Bunny Slippers

When our son was born someone gave us the book "Goodnight Moon" along with the bunny slippers. He wore them proudly and loved his bunny slippers. At one time I could recite the book from memory because I read it so many times.

During my last purge of baby/kid clothes I found these slippers. I set them aside, in a safe place, because I want to make pin cushions out of them. In December I looked for them to start the project, but couldn't find the "safe place" I put them. Well ... I found them last week. I have collected all the materials I will need. Now I just have to do it.

UFO List

Susan of Blackberry Creek Home Arts is hosting a UFO Bust for 2011. You can click on the button on my side bar to go directly to the rules of the UFO Bust. This is a very low pressure deal - just my style. If you want to join too, just go over to Susan's site (click the link in the first sentence or the button on the right) and sign yourself up.

My plan is just to "deal with" every UFO on my list this year. By "deal with" I mean actually pull out each one. See if I have everything necessary to finish it. Decide if I really do want to finish it. If do, then make a plan for finishing (notice I didn't say "finish it", just "make a plan to finish it"). If I don't want to finish it, get rid of it by either giving it away, throwing it away or cutting it up for use in another project and putting the unused fabrics back in my stash.

Here is my oldest UFO, I think. At least it is the oldest one I have found so far.

These blocks were leftovers from a panel I cut up and used to make a quilt for a friend in 2005. I had planned to quilt it up and give it to charity. It's been 5 years and I haven't done it. Do I still want to quilt it? I'm not sure. This may be one that I end up giving away.

So here is my list:

1. Cabin Lap Quilt (photo above) - charity
2. Mom's Mystery Quilt (this is one of my Mom's UFOs that she passed on to me)
3. Funky Santa (almost got the binding on this one!)
4. Wonky New York Beauty
5. House quilt - charity
6. Clifford quilt - charity
7. Pooh quilt - charity
8. Cars quilt - charity
9. Puzzle quilt
10. Lollipop Flowers round robin quilt
11. Bird Panel
12. Spring Panel
13. Cuddly quilt
14. Space quilt
15. Gail Garber class quilt (pieced hexagon)

This list contains only the UFOs I have currently found. I feel like there are more somewhere, but they haven't surfaced yet. When I finally switch my sewing room with the current guest room and move all my crap, I may find more. I'll let you know if I do. I'm going to try to figure out how to put this list on my sidebar, mainly as a reminder for myself.

I received one more birthday gift from the son. I failed to post a photo yesterday so I'm doing it today.

He is currently reading this book. Below the book is the gift. He made me an amulet. It has some magical powers that I don't fully understand, but I love it. This will go into my collection of treasures he has given me over the years. He is currently 8. I hope to make a small quilt to attach these treasures to someday. I will include photos of him too on the quilt.

Desk and Closet are In

The carpentry work was completed yesterday on son's new desk and closet. He was so excited!

There is obviously still some painting that needs to occur. I'm going to do that next week after he goes back to school. His closet has two rods with shelves above, one on either side of the door. We still need to put back all of his stuff that we took out for the construction. It is all piled in the guest room right now. I hope to be able to go through some of the things and get rid of some stuff before finding new homes for things in his room.

I also finished the quilting on my nine patch strata yesterday.

It needs to be pressed still and then I have to decide on the binding.

Long Awaited Day Here

Two years ago we had our main bathroom remodeled. It desperately needed to be renovated! In the process, my son lost his bedroom closet to the new bathroom. It was amazing how much difference about 10 square additional feet made to the bathroom! However, son has been without a closet ever since - until today. I commissioned a local carpenter to make him a built-in closet and desk. It is going to go here.

I painted most of the pieces ahead of time. Here they are in our garage.

Installation began this morning. It is quite loud but will be worth it when it is finished. Son is having a hard time waiting for it to be done.

And here is a Goldie shot.

This fruit roll-up box was brought home for Goldie several months ago. I get really frustrated when trash is brought home to be repurposed because it usually stays trash and on the floor! However, Goldie has really enjoyed this box, but I think she needs a new one!

Ski Season has begun

We had a nice Thanksgiving. I hope you did too. I cooked all day Wednesday and Thursday. I enjoy cooking and it is fun to do a big meal every once in a while. Bright and early Friday morning my husband left for two days of skiing. He got back late Saturday night and slept all day Sunday. I tell you this so that you know why I haven't gotten very much done over the Thanksgiving holiday. I sure was glad things were back to normal today. However, I didn't get any sewing done today either because of all the errands, grocery shopping and dinner making.

On Friday, in little spurts, I was able to make a few gift bags. Parker had a friend over for the afternoon. They played very nicely and left me alone for the most part. I made these two birthday bags as a gift for a friend.

Then I made a few Christmas gift bags. I made two each of these.

Once I get on a roll with these they are very fast to make. You can go to my pattern/tutorial for the bags I make by clicking here.

Mom's Cutting

As I mentioned yesterday, my mom did a lot of cutting while she was here. So I thought I would share with you the results of her labor.

I came home from Retreat with a tall kitchen garbage bag of flannel scraps.

I failed to get a photo of the full "before" bag. Mom is fast with a rotary cutter! She cut 6 inch squares and 5 inch squares. There are 182 6 inch squares. We had the secret agents count for us. (click on the link to get the inside story about our local secret agents.)

