PRESCHOOL ROCKS! Shirt

Parker House rolls made for breakfast yesterday, prepped for dinner the night before.

Chocolate swirl gingerbread from family dinner Wednesday...it is a Martha Stewart recipe that I want to make each fall at some point.

This is how I make the tee shirts I do, a bit labor intensive (that is why I keep dropping hints about wanting the Speedball tee shirt screen print kit for Christmas) but it gets them done. The first one I ever did was a tee that said "Don't Piss Off The Pregnant Girl"  that I wore when I was pregnant with Andrew...I loved that shirt!  Anyway this is a printout of what I want to write in a font that I think works.  I should have centered it, I forgot that part.

This is a piece of freezer paper, yes Reynolds giant roll will last you FOREVER!  I have traced the words and centered the second word.

Next I use an exacto knife and cut out the letters, yes I am sure that one of the many cutter machines might wrk on this but well A) I don't have one and 

B) this is a low tech and cheap way of doing it

Iron the freezer paper to the tee shirt, it will stick and peel off later.

Add the centers to the letters like O and R, iron them on too.

One layer of fabric paint

2 Layers

6 layers...Black and White are much more opaque then silver but well I am a glutton for punishment, and I think it looks better.

When the paint is dry peel the paper off carefully.  Make sure you follow the directions that the paint gives you, each brand is a little different when it comes to prewashing, heat setting, curing etc.

I then took a squeeze bottle of black paint to outline.  I think it looks great!  I will post a picture of the preschooler wearing it when I get to see it.

This was the paint I used.

This was my to-do list for today, which I do not usually make but I did this morning waiting for the bus after I wrote a grocery list.

print tee shirt letters (done)

cut freezer paper (done)

thread bobbin (done) 

1 1/2 seam (done)(finish Crown quilt)

border seam (done)

paint shirt (done)

sort laundry

pick up front room

cut yoyo circles (done)

grocery store (done)

draw circles (done)

wash Crown quilt (done)

notice what did not get done....

Hopefully in the next week I can excavate my home again after I finish this Crown quilt.  Plus maybe having some time to just stay at home and get a few things done.  I am catching up on 2 days of Days of Our Lives (a vice I have had for 20+years) that I do not watch with kids bigger then about 2 at home...so the sick days I need catch up...it is snuggle under a quilt in progress and a cup of chocolate milk as a treat.

What one thing will you do this weekend?

Just a bit

YoYo progress....they just continue to multiply.  Though on really cold mornings when we walk I get fewer done, it is difficult with cold fingers.

The Crown quilt is coming, actually it is now in strips and I just need to stitch those together and then trim some.  It will be done in the next 24 hours.  Though it may not get worked on tonight, I am just too tired right now.

Playroom painting has begun. I told you all that it would be one wall at a time and well right now it is less then one wall at a time.  The color is Jack Be Nimble Blue.  I love it and can't wait to keep working on it and keep getting rid of the awful khaki!  And yes that is the Sesame Street poster I have had since 1989.

Before....

  

After, 12 inches donated, curls that need product.  Curls that I have not had in over 30 years...must be having been pregnant with a girl and my body.  Not sure but really I have not had these curls since before kindergarten.  Have a great night....Work of Art is on and I need to restart.  

...And today

Update on the yoyos, though I have not been doing such a great job of late of doing more then one or two a day.  

Porcupine balls for dinner tonight.  It is my grandmother's recipe...or as much of a recipe as she ever followed.

I refuse to touch raw hamburger.  Actually it tends to bother my eczema so I mix things like this in large plastic bags.  I even rolled the balls in the bag.  basically if you don't know porcupine balls they are a  meat ball with rice in them.  

And yes this is sideways...I should have added a bit more liquid.  They were fine.  We also had pirogi...which amazingly the kids liked!  They hate potatoes...the texture of mashed potatoes normally make one (or more) of them gag.  But I guess if you wrap some mashed potatoes in pasta they love!

Only a couple of more days and I will share new pictures Vega's quilt. It is awesome!  But I still want it to be a surprise on Saturday, with the changes I have made.  

Oh and we only got caught in the rain a little bit this morning during the 5 mile walk.  I think this might be the week that I manage to do the 3x that I plan to every week.  It could be a great thing this week, I also realize that I am now on borrowed time as winter draws near!

I will get back to blogging...but Work of Art is on right now, and well I have a quilt to work on!

Tuesday list

4 lunches packed

4 breakfasts served

Where in the World is Matt Lauer

4 sets of clothing organized

dressed and a peppermint mocha

walk to bus stop

2 yoyos waiting for busses

walk home

voted

$10 gas for van

Pat Catan's for gloss enamel for Rain gutter Rigata boats

Aldi's for apples, milk and breakfast cereal

to my mom's to pick her up her for family dinner night

picked up living room

2 loads dishes run

tree worked on

homework

dinner

dinosaur excavation (project with 5 year old)

2 kids to bed (husband puts 2 others to bed)

email check

Biggest Loser now 

Blogging

tree applique continued....you'll get to see it soon!

Have a great Tuesday!

My Walk on Wednesday

On Wednesday I went on my 5 mile walk....on it are a few of my obsessions.  I thought I would share...enjoy.  By the late afternoon/evening on Wednesday I had the chills and yesterday was worse.  As long as I sat upright and still I was fine....but no blogging, sorry.  Today is better, so here was my Wednesday...

