Hotties are cool

The other day I was cleaning up the family room - I know, I should make the girls do it, and on a daily basis I do, but now and then it needs that deep cleaning/ toss the crap extravaganza that only we moms can do properly - and I came across this, nestled in among some doll stuff.

Clearly hottiedom crosses not only all sport and hobby barriers, but also that fine line that separates those of us who actually live and breathe and those of us made from the finest Chinese plastic.

While we all know I am not a proponent of perfection, I do have to say a pair of scissors might have been useful in this piece of crafty wonderment, but what do I know. Perhaps there were only seconds to get Julie or Marie-Grace out onto the ice and without this accessory being pinned to her her routine was doomed to fail. Hottie power indeed.

Those of you keeping up with current events on my facebook page have been getting a preview of some of the fantastic prizes I've been collecting from designers, shops, and other quilty businesses as I prepare to launch "Drop and Give Me Twenty 2013" in February. Also known as DaGMT, Dadgummit, or UFO Vasectomy. It's early to start all this teasing I know, especially when I am not a big fan of teasing you mercilessly, but no one can say I am not a planner, nor can they say I'm not excited to bring it back bigger and better! A couple of prize donations I've shared in case you missed them:

Kay Bergquist of Vermont Quilt Design donated three of her best selling patterns to the cause, this being one of them. It's "Holiday Log Cabin" and it is just delightful.

Annelle Holtzman of Annelle's Originals donated the kit to make her completely mouthwatering pumpkin candle mat. The colors are seriously enough to make me want to for the first time ever bake an actual pumpkin in the oven just to smell it in the house all day.

Both of these prize donations came about because Kay and Annelle were lucky enough to be vending with me at Bennington Quiltfest a couple of weeks ago, and were not quick enough on their feet to escape from their booths when I came to solicit prizes for DaGMT. Thank God I'm a nice person and a great salesman. Ha. I do have to say, though, that the idea for the event kind of sells itself (pat pat) and everyone I approached was really excited to participate and help out with donations.

 By the end of December I will be creating a new page of this blog devoted solely to DaGMT, and you'll be able to see all the great prizes in one place and get yourself so spun up over the possibilities of participating that you won't be able to sleep at night.

In other news which will prove to you that I have actually become reacquainted with my sewing machine this month, I'm almost done with the top of a memory quilt I am making for a friend who lost her mom to PPOC, a rare form of ovarian cancer which also claimed my own mother. It's been a therapeutic way for both of us to slap cancer across the face and say "You may have taken our moms you greedy bastard, but you can't take our memories." Who needs counselors when we have fabric? One of the items she gave me was a barn jacket that had great pockets on the front that were well used by her mom. She really wanted those pockets on the quilt, so I took them off the jacket and was able to attach them to a piece of one of the skirts I was given. I'm planning to also scatter some of the prettier buttons off some of the clothing on the block too.

The whole quilt is coming out very nicely, and I promise to show it to you if Mary will let me when it is all done.

Meanwhile, we have a few more days until the entire world turns pink, so I hope everyone is sporting their Teal Toes. I'm all dolled up in "Marine Scene" by Sally Hansen after my friend Renae adult- booed me with a little package on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago. Love it, love her.

Visit teal toes for more info on symptoms and the fight!

 

 

 

 

Go sew something teal. It is so much more than the color of gangrene!

Bargain hunting for dummies

Sure, I've always held "You get what you pay for" as one of my personal mantras. I totally get it that if I only pay $10 at Target for a pair of cowboy boots so that my daughter can take a riding lesson, said daughter will likely come home after one lesson wearing shreds of pleather on her feet. I totally get that "Two Buck Chuck" is not called "Charles the Scrumptious" for a reason. I also totally hate that my grocery bill is appallingly huge every week, but that that is the price to pay for being a foodie who is raising three foodies with a husband/father who can't eat a meatless meal for fear the world might end.

 

On the other hand, I'm a big fan of a bargain. Nothing gives me more pleasure than scoring a Groupon for our favorite French restaurant Petit Robert (aka "Small Bob"), driving 4 miles out of my way on fumes and a prayer to save 8 cents a gallon on gas, and don't get me started on my tremendous joy of living on the NH border so that I can take advantage of their lack of a state sales tax every day of my life.

 

But free? Free trumps all. And until last week, blogger was free. Free for me to use to update you all on my fascinating life and quilting coolness. Now I am attempting to navigate the new format and am unsure if I am even allowed to post photos for free anymore after several in my last post disappeared. I so needed this RIGHT when I was ready to get back into blogging.

 

So consider this a test post to see if my photos show up, and if I have to cry over needing to figure out a new plan, as well as an update on what's new here in EPQDland this week.

 

I'm sorry, but how cute was Greta at age almost 3? Seems as good a picture as any to test first.