5 inch squares

6 inch squares

Whatever couldn't be cut into these dimensions went into a bag to take to the next guild meeting for our raffle table.

Then she started on the cotton fabric I was gifted recently. (Click on the link to go that post.) She cut 4 by 6 inch rectangles and 4 1/2" squares.

rectangles

squares

With the 6 inch flannel squares I plan to do a rag quilt. With 4.5" cotton squares I plan to do a disappearing nine patch. Some of the 5 inch flannel squares will probably end up in a quilt for Goldie that Parker wants to make. I have a plan for the cotton rectangles, but I don't know the pattern or block name so you will just have to wait and see on that one.

Whew! I'm tired just typing about all that cutting!

Another Finish

I finished my house ornaments!

These turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself! Something different than what I have been making in recent years.

My parents left this morning. We are sad to see them go. My dad did some touch-up painting around the house, painted two doors and the three risers for the laundry room staircase. He also fixed several yummy dinners for us. My mom took a large kitchen garbage bag full of flannel scraps and cut it up into usable squares for me. Then she started on one of the two boxes of fabrics I was recently gifted. She got a little of it cut up, but sorted and ironed quite a bit of that first box. But most importantly, she played with Parker.

Halloween

We had a smaller group this year for our Trick-or-Treat party, but it was still fun. Parker is dressed as Mario.

The weather was nice but I wondered if the fact that it was Sunday night might deter some folks from coming out. NO! I have a cauldron for the candy I give out.

I couldn't keep Goldie out of the picture but then thought it would be good to have her in it for scale. As you can see, it is a pretty big cauldron. It was about half full of candy when the night began and I ran out at 7:45 pm. I give one piece of candy to each kid so I figure we had about 400 kids come by last night.

Parker and Tony decorated their Haunted Gingerbread Houses over the weekend. Here is Parker's house.

And Tony's house.

A big thank you to James for sending us the gingerbread house pieces and candy to decorate them with. We really enjoy getting the kit each year and they smell wonderful!

I have lots to share with you from my weekend retreat but I'll spread that out over the next few days.

Market Day

Parker and I finished up his fire flies for Market Day yesterday afternoon.

All that is left is to add the glow stick. They go inside the bottle. He is going to let his customers choose which color glow stick they want since I bought several different colors.

I am making progress on my house ornaments too. I got the doors and windows appliqued on this morning. Now all that is left is to sew the front and back together, turn, press and stitch around the outside.

Secret Agents

I finished another Christmas gift yesterday, the third on my list. I can't show you photos yet because I know the recipient reads my blog. I had seven gifts or sets of gifts to make on my list. So far, I have completed four of the seven. Yippee skippy!

Since I can't show you pictures of my sewing project, I'll share photos of Parker's latest venture. He and his friend Jamie are now Secret Agents.

Here are closeups of each sign - because this is just so cute!

Seems like quite a bargain! Let me know if you have a problem and I'll have the Secret Agents contact you. Wink, wink!

I'm Back

My class ended yesterday! Yippee! In case you were worried, I passed. I was able to do a little more work on my New York Beauty project during the week in 15 - 20 minute segments. Here is what it looked like last time I posted it.

And here is what it looks like this morning.

I'm sorry I didn't take in between photos. I was just so glad to have a few minutes to sew that I didn't want to waste any time trying to take process photos. I think the piecing part is done. I am starting to think about how to quilt it.


Since I haven't posted in a week, I have a few cat photos to share. The first was taken on Tuesday, Oct. 6th.

It is Goldie and Maggie both asleep on our bed. Notice the water bottle in between them to remind Goldie to leave Maggie alone. Goldie has been slowly trying to make friends. The picture below was taken just yesterday. I did not think this day would ever come!

They stayed like this for about an hour. I'm not sure Maggie ever realized Goldie was in the chair with her.

This last one was taken on Saturday. Parker and I watched a movie in the afternoon and he felt Goldie needed some friends to watch with her.

USS Electokate

On Monday my husband carried home, about 3 blocks, a huge empty box. He received a delivery of chairs for the Math Lab. The chairs came in the box. All kids love boxes and our son, Parker, is no exception. The box has become a nebula class star ship.

The box is so large that I had to carry it around the house to the playroom patio doors to get it into the playroom.

The dome is a plastic shade that fits over a bulb. These were the old playroom lights, just bulbs hanging from the ceiling with these sad plastic shades clipped on. It makes a great star ship dome though!

I'm not sure what all the markings are for on the inside, but Parker has been working very hard on it every day after school.

He has a used aluminum pie plate that will become the deflector shield soon.

I have been swamped with work lately. I am taking a labor intensive two week course on WebCT, an online course delivery and course manager type software. Since I am doing more classes these days and the classes are online courses, I thought it would be a good idea for me to finally take this course so I can use WebCT in my job. I am taking this course in addition to my regular jobs which is really cutting into my sewing time. So this star ship project is about the most exciting and creative project going on at my house right now.

Boyd Fun Run

My son's school does a one mile run every Fall and Spring. The kids run while the parents cheer and take pictures. The kids line up in a mob at the starting point. Parker wore all yellow! I cringed a bit when he left the house in the morning, but it was easy to find him in a crowd.

They run (or walk).

He finished 65th and ran most of the way - a big improvement over last Fall's run.

Every kid that finishes get a ribbon and a popsicle.

A good time with friends.