End of the Season

The party's over - literally. My last birthday party post until next year! (You can breathe a sigh of relief now as we move forward to more quilt related content after today. Maybe some of my quilting friends will come back.)

The birthday boy had trouble settling on a theme, so 9 days pre-party I decided on dinosaurs and rushed the invitations out the door. I over invited a little, thinking some folks couldn't make it on short notice - instead we had twelve little attendees (including my three). In the end there were 27 people in my house - for me, this is quite the undertaking.

After some intensive googling, I came up with a few activities. One was to have small toy dinosaurs and "fossils" buried in sand for the little paleontologists to find and keep. Here the birthday boy is helping me make the fossils last week.

Recipe: 2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water. This was a little sticky, but adding too much flour will make them puff up. What worked for us was to put little piles of dough on the cookie sheet, make impressions with dinosaur feet, then bake at 325 degrees for 1.5 hours.

Some of the finished product.

This was so successful for us that we made additional fossils at the party (that I forgot to dole out to the guests after baking - oh well.)

Of course it rained the whole day of the party, so this was an indoor activity. We buried the dinosaurs and fossils in bins of sand. The aftermath is below. The fossils were more popular than the dinosaurs.

What's a party without a little science? I used the old baking soda/vinegar trick in tiny volcanoes made from film canisters with playdough around them. Each guest had their own volcano. We also went on an (indoor) dinosaur egg hunt. We put little dinosaurs in Easter eggs, then paraded around until the eggs were found. Bear in mind that 7 of the guests were three years old.

Since T-Rex's are the king of the dinosaurs (as I've been informed daily for several weeks) we had a sand castle cake. I found this idea at some cake site last year. The "sand" is brownulated sugar. You can put it on the frosting but then the frosting is sort of crunchy- bad mouth feel. The sea shells are melt and pour candy. I mixed white with just a touch of chocolate, then "painted" them with luster powder.

Fini!

Here's evidence that I still quilt. Look closely, and you'll see that the lights are on on the Bernina.

Stitches East

...And Other Knitting Related Content

I've done some piecing in the last week, but mostly it's been about the knitting and the kid related Halloween and school events.

I finished the pink sock for Socktober, but the other sock languished, in need of having the gusset stitches picked up. Instead I cast on for a lovely Koigu sock, and got almost to the heel flap. (Pictures later.)

I cast on for My So Called Scarf on Thursday and I've knit about 17" so far.



I also cast on a vest in Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, but I'm not sure I'm going to stick with it.

On Saturday I went to Stitches East with a large group of knitters. (There must be some term that's been coined for a group of knit bloggers, but I don't know what it is.)

Here are Coleen and Jen modeling their lovely scarves at Panera before we left for Baltimore.

Here's a group shot (sorry some faces are turned away). There's Jolene, Coleen, Jen, Suzanne, Jenna, Lolly, and Laura.
No photography was permitted in the show itself, so you'll have to take my word for it that we met up with Eunny, DNA Stacey, Cheryl and Erin.

I also met Saun who was very nice and looked great in her Susy Tunic. There was a Kaffe Fassett sighting, but I knew I wouldn't say anything coherent to him, so I nonchalantly strolled by.

I was so glad to be able to go with this group. I enjoyed being able to relax with a group of like minded friends (who knew exactly which booth had the best price on everything)! What fun it was to see Erin's hand dyed yarn and roving on sale, Jolene talking to Phoenix Bess (for whom Jolene knits samples), and see Eunny next to her gorgeous sweater from the IK Winter Issue in the Interweave Knits booth. Thanks so much for including me, guys.

Here's my haul, mostly sock yarn. Left to right Ellen's Half Pint Farm, Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Evergreen, and Socks That Rock in Midsummers Night.
Also Trekking XXL in 71 (Navy) and Mama E's Superwash Sock Yarn in "Ocean Mist".


I also bought four balls of Karabella Aurora 8, two black and two pink, and I've already used some of it for this:

I know it's hard to see the cables here, but it's Fetching from the Summer 2006 issue of Knitty. The first one is complete except for the thumb. I added two extra cable repeats to make it a little longer in the wrist. I think it's my fastest knitting yet.

