Under Construction

Better safe than sorry

They couldn't see a fracture on the x-ray but there was clearly a problem so they recommended immobilizing the ankle.  I didn't quite realize what that would look like.

She is actually in a great mood and getting spoiled with lots of toys (especially when mommy had to make a phone call for work).

The aftermath of the call.  (The Car and Driver magazine was a surprising hit)

Now she's napping so I'm racing to get everything done.  Hope you had a better weekend.

Delay

Thanks SO much to all the super volunteers out there. I think I emailed everyone so you should know if a tester quilt kit is coming your way. Unfortunately, they aren't coming tomorrow. We've had a delay...

Can I just suggest that if your child won't go down a slide alone, you should just skip sliding?  Sliding with mom can be dangerous.

Photos in the morning.

Any guinea pigs out there?

I'm trying to finalize the instruction book and corresponding web instructions for the Zip Quilt Kits. I can't decide if the directions are too basic or too complicated, really clear or a total disaster.  If someone out there would be willing to test the directions, I will send you a free Zip Quilt Kit prototype and draft instructions and all my appreciation.

In return, I hope you could make up the quilt soon (within a few days) and note any problems you have with the instructions. The ideal tester would be a novice seamstress with a sewing machine but you could sew by hand if you have a lot of time.  Really, anyone who is willing to try to follow the instructions would be a huge help.

My goal is to have the instructions completed by this Sunday so the kits would go Monday and testing would be next week. Interested? E-mail me at mdhaworth at ucdavis-alumni dot com.  THANKS!

This is more complicated than I anticipated.

Some days this is as good as it gets

Have I mentioned we're project people?  We're good at projects. We like projects. We aren't so good at the daily maintenance kind of crap. 

Last weekend I unclogged the dishwasher drain just so I could accomplish a house project that would last for more than, oh, 60 minutes. I figure an hour is about the staying power for any of my usual home chores. Dishes, laundry, cleaning always undone in a matter of minutes.

And cleaning isn't exactly our specialty. We once stripped our bathroom down to the studs and remodeled it to the tune of thousands of dollars and weeks of work just to remove a really disgusting smell (that turned out to be from a molding cup of coffee left in the vanity by the previous owner--don't even get me started on that!)

So when our kitchen looks like this:

I consider it a major accomplishment (That is a clean kitchen by the way. I know, not Martha Stewart clean, but the dishes are done and the counters are wiped and the dinner leftovers are put away so it's clean!)

Um, try not to look at the random crap on the bar--I'm not thaaat good.

Now that you've seen our kitchen, you can understand why a complete kitchen remodel is the next project on the list. Ripping out the counters totally beats scrubbing the grout!

If you know a good kitchen designer in Sacramento please let me know ASAP. We need a professional to moderate our "where the heck should we put the stove/oven" debate. We can only agree that where it is now SUCKS.

The ugly cabinets and nasty tile will be gone soon.  Wish us luck.

Oops, I did it again

But the 40% off sale was ending...(is that a good excuse?)  My other excuse for the fabric buying spree is that I thought it would motivate me to make up a bunch of Zip Quilt Kits and actually try to sell them. What the heck. Bazaar Bizzare is coming up in a few weeks and Sacramento Craft Mafia has a booth.  As a member I'm allowed to sell a few things so I figured I would.  Worst case, I have materials for a lot of fun doll quilts.

Between now and then I'm going to try to come up with a business name, logo and Etsy shop so that I can make business cards to give out and actually have a purpose to the business cards. Crazy? Maybe. But deadlines are motivating.

Come by Bazaar Bizzare on May 19 and say hello!

In case you were wondering...it pays to comment

If someone pukes on your upholstered (not slip covered) arm chair and you find a zipper on the back of the cushion and you're wondering if you can just toss the upholstery cover in the load of post-puke laundry...the answer is no.
Even without drying it may shrink
A lot

And even if you are feeling slightly genius and remember the trick of wrapping the cushion innards in a plastic trash bag so it slides right in as easy as pie...
your cushion may still be too small for the chair.

Clearly the only solution is the sit my rear in the chair and start working really hard at smooshing the cushion.

On a happier note:
I have so appreciated your helpful and kind feedback on the last two posts. The friendly notes totally made my day and made me glad I entered the Fred Flare contest even though I don't have a snowball's chance in...well, you know.

To thank the nice commenters, I thought I'd give out some goodies.  I wrote the names of all the commenters on little slips of paper and held some drawings.  From the Long Lived Lunchsack post, Kris H is our winner. She'll get the vintage wallpaper lunchsack shown in that post.  And on the Zip Quilt Kits post, I drew Alicia's name so she'll get the sample doll quilt shown in the photo-or a kit if she'd prefer. But there will be a slight delay if she wants a kit as I haven't actually written the instruction book yet. Oops (I swear it's all planned out in my head!)

