Happy Zombie

The older we get, the faster time goes by.  I’ve learned the secret of making time stop (and with no help from Jack, Sawyer or Hurley).   No Dharma Initiative needed… just join Anne’s  crazy cute “A Tiskit, A Tasket BOM” (block of the month) and you’ll see how slow time can go by.  At the beginning of the month, I was stalking patiently waiting at Anne’s blog for her to upload the February block.   Now I wait for March’s block.

Tic.

Tock.

Tic.

Tock.

Tic.

Tock.

Time has stood still - I can hardly stand waiting the next 10 months!

I’ve used Moda’s Swell and Sweet (by the Urban Chicks) for all the applique on my blocks.  My February block - I’ve used all Swell. If anyone is looking for Sweet… go visit my pal Jona at her Fabritopia shop!

Edited in: The yummy, yummy, yummy yellow background is a Moda Basics called “Dottie” and the color is called “Butter”. Call your local/online quilt shop TODAY and BEG them to order you some. And then please let me know about it… I want need to buy more!

SOLD!  Sold.  Sold.  Sold!  One more time… SOLD!  We’ve had our other house on the market for almost a year and half, and FINALLY yesterday, we officially sold it.  I never thought this day would come!  It seems like it was decades ago that Cindy was peeking in the windows with me at the new house, and that Angelina was standing in my aqua sewing room at the old house the day before we put it on the market.

It’s been hard times owning two homes - the “new house” and the “old house” - this horrible economy is touching all of us in one way or another.  I just hope everyone else who’s been negatively impacted sees a light at the end of their financial tunnel soon too.

A while back ago, I made my own St. Joseph to help sell our house. If you google St. Joseph, you’ll find all you need to know about him. I combed google images, and came up with my own version of St. Joseph… St. Joe-Joe-a-Go-Go. My post about him WAY BACK in September 2007 is here. My more “traditional” St. Joe-Joe-a-Go-Go pattern is still available.

Fast forward to now-ish. We got another buyer (the other two buyers bailed, lots of heartache and trouble). When I asked Joe-Joe to find us a NICE family this time to buy our house (after dealing with those not so nice buyers)… Joe-Joe did just as I asked. It took him a while, but he did find a nice family - even though we had to drop our price way, way, way low (ouch!).

One has to be careful what they ask Joe-Joe.  When I first made him, I asked Joe-Joe… “will you please find us a buyer, and fast”.  Well… the NEXT day, our neighbor came over and asked us about our little travel trailer in our driveway, and were we interested in selling it.  Sold.  [edited in: I just read my Sep. 07 post. It was St. Anthony who sold the trailer!]  So next I asked Joe-Joe more specifically… “Joe-Joe, can you please find us a buyer for our house on such-n-such Ave.”.  Enter bad buyers.   After great financial cost to us and us bending over backwards… the buyers walked.  So then I ask Joe-Joe again, but this time I ask him for a NICE family to be our buyers.   Like I said, it took him a while, but he came through.

So really fast forward to now-ish.  We were waiting for our closing date to soon approach.  It was just around the corner - only a few weeks away.  All was going great, inspections great, yada yada.  Just waiting on the buyer’s lender.  I get an email from my friend Sharon inquiring about Joe-Joe, and I think… why, I’ll just send her my Joe - and she can be his new momma!  The day she received him… is the day we got the call that there’s a hick-up on from our buyer’s lender.   So I ask Momma Sharon and Papa Hunka if I could have temporary joint custody with Joe-Joe, and if he could take a trip north to visit his old mum for a few weeks.  Sharon of course said yes and would do so as soon as she got back home.  And then a bee flew in my bonnet.  I told Sharon to hold off… I had an idea…

I made a new Joe-Joe… this one different, a little less traditional and more my style… a little bit HelloKittyBabushka-ishy, but still holding the bluebirds of happiness.  Hello Joe-Joe!

I finished Hello Joe-Joe last Wednesday morning, placed him on my shelf-o-joy… and by that very Wednesday afternoon I get the call saying to meet at the title company on the following Friday! Done. Sold. Freedom.  Thank you Hello Joe-Joe!

I’ve added Hello Joe-Joe to my freebie arsenal of patterns - you can get Hello Joe-Joe by clicking here. May he bring you joy as a guardian of your home & family… or may he help you sell your house… or both!   Keep him in a place of honor and do not pass him on if you make one for yourself.  If you want to gift one, you’ll have to make a new one specificly for the recipient… but that makes him all the more fun and special!  Plus it’s always fun to play with Crayola crayons!

~Whew that was a long post. And now I must nap.

I feel like Heidi Klum just gave my dogs Liberty and Madison the “in”, thanks to fellow Oregonian Hannah Lindsey!  Hannah sent me this beautiful artwork she did after she spotted the photo of my dogs on my blog.

