and it's finished!

I finished the quilting, binding, washing, and drying of my any way you slice it quilt tonight. It feels to have another thing crossed off my list!

I've decided to rename this quilt my new "80s quilt" as the neon rainbow colors remind me of all those rad outfits I used to wear! It doesn't really match anything in our house, so I'm pretty sure we'll be using this for picnics and outdoor concerts this summer. Can't wait to check out the DSO at Meadowbrook soon!

pics just before I stuck this in the washer/dryer for some crinkle action

all nice and crinkled!

the hero shot

Nuku Nuku has claimed seating rights

some post wash/dry crinkle action

and a close-up of the backing fabric and bias tape binding

That should give you a good idea of the final project...from evey angle : )

it's a pic-a-nic table!

My dad helped Jon build our picnic table over Memorial Day weekend. He's built our family a couple of picnic tables over the years...so he's quite the pro when he's armed with a protractor! The picnic table is pretty big...eight feet long and seats 10 people comfortably - 12 squished.

We tested the table out with a Memorial Day picnic and then retired it to the garage for a stain/waterproof treatment. We finally pulled it out this afternoon after it had safely dried and avoided the rain of this past week.

I purchased oilcloth by the yard for the table cloth...a trick I learned from my mom, as 9 ft table cloths are not the norm at most home stores these days.

We powerwashed the large bricks on our patio a few weeks ago and discovered that they weren't a simple white brick, but instead were pastel blue, yellow and pink...lovely!

Now our patio is complete with a new table, two IKEA folding benches and a copper fire pit. Now we're ready for lots of summer barbeques!

after dinner excitement

As Jon and I were finishing up dinner, we looked outside and saw a police car pull up and stop across the street from our house. Being the nosy neighbors that we are, we got up and looked out the window. We were definitely not prepared for the sight we saw. A man was running down the street with a bloody face and bloody hands. 4 other police cars, one fire truck and one paramedic van pulled onto the scene shortly after. Judging by what we saw, we're guessing that our neighbor's granddaughter beat up her boyfriend. After much questioning, she was handcuffed and taken off in the squad car. The bloody guy washed himself off with a garden hose and the paramedic cleaned him up with rubbing alcohol, so it wasn't a major injury...just incredibly freaky looking! Crazy things going on in this neighborhood...definitely not something you see everyday. I'm pretty sure that every kid in the neighborhood and every resident on the street was either watching from the road or from the front windows of their homes (just like us).

And, Jon's new erhu (chinese violin) arrived this afternoon from Singapore. He's been obsessing about learning how to play this instrument for months. Every once in a while, I could hear erhu music coming from Jon's office and I would just laugh to myself. We're very similar in that we both embrace new hobbies and ideas obsessively wholeheartedly. I'm not so excited to have Jon learning how to play a stringed instrument...as of now, it sounds like a dead duck/screeching cat. But, with Jon's track record of picking up and learning new things...he should be a pro in no time and the cats and I will be on better terms with him (we all run away from him in fear/ear pain right now). Here's a cute video of a little kid playing the erhu...this is the goal Jon's going for right now. In fact, in the time I've written this paragraph, he's just learned how to play his first scale. I told you he was fast!

any way you slice it: progress

Well, I ended up staying inside most of the weekend...partly because of rain and partly because we were without power all day today.

All of the blocks were assembled...

...and pressed

leftover scraps

quilt top laid out

and then assembled and basted

I'm planning on quilting the top with white thread and a stipple stitch instead of tying it with yarn. It should hold up better with the extra quilting and I might as well make it look just a little crazier with the contrasting white...it can't get any worse, right?

It feels good to get another project almost out of the way and to take a break from the neverending yardwork!

patchwork pillow

Here is a matching pillow for the quilt that I made for Andrea and Ryan. They had their precious son, Evan Reid, about two weeks ago and we finally had the chance to drop by and visit him last night. We had to delay the visit because I kept procrastinating on finishing the pillow : )

This was my first time using my sewing machines metal quilt spacing bar - don't really know what it's called - to help make parallel lines. I'll definitely have to use it again in another project.

new quilt

I bought the fabric for this quilt a few months ago and I've only now gotten around to starting a new quilt. I've had the templates enlarged and printed for quite a while, but they've just been sitting around waiting to be used. The pattern I'm following is the Any Way you Slice It quilt (you can see a beautiful quilt made from the pattern here)from Denyse Schmidt Quilts. I love the pattern because I've always wanted to make a crazy patchwork quilt and this gives me the crazy with a nice neat pattern (the perfectionist in me comes out!) I'm really hoping it rains all weekend so I don't have to feel guilty for staying inside and sewing. We'll see how that goes!

I was going for the brown/turquoise/green/pink/orange color scheme. I think it looks really summery, so I've got to finish it soon to be able to enjoy it this season. Tonight I got the first 14 blocks cut, laid out and sewn together.

And, I made a delicious greek pasta salad for dinner tonight. This one is definitely going to become a staple in our house. The dressing evenly coated everything and the recipe used a lot of ingredients that I don't normally think of putting in a pasta salad...mushrooms, green onions, and green peppers. Delish!

the virgen de guadalupe

I bought a few kits from Sublime Stitching earlier this year and I just got around to starting to stitch up the Day of the Dead kit.

My first project is this lovely Virgen de Guadalupe. Jon and I watched a few episodes of Freaks and Geeks this weekend, so it was the perfect time to multi-task! That show is hilarious and totally shouldn't have been taken off the air so soon.

I absolutely love this kit! Jon laughed when I asked him if it was weird that I was stitching up the Virgen de Guadalupe...apparently it's not a normal everyday occurrence. It was basically just my excuse to play with some loud and bright colors. I'm planning on stitching up a few more items from the kit on this linen and then turning it into a patchwork pillow that can be used seasonally each November. Hopefully I can finish it up before then!