scattered blocks

The washing machine is still running so I have some time to blog even it is late. We were on the go almost all day, but I took my midterm exam - yeah. I can breath again and can get to the next ten chapter in my business college book. It was a crazy day and a lot of things did not work out this morning as they were supposed to, especially not - ID REQUIRED for testing. I usually NEVER leave the house without my driver license and my military id, but today I had neither. Well, that got solved, too, and after my 5th trip in town today we were even done with soccer training by 7 pm and an almost empty gas tank.

Now Bella is up for TAKS testing tomorrow morning, at least she is smart and doesn't stress about test as I do. Good girl!

There was no time for sewing, but I dug out a box with unfinished blocks :) - perhaps I am able to figure out how to finish these up instead.

Almost all my yellow and orange pieces of fabric are collected in a special basket to be on hand for working on an old project. It used to be New York Beauty, because I loved to paper piecing and this pattern actually was the very first paper piecing I ever did a long time ago. It was also first of the very few classes I ever took in the the very first quilt store I visited in my husband's hometown. Years later I started on these blocks and am up to 12 by now. There are 2 or 3 more started, but I think I am out of the paper piecing mood. Still I would like to piece these blocks together, but I am unsure how. Shall I stick with adding the preplanned triangles as the pattern tells or find something more unusual? The colors are very bright and the fabric I intended to use to add the blocks together would have been either a darker purple, dark grey or black. Any ideas?

s.i.m.p.l.i.f.y.

it sounds so easy

s.i.m.p.l.i.f.y.

and this really has to be the word of the year

after tomorrow

after midterms

after i covered my to do to list for tomorrow

and the whole week

including all the things I promised for the rest of the year

STOP didn't I just write the magic word

s.i.m.p.l.i.f.y.

this is what i get back to tomorrow as soon as i have a moment to sit down and get really late breakfast tomorrow and i will

giveaway winner

It's still Sunday afternoon in our parts of the continent but the blog hop is already over. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

After I hopped from blog to blog and got to know some more of the some of forums member, we did take off for a little road trip the next morning even the promised temperatures did not really show up. Chiara made a tour to the Cameron Zoo in Waco with one of her best friends so we were left with just four kids. However life never works out as planned, Stillhouse Park is still closed for day visitors and we did not have a boat in tow. Still a few miles down the road Dana Peak Park, also part of the Stillhouse Lake was open, and we entered. The kids were excited seeing the playground in the park, but it was forgotten within seconds when we walk onto the empty beach. The water was cold, but their feet and legs were out of shoes and boots quickly, in the water and wet. It is beautiful to have a beach all for yourself, even if it's not from the ocean just from a lake.

Today my day is packed with studying for my exam I try to take tomorrow or the next day - whenever I have the courage to do it. As soon as I have that behind I will  catch up with the a few things that are left behind these few days and a visit to the post office for Leland's care package and what about the giveaway winner?

Let's see who the lucky winner is before I get back to my business papers!

The True Random Number Generator picked # 34 - I have to count the comments now, they are not numbered. LOL

The winner is Karen, she wrote ...

Love your blog. During the blog hop I joined the forum, met great people, and had fun reading lots of blogs. Thank you for a great time. Have a truly wonderful day!

Congratulations Karen! 

Our Craft Forum Blog Hop & Giveaway

*** UPDATE giveaway closed ***

Thank you for joining Our Craft Forum's blog hop. So what is "Our Craft Forum"? A craft forum for like minded people who love crafts. Mostly patchwork, stitching, quilting and the like. It's a safe place to make new friends who share a love of craft & to have some and a little bit of laughter along the way & to join in on swaps of all types.

This weekend is designed to tell our blogging friends about our wonderful forum and to invite you to be a part of our forum.

Several of our member will be offering tutorials, givaways and some tips of the trade.

The blog hop starts at miss~nances blog so if you want to join us on the whole journey please go to http://missnance.blogspot.com  and follow the links at the bottom of each post to find the next blog along the way.

