Right Brained Mama!

No surprise with my results. I found this via Gigi's blog:

You Are 25% Left Brained, 75% Right Brained

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning. Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others. If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic. Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet. The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility. Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way. If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art. Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

Are You Right or Left Brained?

Update

We've been busy (yeah, who isn't? ~G~). David is out of town, and between soccer practice, gymnastics, and various meetings, I feel like we've been living in the car this week. Ah, but I AM getting some sewing in. I've been working on slipstitching the binding on the green quilt. I also cut out a top (Simplicity 4076, View D), 6 Quick Snap Diaper Covers (size L), and a baby sling.

I've also started my Christmas shopping. Can't say much about that, you just never know who might be reading this blog. :) I stopped in the bookstore today to pick up a copy of In Stitches (unfortunately they were out. I had a 25% off coupon). I browsed at a copy of Sublime Stitching. Nice book, but I didn't buy it; at least not on this visit. It's chock full of motifs for stitching, plus great direction on how to do it. On the subject of embroidery, I am sorely tempted to get a copy of Subversive Cross Stitch. You can even get kits! The "Bite Me" kit is calling my name.

A few people have asked where I got the divided thermos pictured in the post below. I found it at Target, in the camping section. The divider is removable, which is really nice. Yesterday I removed the divider and gave Caleb baked potatoes with cheese for lunch. Yummy!!

Lunch

This is what Caleb took for lunch today. It's one of his favorites:
Rice and beans (recipes are here), 2 corn tortillas, some Cheddar Bunnies, and a Fruit Leather. The fresh pineapple is for his snack this morning. He wanted to buy milk to drink (he's pretty sure Tuesdays is chocolate milk day).

I'll share some more of his lunches occassionally. Usually he gets leftovers; I bet you can guess what we had for supper last night. :)

New Toys

Look at my new toys! :)
My friend Luther gave these to me today. The treadle works, though I don't know if the timing is right and if it actually stitches.

Here is a close up of The Free machine. The drawers won't open unless the top is opened. They lock when the machine is put away. One drawer pull is missing, and some awful metal one got put on in its place.

This is all the stuff that was in the drawers. I have no idea what most of it is.

Here is the other machine. It's either called The Homemaker or The Homestead. I can't remember, and I don't want to go down the basement to double check right now. It's missing the base.

This is all the stuff that came in these drawers. I think the bullet looking thing is a bobbin case. The two little envelopes have machine needles in them.

There were also two church calendars from July and August 1980. Otherwise, I know nothing about these. On Stitcher's Guild Margie directed me to Treadle On, so I've been over there reading and researching. Any other guidance, advice, or links would be greatly appreciated. Cleaning up and using these will be a fun winter project!

Beta Blogger

I'm trying out the new version of blogger that's in beta testing. I like that I can put each post in a category, so I'll slowly be going through my previous posts (found out there are 113 of them) and categorizing them.

Hope it works well! :)

Arrr!!

Avast mateys! Today be National Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Get yer very own pirate name here, here , or here.

My pirate name is:

Iron Anne Cash

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

You Are A Buccaneer!


What Type Of Swashbuckler Are You?
brought to you by Maddog Varuka & Dawg Brown

Petite Poche Charlotte

For my nephew's christening gown, I used Wendy Schoen's Petite Poche Charlotte. Unfortunately, Charlotte is out of print, but she has many other lovely patterns available.

On his special day. I am honored to be his Godmother.

I only made 3 changes to the pattern. Since the sleeves were described as 3/4 length, I added 1.25 inches to the bottom so that they would be full length. I added 6 inches to the bottom of the gown for more length, and I added 5/8" to the center back, so that the edge was turned under a full 7/8" (to the foldline) instead of just 1/4".

Now for the full and detail shots -- lots of them!

Full view. I took this one after I pressed it on Sunday. I used a pima lawn purchased from Handmades.

I stitched the cross while watching Caleb's soccer game on Saturday. :) The featherstitching was done in bits and pieces. The pattern calls for five rows of featherstitching on each side, but I liked only three, plus three is symbolic of the Trinity (also why I chose to do three french knots in the center of the cross).

Back view. I only used 7 (instead of 8) buttons. I have a thing for odd numbers.

The monogram is done in shadowwork. I did most of it on Wednesday night, finishing it up on Thursday during soccer practice, along with the featherstitching. The whole thing took me about 3 hours (yes, it's all handwork). I was a bit nervous when I traced the design -- she had you use a regular #2 pencil! It was perfect, though. btw -- the monogram is for his last name, so this gown will be used for any siblings. :)

This is the bottom band. I ordered this edging from Handmades as well, and it finally arrived on Saturday!!! It was worth the wait, though. It is really really wide, so I trimmed it down to 1.25" above the crosses.

The sleeve bands. I had the beading and edging in stash. :)

The shoulder and underarm seams are french seamed. The rest is entredeux which is stitched on, trimmed to about 1/8", and then zigzagged.

I had hoped to get a slip and a hankie (that can be made into a bonnet) done as well, but didn't have the time. I will get those made later. It was a lot of fun to make this -- I really need to do more heirloom stuff!

Peter Pablo's Baptism

Yay! Our computer is fixed and at home!

My nephew was baptized on Sunday, and I made his gown (clipped the buttonholes -- and I missed one -- and pressed it Sunday morning). I'll write a separate post on the gown, with all sorts of detail shots that we stitchers love to see.

For now, you'll have to be satisfied with this:


There are more photos here.

Computer Woes

Our computer is on the fritz -- it's not turning on. It's been a bit fussy for a while, and as of yesterday, we haven't been able to turn it on at all. I'll bring it in on Monday, and hopefully it won't be gone long. Right now I'm checking email at the library.

It IS kinda nice to be without it, though. Anyway, I've got to focus on making my nephew's christening gown, and no computer will get rid of the temptation to goof off. :)

Green Quilt Binding

I started working on the binding for the green baby quilt (baby was born in February!). A lot of times I like to bind quilts in 1/4" black binding, so whenever I buy some black, I just cut the whole piece up into 1.75" bias strips. Thankfully I had just enough of this black dot to bind this quilt. After stitching it down, I had about 15" leftover.

I think this quilt is looking quite nice, although I guess it's not your typical baby quilt. I've been stitching the binding down while watching Season 1 of Project Runway, thanks to Netflix. We finished disc 1 yesterday, and I've got half of the handdwork done. :) I've been almost 100% right about predicting who gets Auf'd each episode, and about 75% right with who wins each one. I already know who wins season 1, but that's it.

Watermelon

On Calvin's birthday we decided it would a good time to harvest one of his melons.







I gave him a knife and he cut it off the vine. It was HEAVY!!! The thing had to weigh at least 20 pounds!









Alas, it was NOT RIPE!!! Calvin was so let down, I thought he was going to lose it right there (he didn't). I don't know how to tell when watermelons are ready -- do you? We thumped it and it sounded like the ones you buy in the store. We have two more on the vine, though one looks like it's dying. So I think we have one more shot at having a home grown watermelon. Please, any advice on how to tell when it'll be ready is greatly appreciated.

Next year we'll try and find a smaller variety.