ahh...the memories

Good news: I have friends living all around the world that I've been fortunate enough to visit.

Bad news: My friends live all around the world, so I don't get to see them too often.

Lucky for me, I was able to meet up with Kate in Grand Rapids last weekend. She was back from Nicaragua for her yearly visit home for the summer. Kate and I met in Calvin Band (surprise, surprise - I really am a band geek!) in college and we lived in a house together (and shared a room) our junior year. We are actually a Myers-Briggs type indicator compatible personality match and she is the perfect zany to my seriousness  After all, only Kate would give me a large piece of smoked salmon wrapped up in a Victoria's Secret bag for my birthday! (for MBTI geeks out there, she's an ISFP and I'm an ESTJ)

For nostalgia's sake, I dug through my archives to find other trips and things I've done with Kate since starting the blog...exploring Jackson Hole, WY, learning how to play Guitar Hero, a Detroit-a-thon museum tour, visiting Ohio with a rainy trip to Cedar point with 4/5 house roommates, and, of course, traveling to  visit her in Nicaragua with Jon two years ago.

My camera caught a picture of a car driving through our heads back in our old stomping grounds on 60th St. - perfect!

We caught up with each other over a visit to Frederik Meijer Gardens and Fields Fabrics and a leisurely dinner together. I really miss having close friends living nearby, so it was the perfect pick me up after my long week!

Dale Chihuly's glass sculptures were on display at the Gardens and I loved seeing how he incorporated these in with the garden landscapes. I wish they had shared details about how each piece of glass was physically added to the space (chains, buoys, long poles, etc.?), but it was fun to guess on our own.

Emily's baby gifts

My college roommate, Emily, is expecting her first kid in September, and I've been planning on things to make for this this baby girl ever since I first found out she was expecting. After all, making baby stuff means getting to work with cute prints and small projects, so it's easy to go a little bit overboard.


...I made some bibs and burp rags. The bibs are backed with white flannel and the burp rags are quilting cotton backed with chenille and are 12"x18". I used the same fabrics that I used for Chikage's baby gifts, and was able to get one bib and one burp rag out of a fat quarter (with a small scrap left over).


...I sewed a nursing cover (tutorial here). My fabulous male nursing cover model is back in action! I finished 20 minutes before Emily stopped by for a little visit. Thank goodness I had the fabric cut out in advance or I never would have finished it in time.


...and I made this quilt/blanket. The fabric for this is the Porcelina line by Michelle D'Amore from Marcus Fabrics. I actually purchased this before Emily found out that she was having a girl because it totally screamed "Emily's daughter," so I was really happy that she found out she was having a girl so I'd have a chance to use it.


I stalled making the quilt because I was trying to come up with the perfect pattern to use for the quilt. I had toyed with using a raw edge circle applique pattern, but raw edge circles are a bit too unfinished for Emily. I was going to do a simple charm square patchwork, but wanted to step up the patchwork for this. Then I narrowed down the piecing options to a disappearing nine patch or a box in a box, which I ended up using. I went with the box in a box because the dimensions in this tutorial created the right size square for the size backing I was using.


For the backing, I used a 32" x 35" piece of minky fabric. This is my first time working with minky and I was afraid that it would pucker or bunch weird when quilting because it is so stretchy. Based on the recommendation of the quilt store employee, I stretched it out on the floor, taped it down and applied a generous amount of spray baste. Then, I laid the patchwork top on the minky and pressed it down with my hands. I quilted it with a walking foot in the same way that I quilt normal quilts with batting and a fabric backing. I tried to minimize the amount of quilting I did, because I didn't want to pull on the backing too much.


I made a scrappy patchwork binding with each of the fabrics included in the quilt and attached the binding using this technique.

The finished blanket has a really light drape to it and the backing is so soft and cuddly. Now I want to make a grown up sized blanket with a minky backing like this.

Memorial Day Weekend in Ohio

We spent Memorial Day weekend in Ohio visiting our friends, Scott and Melissa, and their brood of cute pets. It's always nice to find friends who enjoy (read: are a little too into) their pets as much as we enjoy our little kitties!



On Saturday we gathered up our bikes and rode along the Towpath trail in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Here's where I would like to apologize to the great State of Ohio for thinking of it only as one of two highways to drive through to get to a more interesting state! Ohio is really cool! The scenery is beautiful, the houses are cute and there is tons of stuff to see and do. I will never take it for granted again!


