Sunday, December 31, 2017

Sunday Quilt Inspiration: S T A I R S

Are you wondering why stairs today, the last Sunday of 2017 and on the brink of a new year? Well, I had this idea that we'd all be going up in some way in the new year. May as well be positive, right? So, to go up, we need stairs. (Assuming you're a mere mortal, not able to fly.) So stairs. 2018. Stairs.

http://www.patrickjouin.com/en/projects/jouin-manku/1279-brasserie-les-haras.html

double stairway13 Stair Design Ideas For Small Spaces | A ribbon staircase is a great idea for a small space because it’s more vertical than a traditional staircase, it still has wide treads, and it creates a unique focal point in your home.

Get inspired by this vintage decor ideas! #vintagedecor #vintageindustrialstyle #vintagehomeideas http://vintageindustrialstyle.com

Fotografía escalera en palacio abandonado Pati Makowska en 500px

Staircase in the Bristol Palace HotelNamba Parks (なんばパークス Nanba Pākusu) is an office and shopping complex located in Namba-naka Nichome, Naniwa-ku, Osaka, Japan, the south of Namba Station on Nankai Railway. #nambaparks #japanphotography #osakaphoto It consists of a high office building called Parks Tower and a 120-tenant shopping mall with rooftop garden. Namba Parks was developed by Jon Jerde of The Jerde Partnership in the footprint of the since closed Osaka Stadium.

Santiago de Compostela, Spain Triple Stairs by RicardoBevilaqua

Teal stairs wish i had some stairs to paint Too bad we just put new carpet on our stairs! I'm in love.Stunning Designs of Staircases (10 Pics) - Part 1, Queen Victoria Building, Sydney.

I happened across these rugs and thought you'd appreciate them. I really like both.
Santa Fe Geometric Chunky Woven Hemp Rug: 2 Colors Natural woven hemp with chunky texture is woven into a classic geometric design taking inspiration from Pueblo Americans and stairstep pattern quilts. Available in Mushroom Gray

Francisco Rug - Stairstep

But there are quilts in stair step designs also. Here are some of my favorites, but before you argue that one or two are really stair step, I challenge to think of the many designs in which stairs are built.
Blue Hawaii Pattern Download

Karen Griska Quilts: Rail Fence Quilt rom StairStep Quilts pattern.  I own it.  now sew it.

Reader’s Version: Stair Steps

Stairstep Quilts Pattern Book, another variation. Pattern available at etsy.com/shop/karengriskaquilts.

Stairstep Squares Quilt

'Zigzag' quilt with three rectangles per square, (one light and one dark in each single colour and one white.)

Harvest Cabins pattern on Craftsy.com  Nice combination of traditional blocks and applique.

I love the look of Flying Geese Quilts and here are 15 inspiration projects to get you making a flying geese quilt of your own!

Ripple – The Quilter's BazaarQuilt Pattern - Jaybird Quilts - Radio Way

modern simple quilts - Google Search


Friday, December 29, 2017

A Quick Recap of 2017

AHIQWhile reading some of my favorite blogs, I naturally stopped over at Kaja's Sew Slowly and Ann's Fret Not Yourself where I was reminded that it's time for AHIQ. I shared a post to Kaja and Ann's linky party since the last two things I created are both improv pieces. 



Kaja posted a recap of her quilting for the year, and I thought it such a good idea that I decided to do something like it. 2017 must have been my year of small things. I made ten quilts total: almost all are small. The few larger ones are AmandaJean's QAL and a couple of tee shirt quilts for customers. 



It almost seems that I did more sewing than quilting. I made shorts for Rory's girls, a dress for myself, some quilted buckets, purses and bags, lots of quilted pillow covers, and several pieces of quilted art. I seem to be moving into the realm of art quilting with absolute abandon: I'm making what I like. I have now five pieces that are complete. Today I started a new one. This one will be painted like the cotton pieces. In fact, I may go back to cotton one more time. It's so much fun painting something close to my heart. 


48203But I also want to capture some of the sights we saw on our travels. Nebraska haunts me. Reading Willa Cather like a madwoman this year probably adds to that sense of wonder.
The Professor's House is my fifth book by Cather, though I didn't read them all this year! 

Interestingly we've visited all of the states that provide settings for her books, so I have seen the corn and rye and wheat swaying in the plains' winds. 