I'm always disappointed when I don't get to go to Houston for the big IQA show, but I'm counting on next year. I'll have to get in gear on those quilts!

Where the Wild Things Are

It's Halloween! Scary things can happen on Halloween and the pictures below prove it.

Let's take a walk down memory lane and look at some of the costumes I've created for Halloweens past.

Two years ago I was quite the busy seamstress (emphasis on stress) just before Halloween. Two wizard costumes, and a fish!

Doesn't that little girl in the pink hat look mature for a 2nd grader?

I included this picture to show that the stars are reflective. I bought reflective iron on tape, and found out I could cut it with paper punches.

Here's the matching green wizard costume, with another celebrity guest head.

The year I made these costumes my youngest child was not quite two. He looooved the fish costume! Here he is trying it on just before I finished making it. (He ran around the house two times before I caught him.)

When the costume was finished he refused to put it back on, and we had to go with the backup (store bought) cow costume. (The cow costume is the scariest one we've ever had, in that no child has ever been seen to smile while wearing it - it's a mystery.) The fish eyes are also that reflective tape.

My little fish reluctantly waiting for his brothers to parade by at school today. Note the dejected posture - I think he's coming down with something.

Look at this dragon/dinosaur/Stegosaurus? We've gotten lots of wear out of this costume, made 6 six years ago. The fish is going to stay inside on ice, while the dinosaur (hopefully) goes out trick-or-treating once again.

OK, time for a wild life update! Red fox spotted in the yard, Sunday morning, 7:20 am. Sorry for the (lack of) picture quality - he was about 125 feet away, through a window, and I was sitting in the bay window with a three year old while taking it.

And you thought the skunks were gone? This one was caught climbing a wall the other day at Centennial Park. (Costume courtesy Halloween 2001, but still getting good use.)

And this one was just taking pictures
Have a safe and happy Halloween!

Farm Fresh

Today was the big Pumpkin Patch Field Trip. We took a looong drive in the car (four minutes) to the farm.

(All these pictures are better if you click them to see the bigger version.)

We walked through a corn maze.

The pumpkin picking was a little slim, but just fine for the three year old crowd. The real draw was the animals, and the corn pit.

Our county fair has a corn pit, and I can barely get my children to leave it. The leaper in the picture above accumulated at least a half cup of dried corn in his clothing, which was distributed in his car seat, the dentist's office, and our kitchen.
The local leaves are peaking. I'm very envious of this maple down the street.

Birthday party #2 was, as one of my children would say, fun, fun, fun!!!!
I won't bore you with the details. I will say that if you make a good enough cake, the guest will bow in thanks. (Except your sister, who will laugh at you.)
OK, they're not really bowing in thanks. They're playing a game where you try to put the face on the jack-o-lantern by picking up the (paper) features with a straw.

After observing how a bunch of hay bales kept 20 children occupied for 45 minutes at a party on Saturday, and seeing the corn pit today, I have a new strategy for party #3. I think I'm just going to get some hay bales and make a corn pit, get cake and ice cream, and call it a day.

In Progress

It seems like everything I'm doing is in progress. Quilt: definitely in progress. Socks: here are two (of many) in progress.

Discontinued Knitpicks yarn

Yarn obtained from Elann at some indeterminate date in the past

They're both second socks, and my Socktoberfest goal is to finish them both by the end of the month. I feel like I'm a very slow knitter, but I think it would help if I actually put in some time working on the socks. I realize that sometimes entire weeks go by and I haven't knit at all, and maybe that's contributing to my slowness - hmmmm. It's getting too cold and dark to knit at soccer practices, so I've lost some time there.

Birthday party prep: in progress. Wouldn't this be a lovely area to have about 10 six and seven year olds carousing for a Halloween themed birthday party this weekend?

Except that it's supposed to rain. I'm working hard to come up with indoor activities to keep them occupied. Today I've printed Halloween themed Bingo cards from this site that have pictures instead of words. We're also doing a foamie craft project (yeah foamies!), bobbing for apples, and an eyeball on a spoon race. If it rains all day we're also going to maybe need to decorate some mini pumpkins and come up with some witches' brew classes. Any other bright ideas are welcome!

