Slightly Better than No Post at All

Have you noticed that there is a dearth of bloggery in Blogdom lately? I think I'm noticing it because I'm missing some of you and your wonderful daily posts. Perhaps it's Facebook to blame...or Twitter...or just our busy lives catching up with us; I'm not sure.

But I can hardly complain, can I, as I myself have been responsible for a portion of the dearth! I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. So I thought I'd better post something...anything...so...

How about pictures of my pretty Rainbow Shower tree?

This was taken about a month ago. August and September are the months that these trees go off all over the island. They're gorgeous!

Look at all those blooms! And they aren't small blooms, either:

There is my hand on just one of the giant brachts. There are pink shower trees, yellow shower trees, and a mix of pink, peach and yellow like mine. I just love my tree. Now that it's fall, there are only a few blooms left.

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging much is this:

I'm learning to use my new machine. Here, I'm trying my first pantograph on a couple of baby donation quilts I made. All I have to do is follow that black line with the red laser light on the machine.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha hee hee hoo hoo. Follow the line...whoo hoo! It SOUNDS easy, doesn't it? NOT!

Oh well, they didn't come out too badly when you don't look closely. These were my first two pantos--I've done six baby quilts now, and I think I'm getting better. I had to learn to slow down, believe it or not...I was trying to quilt too fast! The problem was that my old machine-on-a-stick went very fast and it trained me to go like a bat out of...well, you know...just to get my stitching even. My new Gammill has a stitch regulator, so I can go any speed I want and there will be even stitches. But my brain doesn't quite know that yet. The machine goes on and I feel like I'm a horse out of a starting gate. Zoom!

Well, if they ever give awards for speed quilting, bet on me. Accuracy? Not so much.

Not too bad, now that they're all bound and donated.

So that's what I've been working on lately. Pretty snore-y, huh?

My wonderful son had his birthday recently. Here is a really sweet picture of him and Mr. Bigglesworth, taken when he was home for the summer:

I can just tell by the way he treats his little cat brother that he's going to be a great father one day.

Feather Challenged

Remember these blocks? The ones you've been staring at on my neglected blog for over a month?
At long last, I bring you....closure. Or should I say "clothes"-ure?

The "Better than Laundry" quilt is done. Here it is on my bed:

I lost track of how many shirts, dresses and skirts I used to make this quilt. I even used a pair of men's pajamas! I had a ball.

While my son was home for summer, we watched the "Twin Peaks" series from Netflix. I think that's how this quilt ended up so "mountain-cabin-in-Snowhomish" looking. I certainly doesn't look like it belongs in Kauai, but that's okay. Change is fun.

The only fabric I purchased was for the black border. The rest of this quilt was made from my last-chance stash (destined for rag rugs) and old clothing.

I had fun with the quilting. Sunbursts, spirals, leaves, flames, feathers...yikes.

I'm okay with leaves and swirls, but feathers defeat me. This quilt is an oversized KING comforter (!), so I thought I would tackle feathers on the gigantic black border with black fine thread. I thought by the time I feathered FOUR large, wide borders, I'd be great at feathers!

Nope. I guess my next few quilts will have to stay plucked for now.

Can you see the feathers in the black border below? No? Good.

Okay...how about this...can you spot the fur in the next picture?

Mr. Bigglesworth inspects my latest. Oh...and as long as we're playing "I Spy"....did you spot my new quilt hanger?

It's quite big for a quilt hanger, yes?

Yep...I'm surprised, too. My husband bought me this for my 51st birthday. I told him that my friend Joe was selling his Gammill, and the next thing you know, the Gammill was parked in our living room. Well...not exactly "the next thing you know." It required six people and a twelve-foot trailer, plus lots of noises like, "oof" and "ow," not to mention some major bruises and back pain.

I'm floored. For as long as I can remember, I've dreamed about owning one of these machines. I can hardly believe it when I see it in my very own sewing room. Pinch me.

Better Than Laundry

I present here for your viewing pleasure....today's laundry.

There are several shirts and dresses in here, along with some pieces of fabric I dug out of my fabric recycle bin. My "fabric recycle bin" is where fabrics go that I haven't used in ten to twenty years--my fabric graveyard.

