Peas in a Pod - Join Mama Pea

Really Kinda Random--Mother's Day Edition

2013-05-16T07:01:15-04:00

Welcome to Really Random Thursday! Shall we just get right down to it?

Well, alrighty then!

The other day on facebook, someone posted a link to this video, in which men are strapped up to a machine that simulates birthing contractions women feel. It's pretty funny. As you might suspect, the men are practically crying when it's over!

Speaking of giving birth.... Remember that bird's nest inside my brother and SIL's wreath on the front door? One birdie hatched....

And then there were more. They won't win any beauty contests, will they? But they are kinda cute.

Speaking of birds.....I love goldfinches. When I was at my BIL's house over Mother's Day, I saw these finches on his feeder. They were everywhere. I sure wished I had brought my telefoto lens with me!

Speaking of Mother's Day. Remember when I said my Mother's Day was "interesting?" Well, I wanted to stay home and go to Scrappy Bee with Caroll. But Papa Pea wanted to go to Wisconsin to cut wood with his brothers. We had already agreed that he would go that weekend when we realized it was Mother's Day. Oops. So, I went with him. His brother and girlfriend live on about 120 acres of farm and woodland. A few months ago, Papa Pea and his brothers had cut down some hardwood trees for making stuff....walnut, hickory, oak, and cherry.

It was time to cut it up into boards for building purposes. They hired a guy to come out there with a Wood Miser and slice up the logs. When I arrived to take some photos, they had accomplished this.

Although a different wood pile, it all started like this.

The Wood Miser was amazing. The guys would put a log on the arms of the thing. The arms would go up and roll the log onto the bed.

The guy would then saw off layers of the log until he got down to the hardwood.

Flip it over and repeat. Do this on all four sides.

Then, it would be a big square. And he would cut planks off it. It smelled good.

Here is a particularly large log.

Here is one of the first planks off that large piece. (This is one of my BILs.) This is some of the walnut.

Sometimes, they'd have to adjust the position of the log on the bed. The logs were very heavy, as you might buess. These are two of my BILs. The guys were really tired at the end of each day. The lifted a lot of wood and boards. Papa Pea estimates he lifted over 5,000 lbs. We have a lot of really nice wood now.

The boys were all in heaven playing with their power tools. Here, Papa Pea helps drag one of the logs down into position so they can roll it down this little hill and onto the cradle arms of the Wood Miser.

Sweet Pea sat and watched from the four wheeler a safe distance away. She had fun baby sitting Wolfie, my BIL's dog.

Sometimes she even got to go for a ride. Did I mention it was really cold last weekend? Really cold.

Speaking of going for rides, Sweet Pea begged her uncle to have a ride on one of the horses. He was kind enough to abide, even though I know he was bone tired. This is Gracie, one of his good horses.

All saddled up. This is one really happy little girl!

I thought this was a precious sight. BIL, leading Sweet Pea down the road, with Wolfie and Tori following behind. When Sweet Pea came back, she said, "Mom! I'm back from my magnificent horse ride!" It was a thrill for her. She loves visiting her uncle, because she loves his dogs, she loves his horses (and she loves him and his girlfriend)....It's kind of like a menagerie at his house.

He's got goats and long horned steers, too. They all need to be fed. Sweet Pea loves helping. She was up at 5:30 am when we were there, wondering when BIL would be up so she could help him with chores. :-)

As far as a Mother's Day gift, Sweet Pea and Papa Pea went very traditional and got me a new helmet for my scooter. And I love it! Makes my scooter riding much more pleasurable for me. (My other helmet catches the wind too much, and is always pulling my head everywhere. This is much more comfortable for me!)

That's a rundown of the weekend, to some extent. On Saturday, when the boys were cutting wood, Sweet Pea and I drove up to see SisLH. She gave me a crochet lesson, which I'll tell you about tomorrow. Then, we took MIL and FIL out for dinner, and drove back to BIL's house. On Sunday, the boys cut more wood, we observed, Sweet Pea went for a horse ride, and then we came home.

All in all, it was not a bad Mother's Day. Probably not a very typical one, but it was peaceful, enjoyable, and spent with family.

Linking up with Cindy, at Live a Colorful Life for Really Random Thursday. Hope you enjoyed. Check out her blog for more lovely randomness.

Until next time,

Rug Hooking--Cardinal Rug

2013-05-15T15:19:32-04:00

Feeling slightly better today. Still not great. I think I have developed allergies in my old age. As one who has never really had problems with allergies before, I'm not dealing with it well. I don't like it. I'm having extra sympathy for those of you who have suffered this all your life. My head feels like it's in a fog (buzzing), sneezing, sore throat, runny nose....

To make matters worse, I went back to the eye doctor today, and she dilated my eyes. Misery. I hate that. And my optometrist expressed concerns that my pupils might be "stuck," because they didn't dilate as much as they should have. I'm watching them carefully to see if they go back to normal. It's been 4 hours, and they still seem to be fairly big.