I got some good news yesterday evening. I'm very excited that my quilt Grotto was accepted for the C&T Publishing Book (and exhibit) Innovative Fabric Imagery. Yeah!!! The book will be published in 2007, and the exhibit will be at the 2007 International Quilt Festival in Houston.

Mystical State

Thanks to everyone for their nice remarks about my "party pics"! One down, two to go.

I've been keeping pretty busy, and a fair amount of that has been quilt related.

I prepared entries for two shows/contests. I'm very accustomed to the whole slide taking process for entries, but haven't sent many digital entries yet. Both these shows required digital pictures. I wasn't happy with the digital pictures I already had for one of my quilts, so I decided to take more. Unfortunately, the only assistant available at the time is three years old. I thought about Emily's post about taking pictures in the shade on a sunny day (as opposed to an overcast day), and had what I thought was a great idea. I'd lay the quilt flat on the ground, and take the picture from the balcony. This would also get around the fact that it was windy that day. Here's a fabulous photo of my setup.

This might have worked, except that it's very difficult to take a sharp picture of something when you're hanging halfway off of a balcony. No tripod means no go! I guess I'll have to stick to hanging up quilts for photography.

I've been noting the onset of fall.

(Backlit leaves in my front yard)

Mostly I haven't been posting because I'm in that mystical state where you're working on a quilt and that's pretty much all you can think about. In the last few years this mystical state has been quite rare, so I'm going with the flow. Here's a very exciting shot of the washout of some purple fabric.

I dyed a 10 step gradation of purple for this quilt about 5 years ago. I was sure I'd washed it out quite thoroughly. When I went to cut out the deeper shades I decided to wash the fabric one more time, just in case, and I'm glad I did. I don't get what happened here, because I know I washed the fabric quite a few times the first go round. I know the dye is no longer reactive here, but I didn't want it to bleed into some of the surrounding colors when I block it.

This picture sort of sums up my inspiration for the quilt - lavender asters in the fall. It's a traditional quilt, but one I just need to get out of my system. Don't look for pictures of the quilt anytime soon, as it's the biggest quilt I've ever made, and will take several more months to finish.



And of course, it's time for Socktoberfest!

I've got quite the collection of socks on the needles, so I'll try to take a picture of them and post details later this week. (Lolly took a picture of them at Knit Nite that shows how many there are.) I'm going to try and finish two socks this month, so that I'll have a total of three finished pairs.

Party On

Caution: No quilting or knitting content.

Hats?

Check

Wands?

Check

Snitches?

Check

House Banners?

Check

Cauldrons, Eyeballs, and Spiders?

Check, Check and Check

As the veteran hosts of 3 Harry Potter birthday parties, we've developed some strategies. Make very simple felt hats, provide foamies and stickers for decoration, and let the kids at them as soon as they get there.
The allure of glitter glue is strong, but must be resisted in this case. Experience shows that heavy applications can take up to 48 hours to dry, and then the hats are unwearable during the remainder of the party.

We made Bingo cards using Harry Potteresque words (house names, Harry, Ron, Hermione, potions, charms, etc.) using this website. We used small foamy dots as markers, but you could use jelly beans too. The game was successful enough that I had time to put Hedwig on the cake.

Not my best effort, but not bad under the circumstances.


Wand safety is always an important part of the spells class. Remember, wands are not swords, they're wands. They don't need to touch anything! Print out a list of spells from here, and you're ready to educate the young wizards in training. "Stupefy" and "Ennervate" should be taught in tandem. Have them practice their spells outside if at all possible.

Potions are another matter entirely.
This concoction uses troll blood, ground pixie bones, and lake water. Maybe there's a little screwt gall in there too. (OK, red cabbage juice, made by putting red cabbage in a blender with water, baking soda, and vinegar, plus pop rocks. Adding a base to red cabbage juice turns it blue, adding an acid makes it pink. The pop rocks add sizzle.) Note the tiny cauldron - it helps if your children have fall birthdays so you can buy Halloween stuff like this.

