Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Cakes, Cakes and more Cakes...





Since I was shorted a few cupcakes on my birthday last month we have been quite busy making up  for the miscalculation. We may have gone a bit overboard but thankfully I am the only summer baby in our family so cake can be a bit scarce at our house during the summer months.

Traditionally November kicks off a season of excess sweets in our home. You may be thinking "November kicks of a season of excess sweets in just about every American home so whats the big deal." 

Well, our 2nd Son and Hubby are November babies. Last year we declared the entire month of November as the "Month of Nick" and had frosted goodies in the house almost every day! Somehow hubby and I still managed to lose weight. I guess if you spin your pedals enough you can still burn off copious amounts of frosty goodness. 

Then comes Christmas and all the festivities. For years I made at least 15 varieties of treats to share with friends and neighbors. My family would call me the Cookie Nazi because I would guard them until I had made all my trays for sharing. Sorry for devolving into what looks like an ad hitlerism but it's really a Seinfeldism. You may have noticed from "The Month of Nick" that someone in our house has a slight addiction. It's the hubby. They made me stop a few years ago but I still get to make Sugar Cookies, Gingerbread  Cookies and fudge.

We usually visit extended family once or twice during the holidays and the birthdays on both sides are clustered in in that timeframe so there is always cake involved.

January is 1st Son's birth month and the celebration ends and we all go into sugar withdrawal. 

Now for the Smallcakes total:

June 27th-4.....My Birthday
July 5th-3.....We got there too late of the 4th.
July 16.....Just because it was Wednesday and Key Lime Pie is a flavor of the day. We were too late.

Grand total.....13 (only 41 to go)


Top  and bottom left-July 16th, July 5th-Just because, Bottom two on the right-my birthday
 Notice there are two boxes in the top photo. Hubby and I both tried to surprise each other on the same day! Key Lime Pie for 2nd son was our target flavor but we both missed it. You have to get in early for the special flavors.

And speaking of cake...

A few years ago I got one of those passed around emails with a topic like "World's Most Disturbing Cakes." I usually trash these but sometimes I peek. In between the pics of roadkill, shower cakes that looked like pregnant bellies and real babies (who thinks that's a good idea?) there was this rather sedate number with a caption that read something like "...or you may not find this disturbing if you happened to have met and fell in love at a nuclear plant"....


And I said aloud while sitting alone at my computer..."Well yes as a matter of fact, I did meet and fall in love at a nuclear plant!" Then I saved this beauty in iPhoto.

It was 30 years ago in July that I went to work at Diablo Canyon Power Plant during the construction phase and met my husband. If you've ever worked in this environment you know there is no such thing as a 40 hour work week. He had been working between a minimum of 5-10's to a maximum of 7-12's for two years. This is tough on a 20 something's social life. When he heard there was a new girl on site he hightailed it down to my desk to introduce himself on July 10th. 

He was such a rebel. He had 007 on his hardhat instead of his employee number and he had declined to join the union when he was hired. (I was so naive I signed on the dotted line when they told me to.) 

It took some time and effort on his part to get a date with me. As the new girl on site I was pretty popular among the single overworked engineers. By the time I said yes I was already pretty smitten. Diablo Canyon was surprisingly romantic for a nuke plant. It sits on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean and we would watch the otters beat abalones on their tummies and frolic while we ate lunch. 

So in honor of the 30th anniversary of our meeting I thought I'd make a little momento for my hubby. I chose to make a small wall hanging of an Atom. It is my personal design. The front is Comma and the back is Kona Papaya. The binding is some solid scraps and I am not sure of the maker. I presented this cutie with a box of cupcakes and you can see it peeking out in the photos above.


This will grace the wall of his office. I only wish I still had our hardhats. His was baby blue and mine was gray. I kept them for years and have always regretted tossing them.

I think my Atom mini quilt is less disastrous than a cooling tower cake for a nuke plant romance...dont you?

I purchased my Comma yardage for I Don't Do Dishes on Etsy. She was wonderful to work with.

It's Wednesday again and one of the last things Hubby said on his way out the door this morning is we have to get to Smallcakes early to get that elusive Key Lime Pie!

