Happy Zombie

Bunny Hill Designs/Anne Sutton’s DARLING “A Tisket, A Tasket” block of the month for April.  I made my chocolate bunny into a marshmallow bunny.  This way I can squeeze him.   I also added carrots - because I don’t want my bunny to indulge in too much sugar.  All thoughhhhh… the eggs ARE filled with ranch dressing.

In case you’re one of the eight people on the planet who’s not (yet!) jumped in and participating in THE CUTEST B.O.M. on the planet… please allow me to pour you a nice refreshing glass of the Bunny Hill flavored Kool-aid. Make that four glasses… a glass for each of my months… January, February, March and April.

Pssst. Pssst. You have you Kool-aid mustache.

Posted in Quilty n Crafty | 34 Comments

His & hers therapies. I’m so happy to say that Mr. Zombie is finally home. And thanks to modern medical marvels, aka the PICC line (a “diy” IV system) - the Infection-Zombie gets his RX treatment at home - rather then spending 6-8 more weeks in the hospital. That just blows my mind.

The hospital (OHSU) was fantastic and they couldn’t be more pro-family and made a bummer situation so much better. And perks that scored big with me… the staff of course, but also the 24/7 cafeteria with really good organic/free trade coffee. But home is best, not to mention I can do without the daily almost 2 hour drive each way.  Mr. Z’s infection (in the donor bone) will take a while to rid of, but he’s on the right track and we see progress each day. Our heartfelt thanks to all who bestowed us with good wishes and thoughts, comments and emails… now THAT was truly the best RX - for both of us!

Physical therapy starts again soon for Mr. Z. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was picking up my “prescription” while I was in Arizona.  Ahhh… Arizona.   I had blast with my girl-gang.  I want to go back.  This was my second time in Phoenix, and I need a third -  I want to visit my sweet pals Jona and Bren… and a trip up to Sedona is in order too.

I love the Arizona flag - I’m just gaga about it.  It’s so graphic and bold, and very, very cool.   It has an art-quilt quality and fantastic branding to it.  I want to cut up some fabric and make one for myself.  I love the flag of my home state (California Republic) and my adopted state’s flag (Oregon) is a snooze… but Arizona’s flag is King of The Flags.  Top flag dog.

Beauty found in a Phoenix strip mall.

Surprise!   Or as I like to say… Supplies!  This never got old for me, even though I drove the girl gang nuts and was threatened with getting kicked out of the car.  Arizona has the best names for cities and towns.   I love these names… Bumble Bee, Happy Jack, Carefree, Grasshopper, Christmas and Sunflower.  And these towns/cities say “Arizona” all over them… Skull Valley, Iron Springs, Black Canyon City and Maverick.  Best flag.   Best city names.   And a ton of In-n-Out’s.   Sigh.  You rock, Arizona.

At a JoAnn’s in Phoenix.  Merchandising the HZ way.

Sure is loud in here.  Ahhh.   That’s better.

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe) and Calavera de Azúcar (sugar skulls) are not an easy find here in the Pacific Northwest. I KNEW I’d score big in Arizona!


Another score were the tiles I found at Hobby Lobby.   And what a score Hobby Lobby is!  So jealous they’re not on the West Coast.   I first heard of Hobby Lobby via Blogland… and I must say that I really liked it.   It’s as if Micheal’s and HomeGoods had a night in Vegas… and 9 months later a little Hobby Lobby was born.

And then there are the fabrics that came home with me - even though there was already some of it at home.  For the I-Just-Can’t-Get-Enough-Of-These files.  There’s always room for more Sandi, Tanya, Heather and Jennifer in my cupboards!  We visited Quiltz - a shop being featured in the upcoming Quilt Sampler.  We had high expectations, and boy did Quiltz deliver.  I can see why it made the top ten in Quilt Sampler.  Beautiful store and wonderful shopkeepers and staff.   The store was heavily peppered with my favorite fabrics (in my realm of unreality, I know they set the store just for me).  A definite e-ticket of a quilt shop, and the small world part - was that the owners were from Scapposse, Oregon… just up the river from me.

Fabric shopping is all good and fun, but there’s nothing better to make your husband’s-having-emergency-surgery-and-you’re-out-of-state-scrary-sucky-day… then to come home and find that your sweet friend Nanette has sent you some cotton love from her stash.  A total OMG moment.  LOOK at what she sent me!   Talk about vintage goodness, and all the better because it’s from Nanette’s cupboards-o-joy.  Just dreamy. Nanette has a knack for vintage fabrics. She’s THE vintage fabric whisperer. I’m just waiting for the day she gets gobbled up by a fabric company as a repo designer - and we can all have some of her vintage joys in our cupboards.