 
We spotted this bullfrog after hearing loud sounds coming from this old lock system situated along the trail.



After our bike ride, we drove over to Brandywine Falls to check out the gorgeous waterfall.

Jon bought a new dSLR that shoots video a few months ago (as part of his unofficial yearly video camera trade in). It's been fun seeing all of the pictures he takes and seeing his perspective on things, but now we've both been taking inordinate amounts of pictures of each other taking pictures.

one of many on each of our respective cameras
 
We shot this picture just before we headed back to Michigan on Monday. Thanks, Scott and Melissa, for a fabulous weekend!

baby shower

I've had requests left and right from family and friends to update this blog, so here goes.

I spent this past week recovering from school and crafty commitments and now I'm wondering how in the world I got everything done that I got done while I was in school. It feels really nice to come home and read a book on the couch instead of working on a project. Now I'm wondering if I'll be able to finish my list of projects to finish by the end of May. It's starting to look doubtful.

I spent most of last week throwing a baby shower for my friend, Chikage. She's expecting a baby girl in the next few weeks, so I...

...made some bibs and burp rags. The bibs are backed with white flannel and the burp rags are quilting cotton backed with chenille and are 12"x18".


...sewed a nursing cover (tutorial here)


and knitted a Berry Baby hat (ravelry link here).

For the shower, my mom decorated the cutest cake ever...

And, she also decorated these sugar cutout cookies for shower gifts. (Jon and I helped, but my mom did all of the detail work on these).


The shower turned out so well and we were able to get everything finished within 2 hours because Chikage kept everyone on track with her super fast/turbo speed gift opening.


Now we just have to wait a few more weeks to see the new baby. I can't wait!

baby quilt for Silas

My friend, Linda, had her second son just before Christmas and I made this quilt for her new baby.

I searched through my flickr favorites tagged with "baby quilt" and based my quilt on  this quilt that I found for inspiration.

Here's the finished quilt. In keeping with my 2010 resolution, everything used in this quilt was in my stash...a little bit of flea market fancy, a little bit of Lush, a few solids and a little bit of fabric bought in Japan. I think this is probably my most favorite color combination and I've got the sudden urge to decorate a room in our house in these colors. But since I'm still recovering from the basement remodel, I think I'll stick to playing with fabric instead!

The quilt is 28" x 38" and has cotton batting and some (new to me) loop-d-loop quilting.

Gaufres de Liege

After getting totally addicted to Belgian waffles while in Brussels (see here, here and here), I was totally geeked to find a recipe and tutorial for Gaufres de Liege at notmartha.

Jodi came over on Sunday afternoon to test the recipe and we received raving reviews from my sister and our friends Drew and Kathy.

The one tip that I can add to the recipe is to pull the waffles out of the iron sooner rather than later to get that soft dough-y inside.

The waffles were totally delicious and just like the gaufres de liege in Brussels!

LivyLou Designs

Chris, one of my former coworkers, just started a new blog and online store. I miss hearing about all of her painting, home decorating projects, baking and crafting adventures every day. Work just hasn't been the same without her!

Rumor has it that she's quite talented in the Christmas tree decorating department, so I'm looking forward to her posts in December (hint, hint, Chris!).

Be sure to check out her blog, Livy Lou Designs and store, LivyLou Designs

 
 

confessions and an evening concert

I have a confession to make...I'm kind of a nosy mail opener.


Yes, sometimes I open mail that doesn't belong to me. It works to
my advantage at my job, because I am the chief mail opener and I
usually get a lot of fun packages at work. I open all of our mail at
home (except when it looks special and is addressed to Jon). Plus, Jon
knows me well enough to send mail that I shouldn't see to his work
office.



 The most awful thing that I've ever done was when I was in high
school. There was a thick envelope from the Detroit Symphony addressed
to my mom. Thinking that they must have addressed it to the wrong
person (I was the musician in our family, of course), I opened it
thinking that it was just a sales brochure. But, it wasn't a sales
brochure. It was a large stack of tickets. My mom walked in the room
just in time to scold me, yell "Rebekah" in a deeply disappointed
manner and grab the envelope away from me.



Why was it such a big deal?

I had just opened up my Christmas present of season tickets to the symphony two months early. Yikes!

She
threatened to return the tickets, but she didn't and I was able to
enjoy lots of great concerts with the Detroit Symphony that year.


