So, do you think size does matter?

Anybody want a nice hamburger?

no?  really?

Yesterday the big guy complained that he has been moving the green coconut (from Easter cupcakes) around in the fridge for "AGES" and can't we do something with it?

so, I obliged.

and I got rid of the various frosting left over from making Valentine and Easter cookies too!

I know, right? Totally too cute to eat!  I'll send them to work with the big guy, his coworkers won't worry about them being cute.  They'll probably complain that they are too small!!

Parkinsons panel done!

Here it is, the final version with the zipper on the striped fabric, and the pleats and folds and discord tacked down.  I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out, and I'm nicely early for the deadline of June 1.  I hope to take it over to show to my parents next weekend before I ship it out.

Detail..............

More details..............

Detail of the bottom zipper area

Detail of the top area with some of the word fabric showing.

Parkinsons Quilt

on my design wall today, and for several days..........

This is the beginning of a panel for one of the Parkinsons Quilts.  There are going to be a lot of them put together by people touched by this disease.  My mother was diagnosed with Parkinsons about 6 years ago so I am doing this in her honor.  So far all this fabric is from my stash, things that would mean something in mothers life before Parkinsons.  This is going to be a two part panel, the above part is going to be the inside, and the outside is going to be a kind of jangly black and white strip with a zipper that represents the Parkinsons, but this part will be peeking out of it.  I'll show it as I go in case that made no sense to you!
I found this quilting opportunity on face book, you can go here and check it out http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/ParkinsonsQuilt?ref=ts

Whats in my sewing room today?

I've been hanging on to this little piece of vintage embroidery for several years.  The other day I decided to turn it into a little purse.  Now it's out of my drawer and feeling useful again.  The top was a little bland, so I dug into my stash of embellishments and found just enough red pom pom fringe to go accross one side.

Then I have some pieces of selvage left over from the last selvage project, so I stuck them together with some handed down bias tape to make a potholder from basically nothing.  This seems to be my specialty lately!  Next post I'll be showing you what I can do with those great woven plastic bird seed bags.............

bet you can't wait huh?

Today is brought to you by the color GREEN

Something for (almost) Nothing!

A few weeks ago my brother in law gave me a another box of "goodies" that he had cleaned out from his dads house after he passed away.  Seems his dad had never gone through his mothers sewing things after she died years ago.  I'm the sewer - okay, why do SEWer and SEWER look the same??sorry- in the family so I get to go through the stuff.  Some of it is awesome, and some of it is so-so, kinda like my sewing room stuff.  This particular box contained some very lovely vintage (now) tablecloths and Christmas curtains, and a piece of vintage kitchen fabric that I made into this apron...........

And these potholders.   And if I can get the lovely miss V to to model it, I'll post a picture of the cute little apron I made her!  I love repurposing things, and this fabric is just awesome!  Plus it came with a few built in stains, so no guilt when I wipe my cooking hands on it!!!

Neighbors!

As soon as the weather turns to spring, or really as soon as we all get spring fever here we start thinking about camping.

Our favorite camping spot is just outside of Iron Mountain Michigan.    That's in the Upper Penninsula, or the  U P as it's called around here.   U  space P, not up.   And the folks who live there are callled Yoopers.  Yeah it's a midwest thing.  Anyway, imagine my absolute delight to find out that one of my quilt-blog neighbors is a Yooper!   It can't get much better than camping and having the opportunity to meet up with another quilter!  I can't wait for camping this summer for lots of reasons now!  Her delightful blog is here: http://coveredporches.blogspot.com/   Go visit and tell her Mare sent you!

This top picture is an early morning on the river, the mist is so pretty and calm before everyone gets up and starts going.  One of my favorite times of day.  Of course any time of day is my favorite when I'm camping!

This is the big guy getting pictures from the river. 

here is the view from the bottom of the damn, we can portage our canoes or kayaks down next to it and then paddle downriver.  This always sounds fabulous, but we discovered that paddling back UP river is pretty strenuous! 

Up river from our campsite, that's the front of my kayak.  I love the birch trees reflections in the water.  Monet used a kayak type craft to paint some of his water pictues and that has fascinated me since I read about it.  He must have been pretty coordinated to do that.  I keep thinking about how I would put a small easel on mine............

And one of my all time favorite pictures that the big guy took.  We love watching for Eagles on the river.  From the time the kids were small they all knew to look up often to watch for them, and we all would trot down to the river if anyone yelled "EAGLE!"

Lets go camping!!!!