Back from Michigan

I had a very quick and much to short long weekend trip to Michigan this past weekend.  It was niece Mackenzie's 3rd birthday and I met nephew Cameron for the first time.   Cameron is the cutest little guy!  He is 5 weeks old and the sweetest thing (I'll check with my SIL and see if I can post a photo). He is a very mellow baby and was happy to be held when I wasn't busy playing with Mackenzie.

Cameron's quilt was delivered to him.  And so Mackenzie didn't feel left out, I finished my "T is for Thelma" Schnibble quilt and gave it to her.

"T is for Thelma" Schnibble 

scrappy back

 Excuse the wrinkles, it was rolled and stuffed in my suitcase.

Mackenzie is faster than the fastest camera setting

 Mackenzie is in a "no photographs!" phase (she never stands still either) so this is the best photo I could get with her and her quilt.

Reminds me of Remy hiding under things.


I'm a sad auntie today missing the kids.  Hope to see them sometime this summer.

I'm Back! It's October! It's the end of October!

Sleeping on the job.  No help blogging here.

I did not realize it had been nearly a month since I last blogged.  Sigh.  What a bad blogger I've been this year.
















I just got back yesterday from a week long trip to Michigan to visit my family,

celebrate October birthdays,



and spend oodles of time with this little cutie

Mackenzie 2 1/2 years old.

 My sister-in-law, aunt, mom, and I spent some time sewing.  I finished the center of the Schnibbles quilt for this month "Hubble".  I am using "Serenade" by Kate Spain charm packs and Moda Bella Solid in Eggplant.

Love the autumn-ness of these colors.   

Mackenzie, dad, and I picked raspberries and made a raspberry pie.  Mackenzie *may* have eaten more berries than ended up in her basket.

Now to get caught up on everything.

Patrick McDonnell's New Book

Long time readers of my blog may remember that Mutts! and Patrick McDonnell's books are among my most favorite things EVER.  I wrote a review of his book Me...Jane last year.   And in 2008, I saw him speak at the Decatur Book Festival.

Two Saturdays ago, September 1st, Patrick was once again a featured speaker at this year's Decatur Book Festival discussing his new book called The Monsters' Monster.


The book is just magically wonderful.   All of his art is magically wonderful.

Patrick talking about the character Stinky Pudding

Patrick spoke twice at the festival, first at the Children's Stage, where he drew Mutt's characters and read his new book.  (He was under a tent and the photos didn't turn out very well.  I didn't want to use a flash because I figured it would be distracting.)

Patrick McDonnell drawing Earl

The best thing about author's talks at the Children's Stage are the questions by the kids.  Adorable, honest, open questions.  Too cute.  All of you that have kids know this but it's always new to me.

After the book reading, there was a book signing.  I had my copy of The Monsters' Monster signed and a collection of the Mutts comics called The Best of Mutts. I also was able to tell Patrick how much joy his comic strip brings to my everyday life.

Love. This. Book!

Look he drew a little Mooch for me!!!

I did not ask him to sing the Little Pink Sock song for me.

Although I really wanted too.












Of course we had to buy a copy of The Monsters' Monster for my niece Mackenzie.  S. asked Patrick for a special inscription and Patrick added a great drawing of the Monster.  Wow!  How cool is that?!?!

I've had a "monster" thing going with Mackenzie ever since she was wee tiny little.  I am probably the only person to buy a sweet baby girl a Tim Burtonish-onesie (see here).  And when she was less than a year old, I taught her to make all kinds of monster noises (cause that's how this aunt rolls).

Anyway, I can't wait to see her (next month!) and give her the special book!  And we can read it and make monster noises all week.

Accomplishment

I really enjoyed Memorial Day weekend and had two days off from both jobs.  I really would've liked another day but oh well, at least it's a short work week.

On Monday, I decided to stretch my sewing skills and attempt a skirt for my niece Mackenzie.  And I did it!  I made clothes!  First attempt at clothes making since home ec in middle school.