I had to soak a few of these pieces in Biz to get the yellow and mold spots out. I guess you could call some of these "zombie" fabrics since they arose from the dead...ha! (You can tell my son is home for the summer. I've watched more than a few zombie films since we put him in charge of the Netflix queue.)

Yep...just a big pile of laundry. But wait!

What is far, far better than folding laundry???

Making a quilt is far, far, far better than folding laundry!

This dress was always too short. Unflattering, too.

It looks so much better as a quilt, don't you think?

So far, I've incorporated six old shirts and two dresses, along with various fabric zombies to make it interesting. I'm having so much fun! This is, by far, my favorite kind of quilt.

Stay tuned. More blocks and sashing to follow....

Update: I'm still waiting for an appointment with a gastroenterologist, so I don't know anything much yet. (I stumped the G.P.) But my lab blood tests were incredibly excellent! So that's good news. Trouble is, we only have one gastroenterologist on the whole island, so I think there's a bit of a wait to see him. Meanwhile, I'm off grains, dairy, starchy vegetables, sugar, and chocolate. Yes, chocolate. If I eat chocolate, my eyes swell shut and I get big itchy lumps all over my head. It would be really quite funny if we weren't talking about CHOCOLATE...which happens to be my FAVORITE THING in the WHOLE WORLD. Sigh....

A Quickie Post

May was spectacularly busy for my family and I. I hope June eases up a bit! It's been Crazyville.

I haven't had much time for crafting, but I did want to pop in and say hello.

I finished a scarf:

This is the "Spring Ripple Scarf," and it's crocheted with Noro Sock Yarn. Sure is colorful, eh? Springy. I'm not exactly sure if I'll ever wear it...actually...with those colors, I think it would wear me. But working on it was fun and it looks pretty hanging in my closet.

We picked up Grayson and Angela from the airport on May 9th, and it sure has been great having them around. One of the first things Angela said to me (I think we were still at the airport!) was that she wanted to learn how to knit.

YESSSSSS!

That made me VERY happy, of course. So here she is with her first project, the "One Row Handspun Scarf." She's finished quite a bit more of it since this picture:

I think she likes knitting! Yay!

I had a day to do a little sewing:

I made four summer lightweight cotton elastic waist skirts. I absolutely lived in the two I made last summer, so I added to my summer collection. Easy as pie, washable, cool...they're great, even if they are a little dorky grandma farm-woman-looking. I love them.

These farm lady skirts will probably look great with my screaming Spring scarf, eh? And maybe some galoshes. Totally dig the crazy ol' lady look. People give you wide berth at the post office.

You haven't seen Mr. Bigglesworth lately, but he sends a big kitty hug:

He loves you all as much as I do.

I am really really really so very sorry that I have not answered hardly any email lately. Besides having visitors and deadlines, I'm having some health issues that I'm researching. No, I don't think it's serious, just sort of a puzzle. Giving up gluten, sugar and dairy seemed to solve many of my mysterious issues, but some remain. For instance, I suddenly seem to be allergic and/or intolerant to so many foods and substances! It's all so strange, because I've never been allergic to anything at all before now. So I've been reading every book and visiting every website I can in search of some answers. I'll hope I'll know more after my doctor visit next week. Wish me luck!

Kauai's 2009 North Shore Quilt & Fiber Show

Would you like to go to a quilt show with me? I hope you don't mind if my brain doesn't come along; it's still missing. (No, it hasn't even sent me a postcard. I'm getting worried...)

We're going to have to do some backward time travel....I hope you don't mind. This quilt show, the brainchild of quilter Jeni Hardy and the result of hard work of the No Nene Quilt Group, is just a couple years old, but growing every year. It was held this year on March 27th and 28th, 2009, at the Church of the Pacific in Princeville, Kauai.

I'm estimating there were approximately 90 quilts, which is a pretty great showing for our tiny island. This first quilt is by M. Lea Ingram, who never fails to blow me away with her talent:

"Hanalei Moon," M. Lea Ingram, 2008

This is the show as you walk in; the quilts filled a number of rooms in the small church:

Of course, I wish I could show you all the quilts. I'm so proud of our quilters here on Kauai.

