Lazy Turkey Day

Today’s our last day in Colorado and it was a perfect blend of family, food, movies and projects.

Rachel is working on a new Christmas cross-stitch,

I finished a Sashiko project (the first hand-stitching I’ve done in 6 months, thanks to tendinitis),

Addy made rolls

and more yummy rolls (3 batches total),

and this airman was able to call her mom for the first time since boot camp started 6 weeks ago. So proud of her. 

Movie-wise, Cruella is excellent; Black Widow is just as good the 3rd (4th?) time through; and the first 2 episodes of Hawkeye are well worth watching but left us wondering where the show is going. Guess we’ll find out in 4 more episodes.  Hope all y’all had an excellent turkey day too!

Too Fun

Between sleeping, reading and relaxing with the teenager - three of my favorite activities, especially when on vacation - we’ve managed to do a few fun things.

Visited the German Christmas Market in downtown Denver. 

We were a bit disappointed that it was so small, but the day was gorgeous, 

 Photo by Addy

the food and cider were delicious - Addy discovered she loves crepes - and we got a couple of gifts, so it was well worth the visit. 

Took a tour of Hammonds Candy Factory, also in Denver. They’ve been making candies by hand since 1920 and still use the same methods, recipes and equipment today. 

 Making candy canes

I was impressed that their customers include giants like Target and Trader Joe’s. 

Part of the crew was labeling Christmas candies for TJ’s while we were there. Impressive output for a by-hand operation. 

Addy and I did batik painting, from a small company (Color Cruisers) I spotted on Etsy. 

So much fun, especially mixing our own colors from the basics supplied with the kits. 

Addy finished two pictures to my one

and she wants to do more, possibly using her own art, so I’m calling that a win for me!

I showed Addy my latest Sashiko project and her reaction was, “I could draw a design for you . . .” Oh, yes please! Rather than transfer it from paper, we went fabric shopping for loose-weave cotton and a white chalk pen. Can’t wait to start this!

And as long as we were shopping anyway, I enhanced the stash a bit too. 

Rachel has a great eye for color so I got her help picking out fabric for a bag

and a few other things that caught my eye. 

Tonight we’re going to see holiday lights, tomorrow is for eating and Friday we fly home. This trip has gone by too fast!

Ombre Carnival

Anybody remember Ombre Carnival, the quilt I started back in April and sent out for quilting in May?

After sitting around for months, waiting for a chance to meet up with its new person in person, I mailed it to her* just before we left for CO.

I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. I love the sparkles and all the color,

and I especially love the cupcake quilting Debbie did. So perfect since the recipient loves to bake. 

I think she likes it too since it’s already on her bed, ready for use. 

* I think the delay was meant to be - the quilt arrived on what would have been her mom’s 98th birthday. Sew perfect.

Visiting

We’ve been in Colorado since Friday, 

celebrating this one’s 15th(!!) birthday

with cake*, 

presents, 

and a wood-burning craft party in Estes Park. 

Most of us had never wood-burned before

 Rachel’s pieces - she’s very good at this

and were a little leery of the hot tools.

Turns out it’s a lot of fun

and nobody burned themselves. Hooray!

Hubby and I combined our pieces but everyone else came home with their own wall-hanger.

Such a fun way to spend an afternoon with family.

* Teenager goes to grocery store with dad to pick out birthday cake.

Me: what kind of cake did you get?

Teen: a pretty one with my favorite purple flower on it.

Me: but what flavor is it?

Teen: I don’t know, I didn’t look. It was pretty and I wanted the flower. 

😂😂 It was white cake, with white frosting and a pretty purple flower. 

So Awesome

Jaclyn’s original school pictures weren’t the best (I love them) so Mom asked for a re-take.

We got the results today. 

I can’t stop laughing. It’s so awesome and soooooo Jackie!

Lily

She knows she’s not supposed to be up there, 

just like she knows better 

than to be on the cutting table,

or the sewing machine,

but our suitcases are out, she knows we are leaving and she’s going to sit wherever she likes. So there. 

Organizing Bug

Want to see why we made Saturday’s IKEA run? Other than just for the fun of it?

Last week I had the bright idea to repurpose my catch-all-the-junk counter space into fabric storage with IKEA Kallax bookcases. My thought was that if the fabric was more visible/organized, I’d be more likely to shop the stash before the stores.

Hubby had the shelves built and in place this morning, so I spent most of the afternoon and evening folding fabric onto Mini Bolts*- complete with fabric length and (if I remember to fold it right) visible selvedge info -

 
and loading up the 13x13” cubes. 

 The invisible Donovan

Everything over 3/4 yard is on the shelves by color - and the color order will likely change when Jac makes me put them in ‘rainbow order’. Fat quarters are in the small gray boxes on top and scraps will go in big plastic bins. 

Tula Pink has her own shelf, *of course*, as do current projects (bottom right) and backing fabric (top left), although backing fabric will probably move upstairs, along with holiday fabrics.

And speaking of upstairs, what’s on these shelves is just what was currently in my craft room. I haven’t even started on ‘upstairs’ yet. But isn’t it pretty?? And now that my tables are cleared, it’ll be so much easier to turn all that ‘pretty’ into finished projects. 

* A lot of quilters use comic book boards rather than Mini Bolts, but they just aren’t strong enough and bend too easily IMO. Mini Bolts and bolt clips are pricey but I’m hoping to use and re-use them for years. 

Power Rangers

Currently, Donovan‘s favorite things* in the whole wide world are dinosaurs and Power Rangers. 

So when I started his latest dinosaur quilt, I was also on the lookout for Power Ranger fabric.  Found it!** Kinda. 

This is, as Donovan will be quick to tell you, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (from the 90’s TV show) as opposed to Dino Fury Power Rangers (from the current show.) Donovan has absolutely no interest in the MM franchise. He is strictly a Dino guy. 

I’m hoping he’ll give me a pass, though, since his favorite is the blue guy and I happened to have the perfect Power Ranger blue in my stash. 

Leia practicing her one-eyebrow-raise

And also? This backing took *a lot* more time and effort to put together than the front. Worth it though.

* Not to be confused with his favorite people, who are and probably always will be, his mom and Jackie. Daddy and grandma are neck and neck for third place. 😂😂

** Etsy is my go-to for unusual or hard-to-find fabric. I was able to snag one half-yard and one quarter-yard piece (for a matching pillow case) before this was sold out. Yay!!