Less Than 10

Pin It I officially have less than 10 lbs left to lose to get to my goal weight. Yay! Okay, full disclosure. It is 9.8 lbs, which is only .2 lbs less than 10 lbs. But it is still LESS than 10 lbs. So it totally counts! LOL

One Year Absence

Pin It So, it has been a whole year since I posted. I have been sewing. I just haven't been blogging. I lost my blogging mojo last year when I lost my really cool job at my company and had to go back to my old job. I'll be honest. I was very angry for a very long time about it. I'm mostly over it now. But I still struggle because my current job is very physically demanding and I'm not getting any younger. Enough whining, on to the sewing.

I made what was supposed to be a twin size quilt for my Hubby. In the picture below, I am standing on a 18" tall stool with my arms outstretched as far as I can.

I have two more quilts that are at the quilters right now. I will post pictures when I get them back and get the binding on.

I bought a new sewing machine too. A Bernina 830. I got a great deal on it because it was a used machine with about 100 hours on it. Someone traded it in because they wanted to upgrade to the 830 LE (limited edition). It has been quite the learning experience to go from a 1962 Singer 401A to a machine that is 50 years newer with all the bells and whistles. I still use my 401A when I go to my quilt group. It is a much lighter machine to lug around than my 830. But I am getting spoiled by my 830. How did I ever live without the needle down function?

B-17, B-25 and Spitfires

Pin It Ruben and I went to a free fly day today at the Everett Heritage Flight Museum. We went because a WWII era Spitfire was scheduled to fly and it was a gorgeous summer day today. We got lucky because there wasn't just one Spitfire, there were two. Plus a Messerschmitt, a B-17, and a B-25 were all flying today.

B-17 nose art.

The Messerschmitt taxis out first, followed by the two Spitfires, and finally the B-17. The B-25 is in the background. It took off later.

This video is the Messerschmitt and the two Spitfires as they do a flyby.The Messerschmitt landed soon after this because it was running a little too hot.

We paid $8, a bargain, for both of us to crawl through the B-17. I was surprised that it was so cheap to tour it. Plus, all the money goes towards keeping the airplane fly worthy. So all around it was a win win.

Bombs in the bomb bay.

Can you imagine how scary it would have been to have to traverse the bomb bay walkway to the rear gunners if the bomb bay doors were open? The walkway is barely wider than my feet. And I don't have big man clodhopper feet or combat boots on.

Here is an authentic WWII gunner. LOL. Doesn't he look vicious?

The B-17 starting up. You can't really see, but there is a 87 year old man in the glass in the nose. His kids bought him the ride. He was in WWII, but wasn't on B-17's. His kids were so excited for him to be able to ride up front on a B-17 it almost choked me up. The cost of the flights were crazy expensive. In the $300-500 range. Too rich for me.

If you are ever in the greater Seattle area, or are planning a trip, check out the schedule for the Heritage Flight Museum. The free flight days are just that, free. You can pay to get into the museum, but you don't have to. Very fun way to spend a couple of hours.

I Love the Library

Pin It We live close to the main branch of the Everett Public Library. It is a comfortable biking distance from our house so we visit quite often.

Check out the cool bike rack they have in front of the library.

The original library was founded by the Everett Women's Book Club. The original building that you see on Hoyt and Everett Ave was opened to the public in October 1934.

The library was remodeled in 1991 and a portion of the old building was restored and turned into a coffee shop. The other portion is the lobby, book return, and check-out desks.

This is a view of the new part of the library. Pretty spectacular, huh?

Which brings us to my favorite part of the library. The Quick Picks section. I pick out books one of two ways. One is I research an author, put a hold on a book, and go pick it up from the hold shelf later. Another feature I love because I can do this from home and the librarians will find the book for me and I just have to pick it up. Easy, simple, fast. The second way is the library has a quick pick section of popular or recommended books. I can browse, read the backs and pick out 4-8 books at a time.

