Happy Zombie

I’m feeling REALLY inadequate after seeing Heather Bailey’s studio. Sigh. My progress so far:

Not all Mailbox Love comes to the mailbox… sometimes it comes right to your front door! And in my case, into the hands of DH. Wende made me this DARLING potholder. A little mouse inspired from a vintage potholder of hers. My photography does not do it justice and you MUST check out Wende’s photos. And if the little mouse is not cute enough… my nickname from my dad is “Mouse”.

Wende is not the only talented one in her family! Wende’s son “Boy Wonder” is making beautiful “bag-bags”. Not only are the bag-bags fun, Boy Wonder is giving part of his sales profit to Heifer International. A great kid making a difference. A big difference! It’s really, really nice to see a kid use that kidlike enegy and talent for good!

I could not say it any better then Wende or Boy Wonder, so I hope you hop on over to Wende’s and Boy Wonder’s blogs to read more about the bag-bags. Just a little FYI… if you order one, it comes giftwrapped in “hand” made original gift wrap. I bought two. One for me, and one for someone who will remain nameless until she has her studio open house (oh, yea… you know who you are).

It’s in the mail. I knew something was coming. A little kitty told me she was sending a puffy envelope out. The little kitty (PamKittyMorning) also mentioned she saw something that just screamed my name. I thought, and thought, and thought. What could this screaming-my-name item be? George Clooney? Nah… he’d be too bulky to mail and too big for that postal “atm”. I just had to wait.

The package comes and I tear it open (it’s not big enough to hold George, so I tear it open with reckless abandonment). Out spills the most beautiful fabric ever. Pam had made a post about an apron she made and I commented how much I loved the fabric. What did she do??? She sent me the fabric! Is that not TOO SWEET! Shout out to Pam… HEY, I LOVE YOUR CAR!

So now I have this killer fabric, and no way do I want to get food goop on it if I make the apron. The wheels are already turing in my head for another use. It just so happens this fabric looks awesome with my new aqua walls. Another project for another day.

Ok, now the crazy screaming-my-name mystery item. OMG… it’s a Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs t-shirt! No one gets this unless you’ve ever read an email between PKM and me. It’s a phrase I use a lot. Too much, actually. Right up there with OMG and No F’ing Way.

I’m Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs happy, and feelin’ the bloggy love from my friends Wende and Pam. Thank you!!! BTW Pam… we have a house for you here. Just waiting for you. It says PKM all over it!

~Whew… the flu bug not only hit Casa de Zombie… it hit this blog too! Talk about getting caught by the blogerattzie’s with your panties off! (HZ, not me). Fingers crossed - I think I’ve fixed things. If not, I welcome any bug reports! Living in a Mac land, I don’t always get to see some of the whacky things that happen in the PC and IE world. Thank you everyone who have helped me so far!

This is the fabric folding method I used in my re-do (BTW, not quite yet a re-DONE… but I’m getting there!). Anyhoo… I’m not sure if this is the exact way Lois Hallock does it (I have her book… I guess it’s time I read the words instead of just looking at the pictures!). This is how I learned it from my friend Karen when we folded her fabric in her new studio (and Karen learned it from Lois). So here’s what I do:

1) Place folded yardage with selvedge to your left, the fold to your right. Line up your ruler on the fold. I use a 6½” ruler, but you can use what ever size you like. You can also let your shelf size/space dictate what size you want to make it.

2) Next just start rolling up. Flipping over and over until you get to the end. Let the ruler be your guide. It doesn’t have to be super tightly wound, but you don’t want it to slip and slide either.

3) When you reach the end, your last flap my need to be turned under just a bit. Kind of like how you do when you wrap something in tissue paper.

4) Slide out your ruler and now fold the folded end to the selvedge end. Stack your fabrics with the fold facing you. I use the same method with fatquarters, but with a skinnier ruler (I used a 3½” ruler). I let my shelves dictate how I was going to roll/fold my FQ’s, and rolled them on the 18” width of the fabric so they’d rest nicely on my narrow shelves.

My yardage cupboards have deeper shelves so finishing with an 10”/11” final unit worked perfect for me. If you don’t have a neat piece of yardage to begin with (and boy do I have a lot of those), just fiddle with your piece so you and up with a nice folded unit with now raw edges visible.

I hope I made sense of this! If you’re like me - the pictures tell the story and not the words. Drink the fabric folding Kool-aid… you won’t regret it!   Some before and after photos here.

