Inspiration

The munchkin and his Grand

So this past weekend I got to visit Venice again, only this time I did more looking with my eyes than my camera. The first time I went we walked around the city and along the water front and didn't really go inside anywhere, this time we went and visited the Doge's Palace and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection.  Walking through the Doge's Palace it's hard to believe that someone actually lived there and it functioned as a government center.  From floor to ceiling this place is filled with beautiful paintings of the Old World.  The armoury and the prisons were quite a site to see too!

View from the top floor of the Doge's Palace looking into the courtyard

View of Venice's outlying islands from the armoury at the Doge's Palace

Inside the courtyard at the Doge's Palace

Did I mention I got to go see the Guggenheim Collection??  It amazed me to see so many of the big names in art in one place.  I mean there was Salvador  Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and so many more.  The inspiration that came pouring from these great works of art was immense!  I decided Theo van Doesburg would be my place to start.  His work Composition in Gray (Rag-time) translated really well into the quilting world.  This ended up being a very clean-lined, modern quilt and I cannot wait to make this.  This one is designed as a lap quilt, the center of it mimicking Doesburg's piece with a 3" black border all the way around to represent a frame.  I also think Robert Delaunay's Windows Open Simultaneously 1st Part, 3rd Motif would make a lovely pinwheel quilt.

My first apology

So this is my first apology to all of you.  I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with posting but I've had a great couple of days!

I decided to simplify my blogs appearance, I enjoy this new look, it looks a lot less busy so I think it will be easier to focus on the crafts.  I got to spend a couple days with TH after he got back from a training rotation in Germany.  I got to go get furniture from IKEA (and I get to go back and get more!!) which was an adventure and a half.  My mother-in-law arrived in town (which is a good thing because my in-laws rock).  We celebrated my sons 1st birthday!

Let's see..... we'll start with my loot from IKEA.  I got some safety things to keep the munchkin from opening drawers he shouldn't and sticking fingers in sockets.  I got a tub mat that is shaped like an alligator.  I got 2 bedside lamps (I've already broken one :( ).  I got kitchen storage containers.  I got a pull out chair bed for the munchkin's room.  I got a dresser for mine and TH room.  I got a small book case for the entry way.  And last but certainly the best I got a work station for the craft room/guest room/ office/(no longer) room of despair!  The car we took was JAM PACKED.  Like you could not have gotten anything else in that car, I rode with my knees in my chest!  When we go back we're getting the bedside tables I forgot (which ended up being a good thing), a wardrobe, a replacement lamp, and another surface for the kitchen.  It was a pretty good haul overall.  I <3 IKEA.

The munchkin's birthday was a blasty!  I made and decorated the best boxed carrot cake ever!  It looked like a clown full of ninja turtles busted all over it.  We had a couple of TH friends over and had some delicious pasta he made along with some finger foods.

Here's a sneak peak of what's coming tomorrow!

Tutorial: Reusable Tissues

I know what most people are thinking "ew yucky!" but since I've been here in Italy it has really made me aware of how much waste my family and I create.  The biggest culprit is of course diapers, but I do not have access to a decent washer to take on something like this.  But as I was cleaning the past week I disturbed A LOT of dust and I got to sneezing.  I must have blown my nose about a dozen times throughout the day and that's when I realized how much tissue/toilet paper/paper towels I alone go through just blowing my nose!  So I've decided to make some tissues out of fabric and I created a very easy to follow tutorial to go along with them.  I did mine out of a fat quarter and got 3 that came out to be 4 1/2" x 8 1/2" and 1 that came out to 5 1/2" x 8 1/2".  So from 1 fat quarter you can get 4 tissues.  This is also a great project to use up scraps.  OH one more thing, while these are great for day to day use and using with allergies I do not recommend using these while you have the flu or any other highly contagious sickness.


Materials:
1 fat quarter or 5" x 18" piece of fabric
thread
sewing machine (you have one of those right?)

Step 1

Begin with your favorite pre-project fabric treatment (wash, press, etc.)

 Step 2

Fold in half with the right sides of the fabric facing each other.

Step 3

Cut 5" wide strips

Step 4

Sew with a 1/4" seam allowance on all 3 open sides, leave about 1 1/2" hole to use to turn it

Step 5

Turn and press

Step 6

Top stich and you're done!

What I would do for some anti-itch cream!

My knees are sooo incredibly itchy, just my knees though!



So after getting the Tinkerbell quilt done I decided to take a week and off and focus on the house.  Here is what I accomplished:

Cleaned and rearranged Munchkin's room
Cleaned and rearranged mine/TH room
Cleaned and rearranged "the room of despair" aka my craft room aka army gear storage room aka GUEST BEDROOM
Cleaned the living room and kitchen, both several times due to the Munchkin tornado

And that's about it.  It's a lot accomplished for me since I'm not really into this whole housewife thing yet.  It's a work in progress, I'll get there eventually.

So I just made my first online fabric purchase through FabricShack.com.  I like them well enough, their website is a bit awkward to manage at first but I found the best thing to do was let go of order and just browse till I find something I like.  And that's exactly what I did.  I found fabric for my next project, Summer Breeze from Last Minuet Patchwork and Quilted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson, and it's called Dream a Little Dream With Me by In The Beginning.

I also came by Valori Wells' new line Wrenly and OMG IM ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE!!  So I got a bit of Wren- Cobalt and Rosette- Citrus.  I can't wait to get them!  I'm so excited!  I plan on using them in a queen size bed quilt that I designed last night.  I have a feeling though that this is going to take me a while.  I do not plan on quilting this myself so if you know of any really good long arm quilters that are reasonable in price please send me their info so I can take a look at them!

