Happy Zombie

I just can’t stop gushing over this DARLING kit I bought in Jen’s etsy shop. When I received it, I thougt no way can I cut into this… must leave adorable kit intact. After a few days of opening and closing the tin’s lid… fondling the contents - I took a deep breath and got out my scissors. I thought I heard the fabric let out a quiet scream, but soon realized it was just gasping for air (let me out, let me out).  Jen’s kit was so put together, she even added a precious little needlebook.  I feel like I hit the mother-load of all things cute and kit’y.   And Jen even snuck in a few pieces of Minny Muu!

I dove in with my handy dandy yo-yo maker, and decided once the yo-yo was made I couldn’t see enough of the gorgeous Swell fabric (you know, Swell… by the Urban Chicks… yes, those Urban Chicks… Pam’s friends). Anyhoo…  I decided I wanted to see more of the Swell, and took a stab at making some hexes.  I have those nice big hex plastic “patties”, but they were gianormus.   Enter thought bubble over my head.  Now a light bulb.  Now me squirming.  I have to pee, I’ll be right back.  Back to thought bubble.  Question mark.  Light bulb back on.  AH HA.  I can finally use my Darlene Zimmerman hex tool and make my own from thin plastic.  Now thought bubble turns to wavey dreamy remembering blur seeing on Pam’s blog she had all the info about the ruler. Ding sound. Elbow cupped in my hand while my other hand rubs my chin. Yes, yes… Pam’s done all the work writing about it, why duplicate it?!

So I wasn’t quite done with my kit, and it hangs on my design wall waiting to be bound. I’m stumped as to what color fab to bind it in. I fear red will make it look Valentiney, and the aqua is too hard to match… so I’m still in audition mode.  [Thought bubble… WWPKMD?]

Seeing Pam’s post, and seeing that Nanette and Jenny have also gotten Jen’s kit (and that Doe needs reviving, and maybe Laurie too)… I knew I had to shout from the roof-tops, that dang it… I must have kick ass good taste!  Oh, and that I’m also lazy.

PS… speaking of Laurie, if I’m not too late… a little someone-someone needs a new home.

Dang… my posts have been getting sparser and sparser.  I’ve been so busy with getting ready for Market (that’s SPRING ‘09 Market… not Fall ‘08 - sadly I won’t be able to attend Fall Market, sniff).  Busy, busy, busy… but I did manage to get in some fun play-time with my friends.  And what a wonderful time it was!

My little girl gang recently was treated to a wonderful day at my friend Sally’s house to celebrate her new craft studio. Many know of my friend Karen and her talented ways… but there’s another Snyder-girl who has the same gifts… Sally! Karen… cloth. Sally… paper. What a dynamic sister duo. So much to show, so much to tell. I think this is the longest/biggest post I’ve ever made, so I’ll keep my words to a minimum (I can hear the sighs of relief).

Lime + Black + White = Bliss

Sally with Bette.  Bette is Karen and Sal’s mom… and also my pretend mom/my second mom.  Bette is gifted too… with kindness, wit, humor, generosity, grace, beauty, style, extraordinary fashion sense and so much more.

Big sis Karen (R) and Connie’s sis Carol (L).  Carol was visiting from Oklahoma and became an honorary member of our girl gang/mini guild for the day.  I think she should move up here and become a permanent member.

L to R - Connie, Carol and Karen. (say that 5 x fast)

Sal shows us what’s in her drawers… Robin is caught off guard by what I just described.

Bette… so proud of her talented daughters.  Behind Bette is a mural Sally had commissioned.  It looks so real and you can’t help but want to touch it.

Endless storage hidden behind cupboard doors.

Wow… it [the cupboard] recesses really far back.  I bet it almost reaches Idaho.

Sal showing Connie and Carol the closet.  Something very foreign to me… a closet door that opens - and nothing spills out of it into a big heap on the floor. Must take notes.

So this is what those big sliding things at the bottom of a cabinet are for.

This is what organization looks like up close.  Again, very foreign to me.

Serious knobby love.

Bette typing on a vintage iPhone.

Who are you sending a text message to, Bette?  “Why to Monica, of course!”

Window delight.

Sparkle delight.

We all wore lime, black and white for the occasion. I made little fabric flower broaches for us to don.

Even Chris and Michelle dressed in lime/black/white for the party.

Ok, not really.  Psyche.

Craft tote I made for Sal. I used my Quilts & More purse pattern and extended the width of the pocket piece by 4″, and pleated it to make the pockets expand to hold crafty tools.