These Hawaiian quilts were a special display. These are the work of Pua Miriam Kaona.


Her family graciously lent these quilts to the show. Amazing. All hand-appliqued and quilted. Gee...and I whine when I have to sew block rows together....

I wish I had a long shot of this next quilt by Eileen Sanders. This is the farthest away I could get from the quilt because frankly, I am so in awe of her hand quilting skills that couldn't back away. I was hypnotized by her tiny, perfect, regular stitches:

"Baskets" by Elieen Sanders, 2009, voted Best in Show 2009

Eileen is a stab-stitcher. She makes those stitches ONE AT A TIME. One year at Quilt Hawaii, Eileen's work was almost dismissed by the judges in the hand-quilting category because the judges initially thought her quilt was machine quilted--it's that perfect.

Can you imagine? Stab stitching all these stitches one stitch at a time??? Mind boggling. And Eileen is a prolific quilter! She turns out one of these huge hand appliqued, hand pieced, hand quilted quilts about one every two months or so.

I am humbled by her awesomeness.

This quilt is pretty humbling, too:

"Iz" by Paula Jimenez, 2002

This quilt is a picture of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole, a beloved singer here in Hawaii, now deceased. He's sitting under a mango tree, strumming his ukulele. This quilt took Paula five years to complete. The quilt includes many native Kauaian birds. It's spectacular. The quilt is large...possibly queen size?...not that you'd ever put in on a bed. That's just to give you a size idea.

I love this colorful strippy quilt:

"Rainbow Quilt," Jeni Hardy, 2009

I loved this next quilt, but I cannot find the maker's name in the program! No Nene's...anyone...help? I'll edit the maker's name in later. But I just had to show it to you because...wow...isn't it great? Look at those colors!!

"Unknown," by Unknown, Unknown Year. Anyone??

There were demos, too:

And this cute Hawaiian shirt quilt by Happy Parks, who comes up with the greatest ideas! I wish I could take a tour of her brain:

"Reyn Spooner Family Quilt," by Happy Parks

This quilt was made from a collection of Reyn Spooner Hawaiian shirts that belonged to her son, husband, father, and brother-in-law.

She used the collar, plaquet, and pocket of 12 shirts, then used the rest for the sashing. Isn't this clever?

Happy made one of my "Keiki Hula" patterns once and set it in such an imaginative way that I had to ask her if I could copy it. I love her work.

Back at the home front, I am busy being a mom again. All's right with the world.

I guess having a brain is overrated.

I am content.

Oh! and P.S. Be sure to look for me in the latest Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. I haven't seen the "Meeting Place" article yet, but thanks for your nice comments about it! I always worry about how I'm going to come off in an interview...I can be a little irreverent, you know. I hope it's okay...

More Spring Fever Randomness

No, I haven't got all my mental marbles back yet. My mind is still off wandering somewhere and shows no signs of returning. I wish it had left a note. Am I going to be like this until Summer?

Meanwhile, some more Spring Fever randomness:

I made a skirt. It's fitted and has a zipper.

Of course, since I don't have a brain right now, I made mistake on the waistline. I made the waistline a little too big, but that's better than too small...right? More room for strawberries.

I made the skirt from this book:

Sew What! Skirts. Fantastic book. You can make custom fitted skirts easily, even if you don't have a brain!

Uh oh....mind wandering alert. Do you have this problem:

Piglets overrunning your yard? We do. These are wild piglets and they're soooo cute...but they're accompanied by their very agressive mama, who storms out of the bushes to charge anyone who walks into the yard. It's a problem.

This is what the adult pigs look like:

These are the neighbor's pigs, but they're quite tame. I can't get a good picture of the wild mama that's charging me because I'm usually too busy screaming and running back toward my house. It's a problem.

This is a horse that visits us occasionally. He keeps the pigs away.