Still a WIP… but it’s progress (and still a mess). Every blog I’ve ever visited shows their best photos. All nice and neat, all lit well, all very pretty. I feel that if I show the mess, the more movitated I am to get this done. Like telling the world I weigh blah, blah, blah and then say how much weight I’ve lost! Pretty comes at a price I guess - and this is how I make my payments. I’m really, really diggin’ the aqua. I had serious reservations about it since this is a north facing room. It really works Elizabeth and Anne (when you get the opportunity that is, E)! It makes everything look more pretty (just like you said Autum!), vibrant and colorful - especially red.

I actually have started on organizing my fabric. I’m using the Lois Hallock method of folding over a ruler. I must say, I LOVE doing this and it’s something I will be dedicated to doing once I’m done with the re-do (and more fabric mysteriously enters my domain). All I need is one day all to myself, a full pot of coffee, a box of Cheez-It’s and a hearty stack of archived Terry Gross/Fresh Air podcasts - and I’m good to go!

I have these small cheapo cabinets that I’ve picked up at Lowes and Target, and about 5 of these cabinets are being dedicated to fat quarters (they also work as “legs” for my work table). They work PERFECTLY for fat quarters. Miss Madison keeping a watchfull eye on me… making sure I don’t start something new before finishing what I’ve already started.

One cabinet down… four more to go.  These are all just miscellaneous fat quarters.  I have a long road ahead to get all my 30’s fat quarters prettied up! And after the fat quarters comes the yardage! I won’t even say how much cupboard space is dedicated to that! I’m actually looking forward to getting the yardage all folded and stacked. I know for certain that I will be more apt to use it -vs- buying more once it’s all pretty and neat. I don’t know how to describe it other then it “feels” like I have my own little quilt shop. Well… that could be true as I’ve been to a few small quilt shops that had less fabric then I did. Not saying I have too much… just saying these shops had too little.

Plasma for the Sewing room AQUAfication! Light aqua? Robin’s Egg blue? Tiffany Box blue? For me it’s Aqualicious! Within a two year period my little sewing room/studio/office has gone from Wisper Yellow to French White (lt. pink) and now a WIP to Aqualiciousness. A few months back I bought a gallon of aqua, and I just thought it was too dark for this small 10×10 room. I have a nice big window with a heavenly view… but it faces north (Hey… Washington state! I see you!) and natural lighting is not the best.

So eventually the light bulb went on… Hmmm… a lighter shade. Yes… lighter, that’s it! Ding, ding, ding! I don’t like Behr paint, but I do like their colors. I took my swatch to my local Pratt and Lambert dealer and had it color matched to the shade lighter of what I wanted. And it was perfect! So now I’m painting wall by wall. I just have way too much stuff and wanted to tackle wall #2 so DH could get my new cupboards up. Why move crap two times when you can do it once! <— This is not a lesson I learned right away. I’m learning, I’m learning.

Anyhoo… The current state of things looks like a baby nursery on crack. Wall by wall, pile-o-stuff moving from spot to spot… de-pinking has begun and the AQUAfication has started. Changes are a comin’! Already my teeny tiny little space looks like a sunny day, and since this is the North Oregon Coast… I need all the sunny days I can get! Even if it’s faux sunshine!

My other WIP is not for me. It’s a shop quilt for Anna Lena’s. Darling, darling Dick & Jane fabric from Michael Miller.

I love it, but not something I’d buy for me personally. I do see myself buying some of those 40’s/50’s looking graphic fabrics. I love it! Unless I’m inspired by something amazing to make with this (maybe an apron), this is not on my personal shopping list. I blame this on the fact that we had German children’s books when we were kids. Not the sweet Dick & Jane… we had end-up-in-therapy-worthy scary crazy maniac books like Der Struwwelpeter! And while I’m at it… we had to go to German School (in Oakland) on Saturaday’s. Yup - we missed out on the Saturday Morning Cartoon experience. And people wonder why I don’t get The Road Runner and the whole Acme gig!

When husbands go to Safeway… things can go wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong. He’s still a keeper though (DH… not the pseudo half & half)!

AND THIS IS WHY my coffee has tasted like crap the last few days. So answer me this… if half and half is fat free - wouldn’t that just be MILK?

I was googling “peanut butter dog bones” tonight. Hmmm… maybe not such a good idea.

And how do you like your fresh baked dog… as an entrée or an apéritif?