Hello Summer

 

We are three days into summer vacation and I feel like I'm going to have a nervous break down.  We've had a half week of summer camps, dentist appointments for every member of the family,  eye doctor appointments, regular doctor appointments, fencing, physical therapy and I don't even remember what else.  Plus my computer was being repaired this week (now its back and all fixed) so I didn't have that to help me keep things straight.  My mac had a known keyboard problem that apple would fix for free and I finally took it in to be repaired.  Several of the common use keys (R,T,A,O and U were the worst offenders) would double or triple type when I pressed them and it was suuuuper annoying.  Glad it's fixed.

So summer is here...this is a picture of the kids on the last day of school - only a few days ago.  Matthew graduated from middle school.  I guess they never have a graduation so nothing was missed this year.  He is excited to head to high school but Anna is sorry to have him headed to a different school than her.

John walking home from the bus on the last day of school.

Last day Emma!

Emma graduated from kindergarten.  Woohoo!!

A last week of school camping picture she made - with lots of teacher help

Grant got the "mathematician" award in his class.  He loves math and was proud of his award.

We got to get together with Scott's side of the family a few times this past week.  Here are all the grandkids with Ma2 and Pa2.

Cousin buddies!  I liked that they were all wearing white.

Celebrating Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Scott!

And let the summer crafting begin!

Anna made this pillow case - she has a thing for bees these days

She's pretty good at using the machine

Emma told me a few weeks ago that she wants to learn to sew "like Anna."  So we got a few projects to work on.  She was eager to use the sewing machine but she didn't like pressing the pedal with her foot, so she would use one of her hands instead.  Here she is working on a quilt.

Her completed quilt top.  We got this precut unicorn fabric at Michael's and just made a basic square quilt.  Emma did lots of the sewing (with supervision and help from mom).  She needs help getting started but liked guiding the pieces through and pressing the pedal.  More sewing to come.

John likes to do what Emma does, so also wanted to sew a quilt.   He picked some jungle fabric.  Here we are thinking about how the squares should be arranged.

I think we ended up with this.  Again, we are going real simple with this to start.

Emma made a pom pom owl, with Anna's help.  This was from a kit.

And since we are in a quilting mood here, I got around to finishing the top of a quilt for Emma. I have a few things to trim here and then we will sandwich it.  The girls have many crafting ambitions - honestly their ambitions are stressing me out and go far beyond my abilities, but I think we will have lots to keep us busy.  More summer adventures to come...

Completed Okinawa Quilt

Unpacking continues...slowly.  We've sort of run out of space in our house but still have more stuff to unpack.  So we're going through boxes now at a slower pace.  I came across the completed Okinawa quilt today while working in the garage.  Earlier this year I realized I had never posted a picture of the completed Okinawa quilt.  So here it is.  I know, you've probably heard more than you ever wanted to about this quilt.  You can't even see the backing very well here because it is the same color as the rug.  I didn't have a lot of places I could lay this out.  So, sorry about the less than perfect pictures.

Read more about the Okinawa quilt HERE.

Here is my square.  I made 20 of these and exchanged them.

Surfboards on the seawall.

See the real seawall in our Okinawa neighborhood HERE.

You can see the backing I used here (and how its the same color as the carpet).  I spent A LONG TIME trying to figure out what fabric to use to complete this quilt - what colors, what patterns (if any) etc.  I looked at a lot of fabric.  I decided on a red for the border with swirls - the color and pattern remind me of a shisa dog.  And the backing is a taupe beige batik print with fern looking fronds.  In the end I was happy with the way it turned out - it felt very Okinawa to me.

The kids were fascinated with the quilt and crawled all over it, feeling all the different squares and fabrics and asking what each one was.  It was great.  Although this quilt is very familiar to me, I suppose I haven't let the kids see it much.  Grant loved it and wanted to know if he could have it on his bed to sleep with.  I said no.  :(

We started out with 20 people in the quilt exchange, with hopes of making a 5 x 4 squared quilt.  2 people didn't get their squares completed, which I get.  I know life happens.  But I couldn't come up with an acceptable way to assemble this with 18 quilt squares (3x6 looked too long and skinny) so I decided to make two "title squares."  I'm not too crafty so I was afraid they would turn out ugly, but I was happy with the outcome there too.