Speaking of visitors, we have a pigeon that started visiting us recently. I don't think we had pigeons before Wal Mart came to our island. Now they're at Wal Mart, Kukui Grove Mall, and Lihue McDonald's. They're spreading to all the people-y places. I don't think we should be feeding him, but look at that cute birdie face! We're keeping him in captivity so he doesn't breed. Don't want to displace any endangered Hawaii birds! He seems happy enough in his cage.

This one's name is Mr. Pidgy. He growls when you get close to him--it's really funny. Have you heard a pigeon do that hiss-growl thing....or is that just our Kauai WalMart variety? Maybe he learned it from the pig.

Here's another project I've finished lately, which has nothing much to do with anything else I've written here...

Mr. Wise Owl. Made from an old Aunt Martha transfer pack.

More animal pictures:

Mr. Bigglesworth is wondering why all the animals that come live with us have the prefix "Mr." or "Mrs." I guess it's because I respect animals. And also...they have their secrets, don't they? I don't really think you can ever really name an animal. They have their own name for themselves that you can never know. So I leave their secret first name up to them.

Of course, when they're not big enough to be a Mr. or Mrs.:

Awwwwwwww. Mr. Bigglesworth, just a few days after we got him from the Humane Society. His name was just "kitty" here. What a lovely little creature he is.

For the life of me, I can't think of a segue into this next picture:

My chocolate chip cookies. My favorite recipe is the Tollhouse recipe which is printed on the back of the chocolate chips. But why do my cookies always come out looking like this:

Flat and wrinkly. They taste good, of course, but why flat and wrinkly? My cookies used to come out puffy...do any of you know what the problem could be? Thanks in advance for any insight, and also thanks in advance for not telling me that my cookies are just going through menopause. They're very sensitive these days...

Yay! The last topic change....I think. Maybe.

My husband and I will be celebrating our 24th anniversary this Sunday. I'm the luckiest woman on earth. I love being married to him and love him with all my heart. Happy Anniversary, Honey.

And more good news...my son Grayson will be home from college for the summer on May 9th! This will be one wonderful weekend. With any luck, my brain will check in briefly in order to enjoy it.

Spring Fever?

I think I have Spring Fever. Does anyone know what the symptoms are? I'm busy, but I just feel so...hmmm....unfocused. I'm not doing anything I SHOULD be doing...I just feel like wandering around, doing a little bit of everything.

For instance, I have this incredibly lovely stack of fabric that I got for Christmas last year:

And this perfectly wonderful pattern to make it into:

But I don't feel like tackling a big project right now! My attention span is too short. So I do silly things like this:

I made a thrifted pillowcase into an apron. I think it came out pretty...but still...

I have an entire stack of perfectly wonderful new crisp fabric waiting for me...and I'm sewing together old sheets again. What is wrong with me??

I did finish a useful pair of socks:

These are my "Jury Duty" socks. I started them as a mindless, chartless project when I was called for jury duty...but my case got cancelled (yay!) and I was stuck with finishing the world's most boring sock pattern. I like the yarn--it's Misti Alpaca. Very warm and soft, which are my two favorite qualities in a sock.

But then I went back to sewing old dishtowels:

Can you guess what this is? Here it is, unrolled:

And unflapped:

My dpn's now have a cozy little bed to sleep in. I used two Martha Stewart dishtowels, some batting, and a bit of fabric to make the flap. Don't they look cute all tucked in?

Spring fever, I tell you.

As long as my mind is wandering, I'll tell you about my new favorite cereal:

I'm on a gluten-free diet now, just to see what happens. It's been two weeks and so far, I don't feel much different. Maybe gluten was responsible for my former longer attention span...you think? Nah. Anyway, this stuff is yummy! I think the box is happy, too. Can't you just see a quilt in all those colors?

Speaking of yummy, it's lychee time of year again:

These are so sweet and tasty. Have you ever had lychee? You peel back the red skin and eat the flesh, which tastes a bit like a grape, but more floral-tasting. These are not quite ready; they'll get redder and sweeter.

My orchids are showing off right now:

Hello, my pretties. Do you have Spring Fever, too?

While I'm wandering around the yard, this new little family crosses my path:

The yard is so lovely, I just may stay out here and wander a bit.

Is there any cure for this?