Mission Soledad Restoration Project

This semester Frankie has some interesting classes. I wish I was in is her Archeology class. They're working at a dig at the Mission Soledad. She's also working part time as a photographer at the site and in the lab.

A few weeks ago there were some people filming at the site, and today she let me know there's a little 7 minute video about the project currently on You Tube. You can catch a glimpse of her photographing some artifacts about 4.35 minutes into it.

The Missions are a big part of California history and probably most kids doing time in elementary school in CA have done the 'mission report'. My parents were big on history and if we were ever even close to a mission or other historic landmark we were on it. I'm happy Frankie has a chance to experience the rich history of our state in person. And of course, super proud of her for doing so well at school!!

And now my friends, back to my back yard.

Things that are making me happy..

New friends like Kim who have entries like this on their blog and help you find things you need.

Old friends who treat you to something special just because they think you're doing them a favor but it turns out the real favor is them letting you do stuff.

New friends like Annie Smith at Simple Arts who blog about you and include a bit about you in their podcasts. I look forward to seeing Annie at Market. She's going to have the cutest Rocket/Space man quilt there. Its her first market if I remember correctly! She's going to LOVE. IT.

You my little cupcakes, you keep coming back and putting up with my shenanigans.

New books and magazines. Love my two Japanese books, and Kim turned me onto this whole digital scrapbooking thing. I love all the stuff on her blog, go look, seriously, darling images and she's amazing anyway. Go there and find out for yourself. She's shared some groovy tips for photoshop with me.

And speaking of Photoshop, Monica has been such a big help, a new blogging buddy and do I ever Y her.
I even love pollen.



Because of this guy. And I really Y my wonderful husband Bret for getting me a camera that would take a photo of a bee buzzing past me.

I also love the inspiration of people, like today, like this quilt. I totally am in love with this quilt. Go there too.

And people with cool stuff at their stores and they specially ship things for you because they're cool like that.

Losing Crossing Jordan and noon and thinking it was gone forever then finding it at 3pm. Ahh so happy.

And finding out you don't have to go to the 8:30 am jury duty. Fingers crossed for the 11am call in.

And really everyone who comes on by and reads and comments and just well everything. Because life is good isn't it?

The Quilt Show

My friend Alex's new online quilt show with Ricky Tim's goes online today! You can see the first episode free, and I'm looking forward to checking it out this afternoon after work with a cool beverage and a snack.

And now, more spring, because.. well I warned you.

Have a happy day my little rain drops!

Its been a long week.

We had car issues. Cars here, cars there, cars in the shop. All our vehicles were in all the wrong locations. Frankie was sick last week but seemed to be on the mend when she went back to school. With my car. Monday evening she called saying she couldn't stop shaking and her skin hurt and she didn't feel good. Luckily Bret was about 45 minutes away so he went and picked her up. Left his car, brought mine home. Turns out she was running a temp of about 102.5, so yeah, no wonder she felt freaky. I've forgotten what all that is like, the temperature taking, the watching. The hands-on momness of it all. And then the car jockeying, getting the car in the shop, returning the rental, getting her back to school and picking up our car.. phew. But its done.

I'm not complaining. I'm trying to be more positive. Kim has tagged me for her 'stop complaining' campaign. I'd actually read about it in a magazine. It's got one of those wristbands associated with it, and an official site thru a church,I'm not doing any of that kind of thing.. I'm just trying to kick the complaining habit. (Not entirely though because really, I'm not a miracle worker!) My dad was all about the Power of Positive Thinking and he encourgaged us to put that in motion. So I will.

While I was waiting around today, restless, I went outside with Peep and Rocket and low and behold my Peruvian Lily is blooming. I have no idea what kind this is, I bought a bunch of really expensive bulbs one year on clearance, I think this is part of the booty. When then the foliage starts to look really crappy, up pops the flowers.

This guy jumped, JUMPED, out of the foliage onto the tree.

He was not happy with me and turned all blue and puffy and did some power push ups to show me he meant business. He looked like he had a slimey face, maybe he's a snail eater. I hope so.

Isn't it pretty? And kind of wierd? A little like space aliens.

Maybe a Death Star?

Have a lovely weekend my little Ewoks, maybe the Force be with you.

Ghosts of Projects Past

Rediscovering this project recently brought back a lot of memories. Being the notorious copycat, it was the start of a project inspired by a friend, probably 6 years or so ago. Its starts with 9 patches, big chunky 9 patches that really aren't my style at all. 3 1/2 inch squares, yikes, most of the time my 9 patches are only 3 inches finished. But anyway, these 9 patches are made up of stash fabric, leftovers from kids clothes, or dresses, things I made. And some were never used, just brighter things I'd collected. I made a few here and there over the years, I have no idea how many I intended to make. My friend set hers with tiny 9 patch posts, I think I intended stars.

