Sunday, September 30, 2012

The Best Yellow House that is a Chocolate Factory

Pin It The C Shop,  

Have you been there?  Well if you ever are in Northwest Washington in the Summertime,  this is the place for you to go.

http://www.thecshop.com/


Pat and Pat Alesse have been operating the CShop at Birch Bay since 1971.  The CShop is a wonderful candy shop, bakery, cafe and a great place for a summertime treats of ice cream and sno cones.
But however as good as the homemade candy is, the most delightful part of the CShop is the owners....
Pat and Pat are delightfully gracious hosts and very good friends.  Everyone in my family has worked there,  me,  my husband,  and all of our kids. If a kid has his first job at the CShop, they learn to work hard and have fun at the same time.  

So what does that have to do with this quilt?  Well  Patricia  gave me a bunch of old aprons that her mom had made years ago for the Candy Shop employees to wear.  No one was using them so she thought well maybe I could use them....   then it hit me...  these were the color of the Shop.  I thought  a log cabin design would mimic the cedar lap siding.... and the other logs would be fabric picturing all the goodies that are available there.... candy, cookies,  ice cream...chocolate!

Well, Patricia had a birthday, and I had an inspiration,  and now she has a quilt. It has memories of her mom and lots of memories of many summers.

Well  the CShop remains the same and yet is changing.  The Pats are still involved in the day to day operations,   but are their son Keith Alesse and his partner Saara Kuure are partnering with the Pats in running this Birch Bay icon.  
As my granddaughter once said,  "are we going to the big yellow house that pretends to be a chocolate factory?"  No Sarah,  we are going to the CShop, the big yellow house that IS a chocolate factory.
M

***Note:  M submitted this quilt as her Inspiration Point project so you can check out more pictures on our Flickr page.  Also, it is a new month, so you can join in on the fun and create something based on our new inspiration.  Check it out HERE or click the Inspiration Point tab up top. ****

Friday, September 28, 2012

question game

Pin It There are several blogs that I (Major Moma) like to randomly visit but there are a few that draw me back again and again ... even when I am not an official "follower".  Luvinthemommyhood is one of those that keep calling me back.  Other than the fact she makes pretty things, I think the main reason is she is from the same geographical region I grew up in.  And when she posts pictures of her family out and about, I feel at home again.
So, all that being said, Shannon of luvinthemommyhood has something fun going on right now that I thought we should participate in.  She listed a bunch of sentences telling about herself, and then fellow bloggers are to take those sentences and change the bolded words.  Finally, we go back to her sight and in the comments place a link to our blog so all of us can get to know each other.  You know, pretend we all are friends ... I love it!
So....
I convinced my co-bloggers to participate.  And now even the Winocologist has joined in!  Since we are a joint blog, I thought it would be fun if we added our own twist.  I changed the bold to a blank and then below the statement, we each answered the questions with a color code. 