But wait, there’s more!  Nireko sent me these beautiful Lecien bundles of Mrs. March’s 30’s.  Sooooo stinkin’ cute.  Nireko sent me some other goodies, like the darling box she made - and filled with tiny little Japanese treats that are Triskit sized.  Saving that for another post.  Just too darn cute.

And now that we’re settling back in to “normal”, and the big scare is on it’s way out… time to focus on some more fun stuff!

Posted in How I Live, Field Trip | 44 Comments

Thank you for the kind words for Mr. Zombie (I love that and think I’m going to start calling him that!). I read Mr. Z your comments last night and it made him smile. I usually don’t like sharing too much of my personal/family life online, and feel kinda weird about it… but here goes. Mr. Zombie’s incision area from his January’s knee reconstruction surgery became infected. A trip to the ER on Sunday - landed him in the hospital. A surgery on Monday (while I was still in AZ), and a second one scheduled for today. Mr. Zombie’s stats (please don’t ask me to name them) are still really low - scary low. If he continues… they will put him in the ICU. Right now at this moment they are up, and we hope they continue to stay there. Fingers crossed.

Also keeping our fingers crossed that today’s surgery does the trick. If the infection is the result of the donor bone he received in January… then docs have to go in, take it out… and start alllllllll over again. It’s been a long, long, long recovery for Mr. Z, and to do it all over again would be heartbreaking. Your good donor mojo thoughts (or better yet… *dono mojo* thoughts) are so much appreciated and we thank you so, so, so much!

Update 4/8 6pm: Good thoughts are WORKING! Mr. Z’s stats are up and close to normal. He even ate half of his dinner (and I ate the other half… and it was pretty good actually). Little things = big blessings. I’ve been reading the newly named Mr. Z your notes, and it makes us both smile and is better then any RX. And I’m totally jacked on calling him Mr. Z from now on. Hopefully by tomorrow we find out about this bone and the infection, but we’re very optimistic. THANK YOU!!! xoxo, m

Update 4/9 noonish:
We still don’t have word what the infection is (labs still running it), but docs are pretty positive the donor bone can stay. THANK GOODNESS. Mr. Z (that’s growing on him too) may get to go home tomorrow, with 6-8 weeks of home IV antibiotics and weekly visits from a home nurse. Something called a “PICC line” was just installed as an IV “port” (his peripherals, cracking myself up). Really nifty and it sure beats 6-8 weeks in the hospital! OHSU is a wonderful place… but home is always best. And I won’t have to drive so far. Though home doesn’t have a 24/7 cafeteria - oh how will I manage.

I was feeling so weird about posting such personal stuff. I’m so glad I did. The outpouring of love in the comments and emails is really wonderful. Our hearts runnith over. Especially when I know peeps who are living through stuff far, far, far worse then us - and to give us love and comfort… it’s all the more special. Worthy of super-sized 5XL large and bold font…. THANK YOU!

Posted in Stuff | 63 Comments

My bags are packed.
Liquids are in 3 oz. bottles.
The entire girl-gang has shaved their legs.
The dogs have been feed, brushed and de-pooped.
I’ve stocked up on corn-dogs, pizza rolls and Hot Pockets lovingly prepared meals for the boy-folk.

Camera… charged.
iPhone… charged.
iPod… loaded.
Flip-flops… on. (they’re always on, so that’s not a clue)
Dogs… sad.
Triskit… ready to go!

The girl-gang+Triskit is hitting the road. Or rather the skies. Where will we land?   No one knows (except Pam!).

Because I’m a 12 year old trapped in a 40mumblemumble yeat old body … and because playing hide-n-seek is my favorite game (hubby and I even play it with our dogs)… I’ve enlisted Triskit to play hide-n-seek with me. I will be iPhoning Triskit in secret locations throughout our girl-gangpalooza trip and uploading them to my flickr. First person to guess our location (or nearest to our location) by Tuesday morning (April 7th) wins a kitchy airport prezzie that I’ll pick up from there.

- Guess as many times as you want.
- One guess per comment please.
- Yes, I’m 12.
- Comment here.
- Follow the clues here.
- TAG… YOU’RE IT!

Posted in Field Trip | 75 Comments

Thank GOODNESS for the random generator! Holy scrap - what a wonderful response! And almost a third of you had second chance entries. WOW… thatzalotta commenting going on! I really wish I had 400+ prizes to give, but I only have four. I’ll be stuffing the envelopes not knowing who’s going to get what… only the winners will know once they receive them.

So here they are.

Drumroll.

More drumroll.

We’ll find out right after the break (my piss poor Ryan Seacrest imitation).

And the winners are…

Huge congrats to Shnoodle,  AnyoneCanQuilt, Deb, and Cyndi!  I’ll be sending you guys an email shortly!

