• Blog

    T Tuesday: state fair edition

    Last Tuesday Mini-me and I decided to go to the MN State Fair. We hadn’t been for 5-6 years. We got up early to take the express bus to the fair which is about a 45 min trip via bus during rush hour.

    As you can see by the long shadows, we were there early. In fact so early that most of the things we wanted to do and eat weren’t even open yet. Hmmm…makes me wonder what one does at the fair before 9 am.

    Eventually, we had “breakfast”…Sweet Marthas cookies. They are fresh from the oven. This bucket holds an entire tray of cookies…of course you have to eat a bunch to even get the lid on. Challenge accepted. Ok, we failed but did have a baggie with to put the extras.  You may not see a drink in frame but trust me …there was lots of water consumed. I wish we had thought about getting milk. Now THAT would have been good.

    We toured some of the barns, the education building and checked out the crafts entered in the state fair competition. After the fact, I found out that at least one person I know had entered her knitting and received a ribbon.

    By about 11:30, it was starting to get a bit crowded. Not overly so but enough that we began thinking about what exactly we wanted to see before heading for the bus.

    I think we left at a good time because I looked up the attendance on the State fair website site and saw that last Tuesday set an all-time attendance record for that day of the fair,

    image credit

    I know that we weren’t the most efficient at seeing the sights of the fair at least according to my Fitbit data for the day.

    I know that all those steps hardly made a dent in the calories I actually consumed that day. Oof.

    Tuesday means back to school for me and Mini-me. J already has a week of sophomore year college under his belt. Mini-me said the other day…”Do you realize that now I’m an upperclassman and J is a lower classman?” It’s the little things I guess.

    What are you doing today?
  • Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    A second look: quilt time…snuggle time

    I can’t stop sewing!!! Likely because I know I’ll be completely worthless for the next week or so until I acclimate to my new school schedule.

    Since I’m currently completely obsessed with paper foundation scrap quilting once again, I thought I’d share the quilt that came before this one.

    Take a look…

     

    1/15/2017

    Don’t you just love that feeling of satisfaction when you’ve completed a big project!?! I know I do. Not only do I have the finished product in front of me but I get to put a checkmark in the box on my perpetual list. Yes, it’s an actual paper list. It’s never-ending which really is a good thing. What would I do with myself if I didn’t have a project?

    quilt time snuggle time | Halle's Hobbies

    Do want to know a secret? If I complete a task, chore or project that failed to make it on the list…I write down, draw a little box and proceed to “X” through it. So satisfying!!!quilt time snuggle time | Halle's Hobbies

    This quilt started as a stash busting project. Just a loose idea of what I wanted or hoped it would look like in the end. Over the course of sewing, my idea evolved a bit which I personally think is a good thing. We need to be able to be flexible and learn from our mistakes. Or even just adapt when the moment presents itself instead of being so set on one path that we can’t change. This is true in life as well. Adapt or be flexible when needed as long as your end goal remains it’s ok to change little things along the way.quilt time snuggle time | Halle's Hobbies

    One of the changes I made as I neared completion was the type of binding I wanted to use. I was originally going to do a sort of “cheater” binding where you wrap the backing around to the front and stitch down. I’ve used this method before with Mini-me’s quilt. I decided I wanted to do a scrappy binding as well continuing to use up my stash. The quilt really needed a quiet place in between the busy central pattern and a scrappy binding so I added a white sashing all the way around.

    quilt time snuggle time | Halle's Hobbies

    The scrappy binding went together quicker than I thought it would. Of course, I didn’t follow the “rules” and cut everything on the bias. I’m not much a rule follower. quilt time snuggle time | Halle's Hobbies

    Isn’t it pretty a rolled up like that? Like a colorful flower.

    quilt time snuggle time | Halle's Hobbies

    After much agonizing about how to label my quilt (for the very first time), I decided I’d use wing it and hand embroider the info. Let me first say that I suck at embroidery. I think embroidery was the first craft I ever learned…and I never liked it. I’m always sticking myself with the needle, its tedious and boring.  I know there are plenty of people who enjoy it and find it relaxing…have at it. It’s a means to an end for me. I do have a decent size stash of embroidery thread though in the same tin my mom used half a century ago or more ago.

    quilt time snuggle time | Halle's Hobbies

    After a few pinpricks I finished the job and was able to stitch it onto the quilt back. I am glad I took the time now that it’s finished. I can never remember when I made most of the other quilts except for the two I made while J was napping as an infant. Those I do remember.

    quilt time snuggle time | Halle's Hobbies

    This turned out to be more than a stash busting quilt. It became a labor of love with a bit of frustration mixed in. But what love doesn’t have some frustrating times.

    I had originally planned to heavily quilt in a funky random pattern but as I began I realized it would end up a bit stiff. I went back and pulled out every stitch…hence the frustration. I ultimately ended up stitching random wavy lines only along the white sashing. My thought is that I can always go back and do some more quilting if I feel it needs it.

    I’ve been snuggling under it every free moment I have. It definitely helps with the extreme cold we’ve been having. I did hear we have a warm-up in store….hooray! I’ve about had it with below zero temps.

     

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    Thanks for stopping by for Second on the 2nd!

  • Art - Blog - Creativity

    T Tuesday: randomness abounds edition

    I’m not going to lie…this post might just give you motion sickness from how all over the place it will be.

    I guess we’ll go with chronological. Mr. G was tasked with creating some trophies that he’d 3D print at work for the company go-kart racing day. He said I could paint them up so we got to go shopping at the craft store!

    These were printed on a resin printer so they are quite smooth and would take spray paint really well.

    They turned out pretty darn cool if you ask me.

    I got this in the mail from my friend, Sandy.  When we were at the cabin in Idaho, we had a few drinks and she said…gosh I better quit cause I’m slurring. To which I said…You’re not slurring, you’re speaking in cursive! 

    On Friday we loaded up the van to bring J to college for his second year. Mr. G picked up the horrible virus mini-me and I brought back from our trip…likely from the airplane. He was completely out of commission for nearly 4 days so Mini-me came with to help out and be my home travel companion.

    Since we were in Duluth with no boys after setting J up at his apartment…we did what we love…look for seaglass.

    We found a very small amount of very tiny glass. It was still fun but bigger pieces are definitely more fun.

    I sat down to do a bit of art journaling yesterday. I was really feeling the need to play with paper, paint, and glue. I’m not in love with this page but it certainly felt good to play.

    Today was yet another step back to the reality that summer is nearly done. I had a work meeting. It was nice to see all those faces again. After my meeting I ran to the grocery store…

    Had my name tag on the whole time…duh. No wonder people kept looking at me somewhat oddly.

     

    What are you doing today?