Of Cabbages and Kings

"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things"...

First and foremost, thank you all so much for all of the prayers and well wishes for my Grandpa. I was able to talk to him a few days ago and he is in really good spirits. He really appreciates all of the love and support he is receiving and asked me to pass on his thanks as well. It means so much to me to have you all in his corner too, so thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

So has summer hit you all hard too? It is SO hot here. The kids don't even want to go outside and play. Today I took them to Burger King to play on the play place there. They needed to get that energy out somehow and it's air conditioned! We've been keeping pretty busy though, even if we're not getting out of the house. 

I've been working on lots of different things, some little stuff here and there and one big thing that I'm still not quite finished with yet so I'm not ready to share pics of. I'll tell you more about it in a bit.

Mom's birthday was a couple of weeks ago and I couldn't figure out what to do for her. Mom is really hard to get gifts for. I made her a quilt for her last birthday, so now what? I went digging through one of my magazines for inspiration and came across this cool potholder pattern by Kaelin. I thought to myself, who doesn't use potholders? 

  

Mom's kitchen decor is red so I dug through my stash and found a bunch of fun prints to play with. She liked it, yay! And the hubby wants to know when I'm going to make one for us :)

I sat down one day and decided to work on all the little stuff that had been hanging around, waiting for me to  do something with. You know, the clothes that need mending, the small projects that have been sitting around for over a year, like this guy:

I bought a "Make Your Own Stupid Sock Creature" kit over a year ago with the intention of making this guy for Moose. It came with all of the materials to make him except for the buttons for the eyes, I just never got around to it. I finally knocked him out that day, Bug is not very happy that he's not for her. So now I'm on the hunt for another pair of toe socks. 

Bree organized a little swap between a few friends, a Black Apple Doll Swap. We set it up for a secret drawing through elfster.com. Have you ever used that site? We use it for secret drawings every time we do swaps, it draws the names for you and nobody knows who has who. It's really cool. Anyway, I drew Bree's name, which totally made me giggle.

We always joke that Bree sews with a superhero cape on so the idea for her alter-ego was born. 

Meet Half Square Triangle Girl!

With her scissors mask and ruler belt, she is ready to magically trim those half square triangles for you!

I received my package and couldn't be happier. Our friend Dede drew my name, this is the second time she has drawn me in a swap and she doesn't disappoint. I asked for a doll that made me think of Moose when I looked at it. I also said that Moose is fascinated with the alphabet and would love for that to be incorporated somehow. 

This little guy arrived today

Isn't he cute? Moose likes him and got straight to work reading the letters on his shirt

And on his blanket

She also sent me a pay it forward package! I signed up under her Facebook pay it forward and have been waiting as patiently as I can for this. Dede is always so creative so I've been very anxious to see what she came up with for me. 

She sent me a sewing kit. The pouch has a cucumber and dill embroidered on it, get it? Cucumber and dill? Her embroidery work is gorgeous! And the pincushion is going to be the first of my collection of decorative pincushions. I can't bear to use it. 

See the bees? Those are the pins and she MADE them, out of shrinky dinks. How clever is that?!

Inside was a needle book, it's a jar of pickles!

Check out the pickle pages, I love them!

Remember the Prince Charming quilt I started on months ago? I made tons of progress on it before putting it away to start on my special project.

I don't normally like making quilts that involve making the same block over and over again but these little suckers are addictive!  It's ready to go back on the design wall and I'm anxious to get back to work on it.

Ok, I've held your attention long enough. It's just been ages since I posted anything sewing related, I had lots to share! 

My special project is almost done. Bree mentioned a few days ago that I was working on a quilt pattern, we both are actually. You're going to see just how much alike we think when we finally get around to revealing them. Anyway, we're putting the finishing touches on the quilts, I think hers just needs a binding, mine is partially quilted. The patterns are almost completed, we're going to be looking for testers soon so keep your eyes peeled if your interested. 

That's it for now, I'll try not to be such a stranger!