Each person who joins our forum from this blog hop will go in the draw for a craft pack. So to join our forum, please got to http://ourcraftforum.freeforums.org/ and register. Entries close at MIDNIGHT EDST (Sydney time) Sunday 27 February.

So join on in the fun and maybe find a new forum, new blog, and new friends along the way. You never know you may even learn something new or win a great prize.

-----------------------------------------

You reached the last blog of the blog hop and have a chance for a peek into my creative world also called "therapy" or "getaway".

Winter is pretty much over here in Texas and after a few days with a little sprinkling from the top the sun is back out and it already feels like a warm spring. While we are taking off for the a day in the sun and to the lake I leave you with a little giveaway.

I am giving away a pincushion and  necklace. Both items are handmade. On the pincushions you can see my favorite type of pins I use for sewing. Flowerpins. There are thinner and a little longer as regular pins and even if I should sew over them and hit the flower head by accident my sewing machine needle won't break.

To enter all you need to do is leave a comment at the bottom. 

This is the end of the blog hop, but if you happened to just jumped in here it starts right at missnance.blogspot.com/.

HAPPY BLOG HOPPING!

check your mailbox TODAY!!!

You simply have to if you participated in the mug rug swap from the Quilting Gallery.

For once I checked our mailbox on the way into town before picking up all the kids from school.  And besides the free MAGGI soup sample that was waiting there I also received an envelope from Sharon. When I opened the envelope I found beautiful blue fabric inside folded like an envelope. Inside the fabric were two absolute awesome mug rugs. Just gorgeous. The quilting  is AMAZING. And of course the fabric. There was the missing yellow fabric for my black and white quilt. Sewed right into the mug rug.  THANK YOU so much Sharon.

Check out all the quilting from close up.

The mug rugs I mailed off to Becky last week arrived in her mailbox today, too.

Just as I said, you might want to check YOUR mailbox.

this weekend BLOG HOP

This weekend Our Craft Forum is hosting a blog hop, from Noon Friday 25 to Midnight Sunday 27 February EDST .  So what is “Our Craft Forum” a craft forum for like minded people who loves crafts. Mostly patchwork, stitching, quilting and the like. It’s a safe place to make new friends who share a love of craft & to have some fun and a little bit of laughter along the way & to join in on swaps of all types.


This week end is designed to tell our blogging friends about our wonderful forum and to invite you to be a part of our forum.

Several of our members will be offering tutorials, giveaways and some tips of the trade.

The blog hop starts at miss~nances blog so if you want to join us on the whole journey please go to http://missnance.blogspot.com// and follow the links at the bottom of each post to find the next blog along the way.

Each person who joins our forum from this bloghop will go in the draw for a craft pack.So join in on the fun and maybe find a new forum, new blog and new friends along the way. You never know you may even learn something new or win a great prize.

I know lots of my readers are also from the States and Germany the start time converted is

in Texas - Thursday  @ 5pm

in Germany -  Friday @ Midnight

my friday night sew in project

The FNSI in this house started late yesterday. We didn't get home till eight in the evening. But for a quick fix we grab pizza already on the way home, drinks, set the sewing machines up - all three of them - and hooked Netflix up with the next episode of Merlin. We spend some evenings rather in Camelot as in Texas. lol

Actually having a whole night to sew planned ahead. IMAGINE. But what am I really going to sew?

I decided to work on the stack of WIPs on my desk. Started on the girls flannel pants. After pinning the legs together, they suddenly decided they want to sew them instead of what they planned before. Their patience didn't last too long that night, so I ended up sewing some more on the pants. But one step at a time.

Eventually I got to first couch pillow. You might recognize the pattern. I liked the little mug rug I made for the swap so much that instead of keeping it I came up with the first pillow pattern.

I wasn't sure how to make the pillow opening because I want to be able to wash the cover, but also have it all the way closed up and not to lay on a zipper, plus my zipper sewing is not perfect at all. I found this tutorial and wow it works great.