CODE 
Major Moma
McH
M
Winocologist
* i'm longing to make ___________ right now.
  • a dress from my Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing book
  • A short story based on a wrong number call, person from 1950 calling to present time. 
  • a new quilt project just for me
  • Breakfast (I'm hungry)
 * i want to try ___________with some __________________ .
  • underlining ... organza
  • Making a rug ... old sheets and tees
  • making scarf ...great soft wool yarn
  • Ethiopian food... McH
 * i wish i could sew with ____________  fabric.
  • liberty of London
  • some homespun
  • all the time  
  • lace.... I keep on snagging it.
 * i dream of making _______________.
  • my whole wardrobe (or at least the cool pieces)
  • a book good enough for a movie
  • more quilts
  • A difference
* i keep track of my ideas by ________________.
  • writing them in notebooks and church bulletins that have found their way into my purse and are recycled as scrap paper
  • yep, writing them in my notebook
  • Keep track of ideas?
  • I tell my boyfriend... he's good at remembering things
 * i'm inspired by _________________.
  • my kids and landscapes
  • the odd things people say
  • color
  • Creative and interesting people
* i would love to meet _________________ in person.
  • Hillary Clinton
  • Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, to bad they are fictional"    
  • Jimmy Carter
  • Nelson Mandela
 * my favorite fiber is _________.
  • silk
  •  Flannel
  • Silk
  • citrusel
* i like to sew with ______________.
  • cotton
  • yep Cotton here too
  • yep me too but really good cotton
  • a nice glass of white wine.
* my favorite color is _______________.
  • grey... right now, but the really pretty luxurious grey; not boring grey
  • Purple
  • Blue Blue Blue
  • Turquoise
* i rock at _______________.
  • push ups
  • so many things...but crafty wise I am a good color planner
  • I am a serging queen ... 
  • making my own patterns 
 * i would like to learn how to make _______________.
  • couture clothing
  • a screen play; a GOOD screen play
  • knit a sweater
  • lingerie
 * i like to listen to ___________" while i ___________.
  • NPR ... sew
  • music; jazz and rap actually ... write
  • I like the blues ... sew
  • Books on tape... clean, sew or sit in the back bedroom pretending like I'm cleaning or sewing.
 * i bring my ____________everywhere.
  • Kindle
  • Notebook
  • my iPhone  
  • ID
* my favorite thing to ___________ is ______________.
  • sew ... kids clothes
  • write ... short stories
  • sew... quilts....quilts
  • Drink... German Riesling
 * my favorite thing to __________ is/are ______.
  • wear... boots
  • drink ... coffee
  • dance ... the waltz
  • watch... Murder She Wrote
 * my crafting space is ____________.
  • pretty organized, but not fancy (visualize lots of plastic bins and drawers)
  • a total disaster and half stored due to lack of room
  • beyond a total disaster.  
  • Clean until I start a project... Then all heck breaks loose.
 * if i had my own crafting room it would be _________________. (This is not completely fair for two of us because one has an exclusive craft room and one has a craft room that is shared only with a computer and some toys.)
  • full of real cabinetry and a tall table for cutting
  • Extremely bright and playful, with space to stick stuff everywhere (idea boards, walls of flannel, cork boards
  • Very large and lots of cupboards..
  • I would have a really big sewing table and one of those adjustable mannequin things.
 * i sew with ____________.
  • a pfaff and brother
  • Pfaff too 
  • Janome embroidery, Janome Horizon, Janome coverstitch, Janome serger...uhh Janome.
  • Mom's old Viking

* i like to ______ ________.
  • have a snack at an outdoor European cafe and watch my kids run around the ubiquitous town fountain.  Oh, and kiss my husband too... good one Mom.
  • write about quirky people
  • Kiss my husband
  • watch football (something I am doing right now :)

 * i can never get enough _____________.
  • notions and jewelry ... but isn't that what notions are, jewelry for sewing projects?
  • books, seriously we have a couple thousand
  • Candy
  • Sunshine .... really.... I live in Seattle
 * i adore _____________.
  • traveling
  • walking around window shopping
  • hassling my daughters
  • Traveling
 * i also enjoy _________.
  • hiking
  • sewing and painting my house
  • travel
  • My wonderful Dog!
 * i like to fill my shelves with ________________.
  • fabric, yarn, trims, notions and books
  • me too. but more like books, books, fabric, and yarn.. 
  • these nuts didn't fall too far from the tree,  fabric, yarn, and books....
  • Art
 * i create the best when i'm __________.
  • at home in my pj's awake before the kiddos
  • add in without a bra and children at school and we have a winner
  • When in pjs, without a bra and when I have a limited budget or color palette.
  • All of that is the same for me.. minus the kiddos

 * i am currently excited for __________________.
  • I can't think of anything; so sad ... I have to work on that.
  • National Novel Writers month! Go November!
  • Christmas.  I am always excited for Christmas.
  • My trip to Spain!!!
 * right now i am ________________.
  • working on my PRP outfits and just plain working a lot at my day job.
  • plotting out a novel. I know shocking.
  • strangely enough trying to clean and organize my sewing room
  • watching football, drinking coffee and writing in my family blog.