This week I pulled them back out and counted, and it looks like if I make one more, I have enough for a pretty good sized quilt. I think this quilt was originally intended for a bed in our would-be cabin. My husband always wanted a cabin and for a few years we looked around for one. His dream usually involved something huge and Log Home Living style, mine some ramshackle affair. He dreamed of snow and Christmas trees and tons of company, I'm pretty much a few steps away from the KEEP OUT sign on the barbed wire fence. We're funny like that. It came to nothing, apparently like this quilt. I might revive it though, who knows. I know he's never given up on his cabin dreams.

Spring

Freaky Friday

Crazy huh? I've been making trips out Marsh Creek Road for years and these two little beauties have graced that road as long as I can remember. They had some fresh paint lately and I've been working on photos, but they're at a spot in the road where its next to impossible to stop at unless there are no cars coming either direction, but I got lucky this week and finally captured that eyeball in all its bloodshot splendor. My duo was complete. The snake is such a shoutout to my family and their love of the movie Tremors. Its better coming the other direction, but its on a weird curve and its not safe to stop.

It totally cracks me up.

I know I know, last week I'm threatening piles of garden photos and then this shows up. I'm just a mess of contradictions. You never know what its going to be with me.

Jennifer made me do it.

I was over at the Sisboom blog a while back and saw these. Which prompted an order of these.


I think you can tell I don't have near enough for even one egg and OF COURSE there is no way I can cut these vintage babies up. Or any of the ones that I already have.




It's a sickness, isn't it?

Mailbox O'Goodness

I was surprised last week with a chubby little package in my mailbox. Look what Monica sent me! I love the Sanctuary fabrics by Moda, particularly the yellow plaid in the middle. I have plans for that! Look how cute the Pine Needle presents its fat quarter bundles. What a nice store that is in Lake Oswego, Oregon. I've been there once and I love the whole town. And the darling scottie button, and the cute little card.. well it all screams CUTE and I love it. I've been gazing at it since I received it. Thank you Monica!

Today is a work day for me. Elizabeth will be dropping by some more blanket stitching projects as well so I'm back in business again. I'm really looking forward to quilt market and our whole road trip.

In the mean time my little Peeps, I hope you all have a wonderful day.

And a special HELLO to my friend Thelma, I've been thinking of you! xo

My Apologies in Advance

This weekend we've been working in the yard, Bret and I. To be honest, mostly Bret. I've made more of a mess than help, too bad we don't have a green dumpster instead of just a green can for our compostable waste. There are a lot of yard clippings and weeds that need to go. We'll be knocking on the neighbors doors looking for green can space I suspect.

But onto the apology. There are going to be a lot of pictures like this coming. A lot. I love that digital macro feature on the camera, and I have so many plants on the verge of bloom. My little crabapple is already so pretty with its pink blossoms. My snowball will be covered again, first with the green clusters that turn white, then shower the patio with snowy petals. And my Fuji Cherry. I could cry over how beautiful it was last year. I took hundreds of photos of those blossoms. They were incredible.

So yes, I'll give my apologies in advance.. you'll soon tire of these and roll your eyes at each new round of photos. Sorry my little blossoms. Sorry.

Pinch me.

Have a Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The Kool-Aid

No I didn't drink the Kool-Aid served up by Monica in her fabric folding tutorial, but I'll be honest, I sniffed the package. I've been meaning to cut some strips of fabric for my mom for a while. Since before Christmas I think. She said she'd crochet a fabric rug for me out of my leftover thirties fabrics. I've used some them a lot, and it's time to retire them, otherwise the quilts just keep looking the same. I have two bags chock full like this, that should get her started.

A few years ago, Fons and Porter came up with a cutting bee kind of thing, make a bunch of traditional blocks out of 1 1/2, 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 inch strips. They used the Omnigrid 96 and 98 rulers (which are like the Easy Angle and Companion Angle)and I thought it was a pretty cool idea. When I was cutting I'd set aside strips in these sizes for future scrap quilts. Except of course I never used them.

It turns out I'm over it. Completely. My fabric tastes have changed over the years and I don't love those fabrics anymore.Not enough to make something with them. I guess that's the downside to working in a fabric shop, you become fickle. So I found a home for some old stuff, and I'm packing it up. I feel good about it.

I was looking at the fabrics in the strips box and thinking about what I love vs what I've sewn with. Aside from thirties fabrics, I tend to gravitate to what other people are doing. So I have a lot of stuff that looks like the people I've worked with over the years. Back before I had control of myself. But I always come back to thirties fabrics and those kinds of colors.