I’m blown away by her talent and her beautiful work. Of course now my dogs have gone all super-model on me and submitted me with a rider - beef flavored spring water, cashmere doggie beds, quality time with the UPS, FedEx and DHL guys (and rides in their trucks), pearl collars and 24kt gold dogs tags…

Lindsey doesn’t have a blog, but she’s got some of her other beautiful artwork posted on her flickr.

I’m not a huge fan of American football, but I am a giant fan of Super Bowl munchies and Super Bowl commercials (I loved the NBC promos the best).  I managed to cook up THE BEST wings recipe I’ve ever had. Saw Martha make them earlier this week, and I KNEW I had to try them.  The wings turned out SOOOOO GOOD.  We ate them so fast, I couldn’t even manage a photo of them.   This recipe is definitely going into my extensive recipe collection (of 5 or 6 recipes).

Hubby is still on sofa-duty after his big knee surgery, and DS#2 was out golfing… so it was very low key at Casa de Zombie for Super Bowlapalooza. Well, I did get a little jacked on some Mountain Dew - and went into sewing over-drive.  I finished my Inaugural Day “Aquamerica the Beautiful” stitchery that I had posted about here.  I made a few mods to the pattern - made it bigger and put the wording on the border.  At the last minute, I decided to make one of the fruiten plains red. Red and aqua.  I just had to do it. EDITED IN: I just KNEW I should have trusted the red~squiggle~of~doom under the word “fruiten” when I retyped the pattern’s wording. After hearing both Beyoncé and Faith Hill sing it as “fruited”… I knew that THEY couldn’t be wrong - so I googled the lyrics to America the Beautiful, and sure enough… it’s FRUITED! Oh well… the word fruiten has kinda grown on me now. Dude, where’s my fruiten. Fruiten Loops. Fruiten punch.

I’ve teased about this project before, and am going to recycle the tease.  This is for a Fall 2009 project - but the actual project for the issue is in Aviary by 3 Sisters from Moda. Very cute in Aviary… I wish I could show it, but for now my prototype in my 30’s stash will have to do for a photo.

More recycling… my Pennie Pockets have gone green. Well. Pink. And red. But I have recycled the project for Valentine’s Day and for using Moda pre-cuts (Layer Cakes and Honey Buns). My Valentine Pennie Pocket tutorial is here at the Moda Bake Shop.

I thought Swell was my all time favorite fabric… but now I’m just as smitten with Sweet (also by the Urban Chicks).

Sweet is delivery dated for this month! Don’t you just want to squeeze it!?! Ga head… give my blog a squeeze while you wait for your local quilt shop or favorite online quilt shop to get Sweet in.

If you’re reading this on a laptop… your screen is squishy squeezie. Touch it, you know you want to.

Nothin’ says lovin’ - like somethin’ from the Moda Bake Shop oven!  Step inside, step inside!  Inside the Moda Bake Shop you’ll find tummy rubbin’ recipes for your delicious Moda ingredients like Jelly Rolls, Charms Packs, Layer Cakes, Honey Buns, Dessert Rolls, Turnovers and Fat Quarter Bundles.  Angela has been busy getting the kitchen all set up (I think she never sleeps), and busy bakers (Angela, Camille, Joanna, Laurie, Lissa and me) have been cookin’ up sweet delights for you to bake!

My worktable looks like it’s snowed  Moda pre-cuts (the prettiest snowfall EVER), and I have more projects coming soon.  My mind is whirling in a blizzard of excitement deciding what project to create next.  My first MBS project is a no-sew project - a nifty and quick reversible calendar cover using Layer Cakes (10″ x 10″ squares), iron-on adhesive (fuse) and an inexpensive pocket calendar with a clear removable cover.

Don your apron… gather your ingredients… and come on over and bake up some fun!

Tomorrow being such a historical day, I wanted to participate in Prez-O’s Inauguration in my own little way. My husband is sofa-bound after knee surgery, but it’s rather good timing - since we’ll get to watch the inauguration together.  To be a part of it all and to remember the day in an extra special way…  a bee flew in my bonnet…

A few years ago, my youngest son and I had the privilege of going on a “ride-a-long” on the US Coast Guard Cutter Steadfast from Astoria to Portland for 2003 Rose Festival. A little redwork I made while tooling up the Columbia River on the Steadfast into Portland, and I incorporated that into my Portland drawing.  I actually stitched this while on board. I did do the piecing later at home, because nothin’ says “thanks for ride” like hauling a sewing machine on board a Coast Guard cutter.

Last week, my super sweet friend Jennifer sent me a darling Bareroots “little stitchies” pattern called “America Stitchery” (and she also made me this… GASP it’s sooooo cute!).  I thought how PERFECT this would be to stitch while watching the Inauguration.  I was auditioning my fabrics as I caught the tail end of We Are One on HBO - and Beyoncé was singing America the Beautiful.  I had an OMG moment.  Now FOR SURE I’ll be making the little stitchie tomorrow. Oh happy beautiful day!

I’m taking some creative liberties, and my fruiten plains are going to be in aqua.  Aquamerica the Beautiful!