* i love to watch ______________while creating.
  • nothing
  • Pomplamoose vids on youtube.
  • QVC
  • Thomas Crown Affair.... I've seen it so many times its no longer distracting
 * my guilty pleasure when it comes to creating is __________.
  • Guilt?  What a useless emotion.  No guilt in crafting, it is against the rules.
  • I have no idea..i pretty much love crafty, awesome stuff.
  • I don't believe in feeling guilty about creating, however I have been know to spend some money on sewing machines
  • Costumes... I love making goofy costumes.  Thunder Cats, Flappers, Unicorns, Hula bobble heads... I like to laugh when I'm creating something fun.
 * my current favorite music crush to listen to while creating is __________.
  • Mumford & Sons
  • Pomplamoose
  • swing music
  • Nina Simone


OK, this was tons of fun!   Please leave a comment with your favorite phrase or two, or three with your data inserted into the blanks.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Tale of Two Hats

Pin It "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times . . ."

This is a little bit how I felt with the last outfit.  I was so excited to make a superhero outfit and I was trying out a new fabric and doing something fun for my kid.  I had thoroughly planned out the whole thing.

Super hero outfit:
  • pants
    • Blank slate pattern
    • yellow twill
    • grey and red accents
  • shirt
    • grey sport mesh
    • polo style
    • super boy embroidery
  • hat
    • baseball cap
    • yellow twill
    • grey lining
But, if you look at the list, this is not what I displayed on Monday.   The pants sewed up like a dream.  Then came the shirt.  The first thing that went wrong was that I was sewing away on my grey shirt and got in such a groove that I attached my facings and completed my placket when I realized, I had forgotten to attach the collar.  Oops, well I guess the shirt won't have a collar.

Next, I had the shirt hooped up on the embroidery machine and my 1 year old started messing with the buttons.  The embroidery was hopelessly ruined and thus, the grey shirt never came to be.

I grabbed the red fabric and decided I would just use that instead.  After all, red really would look great with my yellow pants that have red accents.  But this fabric did not like having a collar.  I had to fight and fight with it.  And at one point, my serger blade cut a small hole in the back near the neckline.  I would not let that deter me ... I already lost one shirt in this war and would not loose another.  So I patched that small hole and finished the shirt.





Then, I started on the hat.  I had lots of small pieces left over from the pants and decided to make two hats.  One for Eli and one for his friend.  I followed the pattern exactly and completed both in an evening.

The next morning, I brought them to church and gave them to the boys.  They were thrilled.  Until they put them on.  The pattern created a shallow style cap and for little boys, that really is not the best.  If they ran around and played, the cap would fly off.

So disappointing. 

That afternoon I had a friend scheduled to take pictures of my kids in their cute PRP outfits (I had completed two).  My pictures are so bad, I thought it would be nice for PRP to actually have some good pictures.  So, in the hour before my photographer arrived, I changed the hat pattern for a long skinny headed boy.  I think the cap looks a little silly, but it now fits him and he loves it.

In the end, it was a great project.  I learned how to handle some new types of fabric; I stretched my design and pattern alteration capabilities and finished a pretty cute outfit.  But it definitely had some "worst of times" moments.

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known."   This may be an exageration in my case.  But I count this as one of my cutest outfits and believe me, I took a rest when it was completed!

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Us Girls

Pin It
We three sisters have been known as many things.  For intance, Dad called us his 3 gorillas instead of his 3 girls.  But mostly we have always been Us Girls. 