Anyway, I didn't fold a lot of stuff all special, but I did shuffle the piles around and try to get a bit more organized. I had a couple of large plastic tubs, their lids askew and stuff erupting out of them, so I actually took the stuff off the top, put it away and cleared that messy area up. My bags of stuff sitting around have been emptied and the contents jammed into whatever spot they needed jamming into. Like I said, I sniffed. Maybe a couple of times. So I'm satisfied. I know, its a job half done, and sloppily at best, but thats the best I can do for now. Time to start on something new! Happy weekend my little strip sets!!! May all your sewing dreams come true.

Spring Swapping

Laurie over at Old School Acres is one of my original blog friends. I know her blog is the first one that I saw my blog listed on... you know the first one where you don't know the person already. You just go and read and comment and the one day, THERE IS YOUR BLOG NAME. It might as well be in lights because it's that much of a thrill. Well it was for me anyway. So she's on the top of my Sweet People list. Because besides doing that she is very sweet. I love reading about her daily life, her kids and her farm.

Anyway, as usual I get away from the subject. Laurie makes some wonderful animals. Go there and look, I'll wait while you do!!! One day up pops a pig on her blog and I was just nuts over it. Elizabeth likes pigs and I really really really wanted to get one of those pigs because she likes the striped kind and I know they have a fancy English name but whatever, Striped Pig. Gotta Have It. My lucky day, Laurie mentions she'd like to swap.. so I say hey I'd like to swap WHATEVER YOU WANT for a pig. So we did. She totally got the raw end of the deal, a box of scrap fabric, I GOT A PIG. And as a bonus, she sent me the sweetest little bird. Because Laurie is just that sweet. I have been dying over the birds since she started showing them off. And its a sweet yellow bird and I love yellow and have a tiny yellow chick collection.

See I told you! CUTEST BIRD IN THE HISTORY OF CUTE BIRDS.

Thank you Laurie.

* Elizabeth will be showing off her pig sometime soon, keep checking to see it, its freaking amazing.

Strawberries and cream.. and coffee, of course

I don't know about where you were but here in Northern California it was a lovely weather weekend. Elizabeth and I took a nice car ride on Saturday, over to Mill Valley and up to Sebastopol, with stops along the way of course. There were some places on her list of places to go and so go we did.

Our trip took us across the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, which is a pretty bridge, but I didn't capture any of it's glory. Maybe another time. As a kid I never liked this bridge, you can see out between the roadway and the sides, and I was always thinking about how easy it would be to slide out and plunge to a gruesome death below. Because that's the crazy stuff I'd think about when looking there. I don't think you can walk across this bridge anyway, and even if it was possible, NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.

But I digress as I often do.

I'm not sure if I ever went into Mill Valley, or at least into the little old-town, I don't remember it specifically. Its a charming little area. We'd read about a French shop there and we were dying to see it. The sidewalks were brick and this shop was part of a little warren of buildings that had a tunneled walkway between them, including this darling sewing shop and a restaurant.

I was thinking about all my bloggy friends and taking photos, so when I saw this book it just seemed like serendipity. The sewing shop had an eclectic collection of things, we didn't buy anything but it was fun looking. We walked around the block and enjoyed the sunshine.

And then we went for a coffee and a snack at the little French Bakery.

I mean really, is this the best looking mid-morning snack you've ever seen? I rarely see such lovely pastries anywhere and it was hard choosing what to have. The strawberries were so ripe and flavorful it was like I'd never had strawberries before.

That's pretty much because this was all part of my little fantasy life. No, I mean I was there, but a place like this is something I've always dreamed about. Living near a little downtown area where you could stroll to breakfast on a Saturday morning, have a coffee, read the paper.

Live in a little old house, funky but filled with interesting nooks and crannies. A magazine life. Or one made for TV. Filled with baguettes and fresh flowers and of course, strawberries. Insert the fruit of your dreams. Have a coffee. And a charming day.

Elizabeth has more of the day.. read about it on her blog.

The One where I'm Insane

A couple of weeks ago I was blogging around and happened to come across a post about a store in Seattle called Daiso.There were the obligatory photos of the goods purchased and it looked like stuff from a store Monica had been telling me about, a Japanese Dollar store.

You know, kind of like a crack house for Hello Kitty Lovers.

I was pretty much hyperventilating when I found out there was one, in fact a brand new one, in Daly City, which is not all that far from me. Well, an hour but still, who WOULDN'T drive an hour to go to Daiso. I mean the blogging possibilities alone are worth it.

But then I kind of forgot about it for a week, and my free day had passed and I couldn't believe on Sunday morning that I hadn't remembered to go to the Daiso store. So Frankie, taking pity on her obviously pitiful mother, said "lets go". I'm really not a lets go kind of person at 1:30 in the afternoon but what the heck? I mean really WHAT THE HECK?