Posted in Stuff | 18 Comments

I’ve been wanting to show my Lecien Cosmo embroidery floss from Japan… to rave how wonderful it is. But I’ve had no place to say where to get it. Until now! The Cosmo floss is pure heaven.  Now that I’m using Cosmo - I feel like all these years I’ve been driving an old Ford Pinto (with no A/C, crank windows and only an AM radio)… and now I’m driving the BMW (an X5 to be exact) of embroidery floss thanks to Cosmo.  What Aurifil Mako is to thread - Cosmo is to floss.  A gotta have.  A must have.

I’m so excited that Joe & Roxie of ThimbleCreek are now carrying the entire Cosmo line!  Oh happy day!  You can visit their wonderful shop in Concord or contact them via phone or email.  You can find a Cosmo color chart here (aka my shopping list).

Other floss now feels like burlap… Cosmos feels like silk.

Pulling strands is a snap - and never gets jumbled up and looking like the LA freeway system.

Glides like butter through fabric.

Feels like silk… but it’s 100% cotton.

It never frays or knots up on me - and I stitch with long strands (because I’m lazy like that).

The colors are rich and vibrant.

So soft you can’t help but pet it.

Candy made from cotton.

I’m so excited about ThimbleCreek now selling Cosmo, I thought how fun it would be to have a Cosmo give-away. So I got on the horn and asked my sweet friend Nireko from Lecien if she could send me a Cosmo goodie to give-away - and she not only sent me one goodie… she sent me four. FOUR! That means FOUR WINNERS!

So here’s the deal. Leave a comment between now and 10am PST on March 26th to enter - four lucky winners will win either a 4-pack of floss (that’s 48 skeins of Cosmo!) or a darling Petit Sampler kit (which is adorable Japanese sweetness).

To sweeten the deal… sign up for Joe’s amazing newsletter and give yourself a second chance comment.  If you’re already receiving the ThimbleCreek newsletter… make a second comment as well. Be sure to say “I’m signed up” in your second comment! And if you’re thinking I’m going to win a toaster oven for getting you to sign up… I am!  Just kidding.  I love the TC news (Email Gazette), and it always makes me smile when I see it in my in-box - and I think it will make you smile too!  Cosmo will make you smile.  It will make your fingers smile.  It will make your fabric smile.

3/26/09 10:04am - Contest is now closed. Winners announced soon!

Posted in Quilty n Crafty | 624 Comments

Another crazy cute block of Anne’s adorable BOM done. Mine’s been done, but I’ve been under the weather so it’s taken me a while to show it. The best part about making this month’s block - is I got to make mine with Paula as she made hers. AND SHE EVEN FEED ME, TOO! The woman can cook, can bake, can make killer margaritas, can knit, can sew, can craft… and she can share a mean cold bug! J/K Paula (I probably gave it to you)!

It seems like an eternity that I’ve had this bugger cold that’s going around (and I just got over a cold a few weeks ago!), and I have a lot of catching up to do with emails and wanting to go blog visiting (I promise not to share my cold when I visit). I’m so, so, so, so touched by all the love that’s been showered on me over the whip cream dollops - thank you all sooo, sooo, soooooo much! I may just have to add a dollop to every post I make! Gush. Blush. I heart you all and thank you so very much!

Edited in: The yummy, yummy, yummy yellow background is a Moda Basics called “Dottie” and the color is called “Butter”.

Posted in Quilty n Crafty | 35 Comments

My second attempt at the Sweet Slice cake was a little naked, so I decided to make a fabric “blue plate special” plate… and then some strawberries.  All I needed were some dollops of whipped cream.

Of course, I always find myself chanting, “I just need some whipped cream”.

I scoured blogland and flickr for tutorials on how to make whipped cream out of wool felt. I found a few, but they required sewing teeny tiny stitches on pee wee pieces of felt.  I have teeny tiny pee wee patience for that.

I was looking for something quick and simple - and for a way to use some of my pearl beads (my latest obsession).

So I came up with my own version.  After many prototype go-arounds with scissors, pencil and felt… I went to my trusty ruler rack and found just the ticket.  Darlene Zimmerman’s HEXAGON ruler by EZ Quilting by Wrights.  Maybe I’m not the only one who’s inner voice (or voices) keeps chanting, “I just need some whipped cream”?  Super easy, super fast, super not fussy.

1.  Ruler, wool felt.
2.  Cut into hexagon of desired size.
3.  Snip from points to about ⅓ of the way from the center to make little “pies”.  Just eyeball.  Inconsistency adds character.
4.  Trim each pie as shown.
5.  Result is one of those ninja flying disc looking things.  But not as sharp.  Or as deadly.

6. With matching thread (I used red for visual effect), pull a stitch through the sharp corner of each “pie”. Continue.
7. End where you started, and through the other side.
8. Tug/gather. Gently.  You now have a dollop.  Sort of.

