One Piece at a Time

The Ultimate Dancing Video

I don't know who this guy is but I want his job

Even better, check out these out takes

Spring Break

Hello all. I'm taking a few days off to celebrate spring break with my kiddos. See you next week.

I LOVE making Lists

I love making lists. Wait a minute I said that already. I found this movie by Amy Krouse-Rosenthal the other day and I just had to share it. Some of you might know about her from her book Encylclopedia of an Ordinary Life. If you haven't check out her website. She's very inspiring. Here's my list.

22 Things my children have taught me:

1. Sleep is very important

2. Almost any problem gets better when you have jelly beans

3. Farts are funny

4. so are burps

5. It's fun to listen to stories about your family members

6. A very good morning prayer is "whatever"

7. An equally good evening prayer is "oh well"

8.Going with the flow is often the only option

9.Me wanting it for them is not enough, they have to want it for themselves (works well with piano lessons and school)

10. Down time is almost as important as snack time

11. Singing songs in the car can be really fun

12. Puppies are definitely worth the effort

13. Cookies should be a major food group

14. Don't forget to breathe

15. Making a fuss can sometimes make things worse

16. There are consequences and they are often better teachers than my endless nagging

17. Just because they look almost like adults doesn't mean they think like adults

18. There are do-overs

19. Laughter really is a good medicine

20. Road trips are really fun

21. Amusement Parks aren't worth the money

22. They will never learn to pick up their socks so give up

WARNING: this list may be re-cycled for other topics like what have you learned from quilting etc.

Dealing with the Dark Background in Block 3

Here is a quick tutorial for dealing with the shadowing in Florabunda Block 3.

You can’t see it very well in this picture but the brown fabric is shadowing through the pink flowers on my Block 3.

To deal with this I want to cut the dark background away but it isn’t easy for these multi-petal flowers. Here’s how I do it.

First I sew down the middle petal.

Then I start in this location and sew the pink petals in the direction shown.

When I get here I “park” my thread and turn the piece over.

Now I CAREFULLY cut away my background.

After that I finish sewing the pink petals.

Here is the flower all done.

Here is the back.

YIKES…I just looked out my window and this is what I saw. Yesterday it was 65… now a blizzard…life in Colorado in the spring.

Techie Appliqué Tools

A few months ago I was at a quilt shop and someone asked how I got so much appliqué done. I told her my secret weapon for getting appliqué done was that I had an IPOD…with audiobooks.

You see ever since I was a kid I have loved reading and listening to stories. When I discovered audiobooks I thought I had died and gone back to Kindergarten. More specifically Kindergarten story time….the absolute best part of the day. So, I want to thank the techie universe for making such things as IPODs and MP3 players because now I can sit and sew and have lovely people read me stories.

Here are a few screen shots of what I’ve been listening to lately.

I read this Diana Gabaldon book a few years ago. Lucky for me I forgot much of it. Come to think of it maybe it’s a little PG-13 if you know what I mean. The woman who reads it is really terrific. Notice that you also see the hysterically irreverent David Sedaris and the very funny Julia Sweeney in there as well.

I can’t recommend this version of The Chronicles of Narnia too much. Each story is read by a really great actor. This is also a good one for if you have kids around in case you’re worried about racy parts.

The best part is that they are LONG. Outlander is 33 hours at least. Hmmm…I think I should be able to get through several Florabunda blocks on that one. Now you know my secret.

Florabunda Block 3: the Specifics

Here are a few pointers for Block 3 that I wanted to point out.

First of all, when doing shapes that have inside curves like the two parts to the large flower, I always press the inside curves first. I should also point out that I also clip those curves as you can see.

Here is a time saving trick when making petals in which one is the reverse of the other. I place the two pieces of fabric that I’m using right sides together.

I draw the petal on one side.

After you cut it out, don’t forget your seam allowance, you will have two petals which are the reverses of each other. I find that if I use these scissors that I can cut four petals at a time.

Also, it really helps to pre-assemble the flowers before you put everything together.

Hope that helps.

Florabunda Block 3: Alternate Colorway

I didn't get this all done for yesterdays post. Here is the alternate colorway.

Florabunda Block 3

As promised here is Florabunda Block 3.The pattern has two formats. The first is a full size pattern (12” square you can download here) that you can save to a USB drive and take to a copy place to have printed. The other is a ¼ size drawing (download here) that should print on a regular printer. You can make 4 copies of this one and tape it together for a full size pattern.

For all you who like to share pictures you can join our FLICKR group at

http://www.flickr.com/groups/florabuddies

Have Fun and

Happy Friday

Florabunda Block Three: Preview

Hello out there all my Florabuddies

Right Now I'm working on Block 3 so I can share it with you tomorrow.

Luck of the Irish...or American of partial Irish heritage

In honor of St. Patrick's day I'm sharing this photo I took in 2007 in Ireland. I didn't even have a "good" camera back then. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. You can see more pictures from that trip in my travel section.

Enjoy.

Now I'm off to raid my sons closet for a green shirt. I thought the one I was wearing was green but I've been informed...it's blue. It was dark when I got up. I HATE daylight savings time.