So we went. Frankie took the photos and most were kind of blurry as she tried to rein me in. Seriously, I don't know why she was trying to take all these serupticious photos because people had cameras out like crazy taking photos in front of the store and of each other in the store. I have a ton of blurry photos so seriously, I'll be doing it again. I was OHMYGOSHING from the moment I stepped in the door. I have never ever seen so much darling cute amazing stuff.

Here's our haul.

So I ask you, who doesn't want a cat bed that looks like a strawberry? I almost want to get a cat just so I can get one. And I'm allergic! And the little paper products and baking good stuff, I mean I don't even know what to call it or what to do with it but OMG I want it so bad I could weep. Cupcake cups for the tiniest cupcakes ever, in all kinds of darling patterns. And plastic, there's a whole room of colorful plastic stuff. And those tiny lunch boxes, with tiny little chopsticks inside.. like I'll ever take mine out of the package in the first place. Frankie is using hers for lunch. Did you hear me, SHE'S USING IT.

So there you go people. Now you can see just how crazy I am.
(You can turn away now, the spectical is over.)

Copy Cat

Turns out I'm not the only one who fell in love with the little table runner in the Square Patchworks book. Monica also made this runner.. you'll have to hear about hers over here..but right now she's out getting that Hello Kitty Sewing machine that I am ABSOLUTELY DYING OVER. So head over and check that out. OH. MY. GOSH. Seriously people. Have you seen it?

I don't know what it is about the Kitty but now that she's sewing I have to be a part of it. There's actually two Hello Kitty Janome sewing machines but this one with the cherries.. well, it says "Pam, please buy me. Leave me in the box and stash me behind the sewing table with the thread and dog fur and dust and leave me there till someday you clean up your sewing room and find a lovely display spot perfect for me." Lets face it, the Kitty knows me.

I am sew weird

This is what I've been up to at home. Sewing. I love sewing. Sewing and Coffee. And Crossing Jordan. And possibly my old boyfriend, Perry Mason. Definitely him.

When I'm not sewing at home or working at the shop, I'm sewing for my friend at her house. I'm like that. Gadding about. You can read all about it here.

Yum. Paid in full.

Boutique Patchwork

Are these not the cutest? They're my three Petit Boutique Patchwork books. I'm so delighted with them. I've already been working on a project from the Square Patchworks, but next is my little house. Is that so sweet? Why it's called Piggy Patch I have no idea. Each book has something Piggy Patch in it, maybe it's a designer name? Mystery to me I guess. Every one of these books had something in it that I was anxious to make. Can you blame me when they are just this cute?

Happy Monday my little spring flowers. Lets have a wonderful week!

Fancy Things

One of the lucky perks with the Quilter's Buzz article was that I received a lot of really nice comments and email from people. In one particular instance, it was someone that I had met a long time ago at quilt market, October 1999 as a matter of fact.

I think people who have been quilting for a long time might recognize some of the quilts in the background there. They're quilts from Cabbage Rose's Fancy Things books.

Barbara has a new blog now. When she left the comment on my blog I was over the moon. Famous people, you know how that wows me. Barbara was very friendly and nice to me when I saw her at quilt market. Of course she saw like a million people and I don't expect her to remember me at all, but I think we had girls the same or similar age, and more than once I plopped my fat.. I mean weary bones down in her folding chair.

Like a lot of quilters who've been at it for a while, personally or professionally, we're all looking to make some changes, try some new things, and Barbara is at it full speed ahead. Check out her new blog, I love the owls Barbara. I still love your stuff, old or new, its fresh and clean, inspiring.

First one to see Mt. Diaaaablo!

That was the winner's cry when I was growing up. We lived in Clayton (California) at the foot of the very beautiful Mt. Diablo. Every morning we'd have breakfast in front of a big window looking out over the mountain. Winter time we always looked for snow on the mountain and in spring we'd always trek out across the little hills for a climb up Mt. Diablo. As kids we thought we were really up there, but looking at the mountain now, no way. We also rode our bikes over the now horrifying to me Ygnacio Valley Road and tried to ride up Mt Diablo, neighborhood kids on sting-rays and other regular old bikes. I can't believe now that we really rode all over like that because the thought of coasting down Ygnacio Valley road at some crazy speed makes me realize how lucky we are to be alive.

Anyway, whenever we went on long rides or off on vacation, on the way home it was always about being the first one to see Mt. Diablo. Yesterday in Clayton the mountain was so beautiful with its dusting of snow. I don't often see it from the same angle as my youth. Living in Livermore we're on the other side of Mt. Diablo . Always though in my head I'm saying "First one to see Mt. Diaaablo".