9. Make a few tacking stitches.
10. Make a knot on the bottom of your dollop, but do not cut your thread.
11. Enter off center. Add pearl bead. Exit off center. Knot off on the bottom.

Sew/tack into place on what ever you’re going to dollop with whipped cream.

And now I must think about tonight’s dinner… and I think I know just what to have - and where to get it at!

Posted in Quilty n Crafty, Tips & Trix | 100 Comments

I recently posted a new quilt project at the Moda Bake Shop using Turnovers (little triangle packs of Modagoodness), and as fun as it was to make, I have just as much fun naming my quilts. It’s like naming a new puppy… but my quilt isn’t gonna leave me surprises on my carpet or chew on my socks. I thought my blocks looked like waffles, so my first thought was “Waffle Stompers”, but thought that might reveal that I went to high school in the 70’s.  I guess I just revealed that.  Belgian Waffles it is!
I loved the Chez Moi Swanky Turnovers I used. I love saying “swanky”. Even in WayneGarthlish… Schhhhha-wanky. My dark north coast Oregon days make for horrible photographs, and my photo doesn’t do this yummy fabric justice. The colors and patterns are so crisp and fun. It reminds me of my sweetest of sweetiepie friend Kathleen… her colors and the Parisian/Asian vibe that she has. If you look at Kathleen’s blog, artwork and flickr - I think you will agree!

More Moda love…
- Pam is celebrating her Moda Bake Shop quilt project (weepy cute… you’ll be wanting to make it the minute you see it) with a sweet Moda Bake Shop giveaway.
- Lissa is celebrating wonderful links and quilty goodness - and a sweet giveaway she made and a bookazine.
- Vanessa is celebrating her adorable Moda Bake Shop honeybuns rug (ohmygosh I so have to make one) with a Sweet & Swanky giveaway.
I can’t help but say… schhhhha-wanky good fun!

Posted in Quilty n Crafty, Make Something | 30 Comments

I’m so excited… the current issue of Quilts & More (Spring 2009) is hitting the newstands! Inside this issue is my little mushroom needlebook project and pattern. So fast, so fun, and I’m so thrilled Q&M wanted to publish it, and just as giddy because my project is in my favorite color combo…  Red. White. Aqua. Mmmm. I couldn’t be happier how it all turned out and what a beautiful job (as always) the good peeps at Meredith did with it!

Cover-girl alert!  Look, look, it’s Roseann! Roseann’s beautiful “no diamonds to sew” quilt is definitely on my to-do list, and looks like it would be a fun quilt to make at a retreat (I’m having retreat withdrawls… I need one.  Bad!). Also on my to-do On my done-list, because I couldn’t stand just looking at the photos and not making one fast enough - is the ADORABLE “Sweet Slice” cake pattern by Cindy Taylor Oats.  DAR.  LING!


I was so excited to make it, that I took a short-cut (that I SHOULDN’T have), and didn’t use fusible interfacing as directed.  Bad me, because my cake got a little lumpy, saggy and out of shape (but I still love it).   Note to self: add fusible interfacing to my entire wardrobe.

More magazine love… my teenie tiny little studio is being featured in Cloth Paper Scissors STUDIOS (Spring 2009)! Holy scrap, my head is sure to snap off when I see it. I couldn’t be more honored and flattered to be in the issue, especially since my goofy little Happy Zombie Hideaway will be amongst the great studios of Melissa and Betz! And speaking of cover-girls… that’s Melissa’s studio on the cover!

From the super wonderful STUDIOS editor Cate - The Spring issues of Cloth Paper Scissors Studios is now available for pre-order. It will be available on select newsstands March 31. If you’d like to pre-order a copy, you can do so here.

A little behind the scenes about getting my studio ready.  Sure, it was one thing to get my studio cleaned up and lookin’ pretty, as well as cooperation from the weather (Oregon = dark days)… but the biggest task was getting ME all cleaned up!  Super-Cate wanted a photo of me.  OF ME???   Ugh. Ugh again.  I don’t do pics of me, so I wanted to submit these:
Me… Simpsonized.
A no-go.

Me ala Juniper Creek (when I was deciding what to wear at PDX quilt market).
A no-go.

I even sent pics of the real me… in a hoodie, Hurley hair and no make-up.
A no-go.
So I did my parents proud… I foof’d my hair, foof’d my face with mascara and lip-gloss, and I even donned a blouse (with buttons and everything!).  So if you see the issue, know that a lot of time, effort and elbow grease went into jazzing things up.  My studio was a piece of cake.

And speaking of studios… THIS is my version of heaven.

Posted in Quilty n Crafty, How I Live | 51 Comments