Thursday, October 27, 2016

Really Random Thursday, 10/27/16

Mark and I have been back from vacation for 2 1/2 weeks now. Last week I thought there was nothing random to post about, so I mostly posted sewing projects I'm working on.

I have such a short memory. So let's go back a couple of weeks, to right after we returned from Panama.

Our grandson, Gabe, turned 5 while we were gone, and we missed his party. So Mark and I picked him up from school one day and took him to Chuck E. Cheese. Because it was 1:30 in the afternoon, on a weekday, we practically had the whole place to ourselves. The pizza was actually pretty tasty. We especially liked their dessert pizza, which tasted like a cinnamon roll.

He could play all the games without having to wait in line, as there were only two other kids there.


He even got special attention from Chuck E. Cheese himself.
The Big Fresno Fair was already in progress when we returned from our trip. We hadn't gone for a couple of years, so we chose to go on the night when Blood Sweat and Tears, and Three Dog Night had a joint concert. Do you remember either of those groups? Blood Sweat and Tears was the first group Mark ever saw in a live concert, back in college.
Blood Sweat and Tears, with their new lead singer Bo Bice, who was runner-up to Carrie Underwood on American Idol

We didn't buy tickets ahead of time, so even though we couldn't get into the open-air concert itself, we figured we could still enjoy them by standing right outside the venue.Then we happened to run into a young couple from church. After chatting for a few minutes, we said we were at the fair mainly for the concert. And they then mentioned that someone had given them free tickets, but they had never even heard of either group. Figures....both groups were from back in the late '60s and early '70s. They handed us their tickets, which turned out to be row 16, center stage. And it was the most awesome concert, on a perfect night in fall.
Three Dog Night
Charlotte celebrated her 10th birthday shortly before we left for Panama, but she had dinner with friends, and there wasn't a time for us to celebrate with her before we left on vacation. So this past Sunday after church, we took her out for lunch to Red Robin. They had some fun restaurant decorations:

Lego burger and fries
Rubik's Cube pac-men

For her present, we are going to paint her room a different color, so after lunch we went to Lowe's and grabbed a bunch of paint chips. She is leaning toward some shade of purple or aqua. I can't wait to see what she decides. I also can't believe she is growing up way too so fast. 
Our roses are about done blooming. 
I was able to pick one final bouquet.
We had four trees removed from our backyard this week and it looks so bare. After some fence repair, we will plant some kind of shrubs back there.
As I've been working on pattern writing for a class I'm teaching at the end of November, My Swedish Ex, and struggling with the fabric requirement/math portion of pattern writing, this is exactly how I feel.
But I'm not going to complain....
Have a lovely weekend.

Monday, October 24, 2016

The Name Game (The Pretty in Pink Special Edition): Pink Suede Shoe

I've been waiting for this edition for a long time, so I'm very excited to have the colorful person behind Pink Suede Shoe here today.
I first stumbled across Erika's blog about four years ago and became an instant fan. While she no longer writes her blog (check it out anyway because there are some great tutorials there), her instagram feed is full of the most beautiful pictures. If you aren't already following her, run over there right now (@pinksuedeshoe)!!

She loves color (especially PINK) and donuts! Her Saturday morning pictures of donuts always make me SO hungry.
And Erika sent me lots of pictures to share. So let's get started.

How did you choose the name, Pink Suede Shoe?
Well, when my daughter was about 6 months old I was just coming out of the new mom funk. I wanted something that I could do to keep me from turning into a person I didn't recognize. I felt like being a mom was taking over my whole personality, and I felt like I was losing myself. I needed something, ANYTHING, to remind me of who I am, what I love, and what I am capable of outside of my role as a mother. I decided to start a blog.  It was National Pink Day, June 23, 2009. My sister and I were throwing around ideas and checking url's to see what was available. I knew I wanted it to have pink in there somewhere, and she came up with pinksuedeshoe. I bought the URL that day and started my blog. 