 

Ever since then, I've tried to go to a handful of concerts each
year. We've been really fortunate to get great deals on tickets through
friends and discount organizations. These past two years, we have
participated in the 37/11 series. If you're under 37 years old, you can
get tickets to selected shows for $11 each. Jon bought tickets to the
first concert of the series this year and, for some reason, the tickets
were only $3.50 each. That's $7.00 total! That's less than a yard of
fabric!

The best part about it was our seat location...first row of the
dress circle and our favorite seats in the house. Tickets in the seats
where we sat normally go for $75 each. Ever since he scored the
tickets, anything that we buy is automatically referred to in DSO
amounts. "that's five times as much as tickets to the DSO" or "man,
this lunch is good, but we could have gone to see the DSO twice for
what we paid for this."

So, we got to hear our favorite symphony and watch our favorite musician friends for only $7.00.  The featured artist of the evening was, Sharon Isbin.  She is incredibly talented. I loved hearing her playing her guitar. She sounded like buttah! And, she played one of my favorite pieces, Fantasia por un gentilhombre by Rodrigo. As much as I love playing it on the flute, I have to admit that it was made for the guitar and sounds so much better on a stringed instrument.

 

One day...one day, I will pull out my guitar and work up those calluses again! Hearing her play was such an inspiration!

getting on the tech train...

Ummm...so, there's this thing called Google Video chat. You can talk with people halfway around the world with it!

Should have figured out how to use it a long time ago! Isn't technology amazing?

Live from Brussels: Jodi

with a last minute appearance from Jon

Things that I should be remembering from our conversation (I kept a list):

• New York Times Salads, especially the Tomato Peach Salad and Avocado Cucumber Salad
• Manchester - Hair
• Antwerp, Belgium
• Malawi
• Macedonia
• camping in South Africa
• Portugal travel photos

 

Carissa's package

Carissa's package arrive last week and now that I've made a trip to IKEA to pick up some frames, I can share what she sent.

Our swap was set up to by my knitting for her needlepoint. I requested a pear needlepoint project and she came through in flying colors!

When I first opened the package, I was looking at the back of her needlepoint. I was really impressed with all of the texture she added to the project. I held up the pear to show Jon and that's when I noticed that I had been looking at the wrong side. The front is even prettier than the back!

Her package contained lots of fun goodies! A beautifully printed tea towel (available in her etsy store, Pidoodle Designs), a cute sticker sheet and a thoughtful card.

Thanks, Carissa!

Here's the framed artwork hanging in our kitchen (complete with the reflection of our pan rack). It's so nice to be able to spice things up in here.

Jon's quip of the day: "It's ap"pear"ant that this will be perfect for our kitchen." *har har har*

up north

I had a relaxing weekend up north with my friend, Catherine, and her mom at her mom's lovely home in the woods. There was lots of napping, Olympic watching, reading and sewing going on.

We had lots of fun watching their 3 (or 4) hummingbirds fighting for the feeder.

 

And I finished this sublime stitching embroidery pattern (from the Craft Pad) while I was there and turned it into a tea towel this afternoon. I was a little burnt out on embroidery after my stitchette mania last winter, but it's so much fun to break out the bright thread and play around with color combos.

fun gifts

My friend, Catherine, just got back from two weeks in Europe and she was so thoughtful to bring me this Marie Claire Idées magazine. She had no idea that I was a fan of the magazine. I guess, she's just such a good friend that we're on the same wavelength!

I would love to make this blanket with embroidered/crocheted flowers. I'll add it to my list and hopefully figure out the diagram instructions soon.

I sent Cami a box of my much neglected scrapbook supplies and she sent me this great package of adorable handmade cards and a set of fat quarters.

I've been staring at this fabric for weeks trying to come up with the perfect project to showcase them. I think I might try a zig zag quilt alternating these fabrics along with a solid complementary color. Thanks, Cami, for this great package!

And, surprise of all surprises, I actually won a drawing giveaway. The one and only time I've ever won something was at a cakewalk back when I was in fourth grade. So, needless to say, I've had an 18 year dry spell! John, of Quilt Dad, did a giveaway in honor of his 50th post and I was one of the winners. I just received the package yesterday and he sent a cute bag that he made that was filled with lots of candy, North Carolina treats, a card and two mix CD's. It was such a fun package to open up at the end of a long work week. Shinji was just as excited to open it as I was (he's a big fan of all things plastic). Thanks John!