2014

I feel like December hasn't existed.  Though my calendar tells me otherwise.  It's also telling me that the end of the year is only 2 weeks away.  I don't know if I'm ready to face a new year yet as I really kind of enjoyed 2014.

We did our own family pictures.

The Feather Quilt started to become a reality.

I made a tutorial for a Spring Blog hop for Lupin over at Bugs and Fishes.

I finished my mom's table runner.

I started my last big order for GRREAT.

We installed an entire backyard fence all by ourselves and my garden went nuts even though it turned out to be a bad year overall for vegetables.

Finished the big order.

Fi-Beastie turned 2.

The Feather Quilt was finished.

Halloween came and went.

RenFaire was cold but even better than last year.

Fiona had a blast.

I designed and blogged my first tutorial under my new name.

And I completed 2 more Lil' Twister Stockings for Chris and I (before Thanksgiving even!).

My sewing year was dominated by The Feather Quilt project, but I did so many other projects that I just did not manage to snap pictures of or blog about.  One of them includes Fiona's RenFaire costume (which you can see in 2 of the pictures about).  But that's the way of a crafty mind.  I often get so caught up in my current project that the last thing I want to do (remember to do) is snap pictures, edit, upload and then blog about them.

Starting in 2015 I'm hoping to start blogging under a new name, Little Red Thread, and begin getting a few more quilt tutorials and designs pushed out into the public eye.

This whole year has been a challenge and a struggle to find time to get all my ideas on paper and then tell you all about them.  While I try my best to keep this blog updated, and I'll be honest when I say I have no idea how some bloggers update daily, we've been having difficulties on the technical side of things, mainly with an ancient computer and time management on the toddler end of the spectrum.  I don't know how 2015 will turn out, but I do know I'll continue to do my best to keep you along on as many sewing adventures as I can manage.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Joyful Sewing!

The Next Gen

I often wonder if I hadn't had such an avid sewing grandmother if I would've still taken up the "needle and thread".  What if I didn't have a grandmother to show me how to thread a sewing machine, cross stitch, tie a knot at the end of all my threads, show me how to read patterns and what pinking shears were used for?

What if I was like every other kid I knew growing up, obsessed with Barbies, Crayola markers, Trapper Keepers, BFF's and summer vacations?

I think that there is creativity hiding deep in every child.

It shows up in imaginary play, curiosity with mud and sticks, fascination with paints and how things work, but somewhere along the way it dies and I can't figure out why for some kids it stays so strongly rooted and for others it's just fades out.

I do know that if I hadn't had my grandmother to at least show me how things like clothing and dolls were put together, my curiosity would've never been peeked.

I feel so grateful for having had my grandma show me these things when I was so young and even for a mom who didn't always have time to keep sewing like she used to (raising 5 children will do that to you) she always managed to show us how to be creative and clever with what we had on hand.   It chokes me up a bit to think back on it.  I can't imagine not sewing quilts, building fences, or growing a garden.  I learned all these skills from my grandparents and my parents because they felt value in what they were showing me how to do.  Because it was important to them, it became important to me.

The creative crowd is becoming more hip, but true skill, the kind that is learned from generation to generation, is still very much a niche and in constant danger of being forgotten.  While technology develops and makes doing some things easier and faster the basic skill, thankfully, remains the same.

There will always be a need for needle and thread and for people to know how to use them skillfully.  I feel obligated to show my daughter how to do these things, not because it's needed, but because it will open up a world of wonder and possibility and respect for how our world is made.

The Flu, A Book Signing, and Projects Galore

About two weeks ago the three of us suffered a short but brutal bout of stomach flu.  The day that I came down with it was the day before a long anticipated book tour stop for Brandon Sanderson's, Words of Radiance. Go figure.

Despite being unable to crawl out of bed 36 hours prior to seeing him, I was determined (determined meaning damn stubborn, according to my husband)  to see him.  I managed to drag my sleep deprived carcass to not only the signing, but the hour long interview, Q&A session he did.  I even scored a Shard Hunt card for asking a question about the prolific artwork that abounds throughout the book!

I'm feeling loads better now, but have been extremely busy with a few side projects and a final order of dog ornaments for GRREAT.  I know I said I wasn't doing them any more, but Jessie and I had discussed doing one last batch a few months back.  It's hard to say no when it's for such a "GRREAT" cause.

I also hope to have a guest blog post up over on Lupin's blog soon AND I'm steadily chipping away at the Feather quilt.  The pattern issues still plague me and sadly I've yet to hear back from the editors of Quilty, but I'm muddling thru regardless :)

Hope your weekend is warmish, pleasant and fun!

