I'm never in the right place at the right time...

To cheer you on this cloudy, gray winter day-

For some reason, I'm never quite manage to witness stuff like this:

(After the commercial that is :) )

I love the expressions some of the unsuspecting onlookers have...and all of their phone cameras/camcorders.

I wonder where I was when all this was going on...talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time!!

Hopefully this made all you Sound of Music junkies like me smile:)

~K

Feb 2011 Retreat Part 3: If pictures could talk

If pictures could talk, they would say:

 (Names have been changed to protect the innocent) 

"I'm not even kidding you Eunice, there really is an alligator in the hotel pool. If you don't believe me, go look at the pool boys legs...or should I say leg!?...and just think of all those little kids down there with the birthday party....You did say you were the Crocodile Hunter, correct?"

"Seriously, they told you that ...when I bought my sewing machine it didn't come with the adaptors for making it into a rocket booster, weed whacker or foot message...."

"OK, now look closely cause I'm only gonna show you once....when you put the toilet paper on the roll, the end comes over the top like so...NEVER under...always over the top! If everyone put the end under the roll it would seriously mess with the whole gravitational pull of our universe and eventually we would all need space suits!"

 *gasps* "Hilda, you should never have put your little packet of plutonium in the glove box with the non-dairy creamer packets...you know Frank is a distracted driver and was too busy texting in his vote to Dancing with the Stars and driving when he was trying to doctor his coffee..."

"All you need is a piece of industrial strength dental floss, some tacky glue, roll of duct tape (pick on the matches the fabric though), a rubber band, 30 ml distilled spring water from Norway (not Sweeden, Denmark or California) and some cream soup. Bake at 350 deg for 40 min and bazinga, you have a casserole."

"Say Bertha, how come you never listen to me...I told you the neo-tropical song birds were migrating South today and you have me in here just holding this piece of cloth you're gonna add to that blanket....you better believe you're buyin the calamari and chocolate souffle for supper tonight...and I'm ordering a cosmopolitan too...so there!"

"and that my Friends is how I became the fastest draw in the west"

"So...there are enough blood vessels in the human body to go around the world how many times?"

My little piggy...not retreat related

INTERRUPTION FROM YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED RETREAT RECAP:

Every once in a while, I find pictures like this and wonder how I ever turned out kind of, sort of, in a way, maybe relatively normal....

This is me...

with my piggy-oinker....

with piggy tails....

she was mine,

as were my piggy tails.

Her name was Lucy,

she drank from the spout on my watering can,

she would NOT let me ride her

she said: 

 "hey kiddo- that's why you have a pony"...

she was a little on the porky side,

she LOVED my jelly shoes :)

I loved her...

...she was tasty!

~K

Feb 2011 Retreat Part 2: Fatjack

(Fat-jack) a term created by Katie Zenk to be used in describing the game played by sewers at the Calico Hutch quilting retreats. Derived from the common game blackjack, fatjack is played wagering fat quarters in lieu of monetary betting as to not actually be considered a form of gambling....or deemed declarable on federal or state income taxes.

The dealers were hilarious and the odds were very, very, VERY much in the favor of the quilter...after all, what in the world would 3 young men do with a bunch of fat quarters???

I'm not done with retreat pictures yet! The best is yet to come :)
~K

Feb 2011 Retreat Part 1: Show and Tell

Disclaimer: I apologise for the lack of humorous content housed within this post....I pinkie swear, cross my heart, promise that I will make it up to you in the near future....

I've got it all planned out....sorry I can't say more:)

OK, so I spent a chunk of time at the retreat this afternoon / evening in hopes of catching some shots of the show and tell....There were LOTS of beautiful things!!!

Here's some of what I saw:

Also, stay tuned for more from the retreat. I still have pictures of fat quarter blackjack, people sewing up a storm and even some surprises too :)

Thanks for a good afternoon / evening retreators!

Oh yeah, I was digging out my keys to go home, and then they made me do this...

How come I feel like I just black mailed myself??

Retreat Weekend / somebody cut me off!!