The zipper is hidden under an extra strip of fabric that keeps it covered. Have a peek.

I am lazy. I did not want to sew another pillow fill it and add it this cover. So again because you can not purchase my misfit perfect size of pillow I got 99 cent pillows from IKEA. Simple measured the needed size of two sides and sewed it fitting, cut next to the seam and took off what was too much. I

n the end I have one fitting inlay pillow for my washable cover and extra polyfiber for another project.

Now i need to come up with two more couch pillow patterns. Mmmmh.

My name is Oscar and I don't sew, but tomorrow you might get to see some more from where I live and is barely three weeks old.

one recipe you need to have on hand with a military man

Recipe for a Military Spouse

1 1/2 cups Patience

1 cup Courage

3/4 cup Tolerance

Dash of Adventure

1 pound of Ability

To the above ingredients: Add 2 tablespoons elbow grease and let stand alone for one year. Marinate frequently with salty tears. Season with international spices. Bake 20 years or until done. Makes unlimited servings.

Serve with Pride.

win and loose

Today is the a win and loose type of day. One thing was working out and in the next morning something else was not going the way it should. I am not an easy person shaking those "not well working out" moments off, but today a little while later something nice happened again. All day long. Perhabs it keeps going or I just have to keep my eyes open for the good moments.

My littlest bug was staying home all week due to a stomach virus. He is not a 100% himself especially in the food department. He eats LESS and is very PICKY. Also his bottom needed many more bathroom visits and more help, so school was not in order. But it was time for us to get out of the house. The sun was hiding (Soren is pretty discintive about this expression), the car prepped with a DVD, gummis and goldfish and we took a quiet roadtrip to stroll through IKEA and a quick stop at JoAnns, just because we were already right in front of it. How could we not go there! We found want we looked for and after already trying out handycraftymama last night and getting up curtain rods and curtains in the kitchen, we might have to use handcarftymama to install the reading lights above the girls beds. I just have to dig for the right screws. At least I thought of purchasing the fitting light bulbs at IKEA right away.

We have a few more things to do this evening, before we can settle in for FRIDAY NIGHT SEW IN. I just mentioned it yesterday evening and now both girls can't wait to sew ALL NIGHT. We will see how long their night is gonna go. I just signed up last minute as #159. If you want to, there's still time left.

two peas in a pod

or two buddies sharing the step stool while watching tv .

No, we are not forcing Antonio to sleep on Soren's bed, he is finding the bed all by himself. we also believe that kitten is more as fast enough to escape Soren's hands, still half of the time Soren is snatching him up and only once a while gets scratched from the little wild beast. They are such buddies and good for each other.

 Over a year ago I made a simple quilt top. However I always dread the quilting step. Last night I finally layered this quilttop with thin batting and quilted it during the day with Soren's support. Since he is sick he is very clingy and wants to help me in everything I do. Perhabs it was having him around or the different batting, but for once there is no wrinkle in the back. The quilting is not perfect, but with time it will get smoother.

The last bit of valentine as brownie bites in heart shape. It took two attempts. The first attempt turned out cute, too, but started as a disaster. Brownies stuck in pan, stuck on cookie cutter, stuck on knife --- ending up iin bitty pieces scrambled and decorated, just not as planned.  Simply crazy as normal.

happy valentine's day

 

v.a.l.e.n.t.i.n.e

Thursday night it already started. The tiny valentine actions in the house.

    Writing over 70 little valentine cards for school. No, even Bella still intended to we did not make the kids' valentine cards for all of their classmates this year ourselves. We actually purchased them and Soren's are really neat. Little paper soccerfields with a punch out goal and a paperball to kick. How cool is that instead of candy! He had to test it right away and had a blast. We do have a few handmade valentine roses.

    On Friday afternoon Soren had his Valentine's party at school. Pre-k kids in actions with yummy snacks and goodybags and lots of cards. In the evening all three got ready for the Valentine's dance at school. It was just plain CRAZY. They loved it, I am happy it is over.