Waiting

That's all it feels like we're doing at the moment, waiting.

Waiting for our home refinance to finally close.

Waiting for books to be released.

Waiting for colds and runny noses to leave.

Waiting for daddy to come home.

And most especially waiting for Spring.

Green is poking up everywhere in my flower beds as a thankful reminder that no Winter is forever.  Still with a new winter storm forecast to hit late Sunday night, it feels like all of the Northern hemisphere is waiting with baited breath for warmth.

Here's to Winter's last hurrah!

Things We Do

This past Fall Chris and I decided that no matter what we'd complete our Renaissance Festival costumes in time to actually wear them out properly.

I did not make my bodice (the orange and tan vest) or my chemise, but I did make all of Fiona's costume! I had to modify it somewhat since most children's costume patterns for medieval dresses don't come in her size.  Hopefully when we go this coming Fall I'll have better luck and I'll start sooner!

Chris even made his costume, the whole thing, minus his shoes.  Yes, my husband sews! And he sews very well.

I worked at this RenFaire for about 6 years when I was in my early 20's and got fairly burnt out on the whole Renaissance novelty.  But now it's fun to go back every few years to make merry, especially now that we have Fi.

We also met King Arthur and Co.

These fellows have been coming to RenFaire dressed in their respective Monty Python characters for a very long time and it was fun to see them trudging about still.

A Rare Visitor

I really like woodpeckers.  

I think they're pretty amazing and last year I saw a Northern Yellow-Shafted Flicker come thru our backyard.  I hadn't seen him since and worried a bit because the Starlings are such pests in this area.  We actually help control the Starlings every winter by taking out at least 40-50 of them via airgun.  I know that may sound cruel, but they're considered an invasive species.

Helping to cull a small flock a year helps woodpeckers, like the Flicker, nest peacefully and raise a few chicks without fear or competition of a Starling coming thru and kicking the babies out of the nest or killing the mother and babies altogether.

While they aren't endangered their populations are declining.

Here's the cellphone picture I managed to snap of him:

He must've been hungry because this woodpecker prefers bugs and ants to suet and seeds.  He's mainly a ground feeder, but as we had about 5" of snow still he must've been having a hard time finding bugs.

And here's a better one from the Cornell Lab of Orinthology Click the link to learn more!

If you fancy birds take a look over at Cornell's website.  

And if you're even more into birds you can join Project FeederWatch  and help track winter birds at your own feeder.  There's a small annual fee of $15 USD but if you appreciate conservation of any kind this a fun activity to do and something that even kids can help out with!

Returns and Revelations 2014

I won't say I'm not glad 2013 is over and done with. Man was it a roller coaster.

Tumus had another spectacular year, but it was a fight to the finish.

Final count for 2013: 122 ornaments

 Fun Fact: Each dog ornament uses, on average, 5 feet of embroidery thread!

This last batch went out December 17th and some of them weren't delivered till Christmas Eve!

So now that it's over and I've had some much needed down time and I was able to just do some fun stuff for once, on my OWN schedule...

it's back to the grind.

Blogging really does take effort, especially when it comes to uploading pictures and getting them from point A to point B and then posted.  But I've got a plan this year and I hope to stick with it!

Apparently since I was so overwhelmed with New Baby duties I didn't bother making a 2013 Resolution list.  I'm going to assume that my only resolution was to make it to the end of the year and get a few nights of SOLID rest somewhere in the next 365 days.

A short and simple resolution and I'm glad to say it did happen in various degrees.

2014 I'm making lists that are both short, but ambitious.

2014 To Make & Do List

- Getting PDF's up for Tumus's shop revamp

- Getting friendly with my new fancy, schmancy serger

- Finish up my Field Greens Quilt

- Complete Fiona's Twister Stocking 

These are my solid, I'm going to get them done if it kills me, to do's for 2014.

Hope you all had a great Holiday break! And for those readers in the US hope you enjoyed the snow, ice and ridiculous deep freeze of the first week of the New Year. Spring is only 2 months away!

A Long Overdue Post

When life gets busy things tend to fall to the wayside.

For example, I've been sorely neglecting posting for various crazy reasons.  You can pick from the following list of "crazy" below:

- Complete tear out and remodel of our main bathroom starting in April, finishing sometime in May. Discovering a huge mold and mildew problem in said main bathroom.  Bad contractors, slow completion, lots of painful naptimes and pints of beer.

