Before We Go...

Last month, Hubby and I went on a trek to the South. We had such a blast on our week-long trip, but I was so sad to leave my girl. The morning before we left, Hubby was going to drop her off at her good friend Murray's house to stay for the week. So I had to say goodbye before I left for work. And I totally cried because I had never been away from her so long. (I know she's just a dog, but she's MY dog!)

So, later that day Geoff sent me this:

And I totally cried again!

Don't worry, more on our trip coming soon.

Family Sillouette Seiries

For our latest sewing bee project we were asked to create something that we could hang on the wall and admire. And lately, I’ve really been into the whole heritage/legacy thing and I saw this idea of fabric silhouettes in a book.

I made Hubby’s first because he’s bald and I figured he would be easiest (love you, Baby). When I showed it to him, I asked if he would like any words printed on his. He immediately decided upon “Papa Bear.” And thus the series was born.

Turns out this whole thing was freaky-simple. All I had to do was:

1) Take a profile picture of my subject
2) Blow up the picture on the computer screen to desired size
3) Trace out silhouette on tracing paper
4) Cut out the shape
5) Trace around cut out onto desired fabric (If you are using a light quilting fabric you might want to consider a stabilizer, but that’s optional)
6) Cut out shape
7) Adhere to background fabric (Again, you might want to consider a stabilizer for the background)
8) Stitch into place
9) Stamp on words (optional, I used just regular stamp ink, like for paper)
10) Cut out background fabric to fit your frame

See? Ten easy steps. Each project took maybe 45 minutes. And it was totally worth it. Now I smile every time I look up at the wall. And I know these are going to hang in our home for a long time.

Deception Pass

I forgot to mention our little camping trip to Deception Pass State Park a couple of months ago and just came across these pictures.

And is this not the cutest man you've ever seen in your life? "Why is he holding a giant log?" you might ask. I asked myself that same thing. Boys will be boys I guess.

Oh, Hello again...

Ah yes. Another wide gap in the posts. And I got a ton of excuses, but who really cares? So here is the first of another string of posts to update ya'll on what I've been up to.

First off, I recently joined a sewing group and here is one of the projects we did. It is a woven fabric bowl and it was really fun to do. Plus I LOVE how it turned out. I will definately make more. Here is the tutorial for anyone who's interested. The tutorial uses a machine to sew it, but I did it by hand. The cording I got was real fat and wouldn't fit in the machine, plus it was something easy to do while watched movies.

On a more personal note, today marks the last day of my vacation. Boo. And I just checked my work email. Which was a poor idea on my part. Anyway, Puppy, Hubby, and I rented a cabin out on Gold Bar on the Snohomish River for a week. We invited our folks to come out as well. They didn't stay the whole time, though. It was awesome vacation spot. It was a 5 acre fenced property so Puppy just ran wild for a solid week. She loved it. We loved it. We went hiking, river-tubing, hot-tubing, shopping, and played wiffle ball. There was also alot of sleeping, lounging, eating, drinking, and laughing. It was super fun. So sad its over.

Get 'em While They're Young

Hubby and I went to Portland a couple months ago to watch my little sister and brothers (ages nearly 10, 7, and 5, I think) for a few days. I brought my sewing machine and plans to explore the local fabric shops with my sister while Hubby watched the boys. We came back from the store with visions of back-to-school projects dancing in our heads.

So, I set up the sewing machine, walked away for a minute, and came back to this:

Isn't she cute? Fully concentrated. In the zone. Determined.  I loved watching her make up her own project. (That is a decorative "dishtowel" made from scraps by the way.) When I was her age, my mom taught me to cross-stitch. I have many very fond memories of sewing cross stitch next to my mom while we watched movies. Then that opened a big door to creative hobbies.

Anyway, she told me that she wanted to have a new headband to show off at school when they got back from spring break. So we made this:

I hope that her first sewing experience went well. I had a good time at least. She walked away from it with a spiffy headband and a sassy little tote (which I forgot to photo) and begging her mother for her own sewing machine.  Ahh, nine-almost-ten year olds...