I keep forgetting to mention that I turned on the word verification again for awhile. Sorry. I had something like 200 spams in one day, and then again the next day. A real pain. So, I turned it on again for a little bit. Sadly, I still had two more spams today! I'll try taking it off again in a bit, okay? Bear with me until then?

Many of you asked me to see the progress on my rug hooking after my first class. Here is how far I got in class. (The long pieces you see will get trimmed off when there is more wool around those edges.) Not bad! You can tell I need to get better at my evenness of loops. But I'm okay with it for a first try!

Yestereday, when I wasn't feeling so well, I did get it out, sat on the back deck, and did some more work on it. It was really very pleasant. You can see my hook in this photo. I love how the wood handle has that knot on it.

After an hour or so, here is what I had added to it.

I left the little wool trimmings on our deck railing for the birds. Thought they might like it. They are probably all done with their nests right now, anyway. Some are gone today, some are still out there.

I got it out last night and worked some more. Here is how far I have gotten. I need to finish the second ring of red. (Maybe you can see that the top part is not finished yet.) Then, it's just filling in the background.

Sweet Pea was watching me do this. I figured she'd say, "Oh! Can I help?" But here is how the conversation went:

Sweet Pea: What's that?!

Mama Pea: A rug I'm making.

SP: How did you learn to do that?

MP: I took a class.

SP: That's really neat. Can I touch it?

MP: Of course!

SP: That feels neat! I think that bird is so beautiful, Mom! I wish I could have it when you're done.

MP: Your wish is my command. It's yours when I'm done.

SP. Really?! Do you think you could cut off all that extra round the circle when you're done?

MP: Yes, when I'm all done, I'll cut that off, flip it to the back, and sew it down. I'll have to take another class to learn how to do that.

SP: Cool. (Pause) Do you think they have any smaller kits for kids so I can try?

MP: I thought you'd want to try. The lady who taught me said she can help us get some more of this linen fabric so you can try.

SP: Yay! I can't wait.

I may get her a small piece to practice on. I remember doing latch hooking when I was younger. I might consider starting her on that. But this is pretty easy. I think she could do it. I might even let her try on the extra background outside the circle to see how it goes.

Gene Shepherd is a renowned rug hooker, I've learned. I was reading his blog the other day, and I saw him talking about children attending "hook ins" with the adult women. So, it's not inconceivable that she'd be able to do this and enjoy it. We'll see!

Hope your day is going well!

Until next time,

May Meeting of Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild

2013-05-14T10:22:22-04:00

I'm not feeling well today. :-( Don't know if it's allergies of some sort or a cold. Sore throat, sneezing, head achy.... Not what I need the week before our big national conference, where I am on two panel discussions and giving an invited talk! Argh! Staying in and resting today.

Just a short post to say I posted information about the May meeting of the Great Lakes Modern Quilt guild HERE. So, hop on over and check it out, if you are interested. Lots of important stuff this month.

Hope to be back tomorrow with more quilty fun. Sorry.

Until next time,

Mother's Day Running Stitch Scarf--Pattern Review

2013-05-13T10:03:30-04:00

I hope all the mothers out there had a lovely Mother's Day! Mine was an interesting one...I'll tell you more about that on Really Random Thursday. Today, I'd like to share what I made for my mom for Mother's Day. (Click on any of the photos in this post to make them larger.)

I made her this linen scarf, with a bunch of different colors of peach floss. (Yes, I used DMC despite my previous experience, because I had already purchased it prior to my last experience. So, Mom, be careful washing it!) The "fringe" on the scarf is the beautiful selvedge on this fabric. I am happy with how it turned out.

Here is a more full view of it. The morning sun was pretty bright, so you can barely see the hand stitching on it in this shot, but this shot does give you a feel for the size of the scarf. The half-way point is at the top of the branch. It's about 17" wide and 80" long. It's a really nice size for a shawl or scarf.

I used a kit and a tutorial from The Purl Bee, and you can find the tutorial right here. This is not difficult to make at all, though it did take a little time. There is one machine-sewn seam in the entire thing. The rest is all hand sewn. So, it takes a little time. But that was okay with me. You know, one thing I enjoy about making hand-made gifts for people is that while I am working on them, I am reflecting on that person, fun times we've had together, etc. So, I enjoyed having some quiet time to reflect on my mother and how lucky I am that she's my mom.

The design is made by a series of lines that are running stitches. So, this would be a great beginner embroidery project. Very easy. And all the knots on the ends are hidden in the side hems, which you do last. The pattern even provides instructions for how to vary your colors on up the way. I modified the color scheme from the pattern so that the colors graduate from dark to light as they progress up the scarf.

I was having a fun photo shoot with the scarf, because we finally had a summy morning. Again, the fringe is super easy to do, because it's already tehre as part of the selvedge. To make the base of the scarf, all I had to do was tear a yard of fabric in half, from selvedge to selvedge and seam it together.