- 4th graders -

- pre-k kids -

- 2nd graders -

Today we started on Chiara's heart shaped cookies on a stick for her Valentine party at school and to take a few in the afternoon. We are still working on the last ones with icing and sprinkles and wrapping them all nicely and individually.

hand the camera to the kids

believe me that this might not have ever happened before.

me in a picture twice in a month or year.

might never happen again.

but as improvement in general we intend of having the small camera ready set aside with charged batteries for the kids to use anytime. for the everyday and anytime snapshots. the moments i might not catch or see, but they see with their eyes. they might catch something with that little camera that we can mail to leland. a piece from home. a point of their view. not just mine. we do miss him terribly. the week since he is gone has been busy and different as usual. the kids still set the table for five.

- mama & chiara -

- mama & soren -

 - mama & bella -

- being silly -

- the camera back to me, pretty please -

fit for a princess - stash project

Yes, I actually finish a quilt once a while.

   The sun is peeking out even the cars are still frosted outside and it is supposingly not as cold as yesterday. But believe me, my fingers were frozen by the time I snapped a few pictures. I couldn't resist. Quilt pictures need to be taken outside.
   The very first Quilt As You Go Project is finished. The label needs to be added today, but by tomorow afternoon it should already  have its new home. I am not convince about the technique or about how I tackled it, because  even my strips in the back are all straight the stitching  is not. The quilting is supposed to be all crazy, but not on the joining strips. Chiara tried to get her hands on the this quilt and I do love the pattern and colors, too; however this one is just baby/kids size and has an adorable princess castle print  flannel backing. There is a project for Chiara waiting on the sewing table next.

a little bit of sunshine - giveaway

Don't stop here.

Head over to Sew Lux Fabric &Gifts for a chance to win

a bag pattern from Clover and Violet, a charm pack and a yard of fabric in a coordinating print.

no sunshine here

The kids are happy. Mama is not.

They are having another snowday due to water on the road and freezing temperatures. It was early out anyway. But this also cancels our roadtrip this afternoon into Austin because we are not turning it into a ice skating tour.

Starting 5 am our phones were ringing of the hook to let me know that our school district is delayed, then later closed, the other district closed already and Soren's appointement cancelled - a lot of noise - and all that around my head that is bugged since three days with a migrane so bad that I am on the verge of moving very close to the bathroom and just stay there. At least we did not have to get up before 6 am.

Luckily there are days when the girls love to help out in the kitchen and hopefully they decide today is day if the want to eat more as just a sandwich and an apple.  We have all the ingredients at home for the "healthy" banana bread as long as I don't mention to them healthy and that we use the bananas with the darkened (pst black) peel. I guess I might have to pitch in at that part. It will go anyway like this. "We don't like banana bread." and by the time it  cooled it will be almost gone. I do know my kids. Even I avoided the grocery store this week there is some pasta in the pantry left. And I might end up taking up Diego's help if we need some peace in the house - Soren's best friend no matter how often he already has seen it already an episode or read the same story.

Tomorrow is a new day, hopefully with a clear head, clear road and a paper due. Perhabs some sunshine outside, too.

fresh baked beer bread for dinner with a touch of valentine and superhero

I got to talk to my mom on the phone for a while today and thanked her for looking up an old recipe of hers for me. A plain German cookie recipe she has handwritten in her cookbook since before I even was born. We have  to make these cookies soon, there's just a slight problem I try to avoid eating so many sweets and if we have freshly baked cookies how will the sugarjunkie I am be able to resist?

Instead of cookies Bella and I made beer bread just in time for dinner. Banana bread sounded great for dessert and we could have used up the overriped bananas, but I forgot we already used up all the eggs for lunch. My shopping list is growing with all the things we ran out the last few days or are about to. I guess after three days I have to leave the house again and get into town.

