Repaired - vintage cantaloupe quilt

A few months ago at the flea I bought this lovely quilt. I was prepping for an Instagram quilt sale at the time, and added it to the sell pile. I even took the pics to sell it. But I couldn't do it. Aside From the strange hole in the center field it was in very good condition and I couldn't stand the thought of it being cut up!

Ugly hole. I emailed Martha at q is for quilter (sorry for no link, on the iPad), and asked if there was any hope of ever finding a close enough color to fix it. I had already been through my stash and unsuccessfully bought three more useless yards of fabric on line that didn't match at all. 

Martha told me to find the closest dmc thread match I could find and let her know the number. She was then able to use that thread to look in her stash for a match. As if turned out she had a pretty close match in a 10 inch square. She graciously mailed it me along with excellent directions on how to go about fixing that hole.

I followed her directions and spent an afternoon repairing it. 

The color was a little lighter, but once it was washed :

You can't tell at all! Even I have to really go hunting for my repair.

Another successful save! 

A huge thank you to Martha for her help. I have another repair already finished and another waiting in my pile...

Flea market Sunday

Every year on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend we go to the 100 mile yard sale. We tried to go on Friday, the forecast was not terrible, but when we got down there it was  huge storm. We turemed around and went home with plans to go on Saturday instead. And then Saturday morning it was raining again. 

So, new plan. We went to a city wide yard sale instead. 

The loot:

The picture doesn't do this justice.

Printed  tablecloth. 

A lone tea towel. 

I debated these for awhile because there is a bit of an eww factor. 

Very sweet musical tin egg.

Big pile of hankies,p.

A super sweet baby quilt that needs a few repairs and a new binding, 

Finally! The fisher price sesame house. A few months ago I thrifted a whole bag of the people and accessories. I set them aside and started really hunting the house. And now? I can't find the damn bag of accessories! Figures. I'm sure it will turn up in the playroom. 

Kiddie glasses, swanky swigs maybe? The paint on the last one is all faded.

Picnic basket and old milk cooler.

Quilt of course.

With teeny nine patches.

It was no 100 Mile yard sale, but good enough for me! (Although it doesn't feel like the start of summer without the tradition.)

Vintage kitty appliqué pillow

The first weekend in May I bought this:

This week, I turned it into this :

Pillows are oddly hard to photograph, lumpy things. I ended up doing a zig zag over a raw edge appliqué, because no way could I do that cat shape with needle turn. I wanted edging, but not piping  so I used ric rac. I've never used it that way before and next time I won't try it without some zipper tape to hold it in place. It's backed with a super fluffy chenille.

The white ric rac is an emergency fix. It turns out that original blue fabric was not strong enough to withstand stuffing (eek! ), so I needed a bit of a cover up. 

Despite a few hiccups, I'm happy it's not sitting around as a Ufo for another 70 years! I'm sure Sammi will enjoy her on her bed.

Apples and rainbows

We have apples on our apple trees! How exciting. 

And chalk everywhere else.

Welcome summer vacation.

Let's be friends.

Not enemies. Like yesterday. Ahem.

Quilts for comfort

Thus quilt was a super quick job. I bought the parts for the top on Instagram - they were someone else's Ufo. Whacked them together, basted and quilted it.

It is currently on its way to a family in need of some comfort.

I really like the idea of using Ufos this way - quick to finish and easily gifted.

I'm still trying hard to be a make one to keep, make one to give quilter. The majority of made by me quilts go to other homes. Which is good since my vintage quilt collection is nutso at the moment.

Top - paper pieced by Norma

Back - cotton couture 

Quilted by me - may 2016 for the brown family 

Apples for teacher

 I made last minute teacher gifts using this pattern. They are a bit time consuming, but so cute! I still need to make two more and I want a few more to fill the dough bowl on our kitchen table.

Sammi is DYING to snatch them all for herself!

Cute!

Friday finds

This is actually the junk from last weekend. It was my birthday and I tried SO HARD to find some good junking. It was a bust though. I stumbled on one good garage sale, which yielded all of this.

Isn't this wool rug gorgeous? I'm a little afraid to let the kids tromp all over it.