And I didn't have to make 20 of these. Only two.  Easy.

So there it is.  The beautiful and amazing Okinawa quilt.

Now I don't know what to do with it.  I don't really want the kids to sleep with it, it's so nice and somewhat delicate.  And I don't really want to just stuff it away in a box.  And I don't think I even have anywhere to hang it.  Hmmm...trying to think of a creative solution.  Guess it will go back in a box...for now.

I Spy Quilt

And here is one more quilt!  This is an I Spy Quilt.  I got most of these squares from an I Spy quilt square exchange I did in Colorado.  I selected all the more boyish squares and added some from my stash of leftover fabric.  Then I arranged them in a way I found aesthetically pleasing and sewed them up into a quilt top.  This was all while we lived in Colorado, over three years ago.  I bought the batting and backing and my mom assembled the quilt and finished it.  It looks nice and has nice fuzzy (fat) fleece on the bottom.

The kids had a fun time looking at all the squares and playing on it.  I still have a bunch of more girl themed squares packed away, so maybe someday I'll get around to sewing a quilt with those.

Grant, my rambunctious five year old, wanted to find the square of "beautiful landscape" over and over - that's what he called it.  That made me smile (extra points if you can spot a "beautiful landscape" - on the left side in top picture).  And lots of people were trying to count dinosaurs.

Grant snuggled up in the quilt after a head bonk.  See, the blanket is working already.

BONUS QUILT PHOTO!!

I was trying to tag all my quilt pictures on the blog and realized I never posted a finished picture of my Okinawa memory quilt on the blog.  At least if I did I can't find it.  I posted a picture on Facebook, but not the blog.  And it seems I don't even have a completed picture of the quilt!  Which is just a shame.  Here is the completed quilt top, finished September 2012.  The quilt is now completely finished, with a cream colored patterned fabric as the backing, but I don't have a picture of it finished and the quilt is still in storage.  So here is the lovely quilt top!  I made 20 copies of my square (surfboards on the seawall, third row down, second from right) to commemorate something about Okinawa (this was when I lived there, of course) and then exchanged with 20 other ladies.  I think only 18 ended up being exchanged at the end, so I made two other squares (upper left corner and lower right corner) with "Okinawa" and the year.  The squares everyone made look so nice!

See other pictures of my quilting escapades HERE and HERE.

John's Blanket

John's blanket is finally finished.  I really feel like I dropped the ball on this one.  I guess its just that having more kids means you are busy taking care of them more...and although I have free time I don't always want to spend the little I have working on a blanket.  But for whatever reason I have been way behind on making a blanket for John.  A blanket that was intended to be a baby blanket initially.  Here it is completed.  I bought these precut squares (charm packs of the patterned fabric and the cream fabric).  So I didn't even cut the squares (there were a few I cut).  I had the idea to make a maze blanket.  I thought that would be kind of fun.  Scott volunteered to help me make the actual design of the maze on excel.  So Scott designed it.  I laid out the squares, but my mom actually sewed the quilt top when she visited us in Illinois over a year ago.  When I bought and arranged the fabric John was already 2 1/2 years old.  So I started out way behind.  :)  I brought the quilt top with me thinking I would work on it while we were staying with my mom pending our house closing or whatever.  I didn't realize it would be over a year we were here.  At one point I went and bought the batting and backing for the blanket and then did nothing on the quilt for a long time.  My mom reminded me about it and then she ended up finishing the blanket.  It looks great.  The kids have had a great time with it - driving cars around the maze and its nice and fuzzy on the back.

Thanks Mom for bringing this blanket to fruition.  John is almost 4.  I really should have worked in it sooner.  Emma is 1 1/2 so I should probably get started on hers.  