Tree-o-gifts on Sally’s kitchen table.

Look, look! A little bit of PamKittyMorning at Sal’s!  Licorice scotties from TJ’s.  Mmmm.

Sal set her lunch table so beautifully.  It was almost too pretty to eat at.  Almost. Nothing will stop me from partaking in a food event - no matter how pretty or cute.

Karen dishing up some YUM mac-n-cheese.  Another talent of the Snyder Sisters… mac-n-cheese.  I love both of theirs equally (keeping the peace so they’ll both feed theirs to me again).

A nice shot of Robin - she always has a wonderful smile on her face.  Always.

Dessert for the eyes.  Glass candies.

What a wonderful day it was - and it was even SUNNY!

I’ve been getting a lot of emails asking where Lecien can be found after posting about my stack-o-happiness (aka the darling Minny Muu #3 fabric).

One answer is to ask your local quilt shop to carry it. Or… you can shop online for Lecien. I’ve added my favorite online recourses to the bottom of the original post as well as here.
Shop.
Enjoy.
Feel the fabric love!

Linkie-Love: My favorite online retail resources for Lecien:
FatQuarterShop.com
SuperBuzzy.com
PurlSoho.com

A little field trip to Pomeroy Living History Farm near Battleground, Washington. Please keep your arms and hands inside the bus at all times.

Last weekend was Pomeroy’s 13th Annual Quilt Festival, and it was MAGICAL! The theme this year was butterflies. My friend Karen (queen of the butterflies) was the featured speaker, and I was her Vanna quilt holder at her Saturday performances (ok, not a *performance*… a speech slash lecture slash show-n-tell… but since there was a stage, and I happened to be on it… well… it became a performance). Sit down. Buckle in. Hold on.

Quilty bliss.

Path-o-happiness

I’d like to add some aqua paint or drape a quilt on this tractor. Silly me… it’s not decoration, they actually use this tractor. It is a tractor, right?

The fresh picked beets were calling my name. And some sour cream. And some herring.

The fence is not to keep the farmer in, it’s to keep me out. And the deer. Nibble. Nibble.

Outside of the blacksmith’s barn.

Inside the blacksmith’s barn. Much fun was had during a round of Let’s Tease The City Girl. Ok, so I don’t know the difference between horse shoes and shoes worn by loggers - but I CAN navigate the L.A. freeway system with one eye closed.

Edited in: A priceless comment from Karen, “Now, I have to tell the story of the blacksmith shop. There were some horse shoes with big cleats on them hanging on the railing in front of us. I asked the blacksmith why they had cleats on them. He said it was to help give traction when they were logging. And Miss Monica added, “I bet it helped them climb the trees!” Ahh, the visual image of those horses climbing trees……..”

I heart chickens. I sure miss my mine, especially at times like this.

Entrance to the big barn, greeted by my favorite flower (I love how the dahlias match the quilt).

Inside the big barn, this quilt knocked my flip-flops off. I’m a sucker for solids.

Outside of the big barn… an occasional aroma in the air would remind us these guys were there.

Lunch time! We could eat in the “farm cafe”…

or we could dine in the tea room. Karen treated for tea. Though I had an Americano, because that’s how I do tea. I also skipped on the Strawberry Soup. Wasn’t really my thing. Had there been some Belgium waffles under it, and whipped cream on top… then yes I would have devoured it.

Time to clear the scone crumbs off my chest… it’s show time.  A little pre-show PR with Debbie and Karen.

Karen’s presentation was “Depression Era Quilts”. Karen is always entertaining and informative. She’s the Mike Rowe of the quilt world. Quilty Jobs.

Every now and then I see a vintage quilt that just sucks the air right of me. This is one of them. Not only was it beautiful, but the workmanship was exquisite.

The hexes are so tiny and so sweetly fussy cut. I imagine this took decades to make.

If you look at this photo in super-size-me… look at the binding on the gold quilt - and you can see the binding size’s relation to the scale of the hexes.

A wonderful day, with wonderful friends, wonderful weather (overcast… love it). Hard to end the field trip… more photos to see (and no funky piggie smells) here.

If happiness came in stacks, this is what it would look like.

My special delivery from Japan. A glorious collection of Lecien’s darling Minny Muu.

It’s as if someone crawled into my head and designed fabric just for me.

Too cute for words, even though there are words. I’m pretty sure it says something in French.

Wish I could show what I’m going to do with it - my secret project for Lecien! But that will have to wait until Fall. I’m pretty sure I’m going to make another Merry-Go-Round, and I’m thinkin’ I may do one out my Minny Muu’s secret project leftover fabric.

