Act your age not your shoe size.

My oldest nephew, the one who coined "Aunt CindyLand", will be 15 soon. Really. He'll be 15. (Funny, I don't look old enough to have a 15 year old nephew).  He's 6 feet tall & wears a size 14 shoe.  My sister is sad because she can't use the phrase "Act your age, not your shoe size".  Luckily, she has a 13 year old son who is only in a size 9. 

My First Quilt Guild Newsletter President's Article

I became my quilt guild's president in October. I've been the VP for the last year, which was a really easy job until the president had a family emergency and couldn't write her submission for the monthly newsletter. I wrote it in her absence in August. I've written three more since then. If you couldn't tell from the long spaces between my blog posts, I'm not an avid writer. I'll let you decide if I'm good at it or not :) I figured since I'm writing something that at least loosely relates to quilting every month that I'd share them with the universe! Here's my August submission - more to come!

Recently my 3½ year old daughter, has wanted to help me sew. More to the point, she wants to sew herself. Just watching is no longer enough for her. Like Mommy, she wants to sit at the machine, guide the material through the needle and push the “foot thingey”. She’s not tall enough to push the foot pedal and still see the needle. So I let her hop on my lap and guide the fabric along its way. The first piece she sewed was a leftover scrap of binding. That went fairly well, so we moved on to leftover block pieces. She joined two of those together. It was so exciting for her. At first, she was so excited that she tried to shove the fabric under the machine’s presser foot as fast as she could. We decided that we’d take scrap pieces and make a quilt for her doll. I’m surprised it isn’t finished yet!

I think I should quilt with the reckless abandon that my daughter seems to have with her new found skill. It’s so much fun watching her do something new. She does not yet worry about the perfect quarter-inch seam or matching corners. We all need to try different things now and then (even if it is applique!) without worrying too much about the results. Many times we do things in our comfort zone and don’t branch out. Try something new. Branch out. If you need inspiration, here’s a great website with hundreds of free quilt blocks: http://www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html.

No, I haven't abandoned my blog!

I just realized it's been 3 months since my last entry. Time flies when you're busy! My oldest started pre-school, my son had a birthday & I had my first booth at a holiday bazaar! It went fairly well. I had lots of interest in t-shirt quilts. I have to go finish up 3 of them for a client. I already made one for her.

<------ It's right here









I also made a giant one for another client from his Redskins shirts.

Twitter Induced Road Trip

Ok, it wasn't really a road trip. It was just a morning of shopping, but I had to drive at least a half-hour through corn fields to get there. That has to count for something, right? Here's a pic of the corn fields.



The kiddos and I went to a Borders (as there are no bookstores in my town). I had to pick up a copy of Opposite of Love by Julie Buxbaum for my Twitter book club. I'm supposed to start reading it tonight. Hmm... not looking good for that. Maybe tomorrow.



Then, thanks to @KyNamDoan, I had a giant Panera craving. Luckily, this particular Borders was attached to a Panera. We stopped by before book shopping for a morning snack. It was a 3-wipe chocolate chip bagel with loads of cream cheese for the kids. (Note to self: go with something a bit less messy next time).


Between the bagels and books, we had a bit of time to walk around (I thought Borders opened at 9, but it didn't open until 10 - oops!). The shopping area is located next to a river. There is a lovely walking bridge over the river and a train station on the other side. The little guy is a HUGE train fan. We were lucky enough to see a train passing by when we were looking at the tracks. This is the only pic I took near the bridge. It's a fountain that is in front of the bridge.

What to Do With My New Thread Fabric?

I went to a workshop on Saturday where we learned to make thread fabric - fabric from scraps of thread, ribbons and other little odds & ends. One is pink & lavender with bits of silver throughout. The other is green, red & gold. Now I just need to figure out what to do with them. I could make a book cover, a change purse... lots of small things. I definitely plan to add some embellishments (beads, heavier threads, shiny things...) Leave a comment and let me know what you'd like to see them become! (I also need to figure out how to photograph them better - this was just a first pass).

Pink Whirligig Quilt for my Friend's Benefit

I loved making this quilt! The pinks are so happy and the pattern is fun and pretty easy. Easy is always good, especially with a looming deadline. I ended up making it in a week, which is super-fast. I started it right after I finished my daughter's Easter dress (check out that blog entry here). After that, I was really happy to know what I was doing when working on something!

I chose the happy pinks and fun pattern for an auction to benefit my friend who is battling breast cancer and has MS. She is a very happy, upbeat, wacky kinda gal. The benefit was awesome and they raised quite a bit to help her with expenses. I'm so glad I could do this little bit for her.

More Ribbon Options for Bows and Binky Clips

This is a listing of more ribbons available for Binky Clips and Hair Bows at Aunt Cindy's Attic.

Flamingos
Bunnies
Piggies

Turtles
Froggies
Green Monkeys

Strawberries
Ice Cream Cones
Cupcakes

Giraffe Print
Ladybugs
Hearts on Red

Electric Blue
Dark Orchid

But I'm a Quilter, not a Dressmaker!