Anne Sutton of Bunny Hill Designs has a crazy cute free BOM she’s started on her Bunny Tales blog.   As soon as I saw it, I wanted to drop everything and get started on it.  Who needs to eat?!  Bad example.  Who needs to do other stuff?!  I’m not the only one who’s dropped everything to start it either.  Anne S’s fabric block was so cute… but so was Anne B’s darling version in wool.  What to do, what to do… so I did both.   My background and appliqué is fabric, and my non-denominational frozen precipitation figure (with the giant schnoz, oops) is wool felt.

It’s all a mystery, but Anne has great instructions so you can do some planning ahead. For my blocks, my background is from my coveted bolt of yellow Moda polka dot (my sunshine-on-a-bolt), and my appliqué will all be in Swell and Sweet.   Swell. Sweet. Swell. Sweet. Swell. Sweet.  My apologies to the Urban Chicks for the image popping into my head of you two getting tattoos.

Edited in: The yummy, yummy, yummy yellow background is a Moda Basics called “Dottie” and the color is called “Butter”. Call your local/online quilt shop TODAY and BEG them to order you some. And then please let me know about it… I want need to buy more!

I spotted this La Piña Flour at WinCo Foods in Longview, WA.  I embarrassed the heck out of my husband when I snapped this photo with my iPhone.   Yes… people were looking at me in that odd, curious sort of way.  But I was looking at THEM in the same odd, curious sort of way…. People, people, PEOPLE… don’t you see what is before us??? OMG! FOOD… in FABRIC packaging!

Fantasy #1: The good peeps at La Piña Flour read my post and the lovely comments left about feedsacks - and decided to produce this:

Fantasy #2: The peeps at Gold Medal, C&H, Peet’s and Cocoa Puffs will read it too.

Fantasy #3:  Above peeps will contact Moda peeps.

Sweet by Urban Chicks (aka Pam’s BFF’s), Baskets of Flowers by Mary Engelbreit and Oh-Cherry-Oh! by Me & My Sister

Fantasy #4:  Safeway would build me a covered parking space (out of the rain).  I’d be there EVERY day, after all.

It’s been another wonderful year for me here in this happy, crafty and creative blogland.   Old friendships grew stronger, and new friendships continue to grow.  Thank you to all that have showered me with their friendship, kindness and generosity.   Every little thing… every big thing - means the world to me.    I mean that from the top, bottom, sides and center of my heart.

We had a white Christmas - and it was magical. I was already getting tired of snow and hoping for rain instead… but on Christmas morning it snowed again.  And it snowed, and snowed and snowed… and at one point the snow was the size of silver dollar pancakes.  Now all is melted, and we’re back to normal North Oregon coast weather… rain, wind, rain and more rain.  No more s-word. Done.

A year of new.  No resolutions for me.   Just a fresh start for 2009.  The year 2008 was a wild ride for me.  I’ve had some peas and carrots cookin’ in a pot - which takes a long, long, long time to simmer.  Even though it’s scary and the wait is long and secretive… it feels fantastic to start the new year and to be taking risks!   Of course, my New Year’s Day had me in my jammies at close to 1pm while in the garage sharpening pencils.  Getting things done that I’ve been meaning to do forever.  My in-box is next!

All the hub-bub and hoo-haa before Christmas and our Wii bowling tournament on Christmas day, I needed to rinse, repeat and untangle for a few days.  Best place I can do that is in my hideaway - my sewing room.  My bliss.  I had treated myself to some Woodland Bloom charms by Lila Tueller for Moda that Anina was selling in her wonderful Twiddletales Store. Moda’s charms are my absolute weakness.  Not that I will, but if I ever commit a crime and I’m being interrogated by a good cop/bad cop… I will sing like a bird if charms are flashed in front of me.

My favorite most relaxing thing is hand stitching binding down on a quilt.   So I played with a way that I could use the same method for appliqué.  The no fuss no muss method, which I’m all about. I don’t like pinching, or pinning, or snipping… just fast, easy and fun.   My method is the same as the fusable stuff you sew on, but EVERY time I’ve tried it, I ALWAYS end up pressing and fusing in the wrong places.  Like to my iron.

I take my background fabric (my beloved Kona Snow) and my Woodland Blooms print - right sides together, an Ikea saucer, a pencil and I trace around it.

Stitch on the lines.   Backstitch to lock.   Slit the background, trim edges and turn inside-out.

With my favorite chop-stick I “finger press” the seams.  Round n round I go.

A quick basting to the background fabric of the block.  Slit-b-gone.

I stitch as if I’m stitching binding.   I just love doing this.  Nothing to hold down.  Nothing to turn under.  Nothing to pinch or squeeze.

Nothing but relaxing fun.

It’ll be a while before all the blocks will be put together.  For now… I’m enjoying the bliss of appliqueing 37 happy little circles.

Wishing everyone a happy non scary year of new!   xoxo-m