For a few years I had a new blog post everyday, but it has been nearly 4 years since I updated my blog at all. Instagram killed it. I'm ok with that. I like the IG format of short captions with photos. I've been on IG for over 5 years and it's a great outlet for me to share what I am working on without spending too much time writing posts, or feeling the pressure to keep up with the  demands that blogging and reading blogs can bring. 

Were there any other names you considered, and if so, can you share them with us?

I don't remember any other specific names I had considered at the time. I've considered changing my IG name several times, but never found the perfect one that was available both as a URL and an Instagram account. Since I don't use my real name ever on the internet, it's been tricky to try and find something that represents me, is unique, and of course is available in the format I want. Some of the names that have been on that list are MakeItPink, PinkOrPie and MyFriendsCallMePink. But for one reason or another I have never made the switch. 

Now that you are known as Pink Suede Shoe, are you happy with it, or do you wish you could change it to something else?

For 7 years I've had the name pinksuedeshoe. And I'm mostly happy with it. It could of course change at anytime. I am not in love with it, but it's a good place holder until I find another name. I have a new project in the works, and if all goes as planned I could have a new name and website and Instagram before the end of the year. Of course, I have said that for a lot of years. But hey, maybe this is the one! 


NOTE: Since this post was originally written, Erika has a new venture called Sew State University, with website and patterns coming soon. Also, they have some great t-shirts available already. You can get more information at @sewstateuniversity.

Thanks for playing along this week, Erika!

Friday, October 21, 2016

Friday Finish

Last week I attended a two-day workshop at my favorite local quilt shop, Authorized Vac and Sew. The instructors were Latifah Saafir, co-founder of the Modern Quilt Guild, and Jenn Rossotti, who lives about 30 minutes away from me.

I had just returned from being on vacation for two weeks, and the thought of trying to gather supplies and choose fabrics for the projects seemed a bit overwhelming. And then I got a reminder call from the store--the only thing I needed to bring was something to snip threads. What??

In addition, it included lunch and snacks.

My first session was with Jenn, who taught "quilt as you go" hexies using the Accuquilt. If you follow Jenn on Instagram (and you should, @jennrossotti), you have probably seen both of these. I love the method, which involves cutting a smaller hexie and same-sized piece of batting, glue basting them together, then centering them on a larger hexie, folding over the excess and stitching. Then you can either sew your hexies together by hand or on the machine using a specialty stitch. Jenn had lots of great hints. I'm waiting for the arrival of Alison Glass's latest line because I think these would look amazing in something BRIGHT!

The next day I was in Latifah's class.
We each had a machine that did machine embroidery, and for the first hour we watched as the machine did all the work.
We could choose one of three words for our pillow: love, peace or hope.

We each had a little kit of Latifah's newest fabric line called Grafic, which is based on urban images. It's a very cool fabric line and I might have done a little shopping later in the afternoon and purchased a fat quarter set of the entire line.

After the embroidery was done, we made a strip of flying geese, sewed the top together and did organic grid quilting. I love the way it turned out.

Latifah even autographed the back of the pillow.
It was lots of fun. And I finished something!
I'm looking forward to more events like this at AVS. They are expanding their store and it's going to be very bright and modern. This is what you will see when you step inside.
I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts, TGIFF, Fort Worth Fabric Studio and Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Have a lovely weekend.

Thursday, October 20, 2016

Really Random Thursday, 10/20/16

After a post-heavy week last week, I really have hardly anything.

This is what I did on the ship when I had spare time, little EPP blocks from the Quatro Colour quilt by Sue Daley. They are cute. And fast.





More work on my New Hexagon quilt by Katja Marek. I had pre-prepped enough fabric for three complete rosettes. I did the center and one ring around the center. Of one rosette. Silly me. I keep forgetting how long they take. But oh so worth it!
We did very little souvenir shopping during the two weeks. My first purchase was this cute (orange!) mug for Costa Rica for a whopping $3.
And unexpectedly, we came across two Hard Rock Cafes. So two more additions to what will undoubtedly be the most expensive t-shirt quilt ever.
That's all I have for this week's edition.

Life seems to have conspired to keep me out of my sewing room for the last six weeks. But I do have a finish to share tomorrow, so I hope you come back for that.