Amazing to see sunshine through leaves...the camera does not capture it quite as amazingly it was but you get the point.  Gorgeous sunshine that I have not had enough of in the last 2 months....Hopefully November will be better about this.

This one needed rotated but I can't do it now.  This was my point of view over the stroller.  You can't see the sidewalk because there are so many leaves but we were on a sidewalk.  At this point my 2 year old kept telling the leaves to be quiet!

In high school this house was the one that if I could choose any house in town it would have been this one.  However the person that bought it last (and still lives there) did a MASSIVE expansion that just made it too much!  Not that it would ever have been remotely in the arena of my world.  But here are the pictures....I do still love it though.

This is the other side...notice the carriage house in the back.  I though tit would make a great studio, now it is.  But it also has a bridge from the house to the second floor of said carriage house.

This is right across the street, and my new obsession!  I would love to be privately wealthy and be able to gut this place and build it into a quilt retreat like Elmcreek Manor (I love reading Jennifer Chieverini) and kids art Mecca.  However I am in no way independently wealthy in any way.  One day when I was walking I was thinking that I should send a proposal to Bill Gates, Oprah and someone else...though now I forget who I thought of.  It went great in my mind for that walk....but really!

Seriously how awesome would that be....plus look at the building.  It was the county children's home, but has been vacant for a long while.  But come on....

One more of the first house..

I could have lots of my art friends come to do classes, kids could get great art not elementary art that is so close to cut that they hardly get to do anything!  I could have quilting, knitting, crocheting circles that could meet like book clubs.  I could have rooms that ladies from churches could have more room for projects....oh the ideas just come.  Unfortunately I am not independently wealthy and would not begin to believe that I could write a proposal to actually manage something like this!  Thanks Michael Franklin for stomping on me thinking I can write!

Maybe that perfect sky behind it was part of it that day too...I also obsess about a community garden there too...yep I am obsessed a bit.  

See the white dots on the sidewalk, ok stop looking at the darling boots...the sidewalks were already treated for the winter.  It crunched under my feet and the stroller.  I am not sure if I am quite ready for that!

This one needed to be large because otherwise you could not see the dueling lawn tractors.  It was like the two of them were racing....

My 2 year old told me that I needed to stop at this stop sign!  They are so funny so much of the time.

Just past that sign is a small hill.  This is how you first see the local high school.  The 2 year old knows that this means we are headed home.  

These are the field across from the new high school, I figure that within the next decade it will become one of two things either a new football field (the other one is across town, and I do not live in a big town) or a new elementary school...we have 3, but we really need to build a new one.  We'll see what becomes the priority.

This is my final obsession on my walk.  I am nearly home by the time I pass this empty building.  It was built to be a Giant Eagle, but in a town with (at that time) 4 grocery stores and a WalMart it did not last, and yes I am still bitter about it.  Then it was a Valu King for a minute, which I liked.  So I say that the families that run 2 of the grocery stores in town should court JoAnn Fabrics or Hobby Lobby or even Michaels to come into this vacant building....just my thoughts and my obsessions for the day.

I am getting somewhere with yoyos, I just have not photoed them in awhile.  I am working on Vega's quilt....give me one week to complete the amazing changes I am making before the shower so I can surprise my sister with it.  I will get back to the Crown quilt after the shower, that will give me 2 weeks to get it done before Thanksgiving so I can send it with my in laws instead of shipping it.  Have a great night....I'll be back tomorrow with more fun.

Its for the birds!

Current yoyos...no it has not gone away.

Should maybe have subtitled this post Look How Talented My Sister is!  And her husband even let her paint the nursery...I had nothing to do with the painting before Steven & Jakob, and would have LOVED to paint those stars on the ceiling, but that is another post with some old pictures!

This is my inspiration for this quilt...and yes my most amazing little sister painted this.

Colors are better, but this was a better close up.  She could not find bedding that she liked so I am making something to match.

These were the close ups of the birds...that are now my templates for applique....here is how I did it (if you are quilt police you should look away!)

I printed the pictures, cut out the birds, one I actually turned his head the other way.  Then I traced them in Crayola thin washable marker.  I did each bird in both fabrics.  Maybe I should have flipped them so that half would face the other way, and maybe I still will if I decide to add anymore once I lay them out and see.

Next I cut them out and I have started basting them with water soluble thread.  Yes this means that when I wash the quilt that the marker lines and thread will wash away.  It is the way that I do applique...I would rather have some water soluble glue then pins but that is something I have had to cut out because I have to order it on line and the shipping costs as much as the glue.  I get a bottle or 2 when I place an oder for something else but I did not do that for this quilt.  So I will use safety pins instead when I come to that.

I had only 2 in the picture...I got excited an needed to post it to FB for my sister to see already.  Now I have 4 done and am working on the fifth.  

This is what I did today.  I need to get back to the Crown quilt.  I figure if I can do the quilting on 10 blocks a day I'll have them done in 12 days, then I can put them together in a bout a week as well.  Hoping to have it done before Thanksgiving so that I can send it with my in laws instead of shipping.  But I am also hoping to have the Vega's quilt top pretty well done by the 12th for my sister's shower.  I know big goals....and my house needs cleaned and I need to not get sick too!

This is a somewhat current picture of the embroidery.  Well I am a bit further, but this is the idea.

Have a great one...you've seen my Ta-Done's for the day, what were yours?!