My Sale Table Quilt top and back are spread on tables in my foyer ready to sandwich.
I have two more of my secret project in the works. Two are finished and being tested. One at my house and one at my sisters. 


Monday, July 14, 2014

Finish Along Quarter 3 Link


This is my first time linking up with The Littlest Thistle's 2014 Finish Along for the 3rd quarter.

My projects:

1.   This top has been completed, the back is pieced, and the binding is cut.  I came across a charity 
last week that just seemed like the perfect fit for this quilt. I have to send it off by August 1st to meet the deadline. My goal is to get this one done by July 25th.












2.     This set of four bar mops has been opened and one test project is done and is in use. My goal is to make 3 more. I will keep one to use and share the other two to see how my design holds up under a variety of settings. This project is a scrap buster too. That is sure a bonus!

3.    This is Bird 3 of 3. 
It is yellow and much further along than this picture shows. The 3 Bird panels will be made into wall hangings. Another scrap buster.












4. I have 2 purses that have been stashed away for about 10 years. They are both about 1/4 of the way finished. 

5. Aspen Frost Christmas pillow. 

3.   The long shot project. This one has been coming out of hiding for almost 20 years. To add insult to injury, my MIL started the same project at the same time and she finished hers this spring just about the same time I unearthed mine for the umpteenth time! The piece is a table runner with two angels and some sprigs. Hers is all embroidered, sewn up and ready for the holidays. 

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

June Update, July Goals and Sewing Space #2


Where did June go?  I missed the mark on my June Finish Goal for A Lovely Year of Finshes.  My week long trip to Washington State sure did take a bite out of my creative time. It didn't help that I came home full of nasty things I inhaled on the plane, my son passed around an even nastier tummy bug and I totally forgot that I would have catch-up work at the office.  

Here's some things that I did get done or started:
From top left traveling clockwise...Red Bird from Heather Bailey's Birds and Branches, June's ALYOF quilt top (I added the boarder on 6/30 but no photo), border cuts and my Yellow Bird, iPad pouch attempt #2, 5 pouches for my WA trip, Sis and me on the way home from WA. Not pictured...my mending jag; Hubbies cycling jersey, Son #2's Chubbies shorts, my robe, and trimmed and serged some useless micro-fibre wash-clothes to fit my Swifter.
I also celebrated a birthday. I was born in 1960. I think my Sweetie may have shorted me 50 SmallCakes. I'll give him until the end of 2014 to make it up to me.

A Quilting first for me in June...I finally won something! Must have been the magic of my birthday month. Thank you so much Hema. I'm giving a sneak peek here but I will give it a full share a little later. 
My Prize!

Now for my July 2014 List of potential project:


1.   Experimental Bar Mops for a top secret project. If it works I will share. If it doesn't work...I'll probably share the failure anyway.

2.   Finish my ALYOF goal for last month. The top is complete with borders. I am still in the process of scribbling the back on graph paper. I haven't settled on a design yet.

3.   Start on that Wedding Quilt I have mentioned before. I have had another design change of heart. My goal is to at least have the fabric purchased by the end of July. I am giving myself a November 1st deadline since that is the original wedding date. Coincidentally, it is also my anniversary.

4. Start and finish a project using my newly won quilting bounty.
My July Goal is once again to finish completely the goal I set for June.  That would be project #2 in blue from above.
 Another Sewing Space share:

When I set up my sewing space after Master's 2013 I moved to the Rec/Bonus Room. Sorry, no photos of the setup.

I set up in that corner between the Dart Board and the Carom Board. The pool table was a great layout area until the guys wanted to play. The wool felt like to hang on to all the little bits of thread and fluff.

Then red leather chair and Ikea "Dave" was nice for handwork in front of the TV. How many "Daves" do you see in the above photo? Well, that's less than half of the number we own. We love those things. They are still available but they changed name. Too many name infringement lawsuits? They will always be "Dave" to us.
I stored my fabric and tools in that little black cabinet. But not everything. I still had things in the guest room. It's a long haul between these two spaces. More and more tools migrated over. It go pretty crowded.

I broke the area down for the stream of November and December visitors over the Holidays. I didn't set it up again. The next space has a bit of a sordid history. It started ugly, real ugly...
Linking up with Freshly Pieced WIP Wednesday.