Ho! Ho! Ho!

Yesterday my Santa Sack partner, Donna and I met up for a nice Christmas lunch at La Madeleine.  What better way to start off the Christmas season than with a nice filling meal and good company.  Afterwards we did our exchange and even though we're not allowed to open until Christmas, we each got a sneak peak.

This is what I gave Donna:

And this is what Donna gave me:

I just love my snowman sack.  It has a beautiful red snowflake fabric lining.  I'm such a dodo, I never even thought about making my sack for Donna out of Christmas fabric.  Bad me!!  I guess it was too much of a stretch for me to think about Christmas when I made this in May!!  I'll do better next time!

It's going to be a great Christmas season.  Thanks, Cheryll for hosting this swap and thanks, Donna for making it so much FUN!  It's been great getting to know you!!

Life's a Patchwork

Last week I picked up the Summer 2011 issue of Art Quilting Studio and found the inspiration for my weekend project.  This little gem is by Bonny Gorsuch of mybonny.com.

The Inspiration

My version

The thought process was that I would first make the scrap fabric and then I would fashion it into a hat.  I found a nice simple hat tutorial on the net, but once I completed the piecing, I was unable to cut it up.  Funny how sometimes things go in a different direction, just like life.  So for now I am going to put a backing on it, bind it and use it as a table runner.  Maybe one day I'll feel better about cutting it up, but for now, it's a nice little hodgepodge.

Back Story

Last night Blogger wasn't playing nicely and after many failed attempts the only thing I accomplished was to post a few pictures. Hmmm . . .


A couple weekends ago I celebrated another birthday and I decided to celebrate by competing in a triathlon. It was on my actual birthday so how could I not participate??!! This triathlon was small (approx. 850) but still trying to find your bike in the transition area can be a little daunting especially after swimming what seemed like an ocean! Note to self: swimming in a lake is NOTHING like swimming in a pool!! Anyway, I used my Happy Birthday balloon to mark my spot in transition and it worked out perfectly. (I'm pretty sure it helped the other competitors around me also.)

So, a few weeks before my birthday I woke up with this brilliant idea. I would make some small pinatas and stuff them with small toys and non-chocolate candies and hang them from the large tree in the front yard. Then I would invite the neighborhood kids over and have them take a whack at them and they could go home with the loot. I've never had a pinata and I thought it would be fun.

Then I thought, hey, I've got all these scrap fabrics so let me cover them in fabric. I've never seen one in fabric. I thought that I would make some sort of trap door since I didn't know how hard it would be to break the fabric pinata.

On my first attempt I used Golden Gel Medium and just applied the fabric directly to the balloon and then watched it dry while hanging outside. If nothing else, it made me smile to see the patchwork of colors swirling in the wind outside my glass door. Even after it deflated I still was smiling at the colorful crinkled mess. So in that regard, I guess it was a success. (Either that or with my advancing age I find everything amusing now!!)

On the next attempt, I did a more traditional paper mache and while B. tore up paper strips, I mixed the flour/water glue (much cheaper than gel medium). This time we experimented with 4 balloons. I was still thinking I would hang them from the tree the afternoon of my birthday, but after applying 3 coats of paper and one coat of fabric (applied with the gel medium) I wasn't so sure it would work.

The morning of my birthday arrived and I participated in my 2nd triathlon bright and early. It went by in a whirl and after an hour and 36 minutes I was finished. I didn't actually appreciate my moment until the results were posted and I saw that I finished 8 out of 13 in my age group. Yay! Not last!!

Next up was lunch with friends and then the much needed nap. Best nap EVER!!

I'm not sure what I was thinking . . . I thought sitting in the front yard drinking a cold beverage in the afternoon under the big shade tree would be a perfect setting for a pinata party. Uh . . ., NO!!! On this particular day the temperature was well into the 90's and there was no shade in the front yard. DRAT!!

So, now I have 4 lovely looking egg shapes that I'm trying to decide what to do with them. Maybe I will wait until Easter and try again with the neighborhood kids. I'd really like to figure out how to put a light in them and hang them from the trees and turn them on at night.

Any ideas??  And to make it FUN, if you send me an idea (feasible or not) I will send you some fabric (if you want some).  If there's a lot of postings, I will send to the first 5 people who are interested in some free fabric.  So, your mission (should you choose to accept it), is to think outside the box, 'er, egg and let me know what to do with these 4 fabric covered egg shaped objects.  So, let's put on our thinking caps and get to work.

Much Better

What the Heck??

This is what happens when you wake up with a hairbrained idea:

Various stages of drying. 

And this is what happens when the sun goes done at the end of the day . . . deflated . . . not my spirit, though.  I was back at it the next day with a better plan.  Stay tuned for those results.

Pay It Forward

Awhile back Jan-Maree from Cherry Red Quilter sent me a beautiful bag for the pay it forward project.  I have since paid it forward to Donna from Donna's Lavender's Nest with a pair of potholders.  If anyone else would like a PIF gift, then please comment on the post and let me know that you'd like to be the recipient of a gift.  If there are no takers, I plan on making some anonymous gifts to be left in various places.  I think that would be an interesting twist on the PIF project. 

PIF to Donna

These may be some of the future PIF's:

More stash busting sewn on Monday.  I love this fabric.