If there was an awards show for Best Comments Ever (and the Oscar goes too…), hands down my blog would win. Wolfgang Puck would be catering my after-party, and all you wonderful peeps who leave me the nicest (and funniest) comments would be the guests of honor. I’m so touched by each and everyone of them and I thank you so much! Sometimes I even show my parents, and remind them that those notes they’d get about me from school when I was a kid - notes from the principal, the counselors, the teachers… that one day they’d read something good about me. Thank you for proving me right! Please forgive me if my email replies slack in the next few weeks… but I’ve got me some sewin’ (and a couple of bloggie-goodies too) to do. Whoo whoo!

Linkie-Love: My favorite online retail resources for Lecien:
FatQuarterShop.com
SuperBuzzy.com
PurlSoho.com

I first saw the Merry-Go-Round quilt on Nanette’s blog here, and then on Michelle’s blog here… and I was so smitten with their quilts… I had to drop everything and make one myself! A while back ago I had seen an afghan in a home dec magazine, and I was looking at it… studying it… how could I make that out of fabric. So I tried. Started with a hex shape, and then went round and round log cabin style. Ugh. Took FOREVER to do one block, plus there were a gazillion seams (and not to mention a crap-load of Y seams in my future). Failure. Fabric afghan nuttin’ but a bust. Until now - and Sandy Klop is the genius behind my quilt dream come to life. “Dream” may be a stretch… but I’m pretty stinkin’ happy. Like craving for some exotic food that’s out of reach, and right there on your friends blogs is the recipe for the dish. Good times at Casa de Zombie. Good times. Edited in: You can get the pattern here.

I made mine a little different then the pattern. Smaller and set different. I used my Darlene Zimmerman purple triangle tool. I love Darlene’s tools, and she’s the queen genius of all quilting geniuses. Of all my favorite quilts, there’s a bit of Darlene in all of them - either her patterns, her fabrics, her tools or the tricks she’s taught me.

I’ve been having so much fun playing with the triangle tool, a bee flew up my butt and I thought up a fun little project to do with friends - four friends total to be exact. Kind of like a cookie swap… I’ll share it later, but for now I have to keep mum because my girl-gang is coming over on Monday for a sewing day, and it’s going to be a secret project for us. Anyhoo… I made my MGR with 9 fat quarters and used the leftover fabric for a pieced back. It may not stay long in it’s current locataion, as that chair is the bird watching perch for our cats. Yeah. Cat hair. Sucks. I heart you James Dyson.

Also in the Department of Keeping Mum… I have to keep this under lock and key until Fall. And it’s killing me because what’s coming is so stinkin’ cute and I want to share about it. I guess I could hint with something like “zinny zuu” or “tiny cow sound”. But I won’t. And besides… I’m making Doe squirm and I’m enjoying it. Maybe when my package comes I’ll snap a few shots of what’s inside. For now the waiting feels like an etirnity. Hurry DHL, hurry!

Mine! Or as Doe told me (ala the seagulls from Nemo)… mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine…

Thank you all for your support - and helping to keep the American economy rolling. We’re all doing our part, eh. I called Flowers N Fluff and paid via phone, and sweet, sweet Robin from Robin’s Parcel Express picked it up for me and brought it too me at our Redwork Club at Karen’s house. Robin holding on tight as I snap her pic, and no time to fiddle with the camera… that’s a heavy table she’s holding!

Show and Tell at Redwork… Karen shows a goodie she found in Sweden recently. I think it says “stockings”.

Another Swedish gem. It says something in Swedish. We don’t know what. But it gave me the idea to embroider something that says, “Etwas auf Deutsch”, and I’ll be asked, “what does it say?“, and I’ll say… “something in German”. “No… what does it SAY?!“… again… “SOMETHING IN GERMAN”. Round and round I’ll go. Kinda scary how easily I’m able to entertain myself.

We all went gaga over the vintage Lady of the Lake quilt top one of the ladies brought.

The colors of the prints were amazing and in such great shape.

A very fun day, all in red. But sadly… there was a lot of blue too. Very, very, very blue.

Edited in: I do not know why the Anna Lena links are not working at the moment, but I’m sure they’ll be working again soon.

An innocent little trip to Amanda’s blog made me trigger happy. Spray paint trigger happy. Amanda inspired me here and here. First the big planters, then DS’s old, old boots he wore ONE time when he went to Outdoor School in Vernonia, OR - and his feet grew the very next week. The park bench is next. And then I’m off to search for something else to spray in red and aqua. I’m eying my son’s John Deere. Yellow and green? Ha.

