that which we call a woobie

by any other name would feel as soft...

a woobie is an object that is used for its comforting characteristics ... this is Super Man and his woobie...

where's the baby?!? THERE he is!!!

and here he is, taking it for a stroll...

 

hey!!! how did you get over here?!?

Super Man is a little son/grandson/nephew/brother of Bronco fans, so his woobie is made from Bronco fleece ... the little ribbon tabs are triple stitched for safety ... he uses his woobie to play peekaboo and fetch and snuggle...

Isabelle of In This Life wouldn't call it a woobie ... i dunno what it would be called in Scotland but we should know in a few days... 

in Sundayville we call a crocheted or knitted blanket an afghan, but Isabelle would call it a shawl ... and a crib is called a cot ... and a diaper is a nappy ... a cookie is a biscuit ... and a biscuit is a scone ... i think that dessert is a pudding, but is not necessarily smooth and creamy ... a baked potato is a baked potato - but i dunno if Isabelle would call one "loaded" if it came with butter/bacon/sour cream/cheese/chives ... nine-ish is the back of nine  ... when something will happen in a fortnight, we call it two weeks ... and we say "okay" instead of fine ... unless we are talking about something that is fine in the finer sense of the word - then we say finer than frog fur...

 I understand that you little guys start out with your woobies and you think they're great ... and they are. They are terrific. But pretty soon a woobie isn't enough. You're out on the street trying to score an electric blanket, or maybe a quilt. And the next thing you know, you're strung out on bedspreads, Ken. That's serious.

Jack Butler from the movie  Mr. Mom

how's your aspen?!?

about those leaves...

my original thought was to make the leaves as black silhouettes, with cream fabric for the background ... so ... half black and half cream ... but Michael Myson's quilt was way too light for me with 50% cream and i ended up adding those darker borders... 

what to do? what to do? what to do?

i decided on gold leaves with a grey background ... which, of course, meant that the leaves HAD to be aspen leaves, right?!? 
the colorado rockies are KNOWN for their aspen gold!

i couldn't find a pattern for paper-pieced aspen leaves... 
i already knew that from when i had to draft leaves for Awesome! 
but i wasted a few hours searching the Net anyway...

and then i took out the graph paper and started drafting my OWN 5 inch finished aspen leaf... 

well... 

that was the plan, anyway... 

it took three attempts, but i finally managed a leaf that i can live with...

destined for trash ... destined for the orphan blocks bin ... destined for greatness - bwah ha ha!!!

the first one was very, very wonky ... the second one was okay, but had no room for error ... so i copied the second pattern at 105% and tried again for the third leaf ... it is pretty much what i was looking for...

this is the linen tea towel...

1978 ... it was a very good year

the plan is to surround the towel which is only 11" x 22" with some skinny borders, and then add a border of 5 inch aspen leaves... 

followed by a couple more little borders of some kind

and then some 7 inch aspen leaves... 

the 7 inch leaf pattern was much easier to draft because i'd already made the mistakes on the 5 inch leaves ... and i decided to test it with fabric from the Old School Saturday Sampler...

first try - very, very close call

it is a 9 inch finished block with the added borders ... but the leaf is just barely 7 inches - so this one will have to be copied at 105% too cuz i am NOT drawing it out again...

it snowed like a sonuvagun last saturday and we didn't make it to our monthly meeting for the Old School Saturday Sampler BOM ... which is okay cuz i wasn't gonna make their blocks whatever they might be anyway ... so i was able to test the pattern and complete a BOM block at the same time - woo hoo!!! 
  sometimes being snowed in is a good thing...

today the sky is wild and billowy ... we went to The Quilt Store to celebrate their birthday and spent a bunch of money we don't have ... i should be piecing little aspen leaves but i think i'll just take some ibuprofen and take a nap instead cuz i have been feeling puny all week...

onesie two

today is Super Man's 8 month birthday!!!

 to celebrate 

here's another picture of my World's 

cutest baby boy...

who loves you, baby?!?

we were playing pattycake ... he can play pattycake by himself ... but he loves me enough to humor me...

good grief, i love that little boy!!!

Nonnas are moms with lots of frosting.

author unknown

A grandmother is a babysitter who watches the kids instead of the television.

author unknown

The reason that grandchildren and grandparents get along so well is that they have a common enemy.