We have always been under the impression that there has never been anything ordinary about any of us.  It makes sense because you absolutely cannot call our parents ordinary.  I would use words like extraordinary, amazing, fierce, crazy smart, bold, aggressive, and artistic.  People who have crossed our paths in life have used other words like, pit bulls, aggressive, scary smart, controlling, feminist.  One thing was always clear. Us three girls would do whatever we set our minds to.

At the same time, I don’t think we could be more different as people.  Major Mama has always wanted to rule the entire world.  I have always wanted to be free to be my crazy self and safe and secure at the same time.  Winocologist has always wanted to pave her own way and explore the possibilities of a world at her fingertips. 

As children we fought for the right to be powerful girls in a small town.  We fought to be unique, to be loved, to be accepted.  Sometimes that was simply a decsion to express our selves in a different way.  And sometimes that was to try a sport that had been "off limits" to girls.  (Like soccer, and then wrestling)  If the doors were not open, we fought against the powers that be to change the status quo.  There have been times when we struggled against various authorities which had a hard time recognizing strong women called to do amazing things.

We were independent minded girls because behind us we had parents that fought for us, encouraged us, and gave us the freedom to be who God made us to be.  Our parents cultivated a strong relationship with school authorities, even when they did not always see eye-to-eye.  My dad attended every single wrestling practice to protect the right of his daughter to be there.  Their silent and sometimes not so silent leadership gave no room for discrimination. 

Mom and Dad always told us we could be anyone, do anything.  And we have, are, will be.

I am raising my own children now.  My children have their own passions, own pursuits that I struggle to fight for.  I can only imagine the behind closed doors weeping sessions parents had over us girls.

Being Us Girls was never easy but all three of us hold that name as a badge of honor.  Like a soldier’s right shoulder patch.  We fought and because of our fight our own children/nieces and nephews don’t have to fight quite so hard.

Love you my sisters!
 p.s. I couldn't find a single picture of the three of us together. 

Monday, September 24, 2012

My colorful boy

Pin It
A friend of mine lamented on the current trend for brightly colored 'skinny' pants for women.  She was hoping that when she returned from her deployment in Afghanistan, it would have worked its way out of the American fashion industry.  Well, I am living in Europe right now and I can tell you this trend shows no sign of fading.  Plus, it seems to be an equal opportunity trend and completely gender neutral. 
The little boys I see walking to school are often wearing brightly colored tapered pants.  One little guy in particular wore bright red on Monday, green on Tuesday, and a beautiful cobalt blue on Wednesday.  So, I could not let my little guy be left behind.  Especially since he regularly tells me "I love all colors!"
And this week is Boy Week on PRP; so I combined that love of color with another love of my boy ... superheros. (correction:  It is white sheet week at PRP. You are to get a white sheet and modify the heck out of that sheet to produce a cute outfit.  I planned on skipping that event, but evidently, my mind skipped the entire week.  Oh, well I am done early for next week.)  I found great embroideries at my favorite embroidery website.  These were perfect for the look I was after.  With them and my brightly colored fabrics I created an outfit reminiscent of classic comic book heroes with a childlike twist.   

The shirt is made from a sports high performance knit that I bought thinking it would be super practical for my active boy.  Well, I have mixed feelings.  The knit is very comfortable but it's super stretchiness makes it quite difficult to sew.  Even with a serger.  But, I fought with it and came up with this polo style shirt.  I made a collar and short placket on this shirt to keep it from being too casual and used two little buttons to tack down the collar points. And I made wide cuffs for the sleeves.