Mom and I retreated this past weekend. It was a wonderful time and we came home feeling very relaxed and rejuvenated. We made lots of new friends and did our share of giggling / laughing hysterically at / with our fellow retreators. We were very fortunate to be surrounded by cheerful people filled with giddiness and the sillies. We were quite productive and finished a fair amount of projects. I'll take some pictures and share soon.

( Mom and Me at the big kitchen table at the Primitive Gatherings retreat house)

And lastly, a shot of our group. We were sad to see them go....we really just wanted to stay a few more days. I'm sure you all know how that goes! Mom is in the front row wearing brown. I'm in the back...the tall one on the right side holding my project upside down as only I could manage to accomplish. My laughter buddy and fellow jokester was Mary...she's sitting down on the far right wearing a white shirt.

Speaking of retreating, did you know there is a Calico Hutch retreat at the Holiday Inn in Austin, MN this weekend? I'm pretty excited to make an appearance at some point to see some quilty friends and snap some pics of projects and show & tell. I was there last night helping with a little set up.

Somehow this huge pile of quilt shop goodness and the fabric organizational sense of Mary R. and Myrle....

And the lungs of Carolyn's oldest grandchild combined with the decorative styling of Laurie and Susan from the shop.

All comes together in the end to create a mobile Calico Hutch....

you know, it's like the bookmobile (does that still exist??)

I did the pattern table and notion table...I'm pretty proud of myself :)

 

Oh yeah, my mom also quilted my June Bug quilt....I super duper love what she comes up with. You'll have to excuse the lighting....I tend to have nocturnal tendencies and only get around to taking pictures late and night when there is zero natural lighting....maybe I should move to Alaska, land of the midnight sun. Then I would (for at least a little while) have unending natural lighting. Ctrl + Alt + Delete (undo for those who don't read computer lingo) that thought, Come to think of it, that would only really solve the problem for a few days and at the end of the all daylight period of time, I would have to move to a cave and enter into a time of solitude and hibernation because I wouldn't have gotten enough sleep and besides, that's where bears hibernate. Maybe this isn't that bad of a plan after all..I love sleep. Uh Uh!!! wait, no power in caves = no sewing machine. However, no sewing machine = wool projects....I LOVE WOOL PROJECTS, but caves are dark and thus there wouldn't be enough natural lighting so I would have to use my Ott light and as stated before, no power...I better stay in MN and consider making some lifestyle changes....or just taking pictures before it gets too dark!

I apologise for the above incessant ramblings...when I get started I just can't stop!

 

I took this close up so you can see how her quilting really accented the applique and made the blocks POP! Bing, bang, BOOM! Thanks mom :)

Hang on, something just popped into my brain...In Northern Exposure (yes, the AWESOME TV show from the 90's) Marilyn Whirlwind managed to knit pretty much everywhere....see...here she is in Dr. Fleischman office, it was pretty dark and dingy in there:

maybe I would be OK working on wool projects, or I could knit...maybe she would teach me how to make socks?? If she can do it, so can I. However, it would be interesting learning from her because A) she speaks in one or two word sentences, and B) she is a fictional character as is Sicely Alaska.

I'm in the dark on this lighting thing..

any ideas?

~K

Schnibble Parade #1

Here's a good dose of Schnibble for ya-

Between my mom and I, here are some Schnibbles worked on / finished in January.

The January Featured Schnibble Was

"Nice Day"
This version has kits available

Fabric: Park Avenue by 3 Sisters

This one I made for my Grandma for her Birthday....Shhhh...it's not till March ;)

Still needs to be quilted

Fabric: "Simpler Time" by Holly Taylor

Kim Zenk (my mom) finished this one...

Pattern: Bennington

Fabric: Gypsy Rose by Fig Tree

And she finished this one too.

Pattern: Picnic

Fabric: Scrappy 30's prints

This is another one I finished

Pattern: Tag Along

Fabric: Simple Abundance by Bonnie & Camille

Yep...it's only 1/4 bound...I should probably finish that!

This is the February Schnibble all quilted

"Scratch"

Kits available

Isn't it fun to see how different patterns look when different fabrics are used?

Remember to send me picture of the Schnibbles you're working on so they can make the parade next month!

Happy Schnibbling!

~K