One Piece at a Time

Irritable Parent Syndrome

And now for a new category I’m calling ONLY IN BOULDER

I’ve lived in Boulder County for nearly 20 years and I have to admit I find it more than a little amusing sometimes.  If you don’t live here you should know that Boulder Colorado definitely has its share of “Alternative Lifestyles”. We probably have the highest per capita yoga studios, natural food stores and acupuncturists in the world. Basically, wherever you go there is always someone ready to lecture you on anything from cleaning your bowels to the color of your aura. It’s great fun really…especially if you can smile, nod and move on. I like to collect these stories so today’s article in the local newspaper was perfect. It’s called “Irritable Parent Syndrome: there is a cure”.

The article begins with somewhat alarming phrases as “tragically undiagnosed and untreated” and “screaming epidemic” and seriously I thought they were joking. The gist of this “syndrome” is that by the end of August we, parents, are getting annoyed by our children and if this happens then there is something wrong with us. Apparently, according to Chinese Medicine our livers are out of balance. Who knew? Now, I’m not advocating that we all lash out at our children whenever we want but here’s an idea. Maybe it’s okay to get annoyed by our children because they are, well, annoying. Maybe if they see us being frustrated by their behavior they will learn from that. Maybe it’s okay to be human and for them to see that people aren’t always going to be patient with them. Maybe when the parent gets a little too angry they can say sorry and the kids can learn a little about forgiveness.

This article wasn’t all bad. Some of the suggestions were quite good but others were infused with pure Boulder silliness. The idea for getting sleep included “adopting a mantra”; I think mine will be “leave me alone I want to sleep”. The suggestion for being active was to take a swim; every mother knows this is the MOST STRESSFUL OUTING EVER. The remedy for depleted liver energy was to get lost in a good book, yeah right, only if you don’t mind getting interrupted every 2 minutes.

I know this post is proof positive that I am suffering from Irritable Parent Syndrome so I’m going to go clean my liver, whatever that means. Plus, school started last week so now I’m only working 16 hours a day.

A New Developement (Warning Toilets Involved)

 

My puppy learned a new and not entirely welcome trick today.  Now he drinks out of this.

I’m so grossed out.

 

Some Days

We can do no great things, only small things with great love.

-Mother Teresa

 

Doagh Famine Village

Our first outing was to the curiously named Doagh Famine Village.  The owner of this small set of houses has set up a rather enthusiastic museum depicting Irish life from the Great Famine (1840) until the present. Our guide and his family had lived in the village until 1983 and shares many of the stories and traditions of this part of Ireland. Some of the life-size displays include:

Rural Life on the Inishowen Peninsula: A tour of the family living area.

The Irish Wake: Complete with open casket.

The Republican (Celtic Variety) Safe House: A model of a typical Safe House that IRA members would use to avoid authorities. Each room depicted a different stage in the peace process of Northern Ireland.

Included in the price of admission is tea, a proper tea with scones and clotted cream, which we all loved but thought was a tad ironic since this was the FAMINE village. It makes a great outing for the jet lagged, plus it was “down the road a bit” from our house so it didn’t include any scary driving.

 

 

The Quilt with No Name

I think I should rename this post Appliqué for people with OCD (I actually haven’t been diagnosed but I have my suspicions).

My favorite method for appliqué is the starch and press method. In this method you make a template out of some heat resistant plastic such as templar or Mylar and turn under all the seam allowances before you even sew. This method works great for any very precise, intricate pattern like, say, the ones I usually design.

Here is my pattern, which I haven’t named yet so if anyone has any ideas I’m all ears. As soon as I get this all done I will put the pattern in my ETSY shop for purchase (more on this later)

Here are a couple of pictures of my tools. This quilt I’m trying a new glue called Appli-Glue which you can get from jilillystudio.com. This glue comes with a no-clog tip which is heavenly.

Here I am making a petal with my template.

Here I am making a circle. I use these heat resistant Mylar circles that you can get from karenkaybuckley.com. To get perfect circles you can just stitch around the edges, pull and press with starch.

 

 

I then place my pattern behind the background fabric and glue everything on…

TA DA

 

All ready to go and no pins to get your thread all tangled in.

Thanks to my daughter for taking the action (ha!) shots.