pocket detail

welt back pockets

The pants are made from a heavy weight twill that was surprisingly soft.  I used Melly Sews' Blank Slate pants pattern and it was great!  (I want to write a full review of these pants, but have not got to it yet... so stay tuned.)  The pants have welt pockets in the back and bag pockets in the front.  It has a zipper fly and I used adjustable waist elastic so that the pants will grow with my boy.  The pockets are lined with a light weight grey cotton.  I also used red bias tape to finish the inside of the hem so I could cuff up  the pants while they are a little long.  This provides a nice finish before the fall growth spurt hits.  I used the coordinating "Pow" embroidery on the pocket to tie the pants in with the red shirt.  Also, if you look closely, the little boy hero on the shirt is wearing a red shirt with yellow pants; yea I did that on purpose!  That is one of the fun things about my embroidery machine, I can change things up so they match what I want and not what the buyers in the store want.
Finally, I made him a hat out of the scraps from the pants.  And of course, I added the "Pow" to that too.  The hat looks like it is a funny shape, but that is actually because my kid's head is long and pointy.  : D




Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Major Moma's September IP project

Pin It I loved the picture that McH gave us for the September Inspiration Point.  I have always loved this time of year and I know a lot of the reason is because I loved the beginning of a new school year.  It always felt great to have a fresh start and to anticipate all the new things I would be able to learn.

Yes, I loved school!

Now, I look forward to the new school year as a chance for new beginnings and challenges for my 3rd grader.  It is also nice for the whole family for her to be out of the house doing her own thing!

After giving it a lot of thought, I decided to make optional school supplies.

I used a tutorial from Melly Sews that you can find here to guide me through the book cover.  This is a super easy project and even if you have never sewn anything, you could follow her instructions and get a great product.  I used some scraps of piping and bias tape to trim the edges and for the pencil holder on the inside.



Then, I made a luggage tag with a snap closure.  I figure she could use this to label just about whatever she wants.  She can put it on her backpack, cubby area, chair...  This morning, it was attached to her lunch sack.

I used embroidery files from urbanthreads.com on the book and tag.  I think this book worm is super cute.  And then embroidered Abi's (she spells it Abby at school) name on it.

I of course would love to see any of your Back-to-School projects; so load them up onto our Flicker page! (you will find the link on the left with the arrow icon)

Monday, September 17, 2012

My Fashion Icon

Pin It This week's theme at PRP is Fashion Icon.  I wanted to sew something for the boy, so this was a bit hard for me.  There are not a lot male "icons" out there.

So I started to think of celebrity men who have a style I like.  And strangely enough, I thought of Justin Timberlake.  (which is super weird because I don't even like pop music)  I just remembered that he usually is dressed nice.  I googled up some photos and saw, yep, he looks good.  He also has started his own clothing line with a friend called William Rast.  Which to me says, fashion icon.  And to confirm, yes, some fashion magazines have actually applied that title to him. 

source                                                              source                                                         source
Great. 
So now I have an icon to be inspired by, what should I design for my boy?

Justin Timberlake has a pretty dressy style.  So many of the photos had him in suits, vests, and at a minimum a jacket of some sort.  Even when he is dressed casually, there is nothing frumpy about him.  He looks pretty classy.  And, I think he wears more neck ties than anyone else in his generation.
Well, my boy also likes to wear nice clothes.  He also loves it when I sew for him and he loves colors. (just wait until you see what I made for boy week;  very colorful.)

Since a suit jacket is such a common item on Mr. Timberlake, I designed up a blazer for my guy.  It is charcoal grey twill and lined in a light grey.  I made welt pockets in the front and a back vent for comfort.

Then I slightly modified an Ottobre Fall 2007 pants pattern for some jeans.  The jeans are also a charcoal colored and I top-stitched like crazy in light grey.  Many of the William Rast jeans had a lot of details accented through top-stitching, so I thought that would be a nice element on these pants too.  I really like the contrast it gave to the pants and how it made them tie in with the jacket.























Finally, I needed to add some color and something special.  For that, I made a fitted t-shirt out of a dark purple thermal knit fabric with grey stitching (with a double needle) on the hems.  And, I added an applique tie!
 
This was something new for me.  I used my friend's silouette and ordered some iron-on vinyl.  For the tie, I used a black flocked vinyl sheet.  It did not stick very well to the textured thermal knit, but it stuck well enough for me to stitch around the edges.  Eli was very excited when he saw the tie!