In a foolish moment, I bought a pattern for a dress I thought my daughter could wear for Easter. It was cute. It was fairly inexpensive. I can sew - how hard can it be? I've made clothing before. Sure, it's only been costume items - a super-easy princess dress and some clown pants, but there are instructions, right? Then, delusions still firmly in place, I went one step further and actually bought the fabric. There was no turning back now. To make matters worse, I put off making the dress until tax time. Taxes trumped dress & I didn't start the thing until Thursday before Easter. How much time should one little dress take? I'll tell you. FOREVER! Technically not forever, since I actually finished it, but I think I went a little more gray while making it. Most of the gray was stressing over putting in the zipper, which I didn't think was part of the pattern when I bought it. I swear that little requirement showed up after I bought fabric. Really, I do. I'm proud to say that it only took one try to get it in & it looks fairly good for my first one since 7th grade home ec!

Most importantly, my daughter looked adorable in her little dress Easter morning!

A Study in Color and Scale

I like to make quilts with big squares and bright fabrics, especially with kids' fabrics. I was given some Civil War reproduction fabric and wasn't sure what to do with it. I found a cute pattern called "Uncle Frank's Socks" by Carol Hopkins as part of her Civil War Legacy pattern line. I liked it, but it seemed kind of small. I had some small bits of bright fabrics, so I blew up the pattern and made another. I quilted them the same way and arranged the blocks the same way. I'm amazed how two quilts can look so different!

Wishing for Warmer Days...

It is cold here & only getting colder throughout the week. I want to go back here ---->

My mom, sister, brothers & I went on a cruise 4 years ago. It was fantastic! Warm sun, sandy beaches, warm sun, beautiful ocean, midnight buffet, warm sun, maid service... did I mention warm sun?

I made this wall hanging for my mom to commemorate our trip. It includes the picture of our ship when it was docked in the Bahamas (where we spent a day on the beach & lying in hammocks beneath the palm trees). I also have a pictures of a sand castle, our family, a towel dog and Miami as we were leaving on the ship.

It makes me happy to think of it on cold days like today, when I could really use some sun. I think I'll make one of the trip that my husband and I took to Germany sometime, too. Check out my Etsy store. I can make something like this for you, too!

A quilt for Brian's wife

Over the summer I heard of a man who wanted a quilt with some pictures & words on it. It became one with names of his family members & some other words. It is for his wife. He said she likes pink & purple, but not roses. Do you know how hard it is to find pink fabric for grownups without roses?

This is how it turned out. He decided against pictures & we just went with words. I'm pretty pleased with it, although I wasn't sure for a while.

Brian is a fantastic guy. It is obvious that he adores his wife. I did have a huge fear that I'd get a call from her one day demanding to know who I am and why her husband kept calling me. I'm sure my planned "Uh, ask your husband" answer wouldn't have helped much. It was wonderful to make this for him.

You can get the whole universe in this little bag...

Maybe not really... a good chunk of the solar system is on this bag though! I made it for a Mad Scientists of Etsy team challenge. The challenge was to make a tribute to Nicholas Copernicus. Copernicus was famous for showing scientifically that the sun, not the earth, was the center of the universe.

I handpainted the sun with fabric paints. The reverse side of the bag is quilted with the name "Nicolaus Copernicus". There is a triple pocket inside and a magnetic snap holds the whole thing together!

This was my first attempt at fabric painting. I'm really pleased with the results! Mr. Forrest Brandon (my Jr. High art teacher) would be proud!

The Moon in the Morning

Recently my daughter B had her first encounter with astronomy. The other morning we looked out of the nursery window and there was the moon. Not an extraordinary event, but we don't often see the moon at that time of day. This was of great concern to B since she's supposed to stay in bed until the sun is up. In her mind, the sun and moon can't be up at the same time. We explained that sometimes the moon stays up too late (the moon is nocturnal, so the morning is its bedtime) and we can see it in the mornings. This seemed to work and B was incredibly excited and we rushed out to take pictures. We didn't take the time to get dressed, but she slowed enough to grab her Tinkerbell cell phone so she could take her own shots. She didn't want to come in even though it was quite chilly for a September morning.

I'm very excited about her interest in anything scientific since I'm a math/ science kind of person (so is her dad). Maybe she'll be a great astronomer and make Pluto a planet again. Maybe she'll just continue to look into the sky with the same wonder and excitement she had that morning. I'd be happy either way.

My Brief Stint With Sweatshirt Quilts

A couple of years ago when my daughter was 2 or 3 months old, I heard that someone wanted a sweatshirt quilt or two made. They were shirts from the deceased wife of a widower. The task was a bit intimidating, but I plunged in. With both feet and a newborn.

That's the last time I'll make a quilt out of sweatshirts! I learned that they are incredibly heavy. I learned that I don't like to tie quilts. Not at all. Plus, I messed up the big one the first time around and had to re-do it. I did enjoy figuring out how the shirts would work together and figuring out how much of the scraps from the shirt I had & could use elsewhere. I'll try some with t-shirts though!

Here are some photos:

Quilts I made for my nephews and nieces

Since I'm Aunt Cindy, I'll start by sharing the creations I've made for those who call me Aunt Cindy.

Here is a series I made for my sister's 3 kids. On a geeky note, they're tesselations! I like how different they look when they're the same pattern.

OMG I opened an Etsy shop!

Usually I'm not the type to use OMG, but I thought it was appropriate today. My oldest nephew, who coined the term "Aunt Cindyland", apparently talks like that now. He's 13. My sister has started talking like that now, too. She's way older than 13. It cracks me up.

Here's the link to my new shop: www.auntcindysattic.etsy.com
I hope you visit often!