Don't look too close because it's not exactly perfect but it will look great on a 2-year-old running by at top 2-year old speed.

The pattern is called "Julia" by ModKid.  The pattern was easy to follow and had great instructions for newbie garment sewists.  The size range is 2T-7.

I just adore the Snoopy fabric and think the scale of the design is just perfect for this little skirt.

The book Stitch by Stitch: Learning to Sew, One Project at a Time by Deborah Moebes was a great help in relearning/learning about garment construction.  The projects in the book are great and someday I'll get around to making some of those too.

Mackenzie's skirt should be arriving by mail soon and I can't wait to hear how she likes it.  (Hope it fits!)

If all goes well, I may try more clothes and hope to venture into sewing for myself.  Too bad I am a bit too old for twirly Snoopy skirts.  Guess I'll stick to my usual black, gray, or brown.

A Quick Trip to Michigan

S. and I just got back from a very quick trip to Michigan to celebrate Mackenzie's 2nd birthday (Thursday - Sunday).

It is so hard to believe that she is two!

We had a great time. Her new favorite game is hide and seek and she would tell me where to hide.  I thought that kind of defeated the whole purpose of the game but who can debate with a two-year-old?  My favorite thing to do is hide in a different place so she had to look for me.  When I wasn't in my designated space she would yell "Gretchen!!!" It was hard not to laugh and give away my hiding place.

Mackenzie is such a happy little girl and she is so much fun to be around.  I miss her already.

A Saturday Back in Atlanta

Did you think I would never come back?  I really wanted to stay in Michigan because I was having such a super fantastic fun Fall time but I did come back Tuesday night.

And was very sad Wednesday to not have this little sweetie around.  

She looks like she is in a Smart Car.

If you look close, she has a Starbucks hoodie on.  You can only get this kinda cool if you have an aunt who works at Starbucks!


The rest of this week zoomed by and today I finally got around to unpacking my suitcase and downloading my photos.

Packed in my suitcase were the quilty goodies I picked up in Michigan at some of my favorite shops.  Mabelena's in Ortonville is a really great shop.  Brenda, the owner, is just the sweetest person, and the shop always has wonderful new stuff and shop displays for just about anything you are looking for.  As you can see, I found a few things to bring home.  Check out the awesome floursack tea towels I found.  Aren't the colors just great?  I'm planning some funky Halloween stitchery for these for next year.  I also picked up the book-azine "Sew Scrappy", some fat quarters, and a couple of half-yards.


We also went to Guildcrafters in Berkeley.  I love this shop too and they always have lots and lots of great samples and kits. The best thing about their kits is they have kits in a wide variety of price ranges and a wide variety of projects.  I picked up a cute owl pincushion pattern that I hope to make sometime soon. Another cool thing about the shop is their little pincushion kits (I have three from previous trips...).   I also picked up a few fat quarters in Halloween & Civil War fabrics.


More tomorrow....

Cutest Pumpkin in the Patch

Mackenzie Oct. 2011 age 19 mo. (borrowed from my sister-in-law's facebook page)

I haven't posted in awhile and I seem to have lost my quilting and blogging mojo for a brief time. Hope this will change soon.


Guess who I get to see this week?

Stylin' in her purple glasses.  

For a planned  trip this time.

More from Michigan soon.

Tales from the Couch

Got back from Michigan Tuesday night.  It was a very sad, emotionally draining, and exhausting trip.   I was so glad that S. came too and everyone appreciated his love and support. I did get to see all my cousins (10 of us!) and their kids and spouses plus all my aunts and uncles and other relatives.  I spoke at the funeral, which was very difficult but I thought it was important and I made it through with a choked up voice.

And of course, I got to see my niece Mackenzie.  She is 19 months old and as cute and brilliant as ever (being the non-bias opinion of an aunt you know).  She is speaking in complete sentences (!!!!) and said "I want to go outside."    And I taught her how to make monster sounds (very important). She also learned how to say my name which is really hard to say when you are young. Did  I mention that she is brilliant?