 

This past weekend I was at Bennington Quiltfest in Vermont with Terri Sontra of Purple Moose fame. Terri, as well as being a good friend and excellent member of NEQDC, is a godsend to all bargain hunting quilters everywhere. If you have not visited her online store, Purple Moose Designs, please do. Right now. I can wait.

Insert Musak here.

Isn't it just a great store for real quilty bargains? I buy all of my needles and much of my piecing thread from her because there is no way I can find them cheaper, and every time we do a show together she has some cool new notion at an unbeatable price that I must try out. A year or so ago it was the life-changing binding tool. This year it was some Karen Kay Buckley scissors. As much as I love going to my LQS and feeling fabric and seeing it in person and loving on it, etc, I also love finding an online shop to check out in my jammies, and if it is full of great products at great prices, all the better.

A snippet or two of our booth in VT. It's like building a clown car from the outside in every time with all the stuff we've got between 6 designers, but it works.

 

 

In further bargain hunting news, I am having a heck of a time this season finding decent school shoes that are not boots and not sneakers for Paige and Eva. Since I truly don't enjoy traditional shopping as it means I must go out in public and waste precious sewing time, plus having exhausted Marshalls, Bobs, and Kohls in my quest for decent preteen footwear, I've been trying to find shoes online for them. May I introduce you all to one of my new favorite online stores, 6pm.com? Free shipping! Cute things! SHOES THAT WORKED FOR PAIGE! One down, one to go. By the time we hit boot season I'll have something Eva can wear for fall, guaranteed.

 

 

Here's to saving money so we can buy more fabric. 

 



Back to blogdom!

Remember that awesome line from "You've Got Mail", where Tom Hanks' character tells Meg Ryan's that September makes him want to send her a freshly sharpened bouquet of pencils?

I forget my point exactly, but it always makes me smile because I can relate to the love of back to school perhaps more than any other season or day, with the possible exception of Thanksgiving since who doesn't love a holiday devoted entirely to eating? After three months of nonstop fun and searching for items no other member of my family could locate, I'm sitting in a quiet house. It's almost like a miracle. Or a really good dream in which I and I alone know where everything is.



Just saying.

Anyhoo, it was a lovely summer, and while my goals for EPQD may not have been entirely met, moments in the sand, and hence moments sweeping sand out of the car, are now giving way to moments spent in the sewing room again! Woo and hoo!

I may not have accomplished all I set out to do over the summer, but I did get some crafting and sewing in. Check out these fun projects I did with the girls one day, which represent the first and to date only time I have been able to replicate a project I found on Pinterest with any degree of accuracy or skill.

Here is the original Pinteresty photo:


(which was from redshoeslic.typepad.com), which I thought not only looked like a fun project but proved I was not the only one who might consider snapping a photo without cleaning off my desk first, and here are what we made



Yeah, they aren't quite as awesome, and they are fuzzy and upside down to boot because Blogger is being crotchety today (my story and I'm sticking to it), but we are pretty proud of our coolness regardless and it killed an hour or two on an otherwise "we are so done with summer" kind of day at the end of August.

I did manage to throw a few rows of the latest guild log cabin blocks together, but man alive, these may kill me. I love group projects, I love my Squanicookies, but I feel I may need to offer them a seminar entitled "A 1/4" Seam is Traditionally Not Quite Wide Enough to Drive a Truck Through" before the next go-round of our log cabin swap. I do love the layout I am going with and I'm having to be perfectly happy to say to heck with the idea of 12 1/2" blocks because apparently 11 1/2" will have to do.


I also got to sew a bit this summer on a project that is very fitting for this, Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. One of the moms of Greta's preschool friends lost her own mom to PPOC back in December, which happens to be the same form of ovarian cancer which my own mother fought. Although I don't normally do custom projects, she asked if I might be interested in doing a memory quilt of her mom's clothing for her sister and herself, and figuring it might be cathartic for me on some level, I agreed. While I am sure Mary and her sister are horrified by how long it is taking me, I am really enjoying the peace it gives me to work with these clothes and know that they belonged to a strong woman who will not be forgotten.


Lots of shows and lectures to fill my schedule this fall, but I am also excited to announce my new store on Craftsy. I'm slowly stocking it with my patterns, many of which need to be combined into one pdf, so if there is one you are desperate to download you just may need to wait a week or two, but I hope to have them all up there by the end of the month. But who knows. Today's upload was to be "For Love of Springtime", but they are telling me it is too tall. For the love of Craftsy. It's a TALL PATTERN! You know how computers and I are so close and all. Hold me and be patient is all I can ask.

Finally, as I went through my yearly dose of survivor's guilt first thing this morning I thought about rerunning last year's 9/11 post, but I don't want to dwell too long on what is one of the hardest days of the year for me. Suffice it to say I am exceedingly thankful to be here to have this second career and share it with all of you. Instead I will leave you with a bit of the song running through my head today, as we remember always:

 "Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave us, and the greatest is love."