Tops and Blocks and Things

Today I went through my projects and realized that I have seven eight quilt tops that need to be quilted. I'm trying not to get overwhelmed. Here are some photos of a few items.. only one of these is among the seven that I need to quilt. BTW, I recently passed post number 1500! Holy cow! I guess I'll wait to celebrate when I hit 2000.

made from Joann's orphan blocks

made from a variety of orphan blocks - mine and others' - I plan to donate this to a friend's church quilt program

doll blanket I finished today, then donated about 7 of them to a neighborhood aid agency

2.5-inch blocks made from tiny scraps; for a mini challenge at Bumble Beans 15 Minutes Play blog

pumpkin pies! they don't look so great, but they sure tasted good

My Outdoorsy Saturday

Saturday was an outdoorsy day for me. First I went to the site of a Monster Dash run. Daughter was running the 10-mile race. Son-in-law ran the half marathon. I stayed for a little over two hours. Saw Son-in-law; he waved. I didn't see him in time to get a picture. Waited to see Daughter. I finally realized I was standing in the wrong place to see her. The ten-mile finish line was in a different place. Oh, well, it was a beautiful day, though a bit chilly. I was glad I had bundled up in wool sweater, layers of hats, and my winter boots.

Next, I headed to church where I dressed up as a bed and participated in the Trunk 'n Treat we hosted for the neighborhood and for our church kids. I couldn't use my trunk as it's in the shop for repairs, so I just used a table.

Here's an idea of how a Trunk 'n Treat trunk should look:

I had a craft item for the kids to participate in if they chose to. Almost every kid wanted to and found it fun. I was so pleased! Some kids even came back to make a second one. They made "quilts"... 2.5" squares glued onto a grid that I printed on cardstock. Some used markers, but most used the fabric squares. Some worked really hard on theirs, a few rushed through but still enjoyed it. I very much enjoyed watching them, and I took pictures of each kid with their quilts. I will share them with you here, for the joy of having had fun with the energy of all those kids! (The first little guy was a tad too young for my craft activity.. isn't he so cute??)

After all that time outside on a windy, chilly day, I was pretty well chilled to the bone, though strangely I didn't feel cold. At home I warmed up my bones and took a little nap. Husband had spent the same amount of time at his parents' house, helping them re-organize some stuff in their storage room. We got home at the same time and both napped.

Happy Halloween!

Friday Books: Not Yet

I'm reading a long book and not yet done with it. I'll be back with a book review next Friday.

Hug your family members today!

I Can Hardly Wait to be Creative!

I really really feel like sewing now! I made a few (ugly) Christmas ornaments for our church bazaar, and it got me into the sewing mood. Now I am busy for the next few days, and I can't fit in much sewing. I am so looking forward to having some time to just create whatever I want!

I did manage to make a few things for our church bazaar.. I already showed you the "traveling Barbie bed" (previous post), which sold before it even hit the display table.

Then I ice-dyed some onesies and socks.

Over the past year I also have been making doll blankets, and I had those for sale as well as a few miscellaneous hats and scarves:

The bazaar took place tonight during our annual turkey dinner and seems to have been a success. We'll try to sell leftovers after church on Sunday, and then I can start creating whatever I want again... just for fun, and to prepare for next year's bazaar.

Finally, Some Sewing

After my big Trip of a Lifetime to Europe... I didn't have my sewing mojo at all. I think jet lag hit me harder than I realized. I wasn't physically tired, but I sure was off my usual compass. (Thanks for the compass this morning, Mark J!)

Finally I went into my sewing room and diddled around a little. I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. Here is what I have done lately:

This is an October Lotto block for Sunshine. I made ONE! I have never made only one. But now I have, so there you are.

These orphan blocks were sent to me from another Sunshine member. Most of these were tiny HSTs! I sewed a ton of them together, and kept going and made pinwheels, flying geese, etc. That all happened before Europe. This weekend I finally got this top all sewn together. The nine blocks in the middle were in the possession of Bev B, who passed away in 2010. We are still working on her left-behind blocks and quilts and making tons of quilts IMOB (in memory of Bev). The whole world will soon be covered by quilts made or started by Bev. She was really prolific and we still miss her so much! But, anyway, I was happy to have a hand in making this one. To be quilted... soonish.

This Barbie doll and her traveling bed are for our church boutique which is this week! I have had this in mind for months. I bought the bed and the doll, then let it sit. For.ev.er! Finally the time crunch is here, so I made the mattress (foam pad covered with fabric), pillows, nightgown, and quilt. I also glued on those blue and orange thingies to make her bed fancy. When a child is done playing with Barbie and her bed, just put the cover on the box and put it away. Clever, n'est-ce pas??

I am also ice dyeing some baby onesies to sell at the boutique. I hope they turn out cute! I tend to be a tad heavy handed with the dyes. They might all turn out too dark. Tomorrow is the big reveal day. Cross your fingers! My fingers and toes are crossed!

Friday Books: Enrique Risks Everything

reading in the Tulleries Gardens, Paris, France

This week I read Enrique's Journey: The Story of a Boy's Dangerous Odyssey to Reunite With His Mother, by Sonia Nazario. A quote on the book cover says "gripping and harrowing" which is definitely true.