I am the keeper of these roses. The previous owner of our home planted them and I do not know what kind they are. We call them Missile Pops because that’s what they look like when they’re budding…

And Pink Lemonaid when they’re blooming.

Happy Monday!

Edited in:  Paint is Krylon indoor/outdoor gloss.  Aqua is “Blue Ocean Breeze” and red is “Cherry Red”.  I did spray the black boots with a coat of white first to make the aqua pop.   

I teased about it almost a year ago. Almost a YEAR! And it all started a year ago when my friend Robin gave me some vintage 4-patches for Mimi. More love… Elizabeth sent Mimi some DARLING aqua fabric (the border)… and “Friendship Bread” was born!

Here’s Robin holding the quilt. Wasn’t it nice of her to coordinate her outfit to go with the quilt!

On my sewing room wall at our old house…

It’s so hard to keep things hush, and for so long too. But on the bright side - since I’m such a procrastinator, I’m pretty much timely. Friendship Bread evolved into “Four Bean Salad”…

… which is in the current issue (Summer ‘08) of Quilts & More as “Bay Breeze” (I love the name it was given!). Whoo whoo! So stinkin’ excited over it and I love the photography and how it’s done in a shabby beach chic setting. The yummy fabric is from Joanna’s Allspice Tapestry line for Moda.

I haven’t seen the issue on the newsstands yet, but I know it’s out because the Magazine Queen has her copy. Even with my advanced copy… I was still scooped by Pam! HOW DOES SHE DO IT!?!?! Elizabeth says “pam” is “map” spelled backwards… but I think “pam” is an acronym for Princess of All Magazines.

I love Quilts & More (seriously, no bias on my part) and it’s my favorite magazine of all time. Such a fun issue for me to browse through… Tanya has her ADORABLE “Flirty Skirts” on page 16, and then I see Holly with her DARLING “Slumber Party” on page 50 (and I especially love the “M” and the “O” on page 57 - though I was disapointed there was no “N”, “I”, “C” and “A” - sigh), and then there’s lil ol me on page 40. I had to put on my glasses and whip out the magnifying glass… and there in an ad on page 25 is Karen’s Fat Quarter Fun book. Too fun!

My little Four Bean Salad/Bay Breeze is so much fun to make… I can’t stop making them. All you need for the whole shebang is ONE charm pack and TWO fat quarters. That’s it. Seriously. Oh, and bat. It’s a project in a day, start to finish. Instant gratification. Unless you hand quilt… and if you’re like me… that will take a month. Or two.

Here’s my holiday version. Beeeeee-u-teeee-ful fabrics by Minick and Simpson’s Christmas Past by Moda…

And here’s my summer picnic version with deeeeelicious fabrics from Minick and Simpson’s Prairie Paisley by Moda (binding and flange from my stash, not part of Prairie Paisley)…

Market is just around the corner and almost here. Lots for me to still do before I go, so this is my last post for a while. It’s my first time going (virgin in the house) and I couldn’t be more excited. Can’t wait to see everyone, and putting faces with blogs, and seeing what’s new and yummy they’ve created! I plan on taking lots and lots of pics (even though I know Pam will scoop me on that too) and posting them when I get back.

Blah, blah, blah… I’ve rambled. I don’t know if I’ve put anyone to sleep, but I sure am sleepy now!
And now I must nap.

My nap is over…

Here’s a little of what’s been humming through my sewing machine lately. Blah, blah, blah… top secret stuff. But mmmmmm… deeee-licious! A beautiful new line from Moda called Flutterby by Tula Pink, paired with some Deb Strain fabrics. I can’t take the credit for picking this out… but I would have! No licking your monitors.

Same project, different fabrics. Love the Benartex fab, but the cut I had didn’t have a full selvege - so not more info on that. The black with white polka dots is what everyone is raving about… Mary E’s new fabric from Moda. Some of the best fabric I’ve ever sewn with and the hand is incredibly silky. I want it all! Ah, ah, ah… keep that tongue in your mouth.

This is something I’m working on for Holly’s booth at Market. Blah, blah, blah… top secret stuff too. Though some jolly peeps may recognize what I’m working on. Shhhh. Holly’s Lakehouse Dry Goods fabric is like candy. Candy, candy, candy. You can’t help but smile when you look at this. I’ve been having a lot of fun sewing with this, and when I had all the fabs laid out on my work-table… and it looked like a rainbow of happy exploded in my sewing room.

Ok. NOW you can lick your monitor.