 



I did have some challenges with this outfit.  The sleeves I originally drafted for the jacket were way too small.  They were actually too skinny.  And I am so glad I had Eli put the sleeves on before I attached them to the jacket.  I re-cut the sleeves for both the jacket and the lining, and had Eli try the new ones on.  They were loose enough to look tailored but still allow for a shirt underneath and some moving.
... since he never stops. 
Moving.
 
















Even when eating a cupcake, he is standing and shifting around.

I think he looks very handsome. 

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Pay no attention to the man holding the Quilt

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Our Mother needed to blog.  Major Mama and myself, McH, decided to help.  A couple of weeks ago Mom posted on Facebook this picture. The caption said it all. 

"Pay no attention to the man holding the quilt." 

 So Major Mama being the oldest and control freak of the family grabbed the pic and wrote a small paragraph about it.  McH joined in the fun and now we have a blog for our Mom. 
Next week we plan on posting something extremely embarrassing about Winocologist if she doesn't get her rear in gear and blog.
Major M is in Bold.  McH in Italics
My mother made this quilt for the youngest of us girls, Winocologist.  She used mostly fabrics from her stash which is slowly being used up.  She has been diligent in her effort to use what she owns, and not buy more.  I love how most of it is blue but there is that pink stuff creeping in from the corner.
Of course when she needed a picture of it, she asked her husband (our father) to help Wino hold it up.
He could not simply stand there... he had to be goofy.  This is typical.

This is not just typical, this is the story of our life.   If you take a jaunt down memory lane  and open the many albums and boxes of pictures throughout the years, you find this one consistent.  Our dad is weird.  My friends after meeting my dad for the first time then end up looking at me with more understanding.  What can I say, weird is hereditary.
Dad is the person who makes the jokes that everyone groans to.  He even won a talent contest doing fake magic tricks. But most of all he is known for his rubber face and funny pictures. 
Our family has an entire set of photos we call the "dad with something on his head" series.  The most famous is the one at Major Mama's wedding with a plastic swan on his head. 
Mom takes it in stride that her husband is an odd duck.  She chose him after all.  Not to mention she was his lovely assistant in that famous magic show.  So when she took a picture of the beautiful quilt she made for my sister it did not surprise her when she downloaded it to see that dad was once again
was being funny. 
So pay no attention to the man holding the quilt.  He is just dad, being weird and proud of his wife and her beautiful work. 


organic twill pants

Pin It When I was fabric shopping for Abi's school clothes I bought a bunch of organic twill fabric. I bought some corally pink and some brown.

I right away was thinking cargo pants for the pink but then got distracted with PRP and made a skirt instead. But, there was still enough for a pair of pants so I got to work on those after my not-so-biased outfit was complete.

After struggling with the jeans, (By the way, I finally did get the pattern down, I just have not had time to take pictures and make a post about it.) I decided to give myself a break and do a pull-on style pant.



They still have jean-style pockets with patch pockets in the back and lined pockets in the front. I used more of the peace symbol fabric as the lining. But I also added pleated cargo pockets on the legs.


Some thing different that I did on the waist is I used ribbing, like for a t-shirt neckline, for the waist band and inserted a ribbon for a draw string. I wish I took a picture of this, but it made for a very simple and comfortable finishing of the waist. (All my pictures were taken as she was waiting for the School Bus ... sometimes you have to squeeze in photo shoots as time allows.)

I also made casings for more ribbon on the leg hems so that she can have that drawstring look on bottom. I have been seeing it all over Europe on cargo-style pants so it must be the current fashion.



Monday, September 10, 2012

not so biased skirt

Pin It
Its BACK!

Season 5 of Project Run and Play has started and I am sewing along again.  I really love the competition that Simple Simon & Co have going on.  It is so much fun to watch what the designers come up with.  Each time I am surprised by their creativity.