I have to do something with the haunting images of Cather's books and my experiences. I have yet to figure it out, but it must be done. 

What awaiting plans haunt you in the sense that you can't let them go? Does your heart ache to think of them? How close are you to seeing them through? 

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Pin It Weekly #227

Although I haven't been blogging as I should, I have remembered that there was a time when I had plans. I'll revisit those later in the week. I'm curious about how I (and you) have managed the plans we made way back in the beginning of 2017.  I wonder what those were?!

Frank Malan is a follower with a board called "Fashion Illustration." At first glance it seems to be men's fashion, but there are other pins tossed in, so I'm not totally sure. However, there are some interesting men's fashion pins included.


Street Style & more details

Street Snaps! Random Spring 2017 Street Style Inspirations. | Follow rickysturn/mens-casual for more Trending Men's Fashions http://www.99wtf.net/men/mens-fasion/latest-mens-fashion-trends-2016/This is actually my ideal look, but it's super expensive. If I had a lot of money, I might go more for this always-dressy style, but alas!

See this Instagram photo by @tobilikee • 4,880 likes Women, Men and Kids Outfit Ideas on our website at 7ootd.com #ootd #7ootd

So apparently I like the way men look when they walk. Interesting concept to learn about myself.

Ever wonder how many spoons you can find on Pinterest? No? Me either, but Lesa Bolman has. In fact, she has a board of "Spoons, etc." with 280 pins. Here are just a few:

Couverts en bois recyclésDon Nalezyty - hand carved wooden spoons he's bringing to Spoonfest


Heathen Heart, Pagan Pride: Photo

Food As A Lens: Egg Nog A History, Part 2

...

Small Cheese and Serving Boards

Priscilla Gray has a board called "Celebrities." I don't recognize very many, but you may. Take a look.
And even more amazingly he smiles. SMILES I TELL YOU. | Amanda Seyfried Has An Adorable And Talented Dog
Amanda Seyfried

Emma Watson For more visit: www.charmingdamsels.tk
Emma Watson
Channing Tatum - Enough said... But seriously, I would love to meet him just so I could meet him... (Weeeeeell, THAT made sense...)
Channing Tatum


Let’s not overlook the fact that Taylor Swift also killed it onstage the night before the Super Bowl
Taylor Swift
Cate Blanchett
Kate Blanchett
Jake Gyllenhaal 2016
Jake Gyllenhaal
And that's a wrap. Have a wonderful New Year's Day (and weekend).

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

A Camper for a Camper and other Christmas Stories

What family, temporarily living in campers, would give the one permanent camp child a camper? This. One. of course.


Poor child. Her own personal Barbie/baby doll camper as small as Grandmay and Poppa's. She's living in a camper the size of her new (in process of being built) house. And her dolls will have to share the smallest camper available to dolls. Wait, it's the size of the camper I'm sleeping in tonight. 


It's been a while since we've had a baby to open gifts. What fun! Doesn't the look on her face tell the story?


At some point we were finished opening all the gifts and moved on to supper. One of the advantages of having Will and crew living in the house is that they did the cooking. And it was delicious!



Earlier in the day Richard and I attended mass and spent some quiet time before the chaos began. When the kids arrived in the afternoon, we took photos in a sleigh that Will made just for this purpose. It started out a two-dimensional drawing, but he kept adding to the idea until it became a three-dimensional sleigh with a bench for sitting and two crazy log reindeer. 


Rich's parents were with us for gift-giving and supper, but it began "getting late" as soon as we served dessert. We love to play family games, so I made a few plans for after they left. Unfortunately they can't handle the noise and chaos of family games. Two of the games we played are below. The first was a hoot! Everyone wanted in on this game!

Treasure Chase
Necessary items: plastic wrap (Saran or Cling); small tokens, such as pony tail holders, candies, gum, lip balm, and so on. I also gathered a few odd things from around the house: safety pins, bobby pins, paper clips, zip ties, coins, ribbon. Anything small will work but avoid sharp, pointed objects.  

Start with a medium-size prize and wrap it in a wad of plastic wrap to form a ball. Then add more "sheets" of wrap around that to add to the ball. Cutting the wrap into sheets means the players will have to pick at the wrap to find the beginning of each. With each piece of wrap, add tokens enclosing them and pressing down to make the wrap stick to itself. It takes hours to use up a 300' roll of wrap. Several hours. Eventually I had a ball of tokens and wrap about the size of a volley ball. 