- LOTS of pattern testing for the awesome Betz White

- Teething woes for Fiona

- A new nephew in June

- Reopening Tumus in July

- Completing another quilt, starting a second, 

almost finishing a third (but that one's secret ^_~)

- Desktop computer dying slowly

- Fiona turning ONE in August

and so on.

Blog posts do take time to write and think out and "down" time, being at a high premium these days, is a treasured commodity.

I do intend to make a valiant effort to keep you all in the loop of awesome as much as I can, so for now here are some fun pictures of everything we've been up to since March.

p.s.  Are you guys ready for the Holidays yet? EEP!

OMG 7 months

I decided today would be a good day to backup all of our Fiona pictures.

I've been told that the first kid always has the most pictures.  Being a "first" myself I think that's only mostly true, but there's 5 of us and that's alot of things to keep on top of and taking pictures isn't always part of that list.

We actually have been rather modest in our picture taking.  It's still alot but we aren't doing one everyday and we try to just take pics of things we love and want to remember....when we can grab the camera that is.

These last two months have been rough though.  We had to put our chinchilla, Yoshi, down just a week after Valentine's Day due to a quick/sudden moving muscle disease.  Because of it I haven't been back down to my sewing room in nearly that long.  He was my constant sewing companion and it's hard to be in an empty room when you're used to having a buddy nearby.

On a happier note Fiona is 7 months! She seems pretty old already.

She's not quiet sleeping thru the night yet, BUT it's getting better.

I didn't think she'd grow up this fast and I have to keep reminding myself that she's still a baby, but boy is she tall! (28in?? egads!)

And sometimes I can get a smile when I do a few silly things, she's pretty camera shy.

Happy 7 months Fi-Beastie.

I love you and can't wait to give you your own little art corner ^_^

p.s.

I plan on getting my sewing groove back on in the next few weeks.  I haven't forgotten my 12 quilt goal though I may modify it to be a few completed quilts and some smaller gifts at this rate ^_~

Turkey, Holidays and Learning to Sleep

Can you believe Thanksgiving is in 3 days over here in the States?

 (OMG!)

Halloween was awful around our area because of the Superstorm, but we managed to have a good turn out for Trick-o-Treat night and I did a mini-shoot with Fiona just to be festive.

It makes me wonder if there will be a Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade because of Superstorm Sandy.  It also makes me think about all those people who lost everything in the storm and I wish I could give even more.

Reminds me that there is alot to be thankful for and grateful for this year.  Here's a small list:

- being able to donate

- getting 4-5 hrs of sleep at night now!

- that the election season is FINALLY OVER

- the ability to bake

- learning to quilt on my home sewing machine

- feeling like my old "pre-baby" self

- going back to yoga

- being able to go to my family's Thanksgiving this year to see everyone

- having common sense to know when to slow down now

- and a very loving husband

I do have pictures of my sister Rachel's baby quilt.  Chris needs to re-route my old cutout that I had in my sewing table so it fits my new machine properly and so I can glide and slide the fabric thru the machine.  I need to have this done rather urgently because I know it's going to take me a while to quilt that one AND the patriotic quilt (Stars and Stripes quilt ) for my sister-in-law Crystal.  Yes! She is getting it for a present this year :)

I feel so "pro" being able to get these gifts done, mostly thanks to Fiona for learning to nap longer and for Chris watching her in the evenings.

Have a good Monday everyone!

A Bit of This

I hear tell that most babies will sleep 5 hour stretches at night. 

I've deemed this poopycock, a myth, and something that is totally not on Fiona's agenda.

Except when she's next to Dad.

But what's really sad is that because I've had so little sleep over the past few months (I will only drive somewhere if I know I'll have a nap before I need to go out it's that bad sometimes) I have to keep Tumus closed for the 2012 Holiday season.

There have been ALOT of additional changes to Etsy since I've been on maternity leave (Direct Checkout, Gift Cards, new Browsing feature, Category Elimination from the Front Page...to name a few) and some of the changes baffle me.  I'm not sure how I would've been found this Holiday with all the new search and browsing changes they've implemented.  Hopefully by the time I return the worst of the kinks will be worked out.

This makes me contemplate the possibility of designing a website for e-commerce and moving in a new direction that is less dependent on Etsy.  Of course that means more work on my part and better time management...something which is impossible for the time being.

I have been busy, in the meantime, helping out with pattern testing and putting in an hour or two on Christmas present quilts and I will eventually get my camera down there to show you exactly what they look like before they're finished ^_~

So for now here's hoping I manage to snag a solid 3 hours of sleep so I can start enjoying these squishy cheeks a bit more.

