My House, The Blue Phase

While sitting on my back patio enjoying the heat wave (over 90 that day--aka heaven), I noticed that I could see the entire house in my blue garden ball! 

This is the freaking coolest effect!  As a blogger, I did what all bloggers do--ran for the camera so that I could entertain (or bore) the virtual audience.  You can see me sitting at the table taking the photo, but I still think this is  a fun shot.

Our heat wave is over.  I'm a bit sad about that.  It will only be in the low 80s this week with nights in the 60s.  I need to move further south!

Yup, Another Glass Garden Totem

No one else in this area is going to be making glass garden totems because I think I bought up all the glass in the thrift stores.  Then I used all of them in this one totem. 

Yeah, I may have gotten carried away with this one.  That tends to happen when fairies are involved.   The bottom bowl has a fairy on a horse in some sand.

 

And the top one has a baby fairy with some fairy dust. (Some might say glitter, but I'm sticking with fairy dust.)

 

 

 

 No more garden glass for at least a year.  I promise. 

 

partying at

Quick Look at the New Quilt Top

Remember this hand embroidered square I showed in this post?

design from Lecien site

  It was supposed to become a baby quilt, 

 

but it grew and grew

 Into a twin size.

I decided it would look nice in what will be the pale yellow bedroom when Kiefer moves out in a few months.

Now, onto the quilting.   I'm going to do this one by machine.

My Favorite Hand Quilting Notions

I often find new sewing products by reading blogs. I'm not talking about the paid reviews, just the "here's what I use" posts.  Just in case I'm not the last remaining hand quilter, I thought I'd share a few things that make my hand quilting easier.

First, a new one I stumbled upon at the fabric store, the Protect and Grip thimble from Clover. 

 

 It is grossly over-priced for what it is, but  since only Clover is making them, they can charge whatever they want!  I got this from Overstock.com. for $7.99--cheapest place I could find one including the local store.  Overstock has a lot of sewing items and no shipping charge. 

Why is this thimble so great?  The rubber keeps it from falling off your finger and the metal tip has that great rim that helps push the needle through tough spots. This turned out to be worth the extra money.  Added bonus:  freaking cute!

That thimble still won't replace these plain, old rubber finger tips that I've been using for years for hand quilting. This goes on the top hand to help pull the thread through. the thimble is on the bottom hand, right?

Please don't buy these at any specialty sewing stores.  You can get them at the office supply store for so much less--$2.49 for a twelve pack at Staples.  They stay on and make pulling the need through so much easier.

Next are these flat-head pins from Fons and Porter . 

I held off on buying these because I thought I pin was a pin.  I was wrong.  I bought some because I read that the flat head caused less distortion when piecing.  That really does help, but the super thinness of the metal part of the F & P pins also greatly lessens the distortion.  Another plus is that they come in the pretty tin WITH a window to see what's in there.

This one is also from Fons and Porter, curved safety pins for holding the fabrics and batting together. 

I'm not convinced that this brand is necessarily better than any other curved pin.  It's the curve in the pin that's worth paying a little extra.  These pins are easier to put on and create less fabric distortion than regular safety pins.  I've never been a fan of using straight pins for this purpose.  Straight pins are  either snagging fabric or pricking my fingers. 

The F & P pins are good quality, and I love the nice box with a window--decorative,  convenient, and matches those straight pins mentioned above.  Gotta make the sewing room look pretty.

Ever Make One of These??

I love these recycled pieces that decorate the children's area of the local library.  If there were any little guys staying here, I'd definitely do a few.

This one is my favorite.

The longer I look at them the more things I identify as having had another life.

The hair is rolled pieces of paper.

Sorry for the bit of a blur in the photos.  I'll get better shots and update soon.

So I Decided to Put the Sofa in the Washer...

I finally got around to doing something I pinned about using alcohol to clean the micro-whatever they are making furniture out of these days fabric  The man cave furniture has had a tortured life with hoards of teenagers eating and sleeping on it.  Cleaning was way overdue.

The alcohol works great! Before:

and after:

But this furniture needed a lot of work.    Ten minutes into the process, I went back to read the post.  At the very end, it says you can just unzip the covers and toss them into the washer and dryer.  Okay!  I was expecting the usual foam-covered pieces like these in the seats:

However, the back cushions innards looked like this:

Once I have an idea in my head, I am not gonna stop.  I soon had four piles of fluffy fill on the floor, and all the covers in the washer. The fill is freakin' awesome.  It sticks together, doesn't leave any mess on the floor, and goes back into the cushions looking better than before.  I cleaned the base of the furniture with the alcohol, and two hours later:

The man cave furniture was all back together and looking better than ever.

Miss Angelica and the Bibs

This is Keegan's step-granddaughter.  I finished up bibs with the left-over fabric from the blankets just before she arrived for the 4th.  These are the baby bibs for the soon to arrive Arabella.  I used the free pattern from http://www.poopockets.com/free/bibs/bibs.htm.

These are Angelica's bunnies in matching bibs.  I just reduced the free bib pattern by 50% to make bunny bibs.  The neck is just a bit tight for the Baby Binky Bunnies.  Next time, I would reduce the pattern just a little less.

We had a perfect day for celebrating Independence Day, 90 degrees and next to the pool.

Keegan and Angelica

My son, Kiefer and Keegan's partner, Pep

My lovely husband, Brian. 

Angelica with her dad and mom, David and Keita.

Oh, yeah.  That baby is coming soon.

Angelica's Uncle Carre

 Hope all my American readers had a spectacular, fireworks-filled Independence Day!