Planning

Charming Lucy came back from the long-arm quilter late last week,

 
so I searched the stash for the perfect binding fabric (hooray for “advance quarantine planning”!)

 My favorite Binding Baby

and got that cut, sewn, ironed and rolled, ready to attach this holiday weekend. That will finish up my second pair of Quarantine Rule quilts.

Next up is Addy’s jellyfish quilt, using the “Oh, Henry” pattern,

for the ‘something new’ part of the third quarantine pair.

The ‘something old’ UFO is the fish quilt I’ve been planning since we took Leanne and Jaclyn to the Monterey Aquarium in April 2019. 

I’ve had the bowls cut for over a year but other projects kept jumping in front. This week, I auditioned background fabrics - although in my heart I knew the orange would win - and this one is ready to go.

The top contender to wreck all this planning? I really, really (really really!) want to make another barn quilt (or three). They are so addictive! 

Barn Quilt #4

When I decided to paint a flag design, I knew I wanted to make three -

one for me, one for Vickie and a slightly different one for Wenona and her husband. 

I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. And I think she liked it too.

Little Miss Four

Technically, she’s not four until tomorrow 

but Jac was ok with celebrating early. 

She was a little annoyed she had to eat dinner first - her favorite pizza; the horror! -

 Such silly faces

and couldn’t go straight to the cake and presents

 
but she seemed pretty pleased once she got to her gifts.

Our solution to the birthday-candle-in-the-age-of-Covid dilemma 

was keeping them totally separate. It worked!

This was Jac’s first time cutting her own birthday cake

and the inside was every bit as pretty (and delicious) as I’d hoped.  

In keeping with Jac’s requested rainbow theme, I made her two rainbow pillowcases (one with bonus frogs because “green is my favorite color!”) 

and a rainbow unicorn blanket 

using the super easy Missouri Star self-binding blanket tutorial. (Note to self: pink fabric cut 32” square and stripes cut 42” square)

Rainbow Cake

Jackie wanted a rainbow cake for her birthday on Sunday,

so that’s what we made. 

Jac mixed up all the colors herself,

 

including one she affectionately referred to as “baby poop brown.” 

I was afraid the individual colors would blend together during baking,

and Jac would be disappointed,

but they came out beautifully,

even the baby poop brown. 

True story - Jac has never liked licking the spoon or beaters when we cook, unlike Leia and Leanne who loooove doing that. (Me too!)

That changed today when I talked Jac into taking just a teeny tiny taste of cake batter and she discovered what she’d been missing.

Bad grandma. :)

She liked the icing even more.

You can hear her thinking, “Grandma, I have NO IDEA how that hole got there.”

Happy almost birthday, silly girl. 

Baker Boy

Donovan helped me bake for the first time today.

He loves “cooking” with his mom so he was super excited when we started getting out the supplies.

And he really gets into his work. 

At one point, I was sure there was more flour on him than in the bowl.

Despite that, and my messing up the second rise time, the bread turned out great. This skillet bread recipe is a definite keeper. (Note to self - remember to buy finely ground sea salt for next time.)

Pottery #4

I was going to title this the “last" pottery class but there’s a very good chance hubby will take more courses, once COVID fades and in-person classes resume.

 His 4 pieces and my 6 - right-side up and up-side down.

Tonight we glazed the pieces our instructor bisque-fired this past week. 

It was a bit frustrating, mainly because the glaze in the buckets looks nothing like what the finished color will be. And because we had no clue what we were doing. :)

 Blue arrows are his pieces; red are mine

Here’s hoping our pieces a) survive the 2,165 degree kiln firing, 

 
and b) look decent. Useable would be a bonus.

 My favorite bowl cracked during the bisque fire.

We’ll know in a week. 

Barn Quilt #3

We took barn quilt #3 out to Vickie’s house today, so now I can show it here.

 Vickie’s on the left, mine on the right

Vickie loves Americana so I was pretty sure she would like this (she did!) 

And I *might* have purchased another 40 or so bottles of paint. Oops?? I’m really enjoying this barn quilt thing. 

Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day, y’all! It’s not nearly as much fun when we’re being responsibly socially-distant. Here’s hoping we can all be together next year.

Best Almost-Friends

He follows her everywhere,

doing everything she does.

Until it all suddenly goes south, 

and I have to put them to play in separate rooms. 

 Sibling-cousins and best almost-friends.