This is actually a vintage related post though. I'm getting to that part. So, Ruben and I go to the library the other day for his math tutoring lesson. In the lobby they have a table of books the library is discarding and selling. I see these....

Four huge volumes of Ladies Home Journals for the years of 1945, 1948, 1949, and 1951. Attractively bound and only $3 each. I almost squealed with delight right there in the library, but I didn't dare. I have been reading 1945 and will post picture of some of the goodies inside later.

Pacific Distillery

Pin It A couple of weeks ago we went down to my Brother-in-law's business, Pacific Distillery, to help bottle a batch of gin.

Pacific Distillery is one of a handful of micro-distilleries in Washington State. They make small batch, hand crafted Gin and Absinthe using all organic ingredients. How do I know the ingredients are organic? Because we grow some of the Wormwood (Artemesia absinthium & pontica) in our yard. The name of the Gin is Voyager Gin and the Absinthe is Pacifique Absinthe.

Pictures taken with my phone. Display of all the herbs used for the Absinthe and Gin.

Herbs used in Pacifique Absinthe:
Grand Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium)
Roman Wormwood (Artemisia pontica)
Green Anise (Pimpinella anisum)
Florence Fennel (Foeniculum Vulgare/azoricum)
Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)
Angelica (Angelica archangelica)
Coriander (Coriandrum sativum)

Herbs used in Voyager Gin:
Lemon Peel (Citrus limon)
Cassia (Cinnamomum cassia)
Angelica (Angelica archangelica)
Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum)
Orris (Iris germanica)
Coriander (Coriandrum sativum)
Orange Peel (Citrus sinensis)
Licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra)
Juniper (Juniperus communis)
Green Anise (Pimpinella anisum)

I'm not a great expert on the gin or absinthe because I don't drink. I have tasted the Gin and it has a nice flavor without being too pine tasting. Most gins I have had in the past taste a little too much like liquid christmas tree for my taste. Voyager has a very mild pine flavor with other flavors layered in it. You don't even have to put a lime in a Voyager gin and tonic to make it palatable.

This is the alembic that he distills his liquors in. Cool looking, huh?

My job during the Voyager Gin bottling was to put the plastic foil caps on the top of the bottle after it was filled, corked, and labeled.

The plastic foil caps get heated and shrunk to the top of the bottle next.

If you live in Washington State, you can buy Voyager Gin or Pacifique Absinthe from most Liquor Stores. If your local store doesn't currently carry it, ask about it, they can order it. If you live outside Washington State, there are some mail order companies that you can buy from. Here is a link to some Online retailers that carry both liquors.

If you try either one, let me know what you think.

2011 Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop

Pin It Last week, June 22-25, my Mom, Ruben and I did the Western Washington Quilt Shop Hop. We spread it over 3 1/2 days and visited 53 out of the 56 shops. I had never done one before and probably won't be doing another one anytime soon. It was exhausting. Typically we got up around 4-5 am and were on the road by 6am. Most of the days we were visiting the last shop just before closing time of 8pm. This meant on some days I didn't get home until after 10pm. We drove about 1700 miles during the 3 1/2 days.

This is the poster of all of the shop blocks made up into a quilt. A few of the blocks aren't pictured, and one block (the old lady in the middle of the floating blocks on the bottom right) was not possible to get because the shop went out of business and closed before the shop hop. Sorry about the blurry look of this. I can't take a photo of my poster because the flash keeps making a big spot in the center. This pic is from the shop hop website.

Day 1, Rest area on the way to Vancouver, Washington. Our strategy was to drive as far away as we could at o'dark thirty in the morning and get to the first shop before it opened at 9am. Then we would work our way back home stopping at shops on the list along the way. The theory was, if you missed shops close to home, it would be easy to do those on the last day. But if you started from home and worked your way out, you wouldn't want to finish the outlying shops on the last days because you would be tired and wouldn't want to drive so far to get them.

Day 2, at the Mukilteo/Clinton Ferry, waiting to leave the dock. This day we drove up through Whidbey Island and got two different shops. Then we left the island in the north by the Deception Pass Bridge (a very high, very scary bridge) and got two more shops in Anacortes. Then north to Lynden and worked our way south.