On Wednesday, I came down with the most horrible, dreadful, awful cold virus ever (code name MHDACVE) and was stuck on the couch sick for three days straight.  Thank goodness for BBC America, which has saved my sanity from certain boredom.  I highly recommend watching the shows "Luther" and "The Hour."     I did very little else but complain about how sick I was to the cats.  They sympathized but were unable to make tea or soup so I had to do it myself (S. was out of town for work). 

Today I found out from the pharmacist (where I had to stock up on more cold medicine) that the MHDACVE is going around and it lasts for about a week and a half and is just as horrible, dreadful, and awful for anyone who gets it.  I called my mom and she has it too.  My advice:  stay away from people and wear a haz-mat suit!   

Another Stormy Night in the ATL

Hi everyone!  I'm back from Michigan with lots of catching up to do!!  I am WAY behind in reading blogs and getting posts together and getting photos ready to post and everything else. 


I had a fabulous time with my family.  Little niece Mackenzie is 13 months old and went from crawling to running.  She is always on the go and moving fast.  Faster than the speed of light (and camera-toting aunties). Full of giggles and smiles and babbling.  Love it!!!  Love her so much! 

Here's a quick post because of storms coming (this spring sure is bringing crazy weather!!!).  More Michigan posts coming including completed projects, fabric acquisitions,  maybe a couple more photos of Mackenzie, an Easter cake, and dinosaurs!

Here is one of two bibs that I made Mackenzie while I was up there.  Made from leftover Bliss charm squares and based on pattern in the Summer issue of Quilts & More magazine.  I made the bibs a little longer and wider to keep more of her clothes covered.    



I hope everyone is safe in the Southeast (especially my blog friends in Alabama!) & Midwest tonight.  Big storms coming. Be safe, be prepared, and make sure you have leashes/carriers/food/water/medicine for your pets! 

I am getting a disaster preparedness kit complied since this spring has been a wild one.  I have solar/hand-cranked flashlights & lantern and am working on a design for a bag.  Time to charge up the iPhone and flip to the Weather Channel.

So Long 2010

I can say I am glad 2010 will be heading on its way out.  If I had to sum up the year in one word, I guess it would be formidable.

Work was  is challenging because of the reductions-in-force (a new meaning for the word "riff" this decade. Also used as a verb "you've been riffed"). I figure the remaining staff is all doing 2-3 people's jobs plus new initiatives added monthly.  Another year of no cost-of-living pay raises.  Thanks Gov. for 8 years of no raises remember some of those years were "good" years.  So glad to see you go. Oh I forgot we are all supposed to just be thankful to have a job. 

I did resign from my second job in April after 8 1/2 years at Starbucks.  I really miss the good things about  working there--my fellow co-workers and regular customers--but do not miss the damage to my health, relationships, and well-being.  It took me until August to recover.  I hope I can make it through 2011 without having to go back. We'll see.

On to better things...2010 was another year of being inspired by all the fabulous creative quilt blogs out there. New fabrics and more time to quilt.  I'm really looking forward to sewing my way through 2011!

Everyone (2- and 4-legged) in the house was healthy all year.  Please let this be so in 2011!!

 In March, my niece was born and after a rocky start she is a happy healthy baby that has brought so much joy to my family!!!!   She visited her first quilt shop at 6 weeks old and as you can see, we still drag her to quilt shops.  She loves fabric and seeing all those colors!!      

 My dad taught her to stick out her tongue and blow "raspberries" LOL!

Hope everyone shares the rest of this year with family and friends! 

S. and I will be staying in (we always do) with dinner and wine from Whole Foods and movies from Netflix.  The cats, most likely, will be snoozing like this.

May 2011 bring all of you (and all of us) peace, health, love, and prosperity!

We Interrupt This Blog for a Special Report...

I may have the cutest niece EVER!!!  

Having Christmas with Mackenzie & family so I'll catch up with everyone next week! 