I have a hair brained idea that I might fill the "hall of frames" with samplers. I can't decide if I love the idea or hate it, but I have a bit of a collection started it seems. (Hey, 50 cents!)

I have no more room for mirrors. I am powerless over mirrors.

I've had so much to blog this week, eek. I still have more and more too. Keep up the momentum sarah!

Last day of sixth grade

Woohoo! We've made it through the first year of middle school with all of our limbs intact. There have been some bumps and a million phone calls. We are all learning to negotiate the road to independence together. Jack had straight As all year. He also earned a math excellence award and a star student award. Last week on yet another phone call to school I asked them to find him a harder math class. He took a placement test and tested into eighth grade math easily, so we are going to skip seventh grade math next year. (Both he and I are more than ready for high school - he needs to start being able to work more to his ability level instead of being held at his "social" level all the darn time.) 

He isn't making many blog appearances these days as I am acutely aware that all his classmates are all over the Internet, but I am super proud of him for holding on and navigating the hard stuff this year. (And there has been hard stuff!) way to go Jack! 

What are you going to be...

A bit of the kids on a Wednesday : 

Grant and sammi make "potions" all day long in the yard. 

After his most recent haircut (which involves a VERY chatty hairdresser who went on and on about grant looking like Ed Sheeran) , grant realized he could be anything he wants to be when he grows up. Current goal? "Rock star!" I bought him a guitar ("kittar") and he sings long black train while strumming.  He's also into the Star Wars theme, which he sings while verrrrry slowly lifting the toilet seat. 

I turned 41 this past weekend. Sometimes it's fast, sometimes it's slow, but I imagine it all works out in the end. (My hair needs a cut in the worst way though.)  I had something happen last week that was like a teeny peek into a life I didn't choose long ago. One of those things where you can go left or right but you must  choose right then. I'm happy I chose the road I did, that's for damn sure. That brief glimpse into the other road haunted me for a few dAys and left me saying "I just want to raise the kids and make pretty things." It definitely left me with a long lasting case of the proverbial #blessed (which is so over used, lol). Anyway, just looking at us altogether like that is a daily reminder of what a miracle they all are!

The little two are thick as thieves these days. I'm super hesitant to send Sammi to kindy and ruin that. I hadn't enrolled her yet, for a number of reasons (mostly she do not seem ready at all way back in Jan). But now she has made great progress on her skills with more learning time with me and she has started talking about kindy every day. I  still am waffling a teeny bit.

Our yard is bursting with wildlife. Skinks and baby rabbits and hummingbirds and bees and butterflies. Grant was lucky enough to get very close (he didn't touch it!) to our baby one day. We learn a lot of science out back! 

They have also started putting on shows for me. I can't remember what this one was, but they are praying about how much they love each other. The preschool has done an amazing job with their religious education so far and I'm trying to figure out how to continue that as Sammi moves on to public school. (I wish we could afford their kindergarten!) 

Me and you mom

I drew a picture of me and you mom! We are playing ball.

16 patch "in the garden" quilt

I saw an Instagram photo of a big collection of floral prints with white backgrounds that immediately screamed my name. I checked my stash - nothing. Joann - nothing. The nearly empty Hancock - nothing. I happened to have some PayPal cash from getting rid of some of my quilts, so I bought about 20 half yards of light or white prints. Then I chopped them into five inch strips and strip pieced 16 patches. There are two block versions - an a and a b, and they alternate in an attempt to be "random" with no thinking.

As I was working I started thinking of this quilt as in the garden. It's all flowers, raindrops, bugs, animals like bunnies, toadstools and a few other fun gardeny things. (Pinwheels!)

It's backed with a king sized shabby chic from target flat sheet and bound with a tiny strawberry print.

It is huge.

And I am hoping that my intensely picky sleeping self with be able to sleep under it this summer. (Right now I need to wash it like ten more times to soften the drape more I think.)

After washing.

Overall a super fun quilt to make on a whim! 

Fabrics - fat quarter shop

Batting - bamboo

Backing - shabby chic flat sheet 

Name - in the garden 

Finished - may 2016

Destination - our bed