This is Life

And it's tiring and hilarious all at the same time.  That crappy pic was taken from my phone and for some reason she was pooping up a storm.  It was pure luck that I caught her pointing back at me.  She's going be an onery one I just know it.

I have been doing some sewing as crazy as that may be but it's nice and at times a good way to give my tired brain a break for an hour.  So far Fi likes to hang out in her swing and watch me cut and sew when we manage to get down to the new sewing room.  She's starting to coo over the colors which is pretty darn cute and she's already been to my two favorite quilt stores where she's a mini-celebrity.

(I'm almost finished with that quilt above, it's made using a fun quick pattern called Jellyroll 1600)

Old women are funny, but I think the oldest women give the best advice.  It's usually advice that the modern world as all but forgotten.  It's common sense mixed with centuries of intuition and there's alot to be learned from that and it's nice that they still remember enough of it to pass it on.

Voila

Fiona's nursery is nearly done.  We strive to always finish what we start project-wise, but it's just that being 9 months pregnant has really slowed my pace down. And considering I can't lift much anymore due to an ever present "belly" I feel kind of useless and bored.  Even helping Chris finish out his man cave has been exhausting for me.  But this nursery will be done by the time she gets here, gut feeling.  I'm entirely grateful to my mom and hubby for helping get all the big stuff (like painting and furniture assembly) done and out of the way.

It was SO NICE being able to finally organize, get clothes washed and folded and in their proper place instead of having it lumped into gift bags in the closet.

I was even able to get the majority of the decals on in one day.

There's Fiona's finished embroidery hoop name.  I used those awesome 3M Command hooks in clear with clear adhesive to hang the hoops off of the branches.  I kind of want more branches to make an actual tree but for now these are perfect ^_^

There are a few things left to hang on the walls and of course getting the curtains done and a rug found.  The rug is really the least of my concerns at the moment, but it would be a nice finishing touch.  It's getting closer and while I'm not really tired, uncomfortable or annoyed with being pregnant (despite this constant summer drought/heat wave) it will be a wonderful thing to be able to bend over and touch my toes like a normal person again.

I think toe touching is underrated in today's society.

Coming together!

Things are finally getting finished in the basement and nursery...and none too soon. These pictures are bit "old" as we finished the flooring and wiring of the outlets about 3 weeks ago.  In fact I'm even working in the new sewing room finishing curtains for the nursery.

The laminate went down sorta quick, but the directions lied.  We still had to improvise and hammer each joint in to make sure they locked properly before moving to the next row.  It was not a "one person" job especially in the beginning, but slow and steady wins the race.

The major stuff is done, minus the drop ceiling we plan to install a bit later this year with new lighting, base molding around the floor edge and the windows being framed out.  We just needed to finish it enough to move everything around.  Hooray for goals being met!  Chris' man cave is still a WIP (work in progress) though.  We're still, rather HE is still working on getting his final top coat of drywall mud on.  I hope he can manage to get that done and sanded before the baby arrives.  The finishing coat of drywall mud is always the most annoying stage imo but once you get past that it's a cake walk to paint, floor and wire the rest of the room.

Keep your fingers crossed he feels motivated this week!  I need to take a few shots of the new room even though it's a bit in shambles with things still in boxes and tubs.  I was able to keep the same layout for my tables.  I hope to get a closet and a few other storage odds and ends in a few months once things settle back down.

All work and little play

There's so much to be said for do-it-yourself projects.

Mostly that if you don't make a budget and actually stick to it you'll end up costing yourself more time and money than if you hired out the work in the first place.  But so far we've kept it right on the money.  We will go over, but that's mostly because figuring out the cost of a drop ceiling (and all the bits and bobs that go with it) plus the lighting was really difficult thanks to unhelpful store employees and incomplete hardware kits with missing prices.  We ended up estimating it, but still came up short.  In any case we'll still be doing damn good compared to most people who attempt this stuff for the the first time.

So I feel like we can brag about it.

Primer and paint! Remember kids: get a primer that will "seal" new drywall so when you put on your paint it won't suck it all up making more work for you and costing more paint!

There's my awesome other half laying down the DriCore sub-floor.  When I look at how far the rooms have come to where they are now...let's just say I can't believe we did it all ourselves.

I wouldn't compare it to building a house from the ground up like the pioneers but it reminds me of how we can all do these things if we just take the time to read, learn, and take the time to do it right the first time.