Here is the seam where you sew the selvedges together. I'm not sure what you would call this seam. It's almost like a flat-felled (sp?) seam that you have on jeans. It's nearly invisible, and there are no raw edges on either side. It's a beautiful way to join two pieces of fabric together when you want both sides to look equally good.

I liked this photo with the shadows of the tree branches on the scarf. :-) This linen was absolutely beautiful to work with. It was heavier than the linen I had used for my Urban Nine Patch quilt. I found myself wishing I had found and used this in that quilt instead of what I used. I think I may need to order some of this yardage just to have in my stash. I really love the hand and drape of it. It is Essex Yarn Dyed Linen. The color I used is Flax. Yummy.

Purl Bee had kits available, but I see they are currently sold out. At the time of this writing, their website does say they are getting more, and there is a link where you can request to be notified when more are in. The kits came in this peach and another with blue thread. However, you could easily go get the supplies yourself and use the tutorial to complete this project.

The tutorial is well written, with good photos to help you along the way. Very recommended project, kit, and tutorial. As I said before, I would put this at a beginner/easy project.

I love how it turned out, and I hope my mom enjoys it.

Until next time,

"Hooking" at The Hen House

2013-05-10T08:11:26-04:00

I had an absolutely wonderful time yesterday learning to hook wool rugs at The Hen House. Today, I'd like to tell you about my lesson and show you around the store more. Last time I as there, I missed half the shop, because I never even walked back to the classroom! Shame on me!

Nancy began our lesson by having a discussion about frames and how to attach our linen to the frame. She has the most beautiful wooden frame. Oh, is it gorgeous! She's a woman after my own heart. She loves good, high quality, beautiful tools!

I am all set up and ready to hook!

Nancy showed us how to pull the strips of wool up from under the linen. We learned how to start and stop and how high to make the loops. We learned about cutting wool strips and all the different widths you can use. We had a discussion about wools and high vs. low quality wools. It was a ton of fun.

Especially fun for me was that I got to meet Sue of Simply Pieceful Quilting. She came to the lesson, too! I've been reading Sue's blog for a few years now, and we've had a lot of email communication. It was so nice to meet her in person! I had a gret time with her, and it's always more fun to learn together!

Here is the cute classroom space we were working in. Our stuff is all over the table. I loved all the different antique chairs that were at the tables, and there was so much to look at in the classroom!

From my seat, I got to look at all the basket-making supplies. How fun!

And next to those (on the right) were vintage, hand crank sewing machines (Nancy sells them), along with some fun quilts.

To the left of the basket-making supplies were all these finished baskets. I love baskets. They are containers after all, and you know I have a fetish for containers!

If I looked to the right from where I was sitting in class, I could see the sale wall. Lots of goodies in there!

Closer to me on my right was this vintage stove, where the "Hot Sales" were. How cute is that? I love attention to detail like this.

On the back wall, to the right of the vintage sewing machines is this rug that Nancy hooked. Isn't it fantastic? I love it. This is one reason I wanted to learn to rug hook. I want to make one of the primitive pumpkin men rugs for Halloween. (There is another vintage sewing machine below this rug. I meant to get it in the photo, but blew it when taking the photo.) You can see the light from the back door coming in on the right-hand side of this photo. It was such a beautiful day, we got to have the door open. It was so nice!

On the way out the back door, there are some more fun Halloween quilts.

I especially liked this one. I complimented Nancy on it, and she told me it was a quilt she had designed for one of the local shop hops. I love it. I meant to get this pattern and forgot. I need to remember this next time I go there!

Going back out to the front of the store, I found this cabinet full of thread. I had completely missed this last time I was there! What an excellent assortment. And Nancy carries Aurifil thread, which you know I love.

And this might be a TMI, but even the bathroom is adorable! Everything in it is so in keeping with the shop.

Here's the view while you're doing your business. LOL.

Nancy showed us her progress on her hexie table topper. I think it is just wonderful! I am looking forward to seeing it finished.

I also saw this little wall hanging on the way out. Nancy designed it, with monthly little quilts you can make and change out, using the little clothespins. So cute!

I forgot to take a photo of my rug to show you my progress. I guess I'll do that in a future post. But I had a wonderful time. I learned a lot. Nancy is an excellent teacher. I appreciate it so much that she was willing to arrange this class to meet MY schedule! When I finish my rug, I'll go back for another lesson on how to bind and finish the rug. That will also be fun. I hope Sue can come then, too!

And Elise, who also works in the store, is just the sweetest, most wonderful thing. I really enjoy seeing her in the shop when I come in. What a combo these two women are!

I have to say, I'm feeling pretty bad it takes me over an hour to get to this shop. I really love it. It's probably a good thing. If it were closer, I'd be in there all too often! ;-) Nancy does have an online retail business, too. So, if you see something you want to peruse, you can see her website here.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. It's a rainy one here.

And Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there!

Until next time,