Squares

 I finally cut into my 1930's storybook fabric.  I've been collecting it for about a year now, but didn't really know what I wanted to do with it.  I just knew I liked it and wanted to make a quilt out of it.  I finally decided on a simple patchwork style.  So now, I'm cutting squares, lots of squares, about 225 of them.  It's a good way to relax at the end of the day, just stream a movie from Netflix and cut away.  I found these gorgeous quilts from Film in the Fridge's blog so that's what I'm going for.  Here are 3 of her quilts - aren't they lovely?  I especially love her double angled quilting on the purple one.  I'd love to try that - we'll see if I get that ambitious!

Crab Season

Yesterday was one of those gorgeous I can't believe it's the end of September type days. We went to the beach. It was perfect. The tide was out and there were very few people there. My boys were running huge circles around the place and my daughter was delighting in putting her toes in the water and dancing. In my beach wanderings I found a little dead crab. I picked it up thinking I would show my oldest who has had this fascination and fear with crabs since he was small. I carried it up the beach and over to him and his brother at the shore line. He shrieked and ran away. My younger son was a little braver and touched it before screaming and running away. My toddler daughter took one look, said, "mine!" grabbed it and put it in her mouth.

A crab found by my husband by turning over rocks, not the one our daughter tried to eat. We did get it out of her mouth, much to her crying disappointment.

City Life vs. Country Life - Hunting Season

Yesterday, I got to work and one of my colleagues was saying that she hoped she didn't miss it by being on a field trip that morning. Miss What? I wondered. Well, apparently, Moose Season just opened and quite often if someone bags a moose, they will bring it by the school for the kids to see. After work, I picked up my two youngest kids. I had to stop by the store on the way home to get some milk. (The store really is THE store, it's the gas station/pizza place/video store/liquor store/convenience store). As I pulled in, I saw a crowd around a pick up truck and I knew. I said to my 4 year old, "Do you want to see a moose?" "A moose?" "Yep, a dead moose is in that truck honey" "What?" "It's hunting season and that hunter got a moose" He was quite fascinated with the idea of it. And it really is quite something to see. The admiration of the crowd. The pride on the hunter's face. It's all part of living in the country. Someone's eatin' BBQ tonight.

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Hosted by SouleMama

My Commute

The other morning Jonathan had to come into town with me. So I took advantage of it and took a few pictures with my iPhone for you all to see how pretty it is out here.

How to Make Stuffed Letters - O's, A's and all those other tricky letters

A while back, I posted How to Make Stuffed Letters, which has been my most popular post to date. My same frustration in making stuffed letters was also the same as yours - what about the letters with the holes in the middle - they don't turn, it doesn't work. And it doesn't. I don't know if I'm the best person to try to explain how I got it to work as I'm still such an amateur at sewing, but I did indeed figure it out. What I did to get the "O" to work was this: 1: Fold the fabric so that the the pattern is on the inside and there are 2 layers. 2. Pin your letter template to the fabric 3. Cut out the fabric 4. Take off the template. Re-pin your 2 pieces together so that the pattern is on the inside. 5. Sew the outside circle of the O 6. Turn the fabric out and match the centre up (you are now looking at the pattern side) 7. Sew most of the inside circle together, leaving a hole for stuffing 8. Stuff 9. Sew the hole up. Yes, I know this isn't as neat as having both the inside and outsides turned in, but it does work. You can sew pretty close to the edge so that it still looks neat overall. I found this all out the hard way and did a lot of seam ripping and repairing. Since having these up, I've had a lot of positive comments and compliments for it. I hope that explanation helps you out!

this moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.