I also love the sew-along because it makes me try new things.  And what is the fun of having a creative outlet if you don't get creative?


The first week's challenge is a pattern re-mix.  We are all challenged to re-mix No Big Dill's bias skirt.

Now that is a cute skirt and her girl looks lovely in it.  No Big Dill also has a flickr page where people have posted their versions of the bias skirt, and they are lovely too.

But, when I showed it to my daughter and started talking about different ways we could do it, she just was not into it.  We brainstormed quite a bit...

what if we did a jacket and the peplem had the bias strips?

Or,
we could ruffle the bias strips?

Or,
we could do a rainbow on a shirt or skirt in bias strips?

None of these ideas held any interest for us.  So, what if I used bias strips in a more conventional way but also in a variety of ways?  That was more like it.  I guess we are both in a clean-look kinda mood right now.  We just could not stand to have raw edges.

Therefore, I have named the skirt The Not So Biased skirt.

I designed up a high waisted yoked skirt with darts. It has a snap and zipper in the back and a gathered skirt on the bottom.  It is  made from an organic cotton twill.

I took scraps from an earlier project and made up some bias tape and also gathered up bias tape I had from more past projects.

I then used the bias tape to make stripes on the skirt.  I offered to make more, but Abi was very happy with three.


Then, I made a top.  I know, I am remixing a skirt. But I wanted a new matching top too.  I designed a dress shirt with an oversize peter pan collar and used the bias tape for both form and function.

I used the bias tape to finish the inside edge where the collar meets the shirt.

I used it to finish the sleeves.

I used it instead of a standard hem.

The back yoke is also cut on the bias for more comfort on her broad sholders (if that counts at all toward my use of bias).




I think the whole out fit is pretty ... but I might be biased.

Friday, September 7, 2012

the technology that binds

Pin It McH and I have been chatting a lot lately.  She has figured out the times I am online and now consistently IMing me.  It has been wonderful.  We have been comparing first week of school events, talking about books we are reading (I am actually reading her's and it is GREAT.), and generally the wonderfuly mundane things in our lives.

Last night I was working on a shirt for Eli that is part of my projects for Project Run and Play (season 5 starts next week!) and I heard the familiar "ding" that indicates an IM has arrived.  Kind of like the "you've got mail" message from years past.  And of course it was my sister.  So I went back and forth from the sewing machine and the computer.

It took longer to finish the shirt.  But it was well worth it.  I love having our little daily chats. 

But, this morning, I felt a bit homesick.  I live far away and this blog and our IM sessions are the closest things I get to being a part of my sisters' lives.  Some day I hope to return to the same state as them.  Maybe even in the same county!

So are any of the rest of you far flug from family?   Do you use your crafting/hobbies to maintain that close link?

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

August IP Round-up

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Well, last month was our first time hosting Inspiration Point.  And I think it was a good start.  It was my (Major Moma) turn to pick the photo and I provided this picture.
August 2012 IP
There were only three of us that were able to participate but what was fun is that we each did something very different. I made a jumper for my eldest (surprise. I sewed something.) And McH wrote a cute little story about a girl racing the bells to her new found love.

And, best of all, we had a reader participate. She submitted this beautiful picture of a bell flower!



IMG_8075, a photo by Laurie322 on Flickr.
IMG_8075 by Laurie322

As you can see, you are not limited by what we do for the IP.  You can come up with whatever you want!  I hope some more of you join the fun.  (McH has already posted our new IP.)  But if you don't that is fine.  We will keep on entertaining ourselves.  Any one that knows us ladies will vouch for me in that this is a common occurrence!

Have a great month!

Sunday, September 2, 2012

September Inspiration Point!

Pin It Its Inspiration Point time!  Remember the rules. 

1. Something you "made"

2. Inspired by the photo of the month.

3. Put it on our flickr so we can share it.




So have fun with our September inspiration! 
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