There is no "I give up!" in "DONE"

So I finished the Tinkerbell quilt!  Yay!  I really like the end product and I hope the receiver of this quilt also enjoys it!  This is only my second quilt ever and compared to my first quilt this is a giant leap forward.  I completely couldn't have gotten this done if it weren't for my sister-in-law over at Make It Modern, she really has been an awesome resource throughout this.

Chain piecing the first white strip

 I really don't know right now how to put into words my experience with this quilt, it was more of feelings.  Sometimes I hated it and sometimes I loved it, but I was always very excited about it!  Putting it all together really wasn't as frustrating as I thought it was going be, most of my seams came out straight.  There were a couple that were just waaay too crooked for me to be happy with, but my seam ripper definantly did not get  as much love as it was expecting.  My biggest mistake was not enough fabric.  When I was first designing it I didn't have in mind the purple border.  Without the border, though, it would have just come out too small so I ended up having to get new fabric for the back.

Chain piecing the second purple strip

I was going back and forth trying to decided to do flannel or a lightweight cotton but flannel won out when I found the perfect shade of purple gingham.  I really like the contrast of the geometric on the back with all the prints on the front, I think it is exactly what this quilt was missing.  My dimensions were a perfect fit for this flannel so I thought I'd only need one cut of this fabric.  Oh how I was wrong.  I could have done with a few more inches width wise and I completely didn't take into consideration the selvage!  They were really sneaky with the selvage though, it wasn't a solid white at the bottom so I didn't notice it like I should have.  In the end I made it work.

The top all pieced together!

For the actual quilting I just did straight lines since my machine isn't quite big enough to do anything fancy, not to mention my lack of skill.  I did lines 1/4" from the seams going both horizontal and vertical so the pattern that emerged mimicked the gingham but more on a plaid scale, it is quite fitting (I REALLY LOVE IT).  OH! btw if you're ever lacking in quilt clips or find that you go through them like candy (breaking, loosing, etc.) try using plastic link toys.  I took a couple from son that had some nice teething/grippy stuff on them and they worked perfect for this size quilt.  These are also very convenient if you're a night quilter, it's too easy to dash out to your nearest 24 hour mega store and visit the baby section!

Benvenuti in Italia!

Welcome to Italy!  Yay!  I'm finally here!  So I got my big move out of the way thank goodness!  There was only a little bit of stressing out (that's the truth) and the plane ride wasn't too bad (that's a lie).  It was actually pretty terrible and I will probably not be traveling with this particular airline ever again if I can help it.  On my first plane from RIC to ATL we were packed in there like sardines, just one on top of each other.  It was a full flight that was overbooked, so I guess I should feel lucky I even got my seat.  I would of flipped if they didn't give me my seat.  Hell hath no fury like a stressed mommy.  My layover was nice, munchkin and I shared a taco salad and he made friends!  My plane from ATL to VCE, oh goodness where should I start.  Once again packed on top of each other and the plane was rather small the seats went 2 3 2 instead of the traditional 3 5 3 on international flights.  I think the thing that bothered me the most was the distance between the seats,  there wasn't enough space between me and the seat in front of me to hold the munchkin while he slept and have my tray table down.  The one redeeming factor was the passengers around me.  In front of me was a soldier just getting into base where I was going, to the right of me was some random Italian who was a good sport for having a small child around him, to the left of me was a cranky couple, and sitting behind me was the self proclaimed on board grandpa (he reminded me of the dad from the movie Easy A).  He was super nice and walked the munchkin around for me a couple times so I could eat or use the restroom.

I got to know a bit about him from what I saw waiting in ATL and from talking to his family.  He was on board with his wife, 2 sons, daughter in law, and grandson (around munchkin's age).  The first thing I noticed was that all the males were bald.  Instantly I knew I could bond with this family right away.  I was talking to the older son and found out that his brother does in fact have cancer.  His brother couldn't have been more than 20.  But I shared munchkin's story with cancer so we both know how each other felt.  Going to Italy was on his brother's list and wow did he get to go in style to!  His father bumped both him and his mother up to first class!   But truly this family was one of the nicest ones I've met in a while so please keep them in your thoughts.  I only wish I could have gotten a way to stay in touch with them.

Once we touched down in VCE I got very antsy.  I mean now my husband was only a matter of feet from me!  I was abruptly brought down from my high when my luggage took an obscenely long time to appear!  I had to get the soldier that was sitting in front of me to help out with my bags, I needed one more arm to manage the bags and the stroller.  Then FINALLY I saw him in the crowd waiting to find their loved ones.  Wow!  I can't even express the emotions (all good ones) that were pouring from when I finally got to him.  I saw fireworks yes I did, right there in the airport!  It's those fireworks you see when you get to greet the person you love after months of not seeing them.

Munchkin had fun with the French MRE!

Then after several more hours of waiting around for the shuttle bus to post we finally get home.  Boy does it feel good to be home, in my home!  The hubby says he has a surprise for me also!  Turns out they are MREs!  For those who aren't savvy in Army lingo MREs are Meals Ready to Eat also known as rations.  Annnnd you're probably thinking "Wow, she's excited over that?!" well I am only because 3 of my 4 MREs were from different countries!  He recently was a part of the D-Day reenactment in Normandy, France where he was able to get French, British, and German MREs.  It was really exciting getting to unpack them and see all the different things that come in each.  I tell ya what though, these foreign guys get much more than our soldiers.

French MRE

French MRE

French MRE

German MRE

German MRE

British MRE

British MRE

United States MRE

United States MRE