Beer Bread Recipe

3 cups  all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon baking powder

2 Tablespoons spices and herbs - basil, oregano, caraway seeds - was todays choice

1 cup finely grated sharp cheddar cheese (optional)

12 ounces beer

Heat oven to 375°. Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, herbs, and cheddar in a large mixing bowl. Slowly stir in beer and mix just until combined. Batter will be thick. Spread in a greased 8-inch loaf pan, brush with egg glaze if desired, and bake until golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Bierbrot Rezept

680 gr. Mehl

1 EL Zucker

1 TL Salz

1 EL Backpulver

2 EL Gewuerze - Basilikum, Oregano und Kuemmel war unsere Wahl heute

225 gr. gerieberner Kaese (optional)

375 ml Bier - a bottle American beer. lol

Den Ofen auf 190 Grad Celsius vorheizen. Mehl, Zucker, Salz, Backpulver, Gewurze und Kaese in einer Schuessel mischen. Langsam das Bier dazugeben und verruehren. Der Teig wird dickfluessiger. In einer gefetteten  Kastenform ca. 45 Minuten backen.

While the house slowly filled with the smell of freshly baked bread we added some stems to the felt rosebuds. We already had silver painted branches from a never finished xmas project and found a couple more plain ones in the yard. I simple cut a small hole in the bottom felt layer of the bud and poked the branch into the bud from the bottom. I removed it again, filled it with hot glue and attached the stem again. I like them in the empty coffee can and don't know if the kids really will give them out for valentines. They found a good spot in my kitchen.

By the way even when one hero just left the premises another little one must have moved in and appeaedr in black tights out of nowhere.

tutorial :: raggedy heart garland :: artsy crafty kids

I have two awesome crafty girls and Chiara truly amazed me on how hard she worked this afternoon. It look like I just purchased a fun fabric choosing heart die-cut machine, because all the shapes were cut out like magic from four little hands.

This project does require the help of a an adult because we used the rotary cutter for cutting strips and the iron  for the paper fusible, but it is a lor of fun using lots of different fabric scraps and lettting the kids choose the placement even if the adult is taking over the fusing.

Materials required to make a little bit raggedy heart garland

paper, cardboard

scissors, pencil

paper fusible

fabric scraps minims size 2"

different beige colored fabrics

 rough string

cutting mat, ruler

rotary cutter, iron (these items should be under an adult's control to keep all fingers safe)

sewing machine

Step 1: Cut a 2" square paper, fold it in half and draw a half a heart shape. Cut it out. Trace the whole heart on cardboard and cut it out to make a template that can be used lots of times.

Step 2: Trace heart on the paper back of the paper fusible. Cut the hearts out leaving a little space around  the line.

Step 3: Pick fun fabric scraps. and let an adult iron the heart shaped fusible onto the wrong side of your colored fabric scraps.

Step 4: Cut the heart along the line out.

Step 5: Now your need to cut out strips in followingn measuremenst out of your beige fabrics. 2.5" x 5" and 2.5" x 8". We used more 5" long strips as 8" long strips, but that is as random as you want and as many as you want. If you use a roatry cutter than this is also an adult's job to keep fingers safe.

Step 6: Fold the strips in half and iron the crease. Take the paper backing off the heart. TIP: Take a needle or the tip of your scissors and scrap the middle of the paper and pull the paper off from the inside towards the outside so you prevent to unravel the edges

Step 7: Place the heart on the folded strip with the open ends pointing down. See placement in the picture in step 6. On a larger strip you can fit two hearts. Iron the hearts onto the fabric. (Adult's help may be required)

Step 8: Choose the flags you want to use for you garland and line them up. Take on at a time, open it and place the strin in between. Close it, pin the bottom exactly on top of each other, so it will stay while you sew. Start on top in the middle and sew straight down to the bottom. DOn't forget to tie it on the bottom and on the top.

Step 9: To give the garland an even more raggedy edge we frayed the edges some more and pulled more threads out on all edges.

Step 10: Now to the hardest part - find a place to hang it up.