Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Signing off

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/3151080751_8c82ff6d62_b.jpg

Signing off to ring in 2009 with a family camp-in, snacks and fun. See you next year with a holiday recap and some new work in progress.

Wishing you a sweet New Year!
Jill

PS: Look closely at the big man's features, all carved from a lovely butternut squash. The word for 2009 is "Improvise". :)

Friday, December 19, 2008

That's my boy!


"I feel sick mama."
What kind of sick bub?
"You know, like Jello mama."
Me thinks its all the gummies daddy fed him.

Monkey love

Meet Stella and Irene. I've been feelin a little bit of that monkey love this Christmas and these two cuties are now in the hands of two of my favorite girls. I was lucky enough to be on the phone with the mama (who is also listed among my favorite people, and its a short list you know) of those two while they open up their monkey friends and yes there was a little squealing.

Stella and Irene had to travel a bit to arrive in the hands of those girls but from all reports it was worth the trip. The legwarmers worn by Irene were custom made for this special monkey as was Stella's super cool hat. Both were whipped up by Miss Momo, ten years old and an eye for monkey fashion.

We love you and miss you Stella, Irene and the monkey keepers. Merry Christmas to our favorite peeps. :)

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

December's Mini Quilt Swapping

Kim already received her package for the 6-12" Mini Quilt Swap, yay USPS! The theme this month was 'My Favorite Things'. Each partner lists five of their favs and you can choose which of their favorites to work with. Kim had a great list of favs so it was hard to narrow it down.
My first thought was to fit each of the five in the quilt somehow. I must have sketched out forty different way to make that happen. In the end though, the sketch I liked the best was a pared down Wizard of Oz theme (Kim's favorite movie, and one of mine too).

I pieced the background in greens, reds and golds for the Emerald City and the sky from some fun cow jumped over the moon fabric . Yeah, I know there's no cow in Oz but the fabric worked so I went with it. I drew the witch pattern after a quick looks at some movie stills to get the right pose and of course one of the best quotes from the movie is stitched alongside the wicked one.
Each of the hanging charms is made from fabric handstitched (quilted almost) onto two layers of wool felt. I know I said I simplified this quilt but I still couldn't fit everything in that little quilt and so the charms were born. I think they might be my favorite part and I'll probably make more of them eventually. I think they might make really cute little pins.
Kim sent me a beautiful mini as well. I love it so much that it deserves a post of its own. Yes, I did make the happy noise when I opened her package. Check back and see how pretty Kim's mini is! Its already found a very happy spot on my kitchen wall. :)

Friday, December 12, 2008

mmmm....cookies


mmmm....cookies, originally uploaded by spinster sister.

It smells like Christmas around here. Cookies are beginning to pile up in the most unexpected places. Unexpected because someone's children have already eaten at least half of the stockpile. Its alright, I'm a very creative cookie hider.

The latest batch making my house smell so good is the classic Alaska cookie. Named by G when he was to young to pronounce Molasses and during a time when the grandparents were driving from NY to Alaska every summer. Alaska cookies were born. G won't touch chocolate anything but will eat a spice cookie anytime. Go figure, if I couldn't positively identify that giant head of his I would have sworn they switched babies at the hospital. We love him anyway of course, aversion to chocolate and all.

If your in mid-Christmas baking hysteria or haven't even started these are a great, make your house smell amazing cookie that will keep until the big day (if you hide them well).

Alaska Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter
2c sugar
2 Large eggs
1/2c molasses
4c flour
4tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt
2tsp cinnamon
2tsp ginger
1tsp cloves

So you mix them in the typical cookie like way, roll into balls, roll in sugar and bake at 375 degrees for 10-12 minutes. I'd watch the first batch to see how long it really takes. Apparently my oven is a little quick and I swear they were looking done in 6 minutes so use your own judgement. Let me know if you give them a try!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Let's try this again...

So, the camera works fine. Yup, did you know that there should be software involved when your trying to upload photos from a new camera ? Not normally something I would miss but after eight weeks alone with four kids, I'm not exactly functioning at my best. Yeah, I think I'll be using that excuse for awhile. :)

This is the package I sent to Heather for the Mini Quilt in a Bag Swap. Nothing like a little procrastination. I decided to add the piece of vintage dresser scarf that I embroidered the night before the package went out. Sorry for the wait Heather! The pattern is of course from the Hoop Love group on flickr. Good stuff over there if you like vintage. Heather will be making a mini quilt to send back to me out of these materials. She picked out some great stuff for her own mini which I received a little while ago. Heather sent tons of Katie Jump Rope fabric and some great trim too. I've already got an idea in the works for that one!
Thanksgiving weekend seemed like a great time to start a few more Christmas gifts. The dress and swingy little shirt will be for Miss Mimi. Both are really cute simple patterns which probably would have been done already if I hadn't sewn one of the ruffles on upside down. See first paragraph for my standard excuse.
The red and white is a super soft flannel and the pink paisley is baby cord.
Wrapping up for today is a very poorly lit pic of a quick linen and wool pillow I made from a thrifted embroidery. The couch needed a little sprucing up for the holidays.
I'll be back soon with some pics of the amazing fabric stash I received from Oh Franson for my lucky Giveaway Day win. Oh lucky day!

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Darn Camera

Another pictureless post today. Not to worry though, the new camera has been recovered from the sticky kid hands. Today however, I can't seem to figure out how to upload all those pics. Frustrating little camera it is . I'm usually just a wing it kind of girl, no instructions for me thank you very much. This time though I've read the manual (which by the way had all of six words on how to upload) three times and my computer is still staring blankly at me, or maybe its the other way around.

On to bigger and better things, I won something ! Woo hoo! Can I get a Woo Hoo? Yes, I did make the kids do that for me at breakfast. They already know I'm crazy, it will be okay. I left comments on an embarrassingly large number of blog giveaways yesterday, all organized by Sew Mama Sew. They hosted a great blog giveaway day and Elizabeth at Oh Franson deserves a great big thank you from me because oh, did I mention, I won! Elizabeth had up for grabs four postal boxes filled with all kinds of cool fabric and one of them is headed my way. She has a great site with tons of tutorials that I'll be adding to my bloglist. Alright, so one more woohoo for me and off you go to check out Oh Franson.

PS:Neenee-the curtains are awesome! Now get off this site and go paint something...Christmas is coming! :)

Monday, December 1, 2008

Thankful

Well, I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and plenty to be thankful for. I'm most thankful for my husband home again after an eight week business trip. Whew. That was possibly the longest eight weeks of my life. Anyway, home safe and sound and the kids are so happy they won't even let him out of their site. Like I said plenty to be thankful for.

I've actually had a pretty productive couple of days making Christmas gifts, unfortunately I have nothing to show you because one of those adorable kids has wandered off with my camera. Someone's probably making an awesome video of the dog. I'll be back soon to post some actual photographic proof of gift making but until then I'll be hanging out with my husband. We'll probably just be looking for the camera together but it still counts. :)

Happy December 1st!