To play one person races to unwrap the items while the next player throws a die. We had already decided that the number to switch on would be three. When the player rolled a three, he took the ball and began trying to get items out while the next player tried to roll a three. It was such fun to see how the kids played. Some of us, it turns out, cheat. I loved trying to keep Lane from getting the ball from me. He's 6' tall, so reaching over me was not a concern. 

For the most part our games have no rules, and everyone just plays for fun. Some of our prizes were useless. For example, I included a sewing machine foot from an old machine. The idea is that no one knew what to expect, but it was fun to find out. I hate to admit but had any of the prizes been expensive, someone may have been hurt.


Candy Cane Catch
To play this game, you'll need candy canes, ribbon and prizes. Divide into teams of two players. One player (standing on a chair) drops the candy cane to the second player (sitting on the chair with back to player one). The player holds the ribbon out-stretched and tries to catch the candy cane on the ribbon. They may communicate but may not touch each other. The first team to catch the candy cane wins the prize.

You can find directions to both of these games on the internet. I found the first one here.  And though I don't remember where I found the Candy Cane Catch (my title), there are many holiday family games at Happy Home Fairy.

Sunday, December 24, 2017

Fire Saga Update: Friends, Housing, and lots of Love

If you've been following along for the last few days, you may remember that a fire started in the home of our oldest son. By the time the fire was extinguished, everything in the house was lost. However, the only truly important news is that everyone is okay. No one was home when the faulty wiring caused the smoke and flames. 


The other thing that I want to mention is the unbelievable love and support our whole family has received. People have been stopping by for days now, to deliver items, clothing, and money. It seems that our little community is actually quite big. 

Will's family lives in Chicot and their friends jumped in to help. We live in Evergreen; it didn't surprise us that people from our small town have done the same. However, people from other towns--Bunkie, Cottonport, Plaucheville, Hessmer, Marksville--have pitched in and donated and so much more. It's a bit overwhelming, actually.


For example, a woman who went to school with my sisters and me (40 years ago) sent a Christmas card and a check. Absolute strangers have donated money to them via a GoFundMe account. Others have bought Christmas gifts to replace the ones that burned with the house.

A great example of how  considerate people are came from the school the grandies attend. The principal gave permission for our kids to wear "street clothes" to school because their uniforms were lost in the blaze. Believe me, it's much easier to put your kid into a pair of donated jeans than to find uniforms over a traumatic weekend. 


But the principal was worried that the Marcottes, as the only ones in regular clothes, might feel like they stand out. To avoid that she took the regular clothes idea a bit farther and had a fundraiser. The high schoolers could donate money which would allow them to wear jeans and tee shirts for the week. The money they donated is meant to help us to buy uniforms, but since other students were wearing regular clothes, the Marcotte kids easily fit in. How thoughtful is that? 


We all have had to do some adjusting to life. That includes my not getting to emails, this blog, visiting you all, pinning--just anything on the computer.

One big adjustment has been the new living arrangements. To keep Will and Stacey's family  together with enough space for all of them, Rich and I moved into our 19' camper.  Adam and Jenny, who were living with us since their house became infested with mold a year ago, have moved into Will and Stacey's much larger camper. 

We're all making the best of it. Adam and Jen have a larger, nicer camper, but it's out in the open. Our camper is tiny but stored under a large shed. Both now have full hookups so it's very much like an RV park.  

We've set up tables, chairs, and our outdoor rug. For fun we call this area "the parlor." We also made a small play area for our Maltese puppies, especially the escape artists.


Rich pulled some of my potted plants over to protect them from the occasional 30 degree weather but they add life to our shed. I won't say we can live this way for a year or two, but for now we're all in it together and are making the best of it. 


Finally, it's time for a Milly Moment!
Miss Milly has a new tooth. It's a typical little baby tooth that her tongue found about the third day after it broke through, and she simply doesn't know what to do with it all. We've had such enjoyment from her nonsensical faces and tongue mishaps. That silly tongue seems to have an ADHD problem. 

Every time her tongue touches that tooth, it forgets everything else and probes around trying to figure out what's there. It's hard to eat, drink, or talk when your tongue is doing something else. And I'll leave you with that thought while you celebrate the holidays with family and friends. May you have a blessed and merry Christmas!