The author, a journalist, begins to learn about the life of immigrants. For example, many women come to the USA from Central America and Mexico, leaving their children behind. They do this in order to find work that pays enough to support their children. They send back money and gifts to help keep their children fed and going to school. Many women come here and stay, or stay for many years, leaving their children to be raised by sisters, aunts, grandmothers, and other family members or friends. The children usually resent the absence of their mother; many of the children make the dangerous trek north, in a desperate attempt to reunite with their mother. They usually do this by jumping freight trains, in combination with hiring smugglers to get them safely across.

The author decides to research this phenomenon and write about it. Enrique's Journey is the result, the story of a real boy named Enrique who really makes the journey north, putting his life in danger time and time again. He faces hunger, violence, danger, heat, cold, and fear. Many children die in this attempt to travel north.

The book was gripping, Enrique's journey was harrowing, and I learned a lot about immigration - its causes and effects, broader implications for family unity, even national economics and job conditions. An excellent and engaging book... five stars.

After the Vacation -- Back to Business

Our trip to Europe has come and gone. We returned home and found it hard to get our brains back to the mundane stuff we have to do on a daily basis. First, we suffered from jet lag for a couple of days. Second, I guess you could almost call it culture shock. I know after only 10 or 11 days it's hard to believe we'd experience culture shock, but it was almost like that.. it was nice to be back at our own home, but not as nice to give up all the daily adventures and excitement we'd had going for the previous couple of weeks.

I had not been at my job for over two weeks and was afraid I'd forgotten how to do it. I have to do a lot of manipulating of computer/techy stuff to do my job, and I thought I'd be like a newbie all over again. Thankfully, I wasn't. It all came back to me as soon as I sat down at my station. It was even fun to get back to work, but in the evenings I found myself feeling a little blue. I just couldn't find my "direction," and have barely even done any sewing since before our trip.

Hubby, on the other hand, was a little more jet-lagged than I, but has been happily working on his online business, which is selling add-ons to Revit programs (used by architects and engineers). This only went live very recently, and so even having a customer at all is exciting. He now has sold several and is happy that he's off to a good start. One customer does Revit trainings where he works, and he You-Tubes his trainings. This recent one is highlighting an add-on made by Hubby, and gives Hubby some great kudos for how well the program works.

If you're curious, take a look at it, here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk3CRSnI68I ... to me it didn't mean a whole lot, as I'm not an architect or an engineer, except that he praises my hubby's work, which is very fun to hear.

I have managed to make these blocks, which are for Margaret's Hope Chest. I hope to get my sewing mojo back very soon. After all, I'm slowly getting back to my American self and realizing that I'm not European any more.

Europe - Days 9 and 10 and Back Home

Day 9 -- we had had a wonderful time so far, and pretty much been on the go the whole time, so we decided, on Day 9, to take it easy. We were tired! Hubby did some reading, and I walked alone to a nearby store and did some shopping. Have I mentioned how much fun I had speaking French while in France? Shopping alone was another fun opportunity. I bought some miscellaneous items: greeting cards in French, and a couple small items for Christmas gifts. On the way back to the apartment I bought some food for lunch. More speaking French and navigating alone in Paris! Tres bien!

While we enjoyed our lazy day, S and A went to a museum. So it was truly a quiet day. We may have enjoyed a bit of a nap as well.

That evening the four of us went out for a fun French dinner. S and A suggested a tiny restaurant they had discovered earlier, so off we went to Chez Marie where we enjoyed a wonderful dinner.

Some of us started with onion soup (I had a salad), which looked rather fancy and delicious. Hubby's main dish was 'cassoulet' and mine was Beef Bourguigonon. Delish! And mine included dessert which was lemon pie. How I love pie! And lemon is one of my faves. I started gobbling it down before I remembered to take a photo.

After dinner we climbed more hill (it had been quite a climb to get to Chez Marie).. and gazed upon Sacre Coeur at night. Quite pretty. Turns out Sacre Coeur and her steps are a big gathering place for the young and young at heart. They had guitars and other music, and seemed to be having fun just chillin' there on the steps. We rode the vernicular back down the hill, went home and climbed into bed. Nighty-night, Paris!

Day 10: Sadly, it was our day to leave. We took the Metro to the Opera stop. The Opera building is gorgeous! Ballets are performed here. On my next trip, I'll attend a Paris Ballet! We boarded a bus which took us to the airport. We then had to stand in a looooooonnnnnnnggggg line to get our boarding pass. What a mess! Two Icelandic flights were leaving, five minutes apart, so two planes' worth of folks were in line. It would have been awful, except a cute little boy ahead of us in line kept me entertained. He was adorable and remarkably well behaved for having to be in a boring line for so long.

At one point his grandpa took a picture of him having a tantrum in the middle of the floor. LOL! Other than that, he did very well, and I wanted to give him smooches, he was so cute.

I snapped a few last pics of Paris on the bus ride to the airport.

Before we knew it, we had landed once again in Reykjavik, Iceland. This is the only view we got of Iceland other than the airport and airplanes. Some day I would like to de-plane and spend some time exploring Iceland. There are SO MANY fascinating places in the world! We had our passports stamped here, as it was our last stop in Europe. For all the stops we made: Iceland, Finland, Czech Republic, Germany, and France, we got only two stamps in our passports: both from Iceland where we spent the least amount of time. Travel is very easy between the European Union countries, and it's easy to shop as most of them use the Euro, but it also means passports look boring with very few stamps. It's a small thing to worry about after having the trip of a lifetime and numerous fond memories. FABULOUS TRIP, START TO FINISH!! We were so lucky that everything went smoothly, nothing was lost, and we experienced nothing but fun and awesomeness.

I'm ready to go back!