mom or grandmom... but seriously I feel so loved with them!

I have manged to sneak in a few moments of sewing this week.  Not much, but this scrappy project is great for 15 minute snaps of sewing time.  And I'm happy to still be making progress.  I officially added the purple, pink, and deep blue blocks this week. 

I also made up a number of new color frames to fill in.  In this picture, you can see I've already completed the royal blue.  And once these are done I will move to the yellow, light orange, red, and light pink.  I feel like I am in the home stretch with this quilt.  And still loving every minute!

Sammy is still my sewing buddy.  Her favorite spot at the moment is under my desk.  It's like her bat cave.  And I'm happy she feels so safe there!

Here she is laying on my feet.  Does your pup do that?  Lay on your feet so you can't move without waking them up?  Such a smarty pants.

This past weekend we also noticed that there are now birdie residents in the bird house.  At different points there have been nesting materials poking out the front.  Fun to see them busy making a home.

You can see more pictures of the bird house from last year here, here, and here.

And the best for last?  Why yes, of course!  Our sweet Katie has turned 5 years old.  Her birthday was Monday and we spoiled her in proper goldie fashion!

Happy Birthday to my sweet sweet Katie, and many many more!