Wearable Art

Kurt had a business meeting yesterday afternoon, so Patrick and Bridget spent the afternoon with us.  We had a shirt-painting party.  It was a lot of fun.  I had gotten shirts at A.C. Moore and pulled out the fabric paints.  We had shirts and paints spread all over the kitchen floor. 

I knew the girls would love it, but the boys loved it just as much.  It was fun to watch them each express their personalities through their designs.

Timothy immediately decided to make a sponge bob on his shirt and he did a great job.  Bridget's favorite video game is "My Sims Agent", so she wrote that on her shirt.  Hannah loves music, so her shirt was covered with multi-colored music notes. 

Patrick did the logo of his favorite video game, and I painted multi-colored hearts all over my shirt.

The Weinermobile!

After I dropped Jonathan off at indoor percussion practice this morning I decided to do the grocery shopping early.  I had just finished up my shopping, and as I was leaving the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile pulled into the parking lot.  I was so excited.  I've never seen it in person before.

I took a couple of picture with  my phone and then hurried home to get Hannah and Timothy and grab my real camera.  Timothy was already dressed and ready to go, but Hannah was still in her PJs.  She wanted to see the weinermobile, so she just put a coat on over her PJs and jumped in the van.

Hannah didn't want to get out and look at it close-up, but Timothy and I did.  We even got to look inside.  They gave Timothy a weinnie whistle and I asked for one for my daughter in her PJs in the car.  When I asked, the Oscar Mayer guy said "sure" and then look at Hannah in the van and waved.  Hannah was *so* embarrassed, but it was so funny!

After we got home, we decided to make hot dogs for breakfast -- Oscar Mayer hot dogs of course!

T-Shirt Fun

Kurt has a project management meeting for most of the day tomorrow, so Patrick and Bridget will be spending some time with us.  There's not a whole lot to do on a freezing Saturday afternoon in January, but I wanted to have something fun and special to do with them.

Then an idea came to me.  Jonathan found out that he needed a black t-shirt for part of his uniform for his indoor percussion competition on Saturday.  I told him that we would go to Walmart.  Then he said that he was told at band that A.C. Moore had black t-shirts for pretty cheap.

That's when the idea hit me.  We could decorate t-shirts.  They were on sale for $2.50 at A.C. Moore.  I got everyone a t-shirt in a different color.   Tomorrow, I'll pull out the fabric paints and t-shirts and we'll have a lot of fun.  You gotta admit that for $2.50 per child, that's pretty darn cheap entertainment!!  Not only that, but they'll have something to wear when it's all said and done.

I'll post pictures tomorrow.  It's going to be a lot of fun.

My Private Quilting Bee

I did something I don't usually do tonight.  I didn't bother with housework or any responsibilities.  I took Jonathan to indoor percussion practice, and as soon as I got home, I began enjoying my own private quilting bee.  I decided to use my "Quilting Diva" Moda Charm pack to make a quilted purse.  I had *sew* much fun making it. 

I started by arranging the squares to make 2 separate 9-square mini-quilts.   Then I proceeded to make 2 small quilts - one for the front, and one for the back.  It was really alot of fun because it was so quick and easy.

Then I made the rest of the purse just as I have made any purse in the past.  The only thing I did differently was to add a pocket on the inside of this purse.  I have never done that before.  I am

not sure why because it was really simple. 

For this particular purse, I just used one of the extra 5" charm squares.  I turned under the edges, pressed, and then sewed onto the lining.  It is just the perfect size for a cell phone or keys or anything else that I don't want to get lost into the bottomless pit.

This went a lot faster than I thought it was, and I am looking forward to making more of these.

More Quilted Note Cards

I spent this evening working on more quilted note cards.  These three all came from the same Moda Charm pack that was a birthday gift from my dear friend, Susan. 

It was a lot of fun sorting out the 5" squares into color families, and then cutting them in quarters to 2.5" square.  It's amazing that all of these came from the same charm pack. 

There are two other color families from that charm pack that I have not used yet.    I especially like the brown-tone card.  Hannah said it reminded her of Vera Bradley.  Hmm.... I guess it kind of does.

I finally figured out what to do with the inside of the cards.  I didn't like having all the zig zag lines showing on the inside of the card, so I cut a piece of paper to the same size as the front of the card.  Then I used a glue stick to secure it in place.  I did this after the quilting was done, but before I zig-zag stitched around the edge of the card.  The stitching secured the lining to the card.

Quilted Cards

I have been trying to decide on the perfect valentine card to make for Kurt.  I want it to be something extra special and very personalized.  I have been scouring the internet for ideas.  While searching, I put together a  few ideas I had seen and combined them to make a quilted card.  I had blank notecards (a pack of $50 from A.C. Moore for about $7 - used a 40% off coupon to make it about $4).  This particular card was made from left-over jellyroll scraps from a quilt that I made for Hannah.  I used 2.5" squares and fused them to a piece of fusible web cut to the size of the card.  Once my design was complete, I trimmed the edges to fit the rectangle and then fused it to my card.  After it had cooled, I used a zig zag stitch and stiched my "seams."

The second card is made from Moda charm squares.  A charm square is 5", so each square makes 4 - 2.5" squares.  I followed the same format to make this one.  The possibilities are really endless with these cards.  I am looking forward to making many more to send to my friends, and possibly to sell on Etsy.  I'm still thinking about that one.

Amish Through The Seasons

I've never been one to make a bunch of New Year's Resolutions.  I just think they're pointless because no one really sticks with them anyway.

Rather than making "New Year's Resolutions", I use the first of a new year to decide what I would like to accomplish during the coming year.

Throughout 2009, I have taken numerous trips to Amish Country to collect photographs for a book I would like to publish of my Amish photos.  Now that it is 2010, it's time to get to work.  I have lots of photos, and my first step is to weed through them and decide which photos are my best.  This particular photo is one I took in July of 2008 when I still lived in Florida, but came to PA to visit Kurt. 

In the coming weeks, as I sort through my collection of "Amish Through The Seasons" photos, I will be posting some of my favorites.