Have a great weekend!

Zip Quilt Kits

A few weeks ago my friend and co-worker, Lisa, called me. Lisa is a graphic designer and she and her co-workers were cleaning their office and throwing away outdated technological stuff including a whole pile of zip disks.

Apparently she thought I could do something creative with all these zip disks and keep them out of the trash. She asked if I wanted "a bag" of them. The "bag" turned into two (big) boxes of zip disks that are now taking up space in my over-stuffed craft room.  Needless to say, I am motivated to use them and this is what I came up with:

The Zip Quilt Kit

I didn't want to be left out of the doll quilt craze that's been going around the crafty blogosphere so I've been working on a few small quilts.  And I realized that a doll size quilt is the perfect introduction to quilting for the novice sewer (quilts are really super easy to make but folks seem to be intimidated by them). Anyway, the zip cases are the perfect size for doll quilt squares.

The photo above shows a kit wrapped up in the backing fabric, the kit contents, and a sample finished doll quilt. (note: the "zip disk" shown in the photo above is actually a picture of a zip disk and is inserted as the kit label. Behind it are the 20 squares of fabric and the pins and needle)
 

The kit includes:

• 20- ~4" squares of pre-washed and ready to go fabric (4 each of 5 coordinating prints/solids)
• 1 piece of coordinating backing fabric (also pre-washed)
  
• embroidery floss for tying the quilt
• pins and a needle for the embroidery floss
• an instruction book
• a coordinating notecard and envelope (because that's fun)

The buyer would have to provide their own sewing machine (or needle and thread), scissors and batting or stuffing (depending if a quilt or pillow is to be made).  More advanced sewers can try some different techniques or cut the squares into triangles or embroider on them. The possibilities are endless and a few advanced ideas are in the instruction book.

I'm kind of loving this idea but I might be all alone. Just in case someone else loves it too (and going with my "why the hell not" approach to crafty contests) I'm entering this in the Fred Flare Next Big Thing contest. 

I would welcome your thoughts on this idea.  I appreciated your feedback on the Long Lived Lunchsack!  By the way, if you wanted to read what was on the lunchsack, photos here.

Long Lived Lunchsack

Yes folks, it's another round of lunchbags. But this time I'm rather pleased with the outcome. So pleased in fact that I decided to enter the Long Lived Lunchsack in Fred Flare's Next Big Thing competition. What the heck. You should enter too (hurry, contest ends Friday).

What cool person wouldn't want to save the world during their lunch break? Think of the trees that will be saved when these reusable bags take off (try not to think about the plastics and petroleum products used in making contact paper.  lalalala...fingers in my ears)

Where was I?  Oh, lunchsacks. Three new designs: "plain," "vintage wallpaper squares," and "words about lunch" (on which I wax poetic about sandwiches and juice boxes and the most important meal of the day.)

Oh look, there are also velcro closures:

And that's it. I would be curious which of the three designs you think is the most interesting.

Now I'm busily working on one other project. If lunchsacks aren't the next big thing, maybe quilting is...

18 months

And already she seems to have a career picked out (the BIG TRUCK fascination continues unabated)

(taken at a very rainy Picnic Day)
And, in honor of her turning 18 months old today, another video.
Yes, you guessed it. She's eating. Again. But it's hilarious. As always, sorry for my total lack of video editing skills and please ignore my freakish laugh midway through.

Quilt Show

So, I've been a lazy blogger and I realized I forgot to tell you that I went to the Quilt Show in Sacramento a few weeks ago.  It wasn't much to write home about but I did find a booth with the most fabulous trims and notions for really cheap.  So that was exciting. 

And I found the bias tape maker I wanted for a whole $8 but then cheap Melissa took over and I remembered that JoAnns carries bias tape makers and I had a 40% off coupon.  Needless to say, JoAnns doesn't carry the size I want.  Figures.  Moral of the story: just spend the $8 already (especially when you just saved $6 by not parking in the paid lot and walking 1/4 mile to get to the show)

So I was bummed about the bias tape maker but tonight I finally broke down and decided to just buy the one at JoAnns even though it wasn't the perfect size. And you know what? JoAnns is having the most fabulous sale (I haven't gotten my mailer so I didn't know). All quilting notions (including bias tape makers) 50% off and all quilting fabric 40% off. So I went in for a bias tape maker and came out with this:

Yes, that would be ELEVEN half yard pieces of new fabric and TWO bias tape makers. (but I have a plan for it all...stay tuned)