Sam Levenson

bitter beer

Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

Benjamin Franklin

i can't say that i actually agree with Ben on that one ... i don't like beer ... maybe cuz it looks the same going down as it does coming back out, and there's just something wrong about that... 

anywho... 

i actually accomplished something in a timely manner...

holy cow - how did this thing get so doggone big?!? it was SUPPOSED to be a LAP-SIZED throw!!!

it's a flimsy!!! and ready to be packed up and sent off for quilting... 

and now i can start on the next idea that just won't get itself out of my head ... it involves another linen tea towel that is actually a calendar - whodathunk?!? and paper-pieced shudder leaves...

yeah ... uh huh ... mmhmmm

paper-pieced shudder leaves...

we'll just see about that...

snack attack

i have been collecting food fabric for a loooooong time ... and i've always wanted to actually use some of it in a quilt instead of just feeding my fabric addiction ... but i was never inspired enough by a pattern to actually cut into any of it...

i was surfing blogs a few weeks ago and read that Sio at Scraps and Threadtales was distracted by a challenge using linen tea towels as a center medallion...

oooo!!! linen tea towels!!! 

something of which i have absolutely not even one

a medallion quilt!!!

something i have not even one clue of how to make

and of course i went looking for the blog that presented the challenge ... and tripped over it on Mama Spark's blog list ... 15 minutes play

and i thought

hmmm...

and then i spent the better part of an evening or two ... or five searching the Internet for linen tea towels ... there are a LOT out there, lemmetellya ... and it was impossible to decide on just one... 

so i decided to narrow the search by looking for linen tea towels that are also calendars...

specifically calendars for the years my children were born... 

yeah... 

cuz i don't have enough quilt ideas running around inside my head

 and committed to graphite and paper

 and scribbled with crayons on grocery receipts

 anywho, while stumbling around looking for a calendar dated 1982, i found one that said 

Shields Tavern

it was NOT dated 1982 

it was weird colors

and it was not at all what i had decided on in my head

but it DID say Shields... 

and so i bid on it...

and won

and it came in the mail

and when i opened the package i KNEW...

yep...

this is gonna be perfect for Michael Myson whose surname is actually Shields in real life

and then i put it away for a couple of days because i had not one single clue of what i could possibly do with those colors that was gonna be something that i thought he would want

mull ... mull ... mull

taverns have food and drink ... i have food fabric 

there's a black and white checkerboard on the towel ... the food fabric has black backgrounds 

Mike loves beer ... i know i can find beer fabric

okay ... maybe a checkerboard of food surrounding the tea towel ... so i took out the towel and found some fabrics for inner borders to stabilize it a bit ... and then i gulped down some air and cut into the food fabric... 

gulp!!!

 cut cut cut

sew sew sew

press press press

i'm thinking that it is kinda cool!!!

i got this far when i realized that just 14 different foods was not gonna be enough ... so another seven fat quarters are on their way ... nachos and goldfish crackers and pizza bagels and corn dogs and onion rings and buffalo wings and waffles...

i'm hungry...

man of steal

my heart has been stolen by my own personal Super Man

  here are some gratuitous pictures of the little thief guy...

this what he looked like a few months ago...

don't worry, Lois!!! i'm coming for you!!!

 a couple of weeks ago i was changing his diaper and all i could read on his onesie was "ucke" ... he modeled the rest of it for me...

makes you wonder which one of the uncles decided that onesie was appropriate reading material for a baby or a nonna, huh?!?

LuLu loves to hold him ... but that makes Auntia and me very, very nervous...

see Auntia's arm - ready to catch the bouncing baby boy?!?

and one final picture of his bald little head...

not all guys are willing to share their binkies!

he is the sweetest baby boy in my World!!!

wind power

back to the Old School Saturday Sampler BOM ... this month's assignment is pinwheel blocks

simple enough, huh?!?

but...

yes, there IS always a but

the pattern calls for two pinwheel blocks ... each made with four HSTs that finish at 4.5 inches... 

and (here's the but) that would have left no room for the fairies...

so... 

i made two modified Clay's Choice blocks...

one little fairy is giving her pinwheel a twirl ... and the other little fairy is huffing and puffing for all she's worth

 here they are with last month's block...

not at all like the pattern ... but not too shabby

and here is a picture of some of the other BOMers' blocks for last month...

there are a few other rebels in the group ... do you see Auntia's dog house up there?!?

and now i'm gonna go put on a pot of water to cook some pasta... 

i shouldn't take too much credit for all its shininess - it's a self-cleaning oven ... but i DO hafta pay the electric bill

cuz there's no way i'm gonna mess up that sparkling clean oven...