There are little initials hidden throughout the quilt.

John was excited when he found the letters to spell his name.

So the blanket is a success, thanks to other people, mostly my mom, doing everything.  My mom has helped on all of these.  I think I did the most work on Grant's.  I have much to learn.  :)

See Matthew's baby blanket HERE,

Anna baby blanket HERE,

and Grant's baby blanket HERE.

Grant's Baby Quilt

Grant's baby quilt is finally finished!!  My mom is here and she helped me finish it by tying it and finishing the sides.  Thanks mom!  Grant really loves the quilt and will lay down and snuggle in it.  It even got finished before the new baby came - thanks mostly to the baby being very late, but still.  I'm glad it's done.  Now I can I start thinking about a quilt for the new baby.  See Anna's baby quilt HERE and Matthew's HERE.

Projects

I've made a few easy projects lately and felt very proud of myself, since I don't often get around to stuff like this.  Here is the first one - fleece ponchos for the kids.  I was just going to make one for Anna, but Matthew wanted one too, so I tried to make him a boy one.  The directions I was following called for 3/4 of a yard of fabric but I would have liked a little more than that for Matthew's, maybe a yard.  So his is a little small, but he still likes it.  They wore their ponchos to my doctor appointment the other day and told everyone that asked about them that their mommy "cut them out" for them (this was a "no sew" project).  :)  Here are Matthew and Anna modeling their ponchos.  Matthew is trying to be camouflaged in his.  I got the idea for these HERE.

Another easy project.  I bought this smocked fabric on sale at the fabric store this week.  Anna was very excited about it when we bought it (I also bought a blue Ariel piece of fabric) but less so once I got it finished. She wouldn't try it on for several days and when she did she though it was too loose.  That's why I wanted her to try it on!  She finally agreed to try it on AND let me take a picture (a rarity) as long as she could wear it over her nightgown.  Those were her conditions.  :)  It was a little big, so I might have to take it in a bit, but I still thought she looked cute. It was easy to make too.  Just sew it together and add straps.  My kind of project.  They had fabric like this for grown ups too.  Maybe I'll make one for myself! :)

Here's the dress without the nightgown underneath...or the little girl in it.

And another project that was not as easy, but easy enough for me to handle.  This is the completed quilt top for Grant's baby quilt.  I wasn't too crazy about the design I chose as I was making it, but once it was finished I liked it a lot.  I have green minky fabric for the backing but I'm not quite sure how I'm going to proceed from here.  I have more experience making the quilt top than doing the quilting, backing and binding part.  So hopefully I can figure it out.  I used precuts (a layer cake of the patterned fabric and jelly roll of the white) and it made this come together so fast.  Love it!  Now to finish it.  

Another project I have in the works is an I Spy quilt (see some examples HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE).  I did an I Spy quilt block exchange a while ago and am finally thinking about putting it together.  I didn't like all the quilt blocks I got, at least not for a kids quilt and some were very gender specific, so I'm trying to collect a few more to make a little boy quilt.  These are the squares I have for a boy quilt so far.  I'm not crazy about the random arrangement, so I'm going to explore some different options.  The examples I linked above are more orderly looking I Spy quilts with borders, organized colors, neutrals interspersed etc. so I might do something like that.

The Okinawa Quilt

I got this red fabric to make a border for the front.  I am just laying it out to see how it looks and I like the red.  We were supposed to have 20 squares and ended up with only 18.  I thought, no problem, I would just lay it out in a 3x6 block pattern, but when I actually tried it I didn't like the way it looked.  Too long and skinny.  So now I am back at 4x5 with two empty spots.  I don't know what I'm going to put in that spot.  I'm not that motivated to make new fancy squares.  I have some Japanese and Okinawan fabric that I might use to make a couple quick quilted squares on a muslin square so it will look kind of like the rest but also like an embellishment.  I don't know.  Any ideas?

Here is the red fabric for the border close up.  I decided I wanted something red and this reminded me of a shi shi dog.  :)  Ahh Okinawa memories.  I'll get around to all these projects...eventually.