Inspiration Part 2

Next to nature my second favorite source of inspiration is fabric (well duh…I’m a quilter). When I’m feeling creatively stuck it just takes a trip to my favorite quilt shops (yes I have multiple) to get my creative brain going again. I usually look for a multicolor fabric that really jumps out at me. I once spent a year learning color theory and it was great but I just came right back to my old way of doing things. The funny thing is, sometimes the “gotcha” fabric never makes it into the quilt. In the photo you can see my inspiration fabric for “Bluebird’s Piece O’cake” and most of the fabrics I used but that lovely floral never made it in (I tried..boy, did I try).

So here is my inspiration for the small appliqué wall hanging I am starting. This time that fabric is going to make it in.

 

Back to Quilting

Well, the kids are back in school and I am home alone with nothing to do for the first time in about three years. It is really heavenly having all this quiet.

Just the other day I finished this quilt top. I started about a year ago thinking I could finish it in three months. I kinda sorta forgot that I was a mother and had a job. I made it mostly because I go a little nutty if I don’t have an appliqué to work on and I wanted a practice piece for my hand quilting. Now that it’s done I’m already itching for another appliqué so I’m designing one.

Does anyone have any ideas about quilting this?

Also I’ve found a really wonderful quilting blog called The Happy Zombie that I am planning on checking out in great detail. Really fun stuff there so go check it out.

First Day of School

It’s hard to imagine but summer vacation is over here in Colorado and the kids head back to school tomorrow. In the midst wondering who the chemistry teacher is and where to sign up for the PSAT it’s easy to remember when they were little. Looking back, it seemed easier then. The biggest decision you had to make was what lunch box to get. Back then I took a picture at the front door every year. Now, with two kids and two schools and 7:30am start times it’s just impossible to do this. Getting older definitely has it’s upside, like not having to drag two tantrum pitching fiends to the grocery store, so I don’t get too sad. Here’s to you kiddos..let’s have a great year.

 

My Inspiration

Someone recently asked me where I got my inspiration. I didn’t even have to think about it. Nature is my number one source. When you live in Colorado you can see scenes like this just driving around doing your daily chores. I am LUCKY.

Our Little Irish Car

One of the things about traveling to NW Ireland that people should know is that you are going to have to rent a car. There is very little public transportation and no trains. Cars are, however, expensive so brace yourself. We reserved the most economical non stick shift car we could afford. Seriously, we didn’t want to be dealing with being on the opposite side of the car on the opposite side of the road and throw gear shifting into the equation.

When we got to the Belfast airport after flying all night we were greeted by a cheery rental car attendant who promptly informed us that our car was a CONVERTIBLE. I think Stephen and I must have starred at her because she repeated a few times. We had a co-mingled response of “Can we change that?” and “Why do they have convertibles in Ireland?” She informed us that it was the ONLY kind of car she had but lucky for us it was a hard top. Really the woman was so pleasant that we could hardly argue with her so we signed the massive amounts of paperwork and went searching for our car. Turns out it wasn’t so bad if you were, say 5’8” and could sit in the passenger seat. If you were 6’1” and had to drive, or any height and had to sit in the back it was a little tricky.

So, driving in Ireland, hmmm. Well first off you should know that every year Ireland ties Portugal for most driving accidents in Europe. Second, the roads in NW Ireland are sidewalks compared with most American cities so if you are say 5’8” and sit in the passenger seat be prepared for a lot of sticks and such hitting the car. AND since this is the seat you normally sit in to drive in America try not to scream “WATCH OUT” too often. As Stephen pointed out, it’s better to run into a hedge than into an oncoming car. The best part of driving in Ireland is that everyone you pass on the road (except the few big roads) waves at you. And the scenery is terrific.

This first day we drove we took this hilly road from Ballyliffen to Buncrana. When we saw it  was this small winding road going off into the fog. The funniest part was when we got to the base of the hill (I’m not making this up) there was an official sign painted on the road that said “GOOD LUCK”. We all laughed and went on. Over the course of the trip we drove over this road several times, always in the rain or fog and couldn’t really see why it had such an ominous sign. On our last day however it was sunny. When I saw just exactly how steep a drop it was into the ocean and that there were no guard rails I almost had to breath into a paper bag. Luckily, it was finally sunny and we got to drive with the top down (the one and only time)