Another Finish and Celebrating October

I LOVE October!  Let's all do a Snoopy Happy Dance for October!  It is my absolute favorite month of the year.  October is the beginning of Autumn in the ATL; fall festivals; my favorite holiday Halloween; time for pumpkins, apples, squash, apple cider, stews, soups, and yummy comfort food; and oh yeah my birthday month!!!  I've been gathering some goodies for a big b-day giveaway later this month (check back or better yet sign up to be a follower if you are interested). Onto my next finish...
Voila! 

This poor quilt was lingering around without its binding for a couple of years(!!) and I finally finished it.  The pattern is by Gundrun (who is hosting a super fun October blog hop).  I can't remember what the real name of the quilt is but I call it "Sleep Deprivation" because I made the quilt while working insane hours at two jobs and the crazy colors and pattern perfectly fit my zombie life at the time.  Gorgeous colors in this Moda line.  My quilt holder was outside mowing the lawn so I thought I'd get photos in daylight so the colors would be true.

Yesterday was Groovy Girl day at Bad Melisa's.  Tons of fun at 8:30AM. Check out Melisa's new fall display as you walk in the store.

The project for this month is the best set of drawstring bags ever. I'll be working on several this month.
 
Melisa also has a great display of Dr. Seuss fabric. I love me some Dr. Seuss!  Especially the Grinch and Max.
 
















After a lengthy visit at Sweet Home, I went to Old Navy to finish up a little goodies box to send to Mackenzie.  I bought a great little bib for her at Target this week and rounded out the outfit with a Halloween shirt and socks at Old Navy. How cute is that shirt with the little black cat????!!!???  I bought some other cute fall outfits (no pink!) on clearance so she'll be stylin' this fall. I love being an aunt :)

Labor Day Weekend Rambles

Warning: Long rambley post....

I have been celebrating my first Labor Day weekend off in eight years. I used to celebrate three-day weekends by being happy to only work one job for three days. This not having to work at all for three days is really great. I did all my errand running, grocery shopping, and housework on Wednesday and Thursday so I could stay home the rest of the weekend.

Let's catch up on the past few days. The new fridge didn't arrive until 6:30PM Wednesday evening. I was the last delivery of the day and I felt really bad for the delivery guys having to deal with my crazy old house--steep granite stairs to the back door, sloping ceiling in the back hall because it is an enclosed rear porch, and galley kitchen with maybe an extra 1/8 of an inch to squeeze in the fridge.

The guys were so nice and professional, I called their supervisor on Thursday to give kudos where kudos were due. Good karma is a good thing.
So here is the new fridge. We have cold and unspoiled food again. I love the fridge except for one thing...
magnets don't stick to stainless steel. Who knew? Not me. So I guess I can't cover the front of this with Mutts comics, postcards, souvenir magnets, and photos of Mackenzie. Oh no! What is an aunt to do?
Cover the side. Here are new photos sent from my mom.

On Thursday, I received the giveaway I won over at Thelma's wonderful blog Cupcakes n' Daisies. Thank you again Thelma!! I can't believe how quickly it arrived all the way from Green Fairy Quilts in Utah. I think there is a fleet of green fairies that zoom all over delivering fabric goodies. If you are as addicted to Moda pre-cuts as I am, go visit the Green Fairy shop.
For the giveaway, I chose a Luna Notte layer cake and Arcadia honeybun.Luna Notte is another winner from Moda. There are some luscious grays in there and I am all about gray fabric.

Saturday was the first meeting of the Groovy Girls club at Sweet Home Quilt Co. I am excited about this new club by Terry Atkinson and even more excited to have another reason to visit Melisa at Sweet Home. The focus of the club is small projects and new techniques.
I was there bright and early (8:30 AM is early for a Saturday) on a gorgeous morning. Melisa had a groovy-themed breakfast table.
Click on the photo for Melisa's cool idea to make flowers from buttons and a table full of projects for neat gift ideas.
During this session, Melisa demo'ed bags and zippers. I've never tried doing zippers but our homework challenge is a bag with zipper so I will tackle this. I love the display of Terry's brightly colored zippers. Wonderful colors you could just look at all day. Melisa lived up to her Bad Melisa nickname so I came home with some patterns to use up some stash.

