Oh, what did I do?

Today, I go back to grad school. *gulp* I'm scared to death! I'm so totally out of the school loop. Oh man...deep breaths, deep breaths!

In other news, my MIL has been transferred from the hospital to a rehab nursing facility for a few weeks to get weaned off 24/7 oxygen. The facility said use of the phone is free, as long as you bring in your own phone that can be plugged into the jack. Guess what I dug out of the closet for her to use? My trusty Garfield phone! Talk about childhood memories, haha. I hope it makes her laugh too.

MIL was diagnosed with pleurisy (an infection of the lining of the lungs) and has been getting better with steroids that she's been given. They're testing her for lupus as well, but we still don't have a definitive answer on that. Hopefully, she can come home sometime in the next week or two. We're just glad that she's not very seriously ill anymore. For awhile there, it looked touch and go. Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts.

Now I can concentrate on panicking about school!

An Emo Birthday

This is the year that all of my friends and I are leaving our 20s behind. My best friend, Val, turned the big 3-0 in late August and asked if I could make birthday favors that were very "Val." She has always been a bit on the emo side. Luckily, she can laugh about her emo nature and doesn't take offense when we tease her about it. With that in mind, I found the perfect pattern for her favors and tease her I did!

Here's a little story about them....

Once upon a time, there was an angsty teenage boy named Little Emo. Little Emo dressed in dark colors, cut his hair as ragged, and avoided the sun at all costs. His emotional nature made it hard for him to make friends and that made him even more emo. He had no idea how to break the vicious cycle of emo-induced loneliness.



One day, an older teenage boy noticed Little Emo and how sad he was. The older boy told Little Emo that he wasn't alone. There were lots of awkward emo teenagers just like him and he didn't have to be lonely.



Little Emo was excited (but not quite happy...that would be a faux pas for anyone truly emo) to meet the other emo kids. He wasn't alone!

Before Little Emo knew it, he had a whole gang of friends that he could be emotional with. They all avoided the sun, moped about parents and wrote poetry together. What a happy satisfactory ending!

Val loved her gang of Little Emo birthday favors and it was fun to crochet something so silly. ;) You can find the free pattern for Little Emo the Depressed Doll here.

Still Breathing

Just wanted to pop in and say sorry I've been gone for awhile. My mother-in-law has been in the hospital for two weeks and we've been stressed and crazy busy. We still don't know 100% what's wrong. The docs have a general idea, but we're hoping to know more after some additional tests. She is looking much better than she was, so some of the stress is relieved at least.

I've been crocheting and sewing to relieve some of the stress, so I have some finished projects to show soon. Just need to get them off the camera and onto the blog... forgive me if it's a few more days.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the last bit of summer.

How to Tea Dye Fabric

You can click on the photos to make them bigger.

Baby Central

Boy, my job has been baby central lately! Seems like nearly every woman of child-bearing age has a bun in the oven.

The latest baby shower was for my dear friend Monica. After waiting 13 years, she's pregnant with her second girl. We threw the shower for her on Friday and in true "me" style, I was fixing the last of the screwed-up-red-wine-binding at 10:30 pm and then washing it around 11 pm!

With the exception of the pink seersucker (thanks for telling me what this fabric was), all of the pinwheels were made from scraps. I used half triangle squares to make the pinwheels and it went together pretty quickly. The quilting is free-motion, which was easier this time around. It's true that practice makes... well, not perfect, but better at any rate.

After seeing THIS doll posted on another website, I had to make her! I tea dyed white cotton to get the right skin tone.* Her face is embroidered, her hair is made with Homespun yarn, and her feet and socks are painted with fabric paint. Isn't she sweet?

Of course, since it was nearly midnight when I finished everything, I realized much too late that I didn't have any wrapping paper or bags lying around. Thankfully, I had some cellophane and wrapped the gifts in that.

Monica was happy.

A paper diaper garland made the room look a lot more festive.

The chocolate chip cookies I baked helped the festive feeling too. The fig newtons were store bought, but a few people asked for the recipe, haha.

Congratulations on your new baby girl, Monica!!

* I took step by step pictures and will post how I did the tea dying a little later this week.

A Public Service Announcement

Friends don't let friends quilt drunk*!!

If it happens anyway, you may find yourself getting intimately acquainted with your seam ripper.

*In my defense it was only two glasses of red wine. But I drink so infrequently, that those two glasses had me completely looped. Clearly (doh) I thought this was a good time to quilt and add a binding. The next morning, I realized the error of my ways and started unpicking.