The Jean Quilt- Phase 2

I decided to make up phases for this quilt.  It makes it feel more important.

Phase 1 was the cutting and organizing of the squares.  I finally finished that.

Phase 2 involved sewing the squares into 3x3 blocks.  I chose to do it this way (1) it seemed more manageable to make small sections rather than go row by row and (2) I felt like it.

After the first row of blocks was finished

Phase 2 has now successfully been completed.  And I am sure Evan is glad to have the living room back :)

All the blocks nicely stacked together... and my foot apparently snuck into the shot  haha.

Phase 3 will be sewing the 9-blocks into corners (yup, my quilt is a square... oh well.) Here is a photo journey of Phase 3 part 1:

 Four 9-blocks...

 Made into two columns...

Then sewn up the middle!

One down three to go! Then it will be on to Phase 4, sew 'em into one blanket.  

Inez Mae (Dressen) Trimbo

My grandmother was an amazing woman, and she left behind a great impression on those who knew her. Today marks 2 years since her passing, and I just wanted to take a quick moment to think about her and acknowledge all she did for me.  One of my aunts wrote in her obituary, "If love were measured in cookies and quilts, we were all well loved."  Birthdays and every major holiday we got cookies.  At major milestones we got a quilt.  When I called to tell her Evan and I were engaged she said, "Yeah, I know.  I've been working on a quilt for you."  I don't know if it was her 89 years of experience (raising 11 kids, 23 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren) that led her to know this was coming, or just one of those quirky things where she thinks someone told her something, but really it didn't happen (if ever a rumor was going through the family about you, 99% of the time it could be traced back to Granny).  Either way, she made us a quilt for our wedding before she passed.

I have many pleasant memories from my time with her, and will hold them close to my heart.  I am so grateful to have had her in my life, and glad Evan got to meet her before she passed.

I love you, Granny!

The Banjo

Last year, on our anniversary weekend, which also happens to be Memorial weekend, we went camping with a group of our friends.  It was a blast.  One of the nights, there was a bluegrass concert at the nature center.  We all went down there, grabbed a seat and enjoyed some old men playing their instruments.  This was the night when Evan first told me one of his life's ambitions was to be able to play the banjo "like a boss." I told him if that's what he wanted to do then he should do it.  And after that weekend we didn't really talk about it much.

Recently, we went camping with our friends here in Arkansas.  One of the locals to the area, who is also familiar with the area we went camping, told us about this little town where on friday and saturday nights people just sit on their porches and have jam sessions.  Once again, Evan talked about his dream to play the banjo.  This is when Mr. Grassroot Elegance said, "I have a banjo, would you like to borrow it?"  Partly joking (I think).  Four weeks later the banjo has made its way into our house.  Two nights ago he took it to a music store, had a string replaced, had it tuned, bought a strap some picks and a book, and even found himself a tutor.  He brought that banjo home and strummed at it for about 30 minutes.

He looks at it longingly every day when he comes home now- Finals are next week so he should have more time soon.  We are on our start to our very own bluegrass band!

Edna

If you have been following along, you will remember we discovered something living in our laundry room around the holidays.  After Christmas, we determined it was a bird and named her Edna. For more details, check out:  The Story of Edna.

Once winter passed and summer came, (About mid February), she was gone.  We really hadn't heard from her in quite a while.  Then last week I came home and Evan said, "Edna's back."  And so she is.  I'm not sure how I feel about Edna.  On the one hand, she isn't really doing anything but chirping.  On the other, wild animals carry all sorts of fun germs and such- do I really want her in my house?  Plus, the big tube thing (real technical here) that carries the warm air from the dryer to outside, is pretty ripped up.  So when we run the dryer all that warm, humid air blows right into our laundry room.  When it was cold, that wasn't so bad.  It heated up our house nicely.  But now the weather is getting warmer (thank goodness Spring came in March and intercepted summer for a while longer) and I don't want all that hot air blowing into the house.  And we keep our printer and paper and other things in the laundry room (it's a big room) and I know that can't be good for the printer.  Back on the first hand though, it's kind of fun to hear her chirping along while I go about my business in the house.

Someday this may be resolved, but that would require a more attentive landlord.  Seeing as we've had Edna since Thanksgiving and a leaky sink since we moved in, I don't see that happening in the near future.

Decoration type crafts

We have this wire basket in our living room, in the middle of our coffee table.  In our apartment in Richmond, we kept fruit in it usually, sometimes towels if we didn't have fruit.  When we moved, we had more room ( a lot more-  Maybe I should do a compare post to help you understand).  We decided to put the basket on our coffee table, and struggled with ideas of what to fill it with.  We started with paper cranes, then around halloween I filled it with mini pumpkins.  After that there were oranges in there for a while.  Around Christmas I put in some garland or something christmas-y.  I took it off the table for Valentine's and put out a plate with candles surrounded by candies inspired by this picture from pinterest (second one down).  After Valentine's it became a fruit basket again, and the coffee table was decorated in VCU memorabilia in support of our Rowdy Rams.  They lost in the second round (by TWO points.  SO CLOSE!) so the decor needed to change once again.  I found this (once again on pinterest) and decided to give it a shot.  So I bought some water balloons, and got to work.  I already had embroidery floss, so I didn't need to go there.  And I have done paper mache before with just flour and water so I used that instead of using liquid starch.  I do think the eggs would have turned out stiffer, but they hold their shape just fine this way.

Water balloon covered in embroidery floss soaked in gunk 

Let them sit overnight (many of them needed even longer) 

Pop the balloon! (and attempt to scratch out all the flakes)

Stack them in the basket for everyone to see.

They did have a bit of flakes in spots and needed to be cleaned out, which proved really difficult.  In fact, they still have flaky parts.  But as I was pointing this out to one of my friends she said, "I didn't even notice."  So I guess it's all good!

More recently (tonight in fact), I made a wreath.  I was inspired by this Etsy item, used this felt flower tutorial, and added this bow to the hanging ribbon part.  Once I take a picture of it I will post it for you to see.  I think it turned out pretty ok for my first wreath!

Currently, I am still working on the Jean Quilt.  I was talking to one of my friends, Mrs. Grassroot Elegance, about my three jean dilemma, and she said, "I think we can help you out." And the next time I saw her she brought me FIVE pairs of jeans that Mr. Grassroot Elegance no longer wanted.  So, I am tracing and cutting and hopefully soon will have a finished product to share!