The rest of the day, I worked on Double Delight (ugh I wish this quilt would hurry up and finish itself!) and watched/listened to marathons of "House" and "Burn Notice". It was so nice out, I turned off the A/C and opened the windows. The cats hung out in the windows and enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air.
Gomez looking sweet
and Gomez and Morpheus artistically posed.

Michigan Report: Part 1

Finally got the photos downloaded and organized from my Michigan trip. So here's a little recap of my visit the first week of July. Most of the trip was spent entertaining Ms. Mackenzie who turned 4 months old and is as cute as she can be!
She loves going places and gets bored rather easily so I called her "miss high maintenance!". She likes to go go go and didn't want to take her naps or go to bed because she might miss something. We kept her so busy and entertained that she slept 11 hours straight after we left. Whew! I was exhausted too!

I also spent lots of quality time with nephew dog Jack who is doing a great job getting used to having Mackenzie as a baby sister. I always bring Jack extra-special dog treats when I visit. He likes pumpkin-flavored organic treats and will "talk" to me with little howls and barks until I get up and get him treats (not that his aunt Gretchen spoils him or anything....).
And we cannot forget the Princess Shiloh, my parents' dog (AKA my adopted half-sister) Shiloh is one of the calmest, most laid back dogs ever. She even likes to sleep late in the AM! (Wish the cats liked to sleep in some days...) Shiloh gets treats too don't worry about that!)

If you are a regular reader of my blog, you know my mom, SIL, and me always go on mini-shop hops around the area (not that we need more fabric but we like to help out the Michigan economy). I didn't do anything to help the MI economy this time though! We went to Mabelena's and I didn't buy a thing. How terrible! (I'm very happy they have a website, twitter, & facebook pages now so y'all can visit them too!)

We also took a day trip to Bay City and went to some of the best antique stores I've been to in a long long time. Everyone else bought stuff; I didn't buy anything. We even found this super fantastic historic building with a quilt store
I LOVE this building! It even has its original display windows. Gorgeous! You can visit Fabric Fair online too. I didn't buy anything here either... I feel like such a bad quilter...

I did find a great linen tablecloth at a yard sale for $3 though. Does that count?

Back from Michigan and Mackenzie's Big Day Out

S. and I went to Michigan for a long weekend (Friday was a furlough day). We left on Thursday and got back to Atlanta last night. I was so excited because I got to meet my niece Mackenzie for the first time in person. I am so happy that my SIL said I could put photos of Mackenzie on my blog because I know all my readers want to see The Cutest Baby Ever.

Here she is!!! 6 weeks old and stylin' in stripes!
Here she is in an outfit I bought for her (note: I do not "do" PINK for babies!).
I thought this outfit looked a little Tim Burton-ish from his Beetlejuice period what with the stripes and all. People who know me and my brother will completely understand. We are big-time Beetlejuice fans from way back. 1988 to be exact.

I also got to play with Mackenzie's big brother Jack. Jack says "I know I'm Aunt Gretchen's favorite because she brought me fancy organic dog biscuits and the baby got none haha! I'm also going to play with her toys when no one is looking hee hee!"

My mom, SIL, and I took Mackenzie on her first big day out....to a quilt store!!!! Yep, Mackenzie visited one of our favorite shops Mabelena (check out their website and you can "friend" them on Facebook too!).
She loved being at the quilt store and looking at all the colors. I guess the batiks put her to sleep though.
But of course, she is a Moda girl at heart! Look at that smile!!!

Anyway, S. and I had a great time visiting with family and playing with Mackenzie and talking about Mackenzie and taking lots of pictures of Mackenzie.

PS: I am not a "baby" person except when it comes to Mackenzie.
PPS: I already miss Jack...
and Mackenzie.