Another favorite potion is made using the Glitterati charm. Put ground up pixie bones and a generous helping of fairy dust (glitter) in clean cauldrons. Add Ogre slime (vinegar with a little green food coloring added) while each child waves their wand over the cauldron and says, with feeling, "Glitterati!!!" It's a real crowd pleaser.

"Find the Snitch" has also been popular. Make snitches by sewing (yes, sewing) glittery leaves to plastic Christmas balls. Get balls that have prefab rings on them.

Our in house studies have shown that glue alone cannot withstand the rigorous use of the snitches. Hide the snitches in the bushes and have the children look for them. Today they wanted to hide them over and over again (????). Maybe it was because it poured rain for half the party and they were just glad to be outside.

I was afraid that this time around wouldn't be sophisticated enough, since half the crowd was 9 years old, but the video replays show that fun was had by all. And even at this age they still get a kick out of playing with helium balloons.

Party on!

PNQE

First, thanks to everybody for all the nice comments on my last post. You guys are great!

I had a great time on Saturday at PNQE. The new exhibition space is quite spacious, and was very easy to get around in. I've seen some others post about the competition quilts, so first I'm going to post pictures from the special exhibit ARTQUILTSimages. (Click on any image for a larger view.)

I have a quilt traveling with the exhibit, so I was very interested to see what some of the other quilts were like. Many of the quilts were larger than I anticipated, and I thought the way that images were used in most of the quilts was both intriguing and innovative.

First off, our own Gerrie's quilt:

I was delighted to see this quilt in person - pictures don't do it justice. Well done, Gerrie!

This quilt is by Peggy Brown. The transparency was lovely.


This is Linda Colsh's work. Her use of repeating images that are similar, or perhaps the same photograph manipulated differently, was very effective.
I took some other pictures, but they didn't show the work to good advantage. Overall I thought it was a very well put together exhibit, and it showed that many artists are doing wonderful work using image transfer techniques.

The World Quilt &Textile quilts were also there, and many of them were stunning. I particularly enjoyed seeing Judy Coates Perez's award winning quilt There's a Place Called Mars.

OK, now for just two of the competition quilts that caught my eye. (There were others I really enjoyed, but I was kind of distracted - the first big show I've gone to in 4 years, so I wasn't very organized.)

Sue Reno's "Castor Bean" was one of the competition quilts, and I was struck by it's elegant simplicity.


This is Maxine Burkholder's Utah Textures #1. This quilt quite simply drew me in. Every time I passed by it I had to go closer and each time I discovered something new. The way she integrated the small landscapes with the free form piecing was exceptional.


I accosted several unsuspecting show goers and got them to take my picture by my quilt, but we'll just save those for my mother (vbg).

Whenever I've gone to a "big" show I've come home raring to get going on a quilt. This has once again proven true, and I've spent a little time in the past week working on a large quilt that's been in the works for several years. (Not photo worthy yet.)

It's a very busy time here at Chez Ooh!PC - we have four birthdays between today and November 7, and three of them require party planning and prep. Not to mention Halloween. I've gotta go, as there's no party today, but we do have some cupcakes to frost for the family celebration of the first birthday!

Oh Happy Day!

I just found out that my quilt "Grotto" won Best Machine Workmanship in the Innovative category at PNQE! This is extra exciting for me because a) since the birth of my third child it's the only somewhat large quilt I've finished and b) I'm going to PNQE this weekend, and it's the first national level quilt show I've gone to in four years. Please cross your fingers and toes for me! I've never made it to a "big" show where I've won a ribbon before.

I wish I had some fabulous photo to post, but not much quilting etc. has gotten done around here since the postcards. School started, it rained a lot, a child was sick for 4 days - you get the picture. Some things around here are a little more organized, but none having to do with fiber art. Hopefully once pre-school is in full swing I'll get more quilting done.

Many thanks to everyone for all of your nice comments about the postcards! They were fun to make, and I'm happy to contribute to a worthy cause like FFAC.