Okinawa Memory Quilt

I've mentioned before that I've been in a quilting group to make an Okinawa Memory Quilt. We had twenty people who each picked a different Okinawa or Japan inspired theme for their quilt square, and then made twenty squares. Finally, we get together to exchange squares so everyone ends up with one each of the different squares with which you can make a nice memory quilt. I totally forgot to take any pictures at the actual exchange event...the kids were sitting on me and what have you. But here are some pictures of the squares once I got home. Everyone did a really amazing job!! The squares all look really great, I think. A couple people weren't quite done so we only have 18 today, but here they are...mine is the seawall square with surfboards...and if you can figure out which one that is, I will be very happy...

Carp windsocks - koi nobori
On Children's Day in Japan (May 5th) these windsocks are flying all over the place. I'll have to try and get some pictures this year. So beautiful!

Sakura or Cherry Blossoms
In Okinawa these bloom in February...very beautiful to see

Japanese Soda, complete with real pop top
There are soda machines all over the place - like on corners of residential neighborhoods. You are never very far away from a soda machine here.

Banyan tree
Big trees found around Okinawa with distinctive above ground roots and vines.
The perfect place for giant bats to hide (shudder)

I think these decorative balls are called Mari or Temari? It's a folk art thing (I think) and you see them around as decorations.

The beach, with fuzzy sand! :)
No discussion of Okinawa is complete without the beach.

Mt. Fuji
While not on Okinawa, a lot of Americans here travel to the mainland to hike Mt. Fuji. And it is quite the life experience from what I hear. I haven't done it but I hear it takes about 24 hours or something. Definitely memorable.

This is my square - the seawall with surfboards up against it. There are lots of retaining seawalls around Okinawa, including one down the street from our house. A lot of Americans live in the seawall neighborhoods. People surf a lot at the one by our house, so I included some surfboards.

Taiko Drum - a popular instrument in Okinawa.

You will see Taiko drummers and pretty much every Okinawan festival. At Obon the first year we were here we got to watch school age kids doing their Taiko drumming performances as they marched down the street. It's really an art form. There is also a Taiko drum video game (a la guitar hero) which we like.

Three tear symbol - I think it's called Tomoe - and it's the traditional symbol of Okinawa. It's on the flag of the Ryukyu islands. It's used kind of like a crest or coat of arms symbol in Okinawa.

Turtle top tombs - found all over the island right in the middle of neighborhoods. Families in Okinawa have tombs where they keep cremated remains of their departed family members. The tombs are all over the island and built right into the sides of hills some times.

Geckos, very prevalent here - we used to have a house gecko, but I haven't seen him in a while. People like having them around 'cause they eat bugs around the house. And we have bugs here!

Kimonos - traditional women's dress in Japan, probably needs no explanation.

A scuba diver, in the shape of a scuba flag - very cool. Okinawa has great scuba diving. A lot of people get certified while they are here to take advantage of the natural underwater beauty!

Washi boxes - boxes covered in brightly colored washi paper (special Japanese paper). I don't know a lot about these, but I do know there are classes all the time on how to make such boxes. Obviously I have not taken one of these classes. Maybe I should.

Daruma doll
Hollow round Japanese dolls - kind of a good luck charm in Japanese culture or gift of encouragement. They are hollow and weighted on the bottom so they will turn upright again if they are tipped (weebles style).

Japanese Fans!!
Another one that probably requires no explanation.

Kokeshi dolls

Little wooden Japanese dolls that have no arms or legs. Found all over the place in Japan. I know a lot of Americans who have started kokeshi doll collections. There are all different shapes and sizes of them. So Japanese.

Well, those are the quilt squares we have post-exchange. Quite impressive don't you think, and definitely representative of a lot of work by all parties involved. It was great to work on this, and I'm glad I did it and get to have all these other great squares to make a quilt with, but I'm also glad the quilt square production is over. Phew, a lot of work.