Goofing around before the Langley quilt shop opened on Whidbey Island.

If you don't know what a quilt shop hop is or have never heard of it, it is a group of shops that organize a couple of days for people to visit each shop. You get a passport, which is just a listing of all the shops, that you take to the shop and have them stamped. In exchange, you get a design for a quilt block and enough fabric to make that block. Each quilt shop designs their own block. Some blocks are pieced, some have applique, and some have embroidery. Kids over a certain age can get either a full size block or a 4" square of novelty fabric.

Here is where I admit that we bent the rules a little. Ruben is only 9 years old but the shop hop rules want the kids to be 10 to get a regular block instead of the novelty fabric. Most of the novelty fabrics the shops were handing out were gag worthy. So, being that my Mom gave me life and as such is a goddess in my eyes, I had her dub Ruben as being 10 for 3 1/2 days. You will be happy to know that he is back to being 9 again now.

Day 3, Bainbridge Island. For some reason we ran into quite a lot of trouble getting to about a half dozen different shops in different towns because of road construction. The GPS on my phone would get us in the general vicinity, then we had to rely on road maps to get us around the construction. They say in Western Washington that we only have two seasons. The rainy season and the road work season.

This is an example of what the quilt shop gives you for your block. On the right is the instructions and enough fabric to make the block. The shops are only supposed to give you three pieces of fabric. If their block requires more fabric they usually had completion kits for purchase ($1-5) that include additional fabric, embroidery floss, transfers, etc. You can see an example of the completion kit on the left.

I have to do each block twice, one for me and one for Ruben. Or as my Mom pointed out, the practice one (Ruben's) and then my block!

Here are my first two blocks. Notice the different initials on the handkerchiefs. I have been doing the piecing in my sewing area, and the embroidery while I watch TV. I'm enjoying doing the embroidery because it gives me something to do. Usually when I watch TV I feel impatient because I'm not doing anything useful. It is hard for me to just watch TV and not do anything.

Here is the next block I am in the middle of working on. This one is taking me a lot more time to do than the first two blocks because there is a lot more embroidery. It is done in a simple back stitch. I had to look all the embroidery stitches up on the internet because I've never done embroidery, although I will probably do more in the future.

Has anyone every done a shop hop or something similar?

Sew Saturday

Pin It This last Saturday I went to my quilt club Sew Saturday. We all get together at our work recreation building and sew all day long from 8am - 4pm. It is heaven getting away from my two distractions (husband and child). I swear they can sense me turning on the light on my machine and suddenly I'm the most important person and the only one that can help them.

The first part of the day I learned how to make a no-topple bag.

It is made from fabric that stands up stiff all on its own. The cotton fabric on the outside is part of a series of pockets all the way around the bag. It even has a little key clip and a little velco pouch inside it.

The last part of the day (including when I got home until 10:30pm) I finished sewing the presents for all my son's teachers. All SIX of them! I probably didn't need to make the music teacher and PE teacher presents, but once you include the reading teacher and the two extended care teachers, you might as well make a present for all of them.

I had Ruben go around with a list of all the teachers earlier in the month and ask each one what her favorite color was. That way I could tailor the little pouches to suit their preferences. I think they turned out pretty cute and they all liked them.

I think my next project needs to be me cleaning out my sewing area. It looks like an episode out of hoarders. I should horrify you all and post a picture of it.

 Still looking for three people to sign up for Pay It Forward. Just respond to this post, let me know your email address - or at least have it linked to your profile. I will send you a handmade gift from yours truly. When I email you for your address, let me know if there are any colors that are your favorite, or if there is a specific color that you can't abide by.

In return, you will blog about Pay It Forward 2011. Then send a handmade gift to the first three people who comment on your blog post. It doesn't have to be sewn. It can be drawn, knitted, hooked, painted, or whatever you love to do, as long as it is handmade. You can take your time to do it - you have 365 days to complete it.